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

The British Fantasy Society is delighted to announce the Special Juries for the British Fantasy Awards. The awards will be presented at FantasyCon in Brighton in September 2012.

The Jury for the PS Publishing Independent Press Award:
Sandy Auden
Peter Crowther
Nicholas Royle
Peter Tennant
Darren Turpin

Sandy Auden is a freelance writer and photographer. Her work has appeared in SFX, Interzone, Locus and Supernatural magazines; a wide range of websites; and the occasional music video.

Peter and Nicky Crowther’s PS Publishing received the coveted annual BFS Award for Best Specialist/Small Press on seven occasions until, with a yearly output running to between 40 and fifty titles, Peter removed it from further consideration and instead contributes an annual financial prize to imprints with more modest schedules. We’re not sure whether those moist eyes when he presents the Award are due to parting with the prize of £250 or hankering for the days when he was putting out less than a book every week.

Nicholas Royle is a novelist and short story writer, a commissioning editor for contemporary fiction at Salt Publishing, and editor and publisher of chapbook specialist Nightjar Press.

Peter Tennant is the book reviewer and a contributing editor to Black Static magazine. He’s also the proofreader for Interzone and Crimewave.

Darren Turpin is the Marketing / Publicity / Digital / Webguy for UK-based independent genre fiction publisher Angry Robot, as well as the proprietor of their Robot Trading Company webstore. In the past he’s been a Waterstones bookseller, a book reviewer and serial blogger (The Alien Online, The UK SF Book News Network, The Genre Files), a freelance website content manager and a Big Publishing corporate wage slave. He lives in Manchester with his wife Jo and their cat, Hobbes.

The Jury for the Artist Award:
Guy Adams
Anne Sudworth
Christopher Teague

Guy Adams has written over twenty books, ranging from novels such as The World House and the Deadbeat series to novelisations of Hammer movies and more books about Sherlock Holmes than you could shake a Calabash pipe at. He is also the writer of the comic series The Engine, working with artist Jimmy Broxton.

Anne Sudworth is a British artist with paintings in many international collections. She has exhibited widely and has had two books on her work published.

Christopher Teague has been an independent publisher for over ten years and is still relatively sane. In that time, he has realised that folk do judge a book by its front cover.

The Jury for the Non-Fiction Award:
Djibril al-Ayad
Roz Kaveney
Adam Roberts

Djibril al-Ayad is the editor of The Future Fire, a social-political speculative fiction magazine and review, as well as a writer and academic historian (under different pseudonyms).

Roz Kaveney is a poet, novelist, critic and activist resident in London.

Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London; and the author of a dozen science fiction novels and various pieces of SF and Fantasy criticism.

Sussex-based independent publisher Myriad Editions’ inaugural First Graphic Novel prize will be awarded on 21 January 2012 from a shortlist of unpublished graphic novels chosen by judges including Ian Rankin, cartoonist Steve Bell, graphic novelist Bryan Talbot and Myriad creative director Corinne Pearlman. The winning title will be published by Myriad in 2013.

Myriad are also launching a series of events to champion first novels, past and present, teaming up with Sussex University to host talks and discussions featuring authors including Nicholas Royle and Ian Rankin. The First Fictions Festival will start on 20 January 2012 at the University’s Falmer campus, near Brighton. Other events will take place throughout the year around Brighton and the south-east, including debates, interviews and speed-dates for new writers to meet agents and editors.

See full details HERE

For more information visit the Twisted Tales website

“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