The Fruit of My Labours

It's finally here.

Just an hour ago I received some author copies of the graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times.

It was a very welcome surprise as the book wasn't supposed to have been printed until next week, but given that Rocky, Lisa and I worked quickly with the proofing, it's fantastic that our publishers McFarland printed the book ahead of schedule.

To hold the finished product in my hands makes the 9-10 months to illustrate the tome so worthwhile. I may be biased here, but I think the graphic novel looks superb. This is an important volume; a chronology of one of the darkest periods in human history - a story that needs to be told and the authors Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton have done that very well.

Hard to believe that this all started in October 2010 with an email from Rocky, who was at the time, a complete stranger. I hope he and Lisa are as proud as I am of what we have created here.

If you wish to purchase a copy, they are available direct from the publisher HERE.

The graphic novel is currently only available for pre-order from places like Amazon.

Don't forget about our website HERE and our Facebook page and for those about to read the graphic novel, thank you and I hope you enjoy it.

Don't Tar All Small Presses With the Same Brush

There's been a fair bit of chatter on the web about a recent bad experience an author had with a small press publisher.

Before I go on, you should read about the awful chain of events HERE (if you haven't already).

My initial thoughts after reading the article were that the publisher Undead Press had, in my opinion, violated the author's work; vandalised it and without her consent.

Fortunately, as far as I am aware, this is a rare occurrence - it certainly hasn't happened to me, but then again I don't submit to as many anthologies as I should. In my experience, the anthologies and magazines I have approached have always been forthright, honest and most of all professional.

Given that the article reveals all the bad things about a particular small press, I'll  give you an example of a good one that I recently had an experience with.

This particular publisher is based out of the US and last year I submitted a short story to them for their magazine. Even though I'd never heard of them they were on the leading markets website (see links below), they'd published a few issues of their magazine and it contained a few names that I did recognise. I sent them my story and like all good, patient authors, waited to hear if I'd been accepted.

After a few months I did indeed receive a response - essentially a well worded, professional email, which said they would like to publish the story if I was willing to make a few suggested revisions to improve the story. Now let me be frank here - at no point did I feel as if I was being forced to make the changes in order to be published. Their suggestions were valid ones and I do believe the changes I made and wrote of my own volition, did improve the story.

Obviously, the story was accepted after I made the changes, but the point I am trying to make is that this is how a professional publisher is supposed to operate. They respect the author and their work at all times and give them notice if anything in the story needs revision.

As an emerging author I've racked up probably a 100 or so short story rejections. While they were a little disheartening, each and every publisher always made an effort to motivate me, even in a form rejection. Others went out of their way to tell me what they liked about the story and even grace me with the phrase "please submit to us again in the future".

I feel very lucky that this has been my experience as a fledgling horror author over the past few years. I know there are many fantastic and professional small presses around the globe working their guts out to maintain their reputation and I will defend them to the hilt and drag the bad ones through the mud.

Small presses like Bad Moon Books, Dark Regions Press and Journalstone Publishing are doing amazing things with horror at the moment and deserve our support

As an aside I should say that any author looking to become published should always in the FIRST INSTANCE peruse the following markets:

RALAN - This site looks plain, but as the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover. It is considered THE resource for writers.

DUOTROPE - This site has a great search function, enabling to find the most suitable market for your story.

DARK MARKETS  - This site has a good range of markets and interviews.

And don't forget to visit the Horror Writers Association and the Australian Horror Writers Association for information on markets.

Guest blog: Author Lincoln Crisler

My blog has been infiltrated by US author Lincoln Crisler. Lincoln is the author of several books, including Magick and Misery, Wild and he recently edited the superhero fiction anthology Corrupts Absolutely?, which I am currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying!)

I think he wants to talk about his latest project though Four in the Morning, so I'll shut up now:

In about three weeks I have this book coming out called FOUR IN THE MORNING. There are two really awesome things about this book. First, it isn't just my book. The three stories joining my piece are each written by a talented writer I'm privileged to call a friend. Second, all four stories are dark, but each is firmly entrenched in a different genre: steampunk, urban fantasy, science fiction and horror, to be exact. So I came up with an idea and got to bring it to life with a few good pals, and readers get what amounts to a speculative fiction buffet.

Oh, and I got to write science fiction again. Make that three awesome things.

I seriously stepped outside my comfort zone when writing QUEEN, my contribution to FOUR. The MC is a middle-aged woman who's looking to rejuvenate herself. You couldn't find a character more contrary to my life experience. I'm a guy, and I don't turn 30 even until a month after this book drops, and I love who I am. Those who’ve read QUEEN say I did well despite my disadvantage, and who am I to disagree? With all that unfamiliar terrain I had to navigate, though, I'm happy I was able to have at least a bit of a comfort zone.

I love science fiction. I might love science fiction even more than horror. Before I was ever allowed to crack open a Stephen King or a Dean Koontz, I had been steeped in superhero comics, Piers Anthony, Anne McAffery, Poul Anderson and Isaac Asimov for damn near a decade. The science fiction stories I've written—about a robot serial killer, a time-travel mistake and a drunken private eye's thwarting of an alien plot, amongst others—number among my personal favorites.

I like my science fiction dark, though. I'm a huge fan of everything Star Trek, but my favorite series' are Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, hands down. Nothing thrills me more than the Mirror Universe stories, canon and non-. The Langoliers is one of my favorite science fiction stories ever. Straczinski's Rising Stars is one of the best self-contained superhero series' you'll ever crack open. None of this stuff is sweetness and light. None of the characters can be said to be all good or all evil. And a broken moral compass is almost a necessity.

So, while I explored the uncharted territory of the mature female psyche, I'd like to think that the uncertainty, infinite possibilities and opportunities for self-discovery offered by all great science fiction  were effective tools I could use to smooth things out a bit and tell a story I'm proud of.

You'll have to judge for yourself in the end, of course.

A young girl coming of age in an alternate, steampunk Chicago learns the truth about herself while avenging her lost friends. A bitter, teenage murderer finds acceptance and power in the arms of a dark African god’s gangster disciples. A middle-aged woman in a frigid marriage discovers her experimental age-defying treatment may be something more than skin deep. A worn, aged, small-town patriarch uncovers a web of sinister transactions revolving around his local funeral home.

Four in the Morning offers adventurous steampunk, sinister urban fantasy, dark science fiction and bone-chilling horror in three novelettes and one novella from four exciting genre voices.

Lincoln Crisler’s body of work includes two short story collections and one novella and editorship of the dark superhero anthology Corrupts Absolutely? His work has appeared in a variety of print and online venues. He is a noncommissioned officer in the US Army and a three-time veteran of the War on Terror. Lincoln currently lives in Augusta, Georgia, with his wife and two of his three children. He regularly blogs, offers his opinions on current events and publishing trends and reviews books at http://lincolncrisler.info/.

The Noctuary video

So what started off as an idea for a trailer to promote my novella The Noctuary, turned into something a lot more adventurous, with illustrations, voice-over and sound effects coming together to create a mini-movie.

I took the first one and a half pages of The Noctuary and asked the amazingly talented voice over artist Ricky Grove to narrate it for me. Ricky went above and beyond simple narration, virtually acting out the excerpt in the characters of Simon Ryan and the sinister muse Meknok.

Ricky is a former actor, with credits including Army of Darkness and Babylon 5, but he now specialises in voice acting and animation!

When I first heard Ricky's VO and specifically his interpretation of Meknok, I had to look over my shoulder just to make sure the Muse wasn't standing behind me! It was simply that good!

Originally the entire VO was well over five minutes and I found I had to create quick charcoal illustrations just to fill in the gaps, but with Ricky's sound advice and sound effects, we managed to trim it back to little over three minutes.

The final result, I think you'll agree is just superb and already I'm pondering how to present my art and writing in this format again in the future. Let me know what you think!

You can find out more about Ricky HERE

Torment trailer

Long overdue I know, but here is the trailer I made for my first novella Torment, made using Windows Movie Maker.

I'm currently working on the trailer for The Noctuary, which will be more of an animation using my own own illustration, rather than sourced photos - and if I'm very lucky - it might even include a voice actor reading out an excerpt from the book!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the Torment trailer and by all means, let me know what you think!

The week that was

It's been a week of diversity and creativity.

The Easter weekend, which was over far too quickly, gave me a bit of time to do a few extra-curricular activities in the area of design.

I put the call out to a few author friends to see if they needed any promotional poster artwork done and thankfully some work came my way. I did the posters for G.N. Braun, Jake Eliott and Travis Heermann at mate's rates (free), but the posters did help me secure a paid gig for some cover artwork, which I'll reveal in the near future. It was fun to get back on Photoshop and stretch the brain a bit. The posters I designed are below:

 

If you have a book coming out and like the idea of a poster to promote it, just contact me at darkscrybe@gmail.com

I've also started contributing reviews to Australian specfic review and news site Thirteen O'Clock. I've reviewed Stephen M Irwin's The Broken Ones and Cemetery Dance #65 so far, but the site is generally well worth a look.

I also recently submitted two short stories to separate markets - Midnight Echo Magazine #8 and Dark Prints Press' A Killer Among Demons anthology. Fingers crossed on those. Meanwhile I'm eagerly anticipating the publication of Midnight Echo #7, which will feature my comic art for Allure of the Ancients, written by Mark Farrugia. The issue is due on May 31.

Meanwhile things are progressing with Witch-Hunts with the publisher's text edits being worked on at the moment. You can pre-order the graphic novel I illustrated for writers Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton HERE or HERE. It should go on sale in the next two months or so. Can't wait for that.

Author Interview: Mark Farrugia

I first became acquainted (via email) with Melbourne author Mark Farrugia in 2009 when he contacted me about  illustrating a comic about a vampire seeking a meal while scrounging around the muddy, war-torn fields of the Somme. Not much later that comic - Allure of the Ancients was published in Midnight Echo Magazine #5.

We eventually met face-to-face last June in Melbourne and there was plenty of talk between us about the next chapter of Allure and its vampire character Rahkh. Last month Mark and I put the finishing touches on Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom, which will be published in Midnight Echo # 7 this May.

Mark took some time to speak to me about the origins of Allure and his forays into writing and editing and it's fascinating to say the least. Scattered throughout is some of the art from our collaboration:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself; what do you do when you’re not writing?

For a lot of reasons I can’t control, unfortunately I don’t write much these days. That does give me a lot of time to do other things though. I cycle every day and kayak about 4 times a week.  Sometimes, I sail. Bushwalk. Run. I read a bit, too. I don’t like being indoors. When I read it’s outside. I’ve done some big trips on the bike, peddled from Cairns to Cape York once. Just me and one other guy; we mailed food to ourselves and picked it up from homesteads along the way. Also did Kunanarra to Broome, along the Gibb River Road, and the west coast of Tasmania.

2. Why speculative fiction?

Because you’re only restricted by your imagination.

3. Your favourite author/story?

Novel:  American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Novella: Wives by Paul Haines

Short Story: On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with the Dead Folks by Joe R Lansdale

Graphic Novel series: Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Graphic Novel: Watchmen by Alan Moore

4. Your very first published story – give us the details.

To Kill a Lesser God, published in Borderlands 11, in 2009, I think. It was about the ancient god of celibacy trying to find peace in a sexually primed modern world ruled by a bigger god—the internet.

5. Your tales tend to be subversive, controversial, disturbing, but most of all memorable – obviously the memorable part is deliberate, but what about the rest? Do you always set out to push the envelope?
   
   

Thanks for the kudos. Honestly, I’m not sure how you can deliberately make a story memorable. But I think readers tend to remember a story if it connects with them emotionally or sparks an emotional response within them.   

I think what I set out to do when I write is blur the line between right and wrong and sort of challenge the traditional view of the world. Maybe confuse the reader’s sense of morality. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t know. I don’t get much feedback about my stories. The best feedback I have received though was totally unintentional and consistent with what I think I try to do. It came from a friend who I’d describe as very intelligent and level-headed.  She sent me a message saying she felt sorry for the protagonist at the end of one of my stories. This confused me, big time. So, I pointed out that the character was not a very nice guy. For example, the first thing this character did after his long-term partner had been violently abducted was to take their life savings and try to buy time with an old woman chained, against her will, to a bed. After I pointed this out, she messaged me back saying, essentially, “Yes, that bastard got what he deserved.” For a moment at least, I think I somehow managed to blur the distinction between right and wrong in her mind. I like that, it think it’s very cool. 

6. You’ve edited the Best of Horror #2 for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in the past – any more editing jobs coming up for you?

I edited ASIM: Best of Horror Volume 2 with Juliet Bathory. I also edited ASIM 46. I am currently editing Midnight Echo 8 with Amanda Spedding and Marty Young. It’s a very exciting project, Midnight Echo have just increased the rates they pay authors too, so we hope to get some great submissions.

A page from the original "Allure of the Ancients",
published in Midnight Echo #5

7. The Allure of the Ancients comic series first appeared in issue 5 of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association’s magazine Midnight Echo. It centred around a vampire named Rahkh trolling through the Western Front of World War I searching for prey when he finds a human soul just as lost as his. What inspired that story and why do it as a graphic story or comic?

What inspired it? Honestly, no idea. I think I wrote the original Allure story for a vampire anthology.

The reason it’s a comic is simple: I couldn’t get the story to work as prose. The two characters are isolated from each other during the first half of the story and that resulted in too many pov hops. The story was too stop-start.  A total mess, really.

8. Rahkh returns in Midnight Echo #7 with the first chapter of a new story, The Key to His Kingdom, where we get to see some of Rahkh’s past and his manipulation of mankind. There are a few taboos, which fit in with the issue’s theme, but what is your overall intent with the Allure and Rahkh series?

Page 1 of the next chapter, "Allure of the Ancients:
The Key to His Kingdom", which will appear in
Midnight Echo #7, this May.

Originally with The Key to His Kingdom I wanted to explore fractured human relationships and vampire lore in historical settings. I was keen to create a secret vampire/human history before going on to explain the reason behind the vampires aversion to Christian symbols. However, when I pitched the idea to Midnight Echo Executive Editor Marty Young he wanted me to “..think how the horror genre could take back the vampire and make this creature horrifying again. Get rid of the sparkles and romance.” Then, when I formally submitted the idea to Editor Daniel I Russell he wanted my story to focus more on taboos. I sort of merged a little of what everyone wanted and the result seems to work, I think.

My overall intent? Ha! If I told you that I’d spoil the future episodes. Rest assured, though, my intention, in the end, is clear. I will say one thing though, Greg, I think the next instalment contains one scene you might not want to draw...you’re going to ask to see the script now, aren’t you?

Also the format of the comic changes from episode 2. Episode 1 focuses on the vampire’s recollections, future episodes will rely on dialogue and character interaction to drive the story forward.

9. What’s next for you - any new stories on the horizon?

I’ve written March of the Amputee, which is the sequel to Seeds (which appeared in Midnight Echo #6). I will soon start writing One Man, One Vote which will be the third and final part of the story. I also have an 8 page SF comic script, which I think is pretty good, and I want to expand it to approximately 40 pages. I’ll revisit that one day.

10. How do people find you on the web?

Along with Juliet Bathory, David Schembri Amanda Spedding, and Marty Young, I occasionally blog at http://screamingink.org/