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Award-Nominated Story in Shadows Over Main Street 2

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.

 

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NEW RELEASE: Small-Town Lovecraftian Horror!

I’m pleased to announce the publication of Shadows Over Main Street 2, edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward, which includes my story “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills.” In small-town Knicksport on the Long Island Sound, an iconic American author encounters a Lovecraftian reality, an experience that resonates in the life of a local painter.

 

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 Wardbring you the next installment of their best selling, critically acclaimed small-town Lovecraftian anthology series: Shadows Over Main Street, Volume 2. 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. Featuring stories by: Joyce Carol Oates, Joe R. Lansdale, Gary A. Braunbeck, John F.D. Taff, Lucy A. Snyder, James Chambers, Erinn L. Kemper, Michael Wehunt, Suzanne Madron, William Meikle, Ronald Malfi, Damien Angelica Walters, Max Booth III, C.W. LaSart, Eden Royce, Jay Wilburn, and Douglas Wynne. With a foreword by Laird Barron and stunning illustrations by Luke Spooner. Every turn you take leads back to Main Street. We’ve been waiting. Welcome home.

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Shadows Over Main Street 2

Artist Luke Spooner created this rich and evocative illustration for my story in the forthcoming anthology, Shadows Over Main Street 2. Much of my tale, “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” is grounded in research I did in my hometown, Northport, and mixes a fair bit of fact with its fiction regarding the time Jack Kerouac spent here in the 60s. I went out on a limb with this one narratively as well so it’s very close to my heart. Edited by D Alexander Ward and Doug Murano, Shadows should be published later this year.

Art by Luke Spooner for “A Song Left Behind in the Aztakea Hills,” forthcoming in Shadows Over Main Street 2.
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New Release: Shadows Over Main Street

cover_shadowsmain_lrgMy story, “Odd Quahogs” was recently published in Shadows Over Main Street, edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward. It fits into my cycle of Knicksport tales, a series of Lovecraftian stories and novellas interconnected by small town on Long Island with a horrific history, most richly explored in my novella collection, The Engines of Sacrifice.

I wrote a “behind-the-scenes” piece about the background of the story and Knicksport over on the anthology website.

Legendary horror author Ramsey Campbell wrote the introduction and the work of many excellent authors is featured, including Nick Mamatas, Lucy Snyder, Josh Malerman, Rena Mason, Stephanie Wytovich, Kevin Lucia, Chesya Burke, Brian Hodge, Mary SanGiovanni, Tim Curran, Aaron Polson, T. Fox Dunham, Richard Thomas, Gary Braunbeck, Adrian Ludens, Cameron Suey, Lisa Morton, Jay Wilburn, and John Sunseri.

“Shadows Over Main Street demonstrates most convincingly that fear lurks in our towns and villages, in darkened alleys, and in the shadowy human heart. This anthology represents a dynamic cross section of contemporary horror.” –Laird Barron, Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

“Shadows Over Main Street is a masterful blend of stories fit for both die-hard Lovecraft fans and readers new to the genre. Each and every tale is wickedly delicious.” –Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Fall of Night and V-Wars.