Christmas is coming, and there’s no better way for horror fans to celebrate the Ghoultide Season than with the gift of vampire movies—specifically, the Christmas Day premiere of Nosferatu, writer/director Robert Eggers’s remake of the 1922 classic silent movie that starred the iconic Max Schreck as the undead Count Graf Orlock.
This version stars Bill Skarsgard—best known for playing the demonic clown Pennywise in It, and the Marquis in John Wick: Chapter 4—as the count, alongside Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, and Lily-Rose Depp. Based on the trailers, it looks like it’s going to be a good time; I’ll definitely be on line to see it that weekend.
Speaking of the rat-faced, vampiric Count Orlock, you’ll also find him in “Night’s Children,” a short story I wrote that appears in Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror (and was reprinted in Black Coat’s The Vampire Almanac, Vol. 2). In that tale, the great thief Irma Vep—the lead female character and femme fatale of the 1915–16 French movie serial Les Vampyres (The Vampires)—travels to a Berlin museum to steal a painting, only to run into Orlock, who’s intrigued by her bat-themed attire and considers taking her as his next bride—or victim…
Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terroris available in print from Black Coat Press; visit its product page for ordering information. With “Night’s Children,” you’ll have something to read while you’re waiting for Nosferatu to start!
Hey, book lovers! Today’s the day when e-book distributor Smashwords (and its parent company, Draft2Digital) launches its annual End of Year Sale, during which you can purchase thousands of digital books at special prices! It runs from December 12 to January 1—and yes, you’ll need to set up an account (it’s free) to take advantage of this promotion.
Included among the many participating publishers is StarWarp Concepts (of course), which means you can get the following digital titles at 25% off:
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is our popular how-to book for writers and gamers in which bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. A bonus feature is an exclusive interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is my young adult novel that’s perfect for lovers of dark urban fantasy. It introduces readers to Pandora Zwieback, a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets professional monster hunter Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world. In Blood Feud, Pan, her parents and friends, and Annie are drawn into a conflict among warring vampire clans searching for the key to an ultimate weapon (or so the legend goes)—a key that just so happens to have been delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s father.
In Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, Pan and Annie face even greater challenges as the vampire clans draw up plans to go to war with humanity. Leading the charge is a fallen angel named Zaqiel, whose previous attempt at subjugating the world was stopped by Annie—who, back in the day, was Zaqiel’s lover! But Pan isn’t about to let some ancient monster win the day, not when the lives of her parents and friends—along with those of every human on the planet—are at stake, so she leads a charge of her own. But whose side is going to emerge the victor remains to be seen…
For a Few Gold Pieces More is Rich White’s collection of linked fantasy short stories about a Rogue With No Name who travels a world of epic-fantasy adventure, looking for treasure, romance—and revenge against the woman who sent him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit (but she did). Think Lord of the Rings meets the “spaghetti Westerns” of director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).
Harbinger of Darkness is Rich’s original fantasy-adventure novel in which a thief named Perrin steals an extremely valuable—and magical—gem from the evil king ruling her home country. With thugs and fellow thieves and the king’s assassins hot on her trail, Perrin finds just staying alive is becoming a full-time occupation, which directly conflict with her secret life—and identity—as a humble bookseller’s daughter. It’s sword-swinging adventure at its finest!
And Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase is Rich’s collection of fantasy-noir, pulp-detective tales starring a private eye working the supernatural beat in the city of Calasia. From a sexy chanteuse who literally turns into a beast when the moon is full to a string of pearls that kills its owners, and from the ghost of a dead woman seeking justice to the Grim Reaper’s little girl seeking her stolen chicken, Theron Chase certainly has his hands full—of danger, death, and dames!
Again, the Smashwords End of Year Sale runs December 12 to January 1, so head over to the StarWarp Concepts publisher page at Smashwords and start your holiday-reading shopping!
The Christmas shopping season officially kicked into overdrive, with Thanksgiving Day here in the United States arriving yesterday. Now Black Friday—the biggest shopping day of the year—is upon us, when stores discount prices to generate sales, and Cyber Monday is on the horizon, when online retailers do the same.
E-book distributor DriveThru Fiction—along with its sister sites DriveThru Comics and DriveThru RPG—has joined in on the fun with its annual Black Friday/Cyber Monday WeekendSale, during which you can purchase a ton of digital books and comics at special prices. It runs from now through Monday, December 2—and yes, you’ll need to set up an account (it’s free) to take advantage of this promotion.
Included among the many participating publishers is StarWarp Concepts (of course), which means you can take advantage of some sweet discounts, on such titles as the supernatural-superhero graphic novel, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; our most popular Illustrated Classic, J. Sheridan’s le Fanu’s vampiric dark-romance Carmilla; the world-building guide for writers and game masters Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination; and the nonfiction comics history From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures.
This coming weekend, genre fans will be gathering in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for PhilCon, “the world’s first and longest-running conference on science fiction, fantasy, and horror” (according to their website), which is being held at the Doubletree by Hilton. And among the guests you’ll find author Richard C. White!
Rich is the bestselling author of the licensed novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, as well as a bunch of titles published by us: the writers’ and RPG gamemasters’ aid Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination; the swashbuckling adventure novel Harbinger of Darkness; the fantasy-adventure story collection For a Few Gold Pieces More; the supernatural-superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; the noir-fantasy story collection Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase; and the pirate-adventure digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special.
You’ll find Rich in the Dealers’ Room, where he’ll be selling copies of his book—and promoting his three SWC projects planned for 2025—so be sure to stop by and pick up any titles you might have missed.
PhilCon runs November 22–24. For more information on the show, visit the PhilCon website.
Halloween’s over for this year, in the U.S. this coming weekend it’s time to turn the clocks back an hour as Daylight Savings Time ends, and with the arrival of November comes the annual event called National Novel Writing Month.
To explain what it is, I’ll let this quote from the organization’s website provide you with some background:
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.
NaNoWriMo, however, became an organization deeply mired in controversy this year, when it appeared to support the use of AI for writing; that decision led to the departure of at least one board member, authors who’d been participating in the event for years, and even a sponsor—all of whom were opposed to the notion of this tech-cheat/theft.
(For the record, I’m against creators’ work being “farmed” for AI usage, either text or art. In fact, a few months back one of our e-book distributors, Draft2Digital, sent around a survey to its publisher-clients to determine if we were okay with a third party accessing our works to aid in AI development, with the potential of being compensated if we agreed. I, like the majority of D2D’s clients, gave them a flat-out no to all scenarios.)
Well, whether you’re participating in NaNoWriMo as part of the event or on your own, it just so happens that StarWarp Concepts has a book that’s perfect for writers!
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is our popular how-to book for writers and gamers in which bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (For a Few Gold Pieces More,Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
What you’ll find in its pages is information that’s vital for just about any writer, especially when it comes to world building, and Rich shows you how to do it:
Avoiding the pitfalls of naming characters, regions, and countries
Applying the technique of “outside in” to develop and then refine ideas for your world
Creating a world your readers can relate to, regardless of its technological levels
Identify how to create backstories and conflict by observing how your world comes together
Adding details to make your story richer without overwhelming your readers
Identifying useful resources for research
From its first publication, the book has been a hit with not just fantasy writers, but role-playing gamers as well. In fact, it’s currently being used as a textbook in the Interactive Media & Game Development program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worchester, Massachusetts!
“I think Terra Incognito is a solid introduction to the subject of world building. The book succeeds in helping the aspiring writer in creating a skeletal framework for which to hang the moving parts required of a believable fictional setting.”—The Gaming Gang
You know it’s really a Mad Monster Party when reporter Carl Kolchak, the Night Stalker, crashes the scene. And look! He brought his own party favor!
Kolchak is a favorite horror character around ‘Warp Central, and if you’d like to read up on one of the genre’s most memorable monster fighters, check out my post from 2017 celebrating the 45th anniversary of his 1972 introductory movie, The Night Stalker; one from 2018 marking the 45th anniversary of its follow-up, 1973’s The Night Strangler; and a final entry from just last month, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
And if you’ve never seen the Rankin-Bass holiday classic Mad Monster Party?, do yourself a favor and check it out. This 1967 animated musical stars horror icon Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) as Baron von Frankenstein, who throws a party to which all the best monsters come. If you enjoy stop-motion-animated movies like Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, give Mad Monster Party? a try. It’s streaming on places like Amazon Prime, Roku, and Apple TV.
Beast wishes for a safe and exciting Halloween, from all of us at StarWarp Concepts!
Today starts the final weekend of October, with the Big Day only a week away. So, here’s a sampling of what’s coming up for your viewing pleasure this weekend, as you make your final plans for Halloween:
Max (formerly HBO Max) continues “No Sleep October” with the broadcast debut of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller Trap, starring Josh Harnett as a concertgoer caught up in a law enforcement scheme to corner a serial killer who’s a member of the audience.
Netflix presents Don’t Move, from producer Sam Raimi, best known for his directorial work in the Evil Dead and Spider-Man movie franchises, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. According to the press material, Kelsey Asbille stars as “a grieving woman” who’s injected with a paralytic agent by a serial killer and must find some way to survive before her body shuts down.
AMC FearFeast goes full Jason Voorhees on Friday for its all-day Friday the 13th Marathon, with Parts VI–VIII followed by Freddy vs. Jason (admittedly, my favorite of both franchises), then Parts III, I, and II, and concluding with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
Saturday is a Creature Feature Marathon, with a lineup of The Mist, Gremlins, David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Gary Busey vs. a werewolf in Silver Bullet, John Carpenter’s Christine, Jeepers Creepers, and Child’s Play, with Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci) and Eight Legged Freaks (2002; David Arquette and Scarlet Johansson exterminating giant spiders) carrying you through the overnight hours. And then Sunday is AMC’s Michael vs. Everyone Marathon, with Michael Myers wreaking havoc in Haddonfield, Illinois, through Halloween 5, Halloween 4, Halloween II, the original John Carpenter’s Halloween, Halloween H2O, and Halloween: Resurrection.
The Movies! Channel’s expanded Friday Night Frights schedule starts with Forrest Tucker battling The Crawling Eye (1958), followed by Devil Doll (1964); Anthony Hopkins versus his ventriloquist’s dummy in the thriller Magic (1978); Puppet Master (1989) and the 1990 sequel Puppet Master II; Night of the Demons (1988); Tawny Kitaen contending with the supernatural threats of the Witchboard (1986); Adrienne Barbeau fighting off ghostly, bloodthirsty pirates in John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980); and the 1986 anthology Deadtime Stories.
Last but not least, on Saturday, TBS is hosting The 24 Hours ofBeetlejuice, in case there’s a rare chance you’ve ever missed seeing the famous Tim Burton-Michael Keaton-Winona Ryder collaboration in the past 36 years. Shamelessly taking advantage of the box office success of its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Absolutely. Overkill? For sure. But what else would you expect from the same station (as well as its sister, TNT) that has been running The 24 Hours of A Christmas Story every year since 1997?
Seems like a good way to pass the time while you’re putting together those little trick-or-treat bags for the little monsters that will soon come knocking at your door!
It’s time to celebrate the Spooky Season—with e-books and digital comics! E-book distributors DriveThru Comics and DriveThru Fiction—along with sister site DriveThru RPG—have kicked off their annual Halloween sale, during which you can purchase thousands of horror-themed digital books and comics and roleplaying games at special prices! It runs until November 1—and yes, you’ll need to set up an account (it’s free) to take advantage of this promotion.
Included among the many participating publishers is StarWarp Concepts (of course), which means you can get select titles at lower prices. (To be honest, I’m never sure which titles are involved until the sale happens, as DTC never sends out notifications and they’re kind of loosey-goosey with their choices.)
Again, the Halloween sale runs through November 1 (the Day of the Dead!), so head over to the StarWarp Concepts publisher page at DriveThru Comics and start shopping!
Another day, another holiday, and this one is solely for writers!
The National Day on Writing was started in 2010 by the National Council of Teachers of English, “built on the premise that writing is critical to literacy but needs greater attention and celebration.”
Well, at ’Warp Central we definitely believe in celebrating writing (we are a book and comic publishing company, after all), so if you’re interested in honing your skills as a writer, have we got a book for you!
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is our popular how-to book for writers and gamers in which bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (For a Few Gold Pieces More,Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
What you’ll find in its pages is information that’s vital for just about any writer, especially when it comes to world building, and Rich shows you how to do it:
Avoiding the pitfalls of naming characters, regions, and countries
Applying the technique of “outside in” to develop and then refine ideas for your world
Creating a world your readers can relate to, regardless of its technological levels
Identify how to create backstories and conflict by observing how your world comes together
Adding details to make your story richer without overwhelming your readers
Identifying useful resources for research
“I think Terra Incognito is a solid introduction to the subject of world building. The book succeeds in helping the aspiring writer in creating a skeletal framework for which to hang the moving parts required of a believable fictional setting.”—The Gaming Gang
Halloween creeps ever closer as we enter Frightful Weekend #3 of October, and if you’re a horror fan who couldn’t make it to New York Comic Con this week, here’s a sampling of what you can watch to help keep you occupied while you’re perhaps conventioneering at home (all times listed are on the East Coast):
AMC FearFeast kicks things into gear with a 3-day weekend of movie programming: Friday is a House of Horrors Marathon, starting at 9:00 a.m. with Virginia Madsen (Candyman) starring in 2009’s The Haunting in Connecticut, followed by a pair of Stephen King adaptations: director Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 cult classic The Shining (starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duval), and director Rob Reiner’s 1990 bone-shattering thriller Misery (starring James Caan and Kathy Bates, whose performance won her an Academy Award for Best Actress). The evening closes out with a trio of visits to the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, 2005’s remake of House of Wax, and the 2001 remake of Thirteen Ghosts. Be sure to bring a housewarming gift!
Saturday is a Final Destination Marathon, with FD2 starting at 4:00 p.m., followed by FD5, the original Final Destination, and wrapping up with FD3. Why show them out of order? I have no idea.
(Fun fact: Back in 2005, I wrote an original FD novel, for publisher Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint. Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand had Death going on a rampage along the Las Vegas Strip after a group of unfortunates narrowly escape the doom of an elevator disaster. The book’s long out of print, but you can always track down a copy in the wild—or, if you’ve got some free time, you could listen to the Slash Trax Network’s unofficial unabridged audiobook readingof it!)
Ending the weekend is Slasher Sunday: At 6:45 a.m., it begins with Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) and R. Lee Ermey (The Frighteners) in the 2006 gorefest The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, followed by Tony Todd as the hook-handed, lovelorn Candyman (1992); 1989’s Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, in which the hockey-masked killer rampaging through New York City (well, mostly Vancouver, British Columbia); the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (also starring R. Lee Ermey); the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street; the original Halloween (1978), by writer/director John Carpenter; the original Friday the 13th; and finally Robert Englund’s iconic turn as Freddy Krueger in writer/director Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Max (formerly HBO Max) continues “No Sleep October” with the broadcast debut of writer/director Ti West’s hard-core thriller MaXXXine and its prequel X (both starring Mia Goth). And don’t forget ’Salem’s Lot (adapting the famous Stephen King vampire novel) and the thriller Caddo Lake, which both premiered earlier this month.
On Friday, Netflix presents Woman of the Hour, starring and directed by Anna Kendrick. In 1978, real-life serial killer Rodney Alcala was Bachelor #3 on the popular TV game show The Dating Game, and the “winner” picked by contestant Cheryl Bradshaw. She soon discovered just how bad a choice she made… It’s “based on a true story,” which means a number of liberties were taken with the true events of that encounter—specifically, in real life, Bradshaw canceled the date after meeting Alcala because he creeped her out, and that was the end of that. So, the movie is really a fictionalized what-if-they’d-gone-on-that-date scenario, but it should be suspenseful, anyway!
Also on Friday, the Hallmark Channel begins its annual Reign of Holiday Terror with its Countdown to Christmas (“Good Lord! Choke!” gasped horror fans everywhere): around-the-clock programming that starts bright and early at 6:00 a.m. But even horror fans have been found to enjoy the…er, cookie-cutter template of Hallmark’s Christmas movies—especially when they have horror connections!
Take, for example, Friday’s Let It Snow (2013), starring Candace Cameron Bure. It’s directed by the appropriately named Harvey Frost, whose credits include episodes of the 1980s’ Friday the 13th: The Series, the 1990s’ The New Addams Family, and Grimm. Or Saturday’s On the 12th Date of Christmas (2020), a comforting romance from Gary Yates, the director of Eye of the Beast (2007; starring James Van Der Beek and a monster octopus) and Maneater (2007; Gary Busey vs. a hungry tiger). A lot of Hallmark directors and writers have a literal skeleton lurking in their closets…if you look closely enough…
And it’s not just horror directors who offset their terror tales with family-friendly films. There are two Hallmark movies—One December Night and My Southern Family Christmas—starring none other than living legend Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead franchise. And Michael Ironside—of V, Starship Troopers, and the recent Late Night with the Devil fame—plays a friendly old gent in Hallmark’s Pumpkin Everything.
In addition, I just discovered there’s a yuletide romance currently in preproduction called Christmas in Transylvania, set in Dracula’s Castle and no doubt planned for the 2025 bingeathon. So, yes, the horror connections are strong, even when it comes to Santa Claus.
Keep in mind, there’s also Letters to Satan Claus, which you can catch on streaming services like Hulu and SyFy. This 2020 horror movie, starring Karen Knox, parodies the Hallmark format with the tale of a TV anchorwoman returning to her hometown, only to learn that a typo-ridden letter she wrote as a young girl to “Satan Claus”—instead of Santa—might lead to a monstrous killing spree by the bad man himself.
Finally, The Movies! Channel’s expanded Friday Night Frights schedule goes toe-to-toe with the Hallmark Channel, unleashing 1958’s Earth vs. the Spider (no, it’s not a court case—although it could be!) at 6:00 a.m., followed by 1943’s The Leopard Man. And then it becomes all-vampire programming for the rest of the day!
First up is the teenaged vampire-girl of 1957’s Blood of Dracula, followed by Christopher Lee as the lord of vampires in 1958’s Horror of Dracula and 1969’s Dracula Has Risen from the Grave; Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak in 1972’s The Night Stalker; the 1974 adaptation of Dracula, starring Jack Palance, written by Richard Matheson, and directed by Night Stalker producer Dan Curtis; and Sylvia Krystal stalking 1980s Hollywood as Dracula’s Widow (1988; the directorial debut of Christopher Coppola—brother of Nicolas Cage, and nephew of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola). Then comes 1970’s House of Dark Shadows, a spin-off from Dark Shadows, the classic gothic TV soap opera created by Dan Curtis. 1971’s Lust for a Vampire, 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre—starring Klaus Kinski as the rat-faced Count Orloff—and the original Nosferatu (1922) round out the programming. (Perfect timing for those last two entries, because this Christmas brings the cinematic terror of writer/director Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu remake!)
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