Bryce Beattie's Blog, page 13

The Last Private Investigator on Earth

For a long time, part of my day job had me driving to Wyoming and back once a week. That added up to quite a few hours with not much to do. Not like truck driver hours, but for me it was a lot. Several years ago, during one of my trips I gassed up at a new (to me) truck stop. While perusing their convenience store, I came across a rack of books on CD by Graphic Audio. (Aside: They do full cast recordings with music and sound effects.)

I wasn’t all that interested in westerns at the time, and I didn’t want to start some other series in the middle, so picked out a piece called “The Plutonium Blonde.” The cover & blurb spoke to many of my favorite themes and genres. Futuristic setting? Check. Private Investigator? Check. Femme fatale? Check. Action and comedy in my scifi? Check and check. So I bought it and it kept me company on the road for the next six hours or so.

I’ll tell you what, the book did not disappoint.

It was every bit as much pulpy goodness as I hoped it would be. Who’d have thought scifi could still be so much fun? Most of my other modern reading should have come stamped “very serious.”

Fast forward to today. There’s this whole pulp revolution thing going on. Folks have remembered how imaginative, exciting, and wonderful scifi can be. It doesn’t have to be morose and preachy. During a recent discussion online about modern authors that write pulpy stuff, I remembered the adventures of Zachary Nixon Johnson, the afore-mentioned world’s last PI.

Inasmuch as I’m making more of a effort here on the blog, I figured I’d track down the author and invite him around. His name is John Zakour. As it ends up, he’s written all sorts of stuff. He has a web comic, he’s scripted a couple of Simpson’s comic books, he’s penned a few children’s books, all sorts of things.

After a little work, I contacted him and he graciously agreed to do an interview. Now that this is the longest introduction I’ve ever written, onward with the questions. I’m in bold, John Zakour’s in italics.

What about you should everybody know?

Nothing. I like to keep some mystery about me.

StoryHack Action & Adventure, Issue 0 Lineup

EDIT 4/17: David Boop has completed the lineup with “Turk and the Lost City.”

I think I have now sent out responses for all submissions to Issue 0. Sending out rejections is really hard for me to do. It hurt to make that last round of cuts.

But now is not the time for wallowing in pain. Now is the time for excitement and revelry! There’s some great fiction headed your way.

Here is the lineup, in alphabetical order, by first name:

Alexandru Constantin with “A Tiger in the Garden”
David J. West with “King of Spades”
Jay Barnson with “Dead Last”
Julie Frost with “The Monster Without”
Keith West with “The Chronicle of the Dark Nimbus”
Jon Mollison with “Desert Hunt”
Shannon Connor Winward with “Daughter of Heaven”
Steve DuBois with “Menagerie”
David Boop with “Turk and the Lost City of the Maya”

These stories include all manner of action & adventure; heroic thriller, sword & sorcery, even a werewolf PI. I’m telling you, this will make you wish all magazines published pulp stories.

More information, like a cover and release date coming soon.

StoryHack Action & Adventure, Episode 0 Lineup

I think I have now sent out responses for all submissions to Issue 0. Sending out rejections is really hard for me to do. It hurt to make that last round of cuts.

But now is not the time for wallowing in pain. Now is the time for excitement and revelry! There’s some great fiction headed your way.

Here is the lineup, in alphabetical order, by first name:

Alexandru Constantin with “A Tiger in the Garden”
David J. West with “King of Spades”
Jay Barnson with “Dead Last”
Julie C Frost with “The Monster Without”
Keith West with “The Chronicle of the Dark Nimbus”
Jon Mollison with “Desert Hunt”
Shannon Connor Winward with “Daughter of Heaven”
Steve DuBois with “Menagerie”
A mystery author who will be announced soon

These stories include all manner of action & adventure; heroic thriller, sword & sorcery, even a werewolf PI. I’m telling you, this will make you wish all magazines published pulp stories.

More information, like a cover and release date coming soon.

Slush Pile: 0

I finally finished reading all of the submissions for Issue 0 of StoryHack Action & Adventure. In total, I received around 100 of them. I still need to select the final few pieces from the wealth of good ones. If you’re waiting for a response, you’ll get it by Friday at the latest. If I was able to fund it all right now, I could probably fill at least three excellent issues.

I currently have 5 stories contracted, about 33k words worth. I’ll add about 30k more words for this issue.

On Friday I should be able to announce the author lineup.

Progress

I’m still working through all of the submissions. There were a lot of them during the last 3 days. About 1/3 of the total submissions. I took the weekend off from reading to do some work around the house, but last night I think I read 12 more. I’m hoping to have my selections made by the end of the week.

If you submitted near the beginning of the month but still haven’t heard back, it means you’ve passed the initial round and I’m just trying to figure out which stories have to receive the reluctant ax. I’m trying to include a variety of genres so that future submitters get a good idea what I’m willing to include. Who knew editing a magazine would be so hard?

In other magazine news, I got a sketch back from this issue’s cover artist. I’m pretty sure it’s going to turn out awesome.

In completely unrelated news, I got a call from the police this week. They recovered my stolen bike! I cannot believe how unbelievably lucky/blessed I am sometimes.

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Last Day to Submit for Issue 0

EDIT: Oops. I clicked “Post” instead of “Schedule,” so this went out a bit early. Oh well. You get the idea.

This is the last day to submit for Issue 0 of StoryHack Action & Adventure. Not to worry if you don’t get your masterpiece in on time, though. Before you know it, submissions will open up again.

Podcast: Interview with Caryn Larrinaga

Earlier this week, I took a break from reading down the slush pile to visit with Caryn Larrinaga, author of Donn’s Hill. I met Caryn this year at LTUE.

Some notes from the interview:

(0:00) Larringata Larrinaga. Apparently I am an idiot. Or maybe it’s just that so many people get my last name wrong that I subconsciously want everyone else to suffer the same indignity
(0:40) 1st thing: Donn’s Hill
(1:09) 2nd thing: Her shorter works, wherein Caryn refuses to give spoilers
(2:37) 3rd thing: Gaming event for charity with Caryn  (& some lesser authors) at Paragon City Games in Draper, UT on March 30, 2017
(3:30) Cthulu Yahtzee & other great tabletop games, including the panda one
(6:10) The secret thing about Caryn that nobody knows
(7:22) How Caryn got into ghosts
(9:30) How Donn’s Hill came to be
(11:24) Caryn’s writing process
(14:30) Hiring a developmental editor
(16:00) Getting a publisher
(17:50) What’s next?
(18:55) The 27 hr day
(19:30) League of Utah Writers (Caryn will present at the spring conference on April 8)
(21:30) Cats are not hobbies
(23:00) Conferences and events

If you want to learn more about Caryn, check out her website, browse her book on Amazon, or follow her on facebook or twitter. You can also hear the first chapter of the audiobook for Donn’s Hill on her publisher’s website.

Genre Literary Magazine Parody Cover, #4

Last one. Not even the online audio magazines are safe. Click to embiggen.

 

 

I was going to do this on as “Beneath Ceaseless Guys”, but ended up with this instead. I figured I’d keep these family friendly.

New Flash Fiction

Immortal Works just posted a podcast of a flash fiction I wrote titled “Epic Dad.” It what Conan would be like if he were a modern, involved father. Or maybe its just the story of a father that reads too much Conan.

Either way, the recording sounds awesome.

Epic Dad

 

Genre Literary Magazine Parody Cover, #3

Click for full size.

This one’s in honor of F & SF’s recent feline covers (2 of the last 3). I think this magazine would probably sell. Last cover tomorrow.