PS Publishing have teamed up with Centipede Press to make available selected Centipede books at a fraction of their original published price. Plus, postage and packing charges will, of course, be lower for UK customers as they won’t need to be shipped from the US.

To start this venture off, they are offering Centipede’s Knowing Darkness, a sumptuous volume full of artwork inspired by the writing of Stephen King. This 448-page art book includes colour and black and white paintings and drawings that have directly or indirectly illustrated King’s writings over the last thirty-five years.

Artists include Michael Whelan, Ned Dameron, J.K. Potter, John Jude Pelancar, Stephen Gervais, and many others. The book features an introduction by Frank Darabont and text (written by King critic George Beahm) that looks back at 34 years of King in print providing a detailed look at the writer and his life, and supplemented with interviews with Michael Whelan, Bernie Wrightson, Drew Struzan, John Cayea, Dave Christiansen, and many others.

The book was originally published at £180 ($295) but PS are offering it for £95 (around $150) plus post & packing (£8.95 in the UK or £12.95 everywhere else). There are only 100 copies available.

Full details HERE

The Horror Writers Association has announced the longlisted works for its Preliminary Ballot for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award. Authors with longlisted work include Stephen King, Joe Hill, Reggie Oliver, Allyson Bird, Alan Moore, Peter Straub, Robert Shearman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Christopher Fowler, Kaaron Warren and Lisa Morton.

Following the Preliminary Ballot, a Final Ballot will be held to arrive at the nominees for the Award.

The full list of longlisted work is available 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

In keeping with its primary theme of “The Next Generation”, World FantasyCon has announced living legend Richard Matheson and his son Richard Christian Matheson as its first author Guests of Honour to World Fantasy Convention 2013,  from 31 October – 3 November 2013 in Brighton.

Richard Matheson is a master of modern science fiction, fantasy and horror, and Stephen King credits him with single-handedly regenerating a stagnant genre. His best known novels include the influential I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, Hell House, The World Fantasy Award-winning Bid Time Return and What Dreams May Come, all of which have been turned into movies. His latest novel, Other Kingdoms, is about witchcraft and fairies in a rural English village.

He also scripted fourteen episodes of Rod Serling’s iconic The Twilight Zone TV series (including the classic ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’), and has produced movies including The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride), Duel, The Legend of Hell House, Somewhere in Time, Jaws 3-D and the two ‘Kolchak’ TV movies, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler.

Richard Matheson was awarded the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984 and the World Horror Convention’s Living Legend Award in 2000. In 2006 he was presented with The Legend Award by Ray Bradbury in Los Angeles.

Richard Christian Matheson began his career in the late 1970s. At twenty, he became the youngest writer ever signed to an overall deal with Universal Studios and he wrote scripts for a number of network TV shows. He moved into feature film writing, working with Steven Spielberg on Harry and the Hendersons and Three O’Clock High. To date, he has written, co-written and sold over twelve spec screenplays – considered a record.

He is considered a master of the short-short story and has published more than seventy stories of psychological horror in magazines and major anthologies. Thirty of his critically acclaimed stories are collected in Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks with a Foreword by Stephen King and an Introduction by Dennis Etchison. His second collection, Dystopia, gathers sixty stories with an Introduction by Richard Matheson and an Afterword by Peter Straub. The volume also includes tributes about RC’s writing from Clive Barker, Ellen Datlow, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Stephen Jones, Ramsey Campbell and many others. Matheson’s debut novel, Created By, was a Bram Stoker Award nominee and his magic-realism novella, The Ritual of Illusion, will soon be available from PS Publishing.

Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson will join previously announced Master of Ceremonies, China Mieville (author of Perdido Street Station, The City & the City, Kraken and Embassytown), in Brighton over Hallowe’en weekend 2013.

For full details and how to join visit the website HERE

Night Shade Books have released Alien Contact, an anthology of alien-inspired stories edited by Marty Halpern:

“We are not alone! From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers… From ET to Close Encounters… creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out.

Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today’s most exciting genre writers, weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.

These twenty-six stories from extraordinary writers such as Harry Turtledove, Orson Scott Card, Molly Gloss, Michael Swanwick, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Moon, Adam-Troy Castro, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Neil Gaiman will captivate and intrigue. Separately they are enthralling, combined together into one anthology they will take you to another world.”

Full details on the website

Writing East Midlands is promoting a five week course on The Cinema of Stephen King at Broadway, Nottingham, starting on Monday 14 November 2011. The course takes place on consecutive Monday evenings from 7:00 – 8:30 pm.

“Since the 1970’s, Stephen King has become a name synonymous with horror and he has carved out a niche as one of the world’s most terrifying authors. Beyond the success of his many bestselling titles, King’s work has been translated to film many times, including many iconic titles in the last thirty-five years. Looking at well-known movies such as The Shining, Misery, The Shawkshank Redemption and The Green Mile, as well as lesser-known classics, this course explores the work of a master of storytelling in horror and beyond.”

Cost for the course £35 (£25 concessions) from www.broadway.org.uk or Broadway Box Office on 0115 9526 611

Granta, the magazine of new writing, is hosting a series of events to launch its new issue, a horror special:

“In Granta 117: Horror, thirteen new works of reportage, fiction, memoir and poetry, as well as a series of mixed-media images about love and illness by Kanitta Meechubot, explore how the other, the unknown and the sublime can startle us into horror.” Includes a new story from Stephen King.

UK events are as follows:

Tales of Terror
1 November 2011, 7:00 pm at The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP
Join Granta for an evening of chilling tales and a chance to explore the macabre curiosities at Viktor Wynd’s little shop of horrors. Enjoy dramatic readings of a never-before-heard story by Stephen King and a reading and discussion with Sarah Hall.

Granta 117: Horror, Nottingham Launch
1 November 2011, 7:00pm, Waterstone’s, 1-5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham, NG1 2GR.
With Granta Online Editor Ted Hodgkinson, Santiago Roncagliolo reads from and discusses his investigation into Peruvian terror organisation, The Shining Path,  and Peru’s experience of living under the threat of terror.

Granta 117: Horror, London Launch
2 November 2011, 6:30pm, Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB
With Granta publisher Sigrid Rausing, Mark Doty and Will Self explore Walt Whitman’s correspondence with Bram Stoker, Dracula and the nature of blood.

An Evening with Mark Doty
3 November 2011 7:00pm, Gay’s the Word, 66 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB
Mark Doty explores the nature of blood, Bram Stoker and Walt Whitman through reading and conversation.

Visions of Horror: A Salon
4 November 2011, 7:00pm at The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ.
Join Granta, artists Jake and Dinos Chapman and emerging artist Kanitta Meechubot to explore the dark corners of the imagination. With a special viewing of the Chapman’s and Meechubot’s artwork for Granta 117.

For information on all these events and booking details please visit the Granta website events page

The list of books to be given away during the 2012 World Book Night has been announced, with the inclusion of some genre books. Alongside classics both old (eg. Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities and Rebecca) and new (eg. The Road by Cormac McCarthy), the list also includes such titles as The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, Misery by Stephen King, Let the Right One In by John Ajvde Lindqvist and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

The full list and article about this can be found at theBookseller.com

“IDW Publishing is proud to announce Road Rage, a new partnership with best-selling authors Stephen King and Joe Hill, to produce a comic book adaptation of their co-written adventure tale, Throttle. This monthly two-part series begins in February 2012, and will be followed by two issues adapting the story that inspired Throttle – Richard Matheson’s classic tale of suspense, Duel – beginning in April.

Throttle, the first collaboration between father and son King and Hill, was not only inspired by Matheson’s Duel, it also only appeared in print in a limited-edition anthology honouring Matheson’s works, He is Legend. Throttle and Duel were subsequently released as an audiobook called Road Rage, which is the banner title the comics will also carry.”