Fireside Update

I've posted about Fireside here before, but I wanted to give everyone an update. There are 34 hours to go in the Fireside Magazine Kickstarter Campaign. Thus far, it's about 88% funded, but unless it's funded 100%, it will not happen. So please, if you have a few dollars, consider being part of the project. There are very cool rewards for all levels of donation.

Here is the lineup:

Issue Two will feature short stories by Stephen Blackmoore, Damien Walters Grintalis, Kat Howard, and Jake Kerr. It will have a comic penciled and inked by Steven Walker and written by Brian White, editor of Fireside. Frank Cvetkovic will letter the comic. Our cover artist is Galen Dara. The print magazine will be designed by Robert Davis, and the eBooks will be designed by Pablo Defendini.

Please visit the Kickstarter page for more details!

Saying Goodbye to a Legend

Ray Bradbury

 August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012

We all have a The End waiting for us on the last page of our journey, no matter how much we wish otherwise. Ray Bradbury lived for 91 years and created so many brilliant works, from The Martian Chronicles to Something Wicked This Way Comes to Fahrenheit 451 to short stories like The Veldt, always my personal favorite.

I don't remember how old I was the first time I read a Bradbury tale. His work was always there, it seemed to me. I do remember being surprised at how varied his stories were, even if they all had a certain flavor that made them so indisputably his.

He lived an enviable long life, but of course, it wasn't long enough. It never is. So how do you say goodbye to a legend? Sorrow and tears, most certainly, but to truly honor the man, open one of his books and let him take you on a journey to the worlds he left behind.

Guest Post: Jonathan Janz

I'm turning my blog over today to fellow Samhain author, Jonathan Janz whose new novel, House of Skin, was released yesterday. I read and loved his debut novel, The Sorrows, last year and House of Skin is waiting patiently in my to read pile.

Welcome, Jonathan!

First of all, a huge thank you to Damien for allowing me to appear on her blog. She's a truly wonderful writer, so if any of you are on the fence about buying Ink when it releases in December, I'd urge you to click "Pre-Order" as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

My second novel is called House of Skin (my first novel was titled The Sorrows and is available here), and it releases digitally on June 5th and in trade paperback in October. You can read the description of the novel at the following links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Samhain Horror. And you can see the lovely cover art above.

I've always thought of the novel as having three protagonists, though if you put a gun to my head, I'd grudgingly say that a guy named Paul Carver is the main main character.

But he wasn't the first to be created.

No, that honor falls to a woman named Julia Merrow, a green-eyed, raven-haired beauty who started out her fictional life as two women in one (not unlike Stephen King's Odetta/Detta character in the early Dark Tower books). Over time Julia evolved into a much more sympathetic character who was capable of violence but who detested inflicting it.

Lord Byron, who helped Julia Merrow walk in beauty...Like the night

Julia was born during my sophomore year in college, when I was fortunate enough to sign up for a course on the Romantic poets (and the ones who preceded them or were directly influenced by them).

What a revelation!

I met Shelley that fall. I dreamed with Byron. I listened to the music of Wordsworth and Keats and Blake. I was chilled by Coleridge. And most of all, I was transported by their mingling of love and death, their visions of darkness and light. Their passion and their fury.

Percy Shelley, another one of Julia's fathers

From their words came Julia. She would be a lover of books, especially the Romantic poets. She would work in a library. She would loathe boorish men and long for true love. She would be lethal when mistreated.

These elements and more were poured into my character and amplified by the events of House of Skin. Julia Merrow meets a very bad man in the opening moments of the novel.

And when he mistreats her, the darkness in her is aroused.

I hope you decide to meet my lovely, dark woman. She has some serious surprises in store for you...

Thank you, Jonathan, for your guest post and for your kind words! I hope House of Skin is a huge success!

-DWG