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

by James Roy Daley

  JW SCHNARR ~ J. W. is the evil mastermind behind Northern Frights Publishing. He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta Canada with his daughter and a grumpy turtle. When not writing, editing or publishing, he can be found scheming. And watching sports. He is the Editor of the anthology Shadows of the Emerald City. Look for his Short Fiction collection Things Fall Apart in 2010.

  MONICA J. O’ROURKE ~ Monica has published more than 75 short stories in magazines such as Postscripts, Fangoria, Nasty Piece of Work, Flesh & Blood, Nemonymous, Brutarian, and Cthulhu Sex, and anthologies such as The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, Best of Horrorfind, and These Guns for Hire. She is the author of two novels, Poisoning Eros, co-written with Wrath James White, and Suffer the Flesh, and the collection Experiments in Human Nature. She lives in NYC.

  JAMES NEWMAN ~ James lives in North Carolina with his wife, Glenda, and their two sons, Jamie and Jacob. James has several published novels to his name, including Animosity, The Wicked, and the coming-of-age fan favorite Midnight Rain.

  KEN GOLDMAN ~ Ken is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association, has homes on the Main Line in Pennsylvania and at the Jersey shore depending upon his mood and the track of the sun. His stories appear in over 525 independent press publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia with over twenty due for publication in 2010. His book of short stories, You Had Me At ARRGH!!: Five Uneasy Pieces by Ken Goldman (Sam's Dot Publishers) remains an all-time top ten best seller at The Genre Mall where (shameless plug alert) it can be purchased. Australia's Precision Pictures has contracted Ken's short story “The Keeper” to be filmed (hopefully) during 2010, and Damnation books has contracted his novella Desiree for publication during 2010. Ken would be famous except for the fact nobody seems to know who he is.

  MORT CASTLE ~ Mort is editor or author of a dozen books, including Writing Horror: The Horror Writers Association Handbook, published by Writer's Digest Books (editor); Moon On The Water, a short story collection, accepted for the Pulitzer and Carl Sandburg competitions, from DarkTales Publications; and the horror novels Cursed Be The Child and The Strangers. With over 400 "shorter things," published in anthologies and magazines, Castle is the only living author to have work in all four of the acclaimed MASQUES collections, edited by Jerry Williamson, a distinction he hopes to maintain for a lengthy period. Forthcoming are Nations Of The Living, Nations Of The Dead, a collection of "Mort Myths," from Imaginary Worlds, and, from the same publisher, a CD: Buckeye Jim In Egypt.

  MATT HULTS ~ Matt is a writer and artist living Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife and two children. His drawings and fiction can be found lurking between the pages of such anthologies as Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths; Harvest Hill; Undead: Skin & Bones; Horror Library Volume 2; Northern Haunts, and The Beast Within, which he also edited. Track him down at Myspace.com/authormatthults and say hi.

  Volume Three

  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.

  PAUL KANE has been writing professionally for almost fourteen years. He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife – the author Marie O’Regan – his family, and a black cat called Mina.

  NATE SOUTHARD ~ is the author of Just Like Hell, Broken Skin, He Stepped Through, and the graphic novels Drive and A Trip to Rundberg. His short stories have appeared in such venues as Cemetery Dance, Thuglit, and numerous anthologies. Red Sky, his debut novel, will be available later this year. Nate lives in Austin. You can learn more at natesouthard.com.

  JEREMY C. SHIPP ~ Jeremy C. Shipp is the Bram Stoker nominated author of Cursed, Vacation, and Sheep and Wolves. His shorter tales have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 publications, the likes of Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Apex Magazine, Pseudopod, and Rosebud. While preparing for the forthcoming collapse of civilization, Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse with his wife, Lisa, and their legion of yard gnomes. Thankfully, only one mime was killed during the making of his first short film, Egg.

  MURRAY J.D. LEEDER ~ is the author of the novels Son of Thunder and Plague of Ice for Wizards of the Coast, as well as almost twenty-five published short stories. In addition, his academic writings have appeared in such journals as the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of Popular Film and Television. He is a currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Carleton University in Ottawa.

  SIMON WOOD ~ is the Anthony Award winning author of six books as well as over 150 published stories and articles. He writes thrillers, mysteries, and horror fiction. His previous books include Working Stiffs, Accidents Waiting to Happen, Paying the Piper, Terminated and We All Fall Down as well as The Scrubs and Road Rash under the pen name Simon Janus. His upcoming titles include a first in a new mystery series set in the world of motor racing, Did Not Finish, and the crime-caper, The Fall Guy. You can find him on Red Room, Crime Space, Good Reads, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which is home to his blog.

  JG FAHERTY is an Active Member in the Horror Writers Association. His credits include Cemetery Dance, Wrong World, Shroud Magazine, Doorways Magazine, and several major anthologies. A freelance writer with over 15 years of experience, he has a varied background that includes working as a laboratory manager, accident scene photographer, zoo keeper, research scientist, and resume writer. He also contributes regular columns, interviews, and book reviews to the HWA newsletter, FearZone, Dark Scribe Magazine, and Horror World.

  AARON POLSON ~ When Aaron Polson isn’t arguing about the definition of irony with his high school English students, he can be found chipping away at a twisted tale in his basement dungeon. Many of his stories take place in the fictional town of Springdale, Kansas, a strange place modeled after his own hometown. He currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, two sons, and a tattooed rabbit. Aaron's stories have appeared in various publications, including Reflection's Edge, Nectrotic Tissue, Big Pulp, and several anthologies.

  TIM LEBBON ~ has been published for more than ten years now, and you can find out loads about him at his website timlebbon.net. He is the author of over thirty books, including the Noreela series of fantasy books (Dusk, Dawn, Fallen and The Island), the NY Times Bestselling novelization of the movie 30 Days of Night, and several books with Christopher Golden, including The Map of Moments and the forthcoming Secret Journeys of Jack London for Harper. He has also written several screenplays and some TV proposals. Tim has won several prestigious awards, and some of his work has been optioned for the big screen.

  JOHN L. FRENCH ~ 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.

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

  LEE CLARK ZUMPE ~ discovered long ago that using the written word to spin yarns and evoke emotions is both a challenging and a rewarding enterprise. The author's zeal for writing led him to college after sev
eral misspent years where he recently earned a Bachelor's Degree in Professional and Technical Writing. In his spare time, Lee is an avid reader of speculative fiction, and a confessed bibliomaniac with an ever-expanding private library. Since his first sale to Nocturnal Lyric in 1992, more than 200 of Lee's short stories and poems have been published in magazines and anthologies in North America, England, and Australia. Most recently, his work appeared in the pages of Wicked Hollow, Lunatic Chameleon, and Voicings from the High Country. Look for Lee in upcoming issues of Star*Line, Weird Tales, and Mythic Delirium. In January 2003, Anxiety Publications published Lee’s first chapbook of poetry titled An Invisible Shimmer. Lee lives on the west coast of Florida with his wife, artist Tracey Potter Zumpe, and four feline muses purportedly descended from the cats of Ulthar. Visit Lee's website at: http://blindside.net/leeclarkzumpe.

  ERIK T. JOHNSON ~ Erik T. Johnson lives in New York with his wife, son, and a little dog too. His stories have appeared in Underworlds Magazine, New York Stories, Trunk Stories, Sein und Werden, Saucytooth’s Webthology, and the Midnighters Club anthology, among other places. More of his writing is forthcoming in Electric Velocipede, New Horizons, Morpheus Tales, Black Ink Horror, Golden Visions, Dead But Dreaming 2, The Zombie Chronicles Volume One, and Best New Zombie Tales Volume Three. His website is www.eriktjohnson.net.

  JOE MCKINNEY ~ Joe McKinney is the San Antonio-based author of numerous horror, crime and science fiction novels. His longer works include the four part Dead World series, made up of Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead, Flesh Eaters and The Zombie King; the science fiction disaster tale, Quarantined, which was nominated for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a novel, 2009; and the crime novel, Dodging Bullets. His upcoming releases include the horror novels Lost Girl of the Lake, The Red Empire, The Charge and St. Rage. Joe has also worked as an editor, along with Michelle McCrary, on the zombie-themed anthology Dead Set, and with Mark Onspaugh on the abandoned building-themed anthology The Forsaken. His short stories and novellas have been published in more than thirty publications and anthologies. In his day job, Joe McKinney is a sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department, where he helps to run the city’s 911 Dispatch Center. Before promoting to sergeant, Joe worked as a homicide detective and as a disaster mitigation specialist. Many of his stories, regardless of genre, feature a strong police procedural element based on his fifteen years of law enforcement experience. A regular guest at regional writing conventions, Joe currently lives and works in a small town north of San Antonio with his wife and children.

  GREGORY MILLER ~ Gregory Miller was born in State College, Pennsylvania in 1978. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in a number of national publications. His first novel, Big Cicadas, was published in 2003 and his first collection of poetry, Four Autumns, in 2005. In October 2009, a collection of short stories, Scaring the Crows: 21 Tales for Noon or Midnight, was published by StoneGarden.net Publishing, and received positive reviews from authors such as Piers Anthony and Brad Strickland. Ray Bradbury recently wrote, "Gregory Miller is a fresh new talent with a great future." He recently edited the Static Movement anthology, Don't Tread On Me: Tales of Revenge and Retribution. A high school English teacher, he currently lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and two young sons.

  WILLIAM T. VANDEMARK ~ William T. Vandemark writes speculative fiction. He can be found wandering the backroads of America in a pickup truck. He chases storms, photographs weathervanes, and prospects for fulgurites. When wanderlust ebbs, he resides in San Antonio or Seattle, depending on weather and inclination. Currently, he serves as editor of the Science Fiction Writers of America blog.

  DAVID C. PINNT ~ lives near Denver, Colorado with his lovely wife, myriad children, and animals. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies and periodicals including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Permuted Press' The World is Dead, and the upcoming Modernist Press anthology Art From Art. He keeps a sporadically updated blog at: http://dcpinnt.livejournal.com.JOHN CLAUDE SMITH ~ has had 40+ short stories, 3 poems, and 1,100 pieces of music journalism (everything from reviews to profiles, interviews, ad copy) published. He's currently working with an agent getting his first two novels in shape while writing number three. He lives in San Leandro, CA. with his sights set on Rome, Italy, soon. He has no fear of zombies; he's ready for the battle!

  MICHAEL STONE ~ was born in 1966 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Since losing most of his eyesight he has retreated from your world to travel the dark corners of inner space––or to put it more prosaically he thinks “What if?” a lot. The signs are clear to those that know him well, for his one not-so-bad eye glazes over and he is rendered deaf to all English except for “Would you like a cup of tea, Mike?” He will then engage with reality long enough to ask if there are any biscuits before drifting off again. While agreeing that this can be very trying for those around him, he remains unrepentant. He is the author of over fifty published short stories as well as the novella collection, Fourtold. In 2010 he co-edited a crime anthology called Requiems for the Departed (Morrigan Books), 2011 will see the publication of his novella, Lemon Man (Morrigan Books) and a short story collection from Graveside Tales, called Memory Bones. His vanity has a name: www.mylefteye.net

  NANCY KILPATRICK ~ Award-winning author Nancy Kilpatrick has published 18 novels, 200 short stories and 1 non-fiction book. Her genres are mainly horror and dark fantasy. Currently she is editing her twelfth anthology Danse Macabre—Close Encounters with the Reaper, and her next completed anthology Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead will be released August 2011 (both for Edge SF&F Publishing). She’s published several zombie stories and is working on a zombie novel. www.nancykilpatrick.com

  TONIA BROWN ~ is the author of Lucky Stiff and lives in NC with her husband of many years. She shares her home with a brood of moody cats, and her likeness with an identical twin sister. She likes coffee and fudgesicles, though not always together.

  COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - Volume One

  ‘Working Stiff’ by Robert Elrod, copyright 2003.  First appeared in All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go.

  ‘Introduction’ by James Roy Daley, copyright 2010.  Original for this anthology.

  ‘Zombie Love’ by Ray Garton, copyright 2003.  First appeared as a limited edition by Subterranean Press.

  ‘Feeding Frenzy’ by Matt Hults, copyright 2007.  First appeared in Fried! Fast Food, Slow Death by Graveside Tales.

  ‘Wings’ by Jessica Brown, copyright 2009.  First appeared in the Nocturnal Lyric #39.

  ‘The Man Who Breaks the Bad News’ by Kealan Patrick Burke, copyright 2003.  First appeared in author’s collection: Ravenous Ghosts by 3F Publications.

  ‘Immunity’ by Jeff Strand, copyright 2008.  First appeared in Bits of the Dead by Coscom Entertainment.

  ‘In the Land of the Blind’ by Robert Swartwood, copyright 2004.  First appeared in ChiZine #22.

  ‘Nowhere People’ by Gary McMahon, copyright 2004.  First appeared in Supernatural Tales #10.

  ‘Muddy Waters’ by Brian Knight, copyright 2003.  First appeared in author’s collection: Dragonfly by Dominion.

  ‘Darkness Comprehended’ Harry Shannon and Gord Rollo, copyright 2005.  First appeared in City Slab magazine #2.

  ‘Connections’ by Simon McCaffery, copyright 2006.  First appeared Mondo Zombie by Cemetery Dance.

  ‘Sign of the Times’ by John Grover, copyright 2002.  First published in The Eternal Night – E-zine.

  ‘After, Life’ by Jeff Parish, copyright 2008.  First published in Every Day Fiction.

  ‘Paradise Denied’ by John L French, copyright 2004.  First appeared Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Spring Edition.

  ‘On the Usefulness of Old Books’ by Kim Paffenroth, copyright 2010.  Original for this anthology.