Raven Bower's Blog, page 5

The Jealousy Glass by Gwen Perkins Released!

 

 

It’s finally here! Gwen Perkins’ The Jealousy Glass‘!

“We came to stop a war before it came to Cercia. And it seems the war has come to us.”

Responsibility and patriotism spur Cercia’s new leader, Quentin, to protect his beloved country at all costs and he assigns Asahel and Felix to serve as ambassadors and secret agents to Anjdur. Their journey quickly turns awry and Asahel and Felix barely escape a devastating shipwreck, walk a tightrope of political tension, and rescue an empress before they learn they must face an enemy closer to them than they thought.

Will they be able to uncover an assassin’s plot before it’s too late? Will Asahel be able to unearth a secret that is vital to their mission? Will Cercia survive its own revolution? In The Jealousy Glass, Perkins boldly continues a series of unforgettable characters and events that will leave you begging for more.

Goodies!!!

In conjunction with the release of The Jealousy Glass, Gwen is running a giveaway for an autographed, first edition paperback of The Universal Mirror through Goodreads at: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/37726-the-universal-mirror   The giveaway officially ends on December 21, 2012—the author’s birthday and supposed date for the oncoming apocalypse.

About the Author

Gwen Perkins is a museum curator with a MA in Military History from Norwich University. She has written for a number of magazines, exhibitions and nonfiction publications. Her interest in history fueled the creation of the world of The Universal Mirror, inspired in part by people and events of the medieval and Renaissance periods.

Website & Blog: http://artifactsofempire.com

Twitter: @helleder

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gwen-Perkins/227456783969902

G+: http://gplus.to/gwenperkins

Movie Review ~ The Raven

 

 

Title: The Raven

Director: James McTeigue

Genre: Period Horror / Suspense

Rating: 5 bats

Wonderful movie! If you’re a fan of horror, period movies or Poe this is for you.

The casting was stellar – John Cusack as Poe, wow. He did amazing! Poe’s dialog reflected a writer’s soul. I loved the comment he makes when he walks onto one murder scene and looks at the Pit & the Pendulum machine and comments on how he didn’t imagine the counter weight to be so large.

The killer’s personality was depicted with flair and his personality type matched what a real-life killer’s would be. He had reasonable (for that mind-set) motivations and wasn’t over the top.

Plot, directing, shots and scenery were artistically done.

I’ll be seeing it again!

 

Hydra Games ~ Andronia Banner Reveal!

 

 

Dun dun dun!!! It’s banner time

Hydra Games is pleased to announce our new banner for the world of Andronia!

What is Andronia and what is the Andronia project?

Well, here’s a sneak peak at some content from our Hydra Games website, which is still under wraps until we do some final tweaking

Andronia

Experience the excitement of Andronia – a high fantasy/sci-fi hybrid world rife with peril, excitement and magic! Allow our team to take you and your players on quests and grand adventures or use our materials to create your own campaign within Andronia.

- All Andronia content is Pathfinder Role-Playing Game compatible, so there’s no need to learn an entirely new system

- Our world guides give you enough information to effectively run Hydra Games adventures or to create your own adventures within Andronia

- Adventure modules that explore varied terrain, factions, wars and strife of this new world

- Adventure Packets complete with maps, encounter tables and suggestions to make creating your story in Andronia easy

- New feats, items, spells and technology to enhance your gaming experience

- New races to play and twists upon the old races

- New monsters to fight

- New prestige classes and archetypes to build

Love reading? Check out our fiction set in the world of Andronia.

Come and explore with us!

Our first Andronia products launch in early 2013.

Movie Review ~ Underworld & Underworld Evolution

 

Title: Underworld and Underworld, Evolution

Director: Len Wiseman

Genre: Urban Fantasy, horror

Rating: 5 bats

Both of these are so closely related that it was rather moot to do two different reviews. Despite having a few plot holes, they are great fun to watch and I found myself easily sucked into Selene’s world.

I enjoy the character of Selene as whole, though I’m not particularly fond of Michael. He seems too…hm. Flat. Yes. He lacks the spark that I think all heroes ought to have. Please note, I said spark – not sparkles!!!

For guy characters, I liked Raze and Lucian. Which, makes the second movie somewhat disappointing for me, but ah well, perhaps the series will kick out a new spiffy male I can root for!

The movies are fast paced, have wonderfully done weres and vamps, and interesting characters. The settings, again, are intriguing and dark. What more could a girl ask for?

Hydra Games Banner Reveal!

Dun dun dun 

Our Primal Earth line of fiction and RPG products at Hydra Games has an official banner! Yay!

 

 

Created by one of our fantastic artists, we think he captured the grit, the beauty,  the darkness, mystery and sensuality of the Primal Earth world all in one spiffy banner.

For those new to my blog, Primal Earth is an urban fantasy world based off our novel, Primal Book One of the Vengeance Series. It has a lot of horror elements, heat and creatures that rake their claws across the night! Well, and day for that matter but who’s counting?

Our Hydra Games Team is concocting an RPG world guide, new modern rules, classes, game modules and all sorts of neat stuff for the world as well as more fiction! So beware – the darkness falls in 2013!

 

 

Movie Review ~ The Devil Inside

 

 

Title: The Devil Inside

Director: William Brent Bell

Genre: Horror/supernatural suspense

Rating: 3 bats

This was a good movie, not great but interesting. It was shot documentary style (think the demonic version of The Blair Witch Project) and it ends without any real resolution.  There were a few very tense, graphic scenes of possession that were exceedingly well done. The actors were decent and the characters were well rounded.

It got only 3 bats because a lot of it was dull and outside of the above stated possession scenes, it dragged and there was little suspense.

 

 

Book Booty!

Picked up a bunch of books at Context and wanted to share the bounty!

Sands of the Solar Empire by Ren Garcia

I read this book and it’s a 5 bat one! If you like sci-fi, fantasy and romance you’ll really like Ren’s world.

GET THE BRANDY TO BAZZ . . . That’s all Paymaster Stenstrom, the Lord of Belmont-South Tyrol, has to do and the old warbird Seeker is his. He has dreamed of captaining a Fleet ship his entire life. Little does Paymaster Stenstrom realize that he is in the grip of an old Vendetta and the short trip to Bazz might very well be his last. Faced with a dead ship and a lost crew, Paymaster Stenstrom finds help in the strangest places: the thief Marine and the milquetoast young man from the Admiral’s office, and, though he just became acquainted with these two strangers, he discovers they have been influencing each other’s lives for a very long time. Something sinister hovers over Paymaster Stenstrom and his two new friends, something they are only now becoming aware of. The SANDS OF THE SOLAR EMPIRE stretch out before them in an endless gulf brimming with the unknown. Can a masked Paymaster, a thief, a coward and a once great warbird face what awaits them?

Atomic Zombies by Gary Wedlund — haven’t read this one yet but seems neat. Zombies – *shambles*

In the blink of an eye, the world has turned into ash, leaving behind a planet thrown into chaos. Months later, the radioactive dust settles, and the survivors crawl out of their holes. They find the world has been changed forever. In the Ohio countryside, Joe and Zuzu find nothing but devastation, bodies and rotting corn as far as the eye can see. Every breath is personal and rebuilding their lives becomes endless toil. In a nearby town, others emerge with more malevolent intentions. They murder the men and elderly, keeping the women as slaves. Zuzu wants to help, but Joe is cautious. After all, they have to think of the children they have adopted, small survivors with no one else to take care of them. And if things aren’t hard enough, they must also deal with the walking dead.

The Exodus Gate by Stephen Zimmer

The Exodus Gate, by Stephen Zimmer, is a modern fantasy novel that is the first release in the Rising Dawn Saga. The story unfolds around Benedict Darwin, host of a popular late night radio show that deals with the paranormal. Benedict comes into possession of a virtual reality simulator that turns out to be something far greater and more powerful than he ever expected.

Meanwhile, supernatural powers from the depths of the Abyss and their human allies are working tirelessly to bring about a One World Government. They are also laboring to bridge the boundaries between time and space to bring back the Nephilim, the monstrous offspring of Fallen Avatars and humans that were destroyed in a Great Flood that occurred long ages ago. An epic tale of courage, hope, and adventure, with fantastical realms and exotic creatures, The Exodus Gate is sure to appeal to a wide range of fantasy readers. The first edition also feature 15 full page illustrations by the artist Matthew Perry.

The Storm Guardians by Stephen Zimmer

Storms break out across the world and the realms beyond, as the Convergence seeks to advance its worldwide agenda, and Diabolos unleashes great powers from the depths of the Abyss.

The Fallen Avatar Beleth’s legions pour across the boundaries of Purgatarion, even as the Night Hunt is loosed once again, in the modern world. Dagian readies for a monumental unveiling of Babylon Technology’s greatest invention, a technology that holds grave implications for every living person on the face of the world.

It is a time when the Exiles in the Middle Lands, the An-Ki, and many others are falling under the shadow of the Abyss. Guardians of all forms, great and small, must rise to resist as the storm of darkness spreads. From high school students Seth, Jonathan, and Annika, to Ian, Arianna, and the others of humankind that have been drawn into the spiraling course of events, choices with dangerous consequences have to be made.

An epic tale of resolve and heroism, The Storm Guardians takes the reader farther and deeper into the Rising Dawn Saga.

 

Crown of Vengeance by Stephen Zimmer  – I got this for my eldest son for Christmas, but so stealing it when he’s done! *grin*

Strange mists engulf Janus Roland, Erika Laesig, Mershad Shahab, and several others going about their lives in a quiet midwestern town. When the mist dissipates, they all find themselves looking up into the bright skies of a new, incredible world.

Without explanation of why it has happened, or any notion of where they are, they embark upon a grand adventure within the fantastical world of Ave. Some find themselves in the lands of the Saxan Kingdom, while others have emerged within the lands of the Onan, one of the tribes in the Five Realms confederation.

Storms of war loom over both Saxany and the Five Realms, as invasion forces mass under the inspiration of The Unifier, a mysterious, captivating figure whose influence has swept across the surface of Ave ever since His rise to power in the Gallean duchy of Avanor. It is a war that will be fought in the skies, upon the seas, on land, and even in places non-physical in nature.

A majestic, epic fantasy that begins many adventures and journeys across a diverse and enthralling world, filled with races and creatures both familiar and new. Crown of Vengeance lights the flame of the Fires in Eden series, bringing to life a bold, far-ranging, and grand new venture within the realms of fantasy literature, and appeals strongly to readers of George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, and Robert Jordan.

Author Brick Marlin on Writing

 

Brick Marlin’s thoughts on writing:

Writing is something I have to do. No choice in the matter, folks. I bet some of you writers out there will agree. Can I see a show of hands? Yep. That’s what I thought. Many of you probably feel the same way as I do. If you don’t hook up the IV to feed that muse of yours, somebody’s gonna get hurt. Right?  Usually Creativity straps on a belt with twelve separate pockets, each one stuffed with a pickle coated with synthetic flesh, force-feeding me vocabulary when I refuse to write. Happens to you, too, right?

Right?

No?

Well, perhaps in my bizarre world where pumpkin people addicted to eating candles grow human heads in their garden so they can sit them on their porch for Halloween.

At any rate, writing can either be fun, or a grueling scrape of the spine caused by literary gremlins that love to build writers blocks. And this all depends on how your characters behave. Trust me, I know. I not only have the sweet, innocent characters who love to tell me word-for-word their story I am writing, I have the ones who crawl up on my shoulders and blow wet raspberries in my ears after a snack of Pop Rocks, forbidding to tell me a thing.

Perhaps they’re related to the gremlins.

That, said, I think I hear them calling my name…

Hydra Games at Context Convention 2012!

 

Last weekend’s Context Convention 2012 was the first convention Lain and I attended in quite some time and it was a blast! We were able to meet a lot of fellow Hydra Publications authors, our publisher Frank Hall, his wonderful tea-loving wife Kim and his brother Jerry. There were many fantastic people there and many intriguing and strange conversations were had  

 

We didn’t take a whole lot of pictures because uhm…I did actually remember to pack the camera but got so wrapped up in talking to people and perusing the Dealer’s room in search of booty that I totally forgot  :S  Thanks to Eric Garrison for the above photo! And Frank Hall for most of the rest of them hehe

 

We participated on a few panels including the Women in Horror panel with Lucy Snyder and Sarah Hans – it was a lively discussion on how differently women in the dark genres are treated vs. males. When people discover that I’m a writer, the most common thing out of their mouths is “Oh! You write children’s books?” Seriously? Do I LOOK like I write children’s books? ARGH. Then when they discover I write dark fiction – particularly with an erotic bent – I get that ‘what the hell is wrong with you look’. You’d swear they’d start backing away if social protocol allowed >:)

 

 

The above photo is the Seventh Star Press table with RJ Sullivan, Lain, Stephen Zimmer and I along with a staff member with a wonderful wealth of information on the days of yore (which is what we were discussing in this photo).

We also met L.E Modesitt! Live and in person! He graciously signed a copy of Imager’s Challenge for me and chatted for a while – that man’s brain must have an extra dimension in it to house all his knowledge!

Can’t wait to see what’s on the Context agenda for 2013!

Introducing Hydra Games Author Tony Acree!

 

Tony Acree was born in La Grange, Kentucky in January 1963. His short story fiction has appeared in Kentucky Monthly Magazine. He has written articles about his time as a stay at home dad for a women’s magazine as well as sports and information articles. His work has also appeared in The Cumberland, the Kentucky state wide newspaper outlet of the Sierra Club. He is a member of  the Green River Writers as well as The Bluegrass Writers Edge, a creative writers group in Goshen, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife and twin daughters.

Visit his website at Tonyacree.com, his blog at Tonyacree.wordpress.com and you  can find him on Twitter and Facebook. Email Tony at Tonyacre@Gmail.com.