Fans who visit my booth at Phoenix Festival will receive a free Olympia Heights bookmark (while supplies last) and can enter to win an 18×24″ poster print of the Royer Goldhawk cover. Also, I get the pleasure of chatting with you (unless you show up while I’m at a panel, or in the bathroom. Then you get to chat with my brother, Sam.)

If you live in the Birmingham area, I hope you’ll at least stop by for one day of the con. You can soak up some nerd-awesome and even bring your kids! I hear there will be Harry Potter trivia and a room full of Legos for the wee ones, not to mention the superhero school.

I hope to see you there!

Paperback:
It’s tangible! The paperback is 172 cream-colored pages of awesomeness with four wicked-cool illustrations, not to mention Carly Strickland’s gorgeous cover art. It’s a great book to leave around on your coffee table to impress Steampunk nerds who appreciate retro fonts and things that look cool. The paperback will be available on Amazon.com after it debuts at the Alabama Phoenix Festival on May 24. It will retail for roughly $13 at launch.

Kindle:
The Kindle version will probably make the most sales, selling for $2.99 on the most-popular eReader. It is old-school friendly (formatted to read well on the eInk Kindles) but does not feature any of the illustrations from the paperback. The illustrations aren’t necessary to enjoy the book, but they are awesome. You can read the Kindle version with the Kindle app on most devices. Buy it now.

Kobo:
The Kobo version is a $2.99 ePub that, like the Kindle version, doesn’t have any of the illustrations. That version is also available now. Get it here.

iBooks:
This version requires an iPad to read. I repeat, this version is NOT available on the iPhone. It includes the illustrations from the paperback and will retail for $2.99. Get it here.

Nook:
The Nook ePub, which will retail for $2.99, includes the paperback’s illustrations. If you like art, this may be the version for you. It is available now.

From Rescue OR, Royer Goldhawk’s Remarkable Journal. Illustration by Carly Strickland

Below are some previews of pages from the book. You can order it on Amazon.com, wait for the iBook version (coming soon), or buy a copy at the Alabama Phoenix Festival to have her sign. This book is the ultimate nerdy baby shower gift, so stock up now!

Psst, she does freelance cover design.

Pop! Goes the Weasel

Hickory Dickory Dock

Little Bo Peep

Cover Art

A new Mother Goose rhyme

Old Mother Hubbard

May 1st kicks-off a marathon of daily posts on all of the Matter Deep pages as we gear up for Phoenix Festival. If you want to be part of the madness, head on over and Like my fan page: https://www.facebook.com/amyleighstrickland 

Invented horses? Clearly I must be mad because people don’t “invent” animals; we breed them. You’re right. He didn’t invent them so much as father them. Depending on which myth you look at, Poseidon either spilled his “seed” on a rock to create the first horse or mated with some strange creature to produce them. Either way, Poseidon’s genetic material was involved, which was why worshipers in ancient cults sacrificed horses to Poseidon by drowning them in the sea.

Poseidon was famous for turning into a horse when it suited him. In one myth, Poseidon pursued Demeter with lecherous intent. To flee him, Demeter changed herself into a horse. That didn’t stop Poseidon, (we all blame Hades for being rapey, but his brothers were even worse) who turned himself into a horse and overtook Demeter. From that union came a very special, immortal horse named Aerion, who was owned by a bunch of heroes, but most famously by Herakles.

In Olympia Heights: The Weight of the World, Nick uses his affinity with this lesser-known domain to his advantage. It’s an ideal talent for a play-boy. After all, Poseidon was the original Pony Boy.

Hades, Lord of the Dead, is the god of the underworld. He rules over Hades, a place literally deep under ground where there are rivers and fields and souls go when they die. Hades, the name of the realm as well as the god, is deep under the earth. Do you know what else is? Gold. Gems. Silver.  Any precious metal or stone you can name comes from deep under the ground, which is exactly why Hades is a high baller. That’s right, he’s rolling in riches. For those of you into etymology, there’s a connection between wealth and the Roman name “Pluto.”

Hades has a lot of things going against him: all his close friends are dead, he doesn’t have a seat on Olympus, his wife is literally his prisoner, and his dog drools three times as much. At least with all of those problems, he still has a plethora of riches. Hades is gettin’ paper.

The first thing to note is that Athena was born armed, armored, and screaming. She was born in an act of violence. Athena’s mother was Metis, but Zeus ate her to circumvent a prophecy (the same prophecy that caused Kronos to eat Zeus and family). Metis (Titan of deep thought and cunning) was pregnant, and so by eating her instead of her child, Zeus stopped history from repeating itself.

Zeus had a pounding headache, and in the time before Aleve, the next logical step was to ask Hephaestus to cut his head open with an axe. Athena burst out, armed with a spear and holding an aegis, and thus she became Zeus’ favorite child.

Athena got the domain of wisdom from her mother, but she was also a warrior goddess. The Greeks didn’t like Ares as much as the Romans liked Mars, and in Greek myth, Ares was a god of passionate violence. Athena was the goddess of strategy (think wisdom in war) and also the defender of the city. She was a goddess of civilization, holding domain over handicrafts (like weaving) and agriculture.

So when you think about Athena, don’t pigeon-hole her as a nerd. There’s a reason I made Minnie Rutherford in Olympia Heights a derby girl. She is more than just brains. She’s fierce. Athena will cut you. She’ll probably do it with a spear.

 The Greek Gods all have one domain that they are known for more than others. This is the first in a series of short posts about the lesser-known domains of the Gods. Hopefully these will be interesting to my readers who want to understand more about my characters.

Teddy Wexler is Dionysus in Olympia Heights. His backstory, first designed in 2007, is one of the closest parallels to the myth that exists in my series. He was the first character I came up with (even before Zach. Dionysus was a son of Zeus, but his mother was murdered by Hera out of jealousy. Thus, Teddy is the son of a wealthy senator (he had to be royalty) and his mother was the housekeeper. Teddy’s adoptive mother murdered the housekeeper by pushing her down the stairs when she was pregnant.

Teddy is a big party animal and drinker (as would be expected from the God of wine.) He is also a drama club member; it’s a lesser-known fact that Dionysus was God of theater.

Theater? Yes, theater. You see, most of the original Greek plays were written to be performed at the festival for Dionysus in the spring, as Dionysus was a symbol of rebirth after death. Dionysus brought his mother back from The Underworld to Olympus. This myth was perhaps inspired by the growth of dormant grape vines in the spring. These perennial plants seemed to die and then sprout to life anew. These early plays were written to honor Dionysus, and as the festivals grew and the plays became more popular, Dionysus naturally adopted theater as his domain.

Dionysus: God of wine, fertility, rebirth, and theater.

Dionysus ain’t just the God of getting’ Krunk.