One last SINNERS RIDE teaser, at least for now.

Here is the inked first page of the first issue, art by the inestimable Reine Rosenberg.

Stay tuned for more!

Just a quick update to share some of Reine Rosenberg's design art for our upcoming western/horror comic, SINNERS RIDE.

This is the design sheet for the main character, Ben Keelock, a man condemned to death by a lynch-mob who survives in a way even he can't explain.

​More to come!

That's right, I'm actively making comics again.

The amazing artist Reine Rosenberg, whom I've known for several years but never worked with, contacted me some little while ago asking if I would be interested in writing a western comic for him to draw. He was interested in something horror/western and I had the glimmerings of an idea from the instant he asked me.

I've completed my scripts for all four issues and sent them off to Reine, and he's started doing some design and character work.

Below is an example of the style he's leaning towards for you to check out.

​Check back soon for more information and more art!

You may remember that January of last year saw the release of "Shadow's Angle," the first of my stories about hitman-turned-exorcist Azuma Kuromori, published in Occult Detective Quarterly #5. 

Kuromori's second story, a rather different one going back to his childhood called "Beyond the Faded Shrine Gates" will appear in Occult Detective Magazine #7 (the magazine was renamed with the changing of publishers, but retains the original numbering) coming in the next week or so.

If you missed Azuma's debut, now's a great time to check it out and familiarize yourself with the character before his new story drops.

Below is the cover of ODM #7. More info when it's available.

As readers of this site probably know, I am a big fan of John D. MacDonald, one of the greatest of American mid-century crime writers. While his stand-alone novels (all 49 of them) vary wildly from incredible to lousy, his Travis McGee series, about an unlicensed P.I.-type who refers to himself as a "salvage consultant" (because he will return your missing money/goods/in one case, daughter for half the perceived value), ran 21 novels and are all good to excellent.

Now I've come to the end of the series at last...

I assumed THE LONELY SILVER RAIN was the last Travis McGee novel only because JDM died (unexpectedly from complications during a surgery) the year after it was published, but it actually reads as if it's intentionally the last McGee novel.
Throughout the first half of the series, from the first novel, 1962's THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY, to, I'd say, THE SCARLET RUSE in 1972, McGee is a boat-bum with intentionally few connections to people and world, believing it gives him the ultimate kind of freedom.
Slowly, over the next ten years and seven novels, his attitude changes to one of surprise, then dismay, then depression over how shallow and pointless his life is, even lamenting at one point that the "big door will slam" (a metaphor for death MacDonald used in many books) on him some day without McGee even having a window in it through which to peer at life.
Most of this novel is standard McGee (though better than the previous entry, FREE-FALL IN CRIMSON).  Aside from the main plot, and a couple secondary plots, there's a very minor subplot in it that culminates in the only thing of significance in the novel: McGee learning that he has a bastard daughter by the one true love of his life, Puss Killian from 1968's PALE GRAY FOR THE GUILT, who left him for reasons of her own, to go back to her husband, not telling McGee she was dying of cancer or knowing she was pregnant and not getting a chance to tell him as she dies after an emergency c-section.
In the very last section of the novel, McGee's entire outlook from the previous 13 years' worth of novels has turned around and he's actually looking forward to living for the first time in a long, long time. At a gathering of all of his surviving friends, colleagues, and acquaintances from the previous novels, there's a celebration that feels very much like an end to the series, even though McGee does, in dialogue, proclaim he isn't through with his "salvage" business yet, because now he has a daughter to provide for.
I was worried that, after 21 novels, the series would be left hanging with JDM's unexpected death, but whether intentional or not, this does give it a fitting and satisfying end.

There's two more interesting things about this novel:

One is that there's direct, if casual, reference to characters from ONE MORE SUNDAY, JDM's second to last standalone novel (and the novel he published immediately before this one), making me wonder if JDM considered his works all in the same canon.

Secondly, this is the first McGee novel that finally nails down how time flows in McGee's world: it's real-time. Times change in the novels, but it's unclear until this one that they each take place in the year they were published (or thereabouts) and that McGee is definitely 23 years older in 1985 than he was in 1962 when the first novel was published, and his stated age was thirty.

A lot of stuff is going on right now, and I know folks need distractions, so please enjoy a new to the site comic.

​Several years ago, artist Leigh Walls and I did stories for the first and second volumes of an anthology series called Memoirs of the Mysterious, featuring short sci-fi and horror stories in the vein of old pulp magazines. One, Baby's Blues, I've already posted.

Here is the second one, "Of Consequence." It's quite different, but I always liked it a lot.

Click and be whisked away! I hope you'll enjoy it.

This is the coolest thing! Caliber Comics, publisher of MYTHOS: LOVECRAFT'S WORLDS, the horror comic Hugo Petrus and I did a few years ago, submitted the cover of the trade collecting issues 1-4 to a company that issues debit cards - and it was accepted!

Check it out!

The above is just a dummy sample, but you can get your own Lovecraftian monstrosity-covered card RIGHT HERE!

Please check it and spread the word!

And if you haven't read MYTHOS, now's the perfect time to dive in!

With nowhere to go and little to do during the current lock-down, and shipping of new books spotty, I've been re-reading a few things.

I've talked about it before, but I think VOID'S ENIGMATIC MANSION deserves a second look.

It's been a month since my newest western story, "The Home Place," was published as a Full Speed Singles ebook and there are some great reviews!

Read on!

The first comes from Bruce H.

And here's another from Jill C. Hand.

Thank you very much for the kind words, Bruce and Jill! I'm thrilled you enjoyed the story!

For everyone else out there, why not check it out for yourself? Only $0.99 on Kindle or free on KindleUnlimited!

​And please remember to leave a review!

HUGE NEWS!

My next novel BURN ME OUT is coming from Black Rose Writing September 6th, but you can pre-order yours NOW!

I've talked about this novel a lot over the last year or so as it's a very important and personal one for me. It is, in large part, about what some things I've been dealing with over the last few years: desperation, depression, hiding the most significant part of yourself from everyone (especially those you love because hurting them is the last thing on earth you want) and a deep, aching desire to matter and be recognized for it.I really, really want people to read this novel and enjoy it, but I also hope readers can empathize with some of the characters and their situations. Few, if anyone, in this novel is a decent persona, but I think they're very human.

The cover and back-cover blurb are below.

Al Vacarro is a made man, with all the honors and responsibilities that entails. But after a literal lifetime of violence in service to the Castella crime family, Al’s past is catching up with him and neither his present nor any future he can imagine seems to hold any hope for salvation.

For the sake of his family and his very soul, he needs out of “the life.”

But how does a man escape the only world he’s ever known?

​This is a story of blood and desperation, and these are the last twenty-four hours of life as Al knows it.

Click here to pre-order at a discounted price and an early ship-date for pre-ordering readers!

Please give this novel a chance if you like crime novels, human drama, or anything I've written in the past. I think it represents some of my best work.