New Year, New Excitement

Posted on by

Happy Belated New Year’s wishes to one and all! Yet even with the holiday season come and gone, there’s never any rest for the wicked over here at Zwieback Central, where stuff was continuing to happen while you were away. Let’s review what you might have missed, shall we?

E-books

A reminder from the end of last year: Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is available for your e-reader—and for the incredibly reasonable price of just $3.99! If you’ve been holding off from buying the print edition, or know someone who might be interested in giving Pan’s literary debut a read, then here’s where you’ll find it:

Amazon.com: Available at the Kindle Store.

Barnes & Noble: Available at the Nook Book Store.

DriveThru Fiction: PDF edition available at the StarWarp Concepts store.

Smashwords: Apple iPad-, Kindle-, Kobo-, Nook-, Palm-, and Sony Reader–compatible files available at the StarWarp Concepts store.

Critical Acclaim

Posted just a few days before Christmas, there was yet another positive review of Blood Feud, this time courtesy of Melissa Voelker at HorrorNews.net:

“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.”

Read the entire review by clicking on the logo above.

Free Pan Comic Update

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0—our free, downloadable comic that you’ll find in the sidebar—has been updated! No more references to past selling dates, and now it has the actual text from Blood Feud for the comic’s sample chapters. If you know anyone who might be interested in Pan’s adventures, then please spread the word and have them download this special introduction to the book series.

And as for some non-Pan-related updates…

The SWC 2012 Catalog

Over at the StarWarp Concepts site, you’ll find the final version of The ’Warp’s publishing list for the entire year, now available for download. Go read it—the company’s not all about Pan, y’know! And wait until you see what’s listed among the SWC offerings for this year’s Free Comic Book Day celebration in May!

What, Another Site?

I’ve now got my own Author Page at Amazon.com! As some of you folks know, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback is just my latest project; the Author Page is where you’ll find a list of all the other books I’ve written or contributed to, and what’s still available for completists who can’t get enough of my exceptional writing. 😉  Zombies, superheroes, Doctor Who, Final Destination—is there nothing cool that I haven’t written?

Were we busy over the holidays, or what? And we’re just getting started!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a sequel to Blood Feud to get back to writing…  😉

What the Best-Dressed Monster Hunter Is Wearing

Posted on by

Back in the November 7 post, I told you about my decision to go with Bob Larkin–painted covers for Pan’s novel series as opposed to the fairly interchangeable photo covers that just about every other publishing company uses for their Young Adult titles. One of the reasons was that I couldn’t imagine what it would take to have a replica of Pan’s leather jacket created, complete with the bat ornament that hangs off its left shoulder.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of master artist and sculptor Bob Larkin, I proudly present the one-of-a-kind, real-life Pandora Zwieback leather jacket—complete with bat shoulder ornament and pentagram choker!

Sweet, aren’t they? It’s the same make of women’s motorcycle jacket that Bob used for the Blood Feud painting. The neckwear is a combination of a three-tier choker I found through Amazon.com, and a large piece of Halloween costume jewelry. The bat ornament is constructed of Sculpey modeling clay over a metal frame, then baked in the oven—which means that once it hardened, the thing became extremely fragile; drop it on the floor and it’s bye-bye, ornament.

The devil art is the 16th-century title page image from Eloy d’Amerval’s epic poem Livre de la Deablerie (reproduced in the Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft, from Dover Publishing, which is where I found it). I scanned it and Bob printed it on cotton, then attached it to the jacket with industrial-grade glue—that thing is never coming off!—and painted over the image. Then, after he stripped the oil from the jacket cuffs, the sleeves each took about 30 coats of white paint as a primer so the black leather wouldn’t show through. And after many more hours of painting and waiting for each coat to dry, the sleeves were done—and Pan’s jacket was finally complete!

 

 

What about the bat-faced belt buckle she also wears? (And if you’ve read Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, you know where she’ll be getting that from, at some point…) I’m so glad you asked—because Bob sculpted that, too!

That’s just damn creepy-looking, isn’t it? Not to mention those wings would probably stab Pan in the stomach every time she bent over—but hey, she’s a fictional character with the reader-influencing power of suspended disbelief, so she can wear whatever she wants!  😀

And before you ask, I’m still using painted covers on the series!

*          *          *

And with that we come to the end of 2011. (Yeah, I know there’s one more week left, but the office’ll be closed between Christmas and New Year’s—at least that’s the plan.) It’s been a mildly bumpy road, this first year back in the publishing saddle for StarWarp Concepts after a six-year hiatus, but the madness has been fun in its own way. And rest assured, we’re just getting started!

However, we couldn’t have made it this far without the support of you folks out there, so on behalf of book designers Mat Postawa and Mike Rivilis, Web designer Dave De Mond, artists Bob Larkin and Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia, and photographer Marc Witz, I wish you and yours a fun and safe holiday season and a Happy New Year.

See you in 2012!

E-bookapalooza!

Posted on by

The holidays are here, so what better time to curl up with your favorite e-reader and catch up on the doings of Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback in her first novel?

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is available right now at the following e-tailers, for the quite reasonable price of $3.99:

•  (Nook Book)

 

 

 

 

•  (.mobi, ePub, PDF, RTF, Palm; .mobi, BTW, means it’s Kindle compatible)

 

 

•  (PDF)

 

 

 

Also available at DriveThru Fiction: J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century vampiress novella, Carmilla—illustrated by Pandora Zwieback comic artist Eliseu Gouveia, and on sale for just $2.99.

Just click on the logos and start your last-minute shopping!

When the (Internet) Radio Is on

Posted on by

 

Last Thursday I appeared on the Scifi Diner podcast to promote Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, but that’s not all we discussed! It turned into an hour-long, freewheeling conversation that spanned my writing and editing careers, my fanboyish obsession with Doctor Who, the state of young adult fiction, praise for Pandora Zwieback artists Eliseu Gouveia and Bob Larkin, and even a plug or two for some StarWarp Concepts releases.

A big shout-out to hosts Scott Hertzog and Miles McLoughlin for allowing me to ramble on as much as I did, but once they got me started on a topic it was hard to shut up.  😀

Grab yourself a snack and a favorite beverage, then click on the Scifi Diner logo to head over to the show’s site and download the new episode. It’s a Pan-tastic interview!

On the (Internet) Radio

Posted on by

Sorry about the lack of updates around here these past couple of weeks, but have no fear—the Hype Hearse is back on the road! First stop:

This past weekend I had the pleasure of appearing on the podcast Sci-Fi Saturday Night to promote Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 and, despite all my uhh-ing (Gah! I hate doing that!) as I stumbled through the conversation, I had a good time. Learn the history of Gothopolis, and the secret influence behind the Pan series, then howl with laughter as I recount my brief misadventure trying out as a Batman Adventures artist for DC Comics. Good times, good times…

Just click on the logo above to head over to the show and give it a listen.

But that’s not my only appearance this month! On Thursday I’ll be interviewed by the folks at Sci-Fi Diner Podcast, and there are Q&A’s in the works for Reading Bites—the blog for the book-review site Monster Librarian—and Books of the Dead Press, the publisher of Best New Zombie Tales 2, an anthology to which I contributed. I’ll let you know when those interviews run—and whether more are coming!

They Wanna Put Me in the Movies…

Posted on by

So you thought all the coverage of the 2011 New York Comic Con had been exhausted, did you? Not true—and there’s videographic evidence to prove it!

The Web site Invest Comics has posted the third and final installment of their video tour of the con—just click on the logo above to view the sights and sounds of the East Coast’s version of Thunderdome. I come in at the 11:35 mark and hype Pan’s adventures for about a minute, but you should definitely watch the rest of the video (along with parts 1 and 2) to check out the other small-press publishers who were exhibiting, and to get the full NYCC 2011 experience.

Now if only I didn’t hate the sound of my own voice…

Painted Covers? What’s Up With That?!

Posted on by

Early in the process of conceptualizing the cover style for the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels, I toyed with the idea of a photo shoot—hiring a model to dress as Pan, and then using her pictures for the book covers. Then I realized the costs that would be involved: the model and the photographer (not to mention that the pics for all the book covers would have to be taken in one session); the makeup artist and the hairstylist (or at least a really good black wig with a blond streak painted on); and, most of all, the costume.

Okay, black jeans were not a problem, the pentagram choker could be cobbled together, and adding the devil-girl face to a black T-shirt was as simple as running out its image on an iron-on transfer from my inkjet printer… but that jacket. That flame-sleeved, bat-shoulder-ornamented jacket. Where the hell would I ever find that? They don’t sell those things at Walmart, y’know. And what might it cost to have one made?

Numbers began piling up in my head. And this didn’t even figure in the prospect of hiring an Annie model as well—and you know how complicated her outfit is!

Ultimately, I decided to go with painted covers by Bob Larkin. Not just because he’s an incredible artist, not just because a live-action Pan might have cost way too much for my small-press budget, but because… well, have you seen the covers of most Young Adult vampire-related novels lately?

They all use photographs. And they all. Look. The. Same. They don’t even look vaguely vampiric. I’m amazed that, outside of the author bylines, people can tell the difference between one series and another.

 

Now, I’m not a dope. I know there’s a certain appeal to portrait shots of attractive women on dark-fantasy covers—why do you think the StarWarp Concepts reprint of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire novella Carmilla has one? But at least we gave her red eyes so you’d know she was one of the undead!  😀

With Pan, however, I thought (and still think) it was the right decision to go with painted covers. It helps the series stand out from the multitude of pretty headshots, and allows us to be more dramatic with the images: the iconic-yet-attitudinal pose on Book 1; the bloodthirsty Goth Loli holding Pan on Book 2; the snarling werewolf stalking Pan and Annie on Book 3, the… well, I won’t say what the other covers will involve. “Spoilers!” as Professor River Song says on Doctor Who. Yet, after the first three paintings were completed, I still wondered if it were even possible to create an actual replica of Pan’s leather jacket.

And then came the day when Bob Larkin made it happen…


Blood Feud: Not Just for Dark Fantasy Readers

Posted on by

It’s a new month, with a new outpouring of love for Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1!

Over at the Web site for the weekly podcast Sci-Fi Saturday Night, reviewer “The Dome” has posted his thoughts on Pan and Annie’s first adventure:

“Equal parts Sorcerer’s Apprentice and 48 Hours, this is a mystic roller-coaster ride that glimpses a demonic past and uncertain future in the hands of two unlikely women who the fates have paired.”

Read the entire review here.

48 Hours, huh? Hmmm… I guess Pan would be Eddie Murphy, with Nick Nolte as Annie. (How’s that for a weird visual?) Well, Pan could certainly sing “Roxanne” all high-pitched and off-key, so it might work…  😉

Bonus News! “Illustrator X,” the guest coordinator for Sci-Fi Saturday Night, contacted me about doing an interview for one of the podcasts—of course I said yes! Stay tuned for further developments.

Happy Halloween!

Posted on by

Yes, when I’m not figuring out ways to make Pan’s difficult life even more difficult, I occasionally do some cartooning. Why, I even have my own DeviantArt page! Feel free to check it out.

Have a safe and happy All Hallows’ Eve—and, uh, maybe you oughtta unwrap that candy before you eat it, don’cha think?