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Listen to Your Toaster!

Paul Kupperberg • April 1, 2024

A free sample short story from The Devil and Leo Persky

I used to be a writer and editor for Weekly World News, the fake news supermarket tabloid that chronicled such phenomena as Bat Boy, Big Foot, alien babies, and Elvis sightings. The job of a WWN writer was to think up crazy shit and write a couple of hundred humorous words on it because, of course, everything we published was fake...except for the disclaimer in six-point type at the bottom of page three that confessed we were just funnin’ you for entertainment purposes.

I missed WWN when it folded in 2007. Not only was it a great day job where I got to work with a small staff of friends (including fellow Crazy 8’er Bob Greenberger), but writing those wacky articles was fun. It was all about starting with a premise loosely based on reality; an idle thought about what happened to the rest of the rabbits whose feet were used to make good luck charms, I wrote an article about the disabled surviving hares bringing class action lawsuits against rabbit’s foot manufacturers. I turned historical speculation about Abraham Lincoln’s mental health into a story in which he was a straitjacketed lunatic. Anything and everything was fodder for a WWN story.

A couple of years later, I was invited to contribute a short story to a horror anthology with a vampire theme. In search of a protagonist, I eventually hit on the thought of making him a reporter for WWN, but not exactly my WWN. Instead, this version of the paper existed in a world where every single word it published was true, from aliens to zombies. I’ll admit, there was a tinge of Carl Kolchak of The Night Stalker fame in my thinking, but considering the extreme wackiness of the average Weekly World News stories, I wanted to inject a lot more humor into the character and the stories. At first, I was leaning towards someone modeled after a fictitious WWN “contributor,” Matthew Daemon, the creation of the real WWN contributor, the late Dick Siegel, and star of the comic strip I had commissioned in my editorial capacity from Mike Collins.

Matthew Daemon was your typical big, strong, trench coat- and slouch-hat-wearing supernatural adventurer. But, as dad-bodied Kolchak proved, big and strong isn’t as funny as an ordinary guy, and if an ordinary guy was funny, a little nebbish guy was even funnier. Yeah, I’m looking at you, pre-Interiors Woody Allen!

So with Woody and Arnold Stang (a comic actor best known as the voice of Top Cat and for his role in 1970’s Hercules in New York), I went total nebbish and found Leo Persky there waiting for me. Recognizing that at 47 years old and “five foot seven, 142 pounds, glasses, and a spreading bald spot that’s got me to wearing a hat,” he wasn’t the most imposing authority figure, Leo, a third generation monster hunter, has adopted the name and photograph of his strapping, imposing grandfather Terrence Strange for professional use.

“Man Bites Dog” was the result, and even before I was finished with the first story, I knew this wouldn’t be the last time I visited with Leo Persky. In fact, I went back to Leo and his world of genies, aliens, and snake-gods, five more times, including a story starring Leo’s Mom, the little old tough-as-nails septuagenarian Barbara in another vampiric encounter, “Come In, Sit Down, Have a Bite” for the Crazy 8 anthology Bad Ass Moms. And then, because I still wanted to play some more with Leo, the novella, “The Devil and Leo Persky.” And I have a feeling I’m still not done with him!

But look, you don’t have to take my word about how much fun Leo is. I’ve posted “Man Bites Dog” in its entirety over on my website as a free sample that will hopefully whet your appetite for more. As Leo says, “The government learned a long time ago that the best way to keep a secret was to tell it to everyone...because only the nutjobs are ever going to ask in the first place.”

Or as former Weekly World News managing editor Sal Ivon once famously said, “If someone calls me up and says their toaster is talking to them, I don't refer them to professional help, I say, ‘Put the toaster on the phone’.”

The Adventures of Cannon Belle is Coming This Month

Bob Greenberger • March 1, 2024

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.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7KlPa_ciNk

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

Bob Greenberger • February 26, 2024

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgJPNHrjdwk

“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

Bob Greenberger • September 13, 2023

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

“What Took You So Long…?”

Howard Weinstein • August 16, 2023

There’s an old Yiddish saying that translates to: “Man plans, and God laughs.” Boyohboy, did the Writing Gods yuck it up at my expense.

FLASHBACK: Things were going swimmingly for me in September 2017. My new book Galloway’s Gamble had just been published by Western-historical fiction specialist Five Star Publishing, and (after four decades writing lots of Star Trek and other science fiction) my very first historical novel also won a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award—a little icing on the cake.

When my Five Star editors asked for more stories about endearingly argumentative brothers Jamey and Jake Galloway, I thought I’d won the writer’s lottery! I’d stumbled into a new storytelling niche I loved. I was embarking on my very own novel series. And I believed I’d found a happy publishing home for the rest of my writing days.

But . . . “Man plans, and God laughs.”

Right around the time Galloway’s Gamble came out, I started having back problems that would keep me from sleeping for the next four years (which ain't good for the brain). After twenty different medical practitioners, umpteen different drugs, and back surgery all failed to help; I’d lost four productive years and counting (although many people suffer far worse misfortune than I did).

Speaking of which, there was also that disruptive little pandemic thing.

Then a tiny miracle happened—no thanks to all those doctors, I accidentally discovered a prescription drug combo which actually enabled me to get some sleep (and hasn’t caused alarming side-effects, like growing a second head or third arm . . . yet). I was able to resume making slow, steady progress on Galloway’s Gamble 2 and finally finished it—YAAAAAY!!!—only to learn that Five Star was being shut down by its parent company after 27 years of publishing award-winning fiction. Noooooo!

Faced with the reality that few other publishers (the kind that actually pays their writers, anyway) are doing this kind of book, I made the decision many fellow writers have also made—to self-publish. So that’s how I and Galloway’s Gamble 2: Lucifer & The Great Baltimore Brawl ended up at Crazy 8 Press, the writers’ collective I helped found a dozen years ago. Galloway’s Gamble 2 is the second book from Crazy 8’s new Western-historical imprint Silverado Press.

While science fiction has to be plausible, historical fiction has to be accurate. So, once I decided to write about 19th-century horse racing–America’s first true national sport, about which I knew very little—I dove into research. Not only did I learn lots of mundane details needed to give this tale authenticity, I also found some brilliant gold nuggets that enriched the entire story.

When I read about millionaire horseman James Ben Ali Haggin, whose plan to enter a long shot stallion in the 1886 Kentucky Derby and collect a betting windfall was upended by a bookmakers strike, the legendary 1877 Great Sweepstakes match race at Pimlico, which drew nationwide attention; and the 19th-century dominance of Black jockeys, I knew I had the recipe for a tasty Galloway's Gamble 2 stew worth cooking.

So what’s the story? After their friends are swindled out of a champion racehorse by ruthless rival Cortland Van Brunt III in a fog-shrouded San Francisco sprint, Jamey and Jake Galloway lead the gang on a snakebit, obstacle-strewn transcontinental quest: Can they reach Baltimore in time for a desperate long-shot bid to win back prized stallion Phoenix in a grudge-match race at Pimlico?

And that’s what took me so long.

But I’m happy to report that Galloway’s Gamble and Galloway’s Gamble 2 are available in paperback and ebook editions from Amazon.com. Both are fast, fun reads, and I hope even readers who’ve never tried historical fiction will enjoy them.

Crazy Good Stories

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