Reader News for June 3

Jack Badelaire has a new one out! The prolific writer of action/adventure fiction, best known for his Commando series, is starting a new series in the style of 1970s men's action fiction. I'm lucky enough to be one of his beta readers and really enjoyed this book. Badelaire knows the genre well and writes in the style of all those old series like Mack Bolan and The Penetrator.

Here's the blurb:

California, 1973. Back home after three years in the jungles of Southeast Asia, former Green Beret Jamie “Hangman” Lynch is enjoying the good life, drinking beer and chasing skirts along San Diego’s Mission Beach. But Lynch finds himself growing increasingly restless, and dreaming of getting back into the fight again.

Lynch asks his former commanding officer for guidance, and is offered a chance at some excitement: a private sector job working for the CEO of a San Francisco tech company in need of a man who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The assignment? Hunt down a man named Roth, a whiz-kid engineer in debt to the Vegas mob. Roth has stolen an advanced military prototype and is looking to sell it to the highest bidder.
 
Lynch accepts the job and finds himself working with Richard, an enigmatic Texan mercenary, and Blake, the company’s head of security. The three men face off against Cranston, a murderous ex-cop turned enforcer-for-hire, who’s got an army of ruthless thugs turning San Francisco upside down looking for Roth. If Cranston gets to Roth before Lynch and his partners do, Roth can kiss the prototype - and his life - goodbye.
 
SAN FRANCISCO SLAUGHTER is a hard-edged action-adventure novel. There's drinking, profanity, and sex. There's fast cars and big guns, sharp knives and loose women. Arson, torture, and murder are just tools in the hands of men who’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. And while the good guys aren't so great, the bad guys are even worse.

You find it on Amazon here.

Reader News for May 26: A New Steampunk Novel!

Friend and fellow Madrid author Andrew Leon Hudson has come out with his first novel. The Glass Sealing is a steampunk adventure set in Musa Publishing's Darkside Codex shared world. Here's the back cover blurb.

Hot-shot engineer Arthur Singleton is on the verge of achieving all his dreams when they are snatched away from him. His sympathies for the plight of mistreated workers lead him to speak up in their support, but for doing so he is made a scapegoat by the heads of industry, falsely accused of inciting a riot which they orchestrated to keep the people in their place. With his reputation ruined and his career in tatters, Singleton vanishes into the squalid streets of Southwatch, determined to make a difference where it really counts: in the lives of ordinary men and women, forgotten or ignored by those who live in comfort and luxury above the Dark Cloud.

Years later Singleton emerges from obscurity again as a secret leader in the Workers’ Movement, an underground protest organisation dedicated to challenging the status quo–but no change comes easy, especially when it threatens the profits of the wealthy. Looking down on their activities is Jocelyn Duville, heiress to a unique airborne transportation empire, who once considered Singleton more than a colleague and was an unwitting player in his wrongful disgrace. Now a darling of high society, Jocelyn is far from a conventional figure herself, refusing to simply marry and give up her independence. She has big plans for Southwatch, a proposal that will change the face of the city and write her name in the history books in the process. But her goals epitomise everything the Workers’ Movement struggles against, and they will not stand by and watch without a fight.

However, these are not the only forces at play. Street gangs, the city government, and the strange, inhuman beings that live in Southwatch’s deep shadows all have vested interests in the outcome of the building conflict. Arthur Singleton and Jocelyn Duville will face off across a chasm of class, each wielding very different kinds of power–unaware that they are pitted against each other, and of the terrible consequences their actions will have on the city they both love.

I was lucky enough to be a beta reader on this book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The book is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Reader News for May 7, 2014

Two of my blogging buddies have books out this month. Jack Badelaire, best known for his popular Commando series of World War Two novels, has dipped into Westerns with his latest. Renegade's Revenge is a 20,000 word novella about two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War and unite after the end of the war to take revenge on the man who killed their third brother. You can grab it for only 99 cents on Amazon. If it's like his other fiction, expect fast-faced writing and plenty of action.

Also, Hart Johnson has released Rescue Squad, Book 9 of her A Shot in the Light post-apocalyptic thriller series. Or as she describes it, "an Apocalypse Conspiracy Tale about what happens when people play God for fun and profit." The whole series was originally projected to run for ten installments of approximately 100 pages each. Hart knows how to hit that word count!

Have any news to share? Email me at the address shown on the left-hand column of this blog. The news can be about writing, history, archaeology, adventure travel, etc. You know what I cover in this blog, so if it's at all related, send it along to the email on the sidebar to the left.

Reader News for March 11

A couple of blogger/writing buddies are coming out with books. First off, David Meyer has just released Torrent, the third in his popular Cy Reed series of pulp adventure novels. Reed is a sort of Indiana Jones character who investigates all sorts of conspiracy theories.

In 830 AD, a brilliant Maya architect constructed a massive vault deep within a hidden canyon. For centuries, it has protected an astonishing treasure … and a terrifying secret.  
Haunted by tragedy, Cy Reed leads a salvage expedition to one of the last untouched places on Earth. Meanwhile, a shaman senses a disturbing shift in the natural order. And a famous archaeologist searches for the fate of a lost civilization.
Assaulted by endless rain, bizarre phenomena, and mythical creatures, Reed races to solve a puzzle millions of years in the making. Forging a path through cursed tunnels and deadly traps, he fights his way toward an epic discovery that could free him from his demons … or drown him under a tidal wave of destruction.

In other news, Andrew Leon Hudson has announced that his first novel, The Glass Sealing, will come out from Musa Publishing on May 23. Expect an interview with him when it does! I was a beta reader for this one and it's a fun steampunk adventure set in a shared world.

Have any news to share? Email me at the address shown on the left-hand column of this blog. The news can be about writing, history, archaeology, adventure travel, etc. You know what I cover in this blog, so if it's at all related, send it along to the email on the sidebar to the left.

Reader News for February 25

I'm headed out to Madrid today but before I go I wanted to share some reader news. Roland Yeomans of Writing in the Crosshairs is out of cancer surgery and back to blogging. You can't keep a good writer down!

Tony Laplume has just come out with a vampire novel Pale Moonlight, available in electronic and print editions. Congratulations, Tony! A blurb is below:

Plato Finnegan is a priest and brother. His sister Fiona is trying to escape from a bad relationship with a vampire.

Rather than the springboard for another vampire romance, however, these are the ingredients for an expansive literary epic that explores the large and intimate questions of our time.

Also,I'm over at the Tiki Hut talking about my travels to Iraq and Somaliland, so hop on over and check it out!