When promising young psychiatrist, James Richardson, is offered the job opportunity of a lifetime by the charismatic Dr. Hugh Maitland, he is thrilled. Setting off to take up his post at Wyldehope Hall in deepest Suffolk, Richardson doesn’t look back. One of his tasks is to manage Maitland’s most controversial project – a pioneering therapy in which extremely disturbed patients are kept asleep for months. If this radical and potentially dangerous procedure is successful, it could mean professional glory for both doctors.

As Richardson settles into his new life, he begins to sense something uncanny about the sleeping patients – six women, forsaken by society. Why is Maitland unwilling to discuss their past lives? Why is the trainee nurse so on edge when she spends nights alone with them? And what can it mean when all the sleepers start dreaming at the same time?

In this atmospheric re-invention of the ghost story, Richardson finds himself questioning everything he knows about the human mind, as he attempts to uncover the shocking secrets of The Sleep Room . . .

F.R.Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has written self-help manuals, non-fiction for the general reader, academic text books, over thirty academic papers in international journals and several novels. Between 1999 and 2012 he has received or been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the New London Writers’ Award, the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Elle Prix de Letrice, and two Edgars. His critically acclaimed Liebermann series (written as Frank Tallis) has been translated into fourteen languages and optioned for TV adaptation. The Forbidden, his ninth novel, is a horror story set in nineteenth-century Paris and this, The Sleep Room, is his tenth. @franktallis

Contamination, a book written by author Dave Jeffery based on an original story by filmmaker Jason Wright marks a return to the horror that children of the 80’s grew up on.

Protagonist Dean Sharp wakes up from a drinking binge to find that overnight, the world has changed. People are dying in the streets as mobs wander aimlessly through town looking for the next fight. Men and women tear into one another on sight, and even children join in the fray.

“Contamination was a story I had been writing for a while, and wanted to make into a film, but there were so many other things going on, we didn’t have time,” Jason Wright explained. “It made sense then to make it into a book first, and then film it later so people would have time to read it and experience it before it was filmed.”

After being introduced to Jason at a festival by mutual friends, Dave Jeffery sat and talked with the filmmaker for hours about the project. Together they spoke of the outline for the book, and the direction it would take.

“When Jason first showed me the outline for Contamination, I couldn’t help but see it as a pulp project,” said Dave Jeffery. “The story had a gritty, brutal aspect and played with chronology which made it interesting to take on.”

Wright, with his company, Silent Studios, will begin filming of the movie version in 2014. But to release the book, the team needed a publishing house.

Jeffery, whose novel Necropolis Rising hit the #1 position in the UK last year, approached his publisher, David Youngquist at Dark Continents Publishing about getting the book into print. After Skype meetings with both Wright and Jeffery, Youngquist gave the green light for a May 2013 release of the book.

As a small press in the era of instant communication and technology that allows people to work together from opposite sides of the globe, Dark Continents is always looking for innovation and ways to reach more people and develop more markets. A partnership with a film studio provides just that, by getting Silent Studios further into the literary world and Dark Continents into the realm of film.

The birth of Contamination is unusual in the writing realm, with a novelist and filmmaker working together on the project. But as Youngquist said, “The writers in Hollywood are always complaining they don’t have enough fresh ideas, so why not have a novelist involved from the beginning?”

Contamination will be released in May 2013 in stores as paperback books, and as downloadable files for your e-readers. Get a copy and follow the fast paced story as Dean Sharp tries to sort out reality from his dreams and sanity from madness, while the fate of humankind hinges on him.

From award-winning British fantasy author Freda Warrington,

To celebrate the return of the critically acclaimed Blood Books in collectable paperback and e-book edition, Titan Books and Freda Warrington are serialising two rare and risqué stories set within the universe of the Blood Books across a series of websites and blogs. 

We’re publishing the fourth part of a short story called Little Goose. Read the rest of the tale here: http://titanbooks.com/blog/freda-warringtons-blood-wine-tour/

—

Little Goose: Part 4

By Freda Warrington

Her designs grew wilder. Eggs of dark pink tourmaline cupped in storms of jet. Snow-white jade, cracked with veins of blood ruby.

One day her father came unannounced, and I must be stuffed like a corpse into a cupboard. Yet I have ways of watching unseen, and I saw.

He stalked the gallery, a forensic examiner. He frowned. His nostrils flared as if he could smell me. Rebecca watched in silent annoyance as he perused her workbench; the designs scattered everywhere, the new pieces taking shape in chaos. He picked up drawings, judged and set them down again, lips pursed.

‘You have done all this in so short a time?’ he said.

‘Why?’ Her voice was high and taut. ‘Is the work substandard?’

‘No. No.’ Then, harshly, ‘How long have you been taking drugs?’

She was indignant, outraged. ‘I’m not taking anything!’

‘Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?’

She clutched her dressing gown to hide her throat. For she had indeed the look of one who makes love to a vampire, then rises from bed to work the night through. Drained, pale skin. Eyes like feverish rubies deep in purple-brown pits. ‘I’ve been working hard, that’s all.’

‘You will burn yourself out! What is it that keeps you awake, speed, cocaine? For God’s sake, Rebecca, what’s happening to you?’

I chose my moment. Stepped out of the shadows, strolled up the gallery stairs in my robe, dishevelled, cool and ironic, as if in a movie. I said, ‘Rebecca, are you not going to introduce us?’

She looked mortified. There was a terrible silence. At last, in a small voice she said, ‘Father, I’d like you to meet Sebastian.’

It was worse than I had expected. When he looked at me – I say looked; really it was like being X-rayed – he saw what I was. Not literally, perhaps, but so keenly that he was half a whisker from the truth. His eyes burned me black.

‘I knew it would be something like this. Knew. I see it all. He’s the one forcing you to work too hard. He’s the one who procures the drugs, yes?’

‘No! He is my inspiration!’

A hissing sneer of contempt. ‘I know him, and dozens like him. They’re all the same. They want to feed off your glory, your money! “One more objet, dearest, for us. A few extra works, and we’ll be rich.” He’ll bleed you dry!’

‘Get out!’ she screamed. ‘You’ve never let me live my own life! You have to let me go!’

‘Make a choice,’ he said, droplets spitting from his lips. ‘Go on seeing him and you will never see me again.’

In answer, she drew close to me and slid her hand through my arm. ‘You make a choice, Daddy,’ she answered. ‘Let me grow up, or get out. They’re not all the same. Everyone I’ve ever loved, you’ve driven away! Well, not this time. Not this time.’

White-faced and vibrating with emotion, her father left.

And I would have been proud of her if only, sadly, he had not been so right.

Apart, they were paralysed.

For weeks they sulked and grew gaunt, while their workbenches lay idle, and their phones rang unanswered. I know, for I watched them both, even when they had no idea I was there. They wasted in every sense. Yet neither, straight-backed and stubborn, would give in.

I haunted the old man’s house. He was there at his workbench, playing a file, not on gold but on his own callused fingertips. Staring at the dark.

‘Go to her, Bartholomew,’ I whispered. ‘Take her in your arms and tell her you’re sorry.’

He started, but looked at me without surprise, didn’t even ask how the hell I got in. Hoarsely he said, ‘She sends you as a go-between?’

‘No. I came because I can’t bear to see her pining.’

‘She has her lover, what use has she for a father? I have only loved her all her life. I only taught her everything she knows.’

‘And this is how she thanks you,’ I added. ‘Have pity on her. She can’t work.’

‘Can’t she.’ A sneer of grim pleasure.

‘Nor can you.’

‘You only care for her work, for the wealth and glory you leech from it! I know you were forcing drugs on her. Nothing else could make her look so ill. I know your sort, predators on my daughter. Happy now, are you? You cut the goose open in your greed and look! No more golden eggs!’

‘I am irrelevant,’ I said softly. ‘It’s that your daughter dares to defy you, that’s what you can’t accept. It’s that she dares to step from under your wing and be an artist in her own right, to be better than you. And you know you’re in the wrong but you can’t admit it. You’d rather torture her for the rest of time with your hubris than admit you’re wrong.’

‘You devil!’

With a roar he leapt at me and I, taken by surprise, defended myself. The file jabbed into my eye. Searing pain jolted through my skull. My hand sprang out to grip his throat. What must he have seen? My white face, my eye socket a gelid mess with the file sticking grotesquely from it. And I, not screaming but enflamed, monstrous. For then he was unmanned. He turned purple, he screamed, he twitched and I – I swear I did not mean to harm him but the pain, turning from fire to ice as my unnatural body pushed out the foreign object – the pain took over and I had him to my lips, my mouth full of his neck, his neck a spouting hose of blood, delicious, hot…

 —

The first book in Freda Warrington’s Blood Books series, A Taste of Blood Wine, is out now from Titan Books, £7.99. Read the rest of the short story Little Goose here: http://titanbooks.com/blog/freda-warringtons-blood-wine-tour/

© Freda Warrington 

More details regarding submissions will be coming soon but for now check out their Facebook page HERE

The words were gentle strokes, drawing her awake.
“Hello.  Hello there.”
She felt the light on her eyelids, and knew that if she opened her eyes they would sting, and she would have to shade them with her palm and let the light bleed through a crack.
“Feel like talking?”  A man’s soft voice.
And then her mind cleared enough to wonder: who was this man at her bedside?
She tried to sigh, but no breath came.  Her eyes flew open in alarm.

In the future, love is complicated.  Technology moves ever forward.  To be disconnected from the maze of social networking is to be an outcast.

Even death doesn’t have to be the end.  An impossible love story is about to unfold between a hit-and-run victim and her killer.

Love Minus Eighty is a disquieting vision of our romantic future, as hopeful as it is horrifying, by Hugo Award-winning author, Will McIntosh.  Imagining love and loss one hundred years into our future, it is both chilling and touching, and fits neatly into a canon of intelligent, mind-expanding science fiction such as Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, Hunnu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief and Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City.

Will McIntosh is admired for his inventive and subtle approach to science fiction, writing books as conceptually cool as they are deeply human.  Love Minus Eighty is the expansion of a short story, for which he won the 2010 Hugo Award and was shortlisted for the Nebula.  He is also the author of the novels Soft Apocalypse and Hitchers, out now in ebook.

Love Minus Eighty will be published by Orbit on June 11th 2013.

Anatomy of Death (in five sleazy pieces)

It collects together five stories that all have their roots in the gloriously lurid horror heyday of the 1970s, with contributions from Stephen Volk, Johnny Mains, John Llewellyn Probert, Stephen Bacon and Mark West.

The book is available in paperback from Amazon for £4.50 and as an ebook for £2.02.

More details can be found at the Hersham Horror website - http://silenthater.wix.com/hersham-horror-books - and there is a dedicated Facebook page for the anthology at http://www.facebook.com/pentanth3

Stories include:

Foreword – Johnny Mains

Introduction – Ramsey Campbell

Doll Hands – Adam Nevill

Death Walks En Pointe – Thana Niveau

The Burning Circus – Angela Slatter

Where is Uncle Phillip? – Alex Hamilton

The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper – Lynda E. Rucker

The Peter Lorre Fan Club – Stephen Volk

The Garscube Creative Writing Group – Muriel Gray

The Sixteenth Step – Robert Shearman

Not a member? Sign up now to secure your copy! The Burning Circus will be sent out alongside the next edition of the BFS Journal.

In Liberating Earth, rival cousins from the mysterious time-travelling Faction Paradox cult decide our planet should be freed from the human race and placed in better hands. As the cousins ruthlessly compete to create the perfect alternative Earth, history and reality change wildly again and again. Humanity is helpless. Or is it?

SF and fantasy readers and viewers, especially women, are increasingly calling for more work by female writers. Stuart Douglas of Obverse Books has commissioned Liberating Earth in response to that demand.

Editor Kate Orman was the first woman published in the Doctor Who: The New Adventures range of novels, eventually writing and co-writing a total of thirteen Who-related books, as well as publishing original fantasy and science fiction.

Liberating Earth will be printed in hardback and ebook formats in May 2014.

Megan says “It’s a book of fun, collaborative materials around key elements of story-building, very flexible and nothing formulaic!.  Unlike most writing resources, it’s designed for groups of writers, so writers’ groups can play together and creative writing teachers can use it to supplement their teaching.  All the games & activities come from a 12-week story-building course & workshops which I’ve been running since 2010. The finished book will have 50+ hours of materials (including follow-on activities) and the materials are photocopiable, so each writers’ group / writing teacher only needs to get one copy”.

As with most Kickstarter projects, the book will only go ahead if funding targets are met by a deadline, in this case May 11th!

The Kickstarter page can be seen HERE and Megan’s own site is HERE

‘Forever Always Ends: Robert Aickman’s Visions of Afterlife’ (part one) by Joel Lane
‘The Baroque of the Void: A Fantastic Fiction of the Austrian Idea’ by John Howard
‘John Cowper Powys: Celtic Colossus and Eminence Grise’ by Adam Daly
‘A Sombre and Unique Beauty: The Stories of Helen Simpson’ by James Doig
‘Fate as a Character: H. Rider Haggard’s Secret Currents’ by Thos. Kent Miller
‘Under Review’ by Reggie Oliver
‘Late Reviews’ by Douglas A. Anderson
‘Camera Obscura’ by John Howard

For more information, check out the Wormwood page HERE

“This is going to be the ultimate Achtung! Cthulhu wartime campaign, with something for everyone whether it’s fighting Nazis and ancient horrors in ice locked ruins, or racing for time to decipher otherworldly mysteries. You’ll have your frozen hands full getting to grips with the enormity of the adventure ahead, and trust me it is going to be our biggest release yet, which you can unlock along with a ton of accessories over the coming weeks”. Chris Birch, Modiphius Entertainment.

“Join us for this dangerous expedition, some of you will not return, but I know every one of you will give your lives before letting the Third Reich raise the Swastika over this accursed ultimate abyss.” Captain Brandon Carter, Assault on the Mountains of Madness

In Achtung! Cthulhu: Assault on the Mountains of Madness, following a trail of strange events, and clues to an ill-fate earlier expedition, the Allies will discover an Antarctic infested with Nazis. They must launch themselves into the frozen continent where they’ll be faced with the power of the elements, unbelievable ancient mysteries and a stunning climax that could change the face of the world forever. Designed for gamers who like in depth mystery, investigation and cataclysmic events, the campaign can easily be tailored for both dark, classic Call of Cthulhu play as well as the pulpier Savage Worlds experience, and is compatible with both systems. The campaign will come with extensive cartography by Michal E. Cross whose sterling map work has made such a success of the Achtung! Cthulhu line. Achtung! Cthulhu : Assault on the Mountains of Madness is being illustrated by special guest artist Korungn from Japan. Korungn has already created a library of stunning and evocative movie style concept art for the setting, which will be revealed week by week.

Modiphius plans to create a stunning full colour 248 page hardback if the goals are met. Assault on the Mountains of Madness builds on the legacy of HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and promises to reveal more of the continent (than the hapless investigators are likely to want), along with a treasure trove of cool accessories to bring the world to life.

“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be left alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness.

Modiphius’ Kickstarter was launched to raise funds for The Keeper’s and Investigator’s Guides to the Secret War – a huge kit bag stuffed full of wartime adventure for the popular Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds roleplaying game systems. The books feature Allied & Nazi forces, setting details for the Western and Home Fronts, new rules for World War Two combat, period equipment, secret Nazi plots and mythical organizations, wonder weapons, campaign and plot ideas, occupations, skills, backgrounds plus a whole shoggoth’s worth of Cthulhu villainy, enough for any Keeper to have his investigators dead, insane, or running for their lives in no time! As the Kickstarter campaign meets its stretch goals, you will discover the further danger, terror and insanity awaiting you on the shores of Europe, across the steppes of Mother Russia and the sands of North Africa, down the backstreets and highways of America, and deep in the jungles of Asia. The Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War features a stunning cover by the legendary Spanish artist Pinturero, whilst the Keeper’s Guide cover and all interior illustrations are by Dim Martin, already well known for his dark evocative graphic novel style illustrations in Achtung! Cthulhu releases.

The project has so far unlocked gorgeous full cover hardbacks for both Investigator and Keeper’s Guides, the Shadows of Atlantis campaign, the Eastern Front Guide to the Secret War, the North African Guide and the Assault on the Mountains of Madness campaign. Modiphius have recently revealed they are working on a line of 28mm miniatures with British based Clockwork Goblin miniatures that will be unveiled later in March. The rapid speed at which the Stretch Goals have been unlocked has meant backers of the special PDF Master Bonus level and above (£35+) will be walking away with tons of free Stretch Goals in PDF and this seems set to continue!

The Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter can be found HERE

A haunting supernatural excursion, here’s a taster:

Following the death of his wife, Jack lives alone on… the northeast coast of England. But this year, something worse than isolation and loneliness stalk the bay in front of his home. When his grandson Paul comes to stay, they find intricately crafted cones of sand jutting from the beach, and a tautness in the air affecting their sleep patterns. And then something else arrives…something that may want to trouble much more than their dreams. EMERGENCE…they’re closer than we fear.

The book can be downloaded HERE in the UK and HERE in the States.

For any price you like, you get six of these in multi-format, DRM-free ebook versions: Irregular Creatures by Chuck Wendig, Fable of the Swan by Jenna Moran, Hexcommunicated by Rafael Chandler, Hero Worship by Derek Pearcy, Birth of the Dread Remora by Aaron Rosenberg and Tournament of Death by Stephen D. Sullivan.

If you pay more than the average purchase price (currently hovering around $16), you get 4 bonus books added into the deal: Hard Times in Dragon City by Matt Forbeck, Mindjammer by Sarah Newton, Playing For Keeps by Mur Lafferty, and Stay Alert by Allen Varney.

You can divide your payment for the bundle as you like between indie authors, the bundle people, and two worthy charities – Child’s Play and Reading is Fundamental (RIF), promoting books and reading to kids. That’s stacks of fantastic genre fiction, in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats, at whatever price you want to pay.

The deal runs until the 11th March 2013 – get in while you can! For more info click HERE

1971. A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent.

A boy walks approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire…

So begins the moving and evocative new novella by Stephen Volk, published by the British Fantasy Award-nominated Spectral Press in May 2013 to coincide with the centenary of the most celebrated and beloved of Hammer’s stars, Peter Cushing.

In Whitstable—which deftly mixes fact with fiction—the actor, devastated after the recent death of his wife and soul mate Helen, is an inconsolable recluse. In that vulnerable state he is forced to face an evil far more real and terrifying than any of the make-believe monsters he tackled on the big screen. And here he is not a crusader or expert with crucifixes to hand—merely a man. A man who in some ways craves death himself, but cannot ignore the pleas of an innocent child…

Stephen Volk is a life-long fan of Cushing and grew up sneaking into cinemas underage in his home town to see Hammer’s gruesome and uncanny fare. A love affair with the macabre and the gothic was kindled, and this book is very much intended as a way of repaying the debt he owes to his favourite actor and the star known universally as “The Gentle Man of Horror”.

The author was aided in his extensive research by film historians and critics, those who have met Cushing, residents of Whitstable, and even Whitstable Museum itself.

“This will engross and enthrall all Hammer fans and those who adore and revere Cushing. It brings his screen persona vividly to life in a modern context when the monsters are all too real.” - Tony Earnshaw, author of An Actor and a Rare One: Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Beating the Devil: The Making of ‘Night of the Demon’

“Peter Cushing was my first hero, and in my opinion Stephen Volk has done something heroic by putting the man who fought onscreen monsters at the heart of a very human drama. Sad, tinged with a palpable sense of loss, beautifully written, and blessed with an unerring eye for crucial detail, Whitstable is a story to savour. If I may be so bold, I’m convinced that Peter Cushing would have approved” - novelist Gary McMahon

“A wonderful piece” – David Pirie, author of A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema

“I loved Whitstable! It’s a beautiful love letter to a man, a genre, and an era that means so much to those of us of a certain age” - Mick Garris, director of The Stand, Bag of Bones, producer, Masters of Horror

Accompanied by a heartfelt Afterword by horror novelist and fellow Hammer devotee Mark Morris, Whitstable is the third in the series, Spectral Visions. The first two novellas (Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny and John L. Probert’s The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine) have garnered wide acclaim from readers, reviewers and bloggers alike.

http://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/horror/the-alchemy-press-book-of-ancient-wonders/

http://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/fantasy/the-alchemy-press-book-of-pulp-heroes/

In The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders, edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber, discover standing stones, burial mounds, ruined castles or sunken cities: the ancient sites that litter our landscapes; the ancient wonders that possess a mysterious appeal that cannot be denied.

In The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, editor Mike Chinn has collected seventeen stories that explore the world of pulp fiction with tall tales of daring do, of heroes and heroines and their villains.

“I’ve wanted to do something that hearkened back to the great British newspaper strips for years,” says Broxton, “and admitted as much to Guy who was as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.”

“There’s something really magical about the form,” agrees Adams, “three panels of rich, mad storytelling, slapped into the eyes of people who probably didn’t usually read comics outside their daily newspapers. They were mad, engaging and subversive.”

Adams and Broxton have been working together for the last year on THE ENGINE, a digital book released by the innovative new company, Madefire.

“Obviously,” says Adams, “Jimmy was already a solid name in comics after his work on books like KNIGHT & SQUIRE and SAUCER COUNTRY but Madefire gave me a chance to finally break into a medium I’ve loved for years. Working with Jimmy on THE ENGINE has been such fun that it was always going to be just a matter of time before we came up with something else we wanted to do together.

Adams is mainly known as a novelist, his books THE WORLD HOUSE and its sequel RESTORATION having been followed by brand new Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books, adaptations of classic movies for Hammer Books, weird westerns THE HEAVENS GATE CHRONICLES for Solaris and THE CLOWN SERVICE, a horror/espionage series forthcoming from Del Rey UK.

“It’s such a relief to only be doing half the work now I’m collaborating with Jimmy,” he jokes. “He suggested we come up with a ‘lost’ strip, something that had been devised as competition for MODESTY BLAISE but cancelled due to its content. Originally we were going to present it completely anonymously, the story of the strip’s creators, Antonio Barreti and Louis Schaeffer being as much a part of the overall effect as the newspaper strip itself. Having decided to go the Kickstarter route we’ve had to be a bit more open about it though…”

“God knows what the repercussions would have been otherwise,” agrees Broxton, “when people realised there never was a Goldtiger strip.”

“It’s a shame in a way,” says Adams, “it would have been fun to maintain the illusion. But the background to the strip’s creation, and the way it sent its artist mad is a major part of the overall story. We hope to do a series of these books and readers will realise that the fiction and ‘non-fiction’ elements will soon begin to blur, it’s all part of the one big story.”

Of course, if the Kickstarter project isn’t successful, life may imitate art. Could Goldtiger become ‘lost’ once more?

“We’re really hopeful,” says Broxton, “people have been amazing in their enthusiasm for the idea. But yeah, it’s all a bit nerve-wracking until the funding’s in place.”

To find out more about the project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/152141928/goldtiger-by-guy-adams-and-jimmy-broxton

Now That I’ve Lost You

http://www.screamingdreams.com/nowthativelostyou.html

A man seeks a cure for his loneliness in the squalid back streets of Goa. A couple find solace in each other as the world comes apart at the seams. Sinister creatures besiege a small American town buried in fog. And as the dead rise from rent, yawning graves, a girl is holed up in a farmhouse with one of their own…

In these nineteen tales of love and loss, sex and death, you will brave witches, warlocks and the living dead; traverse uncharted, hypnotic highways; and you will meet up with green-eyed losers who inhabit small spaces: whether it’s graveyards, old churches, or their own echoing heads.

Paul Edwards was born and raised in Bristol, but now lives in the Somerset market town of Frome. To date he’s had over 40 publications in a wide range of magazines, anthologies and webzines, and has had 2 honourable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. One of his stories, A Place the Night Can’t Touch, was made into a short film by students at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design. His debut collection Black Mirrors was published by Rainfall in May 2012 and he’s currently hard at work on a novel and a third collection. When he’s not writing, he enjoys drinking local cider, spending time with his family and watching horror movies late into the night…

Solaris have previously published Kearney’s MONARCHIES OF GOD series in two omnibuses, and his Macht fantasy series – THE TEN THOUSAND, CORVUS and KINGS OF MORNING.

World rights in THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books, were acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz from agent John Jarrold for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter. Gollancz have published it, and the first sequel, THE FRACTAL PRINCE, to great success and acclaim. Rights have also been sold in the USA, Japan and across Europe.

ReadWave is home to writers of all varieties, from sci-fi to literary fiction, and the anthology will be equally eclectic. We’re looking for well crafted stories in 1,500 words or less. Stories with a twist at the end are especially welcome.

The anthology will be available in paperback and as an eBook, and free ebook copies will be distributed to all ReadWave members.

If you are interested in submitting a story for the anthology please upload it to ReadWave.com and then send a link of the story to submissions@readwave.com. For further information please contact Robert Tucker at rob@readwave.com

Lauren writes: “This project is huge, and with the support of these authors I’ve taken to Kickstarter to raise the bare-minimum funds needed to make this project a reality. Every author involved in the project has offered limited edition exclusive items up for grabs — prizes that are only offered this one time and never again. Kickstarter contributors can find limited edition prints of their fantasy calendar photo (signed), wall posters (signed), “personalized packs” (containing prints, autographed calendar, and more — personalized and signed by the author), and calendars signed by all fourteen of the project’s participants. There are several high-end prizes up for grabs, including Skype chats with a few of the participating authors.”

“I truly believe in this project and the good that it can do for two amazing charities — “First Book” and Patrick Rothfuss’ “Worldbuilders“. Each author on the project has pledged not only prizes, but to promote the project during its run on Kickstarter and again once it goes on sale. We’re off to a great start, receiving almost 2/3 of the funding in a little over a week. The Kickstarter runs through the end of February and aims to raise $15,000.”

For more info you can check out the Kickstarter page HERE and Lauren’s page HERE.

Imagine the Sixties and Seventies… Hammer films and American International Pictures… The time of Plague of the Zombies, Lust for a Vampire, Quatermass and the Pit, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace and The Masque of the Red Death. Imagine we’re back there now. No mobile phones, no videotapes or DVDs, no personal computers. And iPads and Kindles are decades away. Where we are now, music is played on vinyl records with a stylus picking up the recorded sound on an old fashioned “radiogram” or a “portable” record player.
Horror stories had their emphasis on strong supernatural themes; this was an era when you could believe in vampires and strange otherworlds. Ghosts, demons, monsters, maniacs, black magic. These are the subject matter of this anthology of yarns from the deathly realm. A stage magician and his horrific secrets revealed to a meddling assistant. The bizarre appearance of an Arabian market in a Surrey garden. A railway station from which none of the ill-fated travellers can escape. A man searching for his lost wife in a dreamlike realm. A film director trying to capture the essence of a witches’ coven and its sacrifice. The writers in this book offer up their weird and peculiar offerings for your reading pleasure.

Twenty-three short stories,  including fiction by Ramsey Campbell, David A. Riley, E. C. Tubb, Kenneth Bulmer, Robert Holdstock and Rosemary Timperley… start your journey now!

Ordering & more Information: http://www.shadowpublishing.webeasysite.co.uk

Kraken Press

As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you.” In this collection of short stories Richard Thomas shows us in dark, layered prose the human condition in all of its beauty and dysfunction. A man sits in a high tower making tiny, mechanical birds, longing for the day when he might see the sky again. A couple spends an evening in an underground sex club where jealousy and possession are the means of barter. A woman is victimized as a child, and turns that rage and vengeance into a lifelong mission, only to self-destruct, and become exactly what she battled against. A couple hears the echo of the many reasons they’ve stayed together, and the one reason they finally have to part. And a boy deals with a beast that visits him on a nightly basis, not so much a shadow, as a fixture in his home. These 20 stories will take you into the darkness, and sometimes bring you back. But now and then there is no getting out, the lights have faded, the pitch black wrapping around you like a festering blanket of lies. What will you do now? It’s eat or be eaten—so bring a strong stomach and a hearty appetite.

Richard was the winner of the 2009 “Enter the World of Filaria” contest at ChiZine. He has published over sixty stories online and in print, including the Shivers VI anthology (Cemetery Dance) with Stephen King and Peter Straub, Murky Depths, PANK, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Pear Noir!, Word Riot, 3:AM Magazine, Dogmatika, Vain and Opium. His debut novel Transubstantiate was released in 2010. In his spare time he is a featured book critic at The Nervous Breakdown, as well as a columnist at Lit Reactor. He is represented by Paula Munier at the Talcott Notch agency.

For more information, check out their website www.krakenpress.com as well as Richard’s website, www.whatdoesnotkillme.com.

They’re also on the look-out for more British talent! Check out #1 for an idea of what they’re about and then take a look at their submissions page for more details: http://fdezine.fever-dreams.co.uk/Submissions.html

Featuring poetry/fiction from Serena Cooke, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Peter Friedman, Daniella Geary, Howie Good, Kyle Hemmings, P A Levy, John W Sexton, Ryan Swofford, Douglas Thompson and Steve Wheat. With cover art by Simanion.

Incidentally, issue #1 is almost sold out so grab it while it’s still available!

Edited by Sophie Essex and Andrew Hook who say they’re very proud of this issue which features some fantastic work, so please consider buying a copy (or two) so that they can continue!

They are currently open to submissions for #3. Check out their website for more details: http://fur-linedghettos.weebly.com/index.html

Kraken Press

Adam Aresty is an award winning screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles. In 2007 Adam won first place in the Screamfest Film Festival’s writing competition for his screenplay The Palace, about a haunted palace in Iraq.  In 2011, his original pilot, Uncivilized, a cop show set in post-apocalyptic Texas, took first place in the Slamdance Film Festival’s writing competition.

Guy’s story, iRobot, wryly picks apart our reliance on modern technology andis illustrated by award winning, world famous, SF artist Jim Burns.

Interzone 244 will be in UK newsagents and some bookshops in January.

This 150pp issue collects reviews originally appearing on the British Fantasy Society website in October, November and December 2012, by Carl Barker, Catherine Mann, Chris Limb, Craig Knight, David Brzeski, David Rudden, Elloise Hopkins, Glen Mehn, Guy Adams, Jim McLeod, Katy O’Dowd, Laurel Sills, Mario Guslandi, Matthew Johns, Pauline Morgan, Phil Ambler, Phil Lunt, R.A. Bardy, Rebekah Lunt, Steve Dean and Stewart Horn.

They consider the work of (deep breath) A.E. Rought, Alexander Mackendrick, Allen Ashley, Amanda Carlson, Arkane Studios, Benedict Jacka, Billie Sue Mosiman, Brent Weeks, C.L. Werner, Chris Butler, Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon, Chris Wraight, Christian Dunn, Christopher Hivner, Corey Grant, Dale Fabrigar and Everette Wallin, Dan Abnett, Danie Ware, Darius Hinks, David Hair, David Tallerman, Dean M. Drinkel, Eddie Robson, Edward M. Erdelac, Eric Brown, Eric J. Guignard, Esan Sivalinhgam, Evie Manieri, Frank P. Ryan, Freddie Francis, Gary McMahon, Geoff Nelder, Graeme Hurry, Graham McNeill, Guy Adams, Hannah Simpson, Hannu Rajaniemi, Hayao Miyazaki, Jaine Fenn, Jake Arnott, James Swallow, Jason Arnopp, Jasper Fforde, Jeani Rector, Joe Knee, John Ajvide Lindqvist, John Charles Scott, John Dorney, Jonathan L. Howard, Joseph Khan, Juan Martinez Moreno, Julie Armstrong, Kate Griffin, Kevin Connor, Laini Taylor, Laura Lam, Laurell K. Hamilton, Lee Collins, M.E. Brines, Marcel Schwob, Mark Morris, Martin Powell, Martin Smits and Erwin van de Eshof, Massimo Dallamano, Maynard Sims, Michael A. Nickles, Michael Croteau, Nicholas Ahlhelm, Nicholas Briggs, Nicholas McCarthy, Paco Plaza, Percival Constantine, Peter Heller, Peter Mark May, Philip José Farmer, Philip Purser-Hallard, Rachel Kendall, Ramsey Campbell, Rhys Hughes, Robert Hamer, Ross M. Kitson, Rowena Cory Daniells, Saladin Ahmed, Sam Stone, Sarah Newton, Scott K. Andrews, Sean Egan, Stefan Grabinski, Stephen Deas, Stephen Jones, Stevan Mena, Suzanne Johnson, Terry Brooks, The Butcher Brothers, Theresa Derwin, Toshiya Fujita, Val Guest, Will Hill and William Meikle.

The Alchemy Press Book of the Astrologica is looking for stories about the signs of the Zodiac, the characteristics associated with those signs and/or people born under them. They will also consider stories involving the mythical characters and creatures of the astrological signs, perhaps their history and origin, perhaps their present and future state. Note: Alchemy PRess are not saying that one has to believe in the paraphernalia associated with modern astrology; but authors should seek to use some of this as inspiration and underpinning of their narratives. http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/astrologica.html

The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic is seeking contemporary tales with all the magic and wonder of myth and legend, blending modern life with the traditions of folklore from around the world. Whether lurking in dark alleys or brash shopping malls; from shanty towns to the floating cities of Venice, Bangkok or Dubai; swanky riverside penthouse lofts or humble suburban semis, they want to see how the mythic is woven into the everyday. Think Charles de Lint, Terri Windling, Robert Holdstock, Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Kate Griffin, Simon R. Green, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman… http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/urban-mythic_2.html

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2 is after tales from the arid plains of Mars to the canyons of Manhattan; the foetid jungle to the naked jungle. Demented criminals versus dark heroes with sinister powers. The flash of steel in the palaces of long-forgotten civilizations or along the sterile corridors of impossible spacecraft. Swords against sorcery or sword and planet. http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/pulp-heroes-2_1.html

This year also sees the launch of Alchemy Novellas: these will cover almost all areas of Fantasy – that’s heroic fantasy, alternate world fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, dark crime and horror. Comic fantasy will be considered but not if it’s a parade of puns or bad gags. Alchemy Press are not fans of zombies or heroic vampires and will not publish hard science fiction. Essentially, acceptance will be based on how well the novella works for them. http://alchemypress02.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

Visit the above links for full details.

The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself

For fifteen years, Earth has had a scientific station on an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 876. It is humanity’s only presence outside the Solar System. But a new and powerful telescope at L5 can detect no evidence of Phaeton Base, even though it should be able to. So the US has sent Brigadier Colonel Bradley Elliott, USAF, to investigate. Twenty years before, Elliott was the first, and to date only, man to land on the Martian surface. What he discovered there gave the US the stars, but it might also be responsible for the disappearance of Phaeton Base…

The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself will be available in limited signed hardback, paperback, ePub and mobi formats.

The Love Machine & Other Contraptions is available in Kindle and paperback formats.

Yaniv is a film-maker, musician and author based in Tel Aviv. With World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar he co-wrote 2009 novel, The Tel Aviv Dossier. It has been described by SFCrowsnest as “the most enjoyably bizarre novel I’ve read,” and was called a “neo-Gnostic apocalypse narrative for the iPod generation” by The Jewish Quarterly.

Yaniv’s stories have appeared widely in Israel, where he is considered one of the most prominent of the new wave of genre writers. His writing is often humorous, and tackles a wide variety of subjects and literary approaches. In English, his stories have previously appeared in Weird Tales, Apex Magazine, Chizine and elsewhere, and they have been translated into German, Portuguese and Polish.

The Love Machine collects Yaniv’s previously published stories as well as many new stories never published in English. Some have been translated by Lavie Tidhar, who also provides an introduction, and well as by the author himself.

Yaniv’s work has been called “hypnotic, surreal and prophetic” by World Fantasy Award winning editor Ann VanderMeer, and as “fantastic, wonderful [and] weird” by Strange Horizons.

Satirical anthology Blackout is created by Starburst Magazine columnist P M Buchan, The Big Bang creator Jack Fallows and Kerrang! illustrator Phillip Marsden, with guest contributions by Andrew Waugh (Dodgem Logic), Mike Barnes (Cornelius Blow) and Harley Poe frontman Joe Whiteford.

Buchan, Fallows and Marsden met while working together at Travelling Man in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, bonding over their black humour, shared love of independent comics and an inability to show restraint at the bar. Collectively they’ve had comic-strips serialised in the NME, Starburst and SCREAM: The Horror Magazine.

Guest contributor Andrew Waugh has had strips published in Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic, Solipsistic Pop and ink + PAPER, while star guest Joe Whiteford is the frontman for notorious horror-folk-punk band Harley Poe. Joe was signed to a Christian punk label as a teenager, but that was clearly a relationship doomed to failure. Harley Poe’s last album was called Satan, Sex and No Regrets.

Speaking of the anthology, P M Buchan said: “Have you ever had one drink too many and woken up the next day to find that everybody hates you for something you don’t remember doing? Have you ever cried yourself to sleep over somebody that hasn’t even noticed that you exist? Do you feel like everything you touch is doomed to failure, leading towards a futile and inevitable death? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then we created Blackout with you in mind.”

For further information please contact phillip.buchan@starburstmagazine.com

The stories are:

An Odd Number at Table by John Costello

Concerning Events at Leinster Gardens  by Jan Edwards

Carnacki: A Cold Christmas in Chelsea by William Meikle

A Taste of Almonds by Raven Dane

Where the Stones Lie by Richard Farren Barber

All that is Living by Nicholas Martin

And May All your Christmases by Thana Niveau

Now and Then by Martin Roberts

December by Paul Finch

Ritualism by Gary McMahon

We Are a Shadow by Neil Williams

The Green Clearing by John Forth

Lost Soldiers by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Publisher’s Acknowledgements – Simon Marshall-Jones

BONUS

Whitstable novella preview (May 2013) by Stephen Volk

And, for every single purchase (£4.50 / $8.50 inc p+p) or new subscription (£16.00 / $32.00 inc p+p) they will throw in a signed copy of Mark Howard Jones’ book ‘The Garden of Doubt on the Island of Shadows’

More info can be found HERE. Paypal accepted to seinundwerden@gmail.com. Any other queries to same address.

Shadow Publishing

These offers are also available if you wish to pay by cheque in the UK. Contact Shadow Publishing for further details.

Starburst Magazine

Based on the poem of the same name by John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a four-part series that drags The Beautiful Lady out of the forest and screaming into the modern world.

Writer P M Buchan has had comics serialised in Starburst Magazine and SCREAM: The Horror Magazine. He is also a columnist for Panel Nine’s INFINITY, and has written for Rue Morgue magazine online and Lionsgate’s Fright Club e-magazine. His short stories have been published in The Bleed magazine and his short horror films have screened at festivals around the UK.

Artist Karen Yumi Lusted is the creator of Final Blossom and Tommi C. and the Cat Burglar. She collaborated with P M Buchan in Non Repro’s J-Cult anthology, and Karen’s art appeared in 1000 Ideas by 100 Manga Artists. In 2008 she won the 16+ premade art prize at the Manga Shakespeare / Sweatdrop MCM Expo art competition. Karen currently lives and teaches English in Japan.

With a cover coloured by Kate Brown (Fish + Chocolate, Freakangels), pin-ups by Kate Ashwin (Widdershins) and Kate Holden (Fan Dan Go), a back-up essay about the feminism of Keats by Bad Reputation blog editor Miranda Brennan, additional lettering and design by Mike Stock (Afterlife Inc., Dead Roots) and a downloadable soundtrack composed by Brendan Ratliff (aka Syphus) this is a haunting story that you can’t afford to miss.

Speaking of the new series, P M Buchan said: “So many modern stories draw from the same well of inspiration, but I’ve always felt that the Romantics had more to say about love and loss than anybody that followed them. Nothing fascinates me so much as the femme fatale, and there is no femme fatale in the history of English literature more beloved than La Belle Dame Sans Merci.”

David Hine (The Darkness, Detective Comics, Storm Dogs) had this to say after reading an advance preview: “P M Buchan’s loose interpretation of Keats’s poem is as enigmatic and disturbing as the source material. Opening with a deceptively familiar domestic scene, Karen Yumi Lusted conspires with Buchan to subvert the reader’s expectations with a ‘cute’ manga drawing style that makes the subsequent revelations even more shocking. Like all the best horror, La Belle Dame Sans Merci compels me to keep looking no matter how much I may want to turn away. I’ll be back for the next chapter.”

The book has a foreword by Janis Mackay and an introduction by Craig. The full list of contents is:

Timeless Love (originally published in Filthy Creations #2)
Synchronicity (originally published in The Third Black Book of Horror)
The Glowing Goblins (originally published in Auguries #16)
New Teacher (originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror)
The Janus Door
The Heaven Maker (originally published in The 29th Pan Book of Horror Stories)
The Waiting Game (originally published in Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories)
The Art of Confiscation
Gertrude
Not Waving
Spanish Suite (originally published in The Sixth Black Book of Horror)
The Anninglay Sundial
Soup (originally published in The Fourth Black Book of Horror)
A Game of Billiards (originally published in Tales from the Smoking Room)
The Navigator (originally published in Big Vault Advent Calendar 2011)
The Tasting
Steel Works
Liebniz’s Last Puzzle (originally published in The Fifth Black Book of Horror)
Big Cup, Wee Cup
Gifts (originally published in Big Vault Advent Calendar 2011)

Copies will become available shortly through rileybooks.co.uk

Queries about buying copiers of the book should be sent either to rileybooks@ntlworld.com or to Riley Books, 130 Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, Lancashire, BB5 3DR, UK.

Angry Robot

Tentatively titled A Conversation in Blood, the book is scheduled for Summer 2014. To sate readers’ appetites for more great sword and sorcery action, the second in the series, A Discourse in Steel, will be published in June of next year.

Paul S. Kemp said: “I don’t know about you, but my pink parts are all tingly! Wait, is that too much information? Uh, sorry. So, anyway, continuing my relationship with the metallic overlords? Check. Writing more stories in the sword and sorcery sub-genre I love? Double check. The long and short of it? I’m smiling. Hugely. I’ve had so much fun writing about Egil and Nix, and have had such positive feedback from readers who’ve had a blast, too, that I’m just delighted to have the opportunity to write more of their adventures. Huzzah!”

Angry Robot Editor Lee Harris added: “The Hammer and the Blade has proven to be one of our most popular titles of 2012, so it was an easy decision to ask Paul to write more in that world. Sword and Sorcery is alive and well and living in Paul S Kemp’s brilliant Tales of Egil and Nixseries.”

Find out more about Paul S. Kemp, who also writes for the Star Wars and Forgotten Realms universes, at his website: www.paulskemp.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSKemp.

His Own Mad Demons, Dark Tales from David A. Riley is available as a paperback and an ebook. It includes:

The Worst of all Possible Places (Houses on the Borderland, BFS, edited by David A. Sutton)
Lock In (The Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black)
Their Own Mad Demons (The Fifth Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black)
The Fragile Mask on his Face (Dark Discoveries #15, edited by James Beach)
The True Spirit (Back from the Dead, edited by Johnny Mains)

Print copies are available via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. In the US it’s $9.99 and £6.23 in the UK (with free shipping).

The ebook version is available via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, £3.21/$5.14.

Spectral Press

More information on the book can be found at the Spectral Press website HERE

Taken from Sam’s first collection, they feature unlikely locations including The Moulin Rouge, a film set and night club with a host of brilliantly scary characters. Horror author Graham Masterton said in his introduction to the print version: ‘Without doubt Sam Stone is a mistress of the grisly and the glutinous. She is one of the few horror writers who make you feel when you have finished her stories that you need to wash your hands. Twice!’

It couldn’t be easier to order an audiobook. Just go to the AudioGO website HERE to see their wide selection of horror titles. If you’d like to see more, simply select a genre and browse the thousands of titles on-site, available to order at the click of a mouse – or by calling them on 0800 136919.

More info can be found HERE

Angry Robot 

The Iron Wolves is the first of at least two novels set during a time of war and invasion. Riffing on The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven, the novel sees a disparate band of ruffians and renegades being reunited one last time to defend a key stronghold against overwhelming odds. But when they fight as one, the veteran warriors have a hidden power, and unleashing it one last time will have extraordinary consequences.

Andy Remic’s previous Clockwork Vampire trilogy for Angry Robot earned him the nickname “the Tarantino of epic fantasy” and the new novels will be loosely set in the same setting.

The first novel will be published in January 2014 in paperback, ebook and audio editions. The deal was done direct with Andy Remic by Marc Gascoigne, Angry Robot’s MD and publisher.

Andy Remic said: “After the success of my previous Angry Robot titles – Kell’s Legend, Soul Stealers and Vampire Warlords – I’m absolutely thrilled and vibrating to be revisiting the fantasy genre.

“Based loosely in the same universe as Kell’s Legend, The Iron Wolves will take traditional fantasy elements and stir them violently in a big pot with a barrel of whiskey. We’re talking gruesome battles, nasty anti-heroes, hardened soldiers, bloody enemies, twisted deviants and gritty realism so damn gritty you’ll be spitting blood, teeth and gristle by the bloody violent end!”

Find out more about Andy Remic at his website: www.andyremic.com and follow him on Twitter (if you dare…)

It has been nine hundred years since man last used machines. Technology, science and medicine have been forgotten, leaving in their wake a twisted legacy: the Walkin’. The disease is passed down from generation to generation; it causes men, women and children to live on after death.

In these turbulent times a community seeks isolation. Their plain existence is based on an incomplete copy of the Bible and the teachings of John Sebastian Barkley, town founder. Following his example, they burn the bodies of their dead to stop them from living again. Except that doesn’t always happen . . .

Thomas McDermott has died. A man of Barkley, he should have been burnt on a funeral pyre, but instead, he wakes from his death. Torn between the desire to see his wife and daughter, and the shame of what he has become, he travels to Barkley – but his return endangers everything and everyone he once loved.

David Towsey, 27, has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa, and is continuing his studies as a PhD student at Aberystwyth University. He was nominated for a British Fantasy Society award for Best Short Fiction in 2008. He regularly reviews for critical journals, including the New Welsh Review and the BSFA’s critical journal, Vector.

Jo Fletcher said, ‘The agent described this as “a bastard post-apocalyptic cross between The Passage, The Sisters Brothers and Cormac McCarthy”, and was hugely excited. Normally I take that excitement with a pinch of salt – it’s an agent’s job to sell, after all – but the moment I started reading this unique zombie western I knew if was every bit as special as Sam had said, and thus perfect for Jo Fletcher Books, so we at JFB and Quercus are thrilled David’s joined us.’

David Towsey said, ‘I can’t wait to start working with Jo Fletcher and her team. The titles coming out under the Jo Fletcher imprint are unbelievably exciting; to have my work become part of such a vibrant and diverse list is a real honour.’

Agent Sam Copeland of RCW Literary Agency said ‘Both the author and I were bowled over by Jo Fletcher’s enthusiasm and intelligence in talking about David’s work. We were totally persuaded that JFB at Quercus was the perfect fit, and we are hugely excited.’

Neil Gaiman says: ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a novel of childhood and memory. It’s a story of magic, about the power of stories and how we face the darkness inside each of us. It’s about fear, and love, and death, and families. But, fundamentally, I hope, at its heart, it’s a novel about survival.’

Jane Morpeth says: ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a truly wonderful novel from a genius storyteller, which is at once moving, magical and terrifying. We will be publishing it in July next year in hardback, ebook and audio and I can’t wait for everyone else to have the opportunity to read and love it as much as I do.

2013 will be an extremely eventful year for Neil Gaiman, author of critically acclaimed and bestselling novels American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere and Stardust, and many other award-winning works.

In addition to publication of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a new picture book Chu’s Day will be published by Bloomsbury Children’s Publishing at the start of 2013, followed by a children’s book for older readers later in the year. There is the eagerly anticipated prequel mini-series to his seminal comic book series The Sandman. Neil is also scripting a new episode of Doctor Who to be screened in 2013, having written the multi-award winning 2011 episode ‘The Doctor’s Wife’. Neverwhere is to be dramatised across two platforms on BBC Radio Four and BBC Radio Four Extra in the spring. HBO is developing six seasons of a television version of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel American Gods.

“Fresh out of jail and hopeful his troubles are behind him, Valentine Slade returns to his hometown of Lott, New Mexico.  But for Val, his troubles are just beginning.  His girlfriend’s State Trooper brother comes after him with a shotgun, his mother Caroline has been diagnosed with a mysterious form of terminal cancer, and a mutilated corpse is found on the road outside his house.

And there’s something more… something… unnatural out in the desert… something that is not human watches and waits, luring Val deeper and deeper into a terrifying mystery that may very well be tied to otherworldly intelligence… and tied to Val himself.  To find the truth Val must delve into nightmares he’d rather forget, horrors he’d rather not know, and into places where there is nowhere to hide.

We are not alone.  There is no escape from the truth.  No escape from… TRINITY.”

Trinity is still available in paperback and ebook formats, check out the website HERE for details.

The anthology features stories by John Brunner, Alison Littlewood, Robin Ince, Bernard Taylor, Reggie Oliver, Anna Taborska, David A. Riley, Claire Massey, Paul Finch, Rhys Hughes, Kate Farrell, Craig Herbertson, Janine-Langley Wood, Alison Moore, Johnny Mains, John Llewellyn Probert, Steve Rasnic Tem, Alex Miles, Chris Fowler, Charlie Higson and John Burke.

You can find out more and order the book at http://www.screamingdreams.com/thescreamingbookofhorror.html

The Alchemy Press Book of Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac edited by Allen Ashley

For full submission guidelines go HERE

Allen says: “I am looking for stories about the signs of the Zodiac, the characteristics associated with those signs and/ or people born under them. I will also consider stories involving the mythical characters and creatures of the astrological signs, perhaps their history and origin, perhaps their present and future state. Note: I am not saying that one has to believe in the paraphernalia associated with modern astrology; but authors should seek to use some of this as inspiration and underpinning of their narratives…”

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The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes volume II edited by Mike Chinn

For full submission guidelines go HERE

Mike says: “Following the successful publication of The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, The Alchemy Press is following up with a second anthology: Pulp Heroes II. Once again it’s time to celebrate (or subvert) the glorious Pulp tradition – as well as taking a wild new look at it. I suggest you read volume one to get a sense of my requirements (available via Amazon and other online retailers).

From the arid plains of Mars to the canyons of Manhattan; the foetid jungle to the naked jungle. Demented criminals versus dark heroes with sinister powers. The flash of steel in the palaces of long-forgotten civilizations or along the sterile corridors of impossible spacecraft. Swords against sorcery or sword and planet.”

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 The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber

For full submission guidelines go HERE

Jan and Jenny say: “For The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic, we are seeking contemporary tales with all the magic and wonder of myth and legend, blending modern life with the traditions of folklore from around the world. Whether lurking in dark alleys or brash shopping malls; from shanty towns to the floating cities of Venice, Bangkok or Dubai; swanky riverside penthouse lofts or humble suburban semis, we want to see how the mythic is woven into the everyday. Think Charles de Lint, Terri Windling, Robert Holdstock, Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Kate Griffin, Simon R. Green, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman…”

The Ninth Black Book of Horror

About the book:
“Horrible people, horrible places, horrible things and horrible fates all await you in The Ninth Black Book of Horror. The new anthology from Mortbury Press is truly horrible. Check in at a horror hospital, witness grisly acts, observe dreadful family reunions, meet a man who hates waste, the things that are not there, and find out what’s behind you in The Ninth Black Book of Horror.”

Sixteen stories by John Llewellyn Probert, Craig Herbertson, Simon Bestwick, Gary Fry, David Williamson, Anna Taborska, Sam Dawson, Paul Finch, Gary Power, Thana Niveau, Tom Johnstone, Marion Pitman, Kate Farrell, John Forth, Marc Lyth and David A. Riley.  Cover art is by Paul Mudie.

In haunted and splintered minds… Minds shackled to lonely places…
In the unbound shadows infesting hearts of beautiful woman with frantic sensations…
In an old house where biblical thrived…
In threadbare truths, disturbed by despair, cobwebbed with illusions…
In far cold Carcosa…
Lies madness.

In A Season In Carcosa readers will find the strange and mysterious places of heart and mind that spring from madness, and those minds and the places touched by it are the realms that are mined. Chambers’ legacy of the worms and soft decay that spring from reading the King In Yellow stir both new and established talents in the world of weird fiction and horror to contribute all new tales that pay homage to these eerie nightmares. In Carcosa twilight comes and minds lost in the mirrors of lust and fear, are awash in legacies of shadows, not mercy. . .”

Authors include: Joel Lane, Simon Strantzas, Gary McMahon, Cate Gardner, Richard Gavin, Joseph S. Pulver, Richard A. Lupoff, Anna Tambour, Laird Barron, Allyson Bird and many others. Cover art is by British Fantasy Award-winning artist Daniele Serra.

Full details from the website HERE