Steamduck Learns To Fly

Steamduck Learns To Fly is the second steampunk children's book by writer extraordinaire Emilie P. Bush and illustrator William Kevin Petty and it's OUT RIGHT NOW! How brilliant is this?! Not only is it a super original and awesome idea but it's so well done! Seriously, I want each one of these for my kids. Hm, the holidays are coming up...

Emilie P. Bush is also the writer of Chenda and The Airship Brofman, The Gospel According to Verdu and children's book Her Magesty's Explorer (A steampunk bedtime story). She's an excellent writer and a wonderful person. I was fortunate enough to see her read at Anachrocon in Atlanta, GA and I was on a panel with her at Dragon Con a few years ago and I have to say her panels are not to be missed.

Check out Steamduck Learns To Fly:

Steamduck is back with another adventure! Author Emilie P. Bush and illustrator William Kevin Petty bring this follow up to their bestselling children’s book Her Majesty’s Explorer: a Steampunk bedtime story. In Steamduck Learns to FLY! the plucky mechanical duck discovers that REAL birds do more than swim. He turns to his old friend and maker – the Otter – to learn a few things about flying. They try and fail with propeller contraptions, hot air balloons and more. Despite all the mishaps, the pair eventually defy gravity and take to the sky.

Steamduck Learns To Fly on Amazon.com

Steamduck Learns To Fly Book Trailer

Like Steamduck on Facebook

Spook House by Michael West

Horror writer extraordinaire Michael West's new book, Spook House, is out today!! Published by Seventh Star Press, Mr. West's new book looks to be an amazing ride of thrills and scares and is a must have for anyone remotely interested in the horror genre.

Here's the blurb:
The latest Harmony, Indiana novel following 2011’s Cinema of Shadows arrives just in time for Halloween, exploring the places in this world that go far beyond any normal definition of “haunted.” These places are so evil, so diabolical, that they become gateways to Hell itself. The Fuller Farm is one such place.


It is said that old man Fuller conducted unspeakable acts, blood rituals and human sacrifices, all in an attempt to gain the ultimate knowledge, the ultimate power. And then, he was killed–horribly murdered on his own lands, leaving the house to stand as a vacant monument to his wickedness. But once a door is opened, it can never really be closed.


Now, the stars are right. The gateway is ready to once more unleash unspeakable horror upon the town of Harmony, Indiana. And this will be one Halloween that they will never forget!

Michael West  has been on the scene for quite some time, building an amazing reputation as a top notch horror writer. You can probably catch him at all the best horror and fantasy conventions so if you get the chance to meet him, don't pass it up! He's a very cool guy!

He's also doing a 33 date blog tour (Sounds like me) so be sure to check out his posts all over the Internet. Also, if you're in the area, the book release launch party will be at "That Book Place" in Madison Indiana on October 27th.

See Michael's press release here: http://www.bymichaelwest.com/spook-house-for-sale

Pre-order one of only 75 hardcover copies of Spook House here: http://www.seventhstarpress.com/pre-orders/

Visit Seventh Star Press' website here: http://www.seventhstarpress.com/pre-orders/

Out ov the Coffin

Out ov the Coffin is a goth/dark radio show hosted by dear friend of mine, DJ Ichabod. He's been on  the radio for years (14 years to be exact in this form. He also did the Ichabod and Ebeneezer show before that and I believe he did a stint as the host of the late night all metal show "The Haunted Mansion") playing the newest and most interesting dark music on the airwaves. Originally he was on Vanderbilt's own 91.1 WRVU but they sold the frequency or switched it or whatever to play strictly classical music after being Nashville's only true alternative to corporate music. Bastards.

Anyway, this didn't slow down DJ Ichabod one bit. He made a blog, a facebook, and took his radio show to the interwebs where he still cranks out the best and newest music of the genre to this day. Personally, I'm a big fan of Ichabod's and love to check out his show. While I hate that the radio station was taken off the traditional airwaves, I'm also stoked that I can listen to his show wherever I am. (you know, being in Washington and all...) Here's the blurb from his blog:

"Out ov the Coffin" is a specialty dark-music radio program, hosted by DJ Ichabod, designed to celebrate dark and interesting styles of music, from the goth perspective. Brand new entries are featured each episode, alongside older favorites and cult classics. Oft-featured sub-genres include: Goth, Gothic rock, deathrock, post-punk, darkwave, ebm, industrial, damnbient / dark ambient, dark metal, neoclassical, ethereal works, film scores, and theatrical experimentation.
 
Ichabod cares about the bands he plays and he cares about his listener's experiences. He gives playlists for every show complete with all the details that can point you in the exact direction to the band, the song, the label and the album. Very cool if you ask me. Also, check out Ichabod's band, Loss, who are making crazy waves these days. I'm really excited to see them when they're on tour here in the Northwest! I'll be sure to blog about that as well!

Check out, Out ov the Coffin and get your fix for all things dark. I promise you'll fall in love with bands and music you never knew existed.

Out of the Coffin Blog/Podcast/streaming site (You can stream it directly here) http://outovthecoffin.blogspot.com/

Out ov the Coffin Facebook


Cool little known fact, Ichabod was a beta reader for Thomas Riley. If you only knew how much better he made it. 

Random Updates

Today I'm going to do a general update. It's a little more on the personal side but you can get a glimpse into life which is always fun. 


Travel and life
We'll be heading back to Nashville at the end of the month for my mom's wedding! We're super excited to get back and see everyone. It really will be kind of shocking for me. After living there my whole life, the place almost seems like a dream. I feel like I've lived in Washington for years now and it'll have only been 7 months by the time we get in the plane. On the other hand, it also feels like we moved here last month... strange how that happens huh? So, we'll be in Cashville for 4 days at the end of the month. Hope to see everyone!

Books and Work
As book stuff goes, there's not a lot more to report since my last update a few days ago. I'm chipping away at new projects while editing Thomas Riley 2. I can give you a fun hint and tell you that I did find a Day of The Dead book I'm excited to read as research for Tribes. ;) Also, as I may have mentioned before, Liz and I have been approached to write for a really awesome steampunk RPG game. Stoked!

Animals
Skye and Ghoulia are doing awesome. Skye is crazy as ever but slowly learning the rules around here. The key word in that last sentence is "slowly". She's a sweetie but also note that she's earned the nicknames: Snacks, Crack Head, Corneus, Torpedo, Woo Woo and Tornado since her sort of short time with us. I've never had a big dog and never anything close to a seventy pound one year old Siberian Husky before.

TV
As you know we like our shows. So far, we're knee deep in Project Runway (Go Chris! well, and Dimitri!), The new season of Castle is one of the best so far. We're really hoping to have another Halloween episode as they are our favorites. Face Off is another Tuesday night staple. We're routing for the dude in the cowboy hat. And of course we love our House marathons! There's some really good stuff to come too! American Horror Story is starting up like next week along with The Walking Dead and new Top Chef in November which is in Seattle! Awesome!

So that's sort of a quick personal cross section of fun going on in the Valentino house right now.

Sixcess Core RPG Game

My friend Ben Rogers has been working on his RPG game, Sixcess Core, for the last five years with gaming company, Harsh Realities! After much testing and development it's ready to be unleashed upon the world! With steampunk elements, and magical elements, this fantasy RPG looks amazing! Make sure to check out the description video.

This is the beginning for many new games coming up in 2012/13. Spoiler alert: Liz and I may be a part of one of these upcoming projects. ;) Ehem! Cough cough, maybe Extraordinary Voyages. So gamers, friends, fans, scenesters, con-goers, and people just interested in seeing something new and awesome come into the gaming world, give this kickstarter a look and make sure to check out the video and consider becoming a backer on any level. Not only are you helping to produce an awesome game, but you're going to get some major cool swag for being a part of it!

Check out Sixcess Core Here. 
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299187159/sixcess-core-rulebook

September Blog Stats

It's stat geek time again! Last month was a weird one. I thought I'd have like 20 posts but life got crazy. I was still able to quite a few in though. So the big winners were My Writing Process (Thanks again to Zova Books' Matt Pizzo for that suggestion) and Elizabeth Darvill's new book Steamed Up! The last place was kind of shocking Teresa Burrell's new book post. Where are the mystery readers???

Little Updates
Waiting on the next round of TR3 edits. I think this will be the last round but I may have a big huge round as well.

Also waiting to hear about the re-issue of Thomas Riley on Zova Books. This should be really cool!

I'll be working on Tribes a bit today as well as Thomas Riley 3.

I'll be doing an interview with "The Library at The End of The Universe" next month for my story in the steampunk anthology Clockwork Spells and Magical Bells.

Book In The Bag Review Blog

Book In The Bag is a brand spanking new book review and author interview blog by my good buddy Mandi Lynch and her co-conspirators Catherine Gracey, Misheal Crocker and Rachel Hobbs have started. Mandi has been a friend of mine for a few years, officially I think we met at The Southern Festival of Books in Nashville (which is an awesome book festival by the way).

I'm new to the whole Book in the Bag blog as well and from what I've seen they review all types of books and are booking author interviews now for the next year! So, if your a bibliophile head over there and get the scoop on the newest books out and if you're an author or aspiring author, head over there and see what these industrious ladies are getting into. They're even taking reader suggestions for reviews!

Check out their welcome note:
Over the coming weeks we are preparing to launch our new website. We hope to bring you a range of great reviews of the books that we have been reading in cafes, on trains, and generally any place that we can slip out the books that travel in our bags.
In the interim, feel free to post some book suggestions in the comments. Something that you always meant to read, but never got around to? An obscure little book you loved and suspect we might too? A not so obscure book that you want our opinion on?
Just please, if you care about us, don’t ask us to read a certain book for bored housewives that has been doing the rounds lately. We might not always stick to decency, but that one taught us all that we still have some taste.

Check em out here. http://bookinthebag.wordpress.com/