Tim Parker Russell is now accepting submissions for an anthology of ghost stories entitled Dark World, to be published by Tartarus Press in February 2013. The book will be a numbered, limited edition trade paperback, with profits going to Amala Children’s Home and School, India, where Tim will be working with orphaned children in July 2013. This has been organised by The Wensleydale School, Leyburn, North Yorkshire.

Tim would like to receive previously unpublished ghost stories suitable for a general audience. Although stories should offer more than a “pleasing terror”, they should not contain anything too graphic or gratuitous. Stories should be between 2,000 and 7,000 words. Closing date for submissions is 31 December 2012. Authors will receive two copies of the published book. Copyright remains with the author.

For submission information see HERE

WORLD’S COLLIDER: A SHARED-WORLD ANTHOLOGY edited by Richard Salter, Nightscape Press, p/b, £9.28/£2.66 Kindle edition www.nightscapepress.com

Reviewed by Katy O’Dowd

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet.

Believe me when I say this book is awesome. There aren’t enough different words for the word love to let me tell you how much I loved it. The concept, the writing, the mash-up of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, the tying together of the narrative throughout the book which is so superbly done. Beauteous to behold this strange, horrible-yet-vibrant new world.

Special mentions to Nicholas Blake who made me cry, and to Steven Savile with Steve Lockley who brought all the threads together so wonderfully in the penultimate story.

James Moran’s ‘Inversions’ introduces us to Scott Fletcher – the only man in the world who knows that it is going to end. A blogger keeps track of the beginning of the end in ‘Keep Calm And Carry On Part One’, by David N Smith and Violet Addison. Kelly Hale’s ‘The Rise And Fall Of The House Of Ricky’ features a designer whose clothes people are dying to be seen in.

A lethal gas is no laughing matter in ‘Keep Calm And Carry On Part Two’ (the same authors wrote parts one to four). Joseph meets himself in an alternate reality in Aaron Rosenberg’s ‘Displacement’; while in Part Three of the Keep Calm stories, the impact of the catastrophic events continues to be felt.

‘The Coming Scream’ by Simon Kurt Unsworth features Scott, fighting against an audible entity. Paul Pearson’s ‘Doors’ is a creeping psychological horror where sanity battles to keep the upper hand. Scott’s chances rest on a woman whose mother’s love knows no bounds in Pete Kempshall’s ‘Closure’.

Bugs from the rift terrorise a desert bar in ‘Black Closure’ by Trent Zelazny. Dave Hoskin’s ‘Collisions’ sees Joseph allow an intruder into his mind. Nicholas Blake’s ‘What Little Boys Are Made Of’ is a heartrending story told from a six year old boy’s point of view.

Dave Hutchinson’s ‘Beyond The Sea’ made me laugh out loud within its opening lines of Death Metal and Rogers and Hammerstein show tunes. In ‘Caught’ by Elise Hattersley, we are in the web of the riftspider; while Colin rides the never-ending railway in Jonathan Templar’s ‘Basher’.

Rats are caught in a trap by earthly angels in Meg Moore’s disturbing ‘Lead Us Not’. Jordan Ellinger’s ‘The Last CEO’ features the fixers vs the Queen gasbag. And there is bird-watching of a riftly kind in Richard Wright’s ‘Twitchers’.

Steven Savile and Steve Lockley’s ‘Lost Souls’ features an epic showdown when the lost souls within the rift collide with the four keepers of the earth. Part Four of the Keep Calm series brings us to a chilling end.

Go buy this book. You won’t regret it.

Ellen Datlow, editor of the anthology series Best Horror of the Year (Night Shade Books), is currently reading for the fifth volume which will include material published in 2012.

She states: “I am looking for stories from all branches of horror: from the traditional-supernatural to the borderline, including high-tech sf horror, supernatural stories, psychological horror, dark thrillers, or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, send it. This is a reprint anthology so I am only reading material published in or about to be published in 2012. Submission deadline for stories is December 1st 2012.”

See Ellen’s website HERE for full submission details.

You’ll be pleased to hear that The Screaming Book of Horror anthology is now in stock over at Screaming Dreams. Limited hardback edition. Be quick if you want to grab a copy though, as we’re told that they are selling out quickly!

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 Ninth Black Book of Horror edited by Charles Black is now available from Amazon and will soon be available to purchase direct from the Mortbury Press website.

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.

“H.P. Lovecraft. Karl Edgar Wagner. Peter Straub. Those are a few of the names that stand tall in our genre and when it comes to Robert W. Chambers and his King in Yellow (first published in 1895) they agree, Chambers’ beguiling tales of the King In Yellow and Carcosa are among the best in weird fiction. Miskatonic River Press and Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. are proud and delighted to present a themed anthology of all new tales inspired by Chambers.

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

The Alchemy Press will launch their two latest anthologies at FantasyCon on Saturday 29 September 2012 at 10.00am. The convention, a highpoint in the fantasy and horror fan’s calendar, once more returns to the south coast city of Brighton.

The editors, and some of the contributors, will be on hand to sign the two new anthologies: The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders and The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes.

About 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.”

With stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Aliette de Bodard, Peter Crowther, Anne Nicholls, Adrian Cole, Pauline E. Dungate, Bryn Fortey, William Meikle, John Howard, James Brogden, Shannon Connor Winward, Misha Herwin, Lynn M Cochrane and Selina Lock.

About The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, edited by Mike Chinn:

“Hard-boiled detectives, sinister vigilantes, bizarre villains – the staple of the Pulp tradition; two-fisted heroes – and heroines – fighting for right and justice in the midnight city, foetid jungles or exotic, far-flung lands; and deranged villains for whom the world is never enough.

Here, seventeen writers dive headlong into the world of the pulp fiction, to tell us tall tales of daring do, of heroes, heroines and their villains.”

With stories by Mike Resnick, Peter Atkins, Peter Crowther, Adrian Cole, William Meikle, Joel Lane, Amber L. Husbands, Milo James Fowler, Anne Nicholls, Robert William Iveniuk, Bracken N. MacLeod, Chris Iovenko, Joshua Wolf, James Hartley, Ian Gregory, Michael Haynes and Allen Ashley.

Special FantasyCon price: £8.00 each (cover price £10.00 each) or buy both for £15.00.

Hersham Horror has published the second anthology in its PentAnth range, Siblings, edited by Stuart Hughes. It contains five new horror tales from Simon Kurt Unsworth, Sam Stone, Richard Farren Barber, Sara Jayne Townsend and Stuart Hughes.

“You can choose your friends, but not your family….”

The book is available on Amazon worldwide in Kindle and print versions.

There will be a launch event / signing for this book outside the dealers’ room at 12.00pm on Saturday 29 September 2012 at FantasyCon.

The fall 2012 line-up of Pandemonium Fiction titles has been released, and includes a weird Western anthology, new collectible novelettes and the anniversary edition of Simon Morden’s apocalyptic debut.

Pandemonium will be publishing a luxury re-issue of Thy Kingdom Come, the debut novel by Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Simon Morden. Featuring twenty interconnected tales of a nuclear apocalypse, this limited edition features a new introduction and afterword by the author, an introduction by Edgar-winning Robert Jackson Bennett and art by the amazing Joey HiFi. Thy Kingdom Come will be released as a signed and numbered limited edition. All profits from the sales of this book (due in November) will go to the Red Cross.

A Town Called Pandemonium is a shared world Western featuring some of the top authors in genre fiction. The tales all take place in a burned out mining town in the New Mexico territory. Scott Andrews, Will Hill, Archie Black, Jonathan Oliver, Joseph D’Lacey and Den Patrick are joined by US authors Sam Sykes, Chrysanthy Balis and Osgood Vance and South Africa’s Sam Wilson. The anthology is llustrated by Adam Hill. As with previous Pandemonium anthologies, A Town Called Pandemonium will be released as a numbered limited edition and a Kindle ebook (for one year only!). Release date is November.

Jonathan Green is joined by debut authors Marc Aplin and Laura Graham in 1853, the chapbook companion to Town. The authors explore the rest of the shared world with stories set in the same fateful year. 1853 collects three short tales of monsters human and inhuman. This ebook will also be released in November.

The Pandemonium Novelettes series of lettered-edition paperbacks continues with Archie Black‘s Uncle Smoke. Originally published in Stories of the Smoke, Black has extended her whirlwind tour of London’s secret history with several new neighbourhoods. To be released in December in print only, limited to 26 signed and lettered copies.

Finally, the tradition of Stocking Stuffers continues, with a new collection of darkly fantastic tales for the holiday season. Cover by Sarah Anne Langton. Ebook only to be released in December.

Gray Friar Press are launching a new series of paperbacks. The New Blood series will feature short story collections from some of the brightest new stars of horror fiction. Number 1 in the series is Peel Back the Sky from Stephen Bacon. This 21 story collection, featuring an introduction by Nicholas Royle and wonderful cover art by Les Edwards, is available now.

About the book:
“The shop mannequins that appear to have a life of their own . . .the monstrous insect that consumes men’s thoughts . . . the shadowy organisation that wreaks terror to the public . . . the overgrown garden blighted by a centuries-old curse . . . These tales map the darkest recesses of our minds. They document the madness and cruelty that exists in the places we do not wish to visit.”

To order a copy visit the website HERE

The following few months will also see the release of the second entry in the New Blood series, Thana Niveau‘s From Hell to Eternity. There’s also the new entry in Gray Friar’s Terror Tales series – this time, Terror Tales of East Anglia – as well as a bumper new collection from its editor Paul Finch. There will also be a collection of novellas from Simon Bestwick, number 6 in the Gray Matter series.

For more information visit the Gray Friar website HERE