Nice Review for The Traditional West

There's a nice review of THE TRADITIONAL WEST in the new issue of AT HOME IN THE SPANISH COSTAS, a Spanish magazine that's mostly in English (including the review). You can read it on-line here. You'll have to page through the magazine to get to it. I believe it's on page 34. Thanks to Nik Morton for the heads-up.


And don't forget that THE TRADITIONAL WEST is currently on sale for $3.99 for the e-book. For more than 120,000 words of top-notch Western fiction, that's a deal you can't beat.

Pearl Harbor

As I'm sure most of you know, this is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I didn't have any relatives there, but when I was researching my World War II novels several years ago I talked to some veterans who were there that day, as well as participating in such pivotal battles as Midway and the Coral Sea. Fascinating, horrifying, inspiring stuff. And talking to those gentlemen made me very grateful that they were there so decades later a scribbler like me can write about those events. Hats off to them all.

Update From James D. Best

Honest Westerns. Full of dishonest characters.

A great story is a great gift.

Steve Dancy tales are so real you can taste the dirt.

In 1879, Steve Dancy sells his shop in New York City and ventures west to explore and write a journal about his adventures. Is a New York City shopkeeper tough enough to survive the Wild West?

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: Zorro's Black Whip

(This post originally appeared in somewhat different form on October 4, 2004)


I wouldn't put ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP in the top rank of Republic serials, but it's very enjoyable. The plot is thin even by serial standards, and the villain is a scrawny little guy who doesn't live up to the great villainous standard of Roy Barcroft. But there's plenty of action, with numerous gunfights and a set-destroying brawl in nearly every episode. Stuff blows up real good a couple of times. The stunt work is excellent, with Babe DeFreest doubling Linda Stirling and Dale Van Sickel doubling George J. Lewis. Linda Stirling is considerably shapelier in the Black Whip costume than Babe is, so it's fairly easy to tell when they switch, but that's all right. Hal Taliaferro, also known as the early Western star Wally Wales, does good work as the villain's chief henchman. One of the opening credits says, "Zorro character created by Johnston McCulley". Well, yes, that's true, but it's got nothing to do with this serial, which never even mentions Zorro. I guess Republic figured they had paid for the right to use the name, so they might as well use it to try to boost revenues. All in all I had a very good time watching this and plan to start another serial soon. 


(To expand a little on the original post, here's the film's summary from IMDB: Hammond, owner of the town's stagecoach line and a leading citizen, is opposed to Idaho becoming a state, and kills Randolph Meredith, owner of the town's newspaper, for endorsing it. Meredith's sister Barbara, expert with a bullwhip and pistol, dons a black costume and mask and becomes "The Black Whip", dealing a blow to Hammond and his gang each time they perform some heinous act in their efforts to keep the town, and their power over it, unchanged. Aided by government agent Vic Gordon, Barbara confronts Hammond in a final showdown just as the town votes on whether or not to accept statehood.


I haven't watched a serial in quite a while. It's hard to find the time. But I may try again before too much longer.)

Beat to a Pulp: A Rip Through Time - Chris F. Holm, Charles A. Gramlich, Garnett Elliott, Chad Eagleton

BEAT TO A PULP: A RIP THROUGH TIME is further proof, as if we needed it, that David Cranmer is an inexhaustible source of ideas these days. He came up with the characters and basic plot for this series of short stories, then turned them over to authors Chris F. Holm, Charles Gramlich, Garnett Elliott, and Chad Eagleton to write. The result is this highly entertaining compilation that actually works quite well as a novel.

The story finds Temporal Security agent Simon Rip and the beautiful and brilliant scientist Dr. Serena Ludwig chasing Dr. Robert Berlin through time. Berlin, it seems has stolen his new invention from The Company, the 23^rd Century international cartel that Rip, Ludwig, and Berlin all work for. From prehistoric times to Arthurian England to the Havana of Ernest Hemingway in the late 1940s, the chase proceeds in an action-packed adventure very reminiscent of those fondly remembered AGENT OF T.E.R.R.A. novels by "Larry Maddock" that many of us read back in the Sixties.

Ah, but then things begin to take some unexpected turns. All is not as it seems. The stakes are ramped up until A RIP THROUGH TIME becomes a rather mind-boggling cosmic epic that reaches to the very ends of space and time. After all that, it seems odd at first that the book concludes with what appears to be a Victorian-era horror story, but again, things take an unexpected twist and this story cleverly serves as both prequel and coda to the rest of the novel. Then Ron Scheer provides an excellent afterword that looks at time travel in books and movies and speculates on the science involved in traveling through time.

One thing that seems to be missing in a lot of current science fiction is a sense of fun.  A RIP THROUGH TIME has that sense of fun, in spades, and manages to be thought provoking as well. I'm sure there's more to come from the crew that put this together, and I'm looking forward to it. Highly recommended.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Aces, February 1942

I was in the mood for a Norman Saunders cover, because you know there'll always be plenty of action going on in one of those. That's certainly true here. The inside appears to have been a good issue, with a lead novel by J. Edward Leithead, one of my favorites, and stories by Gunnison Steele, Lee Bond, and Allen K. Echols, among other, more unfamiliar names. Leithead had quite a history with WESTERN ACES during the Forties, appearing in nearly every issue with stories under his own name and the pseudonym Wilson Covert. All the ones I've read have been very good, too.

Blatant Spousal Promotion

Livia's work pops up in a couple of places today. You can read about "A Day in the Life of Phyllis Newsom" (the protagonist from the Fresh-Baked Mystery series) here. And Scott Cupp blogs about the urban fantasy novel WITCH GOT YOUR TONGUE on the Missions Unknown website. Check 'em out!

Forgotten Books: Steve Canyon 1950 - Milton Caniff

I've mentioned here before how fond I am of Milton Caniff's work on TERRY AND THE PIRATES. I've never liked STEVE CANYON quite as much, but hey, it's still Caniff, and that means it's well worth reading as far as I'm concerned.

So I didn't hesitate when I came across a trade paperback reprinting roughly an entire year of STEVE CANYON strips, dailies and Sundays. The year in question is 1950, and as we pick up the story, Steve, back on active duty in the Air Force after several years of running his air transport service, finds himself in China helping Chinese guerrillas battle against the Communists who have seized power.

There are five storylines in this year's worth of strips, none of which I had ever read before.  Steve and his Gabby Hayes-like sidekick, Happy Easter, help a British missionary and some Chinese orphans escape from the Red Chinese army, then Steve gets separated from his friends and winds up in an espionage plot when an American traitor tries to sell a "mechanical brain" (obviously an early computer) prototype to the Communists. The scene shifts back into the hills for some more adventures with the Chinese guerrillas, but the hero in these is young Reed Kimberly, a friend of Steve's. Finally, Steve travels to Vietnam, or French Indo-China as it's called then, to help track down a gun-runner known as "Monsieur Gros", or Mr. Big.

This is fine stuff, full of plot twists and action and humor, and Caniff's artwork is packed with details the likes of which you won't find in many comic strips today. It certainly doesn't hurt anything that several beautiful femme fatales such as Madame Lynx, Cheetah, and Herself Muldoon show up in these yarns. They don't quite reach the same level of sultry dangerousness that Caniff's previous creation The Dragon Lady did, but who could?

For my money, TERRY AND THE PIRATES is the best adventure comic strip of all time, just as Milton Caniff is the best adventure comic strip creator of all time. But STEVE CANYON is mighty darned good, too. I had a great time reading this collection, which was published by Checker Book Publishing Group in 2005. Checker published several other Steve Canyon collections, and you can bet I'll be tracking them down.

Review of The Paths of Righteousness

Keith West has posted a very nice review of my science fiction collection THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS on his blog. He says in part:


The stories are serious, meaning they aren't intended to be humorous or funny, but none of them have the dark, almost nihilistic tone that so much contemporary science fiction does, especially near future science fiction.  They reminded me of the science fiction I grew up reading, the old fashioned kind where the author told a story, told it well, and didn't try to beat me over the head with how clever he was with words or raise my social consciousness.  In other words, I was entertained, which is the primary purpose of good fiction.


You can read the whole review here.

Red Colt, Bounty Hunter

Want to listen to some hardboiled Western audio drama? Then you definitely need to check out the first installment of RED COLT, BOUNTY HUNTER, a short, gritty yarn called "The Girl". You can download it for free here.