Becky’s Favorite Horror Reads of 2017

Although I already unveiled my top ten horror books published in 2017 during #LibFaves17 [more on that here], I wanted to compile the list, with links and bonus commentary here on the blog so that you can access it more easily.

Easy access reminds me that I also have an archive of all of my original lists always available in the right gutter of the blog with this link. It includes year end reports on the best horror going back to 2005! Please don’t forget to use it to help patrons. It is a great place to start as you look for titles that might work for your horror patrons.

And now what you have been waiting for..... Becky’s Favorite Horror Reads from 2017...

10. Little Heaven by Nick Cutter: I read this one in 2016 for review in Booklist but it is a 2017 release. This is thoughtful, even philosophical, pulp horror at its best with a compelling dual narratvie. Click here for my full review.

9.  Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman: I didn’t get around to reviewing this one officially, but on Goodreads I made these notes:

Three words: claustrophobic, aural, steadily building dread

Sound over sight again. 

Alternating time frame merging together like Bird Box. Heightens anxiety and makes dread build mercilessly.

Again, a dual narrative just like #10, an interesting fact I did not notice until now. This is really a sf-horror hybrid where a sound has been weaponized in the African desert. A rock band is sent there to look into it. In the other storyline, one of the members of the rock band, the only one to make it out of Africa alive, is being treated at a mysterious medical facility in Iowa. This book was ominous, terrifying, original, claustrophobic, compelling, and weird [in a good way].

8. Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones: Again, I never got around to writing a full review, but I have to say that I think Stephen Graham Jones is my favorite horror novelist these days.  Everything he writes is amazing. In this case, Mapping the Interior is a novella that features a Native American teen, coming of age storyline with a menacing horror frame. The protagonist’s dead father appears to have come back to the broken family he left behind, but is he back to help or hurt? Well it’s a horror novel so you can imagine the answer I am sure. The supernatural horror in the novella serves to amplify the true life horrors. And add to it all Jones’ spectaular command of language. His writing is beautiful as it describes horrific things-- always, in everything he writes. It’s quite a treat to behold. You will reread lines. Fast-paced, character driven, and menacing.

7. Kill Creek by Scott Thomas -- An original and terrifying haunted house story which also explores the genre of horror itself. Menancing, thought provoking, and cinematic. Click here for my full review on GoodReads

6. Grip of It by Jac Jemc was the creepiest and most intense haunted house story I have read in years. I had to literally step outside my house to take a breath while reading this one; I couldn’t bear to be in any house it was so terrifying. Again, I didn’t write a full review but I did make these notes on my Goodreads shelf:

Disorienting, so anxious. 

Short chapters with POV switching back and forth. Both intense first person.

Husband wife unraveling.

The first person narration is so close and intense and switches so quickly and frequently that often you forget who is talking to you, the reader. Also the restraint here is amazing. This is a tightly woven, brisk story, that is terrifying without any gore. Also talk about unreliable narrators. Both are so unreliable, I am still not sure what actually happened. Wow!

5. Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewski-- Aliens meets The Rising meets The Ruins with a touch of Office Space.  You can read my full review here. But in the meantime, just order it. Trust me here.

4. Strange Weather by Joe Hill is a collection of 4 short novels. I gave it a star review in Booklist. You can read my review here. That review includes a quote that HarperCollins is using in their advertising for this bestselling book: "Hill is not only maturing as a writer of relevantly chilling tales, but he is also emerging as a distinct voice for our complicated times."

3. Female horror collections! Yes this is cheating, but seriously, I was blown away by the number of amazing female written horror story collections I read this year. The best by far was Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado which I gave this star review to in Booklist BEFORE it was nominated for the National Book Award. But I also greatly enjoyed Speaking to Skull Kings and Other Stories by Emily Cantaneo and two books which I reviewed for the January 2018 issue of Indie Picks-- Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters and and Everything That’s Underneath by Kristi DeMeester. [I will add the link to those reviews when they are available- added 1/17/18]

The point I am trying to make by saying my #3 read of the year is “female horror collections" is that male horror writers better watch out-- the women are coming and they are very good at using the violence and harassment done to them as inspiration for some of the best horror I have read all year.

And finally, my favorite two horror books of the year. They really could be 1 and 1a, but I made myself rank them...

2. Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the ‘70s and ‘80s by Grady Hendrix. I “raved” this nonfiction title at ALA this past June. You can click here for a full review. This book is entertaining and informative. Even the author bios in the back are fun to read. I dare anyone who loves books and reading-- especially a good old fashioned mass market paperback from any genre-- to not enjoy this book.

1. In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson. I am on record saying this novel is one of the best debut novels I have ever read, in any genre. Click here to read my starred Booklist review with all of the details. I would just be repeating myself with anything I wrote here in this post.

Finally here is my list of "Honorable Mentions” which barely missed the cut with links to reviews:

• Those Who Follow by The Sisters of Slaughter
• Come to Dust by Bracken MacLeod
• Abode by Morgan Sylvia

These last three “Honorable Mentions” missed the cut for this horror list because they were great but not only horror. Each was a genre blend. I didn’t think it was fair to take a horror best spot from these genre blends, but all three are excellent choices for your patrons. Links are to my detailed reviews.

• Hekla’s Children by James Borgden
• The Corpse and Girl from Miami by John Urbancik
• Ararat by Christopher Golden

And that’s a wrap of 2017, both my reads and on this blog in general. Stay tuned for more Horror in 2018 and beyond.

Horror Reviews Index Update

I have added three new reviews from the December 2017 issue of Indie Picks Magazine to the index.

Click here to pull up only these reviews.

Meet John Urbancik-- Indie Picks Cover Story

As the horror columnist for Indie Picks Magazine, I not only get to review 3-4 independently published horror books a month, I also get to advocate for authors that your patrons would love if only you knew about them enough to add them to your collections.

As soon as the magazine launched, I started talking to Rebecca Vnuk, our editor in chief, about the first author I wanted to showcase, John Urbancik. She agreed and assigned me the cover story article for our second issue!

Below is the draft version of my interview with John and the sidebar we created with some of his key titles and popular readalikes for them. 

Urbancik could be a huge hit with your patrons, especially those who enjoy Neil Gaiman and China Mieville. In this issue I also reviewed Urbancik's current release, The Corpse and the Girl from Miami [posted on the general blog here].

Below is the draft version of my article. I hope it inspires you to order a few of his titles for your patrons. They will thank you.

****************************

MEET JOHN URBANICK

John Urbancik writes lyrical, dark and creepy tales featuring fantasy and horror that are part Neil Gaiman, part China Mieville, with a dash of Salman Rushdie. These are beautiful tales, expertly crafted that would be hugely popular with a wide range of readers, if only more people knew about him. 

Urbancik began writing at a young age, creating one-page comic scripts in fifth and sixth grade, but his first published story came in 1999, “A Portrait in Graphite,” and since then, he has had so many stories, novels, and poems published that even he cannot keep track of them all.

He spent his youth in New York City and Long Island, leaving for upstate to attend college (where he studied video and audio production), but he eventually settled in Florida where he has lived most of his adult life, until a recent relocation to Virginia, although he did have the opportunity to live briefly on the other side of the world, Sydney, Australia. He happened to bring with him a very nice camera, practiced the craft while there, and got quite good at it. And so, Urbancik the writer, added photographer to his professional and artistic arsenal.

At first glance, Urbancik notes that his life does not seem colorful. As he likes to say, “No time in jail or in the armed forces, and no game show victories. However, I feel lucky to have been able to see and do all I have.” Among his several mottos for life: “Go everywhere, do everything.” And, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets eaten alive by a tiger shark.”

This world view is easily seen in Urbancik’s writing as his work is hard to classify into our current genre constructs. When I asked him if he set out to blend genres he talked about the amalgamation of genres as part of the natural progression of all literature, “...and it’s always been present. In the 70s and 80s, we had a lot of horror that was meant to terrify, but you also started to get things like Aliens, which is a science fiction horror, and The Princess Bride, which is as much romance as it is fantasy. I tend to blend genres because I don’t generally think of a specific genre when I write. I’ll include elements of crime noir, fantasy, horror, science fiction, romance, whatever’s appropriate for the story. My latest novel, The Corpse and the Girl from Miami, begins like a crime noir, then swings into full-tilt horror before shifting to over the top magic and mythology. Most stories don’t belong to a specific genre until the marketers get their hands on them.”

Urbancik writes like a reader. He sees a story and he does not let the limits of established tropes reign him in. He simply tells it how it needs to be told. I wondered if his work as a photographer, being a multi-media artist, shaped this unique vision at all.  “I don’t know that the photography influences the writing so much as the writing and photography have their source, in me, in the same place. I see cinematically, so I tend to write that way. In my first novel, Sins of Blood and Stone (2002), I have a scene where a demon crashes into a cathedral through a stained glass, rose window. Of course, even before I wrote the scene I was seeing it on a big screen in brilliant technicolor.”

After years of holding down a “day job,” Urbancik has recently taken the leap to being a full time writer. “ I’m older now than I’ve ever been, and I’m only ever going to get older. I reached a place where I needed to give up on the endless succession of no-future jobs – I’ve been laid off more times than I can count as companies restructure and consolidate – and pursue the thing I’ve always wanted to do. My heart, my soul are in my stories, and the day jobs only barely paid me enough to survive. They never made me happy. If I’m going to make a living writing, I need to spend all of my energy and resources in pursuit of that.” But Urbancik notes, “I didn’t actually make the shift until my partner finished… her Ph.D…[now together we can] buy me the time to focus on what I want – and love – to do.” 

One of those things that Urbancik loves to do is to take on large scale creative projects. His most recent one is InkStains where he challenges himself to write a story a day, everyday, with only one day off a month, by hand, with a nice pen and some paper. Some days John writes for only five or ten minutes and other days, much longer. As he explains, “In the past, I’ve done short-term challenges, like writing seven stories in seven days. And I’d done it with photography, too – my first year-long project was self-portraits. Then in 2012, I had a heart attack. I faced Death, and I came back, and realized I was letting myself down. I started the InkStains project after that as a means of making sure I was writing. The goal has never been quantity, but to continue to improve, to explore and experiment, and to get the creative wheels inside my head not just turning, but spinning like mad. And I believe I’ve done that. I’ve never been filled with more inspiration or more ideas. And I think I’ve improved immensely, as a writer and artist, from doing what are essentially practice stories. I freely admit that some of these stories don’t work, some are not interesting, some fail as stories even if they’re successful as explorations. But I also believe some of these stories are wonderful.”

After the first year of InkStains stories, Urbancik knew he wanted to share what he wrote with others, both readers and fellow writers, but he wasn’t quite sure how. “I started typing them, and editing (not for content so much as for grammar and spelling, and to clean up all the little errors I made by hand), and decided the best format was to self-publish monthly installments. ...That was a lot of work, but it gave me a chance to play with things like layout and design that I hadn’t had much experience with. I’m slowly getting the second set of InkStains published now, as I write the third set (I wrote in 2013, 2015, and 2017). The real question now is, will I do a fourth series in 2019?”

But even this multi-year project that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of words [the first year alone was close to 250,000] has not been enough satisfy his seemingly insatiable creative drive, so Urbancik recently found another outlet for both the stories he has created and the lessons he learned along the way-- Inkstains, the weekly podcast.

“I have friends who do interview shows and such, and I didn’t feel I could contribute to that. But I talked with Project Entertainment Network and pitched a show of me giving readings – from the InkStains stories – and also talking about writing, photography, art, and creativity. I want to be an encouraging voice for everyone who feels they have an artistic spark they’ve never been able to fully explore. I want to give people permission to experiment and make mistakes and learn from them. I want to help artists achieve success, however they’re defining their own successes, and the InkStains podcast seemed like the perfect tool to accomplish that.”

You can listen to Urbancik’s weekly musings on writing and even hear him read some of his stories on his InkStains Podcast [https://projectentertainmentnetwork.com/shows/inkstains/], and you can find all of his books, including the monthly InkStains installments on Amazon.

For more information and to follow Urbancik’s artistic adventures visit his website, http://www.darkfluidity.com, or catch him on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/urbancik], Twitter or Instagram [@JohnUrbancik].

Pull out box for inside the article:

Here are a few recent titles by Urbancik, with a quick synopsis and readalike suggestions to help you pick a place for you or your patrons to get started:

The Corpse and the Girl from Miami [2017, reviewed in this issue] begins when a man wakes atop a fresh grave during a thunderstorm without any memory. The only clue he’s got is an address on the license in his wallet. When he gets there, they’ve been waiting for him. For fans of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series who also like Seanan McGuire.

Stale Reality [2016] is a love letter to Sydney, Australia, where Urbancik had been lived ten years earlier. The premise is simple: what if all of reality shifted to accommodate somebody else, and you, who never existed in this version of reality, was left behind? Kevin, finds himself in a world where he’d never met his wife and their infant son was never born, and he wants to reclaim it. This is Urbancik’s darkest novel and is a perfect suggestion for fans of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

Tales of the Fantastic and the Phantasmagoric [2012]  is a collection of novellas and vignettes which serve as an excellent introduction to Urbacik’s work. The title is cribbed from Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. The stories are a combination of fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror and will be enjoyed by fans of Neil Gaiman.

City of Glass [forthcoming] began as an InkStains story. A man is building a city of glass in the desert to show declare his love, but she’s unimpressed. She says it’s fragile. It can’t last. And it won’t. The city will exist for only 100 days, but 100,000 people move into the city and make it their home. Those who enjoyed China Mieville’s The City and The City will love this work about identity and secrets.

Barnes & Noble Best Horror of 2017

Very few main stream sites have horror specific best lists, but Barnes & Noble is one of them.

Here is their best Horror of 2017 and I have to say, I am quite impressed by the fact that the list is actually very good. Of course I think things are missing, but I do think they have an excellent mix of titles here.

Unlike a genre specific resource which may have some niche titles that aren’t going to work at every public library, this list is one you should be using at your library for collection development. These are books you should buy for your patrons.

Click here for access

Register Now: Librarian's’ Day At StokerCon in Providence, RI 3/1/18

This is a cross post with RA for All

As I have hinted at a few times here and on the horror blog, I was asked by the Horror Writers Association President, Lisa Morton, to organize the second annual Librarians’ Day at StokerCon 2018. Last year I was their special guest for the first annual one, but had no say in the planning. This year-- cue evil laughter-- they put me IN CHARGE! Seriously, they have let me loose on an entire day of conference programming....BWAHAHAHA

Thankfully, I have the necessary experience, having been part of planning conferences big and small. But I also knew that I couldn’t do this alone. The very first person I thought of to help me was local, had the necessary skills, and most importantly was a friend, a friend who I knew I would work well with- Kristi Chadwick. Kristi is not only a librarian who works as a consultant for the Massachusetts Library System, so planning and running programs and training sessions is literally her job, but she is also the SF/FSY/Horror columnist for Library Journal. And she said, YES!

Kristi and I have been hard at work behind the scenes and can now officially announce that registration is OPEN for this wonderful day of programming. [See below for the details and necessary links to the StokerCon 2018 Librarians’ Day page.]

Of course there are still many specifics to announce but I promise you this will be worth your time. And if you register before 1/31/18 you save $10. It is only $65 for a full day of professionally planned sessions with catered lunch and free ARCs.

What are you waiting for?!? I already have my plane ticket. Kristi and I doing this as volunteers, that’s how much we both believe in the importance of this day for you and your work with leisure readers.

This is the only 1 day horror conference in the world for librarians, organized by librarians. The entire day is completely about you and your service to your readers. I always talk about how the HWA cares about library workers; well with asking me to run this day for them, they have done more than just tell you that you matter to them, they are showing you.

Come hang out with us and dare to improve your service to your scariest readers. I can’t wait to see you all there.

***********************************

Librarians’ Day

Join Stoker Con for a special day-long program of panels and presentations for librarians!

Becky Spratford, author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, 2nd edition [ALA, Editions] and horror reviewer for Booklist and IndiePicks Magazine and Kristi Chadwick, Consultant, Massachusetts Library System and Library Journal’s Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror columnist are coordinating the event.

March 1, 2018, 8:30-4:30

Cost: $75—$65 with Early Registration Discount Code: PROVIDENCE.

Select “Early Registration” and enter the code. Expires January 31, 2018.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Lunch included!

ARCs for all attendees!

Programming will include:

• 120 Years of Dracula, from Novel to Stage to Large and Small Screens, presented by Dacre Stoker!
• Horror Programming at Your Library, a panel discussion with Christopher Golden, JG Faherty, and more! 
• Lunch, featuring an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Kristi Chadwick and Becky Spratford!
• A panel discussion moderated by Becky Spratford with newer horror authors you need to know about right now!
• A Book Buzz to end the day, featuring the very best upcoming horror titles, presented by publishers big and small, with ARCs and tote bags be given to all attendees!

Click here now...if you dare!!!

31 Days of Horror: Day 31-- Lots of Me Talking to You and a New Celebration of the History of Horror Begins

Happy Halloween! It is finally here. [I lived through another horror blog-a-thon.]

Today I relax and rejoice in the holiday that makes you all want to give horror books and readers the attention they deserve. Now if only you did that all year long. [Hint, hint-- you should, and this blog is the place here I give you the tools to do that.]

But since I have your full attention for 1 more day I wanted to point you to 3 things you can do to celebrate the holiday and brush up on your horror RA skills all at the same time.

The first two involve your ears. I have recent appearances on 2 podcasts where I talk about horror and other library related things.

The first is a brand new podcast called Three Books produced by the Ela Area Public Library. Christen and Becca are bringing book people in to talk about their three favorite books and more. Since they were launching in October and because I've known Becca for years, they asked me to come in and be their first guest. You can click here to listen and subscribe. We talk about my current horror favorites, why the world NEEDS horror, and more.

The second is my 4th [!] appearance on Circulating Ideas:

Circulating Ideas facilitates conversations about the innovative people & ideas allowing libraries to thrive in the 21st century. Brought to you with support from the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science and listeners like you.

In Episode 120, which dropped today,  Steve and I talk about the the current state of horror, but also about the importance of libraries including self published/small press titles in their collections and how to stay on top of genre trends easily, even if you don't like the genre yourself.

After a month of reading my words, I am giving you a chance to learn from me in a different way. If you listen to both of these podcasts, you will quickly get a general overview of what is MOST IMPORTANT about horror right now [at least from the library worker perspective].

I have also added these two new appearances to my podcast appearance archive which is always available on the general blog's About Me page and that blog's Recent Presentations page.

And now, the third thing you need to do to both celebrate Halloween AND brush up on your RA skills-- today also marks the launch of much larger scale project, one that beginning today will be published every month, for free. One that all of you have to read:

Click here for the first chapter

Brian Keene and Cemetery Dance are going on an adventure to produce a definitive history of horror from the beginning of humanity to the present and all of us get to read it for free.

In this first chapter, Keene clearly notes the people [including myself] who have done more academic work on this topic, but he also knows as one of the top horror writers of our time and as a life long fan himself, no one has ever given the genre the respect it deserves. He is going to write the definitive history of one of the oldest and most popular genres in literature and I implore you to follow along.

I promise you will learn about horror, obviously, but you will also learn about readers, why people are drawn to any story, You will learn about writers, why stories are told in a certain way. And, you will learn to put that information together in a way that allows you to connect with your patrons better, no matter what genres they prefer.

Plus, all of the semicolons will be in the correct places [read the chapter and you will get the joke.]

Now go forth and celebrate Halloween.

31 Days of Horror: Day 30-- The State of Horror 2017

This is Horror has posted their annual State of Horror Address here. Every single one of you should read this because it talks about horror in the mainstream world and how it is doing overall. This is horror as seen through the eyes of your patrons, how they consume horror, and what they have been most interested in. It is the view of horror from above.

This is Horror is one of my favorite overall horror resources in general. They understand the genre in all of its incarnations, and you can trust them.

In this Address trends in horror are also discussed at length both right this minute trends and some suppositions about next year too.

As you can probably guess, the Address notes that the state of horror is very strong- especially in fiction and television. So that leads to my final plea for this haunting season for you-- the library worker:

KEEP YOUR HORROR DISPLAYS UP PAST HALLOWEEN!!!!

This is one of the best things you can do to help your patrons.  Keep these displays up at least 1 week past Halloween because many people let the season slip by without nabbing a scary read, and on Halloween they will realize they forgot. Then a few days later when they finally have time to come in a get something, you will have taken the displays down. 

Leave them up for people who “missed the boat” to still find horror easily. They may be so embarrassed that they forgot that they won’t want to ask for help.

Just wait another week to take the cobwebs and creepy books down. And if your supervisor thinks you are slacking, send them to this post and said Becky commanded you to do this.

See you back here tomorrow for HALLOWEEN!

31 Days of Horror: Day 29-- Books To Help You To Stop Being Scared of Horror

We are getting close to the end, but before I lose your attention I wanted to make one of my final plugs for Horror in months other than October.

Since librarians as a group are known to be “scared” of horror as this study from RUSA, Library Journal and NoveList found [see graph too], I know many of you are happy to wash your hands of horror after October 31st. Some of you are even my friends!

But hear me out right now.

You shouldn’t be SCARED of horror. You don’t have to enjoy it for yourself, but being “scared” of it is just silly. It’s not going to bite you. Neither are the readers. I like to say-- Horror fans are not monsters, they just like to read about them.

Scared just means you don’t understand it. That’s where today’s post comes in. There are two resources I am assigning you all to read AFTER Halloween to help you understand horror, how it works, why it exists, and what it means. Reading these books will educate you. You may not like horror still, but you won’t be scared of it anymore.

First is a classic and I know it is on the shelf at most of your libraries-- Danse Macabre by Stephen King, originally published in 1981. From Goodreads:

The author whose boundless imagination & storytelling powers have redefined the horror genre, from 1974's Carrie to his newest epic, reflects on the very nature of terror--what scares us & why--in films (both cheesy & choice), tv & radio, &, of course, the horror novel, past & present. Informal, engaging, tremendous fun & tremendously informative, Danse Macabre is an essential tour with the master of horror as your guide; much like his spellbinding works of fiction, you won't be able to put it down.

Danse Macabre is a little bit memoir but it is also a social science look at horror in media. It is fascinating and enlightening. I own a personal dogeared paperback. If you can’t wrap your head around why people like horror, this is the book to read to help you understand.

The second is new-- Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix which I wrote about back in June here. Hendrix has a snarky but well researched writing style. This book is all about the popular horror titles from the 70s and 80s-- all the stuff King writes about in Danse Macabre. He looks at these titles and authors with affection, yes, but also makes a compelling argument as to why these books did, and continue to, matter.

I particularly LOVE the appendix where he wrote interesting, fun, and useful bios for every author he mentions. George R. R. Martin’s is on of my favorites.

Come for the fun covers and the engaging narration, but stay for the educational aspects. Even the biggest fraidy-cat or horror cynic will learn here-- and enjoy the process too.

So now you have your marching orders for after Halloween. Read one, or both of these titles. I promise they will help you to understand horror and its readers in a way you didn’t before. Understanding means your fear will lessen. Less fear means you will try to suggest horror to the appropriate patrons outside of the 10th month of the year.

But first, get back to work. You still have a couple more days to press the flesh and put some scary reads into your horror craving patrons’ hands.

31 Days of Horror: Day 28-- Lists Worth A Look

As we inch closer and closer to Halloween, it seems like every website wants to share horror recommendations. Here are some that are worth a look both to suggest to readers now and to use for beefing up your collections for future horror seeking patrons:

• 8 Horror Audiobooks To Soundtrack Your Halloween Weekend via Bustle
• The Best Horror Books of 2017 via Chicago Review of Books
• 7 Beloved Authors Who Occasionally Dabbled in Horror via Lit Reactor
• A Roundup of New Horror via The New York Times
• From Book Riot [who are one of the only book sites to cover horror all year long]:
• 5 Horror Novels with Open Endings
• Halloween Reading
• 7 Nonfiction Books to Titillate and Terrify You
• Horror Novels Based on Real Life
• And more with this link

31 Days of Horror: Day 27 -- Meet Some Author at the Horror Lounge

Click here to enter if you dare

Over on Lounge Books from 10/25-Halloween, they are hosting Horror authors. The line up is spectacular from masters of the genre to up and coming authors.

And, the lineup is diverse. There are authors from all backgrounds on this list. And there are horror fiction, genre blending author who put fear at the forefront and even nonfiction authors- those who write about horror. Literally, something for everyone.

Below is the list but click through to the horror lounge for more information and links. They conduct an interview with each author where they talk about their own works and their favorite books. You can click through from the author list below to see specific interviews.

This resource will help you to find suggestions for readers in these waning days of the haunting season because by now I know your go-to horror titles are all checkout. And that is scary enough a situation.

MEET THE AUTHORS

GRAHAM MASTERTON

JASON ARNOPP

GRADY HENDRIX

ED GRABIANOWSKI

AK BENEDICT

KARL DRINKWATER

LUKE WALKER

ERIC SCOTT FISCHL

LESLIE S KLINGER

NUZO ONOH

CATHERINE LUNDOFF

AMELIA MANGAN

RUTH FRANKLIN

PAUL KANE

MARIE O'REGAN

SIMON ALKENMAYER

W.J RENEHAN

K.S

EDEN ROYCE

TADE THOMPSON

STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES

LAURA PURCELL

GARY BUDDEN

ALEX BELL

DAVID J. SKAL

ANDY DAVIDSON

JAMES PARSONS

BEN GWALCHMAI

OLI JACOB

TARN RICHARDSON

CATRIONA WARD

CHARLES LAMBERT

31 Days of Horror: Day 26-- Diverse Horror Options

Yesterday I talked about Nisi Shawl and her increased popularity. She is just 1 example of how the own voices movement is taking over Horror. There are more diverse options within the genre than ever before, and quite honestly, they are some of the best voices. [For proof, see Nisi Shawl]

We’ve come a long way from the racism and misogyny of Lovecraft. Speaking of, I did an entire book talk on the fact that there is a reemergence of Lovecraft in today’s genre fiction and much of it tackles his bigotry head on.  You can click here to listen to that.

Before we get into own voices horror fiction, I also want to mention that in the world of horror, diversity still means including women.  For many years, men controlled horror both as authors and readers. Well, that’s not exactly true. There were women writing horror. I mean, a woman-- Mary Shelly-- invented the genre and many others wrote horror, but the overwhelming culture of horror, it’s fan boys, the conventions, and lifestyle were dominated by white men. While there are now many female horror writers and readers, many men still think women don’t like horror.

I would like to clarify here that today’s horror authors are almost all supportive of the female writers in their ranks. It is mostly still the bro-readers who have a problem with women. I am not imagining this bias either. Earlier this month SYFY Wire had an article entitled, “Women Love Horror: Why Does This Still Surprise So Many Dudes?"

Okay now on to my suggestions for own voices horror.

Let’s start with my series of posts last year on the emerging trend of African Horror. Click here to read my post about the trend, a post by Nuzo Ohno, an African horror scholar and author, and a review of one of her books.

Another popular subgenre that is not new at all, but is moving into the mainstream thanks to horror legend, Tananarive Due, is Afrofuturism. Here is an overview of Due’s course on the topic. I highly recommend Due’s work for any fan of dark literature. You can find more info about her here by me, and here on her site. Due has been talking about the importance and influence of Afrofuturism for a long time, but one of the reasons it is being talked about now is the emergence of Nnedi Okorafor. You can read this profile of her and her work from the NYT here.

One of the best places to find suggestions of books and authors is from other authors. A few year ago, the Horror Writers Association was appalled at how white and male their slate of Stoker nominees were. Instead of just paying lip service to the problem, they immediately set up a task force of women and POC authors to start regularly suggesting own voices authors from the horror genre. They called this features-- The Seers Table. Now a few years in, these monthly suggestions are piling up and you can see an archive of all the columns by clicking here. You must click on each title to open the entire column.

One of the members of the HWA who worked hard on the Seers Table initiative is Linda Addison an award winning author and poet. Anything by her is excellent, but specifically I want to point out an amazing collection for which she was an editor, Sycorax’s Daughters. It is an anthology of dark fiction and  poetry by black women writers. Click through for details and a list of 28 more authors you should know about.

Stephen Graham Jones is another author you need to know about. Not only do I think he is the leader of the next wave of “the best” horror authors, he also brings a Native American perspective to the genre. I really like this recent interview he gave where he talks at length about his work, “representation,” and why own voices matter. The first time I encountered Jones was hearing someone else read his work out loud and it held me spell bound. I have never looked back.

Finally, don’t forget the voices of those around the world.  There is a wonderful resource, Speculative Fiction in Translation to help you.

31 Days of Horror: Day 25 -- Guest Post by Eric Guignard on Nonfiction About Dark Authors

Today’s guest post, By Eric Guignard, is one of the best I have ever had. First here is more about Eric:

Eric J. Guignard is a writer, editor, and publisher of dark and speculative fiction, operating from the shadowy outskirts of Los Angeles. He’s won the Bram Stoker Award, been a finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award, and a multi-nominee of the Pushcart Prize. Outside the glamorous and jet-setting world of indie fiction, he’s a technical writer and college professor. Visit Eric at: www.ericjguignard.com, his blog: ericjguignard.blogspot.com, or Twitter: @ericjguignard

Below, Eric writes very persuasively about why horror matters in general, and in particular why today’s practitioners of dark short stories are the authors you most need to know about. But don’t worry, he is going to help you by writing short primers on these authors like Steve Rasnic Tem, Kaaron Warren and Nisi Shawl. In these books, Eric provides his analysis of these living authors AND gives you entire short stories by them in order for you to understand their work in context.

Read what Eric has to say below about horror and it’s place as one of the most important genre of our times AND look into ordering his Primers for you and your patrons. These titles will make for a good read for horror fans who are looking to delve more deeply into the genre and its history, will allow you to understand the genre better, will make for an excellent collection development tool, and finally, will serve as a much needed research tool for students.

I for one am super excited about his planned volume on Nisi Shawl. She is a fantastic writer who is exploding in popularity. We need more critical works about her.

A New Primer Series for Studying Short Story Horror Authors and Why It Matters

by Eric J. Guignard

###

I’ve recently begun a series of “Primer” books, titled EXPLORING DARK SHORT FICTION, which examines introductory literary theory of modern (living) authors who write dark and fantastic short fiction stories. These books are meant for general audiences as just basic light analysis of progressive and outstanding authors who deserve wider recognition, in order to help expand perception of the genre and to promote the short story form.

And here (as I know you’re asking) is why I’m doing it!

I love horror fiction. And you, I presume, by way of reading this blog post, most likely do too. Fiction, in general, invigorates the imagination and inspires creativity and a love for learning, while horror, in particular, is most advantageous in accomplishing these things, albeit with a darker bent and a bad reputation.

Horror should not have this bad reputation. It incites a deeper awareness of one’s surroundings; it soothes stress by providing diversion and an emotional outlet; it creates an adrenaline rush and releases “feel good” chemicals in the brain such as dopamine and serotonin (good for combating depression and anxiety); it incites empathy for others, allows us to envision things or situations that (probably!) don’t exist, as well as challenges us, and provides adventure, action, and thrills (as it does, most, for me).

And perhaps you’ve heard that all before. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do a lot to persuade the public’s general opinion: horror is often disdained. Neglected. Mocked. (insert sad face here.)

Which is unfortunate, as horror fiction can also be literary. It’s an art form, with its own message to tell, and that message can affect people deeply, and it can be interpreted a thousand different ways. Modern horror can be just as poetic and ideological as Walt Whitman, as poignant as John Steinbeck, and as sentimental as Toni Morrison; it can be political, scholarly, satirical, and, quite simply, beautiful, yet with a dark and speculative element attached, which, to me, is the element of excitement I happen to crave. So in my ranking of preference, literary horror, with something “unbelievable made real,” is twice the benefit!

Now, yes, yes, you beg to differ, there is much study done of horror authors. Yet if you were to hear the names of scribblers of the macabre, or read the works in advance of some class discussion, or were to sit in on a panel of horror genre influences, the same two names who are generally given any academic credibility will come up repeatedly ninety percent of the time: Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, and these authors being from generations ago. These names are widely recognized as the champions of poetic and descriptive dark prose, yet Lovecraft perished over eighty years ago, and Poe near a century before that. What they wrote is still compelling today—I’m not saying otherwise—but, so to, are there living authors whose words can shape the boundaries of your imagination, who can invigorate and capture our modern era tastes and sensibilities, who can connect to us in ways not possible by our literary forebears, names such as Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Tananarive Due, Junot Díaz, Ramsey Campbell… I could go on.

Additionally, and though I love novels, I happen to love short stories even more. Short stories are compact and present a message and narrative structure in only the fraction of a novel’s length. In the time it would take me to read the latest by Anne Rice or Dan Simmons, I can devour fifteen to twenty-five short stories! That’s fourteen to twenty-four more points of view, ideas, diverse voices, experimentation, and story lines than I would absorb compared to the novel. Of course, I realize I’m in the minority opinion here, and I know there’s the cost for my preference to the short form: less character rapport, less exposition and backstory, less opportunity for extrapolation, but I’m an idea guy—I like it short and punchy. Blame it on watching episodes of The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories, and reading the shorts of O. Henry and Rudyard Kipling as a child.

Also, I just like the fact that I can reproduce the entirety of short stories in these primers, rather than only excerpts of longer works, which doesn’t always provide as comprehensive a picture to their vibrancy and impact.

So, attributes of: Literary writing, AND horror genre, AND short story format AND contemporary authors all combined equals a void in literary theory , a need, if you will, for discussion and promotion.

And that is a void that I’d like to fill.

Consequently that fulfillment begins now, with the subject of Primer #1, Steve Rasnic Tem, who has been penning inventive and affecting tales for over forty years. Steve Rasnic Tem, who has attained a sort of literary célèbre in the genre community, but may not be as widely recognized amongst mass market readers. Steve Rasnic Tem, who just perfectly fit all criteria to kick off this series.

After him, Primer #2 will release in early 2018, a study of Australian author, Kaaron Warren. Then Primer #3 is scheduled for Nisi Shawl, and #4 for Jeffrey Ford.

And besides selecting authors that I just happen to subjectively “like,” I defined a list of criteria in helping to select distinct and diverse voices as per the following. The selected author:

1. Is still living
2. Is still actively writing (dependent on #1)
3. Has a large, influential body of work including dark fiction in short story form that spans at least 25 years
4. Possesses a body of work, besides novels and other forms, that includes at least 50 short story pieces
5. Has received at least one major industry fiction writing award
6. Is someone I have access to
7. Is willing to write me an original story

I’m sure there are other author names you immediately think of; there are many, many authors who fit all this criteria. The challenge is to find writers that by their greater aggregate will compliment and advance each other—and the genre—by showing the depth of the form, the rich difference in voice and influence that is possible, rather than putting forth a lot of similar styles and backgrounds.

So for each primer itself, I’m hoping to give a wide representation of who the author is, what they’re capable of, and why they’re important, without overwhelming the reader. To that end, I’ve compiled a structure of information for each primer, to include the following:

• A selection of six short fiction stories that in their entirety span a range of the majority of the author’s professional writing career (i.e. examples from their early stages, mid-stages, and present stages of writing).

• The stories include both literary and horror (including subtle, psychological, or ‘weird’) or dark fantasy elements (i.e. no science fiction works).
• Stories would appeal to a wide audience, and are meant for general readership, ages about 12-14 years old and up (i.e. no erotica works).
• Subject matter in stories represents a range of topics, such as origin stories, dystopian, action, mythology, fairy tale, monster, ghost, etc.
• Of the six stories, five are reprints, and one is original, written for this Primer

• Academic commentary by Michael Arnzen, PhD (former humanities chair and professor of the year, Seton Hill University)
• Author Interview
• Author Biography
• Author Bibliography
• Author Essay
• Hand-illustrated throughout by artist Michelle Prebich

Ultimately, I hope this series to find some sort of success, to be found interesting and meaningful, to “fill the void”, per se, and to find longevity, not only in the publishing of future volumes, but in the minds of readers, students, and academics alike.

Less I bore you with further qualitative data and reasoning, I wish only to close with the following thought, that in a world of fast-changing tastes and values, there is one constant: Extraordinary writing carries on.

I’d just like to see that the purveyors of this writing be remembered.

To keep up with this series, or to order Primer #1, please visit: http://www.darkmoonbooks.com/Primer_1.html