I’d like to introduce you guys to James Mullaney. James has written a whole bundle of fiction I’ve really loved. He worked on The Destroyer series for a long time, and for those of you who frequent this space know that the entire Remo Williams mythos is one of my favorites. James is putting out some books on his own now and I thought it would be great to see him here in this space. I’m in the midst of reading Devil May Care and I have to say it’s a lot of fun. It feels like a supernatural twist on a Mickey Spillane sort of premise. James is a great writer and deserves some attention.
But he can talk about himself better than I can talk about him, so here he is:
I figured I’d try something a little different here. Please sit back in your ergonomic chairs, take your hands off your keyboards and relax. Feel the tension draining away. Are you relaxed? Good, now:
Buy my books…buy my books…buy my books…
Actually, now that I think about it I don’t think this will work if you can’t see this quarter I’m spinning. So much for the 200 bucks I sank into that EZ Internet Hypnotism course. I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.
I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since Sister Eileen’s fourth grade English class, so blame the chick in the wimple. I was introduced to the world of men’s adventure fiction two years later through copies of The Destroyer series which my truck driver dad brought home from the road. I loved that series as a kid and I pretty much committed all the books to memory, which came in handy years later when I got the job writing them. I wrote over two dozen Destroyer novels, as well as the second series guide. I figured out at some point that my Destroyer work added up to over two million words. I don’t know over two million words, mind you, I just used the same forty I do know over and over in different combinations. My career goal is to one day know fifty, perhaps even sixty completely different words.
“The Red Menace,” my first ebook series, is my sneaky way of writing myself into the great old history of the men’s action-adventure books of the 1970s (although I’m reluctant to use the term “men’s action-adventure” since I found with my Destroyer work that I have lots of women fans as well). My two main characters are Patrick “Podge” Becket and Dr. Thaddeus Wainwright, a pair of cold war agents from the 1950s who are brought out of retirement in the 1970s to do battle with the enemies of truth, justice and the American way. Podge is a wealthy computer company CEO who dons the special mask and cloak of the Red Menace. Dr. Wainwright is the genius who keeps him patched up and battle ready. Think a sort-of Holmes and Watson but with the roles kind-of reversed. Along the way there’s lots of action, quips, humor and spectacular feats of derring-do.
Next up is my “Crag Banyon Mystery” series. Banyon is just a typical detective. A hard-drinking ex-cop who’s always looking to cadge a nickel to make last month’s rent. Except in Banyon’s world that means taking cases from whatever fairy tale or mythological creatures stroll, crawl or slither into his office above Vincetti’s For the Halibut Fish Market. Banyon’s first outing is “One Horse Open Slay,” in which he’s framed for the murder of an elf and has to take off to the North Pole to clear his name. You’ll never look at Mrs. Claus the same way again. He’s got a particularly hot case in “Devil May Care.” Banyon ordinarily wouldn’t take a demon as a client, but the rent is more overdue than usual and it seems like a simple missing person case. An inmate from Hell has gone over the wall and Banyon’s hired to track down the lost soul. The Banyon books are a lot funnier, a lot looser and a lot weirder than anything else I’ve ever done and are, hopefully, a lot of fun. Hey, they make me laugh.
Devil May Care (A Crag Banyon Mystery).
One Horse Open Slay (A Crag Banyon Mystery).
The Red Menace #2, Drowning In Red Ink.
So, you’ve been given your marching orders. Check his stuff out and go like his author page on facebook.