Confronting the Demon: Covers and Characters Brought To life

Watching a cover take shape is, I’ve discovered, an amazing process. If you have a good artist, you’ll likely get updates at each step of the process. For a while there, my artist was sending me a daily updates and checking my email first thing in the morning became the high point of my day

I received updates at the outline stage, as the first character was added, then the second, then the background, and so on, until the artwork was completed. Watching the character come to life was a completely amazing experience. I never have characters’ faces so firmly envisioned that I could possibly draw them myself (although I did once do a double-take at a guy I passed in the street, because he could have stepped right out of my novel Deathhawk’s Betrayal) but I found I could look at the artist’s rendition and go ‘Hey, that’s Alloran’.

Although admittedly that wasn’t my absolute first thought when I saw him....

So here it is – the cover art for Confronting the Demon, my 25,000 word novella, showing Alloran and Gisayne.

Many thanks go out to my artist, Nadica Boskovska. Check out more of her work at http://theswanmaiden.deviantart.com/gallery/

 

Blurb - Confronting the Demon

The gates to hell are thrown wide when Alloran is betrayed by his best friend, Ladanyon, and framed for forbidden magic. He is hunted by the guards and the wizards both, tormented by the gruesome murder of his friends and loved ones, and crippled by fear for the living. Now Alloran must face his demons, or damn the woman he loves.

The novella also includes a free bonus short story, A Magical Melody, which was previously featured in the ebook anthology, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic.

When a lethal spell is stolen from a locked and warded room, Avram must hunt down the thief before the song of power buries a city of innocents beneath a thousand tons of ice.

Confronting the Demon is due to be released mid- to late-September, and I’ll be signing copies at the IndieVengeance Day Book Signing in Dallas, Saturday October 12, 2013 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (CDT). Register for free here if you’re interested to come along - http://www.indievengeanceday.eventbrite.com/.

Author Line-Up for Spells: Ten Tales of Magic Anthology

As announced in my last post, my short story A Magical Melody is appearing in Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, an anthology edited by Rayne Hall, and released 28 October. You can find it on Smashwords and shortly on Amazon.

Being as it's ten tales, there are nine other authors apart from myself.  All of my readers are, of course, well-acquianted with me; opinionated, dragon-obsessed, friendly neighbourhood writing adviser, usually juggling any impossible number of writing projects with an insane number of workshops, and still trying to help out my fellow writers with beta reading and critiques. 

If you'd like to know about the other authors, some of whom have impressive credentials, you can check them out here on the blog of fellow Ten Tales author, Jeff Hargett.

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Spells: Ten Tales of Magic

Spells: Ten Tales of Magic is an anthology edited by Rayne Hall, released 28 October - and my short story A Magical Melody is part of the collection!

Some of you may have seen an earlier incarnation of A Magical Melody on my blog as part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, but Spells: Ten Tales of Magic will feature the revised (and therefore improved) version. The original (first draft) version is no longer available on my blog, pending the release of the anthology. A publication date is not yet confirmed, but is expected to be later in October.

I'm delighted I was asked to submit a revised version of A Magical Melody, and even more pleased to have it accepted. The story did deserve a bit of polish - and in fact, the concept of the world intrigues me enough I'll probably revisit it in future for a novel of its own. 

I've shared the cover here with you, but the official cover reveal was done yesterday on the blog of fellow anthology author, Cherie Reich. You can find the original launch, complete with an interview with the cover artist, here.

You can find the anthology on Smashwords and shortly on Amazon.

In the meantime, another anthology in the series edited by Rayne Hall, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts is free at Amazon from 23 - 27 October. If you're interested, you can find it here for US Kindle and here for UK Kindle. 

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Interview with Steve McHugh: Author of Crimes Against Magic

Today I’m welcoming Steve McHugh to Flight of the Dragon to tell us more about himself and his book, Crimes Against Magic. Steve’s been writing from an early age and his first completed story was done in an English lesson. Unfortunately, after the teacher read it, he had to have a chat with the head of the year about the violent content and bad language. The follow up ‘One boy and his frog’ was less concerning to his teachers and got him an A.

It wasn’t for another decade that he would start work on a full length novel, the results of which is Crimes Against Magic.

He was born in a small village called Mexbrough, South Yorkshire, but now lives with his wife and two young daughters in Southampton.

I love the title Crimes Against Magic so much so I wish I’d thought of it myself! How did you come up with it?

If I’m honest, I don’t know. I don’t know how I come up with any of my titles. They sort of pop into my head when I’m thinking about the story and if I like it, it sticks. I liked the idea of there being criminal acts using magic, things so bad that if you got caught, you’d be executed for it. It probably came from there.

Well, just the title has got ideas spinning in my head about where I could take this concept. I’d say that’s a pretty effective title! What genre do you consider the book?

Crimes Against Magic is Urban Fantasy, although I’ve heard people describe it as Action, Adventure with magic. Either of those work quite well.

I’m not a fan for strict classification of books, particularly when we start drilling down into subgenres. How did you choose the genre you write in?

It sort of chose me. I’ve always loved mythology and magic and history, so combining them meant Urban Fantasy was a natural fit.

I’m with you on that one. Some of us do just naturally gravitate towards something.  What was your part of Crimes Against Magic to write and why?

My favourite parts to write were probably one fight scene near the end of the book between Nate and a villain and a scene where you’re introduced to Nathan’s young neighbour, Dani. That was a lot of fun to write.

I always feel twisted and evil when I ask this question. Why am I the only one who enjoys writing things like the Black Moment? Anyway, back to Steve… Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?

A lot of the characters who make it to the end of the book will be back in future stories in one way or another.

As for themes, the second book is going to be much darker in tone. That was something I made a conscious decision to do, due to what the story is about.

Ahah, so there’s a sequel! Is it your current project?

Yes, I’m currently writing the second book, Born of Hatred, and outlining the third, With Silent Screams. Hopefully book two will be out within the next six months.

That’s not a bad timeframe. So do you ever experience writer's block or that’s just not something you suffer from?

Not really, although I do experience writer’s procrastination, especially when I should be editing.

Don’t we all – I suffer from what I like to call writer’s knurd. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

The toughest criticism would be something that was unfair. I’ve had a few, mostly when I went for the Amazon Breakthrough Award, but I tend to ignore it and move on. If someone wants to give constructive criticism, I’m all ears though.

The best compliment? I was told by someone that they don’t read a lot of books, but that they loved Crimes Against Magic. That made me feel superb.

I bet it does. The one thing I love to hear is people stayed up past their bedtime and into the wee hours of the morning reading! OK, so now a few unusual questions, just to give our readers a hint of the ‘real’ Steve McHugh. If you were a Star Trek® or Star Wars®  character, which one would it be?

I could probably be really geeky and come up with something obscure, but I’m going to go with Han Solo. I think everyone wants to be him though.

Yep, even me! So what if I’m a woman? Ahem. So what is your favourite drink?

Alcoholic – Scotch

Hot – Green tea

Cold – Apple juice

Never mix those three together in the same drink.

Dang! *hides apple juice behind back* The thought never even crossed my mind. To wrap up, tell us the last book you read.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Probably not quite as good as The Hunger Games as it takes a while to get going, but still a very good book. I’ll read the third at some point too.

Haven’t read them, but they are on my TBR list – as is Crimes Against Magic! If you want your very own copy, you can get one here from Amazon or Amazon UK. For more on Steve, check out his blog or follow him on Twitter at @stevejmchugh! Thanks so much for joining us today, Steve, it was a pleasure to have you.

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Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

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