Author's Spotlight, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem – My Three Elements

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Writers often like a challenge. When presented with a title, the mind begins to spin in different directions until finally rising in on the one that tickles the creative fancy the most.

When you get a title like Love, Murder & Mayhem (our new scifi-themed anthology from Crazy 8 Press), you see three different story elements and get excited about blending them into something fresh and frothy. When the title is then assigned a specific genre, you jettison so many possibilities and begin focusing.

In my case, science fiction immediately takes me to other worlds before thinking about things on Earth. So, I wonder to myself, what would cause there to be love, mayhem, and murder on another world? After all, new worlds often represent fresh starts. True, but we’re still humans and humans can get irrational. Especially when it comes to love.

What if, I wondered, there was a love triangle that has gone pear-shaped resulting in one corner wanting to eradicate the second corner, keeping the third for him/herself? Okay, so there’s love and there’s murder. Where does the mayhem come in?

Go back to that new world. You get a fresh start but not everything works. People have conflicting ideas as to what the next step should be or which is the right decision? From different ideologies can come conflict. Now, rational people may talk it out, debate and filibuster and protest. But, what if the decision being discussed is volatile enough to escalate feelings to the point where protests become violent ones?

And wouldn’t that be the perfect place for a lover to commit murder, under cover of mayhem?

Armed with that, I decided to keep things relatively near-future, researching the current theories as to how colonization of Mars, and putting my triangle on a colony suffering growing pains with wildly different notions of how best to expand. Honestly, reading all the different articles, journals, and reports was fascinating and made the story a nice reward for all that research.

Does the murder happen? Is the would-be murderer caught? Does the society survive the mayhem? Find out in July.

Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!

Robert Greenberger is a writer and editor and founding member of Crazy 8 Press. He has worked for Starlog Press, where he created Comics Scene, the first nationally distributed magazine to focus on comic books, comic strips, and animation, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Weekly World News, Famous Monsters of Filmland, ComicMix.com, and is a founding member of Crazy 8 Press. His dozens of books, short stories, and essays include Hellboy II: The Golden Army, for which he won the IAMTW’s Scribe Award, and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Murder at Sorrow’s Crown, co-written with Steven Savile. He is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and holds a Master of Science in Education from the University of Bridgeport and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing & Literature for Educators from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Find him at:

Website: www.bobgreenberger.com
Twitter: @bobgreenberger
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bob.greenberger
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/43771.Robert_Greenberger

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Love, Murder & Mayhem – “But What About the Bad Guys?”

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By Kelly Meding

Anyone familiar with my work shouldn’t be surprised that my contribution to the Love, Murder & Mayhem anthology for Crazy 8 Press is a superhero story. I’ve been fascinated by superheroes since my first childhood rerun of the old Adam West Batman TV series. And it was my minor kid crush on Burt Ward as Robin that led me to read my first comic book: The New Teen Titans #9, from the 1980 Wolfman & Pérez team.

Superheroes are pretty awesome, but to be an awesome hero, you need to have an awesome villain. What’s Batman without the Joker? Superman without Lex Luthor? The Tick without Chairface Chippendale? Am I right? There’s an old piece of writing advice that goes “every villain is the hero of his own story.” Well, yeah, but usually the story is written from the point-of-view of the actual hero, and we don’t get to see the villain’s side.

Until now. “A Goon’s Tale” is my take on the villain’s side of the story. Why decide to become a bad guy? Why choose a life of crime? What pushes a person to do wrong, instead of right? The genesis of this story actually came from—believe it or not—an insurance commercial from last year, where an adjuster is looking at the battle damage done to a man’s home. My superhero loving brain seized on that thirty-second spot. I grabbed a notebook and pen, and started making notes.

Who are these people? What if it turns out that the insurance adjuster is a villain who uses his day job to case homes he can later burglarize? This adjuster became the hero of my story, Rocky Mills. I had other thoughts about the homeowner and how this could be an actual story, instead of just a character essay, but those thoughts are spoilers, so I’ll keep them to myself. I tucked this idea away for a while, unsure exactly how to develop it—until I was invited to submit to Love, Murder & Mayhem. The three requirements to the story helped me develop the character of Rocky into an actual, interesting plot.

At first, I was going to try and set “A Goon’s Tale” in my Metawars universe, maybe in a time before the heroes and villains destroyed major cities and killed each other to near-extinction. But I wanted more freedom to play around with tropes and titles, so I created another original superheroes universe, and I’ll probably play here again. Until then, I hope you enjoy Rocky’s tale of love, murder, and revenge.

Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!

You can find Kelly Meding on:
Twitter (@KellyMeding)
Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/kellymeding/)
Her website (http://www.kellymeding.com/)
Blog Organized Chaos (http://chaostitan.blogspot.com/), and on Facebook.

Author's Spotlight, New Releases

Love, Murder, Mayhem – Write What You Know…A**hole!

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“The Case of the Missing Alien Baby Mama” is my fourth outing with Leo Persky, “a solid five foot seven, one hundred and forty-two pounds of average, complete with glasses, too much nose, not enough chin, and a spreading bald spot that I swear isn’t the reason I always wear a hat.”

Leo was born in 2008, when I was invited to contribute a short story to an anthology published by Moonstone Books. I’d dabbled in horror before, but in that broody-meant-to-chilling kind of way, so I wanted to do something a little different this time around. That I had been, up until several months earlier, a writer for and executive editor of the fake news humor tabloid Weekly World News probably had a lot to do with my decision to take a little tongue-in-cheek poke at the conventions of the form.

So Leo Perksy, under the penname of Terrance Strange and a picture of his much more photogenic grandfather, is an investigative reporter for WWN. In Leo’s world, everything the News prints, from ghost stories to interviews with alien visitors is the one hundred percent, fact-checked and verified truth. And to say that Leo views his world through jaundiced eyes would be an understatement; Leo is a proud, self-proclaimed snarky asshole because, well, everybody always tells me I should write what I know.

Two more Leo stories followed “Man Bites Dog,” “Vodka Martini, Straight Up, Hold the Jinn” (2012) and “Shunning the Frumious Bandersnatch” (2014), both for horror anthologies.* Then, in 2016 came Russ Colchamiro’s call for stories for the Love, Murder, and Mayhem anthology we’re doing through Crazy 8 Press. Russ had only one rule: “Each story within the SciFi realm must contain at least one component of love or romance, and at least one murder. Mayhem always welcome.”

Funny he should say that, because after finishing “Shunning the Frumious Bandersnatch,” I realized that all three of Leo’s stories had supernatural elements—vampires, genies, and Atlantean magic—and I hoped that in the next outing, I could do something with those other staples of WWN headlines, alien visitations and interspecies progeny, especially human/alien hybrid babies. Within twenty-four hours of Russ’s email invite, we had an approved pitch for “The Case of the Missing Alien Baby Mama.”

And now that alien baby is about to be born, an adorable little tale complete with the requisite love and murder, as well as its fair share of mayhem. As just one of the parents of this beautiful, bouncing newborn book, I couldn’t be prouder.

Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!

*The previous Leo stories are collected in one handy, dandy Crazy 8 Press volume, In My Shorts: Hitler’s Bellhop and Other Stories.

(By the way, if you’re unfamiliar with the “real” Weekly World News or want to revisit that funny old friend, you’ll find an archive of back issues online.

You can follow Paul at PaulKupperberg.com and on Facebook and Twitter. He is a member of Crazy 8 Press.

 

Author's Spotlight, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem – Geek Parenting and the Language of Love

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By Karissa Laurel

When I heard one of the themes of the new scifi-themed Crazy 8 Press anthology was love – the collection is called Love, Murder & Mayhem — my thoughts didn’t go straight to classic romance pairings for my lead characters. Instead, I almost immediately thought of me and my son, and our love for each other. Speaking from personal experience, the mother-son relationship is regularly fraught with conflicts, and, yet, it’s a bond that often endures and overcomes. That was the kind of love I wanted to write about in my story – The Reboot of Jennis Viatorem.

I use a lot of imagination when it comes to parenting, but I think most mothers work that way, even those who gave birth to their kids instead of being introduced to them with a sticky hug when they were two years old. My husband had full custody of his son when we started dating. As we progressed towards marriage, I worried that I wasn’t ready for instant motherhood.

My son and I have lived in confusion of each other almost since the beginning. If I am a right brain thinker, then he is left brain, or vice versa. I used to wonder if we would ever find anything in common. Then, one day when he was about six years old, I set him down in front of the television and said, “There’s something I want to share with you that is of great importance to me. I hope you will cherish it as well.”

He gave me a funny look, but from the moment those first words, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” scrolled across the screen, he was enthralled. After that, it was light sabers and Star Wars action figures for every gift giving opportunity. He would stand outside the automatic doors at grocery stores, flapping his arms. “Mom, I’m using the Force,” he would say when the doors slid apart.

Then he discovered my stash of Harry Potter novels and insisted we read them together. We went on stick foraging expeditions to find the perfect material for a wand.  We invented new spells and magic words for everything from cleaning rooms to tying shoelaces.

Although not always easy, it has been eleven good years since the day I vowed to spend the rest of my life with my son and his dad. I still think my boy and I will never completely understand each other, but when we speak in the language of sci-fi and fantasy geeks, I can hear him saying he loves me, and I trust he hears it in return.

Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!

Karissa Laurel lives in North Carolina with her kid, her husband, the occasional in-law, and a very hairy husky named Bonnie. Some of her favorite things are coffee, chocolate, and super heroes. She can quote The Princess Bride verbatim. On weekends you can find her at flea-markets hunting for rusty things to re-use and re-purpose. She is the also the author of The Norse Chronicles, an adult urban fantasy series based on Norse mythology; and The Stormbourne Chronicles, a young adult fantasy series.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karissalaurel
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/karissalaurel
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karissalaurel
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/karissalaurel
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/KarissaLaurel

Author's Spotlight, DuckBob, New Releases

Love, Murder & Mayhem – Confessions of Angela Hardwicke, P.I.

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  1. Confession time.

Our new Crazy 8 Press anthology — Love, Murder & Mayhem — came about for purely selfish reasons. And her name is Angela Hardwicke, but I’ll come back to that.

It was my turn among us Crazy 8 Press authors to run the new anthology. My theme was that each story (there are 15 total) had to include at least one act of love or romance, at least one murder, and mayhem welcome … with every story set within a science fiction setting.

I also opened up the doors (as we have been doing) to outside author friends of ours, and I insisted that the lineup include about an equal mix of male and female writers.

The stories are all one-shots … so there are no interlocking characters or inter-connected narratives. Each author delivered his or her own story, in their own distinct Universes.

But why this theme?

For the uninitiated … among works of fiction, I am the author of the three-book scifi backpacking comedy series that includes FINDERS KEEPERS, GENIUS DE MILO, and ASTROPALOOZA (the final book in the series, which launched earlier this year).

In the second book, GENIUS DE MILO, I introduced a new character, although just as a cameo. Her name? You guessed it. Angela Hardwicke.

She’s a private eye, envisioned in that classic Sam Spade style — trench coat, fedora, and all, the kind of character I’ve always wanted to write.

I upgraded Hardwicke in the series finale, ASTROPALOOZA, where she plays a fairly prominent role. But I knew early on that I eventually wanted to give her a stand-alone series, where she becomes the central figure. The star.

Going forward my plan is to give her at least three books of her own, which will include her origin story, at least one key nemesis, and a long and tortured journey which helps drive her underlying motivations.

But before I dive into an entire series, I wanted to do a test case with Hardwicke. So I figured, what better way than through a short story, with her in the lead, as a way for me to get a better sense of who she is, how she operates, and what the future holds for her.

Thus, my tale in this anthology is entitled: The Hardwicke Files: The Case of My Old New Life and the One I Never Knew. The narrative has Hardwicke investigating a mysterious fire at a music club in E-Town (the realm where the Universe is created), where a body turns up dead, and with a tangential connection to Hardwicke herself.

Another confession — when I set this anthology in motion, in my mind’s eye I thought I’d get nothing but detective stories. And I did get a few others. But I also got stories with superheroes and supervillains. Stories set off-world and in space cruisers. Plus artificial intelligence, a monster mash and (for good measure) … one DuckBob!

Did I have my own motivations to set this anthology in motion? You bet.

But like any great mystery, this collection of love, murder, and mayhem stories had me starting off in one place, taking me across the Universe and back, and ending up in a way—and in places—I never saw coming.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Enjoy!

Russ

Love, Murder & Mayhem from Crazy 8 Press will be on sale both in print and digital formats in July. Stay tuned for updates!

Russ Colchamiro is the author of the rollicking space adventure, Crossline, the hilarious sci-fi backpacking comedy series, Finders Keepers, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, and is editor of the new anthology, Love, Murder & Mayhem. He is a member of Crazy 8 Press.

Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two children, and crazy dog, Simon, who may in fact be an alien himself. Russ has also contributed to several other anthologies, including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, Altered States of the Union, and TV Gods 2. He is now at work on a top-secret project, and a Finders Keepers spin-off.

For more on Astropalooza and Russ’ other tales, you can visit www.russcolchamiro.com, follow him on Twitter @AuthorDudeRuss, and ‘like’ his Facebook author page.

New Releases, News

Cover Reveal: Love, Murder & Mayhem

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At long last we are thrilled to present here the official cover for our new scifi-themed Love, Murder & Mayhem anthology coming out in July, debuting at Shore Leave in Cockeysville, MD.

As always, our pal and cover designer extraordinaire Roy Mauritsen did a fantastic job on the cover, with the collection featuring stories from an all-star author lineup including Aaron Rosenberg, Robert Greenberger, Michael Jan Friedman, Peter David, Paul Kupperberg, Glenn Hauman, Mary Fan, Hildy Silverman, Meriah Crawford, Kelly Meding, Paige Daniels, Karissa Laurel, Patrick Thomas, Lois Spangler, and editor Russ Colchamiro.

In this great collection you’ll get 15 stand-alone stories, including those featuring superheroes, super villains, A.I., off-world, space cruisers, private eyes, a monster mash and … one DuckBob!

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