Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
I’m very pleased today to welcome the Cover Reveals for Adam Holcombe’s upcoming Bounty Inc! Because SF about intergalactic bounty hunters is just what you expect after couple of books about a grandmotherly necromancer, right? Eh, maybe not…but I’m game for pretty much anything he puts out.
I’ll show you this cover below, but first let’s learn a little bit about the book and author, shall we? It’ll just take a moment, and then we can all take a peak at the cover.
About the Book:
A dream lives on while a will is strong, but a significant inheritance from a recently-deceased father sure helps too.
When Wyn throws away his easy life to open the galaxy’s first bounty hunter organization and become a bounty hunter himself, he soon learns that a strong support system will be needed. A support system like an unwise mentor, her giant lizard ex-girlfriend, a woman trapped within her armor, a suspicious cyborg, a possible war criminal, several thousand beetles, and a ten-year-old insectoid with a pet.
Money is never endless, however, and Wyn will need to lead his new friends down a dangerous path to prove Bounty Inc.’s worth and keep his dream alive.
Book Links:
Amazon Preorder ~ Direct Signed Bundle Preorder ~ ARC Request Form
About the Author
Adam Holcombe daylights as a programmer and moonlights as an author. After spending years toying with the idea of writing, he decided to commit and work toward releasing his first novel. Then Gam Gam got in the way, and now he’s writing too many stories to count.
When he’s not locking himself in a cold basement to type away, he can be found squishing his dog (but not too hard), squawking at his tortoise (but not too loudly), goofing off with his wife and daughter (in perfectly ordinary, non-weird ways), playing D&D with friends (I’m playing a character now!), or the usual chilling at home. He is a lover of books, board games, video games, and swords.
He is the author of the Chronicles of Gam Gam series featuring the titular necromantic grandmother Gam Gam, and the Bounty Inc. universe which will be a collective of sci-fi novels spanning a galaxy. You can find out more about both series, along with future publishing news, and additional book content at bountyink.com. Onto the next one!
Author Links:
Bluesky ~ Discord ~ Patreon ~ Instagram ~ TikTok ~ Goodreads
and now…
The Cover
The Complete Cover Wrap:
Click to embiggen either image. And why wouldn’t you want to see them in their complete glory?
Kudos to these fine folk for their work on this eye-grabber:
Cover Art by Kerstin Espinoza Rosero
Cover design by VM Design
I was in from the words “by Adam Holcombe.” I’d pre-ordered the book as soon as I could, actually. The blurb sealed the deal (but I’m pretty sure I read it after I ordered). That cover is just icing on the cake for me–very attractive icing, I should add.
Go and do the right thing–place your orders now.
This lil’ feature is getting harder to find material for—hard to take a quick spin through my social media feeds for things without being distracted by/inundated with/overwhelmed by politics, events, news, etc. and really awful takes on politics, events, news, etc. You’ve probably all encountered similar things in your day-to-day websurfing/social media scrolling. As the philosopher asked, “My world’s on fire, how bout yours?” (or at least it seems to be).
I’m not sure I have a point there…just had to ramble a bit this morning, I guess. How about we get down to biz-ness?
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
What To Do When You’re in a Reading Slump—some tips from a local bookseller
Retiring from Novels—I get his thinking, but hope this retirement is short-lived. If not, I hope his next endeavors succeed.
Fiscal Funny Business: Susan Grossey talks to Crime Time—a nice little piece from one of the niche-est writers I follow.
(It’s Not) The Death of Criticism (Again)—Molly Templeton explores the nature of, reasoning behind, and the current conversation(s) around criticism
8 Times Authors Took Revenge in Their Fiction—a fun listicle
Misconceptions, Mishaps and CrAzY Stories From Working in Libraries! What is it REALLY like?—I do wonder what the non-PG version would contain…but I think I’m better off not knowing
Mental Health and Fantasy—an updated version of a great post
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Dear Dr. Fantasy: episode 80, with Joe (JCM Berne)—Haven’t found/made the time for this yet, but it looks really good.
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
The Fraud by Brad Parks
Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell—interesting timing for this to come up if you look down below
Indexing: Reflections, Episode 3: Brotherly Love by Seanan McGuire
A Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire
Who Let The Dog Out? by David Rosenfelt
It was a good release week, I mentioned the following: Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins by Reed Farrel Coleman; Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell; Make Me by Lee Child; All In by Joel Goldman and Lisa Klink; and A Guide To Being A Dog, by Seamus Wheaton by Wil Wheaton
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Gnomes of Lychford by Paul Cornell—”Gnomes, witches, and podcasters clash for the future of the village of Lychford in this delightful conclusion to the Witches of Lychford series.” (I thought the series had already ended…oops. Glad to be proven wrong, if only for 160 pages)
Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child—”These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author’s life, but of the world outside the books.”
Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family by Lou Berney—A fascinating-looking book that “follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.” This review over at The Hard Word sold me.
“I’ll show you the phone.” It was a voice behind me, and I turned. The girl in yellow slacks was there close. I realized with surprise that her head came clear to my chin or above, and she was blonde but not at all faded, and her dark blue eyes were not quite open, and one corner of her lips was up with her smile.
“Come on, Escamillo,” she said, “I’ll show you the phone.”
I told her, “Much obliged,” and started off with her.
She brushed against me as we walked and said, “I’m Lily Rowan.”
“Nice name.” I grinned down at. her. “I’m Escamillo Goodwin.”
According to Some Buried Caesar, 87 years ago today, Archie Goodwin—one of my top 5 All-Time Favorite Characters—met the only woman who could keep his attention for more than a few months, Lily Rowan. Lily shows up several times in the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin series and threatens to steal every scene she appears in (and frequently succeeds). Check out this post from Today in Mystery Fiction for the details—one of my favorite scenes, from one of my favorite books in possibly my favorite series—(I think I have 3 or 4 copies of it), so I had to say something.
Besides, it’s not like I have a long list of dates associated with fictional events to commemorate (but I really should work on one).
How they met 87 years ago, when Archie’s only in his mid-30s today, is beyond me. But Math was never my strong suit, I’m sure it makes sense, Charlie Epps could probably explain it to me.
Regardless, it’s a great exchange—the first of many between the two. Lily will go on to have great scenes with Mr. Wolfe, as well–one of the more memorable happens at a crucial point in In the Best Families where she does something that no one else does in the Wolfe/Archie books.
Why does she call him Escamillo? (a nickname she never drops, I should add). Well, a couple of pages before that exchange of names, Wolfe and Archie were crossing a field between the road (and their disabled car) and a nearby house, and well…
“Stop! Don’t move!”
I stopped dead, with [Wolfe] beside me. I thought he had discovered something psychological about the bird on the fence, but he said without looking at me, “Stand perfectly still. Move your head slowly, very slowly, to the right.”
For an instant I thought the nut with the gun had something contagious and Wolfe had caught it, but I did as I was told, and there was the second surprise. Off maybe 200 feet to the right, walking slowly toward us with his head up, was a bull bigger than I had supposed bulls came. He was dark red with white patches, with a big white triangle on his face, and he was walking easy and slow, wiggling his head a little as if he was nervous, or as if he was trying to shake a fly off of his horns. Of a sudden he stopped and stood, looking at us with his neck curved.
I heard Wolfe’s voice, not loud, at the back of my head, “It would be better if that fool would quit yelling. Do you know the technique of bulls? Did you ever see a bull fight?”
I moved my lips enough to get it out: “No, sir.”
Wolfe grunted. “Stand still. You moved your finger then, and his neck muscles tightened. How fast can you run?”
“I can beat that bull to that fence. Don’t think I can’t. But you can’t.”
“I know very well I can’t. Twenty years ago I was an athlete. This almost convinces me . .. but that can wait. Ah, he’s pawing. His head’s down. If he should start… it’s that confounded yelling. Now… back off slowly, away from me. Keep facing him. When you are 10 feet from me, swerve toward the fence. He will begin to move when you do. As long as he follows slowly, keep backing and facing him. When he starts his rush, turn and run—”
I never got a chance to follow directions. I didn’t move, and I’m sure Wolfe didn’t, so it must have been our friend on the fence—maybe he jumped off into the pasture. Anyhow, the bull curved his neck and started on the jump; and if it was the other guy he was headed for, that didn’t help any, because we were in line with him and we came first. He started the way an avalanche ends. Possibly if we had stood still he would have passed by, about 3 feet to my right, but either it was asking too much of human nature to expect me to stand there, or I’m not human. I have since maintained that it flashed through my mind that if I moved it would attract him to me and away from Nero Wolfe, but there’s no use continuing that argument here. There’s no question but what I moved, without any preliminary backing, And there’s no question, whoever he started for originally, about his being attracted by my movement, I could hear him behind me. I could damn near feel him, Also I was dimly aware of shouts and a blotch of something red above the fence near the spot I was aimed at, There it was—the fence. I didn’t do any braking for it, but took it at full speed, doing a vault with my hands reaching for its top, and one of my hands missed and I tumbled, landing flat on the other side, sprawling and rolling, I sat up and panted and heard a voice above me:
“Beautiful! I wouldn’t have missed that for anything.”
I looked up and saw two girls, one in a white dress and red jacket, the other in a yellow shirt and slacks. I snarled at them, “Shall I do it again?”
You’ll Never Walk Alone
by Troy Lambert
DETAILS: Publication Date: July 25, 2025 Format: e-Book Length: 26 pg. Read Date: September 1, 2025
Panic wouldn’t help. The hospital had trained her for high-pressure situations, teaching her to compartmentalize fear and act decisively. But this—this was different. The darkness wasn’t a patient to be stabilized or a diagnosis to be made. It was a thing, vast and unknowable, and it clung to her skin like the rain.
What’s You’ll Never Walk Alone About?
I’m not sure how to talk about this short story without giving it all away. So I’m going to just quote part of the author’s description. I don’t know if I’d have said everything he did (then again, he’s sold more books than I have, so what do I know?)
…nurse Grace Whitmore is caught in a storm—both outside and within. As she trudges through rain-soaked streets after a long hospital shift, every shadow threatens to pull her back into a childhood terror she’s tried to forget.
When Grace senses an unseen presence tracking her steps, paranoia and dread begin to twist her reality. Is it her imagination, or is there truly someone lurking in the dark? Each echo of footfalls drives her deeper into a maze of fear and doubt.
So, what did I think about You’ll Never Walk Alone?
This is a short, intense read. Atmospheric doesn’t begin to describe it–I read this in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day, and I thought about turning a light on when I was halfway through it.
It’s hard to look at a 26 page story and think, “You know, I think it could’ve been tighter.” But I kind of do–there were a couple of beats to this story that felt repetitive, they didn’t do quite enough to crank up the suspense to justify that repetition.
But that’s just picking at nits. This story starts dark and tense and Lambert keeps ratcheting up both until the last line. And because he’s done such a good job at that, even though you know it’s the last line–and a good and effective one at that–you want the next 20 pages. Not eventually–you want the next 20 pages now. Knowing that you’re just never going to get them is frustrating as well as a relief.
If that doesn’t make sense, just go read the story and come back, it will then.
It’s been a strange few weeks here–some adjustments with the Day Job (aka “The Thing that Pays for This”), including a much shorter commute–I’ve lost at least 5 hours for audiobooks a week. That’s going to come back to bite me. But I think I can cope with that. Now I’ve just got to get back to my regular posting schedule (or find a new one). In the meantime…
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
| Babel by R. F Kuang |
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano, read by Angela Dawe |
I’m only 1/5 into Babel, but I’m not totally sold on it yet. The world is fascinating. The magic system is something I want to learn so much more about. Some of the characters are promising–and there are a few that I truly hope get their comeuppance (but fear this novel is set up to let them get away with it). But I’m not really connecting with the book–and I should be by now.
I’ve spent the last couple of books thinking that my time with Finlay and Vero has to be drawing to a close–but so far, I’m enjoying this ride a little more than I have been. Which is good enough to keep going for now.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
 |
| Silver and Lead by Seanan McGuire |
Locks & Keys edited by Alex Scheuermann |
The Blonde Who Came in From the Cold by Ally Carter, read by Andrew Eiden & Emily Ellet |
After Earth-shattering (and Earth-remaking) events over the last three books, it was good to see Toby dealing with some minor life-and-death stakes again. Er, wait…something’s not right about that sentence. Anyway, a very pregnant Toby is a lot of fun for her fans to encounter.
Locks & Keys was a very strong short story collection–I should have something more to say about it soon.
I didn’t not think Carter’s sequel was near as fun or clever as The Blonde Identity was–but it did the job.
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule |
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters |
I’m sure Ty Seidule’s book is going to make me uncomfortable more than once. I’m looking forward to that.
Time for another Dresden Files audiobook. Proven Guilty adds one of my favorite characters in the series (well, re-introduces her and brings her to the forefront she deserves). Should be fun.
How’s September treating you? Reading anything good?
Yes, two in one day, I have to do some catch up. This week’s Top 5 topic is Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 Classics I Meant to Read (but never got around to).
This list could’ve been a lot longer. It should’ve been–thankfully, we’re limited to 5 (although I push that a bit).
As I did a few months ago, in lieu of spending time formatting a post and hemming and hawing about this and that, I just turned on the camera, hit record, and blathered on a bit.
Let me know what you think!
My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!
by Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Tiffany Everett (Illustrator)
DETAILS:
Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Kids
Publication Date: September 9, 2025
Format: eARC
Length: 40 pg.
Read Date: September 1, 2025
What’s My Grandma and Grandpa Rock! About?
This is a very sweet tribute to grandparents—not just your traditional older adult being kind and making cookies, or whatever. But grandparents who have a passion, who share it with their grandchildren—whether it’s being a musician—professional or otherwise—or any other number of professions. (although the book does understandably lean toward musicians)
The one thing this book stresses most of all is the thing that unites every grandparent—their love and affection for their grandchildren—which is what really rocks.*
* Yeah, that’s a cheesy and corny line. But a book this pleasantly sappy brings it out in a guy.
Let’s Talk about the Art for a Minute
I don’t know if I can defend this, but when I saw this cover on NetGalley’s page, the grandparents in the middle of the image made me think of Love Händel (or at least Bobbi Fabulous), and that was more than enough for me.
I don’t really see that now—unless I squint—but that doesn’t matter. What I do see is just cute. You can see some samples at Everett’s website. The characters of all ages/races/professions are warm and inviting. There’s a good energy captured in the pages, and everyone seems happy and loving. A great way to depict the relationships between grandparents and grandchildren.
And, I tell you what, my 7-month-old grandcritter was captivated by the illustrations. He didn’t seem to care about the text (shockingly) or even what I sounded like—but those pictures?
How is it to Read Aloud?
I didn’t really get into a rhythm when I read it to myself or the grandcritter. But I think that maybe if I read it a few more times, I’d stumble into it—I can’t imagine these writers didn’t write with one in mind. I just didn’t find it.
What I did find was a very pleasant read, it worked really well to read aloud.
So, what did I think about My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!?
You may not believe me, but I honestly didn’t realize who wrote this when I requested the title. I liked the title and the cover. I did feel a little silly when I saw “Pat Benetar” on the title page—”hey, that’s just like that…d’oh!” This isn’t a case of me chasing a celebrity author.
Really, I’m just a sucker for books about Grandparents lately (for some, strange, unknown reason), so the title and cover got me.
It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s heartwarming, it’s fun, it speaks for every Grandpappy, Grandmammy, grand-père, avó, vavnI’, Kristasof, or whatever you call a Life-Giver Unit, Previous Iteration in your house.
Parents should pick this up to give to kids so they can read it and melt the heart of grandparents. Fellow grandparents should pick this up to give to their favorite people to help them learn what the most important job of a grandparent is.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky via NetGalley—thanks to both for this. Sorry that it’s up late.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
Last week’s topic was, “Top 5 Classics I Love. I’d been tossing around ideas for September’s lists of classics, and then didn’t really notice that I was supposed to start this last week.
As I did a few months ago, in lieu of spending time formatting a post and hemming and hawing about this and that, I just turned on the camera, hit record, and blathered on a bit.
Let me know what you think!
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.