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Melanie Tem

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Melanie Tem

Steve Rasnic Tem

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Recent News

DAUGHTERS Novel Reissue

Approximately 10 years ago Melanie and Steve published a fantasy adventure novel, DAUGHTERS, through Time-Warner's iPublish digital book venture. Unfortunately the line folded just as that novel was coming out, so there was virtually no promotion, and very few people have seen this book. Now the publishing rights have gone to Macabre Digital Ink, who have brought out a brand new electronic edition of the novel under a different cover.

Four diverse characters collide in an ancient world of darkness and magic: the amazon Gwynn, the princess Evonna, the wizard Alden, and the beast Thet. Out of that collision comes an unforgettable novel of endings and reconciliations, the death of magic and the birth of technology, and the eternal struggle between darkness and light.
Highborn Evonna is unhappy with her constricted choices and troubled by her brother Alden’s dabblings in wizardry. In the great city that is her home, where nothing unplanned ever happens, something has gone terribly wrong. Everywhere are signs of chaos and creeping madness, rumors of plague, and intimations of worse to come. But what can Evonna or Alden do? The answer comes unexpectedly, with the terrifying visit of the subhuman Thet and the sudden appearance of the amazon Gwynn, who harbors a shocking secret. Together, the four unlikely companions bring unimagined change to the city… and are themselves changed in unimaginable ways.

Yet the chaos continues to spread. Desperate, our heroes leave their dying home and embark on a hellish journey to the far mountains. There they will come face-to-face with a malignant darkness determined to forever unbalance the world… a darkness as insane as it is evil.

This e-book is available in .PDF, Kindle, E-pub and Mobi formats. Mobi format can be read using MOBIPOCKET READER for the PC, or on KINDLE, or the free KINDLE FOR PC or the free IPHONE KINDLE APP (we're currently investigating a print-on-demand option). The price is $5.99.

You may order from Macabre Digital Ink directly by clicking the following link:

DAUGHTERS Order Page

Also be sure to check out the titles by David Niall Wilson on the Macabre home page.

IN CONCERT COMING IN APRIL FROM CENTIPEDE PRESS

In April fine book publisher Centipede Press will be bringing out IN CONCERT, a gorgeously produced hardcover collecting ALL of the Steve & Melanie Tem collaborative short stories, including the original version of "The Man on the Ceiling" and a brand new dark novelette, "Bees From the Hive." The volume is beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by Howie Michels and full color reproductions taken from the paintings of Marc Chagall.

Copies are available for pre-order from Amazon, or contact Centipede directly at:

Centipede Press

STEVE RASNIC TEM IS INVISIBLE

Speaking Volumes LLC. has released Steve’s INVISIBLE, a 6-CD audio collection including 16 stories, the majority previously uncollected. The reader is Terry Daniel. (Other authors available in their audio selections include Roger Zelazny, Max Allan Collins, Ed Gorman, Bentley Little, and Sara Paretsky.)

International orders have to go through their 800 number: (888) 777-8204. They can provide a flat shipping rate for shipments to Canada and overseas. All others may order online at:

NOW also available as an MP3 download from the Speaking Volumes website.

Speaking Volumes

MELANIE'S NEW CHAPBOOK TELLS

Wormhole Books recently released Melanie's chapbook TELLS. According to Ed Bryant:

"Tells" gives us a young man who makes his way via both his wits and body in the mountain gambling casinos of Colorado. The title refers to the giveaway signs, both physical and psychological, skilled gamblers look for to achieve an advantage over their colleagues.... Whether this slipstream piece is fantasy or realism is unimportant. The impact generates from the twists of mind and nuances of relationship....It's strong stuff.

With an introduction by Janet Gluckman Berliner and photography by Thomas Meek, TELLS sells for $13, postage included.

Order directly from the publisher: Wormhole Books, 3005 Fairfield Ave., Fort Wayne IN 46807

MELANIE'S THE ICE DOWNSTREAM AT E-READS

There are now paperback and e-book versions of several of Melanie's books available directly from E-Reads. This includes the exclusive edition of her only short story collection THE ICE DOWNSTREAM. Other Melanie Tem books available at the site include Desmodus, Prodigal, Revenant, and Wilding.

RECENT & UPCOMING APPEARANCES

Melanie has these stories coming up:

“The Shoes,” SHIVERS VI, Cemetery Dance Publications
“Braids,” WEREWOLVES & SHAPE-SHIFTERS, John Skipp ed.

Melanie recently had a staged reading of her screenplay-in-development, “Straight Sitting,” at the 73rd Ave Playhouse in Westminster CO.

The World Premiere of Melanie's play “Comfort Me With Peaches” at the Academy Theatre in Meadville PA: 5/9 thru 5/10/10. Call 814-337-8211 for information.

Steve has had these recent appearances:

“A Letter from the Emperor,” Asimov’s Jan. 2010; "Smoke In A Bottle," APPALACHIAN WINTER HAUNTINGS, Michael Knost & Mark Justice eds.; “The Cabinet Child,” PHANTOMS, Sean Wallace & Paul Tremblay eds.; “Red Light,” BLEEDING EDGE, William Nolan & Jason Brock eds.; “The Multiples of Sorrow,” CINNABAR’S GNOSIS, A Homage to Gustav Meyrink, DT Ghetu ed.

Steve has these stories and articles coming up:

“The Glare and the Glow,” Interzone; “Living Arrangement,” Crimewave; “Scree,” Cemetery Dance; “La Mariée,” ART FROM ART, Stephen Soucy ed.; An excerpt from DEADFALL HOTEL, EXOTIC GOTHIC 3, Danel Olson ed.; “Shaggy Dog Story,” BLOOD LITE 2 (HWA), Kevin Anderson ed.; “Heat” (reprint) DARKNESS: TWO DECADES of MODERN HORROR, Ellen Datlow ed.; Essay, “Death and the Book Thief,” 21ST CENTURY GOTHIC, Danel Olson ed.; Essay, “Brazil,” CINEMA FUTURA, Mark Morris ed.; Essay, “Bloody Similitude: Verisimilitude In The Slasher Film,” BUTCHER KNIVES & BODY COUNTS, Vince Liaguno ed.; Poem, "39," in A SEA OF LOVE: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Conlon, ed.; Poem, "After We're Gone," in THESE APPARITIONS: HAUNTED REFLECTIONS OF EZRA POUND, Richard Ristow, ed.; "Sleeping Ute," DEAD WEST, Scott Colbert, ed.

Steve and Melanie will be at the World Horror Convention, Brighton England, March 25-28

MELANIE'S WRITING CLASS AND EDITING SERVICES

E-mail (use link below) for information about Melanie's ongoing writing class (fiction and non-fiction, all genres; $10 per class) or about her editing and in-depth critiquing services ($40 per hr).

MELANIE TEM: Storyteller

"Telling the poetry of everyday life"

In the last quarter century, the ancient oral tradition of storytelling has seen a revival in many countries. In America, the first storytelling festival was in Jonesborough, TN, and that's where "telling" got into my blood a little over a year ago, when I sat in the audience transfixed by a master teller and found myself thinking, "I can do that! I want to do that!"

Now there are storytelling festivals in almost every state, including at least three in Colorado, and the Jonesborough festival attracts some 9000 tellers from all over the world. Having been a writer all my life, I'm exhilarated to have discovered all this, for there are stories that must be told without being written.

Here are some of mine:
"Margaret's 'Possums," which is really more about Margaret than about 'possums
"Come Live with Me," about Alzheimer's and poetry
"Cousins," in which shared experiences give rise to very different memories
"An Ordinary Little Life," about how the stories we tell, sometimes without even knowing it, can change someone else's life.

To arrange storytelling for your group or gathering, contact me at melanietem@earthlink.net or 303-477-0235.

STEVE RASNIC TEM's short fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Dino Buzzati, Ray Bradbury, and Raymond Carver, but to quote Joe R. Lansdale: "Steve Rasnic Tem is a school of writing unto himself." His 200 plus published pieces have garnered him a British Fantasy Award, and nominations for the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards.

MELANIE TEM's chronicles of the terrors that haunt families and the amazing resilience of the human spirit have collected a Bram Stoker award, a British Fantasy Award, and praise both here and abroad. Stephen King said of her first novel, Prodigal, "spectacular, far better than anything by new writers in the hardcover field." Dan Simmons declared it "A cry from the very heart of the heart of darkness . . . Melanie Tem may well be the literary successor to Shirley Jackson." David Morrell called her ghost novel Revenant "Hauntingly beautiful. Achingly on target." And of Black River, her latest novel published by Headline in England, the British critics said "Fascinating, overwhelming, compelling . . . Melanie Tem is one hell of a writer." (SFX) "One of the most resonant, moving novels of recent years . . . a near-masterpiece." (Darlington Northern Echo)

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