New Release...Avast, Ye Airships! #Steampunk #AwesomeSauce

Have Airship...Will Travel...

Mocha Memoirs Press is excited to present...
AVAST, YE AIRSHIPS! a new anthology featuring 18 stories filled with action, adventure, and steampunk goodness.

In a daring history that never was, pirates roam the skies instead of the seas. Fantastical airships sail the clouds on both sides of the law. Within these pages, you will find stories of pirates and their prey with a few more pragmatic airships thrown in.

With stories ranging from Victorian skies to an alien invasion, there is something for everyone in these eighteen tales of derring-do!

Available now 

via 

Amazon & Barnes and Noble

Avast, Ye Airships!

Beneath the Brass by Stephen Blake

Maiden Voyage by Jeffrey Cook & Katherine Perkins

Colonel Gurthwait and the Black Hydra by Robert McGough

Captain Wexford’s Dilemma by Ogarita

Her Majesty’s Service by Lauren Marrero

A Wind Will Rise by Andrew Knighton

Hooked by Rie Sheridan Rose

Go Green by Ross Baxter

Lost Sky by Amy Braun

Miss Warlyss Meets the Black Buzzard by Diana Parparita

Plunder in the Valley by Libby A. Smith

The Clockwork Dragon by Steve Cook

Adventures of a Would-Be Gentleman of the Skies by Jim Reader

A Clouded Affair by Steven Southard

The Climbers by D Chang

The Steampunk Garden by Wynelda Ann Deaver

Lotus of Albion by Steve Ruskin

And a Bottle of Rum… by K.C. Shaw

Third One's a Trio of Dark Delights: Descent Into Madness

October's month long DARK MOCHA BITES celebration delivers the best we have in dark, delicious horror and dark paranormal romance. Our third offering of the week is anything but dull...it is quite bitter.

Taking us down into madness is our resident editor and author extraordinaire, Michael LaRocca. We've witnessed it talent for suspense and twists and turns in LAZARUS.

For October, Michael has given us something truly fresh and straight out of the Twilight Zone in DESCENT INTO MADNESS.

Blurb: Did you ever feel that your life was but a series of experiments being conducted upon you by forces unknown and unknowable? Does the nature of reality change almost daily, as if someone wanted to see how you’d react? Are there things you knew in your very core you’d never do, until you discovered you were wrong and you did them? Did you ever wish the dead would just stay dead?

Excerpt

Wouldn't life be simpler if the dead just stayed dead?

Bert gazed at Wendy's closed eyes. He held one of her tiny hands in his and noticed how cold it was. Behind him stood the doctor and the nurse who would disconnect the vast array of machinery that all but surrounded them.

"This isn't her," Bert said to no one. "This is only an empty shell."

Bert squeezed Wendy's hand. There was no response. He leaned over her and whispered, "I love you," into her ear. He rose to his feet, released her hand and stepped aside. There was no change, no sign that she was anything more than a rock or a piece of furniture.

The doctor was waiting patiently when Bert turned to him. Bert nodded. The doctor smiled weakly, sympathetically. Bert felt vaguely like an intruder.

The doctor signaled the nurse to switch off the respirator. The nurse complied and Wendy's chest collapsed. The doctor reached for the tube that entered Wendy's nose and led to her lungs. He wiped it with a cloth as he pulled it out—pull, wipe, pull, wipe, pull, wipe—then handed it to the nurse.

The EKG and EEG alarms beeped loudly. Wendy's eyes opened and she bolted upright in the bed. The stunned doctor quickly stepped away.

"Bert?"

"Wendy?!"

"Bert!"

"My God!"

Of course it was a miracle. What else could it have been?

Get your copy of DESCENT INTO MADNESS from Mocha Memoirs Press today.

 

Ten Lessons That Star Trek Can Teach You About Writing

Michael LaRocca is not only an extremely talented editor at Mocha Memoirs Press. He's also an extremely talented author. Check out his latest release, Lazarus: A Gary Drake Mystery. It's availabe in print and e-book formats. Get a copy today and see how Michael uses these 10 lessons himself.

Michael describes below how Star Trek can teach you a lot about writing.


1) Readers Matter
In the first STAR TREK film, Gene Roddenberry finally had the budget to create all the footage he wanted of ENTERPRISE just sitting there, looking real purty, and by gum he was gonna use it all. I personally don’t mind watching all those minutes, 22 or 187 or whatever it was, but most folks think that’s too much. If most of your readers say something needs to be changed or added or deleted, listen to them.

2) Characters Matter
 When the second pilot was filmed, it was already pre-ordained that William Shatner was the star. Since Spock was the only character from the first pilot to also appear in the second pilot, it was safe to assume Leonard Nimoy was a costar. Who else? Well, McCoy and the chemistry just kinda happened.

When I write, character comes first, and plot etc. unfold from there. Even if you start from some other place, character always matters. In the end, nothing happens unless it happens to somebody, and that somebody is who your reader cares about regardless of species.

When you write, have some sort of plan, and have some control, but be flexible. If your story’s telling you to go in a certain direction, listen to it. That might be your characters talking to you. (And yes, I know you made them all up. Don’t bother me with details.)

3) Turn Weaknesses into Strengths
 I can’t remember if I wrote about this in CONUNDRUM or ENIGMA, so be safe and read both. Why did ENTERPRISE have a transporter? Because it wasn’t in the TV show’s budget to film launch and landing sequences for shuttlecraft on various and sundry new planets every week. This forced the writers to invent the transporter, and that’s some seriously cool shit. STAR TREK wouldn’t be STAR TREK without it.

4) Fuck Grammar
Okay, not really. Speaking as your editor, please don’t fuck grammar. But you can break any rule you want if you have a good reason. Try to never break a rule from ignorance. But if you’ve got a reason, go for it. That’s how we as authors change the language.

Why did Shakespeare invent 10% of the words he used? Because if he’d invented 20% or 50% he’d have confused too many of his viewers.

Meanwhile, the “rule” about splitting infinitives is totally bogus. “To boldly go” is a perfectly good English phrase. In Latin, it isn’t possible to split an infinitive because “to go” (for example) is one word. You can’t write “to boldly go” in Latin because “to go” is only one word. Someone decided English grammar should follow Latin grammar — that sounds like some of Noah Webster’s shit — and was soundly shouted down for being too stupid to live. Feel free to boldly split infinitives like James Brown split tight pants. Then jump back and kiss yourself.

5) Wishful Thinking Is Allowed
In the STAR TREK future, everybody quotes long passages of Shakespeare from memory. If I say it like that, it might sound hard to believe, but in the context of the STAR TREK world, it fits. It’s allowed. Dammit, people should quote Shakespeare from memory, just like that cockatiel I taught when his humans were away. I never could teach him context, though.

6) It’s Not About The Money
Okay, sometimes it was about the money. But in roughly two years of the original show and roughly ten years of Next Generation, it wasn’t about the money. In some of the films, including some of the stinkers, it wasn’t about the money.

I’ve always said that you should write what you’d like to read, then find readers who share your interests. Yep, that’s what Gene Roddenberry did. He believed in world peace, racial and gender integration, trying to shake off old prejudices to the best of our limited abilities, freedom of religion and non-religion, gay rights, cooperation rather than killing, the Prime Directive of non-interference in viable developing cultures, war as a last and not a first resort, and seeing just how much political and religious commentary he could slip past the censors, who weren’t as bright as the average STAR TREK viewer.

Did he really believe in the cashless society? If a “credit” or a “quatloo” walks like a dollar bill and quacks like a dollar bill… oh, wait, that’s not Roddenberry, that’s Terrell Owens. Never mind.

7) YOU Are The WriterRemember when I said to listen to your readers? That doesn’t mean you have to always agree with them. When Gene Roddenberry’s vision put him at odds with the majority, he went with his vision. We should all do that. Such judgment calls are what separate the great writers from the merely ordinary. And to pull all that off within the confines of a 1960s TV show is nothing short of extraordinary. You could do far worse than to follow his example.

8 ) Choose Your Battles
That’s what Roddenberry had to do every time he butted heads with TV executives. It’s what I do as an author when I disagree with my editor, and what I expect an author to do when I’m his or her editor. “I’ll say Starfleet pays its officers in credits if you let the white guy kiss the black girl.” Or whatever.

9) Too Many Sequels Can Sour Anything
I shouldn’t end on such a downer, should I? Too bad. But at least Paramount waited for Roddenberry to die before they destroyed what he created.

10) Posterity Matters
How long has it been since Captain Kirk first flexed those biceps and paused in funny places during his speechifying? It’s been over 40 or 45 years since Roddenberry started writing STAR TREK, and we’re still talking about it. That’s what we write for. I don’t want you to love my shit now and forget it tomorrow. A novel is not a damn blog or a tweet. Write something timeless. Something to piss off future generations the way it does your immediately family, something teachers can torture students with, something that just will not fucking die.

Why You Should Read a Mocha Memoirs Press title

by Nicole Givens Kurtz

You know how when you visit an airline, the stewards often remark about how they know you have a choice of airlines and they thank you—sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes with apathy—for selecting them?

This isn’t that type of blog.

That doesn’t mean we don’t know you have a chose of electronic publishers—you do. We are also extremely grateful to you for purchasing our titles, and reading our great stories.

This blog post is for those who may be on the fence, getting terrible wedgies, because they can’t decide whether or not to try one of our titles.

Of course you should!

You, of course, don’t have to take our word for it. I liken trying a new author, book series, or musician to trying new foods. Sure, the meal may look questionable, and granted you may not understand all the ingredients or the name of it, but all of that is window dressing and labeling. What really counts is how it tastes.

So, I'm asking you on this July 4th, our nation's birthday to embrace your spirit of revolution, rebellion, and freedom to do what this country's forefathers did--take a chance. Try one of our titles today.

Without risk there can be no reward.

And there's no reward like discovering a new series, author, or publisher you absolutely enjoy. Happy Fourth!

What is Mocha Memoirs? The Significance of the Name.

by Nicole Givens Kurtz
Owner/Publisher-Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC

As our second anniversary launches, I would like to answer what on the surface appears to be a simple question, but in more complexity, isn’t a simple one at all.

What is Mocha Memoirs?

Are we an erotic romance publishing house? Are we a science fiction, horror, and fantasy publishing house? Do we self publish? Do we make authors pay for publication? What—and who—are we exactly?

Mocha Memoirs Press is an electronic publishing house focused on producing quality commercial fiction in the genres of romance, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Those genres are very broad, and as such, we accept subgenres within those as well. For example, an erotic romance set in the future, or a horror romance story that ends with a Happy Ever After.

To put it plainly, we like—and publish, great stories, regardless of the labeling.

The only absolute rule is we do not publish non-fiction, hate filled works, or erotic romance that includes bestiality, golden showers, rape, or anything we deem degrading.

So, one question I often get when I meet readers at conventions is why Mocha Memoirs, especially when we don’t even publish memoirs?

Again, the answer is pretty simple. I like alliteration. Most importantly, late one night in 1998 when I was looking for a title to call my electronic magazine of short fiction and poetry, I wanted something that spoke to others like me—a creative African American woman. Although the stories aren’t personal memoirs per se, each story an author tells carries hallmarks of the individual who wrote it, and thus memoirs.

No great mystery. Just a woman with a goal to produce quality works and a mad obsession with good stories. Mocha Memoirs is an outlet for authors to connect to readers.

Enough said.

An Interview with Garth Jenkins--An Interdimensional trucker

by Tom Olbert
==========================================================
Interviewer:Good afternoon. We’ve been granted an interview with Garth Jenkins, formerly a trucker on the famous “Long Haul” project. Currently, a fugitive from the law. And, a very colorful figure in the ongoing controversy surrounding the “Long Haul” interdimensional trucking line and its corporate owners. Mr. Jenkins has consented to grant us a few
minutes out of his busy schedule. Mr. Jenkins, thank you for your time. Can you tell us a little about your current activities? Mr Jenkins?

Garth Jenkins:
Yeah, yeah, in a minute. As you can see, I’m a little busy here. It ‘aint easy diggin’ bullets out of an engine block, y’know.

Interviewer:Uh…yes, I see your truck’s taken quite a beating. This is obviously a dangerous vocation you’ve chosen for yourself, Mr. Jenkins. Of all the paths you could have chosen in life, why the long haul?


Garth Jenkins:Well, what can I say? I’m an ex-con who knows how to drive a rig, so my choices were a little thin, y’know? I learned how to handle myself in the gulf, so I put my talents to use where I could. Like I’ve told my ex-wife Beth about a thousand times: A man spends what he’s earned. No more, no less. Drake, where’s that other wrench?

Sally Drake:It’s where you left it, Jenkins: wedged in the skull of that six-foot cockroach that tried to eat our truck a universe or two back. Can’t you keep track of anything without my help?

Interviewer:That’s your trucking partner, Sally Drake, right? What do you say to the rumors that the two of you don’t get along very well?

Garth Jenkins:
Well, that’s B.S. Sal and me? Hand in glove. We were buddies in the gulf, and we’re thick as thieves now. Well, technically, we are thieves, but you get my drift. We’ve been through hell together more times than I can count. I can always count on ol’ Sal to come through for me when the chips are down. Now, mind ya, she can be a right royal pain sometimes…

Sally Drake:Especially when I bag a hot-lookin’ babe he’s got his beady little eyes on!

Garth Jenkins:
See what I mean about her being a pain? Well, she’s a damn good trucker, she knows her ordnance, and she can handle herself in a scrap. That’s all you can afford to care about on the long haul. Plus…much as I hate to admit it…she’s as good as they come. She keeps me honest.

Interviewer:What do you say to the rumors that you are the biological father of the child of North Dakota’s controversial governor Candace Williams?

Garth Jenkins:
I say, none a’ your damn’ bee’s wax, chum! I said I’d talk about the long haul. I didn’t say nuthin’ about discussing my personal life or Candi’s. Uh…the governor’s.

Interviewer:Uh, Okay. Let’s talk about the long haul. What would you say is the chief danger you face on a typical long haul run?

Garth Jenkins:
Chief danger? Well, take your pick. I’ve had to fight my way past monsters you wouldn’t believe. Things that swim in acid, breath poison and eat metal like it was cheese. I’ve had to drive through parallel ‘verses where the sun’s about to explode, where nuclear wars have happened, and where black holes are gobblin’ up the sky. I’ve ended up in time periods from dinosaur times to the battle of Gettysburg and even thefuture. I’ve seen wars between Earth and colonies on the moon. I’ve had to gun it out with aliens, black market truckers, company goons…

Interviewer:Yes, about your accusations against the company you once trucked for…Do you maintain that they’ve sent you to other universes to transport nuclear bombs for the purpose of destroying new universes as they form?

Garth Jenkins:
Damn straight. The whole world saw that video Sal and I shot. The company’s been gettin’ away with mass murder for God-knows how long. There’s whole worlds…whole civilizations that don’t exist no more because of those bastards in their high-rise office buildings with their fancy lawyers and high-level D.C. contacts. Some of us are gonna stop ‘em from pullin’ any more of their sh*t or die tryin’! Sal, will you find me that sander, please?

Sally Drake:
Find it yourself, Garth! I’m busy welding laser holes on the trailer, here.

Garth Jenkins:
I gotta do everything…

Interviewer:Mr. Jenkins…some consider you a criminal. A smuggler, a black marketeer. Others call you a hero, transporting badly needed supplies to people who desperately need them. Is there anything you’d like to say to clarify how you see your lifestyle in a moral sense?

Garth Jenkins:
Huh…well, I don’t quite know how to answer that. I’ll admit there was a time when I just wanted to turn my back on all of this sh*t the company deals in. I figured it was none of my business. It’s easy not to give a damn’ about people you don’t know, y’know? But, Sal reminded me why I got myself thrown in the brig back in the gulf to begin with. Now, there’s a story. I did what I thought was right. I saved an innocent young girl’s life and they threw me in jail for it. That’s what got me into the long haul to begin with. What it boils down to is…Sal asked me if I’d do it again. I said ‘Hell, yeah.’ I didn’t even have to think about it. Like my daddy always used to say: If there’s a rough road and an easy one to choose from, always bet the rough one leads to the pearly
gates.

Sally Drake:Garth, we got company. Smokey’s closin’ fast!

Garth Jenkins:
Damn, no rest for the wicked. Pack it up, Drake! I’m drivin’ this time! ‘Sorry to cut the interview short, pal, but we gotta fly before those state troopers get here.

Interviewer:Where are you off to this time?

Garth Jenkins:
We’re truckin’ grain seed to Africa illegal, and the company don’t like that. They like it a lot better when folks stay hungry and have to buy food from them. I guess we’re gonna have to take the smuggler’s route through ‘verse 117-A. Low gravity, blood-suckin’ mosquitoes the size of helicopters. ‘Hope we packed the bug spray. Let’s roll, Drake!

Interviewer:Any final words, Mr. Jenkins?

Garth Jenkins:
Just keep the sun out of your eyes and the pedal to the metal. Ten-four, good buddy!
========================================================================================================
Want to read more about Garth Jenkins' adventures in trucking? Grab a copy of Long Haul today from Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC.

A Sneak Peek at Tom Olbert's LONG HAUL

http://mochamemoirspress.com/long-haul/

In the near future, physicists have stumbled on a way to channel dark energy, making it possible to instantaneously travel anywhere in the world by passing through parallel universes as they intersect with our continuum at given points in time and space. Daredevil truck drivers like the protagonist, Garth Jenkins and his trucking partner Sally Drake, earn hazardous duty pay by trucking cargo through perilous alternate universes often infested with deadly alien predators. Garth and Sally are offered a mysterious and possibly illegal contract to deliver some unknown cargo to unknown buyers in another universe. En route to the transdimensional drop-off point, their truck is hijacked by Keira Takahashi, a beautiful and radical young college student who claims they are carrying a nuclear device and are being used by evil alien forces intent on destroying another universe.

At first, Garth and Sally dismiss the young woman’s story as madness, until hostile aliens in undead human bodies make an attempt on her life. Finding themselves on the run and not knowing whom they can trust, Garth and Sally embark on a crooked road through dangerous alien universes and remote time periods. Finally escaping to Cal Tech University and confirming Keira’s story, Garth and Sally must decide whether to get themselves to safety or risk their lives to save a universe. They choose the latter. Arriving in the alien home universe, a barren landscape under a dim purple sun, Garth and Sally turn the tables on the evil company and their murderous alien clients. After a fierce battle, the alien dimension portal is destroyed and Garth and Sally narrowly escape.

Garth and Sally join up with an underground trucking network and devote themselves to fighting the evil corporation.