The Qwillery

Happy Monday!

There is one debut this week:

The Bard's Blade (The Sorcereer's Song 1) by Brian D. Anderson.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman is reissued;

We Are Monsters by Brian Kirk is reissued;

and

Titanshade (The Carter Archives 1) by Dan Stout is out in Mass Market Paperback.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

January 28, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Bard's Blade (D)	Brian D. Anderson	F - The Sorcereer's Song 1
Fighters of Fear: Occult Detective Stories	Mike Ashley (Ed)	Occ/Sup - Anthology
With Blood Upon the Sand (tp2mm)	Bradley P. Beaulieu	DF/F - Song of Shattered Sands 2
Bowl of Heaven and Shipstar	Gregory Benford Larry Niven	SF/HSF/AC
The Cruel Stars (h2mm)	John Birmingham	SF/SO
Wild Country (h2mm)	Anne Bishop	DF/CF/AH - The World of the Others 2
Storm Cursed (h2mm)	Patricia Briggs	UF/CF - A Mercy Thompson Novel 11
Those Across the River (ri)	Christopher Buehlman	H/SupTh
Highfire	Eoin Colfer	F/HU
The Storm (h2mm)	David Drake	SF - Time of Heroes 2
Twenty	Debra Landwehr Engle	CW/FL/MR
Vendetta Road	Christine Feehan	PNR - Torpedo Ink 3
Wicked Bite	Jeaniene Frost	PNR - Night Rebel 2
Raising Atlantis (ri)	Thomas Greanias	Fiction
Terminal Uprising (h2mm)	Jim C. Hines	SF/AP/PA/HU - Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse 2
Endgames (h2mm)	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - The Imager Portfolio 12
Octavia Gone (h2mm)	Jack McDevitt	SF/HSF - An Alex Benedict Novel 8
The Invited (h2tp)	Jennifer McMahon	Sus/GH
Warlord	Mel Odom	SF - The Makaum War 3
Prosper's Demon	K. J. Parker	DF
Fleet of Knives (tp2mm)	Gareth L. Powell	SF/SO - An Embers of War Novel 2
Earthquake Weather (tp2mm)	Tim Powers	CF
Cast in Wisdom	Michelle Sagara	F - The Chronicles of Elantra 15
Song of the Risen God	R. A. Salvatore	F/DF - The Coven 3
Buzz Kill	David Sosnowski	SF/HU/AP/PA/HSF
Titanshade (h2mm)	Dan Stout	UF/DF - The Carter Archives 1
Marked (tp2mm)	S. Andrew Swann	F/P
Scratching the Head of Chairman Mao	Jonathan Tel	LF/AB/HU

January 29, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Case of the Somewhat Mythic Sword: A Tor.com Original (e)	Garth Nix	DF
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2019 Edition: A Tor.com Original (e)	Various	SF/F - Anthology

January 30, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Snowball	Gregory Bastianelli	H - Fiction Without Frontiers
We Are Monsters	Brian Kirk	H - Fiction Without Frontiers

January 31, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Best of Elizabeth Bear	Elizabeth Bear	F/SF - Collection
King of the Dogs, Queen of the Cats	James Patrick Kelly	UF
The Hunter from the Woods	Robert McCammon	SupTh/Occ

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
mm - Mass Market Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CL - City Life
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR- Fantasy Romance
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
RS - Romantic Suspense
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

My debut novel, We Are Monsters, sold fast, and I’ll admit that experience warped my expectations. I pitched the book to my editor of choice, submitted the manuscript upon request, and received an offer about three weeks later. This publishing business is a breeze!

Ha. Haha. AHAAHHAHA (Chokes to death on hubris, gets resuscitated) ha.

Not so much.

I finished the manuscript for my second novel before We Are Monsters was released. This was back in July of 2015. My plan was to query agents and take a run at the Big Five publishing houses. And that’s exactly what I did. Signed with an agent in November of that year, and started putting together a submission plan for a novel titled The Sun Is a Tangerine.

But then something happened that I didn’t expect. My idea for that novel morphed and expanded into something bigger and more complex. Not just in content, but format as well. It became more of a multi-media experience incorporating virtual reality technology than a traditional book, and my agent wasn’t sure how to sell it. So I decided to pull the project, and part ways with my agent, until I could figure out what to do with it. That process took about a year, and brought me no closer to a second publishing contract.

During that time, I was contacted by an acquisitions editor for an emerging horror publisher known more for its films than fiction, asking if I had any manuscripts to submit. The Sun Is A Tangerine wasn’t right for them—it’s more sci-fi than horror—so I offered to pitch new ideas. I pitched several ideas, and wrote a 50-page sample for my favorite one, which is what would become Will Haunt You. They loved the pitch (woo-hoo!), and gave me notes on the manuscript they wanted me to write, requesting a first look when it was done. Yes, back in the fast lane! (Or so I thought).

Will Haunt You took me about eight months to write, edit, have beta-read, reworked, etc. But I finished and was eager to submit the final manuscript. Unfortunately, the email address I had on file no longer worked, and I soon learned that the principle involved in the project had moved on to another place, and that this place wasn’t the right market for my new book. That potential deal was dead in the water.

But the editor had been so enthusiastic about the book, this should be a slam dunk, right? Wrong. While the book was intriguing enough to land me several phone calls with new prospective literary agents, they were all interested in my next book, deeming this one “too unconventional” for their traditional publishing contacts. (Note: anyone who has read Will Haunt You will emphatically agree.)

At this point we’re nearing two years after the release of my debut novel and I’m not any closer to getting a second book sold. But, looking back, those two years might be the most valuable of my early career, because they helped me clarify my goals as a writer, and provide clear direction for how I want to move forward.

Our society defines success in financial terms. That’s hard conditioning to break. And it was this misguided desire to maximize my financial return that drove me to pursue the Big Five publishing houses in the first place. But the Big Five publishers, by and large, aren’t interested in the fringe, unconventional, horror-trippy-weird-shit that I feel compelled to write. They mostly want something that looks familiar—and has a proven track record—whereas I strive to write stuff that feels new, and hasn’t been tried before. Taking those risks might excite me creatively, but they tend to frighten executives responsible for the financial security of a company.

And that’s okay. Because, fortunately, there are editors out there who are willing to take on fringe, unconventional, horror-trippy-weird-shit. Know where you’ll find them? Working for indie publishers like the one I recently signed with, Flame Tree Press.

Nearly four years have passed since the release of my first book, and I’m cool with that, because that time helped me to better understand who I am. A fiercely independent author who will write whatever my strange heart desires whether I get paid for it or not.

If you’re a fan of unconventional fiction, I encourage you to seek out indie publishers. That’s where you’ll find some of the most inventive material between produced today. And it’s the square pegs like me (hopefully like you) that help keep them alive.

My second novel is titled Will Haunt You, and it’s a book created by a mysterious figure who preys upon the people who read it. I published its prequel as a creepypasta-style story that was serialized online. None of this would be possible without indie publishing, and for that I am sincerely grateful.

Read the creepy-pasta prequel to Will Haunt You here: The Story of OBSIDEO.


And if that doesn’t scare you away, here’s where you can buy the book.

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Will-Haunt-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787581365
• Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/will-haunt-you-brian-kirk/1129683656?ean=9781787581364

Will Haunt You
Flame Tree Press, March 14, 2019
Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook, 240 pages

You don’t read the book. It reads you. 

Rumors of a deadly book have been floating around the dark corners of the deep web. A disturbing tale about a mysterious figure who preys on those who read the book and subjects them to a world of personalized terror. Jesse Wheeler—former guitarist of the heavy metal group The Rising Dead—was quick to discount the ominous folklore associated with the book. It takes more than some urban legend to frighten him. Hell, reality is scary enough. Seven years ago his greatest responsibility was the nightly guitar solo. Then one night when Jesse was blackout drunk, he accidentally injured his son, leaving him permanently disabled. Dreams of being a rock star died when he destroyed his son's future. Now he cuts radio jingles and fights to stay clean. But Jesse is wrong.

The legend is real—and tonight he will become the protagonist in an elaborate scheme specifically tailored to prey on his fears and resurrect the ghosts from his past. Jesse is not the only one in danger, however.

By reading the book, you have volunteered to participate in the author’s deadly game, with every page drawing you closer to your own personalized nightmare.

The real horror doesn’t begin until you reach the end. That’s when the evil comes for you.

About Brian

Brian Kirk is an author of dark thrillers and psychological suspense. His debut novel, We Are Monsters, was released in July 2015 and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

His short fiction has been published in many notable magazines and anthologies. Most recently, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories and Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, where his work appears alongside multiple New York Times bestselling authors, and received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year compilation.

During the day, Brian works as a freelance marketing and creative consultant. His experience working on large, integrated advertising campaigns for international companies has helped him build an effective author platform, and makes him a strong marketing ally for his publishing partners. In addition, Brian has an eye for emerging media trends and an ability to integrate storytelling into new technologies and platforms.

While he's worked to make this bio sound as impressive as possible, he's actually a rather humble guy who believes in hard work and big dreams. Feel free to connect with him through one of the following channels. Don't worry, he only kills his characters.

Website  ~  Twitter @Brian_Kirk

Happy Monday!

There are 4 debuts this week:

If, Then by Kate Hope Day;

The Widening Gyre by Michael R. Johnston;

The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage;

and

Titanshade (The Carter Archives 1) by Dan Stout.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

A Veil of Spears by Bradley P. Beaulieu is out in Trade Paperback;

The Golgotha Series: The Six-Gun Tarot, The Shotgun Arcana, The Queen of Swords by R. S. Belcher is out in eBook Bundle;

Semiosis (Semiosis Duology 1) by Sue Burke is out in Trade Paperback;

The True Queen (A Sorcerer to the Crown 2) by Zen Cho;

Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd is out in Trade Paperback;

Will Haunt You by Brian Kirk;

The Near Witch by V. E. Schwab;

A Gathering of Shadows Collector's Edition (Shade of Magic 2) by V. E. Schwab;

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl;

and

The Forbidden City (Dragon's Legacy 2) by Deborah A. Wolf.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

March 11, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Nightwalker (e)(ri)	Heather Graham	GH/Sus
Harrison Investigation Series Volume 3: An Anthology (e)	Heather Graham	H - Harrison Investigation

March 12, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Mars: Stories	Asja Bakić Jennifer Zoble (Tr)	SF/HU/SF/AP/PA/AB/SS - Collection
Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories (h2tp)	Kelly Barnhill	F/SS - Collection
A Veil of Spears (h2tp)	Bradley P. Beaulieu	F/DF - Song of Shattered Sands 3
The Golgotha Series: The Six-Gun Tarot, The Shotgun Arcana, The Queen of Swords (e)	R. S. Belcher	HistF/DF/SP - Golgotha
Semiosis (h2tp)	Sue Burke	SF/AC/HSF - Semiosis Duology 1
The True Queen	Zen Cho	HistF/F - A Sorcerer to the Crown Novel 2
Tor.com Publishing Editorial Spotlight #3: A Selection of Novellas (e)	Ellen Datlow (Ed)	SpecFic
If, Then (D)	Kate Hope Day	LF/VisM/SF/AP/PA
Ruin's Wake	Patrick Edwards	CF/SF
The Willful Child Series: Willful Child, Wrath of Betty, The Search for Spark (e)	Steven Erikson	SF - Willful Child
Winter's Web (e)	Jennifer Estep	UF - Elemental Assassin Novella
Toxic Game	Christine Feehan	PNR/GenEng - GhostWalker 15
The Dazzle of Day	Molly Gloss	SF/HSF
Blood of the Four (h2tp)	Christopher Golden Tim Lebbon	F
Dawn of the Exile	Mitchell Hogan	F - Infernal Guardian 2
If Cats Disappeared from the World	Genki Kawamura Eric Selland (Tr)	LF/MR
Mr. Flood's Last Resort (h2tp)	Jess Kidd	LF
AHistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe (Fourth Edition Vol. 3)	Lars Pearson Lance Parkin	PerfArts/TV/HC
White Light (ri)	Rudy Rucker	SF
Saucer Wisdom (ri)	Rudy Rucker	SF/AC
The Woman in the Dark (D)	Vanessa Savage	PsyTh/H/Sus
The Near Witch (ri)	V. E. Schwab	RF/FairyT/FolkT/LM/HistF
A Gathering of Shadows Collector's Edition	V. E. Schwab	HistF/Gaslamp - Shades of Magic 2
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color	Nisi Shawl (Ed)	SpecFic - Anthology
Titanshade (D)	Dan Stout	UF/DF - The Carter Archives 1
The Rosewater Insurrection	Tade Thompson	SF/AC/AP/PA - Wormwood Trilogy  2
The Spirit Photographer (h2tp)	JonMichael Varese	HistF/GH/Occ/Sup
A Pathfinder Tales Collection: Lord of Runes, Liar's Island, Beyond the Pool of Stars, Bloodbound, Pirate's Prophecy, Hellknight, Liar's Bargain, Starspawn, ... Through the Gate in the Sea, Gears of Faith (e)	Various	F - Pathfinder Tales
The Bird King	G. Willow Wilson	HistF
The Forbidden City (h2tp)	Deborah A. Wolf	F - Dragon's Legacy 2

March 13, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
To Catch a Witch (h2tp)	Heather Blake	PCM - A Wishcraft Mystery 8

March 14, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Wolf Land	Jonathan Janz	H - Fiction Without Frontiers
The Widening Gyre  (D)	Michael R. Johnston	SF/SO - Fiction Without Frontiers
Will Haunt You	Brian Kirk	H/DF - Fiction Without Frontiers
Child Of Thunder (e)(ri)	Mickey Zucker Reichert	F - Renshai Chronicles 3
Beyond Ragnarok (e)(ri)	Mickey Zucker Reichert	F - Renshai Chronicles 4

March 15, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Sins of the Lost (e)	Lydia M. Hawke	SupTh - The Grigori Legacy 3

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Parnormal Cozy Mystery
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Spec - Speculative
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Callie Bates (2017)

The Soul of Power
The Waking Land 3
Del Rey June 4, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 480 pages

One young woman learns the true nature of power—both her own and others’—in the riveting conclusion to The Waking Land Trilogy.

Sophy Dunbarron—the illegitimate daughter of a king who never was—has always felt like an impostor. Separated from her birth mother, raised by parents mourning the loss of their true daughter, and unacknowledged by her father, Sophy desires only a place and a family to call her own. But fate has other ideas. Caught up in Elanna Valtai’s revolution, Sophy has become the reigning monarch of a once-divided country—a role she has been groomed her whole life to fill.

But as she quickly discovers, wearing a crown is quite a different thing from keeping a crown. With an influx of magic-bearing refugees pouring across the border, resources already thinned by war are stretched to the breaking point. Half the nobility in her court want her deposed, and the other half question her every decision. And every third person seems to be spontaneously manifesting magical powers.

When Elanna is captured and taken to Paladis, Sophy’s last ally seems to have vanished. Now it is up to her alone to navigate a political maze that becomes more complex and thorny by the day. And worse, Sophy is hiding a huge secret—one that could destroy her tenuous hold on the crown forever.

Don’t miss any of Callie Bates’s magical Waking Land trilogy:
THE WAKING LAND • THE MEMORY OF FIRE • THE SOUL OF POWER

Book 1

Book 2

Brian Kirk (2015)

Will Haunt You
Flame Tree Press, March 14, 2019
Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook, 240 pages

You don’t read the book. It reads you. 

Rumors of a deadly book have been floating around the dark corners of the deep web. A disturbing tale about a mysterious figure who preys on those who read the book and subjects them to a world of personalized terror. Jesse Wheeler—former guitarist of the heavy metal group The Rising Dead—was quick to discount the ominous folklore associated with the book. It takes more than some urban legend to frighten him. Hell, reality is scary enough. Seven years ago his greatest responsibility was the nightly guitar solo. Then one night when Jesse was blackout drunk, he accidentally injured his son, leaving him permanently disabled. Dreams of being a rock star died when he destroyed his son's future. Now he cuts radio jingles and fights to stay clean. But Jesse is wrong.

The legend is real—and tonight he will become the protagonist in an elaborate scheme specifically tailored to prey on his fears and resurrect the ghosts from his past. Jesse is not the only one in danger, however.

By reading the book, you have volunteered to participate in the author’s deadly game, with every page drawing you closer to your own personalized nightmare.

The real horror doesn’t begin until you reach the end. That’s when the evil comes for you.

Fran Wilde (2015)

The Fire Opal Mechanism
Tor.com, June 4, 2019
Trade Paperback and eBook, 208 pages

Jewels and their lapidaries and have all but passed into myth.

Jorit, broke and branded a thief, just wants to escape the Far Reaches for something better. Ania, a rumpled librarian, is trying to protect her books from the Pressmen, who value knowledge but none of the humanity that generates it.

When they stumble upon a mysterious clock powered by an ancient jewel, they may discover secrets in the past that will change the future forever.

Cover Artist - David Palumbo

Cover Design by Jason Gurley

Rob Boffard

Tracer
Redhook (Orbit), July 16, 2015
eBook, 368 pages

IN SPACE, EVERY. SECOND. COUNTS.

Our planet is in ruins. Three hundred miles above its scarred surface orbits Outer Earth: a space station with a million souls on board. They are all that remain of the human race.

Darnell is the head of the station's biotech lab. He's also a man with dark secrets. And he has ambitions for Outer Earth that no one will see coming.

Prakesh is a scientist, and he has no idea what his boss Darnell is capable of. He'll have to move fast if he doesn't want to end up dead.

And then there's Riley. She's a tracer - a courier. For her, speed is everything. But with her latest cargo, she's taken on more than she bargained for.

A chilling conspiracy connects them all.

The countdown has begun for Outer Earth - and for mankind.

Camille Griep

Letters to Zell
47North, July 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 336 pages

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left to wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will do anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?

In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale stories we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

Logan J. Hunder

Witches Be Crazy
A Tale That Happened Once Upon a Time in the Middle of Nowhere
Night Shade Books, July 14, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

Real heroes never die. But they do get grouchy in middle age.

The beloved King Ik is dead, and there was barely time to check his pulse before the royal throne was supporting the suspiciously shapely backside of an impostor pretending to be Ik’s beautiful long-lost daughter. With the land’s heroic hunks busy drooling all over themselves, there’s only one man left who can save the kingdom of Jenair. His name is Dungar Loloth, a rural blacksmith turned innkeeper, a surly hermit and an all-around nobody oozing toward middle age, compensating for a lack of height, looks, charm, and tact with guts and an attitude.

Normally politics are the least of his concerns, but after everyone in the neighboring kingdom of Farrawee comes down with a severe case of being dead, Dungar learns that the masquerading princess not only is behind the carnage but also has similar plans for his own hometown. Together with an eccentric and arguably insane hobo named Jimminy, he journeys out into the world he’s so pointedly tried to avoid as the only hope of defeating the most powerful person in it. That is, if he can survive the pirates, cultists, radical Amazonians, and assorted other dangers lying in wait along the way.

Logan J. Hunder’s hilarious debut blows up the fantasy genre with its wry juxtaposition of the fantastic and the mundane, proving that the best and brightest heroes aren’t always the best for the job.

J. Dalton Jennings

Solomon's Arrow
Talos Press, July 14, 2014
Trade Papeback and eBook, 400 pages

It’s the mid-twenty-first century. The oceans are rising, the world’s population is growing, terrorist organizations are running rampant, and it has become readily apparent that humanity’s destructive nature is at the heart of the matter.

When all faith in humanity seems lost, a startling proposal is announced: Solomon Chavez, the mysterious son of the world’s first trillionaire, announces that he, backed by a consortium of governments and wealthy donors, will build an interstellar starshipone that will convey a select group of six thousand individuals, all under the age of fifty, with no living relatives, to a recently discovered planet in the Epsilon Eridani star system. His goal is lofty: to build a colony that will ensure the survival of the human race. However, Solomon Chavez has a secret that he doesn’t dare share with the rest of the world.

With the launch date rapidly approaching, great odds must be overcome so that the starship Solomon’s Arrow can fulfill what the human race has dreamed of for millennia: reaching for the stars. The goal is noble, but looming on the horizon are threats nobody could have imaginedones that may spell the end of all human life and end the universe as we know it.

Filled with action, suspense, and characters that will live on in the imagination, Solomon’s Arrow will leave readers breathless, while at the same time questioning what humanity’s true goals should be: reaching for the stars, or exploring the limits of the human mind?

James Kendley

The Drowning God
Harper Voyager Impulse, July 28, 2015
eBook, 240 pages

To uncover modern Japan's darkest, deadliest secret, one man must face a living nightmare from his childhood

Few villagers are happy when Detective Tohru Takuda returns to his hometown to investigate a string of suspicious disappearances. Even the local police chief tries to shut him out from the case. For behind the conspiracy lurks a monstrous living relic of Japan's pagan history: the Kappa. Protected long ago by a horrible pact with local farmers—and now by coldly calculating corporate interests—the Kappa drains the valley's lifeblood, one villager at a time.

As the body count rises, Takuda must try to end the Drowning God's centuries-long reign of terror, and failure means death…or worse.

Brian Kirk

We Are Monsters
Samhain Publishing, July 7, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 312 pages

The Apocalypse has come to the Sugar Hill mental asylum. 

He’s the hospital’s newest, and most notorious, patient—a paranoid schizophrenic who sees humanity’s dark side.

Luckily he’s in good hands. Dr. Eli Alpert has a talent for healing tortured souls. And his protégé is working on a cure for schizophrenia, a drug that returns patients to their former selves. But unforeseen side effects are starting to emerge. Forcing prior traumas to the surface. Setting inner demons free.

Monsters have been unleashed inside the Sugar Hill mental asylum. They don’t have fangs or claws. They look just like you or me.

Rhonda Mason

The Empress Game
The Empress Game Trilogy 1
Titan Books, July 14, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the women of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reunimon, a supreme fighter, is called to battle it out in the arena.

The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.

Natasha Pulley

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Bloomsbury USA, July 14, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

A.F.E. Smith

Darkhaven
Harper Voyager (UK), July 2, 2015
eBook, 400 pages

Ayla Nightshade never wanted to rule Darkhaven. But her half-brother Myrren – true heir to the throne – hasn’t inherited their family gift, forcing her to take his place.

When this gift leads to Ayla being accused of killing her father, Myrren is the only one to believe her innocent. Does something more sinister than the power to shapeshift lie at the heart of the Nightshade family line?

Now on the run, Ayla must fight to clear her name if she is ever to wear the crown she never wanted and be allowed to return to the home she has always loved.

Gary Whitta

Abomination
Inkshares, July 29, 2015
Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

He is England's greatest knight, the man who saved the life of Alfred the Great and an entire kingdom from a Viking invasion. But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.

She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have―hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.

When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible―and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.

Brian Kirk

We Are Monsters
Samhain Publishing, July 7, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 312 pages

The Apocalypse has come to the Sugar Hill mental asylum. 

He’s the hospital’s newest, and most notorious, patient—a paranoid schizophrenic who sees humanity’s dark side.

Luckily he’s in good hands. Dr. Eli Alpert has a talent for healing tortured souls. And his protégé is working on a cure for schizophrenia, a drug that returns patients to their former selves. But unforeseen side effects are starting to emerge. Forcing prior traumas to the surface. Setting inner demons free.

Monsters have been unleashed inside the Sugar Hill mental asylum. They don’t have fangs or claws. They look just like you or me.