In just a few weeks, A DARK MATTER will officially debut. FlamesRising.com is able to not only give you an inside look into this new horror novel by New York Times Bestseller Peter Straub, but we’ve got a few other goodies in store for you, too.

The blue dragon, Lazuli, lives to torment the villagers of Sandon’s hometown, Hartfall. He demands more and more riches until the Baron, Sandon’s father, has only one thing left to give: himself. Lazuli will arrive at midnight to take the Baron away. Sandon has only one hope left: the gold dragon that sits atop a ledge above the village, silently watching. In one legendary battle Lazuli magically petrified the gold dragon, once Hartfall’s sworn protector. But Sandon is sure he can find a way to awaken the beast. In the dead of night, he sneaks out onto the gold dragon’s ledge. And there he stumbles onto a secret that throws everything he thought he knew about his home and his family into question. Can Sandon unlock the secret of the gold dragon in time to save his village–and his dad?

This next installment of the series inspired by The New York Times best-seller A Practical Guide to Dragons shows just how much a young boy can do when he realizes that the strength of a gold dragon may lie inside himself.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers an excerpt from this book by R.D. Henham. Gold Dragon Codex is available now at Amazon.com.

Cubicle 7 Entertainment and Sophisticated Games are proud to announce that they are jointly developing The One Ring: The Lord of the Rings Role-playing Game.

“We’re tremendously excited about The One Ring,” said Dominic McDowall-Thomas, Cubicle 7 Director. “Our aim is to give our audience an authentic Middle-earth gaming experience, one that really captures the feel of Tolkien’s world.”

The designer and lead writer of this project, Francesco Nepitello, is a games industry veteran, best known for the hugely successful and critically acclaimed War of the Ring strategy board game, which he designed with The One Ring co-designer Marco Maggi and Roberto di Meglio. A recipient of the International Gamers Award, War of the Ring is recognised by many ‘Lord of the Rings’ enthusiasts and hobby gamers alike as one of the most engaging recreations of the world-renowned fantasy saga by J.R.R. Tolkien. Francesco and Marco are the designers of other immersive board game titles like Marvel Super Heroes and Age of Conan, but started their game-designing careers creating Lex Arcana, the most successful and popular fantasy role-playing game published in Italy.

DriveThruRPG announced a major incentive to the roleplaying gamer community today to incite donations to aid in rescue and recovery in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Called the “Gamers Helping Haiti Bundle,” the product includes over a hundred products totaling over $1000.00 in retail value. For a simple donation of $20 – all of which goes to Doctors Without Borders to support their post-earthquake Haiti relief efforts – RPG fans can have this once-in-a-lifetime collection of gaming products.

Brian Evenson’s Last Days, published by Underland Press, has been selected as part of the Reference User and Services Association’s 2010 Reading List.

The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (which includes suspense, thriller, and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and women’s fiction, and is selected by the association’s Reading List Council, composed of members representing libraries across the United States.

Last Days is available now at Amazon.com.

FlamesRising.com is proud to present you with an in-depth look into A DARK MATTER. Written by New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub, this novel is already getting rave reviews from places like Publisher’s Weekly well before its official release date of February 9, 2010. Over the next, few weeks we’re going to share with you more about this modern horror novel which has been billed as “powerful” and “brilliantly terrifying.”

To kick off our in-depth look at this new horror novel, we’d like to share with you Peter’s answers to a few of our questions.

A Tale of The Darkness!

Go back to the turn of the 20th Century and read a tale of lost love, the depravity of man and powers beyond our understanding in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft!

Salvador Gomes is a broken man. He has lost his beautiful wife and young daughter in a fire and now spends restless days and sleepless nights looking for solace. In desperation, he makes a bargain with “The Shadow God,” but every bargain has its price…

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers a five page preview of The Darkness: Shadows & Flame one-shot, which will arrive in stores this Wednesday, January 20.

Dark Matter Studios, producer of the well-received fantasy rpg Epic Role Playing, has released its latest offering, Audhüm, The Southern Reach of Vanier. Audhüm throws players into a cold and unforgiving bronze age world, a place for heroes of ferocity, mettle and ambition. Audhüm is completely compatible with Dark Matter Studios ENnie Award nominated Epic RPG system (Best Rules, 2008).

This original fantasy setting allows players and GM’s the opportunity to take the chariot reins of a harsh, adolescent milieu. Audhüm is a land that has just entered the Bronze Age, whose races are founding the first great civilizations. Heroes in single combat decide the fate of city-states. The gods speak to their anointed. Written language is less than 300 years old. This is the dawn of history.

The Dead Matter movie to be released on July 30th. Midnight Syndicate gives filmmakers chance to have their work featured on The Dead Matter DVD and win prizes with their 13th Anniversary Video Contest.

Midnight Syndicate Films has announced that The Dead Matter movie and soundtrack will be released on July 30th. Production on an interactive website that allows fans to delve deeper into the world and characters they will encounter in the movie is underway. A set of three new trailers, the first of which will be released in February is also in production along with a mini-documentary produced by Smudgeline Productions and other behind-the-scenes featurettes. All of these items and more special features to be announced soon will be included on the DVD release.

First published in 1999, This is My Blood is David Niall Wilson’s first and most important novel. It is a retelling of the gospel from a very different perspective. When jesus goes into the desert and is tempted by the devil, there is one temptation added. One of the fallen is raised as a woman to tempt him with the flesh. Instead, the woman, named Mary, falls in love with Jesus and his promise of returning her to Heaven.

Cursed to follow him and drink the blood of his followers, Mary walks a fine line between her desire to love and support the Christ, and her burning need to return to Heaven. This novel takes the world of faith, which was the world of men, and of the apostles, and shows it through the eyes of a fallen angel – one who has, in her own words, walked the roads of both Heaven, and Hell. She doesn’t believe there is a God…she knows.

Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers an excerpt from this dark tale. This is My Blood is available now at DriveThruHorror.com.

VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE will be a 140-page full-color graphic novel based on the critically acclaimed Vampire Apocalypse book series written by Derek Gunn. New Baby Productions licensed the graphic novel rights to the novels.

This new graphic novel adaptation will be scripted by CJ Hurtt, an eclectic writer whose work has run the gamut from mainstream to horror to slipstream to political drama. Federico Combi, a visionary artist from Argentina with a comprehensive fine arts education, provides a realistic painted style that fits the dark tone of VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE perfectly.

New Baby Productions has launched a Kickstarter page to raise initial funds for marketing and pre-production costs for this graphic novel. Supporters of this project get access to behind-the-scene updates, previews and other exclusive materials.

I recently spoke with A.P. Fuchs of Coscom Entertainment about the mix of comics and fiction available for fans of zombies, super-heroes and other dark, twisted tales.

Call you tell us a little about Axiom-Man?

Again, this will have to be another “long story short.” Axiom-man–the concept, anyway–was a superhero I invented while delivering newspapers as a kid, something to keep my mind busy while I went door to door. I’d daydream adventures, create story arcs, etc. Then, I created the version you know in high school. In 2005, I was inspired by the surge of independent superhero fiction being published and in January of 2006 began work on the first installment in the series. Here we are, three years later and the character has four books and one comic to his credit with more to come.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present you with the first chapter of a book entitled THE MERMAID’S MADNESS, which was written by acclaimed author Jim C. Hines.

THE MERMAID’S MADNESS is the second in the series, and features a trip to the land of the mermen and mermaids.

The Mermaid’s Madness is available now at Amazon.com and DriveThruFantasy.com.

To help you kick off this auspicious New Year right, we’ve got twenty of the biggest and best RPG products on our site on sale for just $10! These are all “big ticket” books that normally sell for at least $20 or more (some for a LOT more), but we all want to jump start the gamer economy here at the start of the year, and you can help us by taking advantage of this unique and amazing sale!

“Hey, wait… there’s more than twenty products on this list!”

Well, yeah. You got us. The publishers thought this was such an amazingly cool idea, they committed more books than we asked for, and we just didn’t have the heart to choose. So you’re really getting “Twenty-Plus for $10!” Do us a favor and don’t tell the bosses, OK?

Twenty for $10 RPG Sale at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy and Warhammer Fantasy

Now Available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

Just in time for the New Year, two excellent sourcebooks for Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy RPG – Purge the Unclean (a trilogy of action, adventure, and horror in service to the Imperial Inquisition) and the Game Master’s Kit (featuring poisons and toxins rules, a xenos generator, quick reference charts, and a full adventure).

Broken Frontier proudly presents the winners of its sixth annual Broken Frontier Awards!

For its 2009 edition, BF opened up its voting process to fans, creators and industry professionals after our staff had compiled four nominees each over a series of ten categories.

As such, the creators and projects that came out on top are the winners as determined by our voting public.

Have your players been good boys and girls?

If not, the perchta is waiting for them! In need of some wintery foes to throw at your Pathfinder players?

Then look no further, Mythic Menagerie: Winter Ravagers is here!

Winter Ravagers is the first in Super Genius Games’ new Mythic Menagerie line of monster products. The plan is for every Mythic Menagerie to offer a set of monsters that match a theme, with full write-ups, simple index card style summaries for use at the game table, and printable standee figures for every monster. But while future versions will feature typical fantasy adventure themes-fiends and cultists, dark fey, creatures from the subterranean kingdoms – Winter Ravagers is focused on a less common trope.

As the official source for information regarding the development and eventual production of a feature film based on Eclipse Phase, MoreNachos Entertainment is pleased to announce that EclipsePhaseMovie.com is now online.

Fans of the role-playing game and those anticipating the film, may now find updates on the script and
production status – and soon read blog entries from the producers and writers as well as casting choices. A forum is dedicated to discussing everything about the film and game. Additional areas are dedicated to the roleplaying game, about the production staff and more features to come.

THE GAME’S AFOOT, WATSON. LET’S CRACK THESE ROTTERS IN THE SKULL! – SHERLOCK HOLMES!

“It’s the master detective like you’ve never seen him before, and anyone underestimating Watson will pay dearly for it. Don’t miss Warner Brother’s extraordinary new take on Sherlock Holmes on December 25th, and our Movie Mayhem sale all Christmas Weekend.

Sherlock Holmes Movie Mayhem Sale at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop

Don’t forget the check out the Sherlock Holmes collection from Caliber Comics available now at DriveThruComics.com.

People often say that there are no such things as monsters. They are wrong. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other un-namable horrors co-exist with us. Watching us. Using us. Preying upon us.

Welcome to Pinebox, a sleepy little East Texas town with a lot more than its share of trouble. Whether it’s the haunted diner luring weary travelers, the unexplained ‘alligator attacks”, or the crone who just might be hexing neighborhood kids, trouble always seems to be hidden just below the surface. Buried, but not forgotten.

In Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas, a dozen horror authors and game designers have gotten together to write tales set in Pinebox, Texas. This sleepy little East Texas town definitely has a lot more going on than the occasional bar fight.

The e-book version of Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas is available now at DriveThruHorror.com and the paperback version is available through Amazon.com.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present a preview of a few stories in this horror anthology.