First things first, I guess. Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta is out. I got copies the other day and it looks great (and big–it’s a big, big book, a true historical epic). Here’s what a box of ’em looks like:
Prolific author and reviewer James Reasoner said this about it: “In BLOOD AND GOLD, award-winning author Jeffrey J. Mariotte and acclaimed TV producer/writer Peter Murrieta have joined forces to create a compelling blend of history, legend, and folklore. BLOOD AND GOLD is more than a richly detailed examination of the life and dangerous times of legendary California bandit Joaquin Murrieta. It’s also a colorful, entertaining novel full of passion, violence, and adventure, a splendid retelling of those days in early California when men and women would do anything for gold.“
And People Magazine on Espanol said this, in a full-page article (I don’t actually know what it says, but I assume it’s all good stuff):
In other news, noted Western-book reviewer and writer Andrew McBride took a look at the Six-Gun Justice anthology, in which my short story “The Fox and the Snake” appears, and selected it as one of his two favorite stories in the book, writing, “THE FOX AND THE SNAKE by JEFFREY J. MARIOTTE tells of Fox Caldwell, an old widower living alone in the Arizona wilderness c. 1915, who was once an outlaw. But then the past comes calling: a daughter he hasn’t seen for years, and a posse serving an old warrant led by a lawman wanting personal revenge. Mariotte wastes not a word in this taut, superbly-written tale. Once more, the cinematic qualities of the writing brought movies to mind, perhaps a Sam Peckinpah-directed end-of-the-west elegy with a script by Elmore Leonard.” Praise doesn’t get much groovier than that.
Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and I are venturing back into the world (vaxxed and masked) with appearances at TusCon 48 in Tucson, AZ, November 12-14. Here’s my schedule:
Autograph Session 4
Saturday – Autograph Area 2:00 pm 3:00 pm Jeff Mariotte, Marsheila Rockwell, S.A. Bradley, Gloria McMillan, Jennifer Roberson
How to Handle Controversial Topics? Should you even try?
Saturday – Ballroom 3:00 pm 4:00 pm There’s a lot of stuff you shouldn’t talk about. But a lot of those things are topics that we probably need to talk about. How do we not 3rd rail ourselves? – Cameron Blackwell, William Herr, Frankie Robertson, Jeffrey J Mariotte
Comics are not a genre, comics are a media
Saturday – Ballroom 4:00 pm 5:00 pm Comics are far beyond superheroes, any story can be told in a comic, how did we get there and why is that awesome. – Bruce Wiley, Jeff Mariotte, Cynthia Ward, Frank Powers, Curt Booth, John Vornholt
You might note that it’s a busy Saturday afternoon… the rest of the time we’ll probably be in our hotel room working, because both of us are SUPER busy. Find out what Marcy’s up to here: https://mrockwell.dreamwidth.org/201878.html, and be sure to check out her powerful, moving poem in the latest issue of Augur Magazine.
As for me, I’ve turned in the third Cody Cavanaugh Western novel–three in nine months. The first, O’Meara’s Gold, will be out in February from Wolfpack Publishing. More details soon. But now I’m working on three contemporary police-procedural mysteries for Wolfpack, also three in nine months. So if you need me, look for my keyboard.
#Tags: books, Murrieta, People Magazine, Westerns, writing
