We sometimes do a thing called Free Sample Friday. Which is just what it says, a bit of 10th Rule Book’s pulp fiction that skips the boring parts. We are not doing that this week. Instead we are letting people download a whole fucking book for free on the Kindle. You see on this weekend a few years ago a man calling himself Cooke walked out of a Colorado prison a free man*. He made his way to Oceanside, CA where he found himself some trouble, a lot of trouble. So to celebrate the anniversary of his freedom we are giving away the story of that trouble - Captain Cooker . Not just a chapter, but the whole damn thing. Come Monday it will cost money again (only three bucks), so get on it and get yourself some free hard-boiled action noir one reviewer called a ‘Chain of fistfights’.** Of course we could have stopped there but we did not. Look for the second Cooke novel, Best Laid Plans of Idiots and Fuck-Ups for only .99 on the Kindle this weekend. That’s right the whole Cooke...

Since we have a podcast doing the 80’s crime fiction story Fiero over the sounds of electric guitar it seemed a good time to bust out our sporadic 5 cool things column and name the 5 best rock guitar solos from the 1980’s. 1 - The outro to Mr. Crowley - Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne). The first solo made the Rolling Stone top 100 solos and it is killer without a doubt, but the second one is one of the all time metal monster solos. Starting with a string of arpeggios and then going into some inspired D harmonic minor madness the under appreciated Randy Rhoads expands on what the even more under appreciated Ritchie Blackmore started doing with rock guitar in the 1970’s. 2 - Rainbow in the Dark -Vivian Campbell (Dio). Jimmy Page showed how great Am, G, and F * (I, VI, bVII if anyone cares) are to solo over (sorry that one was in the 70’s so it doesn’t make the list) and while the even more underrated than Rhoads and Blackmore Irish man Viv Campbell doesn’t match Page (Who does?) ...

“Man, people sure looked funny back the 80’s with their mullets and shorty shorts,” says the guy with a man bun wearing skinny jeans while he plays with his overgrown beard. Yes we are talking about the 80’s, the decade before dressing like a lumberjack and being depressed became cool. Why are we talking about past? Well, the new season of the Podcast is doing Todd Morr’s Fiero which happened to take place in the 80’s. So in the spirit of the 1980’s we take a look back at some of the cool stuff from the decade, with our not regular feature five cool things. People could play the shit out of the guitar. Sure dressed like an aging whore in desperate need of electrolysis a lot of them looked funny doing it, but even the silliest of the silly glam metal bands of the era had a guy who could play (check out Reb Beach from Winger,  George Lynch from Dokken, Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P., Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson from Night Ranger* ). When they weren’t buying hairspray and eye...

I Am the Boss of Number 2 To celebrate the release of the long awaited follow up to Captain Cooker the second Cooke novel (don''t call them books) - Best Laid Plans of Idiots and Fuck-Ups - we bring you a list some of our favorite pulp fiction that skips the boring parts, focusing on the 2nd in a series. Not so much sequels but second entries in an ongoing series.* Yeah, we probably missed your favorite, but you already know that one. Best vintage noir classic book - The Outfit - Richard Stark. Why?  It is a Parker novel, don’t judge the character Parker on the shitty Jason Statham flick**.  Parker is the man and he is at his bad ass best as he takes on the mob. It is classic Parker, he has a great plan, things go to hell, but he uses his brains and his brawn to end up on top. Best recent noir book with a female protagonist - Diesel Therapy - Greg Barth. Why?  It is a Selena novel. Don’t judge Selena on the movie bearing her name either (Like the ...

Free Sample Friday is back. Get a taste of the new Cooke novel Best Laid Plans of Idiots and Fuck Up's. He caught his reflection in the driver’s side window. In the hazy, yellow, light the blood on his shirt looked black. He looked like a battlefield surgeon, or a patient. The gash in his upper right side, which had begun throbbing as if the two sides of the knife width gap were trying to pull themselves together, made him feel like the latter. Cooke curled the handcuff hanging from his right wrist into his palm and focused on filling the tank. The girl with half a face sitting in the front seat continued to text him as he pumped gas with his one fully operational arm. He ignored the device vibrating in his pocket. He had chosen the farthest pump, used his credit card so he did not have to go near the brightly lit convenience store. His appearance alone would have someone making a call to the cops. Inside the car was worse. Three dead bodies, two in the trunk and one in the b...

The new Cooke novel is finally here. Nothing more needs to be said. Best Laid Plans of Idiots and Fuck-Ups

Booze Break Both fans of the podcast may have noticed there is no new episode this week. Good news is we are going to bring out new episodes, but we will be on hiatus the next couple of weeks as we spend time drinking . . .I mean preparing for the next set of episodes. Even more good news is this is not one of those pop culture current events type podcasts which age faster than milk left in the sun, no reason for those of you (and there are a lot of you) unfamiliar with the show not to g o back and listen to the entire Camp Hendrix saga while you are waiting. Even more good news, we are still going to do some flash fiction episodes. If you have some a thousand words or less falling under the broad category of pulp fiction, send it our way (it can be something previously published). We’ll read it the way only we can on the podcast (give it a listen to see what we mean, though we plan to be even better) and throw in a plug for whatever projects you have going. Basically in exchange fo...