Category Archives: Publishing

A Cry of Hounds

Body and Soul, the Hunt Is On!

Hounds, faithful, tenacious, and oft the subject of otherworldly lore. Will they stand beside you or hunt you down? Only time (and the tale) will tell. A Cry of Hounds is an anthology presented in conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival that presents eleven tales inspired by the master of mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, paying tribute to his genius for deduction and his passion for things beyond the ken of mortal men.

When we were invited to create stories for the anthology, we were asked to pick a supernatural hound from folklore to incorporate into the story. As it turns out, Danielle Ackley-McPhail presented the list of hounds on a day I was working at Kitt Peak National Observatory and by the time I woke up for the day, all the hounds had been picked except for one, the Cù-Sìth from Scottish folklore. The Cù-Sìth is described as a fearsome green guard dog of the fae who stalks many of the moorlands. If you’re walking the moors at night and hear the hound bay three times, it will find you and send you to the land of the fae where you will be trapped forever.

The setup almost asks for a retelling of Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” However, an excerpt of Doyle’s novel was already slated to be in the book. So, I took inspiration from Doyle’s story “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.” Although the original is a Holmes story, I replaced the detective with my spiritualist character, Dinella Stanton, who is taking a holiday in Scotland. She hears that a vampire had taken up residence and that the Cù-Sìth had appeared. Thinking the two events must be related, Dinella investigates and does find a vampire – none other than Lord Draco from my Scarlet Order vampire novels. She does indeed find that he’s connected to the Cù-Sìth’s appearance, and now the vampire and spiritualist must work together to set things right.

The other stories in the volume are as follows:

“The Curse of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the second chapter of Doyle’s novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Dr. James Mortimer has come to Sherlock Holmes to describe the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, who seems to have died of a heart attack. The doctor tells the tale of how the Baskerville came to be cursed by a demonic dog. He then explains that even though Baskerville seems have died of a heart attack, the footprints of a giant hound covered the ground nearby.

“The Night of the Howling Wind” by Ef Deal. A werewolf is on the prowl in an Irish village and a murder has been committed. What’s more it’s new moon. In the story, we learn that many things can cause a werewolf to take wolfly form, including a sudden drop in barometric pressure. Sure enough, a terrible storm strikes the village all while the town doctor and a constable try to solve the murder and find the werewolf.

“The Adventure of the Exploding Airship” by John L. French. Detective Sergent Adrian Hope and his talented canine companion Constable Grace O’Malley investigate an airship that exploded over London. Was it sabotage? Was it an accident? It’s hard to tell when the only person aboard was literally blown to bits. Or were they?

“A Grecian Pawse” by Doc Coleman. Airship adventurers Professor Crackle and Miss Bang along with their companions encounter a three-headed dog while visiting one of the Greek islands. Can they get Cerberus back to his owner before the scared islanders catch them and destroy the enormous three-headed dog?

“Amber Waves of Bane” by Dana Fraedrich. Goldie Cadwaladr can walk between our “material” realm and the spirit realm. She’s summoned to help a boy and his dog who have fallen asleep and won’t wake up. In the spirit world, she finds the boy and dog being attacked by a gwillgi, a great Otherworld canine with sooty black fur and fires blazing around its eyes. Her task it to fend off the dog, then find out why the two mortals were wandering the Otherworld in the first place.

“Weighed and Measured” by Bill Bodden. Edward Bellingham searches the Egyptian dessert for a scroll that contains an incantation which will make mummies walk and obey the commands of the summoner. Of course, if you’re going to wander into the Egyptian realm of the dead, you’re likely to encounter Anubis.

“Progenitor” by Keith R.A. DeCandido. Summerlee and Roxton, associates of Doyle’s Professor Challenger believe they’ve found one of the progenitors of the original Mongolian Wolf Hound in the years after World War I. According to legend, this progenitor was brought down from the mountains by a giant. Of course, Challenger is skeptical of the folkloric explanation but grants the modern hounds may have come from an earlier prehistoric ancestor. They begin an expedition that takes them deep into Mongolia where they discover a community run on clockworks and steam.

“Ember Eyes” by Jessica Lucci. An orphan named Moxie befriends a strange ember-eyed, black puppy in days when she’s working at a factory. Years later, Moxie invents a means of collecting energy from the sun. A jealous man from the factory where she now works means to steal her invention and Moxie learns the value of having loyal friends.

“The Houndstooth Affair” by Aaron Rosenberg. Someone has broken into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and stolen a clockwork hound built by the jeweler, Cartier. Detective Huggins of NYPD is on the case with the best tech available in 1880s New York and more than a few Doyle-inspired quips at his disposal.

“A Glimpse of Death” by James Chambers.  Morris Garvey, the richest man in New Alexandria, employs many of the street orphans to be his eyes and ears in the city. When a group of the Troubleshooters get word that the Scottish Ambassador may be killed, they go to investigate and have a close encounter with a barghest, a supernatural hound with fire in its eyes and an omen of doom. Unfortunately, the ambassador met an untimely end anyway and now two of the Troubleshooters are at death’s door. Now Garvey teams up with the Queen of Witches to find out who unleashed the devilish hound and save the two young people.

“They Who Have Lost Their Way” by Danielle Ackley-McPhail. Angel can enter the realms of the dead through her dreams. During one dream, she learns that something is consuming souls and that the souls of her departed mother and brother are in danger. Talented at creating clockwork creations, she finds her father’s invention for bringing one who ventures into the land of the dead back to life. She uses this and a special brew to cross the threshold into the land of the dead while still conscious. Aided by xolos, dogs who guide the dead, she must find and destroy the soul-consuming creature before she herself becomes a permanent resident.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Stonyhurst Terror” by Christopher D. Abbott. A reverend comes to Holmes because something has been digging up graves. He suspects the culprit is a Yeth Hound and once such a creature becomes strong enough, it can attack the living. Holmes takes the case because he believes there will be a rational explanation. Watson and his friend Dr. David Billings help with the investigation and soon encounter what appears to be the creature itself!

I hope you’ll join us as we explore the worlds inhabited by these terrifying canines. A Cry of Hounds will be officially released on August 1 and it’s available for pre-order at: https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Hounds-Forgotten-Lore-Book-ebook/dp/B0CTHQLPSV/

Other Aether: Tales of Global Steampunk

In the anthology Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, invention and adventure go hand in hand. Clockwork technology and ingenuity are not the sole purview of Jolly Ol’ England. By airship or locomotive, prairie schooner or steamboat, it is time to explore the global landscape through lenses polished in the Age of Steam!

I was excited that Danielle and Greg invited me to be part of this anthology. My story in the book is called “No One Alone” and its an origin story for Onofre Cisneros from Ensenada, Mexico. He’s the pirate captain and submariner of my Clockwork Legion novels. When we meet him in Owl Dance, Cisneros feels he must resort to desperate means to induce investment in his dream of a submarine boat. My story tells how he built his first submarine and how he sought a legitimate investor only to encounter disappointment. Cisneros builds the submarine for his community and he sees himself as no one without the support of his friends. Of course, “no one” or “no man” in Latin is Nemo. Now, here’s a look at the other fine stories you’ll find in this volume.

“The Kami of the Mountain” by Cynthia Radthorne. Set during the battles of the Meiji Restoration, Radthorne imagines a world where the forces of the Shogun and the Emperor battle with steam-powered cannons and crossbows. Caught in the middle is Haramata Castle, a neutral site near the mountain with hot springs and rice fields. Miako is a Lady of the Court who is fascinated with machines, including the steam pipes under the castle that feed both the baths and the steam weapons. When the old man who tends the machinery unexpectedly dies near the beginning of the battle, Miako finds herself chosen by the Kami to save Haramata Castle.

“No Safe Harbor” by Aaron Rosenberg. Phillipe Huron a Detective-Inspector from Paris arrives in Hong Kong via airship. He’s searching for Father Chapdelaine, who abandoned his parish for reasons unknown. Huron and his parrot Dupin team up with local Inspector Wu and follow what clues they have only to figure out that Father Chapdelaine is a pawn in a much bigger plot.

“Mervat in the Maiden’s Tower” by Jeff Young. Mervat, the matron of a hospital founded by Florence Nightengale has been summoned to Constantinople’s airfield. A large Chinese airship has arrived and the harbormaster is afraid they have brought the black plague to the city. He wants Mervat to assess whether or not that’s true. In addition to being a healer, Mervat has assistance from her cousin and from a nearly forgotten goddess who appears in visions.

“Ghosts in the Infernal Machine” by Ef Deal. Didier Rabôt is a fifteen-year-old who only wants to exist in peace to tinker with his electrical experiments and prepare to enter university. However, his neighbor has been talking about his dissatisfaction with the king and then started building something big in his apartment. Didier and his friend Jacky fear he might try to assassinate the king with some kind of infernal machine he’s building. They come up with a way to sabotage his efforts. In the meantime, Didier learns he might be more attracted to his friend Jacky than he originally thought.

“The Sand Boat by James Chambers. Morris, an inventor, and his friend Marceline, a diplomat, are visiting Cairo. She wants to surprise him by taking him down the Nile to see the Pyramids of Giza. While on their way, they’re confronted by a group of men from the Cult of Bast who want to capture and kill them in a blood sacrifice. Fortunately, they’re saved by Amun Zaki, an Egyptian engineer who wants to keep his fellow engineer safe, but also wants to assure that developing technology for Egypt is done by Egyptians. They head for a meeting with a like-minded leader at the Pyramids. To get there, they travel in a sand boat, a steam-powered overland craft invented by Zaki, which proves to come in handy when they run into unexpected trouble.

“Justice Runs Like Clockwork” by Christine Norris. Set in New Orleans during the Civil War, we follow Pricilla, a spy for the Union who has many advanced weapons and works out of a secret base under St. Louis Cemetery adjacent to the French Quarter. The Union Navy is advancing on New Orleans. Pricilla’s mission is to do as much damage to the slave trade and get as many slaves to safety as she can before the invasion begins.

“On the Wings of an Angel” by Danielle Ackley-McPhail. Sadie is the entertainment in a Montana saloon where a tinker has been through and induced the owner to buy a number of his gadgets. The tinker’s finest gadget is an elaborate construction that gives Sadie the appearance of being an angel. Her pure voice and innocence help bring customers into the saloon. The problem is that as Sadie gets older, the miners in town are no longer seeing her as such an innocent, untouchable angel. Fortunately, there may be more to Sadie’s angel wings than appear at first sight.

“Correspondence Transcribed in Code, Addressed to the Widowed Mrs. Clydesbank” by Beth Cato. This story is told in letters from El, who works as an engineer for an airship manufacturer based in California, to her mother. To work as an engineer, El has taken the identity of a man and works primarily on the mooring towers for the airships. However, this region of California is fertile and birds present a real danger to airships. Rather than taking sensible precautions, the company decides to be more aggressive in managing the wetlands and wild areas to discourage the birds. El tries to convince the management of their error, only to be rebuffed and now must decide whether or not there is another way to fight the system.

“The Merrie Monarch’s Mecha” by Hildy Silverman. Hawai’i’s King David Kalâkaua is working to establish the sovereign island’s reputation around the world. He has diplomatic missions with both Japan and America. In the meantime, one of his engineers is building a giant mecha to demonstrate Hawai’i’s proficiency with technology. A botched assassination attempt puts the King’s people on alert and the mecha is deployed during the formal coronation ceremony. It’s a good thing, because the ceremony comes under attack!

Other Aether is scheduled to be released on June 1, 2024. If you didn’t support the Kickstarter, you can pre-order copies of the ebook at: https://www.amazon.com/Other-Aether-Tales-Global-Steampunk-ebook/dp/B0CW1FRMR5/

Print copies are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Other-Aether-Tales-Global-Steampunk/dp/195646333X/

The Quest for Vampirella

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I grew up with comic books and remained a fan through my college years. My interest waned after I left grad school as work, marriage, and children took increasing chunks of my time. However, as my kids reached an age to show an interest in comics, I sought out a new local comic shop in the 2010s and gradually began collecting again. Lurking on the shelves near the end of the alphabet was a woman vampire in a red outfit that was revealing by bathing suit standards. As a fan and writer of vampire stories who is also not immune to artwork designed to attract the male gaze, I picked up a copy or two. I don’t remember much about the earliest issues I read. The writing didn’t engage me enough to keep reading. I’ve since learned this was a period when the writing of Vampirella could be uneven, and a lot of the writers were experimenting with the character’s backstory.

Back around the new year, Tom Hutchison of Big Dog Ink Comics offered a special on some copies of the Vampirella archive editions. These hard cover books collected the earliest Vampirella comics as published by Warren Magazines starting in 1969. In that era, Warren sought to get around the restrictions of the Comic Code Authority by publishing black-and-white horror comics in magazine-sized editions. Their flagship publications were Creepy and Eerie, which I remember seeing on the shelves back in the day.

Vampirella was introduced as a third title to join the lineup in 1969. The title character was intended to be a horror hostess in the style of Vampira, who had been on television about a decade earlier. Vampirella’s “job” was to introduce different stories in each issue of the magazine. Vampirella herself was designed by cartoonist Trina Robbins and “revamped” by Frank Frazetta. Publisher James Warren had famed fan and writer Forrest J. Ackerman create a backstory for Vampirella, introducing her as an alien from the planet Drakulon where blood flowed in rivers, but began to dry up in the heat of the twin suns. When a hapless Earth space vessel crashed on Drakulon, Vampirella discovered that humans have blood in their veins and found her way to Earth. The story proved popular enough, a sequel was penned which described Vampirella on Earth, entering a contest to become Warren Magazine’s new hostess.

The Vampirella Archive Editions collect complete issues of those early magazines. You get the Vampirella stories and the stories she hosts. The Archive Editions are well worth reading if you want to see those early Vampirella stories in context. However, if you want to follow just her story arc, Dynamite Publishing has collected her stories into Vampirella: The Essential Warren Years.

The first two stories were silly, pun-laden fun, but weren’t really designed to engage the reader at a more emotional level. Still, something remarkable happened. Readers continued to want Vampirella stories, so Warren hired Archie Goodwin to pen several stories and the stories turned really good. Goodwin’s writing is enhanced by the art of Jose Gonzalez.

Ackerman’s last story imagined that Vampirella was on her way to a hosting gig when her plane crashed. Goodwin picked up the ball and imagined that one of her fellow passengers was a descendent of renowned vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. The younger Van Helsing is found dead, drained of blood. Of course, Vampirella is blamed. The younger Van Helsing’s brother Conrad, and nephew Adam, begin to chase the hapless refugee from Drakulon. In the meantime, Vampirella takes refuge at a hospital where one of the doctors develops a blood serum that allows her to feed without drinking human blood. Unfortunately, the hospital also happens to be the lair of the Cult of Chaos, a group devoted to evil. Vampirella escapes the cult and eventually takes a job as assistant to a nearly washed-up, drunken magician Pendragon. Vampirella’s need for blood is nicely contrasted with Pendragon’s need for drink.

Authors such as Tom Sutton and Len Wein take up Vampirella’s story in later stories which were clearly inspired by such sources as the Hammer films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There’s a strong story arc about Vampirella meeting Dracula. This is followed by a poignant story of Pendragon finding out what happened to his estranged wife and daughter. There’s even a story that posits that vampires have their origin in Ancient Egypt and that Vampirella is, in fact, the reincarnation of an Earth vampire of the period. I couldn’t help but wonder if Anne Rice took some inspiration from these stories when she conceived of the Egyptian origins of her vampires.

Returning to these early stories has allowed me to look at some of the later Vampirella stories with a fresh eye. I see how the writers have envisioned her as a good-hearted, but often misunderstood vampire. The best writers seem to acknowledge her campy and fun roots, while also giving her a solid adventure story.

While I can’t honestly say I was inspired by Vampirella, I was inspired by many of the writings and movies that inspired Warren’s authors. My vampires have ties to aliens. Like Vampirella, many can transform into bats. The vampires of my world attempt to help humanity and while they don’t have a blood serum, they try not to take lives unless it’s absolutely necessary. Author Lyn McConchie recently said my latest Scarlet Order novel was “A clever book that amused and enthralled me.” You can learn more about my Scarlet Order vampires at: http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#scarlet_order

Arithmophobia

This Thursday, 3/14 is Pi Day. Appropriately enough, editor Robert Lewis has chosen that day to release his latest anthology, Arithmophobia: An Anthology of Mathematical Horror and I’m proud that my story, “A Presence Beyond the Shadows” is included in this volume.

“Arithmophobia,” n.: The fear of numbers or mathematics.

Whether you love mathematics or find it terrifying, this anthology of original tales of terror is sure to send a chill down your spine. With an unlucky thirteen brand new horror stories and a bonus poem in case any readers suffer from triskaidekaphobia, these pages combine the talents of some of the genre’s most experienced award-winning practitioners of terror and some of the literary world’s most promising new voices.

The stories in this volume tell us of strange and horrifying new geometries, crazed and violent mathematicians, sentient and malevolent numbers, and even some new mathematical twists on some classic monsters. You needn’t be a mathematician to experience these new forms of mathematical terror, though students of the discipline might recognize some familiar names and ideas lurking in the shadows.

Here are the tales and authors you’ll find in this volume:

  • INTRODUCTION by Robert Lewis
  • ONE-TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE by Elizabeth Massie
  • SPLINTERS by Miguel Fliguer and Mike Slater
  • MANIFOLD THOUGHTS by Patrick Freivald
  • REAL NUMBERS by Liz Kaufman
  • ERATOSTHENES’ MAP by Damon Nomad
  • THEY’LL SAY IT WAS THE COMMUNISTS by Sarah Lazarz
  • TRAINS PASSING by Martin Zeigler
  • ASYMMETRICAL DREAMS by Josh Snider
  • CRITICAL MASS by Rivka Crowbourne
  • LOST AND FOUND by Joe Stout
  • A STRANGE THING HAPPENED AT THE COFFEE SHOP by Brian Knight
  • SOLVE FOR X by Wil Forbis
  • A PRESENCE BEYOND THE SHADOWS by David Lee Summers
  • THE GHOSTS OF THE SPIRAL by Maxwell I. Gold

The journey to my story first began in 1980 while watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. That’s where I first encountered the notion that mathematically there can be dimensions perpendicular to the three we knew. The episode mentioned the novella Flatland by nineteenth century mathematician Edwin Abbott. The book imagines a world of two dimensions and how creatures in that world would perceive objects from our three-dimensional world. Ever since then, I’ve loved the idea of trying to visualize what the fourth dimension would be like. I got to put the idea into practice when I took general relativity during my second year of graduate school. In Einstein’s theory, he actually uses a fourth dimension in his physical calculations.

My story imagines a mathematician who has actually found a way to visualize a fourth, physical dimension using an electronic headset. Just as we might be scary creatures to the two-dimensional beings of Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, he discovers something alive and lurking just out of range of our senses. Or is it out of range?

To find the answer and experience a dozen more great stories, pull up a chair, dust off your abacus and slide rule, and prepare to experience…

Arithmophobia.

You can order the book at the publisher’s website: https://polymathpress.com/products/arithmophobia-an-anthology-of-mathematical-horror-edited-by-robert-lewis

Copies are also available at: https://www.amazon.com/Arithmophobia-Anthology-Mathematical-Elizabeth-Massie-ebook/dp/B0CW2WKXVD/

Read an Exciting Ebook!

Today is the last day of Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords, but it’s not too late to grab some amazing deals at https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing authors including Don Braden, Lyn McConchie, and Greg Ballan. I’ve just started editing Don’s latest book and it’s a real page-turner. All of these authors are great and you really should do yourself a favor and get to know them better. I’ve included a book by each of them in the sale. Each book is 75% off the normal price. Be sure to grab a copy today before the sale ends!

Upstart Mystique

On its way to a distant colony world, the space vessel Marco P loses all power and an unknown force convinces the navigator that a distant, dead world is the vessel’s true destination. Commander Malcolm Carpenter orders the crew to abandon ship to protect them and to learn how to defeat whatever force has intercepted his ship. The crew discovers a small group of inhabitants, the only people on the planet who were not uploaded into a vast computer network—a computer network captivated by upstart humans and their imaginations. To free his crew and his navigator from the planetary network’s grip, Commander Carpenter must face a moral dilemma. Can he save his crew without condemning a planet’s inhabitants and their digital ancestors to death?

Get Upstart Mystique for 75% off the cover price at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1010602

The Way-Out Wild West

Lyn McConchie’s The Way-Out Wild West is a short story collection set in Bodie, Arizona along with a handful of other western locales.

Bodie, Arizona can be a difficult place to locate on a map. Some say it’s because Bodie has been home to inventors who meddled in things humans weren’t meant to know. Others say it’s the visitors from the stars who seem to frequent Bodie. It’s just possible Bodie has become unstuck in time, making it a difficult place to pinpoint. Being unstuck in time, Bodie may have drifted close to the boundaries between life and afterlife. Whatever the case, Bodie is a wild place. In this collection, Lyn McConchie chronicles the adventures of Bodie’s denizens and those of nearby towns, counties and states from the nineteenth century to the present. Saddle up for this collection of twenty-two tales where you will glimpse the way-out, wild west.

The Way-Out Wild West is available for 75% off the cover price at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1125221

Lost Sons: The Battle of Manhattan

Clash of the Titans!

Duncan Kord has traveled the world for many lifetimes. The thousand-year-old Viking warrior was given immortality by an advanced race of beings who literally snatched him from the brink of death on a battlefield in Norway centuries ago. Not only did they save him, they infused his body and mind with the essence of a powerful dragon. Despite his powers, Kord kept mostly to himself, wandering the world, guarding his secrets. Kord’s life changed when he discovered the invader responsible for killing his wife and family and destroying his village all those years ago, is alive and well, and living in New York.

William Jefferson Sagahr has amassed a fortune over many lifetimes. Now living in Manhattan, the powerful magnate is head of a multi-national oil company. The thousand-year-old mercenary warrior was also given immortality and special powers by the same beings who gifted Kord. But Sagahr is nothing like Kord. A twisted evil resides within him, bursting out to wreak havoc on low-income neighborhoods in New York.

Kord travels to New York to confront his ancient nemesis and avenge his Nordic people and his dragon brethren. Sagahr wants to avoid his immortal enemy and hold onto his financial empire while feeding the darker urges burning inside him. A clash of these immortal titans in the heart of Manhattan would mean thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in destruction. Industrialist Brian West and police Lieutenant Robert Mackey must corral these two ancient warriors and keep their powers from leveling the Big Apple.

Lost Sons: The Battle of Manhattan by Greg Ballan is available for 75% off the cover price at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1161235

Death’s Embrace

This weekend finds me at Wild Wild West Con at Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona. It’s a fabulous steampunk event that is in it’s twelfth year. You can get all the details about the event at https://www.wildwestcon.com/. If you’re in town, I hope you’ll drop in. If you catch me on a panel or in the dealer’s room, be sure to say hello. Later this spring, the anthology A Cry of Hounds will debut at the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the authors who will also have a story in that book is Michelle D. Sonnier. I first came to know Michelle’s work when she submitted stories to my magazine, Tales of the Talisman. I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle in person last year at Tell-Tale Steampunk. I’m disappointed my schedule this year doesn’t allow me to attend, but I did take time to read Michelle’s novella, Death’s Embrace.

Now, given my recent cancer diagnosis, this might seem like an unduly morbid title to dive into right now. That said, I will note that one of the most humbling aspects of my cancer journey is that I’ve had to take a good hard look at my life expectancy. It’s not an easy thing to do and it’s not easy to evaluate. I’ve had close relatives who have died in their 50s. On the other hand, I also have close relatives who have died in their 100s. Fortunately, I’m in generally good health and I’ve been able to avoid the cardiac events that generally caused younger deaths, so I hope to live closer to the high end of the range. Still, death has certainly embraced more family and friends than I’d like to think about to date.

The novella Death’s Embrace is the coming of age tale of Macaria, daughter of a Polish hedgewitch. Macaria’s mother, Elzbieta, has always assumed her daughter would follow in her footsteps. On the day the villagers hold a ceremony to drive off the frost of winter, Macaria encounters several dark omens. That night, she falls asleep with a cat purring on her lap. The next day, the poor cat has died. Macaria is horrified to learn that she won’t be a hedgewitch after all. She’s a death witch.

Fortunately, Elzbieta knows what to do. She sends a crow with a message to the council of death witches, so they can train her daughter. Sooner than expected, the death witch Joanna knocks on the door and offers to take Macaria as an apprentice. As Macaria begins her training, she learns that death witches have many powers. As Macaria learned, they can kill with a touch, but they can also summon life back into the body. They can help a sick and suffering person find peace in death, but they can also help with difficult childbirths. In short, death witches are an integral part of the whole life journey. Even so, the weight of it all threatens to overwhelm Macaria. Indeed, we learn it’s not uncommon for new death witches to fail and in their case failure does mean death. Will Macaria rise to this unexpected and not entirely welcome challenge?

As I expected when I purchased the book, Michelle D. Sonnier takes me on a satisfying journey that doesn’t try to answer what happens when life ends, but accepts the reality that death is just one piece of the whole tapestry that makes up a life. You can find a copy of Death’s Embrace at: https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Embrace-Michelle-D-Sonnier-ebook/dp/B084F19XXV/

If you’d like to explore more stories by Michelle D. Sonnier, here are links to where you can get her stories in Tales of the Talisman:

The Ordeal Begins

It’s February 13 and, fittingly, today marks the release of my thirteenth novel, Ordeal of the Scarlet Order. It’s fitting not only because it’s the 13th day of the month, but it’s fitting because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. My Scarlet Order novels are not only novels of vampire suspense and action, but they’re also an exploration and celebration of romance.

I’m excited to return to the Scarlet Order vampires after several years working on other projects. I published my first Scarlet Order short story in the magazine The Vampire’s Crypt in 2001. The first novel, Vampires of the Scarlet Order followed in 2005. It told the story of vampires around the southwest encountering evidence of a top secret project to use vampire genetics to create super soldiers. Along the way, we learn the history of the Scarlet Order vampires, a band of mercenaries who fought for the crowned heads of Europe. Without revealing spoilers, the vampires win a victory, but several mysteries remain.

My next novel in the series was Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires released in 2012. This told the story of how Alexandra, a Greek slave, became a vampire and her romance with two other vampires. One of those was the Arthurian-era British General Desmond Drake. The other was the mysterious and handsome assassin Roquelaure. The three pool their strengths and lead a band of vampire mercenaries called the Scarlet Order.

Now, my third novel in the series, Ordeal of the Scarlet Order, is a proper sequel to the first novel. The Scarlet Order vampires know the Federal government will put agents on their tail for ending their top-secret project, so they scatter. They also discovered that vampires have abilities even they have never discovered, so they begin to explore those. Desmond and Alexandra rekindle their romance while exploring New Orleans’ French Quarter. Daniel, the vampire astronomer, and Mercy, who was the basis of the La Llorona legend in the southwest, share a deep mutual attraction, but now must figure out if they have a deeper bond. In France, Roquelaure and the vampire Marcella explore a romance that began a century before. In the meantime, the government is still working on their vampire project and we learn more about the mysterious vampire hunters of the Greek island of Santorini. What’s more, as hinted in the photo, they will meet a sphinx along the way!

If you’ve read the first two Scarlet Order vampire novels, you really want to to pick up the third to find out what happens next in their saga. If you’d like to buy a signed print copy, head over to https://hadrosaur.com/OrdealScarletOrder.php. Once you’ve purchased the book, don’t forget to go to the contact page at the site and let me know who you would like me to sign the book to.

If you’d prefer to pick up the novel from established retailers, that’s great too! They’re a great source for ebooks and I know many of you take advantage of reward programs. You can find the novel at:

So, what’s next for me? Well, I just acquired rights to publish Beyond Mystique by Don Braden. It’s simply one the most page-turning and fun space operas I’ve read in a long time and it’s the sequel to his novel Upstart Mystique which I published in 2020. I’m really looking forward to editing this novel. I’ve also got two other projects in the works that I can’t discuss just yet. Once those are all out the door, I’ll move on to my next novel, which is tentatively slated to be a follow up to my novel The Astronomer’s Crypt. Of course, as noted this past Saturday, I have this annoying cancer thing to cope with. All of this is to say that I’m far too busy for that to stop me. So, buy yourself or your sweetheart a good book and celebrate life! Happy Valentine’s Day!

I Have Issues

Back issues of magazines that is.

At the start of the year, I started receiving emails from PayPal nagging me to update my payment buttons, which confused me, since I’d updated the payment buttons at the Hadrosaur Productions website a couple of years ago. Then, it dawned on me that I had never updated the payment buttons at the sites for Tales of the Talisman or Hadrosaur Tales Magazines. Because of the way PayPal coded their buttons, I had a choice between doing some slight website redesign or doing some heavy-duty Java coding. Because my Java coding is a bit rusty and because I have a novel coming out soon, I opted for a little website rework, which allowed me to create a nice gallery for each magazine and reminisce a little about the cool stories, poems, and artwork we published.

Hadrosaur Tales was the first of the magazines I edited and it was published between 1995 and 2005. It was a small, trade-paperback-sized digest of science fiction and fantasy stories and poems. It’s named for our company Hadrosaur Productions. We call ourselves Hadrosaur Productions because certain lambeosaurine hadrosaurs (the ones with the tall head crests), such as tsintaosaurus, resemble unicorns. Thus a hadrosaur is the creature of science and fantasy. Hadrosaur Productions was originally envisioned as an audio production company and the Hadrosaur Tales anthology was envisioned as a way to showcase authors whose works we hoped to produce. Between the technical challenges and expense of producing audio books in the 1990s and the popularity of submissions to the anthology, it soon morphed into a standalone magazine.

Over the magazine’s run, I was delighted to publish stories by such folks as Neal Asher, Marcia A. Borell, David B. Riley, and Rebecca Inch-Partridge. We also published some amazing poetry by people like Christina Sng and Keith Allen Daniels. The magazine earned some nice reviews and a story in issue 16 even earned an honorable mention in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction. I still have over half the issues of the magazine available. I encourage you to go take a look. There are some amazing stories in these issues. You can find the new gallery at https://www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/hadrostore.html. Just click on each cover to learn about the issue. If I have copies in stock, you can buy them right there!

In 2004, when I started publishing my novels with LBF Books, Jacqueline Druga and Nick Johns proposed joining forces with Hadrosaur Productions to produce an even better magazine of science fiction and fantasy. We would add horror and great artwork to the mix, illustrating every story we published. We eventually decided to call this magazine Tales of the Talisman and we launched it in 2005. Nick served as art director for the first issue, then moved on. Laura Givens came on as art director after that and stayed with us for the rest of run until 2015. Hadrosaur Tales alumni Neal Asher, Christina Sng, Gary Every, and G.O. Clark helped us launch the inaugural issue. After that, we published great stories by such folks as Nicole Givens Kurtz, Richard Harland, Michelle D. Sonnier, C.J. Henderson, Lyn McConchie, Danielle Ackley-McPhail and more. We, of course, continued to publish amazing poetry by people like Deborah P. Kolodji, Mike Allen, N.E. Taylor, and Mary Soon Lee. Laura helped us locate several great artists, including Jag Lall, Tom Kelly, and Kathy Ferrell. Erica Henderson even did an illustration for us before she started doing comics for Marvel and Image. You can see the gallery of Tales of the Talisman issues at: https://talesofthetalisman.com/bookstore.html. As before, if issues are in stock, we have payment buttons. Also, a few older out-of-print issues are available as ebooks.

Even though these issues of Hadrosaur Tales and Tales of the Talisman were published in the past, the stories don’t have an expiration date. Many are as fresh and relevant today as they were when they were published. I hope you’ll drop by the sites and see some of the great stuff we created. I have some exciting new things planned for this year and look forward to unveiling them before long.

Unveiling Ordeal of the Scarlet Order

The countdown to the release of my thirteenth novel, Ordeal of the Scarlet Order has commenced. The book will be released on February 13, 2024 but you can pre-order both the ebook and print book now. Also, there are some ways you can get the complete ebook early if you’d like, so be sure to read to the bottom of the post for the details. Here’s a look at the cover and the description:

The Scarlet Order vampires are on the run.

Rudolfo de Cordoba has led most of the Scarlet Order vampires to a new home in Colorado where they can regroup and unlock new vampire powers.

Alexandra and Drake have gone to New Orleans to continue their quest for lost Biblical writings when they learn the government’s project to create super soldiers from vampires continues.

Marcella and Roquelaure have traveled to the South of France to avoid trouble only to stumble upon a terrorist plot and an even more frightening means of quashing extremism.

Meanwhile, Special Agent John Lassiter is on the trail of the Scarlet Order vampires. Will the vampires unlock their new gifts and save humanity from itself before Agent Lassiter catches up and ends the vampires’ immortal existence? The only thing certain is that they’ll learn truths about themselves and the universe we live in—and those truths will not leave them unscathed.

Ordeal of the Scarlet Order is book three of my Scarlet Order vampire series. Even though it’s book three, and I think you’ll get the most out of the novel if you’ve read the earlier ones, two of my beta readers were new to the series and had no problem jumping in with this novel.

I realize readers have very specific tastes and expectations when it comes to vampire fiction. I come to vampire fiction as a long-time fan who has loved books as diverse as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot, and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian. To me, one of the most fascinating challenges of the genre is to create vampires who are both relatable and monstrous. I try to stay true to the folkloric roots of vampires. What’s more, as a professional scientist, I work to create vampires I can believe could exist. If you like a good action/adventure story with compelling characters, and challenging ideas, I think you’ll enjoy the Scarlet Order vampire series.

You can find all the places where you can pre-order Ordeal of the Scarlet Order at: http://davidleesummers.com/OSO.html

If you order the ebook from a site such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords, they’ll assure you have it on February 13, 2023. However, if you can’t wait and want the book sooner than that, you have two options. You can sign up for my newsletter, or you can join my Patreon. Later this week, I’ll be sharing a link via both outlets where you can get the book immediately.

Finally, please, whenever you read, and no matter which book you read, do leave a review at the platform where you purchased the book. Four and Five star reviews are incredibly helpful getting books noticed. If you start earlier in the series, please leave a review of those books as well. The reviews don’t have to be long, they just have to be a few words saying that you enjoyed the book. Some people write and tell me how much they enjoyed my books. That’s nice and I really do appreciate it, but public reviews push books in sales algorithms and that helps them get seen by new readers.

May the Scarlet Order vampires always have your back!

Travels with the Dead in Space and Time

A good book cover can stick with you for a long time. I remember seeing Brian Lumley’s novel Necroscope on bookstore shelves around the time it came out in the United States circa 1986. Bob Eggleton’s cover featured a creepy skull with vampire fangs. I would have been in college at the time and I didn’t have much time for pleasure reading. Still, I’ve never forgotten that cover and Lumley would continue to haunt me. During my tenure publishing Hadrosaur Tales and Tales of the Talisman, one of my regular contributors was K.S. Hardy, whose bio noted that he’d received praise from Lumley. In 2011, issue 13 of Hungur Magazine featured back-to-back interviews with me and Brian Lumley. Finally, in 2023, as I perused lists of great vampire novels, Necroscope once again came to my attention. I decided it was time to finally read the novel that had been haunting me for close to forty years!

The Kindle edition I read didn’t have quite as striking a cover as Eggleston’s, but the novel itself proved compelling. Set in the last days of the cold war, we learn that the British and Russians have both assembled teams of psychic spies. Some can glimpse the future. Some can read minds. Some can kill with a glance. One of the top Russian agents is Boris Dragosani who can literally discover everything a dead person knew by ripping it from their very tissues and viscera.

Meanwhile, in England, a boy named Harry Keogh begins to demonstrate unusual powers. First he develops an unusually keen intuition for mathematics. Next, despite his lack of athleticism, he proves he can take out the school bully. As he grows to adulthood, Keogh gains even more powers. We soon learn that his mother and grandmother had psychic powers and Keogh has learned his abilities from dead people who had those talents. Unlike Dragosani who rends secrets from the dead, Keogh befriends the dead.

Dragosani and Keogh’s stories are told in parallel and we soon learn that Dragosani learned his gift not from the dead, but the undead. A vampire chained up near the village where Dragosani grew up taught him how to read the secrets of the dead. As Keogh comes of age, British intelligence seeks to recruit him. However, Dragosani is sent on a mission to kill the head of the British psychic spy network and then learn his secrets, which throws the two characters into conflict.

Fortunately, one of the dead men Keogh befriends is none other than August Ferdinand Möbius, who teaches him secrets about the nature of space and time, giving him abilities to travel in ways most people couldn’t imagine. I found this part especially interesting since it echoed ideas I’ve been exploring in Vampires of the Scarlet Order and Ordeal of the Scarlet Order about ways vampires, and by extension humans, could unlock abilities they didn’t know they possessed by better understanding their relationship to the universe. Lumley doesn’t present this as a vampire power, but the vampires of his world clearly possess frightening and dangerous abilities and knowledge. In this first novel of the Necroscope series, the vampires don’t take center stage and Lumley doesn’t say much about their origin, but he gives some gruesome hints about their nature and implies an extraterrestrial origin—another point not too dissimilar from my vampires.

Necroscope is just the first book in a series that’s grown to at least eighteen volumes. I’ll likely delve into at least the first couple to see where Lumley takes his characters. In the meantime, as we get started with this near year, I’ll soon be announcing how to order Ordeal of the Scarlet Order. In the meantime, you can learn about the rest of the series at: http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#scarlet_order