New Reviews for the 'Trinity Chronicles' !

Chaz came home tonight to find not one, but two, reviewes waiting for him in his email inbox.

These were provided courtesy of Readers Favorite.com, who provide a free-of-charge book review service (as well as a paid-for premium review service). Chaz decided he had nothing to lose and submitted both books in the 'Trinity Chronicles' for their attention.

For a free service, Chaz is very impressed, and would recommend this to any writer seeking reviews. The reviews, though not long, show careful reading and understanding of the texts which makes the reviewer's points (both good and critical) profoundly valid.

'Venus in Saturn' is reviewed here.

And 'Maranatha' is reviewed here.

These reviews are also scheduled to go live on Amazon.com in the next few days, another exciting and helpful aspect of the RF review service.

'Venus' on Kindle!

'Venus in Saturn' is now live on Amazon Kindle - in the standard text-only edition without any illustrations. Chaz has experimented by dropping his royalty share on this one to see if the lower price will attract more sales. In any case, this is still dark and creepy stuff - the darkest Chaz has ever written.

US Customers can get it here.

Our UK customers can download it here.

The third volume in the Trinity Chronicles series is now in production, and sees the return of many old characters from the first two books.

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.

Forthcoming Fenriswulf Fiction…with Freebies?!

Things haven’t been quiet on the Fenriswulf Books front of late – in fact, they’ve been positively deafening (or at least that’s Chaz’s excuse for not getting enough sleep of late).

While Lulu.com go about the interminable process of trying to re-discover Chaz’s remaining block of ISBNs (purchased in 2008 and now seemingly lost in their cavernous system somewhere, and still no customer support in 4 weeks of emailing and livechat), Chaz has pushed on ahead with 2011’s release schedule as follows:

Trinity Chronicles - Maranatha (2nd revised edition): to be released ASAP
Wish and the Will: Sundancer’s Regret, Episode 1: ASAP!
Trinity Chronicles – Venus in Saturn: scheduled for summer 2011
Last Rose of Summer: Late 2011

Jolly good, you cry. Glad to hear Chaz is so busy and creative. So what about those freebies you spoke of earlier?

Well, we’re seeking “beta readers”, as they seem to be referred to in these circles, or kind people who love reading, with lots of time and their hands, who don’t mind going through the proof of a text and providing constructive feedback and opinion to the author.

If anybody out there would like to take part in this, we’re currently looking to gather opinions on Venus in Saturn and Sundancer’s Regret, ideally within the next 4-8 weeks. Leave a comment here or send us an email and we’ll pop you a proof of the text in PDF format. Your payment, should you wish it, will be a free copy of the finished product (signed, print edition of Venus, full-colour illustrated edition of Regret in e-book format) when all the work is done.

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..."

Venus in Saturn: Sneak Preview

Something a little different: a taster of some content from Venus in Saturn, the soon-to-be-released prequel to Maranatha.

Wherein Inspector Jack Carpenter expresses his frustration with his top freelance CSI investigator, Vanessa Descartes, for going above and beyond the call of duty...

“You’ve gone and done what?”
Carpenter threw his pen to the desk in exasperation, though Vanessa knew he would have preferred to have stabbed it into her eye at that moment.
“Look, someone needed to get close to them.”
She had guessed that Carpenter might have had some quiet reservations about her activities that morning, but the volume of voice was far in excess of what she had ever feared. “Now, you can’t get any closer than being on the inside, can you? I won't be billing you for it. Call it freelance undercover work.”
“No. I'll tell you what I call it: sodding up our enquiry. You realise I can’t do anything for you in there? Any possible future sting or inside job we could have had planned, is out the window for as long as you’re involved with that shower? And if you make one slip - one wrong word - and blow your cover, then they could do a moonlight and then we're all stuffed! Or even worse – they suss you out, and you're the next one to end up gutted like a bloody kipper.
"Now think, Vanessa. If they’re involved, then we have to approach very carefully. And if they’re not involved and it’s just a coincidence, you’re gonna get yourself all stressed out over nothing. You can't be neutral and rational in there, because you have an emotional stake in all of this. Worst case scenario, anything you pick up gets thrown out as inadmissible, and there'll be no justice for Sandra.”
“Then why can’t you set up something, using me as a decoy?”
“Jesus, what did I just say? I know we all think they’re involved, in some kind of way. Whether they had anything to do with Sandra's death is up for debate, but you’ve already convinced yourself that they were responsible for what happened to your big sister as well.”
She shrugged, jerked her head. Not so much of a nod, more an acknowledgement of his words. “I’m still hoping I can be proved wrong.”
“But you’d prefer to be proved right. Because it gives you a rationale, someone to blame. Right?”
“Wrong. There's a connection somewhere in all of this, Jack, and I intend to find it. It combines me, my sister, this case, and this unorthodox religion on some level and if I don't get a better idea of where they're coming from, we may never solve this one. I've had weird shit happen all through my life when I never asked for it. It's time I went looking for some answers, to all of it.”
Carpenter's gnawed fingertips played a slow funeral march on the edge of his desk.
"You know, Vanessa, you're brilliant. You really are. You've helped me get results on every case I've worked with you in nearly two years. But sometimes, you really piss me off. Now get out, and don't come back until I call you, or you have some facts so hard, they could crack diamonds. Okay?"

Work-in-progress illustration for the above scene:


All content (c) C. Wood, 2010.