From Pro Se Press-
YESTERYEAR, the debut novel from Tommy Hancock as well as Pro Se Press’ first foray into the field of novels and anthologies, is now for sale! Printed via Createspace, YESTERYEAR, 190 pages, can be purchased for $12.00 here. In the next 1-3 weeks, it will be available via Amazon and after that available via online at other markets as well!
The following is taken from the Estore Page-
YesterYear
YesterYear by Tommy Hancock, Published by Pro Se Press. Cover Art by Jay Piscopo, Interior art by Peter Cooper, Format and Design by Sean Ali.
A world where heroes and villains existed since the day the market crashed and the world almost collapsed. Common people granted great powers and awesome responsibility. A world where one of them knew all the secrets, good and bad, and put them down in a book. A world where that man and that manuscript disappeared.
Until now.
YESTERYEAR is the first book in an epic series chronicling the adventures of Heroes and Villains, both in the Heroic Age of the 1920s-1950s and in the modern day. Centered around a missing manuscript that might hold information that could literally change history and even mean the end of the world, YESTERYEAR alternates between a fast paced modern storyline about the man who ends up with the legendary book and excerpts from the mythic tome itself. Marvel to pulp like adventures of glory and adrenaline and become engrossed in the humanity and horror of being a Hero.
YESTERYEAR by Tommy Hancock-Sometimes the Greatest Mystery of Tomorrow happened Yesterday!
As an added bonus, Pro Se is proud to share with ALL PULP readers the Introduction to YESTERYEAR, written by noted Pulp Author Derrick Ferguson! Enjoy and remember go buy YESTERYEAR TODAY!
Harlan Ellison has this classic answer he gives to people who ask the question that I suppose every writer gets asked at one time or another. Here’s how the scenario goes:
“Where do you get your ideas?”
“There’s this Idea Factory in Schenectady. You send them twenty-five bucks and they’ll send you six ideas.”
It’s a lot funnier than it reads, trust me. You have to see and hear Harlan Ellison do the routine to appreciate the gag (as I did twice) but this whole set-up is just to get to the meat and potatoes of this intro.
See, I used to think that Harlan Ellison was just making up the Idea Factory, that it was just a smart-assed way to get a laugh and get out of answering a question he no doubt got tired of answering. But that was before I met Tommy Hancock.
And when I say ‘met’ I mean online. Tommy is one of at least a dozen talented writers who have become good friends of mine but have never met in person. Which makes it all the more remarkable when I realize that Tommy and I have been associated on a variety of projects for going on fifteen years now. And even when we weren’t working on something we were staying in touch by email and Instant Messaging, keeping each other up to date on our lives and our writings.
And in all that time, I’ve come to realize that Tommy Hancock IS the Idea Factory. Truly. I’ve worked with the man so I know whereof I speak. Tommy just isn’t satisfied with creating characters. He creates entire universes. Complete with history, mythology, technology. Ask Tommy how SovereignCity works and he can tell you each and every inch of the city right down to the working of its waste disposal management system in such detail that by the time he’s finished he’ll have you convinced the damn place is real. Ask him about a character he’s created. Doesn’t matter. Any character. Tommy can not only tell you that character’s background but he’ll go on to talk about that character’s family tree.
Right about the time he’s telling you about that character’s great-grandmother you’ll start to get a little nervous. Because you’ll now be getting the notion that our Mr. Hancock must be talking about real people. He has to be. Nobody puts that much creativity and thought and caring into characters that don’t even exist.
Do they?
Tommy Hancock does. Because these characters do exist to him on a very real level. Because Tommy Hancock simply doesn’t know any other way to do it. For him to convince you of the reality of his characters and his universes he has to know it intimately. Right down to the very last atom.
Tommy is an inexhaustible Idea Factory. I’ve been on the receiving end of his output. The man comes up with more ideas in a day than I can in a week. And they’re GOOD ideas. That’s the frightening thing. I could easily take any one of Tommy’s ideas and get a trilogy of novels outta ‘em. That’s how good and how detailed they are.
And at last with this book you’re holding in your trembling hands, you’re going to see what Tommy does with his ideas in a novel. And I envy you if this is the first time you’re reading Tommy Hancock. YESTERYEAR is truly a marvelous work that I’ve been privileged to read bits and pieces of over the years. It’s an event that this work is at last being presented. Especially in light of the New Pulp Renaissance going on right now. Tommy has been out there on the front lines, getting the word out there about pulp and I’m delighted to see that he’s not only championing the works of others but now he’s got one of his own.
That’s enough of me running my mouth. I’ve done my warm-up bit and now it’s time for the main attraction. Dim the lights, make sure your favorite snacks and beverage of choice are within easy reach. Put on the appropriate mood music and let Tommy Hancock take you into his universe. He may call it YESTERYEAR but trust me, it’s as fresh and bright and exciting as all our unborn tomorrows.
Derrick Ferguson
February, 2011
