Horror Short Story Collection — Hi I’m a Social Disease: Horror Stories
I’m still reeling from the exhaustion and fatigue from a low level of thyroid hormone. I struggle to stay awake at work and I sleep ten hours or more at home. Mornings are my best time and I snuck this post in before the fatigue washed over me.
I haven’t done anything with Ohio authors lately so I did a quick check and discovered that Ohio bizarro and horror author Andersen Prunty has been busy republishing many delightful and hard to get (or expensive to get) short stories and novellas into affordable collections.
Hi I’m a Social Disease: Horror Stories is one such collection.
For instance, the novella Market Adjustment even spent time on Horror Mall’s bestseller list when it was originally published. Now it’s available again in two affordable editions.
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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Hi I’m a Social Disease: Horror StoriesEditors: Prunty, Andersen |
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This collection of short stories by author Andersen Prunty features “Room 19″, a post-apocalyptic nightmare based on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ song “From Her to Eternity”, appearing for the first time anywhere, and “Market Adjustment”, about one man’s battle with the wealthy, previously available only in a very limited edition. Also includes: “The Dust Season”, “The Man With the Face Like a Bruise”, “The Photographer”, “The Night the Moon Made a Sound”, and “The Funeralgoer.” Table of Contents:
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July 2011 (Kindle — Grindhouse Press)
July 2011 (NOOK Book — Grindhouse Press)
July 2011 (e-Book — Grindhouse Press)
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Short Story Collection: The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants
To complete the H. P. Lovecraft theme I have going here, let’s look at the first horror short story collection by then new-comer Ramsey Campbell with was completely Lovecraft inspired.
This 50th anniversary edition has many qualities to recommend it including original comments from August Derleth’s comments of the first drafts of tales within.
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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The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome TenantsAuthor: Campbell, Ramsey |
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The influence of H. P. Lovecraft spans the centuries. Several of his correspondents who were writers learned by imitating him. The early tales of Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner read very much like Lovecraft, while others of his friends — Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard and August Derleth among them — incorporated his ideas and myths into their fiction. Bloch and Frank Belknap Long even wrote tributes to him that used him, barely disguised, as a character. After Lovecraft’s death August Derleth took control of his mythos, adding to and organising it more systematically than its creator ever had. Derleth was a jealous guardian of Lovecraft’s reputation, and insisted on vetting any stories by new writers that used the mythos. Few found his favour until 1961, when a Liverpudlian fifteen-year-old sent him the first drafts of several Lovecraftian tales. The outcome was a ten-year professional relationship and the appearance in 1964 of the first book of previously unpublished Lovecraftian fiction for five years. It was The Inhabitant of the Lake. This fiftieth anniversary edition reprints that book in full, including the original introduction. It also includes the first drafts of all the tales that were rewritten before publication and reproduces Derleth’s editorial responses to the stories. This edition is superbly illustrated by Randy Broecker in the great tradition of Weird Tales. Table of Contents:
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October 2011 (Limited Signed Hardcover — PS Publishing)
Horror Books with the Undead Rat
From Appliances to Cyborgs: The Cylon Story
Once upon a Tuesday, I stumbled across this image after playing Battlestar Galactica Online and began to wonder: How did we get this far? Cylons are lovingly referred to as toasters, but could they actually have descended from them? Some people have a hard time swallowing the idea that humans evolved out of primates, but in the Cylons’ case it really doesn’t seem that far off. Especially when you consider the fact that a toaster is an electronic device made for serving human toasting needs and Cylon centurions now serve to toast humans.
Let’s examine the progression, shall we? Starting off we have the toaster, then we move on to what appears to be R2D2’s cousin, then the original Cylon construct from the Caprica series, followed by the 1978 series original, evolving into the 2004 series centurion and ultimately into the smoking-hot Number Six cyborg. Now I may be a firm optimist, but I don’t think my microwave stands a cylon’s chance in a magnet field of evolving into anything as attractive as Number Six. However, the way of technology is to become smaller, sleeker and more powerful, so why not sexier too?
If we go back to the toaster, we see that it’s an appliance made to suit human needs. Robots have been mostly a never ending research project up until now with the hope of making our lives easier. In the Battlestar Galactica universe, the original Cylons were robots built to serve the human needs of construction and security. As these robots progressed they eventually didn’t care to be used to suit our needs and wanted to see their own fulfilled. After a couple of ugly fights for independence, these robots then took on the task of making themselves more humanlike by creating “Skin jobs,” or cyborgs such as Number Six.
I’ll admit that the evolutionary jump from toaster to computer is harder to justify than from computer to robot, but I think you’ll see it can be made in one missing link: The Turing machine.
This magic, theoretical device is often credited as being a forefather to the modern computer. How does it work? Simply put, a mathematical equation is inputted into this computational device and an answer is spit out on paper or film. Much like the infinite combinations of spreads you can put on toast, the genius of the Turing machine is its limitless theoretical power. We input bread into a toaster and then receive toast; whereas, information is put into a Turing machine and out comes an answer. Although Turing machines don’t truly exist as physical devices, they served as the bridge between basic input – output devices, such as toasters, and the computational beasts of modern day computers.
On an important side note: Our progression chart doesn’t include the Raider class Cylon, playable in Battlestar Galactica Online, due to the fact that it descends of course from the Frisbee:
The next few steps in the evolutionary chain don’t take much explanation, as we move from computers, to robots, to AI and beyond. We watch this progression unfold day by day. Our toasters are toasting faster, computers computing harder and our robots are … roboting(?) more than ever before.
I think we currently stand at a Cylon evolutionary crossroads and have some important decisions to make. Do we heed the Battlestar Galactica forewarning and unplug our toasters now before they develop consciousness and go all Skynet on us? Do we wait for them develop into something more intelligent or sexy and then bash them to bits at the first sign of trouble? Or should we perhaps look at the deeper message being told in Battlestar Galactica: That we should find a way to get along and coexist peacefully. Otherwise we may end up in a conflict with no end like Battlestar Galactica Online and kill each other until none are left standing.
Until the day our toasters do evolve into Cylons, we have plenty of time to figure out how to live with them peacefully. We can only hope that the future of robots will be a race of peaceful, intelligent and certainly gorgeous beings. So the next time you look at one of your appliances, just remember that it may hunt you down to the brink of extinction someday.
Join us next time as we discuss the moral implications of the comparison between a Cylon eating a piece of toast and human cannibalism.
This guest post article was written and provided by Matthew Kiddman who is an avid online gamer and has been playing Battlestar Galactica online since its release. Look for him attempting to save the human race in the Galactica game.
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Two More Weeks to Enter Debbie Macomber Short Story Contest
Our Debbie Macomber-inspired short fiction writing contest is in full swing! Aspiring writers who wish to participate in the “Make Your Dreams Come True” contest have until OCTOBER 15TH to enter. The grand prize winner will receive a cash prize of 0, and the winning entry will be published in the paperback and e-book edition of Family Affair in the summer of 2012. In addition, the grand prize winner may also be offered an Avon Impulse publishing contract!
Entries should be written in a style that complements Macomber’s own uplifting work. Contests entrants should go online to www.familyaffaircontest.com to submit their 20,000 – 25,000 word short story, and see the official rules and requirements.
Happy Writing!
Filed under Romance | Tags: contest, Debbie, Enter, Macomber, More, Short, Story, Weeks | Comment (0)Horror Short Story Collection: Closing Time and Other Stories
Let’s start the weekend off right with a look at a horror book that’s sure to be a classic someday — Closing Time and Other Stories by Jack Ketchum — a collection of horror short stories.
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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Closing Time and Other StoriesEditors: Ketchum, Jack |
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Winner of the 1st Annual Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection: Reader’s Choice Closing Time and Other Stories is Jack Ketchum’s new collection of 19 stories that have never been published together before. The book contains “Closing Time” (Ketchum’s Bram Stoker Award winning novella), hard-to-find recent stories and one original, previously unpublished story, “Hotline” To further enhance the collection, Ketchum has written an afterword for each story. This will be a 500-copy signed numbered edition plus a 52-copy signed lettered edition. Cover art is by Harry O. Morris, who worked together with the author to create it. Closing Time and Other Stories will be published as: The lettered edition will contain four poems that will not appear in the numbered edition. Those buying Closing Time and Other Stories from Gauntlet will receive a bonus chapbook. Ketchum wrote several lengthy tributes to the late-Richard Laymon and these will appear in this chapbook. Table of Contents:
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Short Story Collection: The Haunted Heart And Other Tales
You may have noticed in the past few weekends, a reoccuring theme or collection of themes in the weekend horror collections and anthology posts.
The Haunted Heart And Other Tales continues this trend. Judging by the way people have flocked over here on the weekends, it’s beginning to look like something important is happening.
Is this something we should be exploring further?
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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The Haunted Heart And Other TalesAuthor: Currier, Jameson |
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Nominated for the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection Haunted? . . . Or blessed? Ghosts? . . . Or guardian angels? Twelve new stories of gay men and the memories that haunt them. A circuit boy stays at a haunted hotel. An actor recounts a grisly murder in the English countryside. A gay parent unravels a mysterious souvenir. A journalist chases a story through the streets of Amsterdam. An artist grapples with his muse. A musician is inspired by the spirit of a sailor. Acclaimed author Jameson Currier modernizes the traditional ghost story with gay lovers, loners, activists, and addicts, blending history and contemporary issues of the gay community with the unexpected of the supernatural. Table of Contents:
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Short Story Collection: Occultation and Other Stories
Packing is a pain and I’d much rather be working on a blog post.
Since my time is limited, I decided to pick a couple of horror short story collections from the Shirley Jackson Award list. This had the advantage of being already mostly done.
I picked Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron which gathered nominations in the major horror awards and won most of them.
When it comes to short stories and novellas, Laird Barron is the horror author of the year.
Kinda makes you want to check him out, eh?
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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Occultation and Other StoriesAuthor: Barron, Laird |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection This collection contains “Mysterium Tremendum” by Laird Barron, winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the Shirley Jackson award. Laird Barron returns with his second collection, Occultation and Other Stories. Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation‘s nine tales of terror (three never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson award-nominated story “The Forest” and Shirley Jackson award nominee “The Lagerstatte.” Featuring an introduction by Michael Shea, Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. Table of Contents:
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Exclusive Short Story: Peter Orullian
Peter Orullian is one of Terry’s friends. You may recognize the name if you’ve read Bearers of the Black Staff; two elf brothers bear the last name Orullian, a name Terry loved and asked permission to use. Peter is not only the basis for a Shannara last name though. He is a debut fantasy author whose first book, The Unremembered, was published earlier this week.
Terry read it a year ago and to help Peter get the word out about The Unremembered, Terry has allowed Peter to post an exclusive short story on Terry’s website! More after the jump!
Suvudu » Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, Comics, and Games
Horror Short Story Collection: Vigilantes of Love
Today is a bonus horror short story collection post.
Yesterday John Everson announced that the price of the ebook reprint of his second collection, Vigilantes of Love, was now 99 cents for both Kindle and Nook formats — but only for a short time.
Known for his intense stories of erotic horror, John Everson shines in this collection forcusing on dark fantasy.
If you’ve never read any of John’s stories before, this is a great book to start with and now its available at a great price.
Still on the fence? In the book’s summary below you’ll find links to John’s website where you can read three of the stories in Vigilantes of Love for free. Try tem and see if this collection isn’t the one for you.
If you’re interested in a book, click on the icons below the summary to order it from an online bookseller. This is not an affiliate link.
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Vigilantes of LoveAuthor: Everson, John |
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A woman whose life is shaped and doomed by the “Calling of the Moon” . . . A girl who learns the secret powers of the “Seven Deadly Seeds” . . . A boy who finds that the power of music can open a hidden world thanks to a flute hidden in the attic . . . A man who learns the meaning behind the voodoo curse that brings the “Vigilantes of Love” from the hearts of the New Orleans swamps to punish the adulterers under the light of the full moon . . . Vigilantes of Love offers these and nearly a dozen more tales of dark magic, the macabre and things that happen when you go one step beyond. John Everson’s second book-length collection of short horror and dark fantasy fiction was originally issued in 2003 by Chicago-based Twilight Tales, and focuses more on dark fantasy than the more extreme erotic horror of his first short fiction collection, Cage of Bones and Other Deadly Obsessions. Vigilantes of Love includes 15 dark fantasy and horror tales, from the “Twilight Zone”-esque “Preserve” one of Everson’s earliest tales to “Calling of the Moon,” which received an Honorable Mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology, to “Lovesong” a 5th Place winner in the 2000 World Horror Convention Fiction Contest. In addition to new stories, it also features tales reprinted from the anthologies Transversions and Freaks, Geeks and Sideshow Floozies and the magazines Sirius Visions, Crossroads, Eulogy and Plot. Extra: Read “Hard Heart”, “Christmas, The Hard Way” and “Vigilantes of Love” online. Table of Contents:
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April 2003 (Hardcover — Twilight Tales)
April 2003 (Hardcover — Twilight Tales)John’s Story Teasers:
- Calling of the Moon She answered the calling of the moon. But not before he felt its touch.
- Lovesong She lured him into the arms of alternative music. He lured her to face the room at the top of the stairs.
- A Time for Music A fairy flute can make dangerous music.
- Trick and Treat All he wanted was a little company for the holiday.
- After the Fifth Step Sometimes, walking the tightrope isn’t just a balancing act.
- Seven Deadly Seeds Bellinda liked to plant things. And Penelope was happy to give her the seeds.
- Preserve “I don’t kill, I preserve,” the taxidermist said. But Richard wanted to die.
- Hard Heart Sometimes, wearing a heart on your sleeve can be tough. But giving it away can be even worse.
- Frost When David left the plane to live with the frost sprite, he thought his problems were over.
- Anne’s Perfect Smile She’d disappeared without a trace. And then he found the post-it note.
- A Lack of Signs If you really know what you want, sometimes, you can find it.
- Christmas, The Hard Way There’s a reason for every tradition, even if you have magic.
- The Humane Way Christmas dinner can lead to unsavory philosophical debates.
- The Right Instrument Jack’s career as a jingle writer was on the deep skids after his breakup. But Eddie knew, all he needed was the right instrument.
- Vigilantes of Love They came in silence from the swamps by the light of the full moon. They left only bloodstains on the sheets. Ribaud knew that it would take a voodoo queen to reverse the curse.
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat
Horror Short Story Collections: Gleefully Macabre Tales Revisited
Yesterday Jeff Strand knighted me for posting about a pair of his ebooks.
So, today I intend to curry favor and try for a kingship. I’ll do that by revising and republishing a post I did last August on Gleefully Macabre Tales by Jeff Strand.
Genius, no?
Jeff Strand’s Gleefully Macabre Tales is “Most of” collection of mostly but not completely humorous horror stories. Get it? No? Read the introduction. It’ll make sense.
Originally published by Delirium Books, the second edition was brought out by Dark Regions Press in both trade paperback and ebook formats — containing additional stories including Disposal which weren’t in the original.
The novella Disposal was originally published in a limited edition hardcover with ten forewords by other horror authors by Biting Dog Press. Although you don’t get the forewords in Gleefully Macabre Tales, you do get the story.
Read Gleefully Macabre Tales. You’ll never look at wiener dogs the same way again. . . .
And the ebook is cheap. Not 99 cents cheap but cheap enough.
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the book cover to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
Hey, did you notice all that product placement up there? I’ve got the golden subtle touch.
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Gleefully Macabre TalesAuthor: Strand, Jeff |
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Nominated for the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Collection Cemetery Dance magazine says that “No author working today comes close to Jeff Strand’s perfect mixture of comedy and terror.” Gleefully Macabre Tales compiles 32 of his most twisted blends of cringe-worthy horror and ghoulish humor, with a couple of serious pieces thrown in just to mess with you. This collection includes tales from his three chapbooks (Two Twisted Nuts, Socially Awkward Moments With An Aspiring Lunatic, and Funny Stories of Scary Sex) and numerous other stories both popular and obscure, including “Really, Really Ferocious” (the one with the wiener dog), “High Stakes” (the one with the slot machine), “Roasting Weenies by Hellfire” (the one with Satan), “The Bad Candy House” (the one with a very unpleasant old man at Halloween) and “The Socket” (the one with the eyeball socket). It also includes two of his entries in the World Horror Convention gross-out contest. But you don’t want to read them. So if you’re looking to laugh, gasp, gag, or do all three at the same time, making sort of a weird sound that hurts your lungs and elicits odd glances from nearby pedestrians, don’t miss Gleefully Macabre Tales! Partial Table of Contents:
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2009 (Trade Paperback — Dark Regions Press)GOS Multimedia created the trailer for Gleefully Macabre Tales.
It’s a great video and allows me to mention Gleefully Macabre Tales one more time. Clever thinking like this will get me that kingship.
And because I wouldn’t be Sir Undead Rat (I was knighted, remember?) without a way oversized picture of the book cover — I doubt anyone can make out that 185 x 280 pixel book cover above — here is the bigg’en.
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Horror Books with the Undead Rat