Dadaoism, the first anthology from Chomu Press, is now available. From the website: “Editors Justin Isis and Quentin S. Crisp have selected twenty-six novellas, short stories and poems setting out an aesthetic manifesto of rich and stimulating prose style, explosively unhindered imagination and anarchic experimentation.” As we have come to expect from Chomu, this is no ordinary anthology. Contributing authors include Reggie Oliver, D.F. Lewis, Michael Cisco, Nick Jackson, Jeremy Reed and Brendan Connell among others.

Dadaoism is Chomu’s first title of 2012. In June and July, they publish the novel Celebrant by Michael Cisco and a debut collection of short fiction, I Am a Magical Teenage Princess, by Luke Geddes. September sees the paperback reprint of Quentin S. Crisp’s collection All God’s Angels, Beware! (previously an Ex Occidente limited edition). October, November and December willl bring work from John Elliott, Anna Tambour and Brendan Connell.

For more information on Chomu’s planned releases in 2012 see the website HERE

Gray Friar Press is delighted to announce the second instalment in its new anthology series: Terror Tales of the Cotswolds. Edited by Paul Finch, this collection of fourteen original horror tales includes spooky entries from Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, Reggie Oliver, Alison Littlewood, Gary McMahon, John Llewellyn Probert, Thana Niveau, Joel Lane and Gary Fry. Cover art is by Steve Upham.

This volume follows the first anthology in the series, Terror Tales of the Lake District, also edited by Paul Finch.

For further details and information on how to order see the Gray Friar website HERE

Stumar Press are delighted to open their doors to unsolicited submissions for an ongoing horror anthology series Ten Terrors. Each volume in the series will contain ten horror stories from established and emerging writers in the horror genre. The first volume (Winter 2012) will feature Graham Joyce, Mark Morris and eight other writers. Volume two (Spring 2013) will feature Tim Lebbon and nine other writers.

There’s no theme – other than the story needs to be a horror one. By horror, they mean the full breadth of the genre from gentle ghost stories to nasty pieces full of blood, guts and gore. The horror can deal with the psychological or the supernatural, with the fantastic or the normal.

Check out the guidelines HERE for more details.

NIGHT TERRORS  II Edited by Theresa Dillon & Marc Ciccarone, Blood Bound Books p/b  £ 10.21    Kindle $ 6.01

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

It’s always a pleasure to find a horror anthology whose authors are not the usual suspects, famous as they may be, but a cluster of less known, comparatively new  writers . Who knows, among them, perhaps, is hidden a new, extraordinary talent, the new King, Campbell and such.

Thus, the present book, the second volume in a series from Blood Bound Books, promised to be a treat and, to a certain extent, does fulfill that promise.

Mind you, the book assembles twenty-seven stories, therefore it would be naïve to expect constant, top quality from all of them. There is a fair amount of ordinary, run-of-the-mill material, of implausible plots and  sloppy writing, but ,thanks god, there is also a bunch of excellent stories, so much so that I’m very sorry to have missed the first volume.

Take , for example, “Habemus Papam”  by Desmond Warzel, a short, iconoclastic piece revealing the hidden, dark side of the conclave committed to elect the new Pope or “The Boy in the Well” by Danny Rhodes, an atmospheric tale graced by a solid storytelling, where a childhood incident casts is sinister shadow on a future tragedy. Two excellent stories indeed.

In “Until I Come Again” Justin Gustainis provides a quite original explanation of what really put an end to the Jack the Ripper killings, while in the well crafted “Darkly Dreaming in Black Waters”  Jason Andrew sets Lovecraftian horrors on a nazi ship during WW2.

The creepy “A Mother’s Love” by John Peters depicts a mother ready to do anything to retrieve her lost son and the vivid “One For the Road” by Jason V Brock  describes how a highway rest area becomes the site of a frightening nightmare.

John Morgan’s “The Prophet” is an allusive, unsettling tale trying to discover what’s awaiting us after death, while Bob Macumber’s “A Cat Named Mittens” , although always on the verge of getting preposterous, does exude pure horror and manages to keep the reader nailed to the chair.

A special mention is due to “All Cry” by Patricia Russo, , a tense, superb story where a happy family has to face an unexpected, terrible ordeal.

In conclusion, various , good new authors to watch and an interesting imprint to which we’d better keep an eye on in the future.

The Alchemy Press is seeking submissions for The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, edited by Mike Chinn.

“The Shadow, The Bat, Doc Savage, The Spider; Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Detective Agency; Dusty Ayers & His Battle Birds; Sheena and Ka-Zar. Hard-boiled detectives, sinister vigilantes, bizarre villains – the staple of the Pulp tradition. We want fiction that celebrates (or subverts) that tradition – as well as taking a wild new look at it. Fiction set in the 1930s and 40s, the far future or mythical past, or the present day. Two-fisted heroes – and heroines – fighting for right and justice in the midnight city, foetid jungles or exotic, far-flung lands. Deranged villains for whom the world is never enough.

Sports stories, spy stories, aircraft and zeppelin stories, sea and pirate stories, Westerns, medieval romance, horror, science fiction and fantasy, movies and car racing – there’s no limit.

THRILL US, SCARE US – MAKE US CARE.”

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes will be published in paperback in September 2012, to be followed by an ebook edition. The submission period runs from 1 April to 30 May 2012, and this is a paying market. For full submission guidelines see the website HERE

The Horror For Good charitable anthology, edited by Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender and Robert S. Wilson, will be published by Cutting Block Press on 30 March 2012.

Appearing in the book will be stories by Jack Ketchum, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Garton, Lisa Morton, Jeff Strand, Shaun Hutson, Joe R. Lansdale, Laird Barron, Gary McMahon, Stephen Bacon, and many more.

This is a charitable anthology. All revenues, less direct costs for production, marketing and distribution (net profits of each purchase, estimated to be at least 10% to 15%) will be donated to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

Pledges are sought for a Kickstarter project to fund a shared world fantasy anthology entitled Beyond the Black Gate. Part of the Tales of the Emerald Serpent project, this project will only be funded if at least $10,000 is pledged by Wednesday 18 April 2012.

Kickstarter describes itself as “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects… On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands.” This allows project creators to test the market without risk, since no project will be started without the necessary funds.

Regarding Beyond the Black Gate:

“This anthology takes readers to the Free City of Taux, a fantasy port of cursed stones, dark plots, and a core of rich characters who share space inside the infamous Black Gate District.

This rich anthology links characters and tales in an interwoven mosaic that helps draw the reader on, and with authors like Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Martha Wells, Robert Mancebo and Julie Czerneda sharing characters with newcomer Michael Tousignant and iconic fantasy artist turned writer Todd Lockwood, the book plumbs the depths of dark city-born fantasy.

Editor and contributor R. Scott Taylor helps create the shadowed metropolis of Taux, where Razor Duelists and mailed and heavily armed Sturgeons try to hold back the tide of ghosts, Moon Cultists, and shadow magic that lurks inside the slithering coils of Wizard’s Mist.  Rogues, harlots, and merchant princes share the same streets, and all watch their backs as the stones of the city call out to the living in a never ending game of cat and mouse for the true ownership of the great port.”

If you would like to pledge funds to this project please visit the Kickstarter website HERE

The anthology Bite Sized Horror 2, edited by Johnny Mains, has been picked up for publication by Hersham Horror and will be published in 2013. This is, of course, the follow-up to Bite Sized Horror from Obverse Books. Bite Sized Horror 2 will feature all new stories by Alison Littlewood, Cate Gardener, Thana Niveau, Lynda E Rucker, Marie O’ Regan and Barbie Wilde.

Also, Frightfully Mild and Cosy Stories For Nervous Types, Johnny Mains’ second collection, will be published by David A. Sutton’s Shadow Publishing in Autumn 2012.

New from Shadow Publishing: The Satyr’s Head: Tales of Terror, selected by David A. Sutton
Cover art by Steve Upham

This is the first new edition of the long out of print Transworld/Corgi Book The Satyr’s Head & Other Tales of Terror, first published in 1975. With stories by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joseph Payne Brennan, Eddy C. Bertin, David A. Riley, James Wade and others, this new edition will bring back into print some ten chilling tales of the supernatural and the sub-human, of ghosts and demons, strange phenomena and the inexplicable.

More information HERE

Dadaoism (An Anthology) edited by Justin Isis and Quentin S. Crisp
Paperback to be published by Chômu Press on 16 May 2012

‘The first anthology of contemporary fiction from innovators Chômu Press, Dadaoism is designed as a literary manifesto for the 21st Century. From Reggie Oliver’s ‘Portrait of a Chair’, in which consciousness is explored from the point of view of furniture, to Julie Sokolow’s ‘The Lobster Kaleidoscope’ in which naïve wordplay acts as a foundation for existentialist philosophy in a story of inter-species love, Dadaoism presents a mystery tour of the literary imagination to demonstrate that outside of exhausted mainstream realism and uninspired genre tropes, contemporary English-language writing is a thriving and creatively vital arena. Please “take your protein pills and put your helmet on”; this is something for the adventurous reader. Expect views of some fantastic literary nebulae, and encounters with word-form singularities.’

Contents:
‘Portrait of a Chair’, by Reggie Oliver, ‘Autumn Jewel’, by Katherine Khorey, ‘Visiting Maze’, Michael Cisco, ‘The Houses Among the Trees’, by Colin Insole, ‘Affection 45’, by Brendan Connell, ‘M-Funk Vs. Tha Futuregions of Inverse Funkativity’, by Justin Isis, ‘Spirit and Corpus‘, by Yarrow Paisley, ‘Timelines’, by Nina Allan, ‘Jimmy Breaks up with His Imaginary Girlfriend’, by Jimmy Grist, ‘Body Poem’, by Peter Gilbert, ‘Testing Spark’, by Daniel Mills, ‘Noises’, by Joe Simpson Walker, ‘Romance, with Mice’, by Sonia Orin Lyris, ‘Grief (The Autobiography of a Tarantula)’ by Jesse Kennedy, ‘Orange Cuts’, by Paul Jessup, ‘Instance’, by John Cairns, ‘Kago Ai (The End of the Night)’, by Ralph Doege, ‘Fighting Back’, by Rhys Hughes, ‘Nowhere Room’, by Kristine Ong Muslim, ‘Koda Kumi’ a Justin Isis re-mix of ‘Italiannetto’ by Quentin S. Crisp, ‘The Lobster Kaleidoscope’, by Julie Sokolow, ‘The Eaten Boy’, by Nick Jackson, ‘Poppies’, by Megan Lee Beals, ‘Abra Raven’, by D.F. Lewis, ‘Pissing in Barbican Lake’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicides’, by Jeremy Reed.

Full details HERE