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Medallion Press Tries A New Approach to Ebooks With Gregory Lamberson’s “The Julian Year”.

I’m not writing creatively today, just sharing this information because I think using new technologies with ebooks is intriguing. Sometimes it makes no difference, sometimes it’s cool on an individual level but there’s no ripple across the publishing pond. But all kinds of things we can’t imagine yet are POSSIBLE… And this time it’s also interesting because it involves horror author Gregory Lamberson’s novel The Julian Year, so readers will get to experience how this technology can affect the experience of the horror reader.

 

So, to the news– straight from the press release:

 

Medallion Press, a subsidiary of Medallion Media Group, has developed a new technology aimed at revolutionizing the reading experience for millions of book lovers across the globe.

 

TREEbook is a patented new technology which allows authors and publishers to create novels with multiple story branches, giving readers the possibility of a unique and completely unpredictable reading experience over and over again. Based on each reader’s individual reading habits, each TREEbook-enhanced story has the potential to seamlessly branch down new and undiscovered story lines, giving greater insight to the characters, a deeper look at the story, and even alternate endings—all within one book. There are no choices to make. Readers simply read at leisure, while the TREEbook technology works in the background.

 

“It gives readers a chance to experience a story like never before,” says Adam Mock, COO of Medallion Media Group and one of the inventors of TREEbook. “We’ve taken the traditional reading experience and enhanced it with our innovative TREEbook technology, which has the ability to organically branch a story down alternate paths. So if you’re ready to dive into the next level of reading, this is it.”

 

Medallion Press has five TREEbook-enhanced novels scheduled to release by end of 2015. Genres range from Horror to Historical Fiction.

 

As of now, there’s only one way to experience TREEbook-enhanced novels, which is to download Medallion Media Group’s free MMG Sidekick app for the iPad.

 

The very first TREEbook-enhanced novel release is The Julian Year by award-winning horror author Gregory Lamberson (The Jake Helman Files, The Frenzy Wolves Cycle). In The Julian Year one of the main characters, Julian Weizak, an obituary writer in New York, celebrates his birthday alone in a bar on New Year’s Eve. At the stroke of midnight, scores of homicides break out on the East Coast.

Julian discovers that, in all, 20,000 murders are committed that night in New York alone, with the murder epidemic spreading across the country and the world, time zone by time zone. At midnight each day thereafter, 19,178,082 people around the world become homicidal maniacs, contributing to the biggest killing spree in history. It looks as if the chaos can lead to only one end: the extinction of mankind.

To learn more about the TREEbook visit www.thetreebook.com.

 

For more information about Gregory Lamberson or his TREEbook novel The Julian Year, visit www.thejulianyear.com.

 

For questions about the technology behind the TREEbook visit the blog of MMG’s Executive Director of Technology, Brian Buck, accessible from the homepage at www.medallionmediagroup.com

 

Medallion Media Group, which includes Medallion Press, Medallion Movies, and Medallion Music, is on a mission to provide dynamic multimedia entertainment in collaboration with innovative writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and technologists. With a creative approach to book, music, and film production, we seek to synergize the arts and cultivate developing technologies to carve a path on the leading edge of content delivery.

 

Holiday Gifts for Horror Readers

December is zooming along. If you haven’t already started shopping for the horror readers in your life, now is a great time to start.

So, what to give? Well, you could start out by setting the scene. The perfect Christmas here involves Christmas carols playing,  a nice cup of hot chocolate,  a fire in the fireplace, and a big fuzzy blanket to curl up in while watching Christmas specials and reading.

 

Metal X-Mas (2CD Special Edition). Okay, maybe this isn’t the most relaxing recording of Christmas music ever, and I have to admit that I have not listened to every song, but it’s totally worth it just to hear Alice Cooper sing a Christmas carol.

 

McSteven’s Haunted! Spiced Hot Chocolate. This would make a perfect stocking stuffer. McSteven’s sells their hot chocolate in little tins and has different ones for various special occasions. They also have a Halloweenville gift set with three kinds of holiday hot chocolate and a Vampire’s Brew that comes in a coffin shaped container. Haunted hot chocolate is good enough for me, though, especially if it’s got a bit of a kick.

Nightmare Before Christmas Blanket with Sleeves – Fleece Comfy Throw. There are a million different fleece blankets out there and you certainly don’t have to choose this particular one. I saw a purple one with zebra stripes that looked fun. But running with the theme of Christmas and horror it’s hard to find a better fit. I like the ones with sleeves because they keep your arms warm and I get really cold very easily. You’ll have to come up with a pillow on your own.

 

 

Christmas Classics  DVD Gift Set, with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.

Grown-up horror lovers may think they’ve grown out of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, but the Abominable Snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town are scary enough that my kids ran out of the room when they first saw them. They really are scary, and they take you back to that time when it didn’t take Black Christmas to give you a scare. Also, no holiday season is really complete without them. Admit it. I don’t think I would give this just on its own to a horror lover, but if you’re putting together a holiday package, I think it would make a nice addition to the mix, and it’s family friendly.

Weightless Books

(e)Books That Don’t Weigh You Down
There are all kinds of horror readers. Some are collectors, some love their ratty paperback copies. Some devour ebooks, and some are horrified by them. Luckily, there are all kinds of books and magazines out there to read as well. I’m going to assume that ravenous ebook readers already have their e-readers, and just say that, while I love my Kindle Touch (which apparently isn’t available from Amazon anymore), if you know the one you love does more than read novels and is seeking a new one,  the Kindle Fire HD looks pretty awesome, and has gotten good reviews.I am, however, philosophically opposed to the imposition of DRM on my ebooks. If I buy it, then it ought to be mine, to take where I please, not “licensed” to me by Amazon or a publisher. So I am a fan of sites that offer DRM free ebooks, and my favorite is Weightless Books, owned by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. They will sell you a DRM-free ebook that you can then download to whatever devices you have in whatever format you need it, with only the request that you not share it out with your friends but rather encourage them to purchase the books (or magazine subscriptions) that you have purchased from them.  They offer a lot of speculative fiction from independent presses and subscriptions to Apex, Nightmare, Weird Tales, and Innsmouth Magazine, which are delivered directly to your e-reader in your requested format. I love getting to support an independent store, and so I suggest that a gift certificate to Weightless Books would be a great gift for a reader interested in exploring new and interesting ways of looking at things (mostly through fiction). 

Cemetery Dance Publications   

 

Or, you can purchase directly from a small press. There are some fantastic titles out there that are not available anywhere else.  One of the better known independent presses is Cemetery Dance. Cemetery Dance publishes a magazine with horror fiction, art, and author interviews, but it’s best known for its quality limited editions. These are expensive, but often the material isn’t available anywhere else, and the books are usually completely gorgeous. If you really want to show your love, you could sign someone up for the Cemetery Dance Book Club. Dark Regions Press also publishes quality dark fiction in limited editions, as well as a variety of other formats. Dark Regions just had a kickstarter to fund publication for the second title in a new imprint, Black Labyrinth, which will be a series of novellas that sound like they will be gorgeously illustrated. You can find links to these presses and other small presses in the links over to the right, if you scroll down.

I hope that helps you with your shopping, if you aren’t done already (and I am a last minute shopper, myself). Have a great time picking out just the right gift for the horror lover in your life, and may you have happy holidays this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodnight Moon, Or, Why Horror Readers Should Read Children’s Books

Having been immersed in children’s books of all kinds my entire life, I tend to take for granted that people read them as children themselves, or at least to their own children. Even really smart people  who read widely haven’t necessarily read the children’s books that most lovers of children’s literature would consider core titles. Unfortunately, that means a lot of people miss out. You might not think it, but there are a lot of cultural references dependent on knowledge of a common literary history, beginning in childhood. And horror is a very intertextual genre, with cultural references aplenty.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of those books I always thought everyone at least knew about, even if they hadn’t read it. There have been many parodies, It wasn’t that long ago that Michael Rex produced an homage to this classic titled Goodnight Goon, with lots of monsters, creatures, and chaos. Of course you don’t have to have read the original to enjoy it, but you’ll enjoy it more if you understand what is being parodied (your kids probably won’t care, but you’ll enjoy it more). For your enjoyment, then, here is a video that showcases the book.

 

 

 

Sometimes, though, you DO have to be familiar with the original to have the referential title make sense– and to “get it” so you can say “wow, that’s cool”!  And it doesn’t work if you don’t know the context. In my travels across the Internet, I came across this short video, and it kind of wowed me with the way it took the familiar elements of the book and made them into a horror movie.

 

 

I ran to get my husband and showed it to him and he kind of shrugged. I didn’t realize he was unfamiliar with Goodnight Moon. Not knowing the book took the meaning away for him–it was nicely done, but so what?

It doesn’t matter what you read or watch… Life is richer, and in often unexpected ways, when you read children’s books.