SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2013 – With the tragic, sudden, and unexpected death of internationally best-selling author and Horror Writers Association (HWA) Bram Stoker Award Recipient for Lifetime Achievement for 2011, Rick Hautala, on March 21, 2013, JournalStone Publishing (JSP) President, Christopher C. Payne has released the following statement:
We join the entire literary community and Rick Hautala’s multitude of fans and admirers in mourning the sudden, untimely passing of a true literary giant—someone whose thirty-plus-year body of work has left an indelible mark and whose unique, individual voice has even influenced the shape and texture of how stories are written.
With a mixture of sadness and shock at his untimely passing we are honored to announce that, with the full support of the Hautala Estate, we will be releasing a special tribute anthology titled: Mister October: An Anthology In Memory Of Rick Hautala. The anthology is being edited by one of Rick’s best friends, the celebrated author, comic book writer and editor, Christopher Golden, who has previously edited such anthologies as The New Dead and The Monster’s Corner, among others.
“Mister October is the ultimate labor of love,” Golden said. “The shock and grief that hit so many of us in the wake of Rick’s death was compounded by the news that due to financial struggles, he had canceled his life insurance shortly before his passing. Knowing how many writers and artists admired his work and how many loved him, I put the anthology together as a way to help those Rick left behind. The reaction from those I asked to contribute was immediate and startling. Rick would have been stunned by the outpouring of support, including from the fine folks at Journalstone, who have generously agreed to donate all services to the project, so that every penny of profit from sales of the book in all formats will go to the Hautala estate.”
We are also honored to announce that, with the full support of Rick’s widow, Holly Newstein, and the late author’s estate, JournalStone Publishing will be releasing Rick Hautala’s final two novels. The deal was struck only weeks before the author’s death. Rick was extremely proud of both novels, which he considered among his finest work, and he was very excited at the prospect of their both seeing a release in the near future. The first of these novels, The Demon’s Wife, is a multi-genre blockbuster combining elements of Romance, Horror, and Mystery with the author’s distinctive touch of dry humor, and is set for release September 13, 2013. The second novel, Mockingbird Bay, is a brilliant combination of classic Ghost Story and Murder Mystery and is also set for expedited release in the summer of 2014.
About the Anthology: Rick Hautala was a master of modern horror, a mentor to the next generation, and winner of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In Mister October, his friends and admirers in the writing community honor his memory in the best way they can—with stories. Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Kevin J. Anderson, Graham Joyce, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Kim Newman, Holly Newstein and dozens of our greatest dark fiction authors have contributed notable stories to this huge anthology, expected to total about 450 pages, in memory of the horror master Rick Hautala. The volume will also include art from Clive Barker, Stephen R. Bissette, Glenn Chadbourne, and Cortney Skinner. All profits will go to benefit the late author’s estate.
About the Author: Rick Hautala (02/03/1949-03/21/2013) was the recipient of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement for 2011, which he received at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 31, 2012. He served terms as Vice President and Trustee for the HWA. Rick had more than ninety published novels and short stories to his credit, including the million-copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, andThe Wildman. He also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines. His short story collection Bedbugs was selected as one of the best horror books of the year in 2003. A novella titled Reunion was published by PS Publications in December, 2009; and Occasional Demons, a short story collection, was published by CD Publications. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke, and Dead @ 17, based on the graphic novel by Josh Howard. A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a Master of Art in English Literature (Renaissance and Medieval Literature), Hautala died on March 21, 2013 from a heart attack and is survived by his widow, author Holly Newstein, and three grown sons.
