Greetings FlamesRising.com readers! We are very excited to sit down with J.M. Lee, novelist and screenplay writer. J.M. Lee is known for his Young Adult series Shadows of the Dark Crystal and his work as a screenwriter for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series on Netflix. Lee has two new books are coming out in November: Aughra’s Wisdom of Thra and Heroes of the Resistance: A Guide to the Characters of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an excerpt from Haven, Kansas. This YA horror novel, written by Aletheia Kontis, takes place in the spooky town of Haven filled with secrets, mystery, and dread. Interested in this latest novel from Kontis? Here’s more information about the book, to help set the mood as you read chapter one. […]

A teenage girl, Tory Brennan (related to the famous –or infamous—Temperance Brennan of BONES) becomes curious about a mysterious disappearance that happened well before her time. With several of her friends (Sheldon, Ben and Hi) they all begin to search for clues. To complicate matters, the kids hang out on an island that is home to numerous scientific experiments. Before long, they stumble upon more than they expect. Due to a series of events related and unrelated to their investigations, they become infected with an experimental virus that transforms them into werewolves – of a sort. Now, instead of being just friends they are a pack, bound to each other through good and bad. There’s a good mix of the scientific and the supernatural in this novel.

Our design essay series continues with a new essay from Jennifer Estep. Jennifer is the author of the Mythos Academy series (check out Alana’s recent review of Touch of Frost).

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to thank the folks at Flames Rising for having me on the blog today. Thanks so much, guys!

Today I was asked to talk a little about the creative process behind Touch of Frost and the rest of my Mythos Academy young adult series. The series focuses on Gwen Frost, a 17-year-old Gypsy girl who has the gift of psychometry, or the ability to know an object’s history just by touching it. After a serious freak-out with her magic, Gwen is shipped off to Mythos Academy, a school for the descendants of ancient warriors like Spar tans, Valkyries, Amazons, and more.

Enter a school for magic where even the first day can be (un)deadly…

That night, Dorian spies a figure creeping into the Snapping Dragon Gardens and and he follows, certain that with the help of a few magic items and simple potions, he can catch the culprit by daybreak and return a hero. But as hobgoblins, banshees, and a terrifying dragon try to stop him at every turn, Dorian discovers that he’s stepped into an (un)deadly trap that could not only destroy his future as a wizard but also the beloved wizardry school.

Flames Rising is pleased to present the first chapter of this new book by Nathan Meyer. Aldwyn’s Academy is a companion Novel to A Practical Guide to Wizardry from Mirrorstone.

A romantic tale of vampires and magic from award-winning author L.D. Harkrader

Flanders Lane is tired of being protected by her Uncle Anatole. After years of studying magic in the back of his bookshop, she’s ready for an adventure of her own. Then one day, strange things start happening. A burglar breaks into the butcher’s shop, stealing nothing, but leaving the floors sparkling clean. Soon the seamstress’s apprentice vanishes on her way home, leaving behind only a shoe still laced at the top. And then worst of all, Uncle Anatole disappears. That night, a young vampire hunter named Pascoe knocks urgently on the bookshop door. Pascoe insists there is a vampire lurking in nearby Blakely Hall. Flanders looks deep into Pascoe’s gorgeous eyes and finds herself agreeing to help him. As Flanders tracks the vampire, her feelings for Pascoe grow until she stumbles upon a secret that turns everything she thought she knew about Pascoe–and herself–upside down.

Flames Rising is pleased to present a preview of this new novel from Mirrorstone, which is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

I normally tackle book and RPG reviews; however, I thought I’d give a movie a shot. You may be asking yourself why this movie would even make it to a site dedicated to all things horror, but Percy Jackson fits just as easily as, say, Harry Dresden or Mercy Thompson or the many characters from the Kelley Armstrong novels. Urban fantasy is a fantastic genre, despite the fact too many authors seem to be jumping into its waters. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightning Thief may be the longest name for a movie in 2010, but it is a big movie in scope and promise.

The blue dragon, Lazuli, lives to torment the villagers of Sandon’s hometown, Hartfall. He demands more and more riches until the Baron, Sandon’s father, has only one thing left to give: himself. Lazuli will arrive at midnight to take the Baron away. Sandon has only one hope left: the gold dragon that sits atop a ledge above the village, silently watching. In one legendary battle Lazuli magically petrified the gold dragon, once Hartfall’s sworn protector. But Sandon is sure he can find a way to awaken the beast. In the dead of night, he sneaks out onto the gold dragon’s ledge. And there he stumbles onto a secret that throws everything he thought he knew about his home and his family into question. Can Sandon unlock the secret of the gold dragon in time to save his village–and his dad?

This next installment of the series inspired by The New York Times best-seller A Practical Guide to Dragons shows just how much a young boy can do when he realizes that the strength of a gold dragon may lie inside himself.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers an excerpt from this book by R.D. Henham. Gold Dragon Codex is available now at Amazon.com.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an interview with author Thomas Sniegoski. Tom is a veteran author who has written for dozens of comics titles (BONE, THE SISTERHOOD), media tie-in novels (HELLBOY, ANGEL) and his original fiction (The Remy Chandler Series). Fans of Christopher Golden might recognize Tom’s work; the two have collaborated on a number of projects. Our first Girls of Gore article highlighted their character named Eve from The Menagerie.

In this interview, Tom Sniegoski discusses what he enjoys writing, monkeys and some of the challenges he faces.

In young adult fiction, you’ve probably noticed a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal books hitting the market. Strange Angels, written by veteran author Lili St. Crow (You might recognize Lilith Saint Crow’s work from the Dante Valentine and The Night Shift series), is a dark exploration of what happens when a teenager named Dru finds herself lost, alone and in a fight for her survival.

Strange Angels is clearly, in my opinion, a novel that is right on target in its depiction of teenagers. The characters are not fully grown, beautiful and confident; they are awkward, tumbling and self-conscious. Dru is not the prettiest, or the most popular, or even the most sought-after girl in this small town. She’s a transplant who meandered around the country with her father hunting beings from the Real World, which is a world hidden beneath the surface of our own that houses all manner of creatures.

At fifteen, Chloe Saunders still hasn’t menstruated. But the day it hits coincides with the ghost of a custodian haunting Chloe at school, until she finally breaks down. Told she has schizophrenia, she’s sent to live in a group home for other teens dealing with mental illness. Or are they?

But Lyle House’s patients are here by no happy accident, judging by the supernatural happenings. As Chloe comes to terms with her necromancy, she learns her powers are much stronger than they should be. Ghosts have been more hindrance than help in the past, but there’s one particular ghost who could provide information the group needs. If only Chloe can figure out how to contact her…

Review by Tez Miller

For any of you who were frustrated or disappointed with Midnight Alley (Book Three), you’re in for a treat with Feast of Fools. Feast of Fools takes all that we learned or thought we learned from Midnight Alley and puts it all together in a very entertaining package. I could not put Feast of Fools down, and there aren’t a lot of books that I’ve read lately that I can say that about.

There is a level of tension in the Morganville books that keeps you on the edge of your seat, even in the background scenes you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it always does. Rachel Caine abuses her characters like a pro, and she doesn’t shirk because these are YA books. Claire and her friends go through hell just trying to survive in Morganville.

Review by Jenn Moffatt.

In the third installment of the ongoing “Morganville Vampires” series, not-quite-seventeen year old Claire has opened a whole new can of worms: she’s agreed to work for the Founder, Amelie, an ancient vampire who has, for some reason been sticking up for her since she came to Morganville. It seems a simple enough exchange at first: Protection (with a capital P) for herself and her friends by promising her obedience. Better yet, her first task is taking advanced classes, and she finds herself with a scholarship to boot. But not all of those classes are the safe, classroom kind: she has an independent study with Myrnin, an old vampire who is brilliant, but seems on the edge of losing it.

Review by Alana Abott

The Dead Girls’ Dance is not a stand-alone novel. A reader new to the series (like me) can figure out what’s going on with no problem–but the story doesn’t begin here. Nor does it end here. The conclusion leads straight into Morganville Vampires Book Three (which I’ll be reviewing in the near future). Claire has to choose how best to deal with being wanted by vampires, and how best to gain the protection she and her friends desperately need to survive–how she makes that decision and the consequences of her choice are likely to be the plot of the third entry in the series. As a series book, the story is compelling, the characters sympathetic (even some of the villains), and the world that Caine has drawn is easy to sink into, if not pleasant. Her world is one where monsters aren’t just vampires, but humans, where it’s not safe to be out after dark, and where demons lay in wait in dark alleys.

Review by Alana Abbott

As the last of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the finishing touch to a series full of magic, mystery and friendship. Having read all of the books, I’m sure that fans of the series have either already picked up this book or will shortly. Still, there are interesting things to point out here that have left many readers feeling a little bit unsatisfied with the events that have happened here.

Half mystery, half teen drama, Vampire Academy introduces a dying world of tradition: the Moroi can do magic, but must be protected from the evil, undead Stirgoi by their Dhampir guardians. The Stirgoi feed on the blood of innocents, and if they can drink from a Moroi, so much the better. So when Rose suspects that Lissa is being hunted, the danger of losing her is very real.

The first in a series of ten novels for Mirrorstone, the young adult imprint of Wizards of the Coast, In the Serpent’s Coils launches readers straight into the larger story. Corrine’s father disappeared during the Civil War, and her mother died while she had the swamp fever. She finds herself alone in the world except for an uncle who would rather not be responsible for her wellfare. Until, that is, she discovers people living in the hawthorn tree who promise to cure her in exchange for a small stone.