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The Seers’ Table – December 2019

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The Seers Table!

The Seers Table

Linda D. Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community

December contains National Cocoa Day. Curl up with a cup and discover the following authors!

 

Linda D. Addison introduces:

Maxwell I. Gold is an emerging author of weird fiction and dark fantasy, writing short stories and prose that primarily center around his cosmic and profane Cyber Gods Mythos. His works have been accepted into various publications including the prestigious literary journal for weird poetry Spectral Realms, The Audient Void: A Journal for Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, Weirdbook Magazine, and many more.

His short story, “A Credible Fear,” was published in the spring volume of The Offbeat Magazine put out by Michigan State’s Department of Creative Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture. Max has also had a prose piece titled, “Four Million Years,” in the latest issue (#134) of Space and Time Magazine; “The God of Phlegm” in Spectral Realms, Issue #11; and “Hazthrog the Mad God” in The Dark Corner Zine, Issue #2.

He studied philosophy and political science at the University of Toledo and is a proud Columbus, Ohio native and currently is an active member of the HWA and the Dramatists Guild.

Recommended work: “The God of Phlegm.” “I heard hollow empty tones echo in the night as the dark hymns of corroded wheels danced across silver rails. Their oxidized feet tapped along with magnetic electrification over the bars, as orange flakes of rust drifted off towards the purple horizon. Snaking along miles of once bustling track, these now hulking monsters carried nothing but empty promises and dead ideals, in the form of a submissive populace with no way out from behind the dripping iron teeth that lined its black wooden frame. The railways were the veins of an empire, a bloodline that filled a silver world with the hopes and dreams of glittering progress, where their ancestors rode with a pristine and gallant speed, like the greatest of stallions. A dominant evil force took hold, corrupting the world. Its grip, filled with a cyber lust vexing even the best of men, devastated their minds with ravaging erotic untruths, while leaving them satisfied in the interim with a ghastly misinformed reality. The trains became an unholy salvation, a gateway to a place beyond their defiled bed, towards a station of reactionary pragmatism.”

You can find Maxwell at https://thewellsoftheweird.com/; Instagram @flaviusgauntius.

Janet Holden introduces:

Rory Power grew up in New England, where she lives and works as a crime fiction editor and story consultant for TV adaptation. She received a Masters in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia, and thinks fondly of her time there, partially because she learned a lot but mostly because there were a ton of bunnies on campus.

Recommended work: Wilder Girls. It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First, the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

You can find Rory Power at https://itsrorypower.com/.

Kate Maruyama introduces:

Yangsze Choo is a New York Times-bestselling novelist and a fourth-generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Due to a childhood spent in various countries, she can eavesdrop (badly) in several languages. After graduating from Harvard University, she worked in various corporate jobs and had a briefcase before writing her first novel. The Ghost Bride, (August 2013, William Morrow/Hot Key, UK) set in colonial Malaya and the elaborate Chinese world of the afterlife, is about a peculiar historic custom called a spirit marriage. It is currently in production as a Netflix Original series.

Her second novel, The Night Tiger, is set in 1930s colonial Malaya and is about an eleven-year-old Chinese houseboy and a beautiful dancehall girl who must unravel the mystery of a missing finger. The Night Tiger (February 2019, Flatiron Books and Quercus, UK) is Reese Witherspoon Hello Sunshine’s Book Club Pick for April 2019, as well as Amazon’s Spotlight Pick for Best Book of the Month, February 2019.

Yangsze loves to eat and read, and often does both at the same time. She lives in California with her husband and children, and several chickens. Yangsze is represented by literary agent Jenny Bent.

You can learn more about her at https://yschoo.com or follow her on twitter: @yangszechoo.

Lauren Salerno introduces:

Amelinda Bérubé writes about ghosts and monsters and other things that go bump in the night with a liberal sprinkling of weird Canadiana—her favorite source of inspiration—and the occasional zombie metaphor. Her first YA novel, The Dark Beneath the Ice, was published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2018. Here There Are Monsters is her second novel, published in August of 2019.

She is an eternal fangirl for YA and SFF, including horror, but also loves any book that makes her laugh, makes her cry, or creeps her out. Her very favorite books tend to have a thinky, supernatural flavor and don’t explain too much.

In her other lives she is a public service editor, a mother of two, and a passionate gardener. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair.

Recommended work: Here There Are Monsters. The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of sisterhood turned toxic, imaginary monsters brought to life, and secrets that won’t stay buried.

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over. Maybe even build a normal life.

In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

Then Deirdre disappears.

And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming she’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

Find Amelinda Bérubé online: https://www.metuiteme.com/; Twitter and Instagram: @metuiteme.

Tish Salerno introduces:

KD Webster, a new horror writer hailing from Denver, Colorado. Originally from the Dallas area, KD brings a sense of Texas justice with the cold topography of Colorado to his work. He began writing as a result of his love of reading. Indulging in his affinity for fantasy and science fiction allowed him a form of escapism as a child that he used to create his own worlds. As an adult, he began writing down the thoughts and ideas from those worlds and expanding on the same themes. Realizing last year that those ideas had grown to fill several notebooks, KD began putting together his first offering, Adrian’s Children.

The story revolves around Adrian Crisp, a man-made vampire infected with an experimental virus that gives him all the powers of the typical undead. KD actually dreamed the idea for the book and decided to keep the dream aspect as the story’s point of view. What is unique about his work is that he decided to publish Adrian’s Children in serial form. This author teases us with each chapter, hooking us with a delicious premise then making us wait for the next round like an old BATMAN cliffhanger episode.

Each story was published on its own with a promise of an upcoming installment. Starting with Prelude, the series details Adrian coming to grips with his new incarnation and his attempts to create more vampires like him. The next offering introduces the readers into the vampire’s nemesis Jason March and his efforts to catch the vampire. The last story provides the back story to Adrian Crisp, explaining what happened in his former life that led up to his current existence. Readers can find all six installments currently on Amazon, but for those like me who simply cannot wait, KD is republishing all of them as a novella due out next month!

KD’s latest project is called Dreamweaver, a novel that tells the story of a young teenage girl who finds an alter ego in another dimension. Destiny Dustman discovers she is a warrior tasked with saving the world she just found out about. Problem is, she only wants to be a regular teenager with a regular life. Of course, mayhem ensues, and Destiny must navigate both worlds to fulfill her namesake. Fun fact: KD states that while working on Dreamweaver, stories about Adrian’s Children kept sidetracking his progress. However, he finally caught up, and Dreamweaver was released this past October, while its sequel Dreamquest came out in November.

Recommended work: An excerpt from Adrian’s Children: Prelude (published May 2019).

My name is Daniel Hosea. Freelance Journalist. Investigative reporter. Part-time movie junkie.

When I was a young boy, the only monsters I had to be afraid of were the ones on the big screen. My grandfather would take me to see all the major players. Werewolves and witches, ghosts and ghouls, the occasional Dracula and all the others that go bump in the night. He’d tell Mom and Pop that we were going to … well, whatever kid-friendly flick was out at the time. He’d get us a couple of G-rated tickets. But as soon as we’d get our cola and popcorn, we’d veer off and duck over into the screening room showing what we really came to see. The monster of the week. And for the next two hours or so I’d be scared out of my pants. Gasping and jumping at every slash and gash, getting all into the creepy synth music. The special effects and prosthetics and the blood and guts; it all seemed so real to my young wide eyes.

But the most frightening scares were the ones just out of sight of the camera. The boogeyman you couldn’t see, but you knew was right around the corner. Behind the closed door, down that dark corridor. The psychological terror that allows the imagination to fill in the blanks. And a young boy’s imagination can go places a more rational mind can’t.

You can find KD Webster and his books here: https://www.kdwebster.com/; FaceBook: kd.webster.7; Twitter: @KDWebster4

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