Now Available from Five Star:
"Medicine Bundle" by Alan M. Clark
Pax Dakota
Ken Rand's long-awaited western-dark fantasy is now available from Five Star. Order from the publisher or from your favorite internet book dealer. Read the first chapter.
More information about Pax Dakota
Five Star
May 2008
Now available for pre-order from Fairwood Press:
Where Angels Fear
Dark Stories by Ken Rand
Fairwood Press
ISBN 0-9789078-4-1
2/1/2008
To pre-order, click "Catalog" link in upper left-hand corner of Fairwood Press home page, then "Fiction Collections"
Now available:
Cover by Brad Foster
Fairy BrewHaHa at the Lucky Nickel Saloon
More information about Fairy BrewHaHa
Yard Dog Press
$12.00 + S&H
March 2008
How to Order (S&H is on that page.)
Coming Soon:
Rock 'n' Roll Universe
The Summer of Love — and the end of the world....
Haight-Asbury, San Francisco, August 5, 1967. Five hippies form a band they call Rock 'n' Roll Universe. All they want to do is get high, make love, make music — and get on the cover of the Rolling Stone. But when they encounter a Very Strange Fellow in the Golden Gate Park, very strange things happen, and mind-boggling forces propel the group into a cosmic battle for the very fate of the universe.
Rock 'n' roll made them. And only rock 'n' roll can save them.
[more information]
The Port Chicago Books
I Am A Writer library label
Here
is the label for the I Am A Writer library. Read the label and you'll
understand the concept. If you want to help, print this label and paste it to the
inside cover of your dusty old how-to-write books that you want to give to the
library — and Pass It On.
|
Dan Colchico: In Defense of Port Chicago
Ken Rand
This is one man's recollection of a troubled time for his family and home, and a brief history of a small town that isn't there anymore.
But it's more.
It's a warning.
A few innocent Americans lost their homes — their entire hometown — to a brutal government juggernaut (prominent weapons included eminent domain, an appeal to blind patriotism, and fear, all still readily available to the government) that swept aside all pleas for logic, prudence, fair play, honesty, decency, and compassion.
It happened to Port Chicago in 1968. It can happen again, today, anywhere. That's the warning.
Media Man! Productions
1-933846-08-9
$6.95
Now Available
More about Port Chicago
|
Human Visions:
The Talebones Interviews
Ken Rand
"...Rand has generated a stream of finely crafted stories and inventive novels, such as Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon! (2006). Among his best pieces have been his interviews with some of fantasy and sf's leading lights. Originally published in Talebones magazine and collected here for the first time...this collection is one both fans and aspiring authors will savor."— Booklist
Fairwood Press
November 2006
Now Available
|
Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon!
Ken Rand
Dadgum Martians Invade The Lucky Nickel Saloon! is about these dadgum Martians that invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon, Second Ave, Laramie, Wyoming Territory, U S of A. Only these dadgum Martians don't look like your regular Martians. No sir; they look like Earth chickens. Only these chickens have lips.
And as everybody knows, chickens with lips lisp.
Or is it Sheriff Benjamin Dover I'm thinking of? Never mind.
Unlessen we want to be Tooken Over, we got ourselves a saloon to save!
Excerpt: Chapter One
Yard Dog Press
$13.95 cover price
ISBN: 978-1-893687-81-3
Fictionwise ebook
|
In Their Own Words: The Port Chicago Letters
Ken Rand
Soon after the Budget Bureau approved the $19.8 million Navy buyout of Port Chicago in early 1967 and until late 1969 when the last residents were gone, many reader letters appeared on editorial pages of Bay Area newspapers remarking on the issue. Most letters came from town supporters; many were boldly engaging in public and political discourse for the first times in their lives. The letters present, in the words of those most affected, the emotional trauma of losing their community, their home. The letters are reprinted here unedited.
"...gut-wrenching...This small booklet is a firsthand account of the emotional, physical and financial loss suffered by the people of Port Chicago."— Marti Aiello
Historian, Pittsburg Historical Society Museum.
Available at Ken Rand's Bookstore
Now Available at fictionwise.com
Media Man! Productions
ISBN: 1-933846-07-0
July 2006
More about Port Chicago
|
Soul Taster
Ken Rand
Meet:
- a man who hunts evil with his bare tongue...
- three old people slowly dying at the end of the world...
- an alien hunter of treacherous primitive humans...
- and a little girl whose talent for weaving transcends time itself...
Ken Rand is well-known for his humorous stories; his Lucky Nickel Saloon is host to some of the most imaginative humor in print today, told in an unadulterated voice, authentic and rich. His humor is often twisted and black. But not here. Here, in these four tales, Ken Rand's mask is turned upside down and his voice is grim, somber. Here, he weaves a tapestry that entwines brutal deceit, naked lust, selfless sacrifice, bittersweet love, and mankind's constant struggle against ageless, relentless evil — but you'll find not the faintest whisper of laughter. If there is humor here, it is buried deep in the dark heart of the reader.
"Ken Rand's characters are real and disturbing, and his fiction will stay with you and haunt you long after you've set down the pages. You can feel the jungle in Trophy Kill, believe the old woman is real in Refuge, and smell the sweat and blood in Soul Taster. His words are that powerful and descriptive; the scenes he creates are vivid and unsettling." "Ken Rand is definitely one of the brightest new talents in fantastic fiction today. A writer to watch." "Ken Rand's got game." |
Available at Ken Rand's Bookstore
Notorious Press
May 2006
Recent Publications
Pax Dakota
Rock 'n' Roll Universe
The Port Chicago Books
Through Wyoming Eyes
The Editor is IN
The Golems of Laramie County
Fairy BrewHaHa at the Lucky Nickel Saloon
Bad News From Orbit
Tales of the Lucky Nickel Saloon, Second Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming US of A
Phoenix
Kaleidoscopes Made Semi-Easy
On-line Transcripts & Interviews
Author Stop Tour: Interview with Ken Rand, conducted by Vera Nazarian, November 2006
Interview by Adam Demey, from the Uinta County Herald, June, 2005
Interview by Holly Bell, from the West Jordan Journal
"Former Laramie resident's new book combines local flavor with fantasy," an article by Michelle Dynes at the Laramie Daily Boomerang, January 31, 2003.
Alternate Realities on-line chat, June 14th, 2001: Transcript
Interview by Joy V. Smith
Awards & Honors
Dream Realms Award nominee, 2005, science fiction novel category, for "Phoenix."
Ken Rand won second place in the 2003 Utah Arts Council Original Writing competition for his mainstream novel Dare.
Tales of the Lucky Nickel Saloon was a nominee for the Utah Center for the Book's 2003 Speculative Fiction Award.
Ken's stories "Refuge," from Weird Tales #320, and "The Find," from Extremes: Fantasy and Horror From the Edges of the Earth, received honorable mentions in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Volume 14, ed. Datlow & Windling.
Ken Rand got an honorable mention for short story "The Find" in the annual Best Soft SF contest.
Utah Arts Council
Annual Literary Arts Competition
Short story — honorable mention:
"Refuge"
West Jordan City Art Council
annual creative writing contest
First place — essay:
"Ammo for an Argument: Science Fiction as Literature"
Third place — short story:
"Spider Poor Cowboy Rapt in Wide Lemon"
Honorable mention — poem:
"The Ballad of the Riddle of the Rings"
Ken Rand: Biography
On Oct. 3, 1992, Ken Rand ended two-plus decades as a broadcast and print reporter and editor in Utah and Wyoming. That's when he accepted his ex-wife's invitation to move from Wyoming, where he was a grumpy, overworked newspaper editor, to West Jordan, Utah, to rejoin his family. Rand remarried his ex-wife, ending a 19-year divorce.
That day, he began his career as a freelance writer in earnest. He now
writes "semi-fulltime," paying for his bad habits with a part-time job
shelving books for the county library. He's written more than a hundred
short stories, two hundred humor columns, and a dozen books, including The
Ten Percent Solution: Self-editing for the Modern Writer (Fairwood Press);
The Paradox Stone; Tales of the Lucky Nickel Saloon,
Second Ave, Laramie, Wyoming, U S of A
(Yard Dog Press); and Phoenix. He's written thousands of articles and does interviews for
Talebones Magazine.
In addition to a lot of awards for his work as a reporter, Rand won 2nd place in the Writers of the Future contest, 3rd place in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, volume 2, and has received four honorable mentions in Year's Best anthologies.
Rand has worked as a freelance writer, reporter, photographer, talkshow host and producer, editor, PR flack, furniture mover, temporary secretary, teacher, print and broadcast ad peddler, and announcer for sports events, daredevil shows, air shows, mudbogs, and stock car races.
He grew up in the little town of Port Chicago, Calif., which no longer exists; the Navy bought it because it was in the way of their ammo depot.
Thirty-five years later, he's still pissed off at the Navy. (Yes, there is a book.)
Rand has family in Washington, South Dakota, Arizona, Wisconsin, California, and Oklahoma.
A hippie before he lost his hair, he lived in San Francisco in the 1960s,
where he attended the first Be-In.
For the fun of it he makes kaleidoscopes — he is the world's only humor kaleidoscopist.
His writing and living philosophy: "Lighten up."
Read Ken's Work
| On-Line Fiction |
| Humor |
| Nonfiction |
| Novels |
| Short Stories |
| Upcoming |
Books & Book Excerpts
Pax Dakota: Chapter 1
Fairy BrewHaHa at the Lucky Nickel Saloon: is now available from Yard Dog Press. Excerpt: Chapter One.
An excerpt from Port Chicago Isn't There Anymore — But We Still Call It Home: Introduction
An excerpt from Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon! — Chapter One
An excerpt from The Paradox Stone: Chapter One
An excerpt from The Golems of Laramie County: Chapter One
An excerpt from Phoenix: Lisan
Short Stories in print and on line
"Crickets, Everywhere," H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine #4.
"Here There Be Humans," Aeon Magazine #7.
"The Stranger at Gunnison's Camp," Oceans of the
Mind, 2006
"Draw the Faithful to their Knees," with David L. Felts, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, issue #23.
The Vampire who Doted on his
Chicken, Challenging Destiny #23. Also available at fictionwise.com
Hellucinations, Inc., Horizons SF, 1996.
"Phoenix," Apex digest, issue 2, volume 1, summer 2005.
"The Henry and the Martha," Aeon magazine
"Murphy's Luck," in Here & Now, #4, Autumn 2004.
"Bridge O' Doom," in Fundamentally Challenged, a CD anthology edited by Jeffrey Turner.
"Charlie's in the Bottle," from Tales of
the Lucky Nickel Saloon. Fictionwise, August 2004.
"Bad News from Orbit": seven stories. Fictionwise, August 2004.
Ken Rand: Short Stories, Volume 1, fictionwise.com, June 2003
"A Transpiration des dieux," Asphodale #3, May 2003.
"The Ear of Mt. Horiuchi," in Challenging Destiny #16, June 2003.
"Gone Fishin'
," On Spec, Spring 2003
"The Trouble with Mermaids" at Bli Panika. [Requires Hebrew character set]
"Soul Taster," in On Spec, Fall 2002, fictionwise.com Spring 2003.
Tales of the Lucky Nickel Saloon, Second Avenue, Laramie,
Wyoming US of A, Yard Dog Press, Ken Rand's short story collection.
"Tail by the Tiger, Bull by the Horn," Oceans of the Mind, Summer 2002.
"Le sherif mechanique," Science et Sortileges Anthologie.
"Refuge," in Lilith et ses Soeurs, a French language anthology.
"Le Grande Faucheuse debarque" ("The Grim Reaper Drops By"), in Faeries Toutes les Fantasy, #5, Automne 2001.
"The Problem With Mermaids," Extremes 3: Terror on the High Seas CD-ROM
anthology.
"Grains of Sand," Electric Wine.
"Good Neighbors," Electric Wine.
"Sawk
," SpecFicWorld.com, Feb. 15, 2001. (Second place, The High Fantasy Contest)
"Operation Smile," Fantasy, Folklore & Fairytales
"The Grim Reaper Drops By," Gothic.net.
"A Tree Grows Up on Mars," Neverworlds
"Duty," in Fantasque #6.
"A Spider Poor Cowboy Rapt and Wide Lemon," Faeries Magazine, #2, French translation.
"The Problem With Mermaids," Faeries Magazine, #3, French translation.
"Queen O' the Dragons," Faeries Magazine, issue #1, French translation.
"Good Dog," Aboriginal SF #64, Summer 2000; Honorable mention, Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction, 18th Annual Collection.
"Refuge," Weird Tales #320, Summer 2000
"Imagine That," Dragons, Knights and Angels Magazine
"The Find," Extremes: Fantasy &
Horror From the Ends of the Earth, CD-ROM anthology, Lonewolf Publishing, 1999
"Desperate Times," (reprint), Maelstrom Speculative Fiction #5.
"Where Angels Fear," Twilight Showcase (reprint)
"Robin's Egg," The Dream People
"The Bell of San Ysobel," Jackhammer, Dec. 20, 1999.
"Crossing," Challenging Destiny, #8, Nov. 1999.
"One Person," The Sixth Sense.
"The Waiting Game," QuantumSF.
"The Glass Army
," Eternity, the Online Journal of Speculative Imagination.
"I am Klingon," Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthology (3rd place).
"Bury the Hatchet," Blood Muse,
April '99.
"Glass Army," Through Darkling Glass, Jan. '98.
"Letting Go," Calliope, Jan/Feb '98, issue #70.
"Eye of the Assassin," Horizons SF, vol. 19, #1, Winter '98.
"The Eye," Talebones, issue #11, Spring '98.
"How I Saved Elvis' Butt, and Arlo's Too," The Fifth Dimension, June '98.
"Usurper's Nest," Eternity Online, Sept. '98.
"As We Knew It," Maelstrom Vol. 1, issue 2
"Zero Dead," Audio Versions, Audio Science Fiction Stories, Vol. 1, 1997; and in Fortress, Issue 3, 1997
"Snowflakes, One by One," Little Green Men, No. 3, Winter 1997.
"Rise Above It All," The Sixth Sense, Volume II, Issue 2, April 1997
"Song of Mother Jungle," Talebones #7, Spring 1997.
"Read Directions Carefully," The Q Review, 1997
"Through These Eyes," Mythagoras, Issue 1, Summer 1997
"The Gods Perspire," L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, vol. 13, 1997
"Where Angels Fear to Tread," Strange Wonderland, #3 1997
"The Geezers," Murderous Intent, vol. 2, no. 4, Winter 1996
"Desperate Times," Zone 9, number 4, March 1996
"Bridge Over Troubled Waters," Talebones #3, Spring 1996
"Scratch, at the Door," Horizon SF, vol. 16, no. 2, Spring 1996
"The Nine Billion Names of Arthur C. Clarke," VB Tech Journal, July 1996.
"With Forked Tongue," Talebones #4, Summer 1996
"The Bell of San Ysobel," Millennium SF, July 1996
"A Breed Apart," Fortress #2, 1996
"Brass Bottle," Zone 9, August 1996
"Doubles"
Available at Fictionwise
Humor columns
Pillow Abuse: America's Hidden Shame, Nuthouse, April Fool's
Column Title Withheld on Advice of Counsel, Nuthouse, Winter '98.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sports But Were Too Chicken to Ask, 15 minutes, No. 55. 1997
Girls Go For Guys That Know Their Bach From a Hole in the Ground, Salon, #24, 1996
Nonfiction
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Louise Marley, Talebones issue #32.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Tom Piccirilli, Talebones issue #29.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Ben Bova, Talebones issue #30.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Talebones issue #31.
"A Changing Tide: A Conversation with Louise Marley," interview, Broad Universe Broadsheet, Feb. 2005.
Elizabeth Moon interview, Broad Universe Broadsheet, May 2004
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Kay Kenyon, Talebones #28
Joe Haldeman interview, Internet Review of Science Fiction, Vol. 1, No. 6., June 2004.
Gordon Van Gelder interview, Internet Review of Science Fiction, April 2004, Vol. 1, No. 4, April 2004.
Darrell Schweitzer interview, Internet Review of Science Fiction, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2004.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Kevin J. Anderson, Talebones #27, Winter 2003.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Joe Haldeman, Talebones #26, Summer 2003
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: James P. Hogan, Talebones #25, Spring 2002.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Harry Turtledove, Talebones #24
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Charles deLint, Talebones #23, Winter 2001
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Dan Simmons, Talebones #22, Fall, 2001
You Only Do It the First Time Once," Speculations #41.
"Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Peter Straub," Talebones #21, Spring 2001.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Amy Thomson, Talebones #20, Fall 2000
Ken Rand's Talebones interview: Greg Bear," Talebones #19, Spring 2000.
The Writer's Will--How to Write It, SFWA Bulletin.
Schmoozing For Fun and Profit, Speculations.
Using a Tape Recorder to Write Fiction — An Alternative? sold to Speculations 33.
Ken Rand's Talebone's Interview: Eric Nylund, Talebones, #18, Winter 2000.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Vonda N. McIntyre, Talebones #17, Fall 1999
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Ed Bryant, Talebones #16, Summer 1999
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Jonathan Lethem, Talebones #15, Spring 1999
Meet the Editor: Steve Algieri, Speculations #25, Spring 1999.
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Connie Willis, Talebones #14, Winter 1999
On the Craft of Writing: The Ten Percent Solution," Maelstrom Speculative Fiction, Winter 1999 #3
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Spider Robinson, Talebones #10, Winter 1998
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Bill Ransom, Talebones #11, Spring 1998
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: Jack Cady, Talebones #12, Summer 1998
Ken Rand's Talebones Interview: K.W. Jeter, Talebones #13, Fall 1998
The 10% Solution, chapbook. Fairwood Press, Oct. '98; fictionwise.com, 2003.
The Talebones Interview: Lois McMaster Bujold, Talebones #6, Winter 1997
The Ten Percent Solution, Heliocentric Network, 3/97
Roger Zelazny, Present Tense, Undiscovered Country, Apr 1997 (Premier issue)
The Talebones Interview: Fred Saberhagen, Talebones #7, Spring 1997
Ken Rand's Talebones' Interview: Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Talebones #8, Summer 1997
Ken Rand's Talebones' Interview: Tim Powers, Talebones #9, Fall 1997
Take This Job..., Speculations, issue #7, 1996
Roger Zelazny: Present Tense, Talebones #3, Spring
Simply Fred Saberhagen, E-Scape, Vol. 1, No. 5, July 1996
The Talebones Interview: Michael & Kathleen Gear, Talebones #4, Summer 1996
Invasion of the Utah SF Writers, Fantastic Worlds #1, 1996
Waking Up a Sleepy Bunch of Writers, Speculations, issue #11, 1996
C.J. Cherryh: World Building Made Easy, Talebones #5, Fall 1996
Upcoming
May 2008: Pax Dakota (dark fantasy novel) from Five Star.
July 2008: Port Chicago Isn't There Anymore — But We Still Call It Home (nonfiction) from Media Man! Productions.
Fall 2008: The Gods Perspire (light short story collection) from Fairwood Press.
New on the Web Page
E-mail Ken Rand at KRand27577@aol.com
This Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America Net Ring site
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