A creepy J Edward Neill short story
Now available for Kindles and e-readers. Only $0.99
When one person goes missing…
…every day…forever…
…poor little Mia doesn’t stand a chance.
Or does she?
Let the Bodies is the sequel to Old Man of Tessera. It’s a standalone story. You don’t have to read one to enjoy the other.
For those who want to get into the prequel, check it here:
Down the Dark Path, Book One in the Tyrants of the Dead series, has been trimmed into four inexpensive, easy-to-consume softcover novellas. Each bite-size book is a nice, neat 200 pages and comes with a slick new matte cover.
Book One begins: When Andelusia Anderae leaves home in search of a better life, she falls into the company of a mysterious traveler. He promises to take her to Graehelm, but she soon learns that he’s much more than he seems. His message is for none other than Graehelm’s Councilors, who will decide whether to resist the Furyon Empire…or whether to join the Furies in waging war against all lands. And so begins her journey…
Start walking the Dark Path today…
We all those moments where we see something or read something or hear something and the only response is to slap our foreheads and exclaim “How obvious! Why didn’t I think of that?”
I mean it could be as simple as the Pet Rock or the windshield wiper on the back of your car, but for me it tends to take form in the movies and TV I watch or the books and comics I read. So here are a few of the culprits that have me shaking my head at myself.
A newcomer to this list, the book is the crazy quest set in a future where everyone effectively has checked out of the real world and lives the majority of their lives online. That’s what the book probably says on the back cover (I’m too lazy to double-check, but take my word for it).
That’s not what the book is about. It is about being a love letter to everything good and holy from the 1980s. Hey, did you like War Games (the movie with Matthew Broderick)? Random Japanese monster movies? Dungeons and Dragons? Joust!?!
Then this is the book for you.
And guess what… I loved all those things. Constantly as I read there would be some reference to something I not only recognized, but flat-out LOVED. In many ways it was like my subconcious wrote the book and then gave it to this guy so he could slap his name on the thing.
Damn my subconcious!
Hey, I liked zombies before they were cool. In that between time where they had become a joke. Long after Romero had become a name only a few people might have known. I was watching those terrible movies and the good ones and everything else inbetween.
But The Walking Dead… that could have been me. And it isn’t just the idea of printing money with the release of the tv show or the comics or the spinoff or whatever may be next. No, the problem is that now, no matter what you do in “zombie” comic fiction, you can’t be better that The Walking Dead.
The frustrating part is that it took one guy to realize we all liked the story of survivors. We like the idea of a world trying to destroy us. And we love a story that isn’t going to end anytime soon.
The zombie movie that continues after the credits begin to roll.
So obvious!
Again, not because of the TV show, but because this is a book (series) which has finally managed to bring Fantasy back to the forefront. Sure the Lord of the Rings films helped put the spotlight on the genre, but it wasn’t until the better part of a decade later that the world stood up and noticed.
I mean, fantasy novels are mostly what I read in middle school and high school. But the main problem with much of those pulp/D&D novels were that they derived from the same original source… Tolkien. Everything was really just a riff on those core ideas. Elves are mysterious. Dwarves are grumpy. Hobbits are called Halflings because we don’t want to be sued. Goblins and Orcs and Dragons and…
You get the point.
Game said that you could choose a different path. Something more realistic, less magic based and still be lauded for it.
Sadly, it may have done its job too well. It might be the new standard, and a new stand-in for Tolkien… instead of breaking the old rules it merely created a whole new set of them.
The movie I certainly could have written. Especially in light of Scream being one of my all-time favorite movies (not just horror movies, but overall). The deconstruction of the genre by that movie is really taken to the next possible level here. In Scream you ask What are the Rules?
In Cabin you ask Why are their Rules?
It is an important difference, but one that I think I’ve been trying to find for a while. Something that might look at the horror movies of the 70s through today and anticipate what the next trend might be.
Cabin asks the questions better than I could have thought.
Damn it!
At a time when Vampires were not really the creatures of the night of our youths. Heck, they weren’t even the mysterious creatures from Anne Rice (they must have a decent publist). Let the Right One In gets back to both the idea of the unknown… this otherworldly THING who must be feared, and combines that with the idea that lonelyness is not just a human trait. That our need for connection with someone, with something will always triumph over everything else.
And that true friendship is one of the most important concepts in the world. So why not be friends with a vampire!
It’s like, how do you write a Monster horror novel with heart? Well, this is the way.
Well, that’s just a taste, but really, I need to go and try to write something so that my brain doesn’t forget to write the next one of these “obvious” ideas.
***
John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.
His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. The first episode is now FREE!
He also has a short story in the recently released anthology Beyond the Gate, which is free on most platforms!
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.
The only book you’ll ever want on your coffee table
Having a few friends over? Throwing a party? 444 Questions for the Universe is the ultimate ice-breaker. Grab a glass of wine, put away your cell phones, and watch the night’s discussions catch fire. Meant as a party book, quiz book, and philosophy book rolled all into one, 444 Questions will guide you through hours of energetic, intelligent, and FUN conversations.
Topics range from direct and mild to dark, daring, and sexy…
Includes the entire Coffee Table Philosophy series: 101 Questions for Humanity, 101 Questions for Men, 101 Questions for Women, 101 Questions for Midnight, AND 40 Bonus Questions for Beyond.
Once you answer one Question, you’ll want to answer them ALL…
Individual volumes are available here:
Stay up late.
Very late.
The best conversations begin while everyone else is sleeping.
Jump starting every conversation with a tendency toward darker topics: death, war, sex, and the dark side of human behavior.
Save the best for last…
Check out the rest of the Coffee Table Philosophy series here:
At the world’s edge, Andelusia awakens to the terrible realization that all her dreams have come to nothing. No matter that her father, the warlock, has fallen into exile. No matter that the enemies of mankind have retreated into darkness. When the shadows in her heart cause the seasons to change and deadly storms to sweep across Thillria, she knows what will come:
The Black Moon will descend.
Grimwain will return.
The Ur will rebuild their haunted civilization atop humanity’s graveyard.
Unless she alone wages war against the Nether Kingdom, the world will burn.
Book III – The chilling conclusion of the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy
Cover art by Amanda Makepeace
2015 Tessera Guild Publishing
When Andelusia Anderae leaves home in search of a better life, she accidentally plunges into the world-ending war between Graehelm and Furyon. The deeper she falls, the more she senses the dark powers rising within her, and the more she realizes she is not so different than the enemy.
Love might not be enough to save her, for the Furyons are all-powerful, and the shadow within her desires her more than any living man ever will.
The darkest of all dark fantasy novels…
Re-released in Softcover and Kindle formats.
Softcover Version
Kindle Version
The end is near. After so many years of studying, of waiting for a sign, it becomes apparent to me that the return of darkness is a planned event, a spoke in the universal clock waiting to be ticked. Heed me well, my friends. The Sleeper walks among us. His presence in our world, long-awaited, is a grave warning that the Ur will soon assail us. He may come to us in any guise, be it a man, a woman, even a child.
It matters not. He must be found.
If we do nothing, if we lie on our laurels and ignore him, he will draw the curtain of night forever down upon us.
Final “Letter to the Lords of Grae” by the warlock Dank
* * *
Click Lady Makepeace’s dark, dark cover to check it out.
Tyrants of the Dead.
The world’s end.
Once upon a time…
I had an idea to take my sketches and drawings and create a new work of art, a small book of ideas and creative visions. Several months were spent bringing this little work of art to life. I created a cover that would mimic an old, worn sketchbook. I scanned pencil sketches and collected my favorite digital drawings, then arranged them inside pages that looked as aged as the cover.
It’s an amazing feeling when you finally get to hold that creation in your hand.
Thank you all for helping me make a little magic!
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I’ve become obsessed in the last week.
On one of my various adventures down the rabbit hole that is the internet I somehow found myself staring at this page for a collection of short stories from a couple of years ago. No biggie, I end up at various projects from time to time, but this one stuck in my head.
Since then I’ve been reading these shorts during lunch, trying to squeeze in one more where possible before my lunch break ends.
The Machine of Death (a collection of short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki)
The premise is simple enough. At some point in the not so distant future some scientists managed to stumble upon a machine which will, through a sample of blood, tell a person how they are going to die.
That, in and of itself is interesting enough for me. But then they take it one more level. Let me give an example:
Guy comes in, gets his death slip given to him and it reads: Old Age.
Great, what an excellent thing. I know I’m going to live probably another 50-60 years. And then he steps outside and gets run over by a car driven by a senior citizen.
Old Age.
Yes, it is cutesy, but there is also a lot of room in there to play with. I believe the good ideas are ones that get you thinking regardless of whether they are your ideas or not. They are the ones that you slap your forehead (hopefully, not too hard) and say “Why didn’t I think of that?” or “That is so obvious, why hasn’t anyone ever thought of that before?”
More than all of that, I like the dilemma it provides. If you had knowledge of what caused your death (not the when or the where, just the How) would you want to know?
Think about it for a second… what if you get Car Crash? If you live in any city, anywhere, then you are completely hosed. So you stop driving, you move to the country where the only cars that might come anywhere near you are the mailman and the occasional delivery you have. You live your days like a hermit until, at some point, the prediction still comes true. Because that’s the kicker: you can’t change your fate. Maybe you can delay it, maybe not.
What about the idea that knowing your future will actually cause you to end up on that path? Maybe you get Car Crash, but because of that prediction you embrace your fate. You live as hard as you possibly can until finally you die in a street race (hey, Furious 7 just came out so it’s on my mind). Who’s to say that had you never gotten your reading, maybe it would have gone differently for you?
That’s the things I love though. These simple ideas which cause me to spend hours on the drive to work trying to figure out what I would do. How I might try and game the system. What type of story would I tell in this strange world.
I’m reminded of the old Twilight Zone episode “Nick of Time” where William Shatner and his wife end up with a broken down car in Small Town, USA. They go to the local diner which has this little fortune teller on the table. You feed it a penny, ask it a question, and it gives you a sorta Magic 8-Ball style answer. But the thing is that this couple gets to the point where they are asking it questions about their future at first, and then that becomes almost asking it permission (When can we leave?). They become paralyzed by this little machine.
And maybe that’s because knowing what is to come removes much of the mystery from life. Even if it is a good future told to you, it may still be years away. You may just miss the journey if you’re not careful. You could not live your life because you are too busy waiting for something good to happen. We spend our times clocking into our jobs, waking up at the same time every morning, doing the same things day in and day out because of the idea of what the future might bring. Sometimes you just have to make the decision to embrace things as they are and make the change. Don’t wait for the fortune teller, whether it is a Machine of Death or a a strange woman behind a crystal ball.
***
John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.
His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. The first episode is FREE!
He also has a short story in the recently released anthology Beyond the Gate, which is free on most platforms!
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.
The most challenging entry yet in the Coffee Table Philosophy series, 101 Questions for Women picks up right where its predecessors left off. Designed with women in mind, but consumable by everyone, it’s the perfect companion book for small get-togethers, huge parties, and quiet nights under the stars.
Once you taste one Question, you’ll want to devour them all.
For 10 preview Questions, click here.
Available now in softcover format and for Kindles galaxy-wide.
Just one book left in the series…
…101 Questions for Darkness
The last movie book in the Tyrants’ trilogy.
Pretty much the darkest thing ever.
So the cast has to be perfect, right? Kinda like this one.
Let’s get to it…
*
Emmy Rossum – She’s back again as Andelusia Anderae. She’s more powerful and beautiful than ever. Everyone wins. Except her enemies.
*
Timothy Spall – Notable for his excellent and creeptastic work in Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd, Tim will make a sublime, wicked, and barbarous Unctulu come to life. Part-time assassin, full-time vulgar sadist, I wouldn’t pick anyone else to pull this role off.
*
Tom Hardy – Ladies, feast your eyes. Good acting lovers, feast your hearts. Tom Hardy has the chops to pull off pretty much any role, but in Nether Kingdom he’ll shine as the quick-witted, womanizing pirate Daedelar. Is he good? Is he bad? Wait and see…
*
*
Christina Hendricks – Of Mad Men fame. She’s strong. She’s badass. And she gets to play the no-BS role of Nephenia, Princess of Yrul. No man stands a chance with her, save for one…
*
Nathan Jones – Remember this guy from Troy? He was only onscreen for about a minute before Brad Pitt killed him, but he definitely left an impression. A massive, dangerous, inhumanly strong dude is needed for the role of Unctulu’s sidekick, Thresher. Lock Nathan behind a few hundred lbs. of iron armor and give him a sword big enough to cut the world in half. And afterward, he can pull off double-duty as the undead horror, Myklokain. Get to killin’, Nathan.
*
Benedict Cumberbatch – Most of you know about him. He’s killing it in Sherlock, and more recently, his leading role in The Imitation Game. But in Nether Kingdom, we’ll never see his face. He’ll be voice-acting only, a la Sauron in the Hobbit movies. Only this time, he’ll be even more diabolical. He’ll be the one and only voice of the world…ending…Ur.
*
Richard Armitage – Mass murdering, swashbuckling, king-butchering, nation-destroying. Leave your Hobbit and Robin Hood roles in the dust, Richard. As the wicked Lykaios, you’ll pretty much get to be the worst dude ever. Have fun. If I could act, this is the role I’d want.
*
Unknown – Marid of Muthem. Finally, I’m stumped. We’ll need someone young, British, and believably cast as Andelusia’s lover. He’ll have to be innocent, yet full of wanderlust. Plus pitifully in lust with our heroine. Suggestions??
*
And reprising their roles from Down the Dark Path and Dark Moon Daughter:
*
Daniel Southern – Saul of Elrain. Crankier than ever.
*
Henry Cavill – Garrett Croft. Good guys gone bad.
*
Lee Pace – The Pale Knight, Archmyr Degiliac. Bad guys gone…well…badder.
*
Daniel Radcliffe – Ghurk Ghurlain. A quick role, to be sure. But another one who’ll get to crush on Emmy Rossum. Better than Hermione, anyway.
*
It’s gonna happen.
It’s only a matter of time.
Nether Kingdom – Spring 2015
A grave little short story about a brave little boy…
…and the deadliest alien species humanity will ever know.
$0.00 for Kindles and e-readers across the galaxy.
Get it. Devour it. Review it.
The following 10 questions are from my Coffee Table Philosophy book, 101 Questions for Women.
Books I and II in the series can be found here and here.
10 Questions for Women:
***
A cultural way of existing everyone should embrace?
An over-simplified method of pitting men and women against one another?
Or a concept you personally don’t put much thought into?
What is the most valuable life lesson a mother can teach her daughter?
What about her son?
Explain the differences, if any, in the lessons you’d teach one or the other.
Suppose you were queen of the world and everyone in it.
Name three cultural/ideological changes you’d put into place.
In your opinion, are men inherently more violent than women?
If yes, is it due to:
The environment we live in?
Testosterone?
Human instinct?
If women were, on average, physically stronger than men, would they be more violent than men?
Whenever you meet an attractive man for the very first time, what is your first and most instinctive thought?
Imagine the world will end in five years.
The government’s plan is to construct one spacecraft for each family. Each ship can hold a family of four. The ships will fly to a nearby star system and drop you off on a habitable planet.
The problem: You and your spouse have four children.
Stay on earth and wait for the end? Leave two kids behind?
Or convince your spouse to send the kids alone without you?
In your estimation, for how many years after your death will the memory of you and all that you’ve done linger in the world?
In other words, considering the way you’ve lived your life, how long will people remember you?
What about the residual effects of knowing you? How long will those last?
Consider that the lessons you taught others might be retaught…forever.
Imagine you and a significant other have an agreement allowing you each to make a list five names long.
Each name must be a celebrity. If either of you meets someone on of your list, you’re allowed to have sex with them.
Suppose your mate actually meets a celebrity on his list. Are you really ok with him sleeping with her?
What if you met someone on your list? What then?
Pretend you’ve been given the authority to rewrite the rules of warfare. In other words, the power is yours to decide how armies engage, how prisoners are treated, and which weapons are lawful and unlawful to use.
Now describe how you think the next World War would go down with your rules in place.
If you could be the last woman alive in a world fully populated by men, would you?
***
101 Questions for Women
Available now!
The end is nigh! Get your copy of Daydreams and Wanderings at the special Kickstarter only price while you can. There are only hours remaining in my campaign now.
Daydreams and Wanderings is a collection of my favorite sketches and drawings I’ve created over the past two years, as well as a glimpse into my creative process.
A follow-up to the popular 101 Questions for Humanity, 101 Questions for Men takes a hard yet humorous look at modern philosophy. Designed as a coffee table book with men in mind, but consumable by everyone, 101 Questions for Men aims to entertain, challenge, and perplex. Use it for huge parties, intimate gatherings, or for light reading between sips of wine. Once you taste one Question, you’ll want to devour them all.
Throw a party. Bust this baby out. Stay up until 5AM laughing, talking, and challenging your minds.
Enjoy.
The rest of the Coffee Table Philosophy series – available here:
2015.
AKA: The busiest year ever.
Painting. Writing. Editing. Publishing. Not Sleeping.
Let’s start with the painting. I got it in my big, fat head that I could all-of-the-sudden graduate from creating terrifying landscapes and up my game to painting beautiful women. In a single bound. Bad idea, right? Previously I’ve painted stuff like this. Wish me luck?
So after about two weeks of drawing, brushing, agonizing, and touching up, I’m about 70% finished with my huge canvas, Andelusia. Lots left to be done. I’m terrible. But I figure, to Hell with it. Here’s the breakdown:
About three hours in.
Ridiculously tight corset? Sorry, ladies.
Background mostly complete. Hair undertones finished. Whew.
About seven hours in. Skin undertones started. Hardest part is making it look realistic.
About ten hours in. Hair started. Skirt started. Beginnings of black magic on her fingertips. Exhausting!
I figure 30-40 more hours and I’ll be done. Kidding. 4-5 more hours, tops. And then I’ll spend a lifetime kicking myself for every imperfection.
Such is art.
Next up: 101 Questions for Men – Part II in the Coffee Table Philosophy series, is due to hit bookshelves about 30 seconds from now. My inspiration to write these evolved from a party I went to during which everyone was nose-deep in their cell phones. I tried to break the ice by asking philosophy questions…and lo, it worked! Just a few questions lasted us the entire night. And now I can’t stop writing them.
Due out in a few days. The cover is bit more aggressive than Book I.
Book III in the series, 101 Questions for Women, is also due out this month. It’s been the hardest to write. And the most fun. If these things keep earning interest, I’ll expand the series even more. 101 Questions for…anything you can think of. So check the series out. Seriously. I think there’s something for everyone in it.
And now for the real meat. The coup de gras. The sword on the world’s throat.
The final proof copy. The culmination of 14 years of candlelit writing, shadow worshipping, and bad, bad dreams.
After a few mild post-production struggles and an overhaul to the ending, the moment is almost here. Nether Kingdom, Book III in the Tyrants of the Dead series, and darkest of all dark fantasy epics, will cover the world in shadows. Any. Day. Now. I hope you’ll love it. Big time.
So…
Thanks for clicking. Thanks for reading. Thanks for being here. If you’ve the time, check out my ever expanding library on Amazon. Come back soon to see the finished Andelusia painting. Stick around to catch the new cover of 101 Questions for Women. And keep your eyes peeled for the press release of my upcoming two-book series, Darkness Between the Stars.
Until next time.
Out today for e-readers planet-wide:
Kindle version via Amazon – Only $2.99!!
101 Questions for Humanity – The supreme coffee table book for armchair philosophers. Designed to provoke, question, and challenge. Crack it open during big parties, small gatherings, or lonely nights on the couch.
Once you taste one question, you’ll want to devour them all.
Get your philosophy on. Right. Now.
<—– Two colliding galaxies.
…one giant, spiral-band question mark.
Cool.
This week, in the wake of releasing 101 Questions for Humanity, I’ve got a contest for everyone. Maybe I need your help. Or maaaayyyyybe I just feel like giving free stuff away. Doesn’t matter.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to release two new philosophy coffee table books: 101 Questions for Men and 101 Questions for Women. Yeah. Totally. 202 Questions is a lot. A hell of a lot. Especially when I’m trying to strike a unique philosophical chord with each one. Therefore I’m enlisting your help.
In the comments section below, or via tweet to my Twitter account, post a Question. Please state whether the Question is for Men or Women. The Question should be in the format shown below:
If you need hints, see here.
You can enter as many times as you like. No limits. But please keep it to one Question per comment/tweet. If your Question can’t fit in one tweet, just string tweets together. It’s all good.
Contest ends on Friday, March 27th, at Midnight.
On Saturday, March 28th, I’ll announce two winners. One each for Men and Women.
The prize: A free softcover copy of 101 Questions for Humanity (free shipping, too!) to each winner.
Free to both winners!
More about the prize: Your Question will appear in the softcover version(s) of 101 Questions for Men/Women. And I’ll list your name/website in the book, giving you full credit for your contribution. And you’ll get a mention in a subsequent Tessera Guild blog, loving on you for your philosophical genius. Boom.
Winning Questions will be subject to editing, if needed, for grammar and spelling’s sake.
Thanks for playing!
101 Questions for Men – Due Early Spring 2015
101 Questions for Women (By a Man) – Due mid-Spring 2015
Enjoy.
Author of the Tyrants of the Dead series
Co-Author of Hollow Empire – Night of Knives
Whatnot is code for Amanda doesn’t have a blog post today. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Whatnot usually means I’m busy in the studio and that’s a good thing! Here’s a run down of everything keeping me busy inside and outside the studio.
1. Preparing for the Jordan Con Art Show probably counts for at least three slots on this list. I’ll be displaying a mix of original works and matted prints. Yesterday I ordered a bunch of prints for their Print Shop. I’m working on three originals that I want to take with me next month. Here’s a peek at one I finished yesterday–Heart of the Forest in a beautiful frame.
2. There are 12 days left in my Kickstarter campaign for Daydreams and Wanderings. I’ve promoted more online this month than I have for my Etsy shop in the last 6 months. At this point I feel like I’m spamming everyone, but my artists friends say keep doing it! I’m so close at this point. There are 12 days left and I’m 91% funded. I’m terrified I won’t reach my goal.
3. Drusilla. She’s nearly 11 months old now and still a handful. Lately she’s become obsessed with carrots. I kid you not. I can’t open the veggie drawer in the fridge without her getting excited. She loves playing with the end of a baby carrot. She carries it all over the house, batting and playing. She also likes to hide them in boots, pockets and plastic bags. Carrot time is usually in the evenings so I can keep her occupied while we eat dinner. The rest of the day is a mixed bag. Earlier this week I caught her gnawing on Loki’s shoulder. She acts out when she wants attention or food. Here she is looking innocent. Don’t be fooled.
4. I’m also in the early stages of a new commission for a book cover. That’s all I can say about that. 😉
5. I’ve also been working on various drawings, sketches and ideas for paintings to come. Some are ideas I’m returning to and rethinking. This has led to me really evaluate my art–where I want to go and what I want to paint. Many of the pieces I’ve created in the last two years were part of a learning journey, but though I tried to branch out and create specific types of fantasy art for my portfolio I kept being pulled to what moves me–the face. I’m not certain where I’m going, but I know it’s no use to fight the current.
6. Reciprocal. It’s a funny story. Over the holidays I met a fiber artist at a UGA alumni event. She talked me into joining OCAF, which is less than a mile from my house. OCAF – Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation – is an arts organization located in downtown Watkinsville, GA. Oconee County is a rural county. I was hesitant to join because I didn’t think my art would be a good fit. I still believe that. Soon after joining there was a call for entries for a juried exhibit at UNG (University of North Georgia) only for OCAF members. There was no entry fee, so I said, what the hell. I entered my painting Electryone. Sixty artists entered and only 15 were selected, including me! I was blown away. The exhibit is on display till April 2nd. Check it out if you’re in the area, it’s only 15 minutes from Athens.
7. Women in Fantastical Art. I recently joined a secret group on Facebook for Women in Fantasy Illustration. It goes on a short list of the best things I’ve done. I needed this group and I have a feeling the benefits will continue to follow in the months and I hope years to come. I’ve made new friends and I’ve touched base with another artist in the Jordan Con Art Show. Yay! I’ve gained support that I honestly can’t get from anyone else but artists who can relate. I’ve gained knowledge! And I’ve been included in an amazing gallery, the one I linked to at the start–Women in Fantastical Art:
The best contemporary female illustrators & concept artists working in fantasy & science fiction
Wow… Yeah. My art is included in this new website built by Leesha Hannigan. To top things off, 24 hours after we made our debut to the world, the web gallery was featured on Tor.com. Wowsers!!
I could probably add a few more things to this Whatnot post, but I think I’ll stop here. March has been an incredible month. INCREDIBLE. I really I hope I haven’t jinxed April…
J Edward Neill dives headfirst into philosophical non-fiction with his latest book:
Designed to provoke, question, and challenge, 101 Questions for Humanity is the supreme coffee table book for armchair philosophers. Crack it open during big parties, small gatherings, or lonely nights on the couch. Entertain yourself…or twenty friends.
One philosophical challenge per page…101 pages.
Once you taste one question, you’ll want to devour them all!
To get a feel for 101 Questions’ content, check out the popular blog, 10 Questions for Humanity.
101 Questions for Humanity
I didn’t read much when I was younger.
I recall a time when I was about 10 years old where during a particularly bad rain storm I let our collie, Holly, in the house. Unbeknownst to me, she decided that she was so happy to be inside that she was going to chew on some of the furniture. Me, being oblivious, didn’t notice her efforts (maybe she was giving me a message to thank me?).
My Mom noticed. My step-Father noticed. And I was given the choice:
Grounded for a month. No TV. And I had to do a book report a week during that time.
Or I could take a whipping and it just be over.
I lasted a week before I opted for the whipping. I think a friend’s mom convinced me that while it would hurt, it would be over and then I could do whatever I wanted after that.
I think about that from time to time. Not so much the whipping or the no TV, but the idea of having reading be a punishment. And it would have been at that time. I think I was still a couple of months away from discovering comic books, so the idea that someone might read for pleasure never occurred to me. I completed one of those book reports before I went with option #2.
Strange that it took years before I read anything else of Jack London (To Build a Fire – which might be the perfect short story), an author who I would put as one of my top 5 overall.
Years passed and pretty much the only reading I did that wasn’t in comic form was some assignment from school. I’ve mentioned it once before, but it was my friend Lee, in 6th grade, who set me straight about reading. He slid a copy of On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony over to me and urged me to begin reading it.
When I finished with that one he had the next book ready. And then the next… all the way until book #5 (book #3, With A Tangled Skein is the first book I’ve ever reread). I would liken him to a drug dealer, but it was worse than that. At one point during 7th grade I believe I read 4 books in 1 week. Literally every moment of my free time that wasn’t spent shooting baskets was occupied with reading.
During high school it became all about the pulp fiction of the day. The various worlds where Dungeons and Dragons were being played with names like Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, and a bunch of others that I’m surely forgetting. Every month a new book (or 2 or 5) seemed to come out and if I couldn’t buy them myself I’d borrow them from friends.
The bad thing about assigned reading was always that in learning about the classics… well, sometimes they aren’t all that great. Yes, for every Alas Babylon that you get to read in class there is a (for me at least) Tale of Two Cities.
That book may go down as the only book I never actually finished while in High School. I have no idea how I managed to pass the tests on the novel as I didn’t bother to get the Cliff notes, and there was no Wiki for me to go and peruse at the time.
After high school I decided that all those authors you learn about in school… maybe I should actually check them out. And so came my education with Twain and Poe and London and Kipling. Somehow, just that act of reading on my own made me want to do more, to discover more. And when I had my fill of those classics I turned to more modern readings of Science Fiction – Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Time Enough for Love.
Each one altered my brain a little bit more, showed me a new universe. And even now, with the Kindle and the onslaught of Independent publishing, I find more and more universes to discover. I still hear those older ones still waiting for me to discover them. In the last year I have a book shelf of non-fiction books I want to read. Books about the history of pirates, or Marvel comics…
It seems weird now to think that there ever could have been a time where reading could have been used as a punishment for me. Now the only way that might work is if you told me I couldn’t read anymore.
Now my biggest problem are the books sitting on the dresser waiting for me to give them a read.
***
John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.
His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. The first episode is FREE!
He also has a short story in the recently released anthology Beyond the Gate, which is free on most platforms!
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.
1,001 Questions for Humanity (I already did 101. But 1,001? That’s a lot of questions.)
The Life of J Edward – An Autobiography (The book absolutely no one would read.)
Love in the Time of Ebola
Fast Times at Lilburn Middle School
Lego Wars (A children’s novel…inspired by my son’s massive floor battles)
Why No Woman Should Ever Wear Granny Panties
The Dark Behind the Darkest Darkness – Book 9 of Tyrants of the Dead (Please. Make it stop.)
Marriage in the 21st Century (As written by the least qualified person…ever)
Leaving in the 8th (Your baseball team will lose)
The 2015 Chicago Bears – A Tale of Triumph
Sarcasm for Dummies
50 Great Atlanta Restaurants (There’re only about 25)
Honey, Where are my Pants?
The Science of Sugar Babies
Undead Davy Crockett (His hat’s undead, too)
The Cynics’ Handbook – Hating the World in 12 Easy Steps
More Gummi Bears! – Baking for Four Year Olds
The Couch Goddess
Dating Married Women – A Beginner’s Guide
The Bishop…and Other Made-Up Sex Moves
Nudity Required – The Three-Dollar Challenge
Why Men Always Need a Bigger TV
When 10 Minutes Means 2 Hours
The Desperate Housewives of Flag Football Players
My Life as the Only Unbaptized Kid in Catholic School (This one’s actually true)
Zombie Hookers (Why should vampires get all the sexy?)
Histrionics – The Science of Channing Tatum Worship
Why Almost Everyone Should Make a Sex Tape
Put Down the F’ing Phone and Raise your F’ing Kid (Another one I actually do want to write)
Procrastination Nation
199 Excuses for Calling in Sick
Under the Radar – The Subtle Glory of NOT Caring About Politics
That’s it.
I’m done.
J Edward Neill
Author of the Tyrants of the Dead dark fantasy trilogy
Co -Author of Hollow Empire – Night of Knives
Author of The Sleepers and Old Man of Tessera
After months of tedious, but also fun work, I’m pleased to announce the pages for my first sketchbook volume, Daydreams & Wanderings, are finished and ready for the printer! I’m running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for printing. Supporters of the campaign have the opportunity to purchase the book at a special KS only price of $15. Essentially, you’re pre-ordering the book at a sale price! Outside of Kickstarter the book will be $20, available from my online shop and conventions.
This is only one of the KS Reward Levels. There are several, including budget levels of $5 and $10. Levels $25 and up include a sketch on the inside title page. I hope you’ll help me make this dream a reality!
You’ve listened to the playlist and you’ve seen the cover, now you can feast your eyes on the full painting behind J Edward Neill’s Nether Kingdom. You’re going to want to click on the image below…
They move from star to star, swallowing every planet in darkness, building black towers on every surface, and turning oceans to deathly broth.
I think it surprises people when I create a piece of dark art (literal in this instance). I’m known for my love of nature and animals, but those that truly know me are aware of my fascination with the dark. From about the age of 9 I would scour the tv guide for classic horror movies. And as someone who’s survived cancer, I’m no stranger to darkness. Here are several more examples from my childhood (pre-teens) if you’re not convinced!
1. The Labyrinth – My favorite character was Jareth, The Goblin King, of course. I wanted Sarah to stay with him, to hell with the crying baby!
2. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – I was secretly thrilled by the possibility that Luke would join his father.
3. Giger’s Xenomorph – I’ve talked about this obsession numerous times. I have movies, comics, and my own fan art.
I love monsters and villains. I have a life-size God of Mischief hanging out in my studio. So, yeah. When J Edward asked me if I was up to the challenge, I needed only to look within, find that inner darkness and breathe it into my painting.
I had a dream. A throttling, terrifying, I-remember-every-detail kind of dream.
A few days after I had it, I drove to a craft store, bought a giant parchment-paged journal, hand-painted the cover, and wrote my dream inside. I made maps of the places I’d imagined. I designed a Dungeons & Dragons setting based on the worlds I’d seen. I invented games using tiny fragments of the story I’d unlocked inside my head. I obsessed over it for a long while.
And then I let it go.
For many years, it lay dormant inside me. It became a fantasy never realized, a story I daydreamed of, but rarely spoke of. It was destined to fall into my mind’s cobwebs. And likely, to be forgotten.
In the early 2000’s, everything changed. On a frigid winter night, with no one else near, I experienced thoughts I’d not entertained before. Alone in the dark, I started naming the places I’d dreamed of. I drew pictures of people who existed only in my head. I knew I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I decided to write a book. Three books. Almost a million words. Already 10+ years of my life.
The books:
Nether Kingdom
All three follow Andelusia Anderae, Garrett Croft, Saul of Elrain, and the terrifying agents of the Nether. I like to think of it as the darkest of all dark fantasy trilogies, but in truth it’s stuffed with love stories, tales of sacrifice, and allegories for redemption and the true meaning of courage.
And yet…
Behind all my machinations, all three books are based on a single dream. One evening’s nightmare, if you like. The books truest subject is man’s primal fear of darkness and the unknowable experience of death. And it’s not until the third and final entry in the trilogy that I get to show the true antagonist. The monster behind the curtain. The demon under the bed.
Ladies and gentlemen, the cover of Nether Kingdom:
Art by Amanda Makepeace. Conceptualized in the abyss.
Yes. That’s one of the Ur. Aka: One of the tyrants of the dead. Special thanks to Amanda Makepeace for breathing unlife into it. If you’re in need of spectacular custom art, please look Amanda’s way. She did two of the three Tyrants’ covers. And I love her for it.
Within the next six weeks, Nether Kingdom will hit stores in e-book and paperback form. It’s significantly shorter than Down the Dark Path, but longer and assuredly grimmer than Dark Moon Daughter.
With it, the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy will come to an end.
And I can lay this thing to rest. At last. Forever.
Until I start the prequel – Darkness Between the Stars
***
Nether Kingdom
Spring 2015
I’m making a book. This shouldn’t be confused with writing a book. However, whether you’re writing or making, it’s a monumental project. For the last several months I’ve been working on something called a sketchbook. It’s a collection of sketches from the past few years and it’s close to making its debut.
Daydreams & Wanderings Cover
Assuming everything goes as planned, I will be launching a Kickstarter campaign the first week of March. The goal of the campaign is to raise funds for the printing of my book, Daydreams & Wanderings. Here’s two key facts about the campaign and the books:
1. There will be a special Kickstarter price for the sketchbook. Normally, the sketchbook will cost $20, but if you buy it through the campaign it will be $15.
2. There will also be an option to buy the book with a sketch drawn on the inside cover page for $25. This will only be available through the Kickstarter campaign.
My hope is to print 200 books. Here are some facts about the book and a few sample pages too!
I hope you’ll help me make this small dream a reality!
Follow me on Facebook and you’ll be the first to know when my Kickstarter campaign goes live.
Co-Authored by J Edward Neill and John R McGuire
In the aftermath of a horrific plague, the nation of Vhur teeters on utter annihilation. Its cities lie in ruin, its king hides in his tower, and its people rot in their graves. Surrounded by death and suffering, four survivors struggle to live their separate lives.
But the lords of Vhur have different plans in mind…
…for soon must come the Night of Knives.
Get into the darkness…
Follow it all the way to the bottom…
The complete softcover version is available here.
J Edward Neill
*Spoilers for a 75 year old book to follow.*
I finished up my little adventure with The Hobbit a couple of weeks back. With the end of the 3rd movie I actually felt a tug a my heart thinking that there more than likely wouldn’t be any more movies. After over a decade worth of watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then the Hobbit trilogy that just seems wrong somehow.
Stranger still is the fact that I didn’t like the Hobbit when I read it. Even walking out of the first movie I turned to a friend and asked, “Was the White Orc in the book… I don’t remember him.”
This guy, right here. How could you hate that face?
“No, they added him for the movie.”
“Oh… he should have been in the book. I would have liked it better.”
It’s terrible, terrible, terrible that I say any of these things aloud. Though it might be easier to understand if I was anti-Fantasy, but I’m not. In fact, most of my early reading was on the D&D pulp fantasy of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. There was probably a stretch during high school where I read pretty much anything TSR put a stamp on. I borrowed books from friends, scrounged extra change to buy the latest paperback, and so on. I immersed myself in those worlds. I loved it.
And yet, I hadn’t read Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. That was wrong and something some of my friends couldn’t stand for. Here I was reading all these novels that can trace the direct line back to Tolkien and how could I say I liked fantasy when I hadn’t read the original?
(Technically I think that is an argument for a different time. I maintain that you can like something now without knowing everything about how it came to be… and it doesn’t make the experience lesser for you.)
So I broke down. I borrowed the Hobbit and set out to read this watershed novel.
I got about 100 pages in and put the book down…
for about six months.
I almost NEVER put a book down once I devote 100 pages to something. But I’m sorry, I was BORED. A level of boredom that I have only experienced one other time while reading – Interview with the Vampire where they first reach Paris (nothing happens for like 30 pages). When I finally got back to the book I settled in. I mean, they were off to kill the dragon! I can get behind that.
And then this nobody, Bard, ends up killing the dragon. Who?
What a rip-off!
So yeah, that was my experience with the Hobbit. I never bothered with Lord of the Rings because of that. So when the Jackson movies were announced I thought that I would certainly see them, but it wasn’t Star Wars or something. It would be nice to see something that was Fantasy on the big screen.
And of course I loved those three movies. And when the Hobbit was announced as three movies I didn’t growl and moan because of it… I was happy because there would be three more movies. And when he deviated from the novel I was glad again, because I didn’t like the novel.
And I liked that I could put a face on Bard and at least have some understanding of who he was and why it works if he kills Smaug. The movies add a breadth to the worlds that capture my imagination in a way the book never was able to.
And maybe I was too old to read the Hobbit, being in high school rather than at age 10 or 11 (or possibly younger). After I had finished I told my friends what I thought, and their response was that I should have read Lord of the Rings first as it was the “adult” series.
Sigh.
But even if I loved the novel, I have yet to figure out the reason for the vitriol that people have against the movie(s). They don’t like that certain things aren’t brought in, but then they bitch about the extra stuff. They don’t want 3 movies, but…
I’ve read plenty of books that have been turned into movies and I treat them as different entities. Just because I think movie version of X thing isn’t as good as the book… it doesn’t ruin either of them for me. If the movie was god-awful, then I would just go back and hug my copy (or Kindle nowadays). And if the movie did something better… great.
After Lord of the Rings I expected a bevy of fantasy movies, and I’m pretty much still waiting. Luckily Game of Thrones made it to tv and I was turned on to that series, but overall it is sad that in all these tomes and texts nothing else has been adapted and taken off. And a part of me wonders if it is the fanboys (and girls) who have complained it to death? More than likely that’s not the case.
So my journey through Middle Earth is at its end. I still do have on my to-do list a Saturday session where I watch all 6 extended versions of the movies and not leave my house for the day. Maybe, maybe after that day I might be ready to leave those movies behind.
But probably not.
***
John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.
His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. Each episode is only $0.99. But you can go ahead and purchase the full novel (all 6 episodes) right now for $4.99 with the above link!
He also has a short story in the recently released anthology Beyond the Gate, which is free on most platforms!
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.
For those involved in the Tyrants of the Dead series (and those who will be) I present to you: The History of the Ur.
Every villain needs an origin story. Every monster needs a little light shined in its direction, so as to cast a darker shadow. The Ur are no different.
In the Tyrants series, what the Ur truly are is touched on only lightly. That said, the Ur are best described as demons. Not in the biblical or classical sense. They’ve no wings, pitchforks, or desire to possess your grandmother’s dolls. They’re diabolical interstellar shadows. They move from star to star, swallowing every planet in darkness, building black towers on every surface, and turning oceans to deathly broth. Once a planet is blanketed in shadow and every living thing smoked out, the Ur eject clouds of star-snuffing darkness from their towers. The darkness consumes the planet’s star, and the Ur move elsewhere.
From the void. From the realm before such things as time and consciousness. The Ur always have been, always will be. At peace before the universe began, their slumber was disturbed by the birth of trillions of stars. The Ur despise the invading light and all the creatures depending on it. They wish a return to the utter darkness that was, to the infinite emptiness before light and life arrived.
No. Not in the common sense of the word. Being neither alive nor made of any tangible substance, they cannot be killed. However they can be rendered powerless by sunlight, driven back by powerful sorcery, and imprisoned. Thus far, the only race to successfully resist the Ur longer than a few breaths is mankind.
Before the coming of the stars, the Ur had no real power. But afterward, when the need arose to snuff the destroying starlight, they created a terrible form of magic. After encountering life (particularly mankind) they used this black magic to corrupt, enslave, and destroy. Because of the Ur, there is no ‘good’ magic. All magic come from the Ur, and thus all of it is meant for wicked ends.
They can take any form they wish, so long as that form is lightless and black. To terrify mankind, the Ur typically appear as shades. Ten feet tall, demonic claws and teeth, their eyes blazing with the light of annihilated stars, they are as fearsome a sight as is possible to imagine. A single Ur, given a cloudy, starless, pitch-black night, is capable of ending millions of lives.
Stretched thin throughout the void, the Ur needed dark engines to empower their magic and ensure their continued dominance. By capturing the fleeing souls of murdered life forms, they fueled their artifacts indefinitely, needing only a few hundred of their number to maintain dominion over each world. The Soul Orb is the worst of these creations, as it’s meant for living things to use while unknowingly destroying themselves.
In the Tyrants series, no. However…a two-book prequel is in the works. And it may be revealed that not all the Ur are utterly irredeemable.
They can’t. They can only hope to hold them off and survive for as many generations as possible. For even if one Ur is driven back or imprisoned, billions more roam the darkness between the stars…
* * *
I hope you enjoyed this snapshot of the bad guys. For more backstory and fun, check out the complete Tyrants of the Dead glossary.
Until next time,
J Edward Neill
