BOOKS NEWS FOR APRIL 23: FANTASY WRITERS AND AMERICAN VAMPIRE

Source: scifiscope

FANTASTIC FICTION READING FEATURES FANTASY WRITERS JEFFERY FORD & RICHARD BOWES

On April 21, the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Readings Series featured entertaining stories from award-winning fantasy authors Jeffrey Ford and Richard “Rick” Bowes. The Series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, is held on the third Wednesday evening of each month at the KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East Village. As always, the place was dimly lit, crowded (standing room only, the audience further swelled by authors featured in the anthology The Beastly Bride along with both of the evening’s readers), and noisy (making it a bit of a challenge to carry on conversations). But, of course, one person’s congested is another’s cozy, and the bar is very hospitable to the gathering.

Datlow welcomed the audience and presented Richard Bowes, a World Fantasy, Lambda, International Horror Guild, and Million Writers Award-winning author, and a familiar face at sf readings around the city, in the audience and at the podium both.

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Source: commercialappeal

NEW AMERICAN VAMPIRE COMBINES WESTERN, BLOODSUCKERS AND STEPHEN KING

A lot of novelists, screenwriters and other big names are writing comics these days, but it’s still a jaw-dropper when Stephen King does.

That’s his name at the top of American Vampire, a new ongoing series at DC’s mature readers Vertigo line. Each issue actually contains two stories, only one by King, continuing for the five issues of the first story arc.

One story is written by Scott Snyder (Voodoo Heart), and is set in Jazz Age Hollywood. Our heroine is Pearl, a wannabe actress, who is a thoroughly modern woman (for 1925) with big dreams, and who is far tougher than she looks. When she meets reclusive director B.D. Bloch and his undead friends, she’ll have to be.

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What are your thoughts on today’s book news? Will you be reading American Vampire?