Writers and Monsters

"High Moon", my new Haxan story, is now up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Please, click the banner to read the story. Hope you like it:

Hooray! The hits keep a'comin', haha. My NEW Haxan short-short "Three Wise Men" was accepted and is now up at The Western Online.

This was kind of experimental for me. I don't often write short-shorts. This one clocked in at 1300-words, but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it, too. Please, click on the banner below to see the story and let me know what you think, or let the editor of the magazine know.

Thanks, guys! :)

The Western Online has just published my brand new Haxan story "In the Image of Our Maker". Yay! So please click on the link below to check it out, and I hope you enjoy the story. Thanks, guys!  :)

My Haxan story "Till Death Do Us Part" was accepted by The Western Online and it's up now if you want to read it. Hope you like it!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies told me today my story "High Moon" will be published in December. It's a Haxan story (what isn't these days) and I hope you like it.

But until then, if you haven't had the chance, or if you are new to my LJ, please check out the original story "Haxan" and the podcast as well published at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

And don't forget the Haxan Page and Haxan Gallery for added content, character biographies and other neat stuff.

(Hey, you gotta get your Haxan fix someway, haha. Yes, I know I'm being silly, but it's that kind of night.)

Susie Hawes of Whispering Dragons Digital Magazine interviewed me for the first issue. Click on the link below and download the PDF (it's free!) and check it out. Hope you like it! :)

Whispering Dragons Digital Magazine

I updated my website. There are new professional writing links, some new articles, and on the Haxan page "How I Created Haxan" that I hope you will enjoy. There's also a new Sample Story, "Ashes, Ashes!" first published by Cosmic Science Fiction in 2004 and I've posted the cover for the upcoming anthology Destination: Future by Hadley Rille books which will include my story "Rubber Monkeys."

Just click on the Haxan badge below and you'll be brought right to it.

Enjoy!  :)

My interview of David Weber is now live at Strange Horizons. Give it a peek!

Wordcraft and War Fiction: An Interview with David Weber

I set up an account with CafePress and now have Haxan gear for anyone who might want mugs, tote bags, throw pillows, clocks or shirts. All kinds of cool stuff!

I've kept the price as low as possible. Not interested in making money, just having Haxan Gear out there for fans who have asked about it. I ordered a coffee mug first to make sure they look okay, and I have to admit they are great.

So if you're interested just click on the mug below and you can see all the Haxan Gear that is currently available. Hope you like it! :)

For those who are interested, I've included a new page on my website, a HAXAN GALLERY. Check it out if you have time. I hope you like it.

I've also updated many other features of my website, including the News Page, with new writing links for those seeking to perfect their craft, and my essay titled "What I Learned in New Mexico", along with a brand new Sample Story called "The Perfect Quest" published by SDO Fantasy in 2004.  It's another Sugawara story, for people who like his adventures.  I've also updated my FAQ Page (with additional questions about Haxan I've been getting from people) and Links that you may like to follow.

Also included on the Haxan Gallery page is added content entitled "How I Tried to Find Haxan" for the fans. So there's lots for you to enjoy and browse around on if you are so inclined.

Have fun!

My dark fantasy story "The Gate Between Worlds" is now up at Drops of Crimson Magazine. HOORAY! This is their YA issue and I'm really happy to appear in it.

This is my story about the Buddhist Nun, and zombies, and fried chicken and honey biscuits. Now, c'mon, how many stories like that have you read recently?

Click on the banner below and read the story about Mama Luiz and her sixteen-year old Buddhist Nun charge, Lilith Boddicea (who tries to be a good Buddhist Nun but that whole "non-violence" thing is a sticking point).  They solve crimes!  They eat honey biscuits!  And did I mention zombies?

Hope you like it!

My story "Haxan" is now offered as a podcast by Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Click on the banner below and you'll be taken to the page where you can either listen or download the story in an MP3 file. Hope you enjoy it!

Drops of Crimson accepted my YA dark fantasy story "The Gate Between Worlds"! This is way cool. I really love this story and I love the protagonist: a six-foot, sixteen-year old Buddhist nun who has difficulty living up to her vow of non-violence. Oh, and there's a New Orleans obeah with a degree in anthropology, a gruesome murder, a Fried Chicken King who sells honey biscuits, and one or two zombies in the mix.

No, not the flesh-eating kind, but zombies as they were traditionally envisioned.

So. Yeah. Buddhist nun and zombies. Oh, and honey biscuits. What's not to like?

I'll post a link when the story goes live. Hope you enjoy it!

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is having a poll whether to podcast my story "Haxan" or some other story. If you have time could you please go over there, register as a member (it's free) and vote for "Haxan"? Thank you! http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=285

</a></b></a>wedschilde created an awesome Haxan banner for my website. I'd really like for you to take a look and tell me (and her) what you think. I believe she captured Haxan perfectly. And when you go to the website and click on the banner it brings you directly to the Haxan page. How cool is that? (George Jetson would be envious of the ease which surrounds our lives, although he does have that flying bubble car and automatic dog walker.)

Oh, other new stuff on the website, too, including a new sample story "Hour of the Tiger" which was my first Sugawara story ever published and some other little bits and pieces, links to other articles and stuff. But, imo, that Haxan banner rocks.

Man. If that's not reason enough to party right there then I dont know what is. Have a good Monday and a great Memorial Day!  :)

CHECK OUT THE HAXAN BANNER!

Woo hoo! My story about Sugawara the samurai has just gone live in Drops of Crimson Magazine. Click on the link below and you can read how Sugawara takes down the sea devil.  Hope you like it! Check out the other fiction in the magazine, too.  :)

Beneath Ceaseless Skies bought my story "High Moon" yesterday. It's one of the Haxan series and actually gives a little peek into Marwood's distant past.  (Assuming he's just not slap crazy and imagining all this which is always a possibility.)

And there's more! I have three new character biographies on my Haxan webpage. Yay! Free content!  So check it out, please, and read about Black Sky, Dr. Rex Toland, and Hew and Alma Jean Clay, all citizens of Haxan. (Some more reputable than others, thank you very much, but that's Haxan for you.)

So far so good this week. Patrick had a good baseball game yesterday with a hit and assist to tag out a runner on first base. They lost the game but he was excited about how well he played. I placed a Sugawara story with Drops of Crimson, sold a new Haxan story to Beneath Ceaseless Skies and have new Haxan biographies posted for fans. Later today I'll have BBQ chicken, chili hot beans, potato salad and vodka gimlets to celebrate.

Much excitement in the Hoover Clan!  Woo HOO!

My short story "Sugawara and the Sea Devil" has been accepted by Drops of Crimson. I'm pretty stoked about this. I like this magazine. It's gotten a lot of attention lately because the stories inside are, you know, good.

Personally speaking, I LOVE this story about Sugawara. It's without a doubt my absolute favorite. Partly, because he does some un-Samurai like things and there's lots of martial arts as well. (Well, okay, you got me. It's a Suguwara story. There's always martial arts.)

But one of the things he does is use a naginata to fight the "sea devil" because no other available weapon will give him the reach he needs from the platform he has to fight from. (Yes, that's a tease.)

Now I know what you're saying. Big deal, he's using a fancy spear. Except a naginata was historically a weapon intended for use by samurai women. (Yes, there were female samurai.) Some male samurai might eschew using a naginata even though it was studied by men, just not as much. But that doesn't bother Sugawara because he wants to stay alive. Or try to. Silly bastard.

Look for the story at the end of April. (I think.) Of course I'll provide links and stuff. Yay!

U.S. Marshall John Marwood primarily uses a .44-caliber Colt Dragoon. This is a single-action pistol. That means he has to cock the trigger back every time he shoots. He can't stand there pulling on the trigger and blasting willy nilly like the Lone Ranger or Roy Rogers or some other cartoonish character on television. He has to stand under the returning fire of his opponent, cock his gun and aim.  And the guy across the plaza has to do the same thing. The type of six gun you see in Lone Ranger episodes and the like didn't exist until much later in the century.

Sometimes a man would "fan" the trigger, but this was rarely done because you couldn't really hit anything. Better to take your time, aim well, and fire. Though gunfights themselves were extremely rare in the West, the man who aimed the straightest often beat the man who drew the fastest. That was the reality of the world back then, even in the world of Haxan. Speed was helpful...but aim was better. And since Marwood uses a Colt Dragoon, a fairly heavy gun even for 1874, it's his aim and not his speed that wins the day. So far, anyway.

The Colt Dragoon was a popular gun during the Civil War and afterward. Wild Bill Hickock and other persons of that era also carried it. The gun wasn't loaded with cartridges you see on gun belts in movies. It was a ball and powder pistol fired with a percussion cap. Though the cylinder has six holes drilled into it, Marwood only loads his gun with five. The hammer is kept on an empty chamber for safety purposes. Only if he has time before he goes into action will he load that sixth chamber. (Most gunfighters did this. They figured if you can't kill someone with five rounds a sixth isn't going to help. You'll be dead by then anyway.)

As with most people who use a gun like this, Marwood reloads it every morning. Moisture in the night air can dampen the gunpowder and  cause a misfire (Admittedly, this was less likely to happen in the desert where the humidity is low.) It was smart tactics to reload your gun every morning for the day. And as powder, conical slug and percussion cap cost about eight cents each, this added up to a lot of money, about $2.40 a month. That's not chicken feed, and when you add in the cost of practice then it really mounts up.

People often used rifles and shotguns to hunt and protect themselves back then, even in Haxan. But they were under NO illusion as to what a revolver was for. It was made to kill people. It had no other use and people of the West understood this. Guns -- revolvers -- were made to kill other human beings.  That was their main function.  Men, and not a few women, didn't purchase revolvers and plink away at cans and bottles just for laughs.

One last note. Often you see movies and old shows from the 1950s get the terms "gunman" and "gunfighter" mixed up. They aren't interchangeable. A "gunman" is a bad guy or someone who sells his gun for murder. A "gunfighter" is someone who is working on the side of the law. The men and women of the real West knew this difference and would never have confused the two terms.

Whether Marwood is a "gunman" or a "gunfighter" is left to the reader to decide.

Below is a pic of a Colt Dragoon. This is very similar to the one Marwood uses, except his sports a "yellow bone" handle. Once again, I'll leave it to the reader to imagine what kind of bone it might have been.

Some people have commented on the story in the Beneath Ceaseless Skies forum. They've been very nice. If you care to read their comments then CLICK ME HERE.