Ari Marmell's Blog

So, it’s been approximately fifty-seven years since I’ve updated. I’m sorry about that. I’m in the midst of ArmadilloCon for the next few days, but after that, I hope to have time for some proper updates.

In the interim, if you’re at ArmadilloCon, you can catch me here:

SATURDAY

1:00 — Sensitivity Readers: Censorship or Sensible? (Ballroom F)

Don’t be expecting a neutral mediator here. I have strong opinions on this topic, and strong opinions on those whose agendas have led to a sometimes deliberate misunderstanding of what this topic is.

2:00 — Signing (Dealers Room)

I don’t have any of my books here, but maybe the vendors might, and you’re welcome to bring your own. If nothing else, I have flyers; I could sign one of those for you.

5:00 — Combining Genres (Ballroom E)

SUNDAY

11:00 am — The Vampire Renaissance (Ballroom E)

The world has ended.

Along with other scattered survivors, astronaut Cynthia Han and the remainder of ISS Expedition 81 have finally learned what happened to the people they’d left behind, and it’s worse than any of them could have imagined.

But even if life as Cynthia knew it is over, her struggles most certainly are not. Joshua Lamb, granted strange and inhuman abilities even as civilization died around him, directs his zealots to scoop up every pocket of survivors, to offer them the simplest choice: Join or die. The nightmarish Crooked Men still hunt the darkened, hollowed cityscapes. And towering over it all, the mind-breaking obelisks with their unreadable alien message.

At stake are not just the lives of Cynthia and her companions, but the last flickering embers of the human race. To succeed, not only must she learn the true purpose of the obelisks, she must come to understand that the worst of humanity’s instincts and sins were never limited to us alone.

For Flight Engineer Cynthia Han and her fellow astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 81 has proved as mundane as space travel ever gets. Yes, this would be Cynthia’s final NASA mission, for reasons she’s so far kept from the rest of the crew; and yes, the latest billionaire “space tourist” has managed to irritate everyone on board. Still, none of them could have asked for a smoother experience.

Until the morning they wake up to silence. All communication with Earth, gone. From half a dozen different agencies with multiple installations and redundancies across the globe, there is simply… nothing.

And through the viewports of the ISS, only the thick veil of churning, lightning-veined dust to suggest the Earth remains at all.

Now, without ground control, without the proper telemetries or calculations or even reliable visuals, Cynthia and the rest of Expedition 81 must make their way home. It will be the most fraught and the most frightening task of their lives.

But it will be nothing compared to the world that now awaits them beyond the dust.

This morning, I did an online chat/interview with Anjuli Smith of Aconyte Books. We talked mostly about Litany of Dreams, but also about Lovecraftian horror, horror in general, addressing “outdated” attitudes in classic writers, and other such things.

So if you’d like to witness the unspeakable horror that is me awake at 10 AM–or maybe you’re just interested in what we had to say–check it out here! (Special cameo appearance by Jarvis at right around the one-minute mark.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4gozi6Wcao&ab_channel=AconyteBooks

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this site, and I’m still figuring out how some of the new options even work. But I realized I hadn’t announced this here, so…

Litany of Dreams is now available in both e-book and hardcopy!

A tie-in novel for the Arkham Horror line of games, Litany is my first foray into novel-length Lovecraftian horror.

The mysterious disappearance of a gifted student at Miskatonic University spurs his troubled roommate, Elliot Raslo, into an investigation of his own. But Elliot already struggles against the maddening allure of a ceaseless chant that only he can hear… When Elliot’s search converges with that of a Greenland Inuk’s hunt for a stolen relic, they are left with yet more questions. Could there be a connection between Elliot’s litany and the broken stone stele covered in antediluvian writings that had obsessed his friend? Learning the answers will draw them into the heart of a devilish plot to rebirth an ancient horror.

While I work on trying to figure out how to actually add more about this book to the site’s bibliography, I thought I’d offer you a chance to read more about it and see if it interests you. So…

Interviews

https://www.trackofwords.com/2021/03/29/rapid-fire-ari-marmell-talks-litany-of-dreams/

http://trans–scribe.blogspot.com/2021/04/arkham-horror-litany-of-dreams-ari.html

https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-litany-of-dreams-author-ari-marmell/

Reviews

http://trans–scribe.blogspot.com/2021/04/arkham-horror-litany-of-dreams-by-ari.html

https://www.armedwithabook.com/litany-of-dreams/

https://www.strangeassembly.com/2021/review-litany-of-dreams-arkham-horror-fiction

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2021/04/arkham-horror-litany-of-dreams-beware-the-strange-chants.html

There are more, of course, but this ought to be enough to get you started. Hope you all enjoy!

Coming April 2021

So, I’ve mentioned on occasion that, while my focus these days is on novels and scripts, I haven’t abandoned gaming work. Time to demonstrate.

Remember the shadowcaster? My contribution to the 3rd edition D&D Tome of Magic? I loved the concepts and the writing, but was never entirely happy with the mechanical implementation.

Well, it’s the day of 5E–and shadows fall.

Presenting the shadowcaster, redesigned for fifth edition, available only on the DM’s Guild and published through Rogue Genius Games. Have a look!

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/307474/Shadowcaster

And don’t forget the free books I offered last week. That offer’s good for the duration.

Yet more news soon.

Well. It’s been about seventy-three years since my last update. Apologies for that. I’ll have some genuine news soon, including info about a really cool tie-in novel.

But at the moment, I’m posting about something else.

A lot of us are going to be stuck at home for a while, due to the spread of, and precautions surrounding, COVID-19. I can’t do anything to help with people’s health or finances, but maybe I can help avert boredom or cabin fever a little bit.

I’ve decided, for a time, to make my short fiction collection, Strange New Words, available for free. You can download a copy, in one of several electronic formats, by clicking here.

Furthermore, if you’re actually sick, or under full quarantine for health reasons–because you have other conditions that make you particularly susceptible, for instance, or because someone you’re close to has tested positive–send me an e-mail via the contact me page, and I’ll offer you an e-copy of one of my novels, also free. Now, be aware that I do not have e-copies of all my books available, so there are some I can’t offer. I’ll let you know which ones I have, though, and you can choose one from that list.

(Obviously, I have no way of confirming that you’re genuinely sick or otherwise stuck at home. I’m trusting you.)

Again, I know it’s not much, but I hope it helps a little bit. Keep busy and stay safe, folks.

Okay, the dotted line is signed, so here we go.

Assemble Media–producers of the Kurt Russel movie “Bone Tomahawk” and, in conjunction with Margot Robbie, the forthcoming “Ameri-Scares” series, among others–have optioned “Trauma,” an original supernatural horror screenplay written by… Well, I assume that’s obvious at this point.

Now, for those unfamiliar with “the biz,” as it’s known in the biz, an option doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll be able to buy tickets to a finished product. It just means they’re going to attempt to attach a director and actors, and interest a studio enough to provide funding to make the movie. It may happen; it may not.

But the effort, at least, is underway.

More as and when it develops.

Hey, folks. We’re back!

Really sorry about the down time. Things kind of went wonky on the back end–that sounds a lot more personal than I meant, but I’m talking about the site –and it took people with a lot more know-how than I have a very long time to get it all working again. Thanks so much to Gwen Gades for the help!

As you’ll note, things look a bit different around here, and there are still a lot of pages and links and the like that aren’t functional yet. I hope to get those all worked out as time passes.

In the interim, Ash and Ambition, book one of “Nor Fang, Nor Fire,” is out! This is my return to traditional fantasy after drifting away from it for several books, and I can’t wait to see what you all think.

I also believe I’ll have more news to share in the very near future, so stay tuned, as us old folks say.