About Flames Rising
Flames Rising is an online resource for fans of Horror and Dark Fantasy entertainment. This horror fanzine offers reviews of Games, Fiction, Movies and more ranging from Top-Selling authors to the coolest Small Press and “indie” publishers. The popular Interviews at Flames Rising include Horror authors, artists and other creators of dark entertainment. Stay tuned to the Flames Rising news feed for the latest news on upcoming products, genre conventions and industry developments.
Flames Rising continues to add new features and expand the Fiction and Articles sections of the site with topics of interest to Horror and Dark Fantasy fans. Much more is in store for 2008 so stay tuned…
History of Flames Rising
Flames Rising first launched in the fall of 2003, bringing readers the latest news, reviews and interviews for aspects of the gaming industry. Since those early days, Flames Rising has expanded to include all aspects of the horror and dark fantasy genre. With over 200 reviews on the site, and well over 70 interviews with artists, authors and game designers, Flames Rising is dedicated to scouring the web for content tailored to our readers.
The new site design that you see here launched in early 2008, to keep up-to-date with the latest in web design and technology. Run by Matt M McElroy, Flames Rising continues to reinvent itself to stay current on trends in the entertainment industry.
Feel free to explore the site, comment on our posts, subscribe to our feeds or submit your work for publication. To contact Matt M McElroy directly, email him at flamesrising01@yahoo.com.
Who’s Who at Flames Rising
Matt M McElroy
- Owner/Editor -
Bio coming soon…
Monica Valentinelli
- Project Manager/Reviewer -
Monica Valentinelli is a lightning-fast reader and writer who is currently enjoying a posh job at an internet search marketing agency in Madison, Wisconsin. She has a dry sense of humor that requires her to bring a “humor flag” wherever she goes, and she has been known to have an uncanny sense of bad timing. As a weather shaman, Monica was responsible for the Winter from Hell in 2007-8, and is hoping her frequent Zumba classes will appease the thunder god, Thor. From Final Fantasy to a love for numbers, Monica is an avid min/maxer who always “wants more guns.” A perpetual coffee snob, Monica enjoys free Wi-Fi, walking in wide, open spaces, and the occasional practical joke.
In addition to spending countless hours providing an untold number of reviews, articles and select fiction for the Flames Rising, Monica has written for over a dozen games for publishers including: Abstract Nova, Eden Studios, Spartans Unleashed, Rogue Games, and others. Her Promethean: the Created fiction was featured in the White Wolf eQuarterly and her short story, “Prey” was recently featured on the Pseudopod.org website.
Visit www.mlvwrites.com for the latest information on Monica’s upcoming dark fantasy series “The Violet War” and other projects. To learn more about this horror writer and game designer, be sure to read Monica Valentinelli’s Biography or subscribe to the Words on the Water blog feed for freelance writers.
Alana Abbott
- Reviewer -
New Haven based reviewer Alana Joli Abbott is the author of two novels, Into the Reach and Departure, and is the writer for the webcomic Cowboys and Aliens II, hosted at DrunkDuck.com. She is also a contributor to roleplaying games, including Serenity RPG, Chronicles of Ramlar, Steampunk Musha, and modular adventures for the Living Kingdoms of Kalamar and Xen’drik Expeditions Campaigns. Her love for fantasy and science fiction has led her to many diverse pursuits, including traveling to visit ancient ruins in Turkey, Greece, Ireland, the UK, and Mexico, singing madrigals, studying stage combat, and practicing kempo karate with her husband.
Along with reviewing books for Flames Rising, Alana reviews comics and books about mythology and martial arts for School Library Journal, for which she got the chance to write the starred review for 2008 Newbery winner Good Masters, Sweet Ladies. You can keep up with her day to day writing (unless she’s really busy) at www.virgilandbeatrice.com.
Jason Thorson
- Reviewer -
Jason Thorson is a horror fan, through and through, adorning his walls with horror movie posters, lining his shelves with macabre books and collectibles, and boasting an irrational monthly comic book bill. Honestly, the fact that he’s managed to find a wife is worthy of mention on Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
Jason is currently a freelance writer/reviewer and he donates his time editing newsletters for worthy causes such as Audubon. Having studied film and fiction in college and sporting a writing degree with an emphasis on screenwriting, Jason’s first love is the almighty horror flick. He’s served on the editorial board of the Beloit Fiction Journal which publishes work by emerging writers from around the world and he was an A&E writer for Core Weekly, Madison Wisconsin’s alt rag aimed at the 30-and-under set.
When Jason’s not watching movies or writing about them you can find him playing drums for the death metal band, Fogcrawler.
James ‘Grim’ Desborough
- Reviewer -
Grim has been roleplaying since the age of nine, prior if you count Fighting Fantasy and Choose Your Own Adventure books.
He’s written for Steve Jackson Games, Wizards of the Coast, Mongoose Publishing Limited and Cubicle 7 Entertainment – amongst others – as well as publishing in PDF and POD under his own imprint, Postmortem Studios. He currently lives in the wilds of Hampshire in the UK with his lovely missus and an animal-rending tabby cat. Grim’s interests include comics (Ellis, Ennis, Moore, 2000AD), films, television, art, writing and basically any form of media you can get stuck into and extract some sort of meaning out of. Horror is a particular favourite because it plays on such primal emotions, paranoia, envy, guilt, disgust, fear and anger, all of which are far easier to write about than higher things – so basically, laziness.
Tez Miller
- Reviewer -
From the mid-1980s comes Tez Miller; born, raised and still living in suburban Victoria, Australia.
A reviewer, interviewer and promoter, she is above all a reader. Tez makes full use of her metabolism while she still has it, photographs her cat with novels, and her TV God is Seth MacFarlane. Tez is currently working through her to-be-read pile, and trying to convince authors to visit Melbourne.
Come say hello at tezmilleroz.wordpress.com
John Walsh
- Reviewer -
John Walsh works at Shinawatra University in Bangkok. He has previously lived in Sudan, Greece, South Korea, Australia, Abu Dhabi and his native Britain.
In addition to writing reviews for Flames Rising, he has also been published in a range of mostly academic areas. His most recent books are Culture Smart! UAE and Entrepreneurial Leadership.
Questions? Comments?
If you would like to submit content (including reviews, articles and news) to Flames Rising, drop by the updated Submission Guidlines or visit the Contact Page to send us a note.