New Review: In 'Hellbender', Is He Speeding Away from Trouble? Or Toward It?

Hellbender lives up to its billing and that’s no easy feat, considering how the last paragraph on the back cover reads: “Jason Jack Miller’s Murder Ballads and Whiskey series is a unique blend of dark fiction, urban fantasy and horror. It’s Appalachian Gothic, Alt.Magical.Realism, Hillbilly Horror. It’s American Gods meets Justified. True Blood with witches. It’s Johnny Cash with a fistful of copperheads singing the devil right back to hell.”

Read the rest: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/163349-hellbender-by-jason-jack-miller/

New Review of THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK!

"...I don’t know if the author intended this or not, but I think the complexity of the novel can be deepened considerably if we consider the possibility that more than one devil incarnate and more than one Faustian bargain.  I think that Preston, while the 'victim' of one bargain was the perpetrator of another.  It jibes with the repeated idea that 'a piece of the devil is inside me'"

Read more at Lazerbrain's Log and Review. (Warning, contains spoilers.)

Thanks, Chris!

HELLBENDER Print Edition!

You're a traditionalist? You LOVE the feel of paper? Well, here's your chance to get a little HELLBENDER into you system.

Order HELLBENDER now!

HELLBENDER is on Amazon.com!

Charity Anthology Hazard Yet Forward

Giant multi-author anthology on sale Tuesday, August 7 to benefit cancer fighter.

My story "Almost a New Year" is part of the charity anthology, Hazard Yet Forward.  You'll see some familiar faces from the Murder Ballads and Whiskey series in this epistolary short.

Matt Duvall, Natalie Duvall, and Deanna Lepsch compiled the nearly 700 page, multi-genre eBook with stories from seventy-six writers who are connected to the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction program. 

All proceeds from this project will benefit Donna Munro, a 2004 graduate of the program.  Munro, a teacher living in St. Louis, Missouri, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  An active member of the SHU WPF alumni committee, Munro helps organize the school’s annual writing conference, the In Your Write Mind Workshop.

To aid Munro and her family, faculty members, alumni, students and friends of the Writing Popular Fiction program quickly responded to compile this massive anthology.  The book features flash fiction, short stories and even a full-length novella.  In total, there are 75 works from various genres, which makes this anthology one that features something for everyone. Genres represented in the book range from horror to romance to mystery – and everything in between. 

Some of the notable writers in the anthology are:
World Fantasy Award winner Nalo Hopkinson
Bram Stoker winner Michael A. Arnzen
Bram Stoker winner Michael Knost
Bram Stoker nominee Lawrence C. Connolly
ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults winner Jessica Warman
Rhysling nominees John Edward Lawson and K. Ceres Wright
Rita finalist Dana Marton
Spur winner Meg Mims
Asimov’s Readers’ Award winner Timons Esaias
WV Arts and Humanities literary fellowships winner Geoffrey Cameron Fuller.

Hazard Yet Forward co-compiler Matt Duvall says, "It’s an unprecedented collection of stories from every genre imaginable." 

This large volume is available for purchase on Kindle through Amazon starting August 7 for just $9.99.

More information about the anthology can be found at http://hazardyetforward.wordpress.com. 

To learn about the unique and exciting Writing Popular Fiction program, please visit http://www.setonhill.edu/academics/fiction.

Contact:  Natalie Duvall - hazardyetforwardanthology@gmail.com

Mountaintop Removal!

When Jimi Hendrix sang, Well, I stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand... I'm pretty sure he was being metaphorical. 

Well, it ain't.

Classic valley fill. Explosives are used to pulverize the mountaintop down to the coal seams. The overburden is pushed into adjacent stream valleys. Fish species already adversely affected or threatened include the mottled sculpin, fantail darter, roseyside dace, longnose dace, brook trout, and the blacknose dace.

Threatened and endangered reptiles and amphibians include the green salamander, the Santeetlah dusky salamander, the Junaluska salamander, the Tennessee cave salamander, the Bog turtle, and the hellbender, North America's largest amphibian.

The EPA says the mine operators are legally responsible for restoring MTR sites after operations cease. Here's one example of a 'restored' mountain.

Also: Mountaintop Removal Linked to 60,000 Additional Cancer Cases

So I'm not asking for a lot here. Two things, really. Please check these guys out, look at the images and give the 'likes.' Please.

Appalachia Rising

Ramps Campaign

And maybe add this to your Netflix cue: THE LAST MOUNTAIN

These folks are fighting the fight peacefully. This is last year's march on Blair Mountain:

Between now and August 1, 2012, remember the Appalachians when you're Tweeting. Get the word out. Make people aware. That's all.