Big promotion for the DW Chronicles!

For a short time only, Books 1-4 of my ground-breaking six-book epic fantasy The Death Wizard Chronicles will be available at severely reduced e-book prices on Amazon and other online venues: Book 1/Forged in Death (99 cents), Book 2/Chained by Fear ($1.99), Book 3/Shadowed by Demons ($2.99) and Book 4/Torn by War ($3.99). Never a better time to buy all four. Do it fast before the prices leap back up into the $10 range apiece! This is a complicated, controversial, adult-oriented, sensual and sexual, deep-minded series with plenty of monsters, magic and mayhem  but also with a lot going on between the lines. DW will make you laugh, cry and also pause to re-examine the ultimate mysteries of life. The final two books, 5 and 6, will be out by the summer. Please give what I have to say a chance. I've poured my heart into it and pulled no punches. You won't regret it. I promise.

So close I can taste it.

Book 4 (Torn by War) is out and I'm about 90 percent of the way through my latest edit of Book 5 (Blinded by Power), though it will be a bit before it enters the line-edit process with my editor. Book 6 (yet to be officially named) is written and sitting eagerly on my laptop's desktop -- and a variety of other places for backup purposes -- waiting for its turn. It's going to be an amazing feeling for me when all six books are finally out. Literally a lifetime in the making, in some regards.

The cover of The Black Fortress is honored by EPIC

The cover of one of my short stories that accompany The Death Wizard Chronicles titled The Black Fortress is a finalist for best Fantasy/Paranormal cover in the 2013 EPIC awards. Much congrats to Debra Dixon, who in addition to being CEO of Bell Bridge Book as well as a best-selling author, is also an amazing designer in her "spare" time. :)

Book 4, Torn by War, is now available!

Book 4, Torn by War, is now available on amazon.com and dozes of other online stores. I hope readers of the series enjoy this latest offering. According to those who have already read it, this is the best book of the series thus far.

My fab five

My top 5 favorite fantasy series:

1. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien (the grand piano of fantasy)
2. Malazan Book of the Fallen / Steven Erikson (no one I've read rivals Erikson's breadth of imagination) 
3. Game of Thrones / George R.R. Martin (not as much magic as I like, but no denying that in many ways Martin is the best there's ever been)
4. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant / Stephen Donaldson (man, can Donaldson write, or what? beautiful)
5. The Dark Tower Series / Stephen King (funky and weird and even kind of silly at times, but King is the man and has always been the man)

Anyone care to add to this?

Cover release of Vision of Shadows by Vincent Morrone

My friend Vince has a book coming out in December. Here's the cover and some details. Can't wait for the actual release!

Is Bristol Blackburn about to meet the love of her life...or her killer?
After the death of her parents, Bristol Blackburn's life is thrown into chaos and she's forced to move to Spirit, a small town where shadows are stirring. As she learns to navigate her new school and figures out how to keep her psychic abilities secret from her family, Bristol comes face to face with the boy who makes a regular appearance in her dreams: the gorgeous, possibly deadly, Payne McKnight. Soon she’ll find out if Payne will be the love of her life, or the end of it — and she has no idea which possibility scares her more.

And that's not even the worst of it. Strange shadows are haunting her dreams, and they're up to something that could put Bristol and the lives of everyone she loves in jeopardy.


You can add Vision of Shadows to your to-read list on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18108617-vision-of-shadows


Information about the book:
Title: Vision of Shadows
Series: Vision series
Author: Vincent Morrone
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Length: 210 pages
Release Date: December 30, 2013

About the Author:
Born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Vincent Morrone now resides in Upstate NY with his wife. (Although he can still speak fluent Brooklynese.) His twin daughters remain not only his biggest fans, but usually are the first to read all of his work. Their home is run and operated for the comfort and convenience of their dogs.

Vincent has been writing fiction, poetry and song lyrics for as long as he can remember, most of which involve magical misfits, paranormal prodigies and even on occasion superheroes and their sidekicks.

As they say in Brooklyn: Yo, you got something to say to Vincent?
Check out http://vincentmorrone.com/ where you can learn about Vincent and leave him a comment. You can also connect with Vincent on Twitter https://twitter.com/Vince524 and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Morrrone.

Book 3 is now available!

Shadowed by Demons, Book 3 of The Death Wizard Chronicles, my six-book epic fantasy, is now available. Any readers who enjoyed Books 1 and 2 will love Book 3. Please check it out here.

The Black Fortress arrives

A second short story serving as a prequel to the series is now available via free download.

The Black Fortress is available here.

In The Black Fortress, Torg, the Death Wizard, faces a hideous Druid Queen who controls an army of minions through the immense power of her will. Among those doing her bidding is a Stone-Eater, a fierce and powerful creature who obtains its powers from eating stone.

Great review in two big papers

I've received an excellent review (3/24/13) that is running in a pair of sister newspapers -- the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. Much thanks to Ann Allen, a staff writer and editor in Charlotte, for her kind words. This review also will be moving over the wires, so hopefully other papers will pick it up and run with it.

Here is the review.

Blog post on my publisher's site

If you get a chance, please check out my blog post on the Bell Bridge Books site. And if you have the time, please leave a short comment.

Author site is finally back online

After the heinous hacking of my author's site (www.jim-melvin.com), it is back online again ... finally. It cost me time and money to revive it, and it was incredibly annoying, which I'm sure is what turns this particular hacker/hackers on. It's beyond me what would cause a human being to take pleasure in such things. He/she/they must want people to suffer for suffering's sake.

Anyway, I posted excerpts from books 1 and 2 on the site and will be adding material periodically. It's good to be back.