Julia Madeleine's Blog, page 4

Trestlegate

Due to the recent scandal with Trestle Press, I have withdrawn my titles from publication with them and severed ties.

The accusations of art thief for book covers is serious and when you see the evidence the rip-offs of intellectual property becomes obvious. The story is over at DiviantART

Ironically, today I got an amazing review of The Devil's Music over at The Ginger Nuts Of Horror.

Fortunately I designed the cover art for the Devil's Music myself using a stock image from Dreamstime for which...

A Tattoo and a Review, Featuring Nigel Bird

Bill dropped by Malefic Tattoos recently to continue his oriental tattoo. It's a huge custom piece by Fabien they've been working on since sometime last summer. While getting inked Bill enjoyed reading Nigel Bird's short fiction collection, With Love and Squalor.

Bill said that all the stories were completely engaging and got his interest right away.

"The second story, Fisher of Men, was my favourite," Bill says, "The ending was such a surprise, it caught me off guard. Like a complete u-turn ...

A Tattoo and a Review, Featuring Chris Rhatigan

Say hello to Vicky. She's one of our favourite customers at Malefic Tattoos. Fabien is finishing up her amazing full colour octopus tattoo, while Vicky enjoys Chris Rhatigan's new collection of short fiction called, Watch You Drown

Vicky says that Chris's book is great. She particularly liked Gun By His Bed and Service With A Smile.

I loved Service With A Smile myself which I read when it was originally published in Yellow Mamma Magazine. Chris has penned some great descriptions, like this one:...

A Tattoo and a Review, Featuring Heath Lowrance

Eric was back at Malefic Tattoos again today for some more pain. That makes three times this week (see previous blog post for his full leg tribal tattoo). Today, I started a smallish pin-up in a martini glass tattoo on the inside of his thigh while he read stories from Heath Lowrance's awesome collection, Dig Ten Graves.

Eric enjoyed the twisted little story titled Incident on a Rain-Soaked Corner. Which was my personal favourite, (along with It Will All Be Carried Away). When he was finished ...

British Noir, Tattoos, & Julie Morrigan

Julie Morrigan in a relatively new kid in town who's quickly making a name for herself in the crime fiction genre. I'm so impressed with Julie's writing I'd even call her the Queen of British Noir. Her writing is like being kissed by a freight train, it just bowls you over. Her latest short story collection Show No Mercy is one I devoured quickly, so delicious are her dark tales.

So I brought my iPad into the tattoo shop today to share Julie's collection of mayhem with one of our long time cu...

Review: Bloodline by Stan Rogal

Young girls hitchhiking along a lonely stretch of highway are turning up dead.

Salesman Peter Donaldson travels this same highway and becomes concerned when he hears about the murders. Then one day he stops for someone at the side of the road—a tough, fifteen-year-old girl from an abusive family named Lynda—and gives her a ride. A set of circumstances leads Lynda to become the babysitter to Peter and his wife Dorothy's children.

But then another body turns up. And when a witness identifies hi...

Buy One Get One Free At Trestle Press!

Starting today, Saturday January 14th through Sunday, January 22, 2012, Trestle Press will be having a BUY ONE TITLE GET ONE TITLE FREE SALE !!

All of our titles are part of this sale, all of our authors will be participating in it, and all you have to do is when you purchase one of our stories send us the proof of purchase and we will be happy to send you the title of your choice that is of equal value.

You can email us in one of three ways; send the proof of purchase by email to one of the f...

Ink, Skin & Unpaper

Matt was back today at Malefic Tattoos for some more punishment from Fabien, artist extraordinaire. While getting his grim reaper worked on, Matt read Dani Amore's short story on kindle, Scale of Justice.

Amore is an author I've had on my to-read list for a while. Her rise on the Amazon charts with a number of recent releases has been impressive. So when her short story, Scale of Justice, went free for a while on Amazon, I had to grab it. And because I needed to know what all the fuss was abo...

Lucky 13 . . . The Best Of 2011

Here's my list of the best books I read this year. It was difficult to narrow it down, I could easily have twice the number up here. I tried to have ten only but I couldn't do it. So, I managed to chop the list down to a baker's dozen. Lucky 13.

I'm listing them in no particular order because choosing where they should stand in comparison with each other is impossible. Although, if I had to say which one was my absolute favourite, if I was about to be kidnapped by aliens (for example) to read...

Between These Pages, These Places by Frank Duffy

Whenever I start reading a Frank Duffy story, I can barely pull myself away. I let the dinner burn, the dogs whine to be let out, my own writing wait—so powerful is the lure of the arrangement of Duffy's words on the page. You get sucked down into this beautifully dark, intimate, almost salacious vortex that seems other worldly, and yet strangely familiar. And it's completely hypnotic.

So while my husband mops up the dog pee, I serve the burnt (it's Cajun blackened!) chicken, and try to pu...