New This Week in Dark Fantasy 8/23/2017

Captivated by Crimson by Brynn Myers

 

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Synopsis:

She is the fated one I have been waiting for...
The crimson in her veins will restore me…

My desire for her burns like no other…
I must possess her…
Dare to touch her and you will be the one to suffer…

Nola Blair is a free-spirited photographer sent to cover the party of the century in Elizabeth Bathory’s ruined castle. It was an assignment she'd declined––twice, but when she was offered a hefty sum to indulge the wealthy eccentric, she finally gave in. Little did she know that the guests at this party were centuries old and their desires reached far beyond those of a normal partygoer.

One captivating night will change her life and the two vampires vying for her will fight to the death to get what they want. One wants her to be his and the other wants her blood.

Who will decide Nola’s fate?

 
Throne of the Bastards  by Brian Keene &  Steven L Shrewsbury

 

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Synopsis:
Sword and sorcery collides with horror once again in this sequel to Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury’s award-winning KING OF THE BASTARDS.

Learning that his family is in danger, Rogan returns to his former kingdom, now under siege from foreign invaders and supernatural forces led by his bastard son. With time running out, the aging barbarian and his trusted companions, Javan and Akibeel, must forge an alliance of new friends and old foes, mustering an army to retake the kingdom. Surrounded by savages, soldiers, demons, and dark magic, it will take all of their cunning, skill, ruthlessness, and courage to survive the slaughter and determine once and for all who shall sit upon the THRONE OF THE BASTARDS.

 
Swarm and Steel by  Michael Fletcher

 

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Synopsis:

Zerfall awakens in an alley, wounded and unable to remember her past. Chased by an assassin out into the endless wastes of the desert, she is caught, disfigured, and left for dead. Her scabbard is empty, but the need for answers—and the pull of her sword—will draw her back to the city-states.

When Jateko, a naïve youth, accidentally kills a member of his own tribe, he finds himself outcast and pursued across the desert for his crimes. Crazed from dehydration, dying of thirst and hunger, he stumbles across Zerfall.

Hunted by assassins and bound by mutual need, both Zerfall and Jeteko will confront the Täuschung, an ancient and deranged religion ruled by a broken fragment of Zerfall’s mind. Swarm, the Täuschung hell, seethes with imprisoned souls, but where gods—real or imagined—meddle in the affairs of man, the cost is high.

In Swarm and Steel, the power of belief can manifest and shape reality, and for political and religious leaders, faith becomes a powerful tool. But the insane are capable of twisting reality with their delusions as well, turning increasingly dangerous as their sanity crumbles. It is here that a long prophesied evil will be born, an endless hunger. The All Consuming will rise.
 
Blood Huntress by Izzy Shows

 

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Synopsis:

What does it say when vampires aren’t the thing most feared in the night?

Nina Rodriguez has become the most lethal weapon in the world. A blood mage trained by werewolves to hunt and kill with no remorse, no morality, and no hesitation. All that matters is the thrill of the kill, and the danger that comes with it.

When she’s given orders to infiltrate and observe the vampire court, she couldn’t turn it down anymore than she could cease to breathe.

The sweet taste of danger was enough to tempt her, and that only doubles when the vampire king chooses her as his own personal thrall.

He’s a temptation she wasn’t prepared for, but dangerous, and his attention could mean death if she doesn’t watch her mouth. Words are weapons in a vampire court, weapons she was not trained to use.

She can fight off any enemy, but no one prepared her to fight for her soul.

 
Bound by Sorcery by Antara Mann

 

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Synopsis:

A supernatural apocalypse is brewing. And only secret magic can defeat it.

Alexandra Shaw may be an elemental mage, but she prefers the quiet life, running her struggling occult bookshop. With secrets of her own and a magical lineage shrouded in mystery, she keeps a low profile. But when a New York banker is found gruesomely murdered with an ancient symbol carved into his chest — one representing a cult of demon hunters long thought extinct — the supernatural community, including the Magic Council, is stunned.

Alex reluctantly joins the investigation to keep her shop afloat, but tensions between gods and demons continue to rise and threaten to break into a devastating war. To diffuse the situation, the Council assigns a fiercely powerful and sexy fae to the case.

Ancient cults, demons, gods, ritualistic murders, a tempting fae — and as if all that weren't bad enough, now someone’s trying to kill her…

Bound By Sorcery is the first book in the Half-Goddess Chronicles urban fantasy series. It features a kick-ass heroine, a hot hero, mystery, and otherworldly adventures. Fans of Ilona Andrews, Ella Summers and Linsey Hall will enjoy this series.

Help Wanted!

Beta Readers Needed

As I near the end of my current work in progress I want to try something different with this one. In the past I've always relied on an editor alone to get a second set of eyes on my work. This time I'd like to add 4 to 5 beta readers to the process. If you enjoy reading works in the horror / dark fantasy genre and wouldn't mind sharing your reaction to a work by completing a questionnaire at the end I'd like to talk to you. 

The work in progress had been titled A Father's Love and my goal is to win a kindle scout deal with it. I'm currently searching for a title that better reflects the story in a single word. But that's my problem, unless you as a beta reader come up with a better suggestion. 

I've added the first few paragraphs below so you can get a feel for the story.

I'm sorry, there is no compensation aside from a mention in the acknowledgements in the finished book, my eternal gratitude, and the chance to read something no one else has seen yet.

The manuscript will come in at a little over 80,000 words. I have the first 20 chapters ready for beta readers, though I still have to put together the questionnaire. 

If you're interested, drop me a line at rschiver@gmail.com  I'll be setting up a closed beta readers group on Facebook where everyone participating can share their thoughts. 

Thank you.

Richard Schiver

UNTITLED

At night the world slipped on a different mask, as the shadows grew long and deep. A menacing disguise that transformed even the most innocent objects into terrifying creatures. The stack of boxes sitting drunkenly in the corner had become a crouching beast, a thing of fangs and claws ready to leap out and devour her the moment she looked away. Even her Little Princess table, where she had served tea to her collection of stuffed animals on many an occasion, had become a frightening object, whose long shadow reached out for her with the searching fingers of some nameless thing.

“It’s okay, Puddles,” she whispered to the stuffed bunny tucked under the covers beside her, “it’s just your magination.” She pulled Puddles closer to her side, and as she did, she saw her father with her mind’s eye as he wound up to throw another ball. His face a mask of determination as he focused on the task at hand, fading into the dark recesses of her memory as another emerged.

“It’s the witch,” Marjorie, her best friend from school whispered in her mind, drawing her gaze to the pair of windows that looked out upon a night filled with myriad possibilities. The pale moonlight was broken by the passage of dark clouds across the face of the moon, creating alternating bands of light and dark that served to deepen the already threatening nature of the night.

She was out there, the Witch, if Marjorie was to be believed. Searching for her next victim, looking for the next bad little boy or girl to lure back to her lair. With the blankets pulled nearly up to her eyes, her gaze tracked around the darkened bedroom in an endless search for threats.

She was a good girl, she sought to convince herself as the shadows of the night swirled around her in an endless, primitive dance. She listened to her mommy as best she could, and at this thought, she remembered her dress lying on the floor of her closet. She had been told to hang it up.

But had she?

No. The answer chilled her to the bone.

Come join me in this adventure, it''ll be fun, I promise. Drop me a line rschiver@gmail.com
 

Fridays 5 with David Kummer

My name is David Duane Kummer. I'm a teenager, with a couple published novels and a collection of short stories.

I live in a small, river-town on the Ohio River in southern Indiana. Along with taking care of younger siblings (I have eight total), I make time for writing in between school and sports.

I've been writing since I was young, with As Trees Turned Away being my first published work and She being my first published novel. Along with writing, I am an avid reader and watcher of all things horror, and enjoy writing reviews on them for others who might want to know my opinion on them.

When I'm not writing, I enjoy talking with my hilarious friends and amazing girlfriend, spending time with my loving family, watching movies, and working out to burn all of the calories I get from binge-eating Hawaiian Rolls. Those things are really addicting, am I right? I'd rather get payed in those than money.

website: http://davidkummer.com/

email: davidkummer7@gmail.com

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14106755.David_Duane_Kummer

amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/David-Duane-Kummer/e/B018AA9KK2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)  Well, when I was in early elementary school I already loved writing. By third grade, I'd had a copy of one of my "books" (actually a novella) printed professionally ten times, but it was never on sale. I had a brief hiatus from writing, then returned in May of 2015 to publish with Kindle Direct Publishing.

At first, I had no plans to make any money. I just thought it was cool. But with time I realized that you could legitimately make money off of this author thing. That's when the wheels started clicking and I hope to one day make a living off of writing books. (Funnily enough, since this realization sales have gone down. Fate is cruel.)

So, to answer your question, I got serious about June of 2015.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.)  The hardest part right now is not getting discouraged when sales don't go how you had hoped. It's tough work, putting all those emotions and long nights into a book, only to have it not sell well. If I had to give advice to an indie author, it would certainly be: Don't get discouraged. Keep fighting.

The actual writing/book/words part, though, is leaving my characters behind. It's not the same with short stories, but even my novella My Abigail, which was only 20k words made me sad to leave behind those characters. It was especially tough with She, probably because of how that one ended.

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

They have grown strong in the shadows, the kingdom of Oldon. The land is void of hope and of strength against them. The human kingdoms grow corrupt everyday, so that the lines between good and evil are slurred.

One young man from a small village in the valley could change all of that. He fights with the passion of a warrior and the luck of a magician. And when the barbarians force him out of his home, the journey begins.

Trained by a knight, shadowed with secrets, and against the kingdom he once called home, Jonathan is an outcast, a rebel. But more than anything, he is a leader.

Enden is a world filled with wars, famine, sieges, torture, and death. But the greatest battle of all is to survive. Only one thing is certain. Something is rising, in the distance near the edge of the world where forgotten secrets brew. Something has risen. And it is coming.

It is coming.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  When I published my first book officially in 2015 (see above), I was thrilled. Amazed. We immediately ordered 10 copies, and I set to work writing a full-length novel soon afterwards. Every time I publish something, it's a rush of adrenaline that keeps me going for weeks afterwards. There's nothing like it.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.)  Character is, by far, more important to me. The story is what they do. Without them, there would be no story. They are the cause to the story's effect.

I strive to make my characters as familiar as possible, especially for myself. I want readers to relate to them. I pour myself into every one of them and try to entertain. Without them, I wouldn't have anything published.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  Well, if we're going by weekdays, it's normally wake up for school (yeah, I still got that; I'm only in high school), go to either basketball or cross country practice afterwards depending on the season, and then come home and shower. I'll either work out or practice more, or I'll bypass that step and go straight to the computer. I'll stay on there until 11 or 12, read for maybe an hour, then go to bed and repeat the whole thing over again at 7 the next morning.
(Is that healthy? Probably not. That's why there are mangoes.)

HHAC 2016 John Cummings

I was born in Bangor, Maine and much of my childhood was spent growing up in a trailer park in Hermon with my three other siblings. We were all Homeschooled, so I never experienced a “traditional” education – heck, I’ve never even stepped foot in a High School before! (ha) I’ve always sort of wanted to go walk around inside one just to see it all firsthand, but as I keep getting older while working on my Master’s Degree (Engineering Physics), the more I think it would be weird… But I digress.

On the topic of writing, I’ve always seen it to be the purest form of self-expression and or, in general, the ability to explore any idea possible. We can take a single idea, or maybe even a version of our personality, and use that as the proverbial spark to create an entirely new character or fictional world to work in. It all starts and ends with our imagination. For me, writing started during my teen years as a way to escape my less-than-ideal reality and explore the torrent of crazy emotions we feel inside at that age. As I got older my writing most certainly matured, but one aspect of it never changed, in that I always strive to express emotions of things I know personally. Kind of fits with the ol’ saying, “Write what you know.” 

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Synopsis:

In the End is a fantasy novel told over three parts, each focusing around a different character's perspective in a world quickly going astray. History is set to repeat itself as a long-since-defeated evil has once again set events into motion which will bring the Mortal Realm to the brink of annihilation. In a race against time, an elite veteran from wars past, Erianthia, is tasked with stopping a mysterious cult that actively serves their dark master's return by opening a portal to the dreaded Rusted World.
An amalgamation of elemental magic and darkness, the Rusted World was brought into creation thousands of years ago as a means to harness lost, ancient powers. However, with its unnatural birth, the Mortal Realm was thrust into instability and the link between these realms was sealed away by the Chaos Mages – an order of beings which travel between all the realms to ensure the eternal balance of all creation remains undisturbed.
 

With the threat of the Rusted World looming and a sinister darkness growing among the ruins of the once-great Kingdom of Sealestra, the Chaos Mages have returned to the Mortal Realm to investigate. Though, their arrival may just be a little too late as the end is coming, and His champion shall rise...

HHAC 2016 Joss Dey

A devoted fan of fantasy literature since age eight, Joss dreamed of being able to create her own magic and did so for sixteen years as a graphic designer.

However, the desire to follow in the footsteps of her childhood hero, Susan Cooper, never left her and, in her greatest act of rebellion, she pursued and received an MFA in Creative Writing from American University.

Though she stopped “screwing around” and eventually “got a real job”, she never stopped writing, intuitively comprehending that she would never be happy if writing didn’t play a major role in her life. Luckily, she joined RWA in 2004, a move that happily confirmed that being a writer is an affliction from which there is no cure, at least there isn’t Joss’s case.

Today, from her basement office in the ghetto in New Haven, Connecticut, she writes emotionally-driven urban fantasies that explore questions about love, family and self amidst bizarre creatures, odd goings on and the end of the world

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Synopsis:

A world born of merged realities, turbulent and jagged and overrun with monsters...a woman infected with unruly magic, unknowingly using her soul to find love...

Without warning, the magical realms of dreams and nightmares collapsed upon us, shredding our safe existence. A violent civil war erupted between a ruthless queen seeking revenge and a dark prince collecting power, leaving a broken world of stunted magic, fantastical creatures, chaos, and a drug called Undertow.
​
Dragon was sold by her mother to a shady clinic that altered her, leaving her mostly human and able to fix the flaws in people. Her “gift” infuses her with life-changing confidence as well as an unnatural euphoria…but also is literally killing her, slicing her soul bit by bit to nourish her fixes. Worse, the power fueling these transformations appears to be overtaking Dragon's body, turning her thoughts and actions towards savagery and murder.
​
When she meets Fel, a banished fae warrior suffering from PTSD, she’s instantly drawn to him, the one man who doesn’t need her to fix him. Is it his addiction to Undertow, or is it something else? Whatever the answer, Dragon dives right into a steamy affair—love optional…or so she thinks.

But all is not what it seems with Dragon’s adoptive family. When she chooses Fel, the love and acceptance she’s found in this patchwork household is threatened, unleashing a devastating secret that could deliver Dragon into the hands of the two most powerful and deadly creatures in the world…