Mark Gets Marked Up

As a follow up to my posts this week on The Dead Sheriff, my wife pointed out that the original book is listed on Amazon for $201.70. Heck, there’s another copy listed for $390.56.

Listen, I’ll be happy to sell you one of my personal copies for a mere $200. That’s what we call a real bargain back home.

Seriously,  the new version of the book will be out this year with more than 20,000 words of new material.

And it will be a lot less than $390.56.

The Dead Sheriff Reviewed

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.

The Dead Sheriff Has A New Home

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.

The Horror Fiction Review has weighed in on The Dead Sheriff. The  review is here, about halfway down the page. I've been a huge fan of HFR since it was a printed 'zine, and to get a nice review from them is a big thrill.

If the review moves you to order a copy of the book, you can do that here.

A New Review of Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation

This one comes from Tales from the Bookworm's Lair.

New Review and Possums, Too

Here's a new review of The Dead Sheriff.

And my latest column in the Ashland Beacon concerns The Possum Ranch...it's on page 2.

The Dead Sheriff in Rue Morgue

Rue Morgue is one of the best magazines covering the horror field. For my money, they're the best, because they cover comics, music and books, in addition to films. So to find out that they reviewed The Dead Sheriff, however briefly, is a pretty big deal to me. Here's the review. If you're a horror fan, please support Rue Morgue. You won't be disappointed.

Shop For Holiday Chills

At the request of a few people I’ve put together an easy to access index of some of my books for your online Christmas purchasing pleasure. These would be for the horror lover on your list, although the Dead Earth books certainly have a lot of science fiction elements, too.

Just click the highlighted text to browse or order.

Let’s start with my latest, The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation.

Here’s my collection of stories and novellas (including the long-out-of-print Deadneck Hootenanny), Looking at the World with Broken Glass in My Eye. And the Kindle version is still 99¢. Zoinks!

Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road in print.

And the audio version.

If that person on your list is a reader of ebooks, Dead Earth: The Green Dawn is till free.

Finally, to give you a reason to stay up on a cold winter night, here’s a book of scary holiday stories I edited called Appalachian Winter Hauntings.

Obviously, it’s too close to the holidays to sign books but if you buy one and want it personalized after the Christmas rush, drop me a line.

As always, your support means the world to me. Thanks!

A Couple of Plugs

The Greenup County News-Times, a local weekly, had a nice article on The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation this week. The Huntington (WV) Herald Dispatch ran a piece today. 

The latter is online and you can read it here.

Spreading the Word on The Dead Sheriff

I spent part of today sending out press releases, mostly to regional media outlets. The publisher is handling review copies.

If you represent a publication, web site, podcast, etc, and would like to do a story on The Dead Sheriff or interview the author, drop me a line in the comments section.

Thanks!

Halloween Reminder

The Dead Sheriff Volume One: Zombie Damnation is available now in trade paperback for just $13.95 or for the Kindle at only $4.49.

You can pick up both or either right here.

As Bartles & Jaymes were fond of saying, thank you for your support.

My Wife Reads Only The Finest Fiction

The Dead Sheriff Finally Rides Into Town

The Kindle version was released today. Other formats will follow, with a trade paperback later this year, for those who like to hold a real book while you read.

Here's the link at Amazon. If you have a Kindle, you can saddle up in a few seconds.

In lieu of a plot description, the site uses my afterword from the book, a short essay on the beginnings of the notion of The Dead Sheriff. It's a pretty good introduction to what I hope to accomplish with the series.

I'm so pleased the book is finally out there. It seems I've been talking about it for years (and it's been a great lesson for me: shut up until the release date is near).

The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation is a pulpish brew of action, magic and mayhem which kicks off what I hope is several books.

I have big plans for my decomposing lawman. I hope you'll hitch up for the long haul.

As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Baby, What A Big Dead Surprise

I finished the final proof of The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation yesterday. It took a little longer than I expected but I want this book to be right, you know?

Along the way, I surprised myself. It had been a while since I had read the book. I turned it in a long time ago and moved on to other projects, so when I read it again, it was definitely with fresh eyes. And the story works. It’s a big, grand pulp adventure, full of magic and gunfights and some pretty despicable villains and at least two people searching for some nobility (even if one of them doesn’t know it yet). There’s cussin’ and fightin’ and more than a little humor. Most importantly (to me, anyway) it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

I’m pretty happy with it.

During the course of reacquainting myself with the story my passion for the characters was reignited. Even while I was making corrections, I was rapidly jotting down notes about The Dead Sheriff 2, 3 and beyond.

It will be here soon. I hope you’ll try it.

Now it’s back to work on the next novel. I’ll try to post a steady word count here, beginning later today. I know some folks find that interesting and I hope it will serve as a motivational tool for me.

It’s not good to disappoint the blog readers. That’s my motto. Well, my new motto. It replaces my old motto “Damn, I looks good in this g-string, yo!”

Welcome to Vacation and a Bit of Publishing News

I’m on vacation for two weeks beginning today, but the fun started last night with 70 mile-an-hour winds, which knocked down this tree in the back yard.


Fortunately, the tree missed the deck. Unfortunately (this isn’t visible in the photo) the upper end of this chunk of tree is on the power line, making it dangerous to attempt clean up and dragging the power line closer to the ground than anyone wants to see. This morning the power company has many customers without electricity, so, obviously, we aren’t very high on the priority list. The other thing that happened during the windstorm was this:


This big old tree in the front yard was actually cracked by the wind, not by lightning as some who have seen the tree suggested. There was no lightning until much later and we, you know, watched the tree bend and the crack appear, running from the base upward. As the wind gusted, the crack would widen then close, much like an accordion.

No one was hurt. The trees will be removed and life will return to as normal as it gets around here.

As for vacation, the next two weeks will be serious writing time, as I try to make significant inroads on the current novel. I may post my daily word count on my Facebook page as a motivational tool. If I can get motivated enough to do that.

As I hinted below, the first Dead Sheriff book is finally getting close to publication. I know I’ve been posting updates for what seems like years, but now the book is actually in production. The lesson I’ve learned is to stifle my excitement and wait until there’s something substantial to report before hyping a project.

The ebook should appear within weeks, with the trade paperback showing up this fall. The final piece of the puzzle was a new author photograph, which was taken by the immensely talented Heather Mattingly-May.


I’ll post ordering information for The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation as soon as the ebook is available.