Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Lords of Dyscrasia Promotions - Free Books!

In hopes of generating customer reviews (ratings, etc.), I am luring victims readers with promotions:

1) Through Halloween 2011 (10/31/2011), I am giving away free paperbacks of Lords of Dyscrasia via Goodreads.com (open to U.S. and Canada due to shipping constraints). Goodreads assigns winners randomly from a list of anyone who requests to be included. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Lords of Dyscrasia by S.E. Lindberg

Lords of Dyscrasia

by S.E. Lindberg

Giveaway ends October 31, 2011.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win

2) LibraryThing.com (click link) will be hosting a Giveaway of 50 ePubs. This is the easiest way to share the novel globally (Giveaway starting Oct. 1st 2011).  LibraryThing offers a few types of Giveaway programs, this Member version selects winners randomly from any who request it.

3) Read the ePub and get a free paperback! I am offering complimentary signed paperbacks to those who post on-line ratings, reviews, or testimonials. The first chapter is free, and full version only $2.99. Click here to find out how to sample the ePubs
ForeWord gave it 5/5 stars. Do you agree?
Read the review!
Foreword Clarion Review gave Lords of Dyscrasia 5 stars!

"...Outside of the works of Poe and Lovecraft, there are few, if any, novels comparable to this one...
Beowulf comes to mind both for its epic quality and bloody action...

The pace is nearly breathless...
Lindberg, who also created more than 50 illustrations and the cover for this book, makes the majority of current popular fantasy fiction read like recipes by comparison.  Lords of Dyscrasia is highly recommended, though not for the faint of heart."

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Five Star ForeWord Review of Lords of Dyscrasia


Created a new Reviews Tab that includes this; added here as a Post to broadcast the news!








ForeWord Clarion Review
FICTION: FANTASY
S. E. Lindberg
Ignis Publishing LLC
978-0-615-39286-8
Five Stars (out of Five)
September 2011

"...highly recommended, though not for the faint of heart..."

“Diary, I tallied the Dissection Theater’s subjects again.”

So begins the debut novel of Massachusetts native and chemist-by-day Seth Lindberg. This decidedly dark fantasy is heavily influenced by Dante, Poe, Lovecraft, and a great love for weird tales.

Opening the novel is the narrator, Dey, a seer and the stepson of Endenken Lysis. Endenken’s father, the leader of Clan Lysis, has recently died. In fact, much of Dey’s and Endenken’s world is dying. Humans and gods (both insectoid and avian) are infected with dyscrasia, a blood disease that is fatal to all who contract it. Endenken’s ancestors, the Picti, endeavored to save their gods through a complicated ritual that allows the Lysis clan to bear descendants who may eventually find a cure for dyscrasia. However, nothing is that simple. In the process of conducting the rite to pass his clan’s powers onto him, Endenken rejects his inheritance in favor of saving his wife and finding a way to end the blood plague.
Outside of the works of Poe and Lovecraft, there are few, if any, novels comparable to this one. It has a bardic tone, as if it was a tale told over many nights. Beowulf comes to mind both for its epic quality and bloody action.
"The pace is nearly breathless..."
Imagery shifts from mundane to surreal in the same paragraph. The pace is nearly breathless, though it never feels forced. Lindberg’s love of the English language and his admiration for Dante in particular are obvious on every page. The melancholic dread that Poe and Lovecraft were so skilled at creating is matched—and at times exceeded—in Lindberg’s prose: "I stared upward at a skull and heap of bones. I knew only the soul of a man spoke to me, and that astral, red warmth emanated from the charnel pile. A woman’s skeleton lay near—her hands gauntleted with insectan claws belonging to some eldritch creature and her head helmeted with a gargantuan bird skull, much like my own."

Apart from a rather obsessive attachment to the words eldritch and ichorLords of Dyscrasia is carefully crafted and fits well into the weird-fiction canon. Given that Poe and Lovecraft have been dead for decades and still remain popular, Lindberg’s novel should find a ready-made audience in readers of the macabre and strange.

Lindberg, who also created more than fifty illustrations and the cover for this book, makes the majority of current popular fantasy fiction read like recipes by comparison. Lords of Dyscrasia is highly recommended, though not for the faint of heart.

- Janine Stinson

"...makes the majority of current popular fantasy fiction read like recipes..."

Monday, September 5, 2011

FAQ - Dyscrasia Fiction

With the eBooks of Lords of Dyscrasia now available (for Kindle, Nook, and iPads, etc.--click here to learn more) I have been fielding many FAQ's.  In response, a dedicated Blog Page now answers them!  I provide the content as a "Blog Post" here:



Frequently Asked Questions of S. E. Lindberg

What is "dyscrasia"? 
SEL: Literally, dyscrasia means “a bad mixture of liquids.”  Historically, dyscrasia referred to any imbalance of the four medicinal humors professed by the ancient Greeks to sustain life (phlegm, blood, black and yellow bile).  Artisans, anatomists, and chemists of the Renaissance expressed shared interest in the humors; accordingly, the scope of humorism evolved to include aspects of the four alchemical elements (water, air, earth and fire) and psychological temperaments (phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic and choleric).  In short, the humors are mystical media of color, energy, and emotion; Lords of Dyscrasia presents them as spiritual muses for artisans, sources of magical power, and contagions of a deadly disease; the book explores the choices humans and their gods make as a disease corrupts their souls, shared blood and creative energies.   

Sounds deep.  The target audience is not Young Adults then?  
SEL: Correct.  Lords of Dyscrasia is not for the young adult crowd.  If the rating procedure for video games were applied, the book would probably be rated M for Mature; film rating equivalent would be R for Restricted. 

Are you as dark in person as your characters are presented? 
SEL: Cripes, no.  I enjoy depictions of scary things, but in real life I steer away from them.  In truth, I feint in the presence of blood and have difficulty being violent—even to bugs, since the potential crunch of an exoskeleton really freaks me out.  I dump all my fears into my art.  If the horrors appear vivid, it is because my nightmares are too. 

Seriously, authors and artists of fantasy are often attuned to the differences between reality and the worlds they create—in fact, speculating about the boundaries between is a common motivation.  But speculations are not desires.  Nor does art directly represent the artist—usually, art reflects the emotions the artist wants you to experience.  When I am reading, I want to experience the unknown, to explore the realms of the dead, and to be terrified.  When I put books down, I like to enjoy some dark chocolate and strong coffee (extra cream) as I stroll in my yard (avoiding bugs). 

Why write?  
SEL: I desired a blend of horror and fantasy that I just could not find, so I decide to write what I wanted to read.  I was inspired by the pulp masters of the ~1930’s, but historically pulp short fiction has not translated well in novel length form.  The high density adventure of Robert Ervin Howard, the poetic macabre of Clark Ashton Smith, and the weirdness of Howard Phillips Lovecraft worked best in small doses.  I aimed to blend those styles into a series of connected chapters—each, in original form, being an independent but connected short.  But a unifying story arc evolved, so ultimately Lords of Dyscrasia works as a single novel rather than an open-ended yarn.

Why illustrate, and what is your method?  
SEL: Sometimes words are limiting; sometimes drawings are too.  A blend is nice for weird subject matter, since a goal is to describe characters or atmospheres in limited detail.  Especially with weird fiction, artists must be careful not to reveal too much of the supernatural horrors since there exists an expectation that these subjects either (a) cannot be described fully since they are so bizarre and have never been described before, or (b) they can be defined well, but readers want to contribute and fill in details with their own imagination.  Hence abstract drawing styles and poetic word choice work well for this genre, as they provide the expected blend of clarity and ambiguity. 

Logistically, illustrations provide an easy way for readers to browse for exciting sneak-peaks.  To maintain this in eBook design, it was important to include a navigational table-of-contents to ensure that readers could still flip from picture to picture get a glimpse of action-to-come.

I often draw several elements of a composition on paper and draw a schematic to help me orient the images later.  I draw with any pencil or pen I can find; then I scan the drawings into a computer and enhance the images with Photoshop.  I have to work to blend the separate elements into a single illustration.  I work only in grayscale; if the images are colorized, like the book cover, all the hues have been created digitally.

Is there a sequel planned?  
SEL: Yes.  For better or worse, I still have more fears to share, and you can expect more Dyscrasia Fiction™.  The sequel is in progress; the working title is Vivisecting Angels. I’ll be posting illustrations and excerpts on www.selindberg.com before its official release.


How many Seth Lindberg's write horror? 
SEL: Well, at least two.  There is a disambiguation in order since there is another Seth Lindberg (middle initial "M") who is one year older than myself who has edited and published horror fiction (notably contributing to the anthologies Denying Death and Orpheus Haunting the Dead).  To differentiate myself, my novel is publicized under "S.E. Lindberg."  SML's website is :http://sethlindberg.com/