Thursday, July 31, 2014

Guest post at Eden Royce: The Dark Geisha

Fans of SCIENCE FICTION and the bizarre:

The extremely talented author Eden Royce (a.k.a.The Dark Geisha) is hosting me on her fine blog, to promo my new release from Musa Publishing, Long Haul:

http://darkgeisha.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/guest-blog-post-and-book-release-tom-olbert/

Check it out!




And, while you're there, check out all the other exceptional offers from the incomparable Eden Royce!

And, not to be missed:  "Torched" - Eden's incredible new anthology devoted to that mystic elemental force:  Fire.


















"Torched" is coming your way soon from


Nocturnal Press











 

Friday, July 25, 2014

"Long Haul" by Tom Olbert

Come along on the WILDEST SCIENCE FICTION ACTION RIDE EVER!

Long Haul



This trucker's haul takes him to the end of time and space, and beyond...

 

 

Blurb:

In the near future, physicists have stumbled on a way to open rifts into other universes, making it possible to transport goods and people anywhere in the world in nothing flat.  The unscrupulous corporation that owns the new technology uses it to monopolize shipping worldwide

Thrill-seeking, death-defying truckers like veteran army driver Garth Jenkins and his gun-toting trucking partner Sally Drake earn hazardous duty pay by hauling rigs through perilous alien universes often infested with deadly alien monsters and many other dangers besides.

Garth and Sally accept a shady corporate contract to deliver some unknown cargo to an alien universe, no questions asked.  It looks like an easy way to score big money.  But, things go south fast when their truck is hijacked by the beautiful and mysterious Keira Takahashi, and they find themselves pursued by hideous alien parasites in undead human bodies.

On the run and in danger, Garth and Sally find themselves on a crooked cosmic road leading to bizarre other worlds and exotic time periods.  They have one chance to unravel the company's twisted plot and save themselves.  Whether they succeed or fail may decide the fate of a universe...
***
Garth Jenkins is quite a guy.  A certified screw-up and a train-wreck waiting to happen, but he's the one you want on your side when the chips are down.  During his tour as a driver in the Gulf War, there was no risk he wouldn't take.  Including beating the crap out of an officer who was forcing himself on a local girl.  For that, Garth narrowly avoided a military firing squad.  But no, the experience hasn't made him any more cautious.  Quite the opposite.

A dishonorable discharge, two ex-wives and two kids later, Garth is still risking his life pushing a rig, and in places that make the Persian Gulf look like a walk in the park.  He's a simple kind of guy who likes his gambling high stakes, his liquor strong, his women fast.  And, he doesn't like to be tied down.  But, in his heart, there's more than he's willing to admit.  When push comes to shove, he'll always do the right thing.  Once he figures out what that is.

Some say he has a death wish.  Maybe he does.  He lost his dad when he was a kid, and he's been trying to make sense of life ever since, his foot to the floor board all the way.  Now, the world has changed around him, and the road he follows leads through the whole of the multiverse, to some very strange worlds.

He's looking for truth, and he'll find it if it kills him.  And, it might.

***

Excerpt:

Three suns burned brightly in the sky, the Earth was breaking apart, and giant moths were attacking us. For most guys, that would describe a bad dream after a bender, but when you’re trucking a load on the long haul, that’s business as usual.

A big mama moth was comin’ straight at me, and she looked pretty damn pissed. Wing spread of about fifteen feet, jaws bigger than my head. Yeah, that’s how big they grow in the crazy gravity in this parallel ’verse.

I squeezed the trigger of my flamethrower. A long, twisting stream of fire snaked out and nailed that sucker right between its foot-wide sparklin’ silver eyes. The shrieking noise those mothers make when they burst into flames cuts to the marrow and curdles the blood. Kinda like my ex-wife when I’m late with a payment.

It was still coming straight for me. I felt the fire on my face as it swooped in. Those things go up like freakin’ gas balloons, y’know. As it passed over, I held onto the rearview side mirror, crouched down on the running board, and nudged that big flaming bug with the muzzle of the flamethrower. It passed on over, stinking, singed pieces of it falling onto my hair and coveralls.

“Damn!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as the truck hit the guard rail, sparks flying, metal screeching. My feet slipped off the running board, and the rearview started coming loose in my hand. I looked down. My feet dangled over a damn long drop into a kind of island floating in mid-air, a jungle landscape splitting apart, volcanoes erupting and lava bubbling up.

There was nothing but sky all around, filled with other floating islands, and swarms of those moth things were taking off from them. Behind that, the moon filled half the sky. It looked close enough to touch. I held on for dear life as the rubber screeched over the tar. My trucking partner, Sally Drake, was spinning that wheel blind, trying to keep the damn rig on the highway. A highway that was built in mid-air, stretching out from one floating island to the next. Don’t ask me how. Our road crews just paved over old highways that were already there. Built by aliens from another ’verse, maybe. Or by humans from our future. I just drive. I don’t ask questions.
 
***
When:
Friday, Aug 1, 2014
 
Where:
 
 

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Torched - An Anthology of Science Fiction and Horror

http://www.npuniverse.com/books/torched-the-debut-anthology-from-nocturnal-press/

Torched, Eden Royce's anthology of science fiction and horror will be out July 26th!

18 authors, 18 tales of wonder and terror.

The underlying theme of the anthology is:

FIRE

 
 
The start of civilization, the primal light, the ultimate threat!  Check it out!!

Monday, July 7, 2014

Human Rights: Going, going...


 
 
 

And, the Supreme Court strikes again.  Yet another victory for the rights of corporations at the expense of human beings.

Now, the court says companies have the right to exclude birth control from employee health insurance on religious grounds.  Predictably, we've been inundated by crass vulgarities from right-wing Neanderthals who say it's not a company's responsibility to subsidize medical coverage for the "recreational sex" of its employees.  They never miss a chance for a crude, misogynistic cheap shot.

So, I guess if a woman gets raped by her manager during the late shift, her employer doesn't have to pay for the abortion, if it's against his religion.  And, I guess if he's anti-Semitic, he doesn't have to hire Jews, since that would violate his beliefs.  If he claims his religion forbids race mixing or gender equality, he doesn't have to hire minorities or women.  If he's a Christian Scientist and you cut yourself on the job and you're bleeding all over the floor and in imminent danger of dying, all he has to do is advise you to pray.

Religious freedom trumps all other human rights, apparently.  Or, is religious freedom merely the pretext the right-wing majority of the SC is using to once again advance the power of the companies to control our lives?

The basic human rights our society is supposed to confer on its citizens is based on rule of law, laws being passed democratically within the parameters of constitutional principles.  The Supreme Court gave women the right to control their own bodies, to use birth control and to terminate unwanted pregnancies.  But, that has no meaning if employers have the right to selectively turn healthcare coverage on and off, based on their own beliefs, effectively over-ruling the Supreme Court.  There are three branches of government that are supposed to facilitate the right of all citizens (regardless of income) to control their own lives through a democratic process.  Company owners shouldn't be able to form a de facto fourth branch that trumps the other three.

The SC seems to currently fall on the side of corporate rights over all.  The freedom to truly control the lives of all belong exclusively to those who own the means of production (a number that seems to be shrinking fast.)  The rights of the individual are fading fast.  There are no inalienable rights if each company becomes like a self-determining nation.

The right-wing ideological mindset is that freedom is based not on inalienable rights, but on the absence of government.  In the right-wing lexicon, government = tyranny, no government = freedom.  The freedom of the jungle.  Survival of the fittest.  Got the money?  You rule.  That's freedom for the few at the expense of the many.  Rule by representative governmental regulation and law means the majority rule.  The government is the one guarantee of freedom because We the People elect the government.  In the chaos of dog-eat-dog, companies getting endlessly bigger and fewer, the law giving them carte blanche to own and control everything (including political campaigns) there is no freedom for 90% of the population, because we do not elect the companies.  They're in for life, and we have no place to go to escape them.  Absolute freedom for the companies means absolute power for them and zero freedom for everyone else.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Machiavelli's response:

"That would in fact be a problem, if you were powerless."

I guess Machiavelli's ghost must be possessing somebody on the Supreme Court.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Mocha Memoirs Press - Big July Sale!




Happy Birthday to Us and U.S. too!

If you've been a part of Mocha Memoirs for the last four years, you know that July is our BIRTHDAY Month! Not only is this the month of the United States' birth, but also ours.

Mocha Memoirs Press began in 2001, but reopened our doors in July 2010 with the hope of spotlighting fantastic fiction in the genres of science fiction, horror, fantasy, and romance. Each year we do something fun for our birthday, and this year will be no different.

Since we’re giving gifts, it’s Christmas in July! What’s in our holiday sack?

Gift #1-New fiction! Four new titles will launch our TOIL, TROUBLE, AND TEMPTATION line.

Gift #2- MMP GIFT bag. It will include the following:

1.      A sample of our books (both horror anthologies, a science fiction title, two erotic romance titles, and a fantasy title).

2.      A MMP tee-shirt.

3.      A MMP journal to write down your own inspiring ideas.

4.      Starbucks® coffee

5.      Other surprise goodies.

6.      All will be contained in a MMP cloth bag.

(You have to sign up for the MMP Newsletter to enter. More details to follow on our blog and our Facebook group).

Gift #3-Black Friday sale in the summer-All Christmas and holiday stories are .99!

Gift #4-Sizzling Deals for HOT summer nights-All erotic romance titles are $2.99 or LESS!

Gift #5-Select science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles are $1.00 or 0.99.

$.99  or $1 Horror, SF, and Fantasy titles:

Drink My Soul by Rie Sheridan Rose

Descent into Madness by Michael LaRocca

Still Another Day by Janet Eckford

Dragon’s Champion by Wynelda Ann Deaver

Huntress by Siobhan Kinkade

The Soul Cages by Nicole Givens Kurtz


http://mochamemoirspress.com/news/1272 to join.