New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird
Page 70
W.H. Pugmire has been writing Lovecraftian weird fiction since the 1970s, striving to write tales that echo the golden age of Weird Tales, yet also revealing his neoteric decadence as outrageous punk rock queer. His books include The Tangled Muse, Some Unknown Gulf of Night, The Strange Dark One: Tales of Nyarlathotep, and Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts. He is the Queen of Eldritch Horror.
Michael Shea learned to love the “genres” from the great Jack Vance’s Eyes of the Overworld, chance-discovered in a flophouse in Juneau when Shea was twenty-one. He tilled the field of sword-and-sorcery for more than a decade (Quest for Simbilis, In Yana the Touch of Undyine, Nifft the Lean). Concurrently he wallowed in the delights of supernatural/extraterrestrial horror, primarily in the novella form, and this remains his genre of choice (as can be seen in the collections Polyphemus and The Autopsy and Other Tales). In the last decade or so he has added hommages to H.P. Lovecraft to his novella work (as in collection Copping Squid.) Currently he is writing a trilogy of near-future thrillers. The first, The Extra was published last year; its sequel, Assault on Sunrise is slated for 2012.
John Shirley’s influential novel Wetbones blended Lovecraftian supernatural horror with razor-sharp, outlaw street savvy; novel City Come A-Walkin’ and the A Song Called Youth trilogy (Eclipse, Eclipse Corona, Eclipse Penumbra) were seminal to cyberpunk. Among his many novels are Demons, Bleak History, and the forthcoming Everything Is Broken. His numerous short stories have been collected in eight volumes including the Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winning Black Butterflies and In Extremis: The Most Extreme Short Stories of John Shirley. He was co-screenwriter of the film The Crow, and has written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult. His website is john-shirley.com.
Smith is a novelist and screenwriter. As Michael Marshall Smith he has published over seventy short stories and three novels—Only Forward, Spares, and One of Us—winning the Philip K. Dick, International Horror Guild, and August Derleth Awards as well as France’s Prix Bob Morane. He has won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction four times, more than any other author. Writing as Michael Marshall, he has published six best-selling thrillers, including The Straw Men, The Intruders, and Bad Things. The Servants was published under the name M.M. Smith. His latest Michael Marshall novel is Killer Move. He lives in North London with his wife, son, and two cats. His website is michaelmarshallsmith.com
William Browning Spencer is the author of novel Résumé with Monsters—which blends soul-destroying Lovecraftian horrors with soul-destroying lousy jobs—as well as the novels Maybe I’ll Call Anna, Zod Wallop, and Irrational Fears. His two short story collections are The Return of Count Electric and Other Stories and The Ocean and All Its Devices.
Charles Stross is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The winner of two Locus Reader Awards and two Hugo Awards, Stross has written eighteen novels and two short story collections. His works have been translated into over twelve languages. His Laundry Files novels and novellas have been termed “Lovecraftian near-future techno-SF thrillers.”
Don Webb is the author of fifteen novels including The Double, Essential Saltes, and Endless Honeymoon. He has written over three hundred short stories that have been published in Year’s Best Science Fiction, Year’s Best Horror, and Year’s Best Fantasy, among others. His story “The Great White Bed” earned an International Horror Guild Award nomination and his “anti-novel,” Uncle Ovid’s Exercise Book, won the Fiction Collective Award. Webb has been writing Lovecraftian fiction for twenty-five years.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Paula Guran is Senior Editor for Prime Books and edits the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint for six years both in its small press incarnation as well as for Pocket Books. Guran has received two Bram Stoker Awards, two International Horror Guild Award Awards, and two World Fantasy Award nominations. She lives in Akron, Ohio.
Other Books Edited by Paula Guran
Embraces
Best New Paranormal Romance
Best New Romantic Fantasy
Zombies: The Recent Dead
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2010
Vampires: The Recent Undead
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2011
Halloween
Brave New Love
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS •
“The Crevasse” © 2009 by Dale Bailey & Nathan Ballingrud. First Publication: Lovecraft Unbound, ed. Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse).
“Old Virginia” © 2003 by Laird Barron. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2003.
“Shoggoths in Bloom” © 2008 by Elizabeth Bear. First publication: Asimov’s, March 2008.
“Mongoose” © 2009 by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. First Publication: Lovecraft Unbound, ed. Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse).
“The Oram County Whoosit” © 2008 by Steve Duffy. First publication: Shades of Darkness, eds. Barbara & Christopher Roden (Ash-Tree Press).
“Study in Emerald” © 2003 by Neil Gaiman. First publication: Shadows Over Baker Street, ed. Michael Reaves (Del Rey).
“Grinding Rock” © 2003 by Cody Goodfellow. First publication: Book of Dark Wisdom #5 (January 2005).
“Pickman’s Other Model (1929)” © 2008 by Caitlín R. Kiernan. First publication: Sirenia Digest #28, March 2008.
“The Disciple” © 2002 by David Barr Kirtley. First publication: Weird Tales #328 (Summer 2002).
“The Vicar of R’lyeh” © 2007 by Marc Laidlaw. First publication: Flurb #4, Fall 2007.
“Mr. Gaunt” © 2002 by John Langan. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 2002.
“Take Me to the River” © 2005 by Paul McAuley. First publication: Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, ed. Stephen Jones (Fedogan & Bremer).
“The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft” © 2008 by Nick Mamatas & Tim Pratt. First Publication: ChiZine, April 2008.
“Details” © 2002 by China Miéville. First publication: The Children of Cthulhu, eds.John Pekan & Bejamin Adams (Del Rey).
“Bringing Helena Back” © 2004 by Sarah Monette. First publication: All Hallows 35, February 2004.
“Another Fish Story” © 2005 by Kim Newman. First publication: Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, ed. Stephen Jones (Fedogan & Bremer)
“Lesser Demons” © 2010 by Norman Partridge. First published: Black Wings, ed. S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)/Lesser Demons (Subterranean).
“Cold Water Survival” © 2009 by Holly Phillips. First Publication: Lovecraft Unbound, ed. Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse).
“Head Music” © 2003 by Lon Prater. First publication: Borderlands 5, eds. Elizabeth E. and Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands Press).
“Bad Sushi” © 2007 by Cherie Priest. First publication: Apex Digest #10 (August 2007).
“The Fungal Stain” © 2006 by W.H. Pugmire. First publication: The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams (Hippocampus Press).
“Tsathoggua” © 2008 by Michael Shea. First publication: The Autopsy and Other Tales (Perilous Press).
“Buried in the Sky” © 2003 by John Shirley. First publication: Weird Tales #342 (Oct/Nov 2006).
“Fair Exchange” © 2005 by Michael Marshall Smith. First publication: Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, ed. Stephen Jones (Fedogan & Bremer).
“The Essayist in the Wilderness” © 2002 by William Browning Spencer. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2002.
“A Colder War” © 2000, 2002 by Charles Stross. First publication: Spectrum SF #3, July 2000.
“The Great White Bed” © 2007 by Don Webb. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2007.
= " -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); -moz-filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share