Thanks to the awesome folks at Rogue Blades Entertainment, I’m one of the judges for their heroic-fantasy Challenge! contest. The contest is open to submissions from June 1 to September 1, 2010. And the challenge is to base the story around this illustration by V Shane: The basics (from the Rogue Blades website): “The RBE Challenge! is a competition anthology … Read More
Sailing through Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes
After my recent dire experience with The Island, Peter Benchley’s 1979 pirate adventure (see my post here), I was leery of another “best-selling” author tackling the same subject. I was doubly leery when that author was the late Michael Crichton, a writer whose brilliant and innovative ideas are invariably balanced by a nonexistent sense of pacing, characterization and style. And … Read More
I finally answer THE vampire author question
As an author of books about vampires, I get asked one question more than any other, at signings and conventions and neighborhood cookouts: “So, what do you think about Twilight?” It’s become a litmus test of sorts. So I thought I’d answer it here, for the record, in handy condensed form. What do I think of Twilight? I haven’t read … Read More
No treasure in The Island
I started reading Peter Benchley’s 1979 novel The Island sitting in a waiting room, for lack of anything better to read. And the sucker hooked me. For those who don’t know, the late author was the son of Nathaniel Benchley and the grandson of Robert Benchley, both literary figures of high reknown. He was also the author of Jaws, the … Read More
Want to be in Eddie LaCrosse 4?
As part of Do the Write Thing for Nashville, I’m taking part in a charity auction to help the victims of the Tennessee flooding. In addition to signed copies of my two Memphis vampire books, I’m including a Tuckerization in my fourth (so far untitled) Eddie LaCrosse novel, due out in 2012. So jump in and help the good folks … Read More
Literature so tough it survives force majeure
During the recent storms in Tennessee, my friend Thom had a house fire. That’s the kind of rebel he is: in the midst of a flood, he burns. He’s fine, no one (human or animal) was hurt, and the destruction was contained. But he sent me a photo of one very significant item that escaped with only soot damage:
Titania needs your help
My friend filmmaker Lisa Stock, who did the promotional film for my novel Blood Groove, is raising funds to complete her next project, Titania. Even $5 will help, and I can say from experience that Lisa is a serious artist who will use these funds wisely to produce a beautiful, unique film. To see a trailer for the proposed film, … Read More
What I love most about vampires is…
The Madison Vampire Coven consists of…wait for it…authors based in and around Madison, WI who write about vampires. Currently we have four members, and I asked each to complete the following statement. What I love most about vampires is… Jordan Castillo Price, author of Hemavore: “What I love most about vampires is their vulnerability. I think the ways in which … Read More
The winners of signed copies of Blood Groove are…
The Darth Vader cup came down off the shelf, the names were placed inside, and the Squirrel Boy did the random selecting. The winners are: Milo H. Tomb Angel 28140 Penny Sara Bookwench Since none of you winners have e-mail contact info on your profile, please drop me a line (alex at alexbledsoe dot com) with your mailing address and … Read More
Three questions with Alaya Johnson, author of Moonshine
I reviewed Alaya Johnson’s new novel Moonshine here. Alaya was also kind enough to answer some questions about the book. When you and I first discussed Moonshine back in 2009, I got the sense that it would be a much darker book than it turned out to be. Did the tone change, or did I just project my own atmosphere … Read More