Centered around a short story entitled “The Queen Of Crows,” this unique product was designed by author and game designer Monica Valentinelli. At a retail price of $4.99, readers will receive a magazine-style layout of THE QUEEN OF CROWS, a professional illustration of Mahochepi and more!

This product is the first digital release set in the world of the Violet War and is also the first fiction product published through Flames Rising Press. The short story, which is entitled “The Queen of Crows,” takes place during the 1860s and focuses on the tough decisions that a Navajo elder named “Tse” must make to save his people. Will he summon Mahochepi, the Queen of Crows, without knowing who–or what–she is? Read the story and find out!

Dear FlamesRising.com Readers,

Phew! It is really hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. First and foremost, thank you for your comments and your continued support. Your feedback has helped us tremendously, because that was the driving force behind launching a more reader-friendly design in February of 2009.

Be sure to read the rest of this post for more about FlamesRising.com’s 2009 Year in Review.

Super Genius Games (SGG) is proud to announce the addition of a new Genius to the team! Starting immediately Owen K.C. Stephens will be the Pathfinder RPG Development Manager for SGG. Owen’s role-playing contributions are legion, having contributed to the 3rd and 4th editions of Dungeons & Dragons, d20 Modern, The Black Company, EverQuest, Song of Ice and Fire, and Wheel of Time role-playing games, as well as the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign setting. Owen is also author of the Advanced Gamemaster’s Guide from Green Ronin, the Guide to Absalom released by Paizo Publishing, and was co-author of Star Wars Saga Edition from Wizards of the Coast.

Halloween is our favorite holiday here at Flames Rising headquarters. We wound up with an orange and a black cat, our house is often decorated in September, and we enjoy coming up with new concoctions year after year. Although we really enjoy the holiday, it wouldn’t be as much fun without all of you.

Last year Flames Rising celebrated Halloween with you by offering 31 days of Monster Madness. For this year, we started with the horror plot generator to help you get those creative juices flowing. Since we offered flash fiction (in the form of mini-monsters) last year, we decided to take a more gaming-related approach for Halloween.

On Saturday, October 17th, FlamesRising.com was on hand to celebrate the launch of LITTLE FEARS during Madison Games Day 2. We had a great turn out and several people were on hand to play games and take lots of pictures. There are quite a few floating around; you can see a number of photos through the Madison Games Day Yahoo! Group.

To celebrate the birthday of LITTLE FEARS: NIGHTMARE EDITION, there were two really awesome cakes on hand.

Just in time for Halloween, we have come up with a special treat for all you horror authors and storytellers out there. We’ve put our heads together and came up with a random horror plot generator for you to have fun with.

What does it do? Randomizes horror plots, silly! Right now, we have well over 1,000 words and phrases that we’ve put into our bubbling cauldron to come up with some interesting horror plot ideas.

Hello, horror fans. As the ghost of Halloween past, I feel it is my duty to remind you that the past is sometimes more enticing than the present.

This time last year, FlamesRising.com offered you a series of treats that came in a variety of flavors.

Throughout October, several horror authors and game designers lent a hand (and even a finger or two) to record their tales describing a broad range of monsters — including ghosts not unlike myself.

As we continue to break into new shadowy depths for 2009, Flames Rising needs your help. For over five years we’ve poured through books, games and a few films to talk about horror. This year, we want to continue that effort, but also want to reach out to all the fans that have made Flames Rising possible. Our goal is to build a supportive community of minions and hellions that share in our passion for the things that lurk in the dark. We’ll share with you articles, posts and trailers beyond what we have here on Flames Rising. From contests to breaking horror trailers, join us on Twitter and Facebook and stay on top of your favorite genre.

Join @flamesrising on Twitter. Get breaking news, interesting links and a chance to win free stuff!

Happy New Year to the Horror and Dark Fantasy fans of Flames Rising!
We had a great 2008 that included:
Winning a Silver ENnie at GenCon.
October’s monstrous Halloween Horror series.
A collection of fantastic Design Essays from several creators.
The launch of the Reviewer Rewards Program.
Tons of Reviews, Interviews and a whole lot more!
Thanks to everyone who made 2008 [...]

Get your jack o’ lanterns ready and turn out your lights, Flames Rising has reached into the haunted minds of some very creative folk with monstrous results.
We’re going to scare you, thrill you and chill you with a daily monster dose that ranges from E.E. Knight’s Cob’s Ladder to Todd Cash’s Jimmy Sparks. Some of [...]

Show your true black-and-red colors by picking something up from our Flames Rising Cafepress shop.
We’ve updated our merchandise to reflect the new Flames Rising logo; check out our new women’s and men’s t-shirts, environmentally-friendly canvas bags for only $13.99 and more!
Remember, Halloween is rapidly approaching — what better way to say “I love horror” than [...]

If you’ve checked out our submission guidelines, you may have noticed that we mentioned our Flames Rising Reviewer Rewards program. As our site continues to grow, our reviewers and content providers are a vital part of Flames Rising. We’d like to light a match and shed some light on what this program actually entails.

Flames Rising Reviewer Rewards Program

Once our reviewers show a commitment to the site by submitting a minimum of (5) reviews, we will then provide the review material for them. From indie films to pre-released copies of fiction novels and new games, we receive tons of review material we’re more than happy to provide free-of-charge to our reviewers. (We’ll even cover the postage.) What’s more, our reviewers can keep the material as a “thank you” for spending the time to contribute to the site.

Over the past five years, we at Flames Rising have fed our fires, bringing you news, reviews and interviews for the horror, dark fantasy and dark sci fi genres. We started with gaming and (as our flames got bigger) we quickly expanded into music, TV/film, comics and books.
As our content shifted, so did our [...]

The Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the “ENnies”) are an annual fan-based celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming. The ENnies give game designers, writers and artists the recognition they deserve. It is a peoples’ choice award, and the final winners are voted upon by the gaming public at EN World.
This year’s ENnies are [...]

As you know, Flames Rising burned the midnight oil to ensure that the site redesign was more user-friendly for you. We’ve been proud to feature several options of Flames Rising RSS feeds to work with your preferences.
After dozens of requests, Flames Rising is happy to announce that we are now recommending an easy way [...]

We now have a Preview Page on Flames Rising. A spot to check out all of the sneak peeks and product previews we have been posting on the site. The latest addition is an early look at the new Hot War RPG coming up from Contested Ground Studios:
Hot War Preview
Coming up in the next few [...]

The new Review Guidelines have been posted on the Flames Rising website. We are currently seeking a few good reviewers to help us expand our collection of horror and dark fantasy reviews. RPGs, fiction, movies, video games and more are all welcome on the site…
What do you get out of it?
Beyond helping out fellow Flames [...]

We’re proud to announce the first Flames Rising Fan Appreciation contest. Some of you may remember that Flames Rising hasn’t always been a horror and dark fantasy webzine; it started out as a Live Action Role-Playing Site devoted to those dark and brooding vampire clans from White Wolf’s Mind’s Eye Theatre system. Through a love for gaming and other things that go bump in the night, Flames has evolved to its current incarnation, a horror webzine that shines the spotlight on up-and-coming authors, horror artists, game designers, and more!

To celebrate the new site launch, we want to show our appreciation to the fans who make Flames Rising possible by returning to our dice pool and pencils. Prizes include a variety of products from Abstract Nova, Apophis Consortium, Bob Goat Press, Cubicle 7 Entertainment, Eden Studios, Evil Hat Productions, Monolith Graphics, Neoplastic Press, Rogue Games, Snarling Badger Games, Talisman Studios and 12 to Midnight.

Lots of updates to the Flames Rising Amazon Store today. Horror & Dark Fantasy fiction, games, movies and more. Included in these updates is the option to pre-order:
Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned (Vampire the Requiem)
Battlestar Galactica (Season 3)
Small Favor (Dresden Files)
Purge the Unclean (Dark Heresy)
Over at FlamesRising.RPGNow.com you can check out a ton of new [...]