Garden of Eldritch Delights


Book Description

Master short story author Lucy A. Snyder is back with a dozen chilling, thought-provoking tales of Lovecraftian horror, dark science fiction, and weird fantasy. Her previous two collections received Bram Stoker Awards and this one offers the same high-caliber, trope-twisting prose. Snyder effortlessly creates memorable monsters, richly imagined worlds and diverse, unforgettable characters. Open this book and you'll find a garden of stories as dark and heady as black roses that will delight fans of complex, intelligent speculative fiction.




The Ballad of Black Tom


Book Description

One of NPR's Best Books of 2016, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Fantasy Award, the This is Horror Award for Novella of the Year, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping. A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break? "LaValle's novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do." — Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All "[LaValle] reinvents outmoded literary conventions, particularly the ghettos of genre and ethnicity that long divided serious literature from popular fiction." — Praise for The Devil in Silver from Elizabeth Hand, author of Radiant Days “LaValle cleverly subverts Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos by imbuing a black man with the power to summon the Old Ones, and creates genuine chills with his evocation of the monstrous Sleeping King, an echo of Lovecraft’s Dagon... [The Ballad of Black Tom] has a satisfying slingshot ending.” – Elizabeth Hand for Fantasy & ScienceFiction At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Exposed Nerves


Book Description

Exposed Nerves continues the explorations into dark poetry by Stoker Award winner and Shirley Jackson Award nominee Lucy A. Snyder, pairing the author's sly wordplay and imagery with grim introspection. By turns challenging, wryly amusing and gut-wrenching, Snyder's work plumbs bittersweet catharsis and maps a survivor's path through dangerous worlds, both the real and the horrifically imagined. "Exposed Nerves vibrates with energy and rewards with clarity of vision." -Mary Turzillo, Stoker-nominated and Elgin Award-winning poet Praise for Lucy A. Snyder's Stoker-winning poetry collection Chimeric Machines: "(This) may be the best collection of poetry I've read in years... There is not one poem in Chimeric Machines that doesn't fit in place like a delicately carved piece of a complex and consuming puzzle. ...There is no other writer working today quite like Lucy A. Snyder." -Hellnotes "What Snyder accomplishes in less than eighty pages is an emotional scoring that few can approach. ...This is (real life), given breath and teeth, stood out in front of the world in all its beautiful grime. Her work is emotional, powerful, and will shake a person's foundations ... I applaud this collection." -Scott A. Johnson, author of Shy Grove "Snyder is a massively talented writer-the sort who knows how to make you take a gulp when you hit the ending of a story or poem-and this poetry collection made me gulp with awe on virtually every page." -Michael A. Arnzen, author of Proverbs for Monsters "Her poetry is powerful, honest, playful ... this is not the first time she has walked dangerous, uncertain roads with her work and I hope it will not be the last." -Horror News




Spellbent


Book Description

In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot, magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a vicious demon that's been unleashed. In the aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she moves heaven and earth to find her man, she'll be shocked by what she discovers—and by what she must ultimately do to save them all.




The Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror


Book Description

Like the zombies, ghouls, and vampires which inhabit many of its books, the popularity of horror fiction is unstoppable. Even if you don’t happen to be a fan yourself, you won’t be “scared” to advise readers on finding their next great fright thanks to the astute guidance provided by horror expert Spratford in her updated guide. This definitive resource for library workers at any level of experience or familiarity with horror fiction details the state of the genre right now, including its appeal factors and key authors, assisting readers in getting up to speed quickly; presents ten annotated lists of suggested titles, all published since 2000, each with a short introduction providing historical context; delves into horror movies, TV shows, podcasts, and other formats; and offers abundant marketing advice, programming options, and pointers on additional resources.




Halloween Season


Book Description

Halloween is the most wonderful part of the year for many of us. For dedicated fans, the season begins when the leaves start turning autumn colors and doesn't finish until Hallowtide ends in November. With it comes a whole lot of fun: scary movies and stories, haunted houses, seasonal sweets, spooky decorations, costume parties, and of course trick or treat. But Halloween is also a deeply spiritual time for some; it's an opportunity to remember and honor loved ones who have passed on. Master storyteller Lucy A. Snyder has filled her cauldron with everything that Halloween means to her and distilled it into a spell-binding volume of stories. Within these pages you'll find thrills and chills, hilarity and horrors, the sweet and the naughty. One of the best things about Halloween is you don't have to be yourself. So go ahead and try on a new mask or two ... you may discover hidden talents as a witch, a pirate, a space voyager, a zombie fighter, or even an elf. This is the perfect collection to celebrate the season of the dead or to summon those heady autumn vibes whenever you like. You may even find a couple of tales that evoke a certain winter holiday that keeps trying to crowd in on the fun. In the worlds within this book, every day is Halloween!




Do Not Go Quietly


Book Description

Resistance. Revolution. Standing up and demanding to have your space, your say, your right to be. From small acts of defiance to protests that shut down cities, Do Not Go Quietly is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories about those who resist. Within this anthology, we will chronicle the fight for what is just and right, and what that means: from leading revolutions to the simple act of saying “No.” Resistance can be a small act of everyday defiance. And other times, resistance means massive movements that topple governments and become iconic historical moments. Either way, there is power in these acts, and the contributors in Do Not Go Quietly will harness that power to shake our readers to the core. We are subordinates to a power base that is actively working to solidify its grip on the world. Now is time to stand up and raise your voice and tell the world that enough is enough! TABLE OF CONTENTS: John Hornor Jacobs - "Glossolalia" A. Merc Rustad - "The Judith Plague" Maurice Broaddus/Nayad Monroe - "What the Mountain Wants" Karin Lowachee - "Sympathizer" Brooke Bolander - "Kindle" Cassandra Khaw - "What We Have Chosen to Love" Fran Wilde - "The Society for the Reclamation of Words and Meaning" Rich Larson - "Scurry" Sarah Pinsker - "Everything Is Closed Today" Sheree Renée Thomas - "Thirteen Year Long Song" Dee Warrick - "Nobody Lives in the Swamp" Russell Nichols - "Rage Against the Vending Machine" Meg Elison - "Hey Alexa" Marie Vibbert - "South of the Waffle House" Veronica Brush - "Face" Jo Miles - "Choose Your Truth" Rachael K. Jones - "Oil Under Her Tongue" Eugenia Triantafyllou - "April Teeth" E. Catherine Tobler - "Kill the Darlings (Silicone Sister Remix)" Shanna Germain - "Salted Bone and Silent Sea" Cover art by Marcela Bolívar. Includes 4 interior original black & white illustrations by the cover artist.




American Gothic Short Stories


Book Description

With handsome young men who never grow old, and the strangest of relatives appearing from dark corridors and long shadows, the frenzied imagination of the American Gothic is a fertile theme for this next anthology in the Gothic fantasy short story series. As with other titles in the series, new short fiction complements the work of classic authors including: Gertrude Atherton, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Brockden Brown, George Washington Cable, Charles W. Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Ralph Adams Cram, Stephen Crane, Emma Dawson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ellen Glasgow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Shirley Jackson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Grace King, H.P. Lovecraft, Herman Melville, W.C. Morrow, Flannery O'Connor, Edgar Allan Poe, Annie Trumbull Slosson, Clark Ashton Smith, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, Madeline Yale Wynne.




The Porcupine Boy and Other Anthological Oddities


Book Description

An investigative journalist uncovers the horrifying secret behind a legendary Hollywood family. After an accident, a bus driver is faced with a horrible choice. A group of skydivers face a winged terror from above. An art dealer is haunted by a portrait of a red-haired woman in a green dress. A son is reunited with his father, thirty years after his death. THE PORCUPINE BOY AND OTHER ANTHOLOGICAL ODDITIES is an anthology of dark fiction containing fourteen never-before-published stories by some of the genre’s best writers.




Steampunk World


Book Description

There's something compelling about the shine of clicking brass clockwork and hiss of steam-driven automatons. But there was something missing. It was easy to find excellent stories of American and British citizens... but we rarely got to see steampunk from the point of view of the rest of the world. Until now. Steampunk World is a showcase for nineteen authors to flip the levers and start the pistons and invite you to experience the entirety of steampunk.