Horror Anthology — Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers
Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers edited by Tracy L. Carbone is a collection of horror short stories by several emerging horror authors along with a few veterans all from the New England area.
Epitaphs earned a Bram Stoker Award nomination for 2011.
If you’re interested in a book, click on the icons below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror WritersEditor: Carbone, Tracy L. |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology The New England Horror Writers Association, in partnership with Shroud Publishing, are proud to debut its inaugural anthology, Epitaphs. The anthology is a compilation of some of the best dark fiction from both best-selling authors and up-and-coming writers throughout New England. Contributors include Christopher Golden, Rick Hautala, Holly Newstein and Glenn Chadbourne, LL Soares, Trisha Wooldridge, K. Allen Wood, Kurt Newton, and more. The anthology features 26 stories and poems from the delightfully scary to the deeply macabre. Epitaphs, edited by author Tracy L. Carbone, includes an introduction by award-winning author and publisher Peter Crowther, as well as a cover by Danny Evarts. Table of Contents:
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October 2011 (Trade Paperback — Shroud Publishing)
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
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Marooned – Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars
Internet Blackout
You may have noticed that Horror Books with the Undead Rat has been inactive lately.
We had to make a choice of paying the cable bill for our Internet connection or taking our daughter to the doctor. The doctor won — much to the chagrin of my daughter who only got to miss one day of school instead of an entire week.
We’ll be able to restore Internet service to our home on Friday and I’ll be able to resume posting on Saturday morning.
In the meantime I do apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you,
–Greg “The Undead Rat” Fisher
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
The Nominations for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award
Here we are, at the end of our special series on the 2011 Bram Stoker Award Nominations.
Today we’re going to feature the nominations for a very special award, honoring the century mark of Bram Stoker’s death.
As the Horror Writer’s Association’s blog Dark Whispers states: “From a field of more than 35 preliminary nominees, a jury of writers and scholars selected the six vampire novels that they believe have had the greatest impact on the horror genre since publication of Dracula in 1897.”
The Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the store icon below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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The Soft Whisper of the Dead (The Oxrun Station Trilogy #1)Author: Grant, Charles L. |
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The Soft Whisper of the Dead (The Oxrun Station Trilogy #1)Author: Grant, Charles L. |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award Howard award winner Charles L. Grant has written a vampire novel set in the author’s distressing little town of Oxrun Station. It is a region to be found on the same maps as Lovecraft’s Arkham and King’s Castle Rock. The Soft Whisper of the Dead is the first of the Oxrun tales to be placed in other than a contemporary setting. The first in a trilogy of historical horror novels, it is the account of the evil Count Braslov’s attempt to subjugate the Oxrun population to his vampiric will. This first novel of a fast-paced trilogy is fraught with gas-light atmosphere, plucky women, a befuddled constabulary and is filled with the excitement of the classic vampire tale. Great fun! |
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‘Salem’s Lot, Illustrated EditionAuthor: King, Stephen |
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Salem’s LotAuthor: King, Stephen |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award Upon its initial publication in 1975, Salem’s Lot was recognized as a landmark work. The novel has sold millions of copies in various editions, but it wasn’t until Centipede Press published a special limited edition in 2004 that King’s masterpiece was brought to brilliant and eerie life. With the addition of fifty pages of material deleted from the 1975 manuscript as well as material that has since been modified by King, an introduction by him, and two short stories related to the events of the novel, this edition represents the text as the author envisioned it. Centipede’s deluxe edition, of which only 900 copies were printed, features lavishly creepy photographs by acclaimed photographer Jerry Uelsmann, printed interior endpapers, and a stunning page design. Doubleday is proud to make this volume, printed from the original design of the Centipede Press edition, available to the general reader. No King aficionado’s library will be complete without owning this definitive illustrated edition of the great ‘Salem’s Lot. Another Summary: ‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in ‘salem’s Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to ‘salem’s Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved. All would be changed forever: Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of ‘Salem’s Lot. This is a rare novel, almost hypnotic in its unyielding suspense, which builds to a climax of classic terror. You will not forget the town of ‘salem’s Lot nor any of the people who used to live here. |
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I Am LegendAuthor: Matheson,Richard |
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I Am LegendAuthor: Matheson,Richard |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires? |
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Anno Dracula (Anno Dracula Series #1)Author: Newman, Kim |
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Anno Dracula (Anno Dracula Series #1)Author: Newman, Kim |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction, the novel follows vampire Genevieve Dieudonne and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders. Anno Dracula is a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history. Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London. This brand-new edition of the bestselling novel contains unique bonus material, including a new afterword from Kim Newman, annotations, articles and alternate endings to the original novel. A brilliant, ambitious new novel speculates on Dracula’s survival. Set in Victorian England, this chilling tale wonders, “What if Count Dracula didn’t die via the stake, but managed to become an adviser to the Queen? And what if Jack the Ripper was in reality none other than Bram Stoker’s hero, Jack Seward, killing off vampiric whores?” |
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Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles #1)Author: Rice, Anne |
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Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles #1)Author: Rice, Anne |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force — a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write. |
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Hotel Transylvania: A Novel of Forbidden Love (Le Comte de Saint-Germain Chronicles #1)Author: Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn |
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Hotel Transylvania (Le Comte de Saint-Germain Chronicles #1)Author: Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn |
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Nominated for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award Since 1978, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has produced about two dozen novels and numerous short stories detailing the life of a character first introduced to the reading world as Le Comte de Saint-Germain. We first meet him in Paris during the reign of Louis XV when he is, apparently, a wealthy, worldly, charismatic aristocrat, envied and desired by many but fully known to none. In fact, he is a vampire, born in the Carpathian Mountains in 2119 BC, turned in his late-thirties in 2080 BC and destined to roam the world forever, watching and participating in history and, through the author, giving us an amazing perspective on the time-tapestry of human civilization. In Hotel Transylvania Saint-Germain makes his first appearance in a story that blends history and fiction as Saint-Germain is pitted against Satanists to preserve Madelaine de Montalia from ruin. |
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August 1983 (Hardcover — Donald M Grant)
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Short Story Collection: Let’s Play White
I have known about African-American horror author Chesya Burke for some time now but I’ve never had the pleasure of reading one of her stories.
Thankfully, Apex Book Company has brought together several of her stories which embrace the horror genre and then transcend it — going where the story needs to go regardless of genre.
If you haven’t read Chesya Burke, now is a great time to check out some of her work. If you’re already a fan, this book will be a “must have” for your library.
If you’re interested in a book, click on the icons below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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Let’s Play WhiteAuthor: Burke, Chesya |
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White brings with it dreams of respect, of wealth, of simply being treated as a human being. It’s the one thing Walter will never be. But what if he could play white, the way so many others seem to do? Would it bring him privilege or simply deny the pain? The title story in this collection asks those questions, and then moves on to challenge notions of race, privilege, personal choice, and even life and death with equal vigor. From the spectrum spanning despair and hope in “What She Saw When They Flew Away” to the stark weave of personal struggles in “Chocolate Park,” Let’s Play White speaks with the voices of the overlooked and unheard. “I Make People Do Bad Things” shines a metaphysical light on Harlem’s most notorious historical madame, and then, with a deft twist into melancholic humor, “Cue: Change” brings a zombie-esque apocalypse, possibly for the betterment of all mankind. Gritty and sublime, the stories of Let’s Play White feature real people facing the worlds they’re given, bringing out the best and the worst of what it means to be human. If you’re ready to slip into someone else’s skin for a while, then it’s time to come play white. Table of Contents:
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April 2011 (eBook — Apex Publications)
April 2011 (Trade Paperback — Apex Publications)
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
The 2011 Horror Writers Association Special Awards
This year, the Horror Writers Association is celebrating the 100 anniversary of Bram Stoker’s birth and the 25th anniversary of the organization’s existence.
The Stoker Awards will be handed out at the 2012 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday, March 31, 2012.
You can find out more about the special awards and the winners, including bios, listed below at the HWA’s Stoker website.
On Monday, we’ll look at the special Vampire Novel of the Century Award.
The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service
“The award is given by the HWA sitting President to a volunteer who has served HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.”
HWA President Rocky Wood selected Karen Lansdale — one of the HWA founders who was instrumental to the successful launch of the fledgling organization — to receive this year’s award.
The Silver Hammer Award
This award is for “an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for our organization, often unsung and behind the scenes.”
The HWA’s Board of Trustees voted to give this year’s award to Guy Anthony De Marco specifically citing his work as part of the HWA’s web team.
Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement
“This award is ‘given in recognition of the recipient’s overall body of work’. Furthermore “Winners must have exhibited a profound, positive impact on the fields of horror and dark fantasy, and be at least sixty years of age or have been published for a minimum of thirty-five years.”
There are two winners this year:
- Rick Hautala
- Joe R. Lansdale
Specialty Press Award
This award goes to
- Bad Moon Books, of Garden Grove, California — Roy Robbins
- Hippocampus Press of New York, New York — Derrick Hussey
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Author Lee Thompson Gives Sage Advice
Horror Author Lee Thompson — you may remember him from an earlier post about his web serial novel — is one of the up and coming stars on horror fiction’s horizon.
He recently published a list of things every artist should be doing to further their career on his website.
Although geared primarily for the writer, it’s easily adaptable to other art forms. And it has the added value of being easy to use.
Print it up and each day select five or more items from the list to work on.
Even though I’m not a fiction writer, I’ve found the list universal enough that I printed it up for my own use as a blogger.
Check it out and let me know in the comments what you think. Can it help you? Are there items you’d add to make it helpful to you?
Check out Five Things a Day to Help Your Writing Career, an action list by Lee Thompson.
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
The 2011 Stoker Nominations for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
Let’s look at the nominations for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction category.
The rules states that, to be considered for a Bram Stoker Award, the book must be a work of criticism, biography, autobiography, scholarly analysis, reference, commentary, opinion, or other factual material”.
Therefore, Matt Mogk’s book Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies belongs here because it is a reference work — even though it references a “made-up creature” such as the zombie.
Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the store icon below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright NightAuthor: Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction Halloween is not just for children anymore. On a mission to define the modern Halloween, expert Lesley Pratt Bannatyne delves into the world of enthusiasts, fanatics, and subcultures including Goth, metal, and zombie. In a series of investigative interviews, people from all walks of life reveal their devotion to this fall celebration as Bannatyne crafts a portrait of a wildly popular and surprisingly meaningful twenty-first-century Halloween. |
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Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le FanuEditors: Crawford, Gary William; Jim Rockhill and Brian J. Showers |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) is one of the leading weird writers of the nineteenth century, the author of “Green Tea,” “Carmilla,” Uncle Silas, and other classic works. In this volume, the first collection of essays about Le Fanu, three distinguished scholars have amassed a wealth of material on every aspect of the author’s life, work, and influence. A biographical section features memoirs of Le Fanu along with reproductions of many portraits of the author. Early reviews of his many books are reprinted, as is important early criticism by M. R. James, E. F. Benson, V. S. Pritchett, and others. Recent essays by Jack Sullivan, John Langan, Victor Sage, and many others discuss a wide array of topics relating to Le Fanu’s writing. Nine of these essays are printed here for the first time. All in all, this book provides a definitive guide to the weird fiction of Le Fanu. Gary William Crawford is a widely published poet, scholar, and fiction writer, and compiler of a bibliography of Le Fanu. Jim Rockhill is the editor of the complete supernatural fiction of Le Fanu. Brian J. Showers is a fiction writer and literary historian, and the co-compiler (with Gary William Crawford) of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: A Concise Bibliography. Together, they edit the online scholarly journal Le Fanu Studies. |
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Starve Better: Surviving the Endless Horror of the Writing LifeAuthor: Mamatas, Nick |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction Starve Better makes no promises of making you a bestselling author. It won’t feed aspiring writers’ dreams of fame and fortune. This book is about survival: how to generate ideas when you needed them yesterday, dialogue and plot on the quick, and what your manuscript is up against in the slush piles of the world. For non-fiction writers, Starve Better offers writing techniques such as how to get (relatively) high-paying assignments in second and third-tier magazines, how to react to your first commissioned assignment, and how to find gigs that pay NOW as the final notices pile up and the mice eat the last of the pasta in the cupboard. Humor, essays and some of the most widely read blog pieces from Nick Mamatas, author and editor of fiction that has caught the attention of speculative fiction’s most prestigious awards, come together for the first time in a writers’ guide that won’t teach anyone how to get rich and famous . . . but will impart the most valuable skill in the business: how to starve better. |
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About ZombiesAuthor: Mogk, Matt |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction The Most Comprehensive Zombie Handbook Ever Published In one indispensable volume, Matt Mogk, founder and head of the Zombie Research Society, busts popular myths and answers all your raging questions about the living dead.* Q. How can I increase my chances of survival? A. One simple step is to keep away from other people. Without people there can be no zombies. Q. What is the connection between the Voodoo zombie and the flesh-eating zombie of popular culture? A. Other than a shared name, absolutely nothing. Q. Will zombies actually eat me, or will they just bite and chew? A. Research suggests the neuromuscular activity required for swallowing may be too complex for a zombie. Q. Will we see any warning signs before the dead rise? A. Unfortunately, entire populations could be infected with the zombie sickness before anyone even knows there’s a problem. Q. How come Zombie Awareness Month is in May and not October? A. Unlike witches and vampires, zombies are not otherworldly creatures. They are made of flesh and blood. Don’t forget to wear your gray ribbon. * Many more questions about zombies — including why not all of them are undead — are answered inside the book. |
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The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in the MediaAuthor: Tibbetts, John C. |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction The Gothic tradition continues to excite the popular imagination. John C. Tibbetts presents interviews and conversations with prominent novelists, filmmakers, artists, and film and television directors and actors as they trace the Gothic mode across three centuries, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through H.P. Lovecraft, to today’s science fiction, goth, and steampunk culture. H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Robert (Psycho) Bloch, Chris (The Polar Express) Van Allsburg, Maurice Sendak, Gahan Wilson, Ray Harryhausen, Christopher Reeve, Greg Bear, William Shatner, and many more share their worlds of imagination and terror. |
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Stephen King: A Literary CompanionAuthor: Wood, Rocky |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction This companion provides a two-part introduction to best-selling author Stephen King, whose enormous popularity over the years has gained him an audience well beyond readers of horror fiction, the genre with which is most often associated. Part I considers the reception of King’s work, the film adaptations that they gave rise to, the fictional worlds in which some of his novels are set, and the more useful approaches to King’s varied corpus. Part II consists of entries for each series, novel, story, screenplay and even poem, including works never published or produced, as well as characters and settings. |
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
The 2011 Stoker Nominations for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Today we’ll look at nominations for Superior Achievement in the Short Fiction category.
According to the Horror Writers Association’s Rules for Bram Stoker Award, short fiction is defined as “a work of prose fiction no more than 7,499 words in length”.
Generally works that are labeled short stories and maybe a few novelettes fall in this category.
By labeling it short fiction and assigning it a specific word count, the HWA avoids problems that sometimes creep up by the sometimes random assignment of the terms short story and novelette.
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the store icon below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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“Her Husband’s Hands”Author: Castro, Adam-Troy |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Lightspeed Magazine features all kinds of science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between: In our October 2011 issue, we welcome back author Adam-Troy Castro, who brings us a story of complicated human relationships, in which the people involved have to question what it is exactly that makes us human in “Her Husband’s Hands.” Justina Robson gives the story of a family separated — definitely in space, but also possibly in time — in “The Little Bear.” In “Against Eternity” author David Farland takes us through a far-future transformation in pursuit of immortality. And in the last, but not least of our fiction offerings this month, we have Cassandra Clare’s tale of a lonely girl and her clockwork dolls: “Some Fortunate Future Day.” |
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“Herman Wouk Is Still Alive”Author: King, Stephen |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Read “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” by Stephen King for free at the The Atlantic Magazine Online. |
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“Graffiti Sonata”Author: O’Neill, Gene |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Issue #18 (Spring, 2011) — The Art of Darkness. Featuring Interviews with Christopher Lee by Lawrence French and F. Paul Wilson by Jason V Brock and James R. Beach. Article on Weird Tales Artists by Jason V Brock. Profiles on Caniglia, Jill Bauman, Allen Koszowski, Angelo Torres & Eric Powell and more. Brand new Fiction by Joe R. Lansdale, Gene O’Neill, Nick Mamatas, Jason V Brock, and Lee Thompson. Reviews and more! |
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“Hypergraphia”Author: Lillie-Paetz, Ken |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Read “Hypergraphia” by Ken Lillie-Paetz on The Uninvited #1 online. |
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“Home”Author: Saunders, George |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Darkly thrilling, these twenty new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over. Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and thirteen other fine writers to create stories unlike any they’ve written before. Tales to make readers shiver with fear, jump at noises in the night, keep the lights on. These twenty nightmares, brought together by two renowned editors of the dark fantastic, are delightful visions sure to send shivers down the spines of horror readers. |
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“All You Can Do Is Breathe”Author: Warren, Kaaron |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction When we think of vampires, instantly the image arises: fangs sunk deep into the throat of the victim. But bloodsucking is merely one form of vampirism. For this brilliantly original anthology, Ellen Datlow has commissioned stories from many of the most powerfully dark voices in contemporary horror, who conjure tales of vampirism that will chill readers to the marrow. In addition to the traditional fanged vampires, Datlow presents stories about the leeching of emotion, the draining of the soul, and other dark deeds of predation and exploitation, infestation, and evisceration . . . tales of life essence, literal or metaphorical, stolen. Seventeen stories, by such award-winning authors as Elizabeth Bear, Richard Bowes, Kathe Koja, Margo Lanagan, Carol Emshwiller, and Lisa Tuttle will petrify readers. With dark tales by Laird Barron, Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini, Kaaron Warren, and other powerful voices, this anthology will redefine the terror of vampires and vampirism. Table of Contents:
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
The 2011 Stoker Nominations for Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Before we take a look at the nominations for Superior Achievement in a First Novel category, let me reprint what is meant by “superior achievement in”.
The awards are not for “the best of” but for “superior achievement in”. This means two things:
- There can be and occasionally are ties in a category.
- There can be times when there are no winners in a particular category.
Last year there was one tie.
What will happen this year?
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the store icon below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
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Isis UnboundAuthor: Bird, Allyson |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel 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 now roam the streets as zombies. Chief Embalmer Ptolemy Child’s two daughters, Ella and Loli, aged eighteen and ten respectively, are being instructed in the secrets of the mummification process, when the dead begin to wake and walk. And eventually lead the sisters to the greatest mystery of all: Isis, herself . . . |
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Southern GodsAuthor: Jacobs, John Horner |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin’ John Hastur. The mysterious blues man’s dark, driving music — broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station — is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur’s trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil. But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he’ll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell . . . In a masterful debut of Lovecraftian horror and Southern gothic menace, John Hornor Jacobs reveals the fragility of free will, the dangerous power of sacrifice, and the insidious strength of blood. |
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The LamplightersAuthor: Lee, Frazer |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel Life on Meditrine Island is luxurious . . . but brief. Marla Neuborn has found the best post-grad job in the world — as a “Lamplighter” working on Meditrine Island, an exclusive idyllic paradise owned and operated by a consortium of billionaires. All the Lamplighters have to do is tend to the mansions, cook and clean, and turn on lights to make it appear the owners are home. But the job comes with conditions. Marla will not know the exact location of the island, and she will have no contact with the outside world for the duration of her stay. Once on the island, Marla quickly learns the billionaire lifestyle is not all it is made out to be. The chief of security rules Meditrine with an iron fist. His private police force patrols the shores night and day, and CCTV cameras watch the Lamplighters relentlessly. Soon Marla will also discover first-hand that the island hides a terrible secret. She’ll meet the resident known as the Skin Mechanic. And she’ll find out why so few Lamplighters ever leave the island alive. |
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The Panama LaughAuthor: Roche, Thomas S. |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel Ex-mercenary, pirate, and gun-runner Dante Bogart knows he’s screwed the pooch after he hands one of his shady employers a biological weapon that made the dead rise from their graves, laugh like hyenas, and feast upon the living. Dante tried to blow the whistle via a tell-all video that went viral — but that was before the black ops boys deep-sixed him at a secret interrogation site on the Panama-Colombia border. When Dante wakes up in the jungle with the five intervening years missing from his memory, he knows he’s got to do something about the laughing sickness that has caused a world-wide slaughter. The resulting journey leads him across the nightmare that was the Panama Canal, around Cape Horn in a hijacked nuclear warship, to San Francisco’s mission district, where a crew of survivalist hackers have holed up in the pseudo-Moorish-castle turned porn-studio known as The Armory. This mixed band of anti-social rejects has taken Dante’s whistle blowing video as an underground gospel, leading the fight against the laughing corpses and the corporate stooges who’ve tried to profit from the slaughter. Can Dante find redemption and save civilization? |
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That Which Should Not BeAuthor: Talley, Brett J. |
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Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel 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 passing the evening as a solitary patron, Weston joins four men who regale him with stories of their personal experiences with forces both preternatural and damned. Two stories hit close to home as they tie the tellers directly to Weston’s current mission. His unanticipated role as passive listener proves fortuitous, and Weston fulfills his goal. Bringing the book back to Miskatonic, though, proves to be a grave mistake. Quickly, Weston realizes he has played a role in potentially opening the gate between the netherworld and the world of Man. Reversing the course of events means forgetting all he thought he knew about Miskatonic and his professor and embracing an unknown beyond his wildest imagination. |
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat