Swords and Specters

OLD HEROES RETURN TO DO BATTLE AGAIN! Author Mike Sirota published over a dozen Sword & Sorcery and Sword & Planet novels through the 1980s. These exciting tales have long been out of print. But Mike is now bringing his stories back to life in newly revised, rewritten editions, both e-book and paper, under his new imprint, Atoris Press. Prince Dulok of Shadzea, Tyron the Kalkh, Ro-lan of Boranga, Dannus Erekwane, King Jarrod of Veskia, and many others confront monsters, magic, and evil in ancient lands and upon distant worlds. Ro-lan of Boranga will be the next to battle evil in The Master of Boranga, coming in May. New books will also be forthcoming. Watch for updates here, at Swords and Specters.

And now available, The Burning Ground, a gripping story of vengeful Native American spirits in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. The Burning Ground was published by ZOVA Books in February 2012.

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Contact Mike: Mike.sirota@swordsandspecters.com.

UPDATES

Mike’s Sword & Planet novel, The Master of Boranga, will be available in May both in eBook and paperback formats. Pictured here is the original Zebra Books cover.


	The Burning Ground can be ordered at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Mysterious Galaxy.	The Maidu Indians wanted no part of the white devils that came to their sacred land to hunt the shiny metal. But in 1849 Gold Rush miners in the Sierra Nevada foothills slaughter nearly all the inhabitants of the village of Kalkalya, trapping their spirits. Over a century and a half later, a “thief of time”—a grave robber—desecrates the Maidu burial ground in search of artifacts. Now the angry spirits, bent on vengeance, unleash a bloodbath that threatens the nearby, picturesque town of Lodestar, just as hordes of unsuspecting tourists arrive for the annual Labor Day weekend festivities celebrating California’s Gold Rush. The task of preventing further carnage falls upon an unlikely quartet: a former major league pitcher; the tormented town librarian; an elderly descendant of the Maidu people; and a ten-year-old boy—the son of the grave robber whose immoral actions first raised the spirits up from the Burning Ground.
	Fire Dance can be ordered at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Mysterious Galaxy.	The searing wind whistles through the ruins of Concordia Sanitarium in Southern California’s bleak Anza-Borrego Desert. Now, something else stirs: the tormented spirits of the staff and inmates who perished in an all-consuming fire over a century earlier. As one gruesome murder after another plagues the nearby quiet retirement community of Smoke Tree, Tracy Russell and Mark Alderson try desperately to stop the one inmate that should never have been released—either in life or in death.
	Demon Shadows can be ordered at Amazon and Mysterious Galaxy.	November 18, Tuesday — The snow was deep; we couldn’t make it through the pass. Only the Lord knows if we will be able to cross these Sierra mountains. January 2, Friday — Ada Krueger died. Ate our children’s dog, as there is nothing else. George Stillwell said we should think about eating the flesh of our dead. God in heaven help us if this is our only hope! January 4, Sunday — Jordy Fry said he saw a figure through the trees in the direction of the pass. Maybe our Salvation is near . . . Bestselling author Paul Fleming has writer’s block. The past few months have been hell. Four weeks at the prestigious Thorburn Colony, a writers’ and artists’ retreat in the high Sierras, seems to be the perfect cure. Until an ancient horror returns to collect on an old debt—and make Paul realize that he had no idea what hell really is.
	The Modoc Well can be ordered at Amazon and Mysterious Galaxy.	Mesmerized by the painting of the well, Greg dropped to his knees and stared into its three-dimensional depths. It came alive for him; the figures writhed, beckoning obscenely with their thin appendages, perhaps pleading. There were sounds, at first distant and unclear, then louder. Cries and shrieks of mindless terror, anguished moans rising, rising to an unimaginable crescendo. And a word (padgett) uttered amid the cacophony in an emotionless, genderless voice. (padgett padgett) Over and over, again and again, until all the figures were prone, some segmented. (padgett padgett padgett padgett) And more red spilled from them, and more gushed from the well, spreading over the canvas, dripping to the floor of the studio. More red…
		Magic, monsters, evil, and bloody battles abound in this reissued version of The Twentieth Son of Ornon, as Prince Dulok of Shadzea seeks vengeance on his own father—the king. The Sons of Ornon can be ordered at Amazon in eBook and paperback and Mysterious Galaxy in paperback.
© 2012 Mike Sirota