From the pens of Carson Demmans, Fred Adams Jr., Michael F. Housel and Michael Black, here are a quartet of fast-paced, action adventures worthy of the one and only Phantom Detective. Adam Shaw provides the cover art and Kevin Broden the black and white interior illustrations.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!
Available now from Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle.
by Sean Taylor
(history's a lie that they teach you in school)
all people are created equal and
endowed with certain unalienable rights
(except, of course, those who aren't)
racism and slavery are state rights
aren't I a woman
whatever happens to a dream deferred
southern trees bear strange fruit
(you never ask questions when gods on your side)
god hates fags
make america great again
protect our female athletes
no men in girls bathrooms
haitians are eating the dogs
no more dei hires
migrants are criminals and animals (or let loose from asylums)
the sin of empathy is the enemy within
very good people on both sides (but our side is gooder)
woke bullshit
(i have a dream)
black lives matter
trans rights are human rights
allyship is action
trans women are women trans men are men
remember the insurrection of January 6
coexist
i ask you to have mercy
i love you land of the pilgrims and so forth
(i hear america singing)
young man, young man, your arms too short to box with god
(c) 2025
Hi! I wrote a book a few years ago called Never Say You Can't Survive, about using creative writing to get through hard times. I believe that the act of making up stories, creating imaginary friends, getting lost in the fictional worlds you create, can help you make it through some really scary shit.
In fact, I'm here in one piece right now because I've been writing a ton of utterly bizonktastic fiction and comics. I wrote a whole young adult trilogy about queer teenagers fighting space fascists! And I co-created a trans superhero named Escapade for Marvel Comics, and basically I've been goofing around.
A copy of one of my books. I scribbled "Keep daydreaming. Daydreaming is important, serious WORK!!!" And I drew a silly cat picture. Over that is written DAYDREAMING IS THE OPPOSITE OF DOOMSCROLLING
Lately when I sign books for people, I often write the same phrase: "Keep daydreaming. Daydreaming is important, serious WORK." And I usually add a terrible cat picture.
My motto these days is that daydreaming is the opposite of doomscrolling. So I absolutely believe creativity can save us — and help us save each other. And yet, nothing could have prepared me for the time we're living through right now.
My books are banned in a handful of places, and trans healthcare is becoming illegal in even more places. You honestly can't know what this feels like, until it happens to you. My words and my body are both outlawed.
And I'm bombarded with rhetoric about how my very existence is dangerous. Seeing this image of a dumpster full of queer books outside New College in Florida felt like a slow kick in the solar plexus.
Read the full article: https://buttondown.com/charliejane
Now on sale! Enchanted Tales & Twisted Lore: Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Fables Reimagined - Volume 1 of The Crossing Genres Anthology Collection featuring my story, "Real Boy." Vol. 2 also on sale. Get yours today!
Step into a world where the familiar becomes strange, and legends take on new life. Enchanted Tales & Twisted Lore invites you to explore fairy tales, folklore, and fables as you've never seen them before. From the deadly woods of Baba Yaga to space-bound horror on a derelict ship. From a faerie knight hiding behind the innocent face of a toddler to a princess who fights for survival on Mars, these reimagined classics blur the lines between light and dark, hope and danger. With contributions from beloved authors and emerging voices, this anthology offers a spellbinding journey through the fantastical and the fearsome.
Foreword by "monster expert" Dr. Emily Zarka, creator, writer, and host of the popular YouTube series Monstrum.
As a bonus, enjoy the behind-the-scenes peek at the creative process through personal author articles.
Edited by Marx Pyle and J.C. Mastro. Published by Cabbit Crossing Publishing.
L. Andrew Cooper: Writing anything for publication involves the possibility of ridicule and rejection and so always requires courage, but beyond that, the amount of courage you need relates to how much of yourself you're willing to expose and what other chances you're willing to take. I believe the best writing involves risk, so it requires a lot of courage.
Ef Deal: The only "courage" I needed to summon was to keep writing although I never sold or made a cent out of it for over 25 years. My husband resented it immensely, but he was someone who'd been paid to play since he was 9 years old. He was impressed that I had a rejection from Lester DelRey, and that I chatted or hobnobbed with writers he knew, but I don't think he ever thought anything would come of my writing until it actually did a few years ago. I never considered it courage, though. I just couldn't not write.
Brian K Morris: A little of all of them. I realized early on that if I wanted to carve a portion of the market for my work, it had to sound like me. I could sound like it was from a store of knowledge I'd amassed, or a point of view. I believe ANY opportunity to expose your inner workings, especially your heart, leaves you vulnerable and should be approached with derring-do.
Sheela Chattopadhyay: While I might not care much for Kate Chopin's works, I can understand her "Courageous Soul" concept. Taking the risks of being exposed to criticism, authenticity, and integrity are all part of the creative processes for any type of artist. Any artist being defined as working in any type of medium, whether that be writing to music to paint to architecture, etc. I specify that because even your architect has some artistry in the field since science and art do go hand in hand. That being said, building up courage often relies on trusting yourself and your own belief in your creative works.
I found that courage is necessary in general to be able to be oneself. Some of it was practical in wanting to become a better communicator and being able to connect with people better. While I sometimes make a statement with some of my work, I do sometimes have other works that are to help others grow as individuals. I try to leave people better than I found them.
Sean Taylor: I think it's both, at least for me. There will always be the courage of putting myself out there as a writer and finding readers to pick up what I'm laying down (so to speak). But I also believe that, as a friend reminded me today, all art is political, and well, we live in a time when art is under attack, particularly art that doesn't fit a strict and confining definition. Anything that goes beyond a conservative, backward ideal or takes a more critical look at United State politics and culture now seems to be suspect and suspicious and likely to be censored in the days to come, so the pushback is there to only create "safe" art. But I'm not that writer.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a refugee of the Punk/Metal/New Wave/My-God-what-did-we-do-last-night? daze of the 1980's and early 90's. Born in Palo Alto, raised in Berkeley, and lost in San Francisco on more occasions than I can remember, the stories of the Concrete Jungle can be just as ridiculous and bizarre as they can be intense and tragic, and that's what I try to bring to the fore with my writing.
Late last year I published two books at more or less the same time: my short story compilation Short Songs: Tales From the Punk Side, and book five of my Skye Wright series called Requiem Descent. I really did work on both books at the same time, which is a new one for me. Publishing them around the same time was planned!
Short Songs features supporting characters from my Skye Wright series. They were becoming so complex and characters in their own right that they needed stories of their own.
Requiem Descent is the continuation of Skye Wright adventures, in which the weight of the rock and roll world threatens to crush her spirit to the point of her near self-destruction. It’s the fifth book in the Skye Wright series, and could be read on its own, but it’s best to start with book one, The Rise and fall of Skye Wright.
Stakes are a crucial part of your story because they define what will happen if the protagonist fails. To build reader empathy, you need this piece in place because when the reader sees what’s at stake, and they recognize why it matters to the character, the story becomes important. It matters.
Stakes also create tension when the reader realizes what’s on the line. So when the stakes are referenced early on, readers are more likely to be drawn in and root for the character’s success.
But that empathy connection only happens if the reader can see what’s at stake. And that can only happen if the author knows what’s on the line. Sometimes, it’s obvious. What are the consequences if Sheriff Brody doesn’t catch the shark in Jaws? Death and dismemberment. In the original Inside Out, if all of Riley’s emotions aren’t acknowledged and won’t work together, her identity is at risk.
But other times, it’s harder to identify what’s at stake in a story. So I’d like to share a simple method for figuring that out.
Read the full article: https://writersinthestormblog.com/2024/10/whats-at-stake-heres-how-you-find-out/
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Skymarshal – A brand new aviation hero takes to the
sky curtesy of award-winning writer Teel James Glenn. In this debut adventure
he takes on fliers from prehistoric times.
The Black Wraith – Jonathan W. Sweet’s beautiful but
deadly masked warrior returns in a gripping tale. A mysterious brute is
butchering petty criminals in the back alleys of the city and the police
suspect the black-clad avenger.
Walking Deadman – When a convicted mobster is
sentenced to death by electric chair, he miraculously survives only to discover
his body has been rejuvenated. All from the mind of writer Carson Demmans.
The Ghoul – Harding McFadden & Eleanor Hawkins
offer up another tale starring the special investigative team lead by Marvin
“Ghoul” MacCormac. Their mission; find missing children in a small town and
rescue them.
Award-winning Art Director Rob Davis provides the art for
both the great black and white interior illustrations and the gorgeous color
cover. “Our fans love this series,” says Airship 27 Managing Editor Ron
Fortier. “And we’re happy to bring them more.”
Once again, gloves are off, as Airship 27 presents four
truly amazing pulp yarns.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!
Available now from Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
For the record, as a lit/comp teacher, I integrate writing from all racial/cultural lines possible within a given unit. For example, for the founding documents section, we not only look at the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, we also read selections from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl so students can see how the US failed to actually implement life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness promises to those who weren't white, male, or land owners.
In our unit on the Individual and Society, we examine writing from Booker T. Washington, Emily Dickenson, T.S. Eliot, and Walt Whitman, along with an extended study of American Born Chinese (the graphic novel).
In our unit on Power, Protest, and Change, we look at the literature that confronted inequity and led to changing status and rights for women, workers, and African-Americans. This includes works by Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, Langston Hughes, Upton Sinclair, and an extended study of Kate Chopin's The Awakening.
We never learn the narrator’s actual name; which is not to say the narrator is unnamed. In fact, he has many names and many identities. The narrator’s “good name” as that term is used under the local parlance, is Lindsay, but that came from a counterfeit passport. The Indian locals call him “Linbaba,” or “Mr. Penis.” He will acquire other names in the course of the novel, including the title of the novel itself, which means “man of God’s Peace.”
The narrator’s s real name might be the author’s, for the book’s jacket touts many similarities between the fictional narrator and Gregory David Roberts. Both author and his fictionalized alter ego were driven by despair over a bitter divorce and child custody award to seek solace in heroin addiction, which led to crime, prison, escape, and then flight to a slum in India.
Even though almost all fiction contains varying degrees of autobiography, and vice versa, a close identification between author and fictitious character carries many risks. One can’t help but snicker at the photos of Ian Fleming, gun in hand, on the James Bond book covers, or Mickey Spillane naming his tough-guy hero after himself. Falsified autobiography is a class of literary pariah unto itself, for anger follows the discovery that one has been successfully fooled, notwithstanding the way that achieving the same end is lauded as a virtue in a work explicitly labeled as fiction. Perhaps with the aim of avoiding the kind of scrutiny and controversy that befell Henri Charrière, the author of Papillion, another highly embellished, ostensibly autobiographical work about prison and escape, the author of Shantaram delivers an exculpatory disclaimer—this is fiction. But there an implicit disclaimer to disclaimer. It is kind of a con job, but it is a brilliant con job.
Roberts grabs his reader by the labels, and demands attention with his superb opening paragraph, a near perfect fusion of narrative hook, character arc, and thematic summation:
by Anita Felicelli
Time is a tremendously elastic concept, but if you think about it, almost all stories implicitly deal with time: They relate a temporal sequence of moments or events, rather than describing a single moment. But the relationship between time and stories is even more profound than that, I think.
The author Joy Williams has observed, “What a story is, is devious. It pretends transparency, forthrightness. It engages with ordinary people, ordinary matters, recognizable stuff. But this is all a masquerade. What good stories deal with is the horror and incomprehensibility of time….”
The origins of my short story collection How We Know Our Time Travelers, which is about the oceanic “horror and incomprehensibility of time,” was my sense, after becoming a parent and learning to accept suffering serious illnesses, that time would not work the way I expected it would when I was younger, and instead would remain terrifyingly mysterious and slippery throughout the rest of my life. I could not quite grasp time when I thought about the concept too hard, and yet it was, perhaps, the hugest motivating force in my life.
There was no linear progression, as many traditional children’s novels had taught—rather, there were layers of time, and within my single body were selves I was barely acquainted with any longer, and yet, given the right circumstances, I’d feel myself returned along the tides of memory to these points of time in which I’d existed as another self: The young storyteller who wrote about girls who couldn’t find their way home; the teenager who painted weird, surreal images on wood and casually gave them away to friends; a young college student drunk on newfound freedom and power; the baby lawyer who acted like a compassionate sixty year old while withering away; the newlywed who finally embraced the unpredictability of a life in books after years of trying on suits and predicting legal outcomes; the excited new mother, and, then, the older mother with illnesses coming to terms with decisions already made, moments that couldn’t be retrieved—and the heartache that followed.
Strangely, I became aware, in the course of thinking about my own ending, that my body also contained within in a range of futures—different places where the train might jump the track, distinct last stations. The body as a vehicle for past and future time travel. As I came to conceive of it in my book, time travel was an ordinary phenomenon that happened daily in the mind, even when least expected, triggered by sense memory and uncanny resemblances. While working on How We Know Our Time Travelers, I drew on the intuition that time allows every moment to coexist with other moments.
In the title story, for instance, a middle-aged artist holds an open studio at which she meets a young man who deeply, overwhelmingly reminds her of her now jaded and cynical gallerist husband, and who she comes to believe is her husband journeying forward in time to meet her. The story moves from her uncertainty about the empirical reality of who she’s seeing—to an alarming but slightly erotic certainty about the young man, whoever he is. With subtle shifts in sentence construction and word choice, I tried to frame the emotional reality of the story to create the feeling she has traveled back, or he has traveled into her present. But there is also the interpretation that she is insane.
Read the full article: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/how-to-portray-time-and-memory-in-stories
Lynda knew that she wanted to write from her early childhood, and began writing while in high school.
After finishing college and serving in the military, Lynda returned to the San Joaquin Valley to be closer to her family.
Her first book, Family Time Poems is a sample of poems she has written over the last several years. She is currently working on a series of fairy tale novellas for children and those who are young at heart. She continues to write poetry and is working on other writing projects as well, including her first fantasy novel intended for teens and adults.
In her "spare time" Lynda enjoys reading, listening to music as well as playing the viola, singing and spending time with friends and family.
https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Worth-Living-Lynda-Cordova-ebook/dp/B00TTHC5IU
I don't think I have a particular style, but if you read my work you'll see the influence of the old Del Rey Star Wars Novels are pervasive throughout my books. I cut my teeth on those books when I was in the 7th grade and that style of writing comes out a lot even after all these years and countless other novels I've read that have influenced my writing.
I'm very conversational in tone, as I am sure you can read here. I find it allows the reader ease of access. I feel like you can be verbose but only as long as your still engaging the reader and drawing them in.
Sheela Chattopadhyay: I would rank writing as both an art and a science, rather than keeping the continuum as a straight line. It's more of a circle with each moment of writing blending both art and science together in different proportions as needed. This is from my experience in other types of writing and communications over the years in different disciplines.
Bobby Nash: Art is the part that comes out of me naturally, I think. It’s the raw, creative part. Craft is the work. I work on getting better at my craft. Technique is how I handle the craft. These are the tricks and learned odds 'n ends. Style is how I merge art, craft, and technique.
Or I could be completely wrong. This is honestly the most thought I’ve put into these definitions ever.
Ef Deal: Dead honest here: I don't really know how to address the question so far as distinctions. I will say that craft deals with structure. Art deals with the methods you use to evoke a mood: the use of language and poetic devices, for example. Style has a lot to do with your own voice as you select your words. I have no idea how to define technique in this sense. Does it mean one's approach to crafting a story? Plotter or Pantser? No clue.
You’re a writer.
You live in a world that has problems – a lot of them – but you’ve always seen glimmers of light in the darkness, and they’ve encouraged you to keep writing, even if you sometimes wondered what the point was.
Then November 5, 2024 happened in America, and now you’re looking at January 20, 2025 careening toward us like an out-of-control freight train, and you see the famous line from Dante’s The Divine Comedy flash across your mind like the blazing letters on a Times Square jumbotron – “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” You’re well aware people sometimes quote that line as a joke, but you don’t feel much like laughing right now.
And you may not feel much like writing, either.
Dreaming dreams then translating them into words on a page (or screen) for others to read might seem like a ridiculous activity in the face of what’s coming, and I get that. But there are good – maybe even vital – reasons for you to keep writing.
Let’s talk about some of them.
But first…
Read the full article: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2024/11/writing-as-resistance.html
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