Greetings Loyal Airmen, been a busy week what with the Air Chief celebrating his 66th birthday this past Monday. We've always enjoyed the fun of the event and being surrounded by family and friends. We lost count after nearly four hundred well-wishes on our Facebook Page.  Unbelievable. It is a humbling feeling to be so well thought of by so many great people.

              
                                           THE AIR CHIEF and ROCKIN' RON
Valerie made a scrumptious Black Forest Cherry Chocolate cake for the after dinner party that was so yummy then we got to the serious business of opening presents.  Lots of cool stuff like Season Three of our favorite TV series FRINGE on DVD and a few sheets of Post Office Commemorative Stamps to include the Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp and the Famous Hollywood Film Directors sheet.  Then amidst all this was the toy above, a mash of giant robot toy and our beloved baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.  It is such a cool toy and we've dubbed it Rockin' Ron.  It now sits with other Red Sox toys and collectibles on our office shelf.

We are also very happy to announce the 14th title from Airship 27 Productions today; MYSTERY MEN (& Women) Vol III.  This is the series that debuts new heroes created by our writers today in the mold of the classic pulp heroes of old.  This issue features the Skein by Kevin Noel Olson, the Brown Recluse by Greg Gick, Kiri by Curt Fernlund and the return of Mongrel by Derrick Ferguson.  The amazing beautiful cover (see above) was painted by Marco Turini and the book features interior illustrations by our Art Director Rob Davis. It is now available at Create Space and our own Airship 27 webpage.  We hope as ever you'll check it out.  It's been a record breaking year for us and we've still a few more titles to bring you before the year is out so stay tuned.

                                         
                                                             ART BY ROB MORAN
Almost a year ago a talented New York City writer named Terrence McCaulley brought us a gangster novel called PROHIBITION which dealt with the Irish Mobs during the 1930s.  We accepted it for publication immediately and then began looking to find just the right artist to do it justice design-wise.  Earlier this year we released THE RUBY FILES, a private-eye book which showcased the talents of artist Rob Moran, an artist with a penchant for drawing gangster scenes inspired by the old black and white crime movies from Warner Brothers.  Rob did such a great job with the private-eye book, we all but begged him to take on PROHIBITION for us and happily he agreed.  Above is his first illustration for that book. There will be a total of nine in all and today we learned Rob will be doing the cover as well.  We are thrilled.  Recently Rob put together an art book of his work and we had the honor of writing an Afterword to the collection.  We'll let you know when it is published where to find it and pick up a copy.  Likewise, you can expect to see PROHIBITION from Airship 27 Productions early next year. Again, we'll keep you posted.

And that's it for this week's news from Hangar HQ.  With snow blanketing the East Coast in the past few days, we can safely say Winter has arrived.  So stay warm and be careful on those icy roads. We want you back here next week, all safe and sound.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and here we are, only a few days after Halloween and the spirit of ghosts and goblins sitll hangs in the moon.  Here in Fort Collins, Colorado we've been enjoying a whopping fat harvest moon that sat up in the cloudless skies watching over all the little Trick or Treaters last night.  Really puts one in the mood of the holiday season.

                 
                             BROTHER BONES by artist Joe Arnold
And seeing that half this Flight Log was going to center around monsters, we thought we'd share the latest Brother Bones illustrations done as part of the new comic script the Air Chief wrote for the second issue of ALL STAR PULP COMICS.  The artist is a local fellow, one Joe Arnold, and he's extremely gifted. We've been having a blast working with him. The story is called NEEDLE JUSTICE and the black and white anthology it will be a part of showed be out by Redbud Studio early next year.  We'll be sure to keep you all posted.

And keeping on the theme of monsters, the Air Chief's latest fiction has just been published in the anthology pictured above.  Earlier in the year fellow writer Jim Beard approached us about contributing to a new pulp book he had created.  The stories would take place after World War One and involved a group of mysterious people, four men and a women, who traveled the globe hunting down monsters and destroying them.  They would be called MONSTER ACES.  Jim wrote up a bible and sent it along with his request.  It reminded the Air Chief of a classic DC comic book series he'd enjoyed as a youngster, CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN.  So we sat down and wrote a Monster Aces' adventure entitled THE GHOUL.  The book was released last week from Pro Se Productions with a really gorgeous cover by Terry Pavlet and beside our entry features stories by Barry Reese, Van Plexico and two by Jim.  Honestly, the Air Chief is thrilled to be a part of this line up, as we consider these writers the best in their field.  MONSTER ACES is now on-sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and available on Kindle.  Please, if you enjoy horror with a good dose of fast-paced pulp adventure, go pick up a copy now.  You'll be glad you did.

Segue into a more serious topic, our hearts still go out to all the Americans living along the Eastern Seaboard who were so adversely impacted by hurricane Sandy.  We keep them all in our prayers daily and urge all Loyal Airmen to do the same and if possible, help with the relief efforts any way you can, to include contributed to the American Red Cross.  Despite this horrific event, we continue to marvel at the indomitable spirit of those people we seeing in TV interviews vowing to get back on their feet, rebuild and reclaim their lives and homes.  They do us all proud.  God bless them all.

                    
                                            A GUY FAWKES MASK
Finally, in another few days two dates of significant occur and ironically they both have a connection to each other.  The first is Monday, the 5th of November and the Air Chief's 66th birthday.  Yup, we're getting up in years, Loyal Airmen, time truly dragging as along for the ride. Ha.  Of course it is always fascinating to see who else shares one's birthday.  In our case the 5th of November was also the birthday of the King of Cowboys, Roy Rogers and legendary comic book artist, Jim Steranko.  And, whereas we just finished celebrating our fall holiday in Halloween, our British friends celebrate Guy Fawkes Day on …the 5th of November.  It is accompanied by a famous rhyme ala “Remember, remember, the fifth of November and the gunpowder plot….”
This relates the story of Guy Fawkes, an anarchist who attempted to blow up Parliament because he believe the government was corrupt and not representing the will of the people.  He was caught before he could light the fuse and on November 5th hanged to death and thereby forever became an outlaw hero to the British people. It was this story that proved to be the inspiration for comic writer Alan Moore's classic graphic novel (turned movie) called V for VENDETTA.

Now the Air Chief mentions all this, not only because he shares his birthday with the death of this infamous rogue, but also because the very next day is Tuesday, Nov 6th, which is Election Day.  Keeping in mind that a people must be ever vigilant that its elected officials do in fact represent them and never give away their personal freedoms to any government, no matter its duplicity and arguments.  We remain a free people by protecting our God given rights as set down in the Declaration of Independence and by exercising our democratic power to vote for the people who will serve us…and not the other way around.  So please, regardless of your party affiliations, do the American thing and go out and vote.  And as ever, GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

Ron – Over & Out!!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, well Halloween is just around the corner and as promised, we've managed to release the second gripping Brother Bones audio adventure from Dynamic Ram Audio as read by voice actor Mark Kalita with sound engineer Chris Barnes.

“SHIELD & CLAW' pits the Undead Avenger of Port Noir against a mob werewolf assassin and Mark and Chris pull out all the stops to provide fans with a fantastic listening experience just perfect for this Halloween season and its only $2 a download available at our on-line shop. Simply click on the Airship blimp to the upper left of this column.  We promise listening to this mp3 audio tale, you'll have a howling good time. Ha.

                              
                                                JOHN FARRELL
Another Fall classic is of course the World Series and this year's contest got rolling in San Francisco this week between the Giants, the National League champs and the Detroit Tigers, the American League champions.  Hopefully it will be a rousing good series  with some great baseball moment to hold us through the winter.  As most of you who follow the sport are well aware, our beloved Red Sox had a truly horrible year and Bobby Valentine wasn't able to change the losing course of the franchise, this terminating his one season as manager.  The Boston front office wasted no time in announcing his replacement, former Red Sox Pitching Coach, John Farrell, who for the past two years as been the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Most fans, this one included, believes Farrell is a good fit as during his tenure in Boston as the Pitching Coach, he had a great rapport with all the players and management.  Now, with two years of managerial experience under his belt, some of it admittedly rough, he's back with an organization that he liked working for and in return valued him.  One can only hope this return will finally begin fixing some of the major woes of the current club and get them back to their winning ways.   In baseball, it's always, “Wait till next year.”

And finally this week, we want to share with you just how much we are enjoying the fifth and final season of the TV sci-fi series FRINGE.  The Air Chief has been a fan from day one and now, five years later, is seated on the edge of his chair every Friday night and Dr.Bishop, his son Peter and FBI Agent Olivia Dunham lead a revolt against the bald-headed observers from the future in one final desperate battle to save mankind.  Created by genius story teller, J.J. Abrams, FRINGE has entertained us greatly these past five years and we are going to be sad to see it leave.  But for now we're enjoying one hell of a great final ride.

And that wraps it up from Hangar 27 this week, Loyal Airmen, as ever thanks for stopping by and get out those costumes.  Time to go TRICK OR TREAT!!!
Ron – Over and Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and welcome to this week's Flight Log.  Every since starting Airship 27 Productions one of our most successful series starring a golden age pulp hero has been the SECRET AGENT X books.  Created by veteran pulp scribe Paul Chadwick, SECRET AGENT X had his own title which ran for 45 issues.  Not bad for a second stringer.  He was tagged as the Man of a Thousand Faces because no one knew his true face, he was a master of disguise and very much an inspiration for all the spy-heroes who would follow ala James Bond and all the others.

Whereas he was public domain, one of our first titles was a brand new SECRET AGENT X anthology which had four brand new tales of this super patriotic warrior.  The book sold extremely well and we soon followed it up with a second and then a third.  All were equally well received and since then our Loyal fans have been clamoring for more. This past week we finally put together a released the fourth book in this highly successful series.

As the other three previous volumes, Art Director provided the majority of the art for this book.  He drew all the 12 black and white interior pieces and the pencils for this dramatic over which was then digitally colored by Shane Evans of New Zealand.  The book features four brand new Agent X tales and they are fantastic.  Bobby Nash has him confronted by mysterious mountain men in Europe. Jarrod Courtemanche pits X against a man who manipulates fear; Kevin Noel Olso has him fighting the famous French pulp villain Fantomas and lastly, writer Frank Schildiner offers up an early exploit wherein the daring American spy allied himself with Lawrence of Arabia; the inspiration for our cover.

The book is now available at Amazon in both hard copy and on Kindle, as a PDF digital download from our website and soon as a cheaper Print-On-Demand edition from (www.IndyPlanet.com)  However you choose to pick up a copy, we don't think you'll be disappointed. X is back and in big, big way.

Speaking of our website, over the course of last weekend, Rob reported having some problems with the cart functions being reported by some of our customers.  So the Air Chief put out a call to our personal PC Guru, our oldest son, Scott.  Scott took time from his busy schedule to examine the program on which our Airship 27 Hangar site is written, found the errors in the code and corrected them on the spot.  Within minutes, everything at the website was working like a charm. So thanks a million, Scott, we truly appreciate your helping us out.  And to any of our Loyal Airmen who experienced problems trying to purchase a file there, we apologize and tell you those snafus have been eliminated permanently.

Speaking of which, our BROTHER BONES audio tale continues to sell and we're getting such wonderful feedback from those who've downloaded it.  Dynamic Ram Audio is nearly finished recording the second story in the series and we fully expect to have it on sale by Halloween.  So stay tuned.

My new comic writing teaching class is moving along better than the Air Chief had hoped.  We've always enjoyed sharing our love of comics the tricks we've picked up over the past thirty-five years.  Early next year, artist Rob Davis, and the Air Chief, will be guest at the Oklahoma Writers' Conference were we will be giving two ninety minute presentations on the creations of graphic novel. Both of us are looking forward to that event with much excitement.  We'll keep you posted as it all develops.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by as always.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, well another fine Fall week has slipped by us and as ever its been a busy one around the old Hangar 27.  Earlier in the week the Air Chief finally picked up the new Warner Brothers DC animated movie, BATMAN – The Dark Knight Returns (Part One) based on the classic graphic novel by Frank Miller.  We make no secret of our love of WB animation movies.

And it is a bit ironic how Marvel Studios is producing some of the best live action comic book movies ever, as evidence by the just released mega-hit, AVENGERS, but can't produce any decent animated flicks.  The joke is, they are owned by Disney today, one of the greatest animation giants in the business.  Yet somehow, time after time, the folks at DC-WB animation outshine them at every turn, doing these beloved characters brilliantly.  This one is no exception and Peter Weller (the original Robo-Cop) voices the elderly Batman coming out of retirement to save his beloved Gotham City from the ravages of street gangs.  Although sold as a Part One, be aware Bruce Time and his team do give us a complete story with a beginning, middle and effective end, so we aren't left with a cliffhanger awaiting Part Two that will be out in a few months.

                                 
                                             Superhero Green Arrow in ARROW
Speaking of Warner Brothers, their television network this week also hit another bullseye (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) with the debut of their new superhero series, ARROW.  This is based on the second string hero from DC Comics, the Green Arrow.  Created as a back-up feature in the late 1950s, the Green Arrow was very much a Batman want-to-be with a Robin Hood fixation.  Like Batman he had a kid aid, his names Speedy and whereas the Batman has the Batmobile and Batplane, Oliver Queen had his Arrowcar and Arrowplane.

The back story was millionaire playboy Queen is shipwrecked on a South Seas island for a number of years where he teaches himself archery to survive.  When rescued and returned to America, he does the green costume to become a costumed hero, again, much like Batman.  So for many, many years he was a secondary character few fans gave any real attention to.  Then in the mid-sixties, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams revamped him entirely, adding a mustache and blond goatee, they made Green Arrow a left-wing liberal who came to be the champion of all kinds of social causes prevalent to that decade.  One that transformation took place he became a much more interesting character and quickly acquired a loyal fan-following to this day.

Now comes this new television interpretation that wisely takes elements from his origin tale and then mixes it with more contemporary elements making him a great deal grimmer and savage than any of his comic personas.  This character, upon his return to his corrupt home city, is not afraid to deal death to the scum who have infested his community.  He is truly a dark avenger more connected with the 30s pulp figures than any of his earlier comic appearances.  After watching the premier episode, we were hooked.  Hopefully this series will remain this fast paced and fun to watch.

                                
                                          HOW TO WRITE COMICS
And finally a week ago Sunday, we began our new teaching class at the local comic shop here in Fort Collins.  This is something the Air Chief has been wanting to do ever since moving to this wonderful city.  We have two students, both eager to learn the art of writing graphic stories and novel and our first night was fun.  For the next seven weeks the Air Chief will be providing them with the tricks of the trade he has acquired over a thirty five year career.  One we have never tired of and still continue to enjoy to the max.  Our goal is nothing less than to see both Ben & Kristine (our students) get published by the end of the course.  And trust me, we will make that happen.

As ever, thanks for stopping by and get out those ghost sheets and skeleton dolls.  Halloween is just around the corner.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, here we are in the merry old month of October and across the land Fall has settled in with her splash of colors.  Winter is on the horizon, Halloween will soon be upon us.  What a fitting time to be focusing on one of the most fanciful characters we've ever had the pleasure of creating.

Since its release, BROTHER BONES – The Undead Avenger has been of Airship 27 Productions' most popular and successful books.  Demand for more of his adventures keep coming into the office and this past year we had the good fun of doing two new Bones tales that appeared in two Pro Se Production titles.  For the uninitiated, Brother Bones is a former mob assassin in the Northwest port city of Cape Noir.  When he is killed, his soul is not allowed to leave this mortal plain, rather it must remain in his dead body and do the bidding of the Fates as their agent of avenging justice.  The tales combine the fast paced thrills and colors of traditional pulp fare while mixing in elements of fantasy and horror.  Like we said, a perfect hero for Halloween.  Well, now you are going to be able to hear his very first adventure in a brand new audio recording.

This past week the talented folks at Dynamic Ram Audio released the very first Brother Bones tale from the book collection as produced by Sound Engineer Chris Barnes and recorded by voice actor Mark Kalita, with accompanying music and special sound effects added.  Initially our plan was to have them produce all seven stories from the book and then sell them at our website as a digital mp3 download for the price of $9.99 – the same price we offer our first audio title, WITCHFIRE.  Still, economic hard times being what they are, the closer we came to Chris and Mark wrapping up the origin story, The Bone Brothers, we started to rethink our original marketing strategy for something that might be lots more reasonable to our fans.  We opted to sell each story individually once they were completed for the very low price of $2.  Yup, you heard correctly.  Right now you can go to our website and for the price of a Statbuck's coffee, download The Bone Brothers; 74 minutes of audio thrills and chills.

Honestly Loyal Airmen, the first time the Air Chief listened to this recording, we were blown away by how great a job Dynamic Ram Audio did with our creepy tale of murder and supernatural mayhem.  When Kalita, in his reading, becomes Brother Bones….he BECOMES BROTHER BONES!!  The transition in his voice is eerie to day the least and riveting.  Truly this audio story is well worth your attention and support and for two bucks, how can you go wrong?  (http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html) 

The audio tale went on sale four days ago and already it is quickly becoming one of the most successful products we've ever put out.  Those who have bought it have been truly enthusiastic in their praise of the recording.  We are thrilled by the response and hope you'll join in the fun.  Note, Chris and Mark inform us that the second tale in the series is almost finished.  With fingers crossed we hope to have that one available to you about a week before All Hallow's Eve. Stay tuned.

Finally, in three more days the Air Chief will begin teaching a HOW TO WRITE COMICS course at a local comic shop here in Fort Collins, CO.  It will be an eight week course detailing both the history of American comics and how to write them in a professional manner and should help any new scribe put together a presentation package publishing houses will want to look at for consideration.  We taught a similar course ages ago back in New Hampshire and had a blast doing it.  So here's hoping lightning strikes twice.  We'll keep you posted.

And that's it for another week here at Hangar 27. As ever thanks for stopping by.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen. In a few ore days our beloved Red Sox will put FINIS on one of the worst season the team has ever recorded.  As I right these words, Manager Bobby Valentine appears to be on his way out the door after only one season.  Throughout the painful ordeal of the season one thing became abundantly clear and that was the pitching SUCKED!!  Sorry, but that was the elephant in the room that management kept ignoring.  All the starters from a worn out to Josh Beckett to useless Dice-K and a losing John Lester couldn't give us consistent wins over any period of time. And as the pitching goes, so does the entire team.  The Air Chief doesn't hold out much hope for next season either unless this Achilles Heel is remedied.

             
                              FORMER CATCHER & CAPTAIN JASON VARITEK
One small step in the right direction occurred this afternoon when the Red Sox hired former catcher and team captain Jason Varitek as a “Special Assistant” to the General Manager.  Kind of a vague job title, but most reporters who cover the Sox believe it was Tek's amazing knowledge of the pitching staff that made him one of the finest catchers in team history and they are most likely going to have him work closely with next year's rotation.  Now as much as the Air Chief admires and respects Tek and is happy to have him aboard, the true solution is still to get rid of their bad pitchers (regardless of cost) and get new ones. It's going to be a long winter, Red Sox fans.

On a much happier note, Marvel Studio released the long awaited AVENGERS movie on DVD and Blu-Ray discs this week and it is selling through the roof.  No surprise as this is one of the biggest selling films of all time and all of us knew fans who had seen the movie multiple times in theaters were going to want to own.  Hey, the Air Chief was the first through the doors at our local Target store to pick up the Deluxe Blu-Ray set above and we don't even have a 3D set.  Ha.  That's how much we love this movie.

And while Marvel Studios was parading out AVENGERS on disc, Warner Brothers Animation wasn't about to be undone and they released part one of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS based on the highly respected graphic novel by Frank Miller.  Although Marvel may be winning the live-action competition as far as movies go at the box office, they really come in a far-far second to DC's animated features via Warner Bros. Animation. The Air Chief has been a huge fan of WB Animation for years now and will certainly be picking up this title shortly.  Hey, we do have a fixed budget here.  Ha.

            
                        ROUGHS OVER SCRIPT
And finally we wanted to share the above image with all of you.  Artist Jesus Marquez is now illustrating a short four page comic story the Air Chief penned for the forthcoming Zone 4 Comic Book.  As it turns out Jesus was recently recruited for Jury Duty where he lives and so he decided to bring the script with him and while waiting to see if he would be called to sit on any trials, Jesus took the Air Chief's script and began to do what we call roughs and breakdowns to give him ideas on how he would eventually lay out his actual comic pages. We love this behind the scene look at how comics are made and wanted to share it with all of you.

And there you have another week Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for dropping by and for you support. Take care and look out, here comes October and HALLOWEEN!! 
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, it is now mid-morning here in Fort Collins, CO and the Air Chief is playing his not-favorite game of catch up.  Generally we try to have these postings up late Thursday night but alas, the best laid plans of mice and men …and the Bard once said…somethings do go off-track.  Ha.  Anyway, here we are on a beautiful Fall Day and Valerie is eager to run off to the movie theater to see Clint Eastwood's new baseball flick, “Trouble With The Curve,” co-starring the ever wonderful Amy Adams.  So without further ado, this week's Flight Log about the Air Chief's true loved of books.

               
                                      A LAD AFTER MY MY OWN HEART
The Air Chief has loved to read ever since Dad gave us a comic book at the age of five.  From that point on there was no turning back.  We devoured comics like a starving soul attacks a three course Italian meal.  By the age of seven were reading cheap .25 cents paperbacks, again as fast as was humanly possible.  By the time we'd arrived at St.Thomas Aquinas High School in 1960, we had read well over three hundred books.  And as you can tell here, my passion for reading has never once waned.  In fact that's the subject of a new post on my Pulp Fiction Review blog posted earlier this week which we hope you'll go check out by hitting the link the in the intro block above this column.

                        
                                 AVAILABLE ON KINDLE
Of course with the advent of the new computer digital age, books have become electronic and we at Airship 27 Productions soon realized it was paramount we become a part of this new revolution in reading.  Ergo, earlier this year, with the release of our best selling “Captain Action- Riddle of the Glowing Men,” by Jim Beard, we went and made the book available to our readers on Amazon's Kindle.  Yup.  And it proved to be such a winner that that we've since made it standard for all our books released after this one.  Meaning, “Tales From The Hanging Monkey,” “Black Bat Mystery Vol Two,” and the just released “Sinbad – The New Voyages,” all are up for your perusal on Kindle as well as the hard copies still available at Amazon and Indy Planet.com –  It is our fervent hope not only to continue offering our new titles via Kindle but ultimately to publish new editions of our older books and make them Kindle friendly as well.  Stay tuned Loyal Airmen, the Airship 27 is climbing to heights.

                    
                                  LISTENING TO AUDION BONES!!!  CREEPY!
Of course part of that new and exciting evolution of books has been the popularity of audio books.  Now these have been around for a long time but mostly as disc sold in sets at retail outlets.  With the advent of such programs as I-tunes and others, audio books have found themselves translated to digital mp3 files and sold on-line at various sites.  We at Airship 27 have entered this new field with the sale of our first ever audio novel, “Witchfire,” only a few weeks ago.  For $9.99 you can download six hours of wonderful listening fun for those long trips you might have to take.

Whereas not content to stick to one set format, coming in only a few days, we are going to offering audio short stories.  Yup.  And to begin this new venture, the first of these will be Dynamic Ram Audio's recording of the first ever Brother Bones -The Undead Avenger origin story, “The Bone Brothers,” as read by the remarkable Mark Kalita.  Once posted and available on our Airship 27 story site, this story will sell for only $2.  As will each of the remaining six tales from this anthology collection.  Thus Loyal Readers will be able to pick and choose which tales they wish to buy….or not.  Then after all have been individually released, we will sell the entire book for the sale price of $9.99 –

All of us at Airship 27 Productions and Dynamic Ram Audio are really, really excited about this venture.  And of course, when you “hear” this story, you'll realize it is the PERFECT gift to your friends come Halloween just around the corner.  So there you have it Loyal Airmen, all manner of wonderful experiences all related to the joy of books and reading,  Gee, makes me want to go pick one up right now.

But after we go see, “Trouble With The Curve.”  Ha.  Have a great weekend.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen as another week in September slips by bringing with it a bit more seasonal temperatures.  Fall like cooling temps have been the order of the day here at Hangar 27 in Fort Collins, CO. and we even had one full day of rain; a rare occurrence at this elevation. Amazing all the smiles on faces yesterday as everyone totally welcomed the wet weather.

We've some really big and exciting news to share with you this week.  Our very first completed Airship 27 Audio  Book WITCHFIRE by the Air Chief and his mentor, the late Ardath Mayhar is now on sale at our website. The link will be posted at the end of the log.  WITCHFIRE was one of three books the Air Chief co-authored with Mrs. Mayhar of Texas and one we've always been very, very proud of.  When Airship 27 Productions published it several years ago, Art Director Rob Davis not only delivered the great interior illustrations but he also took our his oil paints and provided the gorgeous cover you see above.

WITCHFIRE tells the story of a young white witch living today in a modern East coast metropolis.  When her twisted, evil brother, a powerful warlock, arrives in town it spells nothing but trouble and danger for Morgan Rein and she will need the assistance of a skeptical scientist to defeat him.  The book has always been a favorite of the Air Chief and when we first went into discussions with Sound Engineer, Chris Barnes of Brokensea Audio Productions as to which of our titles we should adapt first, the Air Chief suggested this one.  He did so because he had already had the good pleasure of listening to Ms. Fiona Thraille read an earlier short story of his only a few months earlier and been totally impressed with her acting skills.  Thus we suggested to Chris that were she available, Fiona would be perfect to read WITCHFIRE.  Much to our delight she signed on immediately and now, months later, this amazing audio book is finished.  Having listened to all of it (run time a little over six hours) all the Air Chief can say  is WOW!!!  To hear one's story read aloud is a truly amazing thing, especially when done so wonderfully.  Fiona put her heart and soul into the reading, changing her voice to depict the various characters; both male and female.  Her take on Morgan is exactly as the Air Chief had always imagined when writing the book.

Sadly Ardath Mayhar passed away at the start of the year and never had a chance to hear this audio version.  Presently Art Director Rob Davis has it available for purchase solely as a digital download at our website.  We do hope in the near future to be able to press CD disc copies and have them on sale as well.  But for now you can go to the site and buy the audio files for download.  We are selling it for $9.99 – If you are fan of audio books, we truly hope you'll give this a try and let us know what you thought.

At present two more Airship 27 Productions titles are in the process of being recorded; CAPTAIN HAZZARD – Python Men of the Lost City and BROTHER BONES – The Undead Avenger.  Both by the Air Chief.  This time the production company will be Chris Barnes' own new Dynamic Ram Productions.  We've heard clips from both and can honestly say each is fantastic!!  Stay tuned as things develop.

And speaking of Airship 27 Productions, we have just released our 12th book of the year, SINBAD – The New Voyages.  This is anthology of the famous legendary sailor done in the save style as the thrilling moves by filmmaker Ray Harryhausen.  Volume one, which sports a great cover by Bryan Fowler (above) and twelve beautiful interior illustrations by Ralf van der Hoeven features a novella by Derrick Ferguson and short stories by Nancy Hansen and Ian Watson.

What we've done is re-imagined Sinbad as being African and commanding a crew of international characters to include a French archer, a tall battling Viking from the Northlands and a lovely female Samurai from Japan.  They set sail across the world's seas aboard his single-masted ship, the Blue Nymph.  All of us involved with this book had a great time putting it together and trust you, our loyal supporters, will really get a kick out of it.  A second volume is already in the works.

Both the WITCHFIRE audio book and SINBAD – The New Voyages can be purchased at our on-line website.
( http://robmdavis.com/Airship27Hangar/index.airshipHangar.html)  In a few more weeks SINBAD will be on sale at Amazon and a cheaper edition via (www.IndyPlanet.com)  Again we hope you'll check them both out.

And there you have it for another week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend and we will see you back here in seven days.
Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, and welcome to another end of the week Flight Log.  We hope all of you enjoyed the Labor Day holiday and are getting all set as the Fall season comes swooping down upon us.  After an extremely hot summer here in Colorado, we are all ready to welcome cooler, more seasonal climates. It's a wonderful time of year what with Halloween just around the corner.  Let's all enjoy it to the max.

                          
Speaking of enjoying one's self, Valerie and the Air Chief went to see a charming comedy-drama movie the other day called HOPE SPRINGS with Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones & Steve Carell.  With a cast of great like that you can pretty much expect to be entertained.  And as shocking as it may seem, the Air Chief occasionally enjoys a movie without any gun fights or explosions.  This wonderful little flick is about a couple married over thirty-one years and the wife, played by Streep, wakes up one morning to the sad realization that the romance has gone out of their lives.  So she proceeds to coerce her grumpy, non-nonsense husband, Jones, to fly with her to Great Hope Springs, a small town along the coast of Maine and see a marriage therapist played by a totally understated Steve Carrell; perhaps his most sensitive performance ever.

There are plenty of laughs…and tears in this movie, as the realities of life, responsibilities, faithfulness and loyalty all come to the surface in such truly funny and poignant scenes.  HOPE SPRINGS isn't for everyone and the Air Chief doubts most couples under thirty would “get” it.  But those of you who have been around past your fifties and are still married to that special guy or gal, might want easily see a great deal of yourselves in this touching story of two souls rediscovering their love.   Major thumbs up, Loyal Airmen, from both the Air Chief and Val.

               
         BROTHER BONES by Joe Arnold

Finally, we wanted to share a truly wonderful piece of art with all of you.  Joe Arnold is a former Army soldier recently returned to civilian life and now residing here in Colorado.  He and the Air Chief met at the Fort Collins Comics Coffee Clutch Crew get together that is held at a local coffee shop every first Sat of each month.  Joe was invited by one of our gang and when the rest of us got a glimpse of his portfolio, we happily welcomed him into the crew.  At the last such get together, the Air Chief mentioned his pulp character, Brother Bones – The Undead Avenger and Joe was intrigued.  One thing led to another and as of now Joe is going to be drawing an eight page Brother Bones comic strip for us…which we've got to get busy writing.  In the meanwhile he did up this super sketch of the character for our approval.  Needless to say we were delighted.  Going to be much fun working with this talented young man.

And there you have it, Loyal Airmen, for another week here at Hangar 27 HQ.  Take care, doing good things and be sure to come back next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!