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New Releases: 8/23/16

Here’s what went on sale today!

The Kind Folk by Ramsey Campbell

The Kind Folk by Ramsey CampbellLuke Arnold is a successful stage comedian who, with his partner Sophie Drew, is about to have their first child. Their life seems ideal and Luke feels that true happiness is finally within his grasp. This wasn’t always the case. Growing up in a loving but dysfunctional family, Luke was a lonely little boy who never felt that he belonged. While his parents adored him, the whole family knew that due to a mix-up at the hospital, Luke wasn’t their biological child. His parents did the best they could to make the lad feel special. But it was his beloved uncle Terence who Luke felt most close to, a man who enchanted (and frightened) the lad with tales of the “Other”–eldritch beings, hedge folks, and other fables of Celtic myth. When Terence dies in a freak accident, Luke suddenly begins to learn how little he really knew his uncle. How serious was Terence about the magic in his tales? Why did he travel so widely by himself after Luke was born, and what was he looking for? Soon Luke will have to confront forces that may be older than the world in order to save his unborn child.

Mirror Image by Michael Scott and Melanie Ruth Rose

Mirror Image by Michael Scott and Melanie Ruth RoseIn an auction house in London, there is a mirror no one will buy. Standing seven feet tall and reaching four feet across, its size makes it unusual. Its horrific powers make it extraordinary. For centuries, the mirror has fed off of the lives of humans, giving them agonizing deaths and sucking their souls into its hellish world. When Jonathan Frazer, the wealthy owner of a furniture and antiques shop in Los Angeles, buys the mirror at an auction, he believes he is getting the bargain of a lifetime. At this point, the mirror has sat dormant for years. But within days of Jonathan’s purchase, the deaths begin again. One employee is crushed when the mirror falls on top of him. A few days later, the corpse of another is found in front of the mirror, brutally stabbed. A third is burned beyond all recognition. All the while, an enormous man with a scarred face is following Jonathan, demanding that he give him the mirror and killing any police officer that gets in his way. The police are becoming desperate. As the death toll rises, Jonathan himself becomes a suspect. He knows there is something wrong with the mirror. He knows it’s dangerous. But he cannot bring himself to get rid of it. Everyday he becomes more captivated by the mirror. For the mirror is awakening, and its powers are resurfacing.

Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton

Spellbreaker by Blake CharltonLeandra Weal has a bad habit of getting herself in dangerous situations. While hunting neodemons in her role as Warden of Ixos, Leandra obtains a prophetic spell that provides a glimpse one day into her future. She discovers that she is doomed to murder someone she loves, soon, but not who. That’s a pretty big problem for a woman who has a shark god for a lover, a hostile empress for an aunt, a rogue misspelling wizard for a father, and a mother who–especially when arguing with her daughter–can be a real dragon. Leandra’s quest to unravel the mystery of the murder-she-will-commit becomes more urgent when her chronic disease flares up and the Ixonian Archipelago is plagued by natural disasters, demon worshiping cults, and fierce political infighting. Everywhere she turns, Leandra finds herself amid intrigue and conflict. As chaos spreads across Ixos, Leandra and her troubled family must race to uncover the shocking truth about a prophesied demonic invasion, human language, and their own identities–if they don’t kill each other first.

Repo Madness by W. Bruce Cameron

Repo Madness by W. Bruce CameronRuddy McCann, former college football star, now Kalkaska, Michigan repo man, is finally getting his life back on track. He has a beautiful fiancé, Katie Lottner, a somewhat stable job stealing cars, and a lazy, lovable basset hound. With his job suddenly in jeopardy, his fiancé wanting a break, and a new court-ordered psychiatrist insisting he take his medication or violate the terms of his probation, Ruddy finds himself missing the one thing he thought he would be happy to be rid of–the voice of Alan Lottner, dead realtor and Ruddy’s future father-in-law. When a woman tells Ruddy that the tragedy that defines his life may, in fact, be a lie, Ruddy starts to investigate the disappearances of women in the area and soon discovers that his own redemption may be within reach. Alan’s voice returns, and Ruddy and Alan work together to bring down a corrupt banker, win back Katie’s love, and stop a serial killer before he can strike again.

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

24: Trial by Fire by Dayton Ward

24: Trial by Fire by Dayton Ward1994: Tateos Gadjoyan, an Armenian arms merchant, has been a target of the Central Intelligence Agency for years. Efforts to thwart his selling of American military weapons to terrorists and other enemies of the United States have been unsuccessful. Now, after months of careful planning, two undercover agents have infiltrated Gadjoyan’s inner circle. Soon, they will have sufficient evidence to seize the arms dealer and remove a clear and present danger to the United States. On the small Japanese island of Okinawa, Gadjoyan’s representatives are concluding a deal with Miroji Jimura. Jimura’s hatred of Americans is absolute, and he’s only too happy to profit from sales of their own weapons to be used against them. When a rival of Jimura’s sabotages the arms deal, one of the CIA’s undercover assets is killed, threatening the case against Gadjoyan and revealing a far greater menace to American security. The only thing standing against this new, immediate danger is a single, junior CIA agent named Jack Bauer.

NEW IN MANGA:

Hour of the Zombie Vol. 2 by Tsukasa Saimura

Merman In My Tub Vol. 4 by Itokichi

Not Lives Vol. 3 by Wataru Karasuma

See upcoming releases.

Michael Scott and Colette Freedman on Inspiration

Image Placeholder of - 32Colette Freedman:

When I was a young girl, I read the books that little girls were supposed to read: books by Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Carol Ryrie Brink. I devoured Nancy Drew and completed the entire Little House on the Prairie series. But there was something missing … an element of danger and suspense which none of these books were giving me.

So, I asked my father for advice. An avid reader and sci-fi/fantasy enthusiast, he eagerly brought me down to the basement, which could easily pass for a second hand bookshop similar to NYC’s The Strand. As we navigated our way through the maze of history and philosophy books, past the huge sections on the Middle East and humor, we arrived at the wood paneled shelf against the back wall. It was packed with books from floor to ceiling. He showed me alphabetized shelves from Piers Anthony to Roger Zelazny. Hundreds, if not thousands of battered paperbacks stared back at me, tempting me to open them.  And for the next several years, I did.  I read F. Paul Wilson and Eric Van Lustbader. I was drawn to Arthur C. Clark and Andre Norton. While my friends were reading E.B. White, I was reading Harry Harrison. Now, I still appreciated books which were more geared for my own age group, specifically Madeleine L’Engle’s science fiction books, Robert C. O’Brien’s fantasies and Lois Duncan’s horror novels. But, in the back of the basement, I found my true inspiration.

When I first met Michael Scott, and we discussed collaborating, I was thrilled to dive into the world of dark fantasy and horror which has long informed my tastes.  And when I introduced him to my father, they talked like old friends: a similar taste of authors and books cutting through the awkwardness of their first meeting.

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Michael Scott:

Like most authors, I became a writer because I was a reader.

I would maintain that you cannot become a writer unless you have been a reader, and a voracious reader at that.  There comes a point in every reader’s life when they put down a book (usually in disgust) and say, “I can do better than that.”  In that moment, writers are born.

The type of writer you become is dictated by your formative books.  Science Fiction readers become Science Fiction writers, Horror readers become Horror writers.

The book series which really made me want to become a writer was Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, wonderful books about tiny people who live alongside us and “borrow” all those things of ours which go missing.  I was perhaps ten or eleven when I first read The Borrowers at the start of the school holidays.  By the end of the holidays, I had read the first three books from start to finish and started right over again. (I would have to wait almost thirteen years for the final book, The Borrowers Avenged, which appeared the year my own first book was published.)  Mary Norton was shelved in the local library alongside Andre Norton.  And there were shelves of Andre Norton.  That summer, having finished The Borrowers, I moved onto The Witch World.

Andre Norton was published by DAW Books, and I quickly learned that all I had to do was pick one of the yellow-spined paperbacks.  DAW published everyone: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Fritz Leiber, E.C. Tubb, Lin Carter, Thomas Burnett Swann.  I read them all.

Is it any wonder I became a fantasy writer?

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From the Tor/Forge December newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.

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More from our December newsletter:

The Thirteen Hallows Sweepstakes

Placeholder of  -4The Thirteen Hallows releases next month but we have a chance for you to win one of four advance reading copies now. Comment below to enter for a chance to win.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins November 7, 2011 at 10 a.m. ET. and ends November 11, 2011, 12:00 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Book Trailer: The Thirteen Hallows

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About The Thirteen Hallows: A new adult novel from Michael Scott and Colette Freedman…

The Hallows. Ancient artifacts imbued with a primal and deadly power. But are they protectors of this world, or the keys to its destruction?

A gruesome murder in London reveals a sinister plot to uncover a two-thousand-year-old secret.

For decades, the Keepers guarded these Hallows, keeping them safe and hidden and apart from each other. But now the Keepers are being brutally murdered, their prizes stolen, the ancient objects bathed in their blood.

Now, only a few remain.

With her dying breath, one of the Keepers convinces Sarah Miller, a practical stranger, to deliver her Hallow—a broken sword with devastating powers—to her American nephew, Owen.

The duo quickly become suspects in a series of murders as they are chased by both the police and the sadistic Dark Man and his nubile mistress.

As Sarah and Owen search for the surviving Keepers, they unravel the deadly secret the Keepers were charged to protect. The mystery leads Sarah and Owen on a cat-and-mouse chase through England and Wales, and history itself, as they discover that the sword may be the only thing standing between the world… and a horror beyond imagining.

The Thirteen Hallows is the beginning of a spellbinding new saga, a thrilling tale of ancient magic and modern times by a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning playwright.

The Thirteen Hallows by Michael Scott goes on sale December 6th, 2011.

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