Announcing the StarWarp Concepts Book Festival!

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New York Comic Con is just a few days away (October 11, in fact), and here at ’Warp Central we know that not everyone can make it to the show to purchase our fantastic products at special discounts. So after much ruminating on the matter, we came up with a solution: why not hold a convention of our own, right at the SWC Web site?

The first-ever StarWarp Concepts Book Festival will open its Web-doors on Thursday, October 11, 2012 and run through Monday, October 15 (to coincide with the four-day New York Comic Con, plus one extra day). With the exception of the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt (which retains its original price) we’ll be offering our print titles at the same discounts you would get if you bought them from us in-person (plus postage), and marking down the prices on all e-books. For example:

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1

Print: $14.95  $10.00 (plus postage)

E-book: $3.99  $1.99 • available in .pcr (Kindle compatible), Epub, and PDF formats

Lorelei: Sects and the City

Print: $12.95  $10.00 (plus postage)

E-book: $5.99  $3.99 • available in PDF format

Carmilla

Print: $10.95  $5.00 (plus postage)

E-book: $2.99  $1.00 • available in PDF format

Snow White

E-book: $1.99  99¢ • available in PDF format

Sounds good, right? All sales will be processed via the StarWarp Concepts webstore; payments are handled through Paypal. But if you don’t have (or want) a Paypal account, don’t worry—they accept credit cards, just like any online retailer.

The con is also open to those folks who did see us at NYCC but didn’t have the cash on hand to pick up one of our wonderful books or T-shirts (that artists alley can strip a wallet bare!). That’s the reason behind the one-day-past-NYCC extension: to give them the opportunity to pick up online what they couldn’t at the show. We hope everyone will take advantage of it.

Blood Reign: The Bad News and the Good News

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“You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now…”

First off, loyal Pan-atics, I have to pass along the bad news: Despite my best efforts, Blood Reign, the second Pandora Zwieback novel, won’t be making its October 9 release date. Despite my best efforts to publish a book I’d be happy with (and you’d be happy with, as well) it’s not quite where I want it to be. And since I’m a stickler for perfection I just can’t let it go out. Not right now. Sorry. As TV host Craig Ferguson says, “I look forward to your angry letters.”

However, there is some good news. In order to take the sting out of not having Pan’s latest adventure on hand, StarWarp Concepts is making the following publications available—for free:

Blood Oath: A short story that you’ll be able to download as a PDF from the Pandora Zwieback Web site. Set between the events of Blood Feud and Blood Reign, it explains what became of House Karnstein’s vampiric strike-team leader Jenessa Branislav after she and her soldiers learned firsthand how foolish it is to attack monster hunter Sebastienne Mazarin in her home. And since Jenessa returns to complicate Annie’s life in the pages of Blood Reign, you’ll definitely want to check out this brand-new addition to Pan’s saga. The story will go live on October 11.

(By the way, what you see here is a dummy cover for the story that I cobbled together. Trust me, the final version by a professional designer will look much better.)  😀

Blood Reign—Special Sneak Preview: If you bought a copy of Blood Feud in the past year-plus and you’re attending next week’s New York Comic Con, come to the StarWarp Concepts booth (#2139) and receive this special printing of Blood Reign’s unedited first chapter, in its entirety. And yes, that cover art is a brand-new illustration by Eliseu Gouveia, artist of the still-free downloadable comic The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0.

Curious about what happened to Pan after Blood Feud’s shocking cliffhanger? Of course you are! Well, this is the place to find out until the novel goes on sale. Supplies will be limited (because I honestly know exactly how many copies of Feud have been sold to date), so get your copy while you can. (More than likely this preview will also appear as a PDF on the Pandora Zwieback site, after the convention and until the book goes on sale, so that Pan’s worldwide fans can join in on the excitement.)

Also for NYCC attendees, The ’Warp be making this one-time offer: If you’re willing to pay us what you would have spent at the show for a copy of Blood Reign, and give us your mailing address, we’ll send you an autographed copy of the book as soon as it’s available, with no extra charges. Think of it as a preorder…on a very late book.

I’ll keep you updated on the book’s progress, but at this point I’m not going to announce a definite publication date. I will, say, though, that when it’s done it means I’m happy with the results. And then I’ll have to immediately jump on the next Pan novel, the werewolf-centric Stalkers, so this problem never happens again.

I appreciate your loyalty and your understanding. And if you do plan on stopping by the SWC booth, please leave your pitchforks and torches at home—the con rules prohibit weapons and open flames.  😉

Happy Banned Books Week!

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Yes, it’s that time of year again when a spotlight is shone on the problem of censorship in United States libraries and bookstores. To quote the Banned Books Week Web site:

According to the American Library Association, there were 326 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2011, and many more go unreported. Banned Books Week is the national book community’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events.

The 2012 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 30 through October 6.

The ten most challenged books of 2011 include Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy (sex and violence), Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird (offensive language and racism), and Dori Hillestad Butler’s My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy (nudity and sex education—seriously?!).

For more information, just click on the poster.

Right now I’m reading Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. How will you celebrate the week?

Brooklyn Book Festival Report

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Photo courtesy Brooklyn Book Festival

So, wanna know how well things went at the Brooklyn Book Festival? Then head on over to the StarWarp Concepts blog and read all about my second trip to New York’s premier publishing event, which was held this past Sunday. You’ll find it here.

Next up on the Events calendar is the big one, the Thunderdome of East Coast pop culture conventions: New York Comic Con. And October 11th isn’t all that far away!

Booth 2139 (hall 3C) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be home to StarWarp Concepts for all four days, and I look forward to seeing you there. I’ll be working the booth the entire weekend, so stop by and say hi if you’re in the neighborhood!

Hey, Brooklyn Book Festival Attendees!

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Thanks for stopping by, and for your interest in Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback.

If you’re here because you spoke with me at the StarWarp Concepts booth, then go ahead and download the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 e-comic that I showed you; just click on the cover you see to the left and save it as a PDF. 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.

If you like what you’ve read in the comic, hit the Buy the Book Button at the top of the sidebar to purchase a copy of Blood Feud. It’ll take you to all the major book-buying links—both print and e-book. And the e-book edition—available for the Kindle and the Nook, as well as from the Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Diesel, and others—is just $3.99!

Blood Feud is the critically acclaimed first novel in the series, which stars 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 Mazarin 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 Annie can explain further, Pan 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.

Then be sure to head over to the StarWarp Concepts site, home of Pan’s publisher. From a redheaded succubus battling a cult of Elder Gods worshipers to classic tales by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and The Brothers Grimm, The ’Warp works hard to live up its reputation as “a small press publisher that presents itself with nothing but professionalism” (that’s what Severe Magazine said about us).

And don’t forget to Like the Pandora Zwieback page on Facebook, so you can keep up-to-date with all the Pan-related news; that link’s also in the sidebar.

Brooklyn Book Festival is This Sunday!

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The 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival is being held on Sunday, September 23, so you know what I’ll be doing this weekend!

Booth 161 (click on the map to enlarge) will be home to the StarWarp Concepts command post this year; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. And hanging out with me will be my buddy, fantasy author J. D. Calderon of the webcomic series The Oswald Chronicles and the epic-adventure comic Tall Tails.

On sale will be the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud; the illustrated classics A Princess of Mars and Carmilla; the Mature Readers graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City; and the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt.

I’ll even be dragging some of my non-SWC works out of storage, so if you’ve ever wanted to purchase copies of my X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy novels, my young adult superhero graphic novel Sunn, or the anthologies Untold Tales of Spider-Man and The Ultimate Hulk (for which I collaborated on stories), then here’s the place to find them—and at steep discounts, too! (While supplies last, BTW.)

The Brooklyn Book Festival is open on Sunday, September 23, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and is located at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street. For more information, including travel directions, head over to the festival’s Web site; just go here.

Well, That’s Interesting….

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So, today at the news site Comics Alliance I find an interview with Christy Marx, writer of DC Comics’ reboot of their 1980s teen fantasy comic Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (of which I was a fan, due to Ernie Colon’s incredible artwork). Even better, they ran a five-page preview of Sword of Sorcery #0—the series in which the new Amethyst will star—along with Marx’s interview. Fantastic!

Then I saw the first page.

Yeaahhhhh.

A moody teen who wears dark clothes and dyes her hair, who also possesses magical powers. Huh. Storywise it fits in with other young adult series these days, but it’s the character’s design that annoys me. It looks so familiar I know I’ve seen it before…

Oh, yeah. On this site. On the cover of my books. In the downloadable comic (and the print version I used to hand out at conventions).

Jeezus, DC.

Convention News

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The Baltimore Comic-Con might be in our rearview mirror, but that doesn’t mean the Fall 2012 convention season is over for StarWarp Concepts—no, sir!

Head over to the StarWarp Concepts blog right now and read all about my first trip to Baltimore’s highly acclaimed, comics-centered gathering, where I met some old fans and Pan gained a few new ones! You’ll find it here.

Next up is the Brooklyn Book Festival, being held this coming Sunday, September 23, at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza. I’ll have more information on The ’Warp’s appearance at that show on Friday.

Then on October 11 we’ll be plunging headfirst into that apocalyptic battleground called Thunderdome—although you probably know it as the New York Comic Con!

Booth 2139 (hall 3C) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be our home away from home for the weekend, and we hope you’ll stop by to say hello (and buy our great books, of course!). I’ll have more info in the coming weeks on what we’ve got planned.

Hope to see you there!

Hey, Baltimore Comic Con Fans!

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Thanks for stopping by, and for your interest in the adventures of Goth monster-hunter-in-training Pandora Zwieback.

[run Pan comic cover alongside next paragraph; link to PDF]

If you’re here because you spoke with me at the StarWarp Concepts table, then go ahead and download the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 e-comic that I showed you; just click on the cover you see to the left and save it as a PDF. 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.

If you like what you’ve read in the comic, hit the Buy the Book Button at the top of the sidebar to purchase a copy of Blood Feud. It’ll take you to all the major book-buying links—both print and e-book. And the e-book edition—available for the Kindle and the Nook, as well as from the Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Diesel, and others—is just $3.99!

Blood Feud is the critically acclaimed first novel in the series, which stars 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 Mazarin 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 Annie can explain further, Pan 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.

Here’s what some reviewers had to say about Pan’s debut:

“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

“Blood Feud is a roller-coaster read; the action never lets up. Author Steven A. Roman has an incredible gift for running lateral plotlines that intersect with a glorious crash…. Highly recommended for ages 15 and up for complexity of plot, and violence.”—Sheila Shedd, Monster Librarian

“A big-style cinematic vampire and monster hunter shoot-’em-up with a very human kid caught in the crossfire. Like any outsider teen, Pandora has her troubles, and can get two fisted when she needs to, but her relationship with her parents and close friends makes the story gold.”—Elizabeth Watasin, Goodreads

“There’s enough action and cerebral humor to entertain an adult while employing fast-paced and engaging characters spouting edgy, almost-inappropriate dialogue aimed at keeping a firm grip on the hormone-addled attention span. Buy it, read it, then pass it along to your neighbors’ teenaged daughter. It’s a win-win all round.”—Sue Granquist, Black Gate Magazine

Then be sure to head over to the StarWarp Concepts site, home of Pan’s publisher. From a redheaded succubus battling a cult of Elder Gods worshipers to classic tales by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and The Brothers Grimm, The ’Warp works hard to live up its reputation as “a small press publisher that presents itself with nothing but professionalism” (that’s what Severe Magazine said about us).

And don’t forget to Like the Pandora Zwieback page on Facebook, so you can keep up-to-date with all the Pan-related news; that link’s also in the sidebar.

Enjoy the rest of the convention!

 

I’m Off to Baltimore Comic-Con!

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The 2012 Baltimore Comic-Con is this weekend, and I’m heading down there to man Table A189—the StarWarp Concepts table in artists alley; just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. Joining me is my buddy Richard C. White, bestselling author of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy and contributor to the anthologies The Ultimate Hulk and Doctor Who: Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership.


On sale will be copies of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, The Bob Larkin Sketchbook, Lorelei: Sects and the City (for you mature readers), and the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt. We’ll also be selling copies of Rich’s pirate fantasy comic, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon (along with its related T-shirt), for all you fans of swashbuckling adventure.

If you’re attending the show, stop by and say hi if you get the chance. And don’t forget to bring your wallet—we’ve got some great stuff for you to buy!

Baltimore Comic-Con runs from Saturday, September 8, to Sunday, September 9. Show hours are 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday; and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Baltimore Convention Center is located at 1 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland.

For more information, head over to the Baltimore Comic-Con Web site; just click on the logo up top.