FREDRICK OBERMEYER ~ lives in Cooperstown, NY. He enjoys writing science-fiction, horror, crime and fantasy and has had stories published in the Dead Inn, Alternate Realities, Planet Relish, Fedora, SDO Fantasy, the Fifth Di and Forgotten Worlds.
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 was published 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 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.
WILLIAM MEIKLE ~ is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries, and the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies.
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.
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.
MICHAEL LAIMO ~ Michael’s novels include Atmosphere (nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in the category of first novel), Deep In The Darkness (nominated in the novel category) The Demonologist, Dead Souls and Fires Rising, all of which were published by Leisure Books. He is the author of the dark S/F-Suspense novel, Sleepwalker, which came out in Limited Edition hardcover from Delirium Books. His short fiction has found its way into the pages of In Delirium, A Walk On The Darkside, Lost On The Darkside, Hot Blood XII: Strange Bedfellows, Surreal Magazine, Inhuman Magazine, The Best Of Epitaphs, The Best Of All Flesh, Li Pulse Magazine, plus many more anthologies and magazines, many of which have been collected in Demons, Freaks, And Other Abnormalities, Dregs of Society, and Dark Ride. He can be contacted at [email protected].
JAY CASELBERG ~ is an Australian science fiction/mystery author. As of September 2007, he has published four novels and multiple short stories under his own name. He has also written under the pseudonym James A. Hartley. All of the books published under his own name feature “psychic investigator” Jack Stein, a man whose slight psychic talent (which manifests in dreams and gut feelings) led him from a job in the military to a stint in Intelligence, and later to a job as a private investigator.
COLLEEN ANDERSON ~ is a writer with fiction and poetry that has appeared in over 100 publications, with newer works in OnSpec Magazine and Don Juan & Men. She is a member of SFWA, SF Canada, the Editors’ Association of Canada, and is the assistant poetry editor at Chizine. New work will be coming out in Evolve, Alison’s Wonderland and Horror Library Vol. 4.
BARBARA RODEN ~ is a World Fantasy Award-winning editor and publisher, whose short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Nineteenth Annual Collection, Horror: Best of the Year 2005, Bound for Evil, Strange Tales 2, Gaslight Grimoire, Gaslight Grotesque, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, Best New Horror 21, and Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Her first collection, Northwest Passages, was published in 2009; the title story was nominated for the Stoker, International Horror Guild, and World Fantasy awards, while the book received a World Fantasy Award nomination for Best Collection.
TIM WAGGONER ~ wrote his first story at the age of five, when he created a comic book version of King Kong vs. Godzilla on a stenographer’s pad. It took him a few more years until he began selling professionally, though. Overall, he’s published over 70 stories of fantasy and horror as well as hundreds of nonfiction articles. In addition to writing fiction, Tim has worked as an editor and a newspaper reporter. He currently teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and in the MA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. He has two bright and beautiful daughters. Tim hopes to continue writing and teaching until he keels over dead, after which he wants to be stuffed and mounted, and then placed in front of his computer terminal.
JOHN L. FRENCH ~ is familiar with monsters. Having worked over thirty years for the Baltimore Police Department as a crime scene investigator, he witnessed more than his share of what horrors one person can inflict on another. Working with patrol officers and detectives, John has been involved in putting many of these people behind bars for very long sentences. In 1992 John 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, Here There Be Monsters and (with Patrick Thomas) Bullets And Brimstone and the upcoming From The Shadows. He is the editor of Bad Cop, No Donut, which features tales of police behaving badly.
ALAN SMALE ~ writes fantasy and horror, alternate and twisted history, urban fantasy and slipstream, with over two-dozen stories published in speculative fiction magazines and original anthologies. Born and raised in England, he lives in Maryland and works as an astrophysicist and data archive manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In what is humorously referred to as his ‘spare time’, he sings bass and serves as Business Manager for high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, and performs occasionally in Community Theater.
DAVID M. FITZPATRICK ~ has 50 short stories have appeared in print magazines and anthologies in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. He has edited or co-edited several anthologies, with many new titles coming this year. By day, he works as a newspaper writer; by night, he occasionally teaches creative writing. He lives in Brewer, Maine, across the river from Bangor, and he hopes Stephen King’s Muse accidentally lands on his house by mistake. No luck yet.
DON WEBB ~ Don’s latest book Webb’s Weird Wild West is a collection of weird surreal westerns. Webb has 14 books out now, with two more due from Wildside Press. His nonfiction deals with esoteric topics ranging from Aleister Crowley to the Greek Magical Papyri, His fiction has worn awards ranging form the Fiction Collective Award to the Death Equinox Idiot Savant A
ward. He teaches High School English at a rural Texas reform school by day and Creative Writing for UCLA Extension by night. He has a lovely wife Guiniviere and two cats Sascha and Big Pig.
STEVE VERNON has been writing dark fiction for an awful lot of years. You’ll find his work in the pages of Cemetery Dance, Tor’s Year’s Best Horror, The Horror Show, Flesh & Blood, Hot Blood, Horror Garage and many other tastefully titled markets and magazines. Steve’s ghost story collections Wicked Woods, Halifax Haunts, and Haunted Harbours (Nimbus) are available in many Maritime bookstores. Steve has been doing a lot of work with e-publisher Crossroad Press. Look for his out-of-print weird west novella Long Horn, Big Shaggy, his dark superhero collection Nothing To Lose as well as a follow-up volume, and a brand new never-before-published novel of historical horror Devil Tree due out in e-book format from Crossroad Press in the year 2011. Finally, Steve’s first YA novel, Sinking Deeper – a touching tale of sea monsters and caber tossing – will be released in the spring of 2011 from Nimbus Publishing. For more info go to Steve Vernon’s website.
SCOTT HARPER ~ works in the waste management system, otherwise known as law enforcement. When he’s not at work or in the gym, he dreams of writing the perfect vampire story – sexy, dark and violent. His stories have been published in a number of venues, including Space and Time Magazine; his story Let Loose is scheduled for publication later this year in an anthology called Groanology. He lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife, son and dog.
NANCY KILPATRICK ~ Nancy’s generational “The Power of the Blood” vampire series includes the novels Child Of The Night, Near Death, Reborn, Bloodlover and Transformation. As One Dead was a collaboration with Don Bassingthwaite for White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade series, while Dracul: A Love Story was a novelization of a stage play of the same name. Her other novels include Jason X: Planet Of The Beast and Jason X: To The Third Power. She compiled the non-fiction study The Goth Bible: A Compendium For The Darkly Inclined for St. Martin’s Press, and co-edited the anthologies Outsiders: 22 All-New Stories From The Edge (with Nancy Holder) and Graven Images And In The Shadow Of The Gargoyle (both with Thomas Roche). Her short fiction is collected in Sex And The Single Vampire, Endorphins, The Vampire Stories Of Nancy Kilpatrick and Cold Comfort. Under the pseudonym “Amarantha Knight” she has written a number of erotic novels in The Darker Passions series, including Dracula, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, The Portrait Of Dorian Gray, The Pit And The Pendulum, Carmilla and Curse Of The Mummy, as well as editing the anthologies Love Bites, Flesh Fantastic, Sex Macabre, Seductive Spectres and Demon Sex. Originally published by Masquerade Books, they are currently being reprinted by Circlet Press.
* * *
Preview of:
GARY BRANDNER’S - THE HOWLING
1
The September heat lay heavy on Los Angeles. In the condominium community called Hermosa Terrace all the windows were tightly closed. The only sounds were the hum of exhaust fans and the muted growl of a power mower.
In the living room of Unit Two, Karyn Beatty stood on tiptoe to kiss her husband, Roy. Lady, their miniature collie, wagged her approval from the sofa. It started as a casual husband-and-wife first-anniversary kiss, but it quickly became something more. Karyn drew back her head and looked into Roy’s clear brown eyes.
“Are you trying to start something?” she said a little breathlessly.
“Darn right,” Roy replied, taking her in his arms.
Roy pulled her close, his big, gentle hands warm through the thin material of her summer dress. He kissed her neck where the blond hair curled forward below her ear.
“Won’t Chris be here soon?” she said, her lips close to his ear.
“We won’t answer the door.”
“You couldn’t do that to your best friend. Especially after we asked him to come by for an anniversary drink.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Roy admitted. “Anyway, he won’t stay long. He has a date.”
“Anybody we know?”
“A new one, I think.”
“Doesn’t Chris ever get serious about anybody?”
“Who knows? I think he’s secretly in love with you.”
“You don’t mean it?”
“Why not? All my friends have good taste.”
* * *
Max Quist shut off the power mower and took out a soiled handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face. He watched as a young couple in sparkling tennis whites climbed out of a sports car and ran laughing across the lawn. They didn’t pay any attention to Max. Nobody living in Hermosa Terrace paid any attention to Max. He was like another piece of shrubbery to them.
No, he thought, not even that much.
Max hated these people. He hated them for having all the things he would never have. He would quit this lousy job in a minute if it weren’t for his parole officer. Just once he would like to show the smug sons-of-bitches that Max Quist was somebody.
* * *
The telephone rang in Unit Two. Roy Beatty picked it up and frowned as he listened to the voice on the other end. He spoke briefly and hung up.
“Anything wrong?” Karyn asked.
“I’ve got to go to Anaheim. Deliver some books.”
“On Saturday? On our anniversary?”
“Dammit, it’s my own fault. I promised to drop off a set of inspection manuals at Aerodyne yesterday. Had them in the trunk of the car and forgot all about it. I don’t know how it slipped my mind.”
Karyn smiled. It was very unlike Roy to forget anything. He was always thoroughly organized, like one of the technical manuals he edited. When she had first met him she had thought Roy Beatty was as stodgy as a church deacon. However, she had soon discovered his warm sense of humor, an open-minded willingness to listen, and a depth of intellect that was not apparent in his All-American good looks. Karyn had been working as a convention hostess for the New York Hilton at the time. Roy was in the city for a gathering of engineers. For the first time, she had broken the hotel rule against socializing with the guests. Roy had stayed on for a week after the convention, and they had been together constantly. When he had returned to the Coast he had said he would be back for her on his vacation. She had not expected him to come, but he had. That was when she had finally admitted she loved him.
“Don’t be long,” she said as he stood at the door. She kissed him and watched him walk down the winding path through the neatly trimmed shrubbery. Karyn could not imagine how she could be happier. She had Roy and she had an excellent job with a hotel near the airport where she was in line for convention manager when her current boss retired. Tonight she would give Roy her special anniversary gift––the news that he was going to be a father. Yes, her life was just about perfect.
* * *
Max Quist watched the blond young man come out of Unit Two and stride down the walk past him without a flicker. Max might as well have been invisible. The woman stood in the doorway watching him go. Good-looking cunt. Too good-looking. Both of them. Like people in a magazine ad. Young, beautiful, healthy, rich. Max spat on the cropped grass. How he wanted to show them what it’s like to be hurt. Hurt them. Yes… hurt them.
* * *
Karyn was in the kitchen putting the lunch things away when the doorbell chimed. Chris was early, she thought. She dried her hands and walked out through the living room to the door. She did not bother to look through the tiny viewer. She never did. There was no danger here. This was Hermosa Terrace, not East Los Angeles.
Karyn opened the door and the heat pushed against the cool inside air. The man in the doorway was not Chris Halloran. He smiled at her.
“Yes?” Karyn said when the man did hot speak right away.
He had thick black hair that was poorly barbered. His cotton work-shirt was dark with perspiration under the arms. He seemed vaguely familiar.
“I’m supposed to check the pipes in your bathroom,” he said.
“There’s nothing wrong with ou
r pipes.”
“It’s in the apartment next door. Their shower don’t drain right, and it might be plugged up where your drain pipes come together.”
Something in the way the man spoke was wrong. The short speech sounded rehearsed. Something about the man himself was wrong. He continued to smile.
“You’d better come back when my husband is here. He knows about those things.”
Without making any sudden moves the man had somehow come through the doorway and was standing in the living room. He was still smiling, but it was a different smile. “That’s okay,” he said. “We won’t need your husband.”
Over on the couch Lady raised her neat little head and pricked her ears at the strange male voice. After a moment she put her head back down on her paws, but remained watchful.
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