Clark Hays's Blog

Just Released: Poetic Justice

Excited to announce the release of our 12th book together (shout out to Kathleen McFall).

Poetic Justice is the second book of our Restaurantland romance series. It’s set in the Rose and Thorn, the same fun and funky Portland restaurant where Kitchen Heat took place. Poetic Justic follows a new and thorny romance between Roz, a poet with a dark secret, and Hudson, who just got out of jail for something he won’t talk about. Though they don’t know it yet, their lives are connected by the environmental timber wars of the 1990s.

Sometimes, true love requires handcuffs.

Just Released: Kitchen Heat

Excited to announce the release of Kitchen Heat : A Restaurantland Romance today! It's the eleventh book I've co-written with Kathleen McFall.

Romance is at the heart of all our books, but this is our first “actual” romance and the start of a new series. It’s very, very loosely based on our own “meet-cute.” We first crossed paths in the 90s working at a quirky restaurant in Portland, and so this book has a similar setting — a fast-paced restaurant committed to building community, and way back in the pre-digital-90s.

With no cell phones, it’s practically a historical romance.

Mars Adrift launched

Kathleen McFall and I are excited to announce the launch of our tenth book together, Mars Adrift. It’s the third book in our sci-fi trilogy and possibly the best thing we’ve written together yet. We’re releasing it on Valentine's Day because: 1) One of the main characters is named Lauren Valentine; 2) It takes a durable and very flexible kind of loves to write fiction together; and, 3) the series, through the relationship of Crucial and Mel, has a lot to say about what it’s like to actually be in love. Mars Adrift is available in all the expected places, including our website: https://www.PumpjackPress.com.

Get caught up on the first two books: Gates of Mars and Scorched Earth.

Gates of Mars wins INDIES gold

Kathleen McFall and I got some terrific news this week — Gates of Mars, the first book in our new scifi series, won a gold medal in the Foreword Reviews 2020 INDIES book of the year award (science fiction category). Learn more here and check out all the other winners — it’s a great round up of talented indie authors and a whole raft of books to add to your to-read list.

And be sure to check out Scorched Earth, the second book in our Halo trilogy.

Scorched Earth Review: Futuristic Science Fiction meets NCIS

This review originally appeared on The Page Unbound Book Blog for Scorched Earth, the second book in our new Halo Trilogy.

Review

Futuristic Science Fiction meets NCIS in this gripping murder mystery that takes place on the planet Mars. Crucial, a labor cop, is controlled by an advanced AI called Halo, as is everyone else on earth. Crucial does what he can to send secret messages to his team as they use nanites to disrupt Halo’s abilities. He’s happy what he’s doing, fighting the good fight, helping his sister Essential whom is a leader in the resistance. But then he gets a call from his ex Melinda who needs his help to clear her fiance’s name whom has been charged with murder. Though Crucial never wanted to return to Mars, he will do it for Melinda.

However, Mars is ruled by the Five Families, the wealthy elite. People that Crucial believes are futile to fight against. His investigation however leads him back to Earth, to a genetic experiment that has created lizard like cannibals. And Crucial will do what he can to find the truth, clear Melinda’s finances name, and stay alive, of course.

I must say Scorched Earth was very intriguing. It took a little to get used to all the scientific names for things, as I’m not used to reading futurist science fiction books. There’s alot of terminology that I had to stop and think about to understand what it was Crucial was describing. Once I got used to the narration the story flowed more easily. I loved how detailed and complex Scorched Earth was, but at the root of it is this investigation that leads Crucial down a path that lets us really explore these two worlds. Especially with things happening now, with the Mars Mission that is going to happen in our lifetime, it was fun to envision a world where people lived on Mars.

Crucial is such a wonderful character. He’s honorable and dependable. He doesn’t give up on people or himself. He’s definitely the “good cop” in this story, and you’re left rooting for him every step of the way. The depth of his character development had me flipping through each page. To be submerged in this world was unlike anything I have read before! And what Crucial ends up investigating was so beyond the stars, that I had to keep going to figure out how the story was going to unfold. It’s exciting, and a little horrifying, to be honest. But a little dark elements sure was the icing on the cake for me.

Though Scorched is the second in the trilogy, I read it before reading any of the others and it did fine as a stand alone, though now I am interested in the other books in the series!

Scorched is definitely a gripping read! It’s vivid and engrossing. A read for anyone that loves a good, dark, murder mystery, especially for those science fiction lovers out there! Be sure to check it out!

Rating: 4/5

Check out Gates of Mars, book one in the Halo Trilogy.

Review of Scorched Earth

This review originally appeared on Chapter Break Book Blog for Scorched Earth, the second book in our new Halo Trilogy.

Thanks for the review, Lynn!

Review

What I really enjoy about the Halo Trilogy series, and Scorched Earth in particular, is the mash-up of hard-boiled detective with science fiction. Crucial is detecting and crime solving across two planets! If you are asking yourself how is it possible to mash together two very different genres, let me provide some examples.

On the hard-boiled detective side:

* Over on Mars, Crucial is tasked with solving the murder of one of the First Five Families. And oh yeah, his ex’s fiancée is charged with the crime. No conflicts there, that’s for sure!

* Also, what’s with all the brains in blue goo?

* Back on Earth, who are the ‘fake’ resistance fighters? And what are they doing in the Sunbelt – that dried out middle of the continent?

On the Sci Fi side:

* Halo, the sentient AI in the series, is still there, tracking every movement, every thought, reminding me more of Thunderhead from the Scythe series this time around. I love this quote from Essential:

“AI is built by humans, an as long as we can control it – which isn’t necessarily for much longer – it’s anchored in human values. And right now, those values are defined by the Five Families.”

* Sanders, the cybanism (cybernetic humanoid type), is learning to be “more human”, including drinking alcohol. He even tries switching his blue blood (so no one thinks he’s human at an accident) to red.

* Nanites. So many nanites.

We meet the Saurians, a race of humans who were genetically crossed with lizards and now live in the Sunbelt. With tails, scales, third eyes, and the ability to camouflage themselves, they are thriving while Halo cannot see them.

McFall and Hays show some serious writing skills in blending these genres and ideas.

On a personal note, I’m on the fence about having an OCD (ocular communications device). Sure, it would be cool to have the internet ALWAYS there. But also, always there seems loud and invasive. If the recent pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that I do not always need to be connected to the internet. I need a break sometimes. And the interesting fact that we learn in Scorched Earth about the OCDs – they are implanted on day two of a baby’s life. DAY. TWO.

The pacing of Scorched Earth is fast and page turning. From the opening scene (a shoot-out, btw), I was engaged and following along, like I was there with Crucial. From the baking heat of the Sunbelt to a q-rocket that somehow MISSES Earth on the way back, I was turning pages as fast as I could. I read most of the book in one day because I HAD to find out what was going to happen next!

I genuinely like the characters in these novels. They are well-written, believable, and flawed. I found myself attached and worried about each one of them when they are put in peril by the authors. Crucial is cranky, disillusioned, and a brilliant detective. Essential is the activist we all want to be. I absolutely love Sanders and his attempts at being human.

Scorched Earth is the second novel in a series but could be read by itself. McFall and Hays do a great job in the first chapters of the novel summarizing the plot points of Gates of Mars (book #1 of The Halo Trilogy) for new readers. But not so much recap as to be dull for someone who read the first novel. But honestly, you should check out Gates of Mars. It was recently named a Foreword INDIES Finalist!

Amazing writing, fast-paced, fab world-building, authentic characters, and outstanding crime solving had me turning the pages as fast as I could. Scorched Earth fits right in with my pandemic sci fi obsession. Hopefully my review has intrigued you to pick up this series. I know I’m excited for the next installment!

Five stars!

Our New Book "Scorched Earth"​ Heats Up Valentine’s Day

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Blame Saint Valentine for the pressure. And consider that despite the prosaic nature of this Hallmark celebration, the origins, like love, are pretty gruesome.

According to legend, the emperor of Rome — Claudius the Cruel — decided romantic love was getting in the way of service to the empire and so forbade Romans from getting married. Valentine, a priest, continued to perform marriages in secret. He was found out and on Feb. 14, was beaten to death and beheaded. While imprisoned awaiting execution, he allegedly slipped notes out of jail to the jailer’s daughter — signed, from your Valentine.

Is this an accurate account? Almost certainly not. But love doesn’t need facts to transform a disturbing origin story into a pointless celebration of romantic attachment.

This Valentine’s Day, forget the decapitation, wilting flowers and stale chocolates. Get yourself or your partner or your wanna-be partner or a friend or your mom or that nice person that brings the mail a copy of Scorched Earth, book two in our sci-fi Halo series, hot-off-the-presses on Feb. 14, and celebrate romance with a trip to the luxury domes of Mars and the radiation blasted sunbelt on Earth 188 years in the future.

Here are four good reasons why Scorched Earth is the perfect book for Valentine’s Day — and any other day:

It’s about love. The main character, Crucial Larsen, is deeply, achingly, dysfunctionally in love with Melinda Hopwire, a smart, beautiful woman he really messed things up with years ago. He never got over it; she moved on — all the way across the universe. She lives on Mars now, a “guest” of the ridiculously wealthy Five Families. She’s a scientist trying to help terrascape the red planet, and engaged to marry Jynks Martine, head of Mars Security. Crucial, a labor cop, is moping around on an Earth ruined by poverty, disease and environmental collapse. Then Jynks is framed for murder, Mel needs Crucial’s help and suddenly he’s on the first quantum rocket up universe. So, it’s about love and also murder. And also cannibal-lizard people.

There’s a character named Valentine. What could be better than reading about Valentine on Valentine’s Day? Lauren Valentine also works for the Five Families. She’s a historian, but also in the resistance. She has a thing for Crucial, even though she knows he’s damaged beyond repair, but she already believes life is doomed anyway. She’s looking to eke out a little happiness, even if it is temporary, in a world shaped by debt, cruelty and absolute subservience to the Five Families who live in their luxury domes and siphon credits from the misery of Earth. And of course, she wants to overthrow them destroying Halo.

It’s grounded in reality (and by the 22nd century, what will be history). The Five Families are the corporations of today (all busily feeding on the well-being of consumers and aiming their billions toward Mars) mixed with the robber barons of yesterday. With a little Roman empire thrown in for good measure. There’s even a Claudius the Cruel, sort of — Tarteric Hoost, the head of the Five Families, is a lot like a Roman emperor, only instead of beheading people, he locks them in terroriums, or takes their eyes. He controls Halo, the AI that runs everything, so he’s the most powerful person in the universe. Until he’s murdered.

It’s written by lovers. This is the ninth book Kathleen McFall and I have written together. That’s no small feat. We started writing together because or relationship imploded, melted down, and we decided channeling some of the crazy into creative work was the only way to build something special. That was more than 20 years ago. Writing together, despite the endless fights about punctuation and fiery creative agonies, means our characters have a little something extra missing in many books with a central romance — hard-earned authenticity.

So this Valentine’s Day and beyond, treat yourself or your romantic interest to a funny, action-packed, romantic science-fiction saga with plenty of heart and social conscience. Because not only did we have fun writing a story about love and murder on Mars, and a scorched Earth, it rings out a warning for the future. Stop the unchecked greed, find a way to ensure the excesses of the system are mitigated with a little empathy and stop destroying the planet, or we’re facing a very bleak future indeed.

And on that note, Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Highwaymen—Glamorizing police violence?

Today is the 85th "death-iversary" of Bonnie and Clyde, and the release date of our latest book, Bonnie and Clyde: Radioactive, an alt-history series that puts the infamous outlaws on a winding road toward redemption. Not surprisingly, Kathleen McFall and I have a bit of a contrarian view when it comes to the latest movie focused on their exploits, The Highwaymen.

The film tackles the Bonnie and Clyde myth from the point of view of the lawmen who tracked them down.

It was enjoyable enough—Costner and Harrelson have good on-screen chemistry—but we have issues with how some facts were manipulated. As co-authors of an alt-history trilogy about Bonnie and Clyde, we’ve done the research.

First off, we’re not apologists for the outlaws. Bonnie and Clyde were thieves and murderers and they were destined for a life behind bars at best; more likely, the electric chair.

Yet despite their crimes, a dazzling myth evolved around the lovers, starting contemporaneously in the 1930s when they were on the run. Unwittingly, they had the right blend of sex, violence and stick-it-to-the-bankers contempt to give a glimmer of hope to the millions struggling during the Great Depression. Their deaths at a young age (Bonnie was 24, Clyde 25) on May 23, 1934, tragically cemented their celebrity status.

More than three decades passed and they may have faded into history if not for the iconic 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway; the smash-hit reflected the counterculture sentiments of its era, casting the criminals as glamorous Robin Hood-style anti-heroes.

A good bit of the current commentary about The Highwaymen has focused on the idea that this new film sets the story straight, transferring the hero’s mantle to the deserving law enforcement men who brought the bandits to justice.

But what really happened was far from justice.

Instead of glorifying two outlaws trying to outrun poverty as the 1967 film did, The Highwaymen glorifies extrajudicial police violence—and, to do that, it alters historical facts. A little literary license to juice up a storyline isn’t particularly egregious but The Highwaymen badly misleads on three points in order to build the case that the lawmen were heroic. They weren’t.

First, the movie charges Bonnie was a cold-blooded murderer; in one scene, her stylish shoe rolls a wounded policeman over onto his back so he is forced to watch as she kills him. Yet, there is scant evidence this happened. In fact, there is no historical agreement that Bonnie ever directly killed anyone.

Having casually established Bonnie as a cop-killer (implying she deserved whatever she got), the filmmakers add a second layer—they fabricate empathy in (and for) the two aging Texas Rangers, Hamer and Gault, who come out of retirement to lead the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.

In a pivotal scene the rangers reveal that, years ago, they opened fire on a group of Spanish-speaking bandits along the Texas border, executing them in their sleep rather than bringing them to justice. Burdened by immense guilt, the film suggests the rangers have learned their lesson about taking the law into their own hands.

This leads to the penultimate ambush scene in the film when Hamer bravely steps out from behind their hideout of shrubs by the side of the remote dirt road to take the two criminals alive, as the outlaws’ car comes to a stop. Gault joins Hamer and, after a tense stare down in this scene between the law and the lawless, Bonnie goes for her gun, leaving the rangers no choice but to fire in self-defense. The rest of their rag-tag group of police also open fire.

Only it didn’t happen that way.

In reality, a member of the ambush party, with no warning, began firing while crouching behind the shrubs at Bonnie and Clyde who had stopped to help someone change a flat tire. Hamer, Gault and the others joined in, still from hiding, sending more than 150 rounds into the car. Bonnie and Clyde never got off a single shot or likely even knew what hit them. The dead outlaws were so riddled with bullets, morticians couldn’t keep embalming fluid in the bodies.

If the 1967 film glamorized Bonnie and Clyde courtesy of that anti-authoritarian counterculture era, what does the fabrication about police behavior at the core of The Highwaymen reflect about today? Why recast executioners as heroes?

Viewers of The Highwaymen would likely have been repelled by the bloody truth about Hamer and Gault’s actions that day, which is exactly why the events should have been depicted honestly.

If the filmmakers told the truth, rather than glamorizing the police violence that fateful day in 1934 as heroic, the movie could have amplified and expanded ongoing conversations about police overreach in American life, then and now. Instead, it feels sickeningly like just another cover-up.

For a different take on the outlaws, in which Bonnie and Clyde survive the ambush and are forced to work for the government (and wrestle with the consequences of their life of crime), check out our new three-book series:
















And don't forget about the Cowboy and the Vampire Collection:






Learn more about our books, and writing together, at
Pumpjack Press

'An exciting reimagining of history!'

This is a great review from Fresh Fiction on book one in our new Bonnie and Clyde series: Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road.

Reviewed by Sharon Salituro.

Reporter Royce Jenkins meets a woman who claims she is Bonnie of the famous Bonnie and Clyde. Since they have been dead since 1934 and it's now the mid-1980s, Royce has a hard time believing what this woman is telling him. Royce decides he is going to investigate this story. Little does he know, this will to take him on a crazy journey from past to present.

Bonnie starts telling him the story of her life with Clyde. Their death was faked and Bonnie and Clyde were kidnapped. They are forced to become spies, and their first mission is to stop an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt. Out of options but still unaware of the true identity of who kidnapped them, Bonnie and Clyde know they have to do whatever they can to prevent this. Can they trust the people who are forcing them to do this dangerous work? They do know, however, that if they don't do it, they will be arrested and sentenced to death.

I absolutely loved BONNIE AND CLYDE RESURRECTION ROAD by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. I have always had a great interest in Bonnie and Clyde. Even though they robbed banks, they shared when they could. Even in this book, whenever they found people that were down on their luck, they would share whatever they could with them.

Hays and McFall must have done a lot of research on Bonnie and Clyde because this story felt so real! Could Bonnie and Clyde really have lived a lot longer than what people think? Only time will tell. If you are a history buff, you will want to read this book and imagine if it is really true.

Check out our other books:
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation (Book 2)
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance (Book 1)
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey (Book 2)
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves (Book 3)
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset (Book 4)
Just West of Hell: An accounting of curious incidents occurring in LonePine, Wyoming Territory, in the years spanning 1881 to 1890 when the notable Early Hardiman was sheriff

Connect with us:
Twitter @cowboyvamp
Instagram @cowboyvampire
Facebook www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire

Discovering the Present in the Past

The alarming similarities between the rise and fall of Bonnie and Clyde and today.

By Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall

Today in history, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in a hail of high caliber bullets in an infamous ambush just outside of Sailes, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934. Allegedly.

At least in our new fiction series, the notorious outlaws were plucked out of harm’s way by a mysterious government handler who needed their special “skills” to protect FDR from an assassination attempt (Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road). They prove just cunning and vicious enough to be useful, and so are forced to try and save Hoover Dam from saboteurs (Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation). In book three, which we’re currently working on, the two are forced undercover at the Hanford nuclear reservation to try and protect the Manhattan project from Nazi and Soviet spies.

We chose Bonnie and Clyde because, even 84 years later, they still provoke a strong emotional response from people — good and bad. That made them the perfect anti-heroes to take readers on a sexy, action-packed thrill ride through the aftermath of the Great Depression to explore the power of love and redemption.

And as we dug into the research on the real Bonnie and Clyde, and the 1930s era they lived and died in, we found some disturbing parallels between then and now.

Wealth inequality
As Mary Wollstonecraft — a writer, philosopher and staunch advocate of women’s rights (and mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein) — once famously said, “people are rendered ferocious by their misery. And things were pretty miserable in the United States in the 1930s. The country was just coming out of the Great Depression and unemployment was high, poverty was rampant and there was little hope for the future. That was doubly true for Bonnie and Clyde, who lived in the slums of West Dallas. Poverty does not, of course, excuse a life of crime, but it’s certainly an enabler, and that’s the crucible in which Bonnie and Clyde were forged.

Rather than accept their destinies, they instead chose to lash out regardless of consequences, knowing they would likely go out in a blaze of gunfire or in the electric chair. And they probably would have died forgotten if their crime-spree and rebellion hadn’t struck a chord with so many dispirited Americans who saw the duo as striking a blow against the system that had failed so many.

The system, of course, is failing many people now as well. It’s not as bad as the Great Depression, but we’re certainly facing many of the same contributing factors that led up to the crash. It’s especially telling that wealth inequality — the gap between the haves and the have nots — was the second worse in American history in the 1920s as the robber barons diverted profits to the few and left the many on the edge of desperation. When was it worse, you might ask? Well, now, sadly. Also, the 1920s and early 30s saw organized labor being bullied by big business, which meant working men and women had little say in their own futures. And when the bottom fell out, there were no jobs to be had and no safety net to support them. It took bold and decisive federal intervention from FDR to turn that around, with New Deal policies that reigned in the excesses of capitalism, protected unions and used higher corporate taxes to abate poverty and create jobs. And of course, the Black Tuesday crash was also caused by Wall Street speculation and a brewing trade war. Does any of that sound familiar?

For-profit prisons
Clyde Barrow, one of the country’s most notorious criminals, first found himself on the wrong side of the law for the shocking offense of failing to return a rental car on time. That put him on the radar of local law enforcement, so when he graduated to stealing turkeys (poultry was a common target of hungry thieves) it wasn’t long before he entered a brutal prison system that used prisoners for profit.

At Eastham, convicts were used as slave labor in the fields, picking cotton for example. Margins on cotton were always razor thin, but free labor gives growers a certain advantage, especially when things like safety and nutrition were ignored. In prison, Clyde was brutalized and sexually assaulted; he was so desperate to get out, he chopped off two of his toes (in vain, as it turned out; his mom had already secured his release). From that day forward, he dreamed of exacting his revenge against the bloody ‘Ham, as he called it.

Today’s industrial prison system doesn’t make money in the same way, though some prisons do have work programs providing a captive pool of labor at below market rates. Instead, they make money by privatizing incarceration, then charging municipalities for the privilege of storing prisoners out of sight. As with many companies, they then cut corners wherever possible to squeeze out a profit — on healthcare, safety, meals, rehabilitation, etc. When money can be made off of criminals, petty crimes become life sentences and shareholders benefit. If, under those conditions, men and women are released back into the community with the same anger Clyde developed, our system has effectively radicalized them.

Social media
Almost a hundred years later, the myth of Bonnie and Clyde is alive and well. They probably would have died in obscurity and been forgotten by history if not for becoming social media stars. All media is social, but those days it was primarily radio and newspaper, and the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde “got the clicks.” Salacious headlines sold papers, and sensational reporting kept people engaged. At the heart of it was the unspoken recognition that Bonnie and Clyde weren’t married and were likely having all kinds of crazy sex. The reporting tended to glamorize their life on the road as some kind of trigger-happy sex fiends living the high life and thumbing their noses at authorities. The truth was far less glamorous. They basically barely stayed one step ahead of arrest, camped rough and suffered all manner of injuries, including a savage burn from a car crash that scarred Bonnie’s legs to the bone. And those famous photos of Bonnie with a gun and cigar? They were just goofing around; there’s little evidence that Bonnie even carried a gun, much less pulled a trigger.

As we look out into the world today, with angry online trolls, celebrities parlaying bad behavior into sponsorship opportunities and fake or malicious news influencing elections and ruining lives, the legend of Bonnie and Clyde is a good reminder that we should always look behind the headlines. People’s actions may not always be predictable, but they are rational. In a world of low opportunities, taking what you want is actually a rational choice, if the rules only benefit the wealthy. And in a world where controversy sells, sex tapes and cyber bullying are also rational choices if success can only by quantified by wealth. Those two examples, though 84 years apart, are linked by an economic system built on desperation. Imagine if Bonnie and Clyde had the social media tools of today, tweeting about their sex life and posting crime spree photos on Instagram.

Will we ever learn?
The past holds lessons for future, but only if we are open to learning in the present. The anger and vitriol roiling the country right now is the product of an economic system that — no matter which side of the political spectrum you stand on — is stacked against all but the very wealthiest. The for-profit prison system is literally incentivizing incarceration to make money off of petty crimes and ruined lives. And social media is magnifying our worst tendencies and fueling narcissism and bad choices.

The question is, can we learn from Bonnie and Clyde and find ways to rebuild the working class and help the poor when they need a hand up, or will we continue driving full speed into our own ambush?