Best New Zombie Tales Trilogy (Volume 1, 2 & 3)

by James Roy Daley

  JESSICA BROWN ~ Jessica is a lifelong fan of horror film and fiction and resides near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, only a few short miles from Living Dead ground zero. A short fiction writer and aspiring novelist, her work has been featured in Pill Hill Press’ Twisted Legends collection and will be appearing in several Library of the Living Dead anthologies in the upcoming year. Her serial novel, Rain, can be found on Facebook and Textnovel.

  KEALAN PATRICK BURKE ~ Described as ‘a newcomer worth watching’ (Publishers Weekly) and ‘one of the most original authors in contemporary horror’ (Booklist) Kealan Patrick Burke is the author of The Turtle Boy, The Hides, Vessels, The Living, Midlisters, Masters of the Moors, Currency of Souls, Kin, Ravenous Ghosts, and The Number121 to Pennsylvania, and the editor of the anthologies: Taverns of the Dead, Night Visions 12, Quietly Now, Brimstone Turnpike, and Tales from the Gorezone. Visit him at kealanpatrickburke.com.

  JEFF STRAND ~ Jeff’s story in this anthology is so short that he’d feel guilty offering up more biographical information than a simple “His website is jeffstrand.com” so that’s all he’ll do.

  ROBERT SWARTWOOD ~ Robert lives physically in Pennsylvania and lives virtually at robertswartwood.com.

  GARY MCMAHON ~ Gary’s fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies in the U.K. and U.S., and has been reprinted in both The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror and The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. He is the British-Fantasy-Award-nominated author of Rough Cut, All Your Gods Are Dead, Dirty Prayers, How to Make Monsters, Rain Dogs, Different Skins, Pieces of Midnight, Hungry Hearts, and has edited an anthology of original novelettes titled We Fade to Grey. Angry Robot/HarperCollins will publish the novels Pretty Little Dead Things and Dead Bad Things in 2010 and 2011. Visit Gary at: garymcmahon.com.

  HARRY SHANNON ~ Harry has been an actor, an Emmy nominated songwriter, a recording artist, music publisher, VP at Carolco Pictures, and a Music Supervisor on Basic Instinct and Universal Soldier. His novels include Night of the Beast, Night of the Werewolf, Daemon, Dead and Gone and The Pressure of Darkness, as well as the Mick Callahan suspense novels Memorial Day, Eye of the Burning Man, and One of the Wicked. His new collection A Host of Shadows is from Dark Region Press. Shannon has won the Tombstone Award, the Black Quill, and has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Contact him at harryshannon.com.

  GORD ROLLO ~ Gord was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, but has lived in Ontario, Canada since 1971. His short stories and novella-length work have appeared in many pro and semipro publications throughout the genre. He is currently in the middle of a four book novel contract with Leisure Books in New York City. The Jigsaw Man was published in mass-market paperback in August of 2008 and his follow up, Crimson, was released in March 2009. His next two novels, Strange Magic, and Valley Of The Scarecrow are both being released in 2010. Besides novels, Gord edited the acclaimed evolutionary horror anthology, Unnatural Selection: A Collection of Darwinian Nightmares. He also co-edited Dreaming of Angels, a horror/fantasy anthology created to increase awareness of Down’s syndrome and raise money for research. He’s hard at work on his next novel and can be reached through his website at gordqrollo.com.

  BRIAN KNIGHT ~ Brian lives in Washington state, where he drinks too much coffee, smokes too many cigarettes, and collects Hawaiian shirts. Visit him at brian-knight.com.

  SIMON McCAFFERY ~ Simon is a 46-year-old former magazine editor who sold his soul to high-tech corporate America. He lives in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area with his wife Angela and his three amazing children. Writing and selling fiction since 1990, he owes his love of zombies, science fiction, and things that go bump in the day (and night) to his father, James McCaffery, who taught Simon to read at an early age and gave him a box of paperback books when he was eleven. Something Wicked This Way Comes was among them.

  JOHN GROVER ~ John is the author of Feminine Wiles, Whispering Shadows, A Beckoning of Shadows, and Tandem of Terror. Residing in Boston, Massachusetts, he previously studied creative writing online at Boston’s Fisher College. He is also a member of the New England Horror Writers––a chapter of the Horror Writers Association. His short stories can be found in Northern Haunts (Shroud Publishing), Zombology (Library of the Living Dead), Alien Skin Magazine, Morpheus Tales, Wrong World, The Willows, and Flesh and Blood Magazine. For more information, feel free to visit his award-winning website, shadowtales.com.

  JEFF PARISH ~ Jeff is a 30-something native Texan who tries to pound a little bit of English into the skulls of high school seniors in Paris, Texas. He and his wife have a girl and two boys. He started writing in middle school, where he concentrated mostly on (bad) fantasy tales and (even worse) poetry. His writing skills developed over time, much to his delight and the relief of everyone he forced to read his work, and he gravitated to prose over poetry. He started work at a small newspaper in Greenville, Texas nearly a decade ago. But his newspaper career was suffocated in its sleep in 2006 after he realized journalism might be a noble profession, but slowly starving his family to death was not. He’s had stories selected for Flashing Swords, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Triangulation: End of Time, Bits of the Dead, In Bad Dreams II and Dragons Composed, among others.

  JOHN L. FRENCH ~ John is a crime scene supervisor with the Baltimore Police Department Crime Laboratory. In 1992 he began writing crime fiction, basing his stories on his experiences on the streets of what some have called one of the most dangerous cities in the country. His books include The Devil of Harbor City, Souls On Fire, Past Sins and the upcoming Here There Be Monsters. He is the editor of Bad Cop, No Donut, which features tales of police behaving badly.

  KIM PAFFENROTH ~ Kim is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College. He grew up in New York, Virginia, and New Mexico, and attended St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD (BA, 1988), Harvard Divinity School (MTS, 1990), and the University of Notre Dame (PhD, 1995). After writing several books on the Bible and theology, he turned his attention to the undead. He is the author of Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006) - Winner, 2006 Bram Stoker Award; Dying to Live: A Novel of Life Among the Undead (Permuted Press, 2007); and Dying to Live: Life Sentence (Permuted Press, 2008). He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two wonderful kids.

  CHARLES BLACK ~ Charles is the editor of The Black Book of Horror anthology series. For more information of the series, visit: mortburypress.com

  JONATHAN MABERRY ~ Jonathan is the NY Times bestselling author of several novels, including Ghost Road Blues (winner of the Bram Stoker Award), Dead Man’s Song, Bad Moon Rising, The Wolfman, The Dragon Factory, and Rot & Ruin. His nonfiction books include the Stoker winning The Cryptopedia, Vampire Universe, They Bite, Zombie CSU and Wanted Undead or Alive. He has a series of Joe Ledger thrillers is in development for TV, and is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse and co-founder of The Liars Club––a group of critically acclaimed writers who work together to support libraries, booksellers, literacy programs and a love of reading. Jonathan is a popular speaker and panelist at writers conferences and genre cons across the country. Visit him online at jonathanmaberry.com.

  STEVEN E. WEDEL ~ Steven is a life-long Oklahoman best known for The Werewolf Saga books: Murdered by Human Wolves, Shara, Ulrik and Call to the Hunt (Scrybe Press). His other books include Darkscapes (Fine Tooth Press), Seven Days in Benevolence (Scrybe Press) and Little Graveyard on the Prairie (Bad Moon Books). After many jobs, Steve is currently a high school English teacher; he holds a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. Steve lives in central Oklahoma with his wife and four children. Visit him online at stevenewedel.com.

  JASON BRANNON ~ Jason is the author of The Cage, The Order of the Bull, and Winds of Change. Several of his books have been translated into German and more are slated for the future. When not working on his new book, The Tears of Nero, he can be found reading horror novels and playing loud rock music in rural Mississippi where he re
sides. He currently maintains a website at jbrannon.net where more information about his fiction can be found.

  BEV VINCENT ~ Bev is the author of The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for an Edgar Award and a Bram Stoker Award. His short fiction has appeared in places like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Doctor Who: Destination Prague, Evolve, When the Night Comes Down, Borderlands 5 and The Blue Religion. He is a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine, a member of the Storytellers Unplugged blogging community, and a book reviewer for Onyx Reviews. He lives in Texas and can be found online at bevvincent.com.

  Volume Two

  JAMES ROY DALEY ~ is a writer, editor, and musician. He studied film at the Toronto Film School, music at Humber College, and English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Terror Town, Into Hell, 13 Drops of Blood, Zombie Kong, and The Dead Parade. In 2009 he founded Books of the Dead Press, where he enjoyed immediate success working with many of the biggest names in horror. He edited anthologies such as Zombie Kong - Anthology, Best New Vampire Tales, Classic Vampire Tales, and the Best New Zombie Tales series.

  RIO YOUERS ~ Rio is the British Fantasy Award–nominated author of Everdead, Old Man Scratch and Mama Fish. His new novel, End Times, will be released by PS Publishing in the fall of 2010, with a short story collection to follow in early 2011. He lives in Canada with his wife Emily.

  STEVEN A. ROMAN ~ Steven is the bestselling author of the novels Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand and X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy. His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies The Dead Walk Again!, Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror, Doctor Who: Short Trips: Farewells, If I Were an Evil Overlord, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, and The Ultimate Hulk. His current projects include the serialized horror comic Lorelei: A Pool of Blood for French publisher Organic Comix, and the upcoming dark-fantasy novel series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback for Starwarp Concepts. He lives in Queens, NY, where he’s been fortifying his basement for the sure-to-happen zombie apocalypse.

  TIM WAGGONER ~Tim is the author of the Nekropolis series of urban fantasy novels. All told he's published over twenty novels and two short story collections. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. You can visit him on the web at www.timwaggoner.com.

  NATE KENYON ~ Nate grew up in a small town in Maine. His debut novel, Bloodstone, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and P&E Horror Novel of the Year award winner. The Reach was also a Stoker Award Finalist, received a starred Publishers Weekly review, and is in development as a major feature film. His third novel, The Bone Factory, was called "masterful" by Booklist. His fourth novel, Sparrow Rock, will be released in limited edition by Bad Moon Books and in paperback by Leisure Books in May 2010, and his novel StarCraft Ghost: Spectres, based on the bestselling videogame franchise by Blizzard Entertainment, will be released by Pocket Books around the end of the year. Kenyon's sci fi novella Prime was released from Apex in July 2009. He has had stories published in a number of magazines and anthologies including Terminal Frights, Shroud Magazine, Northern Haunts, Monstrous, and Legends of the Mountain State 2. Four of his stories were featured in the Dark Arts anthology When the Night Comes Down. He lives in New England with his children and their ferocious dog, Bailey, where he is at work on his next novel. Visit Nate online at www.natekenyon.com.

  DAVID NIALL WILSON ~ David has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction since the mid-eighties. An ordained minister, once President of the Horror Writer's Association and recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for poetry and short fiction, as well as being nominated for long fiction and non-fiction, his novels include Maelstrom, The Mote in Andrea's Eye, Deep Blue, the Grails Covenant Trilogy, Star Trek Voyager: Chrysalis, Except You Go Through Shadow, This is My Blood, Ancient Eyes and the upcoming supernatural mystery novel Vintage Soul: Volume I of the DeChance Chronicles. The Stargate Atlantis novel Brimstone, written with Patricia Lee Macomber is due in 2010. He has over 150 short stories published in anthologies, magazines, and five collections, the most recent of which were Defining Moments, published in 2007 by WFC Award winning Sarob Press, and the currently available Ennui & Other States of Madness, from Dark Regions Press. His work has appeared in and is due out in various anthologies and magazines. David lives and loves with Patricia Lee Macomber in the historic William R. White House in Hertford, NC with their children, Billy, Stephanie, and Katie, David’s mother Jean, and occasionally his boys Zach and Zane.

  DEREK GUNN ~ Derek lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and three children and is the author of four novels. His post-apocalyptic thriller series, Vampire Apocalypse, has been widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic in the genre media and it is published by Black Death Books. The three books in the series are: A World Torn Asunder (2006), Descent into Chaos (2008) and Fallout (2009). Derek also released The Estuary, published by Permuted Press in 2009, which is available in Borders and Waldenbooks stores throughout the USA as well as from online booksellers. Derek's first book is under option for film and an adaptation is currently in active development as a major movie. Also, the graphic novel rights to Derek's Vampire Apocalypse series have been picked up by a U.S. indie publisher; the first graphic novel is due out in 2011. Derek is a member of, and a contributing editor to, the International Thriller Writers Association and a member of the Horror Writers Association. Visit his website at www.DerekGunn.com.

  NARRELLE M. HARRIS ~ Narrelle’s first novel was the crime/thriller, Fly By Night (2004), which was nominated for a Ned Kelly Award. Her 2005 novel, Witch Honour, published in the U.S. by Five Star Science Fiction, was short-listed for the George Turner Prize for Science Fiction and Fantasy in 1998. Its sequel, short listed for the same award the following year, was published in 2007. The Opposite of Life was released in early 2008 and is the first of a proposed trilogy. The second in the series is to be released in 2011. Narrelle is currently settled in the marvellous town of Melbourne with her husband Tim Richards, a travel writer and author of Mind the Gap, and her cat Petra, who hasn't written anything…yet.

  PETE MESLING ~ Pete's silhouette can, on rare occasions, be glimpsed prowling the watery byways of Seattle, Washington. An affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association, Pete has sold fiction to such publications as Doorways, Black Ink Horror, and two of the Potter’s Field anthologies. In fact, The Worst is Yet to Come originally appeared in Potter's Field 3. Mr. Mesling also writes scary comic books for Night Rail Press and couldn't be giddier over the company he's keeping in this terrifying anthology. Keep up to date on his fictitious (and musical!) pursuits at www.PeteMesling.com.

  T. F. DAVENPORT ~ Tristan lives in California, where he's studying for a doctorate in cognitive science. In his spare time, he would be writing more stories, but he has no spare time, because he's studying for a doctorate in cognitive science.

  THOMAS S. ROCHE ~ Primarily known as an acclaimed writer of erotic short stories with numerous contributions to the Best American Erotica series and the Best New Erotica series, among others, Thomas also pens horror, crime, fantasy and occasionally science fiction. He edited three volumes of the Noirotica series of erotic crime-noir fiction and co-edited four horror/fantasy anthologies: Sons of Darkness, Brothers of the Night, In the Shadow of the Gargoyle and Graven Images. His horror stories have appeared in more than 50 anthologies, including most recently The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica. He recently completed a horror stage play, Sun Rises On Bedlam, and is at work on a zombie novel. He can be found at www.ThomasRoche.com.

  MYRRYM DAVIES ~ Myrrym is an up-and-coming horror writer from the mountains of Northeast Georgia. She is a member of The Dark Fiction Guild, a Choate Road writer, and an editor and columnist for Graveside Tales Publishing. Myrrym’s work runs the gamut of the horror genre, from comedy/horror blends to more di
sturbing tales of personal terror. Her short fiction has been featured in various online publications and print anthologies, including For the Love of Monsters, The Devil’s Food, Horrorology and Ladies and Gentlemen of Horror, 2010.

  CODY GOODFELLOW ~ Cody has written three books with John Skipp––Jake's Wake, The Day Before and Spore––and three without––Radiant Dawn, Ravenous Dusk and Perfect Union. His short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, Black Static and Dark Discoveries, and is collected in Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars. He lives in Los Angeles.

  JOHN EVERSON ~ John is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th and Siren, and the short story collections Creeptych, Needles & Sins, Vigilantes of Love and Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions. He shares a deep purple den in Naperville, Illinois with a cockatoo and cockatiel, a disparate collection of fake skulls, twisted skeletal fairies, Alan Clark illustrations and a large stuffed Eeyore. There's also a mounted Chinese fowling spider named Stoker courtesy of Charlee Jacob, an ever-growing shelf of custom mix CDs and an acoustic guitar that he can't really play but that his son Shaun likes to hear him beat on anyway. Sometimes his wife Geri is surprised to find him shuffling through more public areas of the house, but it's usually only to brew another cup of coffee. In order to avoid the onerous task of writing, he holds down a regular job at a medical association, records pop-rock songs in a hidden home studio, experiments with the insatiable culinary joys of the jalapeno, designs photo collage art book covers for a variety of small presses, loses hours in expanding an array of gardens and chases frequent excursions into the bizarre visual headspace of '70s euro-horror DVDs with a shot of Makers Mark and a tall glass of Newcastle. For information on his fiction, art and music, visit John Everson: Dark Arts at www.JohnEverson.com.