2017… the not-so-distant future.

Chaos reigns supreme. Social and economic upheaval, rampant terrorism, and nuclear annihilation have turned the earth into a vast wasteland. And, in Texas, the gates of Hell have been cracked open, unleashing its evil and fury upon the undeserving.

The inhabitants of Ruin Town find themselves as unwilling pawns, trapped between warring forces, desperately attempting to survive. Even when the bombing and gunfire cease, they can find no refuge, no relief, for afterwards, Satan himself descends mercilessly upon them… in the form of General Payne and his band of sadistic mercenaries.

Written by Ronald Kelly, Flesh Welder is available now at DriveThruHorror.com.

Cubicle 7 Entertainment is producing a roleplaying game based on the award-winning Laundry series (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and the forthcoming The Fuller Memorandum) by the even-more-award-winning Charles Stross, and uses the also-award-winning Basic Roleplaying System (Call Of Cthulhu) by Chaosium Inc.

“We love the Laundry Files novels, so we’re really excited about this game,” said Dominic McDowall-Thomas, Cubicle 7 Director. “The world of the Laundry is a perfect mix of espionage, conspiracy and tentacled menace from beyond the stars.”

Barrick is lost behind the Shadowline, facing all the terrible dangers and mysteries of that magical twilight land. Briony is alone in a treacherous foreign court, struggling to survive with no weapon left to her but her wits. And in the midst of all this, something unbelievable is awakening underneath Southmarch, something powerful and terrible that the world has not seen for thousands of years.

In this third volume Barrick and Briony, along with Qinnitan – the Autarch’s desperate, escaped slave – a loyal soldier named Ferras Vansen, and a tiny handful of other folk, ordinary and extraordinary, must find a way to save their world, or else witness the rise of a terrible new age – an age of unending darkness.

Flames Rising has a short excerpt from this new novel by Tad Williams. Shadowrise is available at Amazon.com.

C2E2 ANNOUNCES “AN EVENING WITH NEIL GAIMAN”

Neil Gaiman, the award winning author of novels, film, and comics including the epoch changing graphic novel series The Sandman will take the stage for a benefit appearance on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). An “Evening with Neil Gaiman”, a paid ticketed event, will happen on Saturday night, April 17, with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the First Amendment legal work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

The last time Gaiman performed theatrical readings was ten years ago when he did the “Last Angel Tour.” On that tour, he criss-crossed the country doing sold-out evenings reading stories and poems, new material and beloved tales in order to draw attention to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

The world ends with the flip of a switch. The thundering storms strike across the world, searing the earth, leaving destruction in their wake. Few will survive. For the folks living in Temperance, Illinois the nightmare is just beginning. When the sky roils in luminous colors, the people of the small town begin to die, and Randall Clay decides to escape. What he didn’t expect was the dead to come back to life or the nightmare that came after that.

Pallid Light: The Waking Dead is available at Amazon.com.

Know Just Enough To Be Dangerous

Everybody knows rock salt keeps out ghosts and silver kills werewolves. That’s just Folklore 101. But when you need to get rid of a crocotta, banish a tulpa, or deal with an Angel of the Lord, you’re going to need a really good guide.

Each monster is fully detailed with Cortex System game statistics and plenty of lore, ready to drop into any campaign. With extra material on how to play monsters as hunters and create your own supernatural threats, the Guide to the Hunted is an indispensable resource.

The Guide to the Hunted is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

IT’S TIME AGAIN TO MARCH FO(U)RTH AND CELEBRATE GM’S DAY!

GM’s Day!He regularly stabs, mangles, perforates, burns, and otherwise damages your precious character. She delights in torturing your PC’s emotions, thwarting their every plan, denying every desire.

And you love your GM for just these things and more!

Celebrate the teller of interactive tales with the rest of us, as we present “One Fourth Off for the Fourth” – GM’S DAY! 25% off hundreds upon hundreds of titles!

The sale runs from March 3rd to March 8th. Make with the clicky-click!

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!

Publisher New Baby Productions announces that a graphic novel adaptation of Derek Gunn’s acclaimed Vampire Apocalypse novel series is in the works. “I’m really thrilled with this new direction as I always felt that (Vampire Apocalypse) really lends itself to this format,” stated Gunn. Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder was published in September 2006, and has been optioned by producer/screenwriter Richard Finney to be a feature film. A script has already been penned by Finney and Franklin Guerrero Jr. Fallout, the third book in the series, was released this October from Black Death Books.

Now you can download the Vampire Apocalypse: Prologue mini-comic for free at DriveThruComics.com!

A story in the Storytelling Adventure System for Requiem for Rome (using Vampire: The Requiem)

Paterfamilias contains a collection of scenes, Storyteller character records, a number of hyperlinks to various portions of the text as well as bookmarks, so you can always jump right to what you need with just a click. There’s also a new hunter group provided, as well as errata for Requiem for Rome and Fall of the Camarilla.

Paterfamilias is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with an interview with David Petersen, the creator of the Mouse Guard graphic novel series. Published by Archaia Entertainment, Mouse Guard tells the story of a few brave mice dedicated to protecting their fellow mice from dangerous predators and other threats.

The graphic novels are widely popular; just Last summer we learned that Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 hit the New York Times Best Seller List. Because of the comic’s popularity, Archaia Entertainment recently announced that Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 hardcover is going into a third printing. The series is also a big hit among hobby gamers, too, who enjoy playing the Mouse Guard RPG.

We had the chance to ask David a few questions about the Mouse Guard series, including his upcoming Mouse Guard-related titles like Black Axe and Legends of the Guard.

Let the games begin!

These thirteen original stories by veterans of the fantasy realms take role-playing games and universes to a whole new level.

From a teenager who finds a better future in virtual reality; to a private investigator hired to find a dying man’s grandson in the midst of a virtual reality theme park; from a person gifted with the power to pull things out of books into the real world; to a psychologist using fantasy role-playing to heal his patients; from a gaming convention where the real winners may not be who they seem to be; to a multi-layered role-playing game that leads participants from reality to reality and games within games-these imaginative and fascinating new tales will captivate both lovers of original fantasy and anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of role-playing games.

Flames Rising is happy to present a selection of excerpts from Gamer Fantastic which is edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes.

Gamer Fantastic is available now at Amazon.com.

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven’s darkest creatures.

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Flames Rising has a short excerpt from this new novel by Danielle Trussoni. Angelology is available at Amazon.com and DriveThruHorror.com.

Featuring 20 pulse-pounding short stories, including Mark Souza’s “Cupid’s Maze,” Love Kills: My Bloody Valentine celebrates the sinister side of romance. Forget flowers and candy-scare your lover into your arms this Valentine’s Day.

This macabre collection of Valentine’s Day horror is a devil of a good time.

Love Kills: My Bloody Valentine is available now at DriveThruHorror.com.

It’s not the end of the world-it’s just zombies.

With the help of a morning show shock-jock who has recently turned into a zombie and the burnt-out walking remains of a businessman, Chris becomes the backbone of a fight for undead rights among the fear, prejudice, and uncertainty dividing the living and the not quite dead.

Apex Book Company has offered a small excerpt from this new zombie tale for Flames Rising readers to enjoy. The Changed is available now at DriveThruHorror.com.

As a testament to the continuing strength of the Mouse Guard brand and Archaia Entertainment’s commitment to its creators, the publisher announced today that after selling 80,000 copies of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard Vol. 1: Fall 1152 hardcover since its original release in 2007, the title is going back to press. Archaia’s third printing of 10,000 copies, which are scheduled to arrive in stores in March, was expected to last over a 12-month period, but a deluge of advanced ordering due to the announcement of more Mouse Guard volumes has prompted the possibility of a fourth printing to commence in the coming months.

Are you afraid of a scary clown? Do bats frighten you? To celebrate the release of Peter Straub’s new book, A DARK MATTER, we’re teaming up with Doubleday for a fun contest! Simply, post your worst nightmare in the comments below for your chance to win a free copy of A DARK MATTER mailed right to your door!

Walk the line between magic and madness in Erin M. Evan’s passionate story about the dragons of the City of Splendors…

Tennora would give anything to be a wizard. And Clytemorrenestrix, a strange woman with uncanny blue eyes, whose name means “She Will Thunder in the Sky,” and who claims to be a dragon, promises to make her just that–in return for aid in returning her to her true form. But soon after Tennora seals the deal, a bounty hunter presses a note into her hands claiming the dragon woman is actually a human–a violent, criminally insane human who murders those who fail her.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer a short excerpt from this new Forgotten Realms novel.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an exclusive preview of a new anthology put together by Kerrie Hughes and Martin Greenberg. THE GIRL’S GUIDE TO GUNS AND MONSTERS includes several of your favorite urban fantasy and paranormal romance authors including: Lilith St. Crow, Anton Strout, Tanya Huff, Jim C. Hines, Mickey Zucker Reichert and Elizabeth A. Vaughan.

Featuring several new heroines that aren’t afraid to do the “rescuing,” this collection of thirteen short stories is all about empowered female characters. Now, you can read an excerpt from three of these stories.

The Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters is available now at Amazon.com and DriveThruHorror.com.

After 4 years in the making, Evil Hat Productions is not only pleased but proud to officially announce The Dresden Files Role Playing Game (RPG) will release at the Origins Game Fair, June 23, 2010.

Fred Hicks, one of the founding partners of Evil Hat, said, “Stars and stones! This project has been a labor of love for a great many people for a few years now. The thought of sharing these books with people, getting them in their hands, and having people role playing in the Dresden-verse is making me all misty.”

The Dresden Files RPG is based upon the wildly popular series of books by New York Times best selling author Jim Butcher. With eleven books published in the series, and Changes, the 12th book set to release on April 6, 2010, the Evil Hat crew had a wealth of characters and plot to draw from.