Category Archives: News

The Adventures of Cannon Belle is Coming This Month

NEW YORK, NY – March 1, 2024— Author collective Crazy 8 Press announced today that the new swashbuckling historical romance The Adventures of Cannon Belle is now available in paperback and eBook formats.

Written by award-winning author Aaron Rosenberg, The Adventures of Cannon Belle chronicles the tale of Isabella Parsons, the well-mannered daughter of a Regency England baron, who lives a secret double life as the feared female pirate captain Cannon Belle Pearcy.

But when a handsome Navy commander is charged with quelling this dangerous pirate threat—and begins wooing the loveliest lady in the region—Bella’s two worlds collide.

“I first created the character for our pulp anthology Thrilling Adventure Yarns,” Rosenberg said.“I wanted to write a swashbuckler story with a different spin, so I came up with a female pirate captain, but one rooted in the Regency romance style a la Jane Austen. The response was so positive I kept coming back to her. With the novel, I was able to expand the scope of her adventures and raise the stakes in ways even I hadn’t anticipated.”

While much of Rosenberg’s work is filled with humor, The Adventures of Cannon Belle is a straight-up adventure-romance. In the novel, buccaneer Cannon Belle sails headfirst into the risks and rewards of a life split between polite society, ruthless pirates, and the most dangerous treasure of all—love.

            “Aaron is never satisfied working in just one genre,” said Crazy 8 Press founding member Bob Greenberger. “His ability to immerse himself—and the reader—into new and different worlds is always a thrill. I never anticipated a female pirate adventure or a romance novel from him, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. I hope Aaron will keep this habit going. Each story is better than the last.”

The Adventures of Cannon Belle is available for sale on Amazon.com.

Geoffrey Thorne’s Into the Mystic Collection is now Available

NEW YORK, NY – Author collective Crazy 8 Press announced today that Into the Mystic: Tales of the Grim Arcana, a collection of tales featuring creatures, dark magic, and other threats overflowing from Hell, is now available in paperback and eBook formats.

Written by TV writer Geoffrey Thorne, Into the Mystic: Tales of the Grim Arcana, collects five tales set in Arcana, a city on the border between the comfortable reality of what is known and the dangerous shadows of what the world has forgotten.

Into the Mythic was inspired by other series that blended dark fantasy, horror, and adventure, including The Dresden Files, TV’s Angel, and The Librarians.

“Arcana is the city where that creepy house at the end of the street absolutely lives up to its chilling reputation, where an overcrowded Hell sends its excess damned,” explains Thorne, who has also done tie-in work for Star Trek and Ultimate Spider-Man and was a writer on the hit series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Leverage, and The Librarians. “It’s the place where Creation sits in a ball the size of a snow globe, and Armageddon lurks in the alley outside your door.”

Featuring inventive world-building, shady characters, and threats to body, mind, and soul, these dark, fantastical tales were previously released individually as The Grim Arcana books, now collected for the first time. They also set the stage for an upcoming novel that will expand on the characters and mythology.

            “Geoff is a tremendous storyteller who blends the fantastical, the grim, and the hopeful,” said Crazy 8 Press founding member Bob Greenberger. “With Into the Mystic, he’s invited readers into a creepy and mysterious world that straddles the border of reality, dark magic—and terror.”

Into the Mystic: Tales of the Grim Arcana, is available for sale on Amazon.com.

Blunt Force Rising, 4th Angela Hardwick Novel, Launches Today

NEW YORK, NY – September 13, 2023— Author collective Crazy 8 Press announced today that Blunt Force Rising, the fourth novel in the Angela Hardwicke sci-fi noir series from Russ Colchamiro, is now for sale. Set entirely on a galaxy cruise ship, Blunt Force Rising is the most intense, nail-biting novel in the series to date.

Featuring hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke, who Colchamiro describes as part Blade Runner, part Doctor Who, part Sarah Connor, the future-set series has received high acclaim from award-winning sci-fi, crime, and horror authors and film directors.

“Russ Colchamiro has staked out a territory of sci-fi mystery uniquely his own,” says Nicholas Meyer, writer/director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. “With Angela Hardwicke, he mines a vein of pulp fiction gold.”

In this latest sci-fi mystery featuring the titular heroine, Hardwicke, and her protégé Eric Whistler are hired by Ther’eda Ranadyne, the realm’s sole creator of androids, to provide extra security during an industry conference aboard a galaxy cruise ship.

Isolated millions of miles from home, the event quickly devolves into heated arguments between the pro-android community and its detractors, while a murder sets off a harrowing chain of events, the likes of which even Hardwicke has never faced.

“With Blunt Force Rising, I challenged myself in ways I’ve never done before,” Colchamiro says. “Androids serve as surrogates for the various marginalized communities we see today, who are under constant assault simply for being who they are, with their attackers extolling a violent, irrational hatred they themselves don’t seem to understand, nor ones they can calmly articulate.”

Yet with Blunt Force Rising, Colchamiro promises more of his Hardwicke sci-fi noir escapism.

“Set in a near-future weird-science, cosmic techno-noir, and featuring my new favorite hardboiled sleuth, Colchamiro’s latest mystery, Blunt Force Rising, pits organics against androids and friends against one another in a breakneck thriller,” says Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner, and co-author of the Path of Ra series. “Deadly sharp social commentary delivered through hi-tech lenses. I love it!”

Colchamiro also notes that each novel in the series—which includes Crackle and Fire, Fractured Lives, Hot Ash, and Blunt Force Rising—is a stand-alone mystery. They can be read in any order, as in each mystery, he re-introduces the setting and characters for new readers.

Blunt Force Rising is on sale now in print and eBook formats.

ISBN: 978-0998364193

AISN: B0C9MWSPPK

MORE PRAISE FOR ANGELA HARDWICKE:

“I wanted to be Angela Hardwicke!” Linda D. Addison, Bram Stoker-award-winning author of How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend

“Colchamiro’s Fractured Lives is a fun house mirror of a compelling read.” Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepless City

“Angela Hardwicke is a wisecracking, tough, and tenacious PI worthy of unraveling a complicated investigation set in a fascinating universe without ever losing sight of the traits that make her—and by extension, us—human.” —Colorado Book Award-Winning author M.E. Browning

“[With Hot Ash], Colchamiro has created a fast-paced, action-packed sci-fi mystery. The gritty crime is well-crafted and unexpected, with punchy dialogue and graphic fight scenes that will appeal to genre fans.”  —The BookLife Prize

ABOUT RUSS COLCHAMIRO

Russ Colchamiro is the author of the ongoing sci-fi noir series featuring hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke. He is currently working on the fifth Hardwicke novel.

A member of Crazy 8 Press, Private Eye Writers of America, and board member of the Mystery Writers of America NY Chapter, Russ is also the co-author and editor of the noir novella collection Murder in Montague Falls, has contributed short stories to more than fifteen anthologies, including various Hardwicke mysteries, and is the author of the sci-fi adventure novels Crossline, Finders Keepers, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza.

Russ also hosts his popular Russ’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster podcast, interviewing a who’s who of science fiction, crime, mystery, and horror authors.

He lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, a black lab, Jinx, and precocious kitten, Callie, who both may be aliens as well.

Social Media:

Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads: @AuthorDudeRuss

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@authorduderuss/featured

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/russ.colchamiro

PHENOMENONS CON! Hear us talk about our new pantheon of superheroes!

On April 23rd, we’re going to launch a virtual convention–what we hope will become a perennial event–to promote our Phenomenons shared-world anthology series!

There will be two live, one-hour components–one at 4:00 p.m. EST and a second at 5:30 p.m. EST, each one featuring Crazy 8 members who are making big contributions to Phenomenons, as well as a special guest. In the first session, that guest will be Alex Segura, who’s taking the world by storm with his new novel, Secret Identity—and who’ll be contributing to the Phenomenons oeuvre starting with Volume 2! In the second session, our special guest will be Dan Hernandez, co-writer of the Pokémon Detective Pikachu and The Addams Family 2 movies–and a Phenomenons stalwart from the beginning!

Everyone will need to sign up for one session or the other in advance. Afterward, both sessions will be available on YouTube.

“Tickets,” which are free, are available first come first served.
In this first attempt at a virtual con, as there are a lot of moving parts, we fully expect some glitches and maybe even some missed opportunities. Rest assured that we’ll do our best to improve on them going forward.
As always, we’re grateful for your support–and Phenomenons Con is one way we intend to show it.

Attendees will receive a digital C8 eBook sampler.

Please pick hour #1 (special guest Alex Segura)
or hour #2 (special guest Dan Hernandez)

HOWARD WEINSTEIN RETURNS TO Crazy 8 with western rerelease

NEW YORK, NY – May 19, 2021— Author Howard Weinstein’s award-winning historical novel Galloway’s Gamble is shining up its spurs for a new romp through the Old West, with an assist from author collective Crazy 8 Press.

Inspired by high-spirited classics like Maverick, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting, Galloway’s Gamble tells the coming-of-age story of bickering brothers Jamey and Jake Galloway. After growing up in frontier Texas, they ride trails, rails, and riverboats on a rollicking odyssey, seeking their fortune at poker tables from New Orleans to ‘Frisco.

Originally issued by Five Star Publishing, Weinstein regained publishing paperback and ebook rights and is reissuing Galloway’s Gamble under the Crazy 8 Press banner and with a new cover.

Galloway’s Gamble might have been a Crazy 8 title in the first place,” Weinstein said. “But now that the rights have reverted to me, I’m happy to be rejoining the Crazy 8 gang for this reissue. I appreciate their warm welcome back into the asylum.”

“Howie is a dear friend and a great writer, so we were thrilled to give Galloway’s Gamble a new home,” said Crazy 8 Press co-founder Robert Greenberger. “It’s a great book that looks even shinier now with the Crazy 8 Press logo emblazed on its spine.”

An original Crazy 8 Press co-founder, this is Weinstein’s first publishing venture with his old gang. Predominantly known for writing Star Trek and other science fiction tales, Weinstein’s love of westerns came pouring onto the pages of this funny, heartwarming, and exciting tale.

Galloway’s Gamble is available for sale in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.

PRAISE FOR GALLOWAY’S GAMBLE

“Anyone who loves Charles Portis’s style of writing in True Grit…should look no farther than Howard Weinstein’s Galloway’s Gamble.”

True West Magazine

Galloway’s Gamble…is the whole package—entertaining, heartwarming, and historically accurate. Be prepared to have a new favorite author.” –Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Gunfight

“Howard Weinstein introduces the remarkable Cara Galloway and her two rambunctious sons, Jamey and Jake. Weinstein writes affable characters.”

 –W. Michael Gear, New York Times bestselling author of Flight of the Hawk

ABOUT HOWARD WEINSTEIN

Howard Weinstein writing credits include Star Trek: Mere Anarchy: The Blood-Dimmed Tide and six other Star Trek novels; 65 Star Trek comic-book issues from DC, Marvel, Malibu, and WildStorm; “The Pirates of Orion” animated Star Trek episode; story-development assistance on the classic Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; a biography of his childhood baseball hero Mickey Mantle; and Puppy Kisses Are Good for the Soul, a charming account of life with legendary Welsh Corgi Mail Order Annie.

Feel free to “friend”owieHowieSeSee Howard Weinstein on Facebook. Find more on his books, writing news, and occasional blogs at www.howardweinsteinbooks.com. 

Debra Doyle: 1952-2020

We are very sad to report that science fiction and fantasy author Dr. Debra Doyle passed away of a sudden cardiac event the evening of October 31, 2020 at the age of 67.

Debra was known for her numerous novels and stories co-authored with her husband James D. Macdonald (including their story “Gertrude of Wyoming” in our Altered States Of The Union anthology, her editorial work, her teaching work including her time with the Viable Paradise workshop, her doctoral thesis on Old English poetry, and her musical contributions to the Society for Creative Anachronism (under the name Malkingrey). She is survived by her husband, brother John Doyle, and children Katherine, Brendan, Peregrine, and Alexander.

The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to cover funeral costs, the extent of which is not currently known. Any additional funds raised beyond what is needed for burial will be used to ease the transition for her husband, Jim.

A wake will take place after the pandemic eases, as is believed Debra would prefer.

Her family is accepting messages and memories at this Google Form.

All of us here at the asylum offer our deepest condolences to her family, friends, students, and fans.