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/.

The Anubis Gates: A Review by Ciara Ballintyne

1802 - the Egyptian gods are a diminished force, and the power of magic fades. Sorcerers, wielding magic only at great expense to their own bodies, attempt to restore the potency of their power by bringing the gods, in all their glory, forward in time. Instead, they succeed only in tearing rents in the fabric of time – the Anubis Gates.

Brendan Doyle, a minor American scholar specialising in a little known poet, William Ashbless, is carried from London, 1983, through the gates of time to 1810, ostensibly to serve as a Coleridge expert. The journey is organised by J Cochran Darrow, a wealthy recluse specialising in odd-ball projects, and funded by the ten guests, each of whom has paid a premium for the privilege of witnessing a lecture by Samuel Coleridge in the flesh. 

The plan consists of a straightforward there and back again journey of only a few hours, but it goes awry when Doyle is kidnapped by an Egyptian sorcerer, intent on learning who is using the gates in time, and how. Having missed his ‘return flight’, as it were, Doyle finds himself stranded in 1810 London, penniless and alone.

While not unlikeable, Doyle is stranded, destitute, and terribly desperate – a desperation which drives him to take ill-considered risks and make less-than-intelligent decisions. But it is his very isolation, his very desperation, that draws me to him – can the reader conceive of many worse situations than to be stranded out of time, in a strange culture, with absolutely no means of support?

I have very little concept of what London was like in 1810, but Powers paints a compelling picture with few words, creating less an image of the physical place, than a sense of the people who populate it; the desperation of its denizens, the danger they exude, and the grinding poverty that drives many of them. That sense, that feeling, creates a more visceral setting than any mere description of buildings could do. 

This is not to imply the book lacks description, for Powers describes events, and many settings, with phrases evocative enough to turn me green with envy. 

London is peopled with a host of characters – who can Doyle trust? Who might he rely on in his time of need? Knowing exactly where the poet, William Ashbless, should be, he hopes to appeal to that man’s generosity, but the poet is mysteriously missing. Has Doyle upset the events of history by returning from the future? 

What of the clown, Horrabin, who offers Doyle a job amongst his beggars? His very name hints at horrible unknowns. Is young Jacky more trustworthy? He warns Doyle away from Horrabin, and suggests a place amongst the rival beggar crew. Can Doyle use the Egyptian sorcerers to return to 1983? What does he have to bargain with, except his own life? What of Dog-Face Joe, a rumoured werewolf-type serial killer, to whom Doyle comes perilously close? 

And who, on the streets of 1810 London, is whistling Yesterday by The Beatles?

Events come dangerously to a head when the poet, Ashbless, reappears in a startling and unexpected way, setting Doyle’s feet on a path that takes him even further into the past, and then eventually to Cairo. Events now follow the course of history Doyle is familiar with, and he begins to anticipate what comes, thinking he knows how events will unfold – or does he?

The book careens from one disaster, to another ill-conceived decision, to bizarre and yet wildly appropriate plot twist after plot twist. The foreshadowing is impeccable – the clues are there if you know to look for them, but you won’t, until events come to pass. Instead, each new revelation, each new horror, each new clever outcome, will keep you turning page after page to find the answers until, before you know it, you’ve finished the book. 

If I were to tell you any more, I’d ruin all the surprises, and they are well worth the wait. They are many, and they are varied, and each new discovery delighted me at its appropriateness, at its suitability, at the way in which each of the puzzle pieces fit neatly together – until the picture, of which Doyle only has a vague outline from 20^th century history books, becomes a complete illustration rendered in loving detail. 

I read this book in about two days – it was literally unputdownable. The story is exceptional, and the book well-written. The odd waver in the writing barely caused a hitch in my stride, so desperate was I to resolve each conflict, only to find I had dove headfirst into the next. 

If you didn’t read this book for Club Fantasci, then you must. 5 stars – I give this book 5 stars. Do you know how often I say that? 

Not very often at all. 

~

If you missed October's Hangout and the discussion of The Anubis Gates, you can find it here.  Also, don't miss the review of The Anubis Gates by my fellow Club Fantasci co-host, Dionne Lister.


Don't forget to join us next month for Club Fantasci's Hangout. November's Book of the Month is The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice, so the Hangout will be limited to 21+. I expect discussions may get a bit scandalous!

In other news, my short story is now available for purchase as part of the anthology Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, available here at Amazon and Smashwords. 

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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. 

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might as well join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or sign up for the newsletter.

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.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us.