The Horror Hall of Fame Shipping Next Week
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Cemetery Dance Publications has announced that The Horror Hall of Fame, edited by Joe R. Lansdale, will ship next week.
Featuring full color cover artwork by Alan M. Clark and black & white interior artwork for every story by acclaimed artist Glenn Chadbourne, this landmark anthology collects for the first-time ever the Bram Stoker Award-winning short stories and novellas from legendary authors such as George R.R. Martin, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, David Morrell, Alan Rodgers, and many others!
The Stoker Award is presented annually by the Horror Writers Association, and this volume represents the very best fiction in the horror field! This is a must-read for any fan of horror fiction!
You can still order a copy directly from Cemetery Dance Publications here: Horror Hall of Fame
Get The Many For Free
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David B. Silva is offering his novel, The Many, for free on the Kindle for 24 hours, beginning at 12:01 am on February 2nd.
Description: When Jeremy Taft schedules a meeting with an old childhood acquaintance, it seems he wishes to unburden himself of the guilt from a past tragic event that caused the death of a young schoolmate. But instead, all the unanswered questions from that incident are brought to the surface, and the two men suddenly find themselves as allies, desperately trying to save a girl from a long-ago wrong that has trapped her in a time warp.
David B. Silva has written seven novels, his most recent, All The Lonely People. His short fiction has since appeared in The Year’s Best Horror, The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, and The Best American Mystery Stories. In 1991, he won a Bram Stoker Award for his short story, “The Calling.” His first collection, Through Shattered Glass, was published by Gaunlet Press in 2001. In 2009, Dark Regions published his collection of eleven new stories and one reprint, In The Shadows of Kingston Mills.
You can download your free Kindle edition here: The Many
Letterbox – Book Review
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Letterbox
Cameron Trost
Naked Snake Press, June 2011
Review by Matthew Tait
There is a broad spectrum of dark fiction writers here in Australia who have been around for a lengthy time. Where others have dropped away after only few short years of surveying the landscape – there remains a loyal contingent of others who are here to stay – no matter what the publishing backdrop may look like at any given time. Cameron Trost is one such person – a writer who has spent many years diligently chipping away at the shorter form. In 2011 Naked Snake Press took notice of his emerging talent and published his debut novel Letterbox.
Beginning with a prologue that gives us subtle clues and sketches out a monster in the making, we witness the genesis of evil in the form a child – one who, after a lifetime of bullying, uses his lofty intelligence to experiment on insects and how they cope with stress when pitted against external barriers. When the child’s own external world continues to crumble, it isn’t long before he begins to daydream of what it might be like to place a human being in lieu of his subjects…
Cut to present day and the moors of Cornwell. Adjacent to these ancient lands sits the town of Mirebury – a miniscule English community where school teacher Ian Carew as decided to establish himself after leaving of London. His elderly neighbor, Mrs. Mary Hopkins, acts as kind of surrogate mother – while his best friend is the local butcher. Mirebury seems to fit the small town rural profile to a tea, and the only thing missing from Ian’s life is a life-partner to share the adventure with.
The set up is reminiscent of numerous horror/thriller outings, and after introducing us to many of the town’s inhabitants, Trost begins to dollop on the dark happenings. At first it’s a macabre keepsake placed in the letterbox of Mrs. Mary Hopkins – then a series of elusive break-ins. Soon other people are targeted and before long Mirebury begins to realize it is under the watchful gaze of a dark entity who is using them like puppets on a chessboard to pit neighbor against neighbor. Aptly nicknamed ‘The Postman’ by the townsfolk, they soon become fragmented as lines are drawn in the sand and no one is immune from suspicion.
As a huge fan of Needful Things by Stephen King, the premise for Letterbox was always going to appeal to me. That particular foray was the ultimate Our Town dark testament that set off a chain of interlocking horrors through the redemption of trail, suffering, and forgiveness. Here, Trost treads a similar path – but imbues it all with an English verisimilitude. Does he succeed? For the most part, yes. The prose is narrow at first but quickly evolves – we can see Trost becoming a more confident storyteller as the tale progresses. If there was one criticism I could level at Letterbox it is the often sugary flavor of the town itself – Mirebury seems far too conservative and fictitious than any real life counterpart. And on occasion it’s as though the author is drawing from other classic works to flesh out his municipality. That said, for a debut effort this is still highly accomplished – an impressive thriller and a satisfying parable of good versus evil.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Tait’s novella Slander Hall – part of the Tales of Darkness and Dismay series – will be available free until the 5th of February. Get your free Kindle copy here: Slander Hall
Seven Stories – Free Kindle Edition
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Cemetery Dance Publications has announced that Seven Stories by Brian James Freeman, which is only available on Amazon.com, is now free for everyone this week only at this special link:
If you have a Kindle, or the Kindle App, or even if you just want to try out the free Kindle Cloud for the first time, now is a great time to grab a copy of the collection before it goes back up to the regular retail price on Friday!
(Also: because these stories are going to appear in three new collections down the road, the eBook will probably disappear from Amazon later this year, but those who download the eBook now will have it for as long as you want, of course.)
Description: This mini-collection contains seven of Brian James Freeman’s short stories that are currently available individually on Amazon. Save $4 if you order them together in this great bundle!
Freeman’s best work has always been his short fiction, which is haunting and beautifully written. These stories feature characters who are searching for answers to deeply troubling questions, and there’s often a real emotional punch before you reach the end.
This bundle won’t be available at this price forever, so don’t wait to download your copy!
About the Stories:
Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13:
A grueling summer of horror is finally winding down, and Jeremy is one of the wandering survivors who can’t come to grips with the acts of terror that have been ripping his nation apart. His destination today is Pier 13, the ocean front amusement park his family visited every summer when he was a child, and his purpose for coming here is simple: he wants to understand why so many people have been dying in such violent acts… but that might not be the only answer he finds at the old docks.
Running Rain:
In the year since their son was the first victim of a serial killer known as the The Riverside Strangler, a devastated husband and wife have tried to pretend life can somehow be normal again… but the secrets they’re keeping from each other are pushing their relationship to the brink. To make matters worse, The Riverside Strangler was never caught, and now the husband is obsessed with running along the river at night, searching for the truth about why his son died: a truth he may not really want to know…
Answering the Call:
A young man’s very unusual job is taking a heavy toll on him. He stays in homes during the owner’s funeral. Someone needs to be there to answer the phone, receive deliveries, and deter thieves who might have seen the obituary in the newspaper and decided this would be a good time for a break-in. The young man has seen a lot of strange things over the years in the homes of the dead, and sometimes his job is truly a matter of life and death…
The Punishment Room:
Assuming Michael manages to escape the Punishment Room with his sanity and his life, he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to go on living with the knowledge of what he did to survive… but then again, that’s a dilemma he wouldn’t mind confronting, given the finality of the alternative.
What They Left Behind:
There’s something lurking in the basement of the old Timlico office building. This thing is evil, the result of the tragic fire that killed dozens of Timlico employees and sent that business spiraling into bankruptcy — or maybe the thing was the cause of the fire. Scott and a few friends will learn more about this thing before the day is over, including some very bad news for everyone: the thing in the basement is still hungry.
A Dreamlike State:
Daniel is driving back to his hometown for the first time in six years because his father is dying, but he knows there’s more than a sick patriarch waiting for him in the house where he grew up. He has a heart full of questions, and all of his childhood ghosts are patiently waiting for him… and they have a few questions of their own.
Where Sunlight Sleeps:
A grieving father and his young son, both dealing with their loss in their own ways. A Saturday ritual, retracing the last steps of the woman they loved more than any other. A search for the place where the sunlight sleeps, where bad feelings can be released. And a trip down a memory lane lined with jagged edges and vicious traps that just won’t let them go.
(The only short story currently listed on Amazon that is missing from this bundle is “The Silent Attic,” which is an experimental piece closely related to “A Dreamlike Sleep.” If you like “A Dreamlike Sleep,” be sure to download “The Silent Attic” to see another glimpse of that same world.)
You can get your free Kindle edition here: Seven Stories on The Kindle
Wastelands
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Night Shade Books has released a reprint edition of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. The anthology is out in both paperback and digital formats.
Description: Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon – these are our guides through the Wastelands
From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse.
Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders.
You can order both the paperback and digital editions from Amazon here: Wastelands
Support For The Navy SEALs
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In August of 2011, the Navy SEAL community suffered its worst single day loss of life in its more than 50-year history when a team of SEALs aboard a special operations helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Like everyone with ties to the Naval Special Warfare, writer Jeffrey Wilson was deeply affected by this event. Everyone in the community is connected in some way to the families devastated by this tragedy.
Together with JournalStone Publisher Christopher C. Payne, Jeffrey has set out to raise money for the Navy SEAL Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides direct support for wounded SEALs and others from the Special Warfare community, and provides support and comfort for the families left behind when SEALs are killed in the line of duty.
For the entire month of February, Jeffrey Wilson will donate 100% of his royalties from his novel The Traiteur’s Ring to the Navy SEAL foundation. In an incredible show of generosity and support, Chris Payne at JournalStone has agreed to not only match this donation, but in fact donate 100% of JournalStones’ February profits from this book during February.
Jeffrey Wilson, a vascular and trauma surgeon, was deployed multiple times supporting the Navy SEALs as a combat surgeon. Although he left active duty in late 2007, he remains an active reserve member. Still assigned to the SEALs, Wilson runs a training program for SEAL medics.
In Wilson’s novel, Americans confront terrorism; injured soldiers regain their health; sacrifice is rewarded; flashbacks and terrifying childhood memories serve the greater good; ancient (and infallible) wisdom is available to true seekers; and emotional connection binds people together for an eternity. Wilson is currently available for interviews. His publisher, Chris Payne, is also granting interviews. Please let me know if you’d like additional information. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Author Bio: Jeffrey Wilson
Jeffrey Wilson, the son of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who later joined Pan Am as a pilot, spent much of his childhood in Berlin, Germany at the height of the Cold War (1970 – 1975). He has worked as a musician (fife and drum corp) and actor; a firefighter/paramedic; and pilot and flight instructor. That was before he completed his residency in general Surgery and rejoined the Navy. He was a featured physician while the chief resident on trauma in an episode of Trauma: Life and Death in the ER on The Learning Channel during this time.
Wilson did a Fellowship in Vascular Surgery at USF from 2002-2004. He reported for duty as a Vascular Surgeon to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in July 2004. There he was the Director of Vascular Surgery research and director of the Non-invasive vascular Lab. In January 2005, he deployed as a Combat surgeon assigned to a FRSS team (the so-called “Devil Docs” who set up battle field surgical support with the Marines). They were in the Al Anbar province of Iraq for 6 months.
Upon his return, he was recruited by Naval Special Warfare to provide surgical support as a combat surgeon with the Navy SEALs. He left active duty in Late 2007 but remains in the reserves, still assigned to the SEALs where he runs a training program for SEAL medics. He works as a Vascular Surgeon at the VA and as a Trauma Surgeon at Tampa General Hospital with the University of South Florida.
The Traiteur’s Ring is his first published novel, and is part of a three-book contract with his publisher. The Donors is due out next summer and Fade To Black the following year. He is currently working on his fourth book.
Publisher Bio: Christopher C. Payne
Christopher C. Payne was born in DeSoto, Ill., in January 1967. He received his bachelor’s degree in finance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, graduating in 1990. Currently he lives in San Francisco, Calif. In his spare time, he enjoys biking and snowboarding with his wife and two daughters.
Holding down a corporate accounting/finance job, Payne embarked on a literary career, delving into the world of writing with no preconceived idea of what to expect. He wrote three novels and edited an anthology before realizing his calling was more in tune with publishing.
JournalStone was established in 2009, became a publishing company in late 2010 and published its first novel in the spring of 2011. Publishing over 10 novels in 2011 was quite an accomplishment for a budding small press but 2012 holds the promise of some enormous potential for JournalStone Publishing.
You can pick up the book on Amazon here: The Traiteur’s Ring
The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning
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AmazonCrossing has released a reprint edition Hallgrimur Helgason’s The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning in paperback, digital, and audio editions.
Description: Toxic kills people for a living. Bad people. For a living. So it’s okay. Or at least that’s how he explains it to girlfriends who are a bit uncomfortable when they discover how he pays for their dates. One would think that he has killed his conscience as well if it weren’t for its unexpected arrival when he is forced to kill a holy man, Father Friendly, in JFK airport as he flees NYC.
Now posing as Friendly to dodge the FBI, Toxic finds himself on a plane hurtling toward Reykjavík, Iceland. This is a city that he reads in the plane’s travel magazine is “the hottest city in Europe, the capital of cool.” A place where the nights are long and the girls are bright. It all sounds promising until Toxic steps off the plane and is greeted by two religious fanatics.
He has almost forgotten. He is Friendly now. And apparently he is a famous televangelist.
Good Moon Door and Sick Reader (Toxic’s English translation of his new hosts’ impossible Icelandic names) set him up in their squeaky clean and godly home. They expect Friendly to appear on their evening television show. So much for keeping a low profile from the feds. It’s only a matter of time before Toxic is on the run again, with nowhere to hide in the endless daylight and nowhere to run on the small island, population 300,000.
When the man they thought was Friendly reappears at Good Moon Door and Sick Reader’s door as the sin-ridden and helpless Toxic, his fate is left entirely in their hands. Will they report him like good citizens of their country or save him like good soldiers of the Lord?
Check it out on Amazon: The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning
