Bøger af E W Farnsworth

E. W. Farnsworth's HRETHELSAGA VOLUME I* is a collection of fragmentary tales about the daring Viking monster slayer Hrethel and his men and women. As in other sagas of Norse heroes, these tales often border on the fabulous, but their substance and tone ring true. Never before have the Viking deities been presented with such verisimilitude and conviction. Here you will read about Hrethel the dragon slayer and Hrethel fighting cruel hordes of enemies on all sides. In these stories, shedding blood is the essence of combat. They are not for the timid or faint of heart. *Note: This book is the SECOND EDITION of HRETHELSAGA VOLUME I with an additional four stories included with the original twelve stories. E. W. Farnsworth, a writer living in Ohio, USA, is widely published online and in print. While he is a constant student of the original Old English poetry, including the masterwork Beowulf, Farnsworth imitates the language, tropes, customs and forms of the entire Norse and Icelandic saga tradition in his collection Hrethelsaga. His growing cast of heroes and heroines of the nordic regions includes Hrethel the Viking, Reanna the Red and Wiglaff the Shaman.

E. W. Farnsworth's last published collection of horror tales was 'The Black Marble Griffon' and Other Disturbing Tales (2016), which is still available from Amazon. He continued to publish horror since then in individual stories and poems in a wide variety of congenial vehicles. Farnsworth's repertoire expanded to include cosmic horror, chiefly known through the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his friends. In this line came four years of serialized cosmic horror for Schlock! Webzine in The Picklock Lane Stories, a popular, continuing series being published by AudioArcadia.com. Farnsworth's 'exoteric' cosmic horror tales are appearing sporadically in Gavin Chappell's inspired monthly journal Lovecraftiana. The narration and setting for these tales is based roughly on the author's personal experiences in Allentown, Pennsylvania, during the late Nineteen Seventies and early Eighties. Meanwhile the author's poems come of their own accord. He writes, "My sincere wish is that my readers enjoy the games I play as much as I do writing them." E. W. Farnsworth's new collection of horror stories and poems will delight discerning readers who want to explore dimensions of the horror genre not available through normal channels. The keystone story for this volume, 'Firstborn, ' tells the story of Jure Grando Alilovic, the original vampire, who is still able to conquer his enemies, including a female vampire hunter, and the Viking Sigurd Nillson, who has turned into one of the creatures she is pledged to hunt. Other stories include 'Blue Steaks on St. Valentine's Day' tells of an unusual marriage proposal at a stockyard restaurant--joining a young man, Simon, and a young woman, Ruth, who share the special protection of tentacled creatures. 'The Hamadryad' figures human experimentation with nano-biotics gone wonderfully wrong as three men, janitor Myron Banks, Nano Robotics Chief Science Officer Dr. Charles Lamont and sixteen-year-old woodsman Nick Bounder, have wildly different relationships with the resultant female swamp-dwelling creature. 'The Carrier' is the story of Sherill McCabe, a young Arizona woman surviving a universal pandemic--until her time runs out on a comandeered ocean cruise ship at the northernmost reach of the Gulf of California. 'The Great Rift's Revenge' is about the results of the mission of two professors, Dr. Ophelia Hollins and Dr. Lloyd Stickler, to determine why their predecessors were killed by mysterious gases in the middle of a jungle paradise. Hansel Hedwig and Vilia Hedwig, the brother and sister who meet outside their family crypt for one last adventure, discover the joys of being trapped in a labyrinth. 'Halloween on the Escher Highway' is a puzzle from which only one of the figures will emerge and transform. 'Treasure Hunter' tells the story of the final fourth adventure of Bret Halliwell, the fabled fortune finder, who is betrayed by his lascivious girlfriend Rapunzel Smith and her other randy and unscrupulous boyfriends. Wealthy beyond imagining, the hero struggles to escape a destiny that is closing all around him. 'The ET Eel Infestation' pits ace New York police detective Val Cassidy and Mabel Deuce, his female side-kick, against the latest extra-terrestrial threat, a tangle of cooperating eels that thrive on human contact. 'The Music Master of North Eleventh Street' is an exoteric tale within the continuing cosmic horror of Farnsworth's neighborhood. Dr. Fiedler encounters his own apotheosis among his many students and admirers. The twelve included poems are eight Shakespearean sonnets, two elegies, one ballad and one ode. The elegies were first published in Eber & Wein's Best Poets of America series in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

Vigilante? Hero? Madman? Criminal? Urban Legend? When it comes to Al Katana, it all depends on who you ask... On account of their resentment and jealousy of him and his "katanas," Ritchie Walgreen has made enemies of the major intelligence agencies of the world powers. Increasingly pursued by teams of assassins, he continues to prove himself superior to the world's best counter-intelligence agents as well as evil perpetrators, whose headless bodies and severed heads form his signature configurations after they inevitably fail in their missions. Meanwhile, the man, the myth, and the legend of Al Katana grow in the popular imagination and culture in films. books and comic books while his martial arts studios draw the most promising disciples into his network. Increasingly, Walgreen assigns leading roles to his talented protégés and protégées so he can devote time to his current and former wives and families. AL KATANA IV by E. W. Farnsworth features the following stories: "Blood of the Katana," "Neena Solo Katana," "Daimiyo Katana," "Homeland Katana," "Zara Katana," "Miata Katana" and "Al Katana Adamantine." AL KATANA IV. From Pro Se Productions.

This month, a chef becomes morbidly fascinated by a repellent new employee. The army is called in on Picklock Lane after a terrifying new discovery. A new drive-in is in town, but the films it shows are out-of-this-world. The master tailor of Hedgeville has a strange new commission for the local sculptor. And Lu makes the lamentable mistake of buying a new scooter on Halloween. Kassi, alone, reaches the edge of the desert. Candace is visited by an ominous red crow. A cowardly lieutenant discovers there are worse horrors than the front line. Nadja tells Robert why her pubic hair is blue. And Art is blown into a strange new dimension.Meanwhile, the Florentine Vampire remembers the vampire who bit him. And finally, Ted gets on with the job.

Ritchie Walgreen, a former Special Forces operative turned CIA assassin and son of a former CIA assassin, inherits from his slain father a matchless Japanese katana sword. Wielding the katana as if it were a magic wand, Walgreen hews a reputation as "Al Katana," a ruthless enforcer against ISIS and other evil powers in the world, from Africa to the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Japan. Assisted by a succession of beautiful and brainy women in the intelligence business, Walgreen eludes hit teams and traps set by his nemesis, the vengeful Sheila McCaw, Deputy Director of the CIA, the Director of the Israeli Mossad, and other traditional intelligence agencies. Al Katana's unmistakable "signature" is that of decapitated victims, with their severed heads tucked between their legs. As the carnage of his blade grows and heads fall, the international press and entertainment industries make the insuperable, almost god-like Al Katana a global superhero through articles, books, films and even action figures. His imitators help spread the legend while Walgreen trains his own army of katana-brandishing clones. The World Has a New Hero to Fear. AL KATANA: VOLUME ONE by E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions.

E. W. Farnsworth's HRETHELSAGA VOLUME II is a collection of fragmentary tales about the daring Viking monster slayer Hrethel and his men and women. As in other sagas of Norse heroes, these tales often border on the fabulous, but their substance and tone ring true. Never before have the Viking deities been presented with such verisimilitude and conviction. Likewise, never before have the events surrounding the discovery of America as Vineland been sorted out along practicable, credible lines. Here you will read about Hrethel the dragon slayer and Hrethel fighting cruel hordes of enemies on all sides. The hero knows the family of Eric the Red and his son Leif. The commerce between the north countries of Europe and the distant lands of the New World is brisk by the time Leif made his voyage. Sorcery and witchcraft helped the heroes blaze their trail to glory. In these stories, shedding blood is the essence of combat. They are not for the timid or faint of heart.

Al Katana is an international pariah with disciples and imitators throughout the world. Using martial arts studios as his cover to develop assassins, he must maintain legitimacy for his studios while continuing to perform illegal enforcement against malefactors. Ritchie Walgreen, believing in absolute equality of the sexes in the martial arts, has planted martial arts studios in Africa which purport to foster the best martial arts training in the world. Al Katana's brilliant plan to challenge all martial artists to games that will prove (or disprove) his assertion pit the vigilante's studios against primarily the Japanese, who presume they are the world's finest fighters. Al Katana racks up new and old enemies, including his nemesis, the Deputy Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency. He also reinforces his alliance with his sometime patrons, the Emperor and Empress of Japan. His contacts often help him, but in the end, he will stand alone against all opposition, forced to prove once and for all he is the invincible protagonist the world has been looking for or die trying.AL KATANA III by E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions

Ben Dauber had much to learn about the newspaper business. And about being a man. He found himself in a place and time some would call Heaven, others Hell to learn both. Desert Sun, Red Blood by E. W. Farnsworth is a collection of tales during the time of the Indian wars in the lawless Arizona Territory. Ben Dauber found himself among a rough-and-tumble group of renegade Apaches, range settlers, saloon girls, professional gamblers, seedy lawmen, a hanging judge, gunslingers, desperate thieves and murders, con men, land-grabbing ranchers, ruthless claim jumpers, steely-eyed railroad operatives, dashing cavalry officers and spirited frontier women who knew how to ride, track, and use weapons as well as men. While Dauber gradually traces the secret activities of moneyed railroad interests in the Territory, he learns what it takes to live...and die like a man in the Territory from all around him, including his mentor Judge Richard Hastings, the renegade Apache Durang, and a young frontier girl in buckskin and lace known as Nance, the Bottle Blonde of Albuquerque, the only love of Kit Carson, a dandy and gambler. Desert Sun, Red Blood by E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions.

E. W. Farnsworth's Al Katana, Volume I, appeared from Pro Se Productions in 2017 debuting a new kind of superhero, one striking fear into the hearts of the most hardened terrorists and miscreants.The second volume continues Ritchie Walgreen's saga as he forges relationships and builds martial arts studios on four continents as fronts for the work he does, along with his various proteges.Relentlessly pursued by numerous, jealous national intelligence agencies-most notably the American CIA and Israeli Mossad, the man known in urban legend as Al Katana keeps one step ahead of his adversaries while performing his self-given mission to rid the world of heinous crime and corruption.In a bloody wake of decapitations, Al Katana expands his cadre of admiring ace investigative reporters as well as capitalists looking to make big bucks through selling Al Katana action figures, complete with their Japanese katana swords.In the press and online the hero's message grows, the facts and disinformation blending to make Al Katana seem superhuman. Whether legend or psychotic avenger, Al Katana believes his methods are genuinely effective in a world that has lost its soul. Yet, even though he gathers followers daily, others believe he is a monster and intend to end his reign of justified terror. Al Katana Volume II by E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions.

Among brilliant agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency, Kenneth Mander (aka Salamander) and Sheila McCaw (aka Crow) stand out for their daring and ingenuity successfully fighting the most difficult and dangerous enemies of America. Even if that does mean going rogue more than not. Having come up through the Agency "Farm" in the same year group, Salamander's and Crow's talents and training make them ideal clandestine warriors against "untouchable" targets, like Islamist extremists, clandestine assassins and dangerous sleeper agents of enemy nation states. THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF AGENTS SALAMANDER AND CROW documents the two agents' exploits as Crow ascends the ranks from legendary field agent to CIA Deputy Director for Operations while her sometimes lover and partner Salamander remains in the field as Crow's 'go-to' agent for dangerous black operations. THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF AGENTS SALAMANDER AND CROW by E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions.

The nineteen satirical stories in this volume first appeared in Gavin Chappell's monthly Schlock! Webzine, a product of Rogue Planet Press in the UK. These tales document the challenges, horrors, vexation and hilarity of managing the integration of extra-terrestrial aliens into daily human life on earth. The focus for this comic exploration is the character Fatty Millstone, the moon-faced, single-tentacle sheriff who holds forth from his table towards the rear of the Cracked Bell pub on Picklock Lane. The sheriff, a card-carrying member of the new Transparency political party, cloaks the fact that he is an alien though he must use his tentacle to perform his enforcement duties and signs of his reproduction by fission are also sometimes difficult to hide. The tenement where Sheriff Fatty Millstone lodges on Picklock Lane is full of his clones conducting larceny as well as voluminous record keeping about crime in the city. As Millstone is constantly exercising his curiosity and intelligence and requires little sleep, he often spends his nights wandering foggy Picklock Lane and its adjacent city park with its octopus-filled river and Butterfly Paradise. Millstone's friends are a mix of aliens and humans, including MP Sir Douglas and Lady Lucille Hudibras, who sponsor pro-alien attitudes in Parliament and at the Hudibras estate, just off Picklock Lane. Naturally, the host, tapsters and numerous waitresses at the Cracked Bell pub play continual roles, as do rabidly intrusive tabloid reporters like Straight and Crenshaw, who alternately stoke fear of aliens and support the heroism of rogue tentacles through the yellow press. The tabloid press with its faux news and sensationalism is a major butt of satire, but the people's credulity is an inseparable part of its success and therefore a target for satire as well. Medicine for the alien population is administered quietly by Dr. Erblik, an alien who must keep her patients' conditions strictly private. More than one romance buds and flourishes though one or both partners know nothing of the alien background of the other. These tales have a rich literary heritage, and they are allusive. Politics and the political process are also prime subjects for ridicule in the vein of Clive James' Britannia Bright's Bewilderment in the Wilderness of Westminster (1976), only without the rhyming couplets. Some readers may savour the literary heritage, for example, behind the name 'Hudibras, ' which is taken from Samuel Butler's long octosyllabic rhyming couplet poem Hudibras (1663-80) satirizing religion (Puritans), inter alia. The timeless themes of intolerance and xenophobia are justly held up to ridicule. While in traditional science fiction, aliens are characterized as hostile, selfish, and with complete disregard for humanity, in The Picklock Lane Stories no such prejudice is countenanced. In fact, the tales subscribe to beneficent alien populations which have the periodic option to be reclaimed by space vehicles to be redistributed elsewhere in the universe. Author E. W. Farnsworth writes in many genres and mixed genres. In these short stories, he uses science fiction tropes to make his satires intelligible. The stories may be read individually or in binge fashion as a series. The Picklock Lane stories continue to appear in Schlock! Webzine. Further collections like this one can be anticipated in due course.

Some of E W Farnsworth's cross-genre short stories have confused readers with expectations narrowly confined to traditional genres. The selections in this volume are meant to exemplify how such stories can legitimately entertain without becoming subject to the rules of tiresome new categories of writings that are merely the products of the author's imagination. The first four stories take their origins in science fiction, but each departs from such a model in a different way. 'The Tholochs Come' stems from the idea that extra-terrestrial aliens are well established on Earth and communicating with sympathetic humans who have been institutionalized. 'Not Another Shade of Green' posits a testing relationship between an alien with a tentacle and his artistic, human girlfriend. 'The Guest Lecturer' explores the notion of regular communication across borderless outer space. 'Hieroglyph' is based on recent findings in forensic anthropology as under-ice artifacts in Antarctica come to life in order to summon an alien culture to destroy its creations before their effects can be fully understood on host planet Earth. The other included works are predicated on the relatively new concept of "cosmic horror" along the lines of H P Lovecraft and his friends. These, set in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, portray a menacing environment alive with immanent creatures and affects. The factual bases of these fabrications were experienced by the author personally and transformed fictionally during the interval since he lived in Allentown. 'Rose-Cross Knight on Eleventh Street, ' 'Liar, Liar, Hair on Fire, ' 'The Dirty Dutchwoman, ' 'Gray Day in the Valley, ' 'Hydriotaphia, ' 'Egregiously Fat Women' and 'Stop the Presses!' were inspired by an enlightened editor of the magazine Lovecraftiana. He asked whether E W Farnsworth had ideas like those expressed in his story, 'Exoterics, ' the first of many answering the editor's informal call for more in the same vein. Other such stories are scheduled for publication in Lovecraftiana, and those not accepted there form a distinctive group of outliers such as the seven included here.As some readers are aware, the author wrote five volumes of stories about the action-adventure hero, Ritchie Walgreen, aka Al Katana, a vigilante wielding two Japanese swords. He planted martial arts studios worldwide to nurture like-minded agents. Abira Katana is one of the master's most adept protégées. The included story about her exploits in Africa, Mexico and France is only one example of the heroics that can be expected from others in Al Katana's global stable of vigilantes.'The Two Tulips Affair' is a tribute to the noir radio mystery writer Richard Breen and his penchant for wise-cracking black humor. Those who have experienced the audio versions of the 'Pat Novak for Hire Mysteries, ' recorded in 1946-49, will recognize how far short Farnsworth has fallen from his model. 'Curing Claudia's Samhainophobia' began as a plain-vanilla Halloween horror story, but its graphic truth-a mother's inability to listen when her child needed her most-easily broke out of the trivial holiday form and begged for broader appreciation as a psychological exposé. This collection is not the first miscellany the author has presented to a wider readership than the anthologies to which he is accustomed to use as his publishing platforms, and it will not be the last.

Fairy tales and myths are quintessential literary creations evoking the deepest human emotions. They require only a few essential details to flesh out their spare but irresistible storylines, and they beg to be repeated like a child's favorite bedtime readings, bearing endless nightly repetitions ahead of the vast all-enveloping void of slumber. In every case the author knows of, publishing fairy tales is a labor of love. Sabrina Bingham, editor of Curating Alexandria, has struggled successfully to publish while battling personal health problems. Clara O'Leary, curator of Fantasia Fairy Tales, puts it well about fairy tales: "They're often the first stories we hear and the ones that remain with us, deep in our subconscious. Princesses and princes, evil villains, dragons, hidden realms, mystical beings, battles between good and evil...these are the classic elements of fairy tales that are meant to suspend our imaginations in a world of fantasy and teach listeners to beware of the evils that lurk in the dark corners of our world." The tales in this collection by E. W. Farnsworth include three about dragons, two about unicorns, two about elves, five Chandra stories, and two singleton classics: the title story, 'The Gold Worker, ' and the final story about Ronaami and the winter lights. Some of the stories in this collection were written to answer calls for anthologies which were never published. For example, 'Elfin Forest, Sacred Grove' and 'The Other Elven War' were accepted for publication in Zimbell House's The Elven Wars anthology while 'Hunting the Unicorn' and 'Prince Valiant and the Unicorn' were slated for Chipper Press's The Unicorn anthology, which never appeared. Others like the Chandra stories, 'Icarus, ' 'Chandra's Initiation' and 'Winding Stair, ' were not included in the anthology in which their two companion tales, 'Name of the TOR' and 'Owls' Tower' were published. All these stories are original and mostly stem from Northern European or Nordic fairy tale traditions. Written for both adults and children, they are meant to be enjoyed before bedtime so their power can infuse the reader's dreams.

A Consulting Detective with the Brilliance of Holmes...and An Insanity All His Own!D. L. Champion's twisted, yet genius investigator, Inspector Allhoff makes a dark, exciting return in DEAD CAT BOUNCE, an all new novel by E. W. Farnsworth. Originally appearing in Dime Detective Magazine in the 1930s and 40s, Allhoff was a detective like no other. Mangled and left without legs after leading a failed police raid, Allhoff found himself an unofficial consultant to the New York Police Department. Kept in a rundown tenement across from headquarters, Allhoff is assisted by two men, both of which he tortures with his aggressive nature and abrasive words. One, the rookie responsible for bungling the raid which left the great detective an invalid and the other, a career cop going through hell just to get to his retirement. Three men who stew in a cesspool of hate, self doubt, and anger, and yet, led by Allhoff, they solve the strangest cases the NYPD has ever faced!In DEAD CAT BOUNCE, wealthy collectors of weapons are dying in locked rooms and the NYPD cannot stop the rash of murders. That means that Inspector Allhoff and his assistants are on the case. But can they stop the phantomlike killer before more noted citizens die or is this the case that will put an end to their careers? And will Allhoff's men rise to meet the challenge of the mystery while being beaten by his acerbic attitude and caustic attacks or will they simply leave the broken man to twist in the proverbial wind?DEAD CAT BOUNCE. From Pro Se Productions. Licensed from Steeger Properties, LLC.

In this tenth volume of John Fulghum, PI, Mysteries, E. W. Farnsworth's Greater-Boston-area detective, John Fulghum, solves unusually challenging crimes with the help of brilliant and beautiful girlfriend Sylvia Blackwood, archivist of the Boston Globe, Nigel Pounce of Boston Police homicide, Ken Mander and Sheila McCaw of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Dr. Sundt and Dr. Asplundh of an unnamed, highly classified US government agency, and continues his unparalleled record of solutions. Farnsworth's taut, savvy, action-packed mysteries also push out the limits of technology in crime fighting. Arizona author E. W. Farnsworth is widely published online and in print. A prize-winning short story writer in many genres and mixed genres, his detectives all break the mold for sleuth stereotypes, for example, John Fulghum of Greater Boston, Val Cassidy of the New York Police Department, 'Wild Eagle' of Arizona, Manny Farstar, the Galactic Edgemaster, Samantha 'Sam' Singleton and CIA agents code-named Anderson and Rachel. Farnsworth's ten published John Fulghum, PI, Mysteries volumes include three noir novels, several novellas and Farnsworth's inimitable short stories. The first seven volumes were published by Zimbell House Publishing, LLC, while Volume VIII, Volume IX and Volume X were published by AudioArcadia in the UK. The author is now working on a new John Fulghum, PI, novel, which will be Volume XI in the John Fulghum, PI, Mysteries series.

This follow-on to E. W. Farnsworth's action-filled spy novel, Engaging Rachel, brings super spy Rachel into an action of her own though, to be sure, her husband and "partner-in-crime" Anderson and his team are in the wings to support her. Rachel has discovered a new wrinkle in THREAT cryptography, so her access must derive from a special source at the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. Once she has enough on the man to blackmail him, her real mission begins, taking her around the world to exotic places where espionage has always thrived. As she goes from America to Austria and Turkey, the plot thickens and the dangers multiply. The denouement is a race against time with Anderson and the Deputy Director of the Agency frantic to assure this is not Rachel's last mission. If they cannot extract her, they must kill her for what she knows before the Russians use implemented interrogation to empty her mind and make her a useless vegetable.

Words mean nothing in a land where bullets fly and red blood flows. And even bullets don't kill like the red sun does.Ben Dauber continues to fight his way through the west as a reporter, taking on injustice and evil from all sides. The sinister machinations of the railroad combine, Dauber finds, extend to the highest levels of American government. Fortunately, Naud Dauber, Ben's wealthy mother, can help when powerful figures try to silence the young reporter on the fast track to modernize the frontier press. Gunfights, fisticuffs, ambushes, bushwhacks, skirmishes and intrigue erupt on both sides of the Indian Wars. Action rides hard from Mexico to the Rocky Mountains across the west in Desert Sun, Red Blood Volume Two by author E. W. Farnsworth. From Pro Se Productions.

E. W. Farnsworth's DarkFire Warrior follows the pattern of the visionary science fiction tales and poems he established in DarkFire and DarkFire Continuum. Humans and intelligent machines cannot coexist peacefully on Earth, so a brave few of each kind escape. The epic Voyage of the Spaceship Arcturus is the enfolding structure for Farnsworth's creations. As Earth is destroyed by inevitable nuclear war, Arcturus slips through the evil space empire to discover that the edge of the universe is the gateway to a new, pristine realm. Meanwhile, the voyagers evolve into symbiotic organisms worthy of inhabiting the New Eden waiting for them at the end of their trek. A surprise reunion of The Avatar and The Dweeb rounds out the spaceship's journey, which starts where it began, but with everything changed. In this third volume, Farnsworth explores the logical backgrounds of the major characters and the execution of their plan for escaping Earth.