What’s Up With BLN: January 2013

Ever wonder who the writers at BLN are and what we’re up to? We thought we’d share some of our current projects!

Damien Walters Grintalis

Ink Cover Art - Resized My debut novel, Ink, was released from Samhain Horror in December. The Horror Fiction Review said, “… even when you might think you know where the story’s going, you’ll be in for some clever and nasty surprises.” and “Debut novels should not be this good.”

A tattoo can be a work of art…or a curse.

The fearsome griffin inked on Jason Harford’s arm looks real enough to climb off and take flight. Jason thinks his new tattoo is perfect. Until he wakes up one night to find his arm temporarily ink free. Until he finds a brick wall where the tattoo shop should be.

As Jason’s world spins out of control, he comes to realize a truth as sharp as the griffin’s talons. The tattoo is alive, it’s hungry, and if Jason tries to kill it, he’ll die. The artist will remove it for a price, but he’s not interested in money or Jason’s soul. He wants something far worse…

Ink is available in both trade paperback and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and others.

So far for 2013, I will have new short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Apex Magazine, and others. My agent has my next novel, entitled Paper Tigers, in her hands, and I have two other novels and a handful of recently completed short stories that need editing.


Lillian Cohen-Moore
I’m continuing work on my statless setting book, Guide to the Village by the Sea. Outside that, I’ll be keeping up with a little client work, and  trying to clear a few short stories and essays off my plate to formally close out 2012. I’m also looking for a job in Seattle, which is trampling a lot of my writing time. On Dec 17th, I started an 8 week long guest blog at Bitch Magazine, “Save vs Sexism,” which is about sexism in tabletop games.

Galen Dara
I’m working on wrapping up the Geek Love anthology, finishing a cover for a historic ghost story, working out the contract details for cover art for a YA novel and an anthology about body modification, plus my usual 2 to 4 illustrations a month for Lightspeed. Also, I have GOT to get my work space in better order; it’s still in boxes and piles after moving this summer.

Jaym Gates
I’m finishing up and submitting a handful of short stories to clear my slate for 2013, wrapping up the Geek Love anthology, promoting Richard Lee Byers’ “Called to Darkness” for Pathfinder Tales, and starting on the Nebula Awards. Also working on a shared-world anthology, and getting ready to move up to the ranch for a few months.

Adam Israel
I’m doing long overdue rewrites and revisions on a dozen or so short stories, and finishing the first draft of my first novel. I’m also polishing up my EBook Store, currently live on Nightmare Magazine. Finishing things is my mission over the next few months.

Caroline Ratajski
Right now I’m editing my novel, YA scifi action, trying to whip it into shape so it can maybe go on-sub someday soon. Also I’m in a recently-released anthology titled Danse Macabre with my short story “Death in the Family,” a retelling of the classic folk tale Godfather Death.

Bear Weiter
I’m working on wrapping up edits for my first novel (tentatively titled The Arrival) while working on my second (Mirrors Stairs and Doors). I have short stories coming out in Atomic Age Cthulhu (story title: Within the Image of the Divine), The Speculative Edge (story title: Dear Diary – my first reprint sale!), and Fish (The Talking Fish of Shangri-La). While I’ve worked as a designer for almost twenty years, I recently did my first book design project (Geek Love) and it’s been a great experience (if not a lot more work than I had expected). My plans and goals for this year – research agents and try to find one, sell the first novel, finish the second, start the third, write and publish more short stories, and maybe even dabble in a personal graphic novel idea.