Showing posts with label The Avenger: The Justice Inc Files. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Avenger: The Justice Inc Files. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

HUNT THE AVENGER—a "fix-up" novel!



AUTHOR’S NOTE to Hunt the Avenger (a moonstonebooks.com exclusive release—not available anywhere else!)

My first published Avenger story, “Death and the Countess,” featured what I thought at the time was a throwaway line mentioning a prior adventure with the Domino Lady. I went on to pen two more Avenger tales that actually featured team-ups with the saucy pulp heroine.

  • “Death and the Countess,” The Avenger Chronicles (2008)
  • “Happy Death Men,” The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files (2011)
  • “According to Plan of a One-Eyed Trickster,” The Avenger: Roaring Heart of the Crucible (2013)

I was very happy with how the trilogy turned out, and yet it was clear that the three tales were meant to be read together as a whole—not separated by several years as each anthology was subsequently released. A proper reading required the stories to be collected in one volume.



Too, the trilogy always felt a bit imbalanced, with socialite Ellen Patrick—the Domino Lady—only making her “on camera” debut in the second tale. With that in mind, I set out to write the prequel to “Death and Countess,” showing the actual first meeting between Richard Benson and Ellen Patrick. This took a lot of careful planning and review of the timeline (excerpted at the conclusion of Hunt the Avenger) to ensure the continuity lined up—including featuring the black-haired, normal-skinned Benson, as he appeared in the final twelve original pulp novels and Ron Goulart’s twelve Avenger novels from the 1970s (as well as an additional short story by Goulart in 2008’s The Avenger Chronicles).

Throwing caution to the wind, I also decided to remedy the dangling plotlines left by prior scribe Goulart. I penned a fifth tale to wrap it all up in a bow, with the two new stories matching the word count of the original three tales.

The resulting pentalogy should be read together as one saga…Hunt the Avenger!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the journey!

Win Scott Eckert
January 2019


Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 Review & 2012 Preview!

2011 Review of publications:

Short Fiction
  • "Zorro's Rival" in More Tales of Zorro by Richard Dean Starr (ed.) (Moonstone Books, March 2011)
  • "Happy Death Men" in The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files by Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins (eds.) (Moonstone Books, August 2011)
  • "Bad Medicine" in The Green Hornet Casefiles by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert (eds.) (with Vito Delsante) (Moonstone Books, August 2011)
  • "Marguerite's Tears" in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 8: Agents Provocateurs by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier (eds.) (Black Coat Press, December 2011)
Books Edited
  • The Green Hornet Casefiles (with Joe Gentile), Moonstone Books, August 2011.

Short Nonfiction
  • "Afterword" to The Peerless Peer by Philip José Farmer (Titan Books, June 2011) 
  • "Introduction" to Scarlet in Gaslight by Martin Powell (Pulp 2.0 Books, December 2011) 

2012 Preview:
Short Fiction (completed)
  • "The Adventure of the Fallen Stone" in Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook by Howard Hopkins (ed.) (Moonstone Books, forthcoming)
  • "Progress" in The Green Hornet: Still at Large by Joe Gentile, Win Scott Eckert, and Matthew Baugh (eds.) (Moonstone Books, forthcoming)
  • "Zombies under Broadway" (a Green Ghost tale, written with Eric Fein) (Moonstone Books, forthcoming)
Short Fiction (to be written)
  • "A Girl and Her Cat" for Moonstone's Honey West anthology
  • As-yet untitled "Wold Newton Origins" tale for Meteor House's third The Worlds of Philip Jose Farmer anthology
  • As-yet untitled story for Moonstone's third Avenger anthology, The Avenger: Tales from Bleek Street (the plan is to wrap up the storyline from my first two tales, including a return engagement for the Domino Lady)
  • Story for a Moonstone anthology crossing over a well-know pulp secret agent for which Moonstone has acquired the license, and the Green Ghost (more info when I can make it available!)
Books Edited

  • The Green Hornet: Still at Large (with Joe Gentile and Matthew Baugh), Moonstone Books, forthcoming.

 Short Nonfiction
 Other: I may still write a Sherlock Holmes novel, but Titan has more Wold Newton reissues waiting in the wings, so I'll need to see what my schedule allows. Stay tuned to this space!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, June 03, 2011

The Avenger returns to Moonstone!

From co-editor, and Avenger expert, Howard Hopkins:

"Interiors/galleys are finished and Moonstone Books' second all-original volume of Avenger short stories, The Justice, Inc. Files, is on its way to press! Besides co-editing, writing a story for the book and penning the introduction, I have also written six vignettes for the special hardcover edition, which, for this volume, will include the first three, each featuring one of The Avenger's associates. First up: Nellie Gray, Fergus MacMurdie & Cole Wilson. Writing these insights into Benson's band was a lot of fun, and tougher than I thought it would be. Exploring six individuals, all different, and getting into their heads left me a bit schizophrenic at times, but it has been a life long ambition to take a look behind what motivated these folks to join and stay with Richard Henry Benson, placing themselves in constant danger to help others.

The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files includes 14 original short stories by a line up of excellent authors and top notch stories that includes:

East Wind, Rain by Paul Kupperberg
Invisible Empire by Matthew Baugh
Vengeance, Inc. by Howard Hopkins
Whiteout by Robin Wayne Bailey
Happy Death Men by Win Scott Eckert
Vengeance is Mine by Ron Fortier
The Devil's Workman by Barry Reese
Dead Man's Vengeance by Eric Fein
The Breath of Destruction by Frank Schildiner
Devil's Dark Harvest by Christopher Paul Carey
Snow Blind by Mark Ellis
The Changeling by Will Murray
The Medicine Murders by B.C. Bell
The Blood Moon by David Michelinie

And for the first time anywhere, The Avenger, courtesy of Win Scott Eckert, will team-up with the lusty Domino Lady in one tale, and with The Master of Men, The Spider, in another--and against the Prince of the Undead, Dracula himself, from Iron Man scribe David Michelinie!

The softcover is painted by E.M. Gist, an extraordinarily talented artist (who is also doing the cover for the third Avenger volume, Tales from Bleek Street) with the hardcover special edition sporting a cover by Tom Gianni."

I'm immensely pleased to be a part of this book. What a lineup!

Thursday, April 07, 2011

For the first time ever... The Avenger and the Domino Lady!

I'm pleased to announce that two pulp greats, The Avenger and the Domino Lady, will meet for the first time in my tale "Happy Death Men!"

The story was originally scheduled for Moonstone Books' third volume of Avenger stories, but now will appear in the forthcoming second volume, edited by Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files!

Check out these beautiful covers by E.M. Gist (trade edition) and Tom Gianni (limited edition):








Trade edition pre-order: Amazon

Limited edition pre-order: Moonstone Books direct