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Johnny (not John or Jon) Shaw is an author here in good ol’ Portland Oregon. Back in September he launched his first Novel, Dove Season ( re view ). He hit the road touring and speaking, stopped by Wordstock 2011, then hit the road again.. Weary and in dire need of some home time, he was kind enough to set aside some time to BS via email with a fan, answer some questions, and delicately cover his bases so as not to offend his wife and mother. So read up folks, this is a present from him to us. If you have not heard of his book, check out some reviews online. Get a feel for it, then go buy the damn thing before you blow your cash on booze smokes fatty-foods internet-pornography Thai-hookers madmax-souvenirs.. or whatever your vice may be. If you still are not convinced, read this QA again and leave a comment. I will find a way to convince you that will not require band-aids afterwards. Thanks Johnny for participating :) Author’s website  johnnyshaw.net -------- Jas...

John Rector has brought a very strong novel to the table and put it down in front of you. You should be picking up what he is putting down. Before picking up this novel, grab an industrial fan and place it in front of you facing away. When the novelized shit hits it, you will minimize the blow-back you experience. Within five pages of the opening, the ring finger of Jake Reese has been forcibly removed by a pressure instrument that is not intended to be used for surgery. Bolt cutters, normally tasked to leveraging solid metal into separate pieces, had no trouble going through the bone and flesh of Jake’s finger. Jake goes home to his wife, with his wallet intact, and his pride scuffed, and in a terrible amount of confused pain. What the heck just happened, why was it “Nothing personal” as the attacker stated while walking away. Rector’s “Already Gone” just gets better from there. I will not summarize anything further, in fear I could introduce spoilers. What I can advise is that I was ...

In the first of (and hopefully a grip of) the “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco’s”, Jimmy is called back to his home town when his father announces he has terminal cancer and no further options. He travels back to the 100+ degree heat to spend time with “Pop” and help get things in order. Jimmy has been away from the Imperial Valley of California over a decade. He went to college, traveled the world, and planned no further into the future than a week. He was generically content with his life, even if he was not what people would call happy. It doesn’t matter though. Desert folk can move to a city, travel the world , or settle down with a chica up north, but will always have the desert inside them. Jimmy finds out very quickly that nothing has changed since he left El Centro and the Imperial area. The border is still malleable, Mexicali is still someplace that should cause a grown man to stay out of the shadows, and even though he thought he left his life behind, it was waiting or him when he came b...

Published in the US as ‘Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir’, I apparently bought a UK import version with an alternate title/cover. The only way to properly talk about this memoir is to begin by paraphrasing Mustaine’s book regarding the stuff that everyone expects: “I was in Metallica until they kicked me out. I am so sad and bitter. I started a new band, Megadeth, which is pretty kick ass and is a metal force to be recognized. Twelve stepping is good so long as you are not to drunk to walk. Even through all my success, I continue to whine about Metallica until I have annoyed even myself…Oh look, there’s Jesus! What’s he doing here? I should ask him if he wants to jam with me..” Dave Mustaine, druggie fist-fighting front-man for metal band Megadeth. Self-titled “Mustaine” covered his mid-teen years to current, his descent into alcoholism and drug abuse, greater than ten stints in various rehab facilities. It doesn't focus solely on the negative, instead calling out the many positive t...

Recently I read a couple free eBooks that I downloaded from Smashwords. Both were very good, I read them and enjoyed them. Each of them had a number of good points, but had some areas where artifacts of the self publishing process left me wanting. Dead(ish) – Naomi Kramer , 2009, approx 48 pages http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2679 Linda, Mike and Trent are in a complex relationship. Mike is being haunted, and has hired Trent as an exorcist to remove the unwanted spirit. Trent is not an exorcist, he is actually a detective hired by Linda. Linda is dead, and she is convinced that Mike killed her. The perspective comes mainly from Mike and Trent, but Linda is mixed in piecemeal as Trent transcribes things she says to him during meetings. One of my favorite things here was the Creative Commons aspect where Kramer advises you can update her book to remove the Australian slang and replace it with your own if you wanted to redistribute it. I thought this was a classy change that...

The war between man and machine begins,But you don’t need to wait till the apocalypse to rock to your favorite jams. As not-seen-on-tv, Harper Entertainment presents a special 2002 throwback collection: all the greatest hits of the Terminator saga all in one place!  T2: Rising Storm  features the best in contemporary junk sci-fi with hits from S.M. Stirling, and homage paid back to James Cameron and William wisher, key-masters of the Terminator universe! Bringing back hits from the 80′s and 90′s, T2: Rising Storm includes classics such as: No fate but that we make. You sent your dad from the Future to save your mom and impregnate her before dying so you can be born so you can send your dad back into the past to impregnate your mom….. how does that work again? Run Run Run Run Run, Locate bigger firepower! Run Run…. Your face is blown halfway off, and I can see your metal skull Life is like a dark highway.. Also included are new and improved Terminator universe hits, remastered ...