Santa Rosa, CA (January 21, 2010)- On January 1st, 2010 Damnation Books, LLC took the reins of Eternal Press, moving the previously Canadian based publisher to the United States. Both companies specialize in ebooks and also paperback editions of their fiction.

The two companies remain separate brand entities but will share staff and resources. Damnation Books is found online at www.damnationbooks.com and Eternal Press at www.eternalpress.ca however, Eternal Press will be moving to a new website address soon. Readers and writers can visit the current site and will be redirected once the change occurs.

Ally Robertson former CEO of Eternal Press stated, “I handed over the Eternal Press reins to Kim Richards Gilchrist of Damnation Books LLC. I did so with great faith that by combining her efforts and resources she will take these two companies to the forefront of the E-pub industry. My decision to step down and stay on as the Head of Production and Art departments is a result of my confidence in her to take Eternal Press to heights I couldn’t. I wish all the best for both companies and know that with team work almost anything is possible.”

Kim Richards Gilchrist, CEO of Damnation Books, LLC and now, Eternal Press followed, “We are thrilled to bring Eternal Press to America. By sharing staff and resources, we expect both publishers to grow, beginning in 2010. Ally Robertson is staying on to head the production department, where her design expertise will benefit most.

“Eternal Press will continue to bring great romance, historical, contemporary, science fiction, fantasy and erotic fiction . We plan to expand the GBLT titles and reopen to Young Adult stories. Damnation Books remains dedicated to dark fiction, bringing you great horror, thrillers, dark fantasy, science fiction, erotica and will be opening up to dark-themed gay fiction. Both companies strive to bring quality reading at affordable prices in ebook (including kindle and iphone) and paperback editions.”

More information can be obtained by contacting Marketing Manager, Sheryl Connelly, via email at eternalpresspromotions@gmail.com.

Variance Publishing has just announced its latest release SILVER by Steven Savile.

Sometimes the truth is anything but honest.

Sometimes the stories everyone knows by heart are lies.

Sometimes lies are all we have left.


Two thousand years ago, thirty silver Tyrian shekels were paid to secure the most infamous betrayal of all time. Melted down by the grandsons of Judas Iscariot, Menahem and Eleazar ben Jair, in the dark heart of the Sicarii fortress, Masada, the silver was re-forged as a dagger. When the Sicarii zealots committed mass suicide in AD73 the dagger of Iscariot and the truth of his sacrifice were lost. Until now.

A religious cult calling itself the Disciples of Judas has risen in the Middle East. Its influence is pernicious, its reach long. In thirteen cities across Europe thirteen people martyr themselves in the name of Judas, promising forty days and forty nights of terror. They twist the words of ancient prophecies to drive home the fear. On the last day, they promise, faith will fall. Everything you believe in will be proved wrong. Everything you hold true will fail.

Day by day the West wakes to increasingly more harrowing acts of terror. Fear cripples the capitals of Europe, who will be the next to fall? London? Rome? Berlin?

In a race against time – and prophecy – believing the terrorists intend to assassinate the Pope as part of their plan to bring down the Catholic Church, Sir Charles Wyndham’s team of combat specialists, codename Ogmios, tracks a labyrinthine course through truth, shades of truth and outright lies that takes them from the backstreets of London to the shadow of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin all the way into the heart of the Holy See itself.

Forty days and forty nights of fear. And today is day one.

Wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
May you spend it with those you hold most dear. Be safe out there.

Let us know here at The Novel Blog what you liked this year or even better what you loathed.

The books I read this year and really loved were The Terror by Dan Simmons and One by Conrad Williams.


Tell us yours?

We hope you enjoyed our first year and we can't wait to bring you more top authors and reviews in 2010.

Press Release
6th November 2009 • For Immediate Release
ANGRY ROBOT LAUNCHES IN THE U.S. AND CANADA
Forget Judgement Day – the real robot army is on the rise!
In May 2010, Angry Robot – the new SF, F and WTF?! imprint from HarperCollins launches in the
US and Canada. After a staggeringly successful summer ’09 launch in the UK and Australia, we’re
now ready to announce our 2010 publication schedule for North America.
May June
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes Amortals by Matt Forbeck
Slights by Kaaron Warren Damage Time by Colin Harvey
Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero by Dan Abnett Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon
White Tiger (Dark Heavens #1) by Kylie Chan Red Phoenix (Dark Heavens #2) by Kylie Chan
Winter Song by Colin Harvey Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Kell’s Legend (Clockwork Vampire Chronicles #1) Soul Stealers (Clockwork Vampire Chronicles #2)
By Andy Remic by Andy Remic
July August
Blue Dragon (Dark Heavens #3) by Kylie Chan City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates
Nekropolis (Matt Richter #1) by Tim Waggoner Death’s Disciples by J Robert King
Vegas Knights by Matt Forbeck Edge by Thomas Blackthorne
The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe Embedded by Dan Abnett
Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren The Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon
September October to December
Dead Streets (Matt Richter #2) by Tim Waggoner Coming soon…
Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson
King Maker (The Knights of Breton Court #1) by Maurice Broaddus
Point by Thomas Blackthorne
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
Information about all these titles and authors can be found at www.angryrobotbooks.com.
Dare you deny the might of the Angry Robot Army?

When I state that my 2nd adventurous trip to FantasyCon held again this year in Nottingham (UK), started in the men’s toilets at St.Pancras Railway station, you might get the wrong idea. The overflowing toilet I chose to use, that started gushing into everyone else’s’ sure made me run for the train. Luckily the free tea and biscuits relaxed me and with a few reads of Adam Nevill’s Banquet for the Damned, I was soon at my sunny destination.
Once I got booked in ahead of Tim Lebbon, who had to wait for his room, I joined Peter Coleborn and his helpers in stuffing a few goodies bags, while people slowly arrived.

New faces I met as well as old including Simon Kurt Unsworth and the very lovely Allyson Bird, plus others I knew like Simon Clark, John Worley, Adam Nevill and Joseph D’Lacey. As usual things begin and end in the bar at FantasyCon, normally after many drinks are consumed, the welcome began at half-five and then things begin to blur.

Cheers Allyson for the signed chapbook.

I managed a greasy of greasiest burgers with my favourite people there Martin Roberts and Helen Hopley, who never seem to get much time to sit down, unless of course it’s when the projectors don’t work and the Friday night film show never got underway. Which was a real shame for them and the audience; cos I may never find out if the zombies or humans won the curling competition.
So I placed some Novelblog flyers and some of my free disks on the giveaway table and headed up to bed to watch Memphis Belle, but the war film got drowned out by the unique screams and sounds of the nightlife of Nottingham after dark. So I read my BFS programmes, looked at my freebie Angry Robot and Gollancz books and then got to sleep about half-oneish.

Saturday I rose early, even though I didn’t need too ate a hearty full English breakfast and had a great old time. I did a quick bit of book selling, which gave me more beer and book buying money for the day and sold 75% of the books I brought in a few short hours.
Being in the dealer’s room for a while I chatted to old friends Raven Dane (a fellow Gamesfest guest author next month), Adam Greenwood, Same Stone and David J Howe.
I bought only two books Different Skins and How to make Monsters, both by Gary McMahon, a huge new talent, who seemed to have a book with every small press there.

Adam kindly gave me a copy of his book Robin of the Wood so go to www.robinofthewood.com to find out about that.

Also the first time author (like me last year) Jonathan R Webb, selling his novel Geas, good luck with that mate. www.jonathanwebb.net

Sam Stone and I got chatting to the guys from Abaddon books, who gave me not 1, but 2 free books, I love their covers by the way. They had some very exciting title out now and have just purchased Solaris books, so I will be keeping an eye on them at www.abaddonbooks.com.

I then headed to see the Dead Good or Just Dead: Rehabilitation of Vampires panel with Raven Dane, Steven Erikson, Adam L G Nevill & Same Stone, which was great fun and the heckler just made it more interesting.

I caught Simon Kurt Unsworth’s excellent double reading upstairs, which moved some of the audience to tears, good tears though Simon.
Book launches followed in the main bar and The British Fantasy Society yearbook 2009 was a fantastic few gift to members one and all. Lee Thompson’s simple design for the cover is wonderful and I got my copy signed my many of the authors including Conrad Williams, Christopher Fowler, Sarah Pinborough and so many others.

After more drinks and chats, I headed to make myself look pretty for the banquet and thanks to my party planner John Worley (wink) I got to sit on a great table, with my lovely friends Paul D Voyce and Sarah Walker. With many others on the table including soon to be BFS Award winner Allyson Bird and the very charming Charlotte Bond to my right, a great time was had by all. Luckily no one else on the table was drinking the red wine, so my meal got tastier as the night progressed. To be the fair the soup and pudding were lovely, but the stuffed chicken served arse faced towards me, well was shite really.

The awards came and went, joined up with fellow Hersham boy Mathew F Riley, Adam, Award Winner Joseph D’Lacey and Simon Kurt Unsworth for drinks and the American, John Lenahan comedy magic show was a great fun to watch.
Pool, chats, JD and some strange Bacardi cocktails Joe rustled up followed and this Novelblogger didn’t get to his bed until 3am.
Sunday started with no lie-in, as my body woke me at 7am after far too little sleep. Shower, lots of greasy food seemed to do the trick and I made downstairs like many other zombie imitators the next morning, with vacant 5 mile stares.


I took in the 11am Pulp Adventures and Dodgy Archaeology: Digging in the Dirt panel, which Ian Watson made hilarious for all present as Gail Z Martin tried to keep the thing on track.
With a lot of bleary eyed hanging about and goodbyes and see you at the next thing in December I departed for the long train trip home, still in the warm sunshine.
I would like to thank all the people who help run it and set up behind the scenes. To Emma Jane Davies for the coolest shoes two days running (and buying my book) to all the people I chatted to and forgot their names because of age and booze or sleep deprivation. Tim Lebbon, I love the beer mats and my heroes of FantasyCon this year Helen & Martin.

Raven I will see next month at Gamesfest 4 and the other December, or the World Horror Convention in March, or failing that next year, cos I’ll be back.

Peter Mark May

Our very own Peter Mark May was there and apparently it was the book event of the season...to date anyways. Stay tuned for his amazing report...until then here's a link to this year's
winners, names like Tim Lebbon, William Heaney, Graham Joyce and Joseph D'Lacey. Click to view some of the speeches.

www.http://www.britishfantasysociety.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=369&Itemid=35

Just a quick reminder to everyone the submissions open October 1st for the 2009-2010 Dark Idol contest. I hope everyone has been busy working on their 500 word entry piece! I look forward to reading them all!

Rules are on the website if you haven't read them yet...

http://www.blacklighthorror.ca/darkidol

Do you have what it takes



PS:

I'm one of the Judges

Astonishing Adventures Magazine continues to thrill with the release of issue 7

MANITOWOC, September 15, 2009 - Astonishing Adventures Magazine, the prominent ePulp magazine, today announced the release of their seventh adventure-filled issue.

Seven issues into its amazing run, AAM and the Darke Media Group continue to provide the highest quality free fiction eZine on the Net while exploring ways to redefine the traditional publishing mode. Darke Media is launching a new web serial with a second serial, starring the mascot of AAM Scarlett, scheduled for early 2010.

Astonishing Adventures Magazine Issue 7 – Free online/$10 print issue
Have some crazy fun with the wonderful stories from writers like Mike Hughes, Christine Pope, Katherine Tomlinson, Sidney Harrison, Roger Alford, Brian Trent, Sarah Vaughn, Kat Parrish, Michael Patrick Sullivan, G. Wells Taylor, and Cormac Brown.

Soak in the amazingly beautiful images by artists like Joanne Renaud, Larry Nadolsky, G. Wells Taylor, Sarah Vaughn, and Susan Schader.

These are tales that will thrill and chill you well after you finish reading them.

Purchasers of the print copy will receive a free audio version of “The Dark” adventure by John Donald Carlucci and read by vocal jihadist Robert Page.

For more information on Astonishing Adventures please visit the dedicated website at http://astonishingadventuresmagazine.ning.com/

Release date to the public September 15, 2009

Release points:
Astonishing Adventures Magazine issue 7 - available print version at
Amazon: ISBN1448687330 $10.00 - http://tiny.cc/WV4OZ
To read online or download
Issuu: http://issuu.com/astonishing/docs/aam7
To download if the Issuu link does not work
Mediafire: http://tiny.cc/ai2st


Contact:
John Donald Carlucci
Publisher
Darke Media Group
727-215-5923
johndonaldcarlucci@gmail.com

http://www.findtheaxis.com/


FindTheAxis.com represents forces aligned to bring you the best in book cover design, interior design, social marketing and web design. The bookstore trenches have been dug. The competition is fierce. To succeed you’ll need to launch a literary shock and awe campaign. So get started. Choose one or all of the services represented here and prepare to storm the bookselling world.

End of Month Update from our friends at Angry Robot



Moxyland Short Story Competition
This is proving to be very popular. In association with Authonomy, Angry Robot are running a competition to write a short story set in Lauren Beukes' Moxyland universe. While the competition is running, you can read Moxyland in its entirety free of charge!
We've had a few requests to extend the deadline, so we have - the closing date for entries is now September 25th. Full details can be found at the Authonomy website at http://tinyurl.com/moxycomp
Please mention this to your readers - we're sure they'll be interested!


Angry Robot Videos
We (and our authors) have been busy putting together some videos about our books, and about Angry Robot, generally. Our videos (there are 5 so far) are all available from our You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/AngryRobotBooks - feel free to pinch them to embed on your own sites. Our latest one (Kell's Legend) contains quite a lot of fake blood - you have been warned!

Your's truely has joined up with Main Street Magazine to write the new column: A NOVEL IDEA. Each month we'll bring you more exciting Author News, Reviews and Interviews in print format.

This is a great oppotunity for us and TheNovelBlog.com and let me thank you up front for all of your continued support. Keep the emails and books coming!

- Dan.

Angry Robot has signed up two more
top talents for novels to appear in 2010 and beyond. And here they are:
In one, it’s GUY ADAMS. In a varied career, Guy trained and

worked as an actor for twelve years before becoming a fulltime
writer. He mugged someone on Emmerdale, performed a
dance routine as Hitler and spent eighteen months touring his
own comedy material around clubs and theatres. He is the
author of the best-selling Rules of Modern Policing: 1973
Edition, a spoof police manual “written by” DCI Gene Hunt of
Life On Mars. He’s has also written a two-volume series
companion to that; a Torchwood novel, The House That Jack
Built; and The Case Notes of Sherlock Holmes, a fictional
facsimile of a scrapbook kept by Doctor John Watson. He’s
also the current chairman of the British Fantasy Society.

Now he’s moving into original fiction, with a pair of novels starting with The World
House. Frankly, we were sold by the summary: “In a room is a box. In that box is a
door. Beyond that door is a house. And in that house is a whole world.” The story
comes to life when characters from different parts of the real world, and from different
times, find themselves trapped within the World House – and not all will escape its
secrets. We’ll bring you this extraordinary modern fantasy in February 2010, with its
sequel, RESTORATION, towards the end of the year.


Aaaand in two, it’s GAV THORPE, popular author of
bloodsoaked fantasy sagas under the Warhammer banner,
now moving into original fiction with a truly epic historically
tinged fantasy trilogy, THE CROWN OF THE BLOOD. Tipping a
helmet to the decline of the Roman empire and the
conquests of Alexander the Great, this sweeping tale looks at
what happens when a great general realizes that he’s
conquered all there is to conquer, and sets his sights on
returning home – only to discover that the empire he has
helped found is rotten to its very core. Massed battles,
political mayhem and some truly startling priests, it’s a genuinely original retooling of
what makes fantasy great. Volume one, itself called THE CROWN OF THE BLOOD, will
be published by Angry Robot at the start of Summer 201

Standing tall amongst the many buildings on 42nd street in New York City is the Grand Hyatt—this year’s location for ThrillerFest 2009. Amazing on the outside and just as stunning on the inside, the Grand Hyatt was a far-cry from what I’m used to seeing in Maine.

ThrillerFest ran from July 8th to July 11th and was composed of several high-lighted events: CraftFest (workshops on writing), AgentFest (think speed-dating only with agents) and ThrillerFest. While I didn’t attend CraftFest or AgentFest, ThrillerFest was exactly that—thrilling.


A quick flight from Maine, I arrived in NYC on the 9th and after a holy-crap-did-you-see-that cab ride, I found myself staring in awe in the main lobby of the Grand Hyatt. I checked in and started to make my way to my room when I ran into longtime Facebook friend, Thomas O’Callaghan. Facebook—now there’s a word I heard A LOT while there. Anyways, Thomas was exactly how I’d imagined him to be and certainly contributed to my stay in New York. He sang “Happy Birthday” to me in the main lobby (as others watched mind you) on Sunday—thanks Tom!

To be honest, most of my time at ThrillerFest was a blur. I’m surprised that I didn’t end up with whiplash, because of all my rubber-necking trying to read name badges and catch a glimpse of my favorite authors. Each elevator ride proved to be just as thrilling, as I shared rides with the likes of Paul Kemprecos, Douglas Clegg and R.L. Stein to name a few.


While attending, I volunteered to assist for several of the many signings that took place. I was assigned crowd control for both James Rollins and David Baldacci and it was as cool as it sounds. A quick side-note on David Baldacci is that he is the brother of John Baldacci, the governor of Maine.

There were so many panels offered that it was hard to choose which ones to attend. If I were to pick a favorite, I’d have to say it was attending the Roast of Clive Cussler. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Clive’s and I was a little star struck once I finally met him.


I met so many great authors that it’s hard to remember them all, however, the list includes Andrew Grant (great guy who invited me to London), Lee Child (both Lee and Andrew are really tall), Douglas Preston, Douglas Clegg, Nate Kenyon, Joseph Finder, James Rollins, Jeremy Robinson, David Baldacci, R.L. Stein, Jonathan Hayes, Tom Cain, Thomas O’Callaghan and Joe Moore just to name a few. Most of these authors have been friends of mine on Facebook for sometime and it was great to finally meet them in person. Speaking of Facebook, it seemed to be a very common thread with everyone attending. In addition to the many authors, I was also able to meet some of my other friends from online. I chilled and had a drink with Stan and watched as he worked his money managing skills (apparently they’re only able to print one check for everyone), while friends Kendra and Susan were always good for a smile.



By the time Sunday rolled around, I was NOT ready to go home—it was all over too quick. There were so many people from all over the world that attended and I’d made some great friends while there—certain memories that I’ll keep forever. While it was sad to say goodbye, I know there’ll always be next year. So if you’re a published author or an aspiring writer and find yourself wondering if you should attend next year, I have one word for you. YES!

- Dan.