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Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Blog Tour- GODFELL by @xtophersebela & @Bennessy With Ben's Favorite TV Shows & Video Games & a #Giveaway! @thevaultcomics

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the GODFELL: The Complete Series by Chris Sebela & Ben Hennessy Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: GODFELL: The Complete Series

Authors: Chris Sebela & Ben Hennessy (Illustrator)

Pub. Date: March 19, 2024

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 192

Find it: Goodreadshttps://books2read.com/GODFELL-The-Complete-Series 

XENA Warrior Princess meets The Lord of the Rings in GODFELL: The Complete Series, where the sudden appearance of a dead god who falls to Earth sets off a chain reaction of events for control of the world in this woman warrior-led, high fantasy adventure.

God is dead. Who’s next?

One sunny day in the land of Kerethim, God falls dead from the sky. The impact sends out shockwaves that draw in royal families at war, shadowy creatures of the dark, and armies of the dispossessed, all coming to lay claim to parts of God's body. Into this power struggle wanders Zanzi Vuiline, a soldier and berserker trying to get home from a years-long war. Forced to fight her way through the strange landscapes in and on God's corpse, from the soles of its feet through the top of its head, Zanzi will acquire a mysterious traveling companion on her own pilgrimage.

GODFELL: The Complete Series tells the story of a fierce warrior woman tired of war and her traveling companion with her own reasons for war weariness – and revenge. These two forces of nature are on a journey to find their way back home – and to themselves. Written by Eisner Award-nominated author Chris Sebela and illustrations by rising star artist Ben Hennessy.

For fans of: Xena: Warrior Princess, Monstress (Liu/Takeda), Red Sonja, Barbaric (Moreci/Gooden), Queen of Swords (Moreci/Howell/Gooden), Briar, Step By Bloody Step, The Witcher, Rat Queens, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Die, Coda, Seven to Eternity, Isola, and Elf Quest.

Godfell is a big, savage blast of legendary warrior fiction. It has a brilliant premise, striking artwork and fascinating protagonists.” – Eoin Colfer (New York Times bestselling author of: Artemis Fowl, The Supernaturalist, The Wish List, The Fowl Twins, Highfire, Illegal, W.A.R.P., Ironman: The Gauntlet, Doctor Who: A Big Hand for the Doctor, and more! )

Godfell is that rare idea that makes me upset I didn’t hatch it myself: an axe-swinging yet soulful journey into the mysteries of the physical realm — and beyond.” — Daniel Kraus (New York Times bestselling author of: The Shape of Water, Whalefall, The Teddies Saga, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Trollhunters, THE AUTUMNAL (Vault Comics), THE CEMETERIANS (Vault Comics), and more!)

"Godfell is completely sweeping me away with its Odysseus-like journey home through beautiful landscapes, with a rich lore and compelling characters. It holds mysteries I can't wait to see resolved but I'll enjoy the path as patiently as I can. A brilliant work by the creators!" - Nora Twomey (award-winning animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actress. Known for: Wolfwalkers, My Father’s Dragon, The Breadwinner, The Secret of Kells)

“Fantasy doesn't get more epic than this! The mother of all quests begins here!” -Cavan Scott (New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter: Star Wars: The High Republic, Shadow Service, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, 2000 A.D.)

"Godfell ushers in an exciting new fantasy comic that is electrifying and dynamic with a magnetic woman warrior on a mysterious journey. Sebela takes well-worn genre beats and makes it his own. Wonderfully illustrated and eloquently written, Godfell is a godsend. 10/10– Lotusland Comics

“… recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of fantasy adventures in weird worlds such as The Last Airbender.” – Sequential Planet

 

BEN HENNESSY Guest Post:

    • Series (TV/Streaming)

Band of Brothers – one of those perfect shows, I think editing this in anyway would only ever result in it making it a lesser product. From the script, the cinematography, to the performances, you name it they nailed it here.

The last of Us – I loved this, another HBO gem. The casting, the deviations from the game, all of it just added to the canon established in the game. Can’t wait for S2! I actually covered this series in depth on a podcast I host with a friend of mine called THE ODDS POD. If post-apocalyptic life is something you’re into, our podcast is right up your alley.

Samurai Jack – It’s so enjoyable and always visually stunning. The Shinobi v Jack episode is a masterclass in visual storytelling.

Arcane – this is one of the standout shows of the last number of years for me. Just like Band of Brothers they just got everything right here in every part of production.

Breaking Bad – This should be studied by everyone making any kind

Kingdom – a medieval political drama with a zombie outbreak, I’m in.

The Black Donnellys – I WISH there was a season 2 of this. I know too much time has passed to go and do a season 2 now, but if the creators really wanted to I’m sure the Donnelly family story could transition well to a graphic novel. I put myself forward as artist for the series! Ha!

Blue Eye’d Samurai – If you haven’t seen this you need to. 

Cowboy bebop – It’s so good I don’t think any show will ever be as cool as the anime

The Bear – It’s one of the strongest shows out there, just look at all the awards and nominations it has.

Andor – This might actually be the best Star Wars since Star Wars.

 

    • Video Games

Gears of War – more monster movie type stuff, I reckon there’s a bit of theme here! Ha!

The Witcher 3: the Wild Hunt – I lost myself in this game for a while, I can’t recommend it enough!

Rime – this is just a beautiful game that deals with some big topics in a way that make them teachable and digestible.

Skyrim – Another game you can get lost in. It can be whatever experience your after from the fantasy genre.

The Last of Us – One of the best zombie survival stories out there

 

  • Does GODFELL have a playlist? If so, can you share each of yours?

 

Ha! It sure does! I was listening to,

SLAYER’s God hates us all

The MANIC STREET PREACHERS Holy Bible.

TOO MANY ZOOS Brasshouse Vol 1 Survival of the flyest

METALLICA master of puppets because of course!

 

  • Is there anything else you’d like to share with readers/tour participants?

During the month of March on the run up to the release of GODFELL I’ll be doing live streams on my twitch channel (I’m Bennessy10 there). I’ll be drawing GODFELL characters, our heroes, the villains especially my favourite ones.

 

About Chris Sebela:

Christopher Sebela is a four-time Eisner-nominated writer who has co-created over twenty comics titles such as GODFELL and TEST (Vault Comics), Blink, .Self, Crowded, Shanghai Red, Dirtbag Rapture, Heartthrob, We(l)come Back and others. He also writes journalism, prose fiction and assembles zines about a variety of subjects — including having once lived in a clown-themed motel for 30 days. He lives in Portland, Oregon with the best dog in the world and is currently dreaming of one day living on a boat.
He is based in Portland, OR

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Substack | Goodreads | Amazon

 


About Ben Hennessy:

Ben Hennessy is an Irish-based illustrator and podcaster. He has primarily worked as a storyboard artist in the animation industry and he has worked on shows for RTE jr, Cbeebies, Nickelodeon, PBS and Adult Swim. He co-hosts THE ODDS POD, a podcast where he discusses all things apocalyptic with guests from the film and comic book industries. His comic book titles include The ODDS and the fantasy epic GODFELL.

Ben works and lives at home with his family in Wexford, the sunny south east of Ireland. When you can't find him there, you can find him online as @Bennessy.
He is based in Wexford, Ireland.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Goodreads

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive finished copies of GODFELL: The Complete Series, US Only.

Ends April 9th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/11/2024

Comic Book Yeti

Guest Post/IG Post

3/12/2024

@darkfantasyreviews

Blog Spotlight/IG Post

3/13/2024

Two Chicks on Books

Guest Post/IG Post

3/14/2024

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Blog Spotlight/IG Post

3/15/2024

The Momma Spot

Guest Post

3/16/2024

Kountry Girl Bookaholic

Guest Post/IG Post

Week Two:

3/17/2024

A Dream Within A Dream

Guest Post

3/18/2024

jlreadstoperpetuity

IG Post/TikTok Post

3/19/2024

Sadie's Spotlight

Excerpt/IG Post

3/20/2024

Fire and Ice Reads

Excerpt/IG Post

3/21/2024

Lifestyle of Me

Review

3/22/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

3/23/2024

Callisto’s calling

IG Review

Week Three:

3/24/2024

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's

Review/IG Post

3/25/2024

@sparks_books

IG Review

3/26/2024

GryffindorBookishnerd

IG Review

3/27/2024

A Blue Box Full of Books

IG Review/TikTok Post

3/28/2024

Two Points of Interest

Review/IG Post

3/29/2024

The Book Critic

Review/IG Post

3/30/2024

@enthuse_reader

IG Review/TikTok Post

Week Four:

3/31/2024

nerdophiles

Review

4/1/2024

Rajiv's Reviews

Review/IG Post

4/2/2024

@dana.loves.books

IG Review/TikTok Post

4/3/2024

@evergirl200

IG Review

4/4/2024

@enjoyingbooksagain

IG Review

4/5/2024

@paperwitches

IG Review


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Blog Tour- STRONG LIKE YOU by @trvsimpson With A Guest Post & #Giveaway! @fluxbooks

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the STRONG LIKE YOU by T.L. Simpson Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: STRONG LIKE YOU

Author: T.L. Simpson

Pub. Date: March 12, 2024

Publisher: North Star Editions

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 224

Find it: Goodreadshttps://books2read.com/STRONG-LIKE-YOU 

I haven’t cried one time since you disappeared. Not even at football practice when Paton Roper told the whole team you were probably dead. He said, “You know how sometimes a dog gets sick or bites somebody and you have to put it down?”

Somebody said, “Yep.”

“That’s probably what happened to Walker’s daddy.”

Walker Lauderdale hasn’t cried once since his daddy went missing. And even though everyone says he’s dead, Walker won’t give up hope. He knows his father is out there, somewhere, cutting a wild trail through the Ozarks like always. But when a relative threatens to kick Walker and his momma out of the family home, Walker realizes he has no choice but to look for his daddy—a search that leads him straight to a drug-addled and dangerous man named Lukas Fisher. While attempting to balance life as a normal fifteen-year-old boy and star player on the football team, Walker begins a desperate search across the hills of the Ozarks for the man who, for better or worse, taught him everything he knows about strength.

Reviews:

“Strong Like You is an engaging novel in which a high school football star is forced to confront his ideas of manhood and forge better ones.” —Foreword Reviews

“The book explores masculinity, with Walker having a heartening insight near the end, when he realizes that with the right help, people can learn better than they were taught.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A serious look at the legacy and impact of violence, especially around the toxic culture of football, along with a compassionate view of the struggle and frequent hopelessness of rural poverty, the novel makes for a compelling read with a mixed but ultimately hopeful conclusion. Recommended for libraries serving middle and high ­schoolers.” —School Library Journal

 

T.L Talks Music for STRONG LIKE YOU:

Music is central to my writing process, so a playlist for my debut contemporary YA novel STRONG LIKE YOU was a no-brainer, even before I had any clue the story would be published.

Strong Like You follows 15-year-old Walker Lauderdale on a desperate search across the Ozarks for his father, the man who—for better or worse—taught him everything he knows about strength.

Before writing the book, I began aggregating music to immerse myself in. I knew I wanted a country soundtrack, but I didn't want anything overly commercial or radio-friendly.

 

Ozark Gothic, Pawns or Kings

I stumbled across this song late one night on a journey down the YouTube rabbit hole. Ozark Gothic's gloomy and downtrodden vibe is exactly what I imagined for my characters in Strong Like You.

The opening lines resonate, "They say nothing good would ever come out of those hills, just the meth and the rot, guns and the pills."

It's no secret there's a drug problem festering in the hills of the Ozarks, and that's the backdrop behind Walker's journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpp7qEimNS0

 

Morse Code, Elle Cordova

I have probably listened to this song more than any other song on my playlist. It's not exactly country, but it's folksy. It's a realization that the person you love no longer loves you. It hurts and is beautiful at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBcr4LMF3mc

 

Lady May, Tyler Childers

Tyler had to turn up somewhere on this list. There's a particular line in this song that always makes me think of Walker. "Now I ain't the toughest hickory that your axe has ever fell, but I'm a hickory just as well...I'm a hickory all the same."

Walker's journey deals with his coming to terms with what it means to be strong. At the beginning of the story, he'd never admit such a line as the one above. But I think by the end he might. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQp5xqs6-ww

 

Pay No Rent, Turnpike Troubadours

Turnpike Troubadours' song Pay No Rent reminds me of the relationship between Walker and his father. Walker's father is perhaps not worthy of admiration, but Walker admires him anyway. A kid loves his father because he doesn't know any better. If Walker was the singing type, he might croon, "In my heart, you pay no rent" to his daddy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sieOSRVQh3Q

 

Sonho Dourado, Daniel Lanois

I first heard this song in the same place I think most people know it from—Friday Night Lights. The instrumental guitar piece is played in the final moments of the film when it is clear Permian won't win the state championship, as the kids pull themselves off the ground after the defeat.

I was a sports reporter for almost a decade. I've been on the field during a lot of these moments. Kids cry. And you might think it's only sports. But a great deal of effort, expectation and love goes into reaching that moment.

It hurts.

And that's okay.

This song hits me in the gut every time I listen to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50jlau88lw8

 

Stranger to Myself, Gravedancer

Gravedancer is an Arkansas artist with some really heartfelt Ozarkian music. Stranger to Myself is about the struggle just to exist after experiencing trauma. In the song's case, it's the singer's struggle with PTSD. "Can someone f–k me up with your fists or with your drugs?" is the kind of mindset the world can bake into a kid like Walker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mybTMgPRwBs

 

Dust in a Baggie, Billy Strings

Pretty self-explanatory.

"This life of sin has got me in/ well, it's got me back in prison once again/ I used my only phone call to contact my Daddy/ I got 20 long years for some dust in a baggy."

It's Walker's father's anthem. Plus Billy Strings can flat out play the guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qan4VRikfz8

 

Old Time Feeling (Like Before), Turnpike Troubadours

This song has a certain hopefulness I hope comes across in Strong Like You. The world Walker inhabits is tough as nails, and he endures some real hardship, but I never wanted the story to to be bleak. It's a rough world out there, but there's beauty, love and joy to be found. Old Time Feeling is about asking forgiveness. It’s about making the same mistakes over and over again. But it is also about nostalgia.

If you ask me, football is tangled up in nostalgia for much of America. Our fathers, fathers played it. We played it.

It’s also wrapped up in the South and the Ozarks.

Neither can be nor should be without criticism.

But what can I say?

It is not perfect here.

Far from it.

But the nostalgia goggles are powerful.

Things can get better. Surely they can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqp29kU_lVI

 

For the complete playlist, check out the Spotify playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5tD45lOXXDqQtklMBhStjl?si=2ab2da294c134115

 

 

About T.L. Simpson:

T. L. Simpson is an award-winning journalist and editor of the Courier, a newspaper in his hometown of Russellville, Arkansas. Simpson spent nearly ten years covering high school and collegiate sports before taking over as editor. During that time, he was also the paper’s primary crime reporter. In a lot of ways, Strong Like You is the result of his experiences with covering both. 

 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads | Amazon

 



Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of STRONG LIKE YOU, US Only. 

Ends March 26th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/11/2024

YA Books Central

Interview/IG Post

3/11/2024

Fire and Ice Reads

Guest Post/IG Post

3/12/2024

Two Chicks on Books

Guest Post/IG Post

3/12/2024

Kountry Girl Bookaholic

Guest Post/IG Post

3/13/2024

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Blog Post/IG Post

3/13/2024

@darkfantasyreviews

Excerpt/IG Post

3/14/2024

Rajiv's Reviews

Review/IG Post

3/14/2024

GryffindorBookishnerd

IG Review

3/15/2024

Callisto’s calling

IG Review

3/15/2024

Review Thick And Thin

Review/IG Post

Week Two:

3/18/2024

Dana Loves Books

Review/IG Post

3/18/2024

The Momma Spot

Review

3/19/2024

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

3/19/2024

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's

Review/IG Post

3/20/2024

A Dream Within A Dream

Excerpt/IG Post

3/20/2024

@evergirl200

IG Review

3/21/2024

A Blue Box Full of Books

IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post

3/21/2024

One More Exclamation

Review/IG Post

3/22/2024

Two Points of Interest

Review

3/22/2024

The Book Critic

Review


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