A Book Release Without a Book

Friend and fellow author, Richard Dansky, from Durham, NC, has a new novel release (Ghosts of Smoke and Flame), so last evening, he had a book release party at Bond Brothers Beer Co. in Cary, NC. Brugger and I decided to attend the event, and since Cary's a good couple of hours from here, we made a day of it in the Raleigh-Durham area. We left Martinsville shortly after noon, grabbed a couple of geocaches, and stopped for a late lunch at Ted's Montana Grill in Durham, which has long been one of my favorite dining destinations when I've been geocaching out that way. Ted's has bison. Lots and lots of delicious bison. So, yes, I had a bison burger. Brugger, however, is not so enamored of bison and had a beef burger. But she loved it, and that's what counts.

She had some shopping to do, so I dropped her off at Streets at Southpoint shopping area and went after a number of caches nearby. After all this, we made our way in the direction of Cary and discovered a nice wine bar called Maximillian's, which was very near our destination, so we each had a glass of wine. And from there, it was off to Rich's event.

Only problem was that he had no books! The copies he'd ordered from the publisher had not arrived on time, so we were forced to simply enjoy a party and his company. Heavens, I tell you! Bond Brothers has some very good beer, though I took it pretty easy since I would eventually have to drive us back to Martinsville. We had a really fine time all around, and Rich will surely have copies at Scares That Care AuthorCon VI next week, where we'll be doing readings together. I shall grab a copy then.

 

We snagged a late, light dinner at Scratch Kitchen & Taproom, right around the corner from Rich's party, which was enjoyable; worth a return whenever we night be in the area again. 

 

You can order Richard Dansky's Ghosts of Smoke and Flame here. And if you're planning to be at AuthorCon VI, I hope to see you!

Release Day—THE HOUSE AT BLACK TOOTH POND

It's here—release day for my newest novel, The House at Black Tooth Pond! Now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

“Welcome to Aiken Mill, Virginia—The Cold Case Capital of the World.”  

A mutilated, unidentifiable body has turned up in this legend-haunted town in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. During his investigation, Sheriff Bryce Parrott uncovers a series of frightening clues that lead him to believe that some inhuman force may be responsible for the gruesome murder.

While exploring the darkest corners of Sylvan County, psychology professor Martin Pritchett and his brother, Phillip, happen upon a crumbling, century-old house beside a dark body of water called Black Tooth Pond. A strange compulsion leads both men back to the house time and time again, but neither can remember any of the events that occur there.

As both Sheriff Parrott and the Pritchett brothers attempt to solve their respective mysteries, their paths begin to converge—paths that lead directly to the ancient, foreboding house at Black Tooth Pond.

The word on the street...
"Author Stephen Mark Rainey takes the abandoned house in the woods trope and turns it inside out as the walls of the House at Black Tooth Pond close in on the reader page by page, scene by scene. Rainey tells a dark, claustrophobic story bursting with atmosphere, with just enough dread to keep horror fans satisfied, and mystery to whet the appetites of thriller fans."—Michael Laimo, author of Dark Ride, Missed Connection, The Demonologist, and others

"Stephen Mark Rainey's The House of Black Tooth Pond dwells at the intersection between the traditional haunted house story and tales of cosmic dread, expertly combining both into a frightening, genre-bending novel that both thrills and chills.—Peter Rawlik, author of Reanimators, Reanimatrix, The Book of Yig

"What T.E.D. Klein did for Lovecraftian horror set in upstate New York and NYC, Stephen Mark Rainey does for the rural South."—Leverett Butts, author of Guns of the Waste Land

"Stephen Mark Rainey's talent is on display here like never before. His masterful use of imagery transported me to Sylvan County. I heard the eerie cry of the whippoorwill, the cry that marks the presence of an evil entity that roams the woods and lurks within the walls of the house at Black Tooth Pond. You will hear it too."—Mike Davis, Lovecraft eZine

"I read The House at Black Tooth Pond in one sitting—it was that exciting and that frightening. Think of a traditional haunted house story but on LSD."—Carson Buckingham, Hellnotes

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Buy The House at Black Tooth Pond
(ebook, paperback, and audiobook)

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My rendering of the actual structure on which "The House at Black Tooth Pond" is based

The Lebo Coven Is in the House

Indeed, the brand-new paperback edition of The Lebo Coven has arrived. Author copies from Crossroad Press are well on their way, but whenever I have a new book come out, I always order my first copy as soon as it's available.

This release is a little different because I produced the back cover and interior pages myself. With my long experience working as a graphics guy in the educational publishing field, it seems only fitting, now that I'm retired, that I shift my graphics capabilities to something more personally meaningful. I also did the production work on The Gods of Moab paperback, which is my first fully self-published title (though rest assured that self-publishing is not a thing I intend to do habitually), and I'll be creating the cover designs and interior pages of my upcoming novel from Crossroad Press, The House at Black Tooth Pond, scheduled for release early next year.

The long and short of this is that there will be no passing of the buck if these books turn out ugly! But I don't think The Lebo Coven came out ugly at all. The front cover is the same one that Crossroad Press produced for the book's original release in 2010, and I've always quite liked it. For the interior, I fancied up the text and graphics on each initial chapter page, similar to Fugue Devil: Resurgence and Deathrealm: Spirits.

My author copies of The Lebo Coven should be here in a matter of days, at which time I'll offer autographed copies for sale on my webpage. C'mon, it'll be fun!

“Stephen Mark Rainey gives his horrors an original cosmic twist...with a well-executed climax.”

—Publishers Weekly

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Order The Lebo Coven in paperback
from Amazon.com

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It’s a Party! FUGUE DEVIL: RESURGENCE Book Release

Old writer dude and Samaire Wynne, owner of Black Raven Books

For me, this was a most anticipated day — the release party for Fugue Devil: Resurgence at Rioja! A Wine Bar, in Greensboro. Some weeks ago, Ms. B. and I visited Rioja, as we are often wont to do, and got to talking to Jake Assaf, the owner, about my upcoming book. He suggested we have a book release party at Rioja, and this struck us all as just about the best idea ever. Books! Wine! Food! Party! Many happy peoples! Wine! So, we settled on June 4 as the fateful day, and there has been plotting ever since.

Jake, owner of Rioja, took this photo of Ms. B.
and me just before the festivities commenced.

Samaire Wynne, good friend and the owner of Black Raven Books, came down from Martinsville, VA, for the event. My daughter, Allison, was in town, so she came too. I made up a bunch of appropriately themed tickets and scrounged up some door prizes, which included a couple of bottles of wine and a number of my earlier books — including Blue Devil Island, The Monarchs, West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman, and others. Things were scheduled to get started at 4:00 p.m., and — sure enough — the traffic flow began right on time. Before we knew it, Rioja was completely filled up, and we had wine, food, and books flowing all over the place. Naturally, I was hoping we'd have a good turnout since it meant significant sales for both us and for Jake, and we were so not disappointed. As far as I could see, Jake was hopping great guns the entire time, and we sold bundles of books. Everyone in the place seemed to enjoy themselves, and Ms. B. and I got to see many friends, old and new, from just about every sphere of personal influence — former officemates, geocachers, writers, artists, supper club mates, friends of friends... you name it.

After all these years and a lot of books, this was the first release party I've put on, and it will definitely go into the record books as successful. Now, whether I'll be fired up about doing this kind of thing for future books, who the heck knows? But for Fugue Devil: Resurgence, a big ol' party was just the ticket.

After the event, Brugger, Samaire, Allison, friends Terry & Beth, and I headed over to nearby World of Beer to snag some dinner. The place was a madhouse, at least at first, and we spent most of the next three hours waiting for drinks, waiting for food, waiting for service in general. We enjoyed the food, but the experience was far from fully satisfying, especially since the place cleared out quite a bit long before we were ever served. I've generally enjoyed the place, so I'm sure we'll give them another shot. I really hope they'll do better because, as near as we could tell, they could have and should have done better this time around.

So, a little sad we ended on a less-than-stellar note, but the high from the book event isn't going away anytime soon. 'Twas indeed lovely.

Devaluing a book for friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott)

Friends Mark and Kelly... Do they know what they're in for? Probably not....

Chad has already given the book a look. Tina has not.

Shiny happy people... or something

The crowd moves in.

Friend and former co-worker Heather happy to have snagged a copy. Little does she know....
Photo by James Lyons

Door prize tickets