Archive for the ‘Midnight Blonde’ Category

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5 – Honorable Mentions

Very proud to see that six of my stories, including the Felix Renn tales “Out of the Blue” (from the Fungi anthology) and “Midnight Blonde” (from Supernatural Tales), were included on Ellen Datlow’s list of honorable mentions for The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5.

I really need to get that Felix novel finished.

Oh, and yet another reminder that if you want to pick up a copy of SuperNOIRtural Tales, and have it signed by me, you should come out to Fan Expo / Festival of Fear this weekend!

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5 now available

It looks like the eBook version of The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5 has arrived a few weeks ahead of the trade paperback release. This one features my novelette, “The House on Ashley Avenue,” reprinted from my collection Every House Is Haunted (and recently nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award!). Here’s the cover and table of contents:

Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5

“Nikishi” by Lucy Taylor
“Little America” by Dan Chaon
“A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford
“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson
“Tender as Teeth” by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski
“The Callers” by Ramsey Campbell
“Two poems for Hill House” by Kevin McCann
“Mariner’s Round” by Terry Dowling
“Nanny Grey” by Gemma Files
“The Magician’s Apprentice” by Tamsyn Muir
“Kill All Monsters” by Gary McMahon
“The House on Ashley Avenue” by Ian Rogers
“Dead Song” by Jay Wilburn
“Sleeping, I Was Beauty” by Sandi Leibowitz
“Bajazzle” by Margo Lanagan
“The Pike” by Conrad Williams
“The Crying Child” by Bruce McAllister
“This Circus the World” by Amber Sparks
“Some Pictures in An Album” by Gary McMahon
“Wild Acre” by Nathan Ballingrud
“Final Exam” by Megan Arkenberg
“None So Blind” by Stephen Bacon
“The Ballad of Boomtown” by Priya Sharma
“Pig Thing” by Adam Nevill
“The Word-Made Flesh” by Richard Gavin
“Into the Penny Arcade” by Claire Massey
“Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy Snyder
“Frontier Death Song” by Laird Barron

I also received some nice comments from Ellen in her summation of 2012. In addition to singling out my Felix Renn stories “Midnight Blonde” and “Out of the Blue” as notable tales in Supernatural Tales and the Fungi anthology respectively, she had this to say about the two collections I had published last year:

Ian Rogers had two collections out in 2012: Every House Is Haunted (ChiZine Publications) was his debut collection, with twenty-two stories, seven published for the first time. His best stories are suffused with the perfect creepiness so many horror aficionados crave. One is reprinted herein. SuperNOIRtural Tales (Burning Effigy Press) collects four reprints and an original novella about Felix Renn, a paranormal investigator. Mike Carey provides a brief introduction and Rogers gives a history of his creation, the Black Lands, a parallel dimension to ours, darker and inhabited by all sorts of supernatural creatures.

Not too shabby, eh? Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5 is currently available as an eBook on Kindle, Kobo, and Nook. The trade paperback will be out at the end of August.

Imaginarium 2013

The table of contents for Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing has been posted. My story, “Aces,” has been selected from my collection Every House Is Haunted. I also received six honourable mentions, including one for my Felix Renn story “Midnight Blonde” (which originally appeared in Supernatural Tales). This is a great series featuring many excellent Canadian authors, and I strongly recommend picking it up.

New Vamps, New Reviews

Supernatural Tales #22 is now available for sale! Featuring new fiction from some very fine writers, including my bud Michael Kelly. It also includes a new Felix Renn story called “Midnight Blonde.” It’s got vampires! And blondes! Order it now!

Also, the website Speculating Canada has reviewed all three Felix Renn chapbooks. Derek Newman-Stille, who runs the site, writes some of the most intelligent, thoughtful reviews I’ve ever read. It really says something when the reviewer points out something in your work that you’ve never seen before. And he likes it, too, which is definitely a plus!

Here’s an excerpt from his review of “Temporary Monsters”:

“Rogers’ first book in the Felix Renn series is fundamentally about change and impermanence and that makes it an exciting beginning to a new set of books. There is nothing predictable and the reader, like the characters, are placed on uncertain, shaky ground and feel the need to read through the book to have some sense of permanence to grasp onto at the end.”

Read the full review

From his review of “The Ash Angels”:

“This novel is truly terrifying because it deals with the lack of control that comes with depression; the lack of agency and internal chaos that comes when one is submerged in one’s own shadows. These monsters, although external in the novel, are internal for many people and serve as a reminder of the lurking dangers within one’s own soul and the slight change that is needed to plunge a person into darkness.”

Read the full review

From his review of “Black-Eyed Kids”:

“Good horror takes the familiar and makes it strange and embodies lingering fears, and this is certainly horror of the best kind. Rogers takes the image of innocence in our society, the child, and makes it something that evokes horror. He takes us into a realm of fear where even the most innocuous and normal thing can be an object of utter difference. And, he knows enough about fear to present his audience with the idea that sometimes people would rather die than live in continuing, ever-present fear. Fear of things is scary, but Fear itself is a terror that cannot be escaped from.”

Read the full review

The interview I did with Derek for Speculating Canada is still online, as well, and worth checking out, along with everything else on his excellent website.

The Fall of Felix

There’s a lot of Felix Renn stuff going on over the next few months, enough that I’ve declared this the Fall of Felix! (To be spoken in the same boisterous tone as George Constanza saying “The Summer of George!”)

Here’s the rundown:

In the next week or so, Supernatural Tales #22 will be out, featuring the Felix Renn vampire story, “Midnight Blonde.” (Speaking of vampires, swing over to Speculating Canada and read an article I wrote on Black Lands vampires called “Vamping Things Up.”)

On October 1st, SuperNOIRtural Tales will be available for pre-order from Burning Effigy Press. A very cool preview will be available for electronic download at the same time (more on that later). SuperNOIRtural Tales will include the three Felix Renn novellas (“Temporary Monsters,” “The Ash Angels,” and “Black-Eyed Kids”), the short story “My Body” (featured in the Chilling Tales anthology), and a brand-new, 50,000-word novella called “The Brick.” Other extras include story notes, a history of the Black Lands, and an introduction by Mike Carey. The book will be out in November, just in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Richmond Hill, which I will be attending.

And finally, coming out in December (yeah, technically it’s winter not fall, so sue me), the anthology Fungi will include the story “Out of the Blue,” which features Felix Renn and his haunted real-estate selling foil Jerry Baldwin.

There’s some other cool stuff coming later this year and early next year — a new Black Lands story in Chilling Tales 2, as well as Felix’s first foray into electronic self-publishing — but this should be enough to hold you for the time being.

Thanks to everyone for their continued support of my work. There’s going to be a lot going on this fall (“The Fall of Felix!”), in terms of book launches, readings, and conventions. If you live in the area, I hope you’ll come out and say hello.

“Midnight Blonde” accepted

I’m very excited to announce that a new Felix Renn story, “Midnight Blonde,” has been accepted for an upcoming issue of Supernatural Tales.

I feel this story in particular truly represents what I’ve been trying to do with this series, mixing detective noir with supernatural menace. I think readers will really dig this one.

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What are the Black Lands?

The Black Lands is a dimension filled with supernatural creatures that lies next to our own world. This alternate reality is the setting for a series of stories by Ian Rogers.

To find out more about the Black Lands, read the history.