Category Archives: DuckBob

Author's Spotlight, DuckBob, New Releases

The DuckBob Q & A with Aaron Rosenberg!

Leave a comment

Aaron Rosenberg — a best-selling author and founding member of Crazy 8 Press — is back again with his latest scifi comedy novel in the Duckbob Spinowitz Adventures, Not for Small Minds.

*   *   *

Q: For those not familiar with your Duckbob character… um… how exactly is it that he’s a… well… a duck… man? Who happens to be the key to saving the Universe? (Full disclosure, milk shot through my nose as I typed those words)

A: Right, so the short version—Bob Spinowitz is a regular guy who got abducted by aliens (the “Grays,” the ones you see in all those movies and TV shows and documentaries) and they altered him into this man-duck hybrid. Then dumped him by the side of the road and left him to pick up his life from there. He changed his name to “DuckBob” because he figured people would call him that anyway so why not defang them a bit by beating them to the punch?

Q: Sure, sure. So… Not for Small Minds is the fourth and — so far as you’ve said — the last novel in your DuckBob scifi comedy series. How does it feel to be at the end?
Continue reading

Author's Spotlight, DuckBob, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem: Read it Now: DuckBob: Killer Service

Leave a comment

“DuckBob: Killer Service” by Aaron Rosenberg is the wackiest (and final) tale of the bunch, wherein good ole DuckBob Spinowitz and his sexy gal pal Mary find their lives in peril thanks to a miscommunication between DuckBob and the funky new gadget he bought for home his home entertainment unit. Who knew that a mail-order gift to self could be so deadly?

To find out how—or if—DuckBob gets out of this one, here’s an early look:

DuckBob: Killer Service

By Aaron Rosenberg

“DuckBob—get down, my love!” Mary shouts as she hurdles the couch in an amazing display of beauty and grace—yes, I stop to admire her form, even in the midst of all this chaos—and dives behind it. The couch, ever helpful, rises and solidifies into a small shield wall to protect her.

It always did like her more.

For my part, I duck—yeah, ha ha, never heard that one before, only been ten years since the little gray aliens most people just call Grays abducted and altered me, you think in all that time no one’s ever made a “quack” at me before?—as something small, flat, circular, and silvery goes whizzing past right where my neck had been. Continue reading

Author's Spotlight, DuckBob, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem – It’s Always Good to Duck

Leave a comment

When Russ had the idea for our new Crazy 8 Press anthology, of course I was in. Who wouldn’t want to write a science fiction story about Love, Murder & Mayhem? The only problem was, I had to figure out what exactly I was going to write!

The most obvious answer was to do a straight-up noir, a dark, moody murder mystery with a heavy romantic element. But I knew plenty of others would have that genre covered. I also thought about writing a more modern mystery, more action-adventure with a touch of thriller, but again I knew there would be several of those. “What can I offer this anthology that nobody else can?” I wondered. And the reply was: DuckBob!

That made perfect sense. DuckBob Spinowitz is, after all, my favorite character to write (three novels, two short stories, and counting). He’s a ton of fun, and he is pretty much Mayhem personified, so I had that angle covered already. Plus DuckBob is very happily involved with the brilliant and lovely Mary, which took care of the Love aspect. Continue reading

Conventions, DuckBob, New Releases, News

Crazy 8 Returns to Shore Leave

Leave a comment

As part of our annual tradition, our Crazy 8 Press team of Aaron Rosenberg, Russ Colchamiro, Glenn Hauman, Peter, David, Robert Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman will descend on the Hunt Valley Inn for Shore Leave 39 from July 7-9, where we’ll be in full force (sans Paul Kupperberg, who is hiding out in the wilds of Connecticut concocting his next act of authorly mayhem).

Speaking of mayhem …

There wouldn’t be a Shore Leave without a Crazy 8 Press anthology, and we hope this year takes the cake! Debuting at the convention is this year’s anthology, Love, Murder & Mayhem, a collection of superhero, super villain, private eye, time travel travel, AI, dream surrogate, monster mash and DuckBob murder mysteries, with stories from not only the seven Crazy 8 Press members, but many of our friends, too, including attendees Hildy SIlverman, Kelly Meding, and Mary Fan,

The party starts with Meet the Pros at 10 p.m. on Friday with all the authors on hand to sign and sell books, shake hands, take selfies, and make madness. Hey. It’s what we do best. Continue reading

Author's Spotlight, DuckBob, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem – Confessions of Angela Hardwicke, P.I.

Leave a comment
  1. Confession time.

Our new Crazy 8 Press anthology — Love, Murder & Mayhem — came about for purely selfish reasons. And her name is Angela Hardwicke, but I’ll come back to that.

It was my turn among us Crazy 8 Press authors to run the new anthology. My theme was that each story (there are 15 total) had to include at least one act of love or romance, at least one murder, and mayhem welcome … with every story set within a science fiction setting.

I also opened up the doors (as we have been doing) to outside author friends of ours, and I insisted that the lineup include about an equal mix of male and female writers.

The stories are all one-shots … so there are no interlocking characters or inter-connected narratives. Each author delivered his or her own story, in their own distinct Universes.

But why this theme?

For the uninitiated … among works of fiction, I am the author of the three-book scifi backpacking comedy series that includes FINDERS KEEPERS, GENIUS DE MILO, and ASTROPALOOZA (the final book in the series, which launched earlier this year). Continue reading

DuckBob

NaNoWriMo Success Stories, or how DuckBob was born

1 Comment

“Write something different.”

That’s what my friend said to me. It was a challenge, really. We’d been talking about writing, and I’d mentioned that, for once, I might actually be able to do NaNoWriMo properly. I’d “sort of” done it once or twice before, by writing novels while it was going on, but I’d already been working on those when November had rolled around and so technically they didn’t qualify. But this time I had a gap in my writing schedule at just the right moment, and I thought “this time, I’m going to do it for real.”

The only question was, what to write? Which is where my friend’s challenge came in.

I decided to rise to the occasion. I’d written mostly genre action-adventure to this point, for properties like Star Trek and WarCraft and Eureka—lots of fun, lots of action, the occasional bit of humor but mostly serious, in the way that big-budget cinematic action is serious. Which is why I decided to do something actually full-on funny for a change. Continue reading