FantasyCon 2012 is delighted to announce that New York Times best-selling author Brent Weeks has been added to its exciting line-up of guests. Brent is the author of “The Night Angel Trilogy”, featuring master assassin Durzo Blint, who practices his fatal art in a world of dangerous politics, strange magics and sudden death. The first volume in the series, The Way of Shadows, was published in 2008 and was quickly followed by Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows.

Perfect Shadow is a prequel novella in the same series, while the first book in the author’s new “Lightbringer” series, The Black Prism, launched in August 2010. It will be followed by The Blinding Knife, which will be published by Orbit in time for this year’s FantasyCon, which is being held in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, over the weekend of 27 – 30 September 2012.

Brent joins the other Author Guest of Honour, legendary Texas “Mojo Story Writer” Joe R. Lansdale, Special Editor Guest Mary Danby and Master of Ceremonies Tim Lebbon.

With memberships fast approaching 200, if you have not joined up yet, do so now! All you have to do is go to the “How to Join” page on the website HERE. Full details of the convention are available on 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.

In a deal finalised last month, DarkFuse has acquired the publishing imprint Morning Star Press from Larry Roberts.  Roberts will remain the editor-in-chief during and after the transition.

Morning Star Press was founded in 2008 by the genre publisher, Roberts. Morning Star has published many genre greats including Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, James A. Moore, Edward Lee, Weston Ochse and many others.

Full details of the acquisition HERE

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America have named Connie Willis (pictured) the recipient of the 2011 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The award, given for “lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy,” will be presented at the 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in Arlington, VA, from 17 – 20 May 2012.

Full details HERE

Meanwhile, Rick Hautala and Joe R. Lansdale are to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Horror Writers Association in recognition of their work. The awards will be presented at the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, UT, on 31 March 2012.

Full details HERE

Corvus Books have published an anthology, Zombies, originally published in the US as Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

“Horrifying ghouls, decaying corpses, body snatchers, grave robbers and flesh-eating monsters. In this gruesome anthology of the living dead, all these and more will try to catch your eye and devour your brain.

From the macabre pens of the world’s most spine-tingling horror and fantasy writers, the grisliest, goriest, ghastliest stories from the last two centuries have been plucked from the shadows by legendary editor Otto Penzler, to form the most monstrous volume in zombie history.”

Authors include: H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Clive Barker, Richard Christian Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe R. Lansdale, Lisa Tuttle, Graham Masterton, Robert Bloch, Charles Birkin, Mort Castle, Kevin J. Anderson, W.B. Seabrook, Steve Rasnic Tem, F. Marion Crawford, Michael Marshall Smith, Karen Haber, David A. Riley, Guy De Maupassant, Richard Laymon, Thomas Burke, Anthony Boucher, John Knox, Theodore Sturgeon and Seabury Quinn, among others.

Details and ordering information HERE

‘The Century’s Best Horror Fiction in two hardcover volumes, edited by John Pelan.

Featuring Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Robert Bloch, Charles Beaumont, Jack Ketchum, Gary Brandner, Dennis Etchison, Michael Bishop, Ramsey Campbell, David Schow, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickman, Poppy Z. Brite, Lucy Taylor, Stephen Laws, Brian Hodge, Glen Hirshberg, Tim Lebbon, W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, Manly Wade Wellman, Theodore Sturgeon, David A. Riley, Joel Lane, Fritz Lieber, Ian Watson and many others!

Cemetery Dance Publications commissioned a spectacular two-volume anthology project under the editorship of noted author and historian of the horror genre, John Pelan.

John selected one story published during each year of the 20th Century (1901-2000) as the most notable story of that year — all 100 stories were then collected in this amazing two volume set to be published as The Century’s Best Horror Fiction.

The ground rules were simple: Only one selection per author. Only one selection per year.

Two huge volumes, one hundred authors, one hundred classic stories, more than 700,000 words of fiction — history in the making!’

Pre-orders now being taken at the Cemetery Dance WEBSITE

New York Times best-selling horror and fantasy writer Tim Lebbon has been announced as Master of Ceremonies for the 2012 British FantasyCon in Brighton.

Award-winning horror/crime writer Joe R. Lansdale is the first Guest of Honour to be announced, with editor/ anthologist Mary Danby – best known as editor of The Fontana Book of  Horror Stories from 1970 to 1984 – as Special Editor Guest.

Further guests to be announced shortly. Full details at the FantasyCon website

“From horror masterminds Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Piers Anthony, Melanie Tem, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Tim Jeffreys, Scott Nicholson, Conrad Williams, Simon Clark and a host of other respected authors, poets and artists comes What Fears Become, a terrifying collection of bone-chilling, nail-biting horror that is sure to keep you awake until all hours of the night.

This anthology brings together some of the best works from The Horror Zine, an online magazine dedicated to giving you chills and thrills. Edited by Jeani Rector, each story, poem and art work within showcases an international talent that will give you shivers.”

Available from Amazon in paperback in the US and as an e-book in the UK.

“Floorboards creek, windows rattle, the wind whistles through the eaves – are you alone in the house? Are you sure?!”

The follow up to Solaris’ 2010 critically-acclaimed End of the Line underground railway horror anthology, House of Fear brings the haunted house out of tired cliché and back into the mainstream with 19 short stories from some of the finest writers working in the genre.

Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of stories from Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.

And on Tuesday 27 September 2011, something scary will be haunting Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road, London! The writers and editors of the upcoming House of Fear anthology of haunted house stories will be celebrating its launch and would like you to join them.

Details from Foyles’ website