Need a Hero?

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroesis now available:

"In the tradition of The Shadow, The Bat, Doc Savage, The Spider; Dashiell Hammett's Continental Detective Agency; Dusty Ayers & His Battle Birds; Sheena and K-Zar. Hard-boiled detectives, sinister vigilantes, bizarre villains: the staples of the Pulp tradition. Two-fisted heroes - and heroines - fighting for right and justice in the midnight city, foetid jungles or exotic, far-flung lands. Deranged villains for whom the world is never enough. Editor Mike Chinn collects seventeen writers who dive headlong into the world of pulp fiction, to tell us tall tales of daring do, of heroes and heroines and their villains."

My Coyote Cal weird western "The Last Laugh" is included in the mix, and the coolest thing (besides sharing a table of contents with Mike Resnick) is the British spelling. That's right: this is my first Coyote Cal story with words like rumoured and honour in it!

Here's an excerpt:

A burly, black-bearded man stood at the cabin’s back door, loading a revolver dwarfed by his hands. A crude leather patch covered one of his eyes – the corner of which would have caught sight of Cal, otherwise – and greasy black hair draped the man’s broad shoulders. 

“Sampson,” Cal said.

The big man reeled with a savage scowl to find our hero had the drop on him. “Who are you?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Always hated that line,” Sampson snarled.

“So have I,” Cal admitted.

“Then why use it?”

“Well, I had to say something clever. I am the hero, after all.”