Well, we finished up Lost Innocence and released it for sale yesterday — a day early! How’s that for awesomeness? The book is brilliant, even if I do say so myself. It’s filled with thirteen stories and thirteen poems that will knock your socks off.

Lost Innocence

It’s available now by clicking the cover image above. Check it out, you can see the first ten pages completely free and I’d love to hear what you think about the layout which is slightly different than what we use for the magazine.

I’m obsessively checking the page for sales and reviews as well (we’ve had some of the former, none of the latter yet) and the only rating so far is my own LOL Not that I’m biased or anything, but I gave it a six out of five

Last year I “attended” The Muse Online Writers Conference and I had a lot of fun, and this year I’m attending again, as a participant and presenter both! Eeek!

My “workshop” is actually going to mostly be a Q&A session in a forum regarding Niteblade, but still I’m nervous. What if no one comes? That would suck LoL I noticed last year there were a couple forums that had no one posting in them and I don’t want to be one of those places.

So please, if you’re attending, and you totally should if you’re a writer, pop by the ‘Meet Rhonda Parrish of Niteblade Magazine’ forum a couple times during the week to keep me company, okay?

Based on my expiriences last year, I also highly reccomend anything run/taught by TC McMullen and Karina Fabian’s world building workshop was also very good.

Go here now to sign up if you haven’t already. All you do is join the mailing list and then in September Lea will send you all the information you need to official register and pick what workshops and such you’re going to attend.

The newest issue of Niteblade is out. Issue #4: The Gnome’s Spectacles is going live right now…early. How’s that for a bit of awesomeness? And when it comes to awesomeness, let me tell you, this issue is chock-full of it.

I think the poetry is especially strong in this issue. In addition to the killer poem that was granted the cover this period there are pieces about the Wicked Witch of the West, death, space, aliens and an amazing prose poem. I know, I’ve really had issues with prose poetry in this past, so the fact I found one so good I agreed to publish it has to say something good about the piece, doesn’t it? The poems run the spectrum from funny to depressing and touch in on a load of other adjectives too.

Don’t think poetry is all this issue has going for it though. No way. There are some pretty amazing stories too. Sentient zombies, an incredibly evocative Asian fantasy story, psychological horror, an undead pig and the end of the world are just a few of the things we’ve got in this issue’s 13 stories. There is even one about a hockey player…let the Canadian editor jokes begin!

Really, this issue is definitely one worth checking out — and perhaps best of all, it’s free.

http://www.niteblade.com

I figured it was time for a change on this blog because, after all, when you have deadlines looming and scads of work that needs to be done, the thing all responsible writers and editors do is decide to change the look of their blogs…right? Right?

Well anyway, that’s what I did

The image is one I licensed from i-stockphoto. It’s a vector image by -M-I-S-H-A-, an artist whose work I often drool over. In this case I only had to make a few minor changes to make it work, which is good, because as I’ve said before, I am not a graphic designer LOL The layout is courtesy of Area  381.

I like the new layout, but it’s going to take some getting used to, I think. I’d be interested in hearing what you think, too In the meantime, I’m going to iron out the bumps and then get back to work on Niteblade — the new issue comes out very soon.

The Dark Phantom Review is a great little blog that does book reviews, author interviews and editor reviews. In addition, they also have articles and short fiction. It’s run by Mayra Calvani, who is a talented writer. Recently I was honored to be interviewed by The Dark Phantom Review, and the interview is live now.

Interview with Rhonda Parrish, Editor/Founder of Niteblade Magazine

Please check it out. I’d love to hear what you think, either here or on The Dark Phantom Review’s blog. Personally I think I need to work on my skills as an interviewee LoL It’s just one more thing to add to the list of skills this magazine has inspired/required me to develop

#3 is out Check it out, you won’t be disappointed, I think it’s the best yet.

It’s Preditors & Editors Poll time

Please pop on over to http://www.critters.org/predpoll/ and vote for all your favorite novels, authors, poets, artists magazines etc. etc.

Niteblade and I are nominated in a few categories and if you feel like voting for us, yay, if not, no big. However, I would ask that each of you consider voting for Marge Simon’s cover art for the December issue of Niteblade. Marge is a wonderful woman and a talented artist who does the cover art and story illustrations for Niteblade for far less money than she deserves. You can see her work and vote for her here –> http://www.critters.org/predpoll/zineart.shtml You will need to enter your email address to vote in order to prevent bot votes, but you won’t get spammed or have it sold anywhere.

Thank you in advance to everyone who votes

p.s. When I nominated Marge I screwed up the first time, so there are two occurances of her name there — please vote for the one where the picture link actually works

p.p.s. I apologize if you’ve read me making a similar plea elsewhere, I just want Marge to get as many votes as I can LOL

It’s live! Enjoy!