The Ascendant Art guys really liked this part of the interview we did with them and decided to excerpt it as a bit on the importance of creativity and being unique.
I’ll use this to pivot to make the point that Wild Stars is absolutely one of the most unique and creative IPs we’ve had a chance to work with! Check out The Artomique Paradigm on Kickstarter! We’re down to the last week.
Cirsova contributor Schuyler Hernstrom was on Geek Gab on Saturday to talk about his 2nd edition of Thune’s Vision. Check it out!
Also, The Artomique Paradigm is coming close to hitting its first stretch goal!
So, apparently following our split with Ingram Spark, Aerio purged all of our titles from 2019 onwards, despite these still being available on Amazon and in print via KDP. Due to some database issue on Aerio’s end, we are unable to re-add any of these titles to our Aerio store via the ISBN/EAN Search Tool.
While we are not planning on taking down our Aerio store right away [the first 10 issues of Cirsova which were ONLY published through Amazon’s platform are still available], we are no longer maintaining it nor will we be plugging it. It was nice to have a single-point storefront with all of our titles, but hardly anyone ever bought anything through it.
We will focus more on our Crave Books pages going forward. Right now, they aren’t really a publisher-centric platform, so we’ve had to list all of our books [the magazines, at least] as being by “P. Alexander,” but it’s better than nothing.
Anyway, please check out the new Wild Stars Kickstarter if you have not already. We really need to knock this out of the park if we’re going to have any money for acquisitions this Summer.
Nathan over at Castalia House has a fantastic review of the latest Mongoose and Meerkat adventure from Jim Breyfogle.
Jim Breyfogle’s Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat continues in “The Flying Mongoose”, marrying exotic locations with unique situations that require more than a flashing sword to master. And, like many of the recent adventures, the inventive use of technology plays a role in the resolution. Breyfogle excels at making these new toys as tools and perils for Mangos and Kat, and not overwhelming the story with gadgetry. Some sword and sorcery writers like a medieval or early modern setting, but the methods used by their heroes have not changed since before the oceans swallowed Atlantis. Breyfogle recognizes the opportunities created by such a setting, and lets his heroes and antagonists exercise their cunning with the tools, technologies, and opportunities presented by the exotic settings.
Mangos’s education continues. His hands may be made for swordcraft, but his survival so far has depended on a hard-earned cunning applied to situations where fighting requires more than just a sword. Underwater, in caves, in battles of wits, in public sport. All situations where a sword would just get in the way. This time, Mangos learns to be a test pilot for the strangest contraption he has seen, one as uncertain and untested as the polybolos it carries. And in the course of training, he finds his true weapon.
And no, it is not the Marin sword he craves. Or any sword. But, as the engineers say, if it’s stupid and it works, it isn’t stupid. And Mangos’s final act of daring against the dragons is reckless, audacious, and desperate. And it earns him a rare feat in sword and sorcery. Dragon slayers there are a plenty, but few indeed have dispatched a dragon like Mangos.
You can read the whole thing here.
Plus, you can pick up the Spring issue featuring The Flying Mongoose now from Amazon.
We’re half-way through our Kickstarter to take pre-orders for The Artomique Paradigm!
This is a VERY important project for us, as its degree of success will strongly impact our acquisitions budget for the magazine this August!
You can also get caught up on previous Wild Stars adventures from Cirsova Publishing using the code YEARBOOKS15 at checkout for 15% off!
Also, we were on with the Superversive crew yesterday. Had a good talk about not only Wild Stars but the Gen Y vs. Millennial experience and how it pertains to pop-culture and media, including Mark Pellegrini’s horror writing, some of which we’ve published over the years.
Last week, we did an interview with Critical Blast talking about the Wild Stars. I was hesitant to post it, because I feel like we were all over the place and didn’t really do a good job of conveying what the book we’re publishing is about.
On the face of it, Wild Stars may seem like a daunting IP to get into, because it’s been around for 40 years, has a huge cast of characters, and a wide varieties of stories and storytelling that takes place within it told across different media.
Michael looks at Wild Stars in the whole of what he’s doing and what he’s done with it, so his pitches can lack a bit of focus with his excitement for the work in its entirety. So, I’ll take this opportunity to try to give a more concise Wild Stars and Artomique Paradigm pitch:
Wild Stars is an action scifi epic in the tradition of the classic pulps that brings in innumerable elements to make it truly unique and, well, WILD! It’s the saga of two branches of humanity: those who left for the stars 75,000 years ago when Atlantis fell, and the human population of earth which remained. These branches have had occasional encounters over the course of that time [Ancient Aliens are really just our galactic cousins!] but the two have remained largely apart while Earth has caught up with the Wild Stars.
The Artomique Paradigm takes place when these two branches of humanity are attempting to formally establish relations. Achilles “Whip” Hister, the son of an alternate reality Hitler, is poised to take his seat on the head of the board of the Artomique Corporation, which now controls Earth. Whip is determined to walk his own path and lead the Artomique Earth in a different direction, but his father has other plans! A secret alliance between the Artomiques and Space Pirates almost guarantees the Artomique Earth’s dominance over the stars, and Whip finds himself on the run with his new friends Daestar, the telepath and wife of an immortal prince of the Wild Stars, and Bully Bravo the last Republican President of Earth before the Artomique takeover.
The Artomique Paradigm features covers by Anton Oxenuk, Genzoman, and DarkFilly, with interior illustrations by Dark Filly.
Softcover copies are as low as $20.
Critical Blast Interview is below the Kickstarter embed.
The son of an alternate universe’s Hitler is reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps… Achilles “Whip” Hister the Younger has different plans for his future, but he doesn’t count on his father’s alliance with band of space pirates led by the notorious Red Queen!
Be sure to pre-order this exciting space adventure!
And don’t forget, the new issue of Cirsova featuring Wild Stars VI: Orphan of the Shadowy Moon is out this week!
The Cirsova Spring 2022 Issue is Out Now!
Orphan of the Shadowy Moons (Part 1)
By MICHAEL TIERNEY
At long last, the origins of the Ancient Warrior are revealed! Fleeing from the Artomique fleet, Daestar, Bully Bravo, and the Ancient Warrior find a refuge of the immortal race—it is there that the psychic locks on his past are finally released!
The Flying Mongoose
By JIM BREYFOGLE
Dragons have cut off the smiths of Pytheas, but Kat and Mangos have a plan! Un-fortunately, it will require the duo taking to the skies themselves!
Channel 121, After Midnight
By MARK PELLEGRINI
Bored on a Saturday night, Caleb discovers a new channel that has never appeared on the cable box before, offering strange programming and an ominous warning!
The Recorporator Finds a Live One!
By ANDREW MAJORS
A lone Recorporator has just blown a ton of money on rights to a world that he thinks may be a dud… until strange things begin to happen to his scanner drones!
Serpent God of Mars
By ADRIAN COLE
Though defeated by the trainee witchfinder, Arrul Voruum, the sorcerer Rannas Kavannian has survived in a broken stolen body and hides in the depths of Mars!
The City of the Crocodile God
By OWEN G. TABARD
Strange things are afoot in the city sacred to the Crocodile God—her son dead, the high priestess is in a malaise… and a sacred crocodile attacks during the festival!
Darla of Deodanth: Firewood
By LOUISE SORENSEN
After the incident at Machu Hampacchu, all that was left for Darla to do was to re-stock firewood for the excavation site—but no task is simple on the Eldritch Earth!
An Ayre By Landor
By JEFFERY SCOTT SIMS
A magic potion has rendered the Duke of Vardix invulnerable! Can Morca stop the Duke’s scheme to assassinate Lady Niada before all at the Festival of Azamodius?!
Just Another Crappy Story That Kills Everybody In It
By Jim Breyfogle
The Fictionverse is where stories are acted out when pen hits paper—but what happens in a bad or poorly written story? Bob the Guardsman is about to find out!
Dreaming of Mart Senson
By LIVIU SURUGIU [Translated by J.S. Bangs]
Something strange is happening to Mart Senson! The faces of individuals he has dreamed of, and who have dreamed of him, are appearing in portrait on his skin!
Touch of Night
By ERIK JOHNSON
Edward Argot, PI, is approached with a strange job: go deep undercover to inform on a mysterious prisoner… The catch? Said prisoner is reputed to be immortal!
The Sound of Silence
By RODICA BRETIN
An orphan is assaulted by the monstrous Professor Wilberforce—killing her as-sailant lands her in an institution, where trauma manifests in her strange powers!
My Name is John Carter (Part 11)
By JAMES HUTCHINGS
[Also, don’t forget that the Kickstarter for Michael Tierney’s Wild Stars is live!]
I’m sure most of you are familiar by now with Mark Pellegrini as writer of the smash hit comic series Kamen America. But we also hope that you’re familiar with him as a Cirsova contributor and horror writer of Don’t Open the Door and She Saw it Creeping Up the Stairs [and tomorrow, Channel 121 After Midnight.]
In addition to his comic accolades, Mark Pellegrini may well be the rising King of Gen Y Horror.
Gen Y was a narrow band that spent its early childhood in a largely analog world. There were video games, sure, but they were not ubiquitous. Few families had computers, and the internet was some weird thing you read about in scifi books [where it was usually called the Interweb] and maybe saw on TV, but nobody you knew had or used it. We played outside, because cable only gave you 50 or channels to watch.
This was the world that people Mark’s and my age grew up in, and he captures it fantastically in his horror writing, down to the decade-old shag carpets and wood paneling you see in those “ackshually, if you grew in up the 80s” memes.
Mark’s horror takes you back to that time when you were young, the world around you was uncanny and on the verge of changing in ways you could not possibly comprehend–inevitable; inescapable.
And there is no story that captures that more than his They’ll Get You.
Kevin lives with his mom in a suburban neighborhood, goes to a “good” school, has a handful of friends, and is living a fairly normal lifestyle for a kid in the early-mid-90s. But all is not as it seems. Those strange things we sometimes fancied and hyperfocused on as children–those monsters in the drain pipes, the weird houses that didn’t seem quite right, the school janitors who seemed off, and the “big kids” who were such jerks they might as well not even be human–well, for Kevin, these may be more than just the hyperactive imagination of a child.
They’ll Get You has amazing detail and presence of place–it’s so easy to not only visualize but grasp the entire world in which Kevin lives, and is trapped. It’s an incredibly visceral horror story that will resonate with anyone who lived through those times, and hopefully give people who didn’t an idea of the kind of nightmares we had as kids in a pre-digital world.
They’ll Get You is a touch on the long side, but it is surprising how well Mark is able to keep up the tension across so many scenarios as the story builds towards its endgame. There’s not a lot to criticize, and my few qualms [aside from formatting; bro, justify both sides of the text!] would include spoilers which I really would not want to give away…
But speaking of give away, tomorrow we’ll be doing a give-away of a copy of They’ll Get You on Twitter!
I’m on here for the first hour. This is one of the best shows we’ve ever done. Check it out!
Also, be sure to back Wild Stars!
Cirsova 