Archives: Link Day

Link Day

Well, my energy’s approaching normal again, but I remain super busy. So while I have a moment to think about the web site, I still don’t have time to tackle a couple of cool subjects I’ve been planning.

Instead, here’s some Friday links, courtesy of Link Man!

First, here’s an interview I held with the talented Peadar O’Guilin about his new novel, The Call.

Second, here’s a link to an upcoming sword-and-sorcery audio book that looks pretty cool.

Third, I received a copy of the first issue of Skelos magazine and can hardly wait to get started reading it. If you’ve been living under a rock, you may not have heard that there’s a new fantasy/horror/sword-and-sorcery mag out there. Here, go read more.

Link Day

I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with pacing and plotting in the new season of Daredevil, and I’ll probably put my thoughts into print for Friday after I finish watching the final two episodes. The amount of stupid that was suddenly injected into the plot can’t be overcome by the deft acting, and my suspension of disbelief has been completely destroyed. Sure, it’s a superhero show, but it goes out of its way to make things gritty and “real” so some of the things it’s asking viewers to believe defy logic.

For now, though, I’m behind schedule today and need to get to work, so here are some interesting links.

Link Day

First, Broken Eye books has released a new anthology of Cthulhu mythos stories, Tomorrow’s Cthulhu, set in the future. If you don’t know Broken Eye, you should — they put together quality products, and it was my pleasure to have a story in their collection Ghosts in the Cogs earlier this year.

Second, The Science Fiction Writers of America has launched a new speaker’s bureau: “Institutions and event planners can find SFWA members representing a wide range of writers and publishing industry professionals.” Seems like a good idea, and I’ve been thinking about re-joining anyway.

Third, while digging up information on Adventure magazine writer Georges Surdez I found a treasure trove of pulp French Foreign Legion stories. This link will take you to one by Surdez, but if you look around on the site you’ll not only find more by him, you’ll find a host of others. I haven’t had time to read this particular one yet, so I hope it’s a good sample of his work. If not, try another — he usually gets mentioned as one of the best writers Adventure had.

Web Thoughts

It’s always a little strange to me that I maintain a web site. It’s not something I ever planned to do, but I was told, some time ago, that a writer really needs to maintain a presence out here in the world wide web, and so I do.

I’ve come to enjoy it for the most part. I love the opportunity to meet other folks who enjoy the same kind of stuff I do, and to work with fine folks like Bill Ward and Chris Hocking and discuss some excellent forgotten fiction.

Occasionally I get a note from someone who really found one of my writing posts helpful, and that’s always quite nice. My most successful post, ever, seems to be the one I wrote about a prayer to the muses for inspiration, and it continues to pull in people who have no interest in anything else on the site, but who found that prayer of use. I’m glad of that.

Some days I’m just too busy to post anything, especially when deadlines loom. Some days I find I have nothing to say, and some days I actually have a WHOLE lot I want to say and am short on time. I guess I’m always short on time.

And then sometimes I go to bed feeling just fine and wake up with every joint aching. Like today. No fun, that. I sure hope this is a 24 hour virus so that I can get to enjoying some holiday time off when it hits. For now I’m going to get some food in so I can take some ibuprofen, and then get back to my “honey do” list.

I’ll try to be more entertaining later in the week!

For now, here are some interesting links:

First, James Reasoner looks at another great Leigh Brackett story.

Second, a great Savage Sword of Conan discussion. I laughed, I cried, well, I don’t think the latter, but it’s a neat place to visit if you’re curious about how well various stories hold up.

Awesome Stuff that Isn’t Conan

Alas, a man-eating ape in a cape absconded with our review this week. Next week we’ll be ready to go with “Rogues in the House,” by Crom.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this grand article I wrote about the awesomeness that is the new Kickstarter for the Savage Worlds Rippers supplement. Victorian horror. Daring deeds. Things man was not meant to know. It looks pretty awesome, and I’ve signed on.

Also, here are three more links to all the places I’ve been on my blog tour.

1. I dropped by On Starships and Dragonwings Monday to answer a few frequent questions about my work.

2. Over at Civilian Reader I talked about some of my inspirations, particularly Leigh Brackett.

3. Bryan Thomas Schmidt invited me over to talk about my writing process.

Link Day

It’s been busy and sad here at Jones central. While mourning the death of an old friend my blog tour has rolled on and on, and a whole slew of folks have been kind enough to host my ramblings about my new book and the writing process. More on that in a moment.

First, I’m very excited to announce the release of a collection of grand pulpy fun featuring the work of my very good friend John Chris Hocking. As you probably know, I think the world of Hocking and his writing and wish we’d see a whole lot more of it. This collection is more than a little on the purple side, but it’s a blast, and Hocking’s tale does a wonderful job of emulating the old thriller pulps without parody.

You can find a copy and read more about it right here.

Guest Posts

My first guest post is up over at SFSignal, with more to follow in the coming days. In this one I discuss how I came to write the new book, and a little about the writing process.

In other news, the adventure I wrote for the Solomon Kane role-playing game is now available as a PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment, AKA the Savage Worlds folks.

Seems like I had more to share, but I still have a slew of guest blogs to write, so I’d better get on with that…

Link Monday

Sooner or later Hardboiled Monday’s going to slide back around the corner and tip up its fedora, but for now, here are some links I found interesting.

First, here’s a nifty kickstarter for an anthology of fantasy stories assembled by the talented Marc Tassin, and crammed with gifted writers. Check it out.

Second, for role-playing fans, here’s a kickstarter for some great looking sword-and-sorcery adventures from the creator of Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (incidentally, it’s marked down at RGPNow through the month of May). If you’re not familiar with AS&SH then you must not have been reading my blog for long. It does a great job of bringing the sword-and-sorcery vibe to Dungeons & Dragons.

Finally, Star Trek fans, I’ve found an excellent essay on why Captain Kirk is an inspiring leader. Well, I think it’s excellent, because it echoes everything I said here and expands upon it. It specifically references the same problems I had with Kirk in the Trek reboot movies. Enjoy.

Link Man!

What with tax time approaching and me being super busy with writing, this Monday I’m just going to share some interesting links I’ve accumulated.

First up is a rather harrowing look at the terrible destruction waged by those fools from ISIS. It’s not enough that they’re killing anyone who doesn’t practice religion exactly like them. No, these tools are obliterating history because it portrays gods that haven’t been worshipped in thousands of years.

I’ve never visited Mosul in person, but in preparation for my Dabir and Asim stories and novels I’ve researched it in depth, and I feel strangely close to it as a result. I’ve been horrified to hear about the carnage carried out as ISIS has destroyed “idolatrous” statues in the Mosul museum. Now they’ve moved against the ruins of another ancient city. Because nothing’s more dangerous to your religious opinion than a bunch of old stone statues sitting in a desert. I hope some fall on them. Anyway, here’s the link.

Link Man Returns

Regular visitors to the site know by now that long periods of quiet indicate lots of activity behind the scenes. I wish YOU could see what I’ve been writing, but it’s still going to be quite a while before any of the books I’ve worked on will appear in print. Still, they’re coming. I’m deep in editing/revision mode on the cleanup pass of For the Killing of Kings, giving more time to the character my handful of readers have named their favorite.

Today I’ll just ask Linkman to provide us with interesting and safe places to visit..