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Crazy 8 Goes to Origins!

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OriginsLogoOr at least one of the Crazy 8 founders is! Aaron Rosenberg, author of the SF comedies No Small Bills and Too Small for Tall and co-creator of the ReDeus anthologies, will be at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio this weekend. “I’m looking forward to it,” Rosenberg reported. “I used to go to GenCon [Origins’ sister convention, held in August in Indianapolis] every year, first as a gamer and then as a game publisher, but I stopped after my kids were born and after my writing focus shifted from games to novels. I’ve never had the opportunity to check out Origins before, but they’ve been building a solid author track the past few years so when they invited me to participate I decided to give it a try.” Aaron’s panels are listed below, and he will also be selling books in the dealer’s hall with the other authors of the Library, including not only No Small Bills, Too Small for Tall, and the ReDeus anthologies but also his space-opera Birth of the Dread Remora and his occult thriller Incursion. If you’re attending Origins, stop by and say hi!

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10am Room B (C223) Hey! I’ve got a day job! – Aaron isn’t officially on this panel but may be there anyway

2pm Mayfair Room (D130-132) Family Business (game) – come game with Aaron!

Friday

10am Room A (C222) Networking (a.k.a. making friends over a pint)

11am Room A (C222) The Myth of Writer’s Block – Aaron isn’t officially on this panel but will probably either attend it or be on it

Saturday

10am Room A (C222) Good Guys Wear Black Hats

11am Room A (C222) Writing the Trilogy – Aaron isn’t officially on this panel but will probably either attend it or be on it

Noon Room A (C222) A Rose By Any Other Name …

3pm Room A (C222) Self-Publishing – Aaron isn’t officially on this panel but will probably be on it anyway

Sunday

10am Room A (C222) The Art of the Short Story OR Room B (C223) Everything you wanted to know about Urban Fantasy – Aaron isn’t on either of these panels but may attend (or crash) one or the other.

11am Room A (C222) Writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

1pm Room A (C222) Writing Your First Novel – Aaron is on this panel but may have to miss it in order to catch his flight home

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Mike Friedman in York, PA on Saturday

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Mike FriedmanFor a long time I’ve been hearing great things about the York Emporium, a 19,000-sq.-ft. repository of pulp magazines, vinyl records, and other fun stuff at 343 West Market Street in downtown York, Pa. — which is why I was happy to accept an invitation to speak at the Emporium’s annual Sci Fi Saturday on June 15th.

The action gets underway at 10 a.m., so plan on walking the dog a little earlier that day. Proprietor Jim Lewin tells me he’ll be airing Resistance, my Voyager first-season episode, which features a brilliant performance by canny veteran actor Joel Grey. And at some point in the afternoon, you might — just might — see me pit my 1970s-vintage Division One fencing technique against a horde of light-saber-swinging Jedi knights.

Unless, of course, I come to my senses.

New Releases, News

Peter David Announces Tigerheart Sequel, Fearless

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Peter-David-Duotone“What happens next?”

That was what my daughter, Caroline, asked me after I finished reading her my (then) new novel, Tigerheart.  A reworking and reinterpretation of Peter Pan, Tigerheart told the story of a young boy named Paul who had a grand adventure.  And Caroline–seven years old at the time–was apparently quite taken by it.  At the end there were allusions to further adventures, and Caroline wanted to know what they were.

“You should do a story about his sister, Mary,” said Caroline without waiting for me to answer the question.

“Okay, well…what would you want to see happen to Mary?” I asked.

And she proceeded to tell me.  She told me all the major story elements she wanted to see.  The mythical country; her conveyance; Purl; Hunter.  All this and more came from Caroline’s boundless imagination, including the core concept:  Mary’s best friend’s imagination runs off and Mary has to go find it for her.

Every night I would read another chapter to Caroline and then get her thoughts for what happened next.  I came up with some of my own notions, but Caroline continued to be a font of ideas.  And over a period of time, Fearless came together.

You don’t have to have read Tigerheart to understand it, although I’d certainly recommend it.  Of all my novels, Tigerheart holds a special place in my heart.  And Fearless is right there with it.

Look for more details about Fearless, coming in print and digital formats later this month.

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CRAZY 8 PRESS EXPANDS AUTHOR ROSTER WITH ARCHIE COMICS CONTRIBUTOR, SCIFI CREATOR PAUL KUPPERBERG

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PK_headshotNEW YORK, N.Y. June 3, 2013 — Award-winning and best-selling science fiction and fantasy writers collective Crazy 8 Press has expanded its roster of contributing authors with Paul Kupperberg, whose upcoming comic-book themed mystery novel The Same Old Story debuts through Crazy 8 Press in August.

The author of more than two dozen books, Kupperberg is best known for his Archie Comics young adult novel, Kevin, featuring the first openly gay character in Archie Comics’ history, as well as Kevin Mad Libs (both published by Grossett & Dunlap). He is also the writer of the 2012 Eisner Award nominated ongoing Life With Archie: The Married Life magazine for Archie Comics, which featured the bestselling marriage of Kevin Keller and Dr. Clay Walker.

“Paul is a terrific author whose work fits in perfectly with our collection of science fiction and fantasy-themed novels and short-story collections,” said Robert Greenberger, a Crazy 8 Press founding member, who along with fellow founding members Peter David and Michael Jan Friedman recently contributed back story to the Will Smith/M Night Shyamalan science fiction movie After Earth.

“We’re all big fans of Paul, from his solid run as a writer on several iconic comic book characters to his ground-breaking work at Archie Comics, not to mention the contributions he’s made to Crazy 8 Press already,” Greenberger added, noting that Kupperberg is a co-creator and contributor to ReDeus: Divine Tales and ReDeus: Beyond Borders, two science-fiction/fantasy-themed short-story collections published through Crazy 8 Press. ReDeus is co-created and co-edited by Greenberger, Kupperberg, and C8 co-founder Aaron Rosenberg. “Paul’s ReDeus stories were really well received, so we figured it was time to open up the asylum doors all the way and welcome another creative maniac into the nuthouse. It’s the way we like it.”

Kupperberg joins fellow science fiction and fantasy author Russ Colchamiro as the newest official members of the Crazy 8 Press team. Colchamiro’s rollicking, action-packed science fiction adventure Crossline debuted with Crazy 8 Press this spring.

As part of his extensive writing career, Kupperberg has contributed to the young adult story series Latchkeys (Crazy 8 Press), the Hellfire Lounge books (Marietta Publishing), and has written close to 1,000 comic book stories, including those featuring Superman, Green Lantern, Vigilante, The Doom Patrol, Bart Simpson, Scooby Doo, and many others. Kupperberg also contributed to Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate!, and Takion (which he created for DC Comics), has contributed to the Superman and Tom & Jerry syndicated newspaper strips, and has written children’s books, YA non-fiction, and even coloring books, as well as numerous articles, reviews, and short stories. You can follow him at Paulkupperberg.com and on Twitter @PaulKupperberg.

About Paul Kupperberg

Paul Kupperberg is the writer of the 2012 Eisner Award-nominated Life with Archie comic book series, as well as close to a thousand stories for DC, Archie, Bongo, and others. He is also the author of Kevin (Penguin Books), and various other projects. In former lives, Paul has also been an Editor for DC Comics, Executive Editor of Weekly World News and Senior Editor of World Wrestling Entertainment’s WWE Kids Magazine. For more information visit Paul at www.paulkupperberg.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulKupperberg.

About Crazy 8 Press

Crazy 8 Press is a team of best-selling, award-winning science fiction and fantasy authors creating new fiction not available anywhere else. Founding members include authors Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, and Howard Weinstein. The author team also includes Russ Colchamiro and Paul Kupperberg. Crazy 8 Press publishes in multiple genres, particularly science fiction and fantasy. For more information visit www.crazy8press.com and follow them on Twitter @crazy8press.

New Releases, News, ReDeus

ReDeus: Beyond Borders now available!

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beyondboarders_lorraineSchleter

We know how impatiently you’ve been waiting, and who can blame you? After all, we’ve been talking about this for weeks. But the moment is finally here, the wait is over–you can go out and buy ReDeus: Beyond Borders today!

Continue to thrill at tales of our world as it would be if all the gods had returned, and mankind was forced to adapt to the sudden, ongoing presence of all its pantheons as they battle for control. Buy a copy now and see how ReDeus creators Robert Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, and Aaron Rosenberg—ably assisted by fellow authors Lorraine J. Anderson, Phil Giunta, William Leisner, Steve Lyons, Kelly Meding, David McDonald, Scott Pearson, Lawrence M. Schoen, Janna Silverstein, and Steven H. Wilson—portray a world where our every belief is challenged, and people must find new ways to be true to themselves even while obeying the rules and dictates of their restored gods.

ReDeus: Beyond Borders is available in print, as an e-book for the Kindle, and as an e-book for the NOOK. Join the gods today!

ReDeus

Aaron Rosenberg’s Patchwork Divinity Beyond Borders

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Aaron-Rosenberg-DuotoneWhen Bob, Paul, and I first came up with the idea for ReDeus, we started with a single, simple question: “What if it was modern day and all the ancient gods returned all at once?” A simple question with a very big,very complex, very far-ranging answer, to be sure, but that’s where all the fun is, right?

We talked about what would happen to the world and its people when they discovered that the gods were real, that they were physically back, and that they were every bit as powerful as the old myths claimed. We talked about which pantheons we absolutely knew we would have to talk about—the Greeks, the Celts, the Egyptians, the Norse—because everyone knew at least a little about them, and some of the smaller, lesser known ones that would be fun to play with exactly because most people didn’t know about them as much, if at all. We talked about which countries and regions each pantheon would reclaim—or try to—and where the obvious fights for territory would occur (how many pantheons have held sway over England, exactly?). We talked about the rule of monotheism, what would happen to Judaism and Christianity and Islam when all these ancient gods returned—and the One God didn’t. We talked about needing a neutral ground somewhere, and how that should be Manhattan, and how that came about. We talked about a lot of things.

The one thing we didn’t talk about was what the gods were actually like.

Not because we weren’t interested—obviously we were dying to find out. Was Zeus really as much of an obnoxious womanizer as the old stories claimed? Was Thor really as much of a hothead? Was Set really that evil, or Loki? Of course we wanted to find out, that was part of the fun.

But we didn’t want to sit there going down the list and saying, “yes, he’d be this way and she’d be that way” and so on. We wanted to discover each of the gods and goddesses for ourselves as we wrote. That’s the way good writing works, after all. You have an idea of where you’re going with your story, certainly, but even the most rigorous outline gets fleshed out as you write, all of the actual details developing and flowing into place as you work your way into and through the story, breathing life into the whole. Why ruin all of our own fun by nailing everything down before we started the first stories? Far better to have a few basics in place and then see where the stories took us.

When we decided to open things up and invite other writers to join us, this proved to be a godsend.

Literally.

Because what we handed these other writers was all of the notes we’d made thus far, about which pantheons and which regions and so on. But nowhere did we say what any of the specific gods were actually like.

We left that up to them.

And, just as we’d hoped, our friends and peers surprised us. In the best possible way.

As we read over the outlines and then the actual stories, we discovered these gods. They came to life for us. And as more stories came in, their details overlapped, creating a more cohesive view of this newly changed world.

With Beyond Borders, that went one step further. Some of our authors decided to use gods who had appeared in the first book, Divine Tales. In some cases they’d already written about those gods and wanted to continue with them. But in others a writer was tackling a god someone else had already introduced, picking up where the other writer left off. Adding more depth and more detail.

Bob and Paul and I made sure that no one was stepping on anyone’s toes, that no one was outright contradicting what had already been developed. But beyond that we stayed out of the way. The whole point of the anthologies is to let each writer play in our sandbox, to allow them the creative freedom to develop their own stories, their own characters, their own little corner of the world.

We’re building a patchwork here. We’re stitching all of the pieces together into a cohesive whole, far greater than just the sum of its parts.

And so far, I have to say, it’s been divine.

ReDeus: Beyond Borders will be available in print and digital formats on Friday.

Crazy Good Stories