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Louis in Paperback.
Many readers prefer paperback books. A number of my longer works are available as 5 X 8” trade paperbacks from Createspace. Core Values (Science fiction, horror.) Dark Satires (Science fiction, short story collection.) Ghost Planet (Science fiction, collection.) Engines of Creation (Science fiction, collection.) Heaven Is Too Far Away (WW I memoir/parody.) Horse Catcher (Science fiction.) On the Nature of the Gods (SF/weird western/steam-punk-mash-up.) Selected Poems (Poetry.) The Case of the Curious Killers (SF/space opera parody.) The Paranoid Cat and other tales (Collection, SF/f/h/humour.) The Shape-Shifters (Fantasy.) Third World (Science fiction.) Time Storm (Science fiction.) Author Page on Createspace. The Inspector Gilles Maintenon Mystery Series Redemption: an Inspector Gilles Maintenon mystery (Murder, crime mystery.) The Art of Murder (Murder mystery.) Blessed Are the Humble (Murder mystery.) And in ebook format only, free, The Handbag’s Tale, the original noir crime novella that inspired the series. (Noir/crime.) |
Canadian science fiction author Louis Shalako speculates in the near term on everything from geo-engineering, euthanasia, virtual currency, neuro-enhancement, and sex with robots. Love, Money, Sex and Death in the 21st Century. A series of mind-blowing essays concerning ten ethical and moral dilemmas facing not just modern science but all of humanity. The 21st Century is sure going to be interesting. A non-fiction hypertext, illustrated. |
Doctor Horace Brooks has never met a patient he doesn’t like, and he’s careful to go over all the issues with husband and wife before proceeding with gene-therapy and the modern fountain of youth…the only question is whether anyone is listening, trendy country club members Ed and Michelle Newell are a good case in point. Couples should share more before making such a life-changing decision. A science-fiction satire and short story. |
. 8lanchard has been tramping all up and down this valley with a rucksack and a camera on his back for as long as he can remember. And yet there is something, someone else out there. After exactly two short glimpses and a few indistinct tracks in the mud, he’s determined to get the shot of a lifetime. A short fantasy story. |
Dark Satires is a collection of short fiction with the focus on fun. Stories like The Kidney, The Death of Frederigo Velasquez, The Hive, and News From the Future will set you back in your chair, raise your eyebrows, elevate your heart-rate and quicken your pulse. Not for the faint of heart or the overly-sensitive. |
It was a crime of pure arrogance. Madame Muriel Ducharme was murdered in what looks like a break-in gone wrong. It’s a little too pat for Inspector Gilles Maintenon. Nothing appears to have been taken, but the killer has thought of that too. |
Short stories that pack a punch, including science fiction, fantasy, satire, humour, and a strangely uplifting mild horror. A collection. |
Hank Beveridge and Lieutenant Newton Shapiro are a couple of nice guys whose worlds just happen to collide. Hank's getting up in years and Newton has his first independent field command. On Third World, women of marrying age are scarce as hen's teeth. Hank's still looking though. Newton has a job to do, no matter who gets hurt. The Empire is a long ways away, but the locals are at least peaceable. |
Hard science fiction.
Althea is the source of piezo-temporal crystals, which distort time and make interstellar space-flight possible. The planet is uninhabited, and the Company has a monopoly. Everyone has a secret, and with such a small wintering party, life can be pretty boring until everything goes terribly wrong. On Althea, staying alive is half the battle. |
The Assassins.
Emperor Domitian hates Christians. He isn't too fond of philosophers either. The Assassins will cut anyone's throat for a few pieces of gold, so that's no problem. The popular Heron of Alexandria is brash and outspoken. In addition to teaching school and building an aeolipile, history's first reaction motor, he has some other surprising skills. |
The Art of Murder.
Inventor Theo Duval appeared to be having the perfect life. A locked room with the only key in the decedent’s pocket, a book on hypnotism, and one very rich and very dead inventor, present Inspector Gilles Maintenon of the Surete with a problem. Why would a young, healthy, successful man, one with a beautiful fiance, and a thriving company ever want to kill himself? Horse Catcher.
Twelve thousand years later, low on reaction mass, with 20,000 colonists aboard, Ark One is coming in hot. Captain Sandra Jensen and Astrogator Dooley Peeters have a plan to save her. There is the question of how they will be received, on an Earth that has returned to barbarism. That is, if they can slow her down enough to get a shuttle away. On the Nature of the Gods.
If there’s one thing the evil Dr. Emile Schmitt-Rottluff can’t get enough of, it’s samples of your precious bodily fluids. He’s the gaslight era's virtuoso of illicit cloning and mind-bending manipulation of the human genome. He’s got his eye on Jeb Snead, one of the toughest men who ever lived, and his sexy mutant girlfriend, Miss Kitty. |
The Jesus Christ Show.
Jesus Christ has his own late-night talk show, where the emphasis is on fun and truthiness. Tonight's guests include The Magnificent Louis, author of 'De-Bunking the Sasquatch Myth,' as well as Chinese acrobats and a girl who can climb into a pickle jar. A short story. The Game.
How much of who we are is tied up in what we know? If something wiped our 'knowledge,' or higher education, but left our basic faculties, the ability to speak and to act, would we all be created equal again? In The Game, everything must be learned the hard way. The learning curve is painful. The price of a mistake is a laser bolt through the head. A short story. The Apparition of the Virgin.
At the helm on the Great Lakes, Georges is convinced the Virgin has appeared, and with a young family to support, the message has great meaning to him. When he's a little too insistent, people think he's mad. But all is not real in this masterful parody of an international science-fiction undersea crime thriller. A short story. |
The Shape-Shifters.
Widowed Janet Herbert has two children to raise. Out of work and with unemployment benefits running low, she needs a knight in shining armour to sweep her off her feet and carry her away on a big white stallion. The stranger in town is very handsome—and very French. But the more she learns, the more uncertain she is. Jean Gagnon has just done seven years for a crime he says he didn't commit. |
Snake Girl.
On a solo conoe trip in Algonquin Park, Mason Richards has a little time to himself and to do some thinking. It's never too late to make some changes in your life. A short story. |
Selected Poems.
Poetry inspired by fantasy, nature, mythology, love and heartbreak. If poetry is the language of the soul, it's also the non-literal use of words to convey emotional meaning. It is about feelings rather than clearly-fixed ideas. There's beauty here as well as darkness. The Handbag's Tale.
The Handbag's Tale is a highly-stylized murder mystery. Readers will enjoy a rich vein of dark and sardonic humour. Nana the Snake Dancer, poets, painters, proprietors of bawdy houses, inept burglars, and Inspector Gilles Maintenon make an unforgettable tale of a classic time and place: It's Paris, 1924, at the height of party season. |
The Clone.
Cloning the first big love of your life thirty years later might not be such a good idea, even when you have the means to bring her back. A short story. Redemption: an Inspector Gilles Maintenon mystery
Recently widowed and inspired by a boyhood fascination with Sherlock Holmes, the middle-aged Inspector Gilles Maintenon of the Surete is on a walking vacation of Dartmoor when he stumbles upon death in mysterious circumstances. When the woman he is falling in love with is brutally murdered, Gilles swears that he will never rest until the case is solved, the killer is caught, and justice is done. |
The Case of the Curious Killers.
Brendan Hartle is taking names and kicking some nasty alien butt. The Case of the Curious Killers is a comic space-opera of epic proportions. Aliens abduct security guard Brendan Hartle but they soon discover he has no objective reality of his own. This has some unfortunate consequences for the Empire, and those who would usurp it. The Paranoid Cat and other tales.
Sixteen tales of science fiction, horror, fantasy and seriously fun speculative fiction. A nice mix of the light and the serious, the dark and the humourous.
In 'Wendigo,' confront an ugly new magic up close and personal. Now try and deal with it. In 'Thirty Years Gone,' see life after civilization, while there are still a few people left to tell the story of what happened. In, 'The Jesus Christ Show,' find out why Louis the Magnificent doesn't think there are any Sasquatches. And in 'Repelatron Raceway,' take a hard look at the motor-sport of the future. Core Values.
Inspired by real life and ripped from the daily headlines, ‘Core Values’ is a parody of a 1950’s drive-in movie sci-fi thriller. Charles Henry Brubaker is the other guy. Everything bad happens to poor old Chuck. When everything is going well, that is not the true test. It's when everything and everyone is against you. It's what you do then. That is the measure of a man. |
Thirty Years Gone.
What would your town look like if the lights went out and never came back on again? Trevor Ratigan has lived long enough to find out. Seventy year-old Trevor is the closest thing to a general on hand when an invasion fleet arrives to seize the strategic Bluewater Bridge. In a world where cattle and corn equates with money and power, the rivalry between Detroit and Chicago is heating up. The Stud Farm.
'The Stud Farm is a short science fiction story in the tradition of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm.' In a world dominated by an alien technology, ignorance is policy. As for fourteen year-old Farley, he's a strong runner. |
Louis Shalako Louis Shalako
Louis studied Radio, Television and Journalism Arts at Lambton College. Louis enjoys cycling, swimming, and good books.. He writes full time. "As far as writers go, the only outstanding thing about me is that I am unusually tall," says Louis. "I reckon I write well enough." Editor's Note: he also has a sense of humour. |
Heaven is Too Far Away.
Funnier than Kelly’s Heroes, darker in places than Catch-22, and more irreverent than M*A*S*H, this satirical WW I Royal Flying Corps memoir will leave the reader in stitches and historians shaking their heads. The most aggressive pilot wins. Lieutenant-Colonel Tucker racks up quite a score, and it's not just enemy aircraft either, for the tall and heavily decorated Will Tucker. He likes the ladies and they like him. The fact that he flies against the Red Baron and lives to write his memoirs is just a bonus. |
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Spirit Flying
I feel no pain I have no thoughts I have no ambition No hopes, no wants No desires I have no hunger I have no thirst I have no fear I have no needs and no regrets No goals, and no aspirations I have no body And I have no mind I have no envy, no pity, I have no hate I am empty of all things I am weightless Floating in a warm, silvery sea I am reduced to my essentials I am pure spirit, Nothing more I float, alone Lost forever in the void I am spirit flying I am free for evermore. |
Excerpt: Core Values The Big Cat… The big cat sat on a branch, licking its chops, purring in contentment. Tasting the fresh blood of a rabbit from paws and muzzle, she cleaned herself carefully. The smell of blood was a sure warning to other meals, still on the hoof or crouching cautiously in their burrows. While she groomed her thick tawny fur, she was always alert, always listening, smelling the wood-smoke and other flavours on the wind. She curled her right paw around and cleaned between each toe with her raspy, almost prehensile tongue, then the other front paw, then each hind foot, with no hint of the precarious perch, her balance and flexibility a miracle of creation. The killing was easy in these parts, and while the big cat was unaware of the fine geographic distinctions, she had unwittingly moved back into her natural range. She was home, and didn’t even know it. The killing was easy so the living was easy, and now the big cat had no natural enemies, no other top-of-the-food-chain predators competing directly with her; nor preying upon her. No other predators to spook a herd of white-tailed deer, fat and sassy after a long summer; no wolves spoiling the perfect set-up at the last instant, to cross ahead of the herd when the wind was wrong, or to leave a scent by a water source, and make them move on to another. She had the herd all to herself. She was familiar with the black bears, who were a hereditary enemy, and sparks flew when they met. Yet she had not smelled any in so long she knew they were absent. She did not waste a lot of time contemplating this; she merely accepted it, and it was good. While the barking of nervous dogs was often in the air, there were no wolves, and no sign of their past presence, no hint of a pack in the vicinity. No wolverines, no badgers, although their smaller cousins, and pretty good eating when happenstance allowed, such as the groundhog, the raccoon and the possum were in abundance. There were no moose, the only creature besides one other which truly frightened the big cat. There were plenty of the two-legged noisy ones. She felt a kind of caution and a kind of disdain for them, for they did not act properly, and seemed quite mad in their mindless pursuits; they were somehow mysterious and unknowable. She had never eaten one, not even been tempted. They smelled bad, looked odd, and since she had never tasted the meat, could not offer an opinion; and had never really developed a hankering to try it. The deer that were her favourite meal were big, fat and plentiful, and showed signs of complacency, although lately they were more skittish. She knew nothing of hunting seasons, but they did and they knew, at least the adults, what time of year it was. It was the time of the rut, when the sound of antlers rattling against other antlers would tell her where to go; tufts of hair on the trees to show where they had rubbed against, removing unwanted scruffy last-season fur; to make way for the glossy new coat. Their sweet-smelling tracks were by the water hole, where almost any morning, she could lie in wait and make a try for one. But now it was time to curl up and go to sleep, with her hindquarters rubbing reassuringly against the tree, head on paws, and tail curled around her like an expensive stole; on the upwind side to keep the chill away from her toes. A splishing and splashing came from the bowl of the valley nearby, where the creek curled around upon itself, and ran slow and deep. There was nothing in particular there that she liked to eat, and nothing in particular there that she feared. She put her head down and slept, mind you; with one ear open. One ear tracked the sound as it made its way down the flowing river. Finally, even that movement ceased, and after while, so did the purring. Her breath was soft, deep and even. Pale frosty light glistened on the bark of oak branches around her perch, high above the blackened woods, all a-shiver with uncertain breezes, coming and going as is their wont. |
the bad poets club Lawren Harris, Group of Seven.
The bad poets club is a showcase of poetry, music, art and whatever else we can jam in there. . http://twitter.com/louisbshalako http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1529546512 http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=hb_tab_pro_top http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/louisbshalako/ http://www.myspace.com/554917162 |
'The Case of the Curious Killers' Paperpack 4 x 7 paperback from Lulu.com. 435 pages.$13.99 plus shipping and handling.
' The Case of the Curious Killers' is a comic space-opera of epic proportions. When aliens abduct security guard Brendan Hartle for use in a mind-control, propaganda experiment, they soon discover he has no objective reality of his own. This results in unfortunate consequences for both the Empire, and those who would usurp it. He battles space pirates, his own flawed perceptions, and the biggest conspiracy the galaxy has ever seen. Available in Kindle and Epub, and other formats. See us on Amazon, Smashwords, and Lulu.com. Please click on ‘like’ while you’re in there. |
