Extreme Zombies edited by Paula Guran

Received my contributor's copies for Extreme Zombies, edited by Paula Guran for Prime Books, this week. Very impressed with the collection, and by those stories I've read in it so far. My own story, Romero's Children, was originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black, and its nice to see it get a second airing, especially in such great company as George R. R. Martin, Joe Lansdale, and Brian Keene etc.

• “Charlie’s Hole” by Jesse Bullington
• “At First Only Darkness” by Nancy A. Collins
• “The Blood Kiss” by Dennis Etchison
• “We Will Rebuild” by Cody Goodfellow
• “Dead Giveaway” by Brian Hodge
• “Zombies for Jesus” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• “An Unfortunate Incident at the Slaughterhouse” by Harper Hull
• “Captive Heart” by Brian Keene
• “Going Down” by Nancy Kilpatrick
• “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “Susan” by Robin D. Laws
• “Makak” by Edward Lee
• “The Traumatized Generation” by Murray Leeder
• “Meathouse Man” byGeorge R.R. Martin
• “Abed” by Elizabeth Massie
• “For the Good of All” by Yvonne Navarro
• “Home” by David Moody
• “Jerry’s Kids Meet Wormboy” by David J. Schow
• “Aftertaste” by John Shirley
• “Viva Las Vegas” by Thomas Roche
• “In Beauty, Like the Night” by Norman Partridge
• “Romero’s Children” by David A. Riley
• “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” by Monica Valentinelli
• “Provider” by Tim Waggoner
• “Chuy and the Fish” by David Wellington

 

The Ninth Black Book of Horror

The Ninth Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black, will be launched at FantasyCon in September. The cover hasn't been revealed yet but will again by the work of the artist Paul Mudie.

The stories in this edition will be:

The Anatomy Lesson - John Llewellyn Probert
The Mall - Craig Herbertson
Salvaje - Simon Bestwick
Pet - Gary Fry
Ashes to Ashes - David Williamson
The Apprentice - Anna Taborska
Life Expectancy - Sam Dawson
What's Behind You? - Paul Finch
Ben's Best Friend - Gary Power
The Things That Aren't There - Thana Niveau
Bit on the Side - Tom Johnstone
Indecent Behaviour - Marion Pitman
His Family - Kate Farrell
A Song, A Silence - John Forth
The Man Who Hated Waste - Marc Lyth
Swan Song - David A. Riley

The Death of Gore Vidal

I haven't read as many of Gore Vidal's books as I probably should have done, which is surprising as the two I have, Washington DC and Julian, are brilliant novels which I enjoyed reading immensely. Julian, in particular, which I bought many years ago while on holiday in Austria, where I read it within a matter of  days, has always lingered strongly in my memories. It had a huge influence on my attitude towards monotheistic religions and the old religions of Rome and the ancient world.

Wikipedia

M. R. James - 150th Birthday

Today is M. R. James' 150th birthday, born 1st August, 1862, and still read with great admiration today as one of our finest ever writers of ghost stories.