THIS JUST IN . . .

Tucker’s Reckoning Mass Market Paperback

Just when you thought the world has had all the versions of Tucker’s Reckoning it could possibly use (hardcover, e-book, audio files, CD, large print), today, December 3, sees its release in mass-market format (that’s the handy-dandy pocket-size paperback)–just in time for Christmas!

Giddy-up, pards, and click here for your very own copy!

I’m always impressed with the quarterly online literary magazine, Lowestoft Chronicle — it’s filled with intriguing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and interviews. So when Nicholas Litchfield, the man behind the Chronicle, emailed me a while ago asking me for an interview, I was honored.

Well, the Winter Issue (#16) is now out, and tucked in amongst the pieces of fine writing is that interview with little ol’ me. Hope you like it!

Where have we been? What have we been up to? Good question….

In the past six months we sold our home in Maine and most of our stuff, bought a monster truck (a Ford F250) and a rolling home (an Airstream Flying Cloud with solar panels, Wi-Fi, and room for a wolverine….), and took to the byways of North America as full-time nomads.

Why on Earth would we do this? Hmm….

Visit our travel blog, Trail Dust, at GrittyPress.com to find out!

Jerks in New England History

My newest book has just been released, and it is one of the most delicious I’ve had the privilege to research and write. The title alone should explain why: SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD: JERKS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY. In addition to dishing the dirt on a number of New England’s nastiest baddies and incompetents, I had fun once again digging around the rich, overgrown garden patch that is New England history.

JERKS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY clocks in at 232 pages, sells for $16.95 in a 6. x 9 softcover, and I just know it would make a dandy Christmas present (hint hint)! Here’s a quick run-down of what’s inside:

The lives of notorious bad guys, perpetrators of mischief, visionary–if misunderstood–thinkers, and other colorful antiheroes, jerks, and evil doers from history all get their due in the short essays featured in this enlightening, informative book.

Award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo’s SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD: JERKS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY features twenty short biographies of nefarious characters, from a number of villainous pirates to that hero-turned-traitor, Benedict Arnold. From the brilliant-but-bullying Samuel Colt to that hot-headed Puritan, John Endecott. From Charles W. Morse, serial monopolist, cheat, liar, and swindler, to Emeline Meaker and Mary Rogers, otherwise known as the Vermont’s Lady Killers. And many, many more tales of foul New Englanders doing their best to be bad.

Take a peek–you won’t believe the depths of jerkiness to which these nefarious New Englanders stooped!

Despite the fact that I’ve not chimed in with an update in more than a month, all’s well here at Casa Mayo. Quiet in this case equals busy. Lots of books and stories bubbling on the stove, lots of dandy news roasting on the spit. I’ll mention just a few tidbits at present, then more as they finish cookin’.

First up, my newest novel, The Hunted (a whip-crackin’ Western for the Ralph Compton line), was released in August in mass-market and e-book formats. It’s a corker and it’s selling like hotcakes. Hotcakes, I tell ya! Click the cover to find out all about it and to buy your very own copy in your choice of format.

Next up, a new installment in a shared-world series of novels by members of the professional writers group, Western Fictioneers. Set in the fictional Kansas town of Wolf Creek, circa 1870, the latest installment (Book 7), Wolf Creek: The Quick and The Dying, is once again credited to the shared author name “Ford Fargo,” and sees official release on September 15. My contribution is chapter one, and features my character, one-armed town drunk Rupert Tingley. He gets into quite a scrape within the first few pages … and then things really heat up!

Next, we have a dandy new anthology, Peacemaker Tales, from Western Fictioneers collecting all the stories that have been nominated and/or won WF Peacemaker Awards. I’m pleased to note that my story, “Scourge of the Spoils,” a steampunk Western outing (from the 2010 DAW Books anthology, Steampunk’d) is included. Here’s the very cool cover:

And next, my latest non-fiction book, Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in New England History (Globe Pequot Press) comes out on November 6, and it’s absolutely filled with true tales of the slimiest scoundrels in the six states that make up the Northeast corner of the US. Click on the cover for the full lowdown on these vile villains….

And next, the cover of the new version of my (ahem!) Spur Award-winnin’ novel, Tucker’s Reckoning. This time out it’s in large-print, hardcover, released in November. I think it’s a manly looking brute of a book, just perfect for tired eyes … or reading while bouncing around on a treadmill:

And … just when you thought the world has had all the versions of Tucker’s Reckoning it can possibly use (hardcover, e-book, audio files, CD, large print), early December will see its release in mass-market format (that’s pocket-size paperback)–just in time for Christmas! Yee-haw, I say. Yee-dang-haw! (And it’s up for pre-order on Amazon as we speak….)

That’s it for now. But rest assured, there’s loads more groovy news to come. And when I say loads, I mean … lots and lots and lots. Stay tuned!

The strip, Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Jennifer Smith-Mayo.

In a few short days, we’re headed to the pulsing heart of true American commerce, vice, and villainy. Naw, not Washington, DC (Now why would you think that?). I’m talking Vegas! I’ve never been, but I hear tell it’s chock full of swingers and bandits and lightbulbs and tasty congealed orange mac-n-cheese under heat lamps. What’s not to like?

We’re headed to the land of Dino, Frank, and Sammy for the 60th Annual Western Writers of America Convention. I’m especially worked up about this one because I’ve won the Spur Award for Best Western Short Novel. I believe I’ll have to give a wee speech, and depending on my level of bourbon intake, it may or may not be memorable….

Fellow author, Peacemaker-nominee Tom Rizzo, interviewed me for his “StoryTeller’s 7” series. He asked seven questions and I did my level best to sound as though I know what I’m doing (ahem). We touch on a number of themes, from spurs to volcanos and megayachts to Grandpa Walton and El Caminos….

April 23, 2013 – StoryTeller’s 7

MATTHEW P. MAYO is an award-winning author whose latest novel, TUCKER’S RECKONING, captured the Western Writers of America 2013 Spur Award for Best Western Short Novel. He was also a Spur Finalist in the Short Fiction category, and a finalist for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award.

He writes seven days a week, a commitment that has resulted in two-dozen published books and dozens of short stories. His novels include the Westerns WINTERS’ WAR; WRONG TOWN; HOT LEAD, COLD HEART; DEAD MAN’S RANCH; TUCKER’S RECKONING; and THE HUNTED. He also contributes to other popular series of Western and adventure novels.

Matthew also features a collection of non-fiction works; a full bibliography is available at his website. He and his photographer wife, Jennifer Smith-Mayo, have collaborated on a series of hardcover books. The two of them operate Gritty Press which he describes as “the flying spin-kick of the publishing world.”

A longtime magazine and book editor, his short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies including BAD AUSTEN; BEAT TO A PULP; A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS; SIX-GUNS & SLAY BELLS; HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD 2; Moonstone Books’ SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE CROSSOVERS CASEBOOK and THE AVENGER: ROARING HEART OF THE CRUCIBLE; the DAW Books’ anthologies STEAMPUNK’D and TIMESHARES, and many others.

1. Congratulations on being awarded a 2013 Spur Award for Best Western Short Novel, from Western Writers of America, for TUCKER’S RECKONING. That had to be a thrilling moment when you found out. How important is it to be recognized by your peers?

Thank you, Tom, for inviting me to participate here at your blog. Winning the Spur is a mighty thrill for me. When I got the letter I stood in the road rereading the first sentence a couple of times, not quite believing it. I even checked the address to make sure I hadn’t mistakenly received someone else’s letter. Then it sunk in and I whooped it up, ran to the house, and called a few folks.

I’ve had short stories nominated for a Spur and a Peacemaker (from Western Fictioneers), and to win is quite a thrill. It’s a good feeling to know that people, whose work you’ve long admired, see merit in your own efforts.

2. What do you think was in TUCKER’S RECKONING that inspired judges to say, “Hey, this is a winner” ?

I hope it’s because they liked the story, the characters, and the situations I put the people in. Maybe it was the cumulative effects of those pieces coming together. When I finished writing it, I liked it a lot and I felt as though it had something special about it. I’m pleased that others felt the same way.

3. In your opinion, what makes a best-selling story—character or theme? Take us through your own process. And, how does genre affect what you decide to write about?

Hmm, if I knew the answer to what makes a best-selling story, I’d be dictating this to a personal assistant from aboard my megayacht, anchored just off my private island with the secret volcano lair. That said, I tend to like character-driven stories because interesting things happen to interesting characters.

I don’t have a process so much as a routine–I get up, drink coffee, take a three-mile walk each morning with my wife, more coffee, and dive into the day’s work, another walk at night. Rinse, repeat, seven days a week.

As far as the writing goes, I lob horrible, exciting, smelly, funky, and shiny things at my characters and then see how they deal with them. Genre affects what I write at present because I have a number of contracts, fiction and non-fiction, to fulfill, most in the Western vein. That said, I flat-out love writing about the Old West.

4. How would you describe what you write (fiction) to someone who has not read any of your previous novels?

I try to write about real people in real situations who deal with it as best they can, and with humor whenever possible. Just regular folks doing their best to be better (or their worst to be nastier).

5. Let’s play “What if?”—every writer’s favorite game. You’re hosting small private dinner. Your guests are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mickey Spillane, and Arthur Conan Doyle. What one – and different – question would you ask each of them?

Three literary gods at my shack for fondue? Yow, no pressure there. I’m not a particularly impressive conversationalist, so I expect it would be an uncomfortable evening. At least until we were all sufficiently pie-eyed. Here’s me playing host after a few rounds of drinks:

“Edgar. May I call you Edgar? It’s a fun name to say. Anyhoo, Edgar, do you happen to have any half-baked stories locked in a trunk somewhere that I might help you finish?”

“Mick, Mick, Mick … you show up here late, exhaling gimlet fumes, sporting a dented fedora and a wrinkled trench coat, and smoking those godawful Pall Malls. Then you put one out in the dip? Oy. So, you want a beer, maybe a raw steak for that black eye?”

“Arty, let’s face iŧ you’re a brilliant man. But … the Cottingly Fairies? Seriously?”

6. How would you finish the statement, “I bet my readers or friends did not know these three things about me . . .”

I miss the old snack crackers called Tid-Bits.
Grandpa Walton is my favorite TV character.
Someday I would like to own nothing more than a notebook, a pencil, and a good pair of shoes (okay, and maybe a pair of jeans and a T-shirt….).

7. Other than the recent Spur Award, what has been your most memorable author moment?

Every time I get a check from a publisher! “Hey baby, fire up the El Camino, we’re headed to the Piggly Wiggly!”

When I checked the mail yesterday, I never imagined I’d find a letter from Western Writers of America (WWA) telling me my novel, TUCKER’S RECKONING, has won the 2013 Spur Award for Best Western Short Novel … but it did! I like this novel a whole lot, so it pleases me to know that other folks feel the same way. This form of validation from my peers means much.

I’m also very happy to report that my friend, Larry Sweazy, won a Spur for his fine novel, THE COYOTE TRACKER. And another friend, James Reasoner, was a finalist with his Redemption, Kansas novel, HUNTERS.

So … how many times can a fella say “Wow” before he sounds like a goober? I aim to find out.

Here’s a link to the full list of this year’s Spur winners and finalists: westernwriters.org/spur-awards.