Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 67

The Crossover Detective

This has happened a few times, but it never fails to give me a little thrill every time I see that a story of mine is being plumbed for crossovers for the Crossover Universe books. This time around, it’s last year’s The New Adventures of Jim Anthony, Super-Detective: The Death’s Head Cloud that’s getting the treatment. You can find the whole write-up at the Crossover Universe blog. 

The Death’s Head Cloud, by the way, is still available in both print and electronic versions from Pro Se Publications and Amazon.

From the blurb:

A smothering fog of doom heralds a terror that leaves a pile of bloody corpses in a busy subway station! The Death’s Head Cloud strikes swiftly, snaring innocents in its foul grip, leaving madness and death in its wake! Will Jim Anthony be able to solve this mystery or will he also succumb to this terrible menace?

It’s a tightly plotted, fast-paced little thriller, if I do say so myself, full of car chases, autogyros and masked killers. I enjoyed every minute I put into writing it, and people seem to have enjoyed reading it. Oh and a sequel, Red Shambhala, is forthcoming, if that sort of thing interests you.

Kiss The Ring: The (Unofficial) Vlad von Carstein Mixtape

Chris Wraight’s The Fall of Altdorf, the next volume in the End Times series, is now available for preorder, and to celebrate I decided to put together a third (unofficial) End Times mixtape, this time centering on one of its main characters, Big Daddy Fangs himself, Vlad von Carstein. You can find the previous two (unofficial) mixtapes, ‘The Nine Tracks of Nagash’ and ‘The Baddest Man (Un)Alive’ here and here, respectively.

Vlad, like Mannfred and Arkhan, is a character I have a tremendous amount of affection for, though for different reasons. Mannfred is pragmatic, and Arkhan is cynical, but Vlad is an optimist. He’s a king without a kingdom, a husband without a wife, and a man without allies, but for him, those are merely problems he hasn’t solved yet.

After all, once you’ve conquered death, everything else is easy.

COMING SOON-The Royal Occultist: Haunted Holidays

The Royal Occultist: Haunted Holidays will be the first of what will hopefully be a series of inexpensive PDF collections, each containing five themed Royal Occultist stories–four reprints, and one all new, never before seen story written specifically for the collection.

As the name suggests, the first collection will have a holiday theme. Future collections will include Fiendish Encounters, Ghostly Occurrences, and Eldritch Artifacts. Read on, to see the stunning MD Jackson cover for Haunted Holidays, and the table of contents. 

The Royal Occultist: Haunted Holidays will include the following stories:

“The Dreaming Dead” First published in Horror for the Holidays, by Miskatonic River Press in 2011; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass face down a trauma-eating entity in Bethnal Green Infirmary on Remembrance Day. 
“Krampusnacht” First published in Horror for the Holidays, by Miskatonic River Press in 2011; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass battle the demonic Krampus in London on Christmas Eve.
”The Gotterdammerung Gavotte” First published by Lovecraft eZine, in issue 18, in 2012; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass join forces with five other occult detectives to confront the horrors of the Great Old Ones on Halloween night.
”Feast of Fools” First published in the Pulpwork Press Christmas Special, by Pulpwork Press, in 2012; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass face down the sinister
Saturn Society on a bothersome Boxing Day.

All these, plus an ALL NEW, never before seen story, exclusive to this collection. The Royal Occultist: Haunted Holidays will be available in late 2014/early 2015, via the Royal Occultist site.

New (Podcast!) Review

The kind gentlemen over at the Index Nocturnus podcast (whom you might remember as the fellows who put up with my rambling digressions in a recent interview) have done an in-depth audio-review of The Whitechapel Demon. It’s available to download, should you be so inclined, and I encourage you to do so. They have some kind words to say about the book, and some insightful commentary to boot. So go check that out.

‘A Country Composed of Cellars…’

 “That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.”

― Ray Bradbury, “The October Country”

 

Nagash Reviewed Redux

Abhinav Jain has kindly reviewed my recent novel, Return of Nagash. Long story short, he liked it. But don’t take my word for it…why not go check it out, and then maybe go read some of his other reviews?

From the review:

And The Return of Nagash is certainly his best work to date, even better than Neferata I dare say, though that is a close call indeed. The pacing can suffer at times, given the scope of things, but overall, it is a solid novel, worth a read or two or three.

So, go read that. Then maybe pick up a copy of the book. While you’re at it, why not check out some related titles. And maybe even listen to an accompanying (unofficial) soundtrack or two?

New Interview

I’m a few days late mentioning this, but better late than never, right? Right. Anyway, the kind gentlemen at the Index Nocturnus podcast interviewed me this week, and lo and behold, it’s already up and available for your listening pleasure. As ever, I apologize in advance for my relatively boring answers and general air of ‘I have no idea what I’m doing, why are you asking me questions’.  After you listen, why not go read (and listen to) their wealth of reviews, both Black Library and otherwise. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

‘Beware the Autumn People…’

“Beware the autumn people… For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life…For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eyes? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles- breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.”

- Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”

New WHITECHAPEL DEMON Review

Seems it’s a week for reviews. Hot on the heels of that last one, the folks over at ‘The Critics’ Cabal’ have kindly reviewed The Whitechapel Demon, the first Royal Occultist novel.

From the review:

Mr. Reynolds has done a marvelous job setting the foundation of a forthcoming series. Set in the historic backdrop of London in the 1920s, he has invested a fair amount of time developing elements that will undoubtedly linger and play their hand in stories to come. In particular, the Ministry of Esoteric Observation, a source of bureaucratic competition for St. Cyprian, sponsored by Parliament.

Definitely go check that out. And if you like what you read, why not pick up a copy of The Whitechapel Demon for yourself? It’s available on Amazon.com, as well as all international subsidiaries, in both print and electronic format. It’s also available from Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. For a free PDF preview of the the first three chapters, click HERE.

You can also keep track of the latest Royal Occultist news via the series’ Facebook page. And to download the ROYAL OCCULTIST PRIMER, a free PDF containing previously published stories, click HERE.

Nagash Reviewed

The first review for The Return of Nagash has popped up over at the Diehard GameFAN site, and, luckily, it’s a pretty good one. Glowing, even, one might say. Which makes me happy.

From the review:

It’s honestly one of the best Warhammer novels I’ve ever read, and it’s up there with Tales From Failed Anatomies and The Reaver as the best tabletop fiction of the year. I can’t remember the last time I loved a Warhammer novel this much. It’s been years, and it’s so good it makes me want to pick up the author’s other work, especially since he did a Gotrex and Felix novel featuring my Tomb Kings lynch pin, Queen Khalida.

So, go read that. Then maybe pick up a copy of the book. While you’re at it, why not check out some related titles. And maybe even listen to an accompanying (unofficial) soundtrack or two?