#by the end he was left with 80% dean and him 20% void

[shadystranger]

coming out to say I think the ending was evil as balls and horrible to sam why'd you force him to live intrinsically broken inside and hollow living for the longest soul-decaying while without the person he loves most waking up every day and going goddammit not again while becoming a shell of a human it's almost sadistic why'd you do this to him

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Xander's Basic Info

Name: Alexander Luciano Fletcher

My faceclaims for Xander were really easy to come by and, after a bit of consideration, we have James Dean (Rebel Without A Cause) for the 60s, Jason Bateman (Teen Wolf Too) for the 80s, James FGranco (Freaks and Geeks) for the 90s, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After) for the present day.

Nicknames: Xander (so much it’s practically his name now), Xandie (ah, yes, the nickname bestowed upon him by the psychopath I used to love writing, Hornet), Alex (only his mom really called him that), Lucky (his close guy friends gave him the nickname after the gangster Lucky Luciano)

Age: 20

Date of Birth: January 30

Zodiac: Aquarius

Birthstone: Garnet

Nationality: Italian-American

Sexuality: Straight

Birthplace: Oviedo, Florida

Current Residence: Pasadena on the Gulf, St. Petersburg, Florida

Occupation: Mechanic and Sparx’s leader

Talents/Skills: Can take apart any vehicle and rebuild it from memory, 

Birth order: Oldest of six - the rest are half-siblings

Siblings: Donald “Donny” Frances (15), Betty “Millie” Millicent (13), Woodrow “Woody” Edward (12), Anita “Bee” Beatrice (10), and Philippa “Pippa” Bryony (7)

Parents: Andrew Lewis Fletcher and Emilia Celeste Bandoni

Step-father: Hamish Alton Sallow

Signature:

Height: 6’1”

Race: White

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair Color: Dark blonde, but tends to look darker during the winter and early spring

Glasses or contact lenses: Refuses to buy any despite needing them

Distinguishing features: Stab wound scar on his abdomen and multiple tattoos on his arms - most obvious being a dragon that curls around his left forearm and some barbed wire on his right bicep.

Mannerisms: Constantly fidgets with the ring Juliet gave him - even after the breakup - and he always scans a room as he enters it - something he learned after nearly being shot multiple times.

Health: He smokes despite his lungs being shitty and drinks a lot more than he should

Hobbies: Basketball, hunting, football, singing, though he would never tell a soul about it, and repairing vehicles, particularly motorcycles and his “special project” - a 1934 Ford Fordor Deluxe sedan - more infamously known as the car Bonnie and Clyde were in when they got into their shootout with the cops.

Greatest flaw (in their opinion): Attachments, especially when it comes to Juliet. In Xander’s eyes, his attachments make him weak. His step-father used his love for his siblings against him until the day he moved out of the house and, although deep down, he doesn’t like it, he uses that same tactic against others. He figures that, if he knows what people care about most, he can control and manipulate them to do what he wants. What he doesn’t always remember, however, is that his own weakness is plain as day for anyone who so much as looks at him. 

Best quality (in their opinion): Xander sometimes claims that the best thing about him is his love for Juliet, but if he had to be honest, he would most likely say the way he can alter his personality at the drop of a hat to blend in with the people he’s around.

Biggest fear: Hornet Admitting defeat. Regardless of whether or not he’s down and bleeding with no visible way out of whatever situation he finds himself stuck in, Xander will fight to find a way out, even if it puts himself and those around him in danger. For him, admitting defeat is worse than being shot or stabbed or basically any other outcome. He’s a fighter to the bitter end, even to his own detriment.

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Favorite ice cream: The Void (black-colored vanilla ice cream with cherry swirls and vanilla cookie pieces)

Favorite color: Yellow, ironically. Juliet asked him what his favorite color was on their first date, but he didn’t have an answer. She instead tried to guess and, when she guessed yellow, he went with it. Now, it truly is his favorite and he has her to thank for it.

Favorite number: 6, the number of kids he would like to have someday

Favorite songs: Don’t Matter by Kings of Leon, Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths, and Icarus by Bastille

A place they want to visit: Athens, Greece

[jimblanceusa]

Hex Publishers, Denver’s horror and sci-fi house, brings an end to its grand, national experiment

Joshua Viola has good reason to be excited for Denver Pop Culture Con this weekend.

“I sold more books there than I ever thought I would,” the 36-year-old said of the convention formerly known as Denver Comic Con. “We sold out of everything we brought last year and left the show early.”

Viola, the founder of Denver-based Hex Publishers, and author Warren Hammond have a new sci-fi book to push — “Denver Moon: The Saint of Mars,” a noir-ish, co-authored sequel to 2017’s “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” — and plenty of anthologies, graphic novels, young-adult books, soundtracks, T-shirts and other Hex product to sell.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Warren Hammond, left, and Joshua Viola stand before a wall of movie props and memorabilia Viola has collected over the years at his house in Westminster on Monday, May 20, 2019.

But despite his success over the last five years, Viola is using the May 31-June 2 convention to bring an end to Hex. Mostly, anyway.

“It’s been very hard trying to balance my time and my personal life over the last couple years, so that’s why I’m slowing down,” said Viola, whose day job revolves around Frontière Natural Meats, a growing north Denver business he runs with father, James, and brother Cody. “Hex developed a following of people who know our stuff, and it’s rewarding when we have them come back for more. But I’ve never been doing it for money. It certainly didn’t pay for what we’re sitting in here.”

Viola is referring to his $2.1 million, custom-built house in a luxury development just west of Interstate 25 in Westminster. The upper levels are contemporary chic, with wood and metal sculptures, minimalist furnishings and work/sleep spaces. The basement is where Viola plays, with a home movie theater, vintage video-game arcade, artist studio, wine room and bar — all decorated with an enviable array of movie, video game and comic-book memorabilia.

“I love it, but I’ll sell it in five years or so,” he said as he poured beers for himself and author Hammond from one of the basement taps. “This is a ridiculous amount of space.”

With a converted vintage-Camaro pool table in the garage and a literal, two-story bridge connecting the main house to the guest quarters, Viola has his playboy affectations. But Hammond, the author of the “KOP” sci-fi series (which won a Colorado Book Award in 2013) and the novel “Tides of Maritinia,” wouldn’t be working with a playboy.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Josh Viola’s arcade room is pictured at his house in Westminster on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Viola had the space custom built to fit a wide range of retro arcade machines, including driving games and pinball.

“I tend to blow off most of the people who approach me in the local scene because I don’t really know them,” Hammond, 50, said. “But there are a few things that set Josh apart, and the first one is that he pays.”

Viola has invested more than $100,000 of his own money into Hex over the years, from clever marketing such as PlayStation 4 dynamic themes (yielding 30,000 paid downloads) to just-plain-fun events, such as a screening of “Total Recall” and a bespoke, themed beer release at the Alamo Drafthouse (to promote the first Denver Moon novel). He’s sold about 30,000 total copies of Hex’s 20 releases — not including two locally sourced, nationally marketed kids books under his Jam Publishers imprint, or Hex’s online zine, WORDS, which has published short stories, interviews and movie reviews.

Hex has never held an open submission process for any of its works. That means sourcing short stories, novels, art, music and design from a smaller pool of established — and definitely more expensive — creative types. But that’s OK, Hex’s contributors have learned over the last five years, because Viola pays everyone on time. Lately, he’s been paying about twice the genre-fiction industry’s standard rate of 6 cents per word. Viola shells out 10 cents per word.

“I had no idea our first big anthology (‘Nightmares Unhinged’) would be mostly local writers,” Viola said. “Most of what you read is garbage, and I was planning on national contributors for that. But it ended up being only two nonlocal writers, and I have to give Dean Wyant credit for that.”

Wyant, the acquisitions editor and co-founder of Hex, connected Viola to a deep network of local authors and booksellers. That led Viola to working with Hammond, Jason Heller, Mario Acevedo, Angie Hodapp, Stephen Graham Jones and other national-quality talents hidden among the stacks of Denver’s bookshops and literary groups.

Through Hex’s anthologies such as ���Nightmares Unhinged” and “Cyber World,” graphic novels and even the odd cyberpunk soundtrack, Viola has made a strong argument that Hex is more just than a vanity project — despite the fact that everything on the imprint reflects his personal tastes.

“People talk about genre tropes like they’re bad things,” he said, shaking his head. “And we just embrace the hell out of them.”

Photos by Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

From left: A dragon replica, A model of The Joker from Batman, a replica of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo and a replica of Abe Sapien from the movie Hell Boy are all on display at Josh Viola’s Westminster home on May 22, 2019.

People have taken notice. “Nightmares Unhinged” was licensed by AMC for promotional use in “Fear The Walking Dead” Season 2. “Cyber World,” “Blood Business” and “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” were all nominated for Colorado Book Awards while topping local best-seller charts. “Metamorphosis,” a gorgeous comic drawn by Hex’s shy-yet-vital visual force, Aaron Lovett, made the 2018 Bram Stoker Award preliminaries for superior achievement in a graphic novel. And there’s the aforementioned custom beer — Red Fever, by Black Shirt Brewing — which was produced for the first Denver Moon novel.

“Having done four books with major publishers, I can say Josh has done more to promote ‘Denver Moon’ than all four of those together, by a larger margin,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to quit my day job (as a network engineering instructor), and I don’t want to dog my other publishers, but Josh brings a certain passion to everything he does. It’s allowed me to do some things publishers aren’t really doing anymore these days.”

Related Articles

Your guide to Denver Pop Culture Con 2019: What to do, see, wear and avoid

First look at Breckenridge’s 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con beer glassware

DiNK 2019: Denver’s indie comics expo puts trailblazers in perspective

That includes the latest Denver Moon book’s July 20 signing at the Tattered Cover, and appearances at Denver Pop Culture Con or Denver Indie Comics & Art Expo (DiNK), among other fan and industry events. Viola suspects he’ll keep the Hex flame burning for years to come, even if his new, co-authored novel with Hammond is Hex’s last major promotional push.

“We’ve still got Jeanne Stein’s 10th novel in the Anna Strong series coming out later this year. We were also hired by the Colorado Festival of Horror to do an anthology for their con coming out in the fall of 2020,” he said of the new event, which was hatched by the minds behind StarFest, HorrorFest and DiNK. “That’ll be exclusive to that con, and the theme is ’80s horror drive-ins, which is right up my alley.”

As colorful, surprising and winding as that alley has been for Viola, it’s always been his space. The perfectionist artifacts he’s left along the way were always for him, even if other people enjoyed them, too.

“When you don’t have something you want out in the world, you start to create it to fill that void,” he said. “That’s what Hex is for me. When your nutrition’s not good, you start eating it because your body demands it. I want people to enjoy and respect what I’m doing with it, but ultimately, I’m creating something that I crave.”

from Latest Information https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/29/hex-publishers-josh-viola-denver-moon/

[laurendzim]

Hex Publishers, Denver’s horror and sci-fi house, brings an end to its grand, national experiment

Joshua Viola has good reason to be excited for Denver Pop Culture Con this weekend.

“I sold more books there than I ever thought I would,” the 36-year-old said of the convention formerly known as Denver Comic Con. “We sold out of everything we brought last year and left the show early.”

Viola, the founder of Denver-based Hex Publishers, and author Warren Hammond have a new sci-fi book to push — “Denver Moon: The Saint of Mars,” a noir-ish, co-authored sequel to 2017’s “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” — and plenty of anthologies, graphic novels, young-adult books, soundtracks, T-shirts and other Hex product to sell.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Warren Hammond, left, and Joshua Viola stand before a wall of movie props and memorabilia Viola has collected over the years at his house in Westminster on Monday, May 20, 2019.

But despite his success over the last five years, Viola is using the May 31-June 2 convention to bring an end to Hex. Mostly, anyway.

“It’s been very hard trying to balance my time and my personal life over the last couple years, so that’s why I’m slowing down,” said Viola, whose day job revolves around Frontière Natural Meats, a growing north Denver business he runs with father, James, and brother Cody. “Hex developed a following of people who know our stuff, and it’s rewarding when we have them come back for more. But I’ve never been doing it for money. It certainly didn’t pay for what we’re sitting in here.”

Viola is referring to his $2.1 million, custom-built house in a luxury development just west of Interstate 25 in Westminster. The upper levels are contemporary chic, with wood and metal sculptures, minimalist furnishings and work/sleep spaces. The basement is where Viola plays, with a home movie theater, vintage video-game arcade, artist studio, wine room and bar — all decorated with an enviable array of movie, video game and comic-book memorabilia.

“I love it, but I’ll sell it in five years or so,” he said as he poured beers for himself and author Hammond from one of the basement taps. “This is a ridiculous amount of space.”

With a converted vintage-Camaro pool table in the garage and a literal, two-story bridge connecting the main house to the guest quarters, Viola has his playboy affectations. But Hammond, the author of the “KOP” sci-fi series (which won a Colorado Book Award in 2013) and the novel “Tides of Maritinia,” wouldn’t be working with a playboy.

Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

Josh Viola’s arcade room is pictured at his house in Westminster on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. Viola had the space custom built to fit a wide range of retro arcade machines, including driving games and pinball.

“I tend to blow off most of the people who approach me in the local scene because I don’t really know them,” Hammond, 50, said. “But there are a few things that set Josh apart, and the first one is that he pays.”

Viola has invested more than $100,000 of his own money into Hex over the years, from clever marketing such as PlayStation 4 dynamic themes (yielding 30,000 paid downloads) to just-plain-fun events, such as a screening of “Total Recall” and a bespoke, themed beer release at the Alamo Drafthouse (to promote the first Denver Moon novel). He’s sold about 30,000 total copies of Hex’s 20 releases — not including two locally sourced, nationally marketed kids books under his Jam Publishers imprint, or Hex’s online zine, WORDS, which has published short stories, interviews and movie reviews.

Hex has never held an open submission process for any of its works. That means sourcing short stories, novels, art, music and design from a smaller pool of established — and definitely more expensive — creative types. But that’s OK, Hex’s contributors have learned over the last five years, because Viola pays everyone on time. Lately, he’s been paying about twice the genre-fiction industry’s standard rate of 6 cents per word. Viola shells out 10 cents per word.

“I had no idea our first big anthology (‘Nightmares Unhinged’) would be mostly local writers,” Viola said. “Most of what you read is garbage, and I was planning on national contributors for that. But it ended up being only two nonlocal writers, and I have to give Dean Wyant credit for that.”

Wyant, the acquisitions editor and co-founder of Hex, connected Viola to a deep network of local authors and booksellers. That led Viola to working with Hammond, Jason Heller, Mario Acevedo, Angie Hodapp, Stephen Graham Jones and other national-quality talents hidden among the stacks of Denver’s bookshops and literary groups.

Through Hex’s anthologies such as “Nightmares Unhinged” and “Cyber World,” graphic novels and even the odd cyberpunk soundtrack, Viola has made a strong argument that Hex is more just than a vanity project — despite the fact that everything on the imprint reflects his personal tastes.

“People talk about genre tropes like they’re bad things,” he said, shaking his head. “And we just embrace the hell out of them.”

Photos by Kevin Mohatt, Special to The Denver Post

From left: A dragon replica, A model of The Joker from Batman, a replica of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo and a replica of Abe Sapien from the movie Hell Boy are all on display at Josh Viola’s Westminster home on May 22, 2019.

People have taken notice. “Nightmares Unhinged” was licensed by AMC for promotional use in “Fear The Walking Dead” Season 2. “Cyber World,” “Blood Business” and “Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars” were all nominated for Colorado Book Awards while topping local best-seller charts. “Metamorphosis,” a gorgeous comic drawn by Hex’s shy-yet-vital visual force, Aaron Lovett, made the 2018 Bram Stoker Award preliminaries for superior achievement in a graphic novel. And there’s the aforementioned custom beer — Red Fever, by Black Shirt Brewing — which was produced for the first Denver Moon novel.

“Having done four books with major publishers, I can say Josh has done more to promote ‘Denver Moon’ than all four of those together, by a larger margin,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to quit my day job (as a network engineering instructor), and I don’t want to dog my other publishers, but Josh brings a certain passion to everything he does. It’s allowed me to do some things publishers aren’t really doing anymore these days.”

Related Articles

Your guide to Denver Pop Culture Con 2019: What to do, see, wear and avoid

First look at Breckenridge’s 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con beer glassware

DiNK 2019: Denver’s indie comics expo puts trailblazers in perspective

That includes the latest Denver Moon book’s July 20 signing at the Tattered Cover, and appearances at Denver Pop Culture Con or Denver Indie Comics & Art Expo (DiNK), among other fan and industry events. Viola suspects he’ll keep the Hex flame burning for years to come, even if his new, co-authored novel with Hammond is Hex’s last major promotional push.

“We’ve still got Jeanne Stein’s 10th novel in the Anna Strong series coming out later this year. We were also hired by the Colorado Festival of Horror to do an anthology for their con coming out in the fall of 2020,” he said of the new event, which was hatched by the minds behind StarFest, HorrorFest and DiNK. “That’ll be exclusive to that con, and the theme is ’80s horror drive-ins, which is right up my alley.”

As colorful, surprising and winding as that alley has been for Viola, it’s always been his space. The perfectionist artifacts he’s left along the way were always for him, even if other people enjoyed them, too.

“When you don’t have something you want out in the world, you start to create it to fill that void,” he said. “That’s what Hex is for me. When your nutrition’s not good, you start eating it because your body demands it. I want people to enjoy and respect what I’m doing with it, but ultimately, I’m creating something that I crave.”

from News And Updates https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/29/hex-publishers-josh-viola-denver-moon/