Do you want to believe? The truth is out there.
It is 1897, and mysterious airships and unfathomable secrets haunt the skies. Tasked with hunting down these strange aerial vehicles and determining their origin and intent, two U.S. government agents toil under unusual conditions to report their findings to shadowy superiors.
Ride with Agents Valiantine and Cabot across the Midwest as they encounter reports of strange lights, phantom soldiers, unreliable witnesses, and the ultimate source of their airborne prey.
They are the Airship Hunters, and they cannot be waylaid from their path to uncover the greatest mystery of them all.
On Saturday afternoon, August 15, at high noon, PulpFest 2015 will welcome New Fictioneer Duane Spurlock to its second-floor programming area at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Duane will be reading from AIRSHIP HUNTERS, a short novel he co-authored with Jim Beard. It will be published as a signed, limited-edition trade paperback and will premier at PulpFest 2015.
Duane will also read from FIGHTING ALASKA, a novelette about a bare-knuckles boxer who travels to the Alaskan gold fields as a way to escape the fight game. Once there, he meets historical figures Wyatt Earp, Rex Beach, and Tex Rickard, plus more trouble than he imagined. It’s part of the FIGHT CARD series, inspired by the boxing pulps of the early twentieth century.
Spurlock says, “Genre fiction and popular media have narrative strengths that speak to readers in powerful ways, no matter what era the stories are set in, no matter what the tropes or expectations may be for a given genre or type of story.”
Duane Spurlock writes adventure fiction and fantasy-oriented action tales. He has also worked as an illustrator, including the book THE BLEEDING HORSE AND OTHER GHOST STORIES, written by Brian Showers. It won the Children of the Night Award from the Dracula Society.
Duane maintains three blogs: The Spur & Lock Mercantile, which examines the western genre in various media; The Pulp Rack, focused on popular narrative fiction during the first half of the 20th Century, its precursors, and its influence on contemporary media; and InterroBang, presenting updates on the author’s current works in progress. Spurlock comes from a long line of long-winded storytellers. He lives with his family in Kentucky, where they garden, doodle, whistle, and tell one another stories.
In its continuing effort to promote the work of writers of “new pulp fiction,” PulpFest is proud to continue its long-running New Fictioneer series of readings. Duane Spurlock is one of four contemporary writers reading at this year’s convention. You’ll find our previous write-ups here on our website.
The cover art for The Airship Hunters (Meteor House, 2015) is by freelance illustrator and graphic designer M. S. Corley. A resident of Kirkland, Washington, Corley has designed and illustrated everything from comic books to video game concept art, producing work for clients such as Dark Horse Comics, Simon & Schuster, Valancourt Books, Henry Holt Macmillian, Microsoft, and Amazon Publishing.
