'On the Nature of the Gods.'

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Rife with the bizarre juxtaposition of psycho-sexual elements, ‘On the Nature of the Gods’ is a superb parody of the steam-punk weird western with elements of bedroom comedy sub-sub-genre. Undefeated in a hundred and thirty-eight bouts, Jeb Snead may be the toughest man in a totally plastic world. He has no sense of humour and might even be a little insecure. Rufe Golan is the son of a rich man, a smooth-talker and an inveterate foot-fetishist. Hope Ng, starved for attention or entertainment, is heading to San Francisco to live with her grandfather when her wagon train is massacred. The buxom but leggy Miss Muriel Kitty, a professional working woman-cat-thing, and wise in the ways of the world, provides a valuable service in frontier society. The evil Doctor Schmitt-Rottluff surrounds himself with willing tools and useful fools, some of them the product of a little too much inbreeding in test-tubes. Chapley, his alleged black nephew and Waylon, his acknowledged ‘taurian son, Nazi gryphons, erudite Injuns who read Latin and mischievous spirits who just want to see what happens next, fill out a never-before-seen, all-star cast in Louis B. Shalako’s killer debut in this admittedly obscure category. Who doesn’t like telempathic horses and equine romance, or casually-stated themes of miscegenation, stem-cell research and creatively irresponsible cloning?








Welcome to the home of Shalako Publishing. Our mission is to bring readers the finest in edgy speculative fiction today, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, humour, short stories and poetry.

We don't do these things because we expect to get rich, and we don't do them, to quote J.F.K., 'Because they are hard.'

Unlike Sir Edmund Hillary we do not do this, 'Because it's there.'

We do it because we can, and because it's fun.

We do it because we just couldn't think of anything better to do with our lives.

'Nuff said.'

'The Shape-Shifters.'
$2.99 on Smashwords.

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Widowed Janet Herbert has two small 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 so very, very French. But the more she learns, the more uncertain she becomes. Jean Gagnon has just done seven years for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Worse, everyone in town seems to think he has a half a million dollars buried somewhere out there in the rugged hills of the Ottawa Valley. When a shape-shifting coyote shows up to steal his money, his life and his girlfriend, Jean Gagnon’s survival skills are put to the supreme test. For Jean to prove his innocence and live in peace with his neighbours seems well-nigh impossible. In the words of Slick Wilson, ‘You can’t change who you really are.’ Please rate, review, add tags or just click on ‘like’ for this book. Thank you!

$0.99 'Selected Poems'

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These poems are 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,' E-Book, $0.99 on Smashwords!

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The Handbag's Tale is a highly-stylized murder mystery set in Paris, 1924. With Dadaist influences, (Fr, 'hobbyhorse,) the story has a vein of dark and sardonic humour running through it. With characters as diverse as Nana the Snake Dancer, poets, painters, proprietors of bawdy houses, inept burglars, an unforgettable tale, a classic time and place: Paris, 1924, at the height of party season.

Playboy banker Emile Danton is found dead in an alley. Shot between the eyes, there is an empty woman's purse beside him and seventeen thousand francs in his pocket. In the glittering world of Paris during the roaring twenties, the bourgeois had their seamy underbelly. All is revealed to Inspector Maintenon and his trusty sidekick, the burly Sergeant Levain. Not a police procedural in any sense, my story drops formula and substitutes art in its place. Every mind leaves its imprint upon its works, and the murder of Emile Danton is no exception.

What a surprising tale an empty purse can tell. Multiple formats available as a free download on Smashwords.com.

See the profile page for Louis Bertrand Shalako.

'Redemption: an Inspector Gilles Maintenon mystery,' $2.99 (may vary by retailer.)

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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.

Available on Amazon and Createspace as a 6 x 9" trade paperback.

'Thirty Years Gone.'
$0.99 from Amazon and Smashwords.

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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 twin span of the Bluewater Bridges. In a world where cattle and corn equates with money and power, the rivaly between Detroit and Chicago for control of the upper lakes is heating up. This post-apocalyptic science fiction story looks into the very near future and draws an ugly picture indeed. Please don't forget to rate, review or just click on 'like' for this product. Available in multiple formats from Smashwords, Kindle editions from Amazon UK, US and DE. 

'The Stud Farm,' $0.99 from Amazon.com.

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'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. Whoever controls the flow of information controls your destiny. As for fourteen year-old Farley, he just likes to run. 
'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. Whoever controls the flow of information controls your destiny. As for fourteen year-old Farley, he just likes to run.

With repellent persons like Neashlia and Master Loid around, a bad day isn't hard to find. Anti-gravity chairs are hooked up like a sulky on a pacer or trotting horse. The Jarnes Manor has its own unique pattern of life, and Master Jarnes knows what's best for everyone. 

'The Case of the Curious Killers,' (E-Book)

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by Louis Bertrand Shalako. Available at the Kindle Store.
When aliens abduct security guard Brendan Hartle for use in a propaganda, mind-control experiment, little do they know he has no objective reality of his own. This tends to have unfortunate consequences for the Empire and those who would usurp it.
Ride along with the most assertive unarmed (and unemployed) security guard in the galaxy.
Brendan is darned angry and he isn't going to take it anymore. He's taking names and kicking some nasty alien butt.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EJZR8

'Core Values,' (E-Book)

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by Louis Bertrand Shalako
When the whole world is corrupt, what the heck are you going to do?
For Charles Henry Brubaker, the answer is a simple one: view the world through a pair of crap-coloured glasses and live in hate and anger.
Unable or unwilling to change,
Chuck suffers alone but not in silence. When giant mutant salamanders show up to rock the town, everything changes and nothing changes.
Lovable characters like Mayor Hope Pedlar, Sergeant Phillip Oberon and The Hot Dog Bandit will strike a sympathetic chord in any reader's heart. 

'The Paranoid Cat and other tales,'
(E-Book)

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by Louis Bertrand Shalako
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. 

'Heaven is Too Far Away,' (E-Book)

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by Louis Bertrand Shalako
William Tucker is a bright young flying instructor who casually suggests shooting down the Red Baron in order to prove the effectiveness of new training methods. When the idea gets official sanction, all of the responsibility for training the pilots involved falls on his shoulders. In wartime there is little hope of the normal courting process. Many girls seem to like the tall, pleasantly ugly and highly-decorated Will.
There is not a lot of time for beating around the bush, and how he finds and meets the woman of his dreams is a bit of a miracle under the circumstances. Along the way, Will meets some of the flakiest personalities of the time, including Winston Churchill himself. 

Louis Bertrand Shalako

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Louis Shalako
Louis studied Radio, Television and Journalism Arts at Lambton College. Louis enjoys cycling, swimming, and is a lover of good books. He lives with his elderly father in a home filled with books, cats and model airplanes. 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 wicked sense of humour.
Spirit Flying

by Louis Bertrand Shalako

c2010

All Rights Reserved 

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.



Blog:

htttp://shalakopublishing.blogspot.com

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The Void.

     Buy an e-book and save our forests.

All books available in Kindle editions from the Kindle Store at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Louis%20Bertrand%20Shalako
You can download free Kindle for PC as well. Click on the book title, look to the right and scroll down a bit, and it's there.



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.


         I hope you enjoy my books. -louis

the bad poets club

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Lawren Harris, Group of Seven.
The bad poets club is a showcase of poetry, music, art and whatever else we can jam in there.

Sign up and check in once in a while.





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Les Shalako Blog Francais.

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Mon blog Francais, where there are all kinds of free stories and art. This is a new venture and will evolve over time.

It allows me to experiment with translations and learn French as I go! Lots of fun will be had by all.                     





 
                       Shalako Publishing. Saving the Earth one e-book at a time.

     http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4543195.Louis_Bertrand_Shalako


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'The Case of the Curious Killers' Paperpack

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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.