Once, lord of lyrics;
once, prince of peace…
Now a demon let off his leash…
No greater musician than Gorge ever lived in the Realm of the Sidhe.
No faerie musician ever delved so deeply into the taboo songs and the forbidden music—the Way of the Bone. Yet, Gorge refused to deny himself their temptations.
In reward his true love betrayed him, and the faerie kings and queens who once praised him stripped him of his magic and exiled him to the mortal world. Left to go mad and die, Gorge discovered new life in the arms of a mortal woman, Delilah—and new magic in the music that sings in the souls of mortals. Decades later, Gorge walks a dark path through the musical underground of New York City. He lives a secret life, hiding from the fae, waging a guerilla war of punk rock, and wielding his guitar like a weapon as he gathers magic and recharges his power. Until the day he’s strong enough to return home and open the Way of the Bone to all the Faerie Kingdoms. But the mortal world is far more dangerous than it seems
Gorge never expected to discover such raw power, almost beyond his control, among the mortals who worship his music. Nor did he count on a mortal wizard to discover his secrets or turn the ancient weapons of the fae against him. Caught in a dangerous game of magic, music, and lies, Gorge must find the truth and uncover the source of his enemy’s magic. Survival and love hang in the balance. And Gorge has only his music to protect him, only a song for any hope of salvation….
Praise for the work of James Chambers:
“…chillingly evocative writing…” —Publisher’s Weekly
“James Chambers writes stories that are paced fast enough to friction burn a reader’s eyeballs.” —Horror Reader.com
“Three Chords of Chaos is a darkly rich story, starring an exiled faery and his lady love. Mr. Chambers has created a cast of intriguing and charismatic characters in a music and magic fueled world.” —Bibliophilic Book Blog
“Three Chords of Chaos is a well-written, compelling story interwoven with an authentic description of the famed punk rock culture that developed in the early 80s. A very entertaining and enlightening novella. Highly recommended.” –Gene O’Neill, The Cal Wild Chronicles
“In this dark urban fantasy James Chambers plays a thrilling riff on the razor’s edge where music and magic meet. Sex, drugs, Faustian bargains, and rebellious Fae make Three Chords of Chaos my kind of faery tale.” –Douglas Wynne, author of The Devil of Echo Lake and Steel Breeze
James Chambers is an award-winning author of horror, crime, fantasy, and science fiction. He wrote the Bram Stoker Award®-winning graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe. Publisher’s Weekly described The Engines of Sacrifice, his collection of four Lovecraftian-inspired novellas published by Dark Regions Press as “…chillingly evocative…” in a starred review. His story, “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.
He has authored the short story collection Resurrection House and several novellas, including The Dead Bear Witness and Tears of Blood, in the Corpse Fauna novella series. He also wrote the illustrated story collection, The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, created in collaboration with artist Jason Whitley.
His short stories have been published in the anthologies The Avenger: Roaring Heart of the Crucible, Bad-Ass Faeries, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory, Bad Cop No Donut, The Best of Bad-Ass Faeries, The Best of Defending the Future, Breach the Hull, By Other Means, Chiral Mad 2, Chiral Mad 4, Dance Like A Monkey, Dark Hallows II: Tales from the Witching Hour, Deep Cuts, The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, Dragon’s Lure, Fantastic Futures 13, Gaslight and Grimm, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Hear Them Roar, In An Iron Cage, Kolchak the Night Stalker: Passages of the Macabre, Man and Machine, Mermaids 13, No Longer Dreams, Qualia Nous, Shadows Over Main Street (1 and 2), The Side of Good/The Side of Evil, The Society for the Preservation of CJ Henderson, So It Begins, The Spider: Extreme Prejudice, To Hell in a Fast Car, Truth or Dare, TV Gods, Walrus Tales, Weird Trails, and With Great Power; the chapbook Mooncat Jack; and the magazines Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Allen K’s Inhuman.
He has also written numerous comic books including Leonard Nimoy’s Primortals, the critically acclaimed “The Revenant” in Shadow House, The Midnight Hour with Jason Whitley, and the award-winning original graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe.
He is a member and trustee of the Horror Writers Association, and recipient of the 2012 Richard Laymon Award and the 2016 Silver Hammer Award.
He lives in New York.
Visit his website: http://www.jameschambersonline.com.
“The Way of the Bone” started with a simple suggestion from editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail. She wanted “heavy metal faeries” for the second BAF anthology. The result was the character Gorge, the greatest musician in the Enchanted Lands, cast out, wings ripped off, magic taken away, and made mortal for the crime of playing forbidden music. Trapped on earth, though, he realized he could regain his magic by playing music for live audiences. Now he’s determined to deliver some payback to the faerie world.
Single malt whiskey, neat. Everything else is for losers who like umbrellas in their drinks. (Which is what Gorge would say.)
I already have. Reader reaction to “The Way of the Bone” was so positive that I wrote a follow-up story “Faerie Ring Blues,” which appeared in the third BAF anthology. And Danielle Ackley-McPhail asked me to write novella featuring Gorge, which was published a while back, Three Chords of Chaos. That’s out of print now but it might not be for long (nudge-nudge, wink-wink), and I might just be writing some new Gorge stories as well.
Mad 2, Shadows Over Main Street, Dark Hallows II: Tales from the Witching Hour, and Kolchak the Night Stalker: Passages of the Macabre. And I recently wrote the original graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe. More of my work can be found in two collections, The Engines of Sacrifice (which nabbed a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly) and Resurrection House.
eSpec Books 