Beyond the Sea

This past Friday was the official launch of Beyond the Sea: Stories from the Underground.

The concept was simple: a picture of a boat beached on a spit of sand jutting out into a lake, or a bay, or maybe the sea. Then add the imaginations of a dozen authors. And what do you get? A superbly satisfying collection of short stories.

I’m proud to be one of the 12 Underground Authors contributing to this incredible collection of tales. My story “The Boat”, is my first return trip to the post-apocalyptic world of The Rocheport Saga in 4 years. I took the opportunity to coax out of Bill Arthur a story that took place before The Morning Star, which is Book 1 of the series.

Amazon reviewer J.S. wrote of “The Boat”:

C.W. Hawes wrote a compelling short story that I didn't want to come to an end. His words came alive and I joined in with the characters in a hair-raising survival journey in a post-apocalyptic world. Great world-building and great writing!

I’m pleased and humbled by that comment. And very glad I wasn’t a drag on the group effort! :)

As a reader, I was impressed with the overall quality of the stories. As can’t be helped, some were more appealing to me than others. That’s just how it is in an anthology. Not everything will please everybody. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

Nevertheless, the overall quality is high, and that should please any reader. I’m confident everyone will find a story they’ll fall in love with.

My personal favorites, the ones that especially caught my eye, were “Hemingway’s Boat” by Caleb Pirtle III, “The Encounter” by Ronald E Yates, and “Roses for Grant” by Richard Schwindt.

Pirtle’s story is a superb example of his ability  to capture a time and place, people it with true to life characters, throw in a bit of mystery and romance, and come up with a story that grabs you and doesn’t let go. In the short time that I’ve known him, he’s become one of my favorite authors.

I enjoy a good science fiction yarn, and Ron Yates has uncorked a real goodie in “The Encounter”. And when it’s coupled with a touch of slowburn terror, it’s a keeper. His knowledge of Southeast Asia and history adds a strong sense of place and color to the tale.

Richard Schwindt, as readers of this blog know, is one of my favorite contemporary writers. I think I’d buy his grocery lists. His story, “Roses for Grant”, is a beautiful slice-of-life tale about an older middle-aged couple. Their memories and the mission they are on. In some ways, it reminded me of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” in that the dialogue essentially carries the story. No narrator gets in the way of the couple on whom we are listening in.

Having written the above, I want to emphasize that there is something for everyone in Beyond the Sea — and what are my favorites may not be yours. Pick up a copy and see for yourself.

We the authors are donating the proceeds to Team Rubicon. A worthy organization. Check them out on their website.

You can pick up a copy of Beyond the Sea at Amazon. And when you do, you benefit yourself and the disaster relief efforts of Team Rubicon. 

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

For the Weekend 8

 This weekend I am offering a bit of a smorgasbord for your reading pleasure. A little something for everybody.

MACABRE

If the weird is your thing, or the paranormal, or horror, if you will, then look no further. One of my favorite authors, Crispian Thurlborn, has what you’re looking for!

Exit by Crispian Thurlborn is a fine tale of the bizarre, the uncanny, the weird, and, yes, horror. The slow burn and subtle kind of horror that doesn’t fully hit you until sometime after you’re done reading the book.

You can get Exit on Amazon.

I’ve become a big fan of occult detectives over the past year or so. And guess what? There is a magazine devoted to the occult detective. Its former name is The Occult Detective Quarterly, and the new name is Occult Detective Magazine.

If you’re into the occult, the paranormal, the weird — and you like mysteries as well — then Occult Detective Magazine is for you.

It’s available at Amazon.

CHRISTIAN FICTION

Do you like YA? Strong female characters? A faith that produces tough, resilient people? Then give CJ Peterson’s Strength From Within a try. Once again, you can find it at Amazon.

ROMANCE

Perhaps you’re looking for romance with a dash of mystery and angsty stuff dealing with PTSD, then NE Brown’s Carson Chance, PI series just might be your cup of tea. Check it out on Amazon.

POST-APOCALYPTIC

I’m a big fan of the cozy catastrophe — that version of the post-apocalyptic novel where the survivors try to create a better world than the one that was destroyed.

One of the finest writers of the cozy catastrophe today is Matthew Cormack.

Ganbaru is set in his Piranha Pandemic world. It’s a classic tale of good vs evil. The characters are dynamic and the situation he paints is totally realistic.

Get Ganbaru on Amazon.

SCIENCE FANTASY

Erik Ga Bean writes books that border on the surreal, with a delightful touch of whimsy.

You really shouldn’t ignore his Trifle Airship. It’s a delight and you can get it on Smashwords.

That ought to keep you going until next time.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

For the Weekend 2

I’m not a fan of social media. For the most part, IMO, it is a massive, non-productive time suck. Having written that, I want to qualify the statement by saying, every cloud has a silver lining — and that includes social media.

I’ve met some fantastic writers on Facebook and Twitter — people I’d never have otherwise met.

And many, if not most, of those writers are in the same position I am: their book sales are so low they are invisible on Amazon and elsewhere.

So I do my part to help promote my fellow writers. To promote good books that aren’t going to show in the first few pages of Amazon search results. Books that live somewhere below the top 300,000 in the paid Kindle store.

Today, I want to draw your attention to Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack.

If my memory serves me right, I met Matthew on Facebook. He refers to himself as a weekend writer. A hobbyist who is nevertheless serious about crafting a memorable story.

The world of the post-apocalyptic Piranha Pandemic is terrifyingly real. It is exactly how I see the survivors of a worldwide disaster coping — both the positive and negative, the good and the bad. The worldbuilding is stunningly realistic.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the first book set in the Piranha Pandemic world. I don’t want to gush, so I’ll simply say — I love this book.

Cormack has the ability to create characters so complexly real you think you’ve met them before. They are flesh and bones, meat and potatoes real.

He has uncanny psychological insight into how people act under stress and imparts that realism to his characters.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is told in a diary format that Cormack handles with aplomb. The narrative is natural. The narrator, Peter, draws you into his tale. It’s as if he is writing to you. Telling you his story.

Don’t Dream It’s Over has all the makings of a classic. The writing is better than that found in S. Fowler Wright’s classics Deluge and Dawn. The world is more realistic than that of George R  Stewart’s Earth Abides and John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is an amazing book by an amazing storyteller. Take a trip to a world that doesn’t exist, but very well could, all while sitting in your easy chair. And if you do, you’ll be prepared should COVID become truly terrifying.

You can get Don’t Dream It’s Over on Amazon for only 99¢, or for free on KU!

The Piranha Pandemic

Matthew Cormack is one in a legion of virtually unknown writers who are producing excellent fiction. Much of it better than what the big corporate publishers are giving the public to read. 

These independent author/publishers, indies for short, publish some doggone good stuff. Fiction that truly deserves a much wider audience. Fiction that is frequently far better than the best selling drivel being forced upon readers’s eyeballs.

Last week I introduced you to one such writer: Matthew Cormack. This week, I’d like to tell you a bit about two of his three books. Only two, because I haven’t read the third one yet.

The Piranha Pandemic Universe

Mr. Cormack has created a fictional universe that is incredibly believable. Starting with a mysterious and fast-acting virus that eventually wipes out most of humanity, Cormack then extrapolates what the world would be like for those who survived the pandemic — and, more importantly, how they would deal with being a survivor.

This form of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre is called a cozy catastrophe.

The term was coined by Brian Aldiss as a pejorative to describe the plot of Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.

In spite of Aldiss, the point of the cozy catastrophe is not a celebration of bourgeois values — it’s a celebration of hope in the indomitable human spirit.

Not dystopian in tone, the cozy catastrophe is utopian. Given the chance, we can indeed fix the mess we ourselves made of society and culture. At last, at long last, a broken world gets to be fixed.

The “fix”, of course, depends on the worldview of the writer of the story.

In my own cozy catastrophe, The Rocheport Saga, the protagonist, Bill Arthur, pursues his anarcho-capitalist libertarian dream. Very utopian indeed!

On the other hand, Matthew Cormack takes a much more realistic view of things: nothing will change, because people are people.

Don’t Dream It’s Over

The first novel set in the Piranha Pandemic universe is Don’t Dream It’s Over. It’s the story of Peter, who is not the most savory of protagonists. He’s pretty much like everyone we know: he has good points and bad points and sometimes the bad points do outnumber the good points. Although, through the course of the story, we see the dross slowly burned away to reveal a pretty doggone good guy. A good guy who’d been corrupted by modern society.

Peter decides to leave London, leave England. At first, his only goal is to reach the Mediterranean. However, as he meets other survivors along the way, and sees how they are coping or not coping with the aftermath of the plague, his own goal begins to change. And by the end of the book, Peter truly is the hero of the story.

Cormack is a cracker jack writer. He makes the epistolary novel form come alive. And he does this by giving us real people in very lifelike situations. That is Cormack’s gift: an eye for people. He’s a canny observer of life and puts those observations into his books.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is a long book: over 250,000 words. Long books aren’t my cup of tea. Yet once I started Don’t Dream, I was hooked. The story was compelling and the book didn’t lag as so many long novels do.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about Don’t Dream was the realism. No dystopia or utopia here. Although there are dystopian and utopian groups encountered by Peter on his journey to find himself. Which is just another way of saying that we find here real people in real situations.

As one reviewer wrote: “…boy does this book stay with you long after you have finally put it down.” And it does.

Ganbaru

Ganbaru is the second book set in the Piranha Pandemic universe. The story revolves around a completely different set of characters then we encountered in Don’t Dream.

The setting is England. Rural England. And here we have utopia meets dystopia. A small group of survivors intent on making the world a better place, collide with a much larger group led by a real bad egg named Baz. The story line revolves around how the small group can become free from the large group, after Baz’s group takes them over.

I don’t want to spoil the story. You’ll have to read it on your own — and I definitely encourage you to do so.

Once again, Cormack gives us real people in realistic settings which results in a very believable story. A story so believable you tend to forget you’re reading a novel.

Ganbaru is a cozy catastrophe that is largely a thriller laced with a heaping helping of suspense. In my opinion, Cormack has taken the cozy catastrophe and made it a genre for today, yet keeping true to the sub-genre’s roots.

Here’s my review from Amazon:

Matthew Cormack’s Piranha Pandemic Universe is a scary place. The survivors are fighting nature, dwindling resources, and themselves.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the first book set in this universe. The story is superbly told, for Mr Cormack is a superb storyteller.

Ganbaru gives us a look at a different part of the Piranha Pandemic Universe. A small group of survivors, who are principled persons, want to start rebuilding a better world, and have begun their project in an old abandoned priory.

As fate would have it, they meet a larger group that is pragmatically ruthless. The clash of civilizations, as it were, makes for exciting reading.

Ganbaru is a realistic post-apocalyptic tale. There are no zombies or aliens or monsters — unless we, ourselves, qualify as the monsters.

The story is told well and peopled with real-life characters in real-life situations who must make difficult decisions.

A fabulous story by a fabulous writer.

A fabulous writer indeed.

In these days of pandemic, I encourage you to read Matthew Cormack’s books. Because, at the end of the day, he’ll give you hope — and that’s exactly what we need.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is available from Amazon US and UK.

Ganbaru is available from Amazon US and UK.

The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns… is available from Amazon US and UK.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

My 2018 Reading Recap

Today begins a new year. So I thought I’d recap some of the excellent books and stories I read in 2018.

I’m loathe to rank the books I read, and I definitely don’t like to single one out as the Best of the Year. Mostly because tastes change and what I put on top today, I might put in the middle tomorrow.

That being written, 2018 was a banner year because I discovered many wonderful writers and even more truly fabulous books and stories.

What I thought I’d do is look over the 43 novels and novellas, the 5 short story collections and 37 individual short stories, and the 8 books of non-fiction I read and give some a shoutout. Good reads with which to load up your ereader for 2019.

Quite a few of the books I read in 2018 I’ve already promoted on Twitter, featured as my Book of the Week on Facebook, or written reviews for this blog. The rest are waiting for their turn in the limelight.

As a reader, I don’t usually finish a book that isn’t holding my attention. I’m 66 and there are too many good books out there to waste time on the bad ones. After all the actuarial tables aren’t on my side.

I also don’t bother with books touted as bestsellers or award winners. Mostly because the disappointment factor is very high with those books. I’ve discovered true gems amongst the books that are not bestsellers and amongst those that have garnered no awards.

Success is largely a matter of luck, and generally has nothing to do with talent. In writing, as in life, persistence is the key.

Now on to the books!

Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer by Francis L and Roberta B Fugate. This is the best book on writing I’ve ever read. And I’ve read quite a few. The book is about the writing career of Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason. The Fugates had access to the vast archive of Gardner’s notebooks, letters, and papers. The writing advice comes straight from Gardner himself — and the book is full of wisdom. Every writer who is serious about selling his or her work should have this book. And readers interested in the creative process, should also have this book. It’s a treasure trove.

I love short stories and short novels. Too often long works are filled with unnecessary padding — stuff that doesn’t contribute much, if anything, to the story.

However, I did read a couple of hefty tomes in 2018. And neither one had any flab. They were:

Church Mouse by RH Hale

Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack

I’ve previously extolled (and will continue to do so) the virtues of Church Mouse. It’s a powerful novel with exceedingly well-drawn characters. A very memorable read. A modern day classic.

Note: Due to Amazon’s anti-small author policies, Church Mouse is not available in the Amazon US store. The links take you to Ms Hale’s website and from there you can purchase the book at the vendor of your choice.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve ever read. Matthew Cormack, with a deft hand, paints us a world that is not nice — but wherein lies much hope. Hope for a better future than what we might have gotten in the old world.

The book is also one of the most in depth character studies I’ve ever read. You have to read Kazuo Ishiguro to find something similar. An excellent, excellent read.

Now on to the shorter stuff!

In 2018 I made the acquaintance of quite a number of new (to me) writers. Some of these were:

Richard Schwindt

Joe Congel

Seabury Quinn

Stephen A Howells

Ernestine Marsh

Ray Zacek

Simon Osborne

Andy Graham

Zara Altair

Mark Carnelley

John Paul Catton

These men and women will provide you with many hours of great reading pleasure. So let’s look a bit further and see what kind of pleasure they will bring.

Richard Schwindt has 10 works of fiction (by my count) and I’ve read 8 of those works. He’s an entertaining writer, who delivers good mysteries and occult detective tales, along with imaginative fantasy and paranormal reads. His books are infused with humor, and always give me food for thought.

To start, check out Herkimer’s Nose and Fifty-Seven Years (written under his Will Swift byline). Great reads by a great author!

Joe Congel writes traditional private detective mysteries. His books and stories give a nod to the Golden Era of the mystery, while at the same time being very modern reads. If you like the old school mystery, you’ll like Joe Congel’s Tony Razzolito!

The late Seabury Quinn was a very prolific writer during the pulp magazine era. His first published story was in 1918 and his last (I believe) was in the early 1950s. He wrote across many genres, but is best known for his stories in Weird Tales magazine. He was that magazine’s most popular author, and I can see why. The occult detective Jules de Grandin is his most well-known character.

Stephen A Howells has one book published to date, and in my opinion it is a big time winner. The Garden of Jane Pengelly is part ghost story, part love story, part fantasy, and part magical realism. And it is all wonderful! Mr Howells can tug at your heart strings, so have the tissue box handy. You will love this book.

Ernestine Marsh is the queen of the bitingly satirical comedy novel. Agonising is a look at our foibles and how ridiculous we as a species are at times. Ms Marsh wades in with no holds barred and pulls no punches. I laughed with every page I read. I can’t wait to read the sequel, In Agony Again. Voltaire move over.

The work of Ray Zacek can be darkly humorous, or satirical, or just plain dark. I like his stories very much. My favorite to date is Daguerreotype. The tale is a haunting exploration of our dark side and the risk of indulging it. Treat yourself to Mr Zacek’s work. You won’t regret it.

Simon Osborne’s post-apocalyptic novel, Off Grid, begins with an alien invasion — and the aliens don’t want us around. The rest of the book is a story of survival, planning for the future, and deciding how to get rid of the aliens so we have a future. Off Grid is well-written and just plain good.

In the two works by Andy Graham that I’ve read, he gives us wonderfully dark tales. Stories that explore the unseemly part of our psyche and of our soul. An Angel Fallen is especially powerful and memorable. Do check out his work. You won’t be sorry.

Zara Altair writes mysteries set in Ostrogoth Italy a couple decades after the fall of the western Roman Empire. Argolicus is a retired Roman bureaucrat who gets involved in solving murders — in a culture where murder is not a crime! Give the Argolicus mysteries a try. Start with The Peach Widow.

Mark Carnelley has written an intriguing post-apocalyptic book, The Omega Chronicles, where only one person survives the disaster. What would you do if the survivor was you? Definitely worth your time.

John Paul Catton’s work is remarkable for its inventiveness. Tales from Beyond Tomorrow, Vol 1 is a short story collection that explores a variety of themes. A writer decidedly outside the norm. Take a read!

Now on to a few authors who are no stranger to this blog.

If you have a penchant for stories that have the qualities of a fairy tale, then Sarah Zama’s The Frozen Maze is for you. Quite good!

Jack Tyler’s work makes a strong contribution to the good old-fashioned adventure yarn. However, the book that has impressed me the most is his epic fantasy novel, The Stone Seekers. Mostly because it isn’t a Tolkien ripoff. It’s fresh and creative. The book breathes new life into a sub-genre that is filled with hack writing. Do check out The Stone Seekers.

Mannegishi by Ben Willoughby is an inventively dark take on a Native American legend. If you like horror, you’ll like Mannegishi. And all of Willoughby’s other horror tales.

It is no secret that I am very fond of the work of Crispian Thurlborn. And his latest story, Exit, does not disappoint. Thurlborn’s work is imaginative and at times difficult to categorize. It’s often darkly humorous, and written in a style that would make Dickens envious.

Exit is a story that would have made a stunning episode on The Twilight Zone. It’s a good example of dreampunk (you know, Alice in Wonderland) — and it is simply fabulous. Can we actually change our lives? Or are we doomed to live them forever on repeat? Read Exit and then try to answer those questions.

So that’s my reading recap for 2018. Now on to 2019. I’m currently reading Frank Belknap Long’s early Cthulhu Mythos novel The Horror from the Hills. And I’m looking for some good writers to explore this year. If you have suggestions, let me know.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Some Very Good Reads

Last week I talked about being a reader. I love reading and can’t talk enough about the joy of books. They truly are fab friends.

This week, I thought I’d talk a bit about some of the great books and stories I’ve been reading of late. I’m an advocate for the underdog. For those writers who are good and just can’t seem to get any traction for their books. I like to promote those writers whenever possible.

Two of my recent reads I mentioned last week: Mark Carnelley’s The Omega Chronicles and RH Hale’s Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant. So let’s take a look at what else I’ve been reading over the past couple months.

Entangled by J. Evan Stuart

This one I’ve started re-reading: Entangled by J. Evan Stuart. The book is part police procedural mystery, part coming of age novel, and partly a YA/NA read. 

The novel is Stuart’s debut work and it is a real winner. Exceptionally well-written, with characters you’ll fall in love with (well, there are one or two you won’t; but then you aren’t supposed to), and mucho suspense. I’m very much surprised this one isn’t jumping off the charts. But it isn’t. It’s in Amazon’s sub-basement. Which is too bad.

And Stuart has seemingly disappeared as well, which is also too bad. I hope he returns to bring us more Detective Sonya Reisler adventures. And who knows? Maybe a few sales and reviews would do the trick. I hope so.

Don’t pass this one up. It’s a keeper and exclusive to Amazon, so KU folks read for free.

The Stone Seekers by Jack Tyler

I just finished Tyler’s foray into epic fantasy. And it is amazing. Tyler is normally a steampunk writer, which makes this work a surprise — and a very pleasant one.

There is no hint of Tolkien in The Stone Seekers. And I like that. This work is plowing fresh territory. The Tolkien pastiches put me off of epic fantasy. Tyler, if he writes more, could bring me back.

This one is only 99¢ at Amazon. Snarf it up today!

Off Grid by Simon Osborne

A fabulous post-apocalyptic novel that made me sit up and take notice was Off Grid by Simon Osborne. It’s a great survival story. And aside from the aliens, is very realistic. Harry Lennard survives the initial invasion and now he has to survive day to day. A well-written adventure. Part Earth Abides and part Day of the Triffids.

Given the rising prices of indie authored books, this one is a steal at $2.99 on Amazon. Get it today!

The Anuvi Incident by James Vincett

James Vincett is another writer who’s seemingly disappeared — and that’s too bad for us. Nevertheless, his The Anuvi Incident is excellent. If you like military sci-fi, you don’t want to miss this. And if you don’t, that’s okay because The Anuvi Incident is also about what it means to be human. A fast-paced sci-fi war story that is also a little philosophy. A dynamite combo.

Give The Anuvi Incident a try. Vincett has created a fabulous universe.

Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan by Bryan C Laesch

I like horror. Not the blood and guts, hack and slash, splatter punk kind, but the slow burn psychological kind.

Bryan C Laesch’s Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan is a collection of three stories that are a bit slow burn and a bit on the violent side. But there is no gratuitous violence for the sake of violence. Which for me is good storytelling.

Laesch has succeeded in giving us monster stories (and who doesn’t like monster stories?) that are a touch out of the ordinary, perhaps even a touch unique. There is no reason his book should be gracing Amazon’s sub-basement. It is too good for that.

So do yourself and the author a favor and pick up a copy.

The Argolicus Mystery Series by Zara Altair

Argolicus, that Roman public servant living in Ostrogoth Italy, was a delightful find. Sometime ago I asked in a Facebook group for books to read that were not in the top 300,000 on Amazon. Zara Altair stepped forward and volunteered her mysteries — and I’m glad she did.

If you like mysteries, good ol’ Whodunits and not these repetitively boring thrillers, and you like history — than Argolicus is for you.

The stories are set in Ostrogoth Italy 20 years after the fall of Rome, which is a period of time rather neglected by historians. Argolicus has retired and finds himself involved in solving murder after murder — in a time when murder wasn’t a crime!

These are well-written and interesting books. Take a look at Zara’s Amazon page. All are good. Pick one. Any one! You won’t be disappointed.

Next week I’m going to take a look at the man who saved Weird Tales magazine and what that means for us readers today.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!