Ilona's World

This has been an interesting week. I've been interviewed (twice) and I also got a new Author Profile page at Novelspot. It's here .

A new short story by Frank Zafiro , Be My Santa Baby has appeared in Mysterical-E mag's winter issue. Read it here .

The Unearthly Companion contest has ended at the TCM Reviews website. The winner will soon receive a pdf copy of my book.

This is me with the book. See how good it looks. Remember, poetry books make great Christmas gifts.

Check out the brand new European Reader website , a site for readers and writers in Europe and beyond . (I am the editor).

The new Novelspot poll has just started. You can also vote for your preferred author here . (My choice was Karen Koehler .)

It will be on Friday (Dec 9./ Nagy Vita /17:50/M1).

Visitors of the TCM Reviews website can win a pdf copy of my book, Unearthly Companion . Details here .

Two of my poems got published today. One is Refuge in the December issue of Between Kisses , and the other one is In Command in this month's KidVisions (one of Samsdot Publishing 's magazines for kids).

Clarissa , one of my previously published poems is online again and can be found in the free reads section of my site. It used to be online in an older issue of BK , but then the link became dead. People really like this one, so I decided to include it at my site and to keep it there. Read this poem here .

Rammstein 's new album entitled Rosenrot won't cause you disappointment. It starts with the much loved song Benzin and has many other good songs. My favourites include the fascinating Spring and somewhat later Stirbt nicht vor mir (a duet with Sharleen Spiteri from Texas ), but Zerstören and Hilf mir also have to be mentioned. (Quite surprisingly, there's also a song in Spanish.) An excellent album. (Visit the Rammstein website .)

For those who are looking for a good fantasy book for small children, I can recommend Mary C. Fairbanks ' The Affairs of Dragons . It contains a collection of wonderful dragon tales. (Actually, this is the title of the new printed edition ' Dragon Tales '.) I have recently reviewed this book for SQ and I really enjoyed it. For poetry lovers, I can recommend Second Opinion , an excellent collection by Tony Thorne who is also known as science fiction and non-fiction writer. Second Opinion is both entertaining and thought-provoking, and it has to be read multiple times.

A poem of mine has just been accepted to a new anthology by Samsdot Publishing , and I was also invited to a Hungarian TV Show called Nagy Vita .

From now on, the ebook version of Unearthly Companion is also available at eBookAd . However, this is just to make it available at more places. (It is cheaper for you to buy it at Lulu.com .) Still, eBookAd seems to be a nice ebook shop.

There were not a lot of posts in the last few weeks, as I've been too busy. I finished my thesis, published a book ( Unearthly Companion ) and I also did a lot to promote it. It's a lot of work to publish a book. First of all, one has to write it. Then comes editing, formatting, cover design, publishing and promotion. I could have started with promotion, as it is so important, and you need to start promoting the book well before publishing it, and you also have to continue it afterwards. Otherwise, nobody will know about its existence, no matter how good the book may be. I did all these myself. It's a lot of work, but I find it rewarding, esp. when somebody emails me telling me how much he or she enjoyed reading my works. (So if you have anything like that to tell me, please, feel free to do so.) I have learnt a lot about the publishing industry, and many people have offered me help in spreading the word about the book (for which I am grateful for all of them). I think I am...

The paperback version of Unearthly Companion ( $7.36 ) has also become available. Buy it here .

The ebook version of my book, Unearthly Companion ($1.75) is now available at Lulu.com. You can buy it here . (The paperback version will also come out soon.)

Frank Zafiro reviews my book, Unearthly Companion in All Write Stuff . Read the review here .

It's the third one for my book, Unearthly Companion . Ilona Hegedus's book is by turns grim, wistful, delightful, and thought-provoking. Rarely is it ordinary, and never is it tame. A review by Keesa Renee DuPre in The Sword Review .

My poem " Haunted House " is nominated Best Poem of Year 2005 . See the list of nominees at Muses Review .

Read a humorous poem, New From the Götterdämmerung Shop by Sandra Lindow . Read it here , in this month's From The Asylum .

My book, Unearthly Companion has received another review. It's from The Fantasy Times . It says 'Around a campfire on a cold evening is the perfect venue for this collection of poetry. Ms. Hegedus’ story telling shines while in a setting such as this and will bring any campfire to a chorus of oohs, aaahs and NO WAYS.' Read the whole review here .

Marilyn Peake is the author of a trilogy of fantasy novels for children (The Fisherman’s Son, The City of the Golden Sun, and Return of the Golden Age) and is also writing dark fantasy. She's this month's Featured Poet at TRI Studio's Featured Poet page which also includes some of her poems. Read them here . There's a poem entitled In Memory of New Orleans , don't miss that one. Visit Marilyn Peake 's website .

The Fantasy Times is a new fantasy news site with regular podcasts including for expl. news and author interviews. It's here .

The first (pre-publication) review of my book of genre poetry, Unearthly Companion has just appeared at the TCM Reviews site and the reviewer likes it. Read the review here .

A poem of mine, Venus , has just appeared in Astropoetica . This was the first English-language poem I sold (last Summer). It is the 13th that gets published. I have always considered this a lucky number.

Here 's an interesting list of paranormal creatures at Charlotte Boyett-Compo 's website. (More than 200 entries!).

Check out My Pet Ant , a series of funny poems by Welsh author Liam Davies . Here.

It's time again to vote for SF Crownest's Wooden Rocket Awards for the best science fiction and fantasy related web sites at www.WoodenRocket.com. There are many cathegories, including a new one called Best Blog , which also includes author blogs. Please vote for this blog, Ilona's World , which includes news about my work, but also short reviews, and links to poems and short stories by other writers that I come across and I like. You have to give it's address: http://ilonasworld.blogspot.com/ . Vote here . Thanks a lot for your support, Ilona

It's a poem by Greg Beatty . Check it out here .

I have the cover for the book. The title is Unearthly Companion and it will contain story-telling genre poetry (sci-fi, fantasy and horror, with some humor added). It will be released at end of October.

Read an awesome story, Little Miss Seven Fingers by Chris Russo . It's here .

I'll soon finish my book, Unearthly Companion . Very soon.

My review of Lords of Swords , a heroic fantasy anthology with plenty of good reads, is now available at the Novelspot website. It's here .

Check out issue 4 of Wicked Karnival magazine. It includes poems, articles, short stories and artwork. (All things horror.) Though I haven't had the time to read the whole issue 4, here's a short review based on what I have read. What I'd like to tell you about is mainly that it contains horror poetry that is worth ckecking out. I really like Louise Bohmer's 'Vampires Cheat (And Werewolves Are Sore Losers)', it's a very funny account of a night when monsters are playing cards. Darren Franz's The Forgotten Prisoner and Brian Yount's My Beast are also good ones. I probably like them so much, because this is also the way I like to write, telling stories, often from a characters point of view, and often showing them (including their thoughts) in just one particular moment of their life, but without nice endings, without wanting to accompany them all the way. The Forgotten Prisoner is a shorter one which leaves open many questions, whereas My Beast rev...

Last week I've been doing some editing for the book. I still have to make the final decisions about a few things, but it will soon be ready for its publication. (It's my first book of speculative poetry, 'Unearthly Companion' and it will soon be released. Would you like me to let you know about it when it appears? Then subscribe to my newsletter and I will notify you. Just send a blank email to Ilonahegedus-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .)

My review of Karen Koehler 's Stigmata is now online. You can read it here . Highly recommended.

It's a fascinating short story by Robert Silverberg , a real classic. Read it here .

Last week I wrote two poems. On August 20, we celebrated Saint Stephen, our first king and the founder of the state. (Fireworks, speeches, etc.) And just before that, on August 18, I celebrated my nameday. Namedays explained A nameday is like a birthday, only a bit less significant. But you still get presents and people wish you 'Happy Nameday'. So it's a bit like having two birthdays a year. August 18 is Ilona's Day, all Ilonas celebrate on this day. Each name is related to a certain day of the year, and you can also see the names in the calendar. (In Hungary.)

I've just read a nice short story, Fallen by Angeline Hawkes-Craig . It is worth reading. Read it here .

It's the home of a talented writer called Arinn Dembo . You can find there news, reviews, and you can also read some of her works. Don't forget to check out her poems . They are really good.

Weekly total: I wrote two poems last week. One is a new version of an old one, though I rarely rewrite my poems. Music: Saxon, Doro, KISS

Check out Murder Ride Radio , the radio for horror fans. I think it's great to have something like that. And the music is good.

Cat City is the greatest achievement of Hungarian animators. It has an action-packed storyline with plenty of humour. This cartoon, Cat City is now a cult classic and an often quoted one. That's not without a reason. The dialogues are brilliantly written and are hilarious, and the characters are likeable. The original title (Macskafogo) means literally Cat-catcher. According to the story, the cats are planning the extermination of all mice from the planet. However, the mice have a superhero to turn to, a James Bond-like mouse with great physical strength, teeth hard like diamonds, a god sense of humor, and the cleverness of an Einstein. He is sent to a Japanese-seeming city called Pokio, to get the plans of a new weapon from a mouse scientist. While he is working undercover the mice need another person to draw attention away from him, and this other mouse is also sent to Japan. He is a bit over-weight, but he is a very warm-hearted mouse, who devotes all his time to playing his tru...

I have read Lords of Swords, but I cannot reveal more about it at the moment. My review of it will soon appear at the Novelspot website. I'll post the link here. In the meantime, check out the links in my earlier posts, as some of those poems and stories are probably still available, (and they are worth reading).

It's a heroic fantasy anthology. It includes some really good stories, (but more on it later.) I'll go back reading...

I wrote three poems last week. Some scary stuff included. :) Reviewing horror books and watching horror movies can be an inspiration. Music: Van Halen, Tom Jones, Bonny Tyler, Bon Jovi.

My review of Dark Highway is now online. It's an entertaining zombie tale by Dan Thomas with plenty of black humor. You can read it here .

This is a nice online magazine with speculative (sci-fi, fantasy and horror) fiction and poetry. It includes some poems that are really worth checking out. Read Screen Savior , a funny poem by Vincent Miskell . Another one like that is Reflections of the Invisible Man By Mikal Trimm , with some interesting ideas on invisibility. Read it here .

"Mermaid Beach" is a story with a quite interesting concept of mermaids. It is a story by Brazilian horror writer Douglas T. Araujo . Read it here .

I wrote only one poem last week and it was inspired by a book. Music for the week: Nightwish, Doro, Cher, Meat Loaf, Tom Jones, Danzig and Bon Jovi. (You may say it's a strange mixture, but I like them all.)

Here's a very interesting interview with African writer Thoko M. Banda . After reading it, check out his poems in the poetry section.

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is brilliant comedy, but one really has to start with the book (or with one of the radio plays) in order to be able to appreciate it. Actually, Adams wrote the whole series originally as a radio series and it started in March 1978 on BBC Radio 4. After the success of the radio series he was asked to write a book from the story. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published in England in September 1979 and immediately became a best-seller. This does not happen very often to new authors, but it is perfectly understandable if you know the radio plays. I have just seen the movie based on The Hitchhiker's Guide. I did not expect it to be very faithful to the book. It must have been terribly hard to adapt this text to the screen. What I expected was, at least, just the sort of average comedy, so it was not a big disappointment for me. There are some scenes in it that I really do not like, and the story line has also...

This is a nice site with genre poetry, but it also has short stories. It has a poem I really like, Thank-You Note to Sandra from the Anti-Matter Universe by William John Watkins . Visit Raven Electrick .

Here's a special website aiming to raise an interest in foreign countries and cultures, spreading unbiased views of other peoples, presenting artists and promoting underrepresented art and culture. Visit Foreigner.de .

I usually do not read stories about sportsmen. (Somehow, I am just not interested.) However, I had to read Vancouver Dreams , because it is a story by Frank Zafiro . And it is worth reading. Read it here . Very good writing.

It's monday again. And on mondays I post here some info on the writing done on the previous week. Music has always been a great source of inspiration for me, so I will add that too. Writing: Last week I wrote two poems. Music: - Van Halen (albums with Sammy Hagar) - Bruce Dickinson

What follows here is not a long essay on the topic. It's just a link to Greg Beatty's poem 'Making Robot Poets Great' .

There are probably many sites you find interesting. By subscribing to their feeds you don't have to revisit them again and again, just to see if there's something new. On many websites you can see little orange images saying XML or RSS. If you copy the related URL and paste it into the proper place in your reader software, you will automatically receive all the updates. (Another advantage is that you don't have to give any data, not even your name and email address.) A nice software like that is Feedreader , but there are many other good ones. On the right side, you can find a link to the feed belonging to this site. Don't forget to subscribe. :)

I have recently started a mailing list for European writers, the EU Writers Yahoo group, and it seems we will soon start our website. Description: Writers from both from present and prospective member states are welcome.The aim of the group is to provide a place for discussion and getting to know each other. Writers are welcome to post news about their successes. Editors and publishers are welcome to join and/or send their guidelines (including the language of submissions). The idea for the group came as I was looking for groups for European writers, but did not find any, and I still thought there is a need for one. Join .

My review of Karen Koehler's Slayer is now online. You can read it here . It's a good book.

It has been a bit more than a year since I was first published. Since then, twelve of my poems have appeared in English. Actually, none of them are translations, I wrote all of them in English. I have recently sold another four, (and there will be another two which will be published for the second time). I also started to review books for Novelspot and Scribe and Quill, and many of my reviews are now available online. I am working on my first book of poetry and I also have some other interesting projects (but more on that later). This seems to be a good occasion for starting a blog. So enjoy and visit often. :)