Greetings airmen. Well the official summer season is kicking off this weekend with
Memorial Day upon us. And we here in New England are enjoying some beautiful, sunny weather. Valerie and I are off to a family wedding tomorrow morning to be held on a pier at York Beach, Maine. Should be a beautiful event and we are looking foward to it.

Last week I discussed a little bit about the
popularity of my first pulp book, BROTHER GRIM, and I thought this week I’d showcase one of the unsung heroes of my three pulp efforts. When most people buy a book, they are aware of the author and the story itself, after all, that’s why most of us buy a book in the first place. Now if we are a bit more creative than the average reader (something I consider all you loyal airmen), then we also appreciate the artwork on the cover. When people come across a book with an eye-appealing cover, they are likely to purchase it despite the author being unknown to them. That is the power of visuals in the market place. So I’d guess most of you are well aware of that contribution.
But there is a second, less heralded, and appreciated, art mechanic to book publishing.
And that is the actual design of the book itself. An art designer takes the cover and then chooses the appropriate fonts and colors that will enhance that image to the max. It is a job that requires both technical and creative skills in equal measure. Happily all three of
my Wild Cat Books have been designed by the amazing Vincent Sneed. Now all of you could jump right over to the AIR FARE section and look at his work on those three covers, but I thought I’d showcase his efforts on a back cover to prove my point. Above is Vincent’s back cover of
CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY.
If you look very, very closely, you can see that he used a washed out version of the actual cover as his background, then added the text..and that
beautiful colored reproduction of the original
pulp mag. All in a very eye-friendly layout that is clean and easy to read. Totally professional and as artistic as the cover. One of the reasons our books have sold so well has been Vincent’s designs. Take a bow, amigo!

And as we are discussing those pulp books, it is a good time to mention the fact that the first, BROTHER GRIM (portrayed above by artist Rob Davis) is still selling great guns. I was made aware of this yesterday when I received a very nice fan letter from Eric Hebert of Quebec, Canada. Eric explained he’d just found BROTHER GRIM over at Lulu.com, purchased it and loved it. I was delighted. This book has been on sale for over a year now.
On a whim, I logged on to Lulu.com to check our sales standing. You see, Lulu post where in the sales ranks each book is on a daily basis.
Now Lulu publishes thousands of titles. When BROTHER GRIM debut, it was listted somewhere in
the 3,000 range. After about six months, I learned it was at about the 1,500 mark. Again, this is not the quantity of sales, but where in the sales ranking of all Lulu books.
So, after getting Eric’s letter, I wanted to see just how well we were doing. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw the three digit figure of 468!!! Of the thousands of books
being sold by this outfit, BROTHER GRIM has climbed to that high a level…and is obviously continuing to sell. I couldn’t be happier.
Folks who’ve never picked up a pulp adventure in their life are finding it, and buying it. I’m just thrilled and pray, with fingers crossed that will continue. I’d love to see us break the 100 mark. So thank you, loyal airmen, not only for buying my books, but obviously for spreading the word throughout the internet. That means a great deal. I owe all of you. You’re easily the best fans in the world.

Well, this past Wed. night television viewers were treated to the bombastic, wild, puzzling
two hour season finale of LOST. My son, Kevin,
and daughter, Heather stopped by with pizza to
watch it with me. Val just isn’t into the show, prefering stories that don’t give people headaches. Ha. Anyways, at the end of the two hours we were giddy with questions and satisfied that the writers had delieverd on their pledge to make it a powerful, cliff-hanger ending. Now we have to wait till next fall to see what happens next. I love it!

Tis the season of blockbuster movies. Haven’t seen MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 or THE DAVINCI CODE yet, but am hoping to catch up eventually.
The big two for me are X-MEN 3 and SUPERMAN RETURNS. Will of course give you my take after I’ve viewed them.

All for now, airmen. Here’s wishing all of you a great Memorial Day weekend. Have fun,
drive carefully and if you’re going to drink,
give someone else the car keys. We all you want you here next week, safe and sound.

Ron, over and out!