I just heard that “Black-Eyed Kids” is going into a second printing!

Thanks to everyone who helped sell out the first printing, and in just a little less than two months’ time. Nice!

I’m very excited to announce that I will be one of the featured guests at “An Evening with the Authors,” along with fellow scribes Tobin Elliott and Jeff Cottrill. The event, which will be hosted by Monica S. Kuebler of Burning Effigy Press, will be held at the Black Swan Tavern (154 Danforth Ave.) on Sunday, November 27th, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

I don’t know about you guys, but with a name like the Black Swan Tavern, I’m hoping for a homicidal Natalie Portman sighting! 

I’ll be reading from the latest Felix Renn novella, “Black-Eyed Kids,” as well as from a new, unpublished Felix story called “Out of the Blue.”

Hope to see you there!

In other news, The Man Eating Bookworm has posted a really incredible review of “Temporary Monsters.” Here’s an excerpt:

If you are a fan of urban fantasy fare as delivered by Jim Butcher or Simon R. Green, you’ll be sure to love what Rogers has in store. This short novella introduces readers to a world where things that go bump in the night and our own are separated by only the most delicate of veils.

Read the rest of the review.

And finally, Dreadful Tales posted an article on their favourite Canadian horror authors, and they included me on their list!

All in all, a great way to start the weekend. Thanks, everyone!

There’s a fairly in-depth interview with me over at The Ginger Nuts of Horror in which I talk about my writing background, urban fantasy, detective fiction, Deadstock, and of course, Felix Renn and the Black Lands.

There have been a lot of reviews of the Felix Renn chapbooks popping up lately.

Mary Rajotte over at Bloody Bookish had this to say about “Temporary Monsters”:

“Right from the 1st line, “The waiter got killed before he could drop off the bill”, which is so stark, it immediately plunges you into the heart of the action, readers are thrown into a world where monsters are the norm and the Paranormal Intelligence Agency (PIA) and the paranormal itself acts as a dangling carrot that entices both readers and Renn alike.”

Read the rest of the review at Bloody Bookish.

And she had this to say about “The Ash Angels”:

“From the very start, Rogers conjures up a darker more melancholy universe for Renn. Set against the backdrop of Christmas Eve, The Ash Angels is a darker, grittier read that adds more depth to Renn and continues to peel back the layers of the story that readers will undoubtedly be intrigued with the same way I was.”

Read the rest of the review at Bloody Bookish.

Meanwhile, The Ginger Nuts of Horror covered all three Felix Renn chapbooks in a single review, which is a first for me, and includes the first review of “Black-Eyed Kids.” Here’s some excerpts from the review:

On “Temporary Monsters”:

“A fast paced story, where the action kicks of from the word go and never lets up.”

On “The Ash Angels”:

“…this is a much quieter tale than it’s predecessor, however it still has the same great dialogue, great writing and snarky humour of Temporary Monsters. It was good to see such a different style of tale, it shows that Rogers is no one trick pony.”

On “Black-Eyed Kids”:

“This is a brilliant example of noir horror, chilling, thrilling, full of excellent dialogue, and a great cast of characters. Rogers has excelled in creating a truly chilling adversary in the Black Eyed Kids, these kids are creepy to the max.”

Read the full review at The Ginger Nuts of Horror.

There are more reviews coming down the pipe, as well as some interviews and other cool announcements that I’ll be able to tell you about soon.

Until then, if you have yet to check out the world of the Black Lands, Burning Effigy Press is currently offering a sweet deal where you can get all three Felix Renn chapbooks for only $20.

I’d also like to take a moment to once again thank everyone for their continuing support. The interest in this series has been overwhelming (and the hunger for a Felix Renn novel is voracious). If I could spend my days writing Felix Renn/Black Lands books, I’d be one happy cat. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but I do know that every time someone buys one of my stories, I’m one step closer to achieving that dream. It means a lot. So thank you!

“Black-Eyed Kids” is now available on the Burning Effigy Press website!

Also, if you’re on Facebook, swing on over to the Felix Renn / The Black Lands fan page and check out pics from this year’s Word on the Street.

If you’re in the Toronto area this weekend, come on out to the launch of the new Felix Renn novella, “Black-Eyed Kids,” taking place at the Word on the Street book and magazine festival.

I will be signing from noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Burning Effigy Press booth (FB18) located at Queen’s Park Crescent East, halfway between St. Joseph’s St. and Wellesley St.

Also, this arrived today…

The June 1946 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine featured the winners of the mag’s very first short story contest. Consequently it also marked the first appearance of Lew Archer, the private detective created by Ross Macdonald, and the one, along with Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, who provided the primary influence for Felix Renn.

The story in this issue is called “Find the Woman” (it came fourth in the contest), and it’s credited to Kenneth Millar, which is Ross Macdonald’s real name. Millar wouldn’t start calling himself Macdonald until the publication of the first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target.

Macdonald wrote 18 Lew Archer novels in all. The final one, The Blue Hammer, was published in 1976, the year I was born.

In an amusing twist, Macdonald’s detective actually had a different name for his short story debut in “Find the Woman.”

His name?

Rogers.

The lead-up to the launch of “Black-Eyed Kids” continues with the cover, synopsis, and a couple of blurbs by a pair of authors who were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to read an advance copy of Felix Renn’s latest adventure.

Felix Renn is a private investigator in a world that co-exists alongside The Black Lands, a dark dimension filled with  terrifying creatures.

After the woman he’s hired to follow turns up dead, Felix discovers he has drawn the attention of the Black-Eyed Kids – supernatural entities so dark and mysterious that even the government’s elite Paranormal Intelligence Agency knows little about them.

As the bodies continue to pile up, Felix quickly discovers he has no one to turn to, and that it’s only a matter of time before the Black-Eyed Kids come calling on him.

Advance praise for “Black-Eyed Kids”

“Since first encountering Ian Rogers’s private investigator Felix Renn – and his run-ins with the mysterious Black Lands that lie bloody cheek-to-jowl with our own reality – I have been following each of his cases with avid interest. Now, in Black-Eyed Kids, Renn has met his most dangerous challenge yet. Truly, this is one of the most chilling horror stories I’ve read in years. Make that, that I’ve read period. By the time it’s done you’ll be looking over your shoulder for sweet little children with obsidian eyes. And more than that, you’ll be looking over your shoulder in the hopes of seeing the next Renn adventure sneaking up on you.”  – Jeffrey Thomas, author of Punktown

“With Black-Eyed Kids, Ian Rogers continues to raise the stake for his Felix Renn stories. … This time out, Renn finds himself confronted by a pair of sinister children whose power to evoke sheer, unbridled fear is just this side of irresistible. His efforts to understand their connection to a series of gruesome murders without winding up a (horribly mutilated) corpse, himself, form the backbone of this fast-moving, highly entertaining read. Renn’s encounters with supernatural monsters (especially a tree that’s every gardener’s worst nightmare) are as well-handled as ever, but it’s his interactions with monsters of the human variety that give this narrative its kick.”  – John Langan, author of Technicolor and Other Revelations

“Black-Eyed Kids” will debut a week from today, Sunday, September 25th, 2011, at the Word on the Street book and magazine festival in Toronto.

I came home from work today to find an unexpected surprise: a double-header review of “Temporary Monsters” and “The Ash Angels” by Nick Kaufmann, author of the Stoker-nominated General Slocum’s Gold, and the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated Chasing the Dragon.

Here’s my favourite part:

Temporary Monsters dwells in the gray area between horror and fantasy. It is essentially an urban fantasy, or what urban fantasy was for a short time before it became synonymous with tattooed female slayers and their supernatural bad-boy boyfriends.

You can read the rest of the review over at Nick’s blog.

In other news, I sent off the final edits on “Black-Eyed Kids” this morning, and I expect to have the final layout and the cover very soon!