It is set to be a manic few weeks in the run up to Christmas and you will not be hearing much from me until early in the new year.
Yesterday, I completed a quick series of short stories from stellar dark-comedy guru Andrew Biss.
Called "Broken World", it will be available through the usual outlets in early December.
In the meantime, rather than give you a description and possibly spoil the plot, here is a sample for you to listen to.
I do hope you enjoy it!
Three weeks ago, when asked to narrate the Victorian steampunk adventure story "And They Called Her Spider" by Michael Coorlim, I had no idea what 'steampunk' was, and even less of an idea about how hooked I was going to get by it in such a short space of time.
To put it in a nutshell, steampunk is "a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century."
The best way I can describe it for you from a personal perspective is to go back to the time of Jules Verne and his "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" types of machinery. Wonderful fantasy worlds, with great story-lines and awesome characters.
Coorlim adds a Sherlock Holmes element to this era, and out of that has come the "Bartleby & James Adventures" series, which is quite simply magnificent.
Now, in a fit of immense grace and kindness, he has invited me to narrate the second in the series entitled "Maiden Voyage of the Rio Grande" and I am utterly thrilled at being able to accept.
"And They Called Her Spider" is due for release in the next week or so.
In the meantime, check out this incredible author and his equally incredible imagination, harnessed forever in his books.
A short novella on the way from stellar author Michael Coorlim. 'And They Called Her "Spider"' is already a huge hit on Amazon.com and in the next couple of weeks, you will be able to download it from Audible and iTunes. Am looking forward to reading this one. It is very similar in ways to "Two Tocks Before Midnight", which I loved reading!
From what I can gather from the sample manuscript, it is an immensely entertaining story about The Bartleby and James Adventures: a steampunk mystery series following the cases of consulting detectives Anton Bartleby and James Wainwright through an alternate Victorian history.
In their debut adventure, London is in the grip of an unstoppable assassin known only as the Spider, and consulting detectives Bartleby and Wainwright have been commissioned to catch her.
Can the surly inventor and savvy gentleman track her down and stop her string of murders, or will Queen Victoria be her next victim?
The author, Michael Coorlim (that's him on the right) is a Chicago-area screenwriter and author of fast-paced character-driven fiction about authentic people in fantastic situations. His best-selling steampunk collection, The Collected Bartleby and James Adventures, was published by Pomoconsumption Press. He can be found online at www.mcoorlim.com
Also, watch out for the long-awaited The Djinn by J. Kent Holloway. I am releasing it to the author this week, so expect it to hit the virtual shelves very, very soon!
After quite a wait for processing, I am happy to say that Penny Estelle's children's book, "Hike Up Devil's Mountain" is now on sale at Audible.com
It covers the story of ten year old Andy Thompson, and his adventures having accidentally turned his young friend into a toad.
Lots of twists and turns in the plot which will keep the kids happy for hours. It kept me amused for a few while reading it!
Anyways, it is out just in time for Halloween! Bwahahahah! Enjoy!
Audiobook guru Jennie Mortarotti listened to my latest audiobook, The White Angel Murder and was good enough to review it on her blog.
It is nice to read that she enjoyed the book and as always, she took the time to get in touch with me and give me extremely valuable feedback on the different genres that I read.
The jury is still out on my best genre, but it looks like it might be horror.
Just in time for the Halloween rush!
As "The Djinn" is now in the final stages of mastering, I have begun initial preparations for Craig Saunder's rather bizarre, dark-humoured, and ultimately very funny "Spiggot", published by Grand Mal Press.
The book follows two, well one, rather hapless copper and his sharper female partner, as he gets dragged through the ultimate police nightmare: getting caught inside the body of a serial axe-murderer, named Harold.
It is very difficult to describe where the book sits in relation to the others I have done this year, but equating it to some TV series, I would say that it has the working-class coal-face vibe of "Auf Weidersehen, Pet", the street-wise bitterness of "The Sweeney" and a healthy dose of foul language and arse jokes that would not be lost in an episode of "The Young Ones".
I still haven't the slightest idea of where I am going to go with this one, but it is bound to be a laugh.
Expect it to be released by the end of the year.
A quick post to say that Seven Realms publishing have released a sample of J. Kent Holloway's book The Djinn, which I narrated or "performed" as the new cover says.
I kind of like that!
Anyway....I'm off to the studio. Here is the sample. Enjoy!