Do you want to believe? The truth is out there.
It is 1897 and the skies are haunted by mysterious airships and unfathomable secrets. Tasked with hunting down these strange vehicles of the air and determining their origin and intent, two U.S. government agents toil under unusual conditions to supply their shadowy superiors with information. But that information proves to be as elusive as the airships themselves.
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 15th, 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 be reading from FIGHTING ALASKA, a novelette concerning 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 of books that are inspired by the boxing pulps of the 1930s and ’40s.
Duane Spurlock writes adventure and fantasy-oriented action tales. He has also has 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. 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 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 who will be reading at this year’s convention. Click our red “schedule” button to learn about all of the writers who will be offering their work to the PulpFest membership. Afterward, book a room for three nights by visiting pulpcon.org/2015/06/16872/ and register now for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con.”
(The cover art for THE AIRSHIP HUNTERS is by freelance illustrator and graphic designer M. S. Corley. A resident of Kirkland, Washington, he’s the cover artist for the APOCALYPSE WEIRD series, an imagined world used to tell a single shared story over the course of several books, from different perspectives, by a multitude of authors. It’s the story of several different “End of the World” scenarios taking place all at once, all connected and influenced by a dark force from beyond the known. 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.)
