Atlanta
September 25, 2015 MV Media is proud to announce the release of The City the
first Cyberfunk anthology edited by Milton Davis. The City anthology is a
unique creation. It’s a concept anthology, a collection of stories where
eighteen different authors share their vision of a single idea. It’s Cyberfunk,
stories that play with future concepts from an Afrocentric perspective. Most of
all it’s engaging, exciting, thought provoking and fun.
“Began, as a random idea in the middle of the day. I’m sure
there are underlying concepts that sparked these words, and a closer
examination of those concepts would bring forth a deeper discussion but at the
time it was just a statement. Soon afterwards I posted these words on the State
of Black Science Fiction, a group dedicated to the creation, support and
distribution of science fiction and fantasy by and about people of African
descent. The response was immediate and amazing. Other writers added their own
ideas and linked them with images that helped convey their thoughts. Soon we
had a continuous thread of ideas and concepts orbiting the central theme.
Balogun Ojetade combined these ideas then created a City Manifesto, a guideline
for stories based on this new creation. The next step was inevitable; the
creation of an anthology,” Milton Davis.
The authors
who are the Cityzens of the City are as follows.
The Cityzens
(in
alphabetical order)
Jeff Carroll
is a writer and a filmmaker. He is pioneering what he calls Hip Hop horror,
Sci/fi and fantasy. His stories always have lots of action and a social edge.
He has written and produced 2 films, Holla If I Kill You and Gold Digger Killer
which won BEST Picture at the International Hip Hop film festival. He has
published 3 books the novelization to Gold Digger Killer, Thug angel Rebirth of
a Gargoyle and It Happened on Negro Mountain. His short stories have appeared
in both The Black Science Fiction Society’s anthology and their magazine. He
writes out of South Florida where he lives with his wife and youngest son. Jeff
Carroll is also the author of the non-fiction book The Hip Hop Dating Guide.
When he is not writing Sci-fi stories he enjoys speaking on Healthy Dating to
college and high school students everywhere and goes by Yo Jeff. Please connect
with him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and his blog
http://hhcnf.blogspot.com/
Gerald L.
Coleman is a Philosopher, Theologian, Poet, and Author residing in Atlanta.
Born in Lexington, he did his undergraduate work in Philosophy and English at the
University of Kentucky before completing a Master's degree in Theology at
Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. His most recent work appears in,
Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture Issue 9, Drawn To Marvel:
Poems From The Comic Books, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Vol. 18 and he is
the author of the scifi/fantasy novel When Night Falls: Book One of The Three
Gifts. He is a co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets. You can find him at
http://www.geraldlcoleman.co or follow him on Twitter @Iconiclast.
Milton Davis
is a research and development chemist, speculative fiction writer and owner of
MVmedia, LLC, a micro publishing company specializing in Science Fiction,
Fantasy and Sword and Soul. MVmedia’s mission is to provide speculative fiction
books that represent people of color in a positive manner. Milton is the author
of Changa’s Safari Volumes One, Two and Three. His most recent releases are
Woman of the Woods and Amber and the Hidden City. He is co-editor of four
anthologies; Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology and Griot: Sisters of the
Spear, with Charles R. Saunders; The Ki Khanga Anthology with Balogun Ojetade
and the Steamfunk! Anthology, also with Balogun Ojetade. Milton Davis and Balogun
Ojetade recently received the Best Screenplay Award for 2014 from the Urban
Action Showcase for their African martial arts script, Ngolo. His current
projects include The City, a cyberfunk anthology, Dark Universe, a space opera
anthology based on a galactic empire ruled by people of African American
descent, and From Here to Timbuktu, a steamfunk novel.
Ray Dean was
born and raised in Hawaii where she spent many a quiet hour reading and writing
stories. Performing in theater and working backstage lead her into the delights
of Living History, creating her own worlds through writing seemed the next
logical step. Historical settings are her first love, but there is something
heady about twisting the threads of time into little knots and creating new
timelines to explore. There are endless possibilities that she is just
beginning to discover.
Malon
Edwards was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, but now lives in the
Greater Toronto Area, where he was lured by his beautiful Canadian wife. Many
of his short stories are set in an alternate Chicago and feature people of
color.
Ashtyn
Foster has had a deep love of literature since she was two and has been writing
since she was six years old. She loves telling stories, whether they be her own
through words or others via the stage. SF was engrained in her at an early age
while watching the Star Trek tv shows and Batman movies with her parents. She
thanks them for their gift of aliens, space/time travel and superheros and to
her best friend for teaching her the true meaning of deadlines, as well their
love and support.
Otis
Galloway has an insatiable wanderlust. He started out in Bermuda, then
subsequently left there for Worcester, Massachusetts. After that, a move to
Boston, then after collecting ex-wife#1, a move to the West Coast, with stints
throughout California, in San Francisco, Albany, Berkeley, Palm Springs, Los
Angeles and San Diego. After collecting ex-wife #2, he decided to stop
collecting ex-wives (because they’re expensive) and instead returned to his
first love, collecting music.
Otis
currently lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. He is working on his first
book, which is nonfiction and very sweary. Occasionally he is known to put
together quite a decent DJ set.
Keith Gaston
was born in Detroit, Michigan. After earning a Bachelor’s in Computer Science
and two Masters degrees, he decided to pursue his passion of writing. D K
Gaston is known for writing books in different genres that are filled with
action and adventure. He writes mysteries, crime, thrillers, and speculative
fiction. He has written over a dozen novels since 2007 and shows no signs of
slowing down. D K Gaston is a devoted husband and father residing in Michigan.
He is currently working on his next novel.
Chanel Harry
is an up and coming science fiction, fantasy and horror writer that hails from
The Bronx New York. “The Score” is her first work that will be published in the
anthology. However, she is in the process of working on her debut novel “Fire
Lady: Tales of the Soucouyants.
Natiq Jalil
is a self-taught, emerging visual artist who specializes in watercolor,
acrylics, oils, and digital media. He focuses his work on human form and
emotion, and often includes organic shapes and written words in pieces. Though
originally from Montgomery, AL, he has lived all over the US, including Denver,
Pittsburgh, and most recently New York City. He has sold work to many
businesses and private collectors throughout the world, including Italy, South
Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Japan, UK, and various states in the US. There is
also a documentary in production centering around the paintings he completes on
the subway trains of New York City. Though
he is finding success in visual arts, Natiq also considers himself a
storyteller. Much of his success in visual arts is due to the fact that he
easily recants the individual stories of each of his visual works. He is a
lifelong fan of sci-fi, fantasy, manga, and anime, not to mention an avid
reader. He writes short stories of urban speculative fiction in his spare time,
and hopes to pursue his writing in addition to fine art as a career. His short
story in The City is his first published written work.
Valjeanne
Jeffers is a graduate of Spelman College, and a member of the Carolina African
American Writer’s Collective. She is the author of Voyage of Dreams; Immortal;
Immortal II: The Time of Legend; Immortal III: Stealer of Souls; The Switch II:
Clockwork; Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds; Mona Livelong: Paranormal
Detective; and Colony: Ascension. Her
fiction has been published in Pembroke Magazine; Steamfunk!; Griots: A Sword
and Soul Anthology; Genesis Science Fiction Magazine; PurpleMag; LuneWing;
Griots II: Sisters of the Spear; Possibilities, and The City (in press). Book I
of The Switch II: Clockwork was also nominated for the best ebook novella of
2013 by the eFestival of Words; and her short story Awakening (from Griots I)
was published as a podcast by Far Fetched Fables. Valjeanne is co-owner of
Q&V Affordable Editing. Preview or publish her novels at:
www.vjeffersandqveal.com
Alan Jones Born
and raised in Atlanta, GA. Alan attended Georgia Tech and Ga. State, obtaining
his MBA from the latter. In addition to writing on the student newspapers at
these institutions, Alan worked as a columnist for The Atlanta Tribune. Alan
continues to write and his latest work, Sacrifices, is available on Amazon. When not writing, Alan, a former Wall Street
Consultant, currently works as an Oracle Business Software Consultant.
Brandee
Laird is a warrior-poet from Seattle, WA, USA. She is a dedicated parkour
athlete, one of the founders of the 501(c)3 non-profit organization Parkour
Visions, and acts as the Coaching and Curriculum Director of their Seattle
facility. She lives her life exuberantly and with the intent to write it down,
constantly collecting experiences and ideas from the world around her. In the
daytime you can generally find her in the parkour gym or in the trees, or frequenting
the urban shadows at night.
Kai Leakes Born
in Iowa, but later relocating and raised in Alton, IL and St. Louis, MO, Kai
Leakes was a multifaceted Midwestern child, who gained an addiction to books at
an early age. The art of imagination was the very start of Kai’s path of
writing which lead her to creating the Sin Eaters: Devotion Books Series. Since
a young child, her love for creating, vibrant romance and fantasy driven
mystical tales, continues to be a major part of her very DNA. With the goal of
sharing tales that entertain and add color to a gray literary world, Kai Leakes
hopes to continue to reach out to those who love the same fantasy, paranormal,
romantic, sci/fi, and soon, steampunk driven worlds that shaped her unique
vision.
You can find
Kai Leakes at her website: www.kwhp5f.wix.com/kai-leakes
Edison Moody
AKA B. Sharise Moore
Published
author, poet, certified educator, and budding screenwriter B. Sharise Moore is
a New Jersey native and graduate of Rutgers University. At present, B. Sharise
is working on the completion of a short film based on her collection of short
stories, Djinn and Tonics, to be published later this year.
Howard Night
Author of
"The Serpent Cult" and Head Writer of Dark Universe: Interregnum
Speculative Fiction Books, Howard Night loves setting his characters in warped
versions of his hometown of Philadelphia and neighborhood; Mt. Airy. His next
novel, King's Bounty, set in the DARK UNIVERSE will be available summer 2015.
Balogun
Ojetade is an author, master-level martial artist in indigenous, Afrikan combative
arts and sciences, a survival and preparedness consultant, a former
Communications and Asst. Operations Sergeant in the U.S. 7th Special Forces
Group (Airborne) and a priest in several Afrikan spiritual traditions. Balogun is Master Instructor and Technical
Director of the Afrikan Martial Arts Institute, which has branches in the
Unites States, England and Ghana, West Afrika and Co-Chair of the Urban
Survival Preparedness Institute. He is
the author of the bestselling non-fiction books Afrikan Martial Arts:
Discovering the Warrior Within and The Afrikan Warriors’ Bible and eight
novels, including the Steamfunk bestseller, MOSES: The Chronicles of Harriet
Tubman (Books 1 & 2); the Urban Science Fiction saga, Redeemer; the Sword
& Soul epic, Once Upon A Time In Afrika; a Fight Fiction, New Pulp novella,
Fist of Afrika; the gritty, Urban Superhero series, A Single Link and Wrath of
the Siafu; the two-fisted Dieselfunk tale, The Scythe and the
“Choose-Your-Own-Destiny”-style Young Adult novel, The Keys. Balogun is also
contributing co-editor of two anthologies: Ki: Khanga: The Anthology and
Steamfunk. Finally, Balogun is the
Director and Fight Choreographer of the Steamfunk feature film, Rite of Passage
and co-author of the award winning screenplay, Ngolo.
Ced Pharaoh
was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. A lifelong bookworm; his earliest
favorites were comic books/graphic novels, mysteries (Encyclopedia Brown,
Sherlock Holmes etc), thrillers, poetry, non-fiction biographies and
sci-fi/fantasy! Ced has a blog, 360BEYOND where he highlights indie artists and
other creative ideas. Also, he has written several comic book scripts for indie
publishing companies that are slated for release. Ced is working on his series, The Legacy
Chronicles and in 2012, he published the collection of dark fantasy poetry,
Watch The Shadows: The Legacy Chronicles Book 1. He is busy working on the
novel, Urban Mage | The Legacy Chronicles Book 2 slated for 2015.
K. Ceres
Wright is the author of the cyberpunk book, Cog. Her short stories, articles,
and poetry have appeared in Hazard Yet Forward; Genesis: An Anthology of Black
Science Fiction; Many Genres, One Craft; 2008 Rhysling Anthology; Diner
Stories: Off the Menu; and Far Worlds. Contact her on Twitter: @KCeresWright
The City is
available at http://www.mvmediaatl.com
