So, today at the news site Comics Alliance I find an interview with Christy Marx, writer of DC Comics’ reboot of their 1980s teen fantasy comic Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (of which I was a fan, due to Ernie Colon’s incredible artwork). Even better, they ran a five-page preview of Sword of Sorcery #0—the series in which the new Amethyst will star—along with Marx’s interview. Fantastic!
Then I saw the first page.
Yeaahhhhh.
A moody teen who wears dark clothes and dyes her hair, who also possesses magical powers. Huh. Storywise it fits in with other young adult series these days, but it’s the character’s design that annoys me. It looks so familiar I know I’ve seen it before…
Oh, yeah. On this site. On the cover of my books. In the downloadable comic (and the print version I used to hand out at conventions).
Chalk up another positive review of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, this one courtesy of newly minted Pan-atic Abby Flores and her review blog, Bookshelf Confessions:
“Blood Feud is packed with comedy, horror, romance, paranormal urban fantasy, gothic themes and lots of hunting adventure that would surely bury its story on your mind. One of the best books I’ve read in paranormal urban fantasy.”
Since Abby is based in the Philippines, this obviously means that the Power of Zwieback can now be felt clear across the world!
Read the entire review by clicking on the Bookshelf Confessions logo.
So, picking up where we left off in the February 27th post, we’ve been discussing influences on the writing of the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud. Last time I talked about how the Horrorpops song “MissFit” became Pan’s anthem. Now we get to the introduction of her gothy friends.
There’s a scene in chapter 21 in which Pan and her friends do a little song-and-dance number for videographer Tim Merrick (whose day job is working as an assistant to David Zwieback, owner of the storefront museum Renfield’s House of Horrors and Mystical Antiquities). When I started writing that scene, the first horror-related tune that popped into my head was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” A classic 1980s pop hit, with a good beat and lyrics, and Vincent Price rapping—what better song for Pan to launch into?
Yeah, okay, it was too easy a musical choice, and way too mainstream a tune for Goths, but I was trying to find a way to make a transition between a scene in Renfield’s, during which Pan has lovingly bullied her father into retrieving her makeup kit from his car, and the dance number on the museum’s basement steps. As originally written, it went like this:
The door swung shut behind him, and Pan turned to face Tim. He looked highly amused. “What?”
Tim shrugged. “Just couldn’t help noticing you got him trained well.”
“Of course.” Pan flashed a wicked grin. “And now, Timothy,” she intoned in her deepest, most ominous voice, “at last you know the true power of being Daddy’s Little Girl…”
* * *
“ ’Cause this is Thrillllerrrrr!” Pan wailed, head thrown back, as she and the crew sang along with Michael Jackson and danced on the steps leading to the museum’s basement floor.
In movie terminology, I saw the transition as a smash cut: an abrupt jump from one scene to the next—in this case, everyday Pan giving her best sinister smile instantly changing into glammed-up Pan singing her heart out as the “camera” pulls back to show her and her friends on the stairs. (If you’ve been following these posts, you already know how I tend to “see” the scenes I write in cinematic angles.)
But then one night I downloaded the latest episode of Rue Morgue Radio (a great online, F-bomb-loaded radio-style show that stopped broadcasting in January 2012 after seven years, but you should definitely check out their archives). One of the first songs that the host, Tomb Dragomir, played was a track from the Misfits’ 1999 album Famous Monsters: “Fiend Club”—and I suddenly realized that Pan & Co. had a much better song to perform:
We won’t pretend that this is the end
We’re not losers all of the time
We march and we fall
We’re one and for all
It’s just evil all of the time
All the time
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
Not you! Not you!
You dress so messed up
Your hair is too long
But I’m changing it all of the time
We march and we fall
We’re one and for all
It’s just evil all of the time
All the time
Evil all the time
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
Not you! Not you!
Evil all the time
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
We are the fiend club
Not you! Not you!
We are the fiend club
Not exactly a song you can choreograph a dance number to—well, not unless it includes a lot of violent head banging—but I thought, what a great anthem that would make for Pan and her friends: united in their weirdness, and proud of it. So, out went the King of Pop and in came a far more appropriate band (who are horror fans themselves).
FYI: The actual Fiend Club is the Misfits’ fan club. You can find it here.
So, how did StarWarp Concepts do with their $1.00 Blood Feud e-book sale over at Smashwords, during the Read an E-Book Week promotion? Head on over to the SWC blog and read the outcome.
Then come back here later this week, as we get back to discussing the inspirations behind the writing of Pan’s first adventure. It’ll be fiend-tastic!
Today at the book-review blog Fiction Fascination you’ll find an interview with me, conducted by the site’s owner, Carly. It’s one more part in my ongoing effort to make fans of dark urban fantasies aware of the exciting world of Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback, starting with her first novel, Blood Feud. And since Carly is a major fan of Ms. Zwieback’s, how could I say no to a chance to talk about her?
Carly and I cover such topics as my favorite books, my personal quirks, and what some of my writing inspirations are (a topic I’ll be discussing further at the Pandora Zwieback blog in the days to come). And then there’s this:
“At some point I became obsessed with a TV show on the Food Network called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and I’ve been experimenting with recipes. I haven’t killed anyone yet…”
Not expecting a comment like that in an interview about a monster-hunting teen, were you? Hey, it can’t all be about gun-toting vampires and heroic Goth chicks, y’know!
In addition to the interview, we’re giving away a signed copy of Blood Feud (still on sale in print and e-book editions). If you haven’t gotten around to picking up a copy, here’s your chance to get one for free!
Read the interview, and find out more details on the giveaway, by clicking on the Fiction Fascination logo.
“Blood Feud is a roller coaster read; the action never lets up…. Highly recommended for ages 15 and up for complexity of plot and violence.”
Read the entire review by clicking on the logo above. And hey, all you librarians out there, how about adding Blood Feud to your YA sections and introducing your readers to a certain Goth adventuress? You never know—they might really enjoy meeting Pan!
It’s true— the SWC webstore is finally up and running! Now you can spare yourself the frustration of hunting down Pan’s adventures, and order them—as well as other StarWarp Concepts titles—directly from her publisher.
Currently available are print editions of Blood Feud, the classic vampire tale Carmilla (with illustrations by Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 comic artist Eliseu Gouveia), and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook (which features Pan on the cover). And since the sketchbook is an SWC exclusive not available in stores, the webstore’s the only place you’ll be able to get it—not counting when we sell it at conventions, of course.
Also:
The official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt! You asked for it (repeatedly) and now you’ve got it! Available in both men’s and women’s sizes, it’s the same devil-girl T that Pan wears on the cover of Blood Feud, and an essential piece of clothing for every budding Goth adventuress.
The Blood Feud Art Print! It’s Bob Larkin’s cover art for the first Pan novel—as you should be well familiar with by now—presented on 11” x 17” cardstock without text, and limited to 100 copies.
So, head on over to the StarWarp Concepts site and start ordering already—I gotta clear some space in this office!
“Roman brings horror to NYC and spins a tale that keeps the reader enthralled…. I recommend this book for all horror readers and especially to young girls.”
The fact that Blood Moon Rising’s offices are based in Queens, NY—Pan’s home borough—makes the positive reaction all the sweeter. I mean, who doesn’t love a monster-fightin’ hometown girl?
You can read the entire review—as well as a review of Carmilla, StarWarp Concepts’ first classic reprint (with illustrations by The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 comic artist Eliseu Gouveia)—by clicking on the cover. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the magazine!
Blood Moon Rising is also the sponsor of The Institute of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction, a one-day gathering being held this March at the main branch of the Queens Public Library, which is located in Flushing—a neighborhood that is immune to all your petty, childish jokes about toilets, so don’t even bother! Click the link in the Events listings for more information on the show.
Back in the November 7 post, I told you about my decision to go with Bob Larkin–painted covers for Pan’s novel series as opposed to the fairly interchangeable photo covers that just about every other publishing company uses for their Young Adult titles. One of the reasons was that I couldn’t imagine what it would take to have a replica of Pan’s leather jacket created, complete with the bat ornament that hangs off its left shoulder.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of master artist and sculptor Bob Larkin, I proudly present the one-of-a-kind, real-life Pandora Zwieback leather jacket—complete with bat shoulder ornament and pentagram choker!
Sweet, aren’t they? It’s the same make of women’s motorcycle jacket that Bob used for the Blood Feud painting. The neckwear is a combination of a three-tier choker I found through Amazon.com, and a large piece of Halloween costume jewelry. The bat ornament is constructed of Sculpey modeling clay over a metal frame, then baked in the oven—which means that once it hardened, the thing became extremely fragile; drop it on the floor and it’s bye-bye, ornament.
The devil art is the 16th-century title page image from Eloy d’Amerval’s epic poem Livre de la Deablerie (reproduced in the Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft, from Dover Publishing, which is where I found it). I scanned it and Bob printed it on cotton, then attached it to the jacket with industrial-grade glue—that thing is never coming off!—and painted over the image. Then, after he stripped the oil from the jacket cuffs, the sleeves each took about 30 coats of white paint as a primer so the black leather wouldn’t show through. And after many more hours of painting and waiting for each coat to dry, the sleeves were done—and Pan’s jacket was finally complete!
What about the bat-faced belt buckle she also wears? (And if you’ve read Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, you know where she’ll be getting that from, at some point…) I’m so glad you asked—because Bob sculpted that, too!
That’s just damn creepy-looking, isn’t it? Not to mention those wings would probably stab Pan in the stomach every time she bent over—but hey, she’s a fictional character with the reader-influencing power of suspended disbelief, so she can wear whatever she wants!
And before you ask, I’m still using painted covers on the series!
* * *
And with that we come to the end of 2011. (Yeah, I know there’s one more week left, but the office’ll be closed between Christmas and New Year’s—at least that’s the plan.) It’s been a mildly bumpy road, this first year back in the publishing saddle for StarWarp Concepts after a six-year hiatus, but the madness has been fun in its own way. And rest assured, we’re just getting started!
However, we couldn’t have made it this far without the support of you folks out there, so on behalf of book designers Mat Postawa and Mike Rivilis, Web designer Dave De Mond, artists Bob Larkin and Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia, and photographer Marc Witz, I wish you and yours a fun and safe holiday season and a Happy New Year.
Then I saw the first page.
Oh, yeah. On this site. On the cover of my books. In the downloadable comic (and the print version I used to hand out at conventions).
But then one night I downloaded the latest episode of 
