A Book List

I’ve been asked to recommend a list of books. Tall order. This list could change next week or even later today. But these fifteen have had a lasting impression. Disclosure: I published three and two others are written by good friends.

The Adventures of Augie March (1953)/Saul Bellow

Herzog (1964)/Saul Bellow

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)/Joan Didion

I Shall Not Be Moved (1991)/Maya Angelou

Despair (1965, English translation)/Vladimir Nabokov

The Posthumous Man (2012)/Jake Hinkson

The Age of Reason/Thomas Paine (published in three parts: 1794, 1795, and 1807)

Monte Walsh (1963)/Jack Schaefer

Donnybrook (2013)/Frank Bill

American Gods (2001)/Neil Gaiman

The Little Boy Inside and Other Stories (2013)/Glenn Gray

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)/Patricia Highsmith

The Girls of Bunker Pines (2014) /Garnett Elliott

The Haunting of Hill House (1959)/Shirley Jackson

All Those Hungry Mouths (2015)/Keith Rawson

Continuity Girl

I hope you don't mind a little plug here to let you know the third book in the Knightly & Cole series is on the way soon. It's titled Continuity Girl and is written by Nik Morton and published through BEAT to a PULP books. Here's the first two in the series.

The Way Station

My reread of  The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, chapter 2 is now live.

What I've Been Working on with Charles Gramlich

Having narrowly survived a raging fire, the warrior, Bryle, finds himself caught in a labyrinth of treacherous caverns. It isn’t by accident. An eyeless sorcerer has summoned Bryle. He wants the barbarian to retrieve a talisman that will stop a demon of unfathomable power. To do so, Bryle must first face the challenges of the sorcerer’s maze: flooded tunnels, poisoned traps, and a monstrous beast that can heal its own wounds. The sorcerer promises the barbarian his freedom if he succeeds. But can Bryle trust the word of such a being? Can he trust anything other than the sword in his hand?

Charles A. Gramlich is no stranger to the sword and sorcery genre as the author of the “Talera” fantasy trilogy and the short story collection Bitter Steel. In “Mage, Maze, Demon” he follows on the heels of The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories and Treasure of Ice and Fire in continuing the “Veridical Dreams” series.

Release date: March 18.

Wayne D. Dundee's Ice and Fire

What I've been working on with Wayne...

From the Valley of Gahm in the land of Brassik, a rogue priest named Nindocai hears the transcendent ringing of a mythical mallet—a call for action from the Goddess Arya. Leading a rag-tag band over frigid,snow-packed terrain, Nindocai goes in search of the hammer of the gods that can free his people, or in the wrong hands could spell annihilation for mankind. But they may not complete their quest with the tyrannical Wyvar regulators, that rule the land with an iron fist, out to destroy Nindocai and his followers at any cost.
Who will be first to reach the hammer and unharness its awe-inspiring power? Will Nindocai’s crew survive an encounter with the frozen fire beast of lore? And what emanates from deep within the ruins of a secret underground chamber … does great wealth await, or is death beyond the cavern’s mouth?
Best-selling author Wayne D. Dundee (Manhunter’s Mountain, The Empty Badge), known as one of the modern architects of hardboiled fiction, directs his prose skills toward crafting a fantasy tale that rivals the classics of the genre.

Hardboiled, Surreal, and Bewitching

Hope you Blogger friends fans can spare some time to read my article, at Macmillan's Criminal Element, on one of my favorite writers. --DC

Me and Creature

"Me and Creature" by Evan V. Corder is the Pulp of the Month.

Review: The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories

The seven tales presented are all good ones that push the boundaries in small and big ways. If you like considering the idea that there is far more going on than meets the eye this book is for you. A crime is present in many of the tales, but the tale itself might be fantasy, fiction or something else. The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories: Veridical Dreams Vol. 1. is one of those rare deals where each story is incredible good making the read simply fantastic from start to finish. --Kevin Tipple

Full review: The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories: Veridical Dreams Vol. 1. Edited by David Cranmer

Chris F. Holm's The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform

"The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform" by Chris F. Holm is online at Cole Montegue's The Fall Creek Review. This short story is from Veridical Dreams, Vol. I that I had the pleasure to edit.

Bitter Steel by Charles Allen Gramlich

I can safely say Charles Allen Gramlich's stories introduced me to the world of Sword and Planet and Sword and Sorcery. I have watched fantasy films but haven't read much in the genre, the closest being a lone Tarzan book and part of a C.S. Lewis title, which really isn’t all that close. Mr. Gramlich’s posts on Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane and his own Talera novels (I still have to read the third in this fine series) whet my appetite and now BITTER STEEL: TALES AND POEMS OF EPIC FANTASY has blown the hinges off the door.

I carried my Kindle with me the day our daughter was born. I had about five stories left to read in the STEEL collection, and it was the perfect way to pass the time while waiting for labor to progress before heading off to the hospital, and then the day-and-a-half hospital stay following the birth. I'm no authority on this genre so I'm not going to attempt to discuss it beyond that I enjoyed the book and would recommend BITTER STEEL without hesitation. But I will say, when I read part of STEEL's "Sundered Man" to my four-day-old daughter, she was as quiet and attentive as can be. (A future Fantasy writer? Maybe.) Also, I was inspired so much by the antho that I've begun composing my own fantasy world of characters. We'll see if anything comes from this but it's an enjoyable escape from my beloved westerns and crime stories.

Any fantasy series, short stories, or novels you would recommend?