31 Days of Horror: Day 17- Come Join Tor Nightfire by the Fire with a Free Audio Book

Today I am handing the blog over to Tor's newest imprint, Nightfire, an all horror imprint. They have just released a second FREE audio collection featuring some of today's most sought after authors.

Also, please check their website frequently because they support all horror and promote all of the new releases, even those that they are not publihsing. 

But right now, here is their announcement of the audio release:

We’re excited to announce the return of Come Join Us By The Fire, our audio horror anthology featuring stories from some terrifyingly talented authors, coming your way October 15, 2020!

Come Join Us By The Fire showcases a wide collection of horror stories from emerging voices in the genre as well as longtime fan favorites. Horror has always taken many shapes, and season 2 focuses on the endless and complex ways it manifests itself in stories – whether through inexplicable holes in reality, creatures that go bump (and worse) in the night, or the sinister ways our own minds can twist against us. 

Season 2 features nine never-before-published stories from authors including Daniel M. Lavery (The Merry Spinster), Laird Barron (The Croning), Indrapramit Das (The Devourers), and Shaun Hamill (A Cosmology of Monsters), as well as 18 stories from award-winning authors like Seanan McGuire(Wayward Children series), T. Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones), Caitlín R. Kiernan (Agents of Dreamland), Kelly Link (Get in Trouble), Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth), Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things), and Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell; plus more from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. 

The project is a way to preview the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, and give listeners a taste of what’s to come when Nightfire launches our first full catalog of books in 2021. There’s something for every listener here, so come join us by the fire and hear tales not just to tell against the dark… but to embrace it.

If you missed the first season, you can find it on Google Play, Spotify, Apple, and more – season two will be available for free exclusively on Google Play Books beginning October 15, 2020. 

Happy listening – let us know which story you’re most excited for!

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Come Join Us By the Fire: Season Two
Table of Contents

• Cassandra Khaw, “Some Breakable Things”
• Sarah Langan, “The Changeling”
• Shaun Hamill, “Music of the Abyss”
• Caitlín R. Kiernan, “Standing Water”
• Tade Thompson, “Bone”
• T. Kingfisher, “Origin Story”
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia, “The Sound of Footsteps”
• Laird Barron, “Jōren Falls”
• Damien Angelica Walters, “Tooth, Tongue, and Claw”
• Sunny Moraine, “If Living is Seeing I’m Holding My Breath”
• Matthew Lyons, “Blood Daughter”
• Jessica Guess, “Mama Tulu”
• Daniel M. Lavery, “Prodigal Son”
• Seanan McGuire, “Emergency Landing”
• Indrapramit Das, “You Will Survive This Night”
• ‘Pemi Aguda, “Things Boys Do”
• Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat”
• Clay McLeod Chapman, “The Fireplace”
• Nibedita Sen, “Pigeons”
• Camilla Grudova, “Ghost Bread”
• Catherynne M. Valente, “The Days of Flaming Motorcycles”
• Brian Evenson, “The Cabin”
• Maria Dahvana Headley, “The Krakatoan”
• Craig Laurance Gidney, “Spyder Threads”
• Mariana Enriquez, “Things We Lost in the Fire”
• Gabino Iglesias, “The Song of the Lady Rose”
• Nick Antosca, “The Quiet Boy”

Stories are narrated by Fajer Al-Kaisi, Clay McLeod Chapman, Frankie Corzo, Deepti Gupta, JD Jackson, Daniel M. Lavery, Rich Miller, Greer Morrison, and Natalie Naudus. They’re produced by Steve Wagner, with sound design by Sal Barone, Patrick Smith, Ethan Donaldson, and Steve Wagner.

Annual Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Spotlight in Booklist

August is Horror's chance to shine in Booklist, and since I write for them, I always have a heavy hand in this issue.

This issue is one of your biggest resources as you plan for the October horror onslaught, so pay attention whether you personally like horror or not!

I posted my three reviews in this issue here and have added them to the Horror Review Index here:

• Hill, Joe. Strange Weather (2017)
• Klinger, Leslie S. The New Annotated Frankenstein (2017)
• Percy, Benjamin.  The Dark Net (2017)

I also never announced the addition of another review in a previous issue that has now been added to the Index:

• Maberry, Jonathan and George A. Romero.  Nights of the Living Dead (2017)

These are stories written in the Romero universe. It is an excellent collection on it's own and with the passing of the influential director's death it is a must buy for all library collections.

Also in this issue you can find my interview with Les Klinger, the author of The New Annotated Frankenstein (review above). It's entitled, Leslie S. Klinger and the Fine Art of Annotation. You may think this sounds boring, but I got to spend time with Les and we talked about annotating and why it is so interesting and cool. All librarians can learn from him. He has annotated Gaiman's Sandman series, Sherlock Holmes, HP Lovecraft and he is about to release an annotated Watchmen. In other words, click through and read my article.

Not involving me at all, but very important is the Top 10 list of the best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror on audio. Click here for the list which includes a lot of horror.

Finally, this issue also has the Booklist Horror Top 10 for the past year. The list was chosen by horror author and Booklist Editor, Daniel Kraus. He starts with the starred horror reviews from the past year and then he has full control to pick the lists from that narrowed down field. I am proud to say that 8 of the top 10 are books I reviewed. It makes me so happy to help these books get into libraries. Speaking of, if a book is on this list, you should buy it for your library. It represents the bare minimum of the latest horror you should own in any public library collection.  Here is the link for the full list and annotations. I have also listed the titles below; those with an * were reviewed by me and can be found in the Horror Review Index or with the link provided:

• *The Burning World by Isaac Marion
• The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
• *Haven by Tom Deady
• *Hekla's Children by James Brogden
• *Little Heaven by Nick Cutter
• *A Long December by Richard Chizmar [Ironically, that review appeared in last year's spotlight issue]
• *The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue [Also last year's spotlight]
• *Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror edited by Ellen Datlow 
• *Reanimatrix by Pete Rawlik
• Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

This should be enough to keep you busy for a while. Halloween is only 89 days away.

Horror on Audio is HOT

Most of you know that Audiobooks are one of the fastest growing segments in the book world, but the way you can tell it is really catching fire is when genre fiction starts seeing a huge surge in audiobook production.

Recently, I heard from Christopher Payne, the President of JournalStone publications and he wanted me to know that they were ramping up production of their own line of audiobooks. He is investing heavily in it, and along with their current stable of audiobooks you can find here, they are currently working on 7 titles by NYT Bestselling author Christopher Golden, some titles by Richard Chizmar including his new novella with Stephen King [review of the print coming to the blog soon], among others.

Brian Keene is also seeing a renewed interest in audio, and as he reported here, the backlist of some of his most popular books are being turned into brand new audio books as I write this.

The trend is gathering momentum when you see the smaller, independent presses investing money in producing their own titles. As Payne told me, it is surprising how expensive starting up a serious audio catalog can be.

But, since he is not the only one doing it, for right now, it appears to be a worthwhile investment.

You don’t have to wait to start being a part of this trend at your library though.

Click here to see what audio is available on Audible.

And click here to look at an general overview of the almost 1,000 titles Overdrive has available for horror in audio.

And don’t forget to check Baker and Taylor and Ingram. JournalStone distributes through both directly.

This is not a trend you want to be left out of. Order some horror on audio for your libraries right now. You won’t need much help getting the titles into patrons’ hands either. Readers are clamoring for it.

31 Days of Horror-- Day 17: Horror Audiobooks-- A Narrator’s Perspective

Back in 2011, I had this post about the merits of horror in audio form and included a great resource for reviews.

For the lazy, the short version of that post is that horror on audio harkens back to childhood times spent telling ghost stories on sleepovers or around campfires.  Horror is as much an emotion as it is a genre and hearing it read only enhances the fear and terror-- those feelings that horror readers crave from their stories.

When I was preparing for my 31 Days of Horror blog-a-thon, Paula Slade, a seasoned actress who had recently narrated the horror novel, The Haunted by Michaelbrent Collings, reached out to me.

She is very passionate about narrating audiobooks, and has quite a bit of experience, but this was her first horror novel.  As Paula told me:

"I was initially drawn to the book's rich use of language, and almost cinematic visualizations...

When I auditioned for The Haunted, I felt it begged for a storyteller approach along with a versatile interpretation of the many characters. And, even though I knew I was up against male narrators (who we all know dominate the Horror genre in audiobooks) that is the approach I took in bringing the author's words to life."

Paula was very moved by her experience and wanted to let people know more about audiobooks and narrating horror as a female.  I told her I thought her mission fit in very nicely with mine.

So today, think about helping your horror listeners at the library with the aid of Paula and me.

• Click here for all posts on the horror blog labelled audio
• Click here for the MANY, MANY more posts on RA for All which talk at length about audiobooks in general and their appeal to readers. 
• Click here to read or listen to an interview with Paula about being a narrator.
• And, finally, click here to listen to a snippet of The Haunted, read a plot summary, download a copy for yourself, and/or to read listener reviews.

For my part I think The Haunted is a solid haunted house story in the tradition of The Turn of the Screw. Paula’s narration, in my opinion, only improves the story. It is a great choice to add to your horror audio collections, especially because what Paula says above is correct, there really are no good  female narrated horror audiobooks out there, and I know there are people who would want to listen to one. 

Horror Audiobook Reviews

One of the arguments I make in Chapter 13 of the new book (available for pre-order now) is that horror works really well in audio.  In my book, I discuss this issue further and also provide a list of 10 sure bet audiobook for horror fans that are easily available at the public library.

However, this list is only a starting point. I am always on the lookout for more horror audiobook review sites. Recently I came across Audiobook Heaven, an audiobook review blog. They not only do a good job reviewing audiobooks, but also, they label each review well.  Any and all possible genres that the title could even remotely be classified as are included here.  In this time of blurring genre lines, their comprehensive labeling is much appreciated.

Use the following links to search Audiobook Heaven for yourself to find some audio tales of terror.  Happy Listening!

• Horror
• Suspense
• Supernatural
• Paranormal
• Psychological
  

What I'm Reading: Full Dark, No Stars

Every time I start to think Stephen King may finally be on the down slope of his career, he goes and writes an absolutely brilliant book that is better than 99% of what is out there.  This is one of those times.

Toward the end of 2010, Stephen King quietly released a collection of 4 novellas, called Full Dark, No Stars.  I got the audio, loaded it on to my computer, and finally got around to listening to it this month.  There are 2 narrators, a man and a woman, and each reads 2 novellas, which works out perfectly as there are 2 female protagonists and 2 male protagonists.

I will comment on the stories in order and then talk about the volume's overall appeal.

"1922," the first story reads like a confession.  We know from the start that the narrator has killed his wife years before and is alone, waiting to die as he bares his soul. The reader is less of a participant and more of observer here, as we watch Wilf kill his wife to stop her from selling the farm.  We watch as his guilt overtakes and ultimately destroys him.  There is more than just a passing nod at Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" here; actually here it is more of "The Tell-Tale Rat."  Even though we know the outcome from the start, King is able to hold us in Wilf's story; we feel the tension; we hang on his every word.  It is awesome.  I was literally tired at the end.

"Big Driver" is an unsettling take on the typical female victim story.  A cozy mystery writer is raped and left for dead, but that is just where the story begins.  What follows is a revenge fantasy, carefully plotted like a novel by the victim herself.  You will cheer her on as she goes after those responsible for her rape, but will you fell good about yourself for it?  While we are along for the ride, our protagonist is clearly losing it (she has 2 way conversations with her GPS), making us question who is really responsible for what.

"Fair Exchange" is the only novella in this collection which I would classify as pure horror.  The others are more psychological suspense.  In Fair Exchange, Dave, is in midlife and dying of cancer.  Along an access road he meets Mr Elvid (rearrange the letters).  The two make a fair exchange, no souls are sold here, and our protagonist trades his bad fortune in for his best friend's good fortune.  This is a dark and bleak story.  There is no redemption; things only go from bad to worse.  I think King fans may be shocked by this one.  Personally, I loved it.

In "A Good Marriage" Darcy Anderson discovers that her "perfect" husband Bob is a serial killer.  How she handles this knowledge is shocking, chilling, and to quote another character at the end of the story, "the right thing." I honestly did not know how to feel at the end of this story.  From someone who reads a lot of macabre stuff, that is a compliment.

In all of these stories, the protagonists make immoral, even consciously evil choices, but in every single story, they also justify their decisions.  The scariest thing is, that King gets the reader to go along.  You are disgusted in yourself that you actually think, if even for a second, that the death and destruction these protagonists knowingly enact is okay.  But yet, we keep reading...and love it.

These are visceral stories that really probe into the dark side of humanity.  King is asking the reader to look at the darkest corners of ourselves.  For example, when Mr. Elvid asks Dave who he hates, after thinking it over Dave knows the answer...his best friend.  He hates his best friend enough to ruin this friend's life in order to save his own.  Can't really get much darker than that.

King is using Full Dark, No Stars to help draw attention to short fiction.  He has said that he wants to introduce more people to the format, so he is doing it the best way he can, by using his best-seller status to get people to read his short fiction.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Psychological; Novellas; Dark Side of Humanity.

Readalikes:  In honor of King's desire to get more people to read short fiction, I will only suggest readalikes that are short fiction.

King's son, Joe Hill, has a great story collection called 20th Century Ghosts.  These stories are also a mix of  horror and  psychological suspense, and they also deeply probe the dark side of humanity for plot.

These Children Who Come at You with Knives, and Other Fairy Tales: Stories by Jim Knipfel takes a very negative view on humanity in its dark take on fairy tales.  Click here to see my full report on this collection.

Joyce Carol Oates is the master of short, dark fiction.  Anything by her would be a great readalike here.  Her most recent collection is also from the last quarter of 2010.  Try Sourland: Stories.

My final short story readalike suggestion is a collection by John Langan, and the title says it all, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters.