Now that we have your attention thanks to all the excitement around the Erekos release, there’s a new bit of excitement and hoopla to add!

Candlemark & Gleam is very pleased to announce our first serial title, Hickey of the Beast by Isabel Kunkle.

Bad dreams? No big deal. After all, Connie Perez is starting her first year in the prep school her mom runs. Anyone would be a little stressed, right? When she starts dreaming about strange creatures and places that don’t make sense, she doesn’t think much about it: there’s other stuff on her mind. Then she starts noticing that the people she dreams about get sick right afterwards.

Then everything gets weird.

There’s something bad on the campus of Springden Academy. Something that feeds on students and warps their minds. And, as Connie and her friends try to figure out what’s going on, it starts to look like she’s the only one who can stop it.

She thought freshman year might suck. She never imagined it would be for real.

Hickey of the Beast is an absolutely fantastic, pitch-perfect YA fantasy novel. It’s hilarious, suspenseful, and does not in any way involve sparkly vampires.

Beyond good stuff – it’s great. Forget the other YA you’ve read; this is leagues beyond it in terms of quality and entertainment. No, it’s not trendy dystopian war games or forbidden romance…and that’s what makes it so damn much fun.

Hickey is going to be the first serial novel released by Candlemark & Gleam, too. We’re dedicated to bringing back the heyday of publishing glory, when anything you could dream up could be tried and used to get good stories into the hands of readers…and part of how we’re doing that is bringing back the serial model.

With Hickey of the Beast, we’ll be releasing the story one chapter at a time on the C&G website. The first two chapters will be available for free; after that, you have a choice of how to keep on reading. You can either buy chapters a la carte, if you’re not quite sold. We think you’ll be hooked, though, so we’ll also be offering you subscription packages – if you subscribe by Chapter 5, you’ll get a steep discount off the cover price. If you subscribe any time during the serial run, you’ll get a discount, but not quite as much as if you signed up early – incentive to get in on the ground floor!

Plus, if you subscribe rather than buying chapters a la carte, you’ll receive a copy of the full eBook at the end of the serial, just as if you bought the finished book from the C&G store.

And, of course, if you miss the serial period? You’ll be able to buy Hickey of the Beast as a completed eBook in the store after its serial run is finished.

Hickey of the Beast: the best YA fantasy-humour novel you’ll subscribe to in 2011.