Bibliography
Non-Fiction:
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MAINE ICONS: 50 Classic Symbols of the Pine Tree State
A handsome visual tour of Maine, this book consists of 50 classic symbols of the Pine Tree State. Maine Icons profiles the likely suspects—lobster, blueberries, lighthouses, whoopie pies—but you’ll find a whole lot of surprises in these pages, too (Raye’s Mustard, Renys, Fog, and so many more!).
Available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound | Powell’s
(Globe Pequot Press; May, 2011; Hardcover w/ dust sleeve; Square format; 112 full-color pages; ISBN: 978-0762759989.)
BOOTLEGGERS, LOBSTERMEN & LUMBERJACKS:
Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hardscrabble New England
(Click cover for larger image.)
By Matthew P. Mayo
(Globe Pequot Press; October, 2010)
(Softcover; 6 x 9; 320 pages; 28 historic photos; $16.95; ISBN: 978-0-7627-5968-2)
“American history at its most violent and authentic.” —Howard Frank Mosher, award-winning author
In Bootleggers, Lobstermen, and Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hardscrabble New England, author Matthew P. Mayo presents 50 narrative-driven tales covering hundreds of years of incredible, true accounts of Indian abductions and all-out wars; of timber-tough men in the golden age of New England logging; of suspected witches being hung and crushed by stones; of savage storms, fantastic shipwrecks, ruthless pirates, and half-starved castaways; of train wrecks, blizzards, and nor’easters; of the hair-raising exploits of rumrunners, smugglers, and bootleggers; of hardworking lobstermen driven to settle their differences any way they can; of hill farmers with fast cars during Prohibition doing their best to survive in the challenging and unique locale that is New England—as much a place as a state of mind.
Available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound | Powell’s
COWBOYS, MOUNTAIN MEN & GRIZZLY BEARS:
Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West
By Matthew P. Mayo
(Globe Pequot Press/TwoDot; December, 2009)
(Softcover; 6 x 9; 264 pages; 27 historic photos; $16.95)
From the first bloody battles between mountain men and Indians to shootouts between famous gunslingers, Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears targets what draws people to the history and literature of the Wild West. Matthew P. Mayo, noted author of Western novels, takes the fifty wildest episodes in the region’s history‚ including John Colter’s harrowing escape from the Blackfeet, Hugh Glass’s six-week crawl to civilization after a grizzly attack, and Custer’s last moments‚ and presents them in one unputdownable, action-packed volume!
(Read an excerpted chapter here.)
Available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound | Powell’s
Novels:
HOT LEAD, COLD HEART
(Hardcover, Robert Hale Ltd., October, 2008)
(Softcover, FA Thorpe/Ulverscroft, November, 2009)
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His Honor Newland Pontiff III, late of Exeter Territorial Prison, now presides over a vast tract of land with the ambitious town of Cayuse Falls at its center‚ town he’s confident he can transform into the ‘Washington of the West,’ given enough time. But a demon from his past haunts the horizon, and time is running short.
Mason the Mankiller, vigilante hero to the downtrodden, has come out of retirement to settle one last score‚ the only one that ever mattered‚ with a man who long ago forgot he’d wronged the famous ‘killer of killers’. A tonic peddler, vengeful sisters, and a reluctant lawman all dog Mason’s trail. But he vows that nothing will stop him from seeing this last mission through to its end‚ an end he knows he won’t survive.
WRONG TOWN
(Hardcover, Robert Hale Ltd., 2008)
(Softcover, FA Thorpe/Ulverscroft, 2009)
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Roamer is having a bad day–he is savaged by a grizzly, robbed by bandits, and attacked by wolves. So by the time he makes it to the little Rocky Mountain town of Tall Pine all he wants is a cup of coffee, a hot meal, and a soft bed. The sheriff jails him for murder instead.
Layers of lies and a string of killings blacken the very soul of Tall Pine as a seething mob marks Roamer’s homely face as guilty and seeks its twisted justice with his blood. Can he stop the townsfolk from destroying themselves or will they kill him first? It’s a brutal race against time for Roamer as the savage mob rips apart its little town, leaving innocent people dead and the wrong people in charge.
WINTERS’ WAR
(Hardcover, Robert Hale Ltd., 2007)
(Softcover, FA Thorpe/Ulverscroft, 2008)
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For eight years the Winters family has worked hard to live down the nightmare of a bloody range war. Theirs is now a promising ranch on hard-won land in Wyoming’s rugged Rockies. But on the eve of the season’s first snowstorm a stranger slips in, ripping open old wounds, and devolving their lives into a brutal struggle for survival.
Niall Winters returns from selling his fall herd to find his ranch a burned ruin, his Uncle Drift dead, his wife missing, and the blizzard covering any clues with a whole lot of snow. He heads into the raging maw of the storm determined to confront this demon from his past and salvage the remains of their shattered lives–or die trying. But he has no idea of the horrors that await him.
Anthologies:
BAD AUSTEN: THE WORST STORIES JANE NEVER WROTE
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “The Horrors of Expectation”)
(Softcover, Adams Media, 224 pages, November 15, 2011)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an author as popular as Jane Austen should be imitated, expanded upon, and parodied—until now…. This collection presents the best of the worst entries for the first paragraph of Austen’s unwritten classics. From “Star Wars” meets Elizabeth Bennett to “Northanger Abbey” translated into a setting for cats and dogs, here are the stories Jane Austen would never have written.
Available for pre-order at Amazon.
THE TRADITIONAL WEST: A WESTERN FICTIONEERS ANTHOLOGY
Contributor
(Includes my story, “Catch as Catch Can: A Maple Jack Tale”)
(Softcover and ebook versions, Western Fictioneers, 270 pages, July 2011)
From the dusty plains of Texas to the sweeping vistas of Montana and beyond, the classic American Western returns in this collection of 24 brand-new stories by some of the top Western writers in the world today, including Robert J. Randisi, Dusty Richards, James Reasoner, Larry D. Sweazy, L.J. Washburn, Jackson Lowry, Larry Jay Martin, Kerry Newcomb, and Matthew P. Mayo (and many others!). This anthology is the biggest original Western anthology ever published!
Available now in Kindle and Nook formats, and soon as a paperback.
HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD, VOL. II
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “The Witch Hole”)
(Softcover & ebook, PulpWork Press, 366 pages, July, 2011)
This beefy volume is crammed tight with 20 tales of cattlemen and cannibals, aliens and barkeeps, robots and soiled doves, and just about everything you can think of that blends Westerns with horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Available in softcover and Kindle versions.
MONDO SASQUATCH
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Roadside Attraction”)
(Softcover and ebook versions, Summer 2011)
Under the “Bookgasm Presents” banner, Mondo Sasquatch is exactly what its title promises: A Bigfoot anthology with 15 offerings that will leave you frightened, bewildered, excited, aroused, and nervous. Coming soon….
CHRISTMAS CAMPFIRE COMPANION
Short Stories from Today’s Top Western Writers
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Maple Jack and the Christmas Kid”)
(Softcover and Kindle versions, Fall 2011)
Port Yonder Books presents the forthcoming anthology, Christmas Campfire Companion: Short Stories from Today’s Top Western Writers. It includes my story, “Maple Jack and the Christmas Kid.”
Available Fall, 2011, in softcover and Kindle versions.
NEEDLE
A Magazine of Noir
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Get Teague!”)
(Softcover, Needle Magazine, 202 pages,
Issue #3/Winter 2010)
Needle: A Magazine of Noir, is a tri-annual publication featuring tales of murder and mayhem. New fiction by Graham Powell, Matthew C. Funk, Sophie Littlefield, Graham Bowlin, Michael Gonzales, Kieran Shea, Richard Godwin, Anthony Neil Smith, Matthew P. Mayo, Matthew McBride, Libby Cudmore, and Ray Banks.
Available now: Lulu
STEAMPUNK’D
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Scourge of the Spoils”)
Edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg
(Softcover, DAW Books, 320 pages, November 2, 2010)
Steampunk can be defined as a subgenre of science fiction typically set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian setting, where steam power is prevalent. Consider the slogan: “What the past would look like if the future had come along earlier.”
The stories in this all-original anthology explore alternate timelines and have been set all over the world, running the gamut from science fiction to mystery to horror to a melding of these genres.
Available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |Borders | Powell’s
TIMESHARES
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Been a Long Time”)
Edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg
(Softcover, DAW Books, 320 pages, March 2, 2010)
16 Original stories about the chance to take the vacation you’ve always dreamed of—at your own peril—in any era you’d like to visit.
Take a vacation through time with the help of a Time Travel Agency offering excursions into the past and future. Readers will find themselves in exotic, adventurous locales-and in all manner of trouble and mysteries. And figures from the past will be able to squeak by the other way.
Available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |Borders | Powell’s
A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS:
21 All-New Blazing Tales of the Old West
Contributor
(Includes my Spur Award-nominated short story, “Half a Pig”)
(Softcover, Express Westerns, January 2010)
Discover what it’s like to ride with damaged men and sinister night stalkers, tragic doves, plucky homemakers and gun-toting belles. Experience for yourself the harsh reality of birth and death, love and hate, revenge, retribution and robbery. You’ll find it all here, penned by a whole posse-full of Western writers old and new.
So what are you waiting for? Saddle up for action and adventure . . . and grab yourself A Fistful of Legends!
OUT OF THE GUTTER
The modern journal of pulp fiction and degenerate literature
Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Kin”)
(Softcover, Out of the Gutter, Issue #5)
Pulp fiction from too many to list, plus the inside scoop on the Aryan Circle, an advice column from your favorite punk rock ex-con and the usual profusion of fun facts, demented humor and other extras!
“From Matthew P. Mayo comes ‘Kin,’ where a guy attempting to retrieve a football under his porch is instead greeted by the fangs of a poisonous snake. His attempts to drive to the hospital for help as the toxins swim through his bloodstream achieve rollicking, bizarrely comic heights.” —Bookgasm
WHERE LEGENDS RIDE:
New Tales of the Old West
Editor & Contributor
(Includes my short story, “Snows of Montana”)
(Softcover, Express Westerns, 2007)
Saddle up and enjoy these 14 new tales of hot lead, cold hearts, and more leather-slapping action, adventure, and edge-of-the-seat danger than you could ever hope to find on either side of the Mississippi.
The writers within range from seasoned Western scribes to those new to the field, but all are united by their love of the legends of the Wild West. Most write for the Black Horse Westerns series published by Robert Hale, Ltd., one of the few publishers worldwide to produce a regular supply of new Western fiction.
From high-noon showdowns and shade-tree lynchings to raging prairie fires and scrub-country manhunts, Express Westerns’ first collection, Where Legends Ride, will grab you by the vest front and won’t let go until you’ve surrendered to the posse. So sink spur and hang on . . . it’s time to go where legends ride!
Online Writing:
SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
My short, short story found a home at the fine e-zine Beat to a PULP.
IMAGES OF THE WEST: THE GREAT DIE-UP
An excerpted chapter from Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears at Big Sky Journal.
