Category Archives: Events

Welcome, BookCon 2014 Attendees!

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pan_comic_0Thanks for stopping by the StarWarp Concepts booth today, and for your interest in my Goth adventuress, Pandora Zwieback. If you’re here because you spoke with me, then click on the cover you see to the left and download the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 digital comic that I showed you. Not only is it an introduction to Pan and her world, hosted by Pan herself, but it contains two sample chapters from her first novel, Blood Feud. Give it a read.

 

 

 

blood_feudThe Saga of Pandora Zwieback is the young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series that I write. It’s the story of a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, in the first critically acclaimed novel, Blood Feud, that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world. But before Pan can learn more about what she can do, she and her parents are drawn into a conflict between warring vampire clans that are searching for the key to an ultimate weapon (or so the legend goes)—a key that just so happens to have been delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s father.

“Blood Feud is far and away one of the best young adult supernatural fantasy novels released in the last few years. Pan is exactly the kind of teen heroine that readers should be standing up and cheering for.”—Melissa Voelker, HorrorNews.net

 

“One of those fabulous books that manages to straddle the young adult/adult fiction divide, catering equally for teens and more, ahem, ‘mature’ readers alike with a light touch that makes it a joy to read.”—Kell Smurthwaite, BCF Book Reviews

 

blood_reign-coverPan’s debut adventure continues in the second novel, Blood Reign (on sale this July), in which she and Annie face challenges from not just vampires but legions of monsters led by a fallen angel—who happens to be one of Annie’s ex-lovers! Blood Feud ended on such a shocking cliffhanger that Pan fans (I call them “Panatics”) have eagerly been looking forward to see how it gets resolved. Feel free to join their growing ranks—we love adding new members to Zwieback Nation.

 

 

pan_annualAlong with Blood Feud, on sale right now is The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which features two brand-new adventures (written by me) of Pan and her friends that are separate from the novels: a full-color comic story drawn by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0), in which Pan and her boyfriend, Javier, run into one of his ex-girlfriends…whom Pan can see is really a mythological siren that can enrapture men with her voice; and a short story that pits Pan, Annie, and Javier against a trio of Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires—in a shopping mall! An additional backup tale, “After Hours,” is provided by DC Comics writer Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, Action Comics, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and drawn by comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).

Give the site a look-over—we’ve got plenty of free stuff you can download, and a gallery called “The 13 Days of Pan-demonium”: 13 unique drawings of Pan and Annie by a host of talented artists. And when you’re done, don’t forget to Like Pan’s Facebook page, so you can keep up-to-date with all the latest news.

(A special shout-out to teen readers and Pandora Zwieback fans who are budding authors, but who may think their work isn’t all that good and worth continuing: Check out this post from May 27, where I talk about my first published work—a science-fiction story I wrote when I was 16. Take a look at that and tell me you can’t do better! 😀 )

And please keep in mind that Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, is not just a YA fiction house. It also publishes illustrated classics (including J. Sheridan’s Le Fanu’s vampire romance Carmilla and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars); graphic novels for superhero fans and adult horror aficionados; digital and print comic books; and artist sketchbooks. Give them a visit and check out all they have to offer.

Again, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I’ll see you again on September 21, at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Then you can tell me in person how incredible Pan is.  😀  See you there!

BookCon 2014 is Tomorrow!

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BookCon-2014-MapThe first-ever BookCon is this Saturday, May 31, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! Run by ReedPOP (the folks responsible for New York Comic Con), this one-day show is a spinoff of Book Expo America, the publishing industry’s annual tradeshow, and is the first time the doors are being widely opened to the general public. Big-name guests include Stan “The Man” Lee, Holly Black, John Grisham, R. L. Stine, and…Grumpy Cat? Really? Jeez, they’ll give anybody a book deal these days…

Booth #3061 is where you’ll find me and Richard C. White—author of the dark fantasy superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings and the digital pirate-fantasy comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special—promoting The ’Warp; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. We’re right between Penguin Group’s Book Country and Publishers Weekly booths, and directly across the aisle from the booth for a novel titled Waiting for the Bomb.

BookCon is being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, located at 655 W 34th Street, on Manhattan’s West Side. Show-floor hours are 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. (That’s right, the con is only six hours long, so be sure to get there on time.) For more information, including how to order tickets, head over to the BookCon Web site.

Pan Gets Travoltified!

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In the spirit of this past Sunday’s Academy Awards, Pan gets to find out what it’s like to be singer Idina Menzel and have superstar actor John Travolta mangle her name! You can do it too at the brand-new Travoltariffic name generator at Salon.com.

Pandora_Travoltified

Baltimore Comic-Con 2013: Pan Sketches!

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This past weekend, StarWarp Concepts attended the latest Baltimore Comic-Con to meet old Pan-atics and greet new ones. It’s a constantly growing venue—expanding to three full days in 2014—dedicated almost solely to comics and their creators, so it’s a good thing we had copies of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 available so we could fit in!  😀

So how’d the show go? I’ll have an in-depth con report over at the StarWarp Concepts blog this week to tell you what went on.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of sketches of our favorite Goth adventuress that I commissioned from local artists in attendance. Check ’em out!

Cheltz_PandoraSketchFirst up, we have pencil art from Cheltz. She was part of the PLB Comics crew at the next-door table, and at one point on Saturday afternoon she got a deep cut on one of her fingers. Since I just happen to carry a small first-aid kit in my messenger bag, I was able to provide immediate medical assistance. “Just for that,” Cheltz said, “you’re getting a free crappy sketch!” Not so “crappy,” in my opinion; in fact, I think it’s great!

 

 

 

 

 

Danielle_PandoraSketchThis color sketch I commissioned from Danielle Sylvan Dernoga, who was sitting one aisle over. I’d passed her booth a few times and really liked her art style, so I had to have her draw Pan. Then we discussed the possibility of her doing a Pan Annual cover at some point. We’ll definitely be talking again!

Next up: the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 22. Hope to see you there!

 

 

Hey, Where’d I Go?

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An extremely belated Happy New Year to all you loyal Pan-atics. I apologize for the lack of updates in the last weeks, but I imagine you’d rather have me focusing on getting the second Pan novel, Blood Reign, into your waiting hands than spend time blogging. I’m trying to find a way to balance the two, though, so this site doesn’t fall too far behind in passing along the latest Pan news.

Anyway, what’s been going on since you last heard from me? Well, there was my December appearance on the Veterans Radio show At Ease, hosted by New York Times bestselling author/historian Dwight Jon Zimmerman, where I talked up Blood Feud, Pan’s character background, and how a guy with no military experience was able to write fairly accurate combat scenes (it’s all in the research).

And in January, Diamond Comics Distributors—the U.S.’s premier comic book and pop culture merchandise distributor—accepted StarWarp Concepts’ solicitation for The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, a 48-page full-color special that goes on sale May 8, 2013. It’ll be listed in the March edition of the Diamond Previews catalog; I’ll let you know when you can pre-order your copy of the annual.

What’s in it, you ask? How about a story of Pan and her boyfriend Javi on their first date by me and artist Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0)? Then there’s a short tale of the Paniverse by writer Sholly Fisch—who’s been providing the backup stories for DC Comics’ Action Comics series (as well as writing the 2012 Action Comics Annual #1)—and comics legend Ernie Colon, co-creator of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and artist of characters as varied as Magnus, Robot Fighter and Green Lantern to Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich. And rounding out the contents is an exclusive Pan short story by me involving Pan and her “Fiend Club” friends clashing with Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires at a shopping mall, with title page art by Elizabeth Watasin, indie comics creator of Charm School and the author of the Dark Victorian series of steapunk adventure novels.

And just take a look at this great cover art by Henar Torinos, the Madrid-based artist/creator of the graphic novel series Mala Estrella (Bad Star):

Have you ever seen a better portrayal of Pan as a happy Goth? On the other hand, her best friend, Sheena McCarthy, doesn’t look too happy—but how would you feel if you had a bunch of monsters with skunk breath crowding you in?

Stay tuned for more exciting news!

Pandora Zwieback and the Howling Commandos

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Mark your calendars and adjust your Internet radios, ’Warp fans—Saturday, December 29, is the day when I’ll be appearing live on At Ease, the morning program hosted by bestselling author and historian Dwight Jon Zimmerman on the Veterans Radio Network!

The show starts at 9:00 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, and I’m the first scheduled guest. It’s my chance to introduce America’s fighting elite to the adventures of a certain teenaged Goth monster hunter, so let’s hope more than a few veterans listening in will be convinced that the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud, is just the book they should be buying for their kids and grandchildren.

Veterans Radio airs every Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern on Ave Marie Radio. 990 AM WDEO, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1440AM WMAX Saginaw, MI and 98.5FM in Naples, Florida. For those of you tuning in via the ’Net, just visit the network’s Programs page and click on the “Listen Live” link.

Radio, Radio

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Well, this is different.

Those of you who read my report on this year’s New York Comic Con may remember a visit I had at the StarWarp Concepts booth by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times bestselling co-author (with political pundit Bill O’Reilly) of Lincoln’s Last Days, a nonfiction examination of the events leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Dwight and I go back a ways; in fact, he was my editor on the X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy novels that I wrote in 2000 and 2002.

Anyway, at the con Dwight and I swapped books, with me giving him a copy of the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud. Dwight e-mailed me a few days later to say he’d finished reading it and enjoyed Pan’s story a lot—so much so that he recently contacted me about appearing on his radio show At Ease, which is broadcast on the Veterans Radio network. Of course I said yes!

So on December 29, I’ll be hawking the adventures of a teenaged Goth chick who fights monsters to America’s warriors. Good thing I included a couple of battle scenes in Blood Feud to get their interest, huh?  😉

More details to come as the date gets closer.