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Dance of the Goblins is the first fantasy novel by occult writer Jaq D. Hawkins, also known as Denise Channing. Hawkins has a history in non-fiction publishing, having published eight moderately successful books on magic through a small British press. Though her self-proclaimed cult following was nowhere in evidence, when Dance of the Goblins came out she already had a far better start at real success than the average micropress-published* author. While the book itself was a hard sell,** I was intrigued by her approach to promoting it.
Since then, I've attempted to read Dance of the Goblins. I got halfway through, and oh, my dearests, I do not advise it. But if you should be tempted, Hawkins finally dumped dead-in-the-water press International Waters and got herself actual international distribution. You can follow along at home with copies from these distributors:
- The free sample at Smashwords is about 66 pages' worth of the printed book, and comes in HTML, Javascript, Kindle, and Epub formats.
- Amazon USA has Dance of the Goblins in Kindle format, with a free sample that runs to page 35 of the print book. You don't need a Kindle to read the book, and you can read the sample right in your browser.
Now on to the review of Dance of the Goblins.
Part 1: In Which I Try to Review Dance of the Goblins Normally
Part 2: In Which Haghuf Expresses Himself With Post-Childbirth Sex the Dance of Creation
Part 3: THE SIGNS! THE SIIIIIIIIIIIIGNS!
Interlude on the freshness of ideas; or, Everything really has been done before
Part 4: Dance of the Goblins in a Nutshell
The Takedown Notice: Part 1
"There is extreme copyright violation in the extensive outline of the plot of the book that is slandered with mis-representation and derogatory comments included.... I request the identity information of the site owner for purposes of potential prosecution."
The Takedown Notice: Part 2
"[B]y going so far [off-topic] in your childish rants you've given me something I can use for the kind of publicity that money can't buy."
Links
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Dance
of the Goblins International Waters, the book's original publisher. PagAnarchy Press, the publishing collective that currently prints Hawkins's fiction. Jaq D. Hawkins's sitesGoblins and Steampunk, Hawkins's writing blog Goblin Films, the site of Hawkins's film company. Hawkins's main Myspace page. She also has a page under Denise Channing and under the name of her film company. Hawkins's
YouTube page, featuring a promo trailer of the Dance of the Goblins movie, as well as miscellaneous DotG clips and animations. Jaq D. Hawkins's other worksDemoniac Dance, the sequel to DotG The Wake of the Dragon: A Steampunk Adventure Understanding
Chaos Magic Women of Power: The Woman as Magus - Amazon USA/UK Spirits of the Aether - Amazon USA/UK Spirits of the Water - Amazon USA/UK Spirits of the Fire - Amazon USA/UK Spirits of the Air - Amazon USA/UK Spirits of the Earth - Amazon USA/UK |
Wikipedia Knows AllJaq
D. Hawkins/Denise Channing - talk
page ForumsIMDB: The Dance of the Goblins was lively at one time but is just a graveyard of deleted comments now. Friends
of Goblins, Hawkins's InterviewsReviewsArticles |
on Amazon USA
on Amazon UK* International Waters has published only one other book—which was written by the owner; at the moment when Hawkins scored a major publicity coup, the publisher's site was dead; and distribution was so bad that despite the book's being in print since 2005 and being on TV, the initial print run of 2000 still has not sold out as of 2012. The book didn't get U.S. distribution until Hawkins took her rights back and brought out an ebook version in 2012, despite signs of interest among U.S. readers in late 2007 and early 2008. The press's website was nonfunctional for several years. And now it's dead. The lesson? Before you pick a small press, do your homework. Choose someone with a track record. Don't piggyback on self-publishers. Keep as many rights as you can, including the rights to any kind of distribution the press doesn't currently do. Have no faith in vaporware. And always, always have a clause in your contract that reverts rights to you if the publisher does bupkiss with them.
** Spiritually advanced, nonhierarchical oppressed people clash with patriarchal, misogynistic overclass. Author believes this idea is fresh, wants to lead people to enlightenment with it. Red flags, my precious, yessssss.