Fan Expo / Festival of Fear 2013

Very excited to announce that I will be an author guest at this year’s Fan Expo / Festival of Fear, which takes place August 22-25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I’ll be selling and signing books, and probably spending a large part of my time prying Kathryn off of Nathan Fillion. Personally, I’m looking forward to a Katey Sagal sighting, hopefully in her Peg Bundy leopard-print pants. Oh, and Ron Pearlman, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Gina Torres, Linda Hamilton, and Carrie Fisher will be there, too (among others). Hope to see you there!

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.

Toronto ComiCon 2013

Next weekend, March 9th and 10th, I will be signing books at Toronto ComiCon. You can find me at the Burning Effigy Table. Copies of SuperNOIRtural Tales will be for sale, and I’ll have a few copies of Every House Is Haunted and Deadstock, as well, from my personal stash. It looks like it’s going to be a great con, so come out and say hello and maybe buy a book or two.

I’d also like to direct you to the excellent website, Speculating Canada, where some book club questions for SuperNOIRtural Tales have been posted.

In other news, Lurid Lit recently reviewed “Temporary Monsters,” calling it “brash, brilliant, and salivating.” Check out the full review on their website.

“Weirding” the home

Derek Newman-Stille over at Speculating Canada reviewed SuperNOIRtural Tales. Here’s a little of what he had to say:

Rogers plays with the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the extraordinary, illustrating how ordinary people can learn to cope with the introduction of the Weird into their everyday lives… Ian Rogers ‘Weirds’ the home, disrupting the safe blanket of domesticity that has become the foundation for Western modernity. Houses become things that can attack people, that can kill, that can be possessed… and even the bricks of the home itself can become infused with the ‘Weird’. They can be tainted spaces, infused with the miasma of the Black Lands.

Read the full review at Speculating Canada.

The first news roundup of 2013

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a general news roundup. The past few months all I’ve really talked about are my two collections, but there’s been some other stuff going on that, unfortunately, has gotten kind of pushed to the wayside as a result.

I’ve got a couple of new short stories out. A dark comedy, “I Hate Needles,” in the eBook anthology Strange World, published by the talented crew over at Biff Bam Pop and available exclusively for the Kobo eReader. And there’s “Out of the Blue,” a new Felix Renn story available in the Fungi anthology, which features stories by many other excellent writers. The book is available in trade paperback, eBook, and a hardcover edition that has some extra stories. The publisher has created a snazzy website devoted to Fungi, with all kinds of fungusy fun.

I sold a new story over the holidays, a dark wilderness tale called “False North.” It will appear in an anthology called Shadows Edge, edited by Simon Strantzas and published by Gray Friar Press.

“Temporary Monsters,” the first Felix Renn novella, is still available as a free eBook. You can download a copy for your eReader of choice at Smashwords, or read it online at Wattpad or Scribd. (And if you enjoy TM, you might want to check out the Felix Renn collection SuperNOIRtural Tales.)

And finally, I will be on Trent Radio tomorrow night, January 15th, from 7:00-8:00 p.m., talking about books, writing, Felix Renn and the Black Lands, coffee, the woods, and anything else that might come up. If you’re not in the Peterborough area, you can still listen to the show online. Hope you can tune in.

Correction: We’ll be recording the show on the 15th, but the show will air at a later date that has yet to be determined.

SuperNOIRtural Tales now available!

The first collection of Felix Renn stories, SuperNOIRtural Tales, is now available for sale!

SuperNOIRtural Tales cover

Featuring all three Felix Renn chapbooks — “Temporary Monsters,” “The Ash Angels,” “Black-Eyed Kids” — as well the short story “My Body,” and a brand-new, 50,000-word novella called “The Brick.” As well as story notes, a history of the Black Lands, and an introduction by Mike Carey, author of the Felix Castor novels and writer for the DC/Vertigo comic book series Lucifer, Hellblazer, and The Unwritten.

If you’re curious about the book and the series, you can check out the first novella, “Temporary Monsters,” for free!

The Next Big Thing

My bud, Rio Youers, tagged me to be a part of this online q&a called The Next Big Thing. The idea is to answer ten quick fire questions on your blog, and then tag five other writers, and so on. It’s a good idea, and a nice way to drum up interest in your latest work. Rio tagged me and you can read his answers on his website. Here are mine:

1. What is the working title of your next book?

My next book is titled…. UNTITLED FIRST FELIX RENN NOVEL. Actually, I know the title of the book, but I’m not ready to reveal it here. If you really want to know, I mentioned it in the story notes in my Felix Renn collection, SuperNOIRtural Tales. It just came out, so let’s talk about that book instead, okay?

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

SuperNOIRtural Tales is a collection of five stories featuring a recurring private detective character named Felix Renn. I don’t recall where the idea for Felix came from, except that I’ve always enjoyed supernatural fiction and detective fiction, and thought it would be fun to combine them in one story.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

I suppose some people would say it’s urban fantasy, but UF has become synonymous with paranormal romance these days, so I tend to refer to these stories as supernatural noirs, or supernoirturals (hence the title of the book).

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I think Ryan Gosling could make an interesting Felix. And I think Alicia Witt would do well as Felix’s ex-wife/assistant, Sandra.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Felix Renn is a private detective in a supernatural world.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The book was published by Burning Effigy Press.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The collection is the culmination of three years’ worth of stories. The longest story, “The Brick” at 50,000 words, took about three months to write.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Hmm. Tough question. I think of Felix as more Harry D’Amour than Harry Dresden, so I’m reluctant to compare the book to others in the field of urban fantasy. The Felix Renn stories actually owe more to detective fiction than horror, so while I would compare the story to something like Everville, by Clive Barker, I’d also include the Lew Archer series by Ross Macdonald and the Spensers books by Robert B. Parker.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My love for detective/supernatural fiction mash-ups.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Well, I think Felix Renn and the Black Lands series stands out among others in its subgenre, if only because I don’t self-identify as an author of urban fantasy. It’s not about marketing. I think if you read these stories (and you can read the first one in the series, “Temporary Monsters” for free), you’ll see that they stand very much on their own.

So there we go. Quick and painless. Unfortunately, I’ve only managed to tag one other author so far. Orrin Grey is up next in the hot seat one week from today.

“Temporary Monsters” now available as a FREE eBook!

If you’ve never read a Felix Renn story before, this is your chance.

To celebrate the forthcoming publication of SuperNOIRtural Tales, Burning Effigy Press has published the first Felix Renn novella, “Temporary Monsters,” as a free eBook!

I’m really excited about this, not just because it helps promote the collection, but also because it gives people who have never read a Felix Renn story before a free preview of the world of the Black Lands. Here’s a bit more about the story:

Temporary Monsters cover

Felix Renn is a private investigator in a supernatural world, an alternate reality where a dark dimension called The Black Lands co-exists alongside our own. Travelling to and from The Black Lands is dangerous – and illegal – but that doesn`t stop some of the creatures that reside there from crossing over into our world from time to time.

After a man goes berserk in a posh Toronto restaurant, Felix suddenly finds himself torn between both worlds as he is drawn into a deadly game of movies, murder and monsters.

The “Temporary Monsters” eBook can be downloaded at the following locations:

So if you enjoy “Temporary Monsters” and you’d like to take another trip to the Black Lands, then you should definitely pre-order SuperNOIRtural Tales.

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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.