The Big Book Sale Strikes Back!

Find the sale Here!

Welcome back, all! Hope you're doing well.

This week we're going to take a look at the newest big book sale created in time for Based Con! There are a handful of these sales a year, and few that I'm involved in, so I thought I would point them out for those who might not have noticed. There are plenty of works on sale for this week and it is hard to go through and pick some of them out.

But I'm going to try and do just that!

Firstly, My book in the sale this time is Grey Cat Blues, one of my earliest (and in fact my second released), and was the one that fundamentally changed how I saw writing. For those who missed it, I recommend now as the jumping on point.

"Siege on the Shadow Planet!

"Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell!

"The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun.

"Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists!

"Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . ."

You can find Grey Cat Blues here!

This one is pretty fast and action packed. I'm still amazed at how much I packed into that one. Be sure to give it a go if you haven't, and leave a review! Let others know what you thought of this strange book of mudmen on the rain planet.

But enough about me. Let us now go through the above list and pick out a few titles you might have missed out on. There's just so many to parse through I'm going to pick ones I have not covered in previous sales and in posts like this, so please be sure to keep an eye out if something strikes your fancy.

Also, some of the ones I mentioned in previous sale posts like this are on here once again, so if you missed out on those in other sale periods, I highly recommend picking them up this time. You never know what gem might slip under your radar. There's just so many to go through in the wild world of NewPub!

And we're about to go through some now!

Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen by Daniel M. Bensen

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First let us start with a new school take on a classic adventure premise that was popularized by the king himself, Edgar Rice Burroughs! You can probably tell from the cover, but this one isn't exactly a typical premise these days. For this book, you have to set your mind to the classics. It's time to go to another world, or in this case, a brand new timeline!

I hope you like time travel, dinosaurs, and stone age madness, because that's exactly what you're getting in this one!

"Former soldier Andrea Herrera isn’t happy with where her life’s taken her. Specifically, Hell Creek, Montana, 65 million years before the present. As far as careers go, making sure the dinosaurs don’t eat her paleontologist clients comes in a pretty dismal second choice to serving her country. But when their time machine malfunctions, Andrea and her team are trapped in a timeline that shouldn’t exist with something a hell of a lot more dangerous than terrible lizards: other humans.

"Kidnapped by the stone-age descendants of a lost time colony, Andrea finds herself stripped of her technological advantages and forced into a war against the implacable armies of the Slaver Empire. Even worse, the Slavers have captured the time machine and the mission's one surviving paleontologist, using his futuristic weapons for their own ends.

"Andrea's only hope lies with the ferociously intelligent and violently insane tribal war-leader, Trals Scarback. Armed with his mystic sword, his trained velociraptor, and his herd of war-triceratops, this former slave has the resources and motivation to take on the empire. But can Andrea persuade him to see her as a partner rather than a tool for his ambitions? Only if she beats the barbarian at his own game and becomes the Tyrannosaur Queen."

You can find Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen by Daniel M. Bensen here!

Dreams Within Dreams by M. D. Boncher

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As an example of exactly the kind of breath of fresh air that NewPub can give you, I would like to point out this work by author M. D. Boncher, which is hard to describe without just pointing to the official description. Would you consider this typical boxed up siffy as we know it from OldPub? I can't say that you could.

Check it out below:

Enter a world with no stars… no sun… no moon… no Earth. Only “the Dream”…

“An imaginative, action-packed tale that reads like a vision. If you like a bit of cyberthriller in your sci-fi... you’ll enjoy this one.”

- Kerry Nietz. Award winning author of “The Dark Trench Saga” & “Amish Vampires From Outer Space”

Winston Harper is a sky trucker down on his luck. Years of numbing his past trauma has whittled away his reputation. Blacklisted and back to the wall, Winston’s only hope of survival is a no-questions-asked contract offering pay high enough to make him forget his own name. What could possibly go wrong? When the client changes the deal and imperial security crashes the party, he’s on the run caught between the empire and a rebellion. Hauling ten containers of contraband cargo, and guided by a mysterious femme fatale who holds all the cards, death may be the better way out…

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the lines between technology and biology have become blurred, humanity survives on the remains of the solar system scattered about in a sky of endless twilight, ruled by an alien entity. Follow Winston Harper as he becomes entangled in the struggle against the cosmic empire and potentially, the secrets of humanity's lost past… and perhaps its future?

"Dreams Within Dreams" is the first novel in a rollicking retro-futuristic Sci-Fi serial merging cyberpunk and old school pulp adventure with a touch of neo-noir intrigue. It's "Flash Gordon" meets "Smokey and the Bandit" meets "The Matrix" meets "Talespin".

You can find Dreams Within Dreams by M. D. Boncher here!

Mech Bunny by J. M. Anjewierden

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For those who wonder just how much influence old school anime has had on some NewPub writers, I would point out the premise to Mech Bunny. Not that it is a bad thing, one of the reasons the medium caught on on this side of the world was  how fresh it was compared to the stale atmosphere of OldPub at the time.

All you really have to do is check out the below and you'll understand why this sort of thing resonates with so many.

"Humans won the war against the Blues, thanks in large part to the neural link they stole from the aliens. Few people can use it properly, though, and anyone with the right kind of brain gets conscripted immediately -- even ordinary high school kids.

"All Sophie wanted to do was be a dancer. She definitely hadn't planned on piloting a sixty-foot ANGEL mech with only a cranky rabbit mechanic to talk to, or fighting the genetically engineered foxes and wolves that had turned on the humans once the aliens were gone.

"She’s lost count of the battlefields she’s seen, but this next one is the worst yet. Ordered to defend a crucial forward operating base on a volcanic planet, forces are stretched thin, so she’ll have only infantry and artillery support, no other ANGELs.
One girl, one rabbit, and one giant robot up against creatures designed to be relentless soldiers.

"Creatures who have mechs of their own.

"Great."

You can find Mech Bunny by J. M. Anjewierden here!

Rattan by TJ Marquis

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Formerly a serialization, Rattan gets straight to the point, as all of Marquis' works do. Are you interested in high action in a far off place far from the mundane? Then this is exactly what you've been looking for.

Rattan is certainly no exception!

"Rattan was born to build.

"She’s even bolted together her own custom robot.

"There’s nothing she’d rather spend her days on…

"But she’s happy to to report to academy for her nation’s military draft of all second-born children.

"After all, isn’t a model citizen eager to serve her elites?

"She dives into the harsh tutelage of Master Koscha, willing to give her all to comrades and country.

"But when her best friend is murdered, Rattan is set on a path that she may not return from.

"Rattan is a science fantasy survival story for teens and up, with a melancholy vibe but no shortage of heart.

"Originally published on Kindle Vella."

You can find Rattan by TJ Marquis here!

From Barsoom to Malacandra: Musings on Things Past and Things to Come by John C. Wright

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For a bit of a different selection, let us try some essays. And not just any essays, but those by the unparalleled John C. Wright! If one has spent any time reading his blog over the years then you know you're in for a treat with a work like this.

This book in particular covers wonder stories, so you know it's perfect for NewPub, never mind just this sale.

"Peek into the heart of Science Fiction!

"From John Carter’s Mars to that of C. S. Lewis, Science Fiction astounds us with wonder.

"Science Fiction Grandmaster John C Wright here presents essays on topics both deep and trivial surrounding the strange and wonderful worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Thoughtful, humorous, deep, or absurd, Wright travels the width of the cosmos and plumbs the deeps of eternity through the lens of simple space adventure stories to say what these flights of fancy say about life on earth, and the secrets hidden in the human heart."

You can find From Barsoom to Malacandra by John C. Wright here!

On top of the above, there is a new feature this time--a sidebar! Click on the sidebar and you can scroll through just the titles and click on them to be brought to their summary on the page and check the title out for yourself. It's a handy feature to help parse through the unbelievable selections on offer. Give it a shot and see for yourself! You might be surprised just how many gems there are, especially compared to the shriveling up scene of OldPub.

That's all for this post, otherwise it would go on forever, but I do highly recommend spending a bit of time perusing the sale for yourself. There's so much great work out there by so many talented writers that really do deserve the support. Judge for yourself by looking over the exciting covers and descriptions for yourself.

The sale page is here!

Thank you for reading, and I will see you next time!

In other news, we're reaching the climax of Phantom Mission! An underground city rising up? What madness lies in the depths of Peace Island?! Become a backer and find out today!

The Big Black Friday Sale!

I apologize for the lateness of this post, which is why I gave the update on Tuesday. It was worth the wait, however!

Starting today on Black Friday and going throughout the weekend, there is a massive sale on over 100 books, each costing between $0.99 and free!

You can find a list of books (still currently being updated!) at author Hans G. Schantz's blog here.

Two of my books are on sale starting today. You can get Grey Cat Blues for $0.99 and Someone is Aiming for You & Adventures for $2.99. I've waited to post this because for some reason amazon was not showing the sale price on the books despite kdp showing them as active.

The description for Grey Cat Blues:

Siege on the Shadow Planet!

Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell!

The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun.

Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists!

Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . .

You can find Grey Cat Blues here!

So while you can get my fantastical noir action book for $0.99, you can also get my larger collection of pulp hero short stories, novellas, and novelettes, for $2.99! The sales are out of control today.

The description for Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures:

SEVEN TALES OF MAYHEM IN THE MAGIC CITY!

Vigilantes fight from the shadows. In Summerside, Dark Magic poisons the dying city of cultists and gangsters. This is where heroes are made.

A man with a deadly touch, an ex-hitman, a concrete teenager, an invisible myth, and an indestructible knight, are but a few of those who stalk the midnight hour.

In these seven stories you will meet those fighting for the soul of the city, and those hoping to bring it to a brighter future. But is there anything left worth saving in a world of death?

Powers or Magic. Only one will win this war.

You can find Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures here!

Find them both here!

It's been a long year, so treat yourself to some top notch escapism. We all need to get away every now and then. What better way to do that than with an adventure? The sale stretches on until Wednesday, so be sure to check it out. There's more than enough for everyone!

Have a good long weekend and I will see you again next week. There's more good news to come, I promise!

Summer's End

Find it Here!

It's been quite the summer, and now we'rd nearing the end. Personally speaking it was a mixed bag of highs and lows with most of the highs settling in on writing and my podcast. So let me tell you exactly what I've been up to in regards to the former.

Just like most writers I have a bunch of ideas waiting in the wings, stories half-formed, and others in need of tempering with a heavy edit or two. I'm not going to share those just yet because there's nothing I dislike more than offering a promise to someone and being unable to fulfill it due to outside factors. Whatever gets done first is usually what I think has the best chance of being sold or pleasing the most people and that can change in a heartbeat. That said, there are things I will share because they will be done in the near future or might be near completion.

First, of course, is the fact that my new book, Gemini Warrior, has just come out. For those unaware, this is a superhero/adventure/fantasy mashup and has been getting great reviews and the sales have been my best so far. It's about a mismatched pair of guys who end up entangled in a scheme that gives them powers and sends them to a whole new planet! Then things get weird. This is going to be part of a series of which the second book, Gemini Drifter, has already been written and is currently in the heavy editing process. Planning on book 3, Gemini Outsider, has already begun. I've got more beyond those thought out so if you want more Gemini Man you're set!

Outside of the Gemini Man books, I've also planned out a sequel to Grey Cat Blues that I have in my back pocket. I have a soft spot for that book, and those that have read it really appear to like it, plus the fact that these are short make them fun to put together. The sequel will not star Two Tone or Aurora from the original, but will take place in the same world and might have some new wrinkles in what goes on under the surface in that alien world. However, you can expect more of the same in regards to tone, atmosphere, and the world.

That said, since my main focus will be on Gemini Man, other books of mine will be written between releases of those. I say this because I am already hip deep in another idea that I haven't been able to sit down and focus on due to too many other factors. Since it's nailed down, I can share it with you.

The other book is called Brutal Dreams and it is an old Weird Tales-style horror, and it is also at a shorter length. This is about a man who finds himself trapped in a dream where he can't escape, or shed blood, but eventually learns that not only is he not alone in there, but those that are have hatched a plot to seize a new form of immortality. They plan to do this through a legendary weapon from ages past. No, it's not Excalibur. Think different weapon and more Celtic. This is a story I really like and will definitely put out there sooner or later.

The reason I mention this is because I would like input from you, my trusted readers. Either in the comments or in the twitter poll I will put out, I want you to tell me which idea I should focus on next of the two. Do you want a sequel to Grey Cat Blues or do you want Brutal Dreams? Whichever one sounds better to you is the one I will focus on next. Give me input!

Either way both will get done, but this will help clarify things for me.

EDIT: Vote here, or comment below!

On the other hand is my short fiction. I'm not stopping those since they are a breath of fresh air in between longer works. I still have some stories I'm waiting to hear back on, including two that are still awaiting release, but as of now I can say that my story Black Dog Bend will be part of StoryHack #5. This one is about a bass player lost in the woods who stumbles into a time loop. Then things get strange. 

Let me just say StoryHack is the best magazine out there that focuses on action adventure stories regardless of aesthetic or political correctness. Every story they put out is a stick of dynamite in the dusty mine that is modern publishing. Aside from Cirsova it is the only other magazine I own every issue of physically, and share eagerly with everyone I can. It's that good.

At the same time I have, as usual, a bunch of stories waiting in the wings to be edited and a few more I want to write to fill out potential short story collections in the future. One story in particular I have written that is a bit long and a bit weird that I'm hoping isn't too long and weird for the magazines to take a serious look at. It's one I am very proud of, but I still need one more hard editing pass on it. Fingers crossed for that one.

Speaking of short story collections, I'm working on one as we speak! My Superhero Vs. Magic stories have been around the block a bit, including one that was supposed to be published several times but plans fell through, and I've decided to bind them all together for a collection. There are seven total out of the four that have seen the light of day and the one in limbo, all of which take place in the same world of superpowers, magic, and possible Armageddon, as good guys, criminals, and cultists, do battle in Summerside: the worst city in the world.

I've been in touch with my editor about it and I'm hoping to finish my hard edit on it this month before handing it off. If it wasn't for real life it would already be done, but that's just the way it is. Either way, it's going to happen, so be ready!

I've also had a false start more than once on another series I want to start, this one with heavy sword and planet and sword and sorcery influence, but as of now I've been instead honing myself on those with short stories in the style. You should hopefully see those coming next year. Some of them are even already awaiting release! If you want to see how I handle the style, my story, Inside the Demon's Eye, in StoryHack #3 should give you a hint.

So that's what is happening here between the wasteland and sky. I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon, mostly because I can't and because I like writing too much, but that I'm letting you know just how much you have to look forward to in the future.

This train isn't stopping anytime soon.

Until then, keep your eyes peeled. You never know what might happen next. Summer might be over, but there are always more seasons ahead!

If you haven't checked out Gemini Warrior then what's stopping you? Two young men find themselves trapped in another world with brand new powers and no way out. Adventure, wonder, and heroism are just a click away!

Find it Here!

2018 is Here!

This is a post I wanted to write to go over the last year of this blog and put everything in perspective. From what I recall 2017 was a wild, wild year.

I was just coming off of the release of Knights of the End and pleased that I finally put out a work I could be proud of. However, it wasn't a clear path from then on. I spent the rest of the year putting what I learned from the Pulp Revolution and the Superversive movement to work in my own writing and ended up not putting out nearly as much as I would have hoped to. Too much time was spent on rewrites! But that can also be explained by some real life mishaps that simply got in the way. It happens.

Still, my 2017 can best be described by one of the first posts I put up this year which was Selective Memory: An Appendix N Post, about the ever-controversial subject (for reasons I still do not understand) of Dungeons and Dragons and its undeniable influence on pop culture and storytelling over the decades. My takeaway from the whole project was that what came before us is valuable and worth exploring instead of destroying the past like certain elitist fandoms would prefer. I also learned that I really liked reading this material, so much so that most of my reads this year were split between old pulp works and modern PulpRev output.

From what I can tell, 2017 is the year the Pulp Revolution really began to take off. Many writers released their own works and created a unique ecosystem of crazy fun fiction that made it hard to keep up with. At the same time, traditional publishing put out near nothing of note. Not a good look for them. If 2017 was anything, it was the year of PulpRev.

January was also the month I began Grey Cat Blues which finally, after so many setbacks, released in December. If you want to know why it took so long to come out, well, it wasn't the only thing I was spending 2017 on, as you will see.

February was the month I saw the one film worth paying money for in 2017 and covered the downfall of Japan's Dragon Magazine, one of the most influential pulp-style manga and light novel magazines. It was at this point that the disappointment of modern pop culture was getting to me. Things actually were getting worse. It wasn't just in my head. But I was still writing and hoping to put my own pop culture out there at the same time

This year I took Lent off the blog and social media to focus on writing and got quite a bit done including the first draft of Grey Cat Blues and several short stories. I'll probably be taking another absence again in 2018. But I did make a few posts, including one for my first published short story, Someone is Aiming For You, in the Superhero Anthology by the Crossover Alliance. It was also published again in Paragons by Silver Empire later in the year.

At this time I made a behind the scenes decision to change the focus of my writing to focus on submitting several short stories to different anthologies. All except one was eventually accepted to where they were submitted, but in retrospect I should have focused on getting Grey Cat Blues out instead. The stories ultimately wouldn't release for much longer than I should have been comfortable with and as a consequence my presence was not as out front as it should have been.

So March was productive, and it wasn't. That's the best way to explain it.

However, April also ended up being one of the most productive months on the blog. Many of these posts where shared all over social media, even from people who have never read or shared my posts before. This was the month my traffic really began its climb.

My post on Comic Books came out just as the industry's madness became well known to everyone, I began my four part series on good anime, and I finished off the month with a post focused on the most important topic of entertainment and the arts: entertaining the audience. I suppose being offline for as long as I was gave me plenty of time to think in between drafts.

May was mainly spent on offline problems, but I did put out my second and third posts on my anime series, and another one on self-awareness killing entertainment. At the same time I shelved another novel I was working on for many reasons, which killed a lot of my productivity and wasted too much time. That isn't something I'm going to do again.

But the blog kept doing well.

June was a lighter month with my finishing off my anime series, and writing what might be my most personal post, and an update post regarding book 2 of Knights of the End which ended up getting pushed back indefinitely after I realized I wasted too much time sitting on Grey Cat Blues and getting short stories written and submitted to anthologies. At the same time I began work on another new project. Again, this was clearly the weakest part of my year. I should have absolutely had more released than I ended up releasing.

July ended up being a big event in my offline life, and taking up most of my time. Coupled with the paragraph above and you can see that I definitely wasted too much time. I finished up on Grey Cat Blues, waiting for my editor to have a spare moment, and started on another book I hope to have out in the first quarter of 2018. On the other hand, the blog did have my post on Shonen and its undeniable influence which is one of my favorite posts.

But then August got everything back on track and it has been only going uphill ever since. I posted my single most popular post ever on this blog centered on the End of Pop Culture and I finished Grey Cat Blues and gave it to my editor and wrote another short story in a sitting and got it back from my second editor. Thanks, Brian! My update post clears everything up. I also started working on the Cannon Cruisers podcast with a friend of mine which ended up being a good outlet for movie watching this year. Blog posts were mostly reviews outside my tribute post to the massively underrated Brave Fencer Musashi, though this was the month I got a ton of writing done, including submitting Lucky Spider's Last Stand in pulp speed (I spent one afternoon and night writing and editing it) to the PulpRev Sampler.

September continued on with me finishing the first draft of my novel (still need to get back to it, and will do so very soon!) and began the final edits on Grey Cats Blues. I also put up a series of popular posts centered on the limits of superpowers, the arrogance of modern creators and critics, a post on the fracturing of shared culture, and one on the real reason the X-Men were popular.

Then as things got better, they also got odd.

October was a frustrating month. Grey Cat Blues was completely finished, but all sorts of outside factors led it to being delayed until December. I spent a lot of time arguing with several people about dumb things on top of it and wasting my time. Not again. But we finally got Cannon Cruisers off the ground, and I did get stories released in two different anthologies this month including Paragons and the PulpRev Sampler. I ended the month better than it started, but not getting the book out when it should have been really soured the mood.

In November I finally revealed Grey Cat Blues and spread the word on the vital RetroWave scene. There was also a very popular post the shallowness of modern culture which wasn't spurred on by nothing.

Things were going really well. They only got better.

I also sort of participated in National Novel Writing Month. By which I mean I didn't really take part. I started about halfway through the month on a new novel and went through to the halfway mark of December. Since I was trying to get my novel out at the time and was frustrated editing so much material that wasn't seeing the light of day I took a small break to work on something new as I was waiting for outside forces to catch up to me. The plan was to write 30,000 words of a new project in a month to which I succeeded. I then spent the rest of December finishing the draft and went back to editing previous projects again.

And December was a big month in that I finally released Grey Cat Blues on the public. It outsold Knights of the End quickly and got positive word of mouth. You have no idea the size of the weight that lifted off of me when I finally got it out. Even after I had to go back and forth with amazon to finally put out the paperback for such a silly reason that eventually ended up getting solved by them in one afternoon. It took much too long.

I also put out a post on the state of anime in 2017 and another very popular post spurred on by a really bad year for Hollywood about the loss of common sense on storytelling. These helped cap off a a year that was better to me than I was to myself.

Looking back on it, I can't help but be surprised at how good it really was.

So at the end of the day, 2017 led me to release a new novel and three short stories despite writing over twice (and nearly three times) that amount of material. I actually wrote 3 novels and 6 short stories, which was triple my previous year. I'm hoping to release that much this year and not spend so much time on revisions. 2018 will be even better.

But that's not to sell 2017 short. The blog grew by leaps and bounds, I started a podcast and released a book, I met a lot of really good folks, and learned a lot. As much as 2016 was better than 2015, 2017 was even better. Any problems I had with it are of my own doing. There is a lot of good to talk about, and I think I did so in this post.

Thank you for reading Wasteland & Sky, and I hope you stick with me as we continue into 2018. It's going to be a good year.

In case you missed it, you can check out my most recent work. I can promise it was a lot of fun to write and just as fun read.

Quick Update: Out in Paperback!

I had a bit of a tussle with Amazon over this, going back and forth over an issue that should have resolved ages ago, but finally the problems were settled. You can now get Grey Cat Blues in paperback.

Of course I well know there are those of you who prefer your physical copies, just as I do. There's nothing quite like flipping through the pages yourself and filling out that PulpRev collection. If you also want to get that sweet Kukuruyo cover art in print then this is your chance.

I'm also letting you know that there will be a post tomorrow night, and it will be a crazy one. Here's a hint: it's about the music industry.

But the important part is that physical copies are here.

Come and get it!

It's Here!

After such a long time putting this book together, Grey Cat Blues is finally available in Kindle! Paperback should hopefully be out shortly.

For those new to this whole thing, I wrote a few posts on this novel including an excerpt, background, and a general introduction post including a cover reveal.

Siege on the Shadow Planet! 

Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell! 

The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun. 

Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists! 

Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . .

After all is said and done, the book is finally out for you to enjoy. Please read and leave comments and reviews so I can learn exactly what you think. It's very important for writers to know what their audience thinks so they can only improve and do better next time.

That said, this book was a lot of fun to write. If you enjoy books with action, mystique, danger, and a quick ride you won't soon forget, then this one is for you. Check it out today!

Grey Cat Blues is available for Kindle here. Once again, thank you for reading!

One Day Until Launch!

As launch day approaches, I think it's important to at least note where the idea for Grey Cat Blues came from.

The first was that the seed of this idea came from an older, out of print and scrapped story, called While You Were Dancing. I scrapped this one when I realized I didn't know where it was going and that I wasn't mature enough to make it work. That story was about a world falling apart and no one really noticing or caring as a being from the shadows stealthily destroyed it from the inside.

Grey Cat Blues came about when I began to read Appendix N and independent Pulp Revolution stories. There was also the Superversive movement which also brightened the corners of this story. These authors gave me a direction to aim my tales and allowed me more freedom and clarity than I had ever had before. The characters came into focus, the setting became sharper, and I understood what the muse was trying to tell me when I first stumbled upon this idea.

There are a few works with similarities that I did not partake in until after the work is done. I followed in the tradition of Brian Niemeier who stated that he had never seen the anime Outlaw Star until after he wrote Nethereal and Souldancer. Likewise, I did not see Streets of Fire or Dark City until after writing Grey Cat Blues.

As much as I enjoyed watching them, they did not have any influence on the story. My novel has better action than the former and is much less abstract than the latter, anyway.

No, if we're talking influences, there isn't any one place this came from.

I've made no secret of how S.E. Hinton was an influence on me as a boy. She had a way of writing tough male characters that were rounded without having to deconstruct them or tear them down. The specific instance for this story in regards to her was Rumble Fish. For those who don't know, Rumble Fish is a coming of age story about a tough kid who has his world fall down around him due to his blind pursuit of being his idol at the expense of the wonder his childhood afforded him. By the end he loses everything, the color of the world and those around him, in his goal of being his brother and being one with the world. It's a tragedy.

Grey Cat Blues is the opposite. My story starts with a character in the opposite place who pursues a world much bigger than the one he started in. It's very much a superversive tale with a lot of weirdness going on. There's also a lot more action than you might expect..

This has been a real joy to write and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I had putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and eagerly await any comments you might have. Please check out the preorder here and an official excerpt here.

Tomorrow is the official release, and I am really excited for it. Thanks for reading!

Grey Cat Blues Excerpt

From Chapter 1

Grey Cat Blues by JD Cowan

Two Tone ran a scarred hand across his soaked head, plastering down his naturally white hair which matched his skin. He had dyed it black when he was a kid to look tougher, but not these days. His flush cheeks and strong chin matched his dark brown— almost black— eyes, and his far too white skin gave him the appearance of a comic book zombie. That effect only doubled when he wore black clothes. He had his name for a reason.

“I’m not that guy anymore,” Two Tone finally answered. He shook the water from his brown bomber jacket and wiped his casual blue jeans. “But I’m also not scared of the streets. Especially not with this.” Two Tone ran his fingers along his chain. Good weight. His fingertips instantly recalled memories of brawls long since won.

“You don’t even need it.” A-Rail rhythmically tapped the neighboring dumpster with his pipe as the pair passed. “Most of the hounds around here are either getting into cults or leaving this city for a better one with juicier targets. Even they know there’s nothing left.”

“You’re also leaving.”

“Yeah.”

“This have anything to do with why you called me out here? It wasn’t to reminisce about old times. You never get nostalgic. Tell me what’s up.”

“My dad used his connections to get me a job in Central 2106. Morningstar City. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m getting out.”

Two Tone slung the chain over his shoulders and shrugged. “This place is drying up. Makes sense.”

A-Rail mindlessly nodded in agreement.

An arc of lightning split the cloud cover overhead. For an instant, Two Tone thought he saw the cascading shadows in the alley moving around him.

A pair of lean black cats bolted between trash cans into the dark. A-Rail laughed, but Two Tone sneered. His sixth sense was screaming like the thunder drumming above. A fight was coming.

“What was that thing that old man used to say?” A-Rail asked. “All cats are grey in the dark? No fooling. All those damn cats all look alike out here.”

Two Tone wrapped a fistful of his chain in his right hand, stretched it out to its full length, and held the opposite end in his left with enough of a slack in the center.

A-Rail cocked a brow. “What are you doing?”

“We’re being followed. I know it. Spend enough time in the quiet, and you learn to hear things.”

“You learned to be paranoid. Get a woman, dreg.”

The rain turned black as it slapped against their shoulders. Two Tone looked up. Three shadows brandishing dark blades descended from the rooftops. He jumped back, and the alley pavement under him shattered into chunks, revealing tiny purple weeds clumping together. Three figures emerged from the rubble.

The first thing that Two Tone noticed was that he was wrong. They weren’t shadows. They were deformed men with dark mud pouring out of every orifice. Their vacant soulless eyes let waterfalls of muck gush from the tear ducts of their sunken skulls. The musty air filled with the stink of corpses. These things were actual living monsters.

“The hell?!” A-Rail yelled.

The monsters fell upon the pair. A-Rail shouted as Two Tone moved in.

Two Tone flung the chain to the one in the center. The weapon struck down on its outstretched wrist, and the monster winced. The left one circled around to his back and sliced for his neck. He rolled forward, and rainwater ripped apart instead of his spine. Two Tone spun, and whipped the chain down. The weight struck the neck of the monster with a crack, sending it stumbling. Mud spilled onto the concrete at its crooked feet. Two Tone landed in a crouch between his two attackers.

The first mud man approached the tar puddle where the goo landed. The mud slid along the sidewalk into its foot, rejoining the body. Two Tone grimaced, and kept the ends of the chain held tight. The two enemies were on either side.

Then he noticed A-Rail was missing, as was the third aggressor.

“A-Rail?” he inquired. No answer. He swore to himself then to the two attackers. “I don’t know what you dregs are supposed to be, but if you hurt A-Rail, I’m going to have to smash your bones to dust.”

The pair sprang forward on each side of him. There was no room to dodge in the narrow alley.

If you wish to read the rest, you can preorder Grey Cat Blues on Kindle today! Thanks for reading!

Grey Cat Blues Preorder!

Hey everyone, I'm here to let you know that my next book, Grey Cat Blues, is up for preorder and will be out on Friday, December 8th, for Kindle. I hope to have the paperback version ready by then, but that remains to be seen.

For those unaware, this action story takes place many years in the future on a distant planet where humanity has become as cold and distant as the harsh conditions surrounding them. After hundreds of years, a dark being emerges from the shadows to strangle what remains of us.

This is the description:

Siege on the Shadow Planet! 

Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell! 

The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun. 

Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists! 

Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . .

I had a blast writing this, and my editor, L. Jagi Lamplighter helped me find ways to make it even better. I'm really excited to share this story with all of you. Please check out the link below.

You can preorder here.

Grey Cat Blues

It's been a long time coming. There have been setbacks. There have been annoyances in more than one area. But it's finally (almost) here.

Yes, I'm talking about my next novel!

The story is called Grey Cat Blues, and it will hopefully be available by the end of November on kindle and a bit later in paperback.

Here is the glorious cover supplied by artist extraordinaire Kukuruyo:

Have a summary:

Siege on the Shadow Planet! 

Ex-punk Two Tone is left for dead and his friend is taken. His assailants: men of mud from some place darker than Hell! 

The inscrutable Sarpedon has slithered from the depths to rule a planet that has long abandoned hope for a better tomorrow. With no one to stop his spree of violence, it is only a matter of time before Two Tone’s world is overrun. 

Old friends and a mysterious beauty gather by his side, but are they enough? Is it too late for this dying world? If all cats are grey in the dark, will anyone see the panther stalking its prey? Two Tone will find the answers the best way he knows how—through his fists! 

Grey Cat Blues tells the tale of a distant planet at humanity’s end. In this place, a man must choose between love and hate. And where his choice leads him might not be where he expects . . .

This is a story that takes place in the future on a world that is as cold and distant as the main characters in it. In Grey Cat Blues you get gangs, fights, monsters, horror, noir, love, rock n roll, and good vs evil, all in a crisp 200 pages. My goal from Day One was to make an exciting book that was brisk but able to grab the reader and stick with them like books of old. I like to think I succeeded here.

For an explanation as to why this exists, I have a bit of a tale. Grey Cat Blues is a story I came up with years ago but was never able to get right. I pseudo-released it on amazon as While You Were Dancing, but ended up taking it down because the narrative just didn't work. I pushed it aside and got working on Knights of the End and my short stories, figuring it was best to leave as a failed experiment.

Then I met the Pulp Revolution through the revival of Appendix N. That changed the way I write a good deal.

I began to dive into the old pulp works and they heavily affected how I saw fiction. I finally understood what it was that I liked about stories and what it was I wanted out of them. In turn, it changed my writing by an astronomical degree. My short stories (see the sidebar for examples) were far sharper and more direct and yet had more inside their pages than stories I wrote that were easily ten times the length of when I was struggling to put pen to paper years ago. Things were different.

What began to happen was I kept thinking about that failed story and what the problem was. I began to form a picture in my head about what I wanted to do and how to achieve it. In the middle of some stories I was writing (including my next novel after this, hopefully out early next year) I sat down and began to crank out the story While You Were Dancing was supposed to be. It came out as an entirely new story with no similarities to the original outside of two characters and one scene near the beginning. It came out as the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror/Weird Tale novel Grey Cat Blues. It came out as something I never thought I could write.

This is a story that takes place long after we've left Earth and colonized a distant planet. In a world where fragmentation and alienation are ways of life, only clinging to memories of Earth form any cohesiveness over the people. There is no escape, there is no future, and there is no brighter tomorrow on the shadow planet. It is at this point a darkness arrive from the heart of the Central's shadows and begins to swallow everything whole. With everything against him, how can our hero win? And what awaits him if he does?

And now for some bad news. The only reason I can't give you a direct release date is because one of the people involved in helping me put it out had a relative how attempted suicide. Naturally, this put a break on their progress in aiding me, but I would be appreciated if you could send prayers to their family in this horrid time for them. It would do them some good.

But I don't want to just leave you with grim thoughts. Fiction is meant to keep is looking up when we are down.

I'm proud to finally present this book in complete form from an idea I just couldn't get down properly. Please be sure to check it out and leave a review when it comes out within the month. If there is another book out there like this, I'd like to see it for myself.

If you want action and adventure, this is the book for you. Grey Cat Blues is novel I've been trying my darnedest to get out for ages, and I can easily say that it has been worth the struggle.