Following the successful fundraising for the Achtung! Cthulhu Investigator’s & Keeper’s Guides in just 26 hours, and then smashing a string of Stretch Goals, Modiphius Entertainment has announced a huge new campaign for the terrifying world of Achtung! Cthulhu.

“This is going to be the ultimate Achtung! Cthulhu wartime campaign, with something for everyone whether it’s fighting Nazis and ancient horrors in ice locked ruins, or racing for time to decipher otherworldly mysteries. You’ll have your frozen hands full getting to grips with the enormity of the adventure ahead, and trust me it is going to be our biggest release yet, which you can unlock along with a ton of accessories over the coming weeks”. Chris Birch, Modiphius Entertainment.

“Join us for this dangerous expedition, some of you will not return, but I know every one of you will give your lives before letting the Third Reich raise the Swastika over this accursed ultimate abyss.” Captain Brandon Carter, Assault on the Mountains of Madness

In Achtung! Cthulhu: Assault on the Mountains of Madness, following a trail of strange events, and clues to an ill-fate earlier expedition, the Allies will discover an Antarctic infested with Nazis. They must launch themselves into the frozen continent where they’ll be faced with the power of the elements, unbelievable ancient mysteries and a stunning climax that could change the face of the world forever. Designed for gamers who like in depth mystery, investigation and cataclysmic events, the campaign can easily be tailored for both dark, classic Call of Cthulhu play as well as the pulpier Savage Worlds experience, and is compatible with both systems. The campaign will come with extensive cartography by Michal E. Cross whose sterling map work has made such a success of the Achtung! Cthulhu line. Achtung! Cthulhu : Assault on the Mountains of Madness is being illustrated by special guest artist Korungn from Japan. Korungn has already created a library of stunning and evocative movie style concept art for the setting, which will be revealed week by week.

Modiphius plans to create a stunning full colour 248 page hardback if the goals are met. Assault on the Mountains of Madness builds on the legacy of HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and promises to reveal more of the continent (than the hapless investigators are likely to want), along with a treasure trove of cool accessories to bring the world to life.

“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be left alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness.

Modiphius’ Kickstarter was launched to raise funds for The Keeper’s and Investigator’s Guides to the Secret War – a huge kit bag stuffed full of wartime adventure for the popular Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds roleplaying game systems. The books feature Allied & Nazi forces, setting details for the Western and Home Fronts, new rules for World War Two combat, period equipment, secret Nazi plots and mythical organizations, wonder weapons, campaign and plot ideas, occupations, skills, backgrounds plus a whole shoggoth’s worth of Cthulhu villainy, enough for any Keeper to have his investigators dead, insane, or running for their lives in no time! As the Kickstarter campaign meets its stretch goals, you will discover the further danger, terror and insanity awaiting you on the shores of Europe, across the steppes of Mother Russia and the sands of North Africa, down the backstreets and highways of America, and deep in the jungles of Asia. The Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War features a stunning cover by the legendary Spanish artist Pinturero, whilst the Keeper’s Guide cover and all interior illustrations are by Dim Martin, already well known for his dark evocative graphic novel style illustrations in Achtung! Cthulhu releases.

The project has so far unlocked gorgeous full cover hardbacks for both Investigator and Keeper’s Guides, the Shadows of Atlantis campaign, the Eastern Front Guide to the Secret War, the North African Guide and the Assault on the Mountains of Madness campaign. Modiphius have recently revealed they are working on a line of 28mm miniatures with British based Clockwork Goblin miniatures that will be unveiled later in March. The rapid speed at which the Stretch Goals have been unlocked has meant backers of the special PDF Master Bonus level and above (£35+) will be walking away with tons of free Stretch Goals in PDF and this seems set to continue!

The Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter can be found HERE

DarkFuse have announced the release of novella Emergence by Gary Fry. The book is available as an e-book and costs only £2/$3.

A haunting supernatural excursion, here’s a taster:

Following the death of his wife, Jack lives alone on… the northeast coast of England. But this year, something worse than isolation and loneliness stalk the bay in front of his home. When his grandson Paul comes to stay, they find intricately crafted cones of sand jutting from the beach, and a tautness in the air affecting their sleep patterns. And then something else arrives…something that may want to trouble much more than their dreams. EMERGENCE…they’re closer than we fear.

The book can be downloaded HERE in the UK and HERE in the States.

Ten indie authors and game designers are currently offering a collection of ten full-length ebook novels in the ‘Bundle of Holding‘ story bundle.

For any price you like, you get six of these in multi-format, DRM-free ebook versions: Irregular Creatures by Chuck Wendig, Fable of the Swan by Jenna Moran, Hexcommunicated by Rafael Chandler, Hero Worship by Derek Pearcy, Birth of the Dread Remora by Aaron Rosenberg and Tournament of Death by Stephen D. Sullivan.

If you pay more than the average purchase price (currently hovering around $16), you get 4 bonus books added into the deal: Hard Times in Dragon City by Matt Forbeck, Mindjammer by Sarah Newton, Playing For Keeps by Mur Lafferty, and Stay Alert by Allen Varney.

You can divide your payment for the bundle as you like between indie authors, the bundle people, and two worthy charities – Child’s Play and Reading is Fundamental (RIF), promoting books and reading to kids. That’s stacks of fantastic genre fiction, in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats, at whatever price you want to pay.

The deal runs until the 11th March 2013 – get in while you can! For more info click HERE

1971. A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent.

A boy walks approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire…

So begins the moving and evocative new novella by Stephen Volk, published by the British Fantasy Award-nominated Spectral Press in May 2013 to coincide with the centenary of the most celebrated and beloved of Hammer’s stars, Peter Cushing.

In Whitstable—which deftly mixes fact with fiction—the actor, devastated after the recent death of his wife and soul mate Helen, is an inconsolable recluse. In that vulnerable state he is forced to face an evil far more real and terrifying than any of the make-believe monsters he tackled on the big screen. And here he is not a crusader or expert with crucifixes to hand—merely a man. A man who in some ways craves death himself, but cannot ignore the pleas of an innocent child…

Stephen Volk is a life-long fan of Cushing and grew up sneaking into cinemas underage in his home town to see Hammer’s gruesome and uncanny fare. A love affair with the macabre and the gothic was kindled, and this book is very much intended as a way of repaying the debt he owes to his favourite actor and the star known universally as “The Gentle Man of Horror”.

The author was aided in his extensive research by film historians and critics, those who have met Cushing, residents of Whitstable, and even Whitstable Museum itself.

“This will engross and enthrall all Hammer fans and those who adore and revere Cushing. It brings his screen persona vividly to life in a modern context when the monsters are all too real.” - Tony Earnshaw, author of An Actor and a Rare One: Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Beating the Devil: The Making of ‘Night of the Demon’

“Peter Cushing was my first hero, and in my opinion Stephen Volk has done something heroic by putting the man who fought onscreen monsters at the heart of a very human drama. Sad, tinged with a palpable sense of loss, beautifully written, and blessed with an unerring eye for crucial detail, Whitstable is a story to savour. If I may be so bold, I’m convinced that Peter Cushing would have approved” - novelist Gary McMahon

“A wonderful piece” – David Pirie, author of A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema

“I loved Whitstable! It’s a beautiful love letter to a man, a genre, and an era that means so much to those of us of a certain age” - Mick Garris, director of The Stand, Bag of Bones, producer, Masters of Horror

Accompanied by a heartfelt Afterword by horror novelist and fellow Hammer devotee Mark Morris, Whitstable is the third in the series, Spectral Visions. The first two novellas (Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny and John L. Probert’s The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine) have garnered wide acclaim from readers, reviewers and bloggers alike.

The ePub editions of The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders and The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes are now available from Weightless Books:

http://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/horror/the-alchemy-press-book-of-ancient-wonders/

http://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/fantasy/the-alchemy-press-book-of-pulp-heroes/

In The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders, edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber, discover standing stones, burial mounds, ruined castles or sunken cities: the ancient sites that litter our landscapes; the ancient wonders that possess a mysterious appeal that cannot be denied.

In The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, editor Mike Chinn has collected seventeen stories that explore the world of pulp fiction with tall tales of daring do, of heroes and heroines and their villains.

Writer, Guy Adams and artist Jimmy Broxton have launched a new project on Kickstarter, unveiling the most controversial sixties newspaper strip that never was: Goldtiger.

“I’ve wanted to do something that hearkened back to the great British newspaper strips for years,” says Broxton, “and admitted as much to Guy who was as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.”

“There’s something really magical about the form,” agrees Adams, “three panels of rich, mad storytelling, slapped into the eyes of people who probably didn’t usually read comics outside their daily newspapers. They were mad, engaging and subversive.”

Adams and Broxton have been working together for the last year on THE ENGINE, a digital book released by the innovative new company, Madefire.

“Obviously,” says Adams, “Jimmy was already a solid name in comics after his work on books like KNIGHT & SQUIRE and SAUCER COUNTRY but Madefire gave me a chance to finally break into a medium I’ve loved for years. Working with Jimmy on THE ENGINE has been such fun that it was always going to be just a matter of time before we came up with something else we wanted to do together.

Adams is mainly known as a novelist, his books THE WORLD HOUSE and its sequel RESTORATION having been followed by brand new Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books, adaptations of classic movies for Hammer Books, weird westerns THE HEAVENS GATE CHRONICLES for Solaris and THE CLOWN SERVICE, a horror/espionage series forthcoming from Del Rey UK.

“It’s such a relief to only be doing half the work now I’m collaborating with Jimmy,” he jokes. “He suggested we come up with a ‘lost’ strip, something that had been devised as competition for MODESTY BLAISE but cancelled due to its content. Originally we were going to present it completely anonymously, the story of the strip’s creators, Antonio Barreti and Louis Schaeffer being as much a part of the overall effect as the newspaper strip itself. Having decided to go the Kickstarter route we’ve had to be a bit more open about it though…”

“God knows what the repercussions would have been otherwise,” agrees Broxton, “when people realised there never was a Goldtiger strip.”

“It’s a shame in a way,” says Adams, “it would have been fun to maintain the illusion. But the background to the strip’s creation, and the way it sent its artist mad is a major part of the overall story. We hope to do a series of these books and readers will realise that the fiction and ‘non-fiction’ elements will soon begin to blur, it’s all part of the one big story.”

Of course, if the Kickstarter project isn’t successful, life may imitate art. Could Goldtiger become ‘lost’ once more?

“We’re really hopeful,” says Broxton, “people have been amazing in their enthusiasm for the idea. But yeah, it’s all a bit nerve-wracking until the funding’s in place.”

To find out more about the project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/152141928/goldtiger-by-guy-adams-and-jimmy-broxton

Now That I’ve Lost You, the latest collection by Paul Edwards, is now available as a paperback or Kindle edition from Amazon. Find out more here:

http://www.screamingdreams.com/nowthativelostyou.html

A man seeks a cure for his loneliness in the squalid back streets of Goa. A couple find solace in each other as the world comes apart at the seams. Sinister creatures besiege a small American town buried in fog. And as the dead rise from rent, yawning graves, a girl is holed up in a farmhouse with one of their own…

In these nineteen tales of love and loss, sex and death, you will brave witches, warlocks and the living dead; traverse uncharted, hypnotic highways; and you will meet up with green-eyed losers who inhabit small spaces: whether it’s graveyards, old churches, or their own echoing heads.

Paul Edwards was born and raised in Bristol, but now lives in the Somerset market town of Frome. To date he’s had over 40 publications in a wide range of magazines, anthologies and webzines, and has had 2 honourable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. One of his stories, A Place the Night Can’t Touch, was made into a short film by students at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design. His debut collection Black Mirrors was published by Rainfall in May 2012 and he’s currently hard at work on a novel and a third collection. When he’s not writing, he enjoys drinking local cider, spending time with his family and watching horror movies late into the night…

Ben Smith, Publishing Manager of Solaris Books, has acquired rights to three backlist titles by fantasy novelist Paul Kearney: THE WAY TO BABYLON, RIDING THE UNICORN and A DIFFERENT KINGDOM. They will be published as an omnibus early in 2014. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights.

Solaris have previously published Kearney’s MONARCHIES OF GOD series in two omnibuses, and his Macht fantasy series – THE TEN THOUSAND, CORVUS and KINGS OF MORNING.

Jessica Purdue, Rights Manager at Orion, has sold Romanian rights to highly-praised SF debut THE QUANTUM THIEF by Finnish science fiction novelist resident in Scotland, Hannu Rajaniemi, to Nemira.

World rights in THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books, were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter. Gollancz have published it, and the first sequel, THE FRACTAL PRINCE, to great success and acclaim. Rights have also been sold in the USA, Japan and across Europe.

ReadWave is looking for original, contemporary short fiction for its Short Story Anthology, 2013. ReadWave is a new digital publishing platform that enables writers to build up a fanbase and market their stories online.

ReadWave is home to writers of all varieties, from sci-fi to literary fiction, and the anthology will be equally eclectic. We’re looking for well crafted stories in 1,500 words or less. Stories with a twist at the end are especially welcome.

The anthology will be available in paperback and as an eBook, and free ebook copies will be distributed to all ReadWave members.

If you are interested in submitting a story for the anthology please upload it to ReadWave.com and then send a link of the story to submissions@readwave.com. For further information please contact Robert Tucker at rob@readwave.com