Weston Ochse's Blog, page 4

PK Dick, HP Lovecraft, Cosmic Horror, and Burning Sky

I've met David Agranoff, the reviewer, several times. In all honesty, when I asked him to review Burning Sky I was worried because David knows his shit. He's balls out into the genres and knows how to think and talk critically about all the best and worst books - Where I feel like a blithering idiot when I talk about others books. As it turns out, he loved the book. Fist pump!him to

We conducted an interview, which you can see here on his podcast called Dickheads, while I was in Astoria convalescing after my return from Afghanistan. He brought up how I must have been heavily influenced by PK Dick because he could see the influences in my writing. Then I flummoxed him by stating that I hadn't read any PK Dick. None. Nada. Zip. I know, I know. My loss. I accept that. I've also never read any Lovecraft, unless you include his essay on the supernatural,  but that doesn't mean I don't understand cosmic horror. Lovecraft didn't invent cosmic horror in the same way that Dick didn't invent conflicting realities. 
Here's something David said about Burning Sky-  

 "This is also a fun novel at times, with entertaining action, monsters, ancient gods and Philip K Dick worthy time shifts and alternate realities that will remind readers in all the right ways of Jacob's Ladder. There is a What the hell is real twist that is so well executed I was shocked when Weston told me in a e-mail that he has not read much PKD. That is a round about way to say this is a mind expanding cross genre read that I can't recommend enough." 

Several reviews have said that Burning Sky is cosmic horror. I had to ask what cosmic horror was. Here are two comments from my FB page:
David Thomas Moore, Editor in Chief of Solaris says:  "It's the category of horror of which Lovecraft is the exemplar: horror in which the supernatural element is existentially threatening, supercontextual and largely - to mortal understanding - incomprehensible. "Cosmic" in scope, as it were."
Marc Weiner says: "Cosmic horror is another way I saying Lovecraftian...which Burning Skies surely was." 
Maybe according to DTM's definition it is.
But is Burning Sky Lovecraftian? I'm not so sure. I certainly never set out to write it that way. Do I have Elder Gods? Sort of. I do lean heavily on Zoroastrian mythology and real history. Are they Elder Gods? Well, they are older than any other mythology, I think, so that definitely makes them older. And being so old, they are also mysterious because we know the least about them.
Here's something else David says about Burning Sky-

"Much like his last Grunt trilogy Burning Sky is very much about PTSD, but Burning Sky takes that theme and goes beyond. This novel is about what drives war. It explores the deep trauma not just of the warriors but society. The book points to key moments covered by the news in the last few conflicts that lead to Trauma that we felt collectively. The theme is expressed so beautifully in some of this novel's most horrific moments. As a writer, reader and fan of Weston I honestly pumped my fist in the air at one of these moments."

Those key moments he's speaking of are the iconic images of the Falling Man, Napalm Girl, and the Burning Monk, which I talk about here.   I urge you to read David's whole review.
Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

First Paragraph of My New Novel 'Burning Sky'

After announcing the signing of a contract for a new mass market paperback to be published by Solaris called Burning Sky. I sat down and wrote the first 1111 words (here and unedited). I discovered that the main character, who is referred to by his team and others as Boy Scout, has an affinity for Cormac McCarthy, Herman Melville, and those books that pit man against nature.

I thought I might share the first paragraph with you.



What Booklist has to say about Burning Sky-

"This dark, twisted, and unnerving cosmic horror is framed by Middle Eastern mythology, with a sense of unease that increases with the relentless pace of the action." - Booklist on Burning Sky"Without slowing down, Ochse also offers a thoughtful commentary on the human cost of war. This is an excellent example of the emerging genre of military horror, combining details of army life and technical jargon with a well-constructed supernatural thriller." - Booklist on Burning Sky"Ochse's writing finds the beauty in the language of brutality, which will appeal to fans of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)." - Booklist on Burning SkyBurning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

"Burning Sky is the beginning of something remarkable... prepare to be astonished."

Mass Movement Magazine recently reviewed Burning Sky and blew the roof off the world.
The review begins with-
"Few authors are capable of successfully combining the established tenets of genre fiction, moulding them and reshaping them and then seamlessly welding them together to create something new, inspiring and unique. Weston Ochse is one of that all too rare breed. Having first become aware of his work via his outstanding Seal Team 666 trilogy and having them moved on to his engrossing Task Force Ombra series, I slowly, but surely, became aware of the fact that Ochse had rapidly become one  of my favourite authors. So it was with great anticipation and much nervous excitement that I began Burning Sky, the first of Ochse’s T.S.T. novels. Six hours later, my mind spent and my imagination locked in overdrive, I read the final line, closed the cover, put Burning Sky  down, made a pot of the strongest Java I had to hand and then started reading Burning Sky again."
I'm always honored when people read my books. After all, I'm a kid from a broken home who didn't have a lot to show for it, joined the army, and puttered away a future that had been pretty bright. That I was able to ressurect it amazes me still. And to have someone re-read by books just blows my mind.
The voice behind Mass Movement Magazine and the reviewer, Tim Cundle, concluded the review saying this-
"If Clive Cussler had a PHD in creative writing and literature and used it to tell tales based around, and upon, the ideas of Phillip Pullman and Richard Morgan, then he’d come close to being half the story-teller and writer that Weston Ochse is. Burning Sky is the beginning of something remarkable. Prepare to be astonished."Again, blown away.If you want to read the entire interview, which I urge you to do, please go here.

Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

Trigger Warning - Iconic Imagery in Burning Sky

I was recently interviewed by My Life My Book My Escape where I talk about Cormac McCarthy and how iconic images change us. I specifically talk about The Falling Man, Napalm Girl, and the Burning Monk, who are all part of Burning Sky and the idea of them intrinsic to the plot.

We all know how seeing something can change our lives. Many things we've seen we can't unsee. I remember when the video of the poor man being beheaded was being passed around. There were those who would eagerly see it and those like me who wouldn't. My imagination filled in the blanks. I didn't need to see the real thing.

Because I knew it would affect me.

When I was a child I saw both the pictures of the Burning Monk and Napalm Girl in a big Time Life book and they haunted me to this day. Then after 911, the image of the Falling Man came to light. All these images are touchstones to history, mnemonics of how terrible we can be to each other.



Excerpt from Interview:

DJ: What were some of your influences for Burning Sky? Weston: Cormac McCarthy was a huge influence in the book. His continuing theme of man vs nature and man’s inability to overcome nature is the fulcrum in the novel which the plot circles. I especially mined his masterpiece Blood Meridian, using some of the motifs like how he never names any major character but instead uses titles for them. In Burning Sky, the members of the team are never referred to by their names while in Afghanistan. I also loved the way McCarthy landscaped Blood Meridian and tried to use some of the landscape in Burning Sky as a dark mirror to the McCarthy’s terra damnata. I also mined several cultural icons that when seen, can’t help but bring us memories and stir our thinking. Images such as The Falling Man from the Twin Towers during 9/11, or the Burning Monk and the Napalm Girl from black and white photos from Vietnam. Each one of the images is shorthand to something terrible and I used them as interactive touch points for readers.

If you want to read the entire interview, which I urge you to do, please go here.

Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

Dark, Twisted, and Unverving Cosmic Horror - Booklist on Burning Sky

The review has been published so I can share it now. Booklist loved my new book, which means librarians will love it, which means that readers will as well. I feel like I hit the trifecta.

Burning Sky. By Weston Ochse Sept. 2018. 420p. Solaris, paper, $14.99 (9781781085295)
The members of the Tactical Support Team (TST), army veterans turned private contractors, sawhorrifying and improbable things on their last assignment in Afghanistan. Now, six months later, these men and women are experiencing things too eerily similar to be classified as PTSD. Ochse (Reign of Evil, 2014), a veteran himself, begins his new military-horror series by unveiling the diverse and complex backstories of the TST before sending them back for the ultimate mission: a fight for their souls. This dark, twisted, and unnerving cosmic horror is framed by Middle Eastern mythology, with a sense of unease that increases with the relentless pace of the action. Without slowing down, Ochse also offers a thoughtful commentary on the human cost of war. This is an excellent example of the emerging genre of military horror, combining details of army life and technical jargon with a well-constructed supernatural thriller. Perfect for readers of Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series, and Ochse's writing finds the beauty in the language of brutality, which will appeal to fans of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985).  — Becky Spratford for Booklist

Here are some gems that I urge FOWs to share with their own people.
"This dark, twisted, and unnerving cosmic horror is framed by Middle Eastern mythology, with a sense of unease that increases with the relentless pace of the action." - Booklist on Burning Sky
"Without slowing down, Ochse also offers a thoughtful commentary on the human cost of war. This is an excellent example of the emerging genre of military horror, combining details of army life and technical jargon with a well-constructed supernatural thriller." - Booklist on Burning Sky
"Ochse's writing finds the beauty in the language of brutality, which will appeal to fans of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)." - Booklist on Burning Sky
Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

Book Review - Every Wicked Man

OUT TODAY!!!
Every Wicked Man by Steven James is the 11th book in the Bowers Files, where a criminal mastermind’s chilling terrorist plot forces FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers to the brink. 
Approaching the second or third book in a trilogy or a book in an existing series has always been an act of trepidatious yearning. The cover snaps your head or the title intrigues, but you wonder: Will I be lost? Will I feel like the new kid in high school listening to the indecipherable shorthand of the popular kids thus multiplying my feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, or will I be embraced and feel immediately at home? Diving into Every Wicked Man and slipping across the first few pages was an organic experience in reading something that feels fresh and new and beautiful.
Every Wicked Man is the 11th book in the Patrick Bowers franchise, so you can maybe see why I was worried. But never did I feel lost or not part of the in-crowd. What connections there were to past experiences—which were few, and you will see the reason why in a moment—intrigued me.
Patrick Bowers is an FBI agent specializing in environmental criminology. I wasn’t even aware the specialization existed, but this interested me because of my own love for the environment. Why does the FBI need such a specialization? What sort of criminals does Special Agent Bowers come into contact with? As it turns out, he’s not that kind of environmental criminologist...
*     *     *To check out the rest of the review, please pop on over to Criminal Element.  Bottom line is that it's a great book.

Appearances and Signing Tour for Burning Sky

My publicist and I set up a few appearances for Burning Sky. If you are in the Southwestern United States and are a bookstore, library, or reading/writing group, I can make an appearance. If you want me at your fav bookstore library, help me set it up. For now, here's what I have. Mark you calendar.
29 Sep - 1400-1500 Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA
30 Sep - 1600-1700 Dark Delicacies, Burbank, CA
05 Oct - 1700-1800 Barnes and Nobles East Side, Tucson AZ
06 Oct - 1200-1300 Poisened Pen, Scottsdale, AZ
13 Oct - 1300-1430 Dusenberry-River Library, Tucson, AZ
09 Nov - TusCon Convention, Tucson, AZ
10 Nov - TusCon Convention, Tucson, AZ
11 Nov - TusCon Convention, Tucson, AZ
17 Nov - 1400-1530 Himmel Park Library, Tucson, AZ

I'll update this as new dates and times appear, but for now, plan on this.

And if you have tons of cash and tons of money, I will fly anywhere at anytime and appear anyplace. 

Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

Sea Lords of the Columbia and my Homage to Fritz Leiber

When I was asked to write a story for an anthology of rockabilly horror, I only said yes because I was asked by Eric Guignard, my former mentoree and now peer. I had no idea what I was going to write until I was in Astoria, Oregon last summer and saw the Desdemona - a bar made from the remains of an old frigate that was shipwrecked on the Columbia Bar. Then it came to me. And as I began writing the story, I realized that my characters had a startling resemblance to Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Part of me said to stop and change them, but another part, a louder and more obnoxious part told me to roll with it. I not only did, but I intentionally paid attention to Fritz Leiber's creations and tried to get them to inhabit my characters of Hemmo and Doogie.
Growing up playing Dungeons and Dragons and reading any fantasy book with swords and sorcery, I was very familiar with these scourges of Lankhmar. One hulking and one small and both deadly, like a bad ass version of Gilligan and the Skipper but without the slapstick. I saw in Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser the sensibilities I needed for Hemmo and Doogie. 
Then came the story. I needed an epic sword and sorcery tale in the vein of Leiber but set in 1950s Astoria right after the Korean War. So what did I do? I have sentient talking sturgeon and prostitute mermaids and all sort of fun monsters to inhabit our real world. I think that was the most fun, and the sort of things I like to read -- magic in real life.
Here's a snap of the first page:
[image error] Sea Lords of the Columbia appears in Pop the Clutch: Thrilling Tales of Rockabilly, Monsters, and Hot Rod Horror which is up for pre-order at Dark Moon Books.

This isn't the only time the Sea Lords will make an appearance. I can hear them calling. They want a new adventure. Soon, I think, I will give one to them.

Tor Announces September Releases of Horror Books

Tor dot Com just announced the September Releases of Horror Books and it looks like September is going to be a fabulous month. My friend and former editor of my SEAL Team 666 books, Brendan Deneen, starts the month out with his second novel The Chrysalis. I end the month with my new military horror novel Burning Sky.

So what's in the middle of this genre-bending hydrox cookie? Here's a sampling, but for the full list, go here.

The Chrysalis—Brendan Deneen (September 4, Tor Books)
Barely employed millennials Tom and Jenny Decker have to grow up fast when they lose their cheap Manhattan apartment. Leaving the city is hard, but the blow is softened when they stumble upon a surprisingly affordable house in the suburbs. For Tom, the bills, the mortgage, and Jenny’s unexpected pregnancy add up to terror. Then he finds the thing in the basement. It makes him feel like a winner even as it scrambles his senses. A new job soon has him raking in the big bucks—enough that Jenny can start making her entrepreneurial dreams come true. The Deckers’ dream home conceals more than one deadly secret. As Tom’s obsession with the basement grows, Jenny realizes that to save her family, she must expose everything. Before it destroys them all.

The Land of Somewhere Safe—Hal Duncan (September 4, NewCon Press)
The Land of Somewhere Safe: where things go when you think, “I must put this somewhere safe,” and then can never find them again. The Scruffians: irreverent foul-mouthed street urchins, older than their years, waifs who have been Fixed by the Stamp, frozen so that they are immortal, providing perpetual slave labour. But now the waifs have nicked the Stamp and burned down the Institute that housed it, preventing any more of their number being Fixed and exploited. Peter and Lilly: two school kids orphaned by Nazi bombs, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance and evacuated from London during the Blitz. Sent far further north than intended, all the way to the Isle of Skye, they are taken in by Clan Chief Lady Morag MacGuffin of Dunstravaigin Castle. With them are the four Bastable children – a jolly queer bunch – who prove to be far more than they seem. The Reverend Blackstone: no real reverend at all, but an occultish Nazi spy determined to get his hands on the priceless Stamp, even if he has to raise hisself a demon to do so…

Flight or Fright—Stephen King & Bev Vincent, editors (September 4, Cemetery Dance)
Stephen King hates to fly. Now he and co-editor Bev Vincent would like to share this fear of flying with you. Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you’re suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph and sealed up in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers. All the ways your trip into the friendly skies can turn into a nightmare, including some we’ll bet you’ve never thought of before but now you will the next time you walk down the jetway and place your fate in the hands of a total stranger. Featuring brand new stories by Joe Hill and Stephen King, as well as fourteen classic tales and one poem from the likes of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Dan Simmons, and many others.

Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling—Philip Pullman (September 18, Knopf)
Nonfiction. From the internationally best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a spellbinding journey into the secrets of his art—the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling. One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling authors of our time now gives us a book that charts the history of his own enchantment with story—from his own books to those of Blake, Milton, Dickens, and the Brothers Grimm, among others—and delves into the role of story in education, religion, and science. At once personal and wide-ranging, Daemon Voices is both a revelation of the writing mind and the methods of a great contemporary master, and a fascinating exploration of storytelling itself.

Burning Sky—Weston Ochse (September 25, Solaris)
Everything is dangerous in Afghanistan, nothing more so than the mission of a Tactical Support Team or T.S.T. All veterans, these men and women spend seasons in hell, to not only try and fix what’s broken in each of them, but also to make enough bank to change their fortunes. But seven months later, safely back on American soil, they feel like there’s something left undone. They’re meeting people who already know them, remembering things that haven’t happened, hearing words that don’t exist. And they’re all having the same dream… a dream of a sky that won’t stop burning.

Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.


Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes

Is Military Horror Too Much of a Niche?

"Burning Sky is masterpiece that I am more impressed with the longer I think about it. If you like your horror, political and thoughtful, I would say you should pre-order this novel. It will be on my best of the year list for sure." - Postcards from a Dying World

David Agranoff is proprietor of Postcards from a Dying World and the PK Dick Podcast known as Dickheads. He reads heavily in the genre and is one of the most thoughtful and intelligent readers I know, so to have him say those words is immensely humbling.
This is the second review in for Burning Sky. The first review called Burning Sky the pinnacle of the military horror genre. Now on the heels of that to have it being called a masterpiece can't help but make me smile. Too often, during the cold dark moments of writing a novel alone -- months and months of self-doubt- to know that you connected with some people on the DNA level is wonderful.
Will this last? Will every review be so great? Probably not. The odds are that there will be some who won't like it. Plus, and let's face it, the military horror genre isn't for everyone. I have niched myself inside the seventh and smallest of a Russian nesting doll. If people look askance at the horror genre, what will they think about MILITARY horror?
But they say "write what you know," so at least for the time being, I'm the flag bearer. My hopes is that some out there will try military horror and see that the best of them are more about the cost of war than the glorification of it. The best of them are about how a man or woman shuffles through a life made harder by what they were forced to do and survives despite the emotional and physical scars visited upon them. Isn't that what literature is all about?
I urge you to read the whole review.
Burning Sky will be available September 25th. Please pre-order so we can sell out the print run before publication. That will help guarantee more books in the series. You can click on one of the book links on the left, or go to the following links for your favorite stores.

Indie Bookstore LinkBarnes and NoblesAmazon LinkKoboKindleiTunes