K. M. Weiland

A blend of historical and dieselpunk, Storming is filled with action, intrigue, flying, and great characters. There's plenty to satisfy the relationship-oriented reader, too: friendship, romance, and long-standing hurt.

Hitch doesn't want anyone depending on him, because he's let too many people down in the past. He's back in his hometown for one week only, to compete for a chance to join a flying circus.

His encounter with the mysterious falling woman, Jael, also brings him face to face with show more family and townsfolk he's hurt before – and with the man who made him run away. When Jael's enemies turn their airship's weaponry against the town, Hitch has to stay and fight when every instinct tells him to run again.

K.M. Weiland knows how to raise the stakes, as well as creating characters we care about and want to see win. I love the way she takes characters I can relate to, and drops them into situations beyond their control – where somehow they have to stay and fight, and where losing isn't an option.

In addition to Storming, she has written Behold the Dawn (historical), A Man Called Outlaw (western) and Dreamlander (speculative), as well as short fiction and books on writing. show less

Rip-Roaring Daring-Do

Though I've always enjoyed such films such as Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer, Captain America, and so on, I've never read a deiselpunk (or ANYpunk) novel until now, but I thoroughly enjoyed K.M. Weiland's brand new release Storming, a deiselpunk that is set among the post war, air show, barnstorming circus era. Interestingly, I've read that sometimes deiselpunk can seem to glorify nazi-ism due to the nazi components in these stories, but Weiland's novel is a clear show more depiction of anti-fascism. (The fascists are the bad guys.)

The story is full of intrigue from the very beginning, when barnstormer Hitch Hitchcock nearly flies into first one body, then another, tumbling out of the sky from who-knows-where. There isn't another sign of plane or anything else up there in the clouds. When he rescues the mysterious foreigner Jael she talks of Schturming, her home in the clouds, and for a while, there's the great mystery of what Shturming is, or where it's exactly located. The answer is quite a lark!

But there's so much more to Weiland's story. There's the traumatized little boy, Hitch's nephew, who hasn't talked in several years but is drawn to Hitch more than anyone else in his life, and about whom another mystery swirls. There's Hitch's estranged brother, who happens to be a town deputy, and Hitch is definitely flying around on the fringes of the law. There's the town sheriff himself, who has a hold over Hitch and knows just how to call in a favor, even more than once. There's Hitch's sisters-in-law who aren't ready to forgive him for his wife's death. There's his buddy Earl, who stands by him when the rest of the circus only has use for his talents when it's in their favor.

And mostly there's Jael, the strange, strong-headed, daring girl who fell from the sky and became a flying circus pilot's dream as a wing-walker -- and something more. Weiland does a fantastic job of pulling readers into the cares of these people and sets the final scenes in the heavens (no spoilers! Can't tell you about the actual Schturming!) full of bravado, daring do, and death-defying romance, familial love, and forgiveness. Oh -- and a great climax for the bad guys.

Like I said, deiselpunk is new to me, but I think readers who really seek out this genre would get a great kick out of Storming! show less

A Man Called Outlaw is the story of Shane Lassiter, a cowboy who's grown up in the home of Judge Nathaniel Wilcox as the son Wilcox never had. Shane's love and admirationof the judge stands him to inherit the largest ranch in Wyoming Territory. But his whole life Shane has heard stories about the gunman who'd stood against Wilcox during the land wars. To the folks of Hangtree, that vigilante was a hero, but to Wilcox, he was nothing but a murderer who'd died an outlaw's death.

Then Shane show more finds himself in a not-so-very-different place than the outlaw when the life of the only woman he's ever loved is threatened, and the secrets she carries resurrect everything the Outlaw fought for. Shane is forced into a decision certain to affect everyone he loves and to bring him face to face in a showdown with justice and truth.

A Closer Look:

I really, really like this story. Why? Because it's a big 'ol western, raw and real. It's got bold courage and desperate cowardice.Dare I say it? It has True Grit. It also puts me in mind of another great classic film, The Big Country (Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons).

Outlaw unwinds with restless tension that keeps on building right up to the final pages. Ms. Weiland weaves into it a cast of characters who act ruthless, jealous, resilient, naïve,desperate, heroic.

Ms. Weiland experimented a bit when she penned Outlaw. She staggers the timeline, going from the present (Shane Lassiter's story), to the past (the Outlaw's story) and back again. Because of the staggering timeline, and the fact that we know at least something of the outcome (the outlaw is dead in Lassiter's time), she had to do some real work to keep us interested.

She did this by keeping the stakes tremendously high in the sections taking place 30 years later, and by giving us a mystery from the past to solve right along with Shane Lassiter. She also doesn't hold back on truth. Violence happens, and good guys don't always succeed in their quests. By not succumbing to the desire to offer us a "safe" read, the tautness only increases.

We writers have to all be able to sustain interest, whether we're writing experimentally or not. When stakes start to fall, so does reader investment. And if we want to make our reader feel more deeply, then we have to write with truth, a sometimes painful task - at least for some of our characters.

A Man Called Outlaw is a bittersweet story. We know early on that the Outlaw is dead, but we don't know why. And as his story unfolds, we cheer for him. We want him to live.

But in fact, it's not really his story. It's Shane Lassiter's story. Weiland reminds us of that again and again, building that tension, showing us his flaws when we're screaming for him to be flawless. But when all the threads finally tie together, it's satisfying, even in its harsh realism. show less

Fast-moving, enthralling novel of the Third Crusade. A tourneyer, Marcus Annan, is convinced to go the Crusades by a mysterious crippled monk from Annan's past. There is much fighting but the main story is that of Annan's self-forgiveness and redemption. As one character says, and I'm paraphrasing: Each new dawn brings with it a new beginning with the new day.

I figured out part of Annan's past early on, but I wish the rest had been explained early on in a clearer form. What exactly happened show more at St. Dunstan's monastery that affected Annan's and the monk's lives? I disliked Annan's sidekick; I felt he was impertinent and a complainer. I saw no humor in him, but yes, he did fill a niche in the story. I liked neatness with which the story was wound up.

Highly recommended. show less