C. C. Blake

Rick Cave gets all kinds of jobs, legal, illegal, and all the shades of gray between these extremes. This time, a pretty girl wants some special body mods transported to a Luddite colony with no questions asked. While not completely illegal, such a shipment is frowned on to say the least. He arrives to find a colony permanently fixed in the tech period between the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. However, no job is an easy one, and this time Rick has to content with mirrorshades-wearing oldsters eager for a little modding as well as some tough punks eager to shed a little blood. Will he be able to escape with his neck in tact?Dutch has faced the Star Sultan to get his girl Reemalah back. Now, he and his woman are on the run, taking the cheapest options possible. It's a great way to lay low, but it's not a great way to stay alive. When he wakes up mid-voyage to find himself stuck inside a coffin with limited atmo, Dutch must struggle to escape before he runs out of breath. This story also features Fieldy and the Bleak's Company The eleventh issue of C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas has plenty of chills and thrills to offer even the most jaded reader of space opera. Blake delivers his trademark action and excitement by the fistful

An airplane crashes in an east Texas rose field, sparking a war under the sun. Maniacs kidnap a girl off the streets in small town Michigan, igniting vengeance and vigilantism. A redhead flees trouble in a central Massachusetts city, rushing straight into danger's arms. The Nazis threaten to destroy the Allies' information network, and reveal the twisted heart beating at the Third Reich's core. Adventure can happen anywhere and at any time. Action is sudden and furious. These four sexy, suspenseful thrill rides further cement C. C. Blake's reputation as a grand storyteller in the tradition of the classic pulps and Fawcett Gold Medal novels.

Even an international espionage agent has an Achilles heel. Man of intrigue Ty Haringa's weakness is dangerous women. In Fatal Femmes, Haringa more than meets his match and finds himself up to his neck in trouble. A missing European princess is the lure in "Operation: Brunette," but the trail features several knockouts. Haringa also has to tackle a mysterious field agent, a deadly terror cell and temporary amnesia in "I Can't Remember."When thriller master C. C. Blake turns his attention toward thrilling tales of espionage, the results are dynamite Fatal Femmes presents two action-packed spy stories with the flavor of pulp adventure but without the camp.The result is international intrigue in the Fawcett Gold Medal style

When Chuck Cave runs into his pal in San Francisco, he can't help but laugh: A dyed-in-the-wool military man copping to the hippie lifestyle seems the bad punchline to a poorly conceived joke. Then, Chuck meets his pal's lovely, young wife Sunbeam. She's vibrant and gorgeous, the kind of woman to make a man want to change his stripes.Not all is peace and love, however. The lunatic leader of a counter culture terror group has an eye for beauty, and he wants Sunbeam for his own. He will not be denied... Now, Chuck finds himself caught in life or death stakes, fighting drugged out lunatics and their maniacal master, while a pretty doll's life poised on a razor's edge..."Chuck Cave and the Vanishing Vixen" is an action-packed short story, and Winner of the 2005 Story of the Year Award from Man's Story 2 magazine.This edition includes "In the Clutches of El Diablo" as a bonus story

C. C. Blake returns with a pair of stories in this action-packed eighth issue. There are unusual adventures to be found in these sweaty, lived-in space opera worlds Rick Cave finds himself once more outside of his Slav Space comfort zone, visiting the crime families dominated sector tucked away behind a blue energy shield. He is not exactly running a smuggling op, but still he is up to his neck in trouble delivering a cryonically cooled infant to the golden child of one of the most ruthless gangster families in the galaxy. Cave is outgunned and overwhelmed. To make already messy matters even more chaotic, the unstoppable menace known as PedeSTAIN shows up. Can Rick and PedeSTAIN put aside their past differences to get both their necks out of the wringer?On a backwater jungle world, a former CORE forces StarBar gunnery sergeant turned mercenary lieutenant commander finds himself stranded and facing impossible odds. Inside a makeshift fort besieged by two-headed natives, he strives to stave off an army until help arrives. His resources are low, his chances are even lower, but he will not give up until the last round is fired and the last ounce of strength leaves him.With a brief non-fiction update from Blake himself and over 15k words, the eighth issue of C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas has plenty of thrills for the space opera fan.

It has all been leading to this . . . Over the course of five issues, readers have thrilled to the adventures of Rick Cave and "Burn Job" Finster. Now, in this special, double sized issue of C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas, the two characters team up for the first time to face an unstoppable adversary.When Rick Cave agrees to help a kid space jock with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, he does not realize the trouble he is taking on. The kid has a luxury craft, providing perfect comfort for passengers. He does not have the cargo space his latest job requires. Enter Rick Cave's medium-tonnage freighter, the HotTicket. With the two ships working together, they can move people and equipment with ease and comfort. The cargo and passengers to be moved, however, are a surprise . . .After Finster's car was sabotaged, racing enthusiasts never expected the NAStar driver to return to the sport. However, he has been done just that. Although his body has been medically rescultped to hide any traces of the scars from the fire that ended the first phase of his career, he has taken ownership of the pejorative nickname Burn Job. He has returned to the race and to the trail of revenge on the man responsible for his "accident", der Fuhrer of the Astro Nazis himself.Both of these men have been thorns in the goosestepping heels of the Asto Nazi cause, so they make equally inviting targets for the biggest killer in the Astro Nazi league. The cyborg called PedeSTAIN is unstoppable, a relentless killing machine dedicated to seeing Fuhrer Brett's will performed. His mission has put him on Burn Job's trail, and Rick Cave just invited himself to the murder party . . .This issue contains a short novel length pulp science fiction adventure guaranteed to keep readers on the edges of their seats. Join thrill master C. C. Blake as he presents the culmination of the first half year of Sweaty Space Opera adventures. As well, it offers a candid story from the author's own past about the chilling lengths some folks will go for love . . .

A descent through the stairwell of an apartment building turns into a tour of hell. A convenience store robber gets the munchies, and ends up on a strange evil's menu. A heist in Italy is tied to one thief's horrifying past, and offers him a terrifying future. While on the road chasing the love of his life, Cave gets drawn into a dirty work retrieving an ancient evil artifact from a corrupt cop's evidence shack. A man sees a vision of his own estranged daughter's murder, and sets out to save her . . . no matter the cost.In these five tales of supernatural terror, C. C. Blake presents readers with new chills and thrills as well as a reprint from his Vampires 2 days . . .Everyone is capable of performing dark deeds, when they are pushed hard enough. These stories are merciless pushers, and the deeds they recount are dark indeed.

We are all on a journey that starts on the day of our births, leading inexorably toward the darkest destination of all: The Grave. Some folks have plenty of time, dying peacefully in their sleeps or due to medical maladies. However, a select few face the reaper through more macabre situations. Their journeys and brushes with death are the sources of tales that leave readers chilled to the marrow. In the five stories contained in this collection, thrillmaster C. C. Blake takes readers through regions rife with mystic danger and supernatural terror and takes his characters on fast track encounters with Death from unusual circumstances.When another body gets rolled out of a New York City apartment building, it could be the sign of hot blood and hotter emotions finally boiling over and ending in murder. The Big Apple sees a crime like that every hour of every day. Chuck Cave knows better. A maniac with a vendetta against the paranormal dwellers of the world is leaving behind a string of broken beauties. His dark deeds threaten to blow open the doors on the supernatural world, casting all the occupants there good and evil into danger. He must stop this maniac before all hell breaks loose in the Big Apple.So begins the first story in this chilling collection of short yarns, a cornucopia of homicidal specters, psychic assaults, and twisted psyches. This collection also includes: A victim of a psychic assault that leaves her teeming with terrors she never possessed before races to find the man responsible and make him pay before the fears become permanent additions to her psychological landscape . . .An acquirer of mystic trinkets for the Vatican finds herself attending her own midnight burial. She may not be dead, yet, but that won't stop her enemies from putting her in the ground . . .A hunter of ghosts and treasures learns the truth behind legends of gold hidden away in a house haunted by a past of vicious slaughter . . .A trio of college friends find themselves the pawns of a monstrous sexual predator with extrasensory powers and a desire to push them past the breaking point . . .In C. C. Blake's hands, the worlds of paranormal wonder and terror lurking alongside our own shatters the barricades holding it back, spilling tales of gruesome slaughter and terror into the sorts of familiar streets and parks found outside your window. Join him for these five journeys through the heart of darkness

In the far future, humanity has moved among the stars. However, they have brought along all their baggage in addition to the hopes and dreams of better worlds. Theirs are not bright, shiny, litter-free futures. They are lived in, sweaty space operas . . .C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas returns with a brand new pair of adventures set in futures that have dirt under their fingernails and blood on their hands.After flushing himself through an alien waste system in a previous adventure left Rick Cave with neuronal damage, he gets the opportunity to go under the knife for an infinitesimal chance at recovery. When old enemies catch wind of this chance to take him out, he gets more trouble than he anticipates. There are bad trips, there are acid flashbacks, and then there is "Rick Cave's Nasty Flashback", which takes trouble to the next level.Join recently resuscitated Detective First Grade Gleeson on board the satellite casino and tourist trap Matrix, as she faces off with a robber who is targeting large payouts. A game of cat and mouse ensues when this robber against all odds manages to defy the station's best security measures and requires some good old shoe leather detective work to identify and catch. Sometimes justice takes more than "Facial Recog".Hop aboard for C. C. Blake's latest excursion through the space ways. Two more tales of crime, desperation, and hope set in the filthy far futures . . .

Rick Cave knows a thing or two about transporting stolen goods, but when he gets hired to run a mission to raid an alien tomb in order to swipe and transport ancient artifacts, he soon finds himself in over his head. Trapped inside the tomb with only a limited amount of time before a double crossing partner strands him on planet, Rick must take the one unexpected way out: He dives head first into the carcinogenic slurries still running like sewage under the long abandoned city on a long abandoned world. His air supply is limited, his options are short, and his time is running out . . . On the road to his next race, "Burn Job" Finster finds himself in a completely different situation: He goes to a casino satellite to try an beat the house enough to get enough boodle to keep his wheels turning and give him an entry stake. The NASTar Driver is once more out of his elements and in deep trouble when he attracts the wrong kind of attention. Each issue of C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas offers over 10,000 words of action packed science fiction adventure as well as a candid opinion piece "Blake's Take." This issue continues two of the series he began in the long out of print Android's 2 men's adventure magazine. While the issues build toward an overarching storyline each story stands alone. Therefore each issue is a great entry point.

Rick Cave knows a thing or two about working with old friends, but when Wallach comes into his life dangling old debts over his head in exchange for a little delivery, Rick finds himself pressed into service. An old flame, mysterious agents of the Star Sultan, and the Secret Police stand between him and a clear shot out off this corrupt world. It will take smarts and courage to get out of harm's way. Looking for patronage in his next race, Finster gets an offer he can't refuse: Drive for a Cracking Crew during one of their jobs an get a split. When the job involves a school bus and a highly secured schoolyard, Finster soon learns he may have bit off more than he can chew. He's driven into danger, but can he drive himself out of it? C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas is back for a third issue of fun adventures set on down and dirty science fictional worlds. Crime, horror, hopes, and fears mesh in these thrilling tales of men and women facing impossible odds because they have to. It's the biggest issue yet with over 12,000 words of fiction as well as Blake's take on why reading fabulist fiction from yesterday is a must in today's world.

Rick Cave is rolling on the floor of Svetlana's with a gut full of buckshot: An AstroNazi farewell. He's not done yet. The bastards should have killed him if they knew what was good for them. Now, he's hot on their trail. He will venture into the cut shop known as the bondage pits to get the gal out. "The Beauty Snatchers" promises danger, action, and a touch of romance in the classic spirit of the old pulps. The next step in Finster's journey to smash up der Fuhrer's ownership of the NAStar racing circuit takes him to a special track where anything and everything can happen. Flamethrower robots, teleportation panels, and more obstacles await him on the track. Off of it, the minions of Fuhrer Brett's favored racer, the one and only Space Pimp have more threats and challenges in store for the racer. "Burn Job and the Space Pimp's Wrath" continues Finster's adventures around the space lanes In these two stories, C. C. Blake continues his series of pulpy space adventure Each issue of C. C. Blake's Sweaty Space Operas offers 10,000+ words of features telling tales about far futures from a ground level perspective. No space knights, no untarnished nobles, no interstellar orders battling resistances: These stories are about high tech low lives, the working class Joes and Janes who find themselves cast into sometimes grim and often grimy worlds overflowing with trouble and danger. Join the adventure