Rage Machine Books publishes the kind of fiction that the big publishing houses won’t touch anymore. The kind of fiction you used to be able to find on a spinner rack in your local grocery store. The kind of fiction your father or grandfather (or maybe you) used to be able to buy at a newsstand for a mere 10 cents. The kind of fiction that they published in the old pulp magazines.
The fiction that Rage Machine publishes moves. The kind of fiction that puts story first and moral second. That’s not to say there isn’t a moral to the story, or that theme and tone and subtext aren’t present. They are.
But the chief concern of Rage Machine Books is to tell you a story, to tell you an entertaining story — what they used to call ripping yarns – and to tell it in as fast-paced and as exciting a way as possible. In fact. Some of the books that Rage Machine Books publishes actually are pulps.
Take Dark World Adventures.
G. W. Thomas, the editor and publisher of Rage Machine Books, wrote a story, The Case of the Phantom Legion, which was inspired by old pulp tales like those found in the pages of Weird Tales Magazine. The story was told in the form of one long story along with two follow-up short stories. Thomas wanted a print edition that would appear like an old pulp magazine, something like an old edition of Weird Tales.
The challenge for the art director was to get as close as possible to the look and feel of an old pulp magazine within the confines of modern day POD limitations. The result was Dark World Adventures #1, the first and only edition of a fantasy, horror monthly that told within its pages the story that Thomas wanted to tell in a form as close as possible to an old pulp magazine.
Did they succeed? Well, apparently a dealer at a pulp fiction convention had a copy and attendees kept asking about it as if it actually were an old pulp magazine. Mission accomplished.
(By the way, you can purchase a copy of Dark Worlds Adventures at this link.)
But it’s not just a pulp sensibility that keeps the Rage Machine going. Old fashioned Space Opera and Military Science Fiction are also alive and well here. I’ve written a few myself. The Mask of Eternity and Debt’s Pledge are two novels with an unapologetically science fiction setting and a good deal of action.
Also, being a digital press, Rage Machine does not think that size matters. Shorter works are given as much of a play as longer works. With e-books and e-stories, Rage Machine can tell a lot of different types of stories at a lot of different lengths. There are many choices for readers. Longer pieces that readers can sink their teeth into as well as shorter pieces, appetizers, if you will – convenient snack-size stories.
In short, Rage Machine Books publishes the kind of stories that I like best, the kind of stories that you rarely see anymore from bigger publishers.
And they are not stopping. They have big plans for upcoming projects that are just as exciting, if nor more so, then what has come before. What they are, I am not allowed to say. I am writing a number of them and I would love to tell you all about them, but I have been sworn to secrecy.
They will be exciting, I can tell you that.
And, yes, a sequel to Debt’s Pledge is coming. Debt’s Honor will continue the story of Jefferson Odett that I began in the first book. As with all Rage Machine Books, this one will be exciting. It will move.
So, welcome to the brand new Rage Machine Books website. Have a look around. Let me know if you see anything you’re interested in. And come back often. There’s lots more excitement to come!
