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The Seers’ Table June 2018

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The Seers Table!

Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community

June has National Donut Day, why not get a box of your favorite and something to read!

Andrew Wolter recommends

Michael Rowe was born in Ottawa, and has lived in Beirut, Havana, and Paris. He is the author of the novels Enter, Night (2011), Wild Fell (2013), and October (2017.) A French edition of Wild Fell was published by Editions Bragelonne in Paris in 2016. An award-winning journalist and essayist, Rowe is also the author of the nonfiction books Writing Below the Belt (1995), Looking For Brothers (1999), and Other Men’s Sons (2004.)

He has won the Lambda Literary Award, the Queer Horror Award, and the Randy Shilts Award for Nonfiction. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the Sunburst Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. He was for 17 years the first-tier Canadian correspondent for the legendary horror film magazine Fangoria, which he credits as the best job he ever had. As the creator and editor of the anthologies Queer Fear (2000) and Queer Fear 2 (2002), he was hailed by Clive Barker as having “changed forever the shape of horror fiction.”

Recommending Reading: October. The time: the waning years of the 1990s at the dawn of the millennium. The place: an isolated rural town called Auburn, which could be anywhere at all—a town where everyone knows everyone else—where dark secrets run through its veins like blood. Everyone knows that sixteen-year-old Mikey Childress is “different.” He’s a target for bullies since he was a small boy, and everything Mikey does attracts abuse: the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he looks. Everyone knows he’s not like the other boys in Auburn—the boys who play hockey, who fight, the boys who pursue girls. Only his friend Wroxy, a girl almost as isolated as he is, can even guess at the edges of his pain, or the depths of his yearning for love. But even the people who hate Mikey couldn’t dream of how many secrets he has, or how badly he could hurt them if he wanted to. Until the night Mikey is pushed beyond endurance by his abusers. The night he makes a pact with dark forces older than time to visit a terrible vengeance on his enemies. The night he inadvertently opens a doorway that should never, ever have been opened, and unleashes something into the world that should have remained damned.

From Michael Rowe, the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of Wild Fell and Enter, Night comes a Faustian tale of the horrific cost of the murder of innocence in a small town, and of the vicious price extracted for the ultimate revenge.

Check out more at: http://www.michaelrowe.com/

Kate Maruyama recommends

Cassandra Khaw writes horror, press releases, video games, articles about video games, and tabletop RPGs. These are not necessarily unrelated items. Her work can be found in professional short story magazines such as Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Fireside Fiction, Uncanny, and the scientific journal Nature. Cassandra’s first original novella, Hammers on Bone, came out in October 2016. To her mild surprise, people seem to enjoy it.

Cassandra returns with A Song for Quiet, a new standalone Persons Non Grata novella from the world of Hammers on Bone, finalist for the British Fantasy Award and the Locus Award, and which Kameron Hurley called “a long leap into the gory, the weird, and the fantastic.”

Recommended Reading: A Song for Quiet: Deacon James is a rambling bluesman straight from Georgia, a black man with troubles that he can’t escape, and music that won’t let him go. On a train to Arkham, he meets trouble—visions of nightmares, gaping mouths, and grasping tendrils, and a madman who calls himself John Persons. According to the stranger, Deacon is carrying a seed in his head, a thing that will destroy the world if he lets it hatch. The mad ravings chase Deacon to his next gig. His saxophone doesn’t call up his audience from their seats; it calls up monstrosities from across dimensions. As Deacon flees, chased by horrors and cultists, he stumbles upon a runaway girl, who is trying to escape the destiny awaiting her. Like Deacon, she carries something deep inside her, something twisted and dangerous. Together, they seek to leave Arkham, only to find the Thousand Young lurking in the woods. The song in Deacon’s head is growing stronger, and soon he won’t be able to ignore it anymore.

Linda Addison recommends

J.F. Gonzalez (1964–2014) was the author of over thirty novels (under his own name as well as several pseudonyms), mostly in the horror and thriller genres, including the seminal Survivor and the popular Clickers series. Gonzalez sometimes collaborated with authors Mark Williams, Brian Keene, Wrath James White, Mike Oliveri, and others.

Many more Gonzalez novels are slated for posthumous release. Some (Retreat and the Survivor prequel Monsters) were completed before his death. Others (The Crossroads, Final Retreat, and the other Survivor prequel Animals) will be completed by Brian Keene, Wrath James White, and others, using Gonzalez’ partial manuscripts, detailed notes, and plot outlines. Also, all of his out-of-print titles are slated for reissue via Midnight Library.

Recommended Reading: A new book by Gonzalez (with Wrath James White): Monsters and Animals, (Deadite Press, March 7, 2018) was finished by White using Gonzalez’ notes and outlines. Monsters and Animals contains two novella prequels to the cult favorite masterpiece Survivor. This edition also includes two more bonus stories, “Shooting Schedule” and “Mabel’s Recipes,” that further explore the world of Survivor, each piece demonstrating Gonzalez’ ability to write extreme horror and create very human characters.

From Monsters and Animals: Ben Stolzfus and Frank Cunningham found the remains on June 6, 1976, while riding dirt bikes on the Pike Trail at the southern end of the county.

“We’ve got to tell somebody,” Frank said, his voice low. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and looked back over Ben’s shoulder at the woods they’d just ridden out of.

“What is it?” Ben asked again. “What did you see?” For the first time, Ben had the feeling Frank might be trying to put one over on him, but then he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. Frank’s fear was genuine; the tears and tone of his voice was effectively real. “What was in that bag?” he asked, more forcefully now.

“Body parts.” Frank started to cry, and for the first time in his life Ben was deeply afraid…

… and twenty minutes later they were at a payphone near the Kmart talking to a uniformed officer after placing a call, and for Ben Stoltzfus that summer of 1976 was when innocence was lost forever.

Another Recommended Reading: Also check out Clickers Forever: A Tribute to J.F. Gonzalez, edited by Brian Keene (4/14/18). Contributors include J.F. Gonzalez, Jonathan Maberry, Mary SanGiovanni, David J. Schow, John Skipp, Jeff Strand, Weston Ochse, Wrath James White, Monica O’Rourke, and many others. The stories are set in Gonzalez’ worlds of Clickers, Survivor, Primitive, and Restore From Back-Up, along with personal tributes and anecdotes from those who knew him best; and much more.

For more information on Gonzalez’ work, please visit http://www.jfgonzalez.org. Contact Wrath James White at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wrathjw; Twitter: @WrathJW.

Mary SanGiovanni is the author of a number of novels, including The Hollower Trilogy (the first book of which was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award®), Thrall, and Chaos, and the novellas For Emmy, The Fading Place, and Possessing Amy. Her short fiction has appeared in periodicals and anthologies for the last decade. She has a masters degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, Pittsburgh. Currently a member of The Authors Guild, The International Thriller Writers, and Penn Writers, she was previously an Active member in the HWA and the Garden State Horror Writers. She lives in New Jersey with her son and her cat.

Recommended Reading: Behind the Door (Lyrical Underground-Kensington Publishing Corp.). You will not be able to put down this fast-paced book as it clearly shows that you have to be careful what you wish for: Some doors should never be opened … In the rural town of Zarepath, deep in the woods on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, stands the Door. No one knows where it came from, and no one knows where it leads. For generations, folks have come to the Door seeking solace or forgiveness. They deliver a handwritten letter asking for some emotional burden to be lifted, sealed with a mixture of wax and their own blood, and slide it beneath the Door. Three days later, their wish is answered—for better or worse. Kari is a single mother, grieving over the suicide of her teenage daughter. She made a terrible mistake, asking the powers beyond the Door to erase the memories of her lost child. And when she opened the Door to retrieve her letter, she unleashed every sin, secret, and spirit ever trapped on the other side. Now, it falls to occultist Kathy Ryan to seal the door before Zarepath becomes hell on earth …

Read more about her work at http://www.marysangiovanni.com/.

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