Mischief Managed!
Had an absolutely wonderful time at the recent Christmas in July book sale sponsored by Author! Author! For me, there were two big highlights: getting a long-overdue to sign side-by-side with my dear friend — an amazing horror writer — Morgen Leigh. That, and being told by a very charming and enthusiastic young woman that it was as if I wrote Mr. Menace just for her. I hope she likes the book itself as much as she liked the idea of the book.
Many many thanks to Chris Mandeville and Laura Hayden for organizing this event and being so kind as to invite me. And of course, thank you so much to everyone who came out for it and especially the very lovely and probably pretty close to perfect human beings who were nice enough to buy some books.
Topics: Books, Events, Hardboiled Urban Fantasy, Horror, Novels, Windwalkers | No Comments »
Now Available!
Mr. Menace — Audio Book
Narrated by Christopher Harbour
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The Windwalkers Return!
After several years of being out of print, my first novel Windwalkers is now back in print, available from Amazon.com in both Kindle and paperback formats!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098RW83B1?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Topics: Books, Horror, Novels, Windwalkers | No Comments »
Free Holiday Fiction — “It’s the Most Wonderful Time…”
Once upon a time, it was tradition to tell ghost stories around Christmas. This is the origin of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and the reason for the line “There’ll be scary ghost stories” in the song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
What follows is my first effort at telling a Christmas ghost story of my own. It’s a side story to my unpublished novel Laughing Teddy (a book about a haunted toy store moving into a small Colorado mountain town), but I believe it stands well on its own.
It was originally published in the e-zine New Myths. It’s one I’m quite fond of, both eerie and sad…
So put on some classic Christmas songs (my top choice would be the Judy Garland version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”) and enjoy…
Topics: Horror, Short Fiction | No Comments »
Publications in 2020!
As well as my new supernatural crime novel MR MENACE, I have some short stories coming out (or already out) this year:
“At the Cat Parade” in Books of Horror Community Anthology #2 — Two young American tourists find themselves caught up in an ancient and terrifying festival in an out-of-the-way English town.
“Cravings” in Consumed: Tales Inspired by the Wendigo, from the Denver Horror Collective — A pregnant woman, trapped in her car after driving off the road in a raging blizzard, is overwhelmed by the urgent need to eat anything she can get her hands on…
“Snow Angels” in Santa Claus is Coming to Deathlehem — A lonely widower is haunted by dark spirits from his home’s forgotten past.
Topics: Anthologies, Short Fiction, Windwalkers | No Comments »
MR. MENACE is here!
When a mysterious woman saunters into his office and begs him to help her find a missing person — herself — detective Frank Orpheus is intrigued on more than just a professional level. The perplexing puzzle of his client’s lost memory is the most interesting case he’s gotten in years . . . and the fact that she’s rich and gorgeous doesn’t hurt his enthusiasm, either. Despite dire warnings from his devoted and prescient secretary Cass, Frank takes the job.
But even as his fascination with the mysterious Lady in Gray flares into passion, Frank finds himself drawn into a shadowy underworld populated by devilish dilettantes and notorious criminals, all of them the puppets of the cryptic crime lord known only as Mr. Menace. As Frank uncovers the clues that might lead him at last to the Lady in Gray’s lost identity, he learns that her world holds dangers far more diabolical and deadly than knife-wielding thugs and insidious criminal syndicates. His obsession with his strange client could get Frank and the people he cares about killed — or worse. The closer Frank gets to finding the answers he’s determined to unearth, the more he suspects the truth might be too terrible to live with.
Just who — and what — is this woman he’s fallen for . . . and how hard will the fall finally be?
My new hardboiled, haunted crime novel is now available from WordFire Press!
BUY YOUR COPY HERE!
Topics: Books, Novels, Uncategorized | No Comments »
MR. MENACE now available for pre-order!
My new novel MR. MENACE, a classic film noir tale with a mythic twist, is now available for pre-order from WordFire Press!
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My forthcoming novel MR. MENACE featured in WordStar Press’s new Chills & Wonder story bundle!
THE CHILLS & WONDER BUNDLE
The Chills & Wonder Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. Anderson
We live in creepy times. It’s summer, when we sit around the campfire and tell fun and chilling tales. Better yet, sit back with your e-reader and enjoy these thirteen books in the “Chills and Wonder” StoryBundle curated by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson. These are some of the best, most entertaining dark fantasy, urban fantasy, and thriller novels—all thirteen books for as little as $15, and a portion goes to support the Challenger Learning Centers.
The StoryBundle includes the just-released anthology Monsters, Movies & Mayhem, with 23 all original stories about monsters and movies by Jonathan Maberry, David Gerrold, Fran Wilde, Rick Wilber, and many others. Lights! Camera! Monsters!
The Chills & Wonder StoryBundle includes three exclusive titles, not yet available to the public except here:
Mr. Menace by R. Michael Burns—When a wealthy and gorgeous woman asks P.I. Frank Orpheus to find her missing identity, he just can’t say no … even if the case leads him into a criminal underworld more horrific than anything he ever imagined.
Plus: A new edition of Alexandre Dumas’s long-unavailable classic The Wolf Leader, one of the first werewolf novels ever written, by the author of The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask. New edition with a Foreword by Jonathan Maberry.
And: Drumbeats: Special Edition, by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart. Written with legendary drummer and lyricist from Rush, a creepy story about a drummer who visits an African village where drums are made with human skin…and they have very special properties. This edition includes the original afterword by Peart and a new foreword by Anderson written after Peart’s death in January 2020. – Kevin J. Anderson
Also included in this StoryBundle:
In Amity Green’s The Witcher Chime, a deadly, possessive entity imprints on members of Savannah Caleman’s family, making her the latest object of obsession in this chilling, historical tale of haunted legacy and terror. In Book and Blade by Erik Lynd, Christopher never asked to inherit the office of the Beast or take up the mantle of the Hunter of Lost Souls. He never asked for his safe, comfortable world to be shattered and his family taken from him. And to make matters worse, it was all a mistake.
In the gritty thriller Disappeared by Lucienne Diver, a mother is missing, a father left to tell the tale, and their kids are determined to get to the truth or die trying. Steven-Elliot Altman’s Severed Wings is a romantic urban fantasy thriller that will make you believe in angels and demons and everything in between. Recommended for readers from American Gods to Twilight. In Keeper of the Winds by Russell Davis, nineteen-year-old Jenna Solitaire discovers an ancient family artifact, a wooden board covered in runes. It is coveted by powerful forces, and they will stop at nothing to take it from her.
Melinda M. Snodgrass, one of the writers for Star Trek: The Next Generation, introduces readers to White Fang Law in This Case Is Gonna Kill Me. Fresh out of law school, Linnet Ellery is offered a position at of one the most prestigious firms in New York—one that caters to supernatural clients. Linnet will need all of her vaunted luck to avoid the cutthroat office politics, backroom deals, supernatural killers, and centuries-old schemers…
But there’s more—An insect-loving boy discovers that his new boarding school harbors a dark past and grisly secrets in Sarah Read’s The Bone Weaver’s Orchard. In The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste, strange transformations destroyed Phoebe’s friends, and now threaten her own existence. And New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry presents a collection of hairy detective tales in Beneath the Skin, It’s hard enough being a low-rent private investigator—but when you’re also a werewolf, things take a turn for the weird.
* * *
For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.
- The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste
- Book and Blade by Erik Lynd
- Severed Wings by Steven-Elliot Altman
- Disappeared by Lucienne Diver
- Monsters, Movies & Mayhem by Kevin J. Anderson
If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular books, plus seven more books, for a total of eleven!
- Keeper of the Winds by Jenna Solitaire with Russell Davis
- Mr. Menace by R. Michael Burns (StoryBundle Exclusive!)
- The Witcher Chime by Amity Green
- The Wolf Leader by Alexandre Dumas (StoryBundle Exclusive!)
- Drumbeats: Special Edition by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart (StoryBundle Exclusive!)
- Beneath the Skin by Jonathan Maberry
- The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read
- This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Melinda M. Snodgrass
This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi) for all books!
It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.
Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.
- Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
- Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
- Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
- Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to the Challenger Center for Space Education!
- Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!
StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.
For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook.
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New Publications Available!
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly’s latest Best of anthology (volume 3) is now available! Included is my short story “Shadows and Foxfire”, the fourth of the tales of the samurai Hokage. I won’t lie — it’s my favorite of those stories.
HFQ’s other anthologies have been excellent, and I expect this one will be as well. I am especially fond of the artwork that accompanies my story. The artist really nailed it.
Also available is the mini-anthology Off the Beaten Path (also volume 3 in its series). This one features my short story “Going Nowhere”, which appears here for the first time.
Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly volume 3
Topics: Anthologies, Hokage, Short Fiction | No Comments »
Already Available — The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume I!
Of all the anthologies in which my work has appeared, this one is truly among the best. Not a single weak entry among them — not even my own.
My contribution is the first tale of samurai Hokage, “Shadows from Firelight.” I am very pleased that the editors of HFQ selected my tale of medieval Japan to join the excellent stories gathered here, and even more so that the sequel, “Demon-Fang” will appear in the forthcoming Best Of Volume II.
A fantastic collection of fantasy tales by a group of truly fine writers — and me!
You can buy it on Amazon from here: Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Volume I on Amazon
And remember — Volume II (fully illustrated!) is on its way…
Topics: Anthologies, Hokage, Short Fiction | No Comments »
