Wayne D. Dundee's Blog, page 23

Now Available: BEAT TO A PULP: HARDBOILED 2

http://www.amazon.com/BEAT-PULP-Hardboiled-2-ebook/dp/B00BKPR8XG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361914988&sr=1-1&keywords=beat+to+a+pulp+-+hardboiled+2


From the busy hands and creative mind of David Cranmer comes a new anthology under his Beat To A Pulp banner. This time around, it is Beat To A Pulp: HARDBOILED 2, a follow-up to last year's popular and award-winning BTAP: HARDBOILED (1).
 #2 once again features thirteen tough tales of mayhem, murder, and various dastardly deeds. The contributors cover a wide range of authors like Charles Boeckman and Paul S. Powers, from the  "golden age" of pulps, to some of today's most exciting newer talent—and even a couple of in-betweeners, including yours truly with a story of one of Joe Hannibal's last adventures while still operating out of Illinois, before relocating to Nebraska where he currently still finds plenty of trouble.Co-editor (along with Scott D. Parker) David Cranmer does double-duty, under his Edward A. Grainger pseudonym, with an imaginative Cash Laramie story set in 1911. An aging Cash, somewhat past his prime as a deputy U.S. marshal in 1800s Wyoming, shows he still has the vinegar and toughness to come out on top when he tangles with some bad hombres on the Mississippi River.
Thirteen hardboiled gems available now for Kindle and Nook at the bargain price of $1.49. Soon also to be available in a paperback print format. A lineup I'm proud to be part of, and one I'm confident you will enjoy.Recommend you give it a try.

Now Available: THE RAFFLE by Wayne D. Dundee

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BI521VW



Here is a tight, nasty little tale just released by my own Bil-Em-Ri Media.

It's a Kindle Short that can be yours for just 99-cents ... Come on, guys, the cover alone oughta be worth that much. And, if I do say so myself, the story ain't bad either (except for a couple of schemers who happen to be in the story, that is).

In the next couple of weeks, I will be releasing two more Kindle Shorts that I think/hope you will enjoy as well.
And by (or maybe a bit before) early March, my new Joe Hannibal novel --- BLADE OF THE TIGER --- will be out.

Lots brewing here behind Dundee's desk, for the first half of this year and beyond. I'll keep you posted as things proceed.
But for the time being, I hope you give THE RAFFLE a try. I don't think you'll regret it.

Noteworthy Reads: SONGBIRD (A Rancho Diablo Novel) by Colby Jackson

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGUL2U0/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=wwwmelodomnet-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00BGUL2U0&adid=0GKH7JJX9AYEXPWWE4YC&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fmelodom.blogspot.com%2F#_
The popular Rancho Diablo books comprise one of the freshest, most consistently entertaining Western series being done today. Not surprising, really, considering that the writing chores are handled round-robin style by three highly skilled, always dependable veterans: James Reasoner, Bill Crider, and Mel Odom, each taking turns as author Colby Jackson.
This time around, it's Bill Crider behind the byline and he spins another winner, taking already-established elements of the series and building on them with an imaginative, entertaining tale filled with humor, menace, lots of colorful characters, and plenty of action.
SONGBIRD is a top-notch Western and an excellent addition to an already outstanding series. Don't miss this, or any of the other Rancho Diablo titles—you'll be cheating yourself if you do.

Another Look: Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

I sat down the other night and, for the first time in three or four years, watched the 165-minute version of this sprawling epic all the way through. That probably made the tenth or eleventh time I've seen it, in various versions; not to mention the dozen or so other times I've paused while channel surfing (back when it played more frequently on cable) and watched some portion of it. It never lets me down. If anything, like a fine wine, it gets better with age. (Okay, we all know I don't know diddly about wine, fine or otherwise; it all tastes like vinegar to me. So a more honest personal perspective would be to say it's like a big pot of leftover chili that gets better each time you warm it up.)The point is: This is a fine movie that is to be savored and enjoyed again and again. Each time, you see a deft little touch or detail that you either missed or forgot from the times before. If Leone had never made another film, he would be long remembered for this one. (Frankly, I don't care much for any of his other work anyway, not even the vaunted "Man With No Name" trilogy.) Two things in particular struck me this time around. (Hate to admit I'm a little slow on the uptake but, in reading some other articles/reviews to prepare for this piece, I found others had hit on these long before me. But nuts to it, I made these observations as notes while I was watching the film so I'm going to go with them.)
First, there is the spare use of dialogue. Leone conveys so much with his music and the eyes and facial expressions on his enormous close-ups that words are not necessary. The longest sequence of dialogue (which almost seems rambling by comparison) is Henry Fonda talking to Jill (Claudia Cardinale) while they are making love in a cave up in the Navajo Cliffs.
Secondly, there is the spare use of actual violence. What's that, you say? This is a violent film filled with nasty, violent people. How can anyone say there is spare use of violence?Well, uh, because there is. When you stop and think about it, there are lots of scenes that end in violence. But most of the time in these scenes is taken up with the lead-up to the explosion of violence (again, the all-important music, the narrow-eyed and grim-mouthed close-ups). When the violence comes, it is over very quickly and not especially graphic. Once again, the only prolonged scene of violence is when Harmonica (Charles Bronson) slaps around the operator of a laundry house to get information on where to find Frank (Henry Fonda). Come to think of it, that same fellow meets his maker a little while later in another somewhat prolonged scene of violence when Frank (after asking him, "How can anybody trust a man who wears a belt and suspenders?") proceeds to kill him by shooting him in the chest, snapping both of his suspender straps, and then finishing him with a gut shot that blows apart his belt at the buckle.


All and all, the plot and the characters are pretty simple. The actors are top notch but, except for Hank Fonda playing against type as a really nasty villain, they aren't asked to stretch themselves much. This is truly a director's film. The music, the set-up of the scenes, the scope and grandeur of the outdoor shots, the pacing … it has Leone's stamp all over it.
Oh, and did I mention it has Claudia Cardinale, looking smolderingly luscious in every shot she's in?
Any way you cut it, the final result is a great Western and a really fine film by any measure.If you haven't seen it in a while—or ever, for crying out loud—give yourself a treat and have another look. If you rent it or buy the DVD, try to get the director's cut, full-length version with added features. The scenes that were cut for general release when the movie first played here in the states aren't necessarily crucial to the story, but they add a depth and texture to Leone's overall work that make them worthwhile.Strongly recommended.

Welcome Back, Mr. Helm

Titan Books' re-issuance of the popular Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton finally kicks off next week with the first two titles in the series—DEATH OF A CITIZEN, and THE WRECKING CREW. The covers look slick and snazzy, complete with a blurb from Tom Clancy (apparently to give the whole undertaking a contemporary boost) so it appears Titan is putting a serious effort behind this program.

For my money, a Matt Helm book in even the drabbest cover (and, let's face it, some of those Helm covers from the 60s—especially compared to the Gold Medal covers being done for MacDonald, and Signet's Carter Browns—sure didn't knock anybody's socks off) is still cause for celebration. Since the Helm series occupies an honored space on my bookshelf, I have read all the titles, some more than once. So this new kick-off by Titan Books is cause for excitement to me only in the sense that I hope it will introduce the best operative from the spy craze days (and, yeah, that means you too, Jimmy Bond) to readers who haven't yet discovered him. Helm, simply put, was the real deal: Tough, remorseless, a pro all the way. And Donald Hamilton's writing skill can stand shoulder to shoulder with any author in any genre.The Big Wish for me is that these Titan re-issues prove popular enough to culminate in the publication of Hamilton's final, as-yet-never-published Helm—THE DOMINATORS. Now that would be cause for celebration!

On a personal note: I had the honor to carry on a brief correspondence with Mr. Hamilton in the late 1980s. I think we exchanged two letters each. On the occasion of my first published Joe Hannibal novel, THE BURNING SEASON, I felt emboldened enough to send a copy to Mr. Hamilton (don't remember how I got his address) along with a basic fan letter telling him how much I enjoyed his work. He responded, thanking me and wishing me well with my own efforts. Subsequently, I got a second letter from him that arrived shortly after his wife had passed away. I remember the line in which he informed of this: "Things are less than well around here as I have just lost my wife of 48 years … "I was struck by the stoicism of the words—Things are less than well around here—and from then on I always knew that the toughness at Matt Helm's core was more than just the fictional touch of an author.His words continue to resonate with me on an even deeper level since the loss of my own wife. February 4 will mark the fifth anniversary of her passing.Things are less than well around here ...Yeah, Mr. Hamilton, I sure know what you mean. But I can always count on old friends like Matt Helm --- not to fill the void, but at least to help fill some of the empty hours.

My Take: THE LAST STAND starring Arnold Schwarzenneger

"I'll be back … " I can't write in dialect, of course, but we all remember when Arnold famously said this in the first TERMINATOR movie. Right? Well, in that film he came back, as promised. And he kept coming back in, in a whole string of action-packed movies that made him one of the most popular stars of the 80s and 90s.
Then he took a wrong turn into politics and an even worse turn in an adulterous affair that ruined his marriage and made him look like a complete jackass.Hopefully (not to mention thankfully), he has now put that foolishness behind him and guess what?He's back.And THE LAST STAND is damn near the perfect vehicle for him to make his full-fledged return (as opposed to the teaser cameos he did in the recent EXPENDABLES movies).
Here, once again, is the ass-kicking, English language-butchering, wise-cracking, nearly invincible Arnold we remember so fondly. He's a little older, a little crustier, and a little thicker through the middle (but still with massive arms). In fact, when the action kicks in you could say he packs the biggest guns in the movie, and mean it in more ways than one.The plot, loaded with improbabilities and strained logic (incidentals that don't really matter in a film like this), has to do with a highly dangerous, filthy rich drug lord who escapes Federal custody in Las Vegas and makes a daring run for the border in a super-modified Corvette that can reach insane speeds and outrun anything (even a pursuit helicopter) the Feds send after it. And it doesn't hurt that Cortez, the drug lord, has a whole force of motorized thugs running interference for him. At the finish line is the sleepy little town of Sommerton Junction, where Cortez is intending to break across the border and where an advance team of thugs are preparing a mobile assault bridge spanning a narrow ravine that will allow him to do this.One problem: Ray Owens, a disgraced and guilt-ridden former LAPD cop (as played by Schwarzenegger) is the sheriff of Sommerton and he doesn't intend to just let Cortez blow through his town without trying to stop him.

The acting is quite good for a film of this type, with some very interesting quirks given to several of the characterizations. There is lots of bloody action, much of it grimly and intentionally humorous in the various creative ways the hordes of bad guys meet their ends. Yet in one death scene (one of Arnold's deputies) there is also some surprisingly deep emotion. But the over-the-top action — and seeing Arnold back in the thick of it — is the big selling point here. THE LAST STAND delivers quite nicely, thank you.Go knowing what to expect and you won't be disappointed.

Guest Blogger: Hank Brown, author of TIER ZERO

http://www.amazon.com/Tier-Zero-ebook/dp/B00B0MLX6W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1358778540&sr=1-1&keywords=tier+zero Hank Brown is an author of --- and spokesman for, as you will see in the following --- tough, gritty, action-packed thrillers like we've been seeing too few of lately. His just-released TIER ZERO (sequel to his popular HELL AND GONE) is evidence that the trend is swinging back. Here's what Hank has to say on why that should be welcome, and maybe even necessary:
PEACE ON EARTH, BUT PLEASE, NOT IN FICTIONBy Henry (Hank) Brown
To hear people talk, whether at the United Nations or the Miss Universe Pageant, everybody wants world peace. Maybe most of us really do—I haven’t conducted that poll. But with the exception of the My Dinner With Andre fans out there, nobody finds peace very entertaining.Let’s face it: peace is boring! When you watch a movie or read a book, you’ll tune out if you go too long without some form of conflict. It’s conflict that keeps us turning pages. It’s confrontation, and tension, and anticipation of the showdown that inspires us to hold our bladders until the next commercial break.As any would-be creative writing teacher will quickly tell you, there are many forms of conflict. You can find a lot of these in the movie Rocky III: Internal; external; physical; emotional; psychological. The conflict pickings are a little slimmer in Gerry. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Gus Van Sant’s cinematic masterpiece, Gerry? Yeah, there’s a reason for that.Here’s a rule you can apply generally to fiction: the more literary a novel is, the more internal and psychological the conflict. In chick-lit, for instance, the conflict may never get much more intense than a protagonist forced to choose between visiting her dying mother with Alzheimer’s, commiserating with her recently-divorced BFF, or taking her present romantic relationship to the next level.The more that critics turn their noses up at a given genre, the more overt the conflict. Take bodice-rippers and Harlequin romances: the conflict is either romantic or sexual…or both, but there’s nothing subtle about it. They are the embarrassing crazy aunt of the publishing world. No, make that the embarrassing crazy cash cow. On the other side of the chromosome fence are the male counterparts: westerns; military fiction; heroic fantasy; hard-boiled…all of which either became extinct, or changed so drastically that they might as well be extinct.Untold millions of men turned to videogames or sports and gave up reading altogether in the 1990s. And it shows—peruse any social network for more than a minute and you’ll find that most males of Generation X and younger are incapable of writing, or comprehending, a coherent sentence. Punctuation? Conjugation? Spelling? Forget it. Vocabulary is shrinking. Contestants on Jeopardy look like geniuses because they are not intimidated by words with more than two syllables. Reading is for weirdoes. Why look up a something in the dictionary when you can just wait for the movie to come out? In fact, reading a book quietly is suspicious behavior (but I’m sure it can be treated with therapy and medication).No doubt traditional publishers would claim they were just “putting out the trash.” Okay: to be honest, some of it was trash. Maybe even some of the stuff I loved, and remember fondly. But some of it was well-written, tightly plotted, thought-provoking, and defied formulaic constraints. Is it still to be looked down upon because it’s escapist in nature?Hey, I need to escape, and on a regular basis.Every bean counter in traditional publishing should be forced to watch Sullivan’s Travels at least once. In that Depression-era classic, a self-important film director who fancies himself a champion of the downtrodden masses learns via misadventure that the downtrodden masses don’t need to go to the movies to experience suffering. Nor do they want to. There’s more than enough suffering in real everyday life, thank you very much. At least for those of us who are not film directors or publishing moguls.At roughly the same time I became a published author, I became a sort of crusader, as well. A knight-errant on a quest to restore the glory days of the forgotten genres listed above. An armchair Indiana Jones—that’s me: Henry Brown and the Lost Audience. I spanned the globe (or at least the Web), cherry-picking what few literary nuggets there were that could help us relive the glory days. When my searches proved fruitless, I turned to my private library, blew the dust off some of my old fond memories and gave them what publicity I could. I began adding one-liners to some of my own promotional copy like: “men’s adventure is coming back!” Lo and behold, some of my fellow revivalists began espousing variations on that theme.I wanted to overcome the stigma associated with labels such as “men’s adventure” and “men’s fiction.” When people heard those terms, they conjured  images of alcoholic hack writers banging out uninspired, poorly-written, chauvinistic pap full of pointless violence and purple-prose graphic sex. Or is it purple-prose graphic violence and pointless sex? No matter. The point is, there were some guys riding Don Pendleton’s coat tails who fit that description, more or less, and everyone writing men’s adventure suffered guilt by association.I came up with an alternate name for the umbrella all those resurrected genres could fit under: dude-lit. My intention was that the term would become household, used for fiction rife with overt, physical conflict, but well-written and devoid of those stigmatic stereotypes.I began using the term. So did maybe a couple other uppity new authors I met and conversed with. I routinely checked Bing and Google to track how the term was catching on. That’s how I learned “dude-lit” had been coopted. Evidently it is now being used to describe fiction with male characters in which the conflict may never get much more intense than a protagonist forced to choose between visiting his dying mother with Alzheimer’s, commiserating with his recently-divorced BFF, or taking his present romantic relationship to the next level. Chick-lit that pees standing up, in other words.I should have trademarked it.So “men’s adventure” it is, and to blazes with the stigma. My new novel, Tier Zero, is full of overt, physical conflict—chases, martial arts, firefights—but there’s a helping of internal conflict too. There’s even a dash of sexual tension, to give the reader that warm, squishy feeling in between dollops of brutal violence. In that respect it’s a lot like my other published fiction.But my books and I are far from alone. Take just the “military fiction” piece of the current men’s adventure pie:  there are great reads out there coming from Jack Silkstone, Jack Murphy, D.R. Tharp, Peter Nealen, Jack Badelaire…look these guys up, and see if one of their books tickles your fancy.  Their heroes are warriors with a sense of justice. Their villains are drug lords, terrorists, pirates, shadowy power brokers…the all-too-real individuals who dwell on the earth, preying on those without the ability to defend against them. The stakes are high, always. It goes with the literary territory.The authors named above are not hacks. They take pride in their work, get the details right, and respect the intelligence of their readers. Even the big online stores are taking notice that men’s adventure is back; and readers are loving it. True peace is a goal deserving of universality; but that doesn’t make it reality. Peace has to be won, then protected, or what you wind up with is not peace at all—just something labeled as such. It’s an age-old truth, and it makes for great fiction.Reality sucks. There are too many wrongs and injustices to document, and society’s solutions to them are usually inept at best. At the core of most decent men is the hope that one man, or group of men, could act to change some aspect of the world for the better. Men’s adventure is an expression of that.With that in mind, I predict there will always be a demand for such books, as long as there are men who know how to read.Henry Brown is the author of Hell and Gone and Tier Zero, as well as virtual proprietor of Virtual Pulp Press, and the Two-Fisted Blogger. 

Available Now: TO HELL IN A FAST CAR, edited by John L. French

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http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Fast-Car-Wayne-Dundee/dp/193705165X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357940783&sr=1-2&keywords=dark+quest%2C+llc

Fast cars and faster women...Murderers and victims...Serial killers and guns for hire...
Cops on the edge...Crooks on the prowl... Innocents who have had enough...
Fools risking it all. They're all on a road that's been paved with the best - and worst - intentions. There's no stopping, there's no turning back and there's no hope at journey's end.

Featuring the talents of: Michael A. Black, James Chambers, Joy M. Copeland, Wayne D. Dundee, John L. French, James Grady, C. J. Henderson, Ted Hertel Jr., R. Allen Leider, C. Ellett Logan, Robert J. Mendenhall, Quintin Peterson, KT Pinto, Alan Simon, B. K. Stevens, Patrick Thomas, and Robert E. Waters.
Here is a collection of seventeen exciting, edgy, fast-paced stories of crime and consequences featuring the talents of the writers listed above --- including, I'm proud to say, yours truly.
John French, a fine writer who not only contributes a story to the lineup but also did the editing for this anthology, provides an introduction that says better than I can what you're in store if you take this ride with us:

We’ve all been there. Barreling down the highway of life at 90 miles an hour in a car with no brakes. There’s disaster waiting at the end of the trip but there’s nothing we can do about it but drive and be damned. Of course there’s someone riding shotgun. It could be the girl or guy who’s no good for us but we can’t or don’t want to see that. Their surface is all we can see and that, along with the memories of hot nights and sweaty sheets, is why we’re driving headlong toward the biggest mistake of our lives. It could be a chance acquaintance with a can’t miss get-rich-quick scheme. It’s probably too good to be true, but the payoff is such that you can’t take the chance of missing out on it. It could just be your best friend who got you behind the wheel with “Hey, you know what would be fun?” Or you could be driving alone, accompanied only by the ghost of a lover, a friend, a relative or a treasure you once had. Someone took them from you and now you’re looking for payback. You probably won’t survive the trip but neither will anyone else. Whatever the reason, you’re on what might be the last journey of your life and Hell or worse is waiting for you at the end. Enjoy the ride.
Come on, hop aboard. There's always room for one more. What're you waiting for?