Ok, this depends wildly on your definition of classic. I accept that. That said, my first novel, Cobalt City Blues, is back in print. This is a newly revised (not greatly re-written, but cleaned up) edition from Timid Pirate Publishing. It includes a new intro, and looks sharper than the book has ever looked before. I’ve been really happy with the quality of the printing from Timid Pirate, and can hardly wait until the next few books come out in the next several months.
For those of you unfamiliar with Cobalt City Blues, it was the foundation novel for the entire shared universe I’ve been working in for over 5 years now. Though it is the middle novel in a trilogy, it stands alone quite well — comforting as the third novel hasn’t been written yet.
Blues is more than a super-hero novel in the “good people in spandex beat on bad people in spandex” vein. It’s a tale of alternate realities, loss, redemption, jazz, super-heroes, and what it means to be human. The central character is Simon Floyd, a jazz musician who is murdered in 1931, cremated and put in an urn by the mob thugs who killed him, and then re-animated by Voodoo magic by his girlfriend. The problem is, he’s still stuck in the urn, so that when he’s finally released seven decades later, the world has passed him by. In an attempt to find purpose and some sense of relevance, he bonds with the woman who found him, the heroic Wild Kat, and turns his energies towards becoming a super-hero. But when a chance at recapturing a bit of his old life is presented to him, it sends Simon and his teammates down a dangerous path for which there may be no return.
Check out a sample chapter (Chapter Eight, to be specific), where his friend and teammate Edirin “Knockabout” Okoloko encounters some unwelcome house guests. And maybe give Cobalt City a visit, either in the novels as they return to print, or the anthologies which fully embrace the shared-universe magic of Cobalt City.
For me, it’s back to writing. I have a novel to finish. And then I have to coordinate some new Cobalt City short fiction which will help show the character of the city’s various neighborhoods. Look for that as a monthly free download on the Timid Pirate site starting in January. In the meantime, check out free download, “Tomorrow’s Harvest” by Nikki Burns which is there now. Featuring Cobalt favorites Stardust, Huntsman, and Wild Kat, it is a fascinating tale of good intentions and biology run amok.
Tales from the Ragged Edge 