Announcing Ragnarok, the e-lit journal, Writing Contest

On Monday, June 11, 2012 Valhalla Press will launch its first writing contest in conjunction with the coming publication of our e-lit journal, Ragnarok. Valhalla Press Literary Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Contest First prize: $500, Ereader of your choice and inclusion in Ragnarok, the Valhalla Press 2013 Anthology Second prize: Ereader of your choice and inclusion in Ragnarok, the Valhalla Press 2013 Anthology Honorable Mention: Inclusion in Ragnarok, the Valhalla Press e-lit journal Check back Monday for all the details and instructions. Meanwhile, begin polishing up your literary fiction and nonfiction work.

Ray Bradbury Passes Away

The literary world has lost another giant with the passing of Ray Bradbury today at age 91. Bradbury evoked the terror of totalitarianism in Fahrenheit 451. With a title taken from the temperature at which paper burns, the novel tells the story of a fireman, Montag. But in this world firemen don't put out fires, they start them. Written in 1953, the images of Nazi book burning and Stalinist repression were fresh in his mind.

Cold War angst played a large part in Bradbury's work. In The Martian Chronicles human colonists on Mars witness Earth's nuclear apocalypse in the Martian sky. His other classics include Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, The Halloween Tree and many others.

In some ways, Bradbury became a repository for American angst. He was descended from a witch tried at Salem, Massachusetts. His father lost his job during the depression, prompting a move to California. As a child, he had vivid nightmares that often became fodder for his stories. A child of the depression, he developed a relentless work ethic writing 1,000 words a day from the age of 14 until his health would no longer permit it. He wrote “Fahrenheit 451” at the UCLA library, on typewriters that rented for 10 cents a half hour. He said he carried a sack full of dimes to the library and completed the book in nine days, at a cost of $9.80.

Maurice Sendak is gone

Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and many others, has left us and will be missed by generations of children, some not yet born. Don't miss the ultimate interview with Stephen Colbert.

Valhalla Press e-publishes the Ambermere Series

Valhalla Press proudly announces the publication of J. Calvin Pierce’s Ambermere series. Pierce penned the series twenty years ago when it met with critical acclaim and was translated into several languages including Russian. The books, The Door to Ambermere, the Sorceress of Ambermere, and The Wizard of Ambermere went on to become cult classics.

Valhalla Press is celebrating the 20^th Anniversary of the Ambermere release with the electronic re-release of this classic series.  Readers may enjoy the books in the e-book format of their choice. The books are currently available for the Kindle, Nook or on Smashwords. Readers may also download the Kindle App to allow their PC or Mac to read the Kindle version. Shortly, the books will be released in Apple ibooks and on Kobo.

In The Door to Ambermere, Daniel believes the only really pressing issue in his life is a little misunderstanding with a mobster. That’s because, lacking any awareness of the kingdom of Ambermere, possibly because it is located in an alternative world, he has no way of anticipating what impact the machinations of a tippling magician could possibly have on his life. He’s about to find out.

In The Sorceress of Ambermere, Marcia is clinging to the increasingly dreamlike memories of the previous summer. Had she really had those adventures, really braved those perils? The scar on her cheekbone and the ring on her finger said yes. But then, where is Hannah the witch? Where is the young woman with the impossible aura and wild, frightening eyes? Marcia is waiting, but not patiently…

The Wizard of Ambermere finds Marcia in her apartment. She has now participated in so many strange events, has acquired a history of such a surrealistic complexion, that the most outlandish adventures have come to seem perfectly normal. Really, what could surprise her now? Meanwhile, in Ambermere things are not quite as they should be. Will Asbrak the Fat have to call on Rogan the Obscure again?

In honor of the 20^th Anniversary, Valhalla Press is also e-publishing two shorter works by Mr. Pierce: Meals on Wheels, a short story and Sahib, a novelette.  Our hope is to give Mr. Piece’s fans a fresh look at his work and introduce these enduring classics to a new generation. 

Virginity Checks OK in US

The world was outraged when the Egyptian military conducted so-called virginity checks on female protesters during the Egyptian Revolution and even more so when the doctors who conducted them were found not guilty last month in an Egyptian court.

Where's the outrage here in the US now that the United States Supreme Court has authorized what amounts to the same thing, except performed by deputy sheriffs and prison wardens. The court authorized strip searches for anyone arrested even on minor charges like traffic violations. Presumably angry protesters may face the same treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html

Behind "In the Shadow of Midnight"

On a steamy September Savannah day in 2005, my wife and I, with our wheezing bichon frise, escaped the 90-degree heat into our rented condo on East Broad Street in the Trustee's Garden section of town. We were grateful for the Savannah-capacity air conditioning in our vacation bungalow as we collapsed on our bed to take an afternoon nap. (Southerners would be appalled at the wimpy excuses we have for air conditioners in Pennsylvania.) A few hours later, I awoke and looked out the front window to see four police cruisers, an ambulance and a hearse at the building across the street. We watched the paramedics roll out two bodies and immediately assumed murder/suicide.

The two bodies were Bob and Tina Stoddard. As the story of their lives and deaths unfolded, I was drawn to them as flawed, tragic, but sympathetic characters who lived in the shadow of the more celebrated goings-on on Monterey Square.  Their attempts to enjoy the magical world that Jim Williams and the Savannah elite created always fell short. Their desire, Bob's in particular, to be a part of that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil world ultimately destroyed them.

In the next few blogs, I will provide some back story to the tale In the Shadow of Midnight: Daedalus, a Tale of Savannah.

In the opening scene, where I describe the tourists rounding the corner, turning toward the river, and never seeing the vehicular apparatus of death deployed outside the Stoddard's apartment, it reminded me of Breugel's painting, The Fall of Icarus. The parallel between Daedalus and Bob Stoddard became too obvious to ignore.

I coupled the two stories to play on two gothic concepts:  ancestral ghosts and the strange sort of predestination they appear to exert in some people's lives. The myths of Ovid are just as alive today as they were when written and when Breugel was painting a millennia and half later.

New narrative non-fiction available

Valhalla Press has just published In the Shadow of Midnight: Daedalus, A Tale of Savannah by Albert Davenport.

To preview the narrative nonfiction work, click here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007KST57O