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.

This year we also focused on ensuring that we had more features for you to interact with and read as well. The horror plot generator ^[1] was a big hit, and even though we launched it late this year, it continues to be very popular among many of you. Right in time for GenCon 2009, we provided you with a contest, courtesy of the friendly folks at GenCon: Indy. One of the other popular features we added was our Previews ^[2] category, where we supply game, fiction and comic previews of published (or soon-to-be published) works. The Previews feature is something that we can’t do alone because each and every preview on the site is supplied, with permission, from the publisher and/or the author.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular topics and a few of my fiction review picks from this past year:

• DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: Players Handbook 2 ^[3] a look at the Shaman – Editor-in-Chief Matt M McElroy offered you a sneak preview at the Shaman class as part of a blog tour.
• THE GHOST KING by R.A. Salvatore review ^[4] – Year after year, tie-in authors are a favorite among many of our readers. This review by R.A. Salvatore was a big hit and incurred several comments.
• Quotes from Neil Gaiman on CORALINE ^[5] – In what probably qualifies as the shortest interview ever, Neil was kind enough to answer our questions three about the animated movie CORALINE.

Fiction reviews always do well here on FlamesRising.com, and I got the chance to review several books. I’d like to share with you some of the reviews that I had written, as well as my commentary on them.

• THE MAGICIANS review ^[6] – Written by Lev Grossman, this book is one of my top picks for 2009.
• DEATH’S DAUGHTER review ^[7] – Written by Amber Benson (GHOSTS OF ALBION), this review highlighted a urban fantasy “comedy.”
• DRACULA: the UNDEAD review ^[8] – Billed as a sequel to Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, this review was one of the hardest I’ve ever had to write.
• FIRST LORD’S FURY review ^[9] – My review of the conclusion to Jim Butcher’s fantasy novels brings a close to this militaristic tale against a terrible foe called the “Vord.”
• FINCH review ^[10] – FINCH, a story set in the Ambergris Cycle by Jeff VanderMeer, competes with THE MAGICIANS for my best book of 2009.
• HIS FATHER’S SON review ^[11] – In the world of modern horror, I not only reviewed, but recommended this book by Bentley Little to several people.

For 2009, we also highlighted a number of dark fantasy and horror games, and even offered you with a free Storytelling Adventure System One Scene for Halloween. Dubbed THE DEVIL’S NIGHT ^[12], this free one-scene was offered to you in conjunction with our friends over at White Wolf Publishing.

Another game-related topic in particular that stands out is LITTLE FEARS: NIGHTMARE EDITION ^[13]. Game designer Jason Blair offered us an exclusive preview to the game through his LITTLE FEARS: 13 Doors Preview ^[14] series.

In addition, we reviewed several board games, RPGs, movies, comics and more! We had a lot of fun talking about horror, so here are some of your favorite posts about other games, movies and comics we wrote about.

• Eclipse Phase Review ^[15] – Catalyst Game Labs released a new RPG under the Creative Commons license this year.
• A Deal with the Dead ^[16] – We were one of the lucky sites that had an early copy of Geist: the Sin-Eaters
• Little Nighmares – Cardstock Scenes ^[17] – Bill Bodden started his series of miniatures reviews this year and has more on the way.
• Ready Made World of Darkness ^[18] – White Wolf released several collections of pre-made characters for the World of Darkness.
• Drag Me to Hell Review ^[19] – Jason jumped at the chance to review Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell movie.
• The Prophet Review ^[20] – The Prophet was one of the coolest indie comics we reviewed this year.

We are very excited about this year, because we have a lot more in store for you. We hope that you continue to enjoy FlamesRising.com. Cheers to a a terrifying 2010! (In a good way, of course.)

To learn how you can feed the Flames, feel free to Contact Us ^[21]. We’re also @flamesrising ^[22] on Twitter, too.

From all of us here at FlamesRising.com, thank you for reading!

– M