Showing results by author "Wesley Smith" in All Categories

Retired Detective Bayard Lott hosts the weekly poker games at his home. The group calls themselves the Cold Poker Gang. And they succeed at closing old cases. Lott's very first homicide case as a brand-new detective had gone cold more than 20 years earlier. But retired Reno detective Julia Rogers, new to the Cold Poker Gang, suggests they look at that case again for personal reasons.

The publishing world continues to evolve, but myths about who can make a living as a fiction writer maintain a life of their own. Whether you pursue traditional or indie publishing success, you need to know the pitfalls and traps that undermine many writers' careers. In this WMG Writer's Guide, USA Today best-selling author and former publisher Dean Wesley Smith addresses the ten most damaging myths that writers believe in modern publishing.

Former PGA Golf Professional and USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith walks you step-by-step, club-by-club from your car to the first tee and beyond in a laugh-out-loud style that not only teaches, but entertains. Any golfer recognizes the fears, the patterns, the downright horrors of the first shot of a round. Ever topped that first shot just off the front edge of the tee box? Or worse yet, whiffed it completely? Come on, admit it. It happened.

Bonnie and Duster Kendal, two of the world's great mathematicians, hire historical interior designer April Buckley and architect Ryan Knott to design and furnish a huge lodge to the year 1900 standards. Only problem: The lodge can't be built. It can't exist. Yet, somehow it does because they've built it before. And fell in love in the process.

Gambling universe superhero Poker Boys loves saving dogs, even though that's not part of his duty in the gambling universe. He sometimes thinks he saves more dogs than he does people. Now he and his team must use every skill they have to save not just one dog, but all dogs from a force that can't be stopped. Or can it? Dean Wesley Smith is the international bestselling writer of over ninety novels and hundreds of short stories.

When men start getting run over by slow-moving train cars in a gold rush town in the mountains of Idaho, Marshal Duster Kendal must solve the murders. But there might not be a motive besides the fact that Duster Kendal lives. Duster knows exactly what to do about that. And he needs to do it fast before things get much, much worse.

Paleontologist Callie Sheridan spent a few days deep in the Oregon Caves on a dig with three students from the University of Oregon. When they emerged, they found almost everyone in the world dead. Survival became her only thought. Mathematician and galactic explorer Vardis Fisher dropped into orbit over a planet where almost all of the human life had been recently killed for no obvious reason. Suddenly, hundreds of other ships, all human, appear in orbit and start working to save the planet's remaining population.

We all look up at the moon and wonder. And maybe dream. For centuries, the moon filled our imaginations. Eleven professional writers took those dreams and set original stories on moons scattered all over the galaxy. Yet, as the dreams of centuries, every story holds a human touch. From a mythical man fulfilling a childhood wish to a fantastic addition to Kristine Kathryn Rusch's best-selling Retrieval Artist series, this volume of Fiction River allows you to travel to 11 different moons without leaving the comfort of home.

Fiction River is an original fiction anthology series. Modeled on successful anthology series of the past, from Orbit to Universe to Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, the goal of Fiction River is to provide a forum for "original ground-breaking fiction of all genres". Each Fiction River volume will have electronic and trade paperback issues published by WMG Publishing, and will feature some of the best new and established fiction writers in publishing.

Urban fantasy offers a diverse playground for some extremely powerful stories. Professional writer and editor Kerrie L. Hughes pulled some fantastic tales out of 14 top writers for this fifth installment of Fiction River. Set in urban lands from modern Portland, to a future Detroit, to a wild Washington, D.C., and ending the tour in London, these top writers take the idea of "Hex" and stretch and twist it into stories with a magickal grip on the imagination.

USA Today best-selling writer Dean Wesley Smith weaves a tale of love and survival in a devastated future world. When Carey Noack returns to the ruined Portland, Oregon, hoping to meet other survivors after three years of living alone, she doesn't expect the man of her dreams. At first, Matt Ladel, the only person living in the old city, thinks he imagined the beautiful woman weaving through dead cars. Then he finds the reality behind the fantasy.

Sometimes a lost gold mine offers up more than just gold. And sometimes a secret should remain a secret. A generational science fiction story from USA Today best-selling writer Dean Wesley Smith. A version of this story by Dean Wesley Smith first appeared in The Secret Prophecies of Nostradamus edited by Cynthia Sternau and Martin H. Greenberg.

How to Save the World brings together 11 of today's brightest authors, presenting their answers to solve a pressing problem facing the human race. From the growing energy crisis to women's rights to overpopulation to the survival of humanity in the future, the stories in this anthology examine the issues facing our planet today - and offer hope for our survival tomorrow.

When Stout watches himself appear and dissappear a bunch of times right in front of his own jukebox, he knows his time machine needs some repairs. And in doing so, he finally gets to meet the inventors of the jukebox. But first he must deal with himself, in more ways than one.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had made a different decision? A bar napkin with a strange saying and a dragon gives Richard Cone just that: a second chance. Bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith returns to his popular Jukebox series with the origin story of the new owner of the Garden Lounge.

Stout, the owner of the Garden Lounge always thought he could control the time machine disguised as a jukebox by keeping it unplugged. Then one day the jukebox started up without power and a visitor from the future asked a very important favor. A favor that would not only save lives, but maybe everyone.

Sometimes very special friends, even friends you can't remember, give you a chance to change your past by following the memory of a special song. Should you take the special Christmas gift, take the trip, and change your own history? Or maybe take a look at tomorrow and change that instead.

Shoeless Joe Jackson made a mistake and was banned from baseball for life. Sometimes, in the Garden Lounge, the special jukebox lets a customer go back in time to a mistake and fix it. Shoeless Joe never had a chance to let the jukebox help him fix his mistake, but instead it allowed Shoeless Joe to do something even more important: Help a child become a better adult. Black Betsy first appeared in the anthology Alternate Outlaws from TOR Books edited by Mike Resnick.

Sometimes the special jukebox in the Garden Lounge does more than take a person back to a memory. Sometimes it brings a memory to the bar. And when that memory is of a murder, Stout and the rest have to risk their lives to do the right thing. A special jukebox story from best-selling writer Dean Wesley Smith.

Sometimes the elderly can make a real difference when given a chance. Captain Brian Saber must recruit a 91-year old discredited scientist to help save all of humanity from a deadly attack by aliens deep in space. Science fiction with a human touch.