In his latest flight log for Airship 27 Productions, Publisher and New Pulp leader Ron Fortier discusses what he has coming on the Pulp front personally, including a couple of Sports Anthologies and more, as well as dropping hints about what is on the docket for Airship as well! Read the entire post at www.airship27.com and find out exactly who and what this fantastic image is!
New Pulp Author Howard Hopkins (The Lone Ranger, The Avenger, The Spider) has announced that his novel, Blood Creek is now available exclusively for Amazon Kindle. Blood Creek is a Western novel of vicious revenge upon those who committed a heinous crime long ago and thought they got away with it, Blood Creek was originally published in hardcover under the Black Horse Western line and in large print Linford Library paperback edition under Howard’s Lance Howard penname. With a completely redesigned cover, this is its first electronic imprint, published under Howard’s own name, and will remain an exclusive Kindle release through arrangement with Amazon.com.
From the Blurb:
Fifteen years ago five unruly sons of rich parents committed a heinous crime against a young Ute woman, only to walk away unpunished.
Now a ruthless killer bent on revenge is stalking them, murdering their wives, and destroying their lives piece by piece.
After manhunter Calin Travers is mysteriously attacked, then lured under false pretenses to Sundown, Colorado, a town to which he swore he’d never return, he discovers himself face to face with old guilts and a brutal killer who has marked him for death.
“This author does miracles with the written word. He takes the reader to the heart of the story and holds them glued to the pages with passion to the very end…”
–Romance and Friends Reviews
“…believable characters and settings will have you breathing 1800s dust and seeing by the flickering light of an oil lamp as you turn every tension-filled page.”
–Tim Greaton, Maine’s Other Author (TM)
Vengeance is a dish best served bloody…Blood Creek by Howard Hopkins
Now available exclusively for Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QD6VK8
You can learn more about Howard Hopkins at http://howardhopkins.blogspot.com/
After the success of the first Table Talk with questions from readers, Barry Reese, Bobby Nash, and Mike Bullock decided to continue taking questions “from the audience” every now and again. This week, the guys tackle the topic of archetypes and working with different characters.
New Pulp’s Table Talk – Readers Questions, Take II is now available at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/ or at the direct link: http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/12/table-talk-readers-questions-take-ii.html
Join the conversation. Leave us a comment on the blog and let us know your thoughts on this topic. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions.
Have a question you want the guys to answer? Send it to newpulpfiction@gmail.com with “Table Talk Question” in the subject line. Also, let us know if you want attribution for the question, or you’d rather remain anonymous. Please, keep the questions pertinent to the creation of New Pulp and/or writing speculative fiction in general. We’ll get the questions worked into future columns ASAP.
Thanks!
New Pulp Fiction.com
Over on Facebook, William Patrick Murray posted the following: “30% off the hardover DOC SAVAGE: THE DESERT DEMONS. Today (December 20) only. Just type 20DEC in the discount code box on checkout. This book will be so affordable….”
You can find Doc Savage: The Desert Demons novel at http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/doc-savage-the-desert-demons/16232886
About Doc Savage: The Desert Demons-
Dr. Dusk, the newest New Pulp hero from Runemaster Pulp debuts today on Fourstory.org
Over at his blog (http://www.pulp.runemasterstudios.com/2011/12/dr-dusk-debut.html) Mike Bullock introduced us to his newest creation, Dr. Dusk.
In what has now become affectionately known as “The Age of Adventure,” mystery men patrolled the streets of our bustling cities, stalking the shadows and preying on those who would harm innocent citizens. Doctor Dusk, one such man of mystery, walked the line between order and lawlessness. As the stories go, the man who became Dusk had experimented on himself until he was able to unlock his body’s peak physical potential, making him faster, stronger and more agile than any normal man could ever dream of becoming. Armed with two modified 1911 Colt .45s that fired special rounds, and his heightened physical prowess, the Doctor quickly became the scourge of the underworld. While little else is known of Doctor Dusk, his exploits have recently come to light in a series of journals, found within the walls of an old tenement building on the lower east side. The following was taken from one such journal…
You can read the full story at http://fourstory.org/fiction/installment/home-for-the-holidays/.
The wonderful thing about creating stories is the often limitless nature of creating things. There are no boundaries, nothing a creator cannot do in the name of making up a great tale. However, this can often lead to pitfalls and unforeseen circumstances. This week, we check in on Barry Reese, Bobby Nash and Mike Bullock as they discuss applying some structure and what to do when the story bleeds over the lines.
New Pulp’s Table Talk – Counting Words and Runaway Tales 0 is now available at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/ or at the direct link: http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/12/table-talk-counting-words-and-runaway.html
Join the conversation. Leave us a comment on the blog and let us know your thoughts on this topic. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions.
Have a question you want the guys to answer? Send it to newpulpfiction@gmail.com with “Table Talk Question” in the subject line. Also, let us know if you want attribution for the question, or you’d rather remain anonymous. Please, keep the questions pertinent to the creation of New Pulp and/or writing speculative fiction in general. We’ll get the questions worked into future columns.
As you may have seen, last week we opened up Table Talk to questions from the readers at the request of C. William Russette. While a few crickets chirped briefly, the questions did start rolling in. Now, Barry Reese, Bobby Nash and Mike Bullock have answered the first two reader questions, while discussing the merits of removing limbs from a certain New Pulp character the three of them know and love.
Recently, a reader of the Table Talk columns asked if Barry Reese, Bobby Nash, and Mike Bullock would answer questions from readers. Well, the guys liked the idea so much they’ve decided to open this up to all the fine readers of newpulpfiction.com. Today marked the first installment of the column with reader questions. Due to the positive feedback, we want to keep this going.
New Pulp’s Table Talk – Questions from the Readers 1.0 is now available at http://www.newpulpfiction.com/ or at the direct link: http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/12/table-talk-questions-from-readers-10.html
Join the conversation. Leave us a comment on the blog and let us know your thoughts on this topic. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions.
Have a question you want the guys to answer? Send it to newpulpfiction@gmail.com with “Table Talk Question” in the subject line. Also, let us know if you want attribution for the question, or you’d rather remain anonymous. Please, keep the questions pertinent to the creation of New Pulp and/or writing speculative fiction in general. We’ll get the questions worked into future columns ASAP.
Thanks!
New Pulp Fiction.com
Tippin’ Hancock’s Hat-Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
FUN & GAMES
by Duane Swierczynski
Mulholland Books
287 Pages
Published June 2011
The debate is settled. The argument is over. The conundrum has been solved.
There can be New Pulp that satisfies all sides of the ‘Classic Feel versus Modern Relevance’ discussion that some of us have been involved with for a tentful of Sundays. Yes, the perfect expression of New Pulp does exist in between two covers, Virginia.
Duane Swierczynski, noted author and comic scribe, released “the first of three explosive Pulp thrillers” this past June under the title FUN & GAMES. And I’ll tell you, it’s definitely both. Swierczynski hits all the points that Pulp has to hit to be Pulp. Even with that, though, he presents us not with a perfect hero, but one replete with flaws, weaknesses, and scars. Charlie Hardie’s inherent goodness, however, is the perfect part of him, the piece that even when he himself doubts it, does not crumble and break away. This gives him the steel and nerve he needs to be the perfect Pulp hero.
Hardie, as he’s introduced, is a Housesitter on his way to sit the house of a major player in the movie business. A few years prior, he’d been a ‘consultant’ of sorts for the Philadelphia Police Department and used various skills to help his best friend end some of the crime and corruption in the city. Tragically, Charlie’s best friend and family are killed when Charlie is basically set up to birddog them for the bad guys. Nearly killed himself (he earns the nickname Unkillable Chuck because it seems like he’s almost impossible to kill. He earns that nickname time and again in this book), Charlie makes sure his own wife and child are protected and dives headfirst into a bottle and the life of a housesitting gypsy, which is how he ends up in LA in FUN & GAMES.
The book opens with a B movie actress with quite a history of wild times and drug use racing in her car around the twisted back roads of LA, another car in hot pursuit. She’s sure they are trying to kill her, but it simply might be coincidence. Until she’s rear ended and someone approaches her and sticks a syringe in her arm. She stumbles off the road and out of sight.
Hardie gets to his current assignment, has issues getting in as the key left for him is gone, and is stabbed almost immediately in the chest by a mike stand being projected at him from a somewhat high, beaten up, dirty but beautiful lady hiding in the house. As she rambles about a group of people trying to kill her and make it look like an accident and how she barely escaped after they rear ended her and drugged her with something, Hardie has to decide rather quickly how to handle all of this. Why? Because the people who are trying to kill the actress are already outside the house and determined to get in.
Much of FUN & GAMES takes place IN the house. It feels very much like a compact version of Die Hard as Hardie and his new charge fight with each other, then the baddies just to stay alive. Once the action moves beyond the domicile, it amps up even more. The pacing of this book is frenetic, but well focused and controlled. Swierczynski knows each and every character inside and out and this allows him to inject them into this breakneck, high octane ride that he’s concocted around one of the coolest concepts I’ve seen in fiction lately.
That concept? The bad guys. Good Pulp needs Great Villains and Swierczynski gives Hardie the best. An organization nicknamed ‘the Accident People’ by the actress they’re pursuing is actually a well peopled, extremely connected group that essentially deals with people, especially celebrities, when they become a problem for someone with enough funds to pay the Accident People. Overdoses, suicides, car accidents, all the tragic things that befall people in the limelight are basically due to the manipulations and machinations of the Accident People. Filled with mostly directors, actors, and others from the film industry, this group approaches each job like a movie, insuring the narrative goes the destructive way they want it to. At every turn, Hardie finds victory only to get handed more defeat by the director of the narrative he fell into, a lady by the name of Mann. The Accident People are clearly a great template for what Pulp Villains should be.
Equally, Hardie is a perfect example of a New Pulp Hero. An angel by no means, Hardie wars with himself as much as he does the villains after him. He’s definitely in a pit of despair and destruction and doesn’t really climb out of it before the book ends. But he is clearly heroic. He will not admit he’s an expert in anything, but he does have what he refers to as his ‘lizard brain’, something that he relies on when he simply cannot easily get out of a situation. This innate primal instinct turns Charlie into a juggernaut of terror against any who stand in his way.
FUN & GAMES simply is the best example of New Pulp at its best I have ever read. The beginning of the book will jar you, the ending will blow you away…and force you to go out and get the second one.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Oh yeah.
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