This past Sunday, SWC author Richard C. White and I attended the tenth anniversary celebration of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which has become the place to go to in New York if you’re a book lover. So how’d it turn out for me and Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts? Well, if you head over to the SWC blog right now, you can check out my Brooklyn Book Festival 2015 report and read all about it!
Thanks 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 right 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.
The 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
Pan’s debut adventure continues in the second novel, Blood Reign, 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 Blood Reign picks up right where the previous novel left off and hits the ground running, in a story filled with danger, high-speed car chases, vampire hit squads, and a generous helping of romance—all while Pan tries to make sense of her increasingly weird life. Pan fans (I call them “Panatics”) can’t seem to get enough of StarWarp Concepts’ resident Goth girl, so feel free to join their growing ranks—we love adding new members to Zwieback Nation.
“If you thought the first book, Blood Feud, was high powered, you’ll love this book! To paraphrase movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s quote: Blood Reign starts with an earthquake and builds to a climax…. This was one fun read!”—Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln’s Last Days
“If Blood Feud, the first volume, took some deliberate pacing steps to build Pandora’s character, this volume eschews that as it thunders along at breakneck speed, barely pausing for breath at any given time (and, I must say, the volume was devoured at speed as well)… I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.”—Andrew Boylan, Taliesin Meets the Vampires
Along with Blood Feud and Blood Reign, on sale right now is The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1. A spinoff from the novel series, this 56-page, full-color comic special—with cover art by award-winning artist Henar Torinos (Mala Estrella)—finds the teenaged Goth adventuress battling vampires and a jealous, man-stealing siren. It features three original stories of what I’ve termed the “Paniverse”—tales that take place within the fictional universe of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback:
Blood Feud, Blood Reign, and The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages. And then start celebrating!
(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, 2014, 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! 😀 )
Speaking of short stories, there’s “Pandora Zwieback and the Bloggy Thing,” in which Pan is asked by a horror site to write a guest post for their blog, to promote her book series (yes, in this instance she’s aware that I write books based on her adventures). I originally wrote it as a real-life guest post for a site called Writing Belle, and Panatics enjoyed the meta aspect of it.
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.
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.
The 2015 Brooklyn Book Festival is being held on Sunday, September 20, and StarWarp Concepts (and me, of course) will be there!
Booth 310 will our home for the day; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. As you can see on the map, we’ll be in a new location at the south end of the plaza (we were closer to the north end, the past two years), but getting moved around by showrunners is to be expected when a successful convention expands—they have to make room for new exhibitors, after all. And BBF has been nothing if not successful.
Manning the booth will be SWC head Steven A. Roman (hey, that’s me!), author of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback. And joining me will be bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil), who’ll be promoting his own StarWarp Concepts projects: the supernatural-superheroes graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; the pirate-fantasy digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special; and his upcoming release, the fantasy writers’ reference book, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination.
On sale will be the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign; the comics The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 and Lorelei Presents: House Macabre; the illustrated classics A Princess of Mars and Carmilla; the graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City and Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; and the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt. (While supplies last, of course.) 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 anthology Best New Zombie Tales, Vol. 2, then here’s the place to find them! (Also while supplies last, BTW.)
The Brooklyn Book Festival is open on Sunday, September 20, 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 website.
The 10th Anniversary Brooklyn Book Festival is less than a month away, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! We’ve just received our location notice for this hugely popular literary celebration, and booth 310 will be our home for the day; as always, just look for the distinctive Pandora Zwieback banner. And scheduled to join me this year is bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White, who’s the author of two SWC titles: the pirate-fantasy digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special; and Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings, a general readers’ graphic novel about a group of supernatural-superheroes-for-hire taking on their first case.
The Brooklyn Book Festival takes place on September 20, 2015, and is located at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street. For more information, including travel directions and lists of the exhibitors and authors who’ll be appearing, head over to the festival website.
It’s official: Brooklyn Book Festival will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this September, and StarWarp Concepts will definitely be there to join in the festivities! It’s a show I’ve come to look forward to—a major shift in attitude from when The ’Warp made its first appearance there a few years back, and I kept rolling my eyes hard every time I heard authors referred to as the “literati” (a god-awful, pretentious term if ever I’ve heard one). The ’Warp missed out on last year’s show due to circumstances beyond our control, so we’re doubly excited to greet readers new and old at this year’s festival!
Brooklyn Book Festival takes place—rain or shine—at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza, on Sunday, September 20, 2015, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, including travel directions, visit the BBF website. I won’t know the location of the SWC booth until later in the year—usually they don’t announce booth numbers until August, after the festival committee has finalized the plaza layout—but I’ll be sure to post the map here when I get it.
Hope to see you there!
Bad news, Pandora Zwieback fans, but I have to announce that StarWarp Concepts won’t be attending this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival. And yes, that means I won’t be there, either.
Long story short, from the Department of Too Much Information: On Friday, I got hit with one of my very rare eczema flare-ups (they usually pop up once or twice during the winter). To control the maddening itching, I slathered on hydrocortisone cream, as one typically does in this situation.
Guess what I’ve become allergic to, at this stage of my life?
Marv from Sin City…or allergic me? You be the judge!
The results have been…disturbing, to say the least. Swollen face, puffy eyes—I’ve been told I resemble Mickey Rourke’s character, Marv, from the Sin City movies. My doctor says it could take a week or two to completely get back to where I was before the flare-up, since the allergic reaction made things worse.
And so, to not frighten children or cause book lovers to run screaming in horror, I’ve pulled The ’Warp from the list of BBF exhibitors. But don’t worry, folks, I have every intention of returning for next year’s show…now that I know to stay away from the itching creams.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
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!
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.
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.
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!