NEW RELEASE: The Compendium, 2022

 LegendFire Critique Community is pleased to announce the release of its 2022 issue of THE COMPENDIUM. 

The subtitle, "Mundane Nightmares: Roots of Abandoned Dreams," is a way of creating unity among the past year's contest prompts. The challenges of 2022 pushed us to try genres we weren't comfortable with. None of us had ever written a Noir piece, yet this issue offers three of the community's attempts at the Noir genre. The issue also covers the regular territory of fantasy fiction, poetry, and memoir. The community's beloved 100 Word Weekly Challenge turned out a host of micro fiction as well.

We had no members volunteer art in time for publication, so we selected some gorgeous photography that illustrated the primary prompts. All interior images come from Unsplash and are copyright free, and all artists have been credited.

As always, The Compendium is FREE to download from Smashwords.

BLURB: 

The 2022 issue of LegendFire Critique Community's Compendium offers a selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Explore the dark nature of dreams, meet hardboiled criminals and cops, encounter stunning poetry, and consider the mundane made extraordinary.

The issue's longer works cover a broad variety of genres and a wide range of themes, from dreams gone wrong to leadership entitlement, human trafficking and persecution of minority groups. For readers short on time, a selection of hard-hitting micro fiction can be enjoyed in under a minute.

This sampling of LegendFire’s 2021-2022 contest entries promises flights of fancy inspired by prompts sprung on the community’s writers with little warning. The resulting prose and stanzas are thought-provoking, often startling and, we hope, inspiring in return.

Contributing authors: Patricia Denny-Purvis, Edward Drummond, Court Ellyn, Finn Warrick, Aidan Zingler

DOWNLOAD:

--> .mobi for Kindle, .pdf, plain text, and other formats: AT THIS LINK

--> .epub for Epub readers: AT THIS LINK

New Release: The Compendium 2021

 The Compendium: LegendFire's Annual Anthology, 2021 released for free at Smashwords!

LegendFire Critique Community is as pleased as punch to to announce the release of the premiere issue of its annual anthology, The Compendium. The subtitle of the 2021 issue, inspired by the community's first year of contest prompts, is "Rise From Ruin: Between Misadventures." We tried to fit every prompt in there, but the title was already a mouthful.

The first issue features 6 poems, 2 memoir anecdotes, 5 full-length short stories, and easily a dozen ultra-short pieces that can be read in seconds yet provide the full satisfaction of a longer tale. All this alongside 2 original art pieces rendered by digital artist Aidan Zingler.

As the critique community's membership grows, so too will the length and variety of the Compendium.

Blurb:

In the premiere issue of LegendFire Critique Community’s Compendium, journey through caves inhabited by ravenous darkness, flee the burning rays of a demon sun, tumble headlong through turbulent seas and accidental misadventures in true-to-life confessions, and much more. Encounter poetry to challenge and delight, tales from a broad variety of genres, memoirs that will elicit sympathy and laughter, and ultra-shorts that can be enjoyed in under a minute.

This sampling of LegendFire’s 2020-2021 contest entries promises flights of fancy inspired by prompts sprung on the community’s writers with little warning. The resulting prose and stanzas are thought-provoking, often startling and, we hope, inspiring in return.

Contributing authors:

Patricia Denny-Purvis, Court Ellyn, Tony Glass, Joyce Lewis, Melanie Rebro, Laurel Stark, Finn Warrick, Jeffrey V. Yorio, Aidan Zingler

Download:

The Compendium may be downloaded for free at Smashwords:

HERE

Book Release: A Nocturne in Red

REP is pleased to announce the release of "A Nocturne in Red," a novella first published in August 2018 by the Society of Misfit Stories.

The ebook is available at Amazon HERE, and the print version HERE. According to Amazon's Matchbook program, if you purchase the print version, you can download the digital version for free. And the print version is truly lovely.

About the book:

"Nocturne" is the inaugural installment of the adventures of Sanjen of Shar, a musician and mage who never fails to get in over his head. If all goes well, other adventures will follow.

Blurb:

Sanjen Laurelius, a lute-wielding bard, is a rising star. 

He’s also wanted by the emperor. 

When he calls upon his special brand of song-magic to fight off a rampaging harpy, he finds himself the object of unwanted attention: a powerful officer in the emperor’s service hires Sanjen to find the cure for a curse that has transformed a favored concubine into a bloodthirsty monster. 

But Sanjen’s past is catching up with him. Can he find a way to save the victim of the curse before his employer discovers his true identity—and returns him to the emperor in chains?

Book Release: Fury of the Falcon

REP is pleased to announce the release of the fifth and final book of Court Ellyn's Falcons Saga, Fury of the Falcon.

The ebook is available at Amazon, and the print version will follow in about a week.

Blurb (minor spoilers):

The fifth and final volume of the Falcons Saga brings this sweeping fantasy series to its stunning conclusion.

With Kelyn wounded in an attempt to barter for peace and Thorn recovering from his struggle against forces from the abyss, defeat and despair encroach. The human armies are stretched to their limit, and Lothiar’s horde relentlessly presses against their last stronghold.

Amid the carnage, Carah is determined to mend the wounds sundering her family and risks a journey across hundreds of miles of ogre-infested territory. When Lothiar’s schemes pay off and Carah finds herself in the dreaded pit, her brother Kethlyn proposes an all-or-nothing campaign deep behind enemy lines to rescue her. 

As the War Commander and his desperate army prepare to make this final stand, events race toward a destiny no one expects. Either victory or defeat will usher in a new age…

Press Release...

…yes, press release, in a literal sense. Today, February 11, 2016 marks the official launch of Raven Eye Press. Pop goes the cork. Champagne time!

(If the technical details matter, read about the press itself on the About page.)

Why today? Because it has happened:  I’ve re-released the digital versions of the Falcons Saga! I grabbed the polish and the buffing brush and shined them up a bit. Each of the three books has had a few typos fixed and some inconsistencies and phrasings revised. And Blood of the Falcon, volume 2 is now available as Sword of the Falcon, with an all-new cover.

Ain’t that pretty?

Better! If all goes well, Cry of the Falcon will be available for download this weekend. If that’s the case, then I nailed my Valentine’s release date. Woot! "Celebrate good times, c’mon!"

Print versions will be available before the end of the month, I hope. I’m having some trouble with CreateSpace and titling, but maybe we can have that ironed out soon. Crossing fingers. If not, I’ll be ranting and raving, and you’ll hear all about it.

But let’s leave the bad news and muddy shoes at the door. Today I am celebrating the opening of REP, my falcon kings, and my twins. Have some more champagne, on me.

WELCOME TO RAVEN EYE PRESS

I am so excited to launch my personal indie press, if it can remotely be called that at this point. Undoubtedly, REP is a work-in-progress and an experimental one. I hope, one day, to be able to bring more authors into the fold, but that remains to be determined. So what is Raven Eye Press?

WHO'S INVOLVED?

Currently, REP is an itsy-bitsy indie press with a really cool logo that shows up on the work of author Court Ellyn. Whether REP will take on other authors in the future remains to be determined.

WHAT DO WE PUBLISH?

Well, since it's just me at present, REP publishes my speculative fiction. I like aliens and fairies and clockwork birds and werewolves.

Is REP accepting work by other authors?

No. Please do not send me anything to read, to edit, or to publish. I will delete it unread. Come to think of it, we don't even have a Contact Us page yet. So there you go.

WHY THE RAVEN'S EYE?

Ravens are brilliant birds, and they like shiny things. So do I. Shiny words, shiny prose, shiny ideas, shiny art, shining craft. More, my username at LegendFire Critique Community happens to be Raveneye, so it seemed a fitting choice.

* * * * *

REVIEW POLICY:

Please do not send me material to review. I am not a prolific nor a fast reader; therefore, I cannot promise a decent turn-around time. The books, novellas, and short stories I review will be chosen due to my personal interests. I am not paid to review anyone's work, and my standards are very high. Each review will receive a rating of one to five "magic wands," and I will do my best to contact independent or beginning authors to inform them that a review of their work has been posted on my blog or here at REP. My opinion is mine alone. Arguments and flaming will not be permitted.

(all of the above information is posted on REP's About page and will remain visible there)