I’m about 10k away from finishing the first draft of Lazarus Gray volume 3 so I hope to have that done by Friday.

Then it’s on to my secret Moonstone project, which shouldn’t take too long – it’s a short story. The characters aren’t my favorites but I understand them and the premise (which I was assigned) is something I have a lot of experience writing.

After that? I don’t know. A part of me wants to keep going with Laz and company – ride that wave until it crashes. But I also feel like doing something new so we’ll see.

Nobody responded to my question about rpg stats you wanted to see – I knew going in that posting those was mostly for me, anyway lol. I do plan to continue doing them, cause I enjoy it.

A new Ubergeeks is live! Check it out by clicking the link on top of the blog.

We weren’t able to record a new episode of Ubergeeks last night but the plan is to do it tonight and upload it soon after. So stay tuned.

The end is in sight for Lazarus Gray volume 3. I’m currently at over 48,000 words for the book, which looks like it will contain two stories: “Murder Unlimited” and “Eidolon.” Another week or so and I think I’ll be typing THE END on this 2013 release. After that, I have a story for Moonstone to finish up and then I might start work on something for Jim Beard & Tommy Hancock. We’ll see how it all shakes out.

Tales of the Rook is in production so hopefully we’ll be seeing that one soon — I think folks will really enjoy the stories in this one. All of them are terrific pulp adventures told by talented guys – Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Tommy Hancock, Mike Bullock and Perry Constantine all have contributions to the book, along with a cover by Bob Hall and interior art by George Sellas. It’s going to be one of the best books of the year, I think (and, yes, I am biased).

Reading The Bat Staffel, the first G-8 novel. It’s terrific fun — I don’t think my prose will ever be as effortlessly “pulp” as these old guys did it. I’m jealous of their ability.

I’ll have something concrete to report about the Lazarus Gray ‘Origins” project by Monday.

The art for today is a production sketch for the new edition of The Rook Volume Two‘s cover. George and I ended up picking a slightly different design as we felt this one was a bit “busy”. I’ll show you the approved version tomorrow.

 

So work is speeding along on several fronts: Tales of the Rook going through formatting as we speak and should be on your shelves soon. George Sellas has already begun designing the cover for The Rook Volume Two re-release and is also working on the interiors. The menacing fellow at left is Shinigami, a deadly mirror image of The Rook from the classic adventure, “Blitzkrieg.” This is just a rough but man, isn’t it gorgeous? George is amazing.

I’m well over 30k on the Lazarus Gray novel, Eidolon. I think it’s going well but I still can’t reveal much about it until after Die Glocke is out. A lot of what’s in Eidolon builds upon that.

Hope folks are enjoying the rpg writeups I’ve been posting — so far I’ve done The Shadow and Lazarus Gray. If you do enjoy them, let me know what pulp heroes you’d like me to do next. I’ve thought about The Rook, Doc Savage or Derrick Ferguson’s Dillon… but I’m not sure yet.

Currently a Shadow novel, The London Crimes. After that, I’ll be reading a couple of G-8 novels and then on to other things.

Two new reviews have gone up at Amazon.com — let’s see what folks are saying about The Adventures of Lazarus Gray!

Jose Rivera posted the following:

I picked up this e-book on a random whim. I liked the cover, I like pulp-esque characters and I have to say this was a pleasant surprise. The mystery of who Lazarus Gray is, combined with a great supporting cast and some really interesting villains, kicked off my first experience with an E-Book. And what’s even more surprising is the fact that while each story can be viewed as a stand alone piece, there is a nice running thread which builds the tension.

Each villain in each story is a worthy opponent, running between alien menaces, a cursed mummy, cults and oh yes, a Nazi with an axe to grind with Lazarus.

I’m trying to avoid all spoilers here because I truly believe these stories need to be read and enjoyed. This book was right up my alley but I’m so happy I caught it randomly. It scratches me right where I itch and I hope to see more adventures of Lazarus Gray!

C William Russette chimed in with the following review:

THE ADVENTURES OF LAZARUS GRAY by Barry Reese delivers everything that I was hoping it would. There is plenty of action, occult, happenings, a quartet of interesting characters and even a guest star from Mr. Reese’s other, likely better known character, The Rook.

I have read elsewhere that this is a character that is a sort of homage to the classic pulp character The Avenger. I’ve never read anything of said character so I went in blind save for the knowledge that Mr. Reese knows how to spin a yarn.

There are seven stories to be found within this collection. Some have seen print before elsewhere but they were all new to me. I won’t say that I liked them all equally (or disliked ANY) but that is only because we all have preferences. I lean towards the supernatural side of things and those tales Mr. Reese wrote involving Mr. Gray and Assistance Unlimited were great fun and interesting to read.

The pacing in every story is breakneck and frankly it makes the book rather hard to put down. I won’t give away anything as far as the plot goes. Pertaining to the characters of Gray’s team I will say that I find each every bit as interesting as the lead in the tales. I particularly thing that Samantha could hold a story or two all by her lonesome.

As far as being worthy to be included among the great tales coming forth from the New Pulp movement, Lazarus Gray and his crew have their place of honor cemented.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a review, guys! I’m pleased that you enjoyed book one and hope that you’ll enjoy the sequel just as much. Look for volume two to drop sometime in July!