Dark Regions Press book announcement thread

[Despanan]

Originally Posted by Chris_Morey

Fuck yeah man! You are two for two here.

I actually really like this cover. Not only is the flying octopus art professional quality, but we even have the subtle "Spider eye" effect in its' coloring AND a hidden skull. That is an art burrito, that is turning your cover-art up to eleven - as far as levitating, tree-crushing, mercury-winged chephalopods go, that dude is the best one, and that tree is proper fucked.

I also want to complement you on the cover text and your color use. The text doesn't look like it came out of a pre-set font, and manages to stand out while still looking like it's part of the cover.

Overall, I'll give it a solid B+

"Wildly imagined."
- Publishers Weekly

I should hope so. Motherfucker probably imagined this book about floating, gardening, spider-skull headed mollusks riding a motorcycle and snorting coke off a hookers ass, while simultaneously smashing nearby mailboxes with a bat. Beautiful Hell indeed.

Against this tense background, a Damned man named Frank Lyre and a beautiful winged Demon named Oni act out a passionate love affair, but they too will be swept into a battle that may decide the future of all Creation.

See, here's where it falls apart a little. I'll give you Frank Liar (LOLZ a PUN) But a winged Demon named Oni? You have a demon named "demon" that's not a name, that's an occupation. That's like naming a Microphone "Mike".

Still, I love that the author has his main character fucking a hot, uninhibited asian chick. That's the dream isn't it?

Your Author photo is better as well:



though not as good as that Salty O'Neil Motherfucker. Jeffery Thomas just looks slightly embarrassed to be having a photo taken...or maybe the sun is in his eyes because seriously, that's WAY too bright for his pasty British skin. Having an author look like he's in a strip club for the first time is a step up, but certainly not what I'd call "professional Photography" Ya Dig?

Jeffrey Thomas's other books set within his vision of Hades are "The Fall of Hades" and "Voices From Hades," both from Dark Regions Press, and the cult novel "Letters From Hades.

Man I can't wait for "Whispers of Hades" and "Mumbling from Hades" and "Spam Email from Hades" to come out, Hades-related communication is a seriously under-represented genre. "Drunken Awkward Text Messages at 3am from Hades" is going to blow the roof off all this hizouse.

All in all, your art is getting better, and I bet your book sales are going up. Is that true? 'Cause if so, I want my cut. If it weren't for me you wouldn't have flying octopi ransaking shrubbery in such a well-realized manner.

[JCC]

Badly done PhotoShop text <<<<<<<<<<

[Despanan]

Originally Posted by JCC

Badly done PhotoShop text <<<<<<<<<<

Yes, but it's like, the KING of badly done photoshop text.

It's like when you teach a monkey to do sign language, don't yell at him for not being able to recite Shakespeare.

[Chris_Morey]

Well, I was going to show you an example of terrible Photoshop abilities by one of Despanan's play covers, but it seems he was so ashamed of it that he deleted it from the thread.

Then again, if you morons are reduced to insulting the TEXT that proves we're doing something right

[Despanan]

These posts are un-editable after seven minutes. I couldn't delete my stuff if I wanted to. If anything of mine was deleted it was the admin who did it.

Also, all of my stuff is still here. What are you talking about Chris_Morey?

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Chris_Morey

Well, I was going to show you an example of terrible Photoshop abilities by one of Despanan's play covers, but it seems he was so ashamed of it that he deleted it from the thread.

Then again, if you morons are reduced to insulting the TEXT that proves we're doing something right

I'm not really down for attacking people, I'm not part of the anti-Chris Morey brigade or whatever, I think it's good that you allow people to get their work out in a commercial format. It's just that text is what makes or breaks a design, and if you look at any successful books aimed at the 11+ market you'll see that the text is just simple and refined. Even the shitty ones like Twilight. It's what sets apart a professional designer from an amateur, the realisation that less is more.

[Chris_Morey]

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce that the novel London Macabre by Steven Savile is now available for preorder on the DarkRegions.com website
in both our leather-bound signed by both author and artist Deluxe Lettered Hardcover with slipcase edition and 100 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover edition!


Click here to learn more about London Macabre by Steven Savile


It begins innocently enough, with the death of a prostitute in Bedford Square, London. She isn't the first 'flower girl' to die and she won't be the last, not now the killer had a taste for it.

The man, Nathaniel Seth, is one of the Brethren, a shadow society of occult dabblers and black magickers who hide away in the darkest parts of the city, in corners where they could not be seen by polite society. Little did Seth know that his own life was only hours from ending, his flesh to be taken as host for a daemonic entity clawed all the way out of hell's pit in the centre of the hollow earth because Seth himself breached the Catamine Stair. Now things are afoot. Strange things. The lions of Traflagar have fulfilled their prophecy, climbing down from the plinths around Lord Nelson's column to defend the city. The daemon is out, stalking tender prey through the gaslit streets, meat markets, fish stalls and slaughter houses of Whitehall. He has a taste for women, though not ordinary women. These women are different. Special. They may look like whores but they have the blood of angels flowing in their veins. If he can kill enough of them, bathing in their innocent blood, then the daemonic Seth believes he can open the ancient Ald Gate--one of the seven great gates of London--the last gate to Eden, and go home, even if it means tearing London herself apart.

The gates are guarded by The Seven, bloodsucking angelkind put there to guard a very special prisoner. A prisoner who cannot be allowed to escape. Satanial. The Devil by another name. Cast down and trapped in a hell on earth, watched over by Uriel, the mad Archangel.

A few stedfast men stand in the daemon's way, led by Fabian Stark, a man himself doomed to die before even the first die is cast, and each of them cursed in their own way: Dorian Carruthers, Haddon McCreedy, Eugene Napier, Anthony Millington, and Brannigan Locke. The Grayfriar's Gentleman's Club.

Can these few men stop the daemonic Seth from opening the gates and all hell breaking loose?

It is as though Savile is the bastard child of Philip Pulman and Neil Gaiman, and London Macabre, part serial killer novel, part vast fabulist Victoriana epic, part Steampunk novel with a great slice of occultism and mysticism as well as a radical warping of all things holy, is quite unlike any dark fantasy novel you've ever read.


About the author



Steven Savile has written 20 books for various media properties including Doctor Who, Torchwood, Stargate, Warhammer, Slaine and Primeval. Shadow of the Jaguar, which was a #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008. Steve has sold over half a million books worldwide. 2010 saw the release of his first non-fiction book, Fantastic TV, charting 50 years of science fiction television in the UK and US. He is the co-creator of Monster Town, recently bought by Sony Entertainment to develop for cable tv in the US (with Adam Fierro, Dexter, The Shield, 24, Walking Dead, as show-runner) and his novels have been translated into 9 languages, including German, French, Italian, and Spanish. He has been a bestseller in Germany and Italy. Silver, his debut thriller, was released in January 2010 from Variance, in the US, It reached #3 on the ebook bestseller of Amazon UK and has spent over 100 days in the top 100, having sold 50,000 copies since Feb 1st 2011. Steve also wrote the storyline for Electronic Arts' forthcoming Battlefield 3, the most widely anticipated computer game of 2011. He has been runner up in the British fantasy award, and won the Writers of the Future Award and the Scribe Award for best Media Tie-In in 2010. His most recent novel, The Black Chalice, was released in March. His next novel, Each Ember's Ghost will be published by Fantasy Flight Games, continuing the Fireborn world created by Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance). He has also developed Isra the Nightwalker series for Pathfinder, the bestselling RPG in the US last year. You can visit him online at http://www.stevensavile.com/


Publisher contact

Dark Regions Press
P.O. Box 1264
Colusa, CA, 95932
http://www.DarkRegions.com

Contact us directly with any questions or comments at:
support AT darkregionspress.com


Click here to learn more about London Macabre by Steven Savile

[MissCheyenne]

Hmm, well, I don't love this cover BUT it's so much better than some of the past ones you've shown here. The figure at the bottom doesn't quite look right to me for some reason, perhaps it's the angle, or it could, in all fairness be my shitty eyesight, I'm not sure. However, the last two covers have been much better than previous ones. That's not to say they are brilliant or that they would make me interested in actually buying the books themselves but they are getting better in my opinion.

[Solumina]

The angle of the wings is a little off and it seems odd that the hair doesn't hang over the hands or arms at all, but I think it is the wings that really throw it off. The rest of it looks pretty good though.

[JCC]

That's not bad. I would have done the text slightly more subtly still but it's all in the same font and not a hint of emboss in sight, so praise be for small miracles.

[AshleyO]

I think that man in the top hat is about to put it in that angel's butt. Clearly, being that that angel looks all beat to hell, we've got a classic case of anal raep going on.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Solumina

The angle of the wings is a little off and it seems odd that the hair doesn't hang over the hands or arms at all, but I think it is the wings that really throw it off. The rest of it looks pretty good though.

The wings are spread when, if the angel is unconscious or hurt, they should be collapsed. She's also just hanging in mid air, which makes me think either she's impaled on a stick we can't see or she's standing firmly on her own feet and just bent over at the middle, leaning on nothing.

So with the spread wings and being able to stand on her feet leads me to believe this angel is not at all threatened by the dark figure in the back, but is simply doing her yoga in public.

[Chris_Morey]

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce that the new novel Isis Unbound by Allyson Bird is now available for preorder on the DarkRegions.com website
in both our leather-bound signed by both author and artist Deluxe Thirteen Hardcover with slipcase edition and 100 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover edition!


Click here to learn more about Isis Unbound by Allyson Bird!


Inspired in part by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley's, Prometheus Unbound, and the works of Rider Haggard and R. E. Howard, Isis Unbound is set in an alternate history, steampunk version of 1890's Manceastre, Britanniae, ruled by a new governor general related to a descendant of Anthony and Cleopatra, who won the battle of Actium two thousand years ago, and where the ancient Egyptian gods are real. ...Only a god can kill a god. Nepythys has killed her sister, Isis, and therefore the dead cannot pass over to the underworld--their ranks are rapidly swelling and they now roam the streets as zombies. Chief Embalmer Ptolemy Child's two daughters, Ella and Loli, aged eighteen and ten respectively, are being instructed in the secrets of the mummification process, when the dead begin to wake and walk. And eventually lead the sisters to the greatest mystery of all: Isis, herself...

'Allyson Bird is a writer who never plays it safe. Her wild imagination and power to evoke both myth and madness make her one of the most interesting writers working out there on the edge of horror/fantasy.'
— Lisa Tuttle.

'Allyson Bird is a rare bird indeed. An original voice in a world of plain vanilla. She rides some dark waves with grace and heart full of light and shadow. If there's any justice, she on her way to real recognition.' and she, ‘already has a prominent award under her belt; the British Fantasy Society award for her first collection, which I can also recommend, titled Bull Running For Girls. Still, you may not know her name. You should know her name. You should know her stories, her writing. Her work is as fresh as a spring wind; especially if that wind is carrying nasty spores from outer space, or bringing them from some place split sideways and shadowy, from a universe where the familiar is not as familiar as it might seem.'
— Joe.R.Lansdale.

LIBRARY JOURNAL review for ISIS UNBOUND:

"Generations ago, Cleopatra, with the blessing of Isis and Anthony at her side, started an empire. Her descendants still rule, but the goddess Isis has fallen silent, and there are those who fear her favor has been lost and the empire is falling apart. It is not that Isis has forgotten her empire, but she has been killed by her sister, the goddess Nepythys. Now the dead cannot pass over and stumble restless and frightened through a city already oppressed by plague and tyranny. The Chief Embalmer’s daughters, Ella and Loli, get involved in the machinations of the gods themselves as the fate of an empire is decided. VERDICT Set in a declining Egyptian empire dusted with the familiar technological and scientific trappings of a steampunk setting, this debut novel by British Fantasy Award winner Bird (Bull Running for Girls) is a frightening, gorgeous book that breathes something fascinating and new into the genre. It will appeal to avid readers of steampunk as well as horror fans." — April Steenburgh, George F. Johnson Memorial Lib., Endwell NY.


About the author

Allyson Bird lives on the edge of the South Yorkshire moors in England, with her husband and young daughter. Occasionally she is drawn to strange places and people and they are occasionally drawn to her. Her favourite playground, as a child and adult, has been the village graveyard. Once she wondered what would happen if she took one of the green stones from a grave. She has been looking over her shoulder ever since but has never given it back.

Allyson Bird won the British Fantasy award for her collection Bull Running for Girls.


Publisher contact

Dark Regions Press
P.O. Box 1264
Colusa, CA, 95932
http://www.DarkRegions.com

Contact us directly with any questions or comments at:
support AT darkregionspress.com



Click here to learn more about Isis Unbound by Allyson Bird!

[Chris_Morey]

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce that the new novel Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon is now available for preorder on the DarkRegions.com website
in both our leather-bound signed by both author and artist Deluxe Thirteen Hardcover with slipcase edition and 100 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover edition!


Click here to learn more about Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon!


At age 36, Ben Fall is a man in torment. Overstressed, out of shape, in the middle of a bitter divorce, and carrying a secret that weighs heavily on his psyche, he's convinced he's a failure. He can hardly get out of bed in the morning to make his way to the high school where he teaches English. But suddenly one gray afternoon, a mousy, nondescript new girl appears in his classroom. She seems fascinated by everything he says and does--disturbingly so. Yet, though she gazes obsessively at him and hangs on his every word, she won't even tell him her name...just that she's "The Rain Girl." Who is she? Where does she come from? What does she want?

And why does no one seem to see her but him?

The answers Ben finds will prove heartbreaking...and horrifying.


"We could call this book a 'contemporary metaphysical mystery' or a 'modern fantasy,' but it's far more...Lullaby for the Rain Girl resonates like the Expat Paris of Hemingway in A Moveable Feast and the 1960s College Crazy of Richard Farina's Been Down So Long Looks Like Up To Me: detailed recall of 'what was' interwoven with 'what should have been.' There's a rough 20th century romanticism, too, something like Richard Matheson's sensibility filtered through Henry Miller's libidinous viewpoint. It gives us the hauntings of not-quite-ghosts, lingering regrets and remembrances, and the documentation of the results of not so wise but always human choices. It is one hell of a story told by one hell of a writer, a novel that feels more evocatively true than many memoirs."
- Mort Castle, author of Moon on the Water and The Strangers

"This powerful novel is both innovative and a fine example of world-class storytelling: it's about life and the restless shadows it casts; it's about death and ghosts who aren't ghosts. Gripping, nuanced, and deep, Conlon's novel delivers."
- John Shirley, author of Bleak History and In Extremis


About the author

Christopher Conlon is a writer, poet, and editor best known for his first novel, Midnight on Mourn Street (Stoker Award finalist, 2009), and his Richard Matheson tribute anthology He Is Legend (Stoker Award winner, 2010). His other titles include A Matrix of Angels (novel), Starkweather Dreams (poetry), and Poe's Lighthouse (anthology). A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Conlon holds an M.A. in American Literature and now resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and cats.


Publisher contact

Dark Regions Press
P.O. Box 1264
Colusa, CA, 95932
http://www.DarkRegions.com

Contact us directly with any questions or comments at:
support AT darkregionspress.com



Click here to learn more about Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon!

[Despanan]

Jesus Christ. Did you crib those covers from Magic: the Gathering? Because if so I cast lightning bolt and end my turn.



I will be back later to talk about the Vagina Angel (the hair is the clit, the arms are the folds, the wings are the thighs.) and the shadowy anal rapist, but I'm sort of in the middle of a big project. Don't worry your regualrly schedualed scorning will return.

[AshleyO]

I summon Mountain Goat!!!

[Despanan]

[Chris_Morey]

Boy oh boy, you happened to find a Magic card with a storm on it, and on our cover it is raining. I can see the vast similarities you are trying to point out.

By the way, this cover was done by a guy named Vincent Chong, he's won the Bram Stoker award for best artist three years in a row. If you wanna talk about composition, color schemes etc. I'm sure he'd be happy to educate you.

Originally Posted by Despanan

Jesus Christ. Did you crib those covers from Magic: the Gathering? Because if so I cast lightning bolt and end my turn.



I will be back later to talk about the Vagina Angel (the hair is the clit, the arms are the folds, the wings are the thighs.) and the shadowy anal rapist, but I'm sort of in the middle of a big project. Don't worry your regualrly schedualed scorning will return.

[Chris_Morey]

Everyone look how incredibly similar these two images are! Errr.... right?

[Despanan]

I tap two mana and cast Diabolic Edict and target Chris_Morey.



Ooh! Drama! Which one will you sacrifice Chris_Morey? The Schoolgirl in the Drizzle or the Caucasian Egyptian? (Cause who wants to read a book about BLACK gods anyway? NOT ME. My steampunk fiction is about WHITE PEOPLE ONLY!)

It's like Sophie's Choice, except no one cares.

[Chris_Morey]

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce that the new novella Blindspot by Michael McBride is now available for preorder in a 125 Signed and Limited Trade paperback edition for just $14.95 with free USA shipping and discounted international shipping!


Click here to learn more about Blindspot by Michael McBride!


At 2:31 a.m., seismic monitoring stations in China and South Korea detect a magnitude-4 event consistent with a nuclear detonation in the southeastern corner of North Korea, within the Korean Demilitarized Zone. With the threat of full-scale war escalating by the minute, the United Nations Security Council dispatches an elite unit of peacekeepers to cross the border, penetrate the cloud of dust hanging over the site, and determine the exact nature of the seismic disturbance. What they find triggers a series of events that culminates in a civilian biomedical engineer boarding a transport carrier at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, bound for the Far East.

His name is Dr. Parker Ramsey and he is uniquely qualified for this mission.

He is the brains behind a secret project--Code Name Hindsight--developed under the oversight of the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. Hindsight has never been field-tested, but with global catastrophe looming on the horizon, the only chance of averting it lies in utilizing the project's extraordinary capabilities. If it works, Dr. Ramsey will be able to unravel the mystery behind the detonation and identify the responsible party.

For, thanks to Hindsight, Dr. Ramsey will be able to see something that no one has ever seen before...

He'll be able to see the moment of death through the eyes of the dead.

If he's able to survive long enough to do so.


"Writing with the soul of a poet and the imagination of a demon, Michael McBride creates terrifying enchantments."
- Bruce Boston, author of The Nightmare Collection

"McBride just keeps getting better!"
- Hellnotes

"Whether he's writing stuff that's quietly creepy or stuff that's action-packed and blood-drenched, Michael McBride never fails to deliver a fantastic read!"
- Jeff Strand, author of Dweller and Pressure

"Make no mistake, Michael McBride is now ready to step in with the heavy hitters. Jeffery Deaver, Michael Marshall Smith, Thomas Harris--are you doing your roadwork?"
- Gene O'Neill, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Taste of Tenderloin


About the author

Michael McBride is the author of Bloodletting, Burial Ground, Innocents Lost, Predatory Instinct, and half of The Mad & The Macabre (with Jeff Strand). He lives in Westminster, Colorado with his wife and children. To learn more about the author and his other works visit http://www.michaelmcbride.net.


Publisher contact

Dark Regions Press
P.O. Box 1264
Colusa, CA, 95932
http://www.DarkRegions.com

Contact us directly with any questions or comments at:
support AT darkregionspress.com



Click here to learn more about Blindspot by Michael McBride!

[Despanan]

Originally Posted by Chris_Morey

"Note to self: Growing razor-sharp fingernail claws had unforeseen effects on my masturbation routine...perhaps I can convince one of these soldies to take me to the hospital? All in-all I'm glad I'm wearing my medical alert bracelet. I may pass out from the blood loss and won't be able to tell the doctors I'm allergic to penicillin!"

[Chris_Morey]

Dark Regions Press is proud to announce that the new collection Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas is now available in both a leather-bound signed by both author and artist Deluxe Lettered Hardcover with slipcase edition and a 100 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover edition with free United States shipping!

PREORDER SPECIAL: order the 100 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover edition while still in preorder stage and get $5 off the retail price!


Click here to learn more about Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas!


In the dead of night, there are footsteps in the hall . . .
In the dead of night, your past mistakes will haunt you . . .
In the dead of night, you hear a discordant tune . . .
In the dead of night, the nightingale sings . . .

Simon Strantzas, master of the subtle and the bizarre, returns with a dozen strange tales and eerie mysteries. From the shores of a remote oil-stained sound to deep within the familiar heart of suburbia, these are the songs of broken people who cannot find a way to fix themselves, who must search the dark for salvation. Like a siren, the nightingale sings them onward to face their end. But it sings for you too. A requiem in your honor. Because, for you, it is already too late.


"Nightingale Songs is a dark gem. Strantzas demonstrates once again why he is so highly regarded amongst connoisseurs of the macabre and the fantastic."
- Laird Barron

"Simon Strantzas displays a gift for evoking disturbing atmospheres and creating odd, frightening encounters with the uncanny . . . "
- Lisa Tuttle

"He does not show you the gate to this new Golden Age of weird fiction that is upon us, but leads you through it."
- Joseph S. Pulver

"Strantzas deftly establishes ordinary and seemingly innocuous situations that spin out of the characters' control and always end with an uneasy sense of menace, even when their resolution is ambiguous or cryptic."
- Publishers Weekly

"Like the subtly disquieting locations in which they take place—a suburban house obscured by weeds and dark butterflies, the basement of a former home grown suddenly unfamiliar, a sleep clinic where the patients never meet—Simon Strantzas’ elegant stories worry at the reader’s sense of certainty. The songs they sing won’t comfort you. But you will remember them."
- Glen Hirshberg


About the author

Simon Strantzas is the author of the critically-acclaimed Cold to the Touch (Tartarus Press, 2009), a collection of thirteen tales of the strange and supernatural. His first collection, Beneath the Surface (reprinted by Dark Regions Press, 2010), has been called "one of the most important debut short story collections in the genre". Strantzas's stories have appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Cemetery Dance, and Postscripts. In 2009, his work was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. He lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife and an unyielding hunger for the flesh of the living. For more information, please visit http://www.strantzas.com


Publisher contact

Dark Regions Press
P.O. Box 1264
Colusa, CA, 95932
http://www.DarkRegions.com

Contact us directly with any questions or comments at:
support AT darkregionspress.com


Click here to learn more about Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas!

[Despanan]

Now THAT is one good fucking cover. I would pick that up off the shelf and read it in a second.

If your writers are HALF as good as that cover, you might just be on to something.

Well done sir. Well done.

[Chris_Morey]

Howdy folks! The Dark Friday special from Dark Regions Press is up and running, 33% off almost everything in the store until Midnight tonight! Just go to DarkRegions.com and use coupon code:

DARKFRIDAY

in the last stage of checkout to receive 33% off almost all of our books!

Here's a full list of the books that qualify: http://www.darkregions.com/dark-frid...counted-items/

Happy holidays from Dark Regions Press!