Derrick Belanger's Blog: Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Ramblings of a Sherlockian - Posts Tagged "craig-janacek"

I've got quite a post for today as I now have not one but two Kickstarter campaigns which I am helping to promote. The first is, of course, the horror anthology My Peculiar Family which includes New York Times Bestselling authors besides emerging talent crafting the most original horror stories ever compiled into a single volume. Definitely check out the campaign. The second is the latest volume in the ever expanding MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories. This one is a self contained volume of 20 traditional Sherlock Holmes stories, and I'm proud to say that my story is the first one in the collection. More on that later in the blog posting, but first I'd like to turn to My Peculiar Family and author John Palisano who is the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association and has both an incredible story in My Peculiar Family and a new book out today, Ghost Heart, which has a wholly original take on vampires. I interviewed John Palisano about his new book, his peculiar story, and his campaign to get all bookstores to have a Horror section.

1. Your story for My Peculiar Family, "The Spaces Between," is told through the journal of a late Victorian era composer. What made you decide to use this format to tell your story?

With ‘The Space Between’ The idea was to try and capture the speech and voice of the era. I did a few pages with common contemporary fiction format, and it didn’t feel right. So I looked at other stories written around the same time, especially those by F. Marion Crawford, and wrote in that style as best as I could. It seemed to give an immediacy to the story, as well as tying into the ‘found object’ theme of the book. I thought that it would be cool if, along with the photo, someone found the actual composition pages, but with the story written in back by the pianist. It felt in character that he’d use anything available, considering he was not part of the elite.

2. What kind of research, if any, did you need to do in order to tell your tale?

Set in Whistleville, an idealized version of the town I grew up in, Norwalk, Connecticut, my mother used to take us to a huge place called the Factory Store. It was just as it sounds: it was a former hat factory, but they sold all sorts of stuff there—everything from clothes to toys and they even had a small food counter. I was always fascinated by its history. So I did some looking-into about what it would like for someone working in the hat factory. Especially how they would travel to the nearby shore. I love that kind of research.




3. Today marks the release of your latest novel, Ghost Heart. The novel takes the vampire story and, despite all the reworkings of the undead over the past decade from the Twilight series to The Passage series, finds a wholly original take on the creatures of the night. How did you create the unique concept for Ghost Heart?

When I set out to tell a story, I’m always interested in the details and the worst case scenario. I always want to go beyond what’s presented, and see what makes things work. So I thought about biology. There are many drugs and body modifications that make us operate way above average. Human Growth Hormone. Illegal stuff like Meth. And these things change people's appearance along with whatever benefit they give. I thought tying these into a new kind of modern vampirism would be interesting. Getting the Ghost Heart is more like getting Hepatitis. It’s transmitted sexually or with close, intrusive contact. It hurts. You look better because you can’t keep weight on. I added in gaining strength and a heightened sense—like being super high, yet functional. The flip side? Like any drug or disease, it takes its toll on the body eventually. Similar in a way of overclocking an engine or a computer.

As the bearer of the Ghost Heart begins to wind down, they’ve used so much of the body’s resources that it begins to eat itself in a way: even its own pigment. Their hair turns darker, and their skin loses so much color it becomes nearly clear and translucent, like a fish. Even the organs lose color as the pigment is drawn out and pools in their hair follicles. One can see a still beating, pale heart through their chest near the end—a sign that person is close to dying—and the stage that gives the disease its name.

I also wanted to reinvent fangs. I’d done so in an as-yet-unpublished book about an all female vampire cult in ancient Pompeii, The Forgotten City. To avoid discovery, those vampires had tongues with tips that would harden, where they could cut open the necks of their prey, but would escape scrutiny by Roman soldiers. I took that mythology into Ghost Heart so that the new clan are in fact descendants of the Pompeian Daughters of the Moon vampires.

4. You are the current Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. You have released a statement on your website where you say you are advocating for a separate Horror section in bookstores so that the Horror genre is not lumped in with general fiction. Why do you feel so strongly a separate horror section is necessary? There are quite a few excellent Sherlock Holmes horror collections which cross genres. Where would books like those fit?

Horror calls to people—people who need it. To mix it inside of general fiction is to bury many titles, in my opinion. You have to know what you want before going inside or online. Browsing is a powerful act of discovery, and yet, we are all creatures of habit. If someone enjoyed a Thomas Ligotti book, for example, and went to look for more in that style, where would they begin? Amongst everything?

To top it off, there are many genres that have their own sections. Steampunk immediately comes to mind. The other genres have predominant sections, so why should horror not? It should, and I believe it will.

5. What are your current projects?

There are several short stories coming out this year, as well as my very first short fiction collection, All That Withers, from Cycatrix press. Just this week, I’ve also sent in a third novel to Samhain, which I hope is accepted. Last, I’m hoping the novella I was asked to do goes through, and that a long-standing script I co-wrote finally goes into production.

6. Any last thoughts?

I would like to share something with both artists and readers. And it’s important that both know this: artists are very much responsible for their own success these days. A few still get big deals, and big promo budgets, whereas, the vast majority have nothing but their own fortitude.

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe play a vital role. They allow these books to be made, and for the artists to be paid for their hard work. This is important to realize. I think artists need to find a way to let people know about their work without being poor salesmen. While we’re on the subject, the Kickstarter for My Peculiar Family, which features ‘The Space Between’ has been kick-starting, but we could always use another nudge. So please check it out at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Thanks to everyone for reading this, and if you’d like to seek me out, I’m easily found on Facebook and Twitter under my name, and there’s always my blog at: www.johnpalisano.com

GHOST HEART is available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Heart-Joh...

Available at Samhain: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/boo...



MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part IV

We're back! After the smashing success of the three Volume MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, David Marcum decided to make this an annual event. This year brings us Part IV: 2016 Annual. This really is not an extension of the prior volumes but its own self-contained group of traditional Sherlock Holmes stories. Here's what Mr. Marcum has to say about the collection:

"These accounts stretch from one of Holmes’s earliest cases, later recounted to Watson as they sit by the fire in the Baker Street sitting room, to an adventure just before Holmes’s retirement that affects both the ancient history and the very future of England. These and all the other excellent tales contained in this volume represent some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found, and honor the man described by Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”

All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“Part IV: 2016” Annual features contributions by: Derrick Belanger, Deanna Baran, Daniel D. Victor, Mark Mower, Craig Janacek, Jayantika Ganguly, Denis O. Smith, Matthew Booth, J.R. Campbell, Bonnie MacBird, Arthur Hall, Bob Byrne, Andrew Lane, Roger Johnson, Hugh Ashton, David Stuart Davies, Vincent W. Wright, Daniel McGachey, Nicholas Utechin, Jeremy Holstein, David Marcum, and Marcia Wilson."

Please check out the campaign on Kickstarter for MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part IV.

That's all for this entry. Look for another author interview and a Beyond Watson update coming soon!!

Derrick Belanger is the author of the #1 bestselling book Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance which was in the top 200 bestselling books on Amazon. He also is the author of the MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes books, the latest of which is Curse of the Deadly Dinosaurand edited the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle horror anthology A Study in Terror: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Revolutionary Stories of Fear and the Supernatural. Mr. Belanger also is a frequent contributor to the blog I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. Mr. Belanger resides in Colorado and continues compiling unpublished works by Dr. John H. Watson.

Where was Holmes from 1891-1894 during the time we Sherlockians call The Great Hiatus? That questions is answered in a new two volume collection of short stories featuring some of the top Sherlock Holmes authors of today. You can actually get the two volume anthology now on Kickstarter at 20% off the cover price and with free shipping through Kickstarter at this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

In the original canon, Holmes claimed that after he survived his final confrontation with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, he spent time in Florence before heading to Lhasa to spend time with the Head Lama. He then escaped danger while traversing through Persia and Mecca and Khartoum. He made a final stop in Montpellier (though which Montpelier is up for speculation) with those puzzling coal-tar derivatives, before finally returning home by way of an Empty House in Baker Street.

Was this all there was to the story? Was the whole of his three years of adventures summed up in a brief paragraph, or was there more to the story?

According to the authors of Holmes Away From Home: Adventures of the Great Hiatus (available now through Kickstarter at:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...) there was much more to the story. Now, you can discover what really happened to Sherlock Holmes in an excellent two volume story collection which follows Holmes through twenty adventures starting with his confrontation with Moriarty and ending with his return to London.

The project is edited by the great David Marcum who is the man behind the extraordinary MX Collections of New Sherlock Holmes stories. Volume I contains stories by Sonia Fetherston, David Ruffle, Diane Gilbert Madsen, Craig Janacek, Jayantika Ganguly, S. Subramanian, Deanna Baran, John Linwood Grant, Katie Magnussen, and Stephen Seitz.

Volume II contains stories by David Marcum, Mark Levy BSI, Daniel D. Victor, S.F. Bennett,
Robert Perret, Derrick Belanger, C. Edward Davis, Mark Mower, Richard Paolinelli, Shane Simmons and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The anthology is only available through Kickstarter with guaranteed shipping in time for Christmas! But you have to hurry if you want in on it as the campaign ends in 25 days. You can back the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Derrick Belanger is the author of the #1 bestselling book Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance which was in the top 200 bestselling books on Amazon. He also is the author of the MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes books, the latest of which is Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur and edited the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle horror anthology A Study in Terror: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Revolutionary Stories of Fear and the Supernatural. Through Belanger Books, he published the Sherlock Holmes anthology Beyond Watson. His latest novella Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure Of The Primal Man is currently available as an ebook from Endeavour Press.

November 11th is Veteran's Day in America. As always, in honor of my dear friend Army Sgt. Zachary Tellier who gave his life serving our country, I am donating a portion of my profits over the course of this weekend to the Fisher House Foundation which is a charity designed to help and support military members and their families by providing housing close to loved ones during a time of hospitalization due to injuries. You can learn more at https://www.fisherhouse.org/.

To give the paperback books a boost this year, we are offering many of our Kindle ebooks for free! You can get:

Scones and Bones on Baker Street, Sherlock's Dog (Maybe!) and the Dirt Dilemma

Description: Digby, a London street dog, hopes he can find a crumb of food and maybe a warm place to sleep around the next corner. Instead, he finds himself face-to-face with the Great Detective himself, Sherlock Holmes! Digby is thrilled. He decides to prove his worth to Holmes by helping him solve his latest case. However, Digby discovers that detectives have to follow certain rules. No scratching in public. No howling in concert halls. No ruining Mr. Holmes’ shoes. Who knew that solving crimes could be so hard? Can Digby help Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the Adventure of the Red-Headed League, and finally find a home --- at 221B Baker Street?

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LJYLD92

The Voyage of the Lunar Schooner
Description: Voyage to the Moon!

At the dawn of the 20th century, brilliant inventor E.D.C. Ballantine embarks on a most extraordinary venture – to be the first human being to orbit the moon! Working in secret with “The Society for Lunar Exploration,” Ballantine designs the vessel for his orbital voyage - The Lunar Schooner! But can he keep his mission a secret? And is the moon really the lifeless orb we assume it to be, orbiting the Earth in the night sky? Find out in this exceptional adventure.

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Lunar-S...

Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur

Description: Terror Strikes! During the Christmas season, a young man named Jonas Bogswell brings a most baffling case to Sherlock Holmes and the MacDougall Twins. A dinosaur, a creature that should have been extinct millions of years ago, with razor sharp jaws and a terrifying scream, has been spotted roaming the hills of Surrey. The creature has been preying on sheep in the countryside, or has it? The local police believe Jonas Bogswell is responsible for the death of the sheep, and he needs the help of Sherlock Holmes, the MacDougall Twins, and Toby, their faithful canine friend to prove his innocence. But how can a prehistoric creature be alive in Victorian England? Could the monster have something to do with the local legend of Bald Hill where the Devil was supposedly imprisoned a hundred years before? And is Jonas Bogswell completely innocent, or does he and his family have more knowledge of the dinosaur than they've revealed? Find out as the MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes solve their most extraordinary case and learn the truth behind the curse of the deadly dinosaur!

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Dinosau...

The Tall Tales of Starman Steve

Description: • So you think you know why the sky is BLUE?
• What is THUNDER and LIGHTNING...really?
• What happens when you wish upon a SHOOTING STAR?
• Where did all those craters on the Moon come from?
• What’s the real truth about Jupiter’s RED SPOT?
• Are Saturn’s rings actually a giant HAT?
• Who spilled the MILKY WAY?
• Can the HORSEHEAD NEBULA be tamed?
• Can you race a COMET...and win?
• Ever traveled on the ASTEROID EXPRESS?
Come fly with STARMAN STEVE, the
bravest, most terrific astronaut Earth
has ever seen, and his loyal rocket ship,
Gracie, as they travel the universe and
learn all its wonderful secrets!

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Tall-Tales-Sta...

For all available books check out my author page at Goodreads:

Derrick Belanger

Please considering purchasing one or two books. They make great Christmas presents, and the money is going to a great cause.

Holmes Away From Home Update



The Kickstarter campaign is halfway over, but there is still time to order your books and receive them in time for Christmas! We currently have made it well past our initial goal and we are more than halfway to our stretch goal of 3,000 dollars. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes or mysteries in general, please check out the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

33 Terrific Tales!



At Belanger Books, we don't just publish Sherlock Holmes books (see book list above), we publish a variety of genres including children's, steampunk, and now humor. This delightful book by Gregg Rosenquist about growing up in Illinois in the 1970s is sure to delight fans of A Christmas Story and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

You can check out the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/33-Terrific-Ta...

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the weekend. Thank you everyone, and please help us raise money for the Fisher House!

Derrick Belanger is the author of the #1 bestselling book Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance which was in the top 200 bestselling books on Amazon. He also is the author of the MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes books, the latest of which is Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur and edited the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle horror anthology A Study in Terror: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Revolutionary Stories of Fear and the Supernatural. Through Belanger Books, he published the Sherlock Holmes anthology Beyond Watson. His latest novella Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure Of The Primal Man is currently available as an ebook from Endeavour Press.