Blood Reign: Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 On Sale at DriveThru Fiction

Blood-Reign-FinalCvrHot on the heels of its debut in the StarWarp Concepts webstore in both print and e-book editions, my young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 is now also available at digital distributor DriveThru Fiction!

Blood Reign joins the previous Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud, which is also available from both DriveThru and the SWC webstore. For those unfamiliar with Blood Reign, here’s the synopsis:

She was stabbed in the heart with an ancient mystical spear. Her mother was kidnapped by a band of vampires led by a fallen angel—their goal: unleashing hell on earth. And every living creature on the planet faces extinction at the hands of a race of biblical monsters. But for Pandora Zwieback, the worst may be yet to come.

In this terrifying next chapter of the story begun in the critically acclaimed novel Blood Feud, join the teenaged Goth adventuress as she discovers that death is only the beginning of her saga…

You’ll find Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 here for $2.99 at DriveThru Fiction. Get started reading today!

And don’t forget to visit the SWC store at DriveThru Fiction, where you’ll find our growing list of digital graphic novels and novels. From monster-fighting Goth chicks and immortal warriors to fairy-tale princesses and soul-stealing succubi, StarWarp Concepts is your home for literary action heroines, and you’ll find them all at DriveThru Fiction!

Blood Reign: Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 Now On Sale!

Blood-Reign-FinalCvrYes, it’s finally happened—after many drafts, a lot of angst to get it just right, and a lot of cries for forgiveness to Panatics eager to read this tome, Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 is at last on sale! Here’s the synopsis:

She was stabbed in the heart with an ancient mystical spear and died. Her mother was kidnapped by a band of vampires led by a fallen angel—their goal: unleashing hell on earth. And every living creature on the planet faces extinction at the hands of a race of biblical monsters. But for Pandora Zwieback, the worst may be yet to come.

In this terrifying next chapter of the story begun in the critically acclaimed novel Blood Feud, join the teenaged Goth adventuress as she discovers that death is only the beginning of her saga…

Visit the Blood Reign product page at its publisher, StarWarp Concepts, for all the pertinent sales links. The PDF e-book edition is currently available, with Kindle and ePub versions to follow within the next two weeks.

And if you haven’t read it yet, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is still available from The ’Warp’s webstore, in both print and e-book versions. Visit that page, too, for sales links and a downloadable sample chapter.

Next stop: Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3! And thanks once again to all you Panatics for your patience!

Blood Reign: Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 Debuts Tomorrow!

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2—author Steven A. Roman’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud—goes on sale tomorrow, February 2, 2015. Pan was certainly left in a bad spot at the conclusion of Blood Feud, but if you’ve read the downloadable Blood Reign preview, you know that the cliffhanger ending Pan faced is only the start of her monster-complicated troubles…and her adventures!

And here’s the final snippet to prepare you for Ms. Zwieback’s highly anticipated return:

BloodReign-Snippet6

 

 

 

Blood Reign: Teaser Snippet #1

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2—author Steven A. Roman’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud—goes on sale Monday, February 2, 2015. And to whet your reading appetite, hot on the heels of yesterday’s reminder for you to download the special Blood Reign preview, here’s a little snippet of the other thrills you’ll find within its pages:

BloodReign-Snippet1

Blood Reign: Read the Sneak Preview

BloodReign_FreebieBlood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, the highly anticipated second part of Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback’s debut adventure, is scheduled to make its debut on February 2, 2015. But why wait until then to learn how things turned out for Pan after the shocking cliffhanger ending of her first novel, Blood Feud?

Available right now for your reading pleasure is a special Blood Reign preview, which you can download for free from the website of Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts. If you thought Pan suffered a major setback at the end of Blood Feud…well, matters only worsen for her as she finds herself in a brand-new predicament. Then again, it wouldn’t be much of an adventure series if the threats to the protagonist didn’t get bigger along the way, now would it?

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 is written by me: Steven A. Roman, the bestselling author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy (based on the mega-successful Marvel Comics franchise) and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand (based on the popular horror film series). And when it comes to horror credentials, in addition to Blood Feud and Blood Reign I wrote the critically acclaimed Mature Readers graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City (about a succubus fighting a cult of Elder God worshippers), and contributed well-received short stories to the anthologies Best New Zombies Tales 2, The Dead Walk Again!, Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror, and The Almanac of Vampires. So, yes, I know horror. Besides, where do you think Pan got her love of the genre from (other than her fictional dad, David Zwieback, of course)?

Read the Blood Reign preview now, and then get ready for Ms. Zwieback’s triumphant return on February 2, 2015!

Eternal Con 2014 is This Saturday

eternal-con-2014-logo

The second annual Eternal Con starts on June 14, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! Artists alley is where you’ll find me promoting The ’Warp; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. Also scheduled to appear, at his own table, is art legend Bob Larkin, cover painter of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels and spotlight artist of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook.

Eternal Con is being held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, located on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, in Garden City, Long Island. Show-floor hours are:

Saturday: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Sunday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

For more information, including directions and how to order tickets, head over to the Eternal Con Web site.

SWC Backlist: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1

pan_annual_lgContinuing our review of SWC’s backlist, today we look at our young adult dark-urban-fantasy comic book The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, written by Steven A. Roman and Sholly Fisch, and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia, Ernie Colon, and Elizabeth Watasin, with cover art by Henar Torinos. Here’s the synopsis:

Pan’s first full-length comic book adventure! Chasing monsters can be a lot of hard work, and Pan tries to get her chaotic life back in order by attending a family picnic hosted by the parents of her boyfriend, Javier. But relaxing becomes impossible when one of Javi’s ex-girlfriends arrives to complicate things. Stupid mythological siren…

“Song of the Siren” features a script by Saga of Pandora Zwieback novelist Steven A. Roman and full-color art by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0). This king-size special also includes:

“After Hours,” a short tale of the “Paniverse” by writer Sholly Fisch (Action Comics, Scooby-Doo! Team-Up) and comics-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld).

“Shopping Maul,” a Pan short story by Steven A. Roman, about (blood) red-tag sales and Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires, with title page art and color by Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School).

“Roman demonstrates yet again his ability to write in the voice of a teenage girl without resorting to the petty whining and needless angst that seem to plague a lot of the female teenage characters in books today…. I would readily and heartily recommend this comic to anybody.”Word of the Nerd

“Roman mixes young adult fantasy with some themes like ‘young love’ but also with equal parts of ‘female empowerment’ and lets Pandora be a real and true voice. The art by Eliseu Gouveia is just stellar and makes a perfect match for the main story.”Comics For Sinners

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is on sale in print ($7.99 US) at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The e-book ($3.99) is available from DriveThru Fiction. Both print and e-book formats can be purchased from the StarWarp Concepts webstore.

Visit The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 product page for the sales links.

Please support StarWarp Concepts by purchasing one of our books. Thanks!

SWC Backlist: Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1

blood_feudAs a follow-up to this past weekend’s first BookCon, I thought it would be a good time to introduce first-time visitors to our StarWarp Concepts and Pandora Zwieback sites, and new readers of StarWarp Concepts’ titles, to the SWC backlist (and to remind old ’Warp fans of the wide range of our offerings). So while you’ll find the majority of listings appear on the SWC blog, I figured it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to duplicate the entries relating to Pan and the “Paniverse.”

To kick things off, today we look at our young adult dark-urban-fantasy novel Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, written by Steven A. Roman (that’s me). Here’s the synopsis:

Pandora Zwieback is a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s just discovered that her New York City hometown is the stalking ground for every creature of the night out to raise a little hell (literally!). Problem is, she thinks she’s the only one who can see them, which means she can’t tell her friends or family about the dangers around them—not unless she wants to spend the rest of her life locked up in a psychiatric ward.

But before Pan has a chance to make sense of her increasingly weird life, she finds herself in the middle of a war among rival vampire clans. Elegant Gothic Lolitas from Japan on one side, silk-suited Euro-vamps on the other, leather-clad hunters from Eastern Europe in the middle, and all after the same prize: a mysterious crate recently delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s dad. What is its terrifying secret—and will Pan survive long enough to find out?

“Far and away one of the best young adult supernatural fantasy novels released in the last few years.”HorrorNews.net

“A fun and very much recommended read that shouldn’t be overlooked.”Midwest Book Reviews

“A big-style cinematic vampire and monster hunter shoot-’em-up with a very human kid caught in the crossfire… but her relationship with her parents and close friends makes the story gold.”Goodreads

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is on sale in print ($14.95 US) and e-book ($2.99) formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and the StarWarp Concepts webstore. The e-book is also available from iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, DriveThru Fiction, Scribd, and Oyster.

Visit the Blood Feud product page for the sales links.

Please support StarWarp Concepts by purchasing one of our books. Thanks!

My First Published Story

At every comic book convention and book festival I attend, I meet young writers—some middle schoolers, but mostly teenagers—who want to hone their craft, but are either embarrassed by what they’ve written, or frustrated that the words aren’t coming fast enough. And they want to give up.

As writers, we all know about frustration. It’s sitting at your laptop or desktop computer, staring at the screen, trying to will the next words to form so you can get down to business—and they won’t show up. And sure, we all get embarrassed by stuff we’ve written—we see the mistakes and the clunky sentence structure and the stilted dialogue that everyone fails to notice while they’re telling us how brilliant the prose is.

But that, as the saying goes, is all part of the game. You accept the frustrations and the embarrassments and move on. There’s no reason to just give up.

Want an example?

Here, presented for the first time anywhere, are scans of my first published work, “Again: He Who Stalks”—a space-fantasy story I wrote in my junior year at Loyola School in NYC; I would’ve been 16 or so. (I’ve updated the title treatment so not everything about this thing is embarrassing.) Even though it wears its Star Wars influence not just on its sleeve but on the whole damn coat (I was a major SW fan back then), even though every moment I spent re-reading it for this post made me cringe—because no creator likes to examine their early works—it reinforces the adage I’m constantly telling young writers: Everybody’s Gotta Start Somewhere. You just have to keep at it.

Looking at “Stalks” today…yeah, it’s pretty embarrassing—to me, at least. The clunky sentence structure and stilted dialogue? They’re all there—and more. I mean, nerdy author notes within the story explaining sci-fi terms I’d made up? Really? I even provided the sad illustration on page 4. Even worse, it was meant to tie-in to an 8mm sci-fi movie I’d tried my hand at writing and directing (Star Knights? Seriously? Ugh.), but never got past the first couple of days of shooting—before the brand-new camera broke. (That’s what I get for attempting double exposures on film by taping over one of the gears inside the camera housing—damn you for your bad advice, Cinemagic magazine!)

And yet, warts and all, this little gem won The Loyola Magazine!’s contest for Best Short Story—which came as a complete surprise to me. It also led to the teacher who oversaw the magazine asking me the next year if I’d like to become the fiction editor (thanks again, Mr. Moylan!); I said yes. So, maybe “Stalks” was better than I thought…at the time. And maybe if I hadn’t written it I wouldn’t have started down the path that has me entertaining you today with the adventures of a teenaged Goth named Pandora Zwieback.

Everybody’s Gotta Start Somewhere. So keep writing!

“Again: He Who Stalks” copyright © 1979, 2014 Steven A. Roman. All rights reserved.

Pandora Zwieback: Blood Feud On Sale at Oyster Books

blood_feud_largeFollowing the recent deal between e-book distributor Smashwords and online subscription library Scribd, comes exciting news that my young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is available at yet another digital subscription library: Oyster Books! To quote their Web site:

Oyster offers unlimited access to over 500,000 books for $9.95 a month, with new titles added all the time.

We created Oyster to evolve the way people read and to create more of the special moments that only books can offer. From anywhere a mobile device can go—a bustling subway car, a quiet coffee shop, or lost at sea with a Bengal tiger—our mission is to build the best reading experience, one that is both communal and personal, anytime, anywhere.

Smashwords has further distribution deals in the works, most recently with German e-book retailer TXTR and with Overdrive, the world’s largest library e-book platform—and Zwieback Nation will use them to expand our world domination of dark-fantasy publishing. 😉

You’ll find Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 here at Oyster. Start your subscription today!