ELKINS PARK - LOCAL AUTHOR JONATHAN MABERRY

Pennsylvania author Jonathan Maberry, 47, has landed a multi-book deal with Pinnacle Books for both fiction and nonfiction. The first of three horror thrillers, Ghost Road Blues, is scheduled for release in June of 2006, with the rest of the trilogy following shortly after. Ghost Road Blues is set in a fictional Bucks County town called Pine Deep, and is a big, sprawling epic horror. Jonathan also sold a nonfiction book on the folklore and mythology of monsters called VAMPIRE UNIVERSE: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt Us, and Hunger for Us, which is due in September of 2006, just in time for Halloween.

Even months before its release Ghost Road Blues had already started generating great buzz, with dozens of films producers from companies like Miramax, Mandalay, Dimension Films, and others all inquiring about the availability of the film rights. Some of the top horror writers in the business have come out in support of the novel, including Katherine Ramsland, a horror novelist as well as a forensic psychologist and advisor for CSI and COLD CASE. After reading an advance copy of the book, Ramsland commented: "If I were asked to select only one new voice in horror fiction to read today, it would be Jonathan Maberry. Ghost Road Blues jumps so easily out of his blend of words, images, and characters you hardly realize you're reading a novel rather than watching a movie."

Jonathan Maberry has been a professional writer for over 25 years, and is the author of hundreds of articles and short stories and eleven nonfiction books. His first novel, a psychological thriller, Tales from the Fire Zone is currently being serialized in the Bucks County Review, an online literary magazine (www.buckscountyreview.com)

Maberry is the Executive Director of Career Doctor for Writers (a program that offers live and online classes for writers, editorial services, mentoring, and other services). He is also the former Executive Director of the Writers Room of Bucks County (a nonprofit writers education center); serves on the Board of Directors for the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and is a frequent lecturer at Arcadia, Princeton, Temple, Rosemont and other colleges. His website is www.careerdoctorforwriters.com.

VAMPIRE UNIVERSE:
The Dark World of Supernatural Beings
That Haunt Us, Hunt Us, and Hunger for Us

By Jonathan Maberry

It’s scary out there in the dark. There are things that move silently in the shadows, things that can see us even if we can’t see them. Thing that hunger.
Things that bite.
Monsters of all kinds have been part of our human experience since men huddled in caves. Since men first learned to articulate their fears they whispered to each other about demons and evil spirits, about vampires and werewolves, about ghosts and other spectral shapes that go bump in the night. Accounts of supernatural predators of one kind or another date back to our earliest written histories; and these beliefs are global. The ancient Assyrians and Hebrews wrote of vampiric creatures; the oldest folk tales of Tibet, China, India and the various native peoples of the Americas all have legends of predatory monsters that possess vast supernatural powers and prey on humans for flesh, for blood, even for the essence of life. There is no country, no culture, which has not had legends of supernatural evil.
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Local Author Strikes it Big
Continued

Even months before its release Ghost Road Blues some of the top horror writers in the business have come out in support of the novel, including Katherine Ramsland, a horror novelist as well as a forensic psychologist and advisor for CSI and COLD CASE. After reading an advance copy of the book, Ramsland commented: "If I were asked to select only one new voice in horror fiction to read today, it would be Jonathan Maberry. Ghost Road Blues jumps so easily out of his blend of words, images, and characters you hardly realize you're reading a novel rather than watching a movie."

Noted fantasy and science fiction writer, Gregory Frost commented: “This is a fun, fun read and creepy as hell. With Ghost Road Blues Jonathan Maberry resurrects the spirit of Manly Wade Wellman in rural Pennsylvania, and serves up scares like pancakes at a church social."

Don D'Ammassa, author of Haven, Servants of Chaos, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Scarab, Blood Beast, and the Encyclopedia of Fantasy & Horror had this to say: “If you think that small town horror has nothing new to offer the reader, you have a surprise in store for you. Jonathan Maberry's Ghost Road Blues, first in a trilogy, demonstrates that even the most haunted town in America is unprepared for the full depth of evil, either human or inhuman. A fine blend of authentic supernatural folklore and conventional villainy in a fully realized contemporary setting.”

And Scott Nicholson, author of a number of top horror novels including, The Home, The Manor, and The Harvest, called Ghost Road Blues, "...a chilling tale about the staying power of evil. As lyrical, melodic, and dark as the music that provides the imaginary soundtrack. Maberry breathes new life into modern horror fiction."

Jonathan Maberry has been a professional writer for over 25 years, and is the author of hundreds of articles and short stories and twelve nonfiction books. His first novel, a psychological thriller, Tales from the Fire Zone is currently being serialized in the Bucks County Review, an online literary magazine (www.buckscountyreview.com).

Maberry is the Executive Director of Career Doctor for Writers (a program that offers live and online classes for writers, editorial services, mentoring, and other services). He is also the former Executive Director of the Writers Room of Bucks County (a nonprofit writers education center); serves on the Board of Directors for the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and is a frequent lecturer at Arcadia, Princeton, Temple, Rosemont and other colleges. His website is www.careerdoctorforwriters.com.

Jonathan lives in Elkins Park with his wife Sara and son, Sam; and is currently at work on books 2 and 3 of the Pine Deep Trilogy.