Click here to visit the DDP page where The City is available.

Darkness Benign is an eclectic blend of darkly hued tales ranging from the bizarre to the macabre.  Writers Zar Castro, Mark Dunn, Kevin Anderson, Rachael Byrd, Michael Louis Calvillo, Jeffrey Burton, R.S. Hill, and Alex Knight come together to create a collection that wends its way from bloody carnival-grounds to southern werewolf haunts to the gore of yesteryear and dark perfection of tomorrow.

I feel bad...I just got the final edits done on the collection and sent it in to Deron.  The last day I took submissions for Darkness Benign was December 1, which means I've been procrastinating for the last two months.  I've given these authors the closest thing to a "yes" that I can, legally thinking--that is, "Yes, I think it's good, I'll put it in the collection that I submit to the publisher", and now the only thing I can do is cross my fingers and hope Deron likes their writing as much as I do.  There's some pretty big names in that list, though--somehow I ended up with submissions from Kevin Anderson, Michael Calvillo, and Jeffrey Burton.  That's a pretty big deal from where I'm sitting.

I'll let you all know how things go.

EDIT!

That was really fast turnaround.  He likes it.  That's a good thing.

So I ran out of interviews and that was the end of this blog...for a while.  I've done some editing, done some reviewing, and now that it's 2008, I'm ready to come back.  The City, sequel to Red Sky, will be released sometime in the next few months.  I wrote this one when I was 14, so it's fully two years more mature and readable than Red Sky (lucky you, huh?)  Subscribe to this blog to get a notice when it's available online.

The City is the story of a girl who wakes up in a cage in the basement with no recollection of her identity or life.  She's assigned a name by her captors and sold into a den of vampires.  As she comes to terms with herself, a friend opens her eyes to her true identity and she is introduced to a secret that could end the newly blossoming undead society: vampirism is a virus with deadly consequences to its victims.  In order to save herself and the friends she comes to love, she'll have to accept all the facets of herself and remember what happened on the other side of the river.

Also, I've been out to my friends for a few months, so it's probably a good time to out myself here--I'm b.isexual.  Surprise, everyone.

I'm looking for volunteers to help me market The City.  It's easy to do--just browse Xanga and find ten or a dozen bloggers who might be interested in my book and link them back here.  With any luck, they'll be doing the same.  After The City is released, I'll make up some free business cards on VistaPrint and try to convince some people to help me distribute them  It's all going toward next semester's tuition, kids.

Also, I'm looking for more writers to feature on my blog, more books to review, and more causes to support.  I don't expect reciprocity, but if you help me, I'll usually help you.