The Smoking Gun Sisterhood by Thad Brown > Likes and Comments

Hello to everybody! I'm a fairly new member, checking in to plug my short story collection, The Smoking Gun Sisterhood. If you like stories of pistol-blazing action, where the villains are dastardly and where, for once, the ladies get to be the tough, straight-shooting defenders of justice (whichever side of the law they're on) then these ten tales are for you!

Most of us are skeptical of authors rating or reviewing their own books, and I didn't rate mine. Since the Goodreads description of it is pretty short, though, I thought that in this case a descriptive review by the author actually might be of some use. If you want to give the review a once-over, the link is:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... .

I ordered my copy which has shipped, so I expect to see it soon. Hopefully I'll be able to give it a good review shortly.

Your book sounds good. I'll definitely add it to my list, Thad.

Thanks, Jim and Danielle. Hope you like it!

I should have posted that I got the book & was reading it, but goofed that, as usual. Well, I did. 4 stars!

The Smoking Gun Sisterhood should show my review.

I liked it, although I noted a couple of reservations. First, I'm not a Christian & second, I smoke. I found both the Christian theme & the anti-smoking themes got a bit old after 10 stories. For any single story, they were fine though. Personal peeve, I guess.

Some of the stories were quite good. There's a new take on the Maltese Falcon that's a lot of fun. The last story is about a tear jerker. Another story, "The Capta & the Cop" had a counterpoint story to it that was excellent. The first one was, too. Tough people in tough situations.

One hit woman, the Lynx, had a perfectly timed Xmas story. It was excellent. Merry Xmas, Mr. FBI man! LOL. Loved it.

Anyway, it was a fun read. Thanks, Thad.

Jim, thanks for your feedback. (I liked your review, too!) I'm glad to know that you enjoyed the book.

I've edited my review to include the story titles. (Thanks for sending them to me, Thad!) I think they should be posted here too.

"Biker Angel"
"Cops and Robbers"
"The Falcon of Bitmesh"
"The Capta and the Cop"
"The Capta and the Cop, Part II"
"Lights Out"
"Sisters, Dark and Light"
"An Afternoon at the Beach"
"'Tis the Season"
"New Day at the Office"

A (respectable) website that reviews portrayals of kick-butt females in all media recently posted a very positive review of The Smoking Gun Sisterhood. (They gave it a Seal of Approval, which they don't give out very often!) For anyone interested, that review, which links to a story opening that serves as a trailer for the book, is at: http://girlswithguns.org/smoking-gun-... .

Congrats, Thad! Excellent review & right on the money, although I disagree with him about lengthening the stories. I did want more in some cases, but I thought that was a great way to leave them. I like Zelazny, though. Maybe it's just me.

Thanks, Jim. I wasn't too worried about that comment; I'd rather have a reader say some stories were too short than have one say they were too long!

One of the stories in my story collection, "The Capta and the Cop," was included in the February 2013 issue of the e-zine eNoir. The February issue is still on sale for $3.99 (electronic text only) at www.efictionmag.com/2013/02/enoir-feb... , as well as on Amazon for Kindle. So that might give you a sample of my writing, to see whether or not you like it! (That particular story was actually the first of the ten to be written, though I didn't place it first in the collection.)

When I finished the last of the ten tales that make up the story collection The Smoking Gun Sisterhood, I remarked that I never expected to write anything in the same vein again. Someone has said, "you should never say, 'never;'" that was true in this case at least, since I wrote a similar short story earlier this year, "Hot Sun, Hot Lead." It shares a style, ethos and inspiration with the stories in the book-length collection; it's somewhat shorter and less textured, since it wasn't originally meant for publication, but I think it's equally entertaining! I wrote it just to entertain an Internet friend; but he liked it so well that I decided to publish it. (This yarn actually gives you two gun-packing heroines instead of one!) If you liked the book, you'll probably like this story; and if you want to sample my work without buying a whole book, this might be what you're looking for as well.

Goodreads author Mercedes Fox writes werewolf fiction; but on her book blog, she interviews authors regardless of genre. I'm proud to say that she recently interviewed me, and that interview is now up on her blog, at this URL: https://mercedesfoxbooks.com/meet-aut... . If you want to learn more about my work, check it out!

Thad's too modest too mention it, but he has some fabulous shorts on his writings page here on GoodReads.

https://www.goodreads.com/story/list/...

Thanks, E.G.! I'm really glad you enjoyed the stories there (you know that's music to an author's ears!)..

So far on this thread, I've never offered a review copy of my story collection, The Smoking Gun Sisterhood in e-book format. However, for some book bloggers, the electronic format may actually be the one that's preferred. So, I've finally decided to include the e-book in my offer. If you're a bona fide blogger who reviews books on your blog, and you have access to Kindle, personal message me with your e-mail address and I'll see that you get an electronic copy. Also, if you're interested in the print version instead, I'll provide a free copy of that to any book blogger who wants one.

No commitment to review the book is asked or expected; and if you do review the book, I know there's no guarantee you'll like it (and I don't want you to be anything other than honest!). Like all authors, though, I'm hoping for a good review (crosses fingers!); so before requesting the copy, I'd ask you to carefully read the book description and existing reviews, so you can form an idea of whether or not it might be up your alley. But if you think there's a good chance it will be, personal message me, and I'll get your copy to you ASAP!

Congratulation!
I will add it to my book list-to-read.

Thanks for your interest, Kana! If you do read the book sometime, I hope you like it.

Just dropping a quick comment here, because I know there are some members of our group who normally don't read short stories, This four-star review of my story collection, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... , comes from a reader who's also usually not a fan of short fiction, but considered this an exception. (Your reaction might not be the same, but I thought his might be of interest!)

In this group and some others on Goodreads, folders like this one allow author members to promote or publicize their work. But we sometimes mistakenly see them as only having that function. Any Goodreads thread dealing with a specific book is also a forum for readers to discuss their reactions to the book (positive or negative). Some may hesitate to do that for fear of offending the author. But constructive criticism and friendly dialogue between different viewpoints is a big part of what makes Goodreads as interesting as it is. (Speaking for myself, it doesn't offend me as an author.) It's also possible for discussions to change our viewpoints; I know my perceptions of books I've read have sometimes been altered by interacting with the author and/or other readers.

Almost every person who's ever reviewed this book on Goodreads is a member of this group, which makes this thread a pretty good forum for that sort of discussion. If you've written a review of the book (positive, negative, or middle-of-the road) and would be game to contributing to the discussion, I invite you to link to your review, or just post some of your thoughts, here. That might open up even more opportunities for fruitful sharing of opinions and questions than a review does by itself!

A couple of weeks ago, over on the thread where I share the free fiction from my Goodreads profile's former Writings page, here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... , I noted that I've done a significant edit of several of these stories. Most of them were originally inspired by specific GWG Internet drawings. When they were first written, I felt an obligation to reflect every detail of the visual art in the stories. But I've now arrived at the point where I'm comfortable omitting details that don't enhance the story and are extraneous to my own vision. None of the changes are drastic, but I think they give the stories more general appeal and make them flow better.

That was actually part of a larger process; I'm making the same sort of changes to my entire body of GWG fiction. So, I'm glad to announce that the third (and final) corrected edition of my short e-story Hot Sun, Hot Lead (with its wonderful cover art by our group's own Krisi Keley) is now available for Kindle! (The older editions still appear on Goodreads, but not on Amazon, and are no longer available for purchase.)

The same kinds of changes are forthcoming for The Smoking Gun Sisterhood story collection itself; so at this time, I'd like to all interested readers NOT to purchase the soon-to-be-discontinued text and audio editions. The former should be replaced very soon; the new audio version will take longer, but is also going to be coming. As soon as the new and final fourth edition is ready for purchase in print/electronic formats, I'll be announcing it here!

Yay! In my previous post, I explained the reasons for creating a new, fourth and final edition of my "girls-with-guns" short story collection, The Smoking Gun Sisterhood. I'm happy to finally announce that this definitive and permanent edition is now up, in both paperback and e-book formats. (The new audio book will take longer.) This is the version of the work that I'm proud to leave for posterity!

In my two previous comments, I mentioned a projected audio version of the new edition of The Smoking Gun Sisterhood. Sadly, that won't happen anytime soon, if ever. Pro Se Press holds a 20-year contract on the audio version, which doesn't run out until Oct. 1, 2035; and they've made it clear that they will never give up their rights (nor change them to the new edition). :-( However, you can actually listen to the e-book of the current edition, if your computer/device is equipped with assistive technology!