Monday 27 January 2014

Horror Writers Association Announces Preliminary Ballots for 2013 Bram Stoker Awards

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced its preliminary ballots for the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards:

Superior Achievement in a Novel 
Michaelbrent Collings – Darkbound (Amazon Digital Services)
Michaelbrent Collings – The Colony: Genesis (Amazon Digital Services)
John Harwood – The Asylum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Joe Hill – NOS4A2 (William Morrow)
Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (Scribner)
Lisa Morton – Malediction (Evil Jester Press)
Fuminori Nakamura – Evil and the Mask (Soho Crime)
Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson – A Necessary End (Shadowridge Press)
Christopher Rice – The Heavens Rise (Gallery Books)
Gord Rollo – Only the Thunder Knows (JournalStone) 


Superior Achievement in a First Novel 
L.C. Barlow – Pivot (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Michael Bray – Whisper (Horrific Tales Publishing)
J. Lincoln Fenn – Poe (47North)
Geoffrey Girard – Cain’s Blood (Touchstone)
Kate Jonez – Candy House (Evil Jester Press)
Christian A. Larsen – Losing Touch (Post Mortem Press)
John Mantooth – The Year of the Storm (Berkley Trade)
Rena Mason – The Evolutionist (Nightscape Press)
Jonathan Moore – Redheads (Samhain Publishing)
Royce Prouty – Stoker’s Manuscript (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) 


Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel 
Charles Day – The Adventures of Kyle McGerrt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender (Blood Bound Books)
Patrick Freivald – Special Dead (JournalStone)
Kami Garcia – Unbreakable (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Geoffrey Girard – Project Cain (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Hannah Jayne – Truly, Madly, Deadly (Sourcebooks Fire)
Tom Leveen – Sick (Harry N. Abrams)
Joe McKinney – Dog Days (JournalStone)
Cat Winters – In the Shadow of Blackbirds (Harry N. Abrams) 


Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel 
Ed Brubaker – Fatale Book Three: West of Hell (Image Comics)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves (Dark Horse Comics)
Brandon Seifert – Witch Doctor, Vol. 2: Mal Practice (Image Comics)
Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo (Dark Horse Comics)
Paul Tobin – Colder (Dark Horse Comics) 



Superior Achievement in Long Fiction 

Dale Bailey – “The Bluehole” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2013)
Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
James Chambers – Three Chords of Chaos (Dark Quest Books)
Benjamin K. Ethridge – “The Slaughter Man” (Limbus, Inc., JournalStone)
Gregory Frost – “No Others Are Genuine” (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Oct./Nov. 2013)
Greg F. Gifune – House of Rain (DarkFuse)
Eric J. Guignard – Baggage of Eternal Night (JournalStone)
Dustin LaValley – The Deceived (Thunderstorm Books)
Rena Mason – East End Girls (JournalStone)
S.P. Miskowski – Astoria (Omnium Gatherum) 


Superior Achievement in Short Fiction 
Colleen Anderson – “The Book With No End” (Bibliotheca Fantastica, Dagan Books)
Michael Bailey – “Primal Tongue” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Max Booth III – “Flowers Blooming in the Season of Atrophy” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Patrick Freivald – “Snapshot” (Blood & Roses, Scarlett River Press)
David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)
Lisa Mannetti – “The Hunger Artist” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Samuel Marolla – “Black Tea” (Black Tea and Other Tales, Mezzotints)
Helen Marshall – “The Slipway Grey” (Chilling Tales, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)
John Palisano – “The Geminis” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Michael Reaves – “Code 666” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)


 Superior Achievement in a Screenplay 
Fabien Adda and Fabrice Gobert – The Returned: “The Horde” (Ramaco Media I, Castelao Pictures)
Brad Falchuk – American Horror Story: Asylum: “Spilt Milk” (Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions)
Bryan Fuller – Hannibal: “ApĂ©ritif” (Dino De Laurentiis Company, Living Dead Guy Productions, AXN: Original X Production, Gaumont International Television)
Daniel Knauf – Dracula: “A Whiff of Sulfur” (Flame Ventures, Playground, Universal Television, Carnival Films)
Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs” (AMC TV) 



Superior Achievement in an Anthology 

R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (ed.) – Horror Library: Volume 5 (Cutting Block Press)
Marc Ciccarone (ed) – Blood Rites: An Invitation to Horror (Blood Bound Books)
Eric J. Guignard (ed.) – After Death… (Dark Moon Books)
Michael Knost and Nancy Eden Siegel (ed.) – Barbers & Beauties (Hummingbird House Press)
Ross E. Lockhart (ed.) – Tales of Jack the Ripper (Word Horde)
Lori Michelle (ed.) – Bleed (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (ed.) – The Grimscribe’s Puppets (Miskatonic River Press)
Jeani Rector (ed.) – Shadow Masters: An Anthology from the Horror Zine (Imajin Books)
Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson (ed.) – Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror, Volume One (Grey Matter Press) 


Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection 
Nathan Ballingrud – North American Lake Monsters: Stories (Small Beer Press)
Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)
Max Booth III – They Might Be Demons (Dark Moon Books)
Kenneth W. Cain – Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction (Distressed Press)
James Dorr – The Tears of Isis (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
K. Trap Jones – The Crossroads: A Collection of Narrative Horror (Hazardous Press)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (Subterranean)
Chantal Noordeloos – Deeply Twisted (TMH Publishing)
Gene O’Neill – Dance of the Blue Lady (Bad Moon Books)
Reggie Oliver – Flowers of the Sea (Tartarus Press)
S. P. Somtow - Bible Stories for Secular Humanists (Diplodocus Press) 



Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction 
Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (ed.) – Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (Fairleigh Dickinson)
Gary William Crawford (ed.) – Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror (Scarecrow Press)
William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press)
Jarkko Toikkanen – The Intermedial Experience of Horror: Suspended Failures (Palgrave Macmillan)
Robert H. Waugh (ed.) – Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors (Scarecrow Press)
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (ed.) – The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream (Palgrave Macmillan) 



Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection 
Vincenzo Bilof – The Horror Show (Bizarro Pulp Press)
Bruce Boston – Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 (Dark Renaissance Books)
G.O. Clark – Scenes Along the Zombie Highway (Dark Regions Press)
David C. Kopaska-Merkel – Luminous Worlds (Dark Regions Press)
Helen Marshall – The Sex Lives of Monsters (Kelp Queen Press)
Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca – Dangerous Dreams (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)
Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press)
Bryan Thao Worra – Demonstra: A Poetry Collection (Innsmouth Free Press)
Stephanie M. Wytovich – Hysteria: A Collection of Madness (Raw Dog Screaming Press) 



If six or more works appear on a preliminary ballot, voting proceeds by active and lifetime members of the HWA to determine a final ballot. If there are five or less works appearing on a preliminary ballot, as is the case with the graphic novel and screenplay categories above, these works progress automatically to the final ballot, but are NOT considered nominees until the final ballot results are announced by the HWA on February 23, 2014.


Over the next month or so, we'll look at past recipients of the Bram Stoker Awards.

And stay tuned for the HWA announcement of the final ballot results!
 

 

Monday 20 January 2014

Paranormal Romance, Anyone?

The New York Times in its Sunday Book Review has a short piece by Gregory Cowles on the paranormal romance author Christine Feehan. Her latest novel Dark Wolf is No. 3 on the hardcover fiction list. I don't read paranormal romance, so I had never heard of Ms. Feehan and was surprised to see that this is the twenty-fifth book in her "Dark" series. In fact, she has published over forty novels, including the "Ghostwalker" and "Leopard" series.

Ms. Feehan started writing steamy love scenes in middle school when she was thirteen, but delayed publishing her work for a long time. She spent more than twenty years working as a martial arts instructor. For the full text of the article, please click here.

One thing is for sure: if she can write twenty-five novels in a series and still be near the top of the bestseller list, someone must be reading them.

If you're a fan of paranormal romance, I'd be interested in hearing from you on why this type of novel is currently so popular.


Monday 13 January 2014

Poe and Other Masters Re-Visited

Centipede Press, which specializes in the publication of horror fiction, has issued a collection of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. There has been a resurgence of interest in Poe--possibly due to the series The Following-- and despite the fact that I abhor the use of Poe's image in conjunction with a series about a serial killer and his cult followers, I am happy to see that new generations are discovering Poe's works. To re-visit my post on Poe as a master of horror, please click here.

The series of classic writers published by Centipede Press, designed for collectors, tends to be very pricey. However, if you have an e-reader, you can find many Internet sites that offer free downloads of Poe's work (see iTunes, for example, at https://itunes.apple.com/ca/itunes-u/the-works-of-edgar-allan-poe/id384533449?mt=10).

John DeNardo reports that Centipede Press has also issued a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's work. He describes Lovecraft as "an undeniable master of dark horror and weird fiction in the short form". To view the full text of his post and to see what other collections have been released by Centipede Press, please click here.


 



Monday 6 January 2014

What's on the Horizon for 2014?

A discussion of “best bets” for science fiction, fantasy and horror for January 2014 appears in an article by John DeNardo in Kirkus Reviews. There are a number of social science fiction and dystopian novels listed, as well as “off-planet” action novels. Also mentioned is a collection of essays on science fiction and fantasy entitled What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton, a Hugo award-winning author.

On the horror front, two books are mentioned (with the promise of a future article highlighting more horror selections). Sarah Pinborough's Mayhem transports readers to Victorian England at the time of Jack the Ripper. Scotland Yard must now deal with the "Torso Killer", who dismembers his victims and leaves behind “neatly-wrapped packages” of body parts for the police to discover. Also featured is Snowblind by Christopher Golden, his first new horror novel in more than a decade, which is set in the New England town of Coventry where a snowstorm brings supernatural figures threatening the town's inhabitants.

For the complete article by John DeNardo, please click here. And for a more detailed list of upcoming 2014 horror novels, you might want to visit the listings published by Powell's Books at http://www.powells.com/section/horror/coming-soon/2/.