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Month: July 2013

Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Army, Or If Nazis and Hellraiser Had Kids

Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Army, Or If Nazis and Hellraiser Had Kids

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image001Okay, I admit it.

Much like the kid who gets the giggles reading the “dirty” words someone highlighted in the classroom Webster (and yes, I admit doing that as well), me and my sophomoric inclinations are a sucker for anything deemed inappropriate.

I would normally conduct a dramatic eye-roll if I received an email about an upcoming film called Frankenstein’s Army. The actual email that landed in my in-box, however, was accompanied by the somewhat taboo but ultimately irresistible “Red Band” trailer.

If you’re not familiar with the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) classifications, movie trailers are generally tailored for “All Audiences,” even if the movie itself is rated “R.” Such trailers state as much with the wording housed in a green “band” across the screen.

A “Red Band” trailer is definitely not for all audiences, and generally contains something naughty. Sadly, red band trailers often signal that shock value will be replacing story/production/acting values… although there are rare exceptions.

But unable to resist the red band, I opened it – oh yes I did.

And I watched the trailer for Frankenstein’s Army.

And I understood why it received a “red band” designation.

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How to Run a Successful Kickstarter – Part II

How to Run a Successful Kickstarter – Part II

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This is Part II of a two-part series on How to Run a Successful Novel Kickstarter

Find Part I here.

For years, I’d been planning on pulling together my short fiction into a collection of some sort to get it out and into the world. And for years I hemmed and hawed about actually doing it. I didn’t have time. It wouldn’t do well. My time would be better spent on my next novel. You’ve probably said many of the same things yourself.

Well, late last year, a few things changed. One, I wrapped up my debut trilogy, The Lays of Anuskaya, which finally freed up a fair bit of time for me to work on something besides novel-length work. And two, Kickstarter happened. What do I mean by that? Well, Kickstarter had been around for a while, but more and more I was seeing successful projects being started and completed on the platform. I saw how impressive some of them were, how caught up I got in the “community” that successful projects could bring about. I saw how effective some project owners were about running the Kickstarters during the ‘Starter itself.

And it got me to thinking: it may take some time and effort, but if they can do it, so can I.

And if I can do it, so can you.

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Watch This Awesome Teaser Trailer for The Boxtrolls, Because it’s Good for You

Watch This Awesome Teaser Trailer for The Boxtrolls, Because it’s Good for You

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Seriously, this trailer will make you smile, turn you into a better person, and maybe even teach you a foreign language. All in 72 seconds.

As I reported last week, Alan Snow’s criminally overlooked YA series The Ratbridge Chronicles — so overlooked that America forgot to publish it — is being adapted into a feature film by stop-motion studio Laika, creators of Coraline and ParaNorman. Any studio that takes their name from the first dog in space is okay in my book.

Technically, I think The Boxtrolls adapts only the first novel, the marvelous Here Be Monsters, which appeared in 2006. The second, Worse Things Happen at Sea, was released in the UK in October 2010, and cruelly snubbed here in the US — at least until last week, when it was finally published by Atheneum Books (you guys rock). The third, Thar She Blows, is scheduled to appear in December 2013.

The Boxtrolls will be released September 26, 2014. It is directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, and stars the voice talents of Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Elle Fanning, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Toni Collette, and Jared Harris.

New Treasures: Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian

New Treasures: Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian

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Cobweb Bride-smallThere’s lots of perks to running the Black Gate global mega-publishing empire. For one thing, I enjoy being part of the “lamestream media,” telling America what to think and do, ignoring today’s critical issues so I can focus on movies about giant robots. That’s satisfaction right there. Plus, those Manhattan press parties are a blast. Seriously, I could tell you stories.

But the best part of publishing is discovering new talent, the emerging short fiction writers of today who will be the towering giants of the field tomorrow. Writers like Vera Nazarian, whose brilliant short story, “Niola’s Last Stand,” we published earlier this year. Strangely, no one seems to have told Vera that she’s expected to toil away in obscurity for years before vaulting to superstardom — she’s already accumulated two Nebula noms, and her just-released novel, Cobweb Bride, looks like a clear contender for one of the most talked-about books of the year. Some people have no respect for due process.

Well, we know how to cash in on a good thing. So we asked Vera for an exclusive quote explaining Cobweb Bride to our readers (“Quick — while she’s still taking our calls.”) Here’s what she told us:

Cobweb Bride is a story of Death and Love and loss and intensity, a strange twist on the Persephone myth set in an alternate Renaissance Europe. Enter the Uncanny Valley of the Shadow of Death. This is a place at the heart of the Brothers Grimm and in the mind of Dante, in the gut of Ouroboros, in the mouth of Hell, and in the eye of a glittering Imperial Court rivaling the splendor of Louis XIV’s Versailles.

It is an epic fantasy of love and eldritch wonder, about death’s ultimatum to the world.

Does that sound awesome, or what? What did we tell you? Pay attention, we won’t steer you wrong.

Cobweb Bride is the first book of the Cobweb Bride Trilogy. It was published by Leda on July 15. It is $14.95 in trade paperback, and just $5.99 for the digital edition.

Giving the Devil His Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell

Giving the Devil His Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell

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Dreamers in Hell-smallDreamers in Hell (Heroes in Hell, Volume 15)
Created by Janet Morris, edited by Janet and Chris Morris, and written “with the diabolical assistance of their damnedest writers.”
Perseid Press (478 pages, June 13, 2013, $23.95 in trade paperback)

It is a place of swords and spears, revolvers and automatic weapons, sorcery and science, catapults and cannon, bows and arrows, computers and demons. It is a place where there is no Hope for the damned, merely the suggestion of it.

Welcome to Hell, where Perdition rules. Whether a soul believes in Hell or not, Hell believes in damnation of the mortal soul. Anyone can end up in Hell, no matter what religion, no matter what faith. You may not believe in Hell, but Hell believes in you.

In Hell, all things are possible. In Hell, many of the damned believe they have been wrongly sent there, while others accept their fate and try to make the best of a bad situation. In Hell’s Mortuary, the Undertaker giveth and taketh away, revives and reassigns the damned — again and again — so they can continue their dance with the Devil. Yes, welcome to Hell — where rogues and heroes and fools quest for a way out, and Satan plots to storm the Gates of Heaven.

Ah, but wait… the powers that be in Heaven have decided that Hell has become too comfortable. Infernity is in trouble. El Diablo is lying down on the job.

Heaven has sent Erra, Babylonian god of plague and mayhem, and his 7 Sibitti (his Auditors, his Enforcers, his personified weapons), to further punish the innocent as well as the guilty, and they do so with great glee. They are Hell’s judge, jury, and executioners. Satan can’t even run Hell the way he wants to run it. Paradise mocks him. Will Erra replace Satan? Make things worse for everyone in all levels and versions of Hell — past, present and future?

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Fritz Leiber, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

Fritz Leiber, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

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Swords and Ice Magic-smallOver at Tor.com, Tim Callahan and Mordicai Knode continue with their thoughtful and entertaining tour through Gary Gygax’s famous Appendix N, the library of fantasy and SF titles referenced in the back of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. In the past few weeks, they’ve covered Fritz Leiber and Edgar Rice Burroughs — proving once again that they can write these columns faster than I can keep up.

So we’ll play catch-up today. Here’s what Mordicai says about Leiber, author of the genre-defining Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales.

Guys, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are basically the bee’s knees. In fact, I might go so far as to say they are the most Dungeons and Dragons of anything on the Appendix N list… The thing about the Lankhmar stories is that they are actually how people play the game as well… Let me illustrate it thus: Fafhrd straps fireworks to his skis at one point in order to rocket across a jump. That sort of insanity is just so… well, so Dungeons and Dragons; I don’t know how Leiber does it… Leiber’s imagination is so fruitful that, well, it is like he has a chaos theory generator in his head. Billions of flapping butterflies.

So true! And here’s Tim on how Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter novels may have influenced level limits.
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Some of the Best Battles in Recent Memory: A Review of Dawnthief

Some of the Best Battles in Recent Memory: A Review of Dawnthief

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Dawnthief Pyr-smallDawnthief (Chronicles of the Raven 1)
By James Barclay
Pyr (403 pages, $17 September 22, 2009)

Balia, the setting of Dawnthief, isn’t a very nice place, not at all. Rape, murder, betrayal, lust, and just plain old human cruelty, yep it’s all here by the bucket-load. But as interesting as the world is, it can’t even compare to the people who populate it.

Dawnthief follows a group of mercenaries called ‘The Raven’ as they are employed by one of the four magic colleges, Xetesk, to find Dawnthief, a spell apparently designed to end the world and the only thing capable of destroying the ‘wytch lords’: all powerful beings bent on destroying the world, who for no particular reason, have decided to wake up again, and, for no particular reason, destroy the world.

Needless to say, our intrepid adventurers set out to stop them, accompanied all the while by Denser, a mage from Xetesk, sent to oversee the operation, cast Dawnthief and cause a lot of trouble for The Raven. Now in order to do what they want to do, they must find four catalysts, which are basically the things needed to cast a spell. These are located across Balia and must be found if they are to have any chance of success.

The plot is the book’s weakest point; it all feels a bit clichéd, a bit tired and, to be frank, a bit boring. The catalysts serve only to ferry the team from one battle to the next, all they do is give the group an excuse to move from point A to point B and set up the next fight, or puzzle.

It’s not exactly original either, is it? Just another “save the world from the dark lord” story, another Lord of the Rings mimic; tried and true, but contrived and unoriginal. I mean come on, care a little bit.

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Board Game Review: Forbidden Island

Board Game Review: Forbidden Island

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Forbidden Island

The ancient Archeon empire is long gone, but their legacy remains. You are part of a group of adventurers who has landed upon their lost island, seeking their mystical treasures. Unfortunately, the Archeons cursed the island so that if any sought their talismans of power, the island itself would seek to destroy them … can you find and secure the four sacred treasures and get your party – your entire party – back to the helicopter, evacuating the island before it is too late?

That is the scenario of Forbidden Island (Amazon), an award-winning cooperative board game. As a cooperative game, it’s a bit more useful to discuss how to lose the game than how to win it:

  • If both Temples, Caves, Palaces, or Gardens tiles sink before you collect their respective treasures.
  • If the Fools’ Landing tile sinks.
  • If any player is on an island tile that sinks and there is no adjacent tile to swim to.
  • If the water level reaches the skull and crossbones.

In other words, victory means:

  • Your people all have to survive
  • You have to be able to get all 4 sacred treasures (which are dependent upon certain locations on the island)
  • You have to be able to get everyone to the Fools’ Landing tile to evacuate on the helicopter. (You also need a helicopter card at that point.)

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Sean McLachlan’s The Quintessence of Absence Now Available as a Free eBook

Sean McLachlan’s The Quintessence of Absence Now Available as a Free eBook

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The Quintessence of Absence-smallIt’s been a good day for free fiction.

We’ve heard from BG blogger Sean McLachlan that his original noir fantasy novella, “The Quintessence of Absence,” is now available as a free ebook at Smashwords.

Can a drug-addicted sorcerer sober up long enough to save a kidnapped girl and his own Duchy?

In an alternate 18th century Germany where magic is real and paganism never died, Lothar is in the bonds of nepenthe, a powerful drug that gives him ecstatic visions. It has also taken his job, his friends, and his self-respect. Now his old employer has rehired Lothar to find the man’s daughter, who is in the grip of her own addiction to nepenthe.

As Lothar digs deeper into the girl’s disappearance, he uncovers a plot that threatens the entire Duchy of Anhalt, and finds the only way to stop it is to face his own weakness.

“The Quintessence of Absence” was originally published right here at Black Gate. It’s a terrific dark fantasy novella, in which a young wizard in the grip of addiction discovers his drug of choice is at the center of a sorcerous conspiracy in an alternate 18th century Germany.

Sean McLachlan is the author of the collection The Night the Nazis Came to Dinner, and Other Dark Tales; A Fine Likeness, a horror novel set in Civil War Missouri; and numerous history books on the Middle Ages, the Civil War, and the Wild West. He is an occasional Black Gate blogger; his most recent piece for us was “Spanish Castle Magic.”

“The Quintessence of Absence” is a 25,000-word novella, available in a variety of digital formats. Get it for free at Smashwords.

See the complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction here.

Get Five Years of Fiction from Tor.com — For Free!

Get Five Years of Fiction from Tor.com — For Free!

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Tor The StoriesTo celebrate their fifth anniversary, Tor.com is releasing an anthology crammed with all the original fiction they’ve published since their launch.

It’s a hugely impressive list — over 150 short stories. Authors include Charles Stross, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Steven Gould, Elizabeth Bear, Terry Bisson, Jay Lake, Brandon Sanderson, Jeff VanderMeer, Jo Walton, Ken Scholes, Rachel Swirsky, Harry Turtledove, Michael Bishop and Steven Utley, and Kij Johnson. And that’s just in the first twelve months!

Short fiction from Tor.com has won virtually every major award in SFF. Want examples? “Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Jan 2010) won the Nebula and Charlie Jane Anders’s novelette “Six Months, Three Days” (June 2011) won the Hugo. There are numerous Nebula nominees among the collected stories as well, including “The Finite Canvas” by Brit Mandelo (Dec 2012), “Swift, Brutal Retaliation” by Meghan McCarron (Jan 2012), and two novelettes by Rachel Swirsky: “Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia” (Aug 2012) and “A Memory of Wind” (Nov 2009).

There’s no shortage of Hugo nominees in this lot either, including John Scalzi’s “Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue” (April 2011), “Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Nov 2010), “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Mar 2009), and “Overtime” by Charles Stross (Dec 2009).

In short, this is one of the most impressive and monumental anthologies to come along in years. And Tor.com is giving it away absolutely free. We’re not worthy, but we won’t let that stop us.

You can see the complete list of fiction Tor.com has published in the last five year at their Original Fiction index. And just to prove that they’re not resting on their laurels, they’ve announced five new stories will be published tomorrow, by Carrie Vaughn, Nancy Kress, Lavie Tidhar, Ben Burgis, and Tina Connolly.

Fiction for Tor.com is acquired and edited by Liz Szabla, Ann VanderMeer, Susan Dobinick, Ellen Datlow, Noa Wheeler, George R. R. Martin, Paul Stevens, Calista Brill, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Brendan Deneen, Janine O’Malley, and a talented community of Tor editors and their pals.

Get the free book here.