Dispatches from the Flying M

Drive-Thru Fiction

Having been, since 1980, a bookseller at and/or co-owner of independent bookstores, I am never going to be a fan of Amazon. Barnes & Noble is a little too big and corporate for my tastes, although they're still better than the online behemoth. Give me an indy store any day.

Trouble is, when you're trying to sell self-published e-books (and you can't begin to figure out the ridiculous Google Books interface), you are mostly stuck with going through the giants--Amazon, B&N, and, through, Smashwords.com, places like the Apple, Kobo, Diesel, etc.

But I've become aware of an online store I mentioned a few days ago, called DriveThruFiction.com. This place is great, if--like me--you love fiction that wouldn't have been out of place in the days of the pulps. Drive Thru sells primarily sf, fantasy, and horror (and, through related sites, RPG materials and comics!).

I have put up offerings in PDF, Mobi (Kindle), and ePub (Nook) formats so far. The books available there are epic horror novel The Slab, and short horror fiction collection Nine Frights. They can both be found from my ILT Publishing page--at low, low prices! Take a look.

Jeff Mariotte Guest Post on Red Tash's Blog

One of the great pleasures of my late summer/early autumn busy season was being asked to participate in writer Red Tash's e-book giveaway bonanza, and thereby becoming acquainted with Red herself. Now she has asked me to contribute a guest post to her blog (which is, by the way, consistently entertaining--a must-read, even, or especially, when I'm not there).

That guest post is up today, and it's about the aforementioned busy season, and Kindle Fires, and Conan's chest. Okay, that's not me, so much. But it's there. Just look. You'll see.

Cold Black Hearts on Audio

After 46 published novels, there is finally an unabridged audio version of one of my novels--the supernatural thriller Cold Black Hearts--available!

It's only through the good graces of actress/narrator Tamara McDaniel and producer/composer Scott Haskin that it exists at all. They did the hard work, and we sold it to Audible.com. You can download it to anything that plays MP3s, and I think there's a deal whereby if you sign up for their service, you can get it for free.

But it's worth any price in the world, so please take a look.

 

Jon Kyl: Redefining Pathetic for the 21st Century

My home state junior senator, Jon Kyl (thankfully retiring at the end of this term), keeps going farther and farther out on the lunatic limb. Now he's twisting himself into a pretzel to defend every penny of income going to millionaires and billionaires, no matter how many hungry kids go without meals, how many libraries are closed and teachers and cops are fired.

Kyl, 2009: “What you’re suggesting here is that you can do some things to stimulate job creation and certainly doing something like reducing the payroll tax, which has been written about recently, would accomplish that.”

Kyl, 2010: “My view, and I think most of the people in my party don’t believe that you should ever have to offset a tax cut.”

Kyl, today--arguing against continuing payroll tax credits for the 160 million Americans who get them, unless the rich can be protected from having tiny tax increases to incomes over a million dollars: “We should therefore only do it under circumstances that in effect override these objections, one of which would be to extend all of the taxes that expire at the end of next year — at the end of 2012. That would be a good idea.”

Actually, Senator, that would be a terrible idea. Unless, of course, your only interest is in millionaires, and you don't care at all about the overall economy, a strong middle class, or deficit reduction. The payroll tax plan would cost us $180 billion. Extending all the Bush tax cuts would cost $4 trillion over the next decade. We know where Kyl's loyalties are. Unfortunately, he's speaking for the rest of the elected Republicans, and the confederacy of dunces running for the White House.

My smart Republican friends--and I know you're out there--you need to line up behind Jon Huntsman before these fools drive your party into complete irrelevancy!

An Old Short Story Resurfaces

Today I've been exploring a cool website called DriveThru Fiction, which calls itself "Your Source for Genre Fiction." My source for genre fiction is almost always Mysterious Galaxy, for obvious reasons--but Drive Thru does offer some things that MG doesn't (including RPGs and comics)--and, I just discovered, an old anthology with a story of mine in it.

The book is Deadlands: A Fistful of Dead Guys. It's an anthology of short western/horror/steampunk fiction, inspired by the terrific Deadlands game. In addition to my story, "Behind Enemy Lines," there are works by Mike Stackpole, Matt Forbeck, Richard E. Dansky, and Shane Lacy Hensley, among others.

It's a great bunch of shorts--if you don't already own it, you need a copy! You can find it here.

As a reminder, my next comics project will also be a Deadlands project, called Deadlands: Black Water, from Image Comics. I'm still waiting for a specific on-sale date for that one.

New Review for The Slab

TTZuma has reviewed the e-book version of my horror epic The Slab at HorrorWorld.org. The review is (I think) thoughtful and fair. Here's the takeaway:

"If you have ever read and enjoyed those epic horror novels from the 70’s and 80’s (think Dan Simmons work) where you were immersed in a sprawling world of rich characterization, smart plotting, and enough sub plotting where the horror was deliberately episodic and horrifying, The Slab will be the perfect read for you."

More about the book at the link above, and here's the full review.

John Carter of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs created many deathless characters and worlds. His best known, of course, is Tarzan of the Apes, and I've enjoyed many of Tarzan's adventures. There were also Carson of Venus, David Innes of Pellucidar, and my all-time favorite, John Carter, who first showed up in A Princess of Mars. Carters adventures on Barsoom (the Martians' own name for their planet were epic, always exciting, and unforgettable.

The movie might, of course, be terrible. But there's always hope, and I have to say, the visuals in this trailer look pretty cool.