Once again, I’ve got the amazing talent of Pye Parr to thank for this, as well as the team at Solaris Books. It perfectly matches the feel of the book, and (for once) I’m kind of lost for words.
I. LOVE. IT.
(And I hope you do too…)
You can pre-order the book from Amazon (UK) (US), BN.com, Waterstones and, of course, your local bookshop.
The angels are back…
Posted by loummorgan on April 11, 2013
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/blood-and-feathers-rebellion-cover/
What’s Pye Parr up to now…?
By the way, if you’re interested in reading a bit more about how Pye works, and how the first BLOOD AND FEATHERS cover evolved, there’s a really detailed interview with him over on the Shewolf reads site, including his mock-ups for concepts which didn’t quite make the cut…
Posted by loummorgan on January 25, 2013
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/featherbomb/
My WordPress dashboard is snowing. That can only mean one thing: it must be nearly Christmas.
Look, I can’t help it – and if you think that’s a bad way of judging the start of the holiday season, you should meet Other Half. He declares it to be officially Christmas when one of his online forums puts up the twinkly fairy lights gif around the border of the page. So, you know…
Anyway. Christmas is rolling towards us like a tinsel-strewn juggernaut, and this means it’s prime festive shopping season. Ever helpful, I’ve come up with a couple of suggestions for gifts for those really difficult people to buy for. I warn you: these are, largely, Things What My Friends Have Made – but you shouldn’t let their questionable judgement in hanging around with me put you off. Everything on this list is awesome, and would make an amazing present – and frankly, if you can’t plug your mates’ stuff on your blog, then where can you do it?
So, without further ado, I present (see what I did there?)…
THE NICE LIST
(for the sake of simplicity, the majority of these links are Amazon physical ones. Feel free to sub in the physical / ebook retailer of your choice….)
- For action junkies:
SHIFT – Kim Curran
DEPARTMENT 19: THE RISING – Will Hill
Scott Tyler and Jamie Carpenter are, between them, as average as your average teenage boy gets. Except they aren’t… because as you soon discover if you pick up either of these two books, Scott has the power to change any decision he’s ever made and Jamie’s a vampire hunter with a secret government department. Gory, gripping and action-packed, these books are brilliantly paced and plotted. And if you can’t choose between them… why not pick both?
- For Doomsday Preppers:
THE TESTIMONY – James Smythe
Let me tell you a story about this book (in which a blast of static is heard by almost everyone on the planet, followed by a voice. Is it God? Is it aliens? Is it a mass hallucination..?). I took this on holiday with me earlier this year, and it was the last book I read before heading home. I was sitting in the airport at the Seychelles, which is a tiny little thing, at around midnight, waiting for my flight to be called and reading the last couple of chapters of THE TESTIMONY. There were one or two people already in the departure hall, but we were the last flight out for the night so it was pretty quiet.
And then someone, somewhere, leaned on a button and switched on the PA. There was a burst of deafening white noise… and nothing else.
Not that it mattered, because by that time I had dropped my book and hidden under the departure lounge seating.
That’s how good this book is.
It’s complicated, twisty… and utterly terrifying.
- For Western fans & short story addicts:
A TOWN CALLED PANDEMONIUM – Jurassic Press
I’ve been involved in the Pandemonium project (one of my stories appeared in the apocalypse-themed anthology, now out of print) but this one’s a different animal altogether. A shared-world, weird Western anthology with some of my favourite writers involved, it will transport you to a town with secrets, tragedies and horrors. So what are you waiting for? Saddle up…
For urban explorers:
THE CITY’S SON – Tom Pollock
Urban explorers know that cities have a life of their own – and London is no exception. But you’ve never imagined it quite like this. Tom Pollock gives you a version of London where street lights come to life, where the ghosts of trains ride the rails and where the building sites scarring the surface of the city lay the foundations for something sinister…
One part urban fantasy, one part New Weird, one part utterly itself, read this and you’ll never look at the city in the same way again.
- For art buffs:
Vincent Chong prints
Nominated for a World Fantasy Award last year, Vincent Chong has produced book covers for Stephen King, Joe Hill and China Mieville among others, as well as illustrating collector’s editions of some incredible novels (I have a copy of THE CLUB DUMAS, which is one of my favourite books and is probably the most expensive copy of a novel I’ve ever bought!). I have a bunch of his prints, including one (predictably, I guess) of a fallen angel, and they’re beautiful. Also, I have this as my desktop right now, because I love it.
###
So there you go. Yes, they’re all my friends – and I’m utterly unapologetic about recommending their work, because every single one of them is immensely talented. You won’t go wrong with any of them.
Posted by loummorgan on December 10, 2012
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/the-nice-list/
So you’ll remember the other week, I was bemoaning the general lack of letters we send to each other these days?
Well. Look what landed on my doormat.
It’s a postcard from Chris Roberts (better known as Dead Clown Art) who’s a US-based artist specialising in mixed-media and found-object pieces. I met him at last year’s World Horror Convention in Texas, and he’s an incredibly talented guy – as well as a real sweetie. And not a little nuts, given the comment on the back: “Not electronic. Go ahead… put your tongue on it. No shock!”
See? It takes a true artist to point out that the real problem with e-mails is that you can’t lick them…
Posted by loummorgan on April 7, 2012
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/best-blog-comment-ever/
So, I have a new favourite page on the internet.
It’s this one.
Yes, kids. That is the “Blood & Feathers” page on Amazon’s UK site (what’s that? You want to see the US one? Oh, go on then... I like that one too.) You may have seen it before. Perhaps you have. In that case, you should go and look again. Seriously, because I’m worried that if I take my eyes off it for a second, it’ll scuttle off somewhere and hide. And sooner or later, I’m going to need to blink.
I have a cover. And it’s, like, out there. With pictures and words and cool stuff.
There’s still one or two tweaks that need doing, so the Amazon sites are likely to update once they’re complete, but–give or take the odd detail–this is how it’ll look.
I’ve been sitting on the draft version since late September, when we’d talked about ideas for it at the Solaris offices… and then the amazing Simon Parr (who is also Pye. It’s a thing. I don’t ask. He may well be some kind of gestalt art/comics/awesome guru) went off, had a think, and came back with what you see there.
I absolutely adore it. It’s gorgeous and feels completely right and you must all immediately rush over and tell @PyeParr that he is, basically, a genius.
Keep an eye out for the final version, which I hope I can put a big, shiny high-res copy of on here soon so you can see it properly.
Posted by loummorgan on December 13, 2011
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/angel-face/
I can’t decide if it’s “Art”, a showpiece or just plain bonkers. Even so, it’s fabulous.
I would, admittedly, need armour myself before I even contemplated putting my cat in the same room as one of these (when he was a kitten, we tried to put one of those cat-harness-and-leash things on him… Not good. Not good at all. Still, I recovered the sight in my left eye surprisingly quickly.) but aren’t these amazing?
The medievalist in me is sitting here thinking: “Want”, and the crazy cat lady is sitting here thinking, “But would it stop the endless, endless shedding… or would he just start shedding tinfoil instead?” (Mind you, crazy cat lady may be confusing armoured cats with… I don’t know, cyborg cats. Which is a whole other level of cool-slash-terrifying…..)
Posted by loummorgan on April 13, 2011
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/cat-mouse/
If you remember my post on Polly Morgan from a little while back, you’ll know that I often like my art a little, well… odd.
Step up Nancy Fouts.
Surreal, whimsical and occasionally confrontational (one of her pieces, Holy War, is a hand-grenade covered in religious iconography, and her version of Little Red Riding Hood appears to be on her way through the woods to a Klan meeting), she recently launched her upcoming London show by sending a coffin adorned with a floral tribute through central London in a hearse. Which in and of itself isn’t enough to draw attention… unless you know that the flowers spelled out “Bastard”.
She likes to re-engineer objects (take her Thinker/Degas mash-up…) to make the viewer reconsider their own prejudices and assumptions about the world – as well as towards the objects themselves.
Also: it looks groovy.
Her show, Un-Think, is on at the Pertwee, Anderson & Gold Gallery in Soho, and there’s a photo gallery of some of the pieces on the BBC’s website.
Posted by loummorgan on April 7, 2011
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/un-think-able/
Dan Hillier: "Deeps" c/o Under Vhoorl's Shadow
Art week continues.
Tonight, it’s the turn of Dan Hillier. Not enough people know his work, although I seem to remember he did make the BFA longlist for this year.
He specialises in “altered engravings” – meaning he takes an original engraving and, umm, alters it; usually by adding skulls or tentacles. They’re… well, they’re eldritch.
We’ve got Mother and Father hanging at either end of our dining table, and they tend to draw comments. These have ranged from: “Hmmm” to “Awesome” to “Good god, they’re revolting.” And just like with Ben Baldwin’s stuff, there’s a couple more I have my eye on.
I’m very fond of the ones we have – again, something which draws comment: my raging squid-phobia is well-noted, so why on earth would I want tentacles on my wall? Because I just do. And because I love these pictures.
Cthulutastic.
Posted by loummorgan on November 10, 2010
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/tentacular-spectacular/
Quick bonus blog linkage for you this morning: Vincent Chong talks about his career and his influences over at Macabre Cadaver.
I love Vincent’s work (and fully credit the print of his I’ve got in the living room for freaking out everyone who comes to the house. Win!) and this is a great interview. He deserves every one of those awards he’s won, and regularly updates his blog with details of his current projects–so you should probably read it.
Just sayin’.
Posted by loummorgan on November 5, 2010
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/linkage-pimpage/
“Only a writer as skillful as Haldeman could use war’s dark glamour to lure the reader in and then deploy that same fascination to show the effect of this orchestrated barbarism on the human soul.”
This is a back-cover blurb by Peter F. Hamilton for Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” (which, by the way, is an extraordinary book).
The words of particular interest here are “glamour” and “war”. They’re words we see put together frighteningly often, in varying contexts. Video games and movies are accused of glamorising war, books draw on it, newspapers suck every last drop of spilled blood out of it. And for the vast majority of us–those who don’t have cause to worry about friends, family, lovers serving in it, or caught on the margins of it–war is a strange and distant thing. No wonder it gets glamorised. We simply don’t see it for what it is.
Until we see this.
It used to be a car, one that was destroyed in a street bombing in Baghdad in 2007. Just think about that for a second: that mess used to be a car, just like you or your mother or your daughter or your little brother drive.
38 people died in that attack, which happened not at a security checkpoint, or in a combat zone–but at a market.
Artist Jeremy Deller has brought the car over to the Imperial War Museum as part of an installation highlighting the rocketing number of civilian casualties in warfare. A century ago, civilians accounted for 10% of war victims. Now the number has rocketed, with some sources claiming it’s closer to 90%.
Take a good look at that car, and tell me where the glamour is–because with that thing staring back at me, I sure as hell can’t see it.
Posted by loummorgan on September 14, 2010
http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/bombshell/
