Fernando Fidanza was born in Rome, Italy, in 1976. He majored in Chinese language and culture at Sapienza University in Rome.

A self-taught guitarist and songwriter, he began composing songs and playing in live music venues when he was just 13 years old. His musical influences are Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Pearl Jam, Francesco Guccini, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits, and Eminem.

From those humble beginnings, Fernando grew up to become a musical composer of original scores for movies, documenatries, and media applications in China, where he lived for 14 years.

In fact, Fernando has also traveled with his music.

"I performed live in more than 100 Chinese cities, and I toured the USA and Holland with my folk songs."

And that's not all! He even published a poetry and photography book about China titled Cina: le Radici Profonde (China: Deep Roots), inspired by the Confucian classic The Filial Piety.

When not creating music, Fernando enjoys horror movies and comics.

This gifted musician is the official music composer for the poems published in The Dark Sire. He is also "The Minstrel" talked about in The Dark Sire Podcast (anchor.fm/darksiremag).

Dark Sire is stretching its wings and flying into the world of Podcasts.

That's right! You'll now be able to listen to some of the magazine's content in small podcast chunks that will span from 20-40 minutes in length. Content to expect from the podcast:

• The Dark Mistress, the guide to all things Dark Sire and host of the podcast
• 5-minute (ish) excerpts from the shoft fiction printed in the magazine
• Short reads (maybe 1 or so stanzas) of poems printed in TDS
• Music composed by The Minstrel (our very own Fernando Fidanza)
• Interviews of the authors/poets/artists printed in TDS
• Giveaways (sometimes!)

It should be a fund way to get more people interested in The Dark Sire while also being a great way of promoting the work of all the talented authors and poets who contribute to the magazine. 

The first episode isn't scheduled until April 2020, but teasers have already been placed on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To get a headstart, bookmark anchor.fm/darksiremag.

A second poem has been chosen to become a Folk song: Bartholomew Barker's "Silence." 

Fernando Fidanza, official music composer for TDS who pairs poetry with Folk music, jumps right into this new song. The poem-as-lyrics begin with the first strum of the melodic guitar, and the music takes us on an adventure not quite filled with silence, but emotion.

Bartholomew stated that Fernando "does a great job putting emotion in his voice" as he discussed the song on his blog. "Maybe it's just me being a proud parent but I think he did a great job. I love his accent. This is the first time I've heard my words sung to music and it affected me more than I'll admit."

More poem transforations to Folk songs by Fernando are coming. The first poem he chose to compose to music was S. M. Cook's "Hell's Love of Heaven's Hatred."

Listen to Bartholomew Barker's poem as a Folk song, composed by Fernando Fidanza on YouTube:

The Times Reporter is a local paper in the Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio area. Jon Baker, a reporter for the T-R, wrote a story about The Dark Sire, which included a little about our very own editor, Bre Stephens.

The article was on the front page and continued on A4, which means that it was quite a nicely written, longer story. It dove into why the magazine is titled "The Dark Sire" and that it is an international magazine - in less than 3 months!

The headline read: Local Roots, Long Reach. And that's exactly the goal and mission of TDS. We are very proud of our roots but we are reaching for the stars, and don't plan to stop any time soon.

The story ran on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. As of this blog post, the article is accessible at:

https://www.timesreporter.com/news/20200218/launch-party-planned-for-new-literary-magazine-with-local-roots

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TDS is developing an idea for recording its printed short fiction as audio short stories. The idea is to have the author (or another individual) record high-quality audio of the story and then add the story to a new TDS Podcast (currently being developed). The story will also be shared online through associated websites (TDS and BSC Publishing Group), social media, and YouTube.

We hope to have this in place for the Issue 3 launch on April 30, 2020. More information to come soon!

The first-ever launch party and author event celebrating Issue 2 was a complete success! So much so that the Dover Public Library (DPL) in Dover, Ohio wants to collaborate with TDS. That means that our magazine will be in their physical catalog as well as their online e-book catalog. Their online catalog is part of Ohio Link, the state's database of e-books accessible from libraries all over the state of Ohio.

TDS will gain more readers by being available through the library's online system, which includes being accesible to high schools and universities. This opportunity bridges TDS and education, a pairing that could prove impactful to the study of modern literature.

As the editor of TDS and a post-secondary educator, I am very excited for this collaboration. I don't have a date for inclusion yet, but I hope to have TDS available on Ohio Link in March 2020.

​https://www.doverlibrary.org/

Fernando Fidanza of Rome, Italy and The Dark Sire (TDS) are officially colleborating to merge Folk music with poetry. From now on, Fernando will compose folk music for all printed poets in the magazine, using the poem as lyrics. 

Fernando has "an uncanny way of understanding the work without even talking to the poet," remarked S. M. Cook when she first heard her poem come to life by way of Fernando's Folk music. "I am so blessed and honored to have my work put into song."

You can listen to S. M. Cook's "Hell's Love of Heaven's Hatred," composed by Fernando Fidanza, on Youtube.

​More folk songs will be released in the near future.

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Issue 2 dropped on January 31, 2020. Tell us about your reading experience!

What was your favorite short story?

Fave Poem?

Fave artwork?

What did you like about the serializations?

​Leave some comments below!