INTERVIEW WITH CAPTAIN RON

Captain Ron Fortier talks about his writing career, the creation of Airship 27 Productions and the birth of New Pulp with writer Thomas Deja in a new podcast interview found here.

(http://www.tricycleoffense.com/2013/09/16/nocturne-travel-agency-podcast-episode-3-ron-fortier/)

Enjoy, Captain Ron

SHADOW LEGION- New Roads To Hell

SUPER HEROES WILL RISE

Airship 27 Productions is excited to debut the first of a new line of pulp-superhero books with, SHADOW LEGION – New Roads to Hell as written and created by Thomas Deja.

“Thomas proposed this idea to me last year,” explains Airship 27 Managing Editor Ron Fortier, “and I thought it contained fascinating perspectives on the whole idea of supernatural beings.”

“Every sci-fi, pulp fan knows comic book superheroes evolved from the pulps heroes,” Fortier goes on to say. “The idea of turning the tables and doing prose stories of superheroes isn’t anything new and there have been several publishers who have explored that hybrid world recently. We didn’t want to copy what others had done; which is why SHADOW LEGION appealed to me in the first place.  In creating the city of Nocturne and its unique characters, Thomas has put a decidedly fresh spin on this genre and we think our readers are really going to enjoy these adventures.”

There has always been something strange about Nocturne, Florida; the City That Lives by Night.  It is an entertainment nexus luring tourist from around the world to its night clubs, music venues and other, more adult entertainment venues. But there is a darker side to which these carefree revelers never see; one of dark doings, violence and eldritch evil.
Now a new sinister force threatens Nocturne and only a handful of unique, gifted beings can protect the city’s innocent.  

Nightbreaker; a radio star turned vigilante, he exist in a strange limbo world. The beautiful Dreamcatcher who bends all magic to her will.  The mysterious Ferryman, a living conduit to the world beyond!  And their leader, Black Talon, the embodiment of the unfettered fury of the African Veldt...stalking a jungle of concrete and glass!

Together they are The Shadow Legion, a secret alliance of mystery men and women who battle the fantastic threats that can tear apart the metropolis they call home!
Their saga begins here in New Roads To Hell, a gripping novel by Thomas Deja that reveals the secret origins of Nightbreaker and Ferrymen, and features the menace of Rose Red, a crimson haired devil with a talent for murder!  The book features interior illustrations by Chris Kemple and a cover by Pulp Factory Award winning artist, Mike Fyles with designs by Rob Davis, another PFA art winner.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – New Pulp Fiction for a New Generation!

Now available at Amazon.com & on Kindle.

( http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Legion-New-Roads-Hell/dp/0615883672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378817231&sr=1-1&keywords=Shadow+Legion+New+Roads+To+Hell)

THE EYES OF BROTHER BONES

Pulp Factory Award winning artist Rob Moran is busy at work illustrating the first ever novel starring Ron Fortier's BROTHER BONES - The Undead of Avenger ; SIX DAYS OF THE DRAGON by writer Roman Leary.  We thought you'd like a sneak peek at his truly awesome depiction of the macabre Brother Bones.

MEET IAN WATSON

AIRSHIP 27

CREATOR SPOTLIGHT

            There is a sorcerer, of sorts, in our midst. He can magically teleport reader's from the mundane world into a world of historical adventure, Science Fiction, or Fantasy with the stoke of a computer key. His current medium is his trilogy of Airship 27 books--Robin Hood: Freedom’s Outlaw, Robin Hood: King of Sherwood, and Robin Hood, Arrow of Justice--all a feather in his publisher's cap.

            If you haven't guessed yet, his name is Ian Watson, but he publishes under I. A. Watson to avoid being confused with another author. Not having a middle name, he borrowed the "A" from his father. Ian was born in Leeds, UK, and if you currently live in in Barnsley, in West Riding of Yorkshire, England, you are this magician's neighbor.

            His spells are cast with great consequence in his most current Airship 27 book,  Robin Hood: Freedom’s Outlaw.

            "Consequences," Watson shared in a recent interview, "are the most dramatic things in the world to write about and to read. If you set up an outlaw band and rob from the rich to give to the poor, there will be big consequences. Once the villains are stung and thwarted enough, they’ll push back and get serious. Freedom’s Outlaw is all about the consequences of being Robin Hood and of what happens when implacable authority clashes with the human spirit--and nobody walks away unchanged."

            His choice of Robin Hood is completely logical. Watson has long held a fascination for writers of heroic fiction, and his artistic influences since he was a boy include J. R. R. Tolkein, Charteris and Sir Thomas Mallory. At school he was "crammed" with Shakespeare, Milton, and Homer. As a student he was fascinated by Michael Moorcock, George McDonald Fraser, and Anne McCaffrey. As an adult it’s been Bujold, Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman. He also ows special thanks to early issues of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s Marvel Comics titles, and to the BBC TV series Doctor Who.

            "There are reasons why these characters and their stories have become landmarks in our storytelling culture," said the writer. "They’re the best examples of some important archetypes. Robin Hood is about our fundamental needs for freedom and justice, that manifests in everything from the movie Smokey and the Bandit to the Boston tea party. King Arthur is about heroes banding together to use their might for right, that team-up of the best to squabble and interact and then to battle a greater evil. It’s there in every adventure story where an ensemble of good-guys champion an ideal from the Lord of the Rings novels to the Avengers movie. Sherlock Holmes is about the triumph of the mind over the world, of civilized rationality over barbaric evil. He’s the ultimate can-win-because-humans-can-overcome-by-thinking character.

            "All of those truths are hard-wired in to our mental DNA, so as readers these stories resonate with us. Echoes of these characters are in so many of our modern-day heroes."

            But why, one might ask, try to bring something new to a field of heroes that has so often already been harvested and then harvested again?

            "It’s very natural to crave more about a character we enjoy. It’s very natural to want to try one’s hand at using the archetypes in a story oneself. I’ve certainly learned to appreciate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s skills and artistic choices more since I’ve had to analyze them for the Sherlock Holmes- Consulting Detective stories I’ve done.

            "With the older properties, Arthur and Robin and some other characters I’ve written, where the original sources are multiple and there are all kinds of variant versions over hundreds of years, the fun is in finding the combination that works best for a modern audience. To put it another way, everyone can cook a hamburger. How you cook it, what you add in, how you serve it up, that can vary a lot and be very individual. It’s the same with these old legends.

            "Modern audiences have different expectations from medieval ones, of course. Mallory and Robin’s balladeers weren’t as concerned with showing motives as describing actions, and they didn’t include much of the cross-conversation and banter of contemporary stories. There’s a nice blend to be had of traditional characters and events painted with a modern gloss of newer storytelling techniques. I enjoy fleshing out the characters and situations so that readers get the best of the old presented in a modern way."

            The needs of Ian's story determines what he pulls out of his magicians' bag of tricks to write each book.

            "It depends on the story," said Ian. "With mystery tales, like Holmes, it usually begins with a mystery’s solution. Once I know how the corpse in the locked room can be explained, then the rest of the story fleshes out to accommodate a dead body in a sealed library, and then I imagine how Holmes and Watson might encounter the situation and how they would investigate. With an adventure story, I’m more likely to know the grand sweep of the narrative and then break it down into sections and fill them in as I write them, a bit like an artist doing a big pencil sketch, then adding detail as he paints.

            "I like to research a period or topic before I start, and I take notes about it. I sometimes write myself essays--or even inflict them on other people! But I tend to write up more general background stuff than detailed plot notes. My actual story plot page rarely extends beyond a cast list that helps me keep my characters’ names and relationships straight. The exception is with 'whodunits', where I have been known to write out a table with motives, secrets, things witnessed etc.

            Watson believes that all fiction is set in world "other than ours", be that in the past, the future, and in some fantasy realm. They are really all about people. The settings change, but he believes that people are mostly the same. He knows that if his characters feel real and act realistically, then he can suspend disbelief about the rest. Sometimes historical fiction or Science Fiction are the best genres to use to address contemporary situations.

            "Robin Hood has a lot to say about Occupy Wall Street when you think about it.

            "Decide on an appropriate point on the absolute historic realism vs idealized fictional past scale. I fudge that a bit by adding the hardcore history dollops in footnotes for the obsessive. Historical settings can really help with atmosphere and plot, but the danger is that they can also be unfamiliar and disengaging if not enough context is offered, or distracting and off-putting if they’re too alien. The right amount of set-dressing and knowing when to fudge are key skills in writing this kind of story.

            "Its especially important to get the dialogue right. 'Thees' and 'thous' will put readers off; save them for the high noble proclamations to show that there’s an 'official' language used in formal combat and legal process. For the rest, I use a range of modern idioms but avoid obviously modern words and ideas. My pet peeves are writers projecting back Freudian rationalizations onto Victorian or earlier characters’ dialogues, and the use of the word “Okay” before 1900.

            Obviously, no writer is every reader's "cup of tea", but Watson does offer a heady brew.

            "Every author likes to communicate his or her ideas to readers. I’m no different from any other writer in that. Writing is the slowest performing art, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to engage with our audience.

            "I like stories. I think storytelling is important. In fact I think the stories we tell ourselves and each other actually shape our culture and define our world. I like my stories to have deep roots, to dig back into the kinds of things we’ve been telling ourselves ever since we discovered language and narrative. I like them to resonate in tune with great stories that have been told in the past.

            "I think reading should be visceral. We should laugh, cry, get mad, find peace, from the book in our hands. We should live it. I think reading should be fun, or inspiring, or thought provoking. Anything but boring. I try to write accordingly. I want a reader to close my book feeling it’s been an afternoon well-spent rather than valuable time wasted.

            "So if readers like those intentions then they should take a look at what I write and see if I can deliver on what I hope to do."

            Many readers have taken at look at his work, as well as critics. Watson's prose has not gone unrecognized. His first award was for Best New Poem at the Ilkley Literature Festival circa 1977. He has received a Pulp Factory Award for "Best Pulp Short Story" for his story, “The Last Deposit”, published in Airship 27's Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 2. He has also been a finalist for "Best Pulp Novel" for each of his other novels in the Pulp Factory awards.

            For those on your first teleportation into Watson's imagination, some recommendations are in order. In addition to his novels for Airship 27, readers will find his work in anthologies including: Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective volumes 1-4,  Sinbad -The New Voyages volume 1, and, soon to be published: Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective volumes 5 & 6, Houdini volume 1, and Zeppelin Tales volume 1.

            Watson's novels from other publishers includes: Blackthorn - Dynasty of Mars and Blackthorn – Spires of Mars. His anthology contributions are featured in: Gideon Cain, Demon Hunter; Blackthorn – Thunder on Mars; The New Adventures of Richard Knight Vol. 1; Blood-Price of the Missionary’s Gold: The New Adventures of Armless O’Neil; Monster Earth Vol. 1; The Spider: Extreme Prejudice; Grand Central Noir; and Sentinels: Alternate Visions.

      The prolific writer has also written short stories for magazines including: “Loss Adjustment” in Planetary Stories #18; “Robin Hood and the Slavers of Whitby” in Pulp Spirit #18; “Rostherne: A Tale of Ghost Hunting” in Wonderlust #8; “The Tulpa” in Wonderlust #8; and for a comic book: “Robin Hood: Lionheart’s Gold” in All-Pulp Comics #2.

            Watson is also a contributor of non-fiction articles to Assembled: Five Decades of Earth’s Mightiest and Assembled 2.

SAUNDERS WRITES JUNGLE QUEEN

NEWS RELEASE

CHARLES SAUNDERS TO WRITE JUNGLE QUEEN NOVEL

Editor Ron Fortier has announced that noted fantasy author, Charles R. Saunders, will write Lulama, Witch Queen of the Jungle, as his second novel for Airship 27 Productions. Fortier is the Managing Editor of the Colorado based book publisher. 

Saunders is best known for his creation of the heroic Sword and Sorcery genre character, Imaro, who initially appeared in a series of DAW paperback novels during the 1970s.

Also at the urging of Fortier, Saunders had previously written the novel Damballa in 2011, creating the first black 1930s pulp avenger in the history of the genre.  In addition to its historic significance to the pulp community, the book went on to win the prestigious "Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Novel of the Year".

Earlier in 2013, another publisher, Pro Se Productions, released a critically acclaimed anthology, Black Pulp, that featured a Saunders' short story called “Mtimu” which featured a black hero in the tradition of Tarzan of the Apes.  In the story was a secondary character, Lulama, an African witch, who struck a chord with Fortier. 

“For a long while, I’d been thinking of doing a pulp book featuring a black jungle queen,” he elaborated.  “As Damballa had put a new spin on the iconic pulp masked hero, I thought it was time to do the same for the jungle queen genre.”

Lulama was exactly what Fortier had been envisioning and he quickly contacted Saunders, suggesting he develop the character further and spotlight her in a new series.  The African American author was surprised by Fortier’s enthusiasm for the character and agreed to give the concept some thought. 

A few months later, fellow writer, Percival Constantine, wrote an insightful essay concerning racism in early pulp magazines and used Saunders’ “Mtimu” as an example of the New Pulp movement of today that is expanding the field of pulp literature by boldly confronting those past wrongs.  In his essay, Constantine purposely used Lulama as a symbol of the former African persona now evolving into a fully realized and self sufficient character. 

Saunders was delighted as he read the essay as it supported Fortier’s claims to Lulama’s potential for future adventures.

That settled, Saunders is now writing; Lulama, Witch Queen of the Jungle for Airship 27 Productions. 

“If all goes smoothly, we hope to have it out by the start of 2014,” Fortier predicted, his own enthusiasm bubbling over from the potential.  “And we couldn’t be happier.  Charles Saunders is a great writer, and having him do another book for us is an early Christmas gift here at Hangar 27.”

Charles R. Saunders, also credited as Charles Saunders, is a Canadian African-American writer and journalist. He is a retired copy editor for a newspaper. Saunders was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from Lincoln University.

His fiction books include Imaro, The Quest for Cush, The Trail of Bohu, Dossouye, and The Naama War, and Damballa. His non-fiction work includes Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, Spirit of Africville, Share & Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, and Black & Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community.

 

OPENING COMIC SUBMISSIONS

Airship 27 Productions is once again teaming with Redbud Studio to produce the third volume of its award winning comic series, ALL STAR PULP COMICS.

And we are looking for submissions.  We are not looking for manuscripts but completed strips. Each much be 8 pages, black and white (grayscaling is allowed) and feature a public domain pulp hero (or or new).

Writers need to contact Ron Fortier before writing their scripts so that we do not end up with more than one story about any single pulp hero.
Artists must contact Redbud Studio's Rob Davis for the actual page specs etc.  There is no scheduled deadline for this book. When we received enough strips to fill the book, then we'll go to the press.  We don't expect to see this happen until some time in 2014.

Thanks ever, Captain Ron

VOLUME IV OF.....?

Here's another sneak-peek for all you Loyal Airmen who've made it a habit to stop by here on a regular basis.

Colorado based artist, Eric Meador is hard at work painting the cover to the newest anthology featuring one of our most popular classic pulp heroes.

In fact this will be our fourth anthology featuring this..."All American" two-fisted hero.  Stay tuned.

Captain Ron.