Thrilled to share this spectacular cover for my new anthology, WHERE THE SILENT ONES WATCH, created by Dan Sauer! Coming this fall from Hippocampus Press (preorder links below), the anthology features stories and poems by a fantastic line-up of contributors inspired by the literary worlds of William Hope Hodgson.
Stories of the Borderland, the Night Land, the Sargasso Sea, and more!
William Hope Hodgson’s writing life spanned fourteen years, during which he published novels and stories of the adventurous, the fantastic, and the horrific. Best known, perhaps, for his novel, The House on the Borderland, Hodgson wrote several other landmark weird works, including The Boats of the Glen Carrig, The Ghost Pirates, and The Night Land, as well as dozens of short stories. He explored places in the ocean where realities overlapped, described the horrors of a house built beside a gap between dimensions, and transported readers to a desolate future, where abhuman monstrosities prowl. He displayed imaginative visions of staggering scope unlike any others in literature.
In this anthology, twenty-seven authors and poets visit Hodgson’s worlds and concepts to dig deep into his mythologies and delve into fresh mysteries in unexpected times, locations, and interpretations. Whether or not you’ve read Hodgson’s works, these visions of Hodgsonian horror will lead you into strange, liminal, and frightening new landscapes of the weird and fantastic.
Authors include: Linda D. Addison • David Agranoff • Meghan Arcuri • Sal Ciano • Michael Cisco • L.E. Daniels • Andy Davidson • Aaron Dries • Patrick Freivald • Teel James Glenn • Maxwell Ian Gold • Nancy Holder • Todd Keisling • John Langan • Adrian Ludens • Lee Murray • Lisa Morton • Peter Rawlik • Sam Rebelein • Ann K. Schwader • Steve Rasnic Tem • Tim Waggoner • Wendy N. Wagner • Kyla Lee Ward • Robert Waters • L. Marie Wood • Stephanie Wytovich
Join me and fellow local horror author, Robert P. Ottone, for an evening of “campfire stories” about Long Island’s eeriest local legends and myths! Courtesy of the Syosset Public Library, we’ll present, via Zoom webinar, the strange lore and even stranger facts surrounding such notable LI mysteries as the ghosts of Sweet Hollow Road, the Amityville Horror, Men in Black and UFO sightings in Mt. Misery, the Lady of Lake Ronkonkoma, Camp Hero and the Montauk Project, Mary’s Grave and many others. Sign on using Zoom Webinar ID 875 2624 5970, no registration needed, and join us for a presentation perfect for summer chills–to be followed by Q&A. Part of the Summer Scares program sponsored by the Horror Writers Association.
“I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth…”–Robert W. Chambers, “The Repairer of Reputations”
Featuring Stories By: Marc Abbott • Linda D. Addison • Meghan Arcuri • Greg Chapman • J.G. Faherty • Trevor Firetog • Patrick Freivald • Carol Gyzander • Todd Keisling • John Langan • Curtis Lawson • Adrian Ludens • Lisa Morton • Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. • Sarah Read • Kathleen Scheiner • Ann K. Schwader • Darrell Schweitzer • J. Daniel Stone • Steven Van Patten • Tim Waggoner • Kaaron Warren
“When I first read The King in Yellow some twenty-five years ago,” said publisher Derrick Hussey, “I experienced a genuine ‘kick’ of otherworldliness that I don’t run across very often. It’s a thrill to feel that frisson again in the works of these modern writers, and an honor to publish their tales.”
Robert W. Chambers’ classic work of weird fiction, “The Repairer of Reputations,” introduced the world to “The King in Yellow,” a play in two acts, banned for its reputed power to drive mad anyone who reads its complete text. “The Yellow Sign,” used the experiences of an artist and his model to elaborate on the mythos of the Yellow King and the Yellow Sign. In those tales Chambers crafted fascinating glimpses of a cosmos populated by conspiracies, government-sanctioned suicide chambers, haunted artists, premonitions of death, unreliable narrators—and dark, enigmatic occurrences tainted by the alien world of Carcosa, where the King rules in his tattered yellow mantle. In Carcosa, black stars rise and Cassilda and Camilla speak and sing. In Carcosa, eyes peer from within pallid masks to gaze across Lake Hali at the setting of twin suns.
“When I began work on this anthology in the summer of 2019, I never imagined how much would change in the world or how eerily relevant the concept of the Pallid Mask referenced in the King in Yellow stories would become. I’m thrilled to present this collection of amazing, weird stories from a group of supremely talented writers.”
In this anthology, twenty-two authors who found the Yellow Sign, share their harrowing visions of worlds shaped by its influence in stories and poems inspired by Chamber’s foundational works of weird horror. From the personal to the historic, from the macabre to the fantastic, the stories and poems gathered here illuminate new, unexpected realities shaped by the King in Yellow, under the sway of the Yellow Sign, or in the grip of madnesses inspired by their power. What terrifying knowledge and unsettling experiences have these creative souls ushered into our world? What visions do they bring from Carcosa, from beneath the mantle of the Yellow King—from under twin suns?
We are especially pleased to include a previously unpublished novella, “less… light…” by the late Joseph S. Pulver, whose stories and anthologies did so much to help the King in Yellow mythos stand on its own in weird fiction.
I’m honored and thrilled to see that On the Night Border, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, appears on the Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot! It’s wonderful to see this collection continue to receive such a positive response from readers and the horror community! Congratulations to all those whose work appears on the ballot. This is a pretty amazing list, which I’ve posted here in full, and if you’re looking for some great horror you will certainly find it here.
The 2019 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
The
Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to release the Preliminary
Ballot for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org/) is
the premier writersorganization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with
over 1,600 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards®in various
categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/).
Works
on this ballot are not referred to as “nominees” or “finalists”. Only works
appearing on the Final Ballot may be referred to as “nominated works” and their
authors as “finalists”.
The
HWA Board of Trustees and the Bram Stoker Awards®Committee
congratulate all those appearing on the Preliminary Ballot. Notes about the
voting process will appear after the ballot listing.
Tanabe, Gou – H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains
of Madness Volume 1 (Dark Horse Manga)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Breukelaar,
J.S. – Like Ripples on a Blank Shore (Collision: Stories)
(Meerkat Press, LLC)
Cluley,
Ray – Adrenaline Junkies (The Porcupine Boy and
Other Anthological Oddities) (Crossroad Press)
Jones, Pam – Ivy
Day (Spaceboy Books LLC)
LaValle, Victor – Up
from Slavery (Weird Tales Magazine#363)(Weird Tales
Inc.)
Manzetti, Alessandro – The Keeper
of Chernobyl (Omnium Gatherum)
Serafini, Matt – Rites
of Extinction (Grindhouse Press)
Smith,
Farah Rose – Anonyma (Ulthar Press)
Taborska, Anna – The
Cat Sitter (Shadowcats) (Black Shuck Books)
Tantlinger,
Sara – To Be Devoured (Unnerving)
Thomas, Richard – Ring
of Fire (The Seven Deadliest) (Cutting Block Books)
Warren, Kaaron – Into
Bones Like Oil (Meerkat Shorts)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Chapman,
Greg – “The Book of Last Words” (This Sublime Darkness and
Other Dark Stories) (Things in the Well Publishing)
Kiste,
Gwendolyn – “The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy
Westenra’s Diary)” (Nightmare MagazineNov. 2019, Issue 86)
Landry,
Jess – “Bury Me in Tar and Twine” (Tales of the LostVolume 1: We All
Lose Something!) (Things in the Well Publishing)
Little,
John R. – “Anniversary” (Dark Tides: A Charity Horror Anthology)
(Gestalt Media)
MacKenzie,
Brooke – “The Elevator Game”(Who Knocks?
Magazine Issue #2)
O’Quinn, Cindy –
“Lydia” (The Twisted Book of Shadows) (Twisted Publishing)
Serna-Grey,
Ben – “Where Gods Dance”(Apex Magazine Issue #118)
Waggoner, Tim –
“A Touch of Madness”(The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias)
(LVP Publications)
Westlake,
Jack – “Glass Eyes in Porcelain Faces” (Black Static Issue #70) (TTS
Press)
White, Gordon
B. – “Birds of Passage” (Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles) (Chthonic
Matter)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction
Collection
Chambers, James – On the Night Border (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Chiang,
Ted – Exhalation: Stories (Knopf)
Evenson,
Brian – Song for the Unraveling of the World (Coffee
House Press)
Hodson, Brad
C. – Where Carrion Gods Dance (Washington Park Press)
Howard,
Kat – A Cathedral of Myth and Bone: Stories(Gallery/Saga Press)
Johnson,
L.S. – Rare Birds: Stories (Traversing Z Press)
Jonez, Kate – Lady
Bits (Trepidatio Publishing)
Langan,
John – Sefira and Other Betrayals (Hippocampus
Press)
Read, Sarah – Out
of Water (Trepidatio Publishing)
Tremblay,
Paul – Growing Things and Other Stories (William Morrow)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Aster,
Ari – Midsommar (B-Reel Films, Square Peg)
Busick,
Guy and Murphy, Ryan – Ready or Not (Mythology
Entertainment)
Duffer
Brothers, The – Stranger Things (Season 3, Chapter Eight:
The Battle of Starcourt) (Netflix)
Eggers,
Robert and Eggers, Max – The Lighthouse (A24, New
Regency Pictures, RT Features)
Flanagan,
Mike – Doctor Sleep (Warner Bros., Intrepid
Pictures/Vertigo Entertainment)
Gilroy,
Dan – Velvet Buzzsaw (Netflix)
Hageman,
Dan and Hageman, Kevin – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1212
Entertainment, CBS Films, DDY, Entertainment One, Rolling Hills Productions,
Sean Daniel Company, Starlight International Media)
López, Issa – Tigers
Are Not Afraid (Filmadora Nacional, Peligrosa)
Peele,
Jordan – Us (Monkeypaw Productions, Perfect World
Pictures, Dentsu, Fuji Television Network, Universal
Pictures)
Sutherland,
Teresa – The Wind (Soapbox Films, Divide/Conquer, Mind Hive
Films)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Beltran,
Patrick and Ward, D. Alexander – The Seven Deadliest(Cutting
Block Books)
Brozek,
Jennifer – A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods (Pulse
Publishing)
Cade,
Octavia – Sharp & Sugar Tooth: Women Up to No Good(Upper
Rubber Boot Books)
Datlow,
Ellen – Echoes (Gallery/Saga Press)
Golden,
Christopher and Moore, James A. – The Twisted Book of Shadows (Twisted
Publishing)
Guignard,
Eric J. – Pop the Clutch: Thrilling Tales of Rockabilly, Monsters, and
Hot Rod Horror (Dark Moon Books)
Johnson,
Eugene and Dillon, Steve – Tales of the Lost Volume 1: We All
Lose Something! (Things in the Well Publishing)
Jones,
Stephen – Best New Horror #29 (PS Publishing)
Schweitzer, Darrell – Mountains
of Madness Revealed (PS Publishing)
Wilson,
Robert S. – Nox Pareidolia (Nightscape Press)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Beal, Eleanor and Greenaway, Jonathan – Horror
and Religion: New Literary Approaches to Theology, Race,
and Sexuality(University of Wales Press)
Earle, Harriet E.H. – Gender, Sexuality,
and Queerness in American Horror Story: Critical Essays (McFarland)
Eighteen-Bisang, Robert and Miller,
Elizabeth – Drafts of Dracula (Tellwell Talent)
Grafius, Brandon R. – Reading the Bible with
Horror(Lexington Books/Fortress Academic)
Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra – Masks in
Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces (University
of Wales Press)
Kachuba, John B. – Shapeshifters: A
History (Reaktion Books)
Kröger, Lisa and Anderson, Melanie R.
– Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative
Fiction(Quirk Books)
Stobbart, Dawn – Videogames and Horror: From
Amnesia to Zombies, Run! (University of Wales Press)
Tibbetts, John C. – The Furies of Marjorie
Bowen (McFarland)
Volk, Stephen – Coffinmaker’s Blues:
Collected Writings on Terror (PS Publishing)
Superior Achievement
in Short Non-Fiction
Clasen, Mathias – Evolution, Cognition, and Horror:
A Précis of Why Horror Seduces (Journal of Cognitive
Historiography Vol 4, No 2)
Hurley, Gavin F. – Between Hell and Earth:
Rhetorical Appropriation of Religious Space within Hellraiser (The
Spaces and Places of Horror, Vernon
Press)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – Magic, Madness, and
Women Who Creep: The Power of Individuality in the Work of Charlotte Perkins
Gilman (Vastarien: A Literary Journal Vol. 2, Issue 1)
Liaguno, Vince A. – Slasher Films Made Me Gay:
The Queer Appeal and Subtext of the Genre (LGBTQ+ Horror Month:
9/1/2019, Ginger Nuts of Horror)
Mann, Craig Ian – The Beast Without: The
Cinematic Werewolf as a (Counter)Cultural Metaphor (Horror Studies
Journal Volume 10.1)
Renner, Karen J. – The Evil
Aging Women of American Horror Story (Elder Horror: Essays
on Film’s Frightening Images of Aging, McFarland)
Robinson, Kelly – Film’s First Lycanthrope: 1913’s
The Werewolf (Scary Monsters Magazine #114)
Waggoner, Tim – Riding Out the Storms (Writing
in the Dark)
Weich, Valerie E. – Lord Byron’s Whipping
Boy: Dr. John William Polidori and the 200th Anniversary of
The Vampyre(Famous Monsters of Filmland, Issue #291)
Worth, Aaron – From the Books of Wandering:
Fin-De-Siècle Poetics of a Supernatural Figure (The Times Literary
Supplement)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry
Collection
Addison,
Linda D. and Manzetti, Alessandro – The Place of Broken
Things (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Cade,
Octavia – Mary Shelley Makes a Monster (Aqueduct Press)
Coffman,
Frank – The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (Bold
Venture Press)
Exciting news! The Horror Writers Association has announced the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards®, and A New York State of Fright is nominated in for Superior Achievement in Anthology! Congratulations to all our contributors, my co-editors–April Grey and Robert Masterson–and our publisher, Derrick Hussey, Hippocampus Press. Congrats as well to all the other nominees in our category! You can read the full ballot here.
Enter the shadows of New York’s dark secrets and haunted past!
From a city and state that have witnessed all manner of menace—from serial killers and corrupt political machines to natural disasters and terrorist attacks—come twenty-four visions of dread from New York horror authors—all to benefit the next generation of New York writers. Presenting stories set in New York locations, A NEW YORK STATE OF FRIGHT gathers tales by new and established writers who give voice to New York’s everyday fears, macabre mysteries, and worst nightmares.
To help New York’s rich literary tradition endure into the future, the authors, editors, and publisher of A NEW YORK STATE OF FRIGHT pledge to contribute all proceeds to New York City’s Girls Write Now non-profit organization, which pairs at-risk teen women interested in writing with professional writing and career mentors. Find out more at www.girlswritenow.org.
Raw Dog Screaming Press is excited to announce that a two-book deal has been signed with author James Chambers. The agreement is for a pair of short story collections to be published over the next two years. The first, On the Night Border, is horror themed, features the Bram Stoker-nominated short story “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” and will be released later in 2019. Poet and author Linda D. Addison has agreed to write the introduction. The second collection, The Price of Faces, focuses on Chambers’ science fiction and fantasy themed stories and will be released in 2020. Italian artist Daniele Serra has been commissioned to paint both covers.
“After knowing Jim for so long we’re very happy to finally be able to work with him on a full-length project,” says RDSP owner John Lawson. They first met at Horrorfind in 2003 and one of Chambers’ stories was included in the second book RDSP ever published, Sick: An Anthology of Illness. “I can’t wait for people to read On the Night Border,” says editor Jennifer Barnes. “While many readers may be familiar with Jim’s Stoker-nominated story, there are several fantastic unpublished works included and it’s a great mix of his historically-inspired and Lovecraftian tales with more visceral present day horror. I was very impressed with the depth and quality of this collection.”
Jim has been contributing to the horror genre for many years and in more ways than one. While his writing has been recognized with a Bram Stoker Award® for the graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe and a Stoker nomination for his short story “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills” he has also been a tireless volunteer for his fellow authors receiving both the Richard Laymon Award and the Silver Hammer Award for his volunteer work with the HWA. He coordinates the New York chapter of the HWA and has supported endeavors like the Girls Write Now charity as an editor of the anthology A New York State of Fright and helping to organize a reading to celebrate Women in Horror month.
A release date will be set soon. Reviewers interested in receiving advance copies can contact books (at) rawdogscreaming.com.
Shadows Over Main Street 2, edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward, is still on sale! This collection of horror stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and set in small-town America includes fiction by Joyce Carol Oates, Joe R. Lansdale, Gary Braunbeck, John F.D. Taff, Lucy Snyder, Erinn Kemper, and many others, including my Bram Stoker Award nominated story, “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills.”
Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s years spent living in Northport on Long Island, “Aztake Hills,” blends literary history, the Lovecraftian mythos, and 1960s counter-culture in haunting vision of cosmic horror hidden in the shadows of a small town.
Gunther’s Tap Room, Northport, NY, the inspiration for Raker’s in the fictional town of Knicksport.
Shadows Over Main Street 2
You know this place. Seems normal enough. But you know better, don’t you? You’ve heard rumors of strange histories. You’ve seen hints of dark deeds.
Turns out you can go home again, and the shadows will be waiting for you. Bram Stoker Award® nominated editors Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward bring you Volume 2 of their best selling, critically-acclaimed small-town Lovecraftian anthology series. Within these pages, you’ll discover:
America’s pastime awakening dark secrets buried deep within the earth.
Vietnam War heroes who glimpse something worse than war and return home to discover a new kind of hell waiting for them.
The music of a generation—of many generations—revealed as something older, hungrier and more insidious than a bad acid trip.
A war-widow who rediscovers love and passion… only to cultivate the world’s end.
Illustration for “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” by Luke Spooner.
After appearing and reading at a book signing event at haunted Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, I penned an original, short ghost story for T. Fox Dunham, one of the event coordinators, for his podcast, What Are You Afraid Of? The podcast covers horror fiction and all things paranormal. In honor of Halloween, Fox and his partner Phil Thomas have been conducting broadcasts and shows from other haunted sites. Written in honor of their Gettysburg Ghost episode, “Out Of Devil’s Den,” tells a ghostly tale of one of Gettysburg’s most notorious and sinister locations. Fox did a wonderful reading of this, recorded for the program, marking the first ever public presentation of the story, which comes at right about 1:02:00 mark of the recording. The entire broadcast is well worth listening to with an in-depth interview with Gettysburg ghost expert and Licensed Battlefield Guide, Mark Nesbitt.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be appearing in person to read from my work and sign books at Horror at the Fort! This paranormal event at haunted Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia takes place on Saturday, September 16. I’ll be reading alongside Meghan Arcuri-Moran, John C. Foster, T. Fox Dunham, Peter Giglio, Shannon Giglio, and Phil Thomas. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be taking part in my first ever ghost hunt!
Come join your hosts from popular internet radio station Para-X as they bring you the first Philadelphia Ghost Fest at Fort Mifflin!
Walk old Fort Mifflin and explore its haunted history and meet & greet hosts of your favorite Paranormal podcasts. Hear stories from some of Philly’s top horror authors and even experience the ghosts of Fort Mifflin AT NIGHT! The Paranormal View will be broadcasting live and What are you Afraid Of? Podcast will be recording. Meet the hosts of The Shadows Radio, Dark Sun Rising, The Paranormal View, and What are you Afraid of? The Fest runs from 12pm to 2am.
More information is also available on the Facebook page.
I promise a more detailed post when I catch up with myself, but I am thrilled to announce that my original graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Graphic Novel from the Horror Writers Association at the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards on April 29. Such recognition is an honor and a wonderful experience. I share this with the book’s outstanding creative team: Luis Czerniawski, Felipe Kroll, Jim Fern, Bernie Lee, E.M. Gist, and publisher Joe Gentile and Moonstone Books. Many thanks to all of you who have supported and read the book! (Click the image below for a larger pic.)
It’s with great honor I announce that I will be this year’s recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s Silver Hammer Award! Many thanks to Lisa Morton and the board of the HWA.
From the HWA:
The Horror Writers Association announces James Chambers as the 2016 Silver Hammer Award recipient. Chambers will receive the award at StokerCon 2017 held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. “I enjoy the work I do for the HWA,” Chambers commented, “and I appreciate the opportunity to pitch in and help out the group and other writers.”
HWA presents the Silver Hammer Award in recognition of extraordinary volunteerism by a member who dedicates valuable time and effort to the organization. The award is determined by HWA’s Board of Trustees. Chambers has a long history of offering his time, services, and industry expertise to the international writers’ organization. He committed a tremendous amount of time to HWA in 2016, then took on a further role as co-chair of 2018 StokerCon. HWA President, Lisa Morton, stated: “I just can’t imagine the HWA without him.”
Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe recently made the final ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel! I’m thrilled to see the book continue to receive such a great response. Feedback from readers has been terrifically positive, and this is a wonderful bit of recognition. Congratulations to our entire creative team: Luis Czerniawski, Felipe Kroll, Jim Fern, Erik M. Gist, and Bernie Lee as well as Moonstone Books! If you haven’t yet had a chance to check out the comic, it’s still available directly from Moonstone Books as well as Midtown Comics. You can also see previews and news at our Facebook page. We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of support and interest from fans of Kolchak, fans of Poe, and readers in general, for which we are eternally grateful. It’s great to know these two icons of American horror still have so many fans.
Due out at the end of November, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe! Here’s the final cover design. Created by Jeff Rice, Kolchak the Night Stalker sprang to national attention when Darren McGavin brought the character to life for a TV movie, The Night Stalker, in 1972, produced by Dan Curtis, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, and written by Richard Matheson. It became the highest-rated television movie ever at the time. A sequel, The Night Strangler, followed, created by the same team, and then Kolchak moved into a regular TV series, which lasted a single season in 1974. The character’s enduring appeal and ground-breaking stories inspired The X-Files and many other supernatural investigator characters and stories. Today, with the full run of the show available on Netflix, he is more popular than ever.
Written by James Chambers. Art by Luis Czerniawski, Felipe Kroll, and Jim Fern. Cover by E.M. Gist.
From tell-tale hearts and premature burials to black cats and the Red Death, reporter Carl Kolchak grapples with deepening horror and madness as events from Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of mystery and imagination come to life in modern-day Baltimore. Kolchak teams with a street magician who performs tricks and escapes inspired by Poe to expose the supernatural power bringing the author’s deadly visions to life and solve a series of terrifying occurrences, disappearances, and murders.
My all-new, original graphic novel, Kolchak, the Night Stalker: The Poe Cases is in the home stretch in production and soon to be sent off to press. Moonstone Books will be publishing it this spring, the latest in their ongoing series of comics and anthologies continuing the adventures of Carl Kolchak. Although The Night Stalker originally comprised two novels by creator Jeff Rice, two television movies written by Richard Matheson and directed by Dan Curtis, and one season of an hourly television series, Carl seems more popular today than ever before. The full original series is currently streaming on Netflix, and I’m extremely excited to add to the Kolchak mythos, especially with The Poe Cases, which pits Carl against a series of macabre occurrences and threats inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. To hold you over until the book is published, here are some preview pages. More soon!
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter One, Page 1; Art by Luis Czerniawski
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter One, Page 2; Art by Luis Czerniawski
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter One, Page 3; Art by Luis Czerniawski
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter Two, Page 1; Art by Luis Czerniawski
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter Three, Page 1; Art by Felipe Kroll
Kolchak: The Poe Cases, Chapter Five, Page 1; Art by Jim Fern
My latest short story, “In Wolf’s Clothing,” will appear in Gaslight and Grimm next month. A dark (and sexy!) steampunk retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood,” it also continues my Machinations Sundry short story cycle.
Once Upon a Time… ageless tales were told from one generation to the next, filled with both wonders and warnings. Tales of handsome princes and wicked queens, of good-hearted folk and evil stepmothers. Tales of danger and caution and magic…classics that still echo in our hearts and memories even to this day, told from old, cherished books or from memory at Grandma’s knee.
Oh yes, tales have been told…but never quite like these. Order here!
Journey With tales by James Chambers ~ Christine Norris ~ Bernie Mojzes ~ Danny Birt ~ Jean Marie Ward ~ Jeff Young ~ Gail Z. and Larry N. Martin ~ Elaine Corvidae ~ David Lee Summers ~ Kelly A. Harmon ~ Jonah Knight ~ Diana Bastine ~ Jody Lynn Nye.with through the pages of Gaslight and Grimm to discover timeless truths through lenses polished in the age of steam.
My short story, “The Lost Boy,” appears in Moonstone Books’s newest anthology chronicling the shadowy adventures of Carl Kolchak, the Night Stalker. I’ve been a fan of the original Kolchak television movies and series for years and loved writing Carl. An intrepid reporter, the supernatural, and a mystery to be solved–all makings for great stories. The anthology includes work by Nancy Holder, Nancy Kilpatrick, Ed Gorman, CJ Henderson, Lilith Saintcrow, Dave Ulanski, and many others, thirteen original stories in all, with a cover by Byron Winton.
“There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of Hell…” —Edgar Allan Poe, “The Premature Burial.”
“…when you have finished this bizarre account, judge for yourself its believability, and then try to tell yourself, wherever you may be, it couldn’t happen here.” —Carl Kolchak, The Night Stalker
Kolchak, The Night Stalker: The Edgar Allan Poe Cases
From tell-tale hearts and premature burials to black cats and the Red Death, reporter Carl Kolchak grapples with deepening horror and madness as events from Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of mystery and imagination come to life in modern-day Baltimore. Kolchak teams with a street magician who performs tricks and escapes inspired by Poe to expose the supernatural power bringing the author’s deadly visions to life and solve a series of terrifying occurrences, disappearances, and murders.
Cover art by E.M. Gist.
Written by James Chambers, Art by Luis Czerniawski, Felipe Kroll, and Jim Fern, Letters by Bernie Lee, Cover by E.M. Gist.
Qualia Nous, nominated for a Bram Stoker Award(R) for Superior Achievement in Anthology as well as for Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year, has taken the Gold Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy at the Benjamin Franklin Awards. My story, “The Price of Faces,” is in the book, along with a selection of wonderful fiction and poetry. Great time to check out one of the most exciting anthologies published last year. Michael’s next anthology project, The Library of the Dead, will be published next month.
Last year, when my good friend CJ Henderson was diagnosed with lymphoma, many of his friends, fans, and colleagues rallied to help him and his family through a difficult, horrible time. Several fund-raising efforts were launched, including one spearheaded by Danielle Ackley McPhail, The Society for the Preservation of CJ Henderson. Over the course of several months, several thousand dollars were raised and directed to CJ and his family to help defray medical bills and everyday costs while CJ was unable to write or attend conventions, his primary source of income. The Society anthology was intended as a fundraiser, with all proceeds to go to CJ and his family, and as a tribute from CJ’s friends in recognition of all the years of friendship, support, and mentorship CJ shared with us.
Sadly, CJ passed away on July 4, 2014, before the anthology was completed.
My story, “Every Second of Every Day,” was inspired by one of my favorite stories of CJ’s, “All Around the Mulberry Bush.” It happens to be CJ’s first Monkey King story, and it was published in Weird Trails, an anthology which also included my first published piece of short fiction, “The Last Stand of Black Danny O’Barry.” CJ helped me connect with the editor and encouraged me while writing the story, so in that sense, my piece for the Society anthology comes back full circle to my short fiction beginnings. The title comes from one of the principles by which CJ lived, the idea being that we are free at any moment to choose another path, to be who we want to be or not, and that every second of every day, we make that choice. It’s a powerful idea that has stayed with me a long time, and I hope the story does it justice.
Other contributors include John L. French, Jean Rabe, Patrick Thomas, David Boop, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeff Young, Leona Wisoker Robert M. Price–and featured is a previously unpublished story by CJ Henderson. Jason Whitley provided illustrations for all of the stories, and Ben Fogletto painted the cover.
