Venus in Saturn: Just Published!

At long last, the prequel to Maranatha is out there, in a special illustrated edition available only from Lulu.com.

While Maranatha was in many ways an occult thriller with some horror trappings, Venus has more of a horror mentality with much of the action (and weirdness) taking place in the mind of heroine Vanessa Descartes, and contains some of the most disturbing material Mr. Wood has ever written to date. (He concedes that if a writer can freak himself out while writing something, then it bodes well for readers who enjoy that kind of thing!) While avoiding gratuitousness, Venus is nonetheless a macabre exploration of the deepest reaches of the human psyche, and is recommended for readers who like their horror with a cold, cutting edge, and a forensic level of detail.

Still as complex and layered, however, Venus has been almost three years in production, and sets up the cosmic background for the third book in the Trinity Chronicles series, The Keys of Heaven.

For Fenriswulf's Followers - A Springtime Freebie

Taking a break from editing Venus in Saturn, the next book in the Trinity Chronicles, Chaz thought it might be a nice idea to offer a free sample of the text to Fenriswulf's visitors and followers.

Simply browse to the e-Book page here and download the PDF. The free 63-page sample contains the first half-dozen or so chapters of Venus as things stand at present. Some of the work is still in 'beta' format, so any feedback or opinions at all will be gratefully received.

Warning: some disturbing and adult content lies within.

Venus in Saturn: Cover Preview

Among other art and design projects, Chaz has still been finding valuable time to coax the final draft of Venus in Saturn towards a conclusion. With so many plot threads it's taken a long time to get there, but official release is now slated for this Spring.

Here's Chaz's finished artwork for the cover, front and back, featuring heroine Vanessa Descartes (in the background) and the sadistic 'Destroying Angel of Dunkelsburg', nazi war criminal Dr. Else von Hinterstoisser. As with all of Chaz's works, however, the lines between good and evil are somewhat blurred...as our tormented protagonist soon finds out to her cost:

As a further taster, here's the back cover blurb text in full:

"Days before the turn of the Millennium, it is Vanessa Descartes' last criminal forensic case and seven years before the events of Maranatha, where Vanessa first met Dr. Khalamanga and Professor de Carranza.

A brutal psychopath stalks the streets of Whitechapel, echoing the crimes of Jack the Ripper, 111 years before.

The police are scratching for clues. Only Vanessa believes she understands the true meaning of the case from a series of bizarre occult, historical and scientific anomalies that stretch their
dark shadows over 10,000 years of human history.

As she infiltrates a cultish church based around the mythology of fallen angels, she begins to uncover even more terrifying details of a past she has tried to forget for so long...and one
that she never knew she had, until now.

How can she convince the police that the trauma she experienced as a child, and the strange propensity for madness and suicide in her family, are essential to the investigation?

As she struggles to reconcile her lingering guilt over the tragic suicide of her elder sister with the baffling twists and turns of the case, Vanessa is forced to examine the depths of her own mind in a shattering descent into psychological horror which drags her to the blackest depths of human depravity, madness, and purest evil...and beyond..."