The spooky season is finally here! For this month’s reading, I thought I’d draw in some furry magic—and what better way to do that than use the Fantasy Cats Oracle deck by Paolo Barbieri? Perhaps you may even uncover the long-held secrets behind the legendary feline mystique! At the very least, you’ll sniff out some tasty inspiration for your next furry-themed literary work. Here’s hoping you have a lucky black cat cross your path!
The word “gothic” can conjure very specific images depending on who you’re talking to. Some out there might see Robert Smith very clearly in their mind’s eye, while others will think of heroines in white night dresses fleeing ruined castles by dark. Once the dominant speculative genre – back before Shelley and Stoker and Lovecraft and Orwell were but a sparkle in their mothers’ eyes – Gothic has gone through the trends and the tribulations of genre over the last few centuries.
And yet, it endures.
It’s the Gothic that drives Quill & Crow Publishing House, a self-described “quaint and curious press dedicated to promoting the integrity of independent literature”. As specialists in all things Gothic and macabre, Quill & Crow not only put out anthologies and novels, they also have a monthly online magazine exploring different themes within the framework of the Gothic genre. With Gothic as the framework, the stories published in The Crow’s Quill invite other genres such as fantasy, horror and literary fiction into the fold.
We sat down with Damon Barret Roe, editor of The Crow’s Quill, to find out more about the enduring appeal of the gothic and macabre, as well as the publishing house’s current Kickstarter campaign to keep the (gentle, candlelit) fires burning for their dreadful tales.
NEW BLOOD: The Rebirth of Indie Horror
A Conversation with Luke Kondor
by Matt Micheli
These interviews are intended to be very candid and conversational. There is nothing off limits.
***
For Part 5 of NEW BLOOD, I have the pleasure of speaking to a man of many talents: author of horror and bizarro fiction, low-budget award-winning film maker, video-game writer, comic writer, owner of many cats (one of which is a dog), founder and producer of Hawk and Cleaver, and co-founder and host of the award-winning horror podcast The Other Stories.
Sci-Fi and Horror/Urban Fantasy Mashup
Mashing up genres into a cohesive story can be a lot of fun for writers, but also an enormous challenge. Not everyone is Ridley Scott, who can take the idea of a haunted house in space and make it work. There is a balance you have to find. When you set out to craft a story like this, you have to keep in mind your end game. Will everyone die a horrible death? Will there be a happily ever after? Will only one person come out on the other end (along with their cat)? Those are some big questions you have to answer for horror/urban fantasy, but that’s not all. You have to factor in the science fiction aspect. Will the story take place in space? Will the characters be on an alien world? Will they be in a space station? Is the story set in the future? What about technology? Will the world be dark and dystopian or something more like our world but set farther in the future? There is a lot to sort through and figure out.
Which, if I’m honest, can be great fun. These are the questions that get me excited when I’m telling a story, because, mostly these are questions I really want answered as a reader (not all at once, but by the time I’m finished reading the story).
When I set out to write Volaria, I wanted to do three things: the story had to be set in the future; I wanted there to be vampires, witches and werewolves, and I wanted the story located partially in a thriving city on the moon (which would involve space travel… another must).
Hello to all of our #author and #writer friends!
Belinda is back, just in time to cover the final week of September and share her favorite latest paying markets that we’ve listed on Horror Tree over the past month. Jetlagged and unable to contain her excitement for Halloween (and getting used to her time zone again,) she has still come through with a new video to help you find new paying markets for your work!
Are you dying for Halloween to kick in and check out this week’s open calls? We have the following to enjoy!
(more…)
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Title: Arch-Conspirator
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Mythology
Release Date: 21st, February, 2023
Synopsis: Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.
Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but Antigone’s parents were murdered, leaving her father’s throne vacant. As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.
But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.
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Today, we’re thrilled to offer up two copies of ‘Leech’ by Hiron Ennes for our UK readers! Described as “A phenomenal debut and atmospheric Gothic triumph – a must for fans of Jeff VanderMeer, Tamsyn Muir, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.”
What is it about?
MEET THE CURE FOR THE HUMAN DISEASE
In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies.
For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed.
In the frozen north, the Institute’s body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron’s castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again.
This one is really easy to enter and we’ve got two physical copies up for grabs!
Enter to win below!
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