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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Great Authors from Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis

Great Authors from Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis
By Brad R. Cook

This past weekend I had the honor of sitting on the Villains vs. Villains panel at Wizard World Comic Con, St. Louis. Panels are always an interesting time. It’s a discussion of a topic with like-minded writers and a very enthusiastic audience. This was no different, though I have to say I shared the stage with some amazing authors and wanted to share their books with you.

I was joined by Genese Davis, Ryan Dalton, Zac Brewer, and Emilyann Girdner. We all brought a love of different villains to the table. We all shared a love for the bad boys, and girls. If I had to sum up our talk in a few words – Our top three villains would be Moriarty, the Joker, and Darth Vader. We all appreciated a good female villain, or when the bad guy is something existential like small mindedness or The Nothing from The Never Ending Story. And lastly, everyone hates Delores Umbridge. I had a great time on the panel, the authors had a lot to say, and the audience asked some wonderful questions.

Allow me to introduce you to my fellow panelists. Snatch up their books and definitely stalk them online, each has something exciting coming soon.


Genese Davis, author of The Holder’s Dominion

The Holder’s Dominion
After her father's death on a mountain rescue mission, Kaylie Ames watched her family shatter. She fled Tacoma for college in faraway Austin, figuring that even the worst campus drama would be a relief. But when her old friend Elliott turns up on his knees in the grocery store aisle, raving about something called a morphis, Kaylie feels compelled to enter Elliott's unfamiliar world.
 
Guided by Elliott and his friends, Kaylie signs on to the massively popular online game Edannair. There she discovers a world of beautiful vistas and magical creatures, where people from all over the globe step into the roles of warriors on fantastical quests. But a real-world evil threatens the players: the mysterious Holder, leader of the elite team known as Sarkmarr, is coercing his followers into traumatic offline dares known as "morphis assignments." To save her friends, Kaylie must infiltrate Sarkmarr and survive the Holder's tests. 
 
Will she find the courage there to hold her real-world family together?


The Holder's Dominion  

She has something very cool and super secret on the horizon that she teased but couldn’t talk about, so check out her site for more.


Ryan Dalton, author of The Year of Lighting

The Year of Lighting
When 15-year-old twins Malcolm and Valentine Gilbert moved to a new town, they never imagined that the old house across the street could bring them so much trouble. Inside the old house, a secret machine with the power to pierce time has reawakened. Meanwhile, lightning storms are breaking out all over town. They’re getting worse every week, and seem to enjoy striking kids who just want to pass science class and mind their own business. When Malcolm and Valentine discover a connection between the house and the storms, their situation goes from mysterious to crazy-stupid dangerous. Someone is controlling the great machine, and their purpose is nearly complete. In a race against time, the twins must uncover the chilling plan, the mastermind behind it, and the force that’s driving the deadly storms. They’ll hunt a powerful enemy that threatens their town’s existence, and the only clues are written in the sky.

The Year of Lightning 

RyanDaltonWrites.com
His new cover was just unveiled so check it out!



Emilyann Girdner, author of The Labyrinth Wall

The Labyrinth Wall
Summary: 
Araina’s lonely teenage life is forever altered when she witnesses a man with supernatural powers emerge through a rippling wall into the dark and deadly labyrinth she calls home. She is left to solve the mysteries of who he is, why he has special abilities and what is on the other side of the labyrinth wall through which he came. 

Read Amazon Best-Seller, Reader's Favorite 5 Star rated, Dante Rossetti Award 2014 Finalist novel, The Labyrinth Wall, the first book in the Obsidian Series. Imagine a story set in an epic fantasy world like The Hobbit with a dark dystopian feel (and it is written to be a quick read like The Hunger Games). This adventurous tale will transport you into a magical but deadly world with new races, creatures, heroes and villains that you won’t soon forget. Even Sean Astin (from Lord of the Rings, Goonies, Rudy, and 50 First Dates) got a copy of The Labyrinth Wall and tweeted about it. 

The Labyrinth Wall

See what’s next and where you can see this great author on her site.


Zac Brewer, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Blood Between Us

The Blood Between Us
Family secrets turn deadly in this edgy page-turner about the insidious limits of labels and the ties that bind just a little too tightly, from the New York Timesbestselling author of the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod.

Growing up, Adrien and his sister, Grace, competed viciously for everything. It wasn’t easy being the adopted sibling, but Adrien tried to get along; it was Grace who didn’t want anything to do with him. When their scientist parents died in a terrible lab fire, there was nothing left to hold them together.

Now, after years apart, Adrien and Grace are forced to reunite at the elite boarding school where their parents were teachers. Being back around everyone he used to know makes Adrien question the person he’s become, while being back around Grace makes him feel like someone he doesn’t want to be.

For as much as Adrien wants to move on, someone seems determined to reopen old wounds. And when Adrien starts to suspect that Grace knows more about their parents’ deaths than she let on, he realizes there are some wounds no amount of time can heal. If Adrien isn’t careful, they may even kill him.

The Blood Between Us

Find out more about the Minion Horde


and me, Brad R. Cook, author of The Iron Chronicles
The Iron Chronicles
High Adventure in the Age of Steam and Steel
In a steam-powered Victorian world where pirates prowl the sky and secret societies determine the future like a game of chess, Alexander, Genevieve, her little bronze dragon, and a crew of Sky Raiders must save the world from the four Iron Horsemen.

Iron Horsemen, Book I
In a steam powered Victorian world where pirates prowl the sky and secret societies determine the future like a game of chess, an American, sixteen-year-old Alexander must save London from the four Iron Horsemen.
Iron Horsemen

Iron Zulu, Book II
When a series of murders are blamed on the visiting Zulu delegation, Alexander and his friends chase the real assassin from the cobbled streets of London to the great deserts and savannas of Africa.
Iron Zulu

Iron Lotus, Book III, coming later this year
With Genevieve, the baron’s daughter, still missing, Alexander races to the top of the world, and discovers the terrifying machines created by the Golden Circle to enslave the world. The race is on from the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas to the shining capital of the new world.

More on this coming soon… including the cover!!!
Remember, if you're in the St. Louis area, you can always  get signed copies of my novels at Main Street Books in historic St. Charles, MO. Especially on Independent Bookstore Day, coming later this month on Saturday, April 30th. 


All of them are great authors. It was a pleasure to get to know each of them for the short time our paths crossed. I hope it’s not the only time. If you needed something new for your shelf here are four great authors to try – you’ve all read me… right?...

Kidding. The next time you’re at Comic Con, or if you should run into these authors while traveling across the country drop by their tables and say hi. You won’t be disappointed. And if you’ve never been to Comic Con or one of the conventions, I recommend trying out at least one. They are fun places filled with books, characters from your favorite movies and shows, actual celebrities from those same shows and movies, video games, vendors selling everything from t-shirts to lightsabers, good greasy food, and of course panels about Villains!

See you at the next Wizard World Comic Con!






Brad R. Cook, author of the YA steampunk series, The Iron Chronicles. Iron Horsemen - http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Horsemen-The-Chronicles/dp/0989207951 and Iron Zulu - http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Zulu-Book-Two-Chronicles/dp/0989207978.  A member of SCBWI, he currently serves as Historian of St. Louis Writers Guild after three and half years as its President. Learn more at www.bradrcook.com, on Twitter @bradrcook https://twitter.com/bradrcook, or on his blog Thoughts from Midnight on tumblr http://bradrcook.tumblr.com/

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