Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope that all of you had a fantastic Christmas with your family and loved ones.  Ours was amazing, perhaps the best ever for Ye Old Air Chief.  It was that much fun.  So here we are, about to say goodbye to another year and usher in a new one.  And there have been lots of changes around the old Hangar 27 that require announcing, but before we go to that we've one final chore.

               
                           BEST READ OF 2011
This past year we had the fun or reading 38 books and reviewing them at our PULP FICTION REVIEW blog site. In that mix were many excellent books by some of our favorite writers plus lots of new discoveries.  One such was REX RIDERS by J.P. Carlson, a young adult science fiction western we absolutely adored and wish more people would find. It's target audience is teenage boys and that's just what the Air Chief felt like after having finished this amazing, exciting and fun novel.  Please, do yourself a favor and go find it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It truly was our favorite book of 2011.

Now that the future looms brightly ahead of us, we want to give you a few peeks as to what we will be involved with in the coming new year.  Airship 27 Productions is parting ways with our old publisher and going solo.  Rob Davis and I hope to put out at least ten new books in 2012, starting with a brand new Sherlock Holmes novel by Gary Lovisi that should be out in Jan.  It's a pip!  We also plan on another volume of Airship 27 Presents of All Star Pulp Comics.  Issue one is selling like hotcakes and so we are planning issue two right now.

            
                           COMING IN 2012
In my thirty five year career as a professional writer, the Air Chief has worked in possibly every genre there is except two: romances & sports.  Well, as of next year, we'll have finally done and had published two sports stories.  One is a story called “The Hot Dig Kid” that is about our beloved Red Sox and will be appearing in Adam Patcher's FINAL FENWAY FICTION, see the gorgeous cover above by artist Daniel Ibanez. We are guessing this will be out sometime in Spring and is advantageous as Boston's Fenway Park is celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2012 as a professional baseball stadium.  Wow. Hopefully that party will translate well for sales of this great book which is a collection of not only short stories, but essays and poems as well.

Then sometime in either Feb or March of next year, Borgo Press will release BATTLING BOXING STORIES which will contain my tale, “Blood Feud.”  Sports pulps were very common in the 30s and 40s and it has been a thrill for the Air Chief to explore new territories with his fiction.  We will keep you posted on their official releases and where to pick them up at the proper time.

         
                A SPIDER MAGAZINE COVER 1942
As for our personal pulp writing, you can expect to see a great deal with our name affixed to the credit line next year.  Several years ago, Moonstone Books did an anthology of new Spider stories featuring this truly classic pulp hero and the Air Chief was thrilled to have a story in that book.  Well, Moonstone editor Joe Gentile recently came knocking once again.  It seems Moonstone will be producing two more brand new Spider anthologies and the Air Chief will have a story in each of these.  The first, which we are currently plotting will be a typical Spider actioner pitting him against a monstrous and oh so clever villain.  Whereas the second tale to be written later in the year may well have him crossing paths with another pulp character, this one not so well recognized among pulp fans; I.V. Frost.  Frost was a combination of Sherlock Holmes & Sam Spade and appeared in 18 stories in the pages of Clue Magazine.  Working out a plot that teams him with the Master of Men is a challenge we simply could not pass up.

Meanwhile there are other pieces of fiction we've completed that should see the light of print in 2012.  These include a Johnny Dollar Insurance Investigator tale from Moonstone, a Rook adventure for Pro Se Productions and an Athena Voltaire World War II yarn for creator Steve Bryant's proposed anthology.  As you can see the Air Chief has been busy.

         
                        I.V. FROST & JEAN MORAY
Leave us not forgot the comic book front and all the projects we've got in the works there as well.  We have every intention of doing more pulp connected comics as mentioned above.  At long last the three I.V. Frost scripts I penned nearly a year ago are now being completed for Moonstone Comics and will feature the artwork of Jake Minor and James Lyle with inks by Jeff Austin and letters by Brant Fowler.  The pin-up above is by Lyle and Austin.  The first of these three stories should be completed and in-house within the next two weeks.

We've already mentioned All Star Pulp Comics # 2 and knock on wood, if all goes well, you will finally be seeing our graphic novel adaptation of Captain Hazzard – Python Men of the Lost City, a project that has been over six years in the making.  We are truly excited about that one.  Never mind more Mr.Jigsaw zaniness from Redbud Studio and of course future issues of “Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre.”  Number two should be out in a few more weeks and number three is already in production.

The Good Lord willing, the Air Chief will finally sit down and finish my fifth Captain Hazzard novel as well. So say a prayer for us and keeping sending those good thoughts out way.  It truly looks to be a most fun and creative year ahead.  We hope you join us on the journey.  Hey, there would be no point in doing any of this if it were not for you Loyal Airmen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and please, be careful and NO drinking & driving.  We want you all back here next week for our first Flight Log of 2012.  God bless,

Ron – Over & Out!