More Shorts for Summer: Pirates and Victorian Super Heroes

A Tall Ship, A Star, And Plunder
Edited by Robert Krog

Piracy has been around as long as there have been ships plying the seas with anything that might be valuable enough to take by force. Piracy will still be around when merchant vessels are traveling the galaxy with cargoes of potential plunder. Explore the past, present, and future of our favorite scallywags in these 24 amazing tales of bravado, daring, and dastardly deeds committed by the legendary pirates.

Good luck, and may the wind be in your favor, blowing you toward good pickings, and a safe harbor.

https://www.darkoakpress.com/pirates.html

The Tales:
Yo Ho by Melinda LaFevers
Rumble the Dragon by Cindy Vallar
The Princess and the Sea by Sydney Blackburn
Ghost of a Chance by Paula Gail Benson
The Making of a Privateer by Melinda LaFevers
Not I by Jerri Hardesty
Fireflies on the Water by Michael Krog
The Celeste Affair by D. Alan Lewis
The Tale of Tizur the Red by Tom Sheehan
Bottom of the Mug by S. P. Dorning
The Captain's Woman, the Dagger, and the Serpent by Robert Krog
The Gods Must Clearly Smile by A. Christopher Drown
Corey of Steel by Jerri Hardesty
The Jamaican Dragon by D. G. Driver
Rosa and the Pirate by Laura Nelson
The Ghost of Queen Anne's Revenge by M. R. Williamson
Of Wing and Song by Kirk Hardesty
One Way by Herika R. Raymer
Puffystuff the Pirate by Jerri Hardesty
Theft of the Royal Jewels by Kathryn Sullivan
Eighty-Six Pitrell Becomes Dread Admiral by Paul Calhoun
Rasputin's Whimsey by T.A. Riddell
Pirates of Happenstance by HC Playa
Blood is Thicker than Pirate's Gold by Kent Swarts

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Capes and Clockwork
Superheroes in the Age of Steam
Edited by D. Alan Lewis

During a forgotten time when the world was powered by steam and clockwork, heroes arose to do battle against the forces of evil. Some were outfitted with the latest technology. Others were changed by the mysteries of science and magic, while a few came from the skies. Capes and Clockwork fuses the fantasy and beauty of steampunk with the action and adventure of the superhero genre. Tease your imagination with sixteen stories of good versus evil, monster versus hero, and steam versus muscle!

https://www.darkoakpress.com/capes.html

The Tales:
Roger Dawkins and the Steam Daemons by Adam Millard
Keely by D. Alan Lewis
Catching Steam by Andrea Judy
Clockwork Demons by Logan L. Masterson
At the Quiet Limit of the World by David J. Fielding
Indestructible by Alexander S. Brown
Ectoplasmic Eradicators Wanted: Professional Inquiries only - A Timothy Flood Adventure by Nikki Nelson-Hicks
Captain Amy and the Steam-Driven Kittens of Doom by Azrael Wolf
Thursday Morrow by Robert J. Krog
Lost Child's Little Protector by Herika R. Raymer
The Gears Of Justice by Brent Nichols
Aeolus, Chiron, and Medusa by John A. McColley
Blastbucket by Christopher J. Valin
Beneath Familiar Suns by Konstantine Paradias
Deep Diving Death Defying Dwarves of the Deep: A Tale from the Cycle of Ages Saga by Jeremy Hicks
White Lightning by John G. Hartness

https://www.darkoakpress.com/

My work is nominated for Preditors & Editors' Readers Favorites Poll

Capes & Clockwork 2 is in the running for the Preditors & Editors' Readers Favorites Poll. The poll has many different categories, so look for C&C2 under that Anthologies category. Share the link below with your friends and be sure to give us a vote.

C&C2 featured my story "Not So These City Beasts."

http://critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #318 -- Upcoming Books for 2015

What new books do you have coming out this 

year readers should be looking forward to?

Oh yeah. There are lots of collections and novellas coming out this year, in addition some major comic book work that I hope to be able to reveal soon. Among all the upcoming published projects are:

Reel Dark: Twisted Fantasies Projected on the Flickering Page, "As So She Asked Again," Blackwyrm Publishing, 2015

"Spy Candy: The Dead Man Wore Stockings," Pro Se Productions Single Shot/Signature Series, 2015

Capes and Clockwork II, "No So These City Beasts," Dark Oak Press, 2015

The Ruby Files Volume 2, "A Tree Falls in a Forest," Airship 27 Productions, 2015

The New Deal: Masks and Mutants, "Gatsby," Pro Se Productions, 2015

Asian Pulp, "The Face of the Yuan Gui," Pro Se Productions, 2015

Black Pulp II, "The Hubris of Gods," Pro Se Productions, 2015

Hookerpunk, "The Truth Shall Set You Free," Dark Oak Press, 2015

The Danger People, "Daughter of Isis," New Babel Books, 2015

Armless O'Neill: Cognac Is My Mistress, Pulp Obscura (Pro Se Productions), 2015

Senorita Scorpion: When Weeps the Wailing Woman, Pulp Obscura (Pro Se Productions), 2015

Swingin' Superheroes, "The Robot Roundtable," Mechanoid Press, 2015

The Many Worlds of Ulysses King Vol. 2, "Trial and Tribulations," Pro Se Productions 2015

And a few more I can't announce yet...

Nikki Nelson-Hicks and Her Boys in the Back Room

Part 3 of my series of “Cool People I Met at Imaginarium.”

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I just finished the second story for Jake Istenhegyi: The Accidental Detective published in the Pro Se Productions Single Shot Signature digital series.

In a nutshell, the story is set in 1930’s New Orleans. Janos “Jake” Istenhegyi is a young Hungarian immigrant who is dragged into the gritty world of the private eye by his best friend, Barrington “Bear” Gunn, a WWI Vet obsessed with living the life of Sam Spade in, well, spades.

After Jake’s first adventure in A Chick, a Dick and a Witch Walk into a Barn (involving zombie chickens, trust me…it works), we leave him splattered in blood and chicken shit, watching as the hellish barn burns to the ground. In the second story, Golems, Goons and Cold Stone Bitches, Jake makes  his way back home just wanting a shower and to get hopelessly drunk but is pulled into a power struggle between sisters fighting over a inheritance that ends up being more than a curse and leaving Jake with a gift he doesn’t want.

Intrigued? It will be available for digital download in November 2014.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

Isolation and redemption. I’m a huge sucker for redemption.

What would be your dream project?

I am very proud to say that one of my dreams has been realized in that I have written a Sherlock Holmes novella to add to the expanding canon of the Holmesian universe. So, that is one thing checked off my Bucket List.

I would love to write a Doctor Who episode.

OR…ooooh, get involved with a group of super talented, sharp and horribly sick writers and create a universe where we play with each others' characters like they did with Thieves World back in the ‘80s. That would be awesome.

Or maybe just a book that sold well enough where I could buy everyone ice cream. That would be cool, too.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be and what would you do?

Ugh, the Creator’s Paradox. You are always better by the end of each story so that every story you have ever written is never as good as the one you are doing.

Yep. I have a character, Travis Dare, who is the main protag of a series of yet unpublished stories. He is such a fucking Mary Sue. Seriously. Heroes should never be boring. Ugh. I am going back, squeezing his nose shut and blowing into his mouth until his balls finally drop. The readers of that series are in for a surprise.

What inspires you to write?

I believe, in my heart of hearts, that all writers are trying to save…or kill…someone over and over again.
In my stories, I am a God of Action. I can right wrongs, save drowning people and heal the wounded and broken. I have power, tapping on this keyboard, I don’t have in real life. And, it has to be enough….for now.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

Harlan Ellison, Hunter S. Thompson, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Yeah. I prefer to hang out with boys.

Where would your rank writing on the “Is it an art or is it a science continuum?” Why?

It’s kinda both….maybe? I don’t think I’m drunk enough to answer this question but I’ll try.

Look, years ago I would’ve been all “Fuck, yeah! It’s an art. It’s MAGIC. You either got it or you don’t.” Now, I’ve mellowed with age and while I still believe there is a certain amount of that Unknowable Something that imbues a story with a Voice, I think there must be something else to it. The will to sit for hours and carve out a world with words, it’s insane! I have seen so many authors come to my Fiction Group with more drive than natural talent and I have watched those bastards work, work, work so hard and DO IT. It’s brilliant, really.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

*Rolls up sleeves* Yes, thank you.

Okay, like I said before, Jake Istenhegyi: The Accidental Detective’s second story, Golems, Goons and Cold Stone Bitches will be out in November 2014. It’s a good story. So far all my beta readers have dug it. Now I’ve got my Boys in the Back Room (That’s what I call my muses. I envision four men in fedoras and rolled up sleeves, sitting at a square table, drinking whiskey and chainsmoking, cranking out idea on old school typewriters) working on story #3. Haven’t a clue as to what it will be yet. Isn’t that fun?

Also coming out in 2014:

Sherlock Holmes and the Shrieking Pits (humpbacked midgets, shillelaghs and Viking silver…what more could you want?) from Pro Se Productions.

I have a story in an anthology, Nashville Gothic, titled "Stone Baby," that made the publisher want to “bleach his eyeballs out.” I take that as a compliment. It is coming out in late October just in time for Halloween.

And I am currently working on a story that I am submitting to Capes and Clockworks Volume 2. The working title is "The Galvanized Girl." I hope it makes it in. It’s a cool story with time travel, trepanning and a six foot tall redhead.