How the Dead Walked

Artist Tony Masero has added an interesting new page to his website that looks at the creation of his art from original sketches to finished piece, and he's used the cover image from the first book in my forthcoming, The Dead Walked trilogy as an example.

From Tony Masero's webite

So if you're interested in knowing how we got from this:

To this:

Then CLICK HERE

The Silver Locomotive Mystery

Available in print and as an eBook.

This is the first book I've read in the popular, Railway Detective series. I like historical crime thrillers, indeed my own, A Policeman's Lot is in the genre. The blurb revealed that the book was set in Cardiff in the year, 1855 and seeing as I know modern Cardiff so well I couldn't resist picking up the book.

The first page tells us that we are in 1855 which allows the author to be sparing in his historical detail and concentrate on the plot. Though there are some nods to the time and place and it is clear that the author knows the period well.

The plot concerns the murder of a young man named, Hugh Kellow in a Cardiff hotel room and the theft of a silver coffee pot made to look like a locomotive. The railway detective, Robert Colbeck is called in and together with his trusty sergeant Leeming who acts as a Watson to Colbeck's Holmes he sets out to solve the case.

It's a cozy crime novel that uses the locked room scenario for its mystery and is thoroughly enjoyable - if you like Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, then you'll fell at home with this book. I enjoyed it enough to promptly buy another two novels in the series for my Kindle, and there can be no  better recommendation than that.

Late night chills

The Tainted Archive  has a cause to support – The Classic Horror Campaign.

The campaign run by two people ,who we are so glad have too much time on their hands, is a pressure group to bring back classic horror double bills to television screens. And they’ve already been making inroads – holding their own film festivals, appearing on public radio and getting some great mentions in the national press, both in the UK and US.
The team behind the online Classic Horror Campaign hopes to persuade Auntie Beeb to pick up the baton. Their argument is simple: show them on BBC4, the home of alternative programming, intelligent documentaries and off-kilter movies.

Show your support HERE

I’d certainly like these guys to succeed – I’m old enough to remember the days (nights) when Saturday late night television would include a horror double bill. So popular were these double bills that I can remember them being featured on the cover of the Radio Times – a big deal in the days when the Radio Times was the only BBC listings magazine on sale.

And for anyone outside the UK confused as to why a TV listings magazine should be called the Radio Times, the answer is simple – the magazine started off in 1923 without TV listings because the damn thing hadn’t been invented yet, and when TV came and overtook radio as the medium of the masses, the magazine wisely never changed its name. The magazine is still being published today.
But back to the point – we want to see those days recreated and fully support the Campaign for Classic Horror.

The fastest stitch in the West

Ahh, those publishing lead times - I have just heard that my next novel from Black Horse Westerns,  will be published 30th July 2012.

For anyone interested here's a rough cut of the blurb:

Like many other nationalities, the Welsh made a unique contribution to the time and place we these days call, The Wild West. Official records show that some 80,000 Welshmen made their home on the American frontier, though the true figure is likely much higher.


This is the story of one of those men.


William Williams, otherwise known as Wild Bill Williams was no stranger to trouble. It seemed to follow him, sticking to him like a shadow. A survivor of the Little Big Horn, or so he claims, he has never had to face trouble like that which he found in the town of Stanton. When the bullets start to fly and the blood begins to run, Wild Bill is never far behind.

Wild Bill Williams
Black Horse Westerns
July 2012

The eNews

* It's not before time - Amazon are now taking a good look at the volumes released through its Kindle publishing program. Amazon has announced that it will begin cracking down on authors who upload so-called "private label rights" e-books via the Kindle Direct Publishing service. According to an email sent to the authors of titles that were removed, Amazon is now filtering and deleting "undifferentiated or barely differentiated" e-books submitted for publishing on the Kindle store because they "diminish the experience for customers.

It seems that the Kindle store has been filled with what are essentially duplicate e-books that were written and sold under "private label rights" (PLR). The text of the book is sold by the original author or copyright holder for a flat fee, and is then taken by authors or publishers to customize and sell under their own names. Most of the supposed authors uploading the books, however, simply format the text, create a new cover and upload them in an attempt at a get-rich-quick scheme.

*  The next generation of Sony eReaders may be bundled with the entire Harry Potter book series in October. Sony have paid Potter author, Rowling an undisclosed sum to be able to offer special Harry Potter branded eReaders.

* Microsoft are to discontinue on its own eReader software.Launched in 2000, Microsoft Reader was touted as a free, downloadable software application to enable users to read eBooks on Windows-based devices they already own, but just over a decade later, the company has quietly pulled the plug.

* Authors Janet Evanovich and Kathryn Stockett have each sold more than a million Kindle books, joining what Amazon has termed the “Kindle Million Club.”
The authors join the likes of Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke, who have also passed the million mark in sales of their eBooks in the Kindle Store. According to the release, Stockett is the first debut novelist to reach this milestone.

Elvis is back in the building

Incredible that it's been 34 years since Elvis Presley died - and he's still as popular as ever, more so in fact and although much of the Elvis industry is tacky there is no disputing the importance of Elvis as a performer and a truly innovative one at that.


"Before Elvis there was nothing." John Lennon

As a kid I used to think Elvis was the epitome of cool and would even watch those movies which were always playing on TV during the school holidays, but as I grew older and discovered other forms of music I turned away from the music of Elvis Presley, considering it trite, mediocre - and a great deal of it was. Those costumes he wore on stage made him look like a strutting peacock and every time he was featured on the news he seemed to have gained yet another chin. The world had moved on and Elvis, it seemed, had been unable to move with it and now well into middle age he was still belting out those songs that had sounded fresh coming from a slightly raw kid, but seemed like parody coming from the middle aged fat man.

I remember the first record player I ever owned - it was a Dansette which was shaped like a suitcase, carrying handle included on the side. I got this for Christmas when I was ten years old and I had two LP records with it - Elvis's Christmas Album and a tribute to the Beatles. I didn't really like the Beatles one at the time, as it wasn't the real Beatles but some tribute band, and besides all I knew of the Beatles when I was ten was that it was some group my Dad would mention from time to time. But the Elvis one was played to death.

Then in 1977 Elvis Presley died, but I was twelve years old at the time, just discovering punk music and Elvis had long ceased to matter to me. Why should I, a snobby nosed kid from the black Welsh Valleys, give a shit about a middle of the road American icon?

It was only in later years that I began to rediscover Elvis and although there is still a large ratio of trash amongst his canon, there is much that is as important as any music ever recorded by anyone. Almost all of his tracks for Sun are indispensable, as are his first two RCA albums. Elvis is Back, his first album after leaving the army, is also excellent and showed a maturity both in choice of songs and  the performance itself. It all went wrong shortly afterwards with Elvis becoming a star in a string of bad movies with inane soundtrack albums. The Elvis that came back from military service was not the hip cat who first put on the uniform. Indeed the few Elvis movies that can be considered classic came from the first period of fame before he was drafted into the army. The military it seemed did something to Elvis - tamed him,perhaps.

There were though later triumphs - the excellent 68 comeback special and a string of albums such as Elvis in Memphis, Elvis Country, Back in  Memphis and That's The Way It Is spring to mind.

It's not surprising really that Elvis in his afterlife has become even more of a product than he was when alive. He was used as a commodity throughout the movie years and even beyond with the gruelling Vegas shows. And that's a shame because it often obscures the fact that Elvis was a truly great artist, as important in the development of popular music as anyone. In life he became wrapped up in his own myth and lost himself beneath all the trappings of showbusiness and in death the real Elvis is buried deeper still. It's not about the flashy suits and saccharine ballads, but about those first few years, back when the world was black and white, when the young man revolutionised music and changed the world. He truly did, you know.

These days I know I was wrong to discount Elvis and am a born again fan and so in honour of the King, on this anniversary of his death, here are my choice of five essential Elvis albums.

Elvis  Prelsey (1956) This is the first album for RCA Records. As famous for it's pink and green lettering and its cover design, as for the music itself. This is punky rockabilly Elvis with not a bad track among the set. Listen to Elv's take on Ray Chares's I got A Woman and prepare to be rocked.

Elvie (1956) The second RCA album was more polished that the previous volume and much of the rawness taken away. But mawkish Old Shep aside this is still a great record.

Elvis Sunrise (1975) This compilation  contains all of the tracks the young Elvis laid down for Sam Phillips and Sun records. And it's absolutely excellent - this is Elvis at his best. Raw, bluesy and magnificent. The video embedded below comes from these sessions.


Elvis is Back (1960) Elvis launched himself into recording this album directly after leaving the army, acting as producer and having free reign on the choice of tracks. The work shows a more rounded side of Elvis with the singer flirting with jazz as well as the more usual blues and rockabilly. After this master-work came the soundtrack to GI Blues and the real Elvis seemed lost forever.

From Elvis in Memphis (1969) Perhaps the last truly great album Elvis would ever make. Producer Chips Moran pushed Elvis every step of the way and this resuled in some of the greatest emotion ever heard in that remarkable voice. Excellent.






The music will live forever

Black Horse Western Amazon charts

Charts as always courtesy of Black Horse Express and it's great to see my Ballad of Delta Rose holding the top spot.

1. The Ballad of Delta Rose by Jack Martin (Hardcover - 29 Jul 2011)
From £10.94

2. Revenge for a Hanging by Richard Smith (Hardcover - 29 Jul 2011)
From £10.20

3. Drive to Redemption by Mike Deane (Hardcover - 31 May 2011)
From £8.42

4. The Black Horse Westerns: Collection No. 1 by Abe Dancer, Dean Edwards, Tyler Hatch and Scott Connor (Kindle Edition - 1 Jan 2011)
Buy: £6.86

5. Showdown at Snakebite Creek by Thomas McNulty (Hardcover - 29 Jul 2011)
From £10.28

6. The Snake River Bounty by Bill Shields (Hardcover - 28 Feb 2011)
From £8.82

7. The Shadow of Iron Eyes by Rory Black (Hardcover - 31 Oct 2011)
Buy new: £13.25

8. All Guns Blazing by Douglas Thorne (Hardcover - 30 Nov 2008)
From £0.01

9. Scar County Showdown by Elliot Long (Hardcover - 28 Feb 2011)
From £8.92

10. Iron Eyes is Dead by Rory Black (Hardcover - 30 Nov 2010)
From £9.12