Interview with New HWA Member Steve Alten … by Ron Breznay

Steve Alten is well-known for his bestseller MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror, several follow-up MEG books, and other novels of “natural” horror. He is the founder of Adopt-an-Author, a program designed to interest teenagers in reading. Steve grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and now calls southern Florida home. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from Penn State, a Master’s degree in Sports Medicine from the University of Delaware, and a Doctorate of Education from Temple University. While struggling to support his family of five, Steve decided to write MEG, the idea for which had been circling around…

HELP! WANTED TALES OF ON-THE-JOB TERROR Edited by HWA Member Peter Giglio

Editor: Peter Giglio Wake up! You don’t want to be late. Shower and shave, you want to look your best. Drink coffee, scramble eggs, you’ll need your energy. Today’s a big day…even if you don’t know why. Within these pages reside 25 terrifying visions from the finest talents in dark fiction. From a call center floor to and undertaker’s slab, a chain bookstore to a dark Christmas with border patrol agents, HELP! WANTED: Tales of On-the-Job Terror removes the veils that protect your psyche, beckoning you into nightmare worlds that will leave your screaming…for more! TABLE OF CONTENTS “The Chapel…

OUTER DARKNESS by HWA Member Bart Brevik

Author: Bart Brevik What would you do if your family was targeted for destruction by a violent Satanic cult? That’s the position that Jim DiMario finds himself in – but has he found out too late? Jim feels the comfortable predictability of his day-to-day routine begin to unravel when he investigates a series of bizarre animal mutilations that have recently occurred in his normally quiet, upscale community. Seemingly by chance, he meets two strangers in his quest for the truth – a sheriff’s deputy, and a TV news reporter, each of whom have their own reasons to investigate the grisly…

THE ARMAGEDDON CHORD by HWA Member JEREMY WAGNER

Author: Jeremy Wagner “The music was to be a battle cry heard around the world and throughout Heaven and Hell. It would summon and release Sethis and call out his dark legions to destroy all those who had light in their hearts…” Deep beneath the Egyptian sands, an ancient and evil song written in hieroglyphics is discovered in the long lost and buried pyramid of the demonic pharaoh, Aknaseth. It is written, that if this song is performed for the world to hear, it will unleash the Apocalypse upon the world of man…Satan will reign and grant immortality to the…

“Grave Revelations” by HWA Member Kenneth W. Cain

Author: Kenneth W. Cain In this sequel to These Trespasses, Marty's brother returns wanting his brother by his side one way or another. In a new post-apocalyptic world people struggle to rebuild. With civilization only just starting to regain momentum an old threat returns. Things have changed. People have changed. The resolve remains the same. Marty and his friends will not stop until this alien force is defeated. Then again, neither will this intrusion end without putting up a fight of its own. Brother to brother, husband to wife, child to mother, an ending will result from these grave revelations.

EYES TO SEE by HWA Member Joseph Nassise

Author: Joseph Nassise In an urban fantasy that charts daring new territory in the field, Jeremiah Hunt has been broken by a malevolent force that has taken his young daughter and everything else of value in his life: his marriage, his career, his reputation. Desperate to reclaim what he has lost, Hunt finally turns to the supernatural for justice. Abandoning all hope for a normal life, he enters the world of ghosts and even more dangerous entities from beyond the grave. Sacrificing his normal sight so that he can see the souls of the dead and the powers that stalk…

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by HWA Member M.R. Sellars

Full Title: In The Bleak Midwinter: A Special Agent Constance Mandalay Novel Author: M. R. Sellars FOR THE PEOPLE OF HULIS, MISSOURI, THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS ARE HELL… On December 22nd, 1975, something unthinkable happened in the small, northern Midwest town of Hulis, Missouri—something so heinous that it turned the holidays into a waking nightmare. Now, 35 years later, it’s happening all over again, and for those involved, Christmas will never be the same… In The Bleak Midwinter marks the first full-length novel spin-off from the Rowan Gant Investigations series. Featuring FBI Special Agent Constance Mandalay, a recurring character from the…

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK edited by HWA Member Alex Scully

Full Title: Enter at Your Own Risk: Old Masters, New Voices Editor: Alex Scully Old Masters, New Voices: Looking into the dark past, Enter At Your Own Risk resurrects the Gothic masters and for the first time, they meet their modern counterparts. Poe, de Maupassant, Bierce, Lovecraft, Yeats, Stoker and more walk the haunted literary halls with B.E. Scully, Carole Gill, Joshua Skye, Mari Adkins, Edward Medina, John A. Karr, E.P. Berglund, A.A. Garrison, Robbie Anderson, David Thomas, Alex McDermott, Nicky Peacock, Drew Keaton, and Benjamin Sperduto. Enter... at your own risk... Publisher: AS Publications Release Date: 10/5/2011 ISBN_10=1466280565 ISBN_13=978-1466280564

Stoker Spotlight: 13 Questions with Ellen Datlow, editor of Haunted Legends and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award

Ellen Datlow is the recipient of the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology as well as the recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over twenty-five years. She was fiction editor of Omni Magazine and Scifiction and has edited more than fifty anthologies, including The Best Horror of the Year, Inferno, Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Lovecraft Unbound, Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy, Blood and Other Cravings, Supernatural Noir, the Mythic series of…

ISIS UNBOUND by HWA Member Allyson Bird

Author: Allyson Bird Inspired in part by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, and the works of Rider Haggard and R. E. Howard, Isis Unbound is set in an alternate history, steampunk version of 1890's Manceastre, Britanniae, ruled by a new governor general related to a descendant of Anthony and Cleopatra, who won the battle of Actium two thousand years ago, and where the ancient Egyptian gods are real. Only a god can kill a god. Nepythys has killed her sister, Isis, and therefore the dead cannot pass over to the underworld--their ranks are rapidly swelling and they…

WOLF’S EDGE by HWA Member W.D. Gagliani

Author: W.D. Gagliani A Nick Lupo Thriller -- Number 4: Can one werewolf stop a pack of super-wolves? Nick Lupo is a homicide cop with a difference. He’s a werewolf. He’s worked hard to control his condition, but it isn’t easy to contain the beast inside him. It also means he has some very powerful enemies. Wolfpaw Security Services is a mercenary organization that wants Lupo dead. They want to infiltrate the US military with their own werewolves and they can’t let anyone—especially a fellow-werewolf like Lupo—stand in their way. Wolfpaw’s genetic experiments have created a “super-wolf” nearly invulnerable to…

THAT WHICH SHOULD NOT BE by HWA Member Brett J. Talley

Author: Brett J. Talley Miskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston’s professor Dr. Thayerson asks him to search a nearby village for a book that is believed to control the inhuman forces that rule the Earth, Incendium Maleficarum, The Inferno of the Witch, the student doesn’t hesitate to begin the quest. Weston’s journey takes an unexpected turn, however, when he ventures into a tavern in the small town of Anchorhead. Rather than…

CONCRETE SAVIOR by HWA Member Yvonne Navarro

Author: Yvonne Navarro They say no good deed goes unpunished. Brynna Malak is living proof. A fallen angel in human form, Brynna is trying to earn another chance at heaven. So far, her road to redemption is littered with casualties, especially since Lucifer's minions are intent on dragging her back to hell. And being mortal only got more complicated since Brynna became involved with Detective Eran Redmond. Still, Brynna's relationship issues-- like the fact that one glimpse of her can drive men crazy with desire-- may have to wait. A mysterious "hero" is saving Chicago's citizens from certain death, with…

COSMIC FORCES by HWA Member Gregory Lamberson

Author: Gregory Lamberson Private investigator Jake Helman has battled a demon, his minions, the walking dead, and beings from the dimensions of the Sphere of Light and the Dark Realm, but now he faces the greatest evil the world has ever known in the third installment of this loosely knit trilogy. Jake is hired by the wife of New York City mayor Myron Madigan to prove his infidelity. Meanwhile, the ex-girlfriend of his old partner Edgar needs Jake’s help when her son joins a cult that worships space aliens. And Jake’s late wife, Sheryl, now an “agent of Light,” asks…

HWA ANNOUNCES NEW WEBMASTER

We are proud to announce that Angel Leigh McCoy is the HWA’s new Webmaster. Angel has been part of the HWA Web team for some time and steps into the rather large shoes of the late Mark Worthen. Angel has two loves: writing and web design. During the day, she works as a writer/game designer at ArenaNet, part of a vast team effort to make the coolest online world ever: Guild Wars 2. In the evening, in addition to her volunteer webmastering for various sites, she is also head editor at WilyWriters.com and recently edited Night-Mantled: the Best of Wily…

Mark Worthen (1962-2011)

As most of you probably know by now, HWA's Webmaster Mark Worthen passed away on September 19, 2011. Mark suffered a seizure while at work and died shortly thereafter. Mark was an integral part of HWA, and a list of all of the duties he performed for us on a daily basis would take up the entire page. He assigned user IDs and passwords, he kept the Web site current and clean, he moderated the message board, he compiled Bram Stoker Award recommendations, he wrote two monthly columns for the newsletter, and he did a lot of those behind-the-scenes things…

CURIOUSLY TWISTED TALES by HWA Member P.S. Gifford

Author: P.S. Gifford Curiously Twisted Tales is a masterful collection of short stories from the devious imagination of horror writer P.S. Gifford. If you are not familiar with Gifford's previously published works, this book will serve as a deliciously wicked sampler of some of his most fiendish tales-both old and new. "The stories of P.s. Gifford are smart, inventive, and scary as hell. This is horror writing at its very best." Jonathan Maberry (From book cover) "P.S.Gifford is a writer of great wit and talent. He remembers that most treasured of all storytelling purposes:entertainment. Keep an eye on this writer,…

L.A. Banks (1959-2011)

Leslie Ann Peterson Esdaile Banks died on August 2 from adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare cancer. She left behind a wonderful daughter, Helena Marie Esdaile, who in many ways can be said to have started her on her writing career. In the winter of 1990 her daughter was injured in an accident, and Leslie--who had a degree from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School--left the corporate sector to be with and attend to her daughter. At this time, she tried her hand at writing, which resulted in her first novel, Sundance. Before that, she had helped develop business plans for small…

…TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN by HWA Member Lisa Mannetti

Full Title: The New Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Author: Lisa Mannetti Huck always said it was a powerful lot of trouble to write a book, and if he’d a known it ahead of time, he wouldn’t a gone through with it. That’s his version of the truth, anyhow. And it’s a lot more work than anyone bargains for when they sit down to write—but you add writin along with me and Huck comin back as twin brothers and the feline familiars of a twenty-first century witch—and you got even more trouble. A whole cauldron-full more. Anyhow, this…

JACK-O’-SPEC edited by HWA Member Karen A. Romanko

Editor: Karen A. Romanko Full Title: Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy features the many faces of science fiction, fantasy, and horror Halloweens: steampunk Halloweens, post-apocalyptic Halloweens, alternate history Halloweens, outer space Halloweens, and noir Halloweens, not to mention new speculative takes on Halloween perennials, such as haunted houses, witches, ghosts, vampires, and, of course, jack-o'-lanterns. Twenty-six authors have contributed short stories, flash fiction, and poetry to the anthology, transporting us to the mysterious realm of the Pumpkin King, introducing the trick-or-treating Norse gods, or describing a lover's visit on a brief reprieve from…