You can now try an issue of Black Static free, or you can pay for it – you decide. TTA Press have reset the price for Black Static Issue 19 (October 2010) on Smashwords so that you can get it for free or select a price you consider worthwhile. Try it, and if you feel it’s worth it, download it again and pay then. They trust you!

The free issue contains a mammoth book reviews section from Peter Tennant, an interview with Stephen Jones, and fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Ray Cluley, Joel Lane, Simon Clark and Lavie Tidhar.

Click here to try it for free now!

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

Cemetery Dance have announced an exciting new membership plan that will allow you to read ANY ebook they publish in 2012, along with all of the ebooks they’ve already published, for a small one-time fee.

They state:
“In the six months since we launched our ebook store, we’ve published books by William Peter Blatty, Peter Straub, Jay Bonansinga, Norman Partridge, Glen Hirshberg, Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Mick Garris, Rick Hautala, Ronald Kelly, Simon Clark, Ed Gorman, Geoff Cooper, Brian James Freeman, James A. Moore, Rocky Wood, Kirby McCauley, and many others.

There are nearly 40 ebooks you can download right away with a combined retail value of more than $130, plus we have dozens of new ebooks in the works for 2012, including some exciting originals and also reprints of classic out of print horror novels you haven’t read in years.

Our ebooks range in price from $0.99 to $9.99, but the cost of this membership is just a one-time fee of $49, which breaks down to $4.08 per month. If you think you’d want to download even a couple of ebooks each month, this is a great deal!

Because we hope you still love print editions as much as we do, members will also receive a FREE signed Limited Edition hardcover later this year. All you’ll have to pay is any applicable shipping. Considering the retail value of $30 to $40 for the free book, the low purchase price of this membership is an EVEN BETTER deal with this special bonus!”

Full details of the membership plan can be found HERE

Simon Clark‘s first book, Blood and Grit, is back! Says Simon:

“Fantasycon 1990. I’m sitting by a pile of yellow books in the dealers’ room and waiting hopefully for customers. This slim volume is Blood and Grit, my first book.  Fantasycon 1990 was in Birmingham and it was a time when such legends as Karl Edward Wagner and Ronald Chetwynd- Hayes bestrode convention hotels. In fact, Karl dropped by to chat in his mellifluous American tones, ‘Simon, your royalty in Year’s Best Horror amounts to one dollar thirty-six cents. Do you want the cash now, or would you prefer a beer?’ I happily accepted the beer in payment.

Now, 21 years later, my first book is back. Only more so. Blood and Grit 21 is an illustrated e-Book, featuring the original content, together with a brand new story, “21 Skinner Lane”, a new introduction by Andy Darlington, and an afterword that reveals the story behind the stories, and the ‘making’ of the original book.”

Please drop by at bloodandgrit.com

“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.

If you’re looking for quality books at bargain prices, both NewCon Press and PS Publishing are currently having clear-outs to make way for new stock!

NewCon Press is offering its vampire anthology The Bitten Word signed limited edition hardback, at half price.  336 pages, seventeen original stories from the likes of Kelley Armstrong, Tanith Lee, Storm Constantine, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Gail Z. Martin, Freda Warrington, Simon Clark, Chaz Brenchley, etc, all in a beautifully presented dust-jacketed hardback. This limited edition book is signed by all the authors on two bespoke signing pages and includes a full colour plate of the magnificent back cover art by award winning artist Les Edwards, plus a bonus story by Ian Watson.  All for just £16.00 (plus p&p – £2.50 in the UK) rather than the listed £32.00.

In addition, they are offering the following at half price:

Limited edition hardback (unsigned) and paperback of the anthology Myth-Understandings: featuring all women authors, themed on ‘communication’, with stories from:  Gwyneth Jones, Pat Cadigan, Justina Robson, Liz Williams, Tricia Sullivan, Sarah Pinborough, Storm Constantine, Deborah J Miller, Freda Warrington, Leigh Kennedy, etc.

Limited edition hardback (signed by author, introducer, and cover artist) and limited edition paperback (signed by the author) of Andrew Hook’s existential zombie novel And God Created Zombies (introduction by Sarah Pinborough).

Limited edition hardback (signed) and paperback of The Beloved of my Beloved – a collaboration between British SF author Ian Watson and Italian surrealist Roberto Quaglia.  Surreal, shocking, inventive, bizarre, hilarious, outrageous, obscene, and quite, quite brilliant:  Arabian Nights meets the Illustrated Man with added weirdness.

Please contact NewCon Press using the contact form on the website if you are interested in purchasing any of these titles.

Meanwhile, PS Publishing are having a clearance sale with several paperbacks at just £2.99.  Some novellas, novels, collections and anthologies are priced at under £10, together with a handful of signed slipcased editions at just £12.99. ARC copies are being sold at £4.99 plus postage for the novellas and £8.99 plus postage for everything else.

The Derby Scribes 2011 Anthology has been published as a print edition by Stumar Press. You can purchase the book HERE for £4.00 plus postage and packaging.

It contains eleven short stories from guest authors Simon Clark, Conrad Williams and Neal James, plus Derby Scribes members Stuart Hughes, Richard Farren Barber, Victoria Charvill, Christopher Barker, Alison J. Hill, David Ball, Jennifer Brown and Peter Borg.

What others say about it:

“The anthology is an exciting mixture of quality emerging writers as well as some great established names.” – Alex Davis, Alt.Fiction.

“The Derby Scribes 2011 anthology is an enjoyable tome of drama, whimsy and chills.” – Matthew Fryer, Welcome to the Hellforge.

“This anthology reminded me that even short fiction can pack a powerful punch.” – BJ, Dark Side of the Covers.

“On the whole this is a good collection that showcases some fine talent. Definitely worth your time and hard earned cash.” – Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror.

An exciting mix of the fantastic, the wonderful, and the frightening by the talented members of the Derby Scribes writing group. Overall it’s a versatile and multi-faceted anthology, blending corners of reality with aspects of the fantastical in a refreshing way.

Also featuring an introduction by Alex Davis and art work by Samantha Enyon.

The short stories in this anthology include horror, supernatural, contemporary fantasy, science fiction and humour.

The Derby Scribes 2011 Anthology is also available in eBook formats HERE

At a glittering ceremony in Brighton on 2 October 2011 the following were announced as winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2011:

KARL EDWARD WAGNER SPECIAL AWARD: Terry Pratchett

BEST NOVEL: Demon Dance, Sam Stone (House of Murky Depths)

BEST NOVELLA: Humpty’s Bones, Simon Clark (Telos)

BEST SHORT STORY: “Fool’s Gold”, Sam Stone, from The Bitten Word, ed. Ian
Whates (NewCon Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY: Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror
Stories, Johnny Mains (ed.) (Noose & Gibbet)

BEST COLLECTION: Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)

BEST NON-FICTION: Altered Visions: The Art of Vincent Chong (Telos)

BEST ARTIST: Vincent Chong

BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL: At the Mountains of Madness: a Graphic Novel, Ian Culbard (Selfmadehero)

BEST MAGAZINE/PERIODICAL: Black Static, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)

BEST SMALL PRESS: Telos Publishing

BEST FILM: Inception

BEST TELEVISION: Sherlock

SYDNEY J. BOUNDS AWARD FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Robert Jackson Bennet, for Mr Shivers (Orbit)

Gray Friar Press announces its latest anthology, Terror Tales of the Lake District, edited by Paul Finch.

“The Lake District — land of mountains and megaliths, night-black lakes and fathomless woods filled with spectral mist …

The eerie entity on Striding Edge
The living corpse of Croglin
The demented clown of Muncaster
The winged horror of Langdale
The drowned bride of Windermere
The hairy brute of Beetham
The nightmares on Burnmoor

Chilling tales by Ramsey Campbell, Adam Nevill, Simon Clark, Peter Crowther, Reggie Oliver, Gary McMahon and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

This wild, mountainous region in northwest England is famous for its towering crags, deep woods and majestic lakes. It is still one of the most popular holiday destinations in the whole of the UK, particularly for climbers, hikers, campers and yachtsmen. But some corners of it are extremely remote and even now in the 21st century remain wreathed in rural mystery and spooky superstition.

This brand new anthology, edited by master of chills, Paul Finch, contains ten works of original horror fiction all set in England’s haunting Lake District, and three classic reprints. It also features numerous anecdotal tales concerning true incidents of Lakeland terror which will ensure you’ll never regard that scenic part of the world in the same innocent light again.”