Patrick LeClerc's Blog, page 5
July 1, 2016
Poverty-Fu: Irresponsible Financial Advice for Surviving in a System Built to Bone You
This was a bad month, money wise. A combination of obligatory family trips, car repairs, and spotty business income meant that even with a 72 hour workweek on the ambulance the mortgage just – and I mean just – got paid this month. I spent a night stewing in righteous indignation. I had just worked […]
June 22, 2016
Review of Revelations by Kevin Wright
Title: Revelations Author: Kevin Wright Genre: horror Format: Kindle Pages: 507 Source: https://www.amazon.com/Revelations-El... THE DARK CITY rots from the inside, a plague festers, and war is brewing... Above and below the slick streets citizens disappear nightly, snatched away by horrors of the dark. Helpless. Hopeless. Blissfully, terrifyingly ignorant, they are the prey... THE CITY IS […]
June 1, 2016
Now available for pre-order
Immortal Sean Danet can heal others with a touch. Over the centuries, he's learned to hide in plain sight, moving and changing his identity often, for long as a soldier and then as a paramedic. Finally, after too long as a rootless vagabond, he has found a place he feels he belongs, with friends he can trust and the love of an intelligent, beautiful woman. The life he dreamed of but never expected to attain.
When a sinister new adversary targets his abilities, his tranquil existence is overturned, and he finds that things may not be as they appear, and he may not be sure if he can trust those close to him, or even his own eyes.
Can he untangle this mystery and outwit his latest foes? Or is his only hope of safety to give up his hard won and precious place in the world and return to a bleak and lonely fugitive existence?
Spitting Image is a tense, twisting adventure where Sean must confront both deadly enemies and the consequences of his own decisions on what is worth defending.
Out on Kindle June 27. Available for pre-order today.
https://www.amazon.com/Spitting-Image...
When a sinister new adversary targets his abilities, his tranquil existence is overturned, and he finds that things may not be as they appear, and he may not be sure if he can trust those close to him, or even his own eyes.
Can he untangle this mystery and outwit his latest foes? Or is his only hope of safety to give up his hard won and precious place in the world and return to a bleak and lonely fugitive existence?
Spitting Image is a tense, twisting adventure where Sean must confront both deadly enemies and the consequences of his own decisions on what is worth defending.
Out on Kindle June 27. Available for pre-order today.
https://www.amazon.com/Spitting-Image...
April 5, 2016
The Worst Question I’ve Ever Been Asked
We’ve all heard it. Chances are, once people find out you’re a paramedic, as often as not they’ll ask “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?” I’m sure doctors and nurses and firefighters and police get the same question. Maybe other jobs as well. I usually deflect it with something like “my last raise,” which […]
January 22, 2016
If You complain About Cheap Oil, I May Have to Smack You
I will brook no scaremongering about how cheap oil is tanking the stock market. Lemme lay this out for you. Q: “Eeek! My 401K” A: Shut up. This is how every company scares us any time something gets proposed that may cost them money, like making it illegal to poison our drinking water or pay […]
January 19, 2016
If Only I Wrote Horror
Story idea: At the end of the season finale of Daredevil, after the credits roll, we see a bonus scene. Wilson Fisk is released from prison. We see him return to his home, greet his wife. then the scene cuts to Fisk getting dressed, preparing to start his new life. As he straightens his tie, […]
January 14, 2016
Why David Bowie Matters
David Bowie died this week, which anyone with access to media of any kind should know. In his time, he accomplished a great deal, made a lot of music that will endure, and left an indelible mark on culture. No words of mine will in any way add to his legacy. But I do want […]
December 23, 2015
Now available for pre-order
"Broken Crossroads" is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Crossroa...
http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Crossroa...
December 4, 2015
Pulp Sword and Sorcery "Broken Crossroads" Coming Soon.
So I’ve just finished the final edits on my pulpy sword and sorcery novel.
Why did I choose to write this book, you ask.
I wrote this as an homage to Fritz Leiber, Robert E Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, and Michael Moorcock. I wanted to write a fantasy book that really went back to the genre’s roots.
Back in the days before the epic multi-volume, world-spanning, and generally very serious fantasy stories that dominate the modern market, sword and sorcery tales came of age in the pulp magazines. Short, visceral stories packed with action, drama, spine tingling terror, daring escapes, flashing blades, monstrous creatures, hidden temples to fell gods. Worlds were rich and varied, but revealed in broad strokes, not meticulous dense description. They were escapist.
They were fun.
And I miss that. I miss the sense of wonder and simple joys of those stories. It’s not easy to find today. I’ve read too many books that turn into series of hefty volumes that are often morality tales or coming of age stories when they are done well, and ponderous travelogues when they aren’t.
Let me be clear. There is some excellent fantasy being written today, but it tends to the more serious side of things. Usually there are earth shaking prophesies, clashes of armies, and the fate of nations or the world or creation itself hangs in the balance. If these were movies, they would be chasing Oscars.
Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to read an epic.
But sometimes you don’t want to save the world. Sometimes just want the written equivalent of a popcorn flick. Once in a while, you just want the hero to steal a priceless jewel from an ancient temple guarded by dark sorcery and demonic sentinels. Not so they can defeat the Dark Lord, but just because there’s a lot of money in priceless jewels, so long as you know a guy.
Why did I choose to write this book, you ask.
I wrote this as an homage to Fritz Leiber, Robert E Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, and Michael Moorcock. I wanted to write a fantasy book that really went back to the genre’s roots.
Back in the days before the epic multi-volume, world-spanning, and generally very serious fantasy stories that dominate the modern market, sword and sorcery tales came of age in the pulp magazines. Short, visceral stories packed with action, drama, spine tingling terror, daring escapes, flashing blades, monstrous creatures, hidden temples to fell gods. Worlds were rich and varied, but revealed in broad strokes, not meticulous dense description. They were escapist.
They were fun.
And I miss that. I miss the sense of wonder and simple joys of those stories. It’s not easy to find today. I’ve read too many books that turn into series of hefty volumes that are often morality tales or coming of age stories when they are done well, and ponderous travelogues when they aren’t.
Let me be clear. There is some excellent fantasy being written today, but it tends to the more serious side of things. Usually there are earth shaking prophesies, clashes of armies, and the fate of nations or the world or creation itself hangs in the balance. If these were movies, they would be chasing Oscars.
Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to read an epic.
But sometimes you don’t want to save the world. Sometimes just want the written equivalent of a popcorn flick. Once in a while, you just want the hero to steal a priceless jewel from an ancient temple guarded by dark sorcery and demonic sentinels. Not so they can defeat the Dark Lord, but just because there’s a lot of money in priceless jewels, so long as you know a guy.
Pulp Sword and Sorcery “Broken Crossroads” Coming Soon
So I’ve just finished the final edits on my pulpy sword and sorcery novel. Why did I choose to write this book, you ask. I wrote this as an homage to Fritz Leiber, Robert E Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, and Michael Moorcock. I wanted to write a fantasy book that really went back to the […]
