David Lee Summers's Blog, page 14

Explore the Weird and Wild West

I’ve been a fan of Weird Westerns ever since I first discovered the television show The Wild Wild West starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. I loved the idea of adding aliens, mad scientists, and maybe even some magic into the west. Later, I would discover comics like Jonah Hex and books like Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, which would increase my appreciation of the genre. Today, I’m highlighting three of Hadrosaur Productions’ Weird Western titles. The first is a short story collection by vet...

Pirates’ Plunder

My writing journey began in earnest with the series that would come to be known as the Space Pirates’ Legacy series. I published the first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, in 1996. The series was picked up by LBF Books, which would be acquired by Lachesis Publishing. The series remained with them for some fourteen years until the rights reverted to me. In 2019, I released a new first book of the series called Firebrandt’s Legacy and then re-edited all the books for release through Hadrosaur Product...

The Scarlet Order Vampires

This year saw the release of my third Scarlet Order vampire novel. In it, the vampires learn more about the origins of vampires, their place in the universe, and they begin to unlock why they have powers that almost appear supernatural. The new novel is a romp that carries you from Southern Colorado to Southern France and from Louisiana to Greece. This year, to entice you to dive into the series, I’m giving away the first book absolutely free. The second book will only be 99 cents and the new bo...

Join the Ultimate Battle

I met Greg Ballan during the time we were both published by Lachesis Publishing. When Lachesis decided not to take any new books for publication, I was fortunate to eventually acquire Greg’s Hybrid series for Hadrosaur Productions. This is a terrific series if you like superheroes. Of course, if you have a super-powered being, you have to challenge him with villains who push his powers to the limit. Greg does just that in this series.

This year, I have a special treat for the Smashwords Summe...

Revolutionary Deals

Independence Day is right around the corner. I hope you’ll have a good day with friends and family. For the holiday, I enjoy a nice cookout and the opportunity to watch a good fireworks show. I’ve had to work some nights at Kitt Peak National Observatory for Independence Day, but I’ve still managed to catch fireworks shows on some of those nights. We don’t shoot off fireworks from the observatory, but from our mountaintop vantage point, we can see fireworks shows in several of the surrounding ci...

Damaged Goods

My road to recovery from prostate cancer surgery continues to go well. I had a follow-up visit with my surgeon’s office and learned that the cancer had neither worsened nor showed signs of escaping the prostate, so there’s a good chance that I’m now cancer free. Of course, my recovery journey will continue for several more weeks and there will be follow-up testing and physical therapy. That all noted, because of my post-surgical limitations, I’ve had time to read. This past week, I dove into the...

Mystery Incorporated

While I’ve been recovering from surgery for my prostate cancer, I took time to watch the entirety of the 2010-2013 series, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. As the series starts out, it appears to be a fairly straightforward follow-up to the 1969 original series. Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers are a group of teens who solve mysteries alongside their talking dog, Scooby-Doo. Those mysteries usually take the form of a haunting or a paranormal occurrence, which then turn...

The Celestial Toymaker

While I’m recovering from surgery, I’m on strict limitations about how much weight I can lift and I am trying to strike a balance between moving around enough to restore my range of motion but stay calm and quiet enough that I allow myself to heal. Of course one of the best ways to get me to sit for a little while and take it easy is put on a good movie or TV show. By good fortune, the BBC released it’s BluRay of the Doctor Who episode “The Celestial Toymaker” on the day of my surgery. My wife k...

Talking Dogs and Radio

As I’ve noted here at the Web Journal, I was just about three-years old when the iconic television series Scooby-Doo Where Are You first aired. My older daughter was just about three-years old when Warner Brothers released the direct-to-video movie Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. The movie featured an impressive guest cast that included Mark Hamill and Adriane Barbeau. I had known Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby-Doo himself, had passed away in 1997, so I wasn’t surprised to see that a new...

Robots with Knives

This past Tuesday morning, I woke up at 4am so I could get to El Paso, Texas by 6. I needed to check in for my radical prostatectomy at Providence-Memorial Hospital near the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. The drive down was nice and quiet. Interstate 10 hadn’t yet become busy. My wife, Kumie, kept me company. The lights of El Paso and Juarez were just fading as twilight began to brighten the sky. Because I’d preregistered with the hospital, a nurse had called me the day before...