Deborah Sheldon has recently published Cretaceous Canyon with Severed Press. And, running true to form, she has written a novel that will seize you in the first chapter and then thrill, horrify, enmesh and sicken in turn as it propels you through to the final page. I could not put this book down, so I was pleased to be able to speak with Deborah about how this scintillating story came to life.
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Title: The Never-Ending Party
Author: Joe Corallo, Rachel Pollack,
Art: Eva Cabrera (Illustrator)
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Genre: Horror, Occult, Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
Release date: 23rd August, 2023
Synopsis: Twenty-five years after losing her lover Lulu in a cult ritual for Dionysus gone wrong, Mindy Morrow is trying to live her life and put the past behind her.
Unfortunately for Mindy, the past won’t let her go. While she’s taking care of her friend Flavia, her frenemy Kate is trying to lure Mindy back into the old club scene, and something more ancient and terrifying awaits them all.
From Joe Corallo and Rachel Pollack, the winner of The World Fantasy Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a Nebula nominee comes a story about dark pasts and the supernatural.
Collects The Never-Ending Party #1–#5 from the ComiXology original digital series, in print for the first time!
Hello, children of the dark. Isn’t it mad that an entire summer can go by with not much happening, and then a mere two week period brings alllll the excitement? Summer has finally arrived in the UK, a week after the season’s official end. (I know it’s over – I saw evidence of the local strawjack harvest parade last weekend!) As this week’s edition goes live, my other half is up in the north of England doing a half-marathon for his sins. As next week’s edition goes live, I’ll be finishing up at the British Fantasy Society’s FantasyCon (do make sure you let me know if you’ll be there too so I can say hi!). And then… well, life calms down again. Hopefully the weather will be cooler. It’ll almost be Halloween month. The stores will be full of spooky-themed clothes I can buy to wear year-round (anyone else do that?). And maybe, just maybe, I’ll get time to write. Think it’ll happen? Yeah, me neither.
I hope you’re getting plenty of time to write. And if you’re looking for something to flex those creative muscles, do consider popping out a drabble or two, please. Our cupboards are looking a bit bare, and we’d hate to have to skip a week of TWF! (It’d either be that or a stack of my own, and that’s just way too self-indulgent for anyone.)
But for now, let’s turn to this week’s TWF menu. We get out the ouija board for this week’s short story from a writer who’s new to these pages. (Hello, Sue du Feu!) This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:
Over to you, Stuart.
(PS sorry for all the bracketed asides this week! Not sure what’s got into me.)
Trembling With Fear: Year 6 update: We’re down to just the cover art, specs are in, I’m hoping by the time you read this I have a copy or final copy in my hands and a proof copy of the anthology ordered as I’m writing this in advance, fingers crossed!
Shadowed Realms update: Next year, we clearly need to budget more reading time to be built in. (Also, I won’t be in an MBA program so I’ll be reading quicker.) Progress is being made, slowly but surely.
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Horror literature is infamous for exploring the darkest corners of human — and inhuman — existence. Daring authors tap into primal fears to craft haunting stories of the unknown. Aging is a universal and inevitable aspect of the human experience, yet it remains one of the most feared and haunting concepts in our collective consciousness. In most literature, you’ll find themes of mortality, isolation, illness, bodily changes, and even the afterlife that weave an intricate web of what it means to be human and the fear that makes us so.
For years to come, stories will very likely tackle this real-life topic in varying, evolving ways. The following is an exploration of the implications of how horror literature has depicted aging and how it may do so going forward.
Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.
The basement was quiet.
Conor peeked through the crack in the door and gulped. The darkness pooled around the wooden steps like water. He didn’t like the dark, or water.
Taking a deep breath, he flung the door aside and ran down the steps, grasping for the jars his mother requested before he had even reached the floor below. The moment his foot hit the rough dirt; the basement came alive.
Shadows reached for him. Unseen things growled from every corner.
Conor fled, not looking back until he had reached the light flooded kitchen.
The basement was quiet once more.
The creature stirred, silver eyes glinting in the darkness. The sounds and smells of the house above carried into the basement, like a song on the wind.
It could hear the child.
It wanted that child, needed it to sustain itself. But the child rarely ventured down to this malodorous pit, and on the rare occasion he had to, he did not loiter.
The creature, however, was patient. Centuries of hunting created a patience unmatched. An opportunity would present itself.
A creak, and suddenly a flood of light pierced the suffocating blackness.
The child.
Growling, the creature left the shadows.
Conor woke with a start, sweat beading his brow.
Another nightmare.
The boy had been having them more frequently since he was last in the basement. His nightlight cast strange shadows on the bedroom wall. It wasn’t helping his increased heart rate so he flicked it off and closed his eyes as complete darkness washed over him.
Creak.
His eyes shot open. It sounded an awful lot like the basement door. a soft shuffling followed, growing louder as whoever or whatever was there approached his bedroom. He watched with wide, frightened eyes as the knob turned slowly.
“Mom!” he screamed.
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Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: YA / Horror / Fantasy
Release date: 12th September, 2023
Synopsis: Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas’s life.
If you’re a speculative fiction writer looking to elevate your craft, network with industry pros, and get your hands on some cutting-edge writing tools, then clear your calendar for September 11-14, 2023. ProWritingAid is hosting its Science Fiction Writers’ Week, and it’s an event you can’t afford to miss—especially since it’s free!
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