My Novel Is Being Published — A Two-Book Deal!

It’s been sort of a quiet open secret among friends, but now I can say it to the world…

MY NOVEL IS BEING PUBLISHED!

We made the official announcement to Publisher’s Marketplace today, where all deals are first announced. Now I can share the details. It’s a two-book deal. The first book is to be published and available Dec. 18, 2012, through Harper Voyager, the sci-fi imprint for Harper Collins.

Here’s the press release:

Trey Garrison’s debut novel, THE SPEAR OF DESTINY, the first in the alternate history steam-punk “Far Ranger” series, is set in a very different 1920s where the North American continent is comprised of rival nations, and science and the supernatural co-exist. Great War veterans and freelance pilots Sean Rucker and Jesus D’Anconia Lago are reluctantly pulled into a quest to save the world. Will Hinton at Harper Voyager is the editor for publication. It will be published in three parts starting December 2012. Trey is represented by David Hale Smith at Inkwell Management in a two-book deal.

Yes, it’s got robots, zombies, Nazis and cowboys.

(Pictured: My mood)

This has been a long-time coming and I owe a lot of people thanks for their patience, input, faith and encouragement. (My wife Cindy, my dog Harley, and friends Amy F, Aaron B, Harry H, Eric C, David Hale Smith, Adam E, Will Hinton — you all know who you are).

Thank you all.

Here is the long version of the synopsis:

It’s a very different 1928. The North American continent is comprised of several rival nations, the Nazis came to power in Germany a decade sooner, and science and the supernatural co-exist.
The Nazis have hatched a plot to raise a legion of undead soldiers. An anti-Nazi faction within the Third Reich recruits a young Prussian doctor, Dr. Kurt von Deitel, to find help in the West to stop this devious plan.
Enter Sean Fox Rucker and Jesus D’Anconia Lago, two Great War veterans and freelance pilots who are reluctantly pulled into the quest. They are joined by a brash Greek merchant, a brilliant Jewish cowboy, and the woman who once broke Rucker’s heart.
The heroes race against Nazi clockwork assassins, a charismatic commando, a telekinetic sadist, and transgenic man-beasts known as wehr-wolves. The quest takes them around the world, with settings both familiar and exotic: Colombia, Austin, the capital of the Union States in New York City, a floating city over the Caribbean, Rome, and Poenari Castle in Transylvania. Along the way, they encounter well-known historical figures and uncover the shocking truth about the Spear of Destiny.
THE SPEAR OF DESTINY recaptures the unapologetic adventure, excitement and suspense of the classic pulp fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, along with a touch of Steampunk, historical fiction and a good dose of humor. Yet it also alludes to philosophical and moral issues relevant to our world today: the trade-off between security and liberty, the morality of pre-emptive war, and what fundamentally separates good from evil.

‘A Woman Having an Absolutely Wonderful Time’

In other words, get bent, feminists.

ss-110917-Ruth-Orkin-American-Girl-in-Italy.grid-6x2

You know the photo. You’ve seen it a hundred times. A beautiful, statuesque young woman is walking down a street in Florence, Italy. She’s clutching her shawl, and she seems to be moving swiftly. More than a dozen men are staring at her longingly. One of them is grabbing his crotch.

The iconic 1951 image “American Girl in Italy” turns 60 on Monday. As its anniversary approaches, the stunning woman in the photo — Ninalee Craig, now 83 — is speaking up about it. She wants to explain what the photo represents, and what it doesn’t.

“Some people want to use it as a symbol of harassment of women, but that’s what we’ve been fighting all these years,” Craig said in a telephone interview from her home in Toronto. “It’s not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time!”

Full story here

Anyway — been away awhile. Got some big projects under way. Hopefully some big news about my novel soon. More later.

Gunwalker “Fast & Furious” Designed to Promote Gun Control

Here’s a screen cap of the smoking gun email.

Screen shot 2011-07-14 at 10.05.07 AM

Source and more detail on the story here.

I’ll be discussing this on NBC DFW 5 tonight with Jane McGarry.

Newly Published: Blessed is the (Colt) Peacemaker

My latest column is up at Guns.com. It deals with the issue of guns in church. Here’s a preview.church-jesus3

For many – especially gun control folks– churches and guns go together like, well, children and guns. Christians on both sides of the pew can cite dueling scripture verses.

Yes, Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39 (KJV)

Of course He also said, “Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” Luke 22:36 (KJV)

I’m not walking on these waters, because all of that should mean jack and squat when it comes to writing laws on gun rights. Why? Well, I’d quote the First Amendment here and the implied separation of church and state, but that’s something I trust all our readers know.

Enjoy the full piece here.

Taxation = Theft

The Most Influential Woman of the Last and Next Century

From the Sydney Morning Herald. Also, her most influential book is coming to the big screen. Part one of the trilogy hits theaters April 15. See the trailer below. (Best review of the movie so far? “Both Rand lovers and haters will enjoy this.”)

Woman of real influence who wanted to be judged only on her merits

Ross Cameron

March 10, 2011

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is the best-selling novel of the 20th century never to appear on film. That changes on April 15 with the release of the first of an Atlas Shrugged trilogy – the YouTube trailers are closing in on a million hits. This calls for an overview of the life of one of the most loved and loathed thinkers of the modern era.

If the 20th century could be reduced to a single sentence it might read: “a struggle between free markets and communism in which free markets prevailed”.

Many thinkers contributed to the final victory with economists such as Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek arguing persuasively that capitalism is superior because it works. Ayn Rand went for the jugular, arguing that capitalism is morally good.

Rand was born into a secular Jewish family of pharmacists in St Petersburg. She was one of the first women admitted to Petrograd University as the horror of the Bolshevik Revolution was unleashed. An anti-communist student council was elected, and immediately crushed, and several of her activist colleagues disappeared.Rand procured some early Hollywood film reels and was utterly transfixed. When her mother mentioned relatives in Chicago, Rand pleaded, ”Write to them, mother. Write and tell them. I have to go to America. Ask them to help. Do it today. Do it now.” In 1926 she escaped near starvation in the USSR recalling ”tears of splendour” as her ship approached the Manhattan skyline.

She went to Hollywood as a prospective screenwriter, marching into Paramount Pictures to explain: “I want to write movies.” Quickly brushed aside she headed for the gates when Cecil B. DeMille drove by and stopped his car to ask, ”Why are you staring at me?” In her thick accent she replied, ”I’ve just arrived from Russia and I am very happy to meet you.” ”Get in,” DeMille replied, and proceeded to arrange jobs, first as an extra in King of Kings then as a script reviewer. Rand now had the modest income she needed to write.

Her tone from the outset was purist, rationalist, atheist and anti-communist. In 1944, after 12 rejections, she found a publisher for The Fountainhead. Without powerful advocates or a marketing budget, the book sold slowly but it kept selling, in a classic slow burn, by word of mouth…

Read the full story here.

Here’s the trailer.

For more about the movie and where to see it, go here.

“I’ll talk your ears deaf about how much leftists suck.”

VOodoo_DollThere’s nothing I could add that could make this better.

Bullshit Buzzwords of PC Totalitarianism

With a hat tip to a new favorite blog Your Philosophy Sucks, this is just awesome.

Pictured: A half-witted Marxist twat

Pictured: A half-witted Marxist twat

I mean, even a half-witted Marxist twat sounds intelligent with an English accent.

So couple it with sound, biting commentary and you got gold.

My Only Goal Is To Make Money

Hits theaters April 15. Appropriately enough.

You Wanna Meet the Real Me Now?

Tomorrow begins a new era on this mighty blog.

Lemme ‘splain.

"You wanna meet the real me now?"

"You wanna meet the real me now?"

When I haven’t neglected my blog I’ve posted with one hand tied behind my back. For some reason I had in my mind I should tone it down for the sake of respectability. Like a good writer should worry about being reputable.

I have no idea what I was thinking. By offering watered-down, gelded and respectable posts here, I wasn’t doing you any favors. Or me.Not-a-single-fuck-was-given-that-day And I’m at an age where I really don’t give a crap about people who don’t want to take me as I am, or who need the world made Nerf.

So, starting tomorrow this blog gets its man back on. You get to meet the real me, uncensored and not giving a shit. I don’t care if I offend you, entertain you or make you cry. It’s my name on this shack. You don’t like it, go be a crybaby someplace else.

It’s going to rude, immature, mean and frankly funny as hell. If you like rude, immature and mean humor. Come on back or stay the hell of my lawn, kids.