Linton Robinson

Lupita Machado is a beautiful, athletic, very aggressive young Chicana, but not in touch with her identity. Bounced from athletic scholarships and police academies for her attitude, she ends up mud-wrestling in Tijuana, then going on to become a professional wrestler Mexican style--a Ruda with cape and mask. She becomes the object of lust, then frustrated anger, of the wrestling promoter, Ray. Invited to his mansion for a private bout, she angers him further and is shocked to see him and the spectators turn into a crew of masked, caped demons. He kills her and dumps her body off an onramp. Her body falls into a junkyard sanctuary where Tijuana's gamines gather, the street kids who we have already seen being exploited into prostitution, drugs, and clinics where their organs and vitality are harvested to rejuvenate aging foreigners. Under the ramp they pray to a private shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, who speaks to them and tells them she will send them a deliverer and protector. In a scene reminiscent of much Mexican art, the Virgin greets and revives Lu. The gamines' prayers seem answered--a gorgeous, furious angel of destruction who starts mopping up pimps, cocaine labs, clinics, and child abusers in general. Her crusade naturally brings her back up against Ray the promoter, also in charge of much of the abuse industry. And fairly well connected to the supernatural himself: he morphs into a devil ray creature and defeats Lu again, this time taking not only her life but, her soul: the "real death" as he puts it. Lu awakes again in the arms of the Virgin, humiliated and devastated by her second defeat. In another painterly cosmos, the Virgin reveals herself to Lu, timeless, rootless: the Mother of God. She shows Lu the importance of her femininity and racial roots-and the importance of reversing the self-defeating nature of her dominate-or-die attitude through selfless love. Meanwhile, back in real life, the gamines are contributing to Lu's revival by voluntarily sacrificing their own souls to save her--which the Virgin shows them is the only way to save one's own soul. Then they start the reconstruction of Lu's broken body, using local talent and materials including a body shop. The result is a "Sixty Million Peso Woman," a sleek cruise missile hotrod with a cool paintjob, winglike cowl, and calm chrome face of an angel. Powered by tequila, chile, herbs and pure spirit, Lu soars forth to an amazing battle and mystical victory. She rescues the kids and ends up as an icon, always there to defend the homeless and helpless children.

There's a battle on for the heart of Barrio Lobo... but nobody knows it. And for the heart of Officer Novena Rosas... but she's just as unaware. It plays out in gunfire, with officers down in more ways than one. Meanwhile, a backstory explains a lot about the fey local attorney, Victor Moncalvo, but he needs a little vision to explain things to himself. And La Flaca's father, unseen since he sold her at age 12, is starting to make her a legend, perhaps of "magical realism." And two total idiots are giving rotten drug traffickers a bad name. Followers of the BORDERLAND series will find that this book moves things along very nicely, and closes some issues while opening others.

When the band you're in starts playing different tunes.... There's someone in my head, but it's not me... It's only rock and roll but I like it... When I had no ears to hear, you sang to me... The ever popular tortured artist effect... The beat goes on... The beat goes on... Is Raptor the only band that can take over the consciousness of it's listeners? And who took over Raptor in the first place? And what's their game plan for, basically, the human race? A diverse group of people coming together in the Fremont area of Seattle... back before Adobe and Amazon and grunge... and moving out on the world. More about Raptor here: facebook.com/RaptorsGoldenHits There most entertaining member: facebook.com/JaxiSez And the screenplay the book sprang from, with character pics, synopsis, and shooting script: http: //mexipost.com/raptor/

Three kids heading for the Nashville dream (and mostly living in moving buses along the way). But it's not just about singing your heart out... it's also about what happens to your heart along the road. This is a "musical novel" if there's any such thing; stoked and moved along by the words these young songwriters come up with. It's about writing songs, to an extent, and their relationship to life itself. And while it's not a "romance novel" in the usual sense of the term, it's very much about these three loving and losing and finding. Bound to appeal to fans of the "Nashville" TV series, and to fans of Lin Robinson's own "Bailin'."

The title might be an entry in the controversy surrounding pirating of ebooks--and a suggested motto for unknown indie writers who are concerned about it. But the content is strictly pleasure reading: shorts and samples from books by Linton Robinson. Some are complete short pieces, some are chapters that can stand alone. And a special treat: they're selected to fit the jolly rogering theme of the book. If you like pillaging and plundering, waylaying and heisting--especially with cute and well-armed babes involved--you're going to like "Pirate This Book". Maybe enough to rip it off and pass it around. For more information of the stories in this volume of booty, have a look at http: //linrobinson.com/Pirates

"Doc" Hardesty--G. I. turned solider of fortune, turned photographer--tries to lead a peaceful life, but they keep coming back and not letting him. This time, "they" want him to rescue a hostage from some Cuban terrorists, and the hostage is the woman he's most loved in his life, the journalist that helped him turns his life from killing to creating. This is a short novel at 40.000 words, a conversion from the screenplay. That's why it's free or cheap (depending on how sharp you are at acquiring budget ebooks). It provides an introduction to Doc, an unusual action hero who doesn't like action, doesn't want to be a hero, and isn't even the main character in his own novels. Doc is an interesting guy, but almost serves to merely introduce more spectacular characters. Like the flamboyant, gorgeous, deadly Dancy Russell in "For Your Damned Love" and rocker/shooter wildman Jim Dandy--ex football star, ex grunt, currently a rollicking mercenary and lover boy--in "Afro-Cuban Boogie Woogie".

Weekends are hell. If you do them right. That's the subtext of the columns scrawled by Wiley from various states of semi-consciousness as he slinks out of the woodwork and insinuates himself into the soft underbelly of Southern California consciousness. Wilier than a coyote, badder than Santa, Gonzo'er than Dr. Duke, the Wilester lays waste to everybody in range, not least himself. There are two tributaries to the flow of "The Way of the Weekend Warrior" a normal (more of less) plot of a demented outsider snarfing up the media scene, and the content of the columns he writes and broadcasts as his weapon against normality and status quo. Taken from the syndicated cult column of the nineties, these passages snidely sneer, raucously rant, surrealistically swoop, and otherwise amaze and amuse. If you can get get through a chapter without laughing out loud, you get your money back. Well, not really, but you at least have our sympathy and scorn. Wiley is not for the meek and weak... he is THE WEEKEND WARRIOR. Read him if you dare.