THIS JUST IN . . .

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Yesterday my wife visited Longfellow Books in Monument Square in Portland, Maine and spied our Maine Icons book for sale on their Great Gifts shelf! Longfellow Books is a terrific independent bookstore, definitely worth a visit if you’re ever cruising around Portland.

And here’s some cool news: the Chicago Tribune posted a review of Maine Icons in their Travel Section! Check it out here.

There’s excitement in the air here at Casa Mayo. We just found out that the first book my wife, photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo, and I did together, Maine Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Pine Tree State, is no longer up for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, etc. … it’s available now!

Yessireebob, that’s 112 full-color, glossy pages of smokin’ fine photography and nifty words covering everything iconic in the Pine Tree State, from blueberries and lobsters to Raye’s Mustard, the Big Chicken Barn, and the humble spud — and so much more!

Look at that stunning cover image … you know you want a copy (or three)! Click here to fulfill your Maine desires….

Building on the success of its superfreaky antho., How the West Was Weird, Pulpwork Press presents How the West Was Weird, Vol. II. That’s right, the Weirdest Western anthology of the year will claw its way through the saloon doors on July 1, 2011.

The book is filled to brimming with 21 outlandish tales of the most skewed mayhem and supernatural madness any side of the Pecos. One of them is my own story, “The Witch Hole,” a squirly little tale about Lacotah Sioux shamanism and other things too foul to mention….

How the West Was Weird, Vol. II will be available for pre-ordering soon, in print and ebook versions, wherever the finest in Weirdness is sold. Check back here for updates … if you dare. Mwahahahaha!

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the weirdly dynamic cover, by the talented Jim Rugg:

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I’d been invited to contribute to the new action series, The Dead Man. I know, talk about whippa! (That’s Maine-speak for “nifty beyond all reasonable belief.”) But it gets better….

I can hear you saying, “How, Matt? How does it get better?” We’ll get to that. But first, a recap: What is The Dead Man? It is, hands down, the most exciting new slice of manly/horror/action/adventure to come out since Don Pendleton first typed the word “Executioner.”  Since Caine decided to roam the West, doling out his own brand of Kung Fu justice. Since Bruce Banner flipped up his collar and took to the road, trying to figure out the whole Hulk thing….

The first book in this series of short, gut-punch novels, The Dead Man: Face of Evil, came out little more than a month ago, and it’s been selling like hotcakes. The rave reviews are stacking up–which proves lots of things, among them: Your average Joe and Josephine want and need their quick-read, escapist fiction. And if traditional publishers won’t offer it, writers will. Ebooks rock.

So, back to the “even better” part: If you’re intrigued and you haven’t yet given the series a serious perusal, it just became more affordable than ever to do so. For a brief period, the first book in the series, The Dead Man: Face of Evil, is marked down to a meager 99 cents. That’s less than the price of a bear claw and a coffee (though no less tasty)!

The reason for the modest price? It’s to celebrate the release of the second book in the series, The Dead Man: Ring of Knives. And it’s a corker. Check it out here. You don’t have to read the first to enjoy the second, but at 99 cents, you’ll be crying the blues if you pass up this limited-time-only bargain….

I just found out that my Western steampunk short story, “Scourge of the Spoils,” from the DAW Books anthology, Steampunk’d, is one of five finalists in the 2010 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Awards, Best Western Short Story category! Cool beans, I say….

Click here for the full list of 2010 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Awards nominees.

At long last, it’s the anthology everyone’s been barking, howling, and growling about….

Now it can be told! MONDO SASQUATCH, a Bigfoot anthology, is stalking through the forest on its way to a summer release! 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.
More information is on its way, but in the meantime, dig that groovy cover and feast your eyes on the contents:

• “I Have Always Wondered What Bigfoot Meat Tastes Like: An Introduction” by Louis Fowler

• “Arlo Felling Exists” by Richard Tiernan
• “Bigfoot and the Bone Face Murders” by Michael May

• “Bigfoot Must Die” by Frankie Marino

• “From Hell’s Heart” by Desmond Reddick

• “Incident at Crater Lake” by Casey Criswell

• “Roadside Attraction” by Matthew P. Mayo

• “Sacrifice” by Shawn Gilbreath

• “Sasquatch vs. El Chupacabra” by Douglas Waltz

• “Strike” by Michael D. Winkle

• “The Ballad of the Skunk Ape” by Jarret Keene

• “The Encounter” by Mike White

• “The Tale of Peter Rabbit and the Sasquatch” by Beatrix Potter and Rod Lott

• “The Tragic Hazing of Bryan Igfoot” by Eric Dimbleby

• “Theodore Roosevelt and the Great American Anthropoid” by Bill Adcock

But never a “New Pulp Master”—and I am humbled and pleased. Pulp writer David Cranmer, at his blog, The Education of a Pulp Writer, kindly posted a bit about me, my penchant for sorting through all things sasquatch, and he also linked to a few of my writings. Here’s the link.

I was just invited to write a book in the hot new series, THE DEAD MAN, and I couldn’t be more pleased. The first installment, THE DEAD MAN: FACE OF EVIL, was a blast to read and I can’t wait for follow-up volumes. Fortunately, I won’t have to wait long. The second, THE DEAD MAN: HELL IN HEAVEN, is due out soon.

So, just what is THE DEAD MAN? THE DEAD MAN is an original ebook series of short novels that blends the horror of Stephen King’s THE GUNSLINGER with the action/adventure of Don Pendleton’s THE EXECUTIONER…

Matthew Cahill is an ordinary man leading a simple life…until a shocking accident changes everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld of unspeakable evil and horrific violence that nobody else does…. For Cahill, each day is a journey into a dark world he knows nothing about…a quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and a fight to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.

FACE OF EVIL, the first book in the series, was written by Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin, was released on February 20th, and will be followed in coming months by more all-new adventures of THE DEAD MAN by some of the most talented and successful mystery, western, horror and scifi authors out there today, including Bill Crider, James Reasoner, Matt Witten, Joel Goldman, James Daniels, Burl Barer, David McAfee, Mel Odom, Harry Shannon, and…Matthew P. Mayo!

Want to know more? Visit The Dead Man on the Web:
http://thedeadmanbooks.blogspot.com

And check out this fine entry at Amazon’s Kindlepost.com:
http://www.kindlepost.com/2011/03/resurrecting-a-genre-with-a-dead-man.html

Yep, I bare all at Larry D. Sweazy’s Tense Moments blog.

Drop on by for the latest exciting news in Mattland….

I’m honored to be one of three writers interviewed in Wizards of the Coast’s D&D Insider, with Marcus Pelegrimas and Russell Davis, two amazing  writers whose cross-genre work inspires me to greater heights with my own work. The focus of the interview is the role of RPGs (role-playing games) on our writing. Roll them bones here….