Tales to Terrify, the international horror fiction podcast, are looking for more short horror fiction. They’d like 8000 words or less, recent or old, author’s choice.

For further details, or to submit a piece, email the editor, Cher Eaves, at running2defend@yahoo.com

Midnight Echo, the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers’ Association, is seeking submissions for Issue 9 Mythical Horror (edited by G.N. Braun). Submissions are open from 1 October 2012 to 31 January 2013.

They are looking for “re-workings of myths and legends, brought into the modern world … the tale must have horror as a central theme.”

They state that although they seek to emphasise the work of Australian writers, they are open to international submissions too. Contributors do not need to be members of the AHWA. This is a paying publication.

For full submission information go HERE

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.

World Fantasy Award-nominated author Simon Kurt Unsworth will be running a short course in writing horror and SF entitled “Ghosts and other Worlds”. It will run on four consecutive Tuesdays (7:00 – 9:00pm) from 23 October 2012 at One Voice, St Leonard House, St Leonard Gate, Lancaster LA1 1NN. The programme is as follows:

• 23 October – Introductions: meeting ghosts
• 30 October – Creating characters and creatures
• 6 November – Using place and environment
• 13 November – Trying to get published

Advance booking is required, and the cost is £7.50 per session. For further details or to book a space, please contact Simon at simonkurtunsworth [at] gmail [dot] com

BEREAVEMENT

Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Michael Biehn, Brett Rickaby & John Savage

Written, produced and directed by Stevan Mena

Rating: 18

Duration: 103 mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

Horror can do many things. It can inspire, liberate, chill, amuse and terrify. Sometimes, however, it just wants to rub your face in the dirt. Stevan Mena’s prequel to his movie Malevolence certainly fits into that latter category. Viewers who like their gore, claustrophobia and lunacy tempered with elements of hope or redemption may find this a little suffocating.

Centering around a serial killer who “adopts” a young child suffering from congenital analgesia (a rare condition where the sufferer is unable to feel pain), Bereavement is classed by its creator as a “character study” compared to the more traditional stalker antics of the previous film.

In this it certainly achieves its aim though whether we actually want to spend 100 minutes in the presence of such a character is another thing entirely. All the grim necessities are present: the killer operates out of a disused charnel house; drives a truck that looks like it would eat any roadkill it found and spouts cod moral philosophy at his victims before giving them a sound gutting.

Some solid set-pieces show a solid imagination at work though there’s no doubt that the film feels a bit flabby at times (it was apparently filleted down from a three hour initial cut which would have been an exercise in endurance beyond what the killer’s victim’s suffer when hanging from their meat hooks). That said, when it works, as it frequently does in its last half, it’s a tense and grisly affair.

If you like your horror relentless and lacking in lighter shades then it’s certainly worth a look.

THE PACT

Starring: Caity Lotz, Caspar Van Dien

Written and Directed by Nicholas McCarthy.

Rating: 15

Duration: 89mins

Reviewed by Guy Adams

I’m reviewing The Pact via an authorised PR internet stream because the future is a shiny place and discs are for squares. God knows how Kim Newman manages, we all know he accesses the internet via a steam-driven homunculus powered by the mummified heart of Rasputin.

Such technology is appropriate here though as The Pact is at great pains to be a modern picture from the off. Blackberry phones offer exposition via loud speaker, spooky iPhones ring in a dead woman’s house, Google Maps will prove haunted and the first glimpse of something amiss is seen over Skype.

In other ways the creeps are distinctly traditional, things bump and shatter in empty rooms, presences are felt offscreen and there’s even a child’s toy on a rocking chair. If it were to creak into life we could hardly be surprised.

A mixture of the ancient and modern then and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, writer and director Nicholas McCarthy’s first full-length picture knows its roots but is determined to grow-up it’s own man.

Caity Lotz stars as a young woman returning to her childhood home to sort out the affairs of her recently deceased mother. She’s haunted of course, and by more than whatever we sense inveigling its way into the shadows. Caspar Van Dien offers support, stubble and a gravely voice. He also has a method for quitting smoking that would see this reviewer marooned in his house, no longer able to fit through the door.

Not only is McCarthy’s ghost modern but it’s distinctly proactive too. It’s not content to whisper from the darkness for long, and is soon physically attacking Caity with a confidence not seen since The Entity. From there on the plot makes a resounding effort to go places you weren’t expecting. Along the way, the landmarks are familiar but they’ve all been given a slight twist.

The film isn’t perfect by any means. It’s been given something of a rough ride in the press. But I can’t help but feel a number of reviews were missing the point. Yes, the performances are not always perfect; no, the script isn’t always on the nose but the one promise the movie makes it lives up to: it’s scary. McCarthy knows how to build tension, shoot a scare and make his audience jump. That’s what The Pact is for and on those terms it’s a great success. To quibble about anything else is like criticizing a Ghost Train for having bumpy rails.

Dark Hall Press is proud to present its third release, Dark Corners, a collection by Michael Bray.

About the book:
What lurks within the darkness? What crawls outside of our perception? What happens when the world as we know it stops making sense? When reality isn’t what it seems, and the rules no longer apply…

Dark Corners is a collection of twelve interlinked short stories plotting the darkest reaches of the human psyche.

Dark Corners is now available for purchase via Amazon and other sites, in both ebook and paper editions.

About the author:
Michael Bray has been writing horror fiction for over fifteen years, honing a unique and accessible style. He is also a musician and a father residing in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Pre-orders are now being taken for John Llewellyn Probert‘s first full-length novel, The House that Death Built, due in October 2012 from Atomic Fez. The book is available in three formats: a limited edition signed hardcover, trade paperback and ebook. The limited edition is signed by the author and the cover artist, Steve Upham.

In addition, all customers pre-ordering or purchasing the book through Atomic Fez before 31 October 2012 (copies in any format; only Kobo and Amazon purchases are excluded) are entered in a draw to win the following:

• the original manuscript, written on by the editor and author as they crafted the final form of the book
• plus “Copy #1″ of the Limited Hardcover Edition
• plus a copy of Wicked Delights, John Llewellyn Probert’s previous title from Atomic Fez
• plus something else from inside the vaults of Atomic Fez

About the book:
The Dark Manor isn’t just any old haunted house. Built on the site of a stone circle, from bricks saturated with pain and agony, windows that have seen terror beyond insanity, and doors that would scream if the wood from which they were fashioned could voice the appalling acts to which they have been witness, the house was designed with evil in mind and deliberately constructed to bring William Marx, the wealthy industrialist who built it, into contact with the spirit world.

But Marx hasn’t been seen since he entered the repository of death and madness that is The Dark Manor, and neither have any of the people who have gone looking for him. Now Sir Anthony Calverton has purchased it and needs the place investigating properly, which of course calls for some proper supernatural investigators.

You are cordially invited to join Mr Massene Henderson and Miss Samantha Jephcott, specialists in paranormal adventure, as they embark on their most perilous case to date.

Who will survive The House That Death Built?

Only time and the pages within will tell…