Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot

This happened a few days ago, but I keep forgetting to post it.

The final ballot is out for the Bram Stoker Awards and friends of the blog Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Joe McKinney (in many categories), Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton, and John Everson all made the cut!

Click here for the full slate of nominees.

And click here to see how you can use awards lists as a Readers Advisory tool.

Horror Readers' Advisory Book Update: Authors

When I first started this blog, I promised to use it as an update to my print book, and while everything I post technically adds to the value of the book, today's post is an actual update to the authors listed in Chapter 3: Horror 101: A Crash Course in Today's Tales of Terror.

In that chapter I break up today's need to know authors into a few categories. One of those categories is "Pulps Kings." These are horror authors publishing original paperback fiction whose books I feel every library with a known horror readership should own. In other words, these should be your go-to pulp horror authors.

The book lists: Brian Keene, Nate Kenyon, John Everson, Gary Braunbeck, Robert Dunbar, and Jeff Strand.  To this list I am updating with the following authors and descriptions.


J. G. Faherty writes character driven horror which often has an ancient evil setting and incorporates teenaged protagonists.  He often uses a mix of supernatural occurrences and beings to ratchet up the fear and his use of gore is moderate.  Of the better known authors, I would compare him to Peter Straub. Try Cemetery Club which  begins with 4 friends awakening an ancient evil that they contain but don’t defeat and then flashes forward 20 years when the friends need to reunite for a final showdown.

Gregory Lamberson walks the line between horror and not quite horror, but there is no denying his popularity with horror fan because his Jake Helman Files series is scary as heck. Jake resigns from the NYC police force and becomes a private detective specializing, by accident, in supernatural crimes.  These are gory and terrifying novels, but reviewers are constantly commenting on how imaginative and original the stories feel.  More horror than Huston’s Joe Pitt series, but still with a strong investigative element, Lamberson is an author to keep an eye on. Try the first book in the series, Personal Demons

Law enforcement officer Joe McKinney knows a thing or two about catching bad guys, but in his terrifying Dead World series, he imagines an evil much worse than a mere human criminal.  After five hurricanes in a row slam into the Texas Gulf coast, “from the rubble, a virus has been born that is reanimating the dead--thousands of them at a time!  Quickly, the virus spreads across the entire state of Texas, as hordes of hungry zombies begin taking over.  This is a terrifying and action packed series with a realistic premise.” The first book is Dead City.

Finally, I would like to add a list of newer authors, all who have been mentioned on RA for All: Horror previously, who are making enough of an impact that you should be on the look out for new titles by them. All links go to areas on this blog where the author was discussed and/or his book reviewed.

• Brett J. Talley
• Benjamin Kane Ethridge
• Lee Jordan
• Douglas Wynne
• Isaac Marion 

Now that my book is a year old, look for more frequent official updates to the print here on the blog.

Women in Horror Month: Guest Post by Rachel Hoover

Today, I am having having the blogs work in tandem to promote Women in Horror Month.

From their mission:

Every February, Women in Horror Recognition Month (WiHM) assists underrepresented female genre artists in gaining opportunities, exposure, and education through altruistic events, printed material, articles, interviews, and online support. WiHM seeks to expose and break down social constructs and miscommunication between female professionals while simultaneously educating the public about discrimination and how they can assist the female gender in reaching equality.

One of the official participants is my fellow ARRT member and Chicagoland librarian Rachel Hoover.  I asked her to let my readers know about the celebration, her blog, and the weekly project she is undertaking to celebrate the month.

Thanks to Rachel and all the great women who work in horror.

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Women in Horror Comics

by Rachel Hoover

In my blog, Librarian of the Dead, I write about the sorts of things you’d expect from such a title. Many of my posts are about the horror genre whether it’s books, comics, movies or games because I’m such a big fan of horror. But I also talk about gravestone art and cemeteries, and include any items or topics that I stumble upon as long as they’re dark, spine-chilling or have something interesting to say about our relationship with fear or death. 

I am an actual librarian in a public library, I’ve been one for about five years, but I’ve worked in libraries for something like thirteen years now. The name of the blog popped into my head one day this past Fall and made me laugh because it was strange and sort of true. Then it made me stop and seriously think about the fun I could have writing under a theme so near and dear to me, and I have ever since.

Recently I had been thinking about comics quite a bit as well as an event a friend of mine started a few years ago called Women in Horror Month, which happens every February. The goal of the event is to bring more exposure and support to women working in the horror genre. I realized that I couldn’t think of very many women who worked on horror comics. Since I’m a researcher by nature, I took to Google. After I had unearthed several names I decided to do an official project for Women in Horror Month on Women in Horror Comics.

Each Monday in February I’m featuring a female horror comic writer and/or artist on my blog, introducing the work they’ve done in the genre and then including an interview from each of them about how they got started, who or what influences them, what they’re reading and what advice they have for other aspiring comic creators. I’m really excited about the series, and I want to earn as many new fans for these women as I can, because they deserve it. The work they do is engaging, innovative, visually captivating, and all for the love of the genre and the medium. 

My first feature is on writer, letterer and editor Rachel Deering who created her own epic werewolf comic called ANATHEMA. Each following post will go up on Mondays at Librarian of the Dead, and I hope you’ll tune in to find out more!

If you don’t want to miss them you can subscribe to my blog, follow me on Twitter @rachelsstorm or keep an eye on all of the Women in Horror Month events through their website: www.womeninhorrormonth.com, Twitter @WiHmonth or Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WomenInHorrorMonth.