Bad Beat

Cold Poker GangMystery Available in:ebook, $5.99Trade paperback, $14.99Hardcover, $29.99ISBN 978-1561466481 Get the ebook! Get the ebook direct from WMG! Get the trade paperback! Get the hardcover! Bad Beat:A Cold Poker Gang Mystery Dean Wesley Smith The Cold Poker...

Smith’s Monthly #22

Browse more Books Search for: The WMG Newsletter Get advanced notice of new releases, bonus content, and so much more. Subscribe Now Smith’s Monthly Available in: ebook, $6.99 Trade paperback, $12.99 ISBN 978-1561466658 Powell’s Amazon Kobo and others...

Publisher’s Note: Listen Up!

I’ll never forget listening to my first audiobook. It was a while ago (like the mid-’90s—on cassette tape, remember those?), and I don’t remember how I got my hands on an audiobook in the first place. But I did. And I chose a doozy: Interview with the Vampire. I’m not a horror reader, so I really don’t know what I was thinking, especially because I would listen to it as I drove home from my boyfriend’s house late at night (an hour-plus trip) on mostly deserted roads.

Clearly, I was having some sort of existential crisis.

The audiobook did two things: One, it made me realize that I might be able to read horror as long as it’s not too, well, horrible. Two, I discovered a whole new way to read—and still keep my eyes on the road.

I found listening to audiobooks in the car particularly useful in two rather disparate settings. One was Jersey, where my 31-mile commute could take anywhere from one-and-a-half to three hours, depending on traffic, weather and accidents. Granted, on really bad days, I’d be parked so long on the freeway that I could have read an actual book, but still…

The other place audiobooks are particularly handy is during the eight-hour drive across Kansas. I made this commute multiple times after my now-husband, who graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism a year before I did, moved from Columbia to Colorado. Let’s just say there’s not much to look at as you drive across Kansas. Thank goodness for audiobooks!

Kill Game audiobook coverMy need for audiobooks has changed as the years have passed. I don’t commute very far now, so I don’t tend to listen to my own books in the car anymore. Now that I have a four-year-old, I do listen to a lot of kids audiobooks: The Little Mermaid, Fox in Socks, The Cat in the Hat, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell…. You see who commands the stereo system these days.

But I do still listen to audiobooks for grownups (although who ever outgrows Dr. Suess?). I just listen to them at work now. You did know WMG produces audiobooks, right? If you didn’t, now’s a great time to check out our audiobook offerings.

We’ve just released Kill Game, the first of Dean Wesley Smith’s Cold Poker Gang mysteries, narrated by the talented Rish Outfield. Avalanche Creek, the third book in the Thunder Mountain series and which is narrated by the amazing Flora Plumb, will go live any day. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve seven additional titles: The Enemy Within, “The Impossibles: A Retrieval Artist Short Story,” Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing, Dead Money, Discoverability, and The Early Conundrums: A Spade/Paladin Collection.

Avalanche Creek audiobook coverWe’re also partnering with a new production company to bring more Fiction River volumes into audiobook in the near future (Year One is already available in audiobook).

So, if you have a summer road trip planned, you might want to stock up. Even if you don’t, audiobooks are a whole new way to enjoy great fiction.

Happy listening!

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.

A series, a serial killer, and a serious mystery

It’s no mystery that serial killers terrify and fascinate us. Just Google “serial killer” and you’ll find all sorts of lists naming the most famous serial killers of our time.

Even out of our time, serial killers fascinate us. Take Jack the Ripper. Just last year the news was abuzz with the claim that the infamous but unnamed Jack the Ripper had finally been identified. Doubt was later cast upon the DNA identification process, but the attention this discovery garnered proves that time does not diminish the thrall of a mystery.

Cold Call ebook cover webSo, why am I thinking about serial killers this week, you ask? Because a serial killer draws the attention of the Cold Poker Gang in Dean Wesley Smith’s latest novel, Cold Call.

Here’s the synopsis:

When Retired Detective Bayard Lott offers to help Retired Detective Julia Rogers search for her lost friend near a remote Idaho lake, they find clues that might lead them directly to the most dangerous serial killer in Las Vegas history.

Set in the rugged mountains of Idaho, this twisted mystery that pits the Cold Poker Gang against a master criminal.

Kill Game ebook cover webIf you’ve missed this series so far, you might want to consider going all in. The Cold Poker Gang mystery series (Kill Game, Cold Call and Calling Dead [coming in May]) crosses over with Dean’s Doc Hill thriller series (Dead Money, The Road Back). The main characters of each series tend to show up in the other—as Doc and Annie do in Cold Call—and although one series is mystery and one is thriller, both are bound to hold you fast.

But don’t take my word for it. Midwest Book Review says of Dead Money: “…Dean Wesley Smith draws a royal straight flush by making the hand he deals readers seem possible with this exhilarating political poker thriller…”

Exhilarating, indeed. And Cold Call features one clever serial killer. Although his identity becomes known early on, that detail only ratchets up the suspense as to whether the gang can catch him—without losing one of their own.

So, whether you’re stuck inside because of one more massive snowstorm or just sick of winter weather, you’ve got something to carry you through until spring. Just make sure you don’t read this lakeside. You’ll see why soon enough.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.

Cold Call

Cold Poker GangMystery Available in:ebook, $5.99Trade paperback, $9.99Hardcover, $29.99ISBN 978-1561466290audiobook Get the ebook! Get the ebook direct from WMG! Get the hardcover! Get the audiobook! Cold Call:A Cold Poker Gang Mystery Dean Wesley Smith USA Today...

Showing my hand

I love Vegas. There’s just something magical about that city. It’s like Disneyland for adults.

Mind you, I’m not a gambler. I prefer the quarter blackjack machines or the penny slots—anything where I don’t have to actually interact with other humans. Except for the nice lady who brings by the free drinks, of course.

And high stakes for me is twenty dollars. I mean, total. And if I’m up, say, ten dollars, I’m done.

In fact, one of the most thrilling moments I’ve had during a visit to Vegas was when I was playing the Lucky Lemmings slots at the (then) new Wynn casino, and I hit a one thousand payout. Mind you, it was one thousand pennies, which amounts to ten dollars, but that machine pinged for a long time. Naturally, I cashed out. No way I was going to top that.

Like I said, not really much for the gambling. I’m not much of a risk-taker when it comes to money, period. Even sports like poker intimidate me.

I prefer sure things.

One sure thing I can guarantee is that Dean Wesley Smith knows the sport of poker. Unlike me, he’s a pro. And that shows in his writing whenever he tackles that topic. Like tomorrow’s new release: Kill Game.

Kill Game  introduces a new novel series, the Cold Poker Gang, and is related to Dean’s Doc Hill series, which kicked off with the novel Dead Money. This brand new series features a group of retired Las Vegas Police detectives playing poker and solving cold cases.

Here’s the synopsis:

Retired Detective Bayard Lott hosts the weekly poker games at his home. The group calls themselves the Cold Poker Gang. And they succeed at closing old cases.

Lott’s very first homicide case as a brand-new detective had gone cold more than twenty years earlier. But retired Reno detective Julia Rogers, new to the Cold Poker Gang, suggests they look at that case again for personal reasons.

From that simple suggestion spins one of the strangest and most complicated murder mystery puzzles the gang has ever seen.

I think it’s a safe bet you’ll want to read more about this gang once you’ve read Kill Game. I know Dean has more of these novels in the works. But for now, you can read a short story featuring the gang in Smith’s Monthly #3. [LINK TO SM3]

And next month, you’ll see the release of Dean’s much-anticipated Poker Boy novel, The Slots of Saturn, in which he trades in straight mystery for superhero fantasy.

Totally different takes on characters who love poker.

Sounds like a straight flush to me.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.

Cold Poker Gang

Cold Poker Gang Reading Order Dead Money (Doc Hill series) Kill GameCold CallCalling DeadBad BeatDead HandFreezeoutAce HighBurn CardHeads UpRing GameBottom Pair Browse more Books Search for: The WMG NewsletterGet advanced notice of new releases, bonus content, and so...

Kill Game

Cold Poker GangMystery Available in:Free ebookTrade paperback, $9.99Hardcover, $29.99ISBN 978-1561466054audiobook Get the ebook! Get the ebook direct from WMG! Get the trade paperback! Get the hardcover! Get the audiobook! Kill Game: A Cold Poker Gang Mystery Dean...

A thrilling week at WMG

I’ve been thinking a lot about thrillers this week. You see, we’ve got a workshop full of professional writers being taught by Dean Wesley Smith how to refine their thriller-writing skills. So, that word keeps bouncing around in my head. Thrillers. Thriller. Michael Jackson. Characters from Disney’s Frozen doing Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance (no, I’m not making that up—check it out here).

As you can tell, I’m getting a little distracted. But in a good way. A thrilling way. OK, I’ve gone to far.

Seriously, though, workshop weeks are always fun. Disruptive to the work schedule, but fun. You can’t spend a week interacting with talented writers and not have a good time. At least, I can’t.

So, back to thrillers. Even if you don’t think you’re a thriller fan, you probably are. Thrillers come is a variety of shapes and sizes, from psychological thrillers to sf thrillers. Even if you haven’t read any, you’re probably familiar with them. The Da Vinci Code, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, A Few Good Men, anything featuring Jack Ryan as a main character, even Jurassic Park: all thrillers.

Thrillers make our pulses race and our teeth clench. And they’re memorable. I remember Thriller vividly. It was my first record, in fact (and pretty much my last as cassette tapes took over right about then). And I’ll never forget seeing Jurassic Park in the movie theater. It was my first THX movie (yes, I’m dating myself with this paragraph). And I will never forget that scene where the Velociraptor jumps up to grab the kid from the HVAC vent or when another—Or the same one? They all look alike to me: terrifying.—runs for the girl and we don’t realize it’s a reflection (and neither does the Velociraptor….)

Good thrillers suck us in. They keep us at the edge of our seats or feverishly turning pages until the final, often satisfying, conclusion. And that’s why we’re inevitably drawn to them. In a world where reality often outstrips fiction in its potential horrors, thrillers generally give us resolution and a sense of order. The atrocity always has a reason, and good always battles evil. The good guy wins. The bad guys dies (or goes to jail, or both).

Reality is not so cut and dry. Here, the good guy is just as likely to die as the bad guy. And the bad guy sometimes gets away with the atrocity. Sometimes good fights evil, but sometimes good turns a blind eye on evil’s actions. Reality is far murkier.

Thank goodness we can have fiction vacations any time we want. And we’ve got plenty of thrillers for you if you need an escape right about now. Heck, we’ve released two frontlist novels in the past year alone: Snipers, an sf thriller, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dead Money, a poker thriller, by Dean Wesley Smith.

And to give you a little preview, we’ve got Fiction River: Pulse Pounders, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, and a slew of new Retrieval Artist novels (more Rusch sf thrillers) coming your way round about Christmas.

How’s that for thrilling?

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.

The Road Back

Browse more Books Search for: The WMG Newsletter Get advanced notice of new releases, bonus content, and so much more. Subscribe Now Doc Hill Mystery Available in: ebook, $2.99 Amazon Kobo and others. The Road Back: A Doc Hill Story Dean Wesley Smith USA Today...

Alphabet AD

Browse more Books Search for: The WMG Newsletter Get advanced notice of new releases, bonus content, and so much more. Subscribe Now Contact Us Name Email Address Message 10 + 6 = Submit ABCD A Dangerous Road (A Smokey Dalton Novel) A Golden Dream (A Jukebox Story) A...

Story Podcast: The Road Back

What if your life depended on the astute observations of a kindly stranger? If someone walked in your house right now, what would they see?

Smith's Monthly Cover #1Tumbled stacks of books and a blinking computer monitor along with coffee mugs ringed with lipstick and headless chew toys might be a normal state of affairs. Business as usual. It might also indicate that a terrible struggle occurred between a writer and a small-but-ruthless dog bent on distracting her from anything productive. The logical conclusion might be that they went for a walk.

Or not.

What if a terrible possibility lurks behind ordinary observations?

Dead Money ebook cover webThat might have been one of the questions in author Dean Wesley Smith’s mind as he wrote our story for this week’s podcast, “The Road Back.” He takes the stuff of the everyday and twists it into an intriguing story set in the same universe as his poker thriller, Dead Money.

In print and electronic editions, you can also find this story in the first issue of Smith’s Monthlywhich features new and original short stories like this one, plus full novels and great non-fiction.

 

This podcast is no longer available. To listen to the current podcast, please click here.

You can read “The Road Back” in Smith’s Monthly #1available in ebook and trade paperback, and can also be found as a stand alone story in ebooks format at your favorite retailer.