Update for December 2015

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Hey folks,

I thought I’d give you guys, my fans, an update as to what the current situation is on a number of projects which are going on right now. Quite a few have been waiting patiently for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY and others not-so-patiently. I’m pleased to say the book is in the middle of being formatted and Jeffrey Kafer is ready to do the audio book version afterward.

Games follows Gary Karkofsky as he arrives back in Falconcrest City after the events of THE RULES OF SUPERVILLAINY. It’s been a month, the city is overrun by superpowered zombies, and everything has gone to heck. But all Gary cares about is finding his wife. Does Mandy need saving, though? Find out!

I’m excited about this volume more than just about any other book I’ve written (well, at least until the next one) and think everyone will like it. The Games of Supervillainy should be out sometime this month and while I’m sorry it’s been delayed, I want to thank everyone who has e-mailed or messaged me about its status. Believe me, I want it out as much as anyone else.

AGENT G: INFILTRATOR has been sent to Amber Cove publishing and I’m hoping they’ll be picking up that manuscript for publication. It’s the story of an assassin who has had his memory wiped for a ten year contract to a very sci-fi sort of murder group. But there’s a lot more going on, not the least bit being there’s easier ways to get someone to kill people.

The first book of my THREE WORLDS series, WRAITH KNIGHT is set for release in Fall of 2016 and I’m very pleased Ragnarok Publications has chosen to pick it up. I’ve already got the sequel, WRAITH LORD, finished and am currently looking at samples of artwork for its cover. They’ve been very generous to me and I can’t wait to share my attempt at dark fantasy.

ELDRITCH OPS. the sequel to ESOTERRORISM is, sadly, not going to be able to be read by fans until 2017 due to a number of reasons. A two year wait for a book’s sequel is hardly unknown by fans, though, and I think you’ll love the book when it comes out. The cover is gorgeous and the plot is a delightful tale of the House vs. Vampires vs. Werewolves vs. Pirates vs. Itself. Yes, I said pirates and somehow it’s not silly.

Take my word for it.

One interesting thing is I actually wrote the RED ROOM series as a trilogy, only for me to throw out the completely-written book 3#. Why? Because I decided I didn’t like what I’d written as the grand finale and I was going to keep writing the books until I felt I’d exhausted the potential for them. So expect plenty more adventures of Derek and Shannon in the future.

I also hope to see an audio book version of Esoterrorism released sometime in 2016.

Thanks again, folks, for your interest.

The cover for The GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY revealed

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The cover for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY!

The absolutely beautiful cover for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY by Raffaele Marinetti, lettering by Terry Stewart. I really love the way Raffaele captured Mandy (dressed as Nighthuntress) and Diabloman for this work.

We’re trucking along to THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY’s release in late November, 2015.

I hope everyone will pick up a copy.

The Rules of Supervillainy is now out on audiobook

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Great news, folks!

The Rules of Supervillainy, my most successful novel so far, has been released by Amber Cover in audiobook format. Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer, it’s absolutely wonderful and I’ve already got a couple of great reviews on the work. Jeffrey really managed to capture the humorous, dramatic, and sometimes outright crazy spirit of the novel.

Bravo.

I think you should pick this up if you like superheroes, humor, and audio books.

But I may be biased.

Buy at Audible.com

Cover sketch for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY

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I’m pleased to say I’ve just got the sketch for THE GAMES OF SUPERVILLAINY cover by Raffaele Marinetti.

This cover shows characters Mandy Karkofsky and Diabloman, who are the main (anti)hero Merciless’ wife and second-in-command respectively.  Raffaele is a great artist and really managed to capture the heroine and villain in my head. I can’t wait to see what he does with future books.

The Games of Supervillainy will be out early this November.

The Bookie Monster Spotlights The Rules of Supervillainy

The Bookie Monster, one of my favorite review sites on the internet, has done me a delightful favor of spotlighting The Rules of Supervillainy. It has an excerpt from the first chapter which, hopefully, will give some undecided readers an idea of what they’ll find within the work.

Gary Karkofsky is an ordinary guy with an ordinary life living in an extraordinary world. Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown’s resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion’s magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as Merciless: The Supervillain Without MercyTM.

But is he evil enough to be a villain in America’s most crime-ridden city?

Gary soon finds himself surrounded by a host of the worst of Falconcrest City’s toughest criminals. Supported by his long-suffering wife, his ex-girlfriend turned professional henchwoman, and a has-been evil mastermind, Gary may end up being not the hero they want but the villain they need.

This is one of my favorite works and one which has proven very popular with fans. If you love superheroes, give it a try.

Purchase a copy today

C.T. Phipps’ Writing Projects for 2015/2016

Hey guys,

I thought I would give you an update upon what I’ve been working on, writing wise. It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these posts and I figure it’d be great to give people a sense of what my current projects are.

Sales-wise, I’m very happy about what we’ve been doing for The Rules of Supervillainy and Esoterrorism. Esoterrorism‘s sales have been strong and are well on their way to reaching their year-end goal. No news yet on whether or not we’re going to be doing an audio book version of Esoterrorism but I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted on the subject. The Rules of Supervillainy, however, is a runaway success story and has not only reached its year-end-sales goal but has actually managed to quadruple it.

Yes, quadruple.

Amber Cove Publishing is very happy with its progress and we’re already working on an audio book adaptation release for Sping of 2016.

Better still, The Games of Supervillainy, sequel to Rules, is going to be released at the end of October 2015. This will continue the adventures of Gary Karkofsky as he attempts to find his missing wife Mandy in the now-zombie-ridden Falconcrest City. Move over, Ex-Heroes, there’s a new undead-slaying super and his crew in in town!

The Games of Supervillainy won’t be the end of the Supervillainy Saga, however. Indeed, for 2016, we have books 3# and 4# prepped for the series: The Secrets of Supervillainy and The Science of Supervillainy. The plots of these are under wraps for the time being but will follow Gary on his strangest mission yet: helping the good guys! *shudder*

Esoterrorism is getting its sequel set for March of 2016 with Eldritch Ops. Eldritch Ops. picks up with Derek Hawthorne having been promoted to a member of the Committee and absolutely HATING it. Suited for field-work rather than membership in an international conspiracy’s ruling council, he’s put on point for preventing a war between the House and the Vampire Nation. This is complicated by the fact Derek’s partner, Christopher Han, was murdered by vampires and turns out to be the monster Derek’s been sent to negotiate with. Can Derek prevent a war with the undead? Will he want to? And what’s this about a House within the House? Could it be our anti-hero has been working for BAD GUYS the entire time?

Well, duh.

Ragnarok Publications has more faith in me than just the Red Room series, which I think will close out with a trilogy, though. They’ve agreed to publish not only the first novel of my Wraith Knight series, appropriately titled Wraith Knight but its sequel, Wraith Lord, next year as well.

Wraith Knight follows the adventures of Jacob Riverson, a once-great hero who finds himself awakening after two-hundred years of slavery as the undead spectral servant to the now-deceased King Below. Awakening to a new world where heroes and villains used to be clear-cut but are now more ambiguous, he allies with an idealistic young warrior woman to achieve some form of redemption. But can a physical ghost find salvation? Does such a thing even exist?

This isn’t the end of my projects, though, as I’ve also got a sudden burst of inspiration to do my sci-fi spy series Agent G. Inspired by Total Recall and the Transporter movies, G is an agent for the mysterious Society. Having had his memories erased, he owes the organization ten years of faithful service as an assassin in order to get them back. Taking place in the modern day, it is a world which is infinitely stranger than we ever gave it credit for as dueling cabals wield unimaginable technology.

In the first novel, Infiltrator, G not only has to deal with a collection of colorful killers armed with the same advanced technology as the Society but also rescue or terminate a man who might be his father.

Just a normal day at the office.

Short-stories wise, I’m going to continue to donate my efforts to the At Hell’s Gates anthologies, which I heartily recommend to any and all horror fans. These books donate all their proceeds to the United Fallen Heroes fund and contain some of the best writing by independent horror novelists you’ll find today. The books are filled with writing from such budding luminaries as Devan Sagliani, Shana Festa, Tim Marquitz, and others. You can read more about these wonderful books here.

Tim Marquitz and Joe Martin, as if they weren’t awesome enough, have also been kind enough to invite me to join their Humanity 2.0 project. This is a shared superhero universe in the style of Marvel and DC comics which will publish a series of anthologies where humanity has been empowered by alien tampering. I’ll be posting a novella called Freelancer in Emergence. I can’t tell you much more than that but I’m really excited about working on this. You can read more about this particular project here.

In addition to all of these projects, I’ll also be continue to post here at the United Federation of Charles and do my best to review the best (and worst) in video games as well as independent fiction.

I hope you’ll check out my stuff!

“The Appeal of Grimdark” by me on Sci-Fi Signal

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    I was recently honored by SF Signal, today, one of the oldest and most successful fanzines on the internet, by having them post one of my articles. “The Appeal of Grimdark” is an article by me discussing, well, the appeal of Grimdark.

    Available to Read Here

     To me, grimdark is a state of mind and really can be achieved any multiple number of ways. Not the least bit being, “this is a situation where the point is not for the hero to make the world a better place but to simply stand up to the world, no matter how many punches is being thrown in his face.”

    It’s an attitude which influenced both The Rules of Supervillainy and Esoterrorism both, though the former at least does have superheroes. They just don’t hang around in Falconcrest City. For Esoterrorism, it’s a Crapsaccharine World (thank you TV tropes.org) where the beauty and glamour of the Red Room covers up the violent power of monsters as well as how genuinely awful humanity’s ignorance is.

    I hope you’ll check out my article, I had a lot of fun writing it.