New Horror Books

[bendk]

There are quite a few nice titles coming out from Ex-Occidente Press, but do you see some other horror books that may be of interest?


I just got this in an e-mail from PS Publishing. It sounds like it might be worth a read. Does anyone know Dowling's work?





Announcing Clowns At Midnight by Terry Dowling


We're very excited about Terry Dowling's Clowns At Midnight -- so much so that we're almost having to sedate designer dynamique Mike Smith and editor emeritus Nick Gevers, both of whom worked extensively on the project (and who are still unable to sleep with the lights off).
For those who don't know Terry or his work, let's just say he is without doubt one of Australia's most acclaimed short story scribblers and Clowns -- amazingly his debut full-length novel -- is one of PS's finest dark fantasy/suspense titles, attracting plaudits from advance readers as a masterpiece of Gothic fiction and brilliantly sustained psychological tension.
We asked Nick to stop jumping up and down for a minute and tell you what it's about. Here goes:

"Residing in a comfortable house in the Australian countryside, a somewhat naive novelist confronts, and takes perverse pleasure in, his fear of clowns and everything resembling them: masks, marionettes, painted faces. His neighbours seem friendly, with a kindly interest in his unusual phobia; but why is it that they are so oddly knowledgeable about its symptoms and background history? And why are the writer's digital galleries of terrifying clown-moments being rearranged and augmented by invisible intruders? These questions lead him into an emotional and archetypal maelstrom in which serene exaltation and unmitigated fear are irretrievably mixed; are death and happiness identical?"

Thanks, Nick - so, there you have it! Terry has woven an astonishing tapestry of subtle, and at times subliminal, horror; we're confident that Clowns At Midnight will be regarded as one of the best genre books of the year, perhaps even of the decade... and we're expecting pre-orders to be brisk, so don't say we didn't warn you. There'll be 700 copies -- that's 200 traycased signed copies at £60 and 500 trade hardcovers at a measly £25, with free postage -- to anywhere! -- on all pre-orders for both editions. Place your order now!

[bendk]

I like the premise of this book. I have always been intrigued by Dante's Inferno. My dad had a paperback copy on the bookshelf when I was a kid. It depicted a scene of tormented souls illustrated by Gustave Dore. To make matters worse, the cover designer tinted the illustration red! You could almost feel the hell fire. I didn't read the book until I was in my twenties. I enjoyed it, but my hell is nothing like Dante's. My version of hell is completely secular and is a mixture of noise and vulgarity.






Working from Dante’s Inferno to draw out the reality behind the fantasy, author Kim Paffenroth unfolds the horrifying true events that led Dante to fictionalize the account of his lost years ...
For seventeen years of his life, the exact whereabouts of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri are unknown to modern scholars. It is known that during this time he traveled as an exile across Europe, working on his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. In his masterpiece he describes a journey through the three realms of the afterlife. The most famous of its three volumes, Inferno, describes hell.
During his lost wanderings, Dante stumbled upon an infestation of the living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed—cannibalism, live burnings, evisceration, crucifixion, and dozens more—became the basis of all the horrors described in Inferno. Afraid to be labeled a madman, Dante made the terrors he experienced into a more “believable” account of an otherworldly adventure filled with demons and mythological monsters.





But at last, the real story can finally be told.

"Paffenroth is one of the most innovative and intelligent writers of zombie fiction."—The Horror Fiction Review

"A zombie novel of the first order."
—Hellnotes

"Some seriously smart horror fiction."
—Rue Morgue

[bendk]

This book came to my attention when I read about it in the Summation 2009 in the book The Best Horror of the Year Volume Two edited by Ellen Datlow. This is what she had to say:

Monstrous Affections by David Nickle (Chizine Publications) is this Canadian's first collection, although the stories in it were originally published between 1994 and 2009. That story from 1994, "The Sloan Men," was chosen for the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection. Michael Rowe provides an introduction to a powerful collection.





http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/books/monstrous-affections.php

[damo]

dunno how new it is, but it was new to me: has anyone read brian evenson. seems hes mates with peter straub, and his collection (the only thing ive read so far but have instantly ordered more) fugue state is fantastic. ligotti fans should defo like this guy, and not just for the strangeness of his stories - like tom, this guy transcends the genre in that he can really write; love it when you just relish the very act of reading. anyway, check him out.

[damo]

oh, almost forgot, but just read a great little collection, which is new, by jeremy dyson. its called the cranes that build the cranes, and it follows his first collection entitled never trust a rabbit. both great. hes one of the co-writers of the dark comedy series the league of gentlemen.

[Spotbowserfido2]

Brian Evenson - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK

[bendk]

This isn't a new book (it was originally published in 2000) but the price of an original copy is somewhat expensive. This new edition makes this book affordable once again. I ordered a copy recently for less than $20 including postage from Abebooks.


Product Description (From Amazon)

"Inside The Wicker Man" is a treat for all cinemagoers, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis. Allan Brown describes the filming and distribution of the cult masterpiece as a 'textbook example of How Things Should Never Be Done'. The omens were bad from the start, and proceeded to get much, much worse, with fake blossom on trees to simulate spring, actors chomping on ice-cubes to prevent their breath showing on film, and verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew. The studio hated it and hardly bothered to distribute it, but today it finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious - if flawed - piece of cinema. Brown expertly guides readers through the film's convoluted history, attempting along the way to explain its enduring fascination, and providing interviews with the key figures - many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour plans for a sequel.


Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Polygon (May 1, 2010)

[bendk]

In the introduction to this new anthology, Ellen Datlow states that the idea for this book originated from a possible "best of the best" from the first twenty years of the The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. That series was cancelled, unfortunately, and the project never went through. It is nice to see that one of my favorite Ligotti stories, "The Greater Festival of Masks", made the cut.







Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror


Introduction
Ellen Datlow

Foreward
Stefan Dziemianowicz

Jacqueline Ess: Her Last Will and Testament
Clive Barker

Dancing Chickens
Edward Bryant

The Greater Festival of Masks
Thomas Ligotti

The Pear-Shaped Man
George R.R. Martin

The Juniper Tree
Peter Straub

Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds
Dan Simmons

The Power and the Passion
Pat Cadigan

The Phone Woman
Joe R. Lansdale

Teratisms
Kathe Koja

Chattery Teeth
Stephen King

A Little Night Music
Lucius Shepard

Calcutta, Lord of Nerves
Poppy Z. Brite

The Erl-King
Elizabeth Hand

The Dog Park
Dennis Etchison

Rain Falls
Michael Marshall Smith

Refrigerator Heaven
David J. Schow

(There is a black bar)
Joyce Carol Oates

Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)
Neil Gaiman

The Specialist's Hat
Kelly Link

The Tree is My Hat
Gene Wolf

Heat
Steve Rasnic Tem

No Strings
Ramsey Campbell

Stitch
Terry Dowling

Dancing Men
Glen Hirshberg

My Father's Mask
Joe Hill

[Bleak&Icy]

Quote Originally Posted by bendk

Does anyone know Dowling's work?

I do, indeed... but before Dowling was known as one of Australia's finest writers he worked as an actor and musician. During the late 1970s he often appeared on Australia's longest-running television program for children, Mr. Squiggle and Friends. Mr. Squiggle, in case you don't know, was a clown-puppet with a long pencil for a nose:



The premise of the show was simple and wonderful: children would send in their "squiggles" and the pencil-nosed marionette would use them as the starting point for his quirky drawings. I was fanatical about the program, watching it religiously, and on several occasions I sent in my own squiggles, which the puppet transformed (although I can't remember exactly what he drew). As much as I loved the show, it also filled me with a prickling sense of dread, which proved utterly addictive. For you see, Mr. Squiggle always drew "upside down pictures," his pencil nose moving furiously over the paper with total abandon; but at some point during the operation he would yell out in his piping clown voice: "Upside down, upside down!" and his assistant would turn the picture the right way up, revealing as if by magic a tractor, or a bus, or some skipping children. This moment of transformation never failed to astonish me, and I credited the clown-puppet's nose with nothing less than demonic power. Mr. Squiggle used a talking blackboard for an easel, and this blackboard was a misanthropic, grumpy character, always groaning "Humph and double-humph," and urging the puppet to "Hurry up!"



The blackboard terrified me, as did the dancing, drawing, madly creative clown-puppet--terrified and enthralled, much like Ligotti's fiction would do decades later.

[Freyasfire]

I am very excited about the next release from Tartarus Press, Sourdough and Other Stories, by Angela Slatter. I have only read a few of her stories, but what I have read I have found simply exquisite. I was delighted when I found out that Tartarus was putting out a collection of her work.



http://www.tartaruspress.com/sourdough.htm