New FIGHT CARD Cover Design

Trying a new look at that puts more emphasis on the fact that this is a series.

Special Price

Now only $1.37 for the Kindle!

A TIDAL WAVE IS FAST APPROACHING. AND THAT'S THE LEAST OF HER WORRIES.

Wilderness guide Kate Garrett is having the bad day of the century. The worst storm in Florida's history is about to hit land, and she's been taken hostage by a gang of escaped convicts. Worse, her children are stranded on low ground and her ex-husband can't be reached.

Now Kate must race against time to guide the prisoners through the swamp and save her children from the tidal wave. She can't afford to be distracted by Shane Warren, the powerful convict who claims to be helping her, even as he keeps her from escaping. But Kate does have one advantage: there's no deadlier force in nature than a mother fighting for her young....

My Dad

This is from 1967, back when stations in Oklahoma City were prime targets for armed robbers.  Daddy used to sleep on the rooftop over the station with a loaded shotgun beside him.  I remember one night when one of the station hands almost got robbed by a guy with a gun in his hand.  He ducked behind a gas pump and hollered for Daddy.  Daddy woke up, rolled over, and shot out the back glass of the car.  The police had no problem finding the guys.

We lived in a small trailer house out behind the station.  Momma was even in the station when a guy came in to rob them with a knife.  Daddy took his pistol out of his pocket and told him to sit down.  He did, and the police came along pretty quickly.

During the time we lived there, Daddy got shot at, shot at people, and held would-be robbers for the police on several occasions over the years.  Looking back, it seems he was always at his best in the middle of trouble.  A calm lifestyle just didn't suit him.  He served in the Navy during the Korean War.

This is from the Daily Oklahoman in 1967.  I remember taking the news piece to Show 'N Tell at school.  Nobody else had one like it.  :)

Honk If You Love Barbarians!

A brief note from my buddy Phil Athans.  Click here.

Free Book

"Hallam", a 10,000 word story is the first appearance of Lucas Hallam, a cowboy who has outlived the days of the old west to become a gun-toting private eye and stuntman in the early days of motion pictures in California. Originally published in The Eye's Have It, 1984.

"Hollywood Flesh", a 7000 word story was published in The Book of all Flesh 2001. It's a good thing Lucas Hallam is a hard-headed old cowboy and doesn't believe in such nonsense as Zombies, or this case might give him nightmares.

Caught My Eye

Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.

I Did NOT Remember Angie Harmon Being In This One

Free Short Story from My Buddy James Reasoner!

I loved the old adventure stories I grew up on, and this one sounds like it's cut from the same cloth!

Inspired by the classic adventure stories that appeared in such pulp magazines as ARGOSY and ADVENTURE, "The Red Reef" features the colorful glamour and the gritty danger of the South Seas as a guilt-ridden ship's captain gets a last chance at redemption. Written by bestselling novelist James Reasoner (the RANCHO DIABLO and WIND RIVER series, as well as cult classic novels TEXAS WIND and DUST DEVILS), this 4300-word short story first appeared in the final issue of the legendary webzine HARDLUCK STORIES and is now available again!

Go get it for FREE and lemme know what you think!

Chronicle

Interesting, but I don't know much about it.  Lots of play on TV ads.

The Woman in Black

This one looks like it would be fun.  I love ghost stories when they're done right.

Shooter's Cross FREE!

Shooter's Cross, the first book of the RANCHO DIABLO series (already five books long and more coming), will be offered free at Amazon all day today.  If you've been hesitant about trying out the series, well, pardner, saddle up for the ride!

CURSED LAND

Army Scout Sam Blaylock rode into the small Texas town of Shooter's Cross looking for deserters, not trouble.

While up in the mountains, he discovered a wilderness plagued by nature and haunted by superstition, but one that he thought he could tame with his experience and strong back.

He didn't know he was going to have to kill to keep the home he planned for his family, but he didn't let that stop him. Sam had been looking for a home for his family for years. That search had been interrupted by the Civil War.

Now Sam is putting down roots, and not even the Devil himself can stand in the way.

FREE BOOK!

Paul Bishop is my co-creator of FIGHT CARD and a 35-year veteran of the LAPD.  He knows cop stories.  This one's free at the moment.

FREE Today, Tomorrow, and Friday!

The fourth book in the Truman Smith series is free from my good buddy and fellow Rancho Diablo author, Bill Crider.  This series is great fun and good reading.  And you can't beat the price with a stick.

About the book: 

From Publishers Weekly

In this enjoyable fourth series entry, Galveston PI Truman Smith (When Old Men Die, 1994) is hired by Lance Garrison, his still unpleasant but now rich high-school classmate, to investigate the shooting of a prairie chicken (really a kind of grouse) on Garrison's federally protected land in Picketville, Tex. Smith reluctantly agrees, largely because his high-school sweetheart, Anne Lindeman, now lives in Picketville.

A prime suspect is Ralph Evans, an antigovernment local talk-radio host who declares his concern for endangered species by advertising Spotted Owl in a Can. When Smith and Anne's father-in-law, Red Lindeman, explore the scene of the crime, a sniper in a crop duster opens fire on them's a "fly-by shooting," Smith calls it. Then Anne's husband, manager of the radio station, is shotgunned to death. Police chief Ward Peavy eventually charges local birdwatcher Martin York.

When Smith discovers that a previous prisoner died in Peavy's jail, the big picture takes shape. Truman Smith would rather laze in his lawn chair, sipping Big Red and reading Tobacco Road, but when he gets on a case, he's methodical. So's Crider, who fashions a tight plot filled with laconic charm and idiosyncratic characters.

And don't forget his Ranch Diablo book, only $2.99!

And coming next:

McGRAVE by Lee Goldberg Coming Friday!

Remember those 1980s tough guy cop shows filled with violence and mayhem?  Lee Goldberg does!

In his words: 

Los Angeles cop John "Tidal Wave" McGrave is an unstoppable force of nature who always gets his man...even if it means laying waste to everything around him, including his own career...which is exactly what happens in his pursuit of Sebastian Richter, the ruthless leader of an international gang of violent thieves. When Richter flees to Berlin, McGrave chases after him...even though the cop doesn't know the language, the laws, or the culture. But McGrave doesn't care...he speaks the universal language of knee in the groin and fist in the face...and he won't let anything get in his way.

What follows is, I hope, a wild, action-adventure novella that captures all of the fun, excitement, humor and pure escapist pleasure of the Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard movies...

McGrave is an experiment for me.  I set out to write something specifically for the Kindle that would take advantage of the way people read on the device...but that would also capture the pure, escapist fun of watching an action movie.  I thought these were very compatible goals.

With a Kindle, readers are swiping/clicking their way through a story. And because font size is adjustable, pages aren't really relevant any more.

A lot of people are using their Kindles to read on subways, buses, and planes.  They are moving from one place to another as they are moving through a story.  So I wanted to give them a story they could finish in a single journey...and to tell the story in such a way that they'd be swiping or clicking their way through it as fast as they could.

To achieve that goal, I chose an action adventure...which by nature has to move at a breakneck pace...and I eliminated chapters altogether, breaking the story into scenes, adopting a style that's closer to a screenplay than a novel (akin to the style Don Winslow adopted in his book Savages).  I thought that would keep the story moving...and the reader moving through it.

Don't Forget the Big Kindle Boogie!

Caught My Eye

Love the fantasy aspects of this one, but the guy's face tooks too realistic, photoshopped into place and not as fantasy as the giant lumbering after him.  Love the architecture, the lantern, and the blues.

Caught My Eye

This cover wins me over through subtle imagery.  I love the commonplace and everyday look of the place and the heroine.  She's just a working girl in a blue collar job, but she's walking in magic.

Caught My Eye

Love the cover.  The mystery, the feel of gritty suburban life.  The way the perspective drops away in the background.  Oh yeah, and the wolf seriously grabs my attention as well.  This is the fourth book in a series, and Kelly Meding has been getting lots of good press.

SONGBIRD! New Rancho Diablo Cover Coming!

Featuring beautiful and talented singer Kasey Lansdale!

Coming soon!

Enter Contest for 10 FREE KINDLE FIRES and 75 eBooks!

Free giveaway info here.