Dear Reader,
Happy February!
Did you see who’s on the cover of the latest issue of Dark Discoveries? It’s none other than A Head Full of Ghosts author, Paul Tremblay! Not only does he sit down for an interview, but his short story, “It Won’t Go Away,” is also included. Grab your copy here, and check out the other amazing authors in issue #37!
February 24th brings us Hieroglyphs of Blood & Bone by Michael Griffin. When Guy’s marriage of two decades unravels, he’s driven from his previously stable domestic life and ends up renting a room in the houseboat of his much younger co-worker Karl. Pushed outside his comfort zone, Guy tries to follow Karl’s example, until he ends up exploring entirely new frontiers, both natural and uncanny. He finally encounters the enigmatic Lily, who offers to share with Guy her own arcane language, a mix of incomprehensible symbols, rough bits of nature and dark pleasures of the flesh. Guy finds himself obsessed, as if powerless under Lily’s spell. Will he recognize in time the many secrets she keeps hidden in plain sight, or will allow himself to be pulled downstream toward an inescapable vortex?
Then on March 10th, we Behold the Void with Philip Fracassi.Nine stories of terror that huddle in the dark space between cosmic horror and the modern weird, between old-school hard-edged horror of the 1980’s and the stylistic prose of today’s literary giants. Revenge takes a monstrous form when a scorned lover acquires bizarre, telekinetic powers; a community swimming pool on a bright summer day becomes the setting for a ghastly nightmare of sacrifice and loss; a thief does bloody battle with a Yakuza for the soul of a horse god; a priest must solve the mystery of a century-old serial killer or risk the apocalypse; a newly-married couple discover that relationships-gone-bad can be poisonous, and deadly; a child is forced to make an ultimate choice between letting his parents die or living with the monsters they may become; and when a boy is trapped on a beach at low tide, he must face death in many forms – that of the rising water coming to consume him and the ghost of his dead mother who wants him back, reaching for him with dark, longing arms…
And on March 24th, we’re proud to be releasing Bleed by Ed Kurtz. When Walt Blackmore moves into an old Gablefront house on the outskirts of a small town, things are really looking up for him—he has an adoring girlfriend, a new job, and an altogether bright future. But Walt’s destiny is irreparably changed when a dark red spot appears on the ceiling in the hallway. Bit by bit the spot grows, first into a dripping blood stain and eventually into a grotesque, muttering creature.
As the creature thrives, Walt finds himself more and more interested in fostering its well-being. At first he only feeds it stray animals, but this soon fails to satisfy the monster’s ghastly needs. It is gradually becoming something more, and for that to happen it requires human blood and human flesh. And once Walt has crossed the line from curiosity to murder, there is no going back.
We’ll be opening to novel, novella, and fiction collections again soon, but we’re on the lookout for first readers to help with submissions that come in. If you’re interested in helping out and have previous slush reading experience, drop me a line.
That’s it, that’s all, folks. Until next month!
Jess
Assistant Publisher
NEW & UPCOMING RELEASES
WIND THROUGH THE FENCE AND OTHER STORIES
by Jonathan Maberry
Introduction by David Morrell
A pair of idiot moonshiners run afoul of gangsters and zombies in the days leading up to the Great Fire of Chicago. A brutal gunslinger encounters the ghosts of his past. College students create a computer program to conjure real magic. A little winged monkey girl goes looking for magic in a land of dragons. A serial killer becomes an angel of mercy for orphaned children during the Apocalypse. A private investigator tattoos the faces of murder victims on his skin so that he can relive the moments of their deaths and begin a hunt for the killers.
These and other tales showcase the imagination and range of New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry.
These odd, quirky, disturbing tales of horror, suspense, comedy, fantasy and mystery take readers to the troubled little town of the end of the world, the Land of Oz, the twisted pre-history of Plan 9 From Outer Space, the foggy Paris streets of Edgar Allan Poe, the Old West, and elsewhere.
These are strange journeys through a landscape of nightmares, with a five-time Bram Stoker Award winner as your guide.
HIEROGLYPHS OF BLOOD & BONE
by Michael Griffin
From visionary new voice in weird fiction Michael Griffin comes Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone.
When Guy’s marriage of two decades unravels, he’s driven from his previously stable domestic life and ends up renting a room in the houseboat of his much younger co-worker Karl. Pushed outside his comfort zone, Guy tries to follow Karl’s example, until he ends up exploring entirely new frontiers, both natural and uncanny.
He finally encounters the enigmatic Lily, who offers to share with Guy her own arcane language, a mix of incomprehensible symbols, rough bits of nature and dark pleasures of the flesh. Guy finds himself obsessed, as if powerless under Lily’s spell.
Will he recognize in time the many secrets she keeps hidden in plain sight, or will allow himself to be pulled downstream toward an inescapable vortex?
BEHOLD THE VOID
by Philip Fracassi
BEHOLD THE VOID is nine stories of terror that huddle in the dark space between cosmic horror and the modern weird, between old-school hard-edged horror of the 1980’s and the stylistic prose of today’s literary giants.
Revenge takes a monstrous form when a scorned lover acquires bizarre, telekinetic powers; a community swimming pool on a bright summer day becomes the setting for a ghastly nightmare of sacrifice and loss; a thief does bloody battle with a Yakuza for the soul of a horse god; a priest must solve the mystery of a century-old serial killer or risk the apocalypse; a newly-married couple discover that relationships-gone-bad can be poisonous, and deadly; a child is forced to make an ultimate choice between letting his parents die or living with the monsters they may become; and when a boy is trapped on a beach at low tide, he must face death in many forms – that of the rising water coming to consume him and the ghost of his dead mother who wants him back, reaching for him with dark, longing arms…
When Walt Blackmore moves into an old gable front house on the outskirts of a small town, things are really looking up for him—he has an adoring girlfriend, a new job, and an altogether bright future. But Walt’s destiny is irreparably changed when a dark red spot appears on the ceiling in the hallway. Bit by bit the spot grows, first into a dripping blood stain and eventually into a grotesque, muttering creature.
As the creature thrives, Walt finds himself more and more interested in fostering its well-being. At first he only feeds it stray animals, but this soon fails to satisfy the monster’s ghastly needs. It is gradually becoming something more, and for that to happen it requires human blood and human flesh. And once Walt has crossed the line from curiosity to murder, there is no going back.
OUT NOW FROM BIZARRO PULP PRESS
BATTERING THE STEM
by Bob Freville
It’s going to be a long, hellish day on Utica Ave. The employees of Brooklyn’s seediest soul food joint, Clayvon’s King Prawn Chicken N’ Biscuit, have a mysterious new patron: Edgerin. Called a “vagrant” and a “beggar”, he’s got a thing or two to learn them in the delicate art of begging… Within twenty four tense, bloody hours, all the filthy secrets buried under the nail beds of the Clayvon staff are revealed in this darkly comic urban crime story from author Bob Freville.
OUT NOW FROM BIZARRO PULP PRESS
CARTOONS IN THE SUICIDE FOREST
by Leza Cantoral
When we’re dead
You know She’ll adore us
“Lyrical and perverse, like a prostitute on acid in a poetry slam, this collection of the dark, erotic, and bizarre flirts with the heroin fever dreams of a William Burroughs and the horrific surrealism of Charlee Jacobs.”
– Wrath James White, THE RESURRECTIONIST and THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND SINS
