Conrad Johnson's Blog, page 41

Libby Hellmann and A Bitter Veil

Chicago based, crime fiction author, Libby Hellmann, mixes romance and revolution in her latest novel, A Bitter Veil.

Nancy LaRonda Johnson and Anticipation of the Penitent

How far would a mother go to save her son when his father is Satan? Author Nancy LaRonda Johnson tackles this topic in her new book, Anticipation of the Penitent.

Lumpen Rednecks: Short Stories From Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Even strange people need love no matter how ugly it is. This is a collection of short stories set deep in the rural backwoods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula were winters are long and harsh, unemployment is constantly high and alcoholism and drug abuse kills time and people. Most of them either hang out at the bar or at church. Sometimes they do both. If you're looking for answers to some of life's tougher questions, you won't find them in this book. All you'll get are poignant and often painful descriptions of the weirder side of human nature that always craves love but often finds despair instead. Call it Northern Gothic or whatever you want it. The author just calls it as he sees it from a fictional viewpoint.

Now available at Barnes & Noble. Click here.

Or get the Kindle version here at Amazon.

Michael McCarty and Lost Girl of the Lake

Prolific writer, Michael McCarty, spews out fascinating zombie bile, either because it's St. Patrick's Hangover Day or because it's because of his Bram Stoker Finalist Award novel, Lost Girl of the Lake

Detroit Daze

"You don't have to read to far into the first few chapters before you come to the conclusion that the author is a real writer, someone highly skilled in the nuances of a master Wordsmith who can adopt song lyrics to set a mood and emphasis a situation.
We are dealing here with a young man coming of age in the bowels of Detroit replete with bullies, gangs, dope dealers and practically every type of criminal element imaginable from petty crime to the big stuff. Our principal character nicknamed Heavy is in the center of the action as he waltzes through his growing up years in a drug induced stupor he tries desperately to escape.

You will feel like you are right in the middle of the action and you will experience the pain of every blow Heavy is pounded with mostly at the hands of his supposed friends. You will feel his emotions as he tries to engage with his first real girlfriend, but is drawn back into the gang he so desperately wants to leave who won't share him with anyone else, especially a character by the name of Berwyn the bully in chief.

You will join him as he joins a new gang called the Nighthawks induced by Berwyn again to defend bikers and this time with a gun at his disposal as he loses his virginity to one of the biker girls and as he sinks deeper and deeper into a drugged up life of crime all the while trying to escape and build a new life.

This is a story of a raw kid from a bad environment trying to escape his destiny told by a master craftsman who knows how to put us in the center of the action. You will feel Heavy's pain even when he changes his name to Warlock. You may even sympathize with him, but you won't forget him as he reveals his true feelings and tries to control his emotions. This one deserves five stars."--Review by author Arthur J. Levine on Amazon.com.

Get it at Amazon. Click here.

Or HERE at Barnes and Noble

Paperback edition at Create Space

Till The Moon Falls is now FREE

John Oxman, a crusty ex merchant seaman, comes to the aid of a beautiful woman who has been drugged, violated and on the run after having bio engineered, nanotechnology implanted into her body against her will. Little does he know that his attempts to help her leads him into a web of international and corporate intrigue where illusion substitutes for reality.

"I like novels in which the setting matters so much that it almost becomes another character. That's not an easy thing for a writer to pull off. Mostly, American novelists who venture to foreign shores make the foreign setting seem stuck on, rather than a living part of the novel. Byk is not one of those novelists. His setting is so real you can smell it. I've lived in Thailand for over twenty years and Byk showed me some back alleys even I didn't know existed. But better than that, he did it in the context of a compelling narrative line that makes you keep reading just one more chapter before you put it down. A great setting, a gripping narrative...why aren't you reading this book right now? Strongly recommended."--Jake Needham, best selling, Thailand based crime fiction author.

Paperback edition available here

Amazon eBook link (99 cents)

Barnes and Noble Nook Store FREE

Smashwords(FREE)

Xe-Nophobia

A sequel to TILL THE MOON FALLS. John Oxman, finds himself, once again, accepting an offer he can't walk away from. This time, battle hardened from his previous adventure, he takes on the Japanese Yakuza, the military contractor Xe, and anything else that gets in his way to rescue the gorgeous and brilliant, Dr. Stepanovich, a Russian scientist who has discovered a potentially, revolutionizing technological application that can change the way asymmetrical warfare is waged.

Get the paperback here

Amazon eBook edition here

Barnes and Noble Nook Store

Crying Bullets:The School Shooting That Never Happened

Arnie Penxa, ex war veteran and retired Detroit policeman, now working for a private school security firm, sniffs out a conspiracy for a multiple school shooting. The problem is that nobody wants to believe him except for a few close friends, so he's forced to act mostly alone to bust up the plot. Forget the usual suspects. This is the Mad Motor City where the line between common sense and criminal behavior is never clear.
$0.99 at Amazon.comSame Price at Barnes & NoblePaperback edition at Create Space store (a subsidiary of Amazon)

Jesus Told Me to Kill Her: The Fantasy of a Failed Writer

Struggling writer, Sam Uhl, gives up trying to find a publisher for his debut novel so he decides to hunt down the literary agent who he believes unfairly led him along.  A wryly satirical look into the writing/killing process in today's rapidly changing book publishing industry.

"No one peers as intensely into the dark heart of the human soul as Conrad Johnson. If violence begets violence, then we are all doomed. But we know that already. "Jesus Told Me To Kill Her" renders the parallel pursuit of the writing and the killing arts masterfully. It is an adventure we wish not to take but cannot refuse. The final monopoly of the reader's consciousness is not so much the result of the gruesome story but the amazing writing, the completely original turns of phrase, the WTF epiphanies. Conrad Johnson probably won't get the recognition he deserves __ hardly a surprise in the Pollyannaish literary environment which the corporatization of creativity has submerged us in. But someday in the distant future, when whatever pathetic creatures crawl out of the rubble and find his writings mixed in with unreadable disk drives and CD-Rs, his works will take their place beside the paranoid nihilism of Nietzsche, the moribund but deadly exactitude of Camus, and the existential angst and self-loathing of Sartre. Conrad Johnson is perspicacious and prescient. He is the master of the blow-the-MF-away genre, the man who chronicled our lethal addiction to self-destructive violence and the total devaluation of the human organism in a tsunami of narcissism and childish worship of guns."--Review by John D. Rachel, novelist and world traveler.

Get it Amazon.com

Or at Barnes and Noble

Order the paperback version

Marco Torres and The Need to Stop Drugging Schoolchildren

Marco Torres, research specialist, consumer advocate and writer, brilliantly summarizes what's wrong with the modern model of public education and what should be done to fix it. Be sure to watch the video embedded in the center of the article.