#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #41: StokerCon Librarians' Day Featured Author Grady Hendrix

It's #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway day, but it is also a special mini-series within the larger giveaway series. From now until May 21st, I will be giving away books by authors who are appearing at StokerCon Librarians' Day. Plus I have a special multi-book giveaway set for LIVE during Librarians' Day [courtesy of Nightfire]. So you are going to want to enter now.

Click here for all of the details about this event. It is only $75 and you get to go to the entire StokerCon for that price, not just Librarians' Day.

Details on this week's giveaway below but first...

Here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #40. Our winner was Angela from Dayton [OH] Metro Library.

This week I am featuring one of the most well known authors who is joining us at Librarians' Day: Grady Hendrix. Hendrix is not only a NYT Bestselling author, but he is one of the founders of Summer Scares, our first spokesperson, and a well known lover of library workers. 

Today, I am giving away an ARC of his upcoming novel, The Final Girl Support Group. This copy came from Hendrix's personal stash of ARCs directly to my home. I read it for review in the June issue of LJ. I will not post that full review yet, but I will tell you it was a no-brainer star and here are my three words and the "Verdict" section of the review which I turned in last week:

Three Words That Describe This Book: darkly humorous, great world building, flawed but sympathetic narrator.

Draft Verdict: Hendrix presents yet another thought provoking, fun, and chilling winner with perfect timing, as the slasher novel seems to be trending. A great choice for fans of Night of the Mannequins by Jones or Clown in a Cornfield by Cesare, but also for those who loved the darkly humorous but intense psychological suspense of My Sister, the Serial Killer by Brathwaite.

I am not alone in loving this book. It was one of the top editors picks for Summer Reading over on PW too.

The book doesn't come out until July 13th and I am sure you have already pre-ordered it, but read this early and pass it on to your co-workers or give it away as a summer reading prize. 

Enter today for a chance to win. Next week I have a giveaway of another title which will have a star review in the June issue of LJ! Enter once and you are entered until you win.

And don't forget to see Hendrix and others at StokerCon Librarians' Day on May 21st. Sign up to join us here.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #40: StokerCon Librarians' Day Featured Author Nicole Givens Kurtz

It's #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway day, but it is also a special mini-series within the larger giveaway series. From now until May 21st, I will be giving away books by authors who are appearing at StokerCon Librarians' Day. Plus I have a special multi-book giveaway set for LIVE during Librarians' Day [courtesy of Nightfire]. So you are going to want to enter now.

Click here for all of the details about this event. It is only $75 and you get to go to the entire StokerCon for that price, not just Librarians' Day.

Details on this week's giveaway below but first...

Here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #39. Our winner was Elizabeth from Los Alamos County [NM] Library

Today I ave a 2 book giveaway courtesy of ME [I bought these books to share with all of you] with an emerging voice in Horror who I am so excited to share with all of you-- both her books and herself as part of Librarians' Day-- Nicole Given Kurtz. See below for more about the 2 books I am giving away today, finished copies that you can add to your collections immediately:  Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire and Sisters of the Wild Sage: A Weird Western Collection.

I first became aware of Kurtz in the Fall of 2020 with the release of the anthology she edited, Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. This anthology is dedicated to L.A. Banks, an author who was extremely popular in libraries before her death. With that knowledge it should come as no surprise that this anthology specifically addresses Vampires across the African Diaspora-- a themed anthology that was much needed and will be very popular. The anthology is organized with "Western" Black Vampires in the first section-- US and UK, then African Vampires second, and finally, Vampires set in the future. 

The stories are not only excellent, but they also introduce readers to many new, talented voices. Readers of the Vampire trope today tend to appreciate a wider view of the creature both in terms of how their dark powers are manifested and where they reside. Slay definitely satisfies that appeal. 

Just as I was hearing more about this anthology and Kurtz herself, the HWA Diversity Grant committee came back with this announcement of the recipients here, and wouldn't you know, Nicole Givens Kurtz was on that list.

I got even more excited about Kurtz and her work after this announcement, so in February, I invited her to appear on the Horror Writers' Association Females of Fright panel I was moderating for Women in Horror Month. You can watch that and get to hear from her directly here. 

That panel was when I learned about the second book I am giving away today: Sisters of the Wild Sage: A Weird Western Collection. 

My excitement increased again and I ordered both books for myself the next day. As readers of the general blog probably know, I LOVE Weird Westerns-- a combination of the Western with speculative genres-- and I am not alone. There is quite a resurgence in Western readership among a new generation because of this Weird Western trend. I wrote rote about why in more detail here.

Sisters of the Wild Sage gave me a chance to see Kurtz as a writer and this collection did not disappoint. The stories all feature black women, while the frame, range of scare level, and speculative devices are varied. We have traditional Western settings with magic infused, but also stories set in the future, and some tales are slightly askew while others are outright terrifying, with everything in between. The collection serves as an excellent introduction to the subgenre itself, which is great, but it is also a very fun read.

Enter to win both books, sign up for Librarians' Day so you can watch Kurtz as part of the "Meet the Diversity Grant Recipients" panel, and most importantly, order  these titles for your collections [Amazon or special order from your local book store]. 

Vampires and Weird Westerns are among the most popular Horror subgenres for a library audience, and Kurtz is a talented writer and editor, so I promise you these are worth adding to your collections right now. These are titles that your patrons will enjoy AND as you can see, they have awesome covers for displays. This is a no lose proposition.

Good luck and back next week with an ARC of another author appearing as part of Librarians' Day:  The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. 

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #39: StokerCon Librarians' Day Featured Author Tim Waggoner

It's #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway day, but it is also a special mini-series within the larger giveaway series. Today and for at least the next 3 weeks, I will be giving away books by authors who are appearing at StokerCon Librarians' Day. Plus I have a special multi-book giveaway set for LIVE during Librarians' Day [courtesy of Nightfire]. So you are going to want to enter now.

Click here for all of the details about this event. It is only $75 and you get to go to the entire StokerCon for that price, not just Librarians' Day.

Details on this week's giveaway below but first...

Here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #38. Our winner was John from Chattahooche Public Libraries [GA]

Today I have the latest novel by Tim Waggoner. Waggoner is the author of  Writing in the Dark which I reviewed in Library Journal last year, it is nominated for a Stoker Award, and is in my new book and on the blog as one of my go-to resources. This is an author you need to know about.

Waggoner is appearing on the first panel of the day at StokerCon Librarians Day: 

10-11 The Appeal of a Good Scare: Moderated by Becky Spratford  -- Tim Waggoner, Grady Hendrix, V. Castro, Jessica Guess, John Fram, Emily Hughes [Nightfire].

We will be talking about why people love horror. And we have a nice range of authors and horror professionals. 

But that's all focused on Waggoner the writing instructor. This is about his latest novel, Your Turn To Suffer. I have a full review posted on Goodreads here.  

This is a great example of a storyteller who understands his audience, gives them what they want, and yet still keeps them on the edge of their seat constantly guessing. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: mix of weird fiction and extreme horror, original storyline, deeply unsettling.

My review has way more detail and readalikes. 

This giveaway is a finished, hard cover copy courtesy of the publisher, Flame Tree Press. You can read it AND add it to your shelves immediately. 

Good luck. And next week I will be offering 2 books by a different panelist. Enter once and you are entered going forward. 

Summer Scares 2021 Programming Guide Available Now !

The wait is over and the program is about to kick into high gear. Today, we announce the Summer Scares 2021 Programming Guide. 

Quick reminder, Summer Scares is a reading program that provides professionally vetted Horror titles for all ages that libraries can use with confidence in their Summer Reading Plans in particular and all year long in general. It is brought to you by the Horror Writers Association, Book Riot, Booklist and United for Libraries with promotional assists from The Ladies of the Fright Podcast and The Springfield-Greene County Library whose staff have put together the programming guide. Speaking of the guide....

Click here or on the cover of this PDF above. This guide is completely free. 100%. Always. You can access the guide and other marketing materials and information about Summer Scares on the resource page. You can also access the archive there and use last year's guide. Since we use backlist [but not too old] titles, previous guides are just as useful as this year's. 

Each book gets its own page in the guide. I have included a screen shot of the page for Kathe Koja's The Cipher below as an example of what has been created for each book.

In particular, I am a big fan of the "Booktalk This Book" section because it means you don't have to have read the book to hand-sell it to readers.

Get people excited about Horror RIGHT NOW as we are approaching the "Halfway to Halloween" point [April 30]. Between this year and last year's guides and the read-alikes for each title, you can fill an entire display for all ages of readers in minutes.

You can even use our art. Click here to download the logo. Or print out the PDF and use the cover on your display. 

Stay tuned for more Summer Scares information coming soon. Sign up for the 5th Annual HWA Librarians' Day to see the debut of three pre-taped panels with our Summer Scares 2021 authors. Those will also be put up on the HWA's YouTube page for free on 5/23 after StokerCon ends. Libraries can use these recorded panels to show to their patrons if they would like. They would be especially useful paired with a book discussion of the books and a virtual appearance by one of our authors.

This guide and Horror in general, is a great tool all year long.

And please remember, as I always say.... Your Horror readers are not monsters; they just like to read about them. Not get out there and start the haunting.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #38: Into The Forest And All the Way Through

 It's #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway day. But today is a special one too. It has been almost an entire year since I began this giveaway, which in and of itself a feat, but also, I began this endeavor with a horror poetry collection since it was April and National Poetry Month. That book was A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng. Click here for my review.

Flash forward a year and A Collection of Dreamscapes is a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for best poetry collection. This clearly did not surprise me based on my review.

And today, to celebrate a year of these giveaways, National Poetry Month, and the upcoming Bram Stoker Awards ceremony [which is free to all on 5/22 here and I am getting some hardware during the ceremony so you are going to want to watch], I am giving away another book by one of the nominees. This time a poetry collection by Cynthia Pelayo. Details below but first...

Here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #37. Our winner was Kate from Woodford County [KY] Library.

Now to this week's giveaway with a review. 

Into The Forest And All The Way Through by Cynthia Pelayo is a striking, thought provoking, and social justice focused poetry collection; in fact those are my official "three words," but it is also devastating, haunting, and necessary. It exists in a terrifying space where nonfiction and lyricism collide. 

The concept of these linked poems is very simple. As stated here on Goodreads:

"Into the Forest and all the Way Through is a collection of true crime poetry that explores the cases of over one hundred missing and murdered women in the United States."

It is that deceptively simple to describe and yet, the emotions Pelayo conveys are impossible to put into words. You feel every bit of pain, sadness, injustice, horror, anger, etc..... She is able to evoke it all in language that flows perfectly. 

Here's the main point though. I don't think this book would ever work as series of essays. IT has to be in poems. These missing women have been written about before and yet, they have still be forgotten and their murders unsolved. Pelayo's poetry makes it clear that she has done the research into the women, their lives, and their deaths, but rather than rattle it all off, she creates poems that get at the emotion of it all.

She asks you to spend time with her words, words she chooses carefully and links together into captivating poems. There is no way this way easy for her to write.

These poems will effect you. You cannot look away. They are participatory and terrifying. They also also 100% real and true. This is not a book for the timid, but it is also a book of truth.

I have been very general here on purpose. This is a book you need to enter when you are ready as a reader. Just its existence is important. And, personally, I read it over a month. I could not sit and consume it in one sitting, but that is a good thing. I spent a little bit of time with it, over time. That made me ponder it more though too.

Redalikes: Novels in verse that deal with social justice issues like Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo are great comp titles. The first is about cycles of violence and the second about a young girl's coming of age in Harlem and the sexual harassment she must constantly deal with.  

But also any true crime that is about female victims, especially unsolved one [and unfortunately too many are about this] like Lost Girls by Robert Kolker. 

However, these true crime books, while popular and well written [the example was a NYT Notable Book], are not going to distill the essence of the pain and feelings as well as Pelayo's poetry collection.

Enter today to win a finished copy of Into The Forest And All The Way Through by Cynthia Pelayo. And then log in to see who wins the Bram Stoker Awards on 5/22.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #37: 2 Story Collections from Undertow Publications

   It's #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway day. Here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #36. Our winner was Graham from Newmarket Public Library.

Today I have a fun 2-fer of brand new story collections, both published by Undertow Press [one of my vetted small horror presses for libraries], and both of which I reviewed in the current issues of Library Journal and Booklist. I highly recommend adding both to your collections no matter what happens with this giveaway, but the copies I am offering today, courtesy of the publisher, are finished paperbacks. You can add these immediately if you win.

First up, To Drown in Dark Water by Steve Toase. The full review appears in the April 1 issue of Booklist and a draft is here. Becky's Three Words That Describe This Book: terrifying, remarkably restrained, intense unease

Next is I Would Haunt You If I Could by Sean Padraic Birnie. The full review is in the April 1 issue of Library Journal and some of my notes are here. Becky's Three Words That Describe This Book: terrifyingly mundane, character driven, disorienting

Good luck!

And coming over the next few weeks.....giveaways by some of the authors appearing for StokerCon's 5th Annual Librarians' Day [including the upcoming Grady Hendrix novel]. Details on how to join us for that event are here.