The splendour falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story:

The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,

Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

--From Blow, Bugle, Blow - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Writing is an exploration of castle walls and snowy summits, shining lakes and leaping cataracts. While the bugle of creation blows, the wild echoes fly with each paragraph emblazoned on the page. The answering echoes blow when the writing gets accepted/published and reviews are posted, but then fade away, dying as new projects call.

I have a short story coming out toward the end of the month in the Raconteur Press anthology featuring sultry murder jazz noir stories. I'll link it in the March 1 newsletter. In the meantime, you can get your noir detective fix with a pinch of humor with my novel Smoke.

If you're into my Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series, although the sale has ended on the first three books, the last two are on sale at 99 cents each--Truth in Flames and Crisis in Fire and Snow.

I also want to point out a great collection of superior wyrd western yarns, which features the origin story for my Whip and Truth characters. Take a ride into Cursed Canyon for some rip-snortin', rootin'-tootin' tales of cowboy confrontations with the sorcery and the supernatural.

I'm currently reading Louis L'Amour's Haunted Mesa. Progress continues on Lincoln's Last Trial, and The Men Who Lost America.

Fun Fact (from The Men Who Lost America):

General Howe was senior commander by years of service, although General Burgoyne was older at 58 years of age. General Gage was already in America, serving as both as Governor of Massachusetts and Commander in Chief of the army. Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, arriving on the Cerberus, represented the best generals the British had to offer. The prevailing mood in Parliament and in Britain in 1775 was that the British Army would meet no serious resistance from the colonists. Gage had already dealt with the first conflicts of the rebellion, but the other three generals got their first taste of it at Bunker Hill in June.

Howe was devastated as his attacking waves fell beneath the enemy volleys and his elite light infantry were repulsed. Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton would each hold senior command at some point during the war. Each would preside over terrible reversals of fortune, face recall from the home government, and become one another's harshest critics.

--Check out Threading The Rude Eye for my rendition of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Don't forget I'm having another flash fiction contest: not to exceed 350 words and featuring a space alien in the USA on Valentine's Day or Groundhog Day. Get your entries to me by February 15.

Meanwhile, enjoy these large selections:

Gripping Mysteries on sale

Sci-fi and Fantasy bargains

For those of you who missed growing up in the 70s, it was awesome.