The 2010 Stoker Nominations for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Today we’ll look at nominations for Superior Achievement in the Long Fiction category.
What is “long fiction”? According to the Horror Writers Association’s Rules for Bram Stoker Award, long fiction is defined as “a work of prose fiction at least 7,500 words in length but no more than 39,999 words in length”.
Generally works that are labeled novellas and novelettes fall in this category.
By labeling it long fiction and assigning it a specific word count, the HWA avoids problems that sometimes creep up by the sometimes random assignment of the terms novella and novelette.
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
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The Painted DarknessAuthor: Freeman, Brian James |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction When Henry was a child, something terrible happened in the woods behind his home, something so shocking he could only express his terror by drawing pictures of what he had witnessed. Eventually, Henry’s mind blocked out the bad memories, but he continued to draw, often at night by the light of the moon. Twenty years later, Henry makes his living by painting his disturbing works of art. He loves his wife and his son, and life couldn’t be better . . . except there’s something not quite right about the old stone farmhouse his family now calls home. There’s something strange living in the cramped cellar, in the maze of pipes that feed the ancient steam boiler. A winter storm is brewing, and soon Henry will learn the true nature of the monster waiting for him down in the darkness. He will battle this demon and, in the process, he may discover what really happened when he was a child — and why, in times of trouble, he thinks: I paint against the darkness. But will Henry learn the truth in time to avoid the terrible fate awaiting him . . . or will the thing in the cellar get him and his family first? Written as both a meditation on the art of creation and as an examination of the secret fears we all share, The Painted Darkness is a terrifying look at the true cost we pay when we run from our grief — and what happens when we’re finally forced to confront the monsters we know all too well. |
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“Dissolution”Author: Mannetti, Lisa |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction Deathwatch, the explosive new novel-length collection from Bram Stoker Award-Winning Author Lisa Mannetti. In Dissolution, Stuart Granville is a would-be medical student from the South who’s been expelled for drinking and believes he’s heading north to Hyde Park, New York to tutor twin girls. Instead, he discovers that his charges, Abby and Eleanor, have never been to school of any kind. They are also Siamese twins and their father, a doctor with grandiose dreams, means to separate them surgically. He intends to take advantage of Stuart’s expertise and vulnerability; but unbeknown to both men, the supernatural force in the house has an agenda — and a will — of its own. In The Sheila Na Gig, Tom Smith is on a ship in steerage and bound for New York from his native Ireland after facing down the constraints imposed by his family, overcoming the loss of his first love, circumventing his grandmother’s wiles and occult knowledge, and trying to save his younger, mentally challenged sister, Delia, from both witchcraft and sexual abuse. “In a genre glutted with soulless practitioners, grinding out “product” like sausages, Lisa Mannetti’s continues to be a refreshingly personal voice. Her work is idiosyncratic, erudite, intense . . . and authentically nightmarish.” Table of Contents:
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“Monsters Among Us”Author: McDermott, Kirstyn |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction Explore Australia’s dark literature past, present, and future all in one landmark anthology! From the very earliest colonial ghost stories through to grim tales of modern life, Macabre will take you on a journey through the dark heart of Australian horror. With classic stories from Australia’s masters of horror alongside the best of the new era, Macabre is set to be the finest dark fiction anthology ever produced in Australia. |
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The SamhanachAuthor: Morton, Lisa |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction On a Halloween night 300 years ago, something rose out of a Scottish bog to curse the McCafferty clan. Now, in 2010, single mother Merran McCafferty finds her suburban Halloween celebrations torn apart by the arrival of the Samhanach, an ancient trickster demon. When the Samhanach tries to steal Merran’s young daughter, Merran is forced to put aside reason and accept that magic is real, and bogies really do exist on Halloween night. The second in Bad Moon Book’s annual Halloween novella. |
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Invisible FencesAuthor: Prentiss, Norman |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction Do you see the point of the story, Nathan? We all cut parts of ourselves away, but we never lose them. Things stay with us — souvenirs with memories attached. We can’t always choose what to keep, what to throw away. Nathan’s parents devised cautionary tales for him and his sister — gruesome stories about predatory cars racing along the “Big Street” at one end of their neighborhood, or dope fiends lurking in the woods behind their house and ready to plunge hypodermics into the skin of foolish young trespassers. These stories served their purpose during Nathan’s gullible childhood, essentially constructing an invisible fence around the yard and keeping the boy close to home where he’d be safe. Such barriers are not so easy to discard in later life. As an adult, Nathan no longer believes his parents’ stories, and yet they still confine him. He lives cautiously, avoiding serious relationships, avoiding risk. But despite his efforts, something from his parents’ cautionary tales threatens to creep beneath that invisible border . . . and the enclosed yard might not be as safe and secure as it always seemed . . . This is book #19 in the Novella Series. |
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December 2010 (Hardcover — Cemetery Dance)
December 2010 (Kindle — Cemetery Dance)
January 2011 (Signed Limited Hardcover — Cemetery Dance)
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New Yorker fiction (Feb 28) – “Paranoia”
The New Yorker has made the story available online only to subscribers.
You write with your hand. You watch over your shoulder for the long arm of your past to catch up. You tousle your fingers through a youngster’s hair, soothing his anxious brow.
Author Saïd Sayrafiezadeh elbows all of these elements into his story. In an accompanying interview, he talks of friendship, illegal immigration and loss, of individual and family identity, the tribulations of childhood poverty, and the anxieties of a nation heading into war.
There certainly are a lot of issues here that need unpacking and more considered reflection. I’m not so sure they receive that depth of attention in this particular story. This narrative never felt compelling to me — I didn’t feel much sympathy for the characters and their troubles. The story appeared to me as much more of a sketch, a draft, introductory action taken on behalf of a cause, the bare bones of a narrative conjured into the open air.
One issue seemed to run into another one and even when they connected in sequence, no great amount of momentum was produced. In a way, of course, this is a key quality of early writing where a necessary first mixing of characters and situations takes place. It’s a bald, naked type of time:
The sky was cloudless, and I could feel the undiluted sun beating straight down on the top of my head. There were various empty buildings surrounding me, and I had the sensation that I was being watched by someone. I felt exposed in my shorts, as if my whiteness were made manifest by the paleness of my legs.
So, there wasn’t a firm and settled place from which to grasp this story; its lessons seemed vague, still being formed. A case, perhaps, of having to ‘talk to the hand’ because the mouth and ears aren’t yet fully prepared.
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Among his other works, author and playwright Saïd Sayrafiezadeh has written a memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, and a previous New Yorker story. He has a desert-island reading plan.
(“hand” from sochacki.info / jakub / cc by-sa)
The 2010 Stoker Nominations for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Today we’ll look at nominations for Superior Achievement in the Short Fiction category.
What is “long fiction”? 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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“Return to Mariabronn”Author: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2010 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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“The Folding Man”Author: Lansdale, Joe R. |
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Nominated for the 2010 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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“1925: A Fall River Halloween”Author: Mannetti, Lisa |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction 2010 Halloween Issue Edited by Kevin Lucia I’m not sure of the exact date that talented author (and friend) Kevin Lucia approached me and suggested a themed Halloween Issue. What I remember is that Kevin offered to “guest edit” it and I was thrilled by the prospect of seeing Kevin’s creative vision manifest. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been delighted to see the names that have slowly made their way to the Halloween Issue’s table of contents. Rio Youers, Lisa Mannetti, Jeremy Shipp, Nicholas Grabowski, Kelli Owen, Norman Partridge, Dan Keohane, Jodi Lee, Brian Hatcher and so many more. Not only did Kevin put his absolute best effort into this issue, but he also suffered the rigors related to editorial management with class and aplomb. His efforts also served as proof positive that the guest editor idea — along with the themed issue — was something that we believe could work out well for Shroud‘s readers. Better yet, we ran into one of our favorite artists at Context in August, Steven Gilberts. Steve has done a number of covers for Shroud and they are among our most popular. On the night of our fabled Context Shroud Party, Steve showed us a painting he had done onsite that day. We fell in love with it and immediately contracted Steve to do the Halloween issue cover. I asked Steve to take his pumpkin man concept and place them in “literary positions.” The masterful work you see above is what he came up with. After Danny Evarts finished several beautiful original wood and linoleum cuts for spot illustrations, then edited and designed the issue, we felt that this is perhaps our best issue yet. Perfect for our favorite holiday. 108 Pages of fantastic fiction, articles, reviews, and art. |
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“In the Middle of Poplar Street”Author: Southard, Nate |
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Nominated for the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction Editors Michelle McCrary and Joe McKinney have brought together twenty original tales of the end of our world from horror’s brightest talents. Within these pages you’ll find a madman longing for the good old days of Hometown America, a company that deals in the dead, a radio DJ who holds the living together with her voice, and a soldier haunted by the living and the dead alike. This is the end of the world as you’ve never seen it before. Featuring stories from Lisa Mannetti, Lee Thomas, Bev Vincent, Harry Shannon, David Dunwoody, Nate Southard, Boyd E. Harris, and a host of others, Dead Set will take you on a guided tour through the ruins. The zombie story has finally come of age. |
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“Final Draft”Author: Worthen, Mark W. |
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Nominated for the 2010 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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Good to read about the Science Fiction & Fanta…
Good to read about the Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars,also post is also good,
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Dissertation research proposal
Marooned – Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars
New Yorker fiction (Mar 7) – “Backbone”
In the face of something larger than yourself, is there only one type of fruitful response? Couldn’t someone be forgiven for trying any number of various strategies for coping with this something that is, quaintly described, truly monstrous?
What happens, though, when you realize that the something is actually your own self? And what happens if you never come to that realization?
In this story draft, a young boy and his hapless father strive, in converse parallel paths, at authentic human living:
Every whole person has ambitions, objectives, initiatives, goals. This one particular boy’s goal was to be able to press his lips to every square inch of his own body.
His arms to the shoulders and most of his legs beneath the knee were child’s play. After these areas of his body, however, the difficulty increased with the abruptness of a coastal shelf. The boy came to understand that unimaginable challenges lay ahead of him. He was six.
The boy loses himself in endless goal-driven contortions of his body (written about in a manner both brilliantly solemn and informative, even if not quite fully plausible). His efforts result in considerable success towards the achievement of his goal, but at the price of personal distortion and social isolation.
The father, on the other hand, though equally obsessed with body/mind contortions of a different nature, sets himself, after an adolescence and adulthood of upward attitude and self-confidence, in a similarly impossible direction:
Thus began the father’s true cycle of torture, in which the number of women with whom he was secretly involved and to whom he had sexual obligations steadily expanded, and in which not one of the women could be let go or given cause to detach and break it off, even as each became less and less a source of anything more than a sort of dutiful tedium of energy and time and the will to forge on in the face of despair.
There is a strong and subtle undercurrent throughout this draft that shows up the limits of exerting personal control in an ambiguously constructed world. A mindlessly singular goal that is not open to reflection or critique affords easy passage to obsession and futility.
This poignant story should not be missed, all the more so because it remains unfinished. It is an exquisitely disquieting read.
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David Foster Wallace labored mightily in stories and essays, novels and nonfiction. At the time of his death in 2008, his third novel, The Pale King, remained unfinished. It will be published next month. This particular story draft appears to be an excerpt drawn from those manuscript materials and, in a similar version, was the subject of a reading Wallace gave for the Lannan Foundation in December 2000.
In the summer of 2003, Gourmet commissioned Wallace to report on the 56th annual Maine Lobster Festival. The resulting piece, “Consider the Lobster”, is likely the most startling (and philosophical) essay that magazine printed during its nearly seventy years of publication.
(“tendrals” from clickykbd / Ryan Gallagher / cc by-nc-sa)