Friday, August 31, 2012

SNEAK PEEK FROM MEAN PETE--Rogue Lawman: The Lonely Widow

This brand-new Rogue Lawman short-story should be up later in the day at Amazon for Kindle.  Probably not until next week at Barnes & Noble for Nook.  But here's a sneak peek from Mean Pete!


THE LONELY WIDOW

1.

       “YOU’RE DEAD MEAT, PARTNER!”
       Gideon Hawk’s pistols roared.
       Boom! Boom! Boom-Boom!
       “And you ain’t even a very good cut.”
       Hawk turned to the naked whore curled into a ball, arms over her head, screaming beside the dead man, whose named had been Bobcat Jack, lying with his eyes open on the bloody sheets.
       He pinched his hat brim to the girl.  “I do apologize, Miss, but you oughta choose your customers more wisely.”
       Hawk left the room through the door he’d kicked in and walked downstairs to find the bartender glowering at him behind the bar and a five-gallon jar of pickled eggs. 
       There were only two other customers sitting in the afternoon shadows--two aging Mexican cowpunchers who both very carefully displayed their empty hands atop the table between them.  Hawk glanced into the back bar mirror, pleased that the Mexicans kept their hands on the table even when he gave his back to them. 
       As Hawk used a wooden tongs to pluck a pickled egg out of the jar, he glanced at the bartender, a round fat man with hair tufting from his ears and nostrils.
       “Where’s the others?” Hawk asked.
       “What others?”
       Hawk stared at the barman with barely bridled patience and spoke quietly, as though he were dealing with a moron.  “There were five in the group that ran that stage off the cliff west of Socorro.  Two women and two children on it.  The gang headed this way with a Wells Fargo strongbox.  The side of bad beef I left upstairs was Bobcat Jack.  He was their leader.  I’m going to ask you one more time where the others went.”
       The bartender was sweating.  “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, mister.  That man upstairs--he rode in here alone, and--”
       “West.”
       Hawk looked up to see the girl he’d just left howling in the room with the dead man now standing on the balcony over the bar.  She’d thrown a sheer wrap around her shoulders.  It hung loose, exposing most of her.  Her hair was down.  Her eyes looked haunted.  “There were five, all right.  They left that mean bastard to get his sap bled off, and they were gonna meet up west of here somewhere.  They’d didn’t say where exactly.”
       Hawk pinched his hat brim to the girl, bit off half the egg in his hand, and chewed.  He looked at the bartender.  “What do I owe you?”
       The sweating bartender shook his head, lifted a soft hand.  “On the house.”
       Hawk pinched the flat brim of his black, low-crowned hat at the girl and turned toward the batwing doors. 
       Behind and above him, the girl said, “You that one they call the Rogue Lawman?”
       Hawk turned to her.  He didn’t say anything. 
       “Sorry about your son...your wife,” the girl said.
       Hawk’s green eyes were typically grave beneath his hat, lips forming a knife slash beneath his thick, black mustache.  The girl turned away and walked back into the room with the dead man in it. 
       Hawk stuffed the rest of the egg into his mouth, and, chewing, continued to the batwings.  The two old Mexicans followed him with their eyes.  As he pushed out through the batwings to the big grulla mustang waiting at the hitchrack outside, the Mexicans crossed themselves and muttered.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

BULLET FOR A VIRGIN (And That's Too Good For Her!) FREE!


Starting tonight (Wed., August 29, or tomorrow if you prefer, Thurs., August 30) and for the next FIVE-FREAKING DAYS--over the Labor Day Weekend--Mean Pete's retro-pulp-spicy-western will be

FREE! 
I thought that would make me feel less mean but it makes me feel even meaner--probably because while you all are chowing on burgers and hotdogs and macaroni and pineapple salad and getting pie-eyed and hitting on your neighbor's spouse, I'm gonna be in my dingy, cur-infested office, cranking on the printing presses with Swisher Sweets dangling from my lips. 
Maybe this will keep you out of trouble for a few hours.  But if it inspires any anti-social behavior, don't blame it on Mean Pete!!!
Well, I'm off to go lay in a fresh supply of virtual ink. Gidyup!
Mean Pete His Own Mean An' Nasty Self




http://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Virgin-Adventures-Concho-ebook/dp/B008L5YUBG/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1346297743&sr=8-32&keywords=brandvold


Monday, August 27, 2012

Once Late With a .38!

First published in 2003, this Ben Stillman novel is now up and running at Amazon.  It should be up at Barnes & Noble soon...Mean Pete hopes.

http://www.amazon.com/Once-Late-With-Stillman-ebook/dp/B0092PPTBY/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1346115282&sr=1-2&keywords=brandvold

Gidyup!

Mean Pete

Saturday, August 25, 2012

"The Lonely Widow"--A Rogue Lawman Short--Coming Soon!

I've been getting quite a few emails of late, wondering where Gideon Hawk, the Rogue Lawman is.

Until I find out if the full-length novels are going to continue with Berkley, I'm going to write a few shorts featuring the ole Rogue Lawman.  Later, when I can dig up some more time somewhere, I'll start the full-length novels again, along with the Ben Stillmans, and Mean Pete will crank them out, snarling, his own mean an' nasty self...

Till then, this one I'm hammering away on and should have up in a week or so.  It's based on a comic book script I wrote but have no idea when or if it's coming out in the graphic book OUTLAW TERRITORY 3.

Gidyup!

Mean Pete



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Clyde Rice

Whenever I need to be reminded how it's done, I go back and I reread this book.  What I love about Clyde Rice is that he didn't start writing until he was in his 80's, after knocking about the Pacific Northwest for a lifetime.  But, sentence by sentence, he packs more power than almost anyone I've ever read.  This is his first book, an autobiography about his years growing up in Oregon during the Depression.

If you know who Jim Tully is, he's sort of like that but with the poetry of Steinbeck thrown in to temper the harder edges.

All of his books were published by small presses and have been read by very few.  I feel very fortunate to be one of those few.  I stumbled on this one in a Portland bookstore about twenty-five years ago.

If you want to read writing with the bark on, as they say, look up Clyde Rice.  He only wrote three books, but they're gems.  He wrote the last one NORDI'S GIFT, after multiple strokes had nearly paralyzed his hand, but he still managed to wield a pen.  A very powerful pen.  I reread him often--a great American writer who's been dead about twenty years now.


Giyup, pards!

Mean Pete


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Once A Renegade Free!

This Ben Stillman book, available now for the first time in twelve years, will be available FREE for Kindle starting tonight at midnight for the next two days!

Don't start callin' Pete "generous" now or you'll make him even meaner.  That's pokin' a coiled diamondback with a sharp stick!

Mean Pete


Sunday, August 19, 2012

"Devlin & Johnny Forever" Free!

My redneck horror yarn will be free for the next two days starting midnight tonight at Amazon!

Read it if you dare but don't blame me if you sleep forevermore with one eye open and frisk your spouse nightly for hidden Bowie knives...

(No, that ain't Mean Pete on the cover!  I get that a lot...)

http://www.amazon.com/Devlin-And-Johnny-Forever-ebook/dp/B008S1FNUU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345418149&sr=8-2&keywords=devlin+and+johnny

Gidyup,

Mean Pete

Once Late With a .38 Cover

Barring unforeseen malfunctions with the printing presses here in the dingy offices of Mean Pete Press, and Mean Pete not going on a bender and getting tossed in the lockup (again!), this should be out in about two weeks.  Another Stillman originally published in 2004.

Gidyup!

Mean Pete

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Two Revamped Covers by Mean Pete His Own Nasty Self

I've changed the design of a couple of my early covers that I was never really satisfied with.  But now that I've been getting my teeth cut on this graphic design thing--it's downright addicting!--I think I've come up with two that are a little more eye-catching than the originals.

Both are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  As I said before, the Stillman reprints are selling so well I intend to start writing the originals again this winter.  And I'm really looking forward to saddling up with ole Ben Stillman again.



Gidyup!

Mean Pete

Monday, August 13, 2012

Mean Pete Press is proud to announce...!

...that ONCE UPON A DEAD MAN, a Sheriff Ben Stillman action-western is now up and running at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble!  With a revamped cover!

http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Sheriff-Stillman-ebook/dp/B008WS7BUE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344864838&sr=1-2&keywords=brandvold

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/once-upon-a-dead-man-peter-brandvold/1005395742?ean=2940014867450

Cut and paste one of the two links above and buy Mean Pete a beer and throw his two ancient, wobbly, slightly daffy curs a chicken liver...or two...!

Now Mean Pete is wrapping up his next Frank Leslie book, a Colter Farrow yarn called BAD JUSTICE...

Mean Pete

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

More Ben Stillman Coming Soon!


I just finished working up this cover for the next Ben Stillman novel I intend to have up and running by the beginning of next week.  I've stopped numbering the Ben Stillman books because after the first one, ONCE A MARSHAL, it really doesn't matter what order you read them in.  This was first published in 2003 and here for the first time since he was married in the first book, Ben is tempted by someone other than his beautiful French wife, Fay.

Murder and mayhem of both the physical and mental nature, and loads of action...only from Mean Pete Press!

I haven't written a stillman novel for about eight years, and I really miss the old guy.  He was my first western hero, after all.  And since this series is selling really well--better than most of my print books these days--I'm making room on my calendar for continuing this series with new, original novels this winter and publishing them right here in the dingy offices of Mean Pete Press.

I still love print, but ebooks are obviously more and more the way to go.  I mean, even my own dad has a Nook, for cryin' in the beer!  What's next--dogs and cats sleeping together?!

Gidyup, pards.

Mean Pete His Own Mean An' Nasty Self

Friday, August 3, 2012

Redneck Horror From Mean Pete Press!

This is a contemporary--well, sort of--horror short-story set in the Georgia backwoods.  It is, indeed, a redneck horror tale.  Think Stephen King crossed with Flannery O'Connor and Mean Pete's very favorite horror/suspense writer, Ambrose Bierce (yeah, of Old Gringo fame).  It's sort of like the movie Cabin Fever or the great drive-in classic The Town That Dreaded Sundown but with a supernatural edge.

It's up and running at Amazon and should be at Barnes & Noble though they take longer to publish them than Mean Pete takes to write them.

Note:  Please don't read this if blood'n'guts and...ahem...colorful language offends you.  And if you don't like Confederate ghosts.  Please do not write to Mean Pete and tell him how ill he is.  He knows that.  He revels in it!

Gidyup!

Mean Pete His Own Mean An' Nasty Self

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A Look Into The Nerve Center of Mean Pete Press!

Several of Mean Pete's legion of fans have asked, "Just where is Mean Pete Press, anyway, Mean Pete?"

And I've had to tell them that if I told them I would have to put the whack on them.

But here is an exclusive photo of the bowels of the "Mean Pete" offices, tucked away in a remote corner of the Rocky Mountains where no government hit-men will ever find us.  (The Jehovah Witnesses must have better Satellite Navigation Systems.)   But just in case they do, Mean Pete's guard dog, senses honed to a razor edge and trained in the art of samurai-style attack and dismemberment, is always on watch.

Two of Mean Pete's heroes are tacked to the bulletin board behind the computer--Jonah Hex as drawn by the late great Tony DeZuniga on the left, and the great James Stacy, who played Johnny Madrid on the LANCER tv series, on the right.  Both are signed!

Mean Pete