Sam Flynn's Cabinet of Curiosities - Issue #2

Welcome back to my Cabinet of Curiosities, our quarterly fireside chat if you will.

This is a special one, as this issue coincides with the publication month for my debut fantasy/horror novella The Mystery of the Pale King. This is a dream I worked a long time to achieve and I couldn’t be more grateful that my book will soon be strutting its stuff out in the world.

Which leads me to the first announcement:

Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to Ryan Pait and Rhiannon Boyle who, through the incredible good taste of signing up for this newsletter, have won free copies of the book! Speaking of which…

Books News

…the first printing arrived hot off the presses just this week! Publication day is Tuesday, September 17, to be precise, but if you preorder now, you can get your copy early. Sample the first chapter now over on The Fantasy Hive.

Direct order links!

• Physical copies from Timber Ghost Press

• E-books from Amazon/Kindle

Check out what other readers on saying on Goodreads and please leave a review of your own there or on Amazon, for the sake of the almighty algorithm. Here’s a couple early reviews.

Thank you to all early readers and reviewers! Your kind words touched me deeply.

Upcoming Events

First up, the virtual release party will be Tuesday, September 17 at 7 p.m. on my YouTube channel where I will host my first livestream! Come by to hang out, chat, ask questions, do some reading and maybe win a signed copy?

The public release party will be Friday, September 20 from 5 to 6:45 p.m. at Donkey Coffee in Athens, OH. I’ll also be at Morley Library in Painesville, OH on Tuesday October 1 at 6 p.m. Register for the latter while spots remain. Books will be available for purchase and/or signing at both events.

As for what comes next…

Six years (21 if you go by my first attempt at such a task) and hundreds of thousands of words in the making, The Darkest Fate is ready to query.

Clocking in at 7 POVs, 47 chapters, and 150,000 words, this epic fantasy/mystery novel is the first installment in the Vale of Tears saga, the project I’ve dreamt of writing since I was 11.

The pool of inspiration for this book is wide and deep, ranging from books and film/TV to video games and anime. Here’s a few: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, Dragon Ball Z, Lost, The Matrix, Dune by Frank Herbert, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Sense8, The Expanse by James S.A. Corey, The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin, War Arts Saga by Wesley Chu, and The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham.

Each of these stories transformed my consciousness, a power that I can only compare to magic. Perhaps I incurred a debt that I feel must be repaid or, more charitably, was given a gift that must, in turn, be shared. Much more to come.

What I’m Reading:

I read The Lies of the Ajungo and The Truth of the Aleke, the first two installments in The Forever Desert by Moses Ose Utomi (to conclude with next year’s The Memory of the Ogisi). An effervescent example of imagination spanning hundreds of years, these books accomplish in less than a hundred pages what some fantasy books fail to achieve in a thousand. Utomi boils away any blemish or excess in his story until only the most vibrant, searing ingredients remain.

From fantasy deserts to Appalachian winters, Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine (shout-out to a fellow Bobcat alum!) is a gripping dystopian rural noir set in Appalachian Ohio aka my neck of the woods. An incredible combination of mood, setting, and character, I was incredibly tickled to see mention of familiar places like Marietta, not far from where I live. Stine has since published Trashlands and her third book Dust is out Dec. 3. After her first book, you better believe they’re on my reading list.

Right now, I’m finishing Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the final book in her Legacy of Orisha trilogy. Other books I’m reading this fall include several from friends of mine:

I had the pleasure of meeting Lyndsey at Futurescapes Writers’ Workshop and have been an ardent follower of her prolific work ever since. Many of her best stories are a part of her debut sci-fi/horror collection Limelight and Other Stories (Sept. 3).

Order here.

Taylor is part of the team behind the Futurescapes Writers’ Workshop and happens to share a book birthday with me. Touch of Death (Sept. 17) is her YA queer fantasy about the power of (nec)romantic love.

Order here.

Nicole is a Bram Stoker-nominated author and fellow OU grad who was kind enough to provide one of the blurbs for my book you read in the review collage above (now featured on the cover!) The Keeper of the Key (Nov. 12) is her next book, a Gothic horror tale certain to tickle the fancy of any fan of Daphne de Maurirer, Guillermo del Toro, or Mike Flanagan.

Order here.

All these books are without going into a ton of other major releases I have to catch up on, including the first installments in two new trilogies, James S.A. Corey’s Captive’s War and Nnedi Okorafor’s She Who Knows. There’s also The Great When by Alan Moore and Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer coming out in October. So many good books, so little time.

What I’m Watching:

Quite a week to talk about House of Dragon after George R.R. Martin went “Dracarys!” on the show. For what it’s worth, I thought the season was just fine, not great but not a wash either. There’s a feeling among fans, one it seems George shares, that the show hinges on where they decide to go next. Unlike the disaster that was the final seasons of Game of Thrones, he appears to be trying to intervene publicly this time.

It’s been bleak on the big budget sci-fi/fantasy front. I waited to binge Star Wars: The Acolyte only for them to cancel it a few days later. For all its flaws, I was into its themes and ideas and would have liked to see it continue. Better was Batman: Caped Crusader, another animated successor show a la X-Men ‘97 designed in a lab for a ‘90s kid like me. Also recently started The Bear with my wife. She’s a chef and I also work in food service so it’s the perfect show for us to just chill and relax to (yes, that is sarcasm).

On the movie side, I really dug the Nicolas Cage occult serial killer movie Longlegs and was pleasantly surprised by Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which turned out to be the best entry since the first. Deadpool & Wolverine was a fun if inconsequential watch but at least its tone worked for fan service. Alien: Romulus on the other hand trips over itself to reference previous films to its detriment.

Patreon Update:

Lastly, my Patreon. I put it on the backburner since our last update in June to focus on finishing up my books, but I will be beefing it up substantially in the coming weeks and beyond with behind the scenes insight and guidance into writing and querying a novel, a behind-the-scenes look for anyone interested in becoming an author. My dream is to make enough to work as an independent artist (so it’s very much a long-term project). Any pledge is greatly appreciated.

Email any suggestions to [email protected], tell me your thoughts on the newsletter and what you would like to see from your potential Patronage.

With authorly affection,

Sam