Sense of Adventure

… courtesy of the Gold Eagle art department - at the hest of their marketing department, I’m guessing.

My author’s copies of my newest Rogue Angel yarn, Secret of the Slaves, hit my front porch while I was off at Archon. If I’d known it was coming I could’ve asked them to ship me some to STL to give out at the con. Ah, well.

I don’t disapprove of the tattoo, not that it’d do me any good if I did. A bit surprising, but there it is. I do kinda like the tan lines they gave her.

On the whole I’d say it’s a pretty good cover (for a larger image, click here).

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Under my own name and everything!

It’s called Mechwarrior: Dark Age #26: A Rending of Falcons. Yes, it is another franchise piece. If you liked the first one, Mechwarrior: Dark Age #10: Flight of the Falcon, check it out. Or heck, if you just enjoy space opera involving giant robots. Although of course BattleMechs aren’t robots per se, but really big powered battle-armor suits. More like vaguely anthropomorphic tanks.

Even if I am playing in somebody else’s pool, it’s still my characters and my action. If you like the way I do those things, give the book a whirl. I think it’s a pretty cracklin’ yarn. Wait’ll you meet the fat but resourceful Baron von Texeira, Lyran merchant prince (and a whole lot more, to quote Eddie Lee, maitre d’ of the Dragon of the Black Pool) , and his less-than-obsequious aide Rorion. And of course if you enjoyed mad Malvina from my last one, she’s back - and badder and madder than ever!

I confess I announced this on my Forum a few days ago. Click here for the post, which details a bit of the history of the book (and its predecessor.) As I’ve mentioned, I’m still finding my way with this blog thing, and part of that is apportioning what fits the Forum and what fits here.

Since this blog is primarily about me as a writer of fine adventure fiction, it belatedly strikes me it’d be a good place to talk about my latest arrival. So I just did. So there.

I don’t actually watch Jericho. I tend to watch very little series TV.

That ‘fessed up to, I want to direct the attention of all my readers who do watch series to an online effort to save Jericho from cancellation. If you’ve enjoyed the show, or even think you might if it came ’round again, please cruise on over and give the site a look, sign their petition if so moved.

My vested interests in this are two. First, some of my pals from the [in]famous St. Louis Firehouse Gang of long years past have been working F/X on the show. While they assure me they’re not going to be on the bricks over the cancellation, it’d be nice for them to continue to be employed. When you’re dealing with Mad Geniuses of this caliber, idle hands really are the Devil’s playground.

Second: in general, as a guy who’s written a fair amount in the “After the Holocaust” genre - from The Guardians to Cybernetic Samurai to Deathlands - I, well, approve of that theme getting prime time airplay. Like The Dude, (and Earth itself in an early classic of the genre), it abides. Which is fine with me, since it’s a pool I’d like, and intend, to play in a bit more.

In a kinda sorta related subject, I continue to get fan email on The Guardians series. In a way it’s very cool, inasmuch as it’s been out of print for over 15 years and wasn’t printed under my name. It’s also a bit sobering that it’s what generates most of my fan email.

The usual query is whether there will be more Guardians books (short answer: probably not as such), with a fairly frequent kicker about the possibility of a Guardians movie (short answer: seems unlikely; I love the concept and think it could rock; please stay tuned). Real Soon Now I need to put together a boilerplate answer to send to these kind, interested folk, as well as post up on my Forum for all to read.

…when perusing the latest issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, for Number 416, May 6, 2007, I came upon a link to this piece by this suave devil.

A pleasant surprise, on the whole. I’m unsure why this was unearthed now. Possibly editor Ken Holder was trying to, ahh, tell me something…