A Happy 2017 to one and all! I hope you enjoyed the holidays, and thanks for dropping by to see what’s in the works for us this year. I think you’ll like what you see!
The New Year has only started, but the crew here at ’Warp Central is already busy with the schedule for 2017. You’ll see the launch of a new chapbook series called SWC Horror Bites (“Short tales to appease your monstrous hunger for suspense”); two new titles from bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White: the fantasy story collection For a Few Gold Pieces More, and the fantasy novel Harbinger of Darkness; the e-book release of a new Illustrated Classic, this time the 1932 novelization of the original film version of King Kong; and the much-anticipated return of your favorite teenaged monster hunter in Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3.
But that’s not all! We’ve got some blog-related events planned to help promote our titles:
Carmilla’s 145th Anniversary will be a celebration of the 1872 publication of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic vampire novella Carmilla, which has become the most popular title in our Illustrated Classics line of titles—a situation no doubt helped by the six original illustrations by artist Eliseu Gouveia (A Princess of Mars, Lorelei: Sects and the City, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1). I’ll examine some of the media—movies, comics, even radio dramas—that have adapted this supernatural tale of unrequited love between a vampire and the young woman she lusts for.
The Worlds of Richard C. White is a three-part series that’ll give you ’Warp fans a crash course in the SWC titles available from our buddy Rich, who’s the bestselling author of the fantasy media tie-in novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, and the writer of numerous short stories and novellas involving pulp heroes, superheroes, fantasy adventurers, and even Star Trek and Doctor Who. Of course, we won’t be looking at those projects—Trek and the Doctor already make enough money without my help!
Our focus will be on his nonfiction writers’ reference book, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination; the supernatural superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; and the pirate-fantasy e-comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special. It’s our way of counting down to the February release of Rich’s For a Few Gold Pieces More, and the summer publication of his new novel, Harbinger of Darkness, the first volume in a five-book series. Hopefully, it’s also a way of inspiring you to order from his SWC backlist while you’re waiting for the new books! (I am nothing if not a subtle publisher and promoter.)
We’ll be observing Women in Horror Month in February with the release of our first SWC Horror Bite: White Fell—The Werewolf, the 19th-century tale of lycanthropy and seduction by Clemence Annie Housman. We’ll also have posts spotlighting the works of Housman and Ruth Rose, the screenwriter who helped bring 1933’s King Kong to stop-motion life.
Simian Sundays and Hail to the King (Kong) will be two series that promote our e-publication of King Kong. I’ll be taking a look at Kong and Kong-like films, as well as comics, monster magazine articles, artwork and more. Some of the material you might recognize, if you’re a longtime monster kid who grew up with the stuff; some you might never have seen before. But you’ll have to keep checking back to see what’s what!
The 13 Days of Creepmas will run December 1–13 at the Pandora Zwieback blog. Would it surprise you to learn that Christmas can be just as disturbing and terrifying as Halloween? No? Then that must make you a horror fan—just our kind of people! The 13 Days of Creepmas is an annual online event that’s basically the horror community’s response/pushback to the over-commercialization of Christmas, whose retail season has steadily crept backward along the calendar to the current point where stores have their Xmas displays up well before Halloween. For the first thirteen days of the month I’ll be blogging about Xmas comics, movies, and cartoons—all with a horrific twist, of course! And on that thirteenth day, we’ll be unleashing another SWC Horror Bite: Gabriel Grub and the Goblins, a classic yuletide tale by Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol!
The biggest undertaking we’ve got planned is a Halloween Countdown that will run throughout October on the Pandora Zwieback website—31 days of blog posts about horror movies, horror comics, and horror art for you to enjoy as we wait for the arrival of Pan’s (and SWC’s) favorite holiday—as well as the publication of Blood & Iron, which will occur right in time for Halloween! Hey, what better treat for All Hallows’ Eve than curling up with the conclusion of the vampire war begun in the novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign?
October will also be the month we release a third SWC Horror Bite: the 13-story anthology Tales to Sorta Tremble By, which will debut on October 13 (Friday the 13th!). We’ll also have some bonus countdown material right here at the ’Warp blog, so between the two sites there’ll be plenty of stuff for you to enjoy as Halloween approaches. It’s gonna be one busy month!
I’ll provide you with more details about the book projects in the coming days, so drop by tomorrow and I’ll start off by telling you about SWC Horror Bites.
See you then!
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