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Max Blood’s Mausoleum: A New House for Horror

Max Blood’s Mausoleum: A New House for Horror

By Angelique Fawns

 

Max Blood is creating a new home for horror, and this venue is not squeamish.

“We’ve read it all before and will read it all again, so send us something that will really set us back on our heels. Terrify us. Make us squirm. Send us the best of your worst.”

Max Blood’s Mausoleum is a paying market, offering $30 per piece, and is planning to publish quarterly issues.

Max Blood says he “specializes in the weird, the cosmic, and the monstrous. With a passion for turning cryptid stories into positively horrific monsters, he has created many tales of monster horror. He has also dabbled in ghost stories and body horror.”

I’m working on a Halloween-themed story with Max Blood called “The Matron of Hawthorne Hall”, that will be used in his third issue which should be published around Halloween 2024.

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The Literary Legacy of Doctor Who

The Literary Legacy of Doctor Who

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the British SFFH staple, Chris Hawton—co-host of the All-New Adventures of the Doctor Who Book Club podcast—takes a look at the Doctor’s world beyond the small screen.

As Doctor Who approaches its 60th anniversary this November, it might feel to some fans that the show has been an ever-present in British TV schedules since 1963. But, as older readers might know all too well, this is definitely not the case. And it was never guaranteed that the TARDIS crew would have a life beyond the end of the 1980s.

 

It’s now Whodom folklore that the then-bosses of the BBC were not fans of the show. They had tried to get it cancelled in 1985, but failed. Four years later, they took a different tact: they decided not to renew the show in 1989. They wanted to let it—and its reputation for poor special effects and dodgy costumes—go quietly.

 

The fans wouldn’t let it go quietly, though. In the absence of new TV stories, the Doctor’s adventures moved to novel form in 1991. This period, known as the ‘wilderness years’, saw these books sustain the dream and kept the fans’ insatiable appetites whet. Book-only Doctor Who adventures continue to this day—in fact, it’s what our podcast is dedicated to reading and celebrating!

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Witch Wizard Warlock by Robert Allen Lupton, et al

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Witch Wizard Warlock
Author: Various
Genre: Coming of Age Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Independently Published
Release Date: 22nd August, 2023

Synopsis: The massive volume contains thirty-four stories about witches, wizards, and warlocks from the brightest talents writing speculative fiction today, writers from seven countries around the world.
Horror stories, fantasy stories, adventure stories, some with a touch of humor, and some that shouldn’t be read after the lights go out. Young witches, old witches, pretty witches, and ugly witches, along with wizards, good and bad, share stories with warlocks. Are there good warlocks – who knows.
Readers can attend wizard school, fight monsters and of course, evil witches and warlocks. They can journey on magical quests, seek true love, and even take sides in the American Revolutionary War.
Contributors to the anthology include the following, some of whom may or may not be a witch, a wizard, or a warlock, but they all have a magical way with words. Many of them have books available. If you like their story, consider one of their other works. Three Cousins Publishing would like to thank Alyson Faye, E. V. Emmons, Campbell Blaine, S. E. Lindberg, Carol McConnell, David Morris, Shebat Legion, R. L. Meldrum, Rose Strickman, Lawrence Dagstine, Catherine Jordan, Tim Pulo, Judy Mowdy, Donna Garren, Shane Porteous, Ann Tjelmenland, Kay Hanifen, Ann Solinsky, Jason Battle, Dwain Campbell, C. J. Carter-Stephenson, AE Stueve, Ayman Kole, Josh Schlossberg, Rie Sheridan Rose, Chris Adams, George Jacobs, Darren Lipman, Bill Durfy, DW Milton, Yvonne Lang, Robin Allison Lupton.. and Elizabeth A. Allen
One has to be careful when dealing with witches and the like, because none of us is ever quite as smart as we think we are, but hopefully that rule applies to those who seek to master the dark arts.
So here’s the book, sit down and light a candle, and make sure to keep a bell within reach. You never know when you’ll need to break a spell. Enjoy.

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Aliens: Vasquez by V. Castro

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Aliens: Vasquez
Author: V. Castro
Genre:  Science Fiction
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 24th October, 2023

Synopsis: A groundbreaking Latinx Aliens novel by a rising star Latina author, featuring the fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez from the hit movie Aliens and the family she is forced to leave behind.
For the very first time, the canonical background of the breakout Aliens hero Jenette Vasquez, as well as the story of the children she was forced to leave behind as written by the rising Latina horror star V. Castro (Queen of the Cicadas).
Even before the doomed mission to Hadley’s Hope on LV-426, Jenette Vasquez had to fight to survive. Born to an immigrant family with a long military tradition, she looked up to the stars, but life pulled her back down to Earth—first into a street gang, then prison. The Colonial Marines proved to be Vasquez’s way out—a way that forced her to give up her twin children. Raised by Jenette’s sister, those children, Leticia and Ramon, had to discover their own ways to survive. Leticia by following her mother’s path into the military, Ramon into the corporate hierarchy of Weyland-Yutani. Their paths would converge on an unnamed planet which some see as a potential utopia, while others would use it for highly secretive research. Regardless of whatever humans might have planned for it, however, Xenomorphs will turn it into a living hell. 

 

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Complete Alien Collection: Symphony of Death by Alex White and Tim Waggoner

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: The Complete Alien Collection: Symphony of Death
Author: Alex White and Tim Waggoner
Genre:  TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction; Science Fiction Adventure
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 28th November, 2023

Synopsis: Collected together for the first time, this action-packed omnibus is filled with secrets, lies, and the silver smile of the deadly Xenomorphs. Across three epic novels, see how the Xenomorph doctrine of Weyland-Yutani and Venture is a short and angry road to hell.

The Cold Forge
Weyland-Yutani has suffered a devastating setback: the loss of the Xenomorphs they aggressively sought to exploit. True to form, they have a redundancy already in place… the facility known as The Cold Forge. When company man Dorian Sudler is sent to assess their progress, he discovers that there’s a spy aboard who may destroy the entire station… That is, if the Xenomorphs don’t do the job first.

Prototype
Corporate spy Tamar Prather steals a Xenomorph egg from Weyland-Yutani, taking it to a lab run by Venture… Former Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks has been tasked with training personnel to deal with anything that gets thrown their way, but nothing can prepare them for the horror that breaks out of Venture’s lab.

Into Charybdis
“Shy” Hunt and the tech team from McAllen Integrations thought it was an easy job—set up environmental systems for the brand new Hasanova Data Solutions colony, built on the abandoned ruins of a complex known as “Charybdis.” There are just two problems: the colony belongs to the Iranian state, and the complex is located above a series of hidden caves. Charybdis has a darker history than any could imagine, and its depths harbor deadly secrets.

The deeper they dig, the more Shy is convinced there’s no one they can believe. When a bizarre ship lands on a nearby island, one of the workers is attacked by a taloned creature, and trust evaporates between the Iranians and Americans. The McAllen integrations crew are imprisoned, accused of being spies, but manage to send out a distress signal… to the Colonial Marines.

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Interviews

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Check out the first part of our interview with Stacey Thomas!

Stacey Thomas is a contributor to Bad Form Review. She is an alumna of the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course where she was awarded the Clare Mackintosh Scholarship for Black Writers. In 2021, she was announced as one of the three winners of HarperCollins’s inaugural Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers.

The Revels is her debut novel.

Below, you can watch the first part of our interview with Stacey:
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Articles

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Paying Markets For Speculative Fiction Authors | Top Open Calls November 13th-17th, 2023

Welcome, weavers of the wondrous and the whimsical! 🐉🌌 As our journey through November, from the 13th to the 17th, unfolds, let us immerse ourselves in the fantastical tapestries akin to those spun by Anne McCaffrey, where dragons soar through starlit skies and distant planets harbor tales yet untold. In this week of crafting narratives, you hold the power to meld the mystical with the interstellar, creating worlds that resonate with the heart of exploration and the magic of possibility.

This week’s compendium of opportunities is akin to a Pernese dragon’s hoard, each link a gem with the potential to transport your stories to new heights and unexplored worlds.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 11/17/2023

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

 

Before you scroll down through the books however, please could you consider checking out the ‘Creatives in Crisis’ section. This has been added to help those who need additional support at this time. Thank you!

 

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