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Starting over in a place that's haunted by death...

Kara Foster thinks the hardest thing about moving to Japan will be fitting in as an outsider. But dark secrets are stirring at her new school. When Kara befriends Sakura, a fellow outsider whose rebellious nature sets her apart from the crowd, she learns that Sakura's sister was the victim of an unsolved murder on school grounds. And before long, terrible things begin to happen...

The Waking trilogy concludes with A Winter of Ghosts. Kara's life in Japanese prep school has been a whirlwind of terror, as a demon's curse keeps waking up ancient, evil creatures to torment her and her friends. When a student goes missing during a visit to a mountain forest, Kara and her friends are sure the curse has struck again. This time, it's a demon of winter, whose power is more chilling than anything they've encountered so far. And then it gets worse: the demon kidnaps Kara's boyfriend, Hachiro, with whom she's just starting to fall in love. Desperate to save him, Kara ventures back into the snowy woods, where dark forces await her...

This frightening trilogy will have readers glued to the page and scared to go to sleep.

"Randall describes the scenery, the culture, the characters, even their clothing, with heartfelt details. The story has suspense, mystery, and horror. It will be a great hit with fans of manga, anime, or Japanese culture." - School Library Journal

"A well-structured tale of ancient spirits who exact revenge upon humans. A brisk Japanese adventure." - VOYA

"The Waking: Dreams of the Dead starts as the dream of everyone who has ever wanted to travel to an exotic, far-away country to start again, and weaves a nightmare based in rich Japanese culture and myth.  I can't wait until it is released and I can recommend it to my readers." - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, author of In the Forests of the Night and Persistence of Memory

Crawl on over to The Waking website.

Check out my interviews with the author: here and here.

Read the books in order:
Dreams of the Dead
Spirits of the Noh
A Winter of Ghosts

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A little something to put on your wishlist for next year:

Four Summoner's Tales

Four terror-inducing novellas from acclaimed bestselling authors Kelley Armstrong, David Liss, Christopher Golden, and Jonathan Maberry beginning with the premise: "A stranger comes to town, offering to raise the townsfolk's dearly departed from the dead - for a price."

In Kelley Armstrong's "Suffer the Children," an acute diphtheria outbreak kills most of the children in an isolated village in nineteen-century Ontario. Then a stranger arrives and offers to bring the children back to life. He wants money, of course, an extravagant sum, but more importantly, but for each child resurrected, one villager must voluntarily offer his life...

In David Liss's "The Good-Natured Man," a con man on the margins of eighteenth-century British society discovers a book that reveals the method for bringing the dead back to life. After considering just how far he would go to avoid bringing his violent father back, he realizes the real value of this book. Instead of getting people to pay him to revive their departed, he will get people to pay him not to...

In "Pipers" by Christopher Golden, the Texas Border Volunteers wage a private war against drug smuggling by Mexican cartels in a modern-day South Texas town, complete with an indestructible army of the risen dead...

In "Alive Day" by Jonathan Maberry, a US Army sergeant must dive into the underworld of modern-day Afghanistan to try and barter for the release of his team, never dreaming of the horrors that await him...

Additional Details
Published by Simon & Schuster
Trade paperback published September 2013
ISBN-10: 145169668X
ISBN-13: 9781451696684

Pre-order it now!
S&S | Amazon | B&N | BAM | IndieBound

eBook also available
ISBN-10: 1451696752
ISBN-13: 9781451696752

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Looking for a spooky story to read on this rainy evening? Get The Shell Collector by Christopher Golden. It's FREE to download on Kindle until midnight EST tonight, Friday, November 30th! Get it now!

At just over 100 pages, with a story that takes place over just a few days, this novella is a quick read. The narrative closely follows the protagonist's journey as he learns of the grave disturbances in his coastal town. Gloucester, Massachusetts is a wonderfully cinematic setting. (Wikipedia informs me that it boasts the motto, "America's Oldest Seaport.") If there were a creepy-cool anthology TV show on the air right now, this would make for one solid episode, with some meaty scenes for the fortunate actor cast as the lead, Richie Feehan. Richie's a guy basically just trying to make ends meet, painting houses most of the time and catching lobsters a few days a week, and it's while he's working that second job that he comes across a rather curious collection of shells stuck in a lobster trap. Also factoring in: Richie's long-time on-again, off-again girlfriend, Bree; her brother, Pete, who's a cop; and Richie's brother and sister-in-law.

The fact that Richie's family runs the local funeral home allows him access to certain goings-on and information without having to make the character himself involved in the business. He seems far more suited to his job as a lobsterman than as his brother's job as a mortician. Richie's seafaring job also sets the story's first waves of action in motion, and helps us get to know the character right away. This line of work also runs in his family, and while I personally would never, ever go into that profession - I'm a vegetarian and supporter of animal rights - I like how it makes him feel connected to those who came before:

With the ocean breeze and tang of salt in the air...he felt as though his father and grandfather were still with him somehow. He liked that feeling.

My favorite line of the story is as follows:

The rules of the world as he'd understood them had been broken.

Official Book Flap Summary

It's October in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Richie Feehan was born and raised and has lived his whole life. He's a part-time lobsterman and full-time painter who sells his art at galleries in Rockport and Newburyport. Between the two jobs he makes enough money to get by, living in an in-law apartment in the family home owned by his brother Jim. Jim runs Feehan & Sons Funeral Home, a business started by their grandfather in 1921.

All in all, despite the tension with his brother, and despite the grumbling of his friends, whose business has suffered because of a lengthy red tide and a spectacularly bad overall fishing season, Richie enjoys his life very much. He's content, and believes that's pretty much all a man can ask from his life.

That is, until a horrible mystery begins to unfold in Gloucester.

Out lobstering, Richie sees something nightmarish in the surf one day, catches a bare glimpse of it beneath the surface. He doesn't dare speak of it for fear of what others might say - he doesn't want to become the town crazy. But he's having a hard time sleeping at night, and several days later, while out hauling in his traps for the winter, Richie finds one of them stuck on something. When he finally hauls it up, there's a corpse attached, a corpse that has been eaten at by sea creatures, including something large . . . the corpse of Greta Wagner, a woman who had been waked at Feehan & Sons two weeks earlier and buried a couple of days later.

Someone stole her corpse from the ground.

And her grave won't be the only one disturbed.

Booklist Review

"Golden's chilling novella is set in the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Richie Feehan divides his time between painting houses and trolling for lobsters, as the men in his family before him have done. One day, out on the sea collecting traps, Richie encounters a terrifying sight: a group of shells with glowing orbs that appear to be eyes resting in one of his traps. Richie throws it back into the ocean, but the memory of it haunts him. But when he spots his brother, Jim, who runs the other family business, Feehan & Sons Funeral Home, talking with police about a body disappearing from the graveyard, Richie never imagines the two things would be connected. A horrifying graveyard encounter with the entity known as the Shell Collector proves they are, however, and Richie realizes he must take action or risk losing someone close to him. Despite the tale's brevity, Golden vividly evokes life in a small fishing town and builds the suspense to a terrifyingly vivid conclusion."

Visit The Shell Collector page on Christopher Golden's website.

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Sleepy Hollow just woke up.

Sleepy Hollow High by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore

The spine-tingling series has been re-released as eBooks. Get them. Get them now. You won't be sorry.

Book 1: Horseman New to Sleepy Hollow, teens Aimee and Shane Lancaster find that upon their arrival an ancient curse has been unleashed upon the town, tracing back to a legend that might just be more truth than myth. Now an array of evil demons is after them, with the infamous headless horseman leading the pack. eBook Available Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Paperback edition Published May 2005 ISBN: 1595140247

Book 2: Drowned Having stopped the horseman in his tracks - at least for now - Aimee and Shane must face the other evils tormenting Sleepy Hollow. An enchanting oak tree, cackling cornfield imps, and the greatest threat: naiads - the beautiful and deadly sirens that have infested the Hudson River, drowning their victims on dry land. eBook Available Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Paperback edition Published August 2005 ISBN: 1595140255

Book 3: Mischief No one is safe in Sleepy Hollow. Life in The Hollow isn't getting any easier for Aimee and Shane Lancaster, or for their friends. Still facing the fallout of the curse the siblings unknowingly triggered by moving to town, the group of teens continue to confront new demons and creatures at every turn. But keeping the danger at bay becomes even more challenging when tensions erupt between friends and a secret love is finally confessed. Will the group be able to work together when it matters most? eBook Available Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Paperback edition Published February 2006 ISBN: 1595140247

Book 4: Enemies Shane and Aimee Lancaster are faced with the darkest horror yet in the fourth installment of The Hollow series. An enemy they once fought could be their only hope, but how can they trust someone so dangerous? Meanwhile, Aimee reels from the discovery of a deep betrayal by the two people she loves the most, but she must rally with the very people who hurt her to save their lives - along with the lives of everyone else in Sleepy Hollow. eBook Available Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Paperback edition Published June 2006 ISBN: 1595140271

My Review and Recommendations

I'm so excited that these books have been re-released. (Click through the links above or the slideshow widget at the bottom of this post to download the books!) As someone who enjoys the original story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and who loves Christopher Golden's writing, I raced through these books. Sleepy Hollow High offers twists, turns, and things that go bump in the night. Small town, new folks, old grudges, family ties, legendary hauntings, running through the woods - check, check, and check! 

I recommend this series to adults just as often as I recommend it to teens because I know people in their 20s and 30s who enjoyed books by Diane Hoh (Nightmare Hall, anyone?), Richie Tankersley Cusick, and R.L. Stine will also like Sleepy Hollow High.

I also look forward to seeing what Fringe creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci do with the story; they are adapting it for a television pilot now, and if that pilot airs and goes to series, you bet I'll tune in...but I'll be wishing that Aimee and Shane Lancaster were part of the show, too!

Amazon.com Widgets

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Run - don't walk - to get Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, especially if you like steampunk.

I've recommended Christopher Golden's books here at readergirlz many times, and for good reason: his stories rock, and they often feature a strong female protagonist. In the heart of Manhattan, you'll find 14-year-old Molly McHugh. Described as "all freckles and red hair and youthful vigor," Molly is a force to be reckoned with. The girl's got moxie, and she can certainly hold her own. She trusts her gut, which has helped her to survive in the Drowning City.

Just what has happened to the once-glorious city? Here's a little backstory:

Fifty years ago, earthquakes shook Lower Manhattan, submerging the city and forever changing the landscape and livelihood of all who lived there. As the years passed, the gap between the classes widened: the wealthy live and thrive in Uptown, where they grow wealthier, as the poor people in submerged Downtown try desperately to survive in what is now known as the Drowning City.

It is in Downtown that aging magician Felix Orlov resides. Molly, his energetic and devoted assistant, lives the floor above him. Dark dreams, a seance, and an attack lead to Orlov's abduction and cause Molly to run away - and enlist the help of Simon Church, an investigator, and Joe Golem, the bodyguard to end all bodyguards. If Hellboy were mixed with Eliot Spencer from Leverage and dressed in clothes from some classic Warren Beatty films, he might just be Joe Golem.

Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola make me want to live in the Drowning City, to meet the wonderful characters they've created and help them defeat the monstrous villains. They've also offered up a short story, Joe Golem and the Copper Girl, but I still want more. Mignola's black-and-white illustrations are, as always, memorable. One only hopes that the movie, which is currently in development, captures the spirit and intensity of this book. The submerged city, falling buildings, and fight scenes need to be Inception-level awesome on screen. This captivating story deserves all of that, and more. I also recommend this novel to fans of Fringe. (Hello, Manhattan and alternate history!)

Want to know more? Read my full review at my blog, Bildungsroman.

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TONIGHT, Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
Three signings tonight - one in Los Angeles, one in Framingham (MA), and one in Doylestown (PA) - to celebrate the publication of 21st CENTURY DEAD.

Los Angeles -- Dark Delicacies in Burbank, CA, 7 PM
featuring Amber Benson, John Skipp, Cody Goodfellow, and S.G. Browne

Framingham, MA -- Barnes & Noble, 7 PM
featuring Christopher Golden, Caitlin Kittredge, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Rio Youers and John M. Mcllveen

Doylestown, PA -- Doylestown Bookshop, 6-8 PM
featuring Jonathan Maberry and Stephen Susco 

21st CENTURY DEAD The editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead, and an all-new lineup of authors from all corners of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection... with ZOMBIES! The stellar lineup of contributors for this new volume includes: Orson Scott Card China Mieville Simon R. Green Daniel H. Wilson Elizabeth Hand Dan Chaon Jonathan Maberry Duane Swiercyznski Caitlin Kittredge Brian Keene Amber Benson S.G. Browne Thomas E. Sniegoski and - with his first published prose - Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. Published by St. Martin's Griffin ISBN-10: 0312605846 ISBN-13: 978-0312605841

http://www.christophergolden.com
http://www.sniegoski.com
http://www.amberbenson.us

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Baltimore news! If you're not yet familiar with the Baltimore series (novellas, comics, and graphic novels) by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, click here to learn more about it.

Now here's the official press release from Dark Horse Comics:

From celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning novelist Christopher Golden come the next installments of the critically acclaimed Baltimore series!

In Baltimore: The Play, a mad playwright puts on a Grand Guignol featuring actors that are real vampires. The evil financier of the play makes a bizarre discovery when he finds out that the playwright is a fraud and the true author is the disembodied head of a famous American author kept in a glass case. Baltimore: The Play is on sale November 21st, 2012!

Click here to see one of Mignola's illustrations from Baltimore.

Following The Play, Lord Baltimore finds himself in a double feature with Baltimore: The Widow and the Tank, on sale February 20, 2013. The Widow concerns a woman whose husband and war buddies have returned from the war as vampires and begun preying on their hometown. In “The Tank,” Baltimore learns of a wrecked tank in a field as he is passing through the war-ravaged countryside. People believe there is a vampire living inside that has been eating cattle and attacking locals. When Baltimore checks it out, it turns out to be true…to a point.

Lord Baltimore’s next adventure, Baltimore: The Inquisitor, features the origin story of one of his main antagonists - Judge Duvic. Look for The Inquisitor on sale June 19, 2013!

Praise for Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola:
“It still takes something special to impose a unifying vision, and Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden have got it.”
—The Wall Street Journal

About Dark Horse
Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent such as Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Brian Wood, Gerard Way, Felicia Day, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends such as Will Eisner, Neal Adams, and Jim Steranko, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, including The Mask, Ghost, Timecop, and SpyBoy. Its successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Mass Effect, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys, Serenity, and Domo. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading publishers of both creator-owned content and licensed comics material.

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Joe Golem and the Drowning City
by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than thirty feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater. Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance.

Among them are fourteen-year-old Molly McHugh and her friend and employer, Felix Orlov. Once upon a time Orlov the Conjuror was a celebrated stage magician, but now he is an old man, a psychic medium, contacting the spirits of the departed for the grieving loved ones left behind. When a seance goes horribly wrong, Felix Orlov is abducted by strange men wearing gas masks and rubber suits, and Molly soon finds herself on the run.

Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches.

Reviews

"Rife with archetypes gleaned from the darkest gems of myth, folklore, and pop culture...It works because Mignola and Golden have written characters that give the tale a beating heart...These are people you can get behind, not shallow monster fodder...Fast-paced and entertaining, the novel's an easy recommendation for fans of Mignola and Golden. YA enthusiasts will find that it doesn't pander to the young, providing a dark, sturdy story that will appeal to teenagers and adults alike. It's also a gorgeous tome to behold, not least because of Mignola's always-stunning artwork. His black-and-white illustrations provide stark windows into the world of the novel, never giving away too much so the reader's imagination has room to experiment."
- Slant Magazine

"There's an appetite out there for these sorts of propulsive, fantasy-rich mash-ups of steampunk and mythic literature...But few combine literary sincerity and fun as well as Mignola and Golden. Here the pair construct a rich world ripe for sequels and prequels. With Jules Verne technology, ghosts, magic and multidimensional monsters...it's an awfully fun way to pass an afternoon."
- Kirkus Review

"The tone of the novel is pulpy, splashed with Mignola's eternally present Chthulian atmosphere...and Christopher Golden does a noble job of infusing the mood of Mignola's artistic style into the printed word...Fans of Hellboy, steam punk, and pulp mysteries should find a lot to like about Joe Golem and the Drowning City."
- Brodartvibe

"Joe Golem and the Drowning City is that most marvelous kind of book - wholly original and yet completely accessible. Set in a unique world full of vivid and moving characters, it is gritty, mysterious, moving, and surprising. A brilliant combination of steampunk, fantasy, mystery, and adventure."
- David Liss, author of The Twelfth Enchantment

"A race against supernatural disaster through a haunting, dreamlike, and partially submerged New York City full of freaks, ghosts, and other lost souls, a story that grabs from the first page and doesn't let go."
- Tad Williams

"Joe Golem and the Drowning City is a warm, wicked, frantic tale of noble monsters and monstrous men. Not merely weird and not simply gorgeous, this supernatural steampunk fable is intimate and profound. It is dreadful and sublime."
- Cherie Priest

Additional Details
Published March 27th, 2012
Ha

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The Secret Journeys of Jack London by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

The classic adventure novel gets a hypermodern, paranormal update from bestselling authors Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon.

The world knows Jack London as a writer who lived his own thrilling, real life adventures. But there are parts of his life that have remained hidden for many years - things so horrifying even he couldn't set them down in writing. These are the secret journeys of Jack London.

We meet Jack at age seventeen, following thousands of men and women into the Yukon Territory in search of gold. For Jack, the journey holds the promise of another kind of fortune: challenge and adventure. But what he finds in the wild north is something far more sinister than he could have ever imagined: kidnapping and slavery, the murderous nature of desperate men, and, amid it all, supernatural beasts of the wilderness that prey upon the weakness in men's hearts.

On February 28th, they've unleashed a brand-new adventure: The Sea Wolves. Clinging to life after he is captured in an attack by savage pirates, Jack is unprepared for what he faces at the hands of the crew and their charismatic, murderous captain, Ghost. For these mariners are not mortal men but hungry beasts chasing gold and death across the North Pacific. Jack’s only hope lies with Sabine - a sad, sultry captive of Ghost’s insatiable hunger. But on these waters, nothing is as it seems, and Sabine may be hiding dangerous secrets of her own.

The second installment in the adventures of the young Jack London is a masterpiece of tension and emotion. Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, along with illustrator Greg Ruth, have crafted a tale for readers of all ages, an action-packed, romantic, and suspenseful descent into the darkest desires of men and beasts and the hell that awaits them.

Reviews for The Secret Journeys of Jack London:

Garth Nix, author of the Abhorsen Trilogy, declared: "A masterful mix of gold, cold, supernatural creatures, and dread magic makes this a great action adventure story."

Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, calls The Wild "A great old-school adventure novel and the best use of the Wendigo legend I've ever read."

Horrorworld: "Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon are two of the most imaginative, prolific authors working today. They share a solid foundation of pure storytelling, a beating heart of character and pace and plot that drives every book, every story, no matter what it's about."

Publishers Weekly Starred Review: "Launching the Secret Journeys of Jack London series, Lebbon and Golden offer a gripping, gory alternate history of author London, adding supernatural threats to the earthly ones he's known to have faced in real life. Ruth's handsome illustrations add a further haunting element to this adventure, which questions what it means to maintain one's humanity in the face of awesome forces both natural and uncanny."

Booklist: "Golden and Lebbon's gamble is peppering their story with the fantastic and the supernatural, and it pays off in this gung-ho series starter...Golden and Lebbon write with gritty assurance. Best of all, this first chapter kicks the door wide open for almost anything in book two."

VOYA: "It is reasonably certain that the real Jack London never stared down a man-eating Wendigo or was forced to

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Ever want to peek inside your favorite author's writing space? Check out Write Place, Write Time to see who populates the office with bookcases, pets, kids, and/or toys, who embraces technology, who is a fan of beanbag furniture, and who admits to being messy. Recent contributors include Tom Sniegoski (author of the bestselling series The Fallen) and Christopher Golden (prolific author whose works include the spine-tingling zombie novel Soulless).

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Choose Your Own Adventure books have branched out! Snag a story based on your interest - adventure, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy - and reading level - kindergarten through middle school.

Here's the interactive bonus: If you add them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ChooseYourOwnAdventure they will donate books to kids in need. Here's the inside scoop from Melissa Bounty, who shared it with aquafortis at GuysLitWire:

Chooseco is planning a CYOA book giveaway this November to help kids in need. For every Facebook fan we gain during the month of November, we will donate one new book to a child with limited resources. Our donation efforts are spearheaded by the Children's Literacy Foundation (http://www.clifonline.org/), a non-profit that has worked for 14 years on a variety of literacy efforts for at-risk kids including children in shelters and low-income housing, refugee and migrant children, children of prison inmates, and many others.

If you'd like more information about the giveaway or the series and/or you're planning to post this at your blog, click here to email Melissa.

Attention Star Wars fans: Make sure to track down the Choose Your Own Adventures Star Wars books by Christopher Golden! You can help the Rebellion in the war against Darth Vader, or you can betray your friends and side with the Empire. What will you choose? Check it out!

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Charlaine Harris has landed a book deal with Penguin Group (USA)’s Ace Books imprint for her new graphic novel trilogy, Cemetery Girl. The first book will be released in 2013.

Comic artist Don Kramer will illustrate. As we previously noted, this project is a collaboration between Harris and writer Christopher Golden

Harris had this statement in the release: “I’d had the bones of the plot for Cemetery Girl in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly, the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the graphic novel field than I do, we agreed to team up for my first-ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Every Friday, Del Rey Spectra offers a 50-page excerpt from one of their titles. Yesterday's spotlight was placed on Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden, the official novel of Naughty Dog's award-winning videogame franchise. The book will be available on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 - but you may read the excerpt for free RIGHT NOW!

At the Suvudu website, DRS editor Tricia Pasternak offered this insight into Uncharted:

“Uncharted is an Indiana Jones-style movie in video game form, a cliff-hanging, swashbuckling, pulse-pounding pulp adventure. Like the best summer blockbusters, it marries spectacular action sequences with a thrill-a-minute story, intriguing pop mythology, and memorable, endearing characters. And it’s impossible not to love hero Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter/archaeology geek in the Indy mold with a Nathan Fillion-esque roguish charm.

This makes Uncharted perfect for novelization treatment: There’s a whole world of new adventures, ancient treasures, and historical mysteries out there for Nathan Drake. And so I thought couldn’t have been more excited to line up Christopher Golden, a wildly talented writer with collaborations with the likes of Mike Mignola under his belt. But then we had our first story development meeting with the Uncharted creative team. Chris’ rapport with the game team was immediate, and they’d soon pulled together a wildly entertaining story that draws equally from history, mythology, and Doc Savage. The result is The Fourth Labyrinth - just the thing to tide you over until Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception hits stores on November 1st.”

Are you ready to walk into the Labyrinth? Here's the book's premise:

In the ancient world there was a myth about a king, a treasure, and a hellish labyrinth. Now the doors to that hell are open once again.

Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and risk taker, has been called to New York City by the man who taught him everything about the "antiquities acquisition business." Victor Sullivan needs Drake's help. Sully's old friend, a world-famous archaeologist, has just been found murdered in Manhattan. Dodging assassins, Drake, Sully, and the dead man's daughter, Jada Hzujak, race from New York to underground excavations in Egypt and Greece. Their goal: to unravel an ancient myth of alchemy, look for three long-lost labyrinths, and find the astonishing discovery that got Jada's father killed. It appears that a fourth labyrinth was built in another land and another culture-and within it lies a key to unmatched wealth and power. An army of terrifying lost warriors guards this underground maze. So does a monster. And what lies beyond - if Drake can live long enough to reach it - is both a treasure and a poison, a paradise and a hell.

Welcome to The Fourth Labyrinth.

Load the excerpt directly from the Scribd website.

Additional Details
Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden
Published October 4th, 2011
Trade Paperback
352 pages
ISBN-10: 0345522176
ISBN-13: 978-0345522177

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Every Friday, Del Rey Spectra offers a 50-page excerpt from one of their titles. Yesterday's spotlight was placed on Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden, the official novel of Naughty Dog's award-winning videogame franchise. The book will be available on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 - but you may read the excerpt for free RIGHT NOW!

At the Suvudu website, DRS editor Tricia Pasternak offered this insight into Uncharted:

“Uncharted is an Indiana Jones-style movie in video game form, a cliff-hanging, swashbuckling, pulse-pounding pulp adventure. Like the best summer blockbusters, it marries spectacular action sequences with a thrill-a-minute story, intriguing pop mythology, and memorable, endearing characters. And it’s impossible not to love hero Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter/archaeology geek in the Indy mold with a Nathan Fillion-esque roguish charm.

This makes Uncharted perfect for novelization treatment: There’s a whole world of new adventures, ancient treasures, and historical mysteries out there for Nathan Drake. And so I thought couldn’t have been more excited to line up Christopher Golden, a wildly talented writer with collaborations with the likes of Mike Mignola under his belt. But then we had our first story development meeting with the Uncharted creative team. Chris’ rapport with the game team was immediate, and they’d soon pulled together a wildly entertaining story that draws equally from history, mythology, and Doc Savage. The result is The Fourth Labyrinth - just the thing to tide you over until Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception hits stores on November 1st.”

Are you ready to walk into the Labyrinth? Here's the book's premise:

In the ancient world there was a myth about a king, a treasure, and a hellish labyrinth. Now the doors to that hell are open once again.

Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and risk taker, has been called to New York City by the man who taught him everything about the "antiquities acquisition business." Victor Sullivan needs Drake's help. Sully's old friend, a world-famous archaeologist, has just been found murdered in Manhattan. Dodging assassins, Drake, Sully, and the dead man's daughter, Jada Hzujak, race from New York to underground excavations in Egypt and Greece. Their goal: to unravel an ancient myth of alchemy, look for three long-lost labyrinths, and find the astonishing discovery that got Jada's father killed. It appears that a fourth labyrinth was built in another land and another culture-and within it lies a key to unmatched wealth and power. An army of terrifying lost warriors guards this underground maze. So does a monster. And what lies beyond - if Drake can live long enough to reach it - is both a treasure and a poison, a paradise and a hell.

Welcome to The Fourth Labyrinth.

Load the excerpt directly from the Scribd website.

Additional Details
Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth by Christopher Golden
Published October 4th, 2011
Trade Paperback
352 pages
ISBN-10: 0345522176
ISBN-13: 978-0345522177

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The Monster's Corner: Stories Through Inhuman Eyes
Edited by Christopher Golden
Available Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

An all original anthology from some of today's hottest supernatural writers, featuring stories of monsters from the monster's point of view.

In most stories we get the perspective of the hero, the ordinary, the everyman, but we are all the hero of our own tale, and so it must be true for legions of monsters, from Lucifer to Mordred, from child-thieving fairies to Frankenstein's monster and the Wicked Witch of the West. From our point of view, they may very well be horrible, terrifying monstrosities, but of course they won't see themselves in the same light, and their point of view is what concerns us in these tales. Demons and goblins, dark gods and aliens, creatures of myth and legend, lurkers in darkness and beasts in human clothing...these are the subjects of The Monster's Corner.

With contributions by Lauren Groff, Chelsea Cain, Simon R. Green, Sharyn McCrumb, Kelley Armstrong, David Liss, Kevin J. Anderson, Jonathan Maberry, and many others.

Table of Contents
The Awkward Age by David Liss
Saint John by Jonathan Maberry
Rue by Lauren Groff
Succumb by John McIlveen
Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass by Kevin J. Anderson
Rattler and the Mothman by Sharyn McCrumb
Big Man by David Moody
Rakshasi by Kelley Armstrong
Breeding the Demons by Nate Kenyon
Siren Song by Dana Stabenow
Less of a Girl by Chelsea Cain
The Cruel Thief of Rosy Infants by Tom Piccirilli
The Screaming Room by Sarah Pinborough
Wicked Be by Heather Graham
Specimen 313 by Jeff Strand
The Lake by Tananarive Due
The Other One by Michael Marshall Smith
And You Still Wonder Why Our First Impulse is to Kill You: An Alphabetized Faux-Manifesto transcribed, edited, and annotated (under duress and protest) by Gary A. Braunbeck
Jesus and Satan Go Jogging in the Desert by Simon R. Green

MONSTER Signings in Massachusetts and the USA!
Editor CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN and author contributors NATE KENYON and JOHN MCILVEEN will be at Pandemonium Books and Games,
Central Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 on September 27th, 2011 to sign copies of the new anthology THE MONSTER'S CORNER, as well as their other works. Other contributors to THE MONSTER'S CORNER will be signing on the same day to celebrate the book's release all across the country.

Additional Details
Published September 27th, 2011
Trade Paperback
400 pages
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-10: 0312646135
ISBN-13: 978-0312646134

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I was recently interviewed at The Book Base. Thanks for reading!

How long have you been a blogger?

I’ve been blogging at Bildungsroman for close to 8 years now.

Approximately, how many books do you read every year?

I average about a book a day, so I read around 300 books a year, more if you count scripts and screenplays.

What were your favourite books as a child?

My favorite books as a child included The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I was also a huge fan of The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin.

What are you reading at the moment?

I recently finished My Not-So-Still Life by Liz Gallagher, her inspired follow-up to her wonderful debut novel The Opposite of Invisible. I am about to begin Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald, which I picked up because, like the protagonist, I am a vegetarian and environmentalist (though she is even more “green” than I am!) I am also reading, re-reading and memorizing three scripts as I prepare for projects which are about to go into production: a webseries, a short film, and a world premiere play. (I’m an actress.)

If you had to pick one, what’s the best book you’ve read in the last twelve months?

To name only one book I’ve read this year as an overall best would be like a parent trying to pick a favorite child and feeling as those she neglected the others. The only way to make it easier is to categorize:

Juvenile fiction, realistic: The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt

Juvenile fiction, fantasy: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Detective mystery meets mythology: A Hundred Words for Hate by Thomas E. Sniegoski

The paranormal meets mythology: Spirits of the Noh by Thomas Randall (The Waking, Book Two)

Historical fiction meets the paranormal: The Secret Journeys of Jack London, Book One: The Wild by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

Realistic teen fiction: Doggirl by Robin Brande

The end to a series, realistic teen fiction: Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart (the fourth and final Ruby Oliver book)

Non-fiction: Self-Management for Actors by Bonnie Gillespie

Who are your three favourite authors?

Christopher Golden, Thomas E. Sniegoski and Lewis Carroll.

Which book has had the greatest impact on your life?

You pose another difficult question! It would probably be any and all of my favorite childhood books: The Westing Game, The NeverEnding Story, Anne of Green Gables, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Also, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each reflects a different part of me, as a person and as a writer. Each holds a piece of my heart because I connected to them so strongly, and those connections remain strong to this day.

Which books are you most eagerly anticipating?

The Fallen 3: End of Days by Thomas E. Sniegoski, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Emerson Blackwood’s Field Guide to Dangerous Fairies by Christopher Golden and Guillermo del Toro, The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Sea Wolves by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, The Waking: Winter of Ghosts by Thomas Randall. Also, The Lost Crown: A Novel of Romanov Russia by Sarah Miller, which was released last month and is patiently waiting for me to read it on a day with no interrupt

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Paranormal novelist Charlaine Harris will be closing the coffin on her Southern Vampire series. Harris told PopcornBiz that she intends to end Sookie Stackhouse‘s story on book thirteen.

Harris explained: “I think it’ll be total closure. I don’t go back to things once I’ve finished them. That’s kind of what I do. I don’t want to write Sookie after I get stale. Yeah, I’ll miss them, I’m sure, because I have lived with them for quite a long time – 12 years now. And it did take two years to sell the first book. But I think writers like to do different things. At least this writer does.”

With two more books to go and HBO’s True Blood series, fans don’t have to say goodbye to Sookie just yet.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Very exciting news for my pals Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski: Universal Pictures has hired Zack Whedon to adapt Talent, a comic miniseries created by Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, and Paul Azaceta, which was published by BOOM! Studios.

The adaptation news was officially broken today, thanks to Variety, ComicBookResources.com and other entertainment websites and news providers.

The premise: When flight 654 goes down, it takes 148 souls with it. But not Nicholas Dane. How did the 34 year old college professor survive -- was it a miracle? Now Nicholas finds that he has the memories and skills of one of the passengers from the flight -- a boxer -- and he's got to use them to survive!

Talent was originally released as a four issue mini-series from BOOM! Studios. All four issues were later collected into a trade paperback, which you may order directly from the publisher by clicking here.

Learn more about Talent.

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Saturday, May 7th, 2011 is Free Comic Book Day across the nation!

If you love comics, then you probably already have your calendar marked for Free Comic Book Day. Every year on the first Saturday in May, comic shops all around the U.S. allow patrons to pick up a free comic book.

Different stores have different rules, of course, so please observe them! Many places have designated comics which are free, while other items in stock are still regular price, so ask before you grab.

Not really into comics and/or have a reluctant young reader in the family? This could be a great time for you to venture into a comic book shop and pick up a little something.

Free Baltimore!
Rumor has it you can pick up Baltimore: A Passing Stranger by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola for free at ANY comic book shop participating in Free Comic Book Day. YES!

NHFCBD
If you live in or near New Hampshire, you should visit Jetpack Comics on Saturday, May 7th, where you can meet a plethora of comic book artists and authors including but not limited to Tom Sniegoski, Christopher Golden, Ed McGuinness, Joe Hill, Rich Woodall, and Jason Ciaramella!

Superpowers and Spandex
Superhero films always have a lot of build-up and anticipation, and many have been box office blockbusters. Now, when a film based on a novel is announced, I always encourage folks to read the book before they see the movie. I say the same for comics and graphic novels. For more of my thoughts on movies and book-to-movie adaptations, click here to jump to my blog.

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Saturday, May 7th, 2011 is Free Comic Book Day across the nation!

If you love comics, then you probably already have your calendar marked for Free Comic Book Day. Every year on the first Saturday in May, comic shops all around the U.S. allow patrons to pick up a free comic book.

Different stores have different rules, of course, so please observe them! Many places have designated comics which are free, while other items in stock are still regular price, so ask before you grab.

Not really into comics and/or have a reluctant young reader in the family? This could be a great time for you to venture into a comic book shop and pick up a little something.

Free Baltimore!
Rumor has it you can pick up Baltimore: A Passing Stranger by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola for free at ANY comic book shop participating in Free Comic Book Day. YES!

NHFCBD
If you're live in or near New Hampshire, you should visit Jetpack Comics on Saturday, May 7th, where you can meet a plethora of comic book artists and authors including but not limited to Tom Sniegoski, Christopher Golden, Ed McGuinness, Joe Hill, Rich Woodall, and Jason Ciaramella!

Superpowers and Spandex
Superhero films always have a lot of build-up and anticipation, and many have been box office blockbusters. Now, when a film based on a novel is announced, I always encourage folks to read the book before they see the movie. I say the same for comics and graphic novels. It's always better to read the original source material so you know what the author (and, in the case of comics, the artists as well) had in mind before you venture into the movie theatre.

That being said, yes, there are some movies that, in my estimation, improve upon the source material, but that's another post for another time. (Read my posts tagged as "movies" for a little more about that!)

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Fans of steampunk and fantasy novels, mark your calendars! From Publishers Marketplace:

Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden's JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY, a supernatural-steampunk illustrated novel following an orphaned teenage girl, an aging conjuror, a lunatic scientist, a Victorian occult detective, and the stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, as they struggle for the fate of an alternate 1970s Lower Manhattan, which sank into the water during a catastrophe in 1925, leaving those unwilling or unable to abandon it to make a new life in streets turned to canals, to Michael Homler at St. Martin's, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in early 2012 (World).

More details to come -- and when promised details are available, I'll post them at Christopher Golden's website as well as here at Bildungsroman, so keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime, have you read the BALTIMORE books and comics by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden? If not, now would be a great time to catch up!

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When I was seven years old, I got in trouble for using the word "suicide" in the classroom.

I was in third grade. My class was instructed to write a short biography about an author of our choice. It seemed like a straightforward assignment with simple instructions: we were to include the date and location of the author's birth, the date and location of the author's death, and interesting details about the author's childhood, adult life, and notable works.

I chose Jack London, an author whose books I'd been exposed to from a young age, thanks to my mother. Even though I was a young female cat owner living in a moderate and modern climate, Call of the Wild and White Fang had transported me to a world filled with snow, dogs, and adventure. (To this day, I can't see a Siberian husky without thinking of Jack's books!)

I followed my teacher's instructions and wrote what I thought was a great paper. However, my teacher found the paragraph about his death to be too controversial to discuss in the classroom, since I mentioned that some people thought he might have committed suicide, accidentally or on purpose, due to the amount of pain he was in. Poor Jack. The thought of it made me so sad. When the teacher tried to hush me, I explained that I had done my research, and I stood by my paper.

Years later, the new book series The Secret Journeys of Jack London by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon gives me the opportunity to introduce Jack's works to a new generation of readers. That makes me very happy.

I recently asked some friends and fellow authors two questions. Here are their answers.

What's your favorite Jack London book?
What was the first Jack London book you ever read?

I read Call of the Wild when I was seven, on a flight back to the East Coast with my dad. No one believed I read it myself, but it had dogs in it. I would -- and will -- read anything with dogs in it. A lot of the book was over my head, especially the dialect. But it was the book that turned me into a reader, and I remain a huge Jack London fan to this day.

- Martha Brockenbrough

As a kid I remember hearing that The Call of the Wild had inspired an Idaho Falls resident, Wilson Rawls, to write Where the Red Fern Grows. Now there is a statue at the Idaho Falls Public Library of the boy from Rawls' book and his two dogs and somewhere it says "Dreams Can Come True." I read Call of the Wild in my English class which met in a wood saw shop at my junior high. I sat at the table saw. I'd briefly taken in a stray St. Bernard when I was six and I loved reading about Buck's adventure. The world felt so severe. I loved it.

- Kristen Tracy

To Build a Fire scarred me for life. I remember reading that short story and knowing the guy was going to die and being thoroughly depressed about it. HATED it! Ha!

Right now I'm reading The Road, London's book about traveling cross country and learning tramp ways. I'm finding it very interesting (and basically no one has ever heard of it) so I would say as far as historical writing, this has been a quite worthwhile read. Plus no dogs die, which is something to consider when you pick up a London book! Ha!

- Colleen Mondor

I remember reading Call of the Wild in elementary school and being horrified at some of the cruelty. Even so, I became captivated by the Iditarod and wanted to mush. A few years ago, I did just that in Canada. The exhilaration of heeding my own call of the wild stays with me today...even if my sled overturned. The dogs barked so loudly when I crashed into the snow, and I've often wondered if they were really just laughing at me.

-

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Author Christopher Golden will be chatting at the website Bitten by Books TODAY, Wednesday, March 30th from 12 PM Central until the evening.

Want to ask the author something about one of his books? Leave a question or comment at the website and Golden will respond during the event on Wednesday.

Bitten by Books will also be giving away five signed copies of Waking Nightmares and five signed copies of The Secret Journeys of Jack London, Book One: The Wild.

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Waking Nightmares by Christopher Golden
Now available!

Looking for a book you can really sink your teeth into?
Looking for a book that will keep you up reading all night?
Treat yourself to Waking Nightmares, Christopher Golden's brand-new novel about Peter Octavian.

Peter Octavian is - how shall I put it - a reformed vampire. His history is bloodstained; his powers as a mage, remarkable. His story began in Of Saints and Shadows, a novel which spawned a sequel, then a third book, and so on until we arrive in the present day, which brings us the new sixth story. I don't want to give away too much. Here's what the book jacket reveals:

When chaos erupts in the small coastal town of Hawthorne, Massachusetts, former vampire-turned-mage Peter Octavian and earthwitch Keomany Shaw arrive to investigate.

Years ago, Octavian helped expose the secret existence of vampires to the world, dismantling the Vatican's sorcery corps in order to save his fellow shadows from destruction. But without the Vatican sorcerers, the magical barriers they spent centuries constructing to keep the forces of darkness out of our world are beginning to fail, and things are slipping through.

Now an ancient god of chaos is awakening in Hawthorne, its influence spreading...and it's Octavian's fault. If he can't stop it, the blood of all human kind will be on his hands.

Waking Nightmares is the newest installment in Christopher Golden's bestselling The Shadow Saga, a brilliant epic that takes you into the secret world of vampires -- and a secret society sworn to destroy them. Sweeping, sensuous, and shocking, it is a powerful vision of immortality that will hold you in its spell...forever.

Read the entire series:



Of Saints and Shadows
Angel Souls and Devil Hearts
Of Masques and Martyrs
The Gathering Dark
Waking Nightmares

Reviews

"Christopher Golden was writing kick-@$$ urban fantasy before the genre even had a name. The Peter Octavian novels are smart, fast-paced, lyrical and vicious."
- Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of The Dragon Factory and Rot & Ruin

"Christopher Golden scared the unholy $#!& out of me. Thank god I was reading with the lights on! WAKING NIGHTMARES is one deliciously terrifying, un-put-down-able book. Totally, compellingly creepy. (I hate him now and shall have to kill him because I'll never be able to sleep again.)"
- Kat Richardson, author of the Greywalker novels

"Startlingly original." - Charlaine Harris, author of Th

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