phantacea Goes Fast

Welcome. Or welcome back, as the case may be.

Accelerated Mini-Novels Now Available

And what, you might ask or pray tell, are accelerated mini-novels?

Sooth said, I only invented the term a while ago. It came about because I wanted to attend a couple of conventions locally and didn't have anything new to sell.

(Which, I'm sure you'll agree, is vastly superior to not having a thing to wear.)

I did have, however, and still do have, various drafts of "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" and "The Trigregos Gambit" sitting in my computer (and backed up in a number of other places for safety's sake).

In case I haven't mentioned it to the point of ridiculous redundancy elsewhere, 1000-Daze and Gambit are the follow-ups to “Feeling Theocidal”. That of course makes them the final two books in ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ trilogy.

Also in pHantacea-pHact, at least in some respects Gambit overlaps “The War of the Apocalyptics”, the first entry in the Launch 1980 story cycle. Equally in truth, as well as fantasy, aspects of 1000-Daze could constitute War-Pox's prequel.

(More on their relationship to every other phantacea publication, printed and/or as yet never printed (except on the Web), is properly left for the future file. After all, I'm always in search of topics for the Publisher's Commentary section of pH-Webworld, as also linked from down below, and interconnection would make a good one.)

I didn't have, and still don't have, though it's in the works, a print-worthy cover for 1000-Daze. But I do have the one I prepared shortly after I first announced that the sequel to Feel Theo was on its way, way back when.

(That'd be these two fine fellows. Both enlarge in a new window when you double-click either/or. There's more on them here.)

I'd also written 1000-Daze in three sections complete unto themselves. Indeed, I'd conceived of it as a mini-trilogy. Breaking it into mini-novels followed naturally. So did preparing collages that included some of my own photos for the covers of the two sections I decided to publish separately.

In order to accelerate the action sequences, I carefully clipped, and in some areas completely cut, some of their background details and side-stories. As for what resulted, well, there's a teaser for "The Death's Head Hellion" here and one for "Contagion Collectors" here.

I hasten to add, in the same spirit of speeding things up, that I intend to restore the clips and cuts edited out of the mini-novels before I finally release "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" come a couple of months time. The continuity won't change, though. That I can assure you.

As always, good reading!

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The Death's Head Hellion

In 4825 Year of the Dome, forces loyal to the Death Gods of Frozen Lathakra threaten to overwhelm the Utopian Weirdom of Cabalarkon. Its demonically-empowered Master counterattacks mercilessly.

In the nearly 5,000 years since the Moloch Sedon preserved it from the Great Flood of Genesis, the Hidden Continent has never experienced such approaching apocalyptic devastation.

Set in the Year of the Dome 4824/5, Hellion presents a terrifying dilemma that Thrygragos Everyman and his Unities, freewheeling anarchists the loathsome load of them, must resolve lest the post-Thrygragon Era of Empires results in a second Genesea.

As for Master Morgan Abyss, it isn't a matter of better the Devil you know. It's a matter of, when dealing with the Devil above, singular and capitalized, never forget the devils below, small case and plural.

It's a lesson she learns all too rapidly. Ah, but is it a lesson she also learns all too fatally?

Double-click on the images in this frame to enlarge them in a separate window.

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Contagion Collectors

Despite often violent suppression by forces blinkered by monotheistic absolutism, at the height of the Renaissance seekers after secrets are determined to discover all there is to know about the universe.

Yet, right here on the earth beneath their feet, there is no bigger secret than that there is a Cathonic Dome. The second biggest secret beyond the Cathonic Dome is that a continent the size of Africa lies underneath it.

Two hundred years earlier, someone who knew all there was to know about the Hidden Headworld was none other than the infamous, panpipe-playing Rat Catcher of Hamelin.

Three Outer Earthlings you may have heard of play howsoever insignificant roles in Contagion. They are Twisted Tommy (Tomas de Torquemada, age 56), Bosco (Hieronymous Bosch, age 26), and Dire (Albrecht Durer, age 4).

Dire and Drang (a hound, not yet a dachshund) are having a wonderful boy/dog adventure until four already much feared riders on psychopomp steeds burst into their hence no longer exclusive paradise, the Garden of Earthy Delights.

As for the god by then sitting high above them all, in a Brainrock throne on a mushroom cloud, he's the deviant half-son of two of the terrifying riders, the one with the buzzsaw scales and the one with the bow and already notched arrow.

Double-click on the images in this frame to enlarge them in a separate window.

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More shameless promo for the Autumn 2010 edition of www.phantacea.com

Mini-novels are hardly the only PHANTACEA Mythos print publications available for ordering. Plus, orders for PHANTACEA Mythos mosaic novels can be made with credit cards through amazon.com as well as many other major online ordering sites.

Dependent on location, booksellers and bookseller cooperatives can place bulk orders for the novel via either Ingram Books or Ingram International, as per here.

The gods and goddesses, the demons and monsters, of ancient mythologies have been trivialized, their worship proscribed and the entities themselves mostly confined to another realm. Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos chronicles their ongoing striving for a return to paramountcy.

Culminating in the Genesea (aka the Great Flood of Genesis), the graphic novel, "Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA", recounts many of the challenges these then only eventual gods and goddesses faced prior to their apotheosis. Of them, about half of take place pre-Earth.

Nothing less than the PHANTACEA version of the origin of the Devil Himself highlights this 1990 collection of short featurettes drawn by Ian Fry and initially intended for the phantacea Phase One project.

(Secular Note: according to some faiths, fallen angels became devils. They had to have fallen from somewhere, which in my books makes them extraterrestrials. Are the heavens not outer space? Of course they are.)

Set primarily on the consequently Inner Earth of Sedon's Head, "Feeling Theocidal" sketches and/or details, more grimly than graphically, many more stories involving these undeniable little gods. (Undeniable because, as per here and here, that is precisely what the word 'devil' means -- and don't let anyone tell you differently.)

Foremost among the tales told is that of Thrygragon. For not just devazurkind in particular, Mithramas 4376 Year of the Dome (Christmas Day 376 AD) may yet prove perhaps the singly most important event in Whole Earth history since Xuthros Hor, the Biblical Noah, caused the Genesea.

(Pun Alert: As for why Hor looks Japanese on the cover of pH-4Ever, when I first heard about Japan's famous Noh theatre as a kid, I decided it had to be named after Noah. The notion never left whatever else is left of my peabrain.)

Feel Theo also contains an afterword by the author. Albeit with the bonus of three or four contextually nifty photographs taken in Mexico City, it is reprinted here.

"The War of the Apocalyptics", the latest in what looks to be a long line of PHANTACEA Mythos mosaic novels, brings their saga into the final fifth of the Twentieth Century our time (the Sixtieth Century of the Dome). Back cover bluster promises what War-Pox delivers:

"From the creator of the PHANTACEA Mythos and the writer of ‘Feeling Theocidal’ comes Fallen Angel Devils, comes unrelenting Action, comes the Damnation Brigade, comes the first book of the Launch 1980 cycle."

Set on both the Outer and Inner Earth in 19/5980, War-Pox additionally contains a foreword and an afterword by the author. More, it ends with the first chapter of the immediate sequel to “Feeling Theocidal”.

The second book in ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ trilogy, it is entitled "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" and will be released in late 2010. There's a list of lynx to extracts here. Notes and lynx re the two mini-novels adapted from 1000-Daze can be found starting here.

Online lynx for War-Pox include the following:

• The first three chapters of the novel;
• The front and back covers as well as notes on them and a 30-second synopsis of the novel;
• More detailed information on the novel, including notes on the major characters;
• War-Pox - A Mosaic Novel featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos
• The Apocalyptics and their allies as first described in the novel - earlier lynx to this illustrated Web Feature
• The Damnation Brigade as first described in the novel - earlier lynx to this illustrated Web Feature
• The novel’s foreword
• The novel's afterword
• Bags more pox

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phantacea.com is the only website thus far dedicated entirely to print publications featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos. Unless noted differently in the text or image mouse-overs, everything is written, photographed, scanned-in and/or otherwise prepared by Jim McPherson.

All sorts of ever-so-pertinent lynx to all sorts of often impertinent webpages, including where its previous Welcoming Page went, can be accessed from here. That's a dot-ditto for Web Publisher's Commentaries preserved in pH-Webworld.

This particular page also contains a table of graphics with lynx to larger views of the same graphics within this or related websites. As where noted on a slowly increasing number of suchlike graphics tables, you can now double-click on the image in order to enlarge it in a separate window.

Should additionally take this opportunity to mention, hardly for the last time, that Lightning Source Inc (LSI) has exclusive rights to distribute both mosaic novels. That means individual copies of "Feeling Theocidal" and/or "The War of the Apocalyptics" can be ordered from amazon.com and its affiliates, including amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk, as well as from Barnes & Noble.

Click the lynx provided or go to their sites, type Jim McPherson, PHANTACEA, or the novel's name(s) into their search engine and proceed from there.

In much the same way, bookstores and bookseller collectives can place bulk orders through the Ingram Book Company, Ingram International and/or Baker & Taylor. I'm assured that the terms you're used to shall apply.

There's a partial list of LSI's worldwide distribution partners here. I've seen online listings for Feel Theo from as far afield as South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and the UK. A friend of mine in Germany ordered and received it within a few days of doing so; meaning you should be able to order either of the novels wherever you are and in whatever currency you prefer to use.

Or you can email me today and I'll arrange to fill them myself, albeit for a slightly additional cost to cover shipping, tax and customs issues, especially if you reside outside of Canada.

The list price for both novels is $24.00 CAD in Canada and $23.00 USD in the States. As linked from here, the graphic novel, "Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA", can be ordered via email from pH-Webworld. Like the accelerated mini-novels, it is still being sold at its original list price of $10.00 in both Canada and the USA. Remainder copies of the first four PHANTACEA comic books are also available for $5.00 per comic in both currencies.

An additional cost of 15% on the complete purchase covers Canadian and provincial taxes. Plus, shipping and handling fees are extra. Be forewarned that I can only accept certified cheques and money orders. Sorry, no pay pal or credit cards accepted on this end. To conclude ...

Comments are always appreciated. With your permission, I may reproduce some of them somewhere at sometime. Until then, as I used to end off this sort of thing when I was publishing comic books, be pHantacizing you. JMcP