Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 48
January 26, 2016
Review: Lustlocked (A Sin du Jour Affair Book 2) by Matt Wallace
Review: 
Lustlocked is the second installment in Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour Affair series, which revolves around a New York catering company that caters to the supernatural elements of society.
In the previous book, Envy of Angels, the chefs and crew hosted a diplomatic dinner sponsored by a secret government agency in an effort to stave off war between two demonic groups. Lustlocked picks up on the heels of that event, as the company prepares to host a grand goblin wedding under the supervision of the Goblin King.
Yes, that Goblin King. In a fitting and sadly timely homage, Wallace gives us yet one more avenue to prove the immortality of David Bowie’s lasting legacy. Although at the time of Wallace’s writing, Bowie was alive and well, and expected to remain so for quite some time. It’s a sad fluke that Lustlocked just so happens to have released on heels of Mr. Bowie’s death from cancer. This is, however, a wonderfully befitting bit of fan service toward not only Bowie’s iconic character from the film Labyrinth, but of the iconic performer himself. It’s a pleasure getting to “see” the King once more.
As with Envy of Angels and the short story, Small Wars, which acts an inbetweenquel, Lustlocked doses out the humor, providing a keen edge to the affairs and preventing the seriousness of the story from delving deeply in the morose and macabre. While preparing for the grandiose wedding of the goblin prince and his human bride-to-be, some shady bit of spell-casting goes wildly awry and leaves the human guests transformed into horny lizard creatures that threaten to hump to death the entire guest list.
Again, these books are crafted to be sheer entertainment, and Wallace maneuvers a peculiar tightrope with aplomb. This story could have drifted precariously into dark meanness, or perhaps a bit of weirdo erotica, but Wallace averts those traps and sticks to the fun and fantastical side of things, first and foremost. There’s a certain Buffy The Vampire Slayer but for Netflix vibe here that I find really appealing. He also gives his characters brief moments to shine and continues to flesh out his cast in interesting ways, right up to its sucker-punch finale.
I am now feeling the long, heavy weight of the intervening months between now and June, when the third installment releases. I think it’d be a sin to miss what comes next.
Original post:
MichaelPatrickHicks.booklikes.com/post/1332474/review-lustlocked-a-sin-du-jour-affair-book-2-by-matt-wallace
Buy Lustlocked (A Sin du Jour Affair #2) At Amazon
January 25, 2016
Behold – The Deluxe Signed, Numbered NOS4A2
After my son was born in September, I treated myself a New Father gift – this signed and numbered limited edition hardcover from IDW Limited collecting Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 and comic book prequel, The Wraith, into a single volume.
I read NOS4A2 when it came out a few years ago, and it was my first introduction to a Joe Hill. This book very quickly earned its spot as one of my all-time favorites, and Hill as an author that rose to my Must-Buy Immediately list. While I have to catch up on his back catalog of work, I’ve already got his next book, The Fireman, on pre-order and am eagerly anticipating its midnight delivery to my Kindle on May 17. I can’t freaking wait!
So, this limited edition hardcover. Yes, it is expensive, but oh so very worth it for a book that I completely adore, and hope to one day pass down to the kiddo when I hit my expiration date. It comes in a rugged cloth slipcase, and wrapped in a gorgeously detailed dust jacket featuring all new artwork, along with 26 pieces of fresh art in color and black-and-white from The Wraith series artist Charles Paul Wilson III, who also signs the book alongside Hill. This edition is limited to 999 copies (mine is #108).
Here’s some photos!
January 24, 2016
Review: Small Wars (A Sin du Jour Affair Story) by Matt Wallace
Review:
SMALL WARS is a short story set in author Matt Wallace’s fresh, new Sin du Jour series. In ENVY OF ANGELS we were introduced to the culinary crew manning the lines and concocting crazy creations for the Sin du Jour catering company, and got a good glimpse at the adventures of the procurement team responsible for tracking down the rare ingredients necessary to feed demonic hordes.
SMALL WARS gives us a larger look at the procurement team, headed up by Ritter, as his band of recipe-minded mercenaries take a hop across the pond and venture into the abandoned mines of Scotland in search for gold. When they run afoul of some tiny adversaries, things go south quick.
At less than 40 pages, this story is a rapid-fire read, and it continues on in the lighthearted, good-natured tone of Wallace’s prior Sin du Jour novel. It’s comical and action-packed, never taking itself too seriously while still maintaining a peculiar and respectful sensibility. The best part is that it gives readers a deeper insight into the men and women that make Sin du Jour run, treating us to snippets of each crew’s history and how they were recruited by Ritter. Fun stuff! This story serves to give a bit more depth to Wallace’s world, filling in some of the gaps in character narratives while we wait for book 2, LUSTLOCKED, to drop in a few days.
If you enjoyed ENVY OF ANGELS, or are looking for a small taste of what this series is about, SMALL WARS is a fine place to begin.
Original post:
MichaelPatrickHicks.booklikes.com/post/1331211/review-small-wars-a-sin-du-jour-story-by-matt-wallace
Buy Small Wars (A Sin du Jour Affair) At Amazon
Review: Small Wars (A Sin du Jour story) by Matt Wallace
Review:
SMALL WARS is a short story set in author Matt Wallace’s fresh, new Sin du Jour series. In ENVY OF ANGELS we were introduced to the culinary crew manning the lines and concocting crazy creations for the Sin du Jour catering company, and got a good glimpse at the adventures of the procurement team responsible for tracking down the rare ingredients necessary to feed demonic hordes.
SMALL WARS gives us a larger look at the procurement team, headed up by Ritter, as his band of recipe-minded mercenaries take a hop across the pond and venture into the abandoned mines of Scotland in search for gold. When they run afoul of some tiny adversaries, things go south quick.
At less than 40 pages, this story is a rapid-fire read, and it continues on in the lighthearted, good-natured tone of Wallace’s prior Sin du Jour novel. It’s comical and action-packed, never taking itself too seriously while still maintaining a peculiar and respectful sensibility. The best part is that it gives readers a deeper insight into the men and women that make Sin du Jour run, treating us to snippets of each crew’s history and how they were recruited by Ritter. Fun stuff! This story serves to give a bit more depth to Wallace’s world, filling in some of the gaps in character narratives while we wait for book 2, LUSTLOCKED, to drop in a few days.
If you enjoyed ENVY OF ANGELS, or are looking for a small taste of what this series is about, SMALL WARS is a fine place to begin.
Original post:
MichaelPatrickHicks.booklikes.com/post/1331211/review-small-wars-a-sin-du-jour-story-by-matt-wallace
Review: Envy of Angels (A Sin du Jour Affair, Book 1) by Matt Wallace
Review:
Darren and Lena are the newest chefs to join Sin Du Jour, a highly exclusive catering company with a highly unusual clientele. Overseen by a Michelin award winner, Sin Du Jour operates on government contract to host diplomatic banquets for – wait for it – demons! Their latest dinner service involves a unique ingredient, and the chefs are the only thing standing against all-out war between two rival gangs of Hell’s finest.
Envy of Angels is a quick, breezy, and very entertaining read. It’s also one of the most unique urban fantasies I’ve read in some time. Although Chuck Wendig’s Mookie Pearl was a tough foodie, Wallace’s crew are all about working the line and getting their hands dirty with flour and an array of other, far more mystical, ingredients. Think Anthony Bourdain by way of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
There’s a rich vein of humor running throughout, despite a subject matter could delve deeply into the darkness. Although a sequence in which the Sin Du Jour Procurement team attempt a heist to steal a fast food chain’s secret recipe carries a richly macabre undercurrent, Wallace still finds the humor in a highly off-the-wall scenario. The tone, at all times, is kept as light as puff pastry.
What really caught my attention, though, were the flashes of insight toward Wallace’s world-building. Sin du Jour and the reality it operates in are subjects I want to read and learn more about. I want to get deeper insight into the government agency that employs them, and the demonic cultures they feed. This is only the first book in what looks to be a long-term project for Wallace, but I’m already supremely captivated even if, at times, this book feels more like an appetizer of things to come, rather than a fully satisfying entree that left me stuffed. But, I’m OK with that simply because this story was a heck of a lot to read. It also helps knowing that the second book, Lustlocked, comes out on Tuesday, because I’m definitely ready for another serving.
Original post:
MichaelPatrickHicks.booklikes.com/post/1331031/review-envy-of-angels-a-sin-du-jour-affair-book-1-by-matt-wallace
January 22, 2016
Review: Unit 731 by Craig Saunders
Review:
When UNIT 731 was first announced, I was excited to read it. In WWII, Unit 731 was a Japanese atrocity, a secret group that conducted a number of brutal and lethal experiments on human subjects. The real-life horror surrounding this group would have been perfect fodder for a horror novel. So, I have to admit I was initially disappointed when I started reading this book, as I discovered that Craig Saunders’ latest really has nothing at all to do with Unit 731.
Thankfully, that disappointment was pretty short-lived, as Saunders delivers a dark,crackling novella filled to the brim with psychopathy, murder, and a rather extended sequence of torture. What this story is really about is family, and the way men can fail one another or try to save each other in a way that only family can. Still, it’s definitely a horror story through and through, and the squeamish may find themselves a bit upset with the imagery presented.
Even if it wasn’t what I had initially wanted, Saunders still hooked me with his story and his characters here. To me, that’s a mark of a pretty solid work.
[Note: I received a complimentary copy of this novel as a member of the DarkFuse Book Club/Reviewer community.]
Original post:
MichaelPatrickHicks.booklikes.com/post/1330116/review-unit-731-by-craig-saunders
Books Ahoy!
I can’t believe how quickly this month has flown by. January, and the first month of the 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge, is nearly at a close.
The good news is, I’ve got some solid reads lined up for the final week of this month and into February. Here’s what’s on tap for the foreseeable future (with purchase links below, if ya kennit):
Unit 731 by Craig Saunders ($2.99)
Envy of Angels: A Sin du Jour Affair by Matt Wallace ($2.99)
Lustlocked: A Sin du Jour Affair by Matt Wallace ($2.99)
The Shootout Solution: Genrenauts Episode 1 by Michael R. Underwood ($2.99)
The Absconded Ambassador: Genrenauts Episode 2 by Michael R. Underwood ($2.99)
The God’s Eye View by Barry Eisler ($5.99)
The Mirror Empire: Worldbreaker Saga, Book 1 by Kameron Hurley ($1.99)
Empire Ascendant: Worldbreaker Saga, Book 2 by Kameron Hurley ($1.99)
So, lots of what I expect to be good reading to get me through for a bit. Note that these prices are subject to change – especially the Worldbreaker Saga; I think this only a Kindle monthly deal. And jeez, I’ve had Mirror Empire on my to-read list for a good long while. Since that book has been out for a bit, it’s probably time I get my butt in gear on this one.
Mind you, I may not tackle these in this order depending on any particular whims that strike me.
What’s on tap for you, what are you reading or planning on reading soonish?
January 21, 2016
Signal Boosting, Reviews, and Accolades
In December, I was a part of two anthologies – Crime & Punishment and The Cyborg Chronicles – which means it’s time to give them a bit of a signal boost! If you haven’t gotten these two books yet, now’s the time!
The Cyborg Chronicles is only 99c for a LIMITED TIME! Act fast!
I had a lot of fun writing for these two anthologies, and it feels wonderful to see readers responding so positively to these books as a whole, as well as my efforts within each.
My Crime & Punishment story, The Marque, is a weird western that has gotten a few nods from readers, who call it:
a powerful yet bleak vision of our future. Michael Patrick Hicks’ story completely swept me away-I found it hard to put down.
scary, creepy, and exciting
Samuel Peralta does the foreword on this one, and it’s a sublime bit of short fiction in its own right. If it were up to me, and if it were such a thing at all, Karma would get a Foreword of the Year award. It’s just brilliant. So brilliant, in fact, that author Anthony Vicino named it one of this Top 7 Short Stories of 2015 over The Leighgendarium!
Over in The Cyborg Chronicles, I wrote a short story set in the DRMR series, which is the focus of my two novels, Convergence and Emergence. Preservation is completely separate from these two books and presents all-new characters in a wildly different setting from the main books, so it can be enjoyed entirely as a stand-alone solo adventure.
Readers are calling this one:
An action-packed thriller with a heart…
Page turning carnage ensues, the kind I’ve loved in this author’s other works. If you can find anyone better at writing an ultraviolent action scene, let me know who they are. …this story struck the perfect chord with me.
My Favorite story in the group…What kept kept me immersed in it was Mr. Hick’s fine style. I am notably impressed.
Finally, although it came out in August, I’m heartened to see Revolver getting some love! Author Edward Lorn named it Best Novella 2015, and Anthony Vicino included it in his round-up of Top 7 Short Stories of 2015 for The Leighgendarium.
Anthony calls Revolver
a lesson in authorial bravery… a truly gut twisting, heart wrenching, sphincter squeezing tale of loss and abandonment that stuck with me long after the last page.
While Edward writes in his Amazon review,
An Instant Classic On Par With “1984” and “V for Vendetta”
The piece is multi-layered and utterly thought provoking, but the writing is really the prize-winning pony here. Hicks writes with the confidence and prose of a seasoned professional. I don’t know how long he’s been writing, but I’m impressed. There are writers who’ve been putting words to paper for decades who don’t write this well.
…
Revolver aims at the world we live in and blows its head off.
You can find these books for sale over at Amazon right now!
January 20, 2016
2015 Writing In Review (plus a shameless plea and a peek at 2016)
Last year was a banner year for me in terms of sheer accomplishments. 2015 was definitely my best year as a reader, my wife gave birth to our son (OK, so this is more her accomplishment than mine, but I’m at least 50% responsible for her enduring 9 months of morning sickness, back aches, heartburn, and the random thumping, kicking, and punching of various internal organs, that all resulted in our little bit of awesomeness that is a tiny, hilarious human who deprives us of much-needed sleep), and I was at peak productiveness writing-wise. It’s this last part I’ll be writing about today because this is, largely, my silly little author blog.
So, 2015 in terms of writing – I was in three anthologies, released a solo novel, and published a short story that originally appeared in one of these anthologies.
No Way Home released March 2, 2015
Emergence released April 30, 2015
Revolver released August 22, 2015
Crime & Punishment released December 4, 2015
The Cyborg Chronicles released December 28, 2015
I also finished the manuscript for a novella, tentatively titled Mass Hysteria!, of approximately 50,000 words. I’m estimating this brought me to about 180,000 words of fiction written across the year. This is an awful lot of writing for me! I also wrote 141 blog posts, figure those are about 500 words each, a nice conservative estimate which gives me an additional 70,500 words written. *Phew!*
In terms of sales, 2015 was a definite improvement over my first year as an author-publisher, but still fairly insignificant in terms of income and paid sales. Income doubled over 2014, but not enough to off-set expenses put toward self-publishing my work, which means my indie career is still a far-cry from being a successful endeavor and I’m starting off 2016 heavily in the red. Expenses in 2015 were also double those of 2014 thanks to larger promotion efforts and editing (Emergence is a bigger book than Convergence, and more words means more money spent to edit).
A successful writing career is built on hard work, talent, and a whole lot of luck. Although I’ve got a few dedicated and devoted readers (thank you!), I haven’t yet gotten lucky enough to really break through. Although, in its first week of release, Emergence outsold the entire previous year’s worth of sales for Convergence, it was not enough to break-even on the expenses generated by editing, formatting, cover design, and marketing. I did run a couple free promos for Convergence, which were pretty damn successful in terms of volume, but had little impact in terms of carry-over toward more sales of Emergence or my other works. I gave away about 7,000 copies of my first novel, which is awesome, but I suspect a very large number of purchasers were simply collecting a free title. I saw little in way of new reviews and only about 4 percent of those ‘buyers’ went on to pick up my other titles. It’s a bit distressing, but also a lack of simple, pure luck. I just haven’t found my audience yet. That said, the word of mouth surrounding the solo release of my controversial short story, Revolver, generated a good amount of interest and sales, but it’s definitely not a best-seller by any means. Furthermore, Revolver is a very unsubtle and highly polemic work that may not exactly be the best entry-point for my work; I have to expect that title to maybe turn off a lot of new readers, actually. The good news is, those that do like it seem to be enthusiastically supportive of it, which is freaking awesome!
Unfortunately, all this means that a lot of the big stuff I had wanted to do in 2016 will likely have to wait. This comes down to easy economics, since I can’t spend money on making more art without that art making money to spend. One project I had wanted to tackle was producing audiobooks of my DRMR novels, but this is a very expensive undertaking and could easily set me back several thousand dollars. This would be on top of getting Mass Hysteria cover art and edited. And I’ve begun working on another sci-fi novel that I should be able to finish sometime this year, but finding the time to really sit down and write is getting more difficult (psst – having a kid can be a huge time drain! Who knew? But seriously, he’s awesome and it’s worth it. But still.), so everything is still kinda TBD on that front.
This means that some plans for 2016 are being shifted around a good deal. I’m seriously considering shopping around Mass Hysteria. If I can hook even a small publisher with this title, it’ll save me a lot of money in terms of editing and artwork. It’s an apocalyptic horror story, and there’s a few horror houses that I think it would align pretty well with. Kindle Scout could also be an option, but kind of a last resort for now since they require a completely finished book for submission, which still leaves me on the hook for editing and cover design costs. So we’ll see what happens there.
I’m determined to get Mass Hysteria released in 2016, but the when of it all is very, very murky at this point. Those two December anthologies have also given me two more short stories that, in about six-months time, I’ll be free to release as stand-alone titles, which means The Marque and Preservation will need an extra bit of work to get ready for their individual debuts. Again, though, I have zero idea what kind of timeline I’ll be able to operate on with those, and that’s a little bit scary and disheartening. I wanted to have a solid timeline to plan out releases for this year, but the financial aspects are seriously cloudy. So, hey, if you want more books from me, get buying them! Tell your friends to buy them! Buy copies for your friends, family, loved ones, enemies, neighbors, pets, dolls, future readers, strangers at the bus-stop, pantsless subway riders, your reading club, whatever.
One bright spot, and I need to keep in mind that it’s still early, but my inclusion in The Cyborg Chronicles, the latest release in Samuel Peralta’s acclaimed series of The Future Chronicles anthologies, looks to have given my profile a slight boost. In 2015 I went Kindle exclusive and have stayed there for a while. In the wake of my Chronicles story, it seems a few more readers are borrowing my DRMR books, so that anthology could be a nice entry point for new readers to find me.
Diversification is key, really. Readers weren’t finding my solo works, but look to be discovering it a bit more now that I was fortunate enough to get invited into a release as large as The Cyborg Chronicles. I may be appearing in a couple more anthologies in 2016, but the ink isn’t dry enough for me to discuss those details yet and anything can happen. For instance, I was slated to be in a fourth anthology last year, but the publisher dissolved before the book could be released. So, for now I’m only focusing on my cli-fi novel currently in progress. I’ve got a good 5,000 words built up there at the moment and plenty more on the way.
Cli-fi, sci-fi, what is this? What’s this about? Again, too early to discuss, but it’s a future-Earth story set in the days after humanity has firmly wrecked the world and climate change has significantly altered the geographic landscape. It’s a bit of a seafaring story with rogue military squads, pirates and salvagers, and mermaids. Wait, mermaids? Maybe mermaids. We’ll just have to see about that.
January 18, 2016
Peanut Butter Squares!
For over a week now, I’ve had this atrocious stomach/intestinal bug that’s made eating pretty much an impossibility. So naturally, this is when I started craving some good, old fashioned peanut butter cereal squares.
My mom used to make these for me when I was growing up and they’ve always been a favorite of mine. I’m a peanut butter fan and will consume all things peanut buttery, but this particular treat has always been at the top of my list. Just a lot of good memories of chowing down on these as an after-school treat, and there’s a certain warmth these squares fill me with. These treats are a really nice, rustic bit of home baking (well, no-baking really), and the recipe is highly fool proof.
[Insert your obligatory image of a caveman here.]
Normally these are made with corn flakes cereal, but Meijer was out of stock. In all of my 36 years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grocery store run out of corn flakes, so I was a bit taken aback by this peculiar bit of strangeness. How the hell does a supermarket become emptied out of corn flakes on your regular, average, non-Apocalyptic Sunday? My wife suggested using Special K instead, which is a rice cereal.
Corn flakes, though, are the traditional way to go and they provide a particular flavor that meshes very well with peanut butter. That said, I was a bit surprised at how well the rice cereal worked. The texture is pretty equivalent and you still get that nice bit of crunch, but the flavor is actually not too far off the mark. Perhaps one day, in search of a definitive answer to which is better, I may have to embark on an epic taste testing. Until then, I’m giving Special K my seal of approval here. Special K – kudos for being a decent substitute in a pinch!
Here’s how you make this: take 1 cup of corn syrup and 1 cup of white sugar, mix, and heat to a boil. Once that’s going, scoop in 1 cup of smooth peanut butter and stir until you get a nice, smooth, creamy liquid. Then pour that over about 8 cups of cereal and stir it up nice and good. Toss that mix into either a buttered baking dish or line it with parchment paper (I went with parchment), smooth it out and let it cool.
That’s it. See, I told you it was simple!
It’s been a long time since I’ve made these and I forgot about short the peanut butter mix seems to run. Next time I’ll up the amount of corn syrup and peanut butter to maybe 1 1/4 cup each and knock off a cup of cereal. That should make for a more even, gooier peanut butter bar. You could also throw in some chocolate chips if you wanted, which I meant to do, but I was making these at six a.m. and my sleep-addled brain forgot about that. Maybe later I’ll put some nutella on one, because I’m sure that’s awesome, too.
Once they’ve cooled, cut them up in square and go nuts!
