Blood Vault Art

Artist Noel Tuazon has posted a few of his awesome black and white illustrations for the Blood Vault at his blog Ribs Inc.  This includes one never before seen illustration that wasn't used for the final print product because it was just a bit too graphic. My publisher realizes I've got impressionable youth reading my stories...

The Winner is...

Take a gander at Jair Trevino's newly-revised version of The Blood Vault artwork that will be appearing on the Blood Vault chapbook which will be released this coming May. This chapbook will contain the complete short story, The Blood Vault, and various samples of other released and soon to be released novels.

Thanks to all who made name suggestions for my new blog feature which will feature footnote-style entries relating to the denizens, people, customs, culture, and etymology of the Dire Planet. There were some great sounding suggestions like Dire Planetology, and Dire Planetarium that I didn't go with because the meanings weren't quite right. However, I've settled on The Dire Planet Compendium which Triton suggested. Somehow, it seems appropriate that someone named after a planetary body made the winning suggestion.

Noel Tuazon has sent me some wonderful artwork, so I'll post the first installment of The Dire Planet Compendium later this week.

Hunter and Triton, I do appreciate your participation in my impromptu contest. Shoot me an email, that contains your mailing address, at Joel dot Jenkins at Gmail dot com and once The Blood Vault chapbook is released I'll mail each of you a signed copy.

New Blog Feature

I've decided to introduce a new regular feature to the Vaults of Caladrex. For the rest of this year I'm aiming for a weekly feature (more or less) that will be an entry (illustrated by no less than the talented Noel Tuazon) on the denizens, people, and etymology of Mars, also known as the Dire Planet.

Those who have read Exiles of the Dire Planet and Into the Dire Planet will have noticed a number of footnotes detailing certain customs, legends, phrase origins, and practices of the people of the Dire Planet. In this new feature I will be adding and expounding upon those footnotes.

However, I've yet to come up with a name for this new blog feature and I'm looking for some suggestions. Encyclopedia of the Dire Planet doesn't quite have the right ring to it, and Dictionary of the Dire Planet, though it's a great alliteration, doesn't quite do it for me either. Bestiary of the Dire Planet sounds great but the beasties of Mars are only going to be a small portion of the entries--so it's not quite accurate.

Anybody who makes a suggestion that I decide to use gets a free copy of the upcoming chapbook release of The Blood Vault, which will be released Mother's Day weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. After all, when one thinks of Mother's Day one thinks of vampires-right? No? At any rate, I'll be posting more about The Blood Vault chapbook in later blog postings. Make some suggestions!

Rudolph and Santa Throw it Down

Apparently, Rudolph and Santa have had a disagreement--but don't worry. I'm sure they will blow off some steam, apologize and be ready to go for Christmas.

This illustration comes courtesy of Noel Tuazon who is the cover artist of Exiles of the Dire Planet, and Into the Dire Planet. He's also completed some fantastic illustrations for my upcoming childrens' book The Pirates of Mirror Land and for the soon to be released chapbook of The Blood Vault.

I'll be spilling further information on both those projects come the new year, including sharing a few illustrations and even letting you know how you can get a free copy of The Blood Vault.