Read me!

It's been a busy last few months, and I'm pleased to see some of last season's stories making it to print.

Idolators of Cthulhu

There are those who chant the eldritch songs, who gather in nameless places to celebrate the return of the great Old Ones. For millennia their tales have not been told. Within these haunted pages you will find their stories of yearning, terror, murder, and a faith that defies the understanding of humanity. Come and look into the minds of the Idolaters of Cthulhu.

That's how the new anthology from Alban Lake Publishing is being described. With stories expanding the popular Cthulhu Mythos originated by H.P. Lovecraft, this anthology explores the darker side of an already dark subject. 

The Idolaters of Cthulhu is edited by H. David Blalock and Herika R. Raymer. The anthology is structured in three parts with a foreword by Blalock and atmospheric poetry from classical writers adding to the overall picture. The anthology opens with Beyond the Wall of Sleep by Lovecraft himself and closes with the powerful poem Afterwards by Clark Ashton Smith.

My story, "Fatwa" is the second story in the Incursion section.

Copies are available from Alban Lake Publishing and from Smashwords and Amazon.

 And in the FLASH category:

 I'm also happy to report I will have TWO new flash pieces in the lovely graphic anthologies produced by The Daily Nightmare.

(In case you missed it, my piece "RIP Ellipses" can be found here:  22 More Quick Shivers)

The new anthologies, one focused around the concept of "bugs" and the other featuring authors from the Midwest, will be decorated flash fiction, words transformed into images via creative typography. I was extremely impressed with Daily Nightmare's previous anthologies and the word on the street is that they're going to try a Kickstarter for a color edition of one of the new ones! I'll post the links when they become available.

Appearances:

I'm a guest at this year's Imaginarium in Louisville, KY, so stop by and say hello!

READ THIS: Horror Library: The Best of Volumes 1-5

Horror Library: The Best of Volumes 1-5

 

Equal parts weird and creepy

This book opens with a story that stabs you in the soul, and each successive piece twists the knife a little more. Collected from previous Horror Library volumes, this is an anthology of tales ranging from the darkly fantastic to the utterly terrifying.

Several of the stories are what I consider subtle horror: creepy and unnerving, low-key and readable, but the kind of material that will haunt you for weeks after you read it. All stay within the boundaries of good taste, even those containing the most violence. If you’re looking for splatter and gore, you’ll want to look elsewhere. If you’re looking for contemporary horror, the kind that evolves out of the complex and conflicted world of the 21st century, you’ll love this book. 

There are some weird stories, a few wicked ones, and some that will send parents to their child’s bedrooms in the middle of the night, just to check, you know. The stories are arranged in an up and down of pace and tension, so reading the whole anthology through in one sitting is like riding a roller coaster on a replay loop that lasts for 300 pages. 

One Caveat: As a novice horror writer, I found the work in this book to be slightly demoralizing. Usually in an anthology this size there are a few truly noteworthy stories, some good ones, and a few that are unremarkable. This book, however, is literary gold from page one. The elements of craft are so well-polished, the writing techniques so varied, the stories themselves so unique and fresh that aspiring writers might be tempted to chuck it all and take up gardening instead. My advice: treat this book like a textbook on horror writing. Analyze what the authors did and how they did it. Read the book a few times for pleasure, then read it again with an eye on structure, character, dialogue, setting, plot. Then go forth and write scary.