The Dragons Hour, Remembering Robert E. Howard

It's no secret that Robert E. Howard is my favorite author. This is his birthday so I'm dusting the blog off for the new year and giving him a toast as it were.

I'm writing this just after midnight, so I'm not sure yet what tale of his I will read later, but I surely will, of course not too much times goes by since the last time I read one. Recently, I revisited one of my favorite Conan yarns - People of the Black Circle and shortly before that Iron Shadows in the Moon.

Around Halloween as a family we listened to some of the audiobook of The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard and I was very pleasantly surprised that my son brought up In the Forest of Villefere just a few days ago. The boys have always loved Pigeons From Hell, my kids like creepy.

That's probably why I share it with them, because I am so amazed and taken with the stories. The tales light the fire of wonder in me and I want to share that with the kids.

I went to Howard Days in 2018 and meant to blog about it then and never did, that's when I kinda fell of the wagon blogging here, then I wasn't able to make it in 2019, but it is my plan to go this year again. Its an interesting feeling walking through his house and thinking about being where he was when he wrote - not just his desk but all over the house from what I have heard. It was like visiting a sacred shrine and I can't wait to go back. I have also been able to visit Hemingway's graveside but spending so much time in the Howard house had a lot more personal feel than just seeing Papa's stone and museum.
Meeting a bunch of online friends in person finally was a big plus too!

Not sure where I am going with this other than just expressing heartfelt appreciation to the man for countless hours of reading enjoyment, contemplative thought and the sheer love of the written word.

Wish you had been around a bit longer to write more, but I surely love what you did accomplish.

SKOAL!

This is a print I got at Howard Days, that is in my study.

My son, Mathias (14) made this Conan bust for me for Christmas.

Let Sleeping Gods Lie

I've had plans for this one for years, but finally got down to business finishing up the ideas that had been percolating for a long time, ever since I read that Orrin Porter Rockwell, my real life-yet fictitious weird western character did actually spend time during the gold rush in a boom town named Murderer's Bar.

He even opened up a saloon and did all kinds of things to make money, like shooting contests! I have already written another story set in these days based on a real incident, though I'm not sure when BAD MEDICINE will see print as the publisher failed in their western kickstarter recently, so who knows, it might be awhile. In any case, LET SLEEPING GODS LIE is out there on amazon with a print copy coming soonish.

I had so much fun writing this, one of the best times ever, just living in the moment with all the action, laughs and creepy Lovecraftian vibes shaking out. I was chuckling to myself quite often with some of the supporting characters among whom is Black Bart - yes that Black Bart who also makes a casual appearance in IN MY TIME OF DYING.

It was fun to reread some old Louis L'amour books and even a couple Lovecraft stories I had missed like The Strange High House in the Mist - because I have a hardly touched Lovecraftian god = Nodens making an appearance.

Oh yeah, also gotta love this cover by the fantastic Carter Reid.

Farewell Bani

I'm dumbfounded and dismayed that my longtime online friend Bani Kinnison passed away unexpectedly this last Wednesday morning. I had been friends with Bani for about the last eight + years. I met her on tumblr first where she was really active, sharing her artwork, selfies, memes and vintage pics. She had a great sense of humor.

She created so many pulp inspired pieces and she loved doing vintage and comic inspired art. I have bought a few of her pieces down through the years, and with the exception of a Frazetta Atlantis phone cover, as long as I have had smart-phones, it was her artwork that I used through one of the sites she sold materials on like Redbubble or Society 6. If you see something you like this would be a good time to snag it to help out her loved ones.

I had intended on commissioning her to do a pulpy type book cover for me one day, but we never got beyond just talking about ideas.

Something that strikes me like thunder now, is that I had liked some of her Memento Mori work - she had taken some old cemetery stones and done designs with them that I liked. That theme was one that has been striking a chord with me lately, as I have a book coming soon with that title, but even more so it has had a synchronicity for me lately( with old friends younger than me passing away) and I've just gotta say to everyone, cherish and

value the time you do have.

The theme of the phone she designed - I'm guessing it had to be among her last commissions, made me feel uncomfortable sharing it with more of her fanbase at large, but I figure my blog is quiet enough and just has my usual friends that I was ok posting it here.


So it was only a week ago I was chatting with Bani and told her I would like a Memento Mori phone case, she offered to get to work on some new designs and let me pick my favorite. She got to it and soon was showing off her work. I picked my favorite and she said it was her favorite of the designs too.

That I had only spoken to her a week before just stunned me, there was no warning that she was sick. I read that she thought she had a fever, but then passed out and was unable to be revived by the time she was taken to the emergency room. She was just about a month shy of her 45th birthday.

I miss her sense of humor and vitality and it is a stark reminder to appreciate life and loved one.

Farewell Bani, you were something else entire and the world was a brighter place with you in it.

The Brutal Saga and more moving on...

I've been remiss in keeping up with things, ah life.

Last time I was here, I meant to tell you all about how I went to Howard Days for the first time, then I released another book, FIERCE, then Savage, then I took it down cuz it sucked, then I went canoeing down the Green River with my sons - that was awesome and I think I will revisit some of those times and post more here later to fill in the gaps and have a sort of a live journal, but for now I'm playing catch up so here is the deal.

I released FIERCE in July of last year, rewrote SAVAGE and released that in April of this year, and then adjusted an older story - Whispers of the Goddess and added a little bit to make a new novella in the BRUTAL saga - VICIOUS.

The next one WRATH is coming along - I hope to have it out in a month or two.

BRUTAL gets the Audio Treatment

My first audiobook is under the pen name. It beats out Scavengers which I am assured is close on its heels.

But I am pleased to announce that
BRUTAL goes audio as of tomorrow thanks to Tantor audio which approached me at the close of the year. I am stoked and sincerely hope you guys will check it out HERE

And of course all the reviews you guys can throw my way are much appreciated. They make a bigger difference than most people know.

Farewell Jc Johnson

My friend and brilliant crypto researcher Jc Johnson passed away this last week from complications with pneumonia. I'm saddened and feel for his family and friends. He had so many amazing experiences that he freely shared with others and he was a giving, spiritual human being even though he liked to bill himself as a foul mouthed, hard drinking, lecherous, adventure man.

He shared a lot of interesting strange things about the southwest specifically the 4 corners area and he was the founder of Crypto 4 Corners. There are a load of interesting YouTube videos he has posted if you are into that kind of thing. He also shared some interesting things here and there which have found their way into some of my works, such as the very real "L" shaped fortress in Crazy Horses.

Its hard, I always wanted to be able to go camping with him and share stories around the fire and it just wont happen, but I'm truly grateful for his friendship and legacy. I was also working on a book of which the main character was going to be based on him. When I talked to him about the name, he said I could just use his so I'm like all right I will.

That work is probably a ways off, but I hope to give him a little pulp immortality in my own way. Thanks for everything JC, you were definitely One in a Million.

What have You Been Working On?

Just realized I haven't blogged all year - whew and here we are on January 31st!

I've taken longer on getting to work on my sequel to BRUTAL - FIERCE though I am a good ways along, part of that is that I have taken way longer on a game novelization than I ever meant.

It still doesn't have a title, but it is part of the Super Dungeon Explore game, I'm doing the third book in the series taking place in the Glauerdoom Moor and Von Drakk Manor - but its off to the editor now and aside from a few things to flesh out  characters better and have it jive with the other books in the series I'm finally done. I believe it should be out in Mayish? Maybe a little longer.

Its a fun little pulpy action/ Dungeons and Dragons by way of Ravenloft type adventure.

Now ist back to my own overdue projects.


How about you guys?

Year in Review

I can't believe it's gone, 2017, so full full of hopes and dreams and yet there were plenty of people ready to kick it in the balls like a mule, just for existing. Plenty of bad news and yet, it was pretty good for. Its been my most successful year yet as far as writing goes, beginning with great success for SCAVENGERS, the sequel CRAZY HORSES and then my first pen name novel BRUTAL which surpassed the other books easily. Audio-books (both Scavengers and Brutal - should be out withing a month or so) are coming early in the new year and I'm very excited for that, and I had quite a few short stories out this year too - always a good sign, there no money in them to speak of, but shorts have a dear place in my heart.

Things have been great with the family and I have had a blast with my writing friends at the cons and such. I am planning on really kicking things into gear in the new year - I know I always say that, but this time I mean it. I feel like I now know enough about marketing and such to crank up the success meter with writing and all I've got to do is produce, produce, produce = write, write, write!


So for the rest of Year in Review, I'll talk about things I liked.

Favorite movie? Hell if I know, I'm trying to think of anything I saw, worth a damn. I probably enjoyed the Marvel movies most.

Favorite food? I had a lot of steak this year, the more expensive cuts I get used to the more I need to keep having them and not worrying about price- ah the joys of success.

Favorite trip/travel this year? I did have a good Christmas vacation to see my folks with the kids but the best trip this year was definitely my wife and I's getaway to Maui - it was awesome, beautiful, romantic and I even got quite a bit of writing in too.

Favorite Music? New/Current music is getting harder and harder for me to enjoy, though I do like Sir Sly, Portugal the Man, and Atlas Genius. Instead I've been listening to a lot of old school funk because my 2 year old loves it so much, I'm talking Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang, Ric James, The Commodores, Sly Stone, Parliament Funkadelic, Chic, Marvin Gaye etc etc

Oh and I have been enjoying the instrumental score work of Daniel Pemberton from King Arthur Legend of the Sword and The Man from Uncle. Good writing mood music.

Now the real reason you're here Books:

I can't narrow it down to any one but I can talk about the ones that really grabbed me.

Kings of the Wyld, by Nicolaus Eames
Bear in mind that this book is actin movie fun, its adventure, ts monsters, its funny and so on, never mind that this fantasy world couldn't really exist geopolitically and there are numerous anachronisms in there - its still a very enjoyable read with great characters and dialogue. I might have said it would be better if it was a little more realistic? serius? but then it wouldn't be Kings of the Wyld.

Blackwing, by Ed McDonald
This is where you complain that there is no pleasing me. I loved Blackwing, wonderful sorcerous grit  and surprises, but what do I think would have made it even better? - If it had just a little more humor it could have been a classic. So there, too much in Kings, not enough in Blackwing, maybe if Eames and McDonald collaborated??? Again, this is all just a reflection on me and my eclectic tastes.

The Burning Isle, by Will Panzo
It has a premise similar to mine in Brutal, stranger comes to town and starts tearing it up - playing the bad guys against each other = Yojimbo, Fistful of Dollars, Red Harvest etc etc
This is a little different in that it is magic duels instead of samurai or gunfights, but still, great characters and motivations, there were some good surprises and one thing I just loved - there is a character that its totally Karl Edward Wagner's KANE. I mean its not Kane, nobody ever calls him Kane but between you and me = ITS KANE! I even asked Will on twitter about it and he pretty much confirmed.

Witchy Eye, by Dave Butler
Dave has been my friend for a long time and I knew this book was coming like five years ago! = Traditional publishing schedules people - anyhow, it is a dense fantasy world in what might have been America. I don't know of anyone else working today with as many layered nuances begging for continual rereads to catch all the depth as Butler, I'm going to have to dive in again before the sequel comes out.

There are quite a few other books I'm forgetting in the moment and several from friends I meant to get to and haven't yet, - BUT I WILL.

So, in closing, I hope you all have a great New Years and I'll see you on the other side.

p.s. Some shots of things to come

Progress Report

Wow! November came and went!
While I did not officially join the NANO club, I did hammer out more than 50K words in November, but sometimes its a little hard to tell.

I'm still tinkering with a project - it is not yet titled, but it is a novelization within a series of a popular game. It is supposed to be out next May - but I don't know more than that really. 


When it comes to my own stuff, I had an 80k (very) rough draft for what was going to be the sequel to BRUTAL titled FIERCE and I decided I didn't like where it was going, it was a fine story but it was not the next step in the progression of the overall saga, so that has been shelved and restarted fresh. 44K so far and i'm hoping to finish by the end of December so I can have a January release. I'm really planning on going big guns for 2018.

2017 has been so successful for me and I want to keep all that moving on the uptick.

I am also behind on at least two Porter projects - Book 3 in the Dark Trails saga - You Only Hang Once and a shorter Lovecraftian standalone Let Sleeping Gods Lie.

Both covers are done - along with a mess of others I'm still writing, but those are priorities along with the Brutal trilogy.

But of course I can never just stick to one thing and finish it, can I? I also did 5k on a piece I'm calling Wine Dark Sea = imagine Hunter S. Thompson going to the vanishing Aral Sea hunting for evidence of vampires in the wake of the collapsed Soviet Union - its just weird wild fun. Unknown when I'll finish it, but so far its been a blast.

Pulp Stories Galore!

October has been pretty good to me so far, not too hot, not too cold and books and books and more books are coming!

So, quite a few short stories of mine came out this month and it was a surprise.

All right, I knew this one was coming, I just wasn't sure when it would drop but Story Hack #1 is here! It's full of great pulpy stories and the man behind it Bryce Beatty, is going all out on the art!

I could n't be more pleased with both the cover and the interior art. I love this rendition of Porter Rockwell he has for it! My tale is UNDER THE GUN a creepy weird western about a possessed gun. Check it out!

The next one was a big surprise as I thought the anthology had just vanished into thin air, but Rogues Blade Entertainment which put together some top notch Sword and Sorcery collections a few odd years ago kinda went into hibernation.

I'm very pleased to see that Jason Waltz has awoken and is putting out material again. This one is the Challenge: Discovery collection. This one was begun in 2010? and features quite a list of S&S and has my tale THE SERPENTS ROOT about a thief who will do anything to save her sister, even facing down the dreaded cockatrice!
This pic of the cover is sans text, and I really wanted to share it because all of our stories were supposed to be inspired by V. Shanes art work. So I added in panthers to a story that hadn't had them before.


And another surprise is the Pulp Rev Sampler this was a collection asking for short pieces in the pulp revolution vein.
All of them are supposed t be under 2,500 words so it is literally a sampler. I turned in one titled Wings in the Night, it does say from the forthcoming Walking Through Walls and that's my bad it should read Gods & Robbers, I screwed up but such is life. It is a never before released story, so that' cool.

Its a glimpse into the escape of a prisoner and ties into some things I had previously written in The Mad Song collection and its all part of a bigger work I have planned, set in the same world as BRUTAL albeit quite far away from that setting.

In any case, hope you'll check them out while you're waiting for more novels.

All the best
David

Grimtoberfest Has Arrived

Grimtoberfest is here and I have joined the dark horde of grimdark fantasy writers in doing an siege on our own pocketbooks with this joint slashing of prices on our respective books.

I've got my own novel BRUTAL cut down to .99 cents for the next few days. Check out the rest of the catalog from these rogues HERE


p.s.

I should also mention I've re-released a collection under the pen name that some of you may already be familiar with - what was Whispers of the Goddess has been rebooted under the James Alderdice banner as The Slayer

I just wanted that to be clear, so nobody grabbed the book twice. I meant to add another Tyr story to the collection but just didn't quite get around to it - this has been a hard month for writing and I'm still way behind.

Til next time

David

All the Cons

I didn't get much writing done this last month, as I had two cons I was at as a guest, Salt Lake Comic Con and the first annual Snake River Comic Con.
Salt Lake is great as it is so big and has some phenomenal guests and I always enjoy being there and hanging with friends and meeting new people, but at Snake River I had one of the best times with friends in forever.

Me and the Space Balrogs (D.J. Butler, Jason King, James Wymore, Holli Anderson and Daniel Swenson - not pictured Bob Defendi and Craig Nybo) spent a whole lot of time together laughing and selling books and speaking on panels and then we even got a makeshift game of Dungeons and Dragons together for Holli's benefit - she had never played before and I gotta tell you I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. It was a great con and we met some great people and I can't wait to go back next year.

So I'll throw in a swath of pics from both. Here ya go.