Showing posts with label Helen's Daimones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Helen's Daimones. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Helen's Daimones is now Audible

Helens Daimones Audible Book cover
The beautiful, haunting narration by Kathy Bell Denton for the Helen's Daimones audible book - LINK is now out. (just released April 2018). Seriously, check out Kathy Bell Denton's awesome voice in the sample (click the play button on audible, OR the Youtube video below).

Private message me, S E Lindberg, for a complimentary review copies of the book (any format: paperback, ebook, or audio).

First come first serve Audible Promotional Codes for the entire book (no membership required),
For US:
H4BPTUC4DRDKH
SXK53NLR3CKS8
HCZRRJ5KZ3823

First come first serve, Audible UK codes:
FLTPM6E8F4QAA
H5T7B6GSNPS9G
EC42R44B8BQRZ




Reviews:
Fletcher Vredenburgh from Black Gate reviews Helen's Daimones (link to 2017 review) .
"Helen is one of the stranger heroes to feature in swords & sorcery. Is she delusional, mad, gifted? I was never quite sure — she is only a little girl — but I was never able to take my eyes off her. With a cast as strange as this novel has, Helen remains the focus throughout. Even when she’s off stage, the question of what she is doing always seems to rise to the fore."

"Too much of what’s called grimdark is little more than sex and gore splashed over a standard epic fantasy story. True horror — and at its heart, Helen’s Daimones is a horror story — unsettles, disorients, and makes you feel like the world will fall out from under your feet at any moment. Lindberg’s novel does all those things."


Beauty in Ruins reviews Helen's Daimones LINK
The Dyscrasia novels by S.E. Lindberg are deep, intricate reads that harken back to the pulp days of Lovecraft, Howard, and others... Helen's Daimones is weird fantasy, weirdly told, for weird readers. As the strongest of the three stories to date, it makes for a great introduction to Lindberg's world, and creates more than enough interest for a fourth entry.

What this chapter did for me was breathe real life (no pun intended) into Lord Lysis. He becomes a sympathetic character here, especially in his encounter with a tragic young woman (buried alive so many years ago), the ghosts of her children (hung for their corruption), and their army of dolls (crazy, dangerous dolls). He's still a monster, a fearfully powerful being, but he's also a personality here. As for Doctor Grave, he was already a full-fledged character, but he becomes a little more chilling here as new layers of mystery leave us to question his deeper motives.--- Bob Milne 2017


Friday, January 5, 2018

Cover Art Design - Helen's Daimones with Daniel Landerman -3


1) CONCEPT (LINK) : Goal & required elements
2) COVER ARTIST (LINK)  : Finding a designer
3) COVER DESIGN(YOU ARE HERE): Evolution of compositions to arrive at the final cover


This wraps up a series of posts discussing the design of the Helen's Daimones cover. Part One covered the design concepts, Part Two  revealed details about connecting with Daniel Landerman, and this last post will be the meatiest of all since it will show the progression from sketch to final illustration. All sketches are copyright Landerman 2016.


First, Daniel took several storyboards and design concepts (akin to those shred in the first post) and provided several compositions. I chose "D" since showed Helen's face while keeping her vulnerable...and having the sword away from Lysis made it easier to visualize.

Deciding on poses
Then Landerman continued his magic ability to show details without cluttering the image.  From curious in Helen's hair, insect traits in the armor, and decorations in the clown-dolls, he loaded up the image with subtle elements.
Composition D selected, Details Added
What followed was a series of monochrome compositions that explored how light could be sourced from the magical sword, the eyes of the undead dolls, and moon.
Planning the Lighting 


Lastly, Landerman colorized the work. He was inspired by iridescent beetle carcasses for the armor.
To match the magic in the book, the dolls and wasp needed to be blue-ish, and Lysis needed to be variegated (and distinguished from the blue aura).
Basic Colors

Final with added dolls, wasp, and proper eye colors

The details are amazing!


So the journey was complete.  The covers represent Lysis's and Helen's progression accurately and reinforce the characterization in Dyscrasia Fiction.  Book four is in the works...and the principles discussed here will continue to drive the design.


Character Progression & Story Arcs in Illustration

Book Covers of Dyscrasia Fiction

Cover Art Design - Helen's Daimones with Daniel Landerman -2

1) CONCEPT (LINK) : Goal & required elements
2) COVER ARTIST (YOU ARE HERE): Finding a designer
3) COVER DESIGN (LINK): Evolution of compositions to arrive at the final cover

ImagineFX magazine is a fantastic resource for graphic artists using digital media. As mentioned in Part #1, I was inspired by Daniel Landerman's sketches in a 2011 ImagineFX article. I decided to learn more about him, eventually contacting him to explore commission options.

Daniel Landerman has freelanced in the entertainment industry since 2003 doing concept design and production art for film, TV, and video games. He has been working predominantly as a sketch artist in advertising since 2008 for folks like
BLT, Ignition, The Ayzenberg Group, Blizzard and Riot Games.Specialties: Sketching, illustration, story development, blue ocean thinking, character/concept design, storyboarding, storytelling.





Browsing Daniel Landerman's Instagram page to see if he drew the undead too, I stumbled across his Titan (Lysis is not a giant, but his head would look similar being a skull with twisted horns).
Totally psyched that I may have found an artist who seemed to already know what I needed, I reached out to him. Thankfully Landerman did do some freelancing and we struck a rapport. Below I share some links to his videos and stills on Instagram, but the real meat of our collaboration is shared in the final post:

Part 3: COVER DESIGN Final Cover




Cover Art Design - Helen's Daimones with Daniel Landerman -1

Just as we dissected the making of the cover to Spawn of Dyscrasia (with Ken Kelly), let's break down the process for making the cover to Helen's Daimones.

This is a three-post blog series:
1) CONCEPT (YOU ARE HERE): Goals & required elements
2) COVER ARTIST (LINK): Finding a designer
3) COVER DESIGN (LINK): Evolution of compositions to arrive at the final cover


(1) Concept Design:

The Dyscrasia Fiction covers have portraiture designs (as detailed on other guest posts):

Each book has a portrait-like cover reflecting the story arc of the primary characters within: i.e., Lords of Dyscrasia is focused on Lord Lysis's transition from human to demi-god, and Spawn of Dyscrasia has Helen and Lysis emerging as partners. Helen's Daimones is designed as entry way into this weird world, and serves as a coming-of-age story for Helen (and Lysis too as he becomes acquainted with his powers). Since Helen's Daimones is in between the other two books chronologically, it begged to have the below elements:
  1. Helen as vulnerable girl ~10yr old, with a cat pelt
  2. Skeletal Lysis as a protector, with horns for air & distinctive sword (Ferrus Eviscamir)
  3. Optional lighting from glowing wasps, sword, wasp-ridden dolls

Young Helen - Inspirational Art

Two illustrations inspired the "look" of Helen as I wrote Helen's Daimones: (1) spooky fairy-native sketches from Daniel Landerman (published in ImagineFX and discussed more in the second post of this series) and (2) the 1902 Mother's Crushed Oats print ad of a boy with a feline pelt, a framed version hung in my parent's house. I found that Landerman had a series of "natives" and many of them were eerily similar to the haunting girl who mingles with creepy dolls. Whomever would illustrate Helen would have to come up with a similar young girl who could evolve into the white-haired witch beside Lysis in the Spawn of Dyscrasia cover. 


Lysis's Sword, Armor, & Horns

Lysis would have to bridge the look of the Lords and Spawn covers. His magical sword Ferrus Eviscamir would have to be present, and ideally his armor would appear to be made from (a) giant insect hulls and (b) human leather. His hair would have to approximate horns.



Instead of reinventing the wheel, I reached out to directly to Daniel Landerman to explore commission options. Working with him is discussed in the next two posts, beginning with :

Part 2) COVER ARTIST (LINK): Finding a designer


Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Joe Bonadonna - Helen's Daimones review - A New Brand of Horror

"Just as HP Lovecraft created his own special brand of horror, Lindberg has conjured up a nightmare landscape that is truly unique. But Lindberg has gone far beyond the almost total narrative of a Lovecraft tale, because he populates his world with characters — with people who interact with each other, share moments of humor and drama and terror. Lindberg tells his story through the eyes and voices of his characters." - Joe Bonadonna



on December 13, 2017

“Literally, dyscrasia means “a bad mixture of liquids” (it is not a magical land.) Historically, dyscrasia referred to any imbalance of the four medicinal humors professed by the ancient Greeks to sustain life (phlegm, blood, black & yellow bile.)” — S.E. Lindberg

“Helen’s Daimones” is a novel director Tim Burton would have a field day turning into a film. The visuals alone would be amazing, and the story quite mind-blowing. This is a wonderful novel, written with vivid imagination and boundless creativity. I’ve heard it called “Grimdark fiction” by a number of people, but it goes far beyond that, and it’s certainly better than any Grimdark stories I’ve ever read. This is not a novel of swords, sorcery, demons, and wizards. This is not your typical epic fantasy, either. Sure, “Helen’s Daimones” contains elements of dark fantasy, as well as elements of science-fiction. But this is a horror story, all the way, where the main characters, a pair of orphaned girls named Helen and Sharon, are haunted and chased by numinous diseases. Lindberg’s world is populated by ghosts, mutants and hybrids (both human and insect), magically-animated rag dolls, necrophagous wasps, fetal gargoyles, and many other bizarre lifeforms. This is not a typical horror novel about vampires, werewolves and zombies. This is something new and original. Just as HP Lovecraft created his own special brand of horror, Lindberg has conjured up a nightmare landscape that is truly unique. But Lindberg has gone far beyond the almost total narrative of a Lovecraft tale, because he populates his world with characters — with people who interact with each other, share moments of humor and drama and terror. Lindberg tells his story through the eyes and voices of his characters.

While some characters are human, like Helen, Sharon and their parents, many characters are not quite human. Take Lord Endeken Lysis, for instance: he’s the Skeletal Warrior of Chromlechon. He communicates telepathically with the golem physician, Doctor Grave, and together they plan to repair humanity. Then there’s Echo, the Gray Foundling, a human-insectoid hybrid, a puppet master who entertains the hundreds of orphans under Lysis’ protection. The beauty of Lindberg’s world is that many of the grotesques possess noble souls, reminding me of Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and “The Man Who Laughs.” This is a surreal novel, a 21st century gothic novel brought to life by Lindberg’s elegant prose and colorful descriptions. It also brought to mind Mervyn Peak’s “Gormenghast Trilogy,” and the science fiction tales of featuring Cordwainer Smith’s Underpeople and the Instrumentality of Mankind. Lindberg has a totally original voice and a most unique concept, and I give “Helen’s Daimones” five stars because of what it is, how well it worked for me, and how it greatly differs from so many other dark fantasy and horror novels.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Black Gate reviews Helen's Daimones

 Feeling honored. Some quotes from review:
"Helen is one of the stranger heroes to feature in swords & sorcery. Is she delusional, mad, gifted? I was never quite sure — she is only a little girl — but I was never able to take my eyes off her. With a cast as strange as this novel has, Helen remains the focus throughout. Even when she’s off stage, the question of what she is doing always seems to rise to the fore."
"Too much of what’s called grimdark is little more than sex and gore splashed over a standard epic fantasy story. True horror — and at its heart, Helen’s Daimones is a horror story — unsettles, disorients, and makes you feel like the world will fall out from under your feet at any moment. Lindberg’s novel does all those things."
"There are strange territories in the wilds of swords & sorcery that have been visited successfully by only a handful of writers. They are places where, aside from some actual swords and sorcery, few of the common trappings of the genre are found. Magic may be phatasmagorical, the world — both physically and culturally — has no echoes of our own, and the hero is more likely to be a golem, a resurrected nobleman, or a little girl than an axe-swinging warrior.
Some of C.L. Moore’s Jirel stories and most of Clark Ashton Smith’s oeuvre mapped portions of these realms. In Throne of Bones, Brian McNaughton brought back a detailed study of one nation. Michael Shea and Darrell Schweitzer mapped whole continents. They’re dangerous places, permeated by darkness and decay, and the scent of death is rarely absent from the thick, curdled air.
S.E. Lindberg’s short novel, Helen’s Daimones (2017), is one such tale of this diseased stretch of the world of swords & sorcery. I can’t say this book quite attains the same heights as Shea’s Nifft the Lean or Schweitzer’s The Mask of the Sorcerer, but much of the time it comes tantalizingly close."

Thursday, October 26, 2017

First Review of Helen's Daimones comes in from Greece!


It is fitting that the first published review of Helen's Daimones comes in from Greece!  

Daimones is a Greek word (yes, like Dyscrasia, I did not make up the word).  "Daimones" refers to any spiritual entity, angel or demon.

The rating is swell, but more importantly in the thoughtfulness in the  review will future readers delve into the series. It is penned by Andrew Paul Weston, a lead author in Perseid Press's Hell series (i.e. Hell Bound and it's sequel Hell Hounds) who hails from Greece. He is familiar with the underworld and does a splendid job.

"Remain true to who you really are" Review By Andrew Paul Weston

"There’s nothing quite like this world, and to be honest, I’m hooked. Lindberg has created an unreality where contagion, magic and muses blend seamlessly together into a hauntingly miraculous realm. It’s the stuff of nightmares and daydreams brought to life and made flesh ... corrupted flesh, for the Chromlechon is now the only place where survivors can feel safe.
Adventure, suspense and mystery; depth, poignancy and meaning. Helen’s Daimones has it all, conveyed in a hypnotically evocative way that will draw you in and involve you from the very beginning. 
Do yourself a favor, discover who YOU really are, by involving yourself in the world of Dyscrasia. You won’t regret it." - Andrew Paul Weston 2017





Saturday, September 23, 2017

Helen's Daimones - available now!


Helen's Daimones is on Kindle and Paperback!

Helen’s Daimones – the gateway novella for Dyscrasia Fiction. Helen and Sharon are orphans haunted by supernatural diseases, insects, and storms. They are your tour guides in this entry-way novella into Dyscrasia Fiction which explores the choices humans and their gods make as a disease corrupts their souls, shared blood and creative energies. In Helen’s Daimones, guardian angels are among the demons chasing the girls. When all appear grotesquely inhuman, which ones should they trust to save them?

Cover Art by Daniel Landerman 
Cover art creation to be blogged shortly.

Praise for Dyscrasia Fiction

Black Gate Magazine raves: “Lindberg is the real deal, a gifted writer with a strong command of language,” Joe Bonadonna


Foreword Clarion, 5/5 Stars: “[Lords of Dyscrasia] is highly recommended, though not for the faint of heart…” Reviewer Janine Stinson


Beauty in Ruins: “[Spawn of Dyscrasia is] as much a horror novel as it is a fantasy novel, but it’s in that clash of genres that Lindberg distinguishes himself. [Spawn of Dyscrasia is] a gorgeous, textured, intricately layered story.” — Reviewer Bob Milne


Dyscrasia Fiction story chronology (publication year):