Landon Connors — Occult Detective: Volume One

Landon Connors: Occult Detective Volume One is now available on Amazon. 22 stories. 500+ pages.

Collected together for the first time are the complete stories of Occult Detective Landon Connors and those supernatural investigators who exist within his cosmology.

From the arcane sorceries of “The Wickedest Man in the World” to the preternatural exploits of hard-boiled gumshoe Sam Hill and the harrowing investigations of Agents Wolfe and Crowe, this collection of macabre tales of the black arts treads the dangerous landscape between this world and that populated by angels and demons, gods and devils, ghosts and spirits, and the legendary creatures of our darkest imaginings. This is the place Landon Connors calls home.

“If you like the genre, you’ll love Landon Connors and the entourage of standing characters in Bob Freeman’s imaginarium. The tales in this volume range from the classic noir detective yarn with Connors at the center, to horror stories set in rural places like those of the author’s youth.” — Freeman Presson, Wizard

“…like the bastard lovechild of The X-Files, H.P. Lovecraft, and Doctor Strange; and I mean that in the most loving way possible.” — The Monster Librarian

“The tales here breathe, and oft times, there’s a hint of brimstone, perhaps some of that old black magick lurks in the exhale.” — Steven Shrewsbury, co-author of Bad Magick

“The connections stand out so vividly when put in order.” — Greg Mitchell, author of The Coming Evil trilogy

“…the depth of occult knowledge that has been intertwined into these stories is vast.” — Ginger Nuts of Horror

“Between ancient bloodlines, unholy alliances and magical orders of great power, Freeman’s knowledge of dark magic and its history shows throughout every page.” — The Sci Fi Guys Book Review

Now Available: Hallowe’en House by Bob Freeman & Greg Mitchell

I am thrilled to announce Hallowe’en House by Bob Freeman & Greg Mitchell is now available in Trade Paperback and on Kindle.

Demonologist Greg Mitchell has discovered a secret from his father’s past, a secret that not only sheds light on their strained relationship but on the path he has found himself upon, caught between Heaven, Hell, and all points between.

Turning to his former mentor, Dr. Landon Connors, Mitchell and the infamous occult detective seek out Hallowe’en House, a legendary transdimensional nexus that bristles with unfathomable eldritch energies.

But they’re not the only ones who have come seeking out Hallowe’en House.

My co-author has written a great entry on the genesis of the book. Check it out at The Coming Evil.

This was a fun project for me personally. Greg and I have been friends for a number of years and I am a big fan of his work. It was an honor to craft this story with him. And, I’m happy to say, this is just the beginning…

 

Happy #NationalParanormalDay

In honour of National Paranormal Day, I thought I’d share a pic of my favorite familiar, Boo. Boo was named after a friend of mine who passed back in 2007, Bruce “Boo” Smith. Just before he shuffled off, he sent me a “going away” present — an officially licensed Hellraiser cube. The least I could do was pay homage to him in some way, hence Landon Connors’ lifelong companion.

We later named a stray cat that was hovering around the house, one of many black cats that seem to take an interest in our country home, after Connors’ familiar. He was a special cat and we really took a shine to him and he to us. Boo hung about for several years and he is sorely missed.

Another black cat has taken up residence of late, a young lady we call Tiny, but we recently learned our neighbors call her Magic, so now, Tiny Magic it is. I like to imagine she is one of Boo’s offspring.

Anyway, rather than wax poetic about a litany of paranormal cases I’ve experienced or a list of paranormal books or movies I adore, I bring up Boo, because he was a good guy, a good cat, and, fictionally speaking, a spectacular familiar.

Happy Paranormal Day.

 

Bob Freeman’s “First Born” Blog Tour

 

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I’ll be making the rounds all this week, promoting my occult detective collection, First Born, which is the opening chapter in my Liber Monstrorum Chronicles. As my appearances go live, I will update the blog roll accordingly.

Monday 3/12
Greg Mitchell’s The Coming Evil

Tuesday 3/13
MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape

Wednesday 3/14
Josh Reynold’s Hunting Monsters
Ginger Nuts of Horror’s “We’ve Got It Covered”

Thursday 3/15
Morgan Sylvia’s Through the Labyrinth

Friday 3/16
Sheila’s Guests and Reviews

Saturday 3/17
I Smell Sheep

Sunday 3/18
Jacob Floyd’s Ghosts and Monsters

Tuesday 3/20
Book in the Bag

My future’s in the cards. So is yours… #Tarot

Here’s a sneak peek at the Tarot Deck I’m in the throes of designing.

Taking a cue from my short-lived Weirder Tales online serial and even shorter-lived Occult Detective Illustrated comic magazine, I tapped into those past resources and conjured some additional art to create my latest deck experience.

Pictured above (from left to right, naturally) are The Magician (Landon Connors with Boo), the Queen of Pentacles (Sarah Jones), The Hierophant (Guy Starbiter, co-created with Freeman Presson), The Star, and The Devil

The Occult Detective Illustrated Tarot will be available soon, as will a deck of Rune Cards.

In the meantime, you might like to check out the other Tarot Decks I have available through my Etsy store, TheOccultDetective.

And don’t forget my occult detective collection — First Born: Tales of the Liber Monstrorum — is available via Amazon and other online retail outlets.

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Who is Landon Connors?

Here’s what people are saying about FIRST BORN:

“If you like the genre, you’ll love Landon Connors and the entourage of standing characters in Bob Freeman’s imaginarium. The tales in this volume range from the classic noir detective yarn with Connors at the center, to horror stories set in rural places like those of the author’s youth.” — Freeman Presson, Wizard

“The connections stand out so vividly when put in order.” — Greg Mitchell, author of The Coming Evil trilogy (not to be confused with a certain now-spectral Outrider)

“The tales here breathe, and oft times, there’s a hint of brimstone, perhaps some of that old black magick lurks in the exhale.” — Steven Shrewsbury, co-author of Bad Magick

I don’t think it’s a secret that Landon Connors is the “star” of my Liber Monstrorum series. Oh, sure, there are plenty of other characters, many of them shining brightly, but let’s not kid ourselves — this universe revolves around Connors. So, I guess the big question is, where does he come from?

Well, to dissect that mystery, we need to turn back the clock to 1987. I was living in a basement apartment in Muncie, Indiana, doing a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have been doing, but I’m awfully glad I did.

Anyway, in amongst the mind-expansion, self-exploration, and general magical mayhem, I was also pretty heavily into tabletop roleplaying.

We were playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition), a bit of Car Wars, a pinch of Call of Cthulhu, and two comic book related RPGS — Marvel Super-Heroes and DC Heroes.

It’s those last two games where Landon Connors origin story takes center stage, only he had a different name back then.

Landon started out older and more cryptic, but the chain-smoking, drug abusing, occult detective was alive and well and going by the name Solomon Killingbeck, Private Eye.

We had sort of merged the Marvel and DC RPGs into a single somewhat cohesive game, utilizing the best bits from both systems and sprinkling a healthy dose of d20 mechanics into it.

Solomon Killingbeck was a character I rolled up and used as a Doctor Strange-type of NPC, a valuable resource for my players who helped shepherd them through many occult-themed adventures in the super-hero multiverse.

So, almost 20 years later when I decided to delve into writing occult detective fiction, obviously it was to Killingbeck that I first looked.

Yes, I made him younger and better looking, tossed him a demon-enchanted fedora, jettisoned his Jewish heritage, and changed his name, but the essence of the character was still there.

Oh, and about that name change: it was done to honor my son, Connor. His middle name, an homage to his maternal grandmother who passed just before he was born, is Landon.

Seemed like a perfect fit.

Anyway, you can read all about Landon Connors in First Born: Tales of the Liber Monstrorum, available now via Amazon and other online retail outlets.

And if you really want to submerge yourself in all-things Landon Connors, there are Connors-themed Tarot Decks available through my Etsy store, TheOccultDetective.

Playing Favorites #FirstBorn

Over on twitter, a friend dropped me a congratulatory note via DM regarding the release of my occult detective collection, First Born: Tales of the Monstrorum.

We chatted back and forth for a bit, them politely asking about the collection, what stories were included, how many were unique to the work, and so on.

They mentioned reading the blog in which I shared my favorite illustration from the book, and then they dropped a heavy question on me — of all the stories in First Born, which was my favorite?

Man, that was a tough one, but answer it I did, with a short response. Here’s a longer version of it —

For the longest time, I would have named Mourn Not the Sleepless Children as my favorite. It was originally published by Burning Effigy Press back in 2009, part of a chapbook anthology entitled Fresh Blood. It was one of three stories, the others written by Dave Alexander and the horribly underrated Kelli Dunlap (better known now as Kelli Owen).

I worked closely with Monica Kuebler, BEP’s editor-in-chief, and I was so proud of the final product. To this day, Monica was the best editor I’ve worked with. She was professional, courteous, and helped me polish that story and make it something special.

Thankfully, in the chronology of events in my Liber Monstrorum tales, it comes first and thus was the lead story in First Born. It’s a great lead off and is a great showcase for what I can do when everything is clicking just right.

That being said, another story has supplanted it as my most favored tale. That distinction now falls on Wyrdtails.

Wyrdtails was written and serialized back in December of 2014, one of those “writing without a net” Harlan Ellison writing exercises I’m so fond of. I had no idea where the story was going, no idea from where it even sprang. It just fell out of my keyboard onto this website, growing in the telling.

We learned a lot more about Landon Connors, his father Ashton, the Order of the Sacred Hart, and saw Greg Mitchell’s ghost come out to play a bit.

In a lot of ways, Wyrdtails has been my most quintessential occult detective story, made all the more special because it came from the ether, like, seemingly, all the best stories do.

So, there you have it. If you’re curious, First Born: Tales of the Liber Monstrorum is available via numerous online retailers, but as Amazon seems to be the overlord of that heap, I’ll direct you there by way of the following link. If someplace else is more appealing to you, I trust your google fu will serve you accordingly.

 

The Art of First Born

There are several illustrations in First Born, but I think my favorite is that which serves as the collection’s frontispiece.

The illustration, featuring Landon Connors and Boo, with Baphomet at the top of the stair, encapsulates for me what Jimmy Page called the “power, mystery, and hammer of the gods”.

I like the symmetry of it.

And I like the fact that, though unintended, the illustration evokes thoughts of a keyhole.

First Born: Tales of the Liber Monstrorum is available now and can be purchased online via Amazon in Trade Paperback and Kindle eBook as well as other outlets found on the world wide web.

 

Liber Monstrorum Begins Here…

 

I am proud to announce that First Born: Tales of the Liber Monstrorum is, at long last, available for purchase. First Born is an occult detective collection, bringing together twelve short stories, a novella, and two illustrated tales.

These are the stories I’ve been working toward since I first put pen to paper as a boy growing up in rural Indiana. My obsession with witchcraft, magick, and religion, in both fact and fiction, has all led to this.

Published by Seventh Star Press and edited by Scott Sandridge, First Born is my love letter to the occult detective genre and to those glorious supernatural tales that thrilled me as a child… I hope these stories do the same for you.

From the arcane sorceries of “The Wickedest Man in the World” to the supernatural exploits of Occult Detective Landon Connors and the harrowing investigations of Agents Wolfe and Crowe, this collection of macabre tales of the black arts treads the dangerous landscape between this world and that populated by angels and demons, gods and devils, ghosts and spirits, and the legendary creatures of our darkest imaginings.

First Born is the beginning of the journey into the Liber Monstrorum, the Chronicles of those Occult Detectives who are the last line of defense against those preternatural forces that threaten to destroy a world that refuses to believe that such things exist…

First Born can be ordered from the following online outlets:

AMAZON
Trade Paperback
Kindle

AMAZON UK
Trade Paperback
Kindle

BARNES & NOBLE
Trade Paperback
Nook

KOBO
Ebook

iTunes
eBook

Below are some examples of the artwork you’ll find inside:

Imperfections of Sleep (Part 6 of 6)

Imperfections of Sleep
Part 6 of 6

Special Agent Michelle Hawkes followed the occult detective over the ravine and gazed once more at the majesty of Rosslyn Chapel. They had been here three days, anticipating the battle that made this sacred place run red with blood.

She had wanted to take part, as had her friend and colleague, but they were not meant to be here, at least, so the mysterious dimensional traveler had said.

The confrontation had been monstrous in scope and beyond horrific, but in the end, good won out, but at a terrible price.

“So I’m to believe that Michael Somers saved the world and is now somewhere out there looking to end it?” Hawkes said. She was new to the Bureau, an Agent in the newly formed Paranormal Operations Division of the FBI, but she’s known Landon Connors for more than a while.

She thought back to the night they’d first met. She was a captive, held in the belly of a charnel house, food for some infernal thing. It was Connors and others known as Outriders who had saved her, brought her back into the light.

Eventually she joined their ranks, trained with Connors, for a short time they’d become lovers, but now…

They had parted ways badly. Landon, for all his brilliance and charm, was a lost soul. He was in such a dark place, and spent so much time hiding from the pain in his soul that she just couldn’t bear it.

She thought she could walk away from the life, but once you looked beyond the veil, there was no way to unsee those hidden forces all around us.

“It’s hard to imagine what’s going through his mind. He lost so much.” Connors paused, staring at the wondrous chapel. The stain on this place would remain for centuries, if not for Somers’ intervention. He wondered, could a mark such as this carry over into a timeline reborn?

“And we’re just letting him do this, letting him travel back in time to end this reality as we know it?”

“Yes,” Connors replied. “I guess we are.”

“It’s all like a bad dream.” She knelt and plucked a blade of dry grass from the earth, twirling it in her fingers. Was it a mistake accepting Connors’ invitation to come to Scotland, to watch the end? Was it wrong to find herself back in his arms, falling for him all over again?

“What was it Crowley said, — Dreams are imperfections of sleep; even so is consciousness the imperfection of waking. Dreams are impurities in the circulation of the blood; even so it’s consciousness a disorder of life.”

“Always the romantic,” Hawkes said, turning away from the young detective.

He reached for her, taking her hand and pulling her back.

“Hey,” Connors said with a wink, “I try.” He drew her even closer and kissed her softly. “Michelle, I don’t know how long we have, or even if what Cassidy Martin said was true, but just in case, I need to tell you something.”

“What?”

“Since the first time we met, I knew that —” Connors paused, mid-sentence, looking passed the young woman before him, staring long into the black of night overhead.

“Landon?” Hawkes said, turning to see what had caught his attention. “What the—?”

The black sky was aglow, awash in a sea of swaying, rippling bands of vibrant color that blazed across the curtain of the still and silent night. Starlight grew dim, then were snuffed altogether like a candle blown out by the wind. A strange, almost industrial hum began to resonate and the ground began to quiver.

“This is it then?”

They held hands, wondering what to expect, if they would even exist when the celestial clock reset. Connors looked into Michelle Hawkes’ eyes and thought the words he had meant to say, but kept them to himself, hoping against hope that they’d be spoken in another life.

The End