Josh Reynolds, Tommy Hancock, David Boop, and I joined hosts Ric Croxton and Art Sippo on the Book Cave podcast to talk about the latest volume of HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD. We were wrestling with some pretty serious technical difficulties, but we managed to get nearly an hour of weird west talk in before Skype went quietly into that dark night.

Check it out here: http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/the-book-cave-episode-131-how-the-west-was-weird-vol-2

I mentioned in the last post that I'd scored a free Kindle, and now that I've had the holiday weekend to play with it, here are some initial thoughts.

First of all, I love this thing. I've read more this weekend than I normally would, squeezing in 5 and 10 minute sessions around the edges of other commitments just because it's so much fun. Granted, this might be because I'm still in the honeymoon period. I suppose we'll see if I still feel the same after a month. For now, I'm very happy with my new toy.

I got the $114 version, which is the Wi-fi Kindle with ads. The only difference between this and the regular Wi-fi Kindle is that you see ads in two places - when the Kindle goes into "screensaver" mode (with regular Wi-fi, you see pictures of famous authors in this mode) and as a bar at the bottom of the menu screens. There are no ads in sight when you're reading. For me, this was an acceptable sacrifice for a $25 savings over the regular Wi-fi version. The ads aren't obtrusive to me at all, but think about whether that sort of stuff annoys you before you shell out your dough.

I've heard a lot of people say that they prefer the feel of a real book in their hand, and I get that. I expected I'd feel the same way, but that isn't the case at all. The books that line my shelves at home now look like a bunch of Colecovisions to me. I wish I could put them all on the Kindle and have them always at hand, always picking up at exactly the place where I left off. I suppose paper is still best for reference books and some non-fiction, but otherwise... I wish it was as easy (and free) to rip an old book onto a Kindle as it is to rip an old CD onto a computer.

In short, I've been converted to a frightening degree. This is kind of like how after the first time I used a navigation system, I couldn't really find my way around without one anymore. I highly recommend this technology, but think about my story before you buy one - if you're like me, there may be no going back.

I've neglected the hell out of this place for the last year, so apologies for all the dust around here. I've got a daughter now. And I was editing a book and working full-time and sometimes going to school and, and, and.

Done. You'll hear no more excuses out of me. Where do we go from here?

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD, VOL. 2 will be available for pre-order in just a couple of days, through the Pulpwork Press website (http://www.pulpworkpress.com). Weighing in at 368 pages, this monster is more than twice as big as the first volume, and sports a new Jim Rugg cover that's at least as awesome as the first one. Check the last couple of posts if you want to see it (because pimping HTWWW2 is the only reason I've posted in the last little while).

I got a new Kindle as an award at work (free!), and I'm currently reading the hell out of buddy Mark Bousquet's book, Dreamer's Syndrome. Dreamer's was originally run as a monthly serial at Frontier Publishing back in the day, so it's a nice trip down memory lane to read it again. And Frontier went under before the book finished, so I finally get to read the end of it. And for a measly 99 cents!

Feel free to spread this as far and wide as you like, folks. Thanks in advance.


I am now taking pitches for stories to be published in How the West Was Weird, Vol. 2 in 2011.


What am I looking for?

I’m looking for stories that qualify as “weird westerns” – basically a western mixed with some other genre. This usually means a western with a horror or sci-fi twist, but feel free to play with the concept. I’ll consider anything that’s both a western and weird. The less obvious, the better. If you need some more coaching on what a weird western is, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_western.

Stories should be between 1K and 8K words. I’ll consider stories up to 10K, but it really better be something special if you’re going that long. Shoot for 8K.

Your deadline for the completed story is March 31, 2011. However, some time before that I’m going to need a pitch. This is just a couple of sentences or paragraphs that gives me an idea of what your story is going to be about. This is so I don’t get three stories that have essentially the same plot (zombie cowboys vs. vampire indians, for example), and you don’t spend a couple months writing a story that I then have to pass on. There is no deadline to get me your pitch, but the earlier I get it, the more likely someone isn’t already doing that sort of story.

I have no problem with you using series characters that you’ve used in other stories or books, but there are a couple of rules with that. I want a story that hasn’t been published elsewhere yet, with a gentleman’s agreement that it won’t be republished until at least a year after our book’s publication. Also, the story has to be fully understandable outside the context of your character’s other stories. Even if I’ve never read the book you introduced Robo-Sheriff Z9 in, I shouldn’t have any problem following the story you write about him for HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD.


What’s in it for you?

Unfortunately, I’m not offering any upfront pay. If the book breaks even, any profit it makes will be split evenly between the contributors on a quarterly basis, minus 10% for the publisher, Pulpwork Press. Please keep in mind that the last sentence contains a very big IF. How the West Was Weird, Vol. 1 has been out for 9 months now, and even though it continues to sell steadily every month, it hasn't made its money back yet.

This isn’t to discourage you – I truly believe in the long-term lifespan of these books – but I don’t want anybody planning to go buy a car with the proceeds.

So with that pie in the sky stuff out of the way, what do you realistically get?

A nifty little book with your name on it, mostly. Unlike the last volume, I will also be providing a contributor copy for everybody this time around.


What else?

As with the last volume, Jim Rugg has signed on to create another cover for us. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with, and I’ll share it with the contributors as soon as I’ve got it.

For those of you who weren’t around for this last time, you can check out the first volume of HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/How-West-Was-Weird-Tales/dp/1449580572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287249761&sr=8-1. You can also read Josh Reynolds’ contribution, Camazotz, for free at the Pulpwork Press site at http://www.pulpworkpress.com/pulpworkpresspresents.htm.

If you’re interested, or you’ve got questions not covered in this email, drop me a line at RussLee74@gmail.com and I’ll try to answer them.

So here we are at the end of the week-long HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD blog tour, and it's up to me to find a way to wrap it up. I could talk a little about the process of recruiting, editing, proofreading, etc. that went into the book's creation... but I got bored just typing the first part of this sentence, so I can't imagine that you'd want to read an expansion on it.

I would like to say thanks to all the people who contributed to this little blog blitz of ours, though. Here's a list of our contributors, with links to the blog posts in question:

Day 1 - Jim Rugg kicked things off by talking about his process for creating that eye-catching cover
Day 2 - Mike Exner III ramped it up by reviewing the first three stories in the book.
Day 3 - Joel Jenkins kept pace with a discussion of the true historical background of his story, "Wyrm Over Diablo"
Day 4 - Josh Reynolds came up from behind with his examination of the weird western genre
Day 5 - Ian Mileham was a late contender with his thoughts on the process behind his story, "You Need to Know What's Coming"
Day 6 - Derrick Ferguson took home the gold by giving everyone involved in the project a great big "I love you, man!"

... but all that is probably old news to you, since I've been going on about the blog tour all week. However, there was some other neat HTWWW stuff going on this week that you may not have known about.

1) Mike Exner III finished his story by story review of the book (in addition to the links above, here's part 2 and part 3) and even wrote a brief weird western comic script as his weekly writing exercise
2) Josh Reynolds, Barry Reese, and I appeared together on the Book Cave podcast to talk up the book. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.
Thanks for all of you for bearing with me during this week-long link-fest.

And in case I didn't mention it before... HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD is available for immediate purchase at the Pulpwork Press store and at Amazon.com.