Strangulation

February in Poetry: “Women in Horror” & Introduction by Peter Adam Salomon, Editor

'Strangulation' by Marge Simon In the ‘November in Poetry’ column, poet Wendy Rathbone touched on an eternal truth that is so vital that I wanted to follow up on it. Wendy spoke of the ‘earliest and best known darker tales’ being poems: “Beowulf,” “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey.” Dark poetry continues throughout known history from Dante’s “Inferno” to Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to William Blake to Poe. This month, I’d like to go back even further in time, to show just how important the darkness has been, not just to poetry, but to all literature. One of the oldest surviving works of literature…

FRESH FEAR by William Cook

Editor: William Cook FRESH FEAR FRESH FEAR: Contem­porary Horror is a collection of horror from some of the genre's best writers of dark fiction. This collection has no central theme other than the stories' ability to scare the hell out of the reader! Tales steeped in psychological horror sit alongside visions of strange worlds and inner landscapes drenched in blood. 'Quiet horror' sits comfortably next to more visceral portrayals of the monsters that lurk deep within the human heart. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famously once said, "where there is no imagination there is no horror" - the horror expressed by…

HORROR LIBRARY VOLUME 5 Edited by R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris

Editors: R. J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris HORROR LIBRARY VOLUME 5 Spanning the universe of modern literary horror, this volume features 30 genre rich short stories by 30 cutting edge authors, some well known, some soon to be. If you'd like a snapshot of where horror fiction is headed, you have found the right book. With stories by Bentley Little, Ray Garton, Jeff Strand, Michael A. Arnzen, Tracie McBride, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Shane McKenzie, Taylor Grant, Kristin Dearborn, Charles Colyott, and 20 others! Publisher: Cutting Block Press Publication Date: November 15, 2013
The 2013 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

The 2013 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballots for the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see WWW.HORROR.ORG ) is the premiere writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with over 1,100 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see https://horror.org/AWARDS/STOKERS.HTM). The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on these Preliminary Ballots. Notes about the voting process appear after the ballot listing. UPDATE: The preliminary ballot is now closed for 2013. The Preliminary Ballots are: Superior Achievement in a Novel Michaelbrent Collings…

WHERE YOU LIVE by Gary McMahon

Author: Gary McMahon WHERE YOU LIVE Horror is everywhere… It’s waiting behind a closed door, sitting in an ordinary chair, or following you on a country walk. Perhaps it’s washed up on a tranquil beach, hanging at a local skate park, recorded on an MP3 player hard drive, or even embedded somewhere deep within the design of something as simple and innocuous as a supermarket barcode. Horror is everywhere, in the shadows and in the light. It takes on every shape, comes in every conceivable size. But most of all it’s right where you live. Gary McMahon is a spellbinding…
HWA SUPPORTS WRITER BEWARE

HWA SUPPORTS WRITER BEWARE

As part of our efforts to support our members and ensure the horror publishing industry is conducted in a professional and ethical manner the Horror Writers Association is a supporter of the Writer Beware website and blog. HWA President Rocky Wood said, “We are delighted to formally support Writer Beware, joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and Mystery Writers of America (MWA). We encourage our members to bookmark and visit the site regularly, particularly when considering engaging with publishers or editors they do not know.” Like many genre-focused writers’ groups, SFWA, MWA, and HWA are concerned…
Award Banquet Reservations Open

Award Banquet Reservations Open

You can now reserve your spot at the Bram Stoker Awards® banquet for 2014! It's taking place at the World Horror Convention in Portland, on May 8-11.

THINGS SLIP THROUGH by Kevin Lucia

Author: Kevin Lucia THINGS SLIP THROUGH 2009 British Fantasy Award Winner for Best Collection The twenty-one stories collected in Bull Running for Girls are widely varied, both in setting and subject. From small town life in Madison County to the dangers of bull running in Pamplona, the stories seem, at first blush, unrelated. They are bound, however, by Allyson Bird’s strength. She is a remarkable woman, the stories collected here as personal as they are unsettling. The atmosphere, the tone and mood invoked by the author aside – it is the humanity at the heart of each tale that is…

BULL RUNNING FOR GIRLS by Allyson Bird

Author: Allyson Bird BULL RUNNING FOR GIRLS 2009 British Fantasy Award Winner for Best Collection The twenty-one stories collected in Bull Running for Girls are widely varied, both in setting and subject. From small town life in Madison County to the dangers of bull running in Pamplona, the stories seem, at first blush, unrelated. They are bound, however, by Allyson Bird’s strength. She is a remarkable woman, the stories collected here as personal as they are unsettling. The atmosphere, the tone and mood invoked by the author aside – it is the humanity at the heart of each tale that…
Horror Roundtable 15 – Sexism in Horror

Horror Roundtable 15 – Sexism in Horror

You can follow the Roundtable discussion in the comments section of this post. Note: the page will not auto refresh, so please use the refresh option on your browser to keep up to date with the discussion. * * * * * When: 16 January, 2014 Time: 7pm EST (use the Time Zone Converter to find your local time) Sexism in Horror With so many brilliant female horror writers (think Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, Lisa Morton, Nancy Holder, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Sarah Langan, Kaaron Warren, and many more), why is it that few of them--if any--ever…

VIOLET EYES by John Everson

Author: John Everson VIOLET EYES Their bites are more than deadly... The small town near the Everglades was supposed to offer Rachel and her son a fresh start. Instead it offered the start of a nightmare, when an unknown breed of flies migrated through the area, leaving painful bites in their wake. The media warned people to stay inside until the swarm passed. But the flies didn't leave. And then the radios and TVs went silent. That's when the spiders came. Spiders that could spin a deadly web large enough to engulf an entire house overnight. Spiders that left stripped…

WAKING DREAM: DEVLIN BOOK 1 by Michael Hibbard

Author: Michael Hibbard WAKING DREAM: DEVLIN BOOK 1 Devlin is the first book in this nine novel series that explores the universe as a Waking Dream. Over the centuries, people known as Dreamers and Immortals learned how to change the reality by tapping into a primordial force known as the Weird - the energy responsible for the creation of the physical world. Set in the present day, in the strange, hidden town of Devlin nestled in the mountains of Virginia, a battle for the control of reality is about to begin. With the Halloween festival upon them,the Dreamers of Devlin…

THE LOST REFLECTION by Bruce T. Jones

Author: Bruce T. Jones THE LOST REFLECTION Brian Denman, a retired CIA agent and lethal mercenary turned private investigator, unearths the scum and scandals among the politically powerful. When his friend Phillip Wilder, owner and editor of Urban Legends tabloid, recruits him to gather information for a blockbuster story, Brian cascades into a series of unexpected events. Sent to New Orleans, Brian probes into the centuries-old myth of what the Vatican conceals on the third floor of the Old Ursuline Convent. As he delves deeper into the mystery, Brian is hurled into New Orleans' dark and dangerous underworld, a labyrinth…

DEEPLY TWISTED: TWENTY DARK TALES WITH A TWIST by Chantal Noordeloos

Author: Chantal Noordeloos DEEPLY TWISTED: TWENTY DARK TALES WITH A TWIST A mother murders her eldest daughter. A clock appears in the middle of a park. A one-eyed man with a raven on his shoulder joins three homeless men on a chilly night… Embrace the night and all its terrors in this macabre gallery of monsters. The living and the dead, the spectral and the material—horrifying visions from the tormented mind of Chantal Noordeloos. Your nightmares will never be the same. The Ministry of Zombies was provided with a review copy of these sordid tales in exchange for a review.…

THE FACELESS ONE by Mark Onspaugh

Author: Mark Onspaugh THE FACELESS ONE In 1948, when he was just a boy, Jimmy Kalmaku trained with his uncle to be the shaman of his Tlingit village in Alaska. There he learned the old legends, the old myths, the old secrets. Chief among them was that of a mask locked in a prison of ice, and of the faceless god imprisoned within: a cruel and vengeful god called T'Nathluk, dedicated to the infliction of pain and suffering. Now all but forgotten in a Seattle retirement home, Jimmy finds his life turned upside down. For when an unwitting archaeologist pries…

DOG DAYS: DEADLY PASSAGE by Joe McKinney and Sanford Allen

Author: Joe McKinney and Sanford Allen DOG DAYS /  DEADLY PASSAGE Dog Days: It’s the summer of 1983 and the suburbs of Houston are reeling from a disastrous hurricane. But the storm brought more than wind and floodwaters. In the swamps that surround Clear Lake a brutal and possibly supernatural killer is gathering strength, and waiting for the full moon. The focus of his bloodlust is fifteen year old Mark Eckert. Reckless to a fault, with a knack for making spectacularly bad decisions, Mark had planned to spend that last summer before high school wandering the swamps with his friends…

400 DAYS OF OPPRESSION by Wrath James White

Author: Matthew Warner 400 DAYS OF OPPRESSION Natasha has met the man of her dreams, and there is nothing she wouldn't do to please him. Kenyatta has taught Natasha about herself, given her a sense of safety she has never felt before, and shown her a whole new world of sexual experiences. Now she must learn the hardest part of love: understanding. To help Natasha overcome her white-trash upbringing and understand African heritage, Kenyatta offers her a wager. A very real and dangerous wager, but one worth taking. Can Natasha's love endure... 400 DayS of Oppression? Publisher: Blood Bound Books…

THE SEVENTH EQUINOX by Matthew Warner

Author: Matthew Warner THE SEVENTH EQUINOX Her recent divorce left Bessie Henderson on guard against being exploited by any man. When she escapes to Augusta, Virginia, she’s captivated by the small town’s charm, but also its quirks: her intrusive elderly neighbor, the secret labyrinth of caverns beneath her Victorian house — and the man hiding from the law in her root cellar. But Robin Goodfellow is not just a criminal. He’s a fertility demigod called the Hunter. He’s been injured, and he needs Bessie’s life force to survive. By the spring equinox, he must complete the grand Hunt, an ancient…

FOREVER, IN PIECES by Kurt Fawver

Author: Kurt Fawver FOREVER, IN PIECES In Kurt's debut collection of eighteen short stories (half of them previously published), you will find a melange of lost souls, cosmic horrors, wondrous abysses, and even some good old-fashioned murder. You will be taken to the end of the earth and the end of humanity, to dystopian futures and personal hells. You'll meet conquering gods and unholy messiahs, invisible babies and talking chairs, interdimensional monsters and the monsters we sometimes see all too clearly in the mirrors before our own faces. The stories in Forever, in Pieces will immerse you in loneliness and…

ALL-AMERICAN HORROR OF THE 21ST CENTURY: THE FIRST DECADE by Mort Castle

Editor: Mort Castle  ALL-AMERICAN HORROR OF THE 21ST CENTURY: THE FIRST DECADE 2000-2010 All American Horror of the 21st Century is a compilation of the best short horror fiction published by magazines, anthologies, and websites between 2000 and 2010. These stories deal with "uniquely American" themes and subjects, and are written in an equally unique "American style." Contributors include National Book Award-nominee Dan Chaon, rising horror star Jeff Jacobson, World-Fantasy award winner Andy Duncan, New York Times-bestselling authors Tom Monteleone, David Morrell, F. Paul Wilson, and Jay Bonansinga. This anthology is truly one-of-a-kind. This is a book for fans of…