While digging through some books and magazines yesterday (okay, okay, the truth: a towering pile of unshelved books and unboxed magazines toppled over in our crowded den/writing office, and I was picking them up) I came across the March 2013 issue of Rue Morgue, the one with this review:
It’s my first and only review in a major magazine, and it reminded me that I have to get the revised version of the first Dead Sheriff book off to Airship 27 so it can begin to make its way through their production process.
I have a couple of more days writing on the horror novel until I reach a point where the plot of the book takes a dramatic twist. After I hit that part, I’ll pause work on that project to write the new novella for TDS: Zombie Damnation. I have my fingers crossed that will take about two weeks. After that, I’ll send the whole manuscript off to my first readers and then to Ron at Airship 27.
The second TDS book is done in first draft. It will also include a separate-but-connected novella. What I have planned for that one puts a rather large smile on my face. More on the second TDS later in the year.
Several years ago I wrote the first novel in what was going to be a series called The Dead Sheriff.
It was the legend of the Lone Ranger turned inside out and pureed in a blender.
The myth of The Dead Sheriff says that a lawman died trying to protect his family, only to return from his grave to avenge their deaths and avenge all who suffer injustice.
The truth was very different.
What if...
...the faithful Indian sidekick was really the guy in charge?
...the undead lawman was a reanimated corpse controlled like a puppet by an arcane magic stolen by a young man who barely understood the power he controls?
...a writer from the east traveled west to report the story of The Dead Sheriff, only to be caught up in a world of magic, murder and monsters?
The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation, the first volume, was published a few years back. It got several good reviews (including one from my favorite horror magazine Rue Morgue) and I started writing the sequel. For several reasons, some personal, the book was never published.
A few months ago, the original publisher of the book decided to take the company in a different direction, leaving me free to pursue a new home for The Dead Sheriff.
I’m happy to announce that Airship 27, award-winning publisher of New Pulp and the leaders in pulp fiction publishing, will bring The Dead Sheriff back into print.
The new version of The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation will include the full text of the original novel, plus a new novella set in the world of The Dead Sheriff that will ready the stage for the second book The Dead Sheriff: Cannibal Carnage.
Airship 27 produces beautiful books with action-packed covers. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for my reanimated lawman.
Publication dates will be announced as the books are scheduled. I have quite a bit of writing to do before the manuscripts are ready, then we have to fit into Airship 27's very packed schedule.
Thanks to Ron Fortier at Airship 27 for believing in the project. I can’t tell you how excited I am that my dead lawman still lives.
I’ll update you here as the project progresses.
This is the back cover for a new anthology of pulp fiction ( or "new pulp", as some like to call it) for Airship 27 Press. Benefiting Pro Se publisher Tommy Hancock, this book is going to be huge. I've read the work of some of the writers in this project, and I am very interested in thumbing through it.
My entry is "The Shadow Men of Az Zibar", featuring my modern pulp adventurer Donovan Pike.
I don't know the release date yet, but Ron Fortier at Airship 27 seems to move like lightning. I wouldn't be surprised to see this out in the next few weeks. I'll let you know.
