Published in 2011 by 23 Escalones and illustrated by Irene León Guijarro, the bi-lingual Spanish edition of Now We Are Sick: An Anthology of Nasty Verse edited by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones has won the 2012 Premio NOCTE Award for Best Foreign Book.

The annual award, sponsored by The Spanish Horror Writers Association, was one of several announced on 13 October 2012 by the President of NOCTE, Juan Angel Laguna Edroso, and Spanish author Roberto Malo at XXX Hispacón in the city of Urnieta Guipuzcoa.

For more information about NOCTE, go to:
http://www.nocte.es/blog2/en/bienvenidos-a-nocte/

On 1 August 2012 InkerMen Press publishes the long-awaited second collection from award-winning author D.F. Lewis. The Last Balcony collects a number of Lewis’ previously published (either in print or online) short stories, together with two novellas, The Apocryfan and Yesterfang. Cover art for the hardback book is by Tony Lovell. Lewis’ previous collection of short fiction was Weirdmonger – The Nemonicon (Prime Books 2003).

D.F. Lewis has had approximately one thousand five hundred short stories published in print from 1986 to 2000, some in hard-to-find outlets plus others in literary journals and professional book anthologies. The latter include three volumes of Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and five consecutive volumes of Year’s Best Horror Stories edited by Karl Edward Wagner. He received the British Fantasy Society Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1998.

For full details of The Last Balcony see the InkerMen Press website HERE

A D.F. Lewis novella Weirdtongue, is also available from Inkermen Press HERE

InkerMen Press is an independent publisher specializing in works of supernatural and alternative fiction, plays and poems.

Here’s a reminder of the BFS London Open Day on Saturday 16 June 2012 from 1pm till late at The Mug House, 1 Tooley Street, London E1 2PF, together with a rough schedule for the day:

• 1pm:  Meet, greet and quench your thirst…
• 2pm:  Peter Mark May will be arriving with copies of Alt-Zombie. Peter has also graciously agreed to donate one complete set of Hersham Horror Books to the raffle.
• 3pm:  Stephen Jones and Les Edwards will officially sign copies of Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James from Jo Fletcher Books.
• 4pm:  Sara Jayne Townsend will be signing copies of her collection Soul Screams from  Stumar Press. Sara has also donated a copy of Soul Screams to the raffle.
• 5pm:  Raffle draw…tickets will be a pound per strip or one FREE strip with every purchase…get your mind out of the gutter and your pockets lined with GOLD.

Above all have fun! It’s getting increasingly harder to find a suitable venue that does not require huge amounts of cash up front to hold these unique events, where you can socialise with publishers, authors and, most importantly, fans of fantasy, horror and SF. Donations for the raffle are welcome on the day, but please be aware that donating a dog-eared paperback may well result in public ridicule.

Previous BFS open events have included:

• Awards Showcases – Brian Aldiss, Joe Abercrombie to name but a few…
• Poe edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris)
• Tim Powers Secret Histories (PS Publishing)
• Sam Stone (Murky Depths) + Torchwood panel and launch with Guy Adams, Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough (BBC Books)
• Lauren Beukes – Zoo City (Angry Robot) – Reading / Talk / Launch
• Mike Lancaster – 0.4 (Egmont) – Young Adult SF – Launch
• Joe Hill – Special Guest + Brian Stableford – The Womb of Time (Perilous Press) UK Launch
• Where Are We Going? edited by Allen Ashley (Eibonvale Press) – authors included Allen Ashley, Joel Lane, Douglas Thompson, Marion Pitman, Terry Grimwood, Jet McDonald, Andrew Kirby, Gary Budgen and cover artists David Rix.

E-mail Martin Roberts  (events [at] britishfantasysociety [dot] org) for more information!

Stephen Jones is now seeking submissions for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 24. He will consider stories and novellas first published between January 2012 and December 2012 for the twenty-fourth annual edition of this multiple award-winning series, to be published by Robinson (UK) / Running Press (USA) in 2013.

Authors are asked to forward stories of exceptional quality published between these dates, whilst publishers are invited to send novels, collections, anthologies, magazines, art books, graphic adaptations, DVDs and anything else connected with the horror field which could be mentioned in the comprehensive overview of the year in horror. Publisher contact information will also be included in the list of useful addresses contained in the volume.

The deadline for receiving material is January 2013, and all material must be sent to the postal address provided in the guidelines detailed HERE.

Also, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 23 edited by Stephen Jones is now available for pre-order from Amazon. To be released in October 2012, it contains stories by Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Paul Kane, Joel Lane, Alison Littlewood, Mark Samuels, Peter Atkins, Thana Niveau, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Reggie Oliver, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joe R. Lansdale, Evangeline Walton and many others. The cover artwork is by Vincent Chong. Full details HERE

The BFS London Open Day on Saturday 16 June 2012 sees the launch by Jo Fletcher Books of a new hardcover M.R. James collection, Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James. The book’s editor Stephen Jones and artist Les Edwards will be in attendance and signing copies on the day (at The Mug House, 1 Tooley Street, London E1 2PF – event starts at 1.00pm).

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the birth of M.R. James, this sumptuously-crafted collection contains all the author’s classic supernatural stories in a single volume, including the children’s novel The Five Jars, along with uncompleted works, essays, and a historical Afterword by Stephen Jones, all copiously illustrated by award-winning artist Les Edwards.

Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton. Most of his ghost stories were occasional pieces, written for friends or college magazines, and were collected in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). Widely regarded as one of the finest authors of supernatural fiction in the English language, James is credited as the originator of the ‘antiquarian ghost story’, replacing the Gothic horrors of the previous century with more contemporary settings for his subtle hauntings. Many of his stories were originally written as Christmas entertainments and were read aloud by the author to selected gatherings of friends.

Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James is the one collection of the author’s work that fans cannot afford to miss! And Stephen Jones and Les Edwards will be on hand at the BFS Open Day to personally sign copies on the day (precise time to be announced).

There will also be other signings throughout the day, and numerous authors, artists, editors and publishers will be in attendance. Entrance is FREE and open to anyone, so if you like fantasy, horror and imaginative fiction, then come along for a fun day out!

BFS members and non-members alike are FREE to join us in London on Saturday 16 June 2012 from 1pm till late at The Mug House, 1 Tooley Street, London E1 2PF, where we will host the official launch of editor Stephen Jones‘ and artist Les Edwards‘ tribute to the great M.R. James (Jo Fletcher Books – more details to follow). We also plan to launch Alt-Zombie edited by Peter Mark May (Hersham Horror).

If you want to become part of the day’s celebrations email Martin Roberts, BFS Events Organiser, at events [at] britishfantasysociety [dot] org

Keep an eye on Facebook and on the main BFS website and forum for updates!

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!

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing (which includes the classic The Haunting of Hill House), The Shirley Jackson Awards “recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic”. The Awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year, and the nominees for the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards have now been announced.

Nominees include: two nominations for Reggie Oliver (Best Novel and Best Novella), three nominations for Stephen Jones‘ A Book of Horrors from Jo Fletcher Books (nominations for two of its stories in the Novella category, along with a nomination for Best Edited Anthology), and two nominations for PS Publishing titles in the Single-Author category.

The Awards will be presented on 15 July 2012 at Readercon 23, the Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts, US, hosted by Guests of Honour, Peter Straub and Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Masters of the Weird Tale
by Karl Edward Wagner
(preorder—coming soon)

Limited: $250 + shipping

Published by Centipede Press

“With over 700 pages, including all of Karl Edward Wagner’s horror fiction, this is one of the best, most impeccably proofed and designed in our Masters of the Weird Tale series. This collection includes Sticks, Where the Summer Ends, In the Pines; in sum, all of his horror fiction.

This collection has a colour cover by J.K. Potter and over ten full-page, full-colour interior illustrations by Potter as well. The book is edited and introduced by Stephen Jones, has an additional introduction by Peter Straub, a remembrance by David Drake, and a new afterword by Laird Barron. The introductions are profusely illustrated with pictures of Karl in both black & white and color.

The edition is limited to 200 copies for sale. Each numbered copy is signed by Stephen Jones, J.K. Potter, Peter Straub, Laird Barron, and David Drake.

Each book is fully bound in cloth and comes in a handsome two-tone slipcase to match your other volumes in the Masters of the Weird Tale series. The retail on this book is $295 and it is on sale for $250. It will be shipping soon and is expected to sell out pre-publication.”

Available from Centipede Press and Subterranean Press

You can also read Karl Edward Wagner’s last interview, for Dark Troubadour magazine, HERE on this website

Quercus Books launched their new YA novel in style on Monday 17 October 2011 with a drinks party held at the Purl Bar in central London. Flaming Zombie cocktails were the order of the day as authors, editors and readers came together to celebrate and mingle.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick tells the story of Alex, a teenager hitchhiking through the US when an electromagnetic pulse changes her world – and the people in it – forever.

Introduced by editor and anthologist Stephen Jones, Ilsa spoke briefly about the book – as well as talking about the connection between her own family and the Holocaust and how this coloured her experience of writing the novel – before signing copies for guests.