Women In Horror Month: Offerings From Up and Coming Publisher-- Bloodshot Books

I am doing double duty with this post as I am going to highlight three female horror authors you need to know and also alert you to their up and coming micro horror publisher who is worth your attention and time.

I recently worked on a project for the HWA with Pete Kahle, author and owner/editor of Bloodshot Books. Before I go into Pete’s work in the horror field, I do have a funny library related story. I started working with Pete exactly a year ago. Then in March I was in MA for an event and saw my colleague Anna Popp from Mass Library System. I was telling her about some HWA stuff and she started telling me about a childhood friend who was a horror writer and could she pass my name on to him. I said yes.

A few days later I got an email from Pete; a “small world, huh?” email. It really is.

Anyway, our project had nothing to do with him and his books, but after we completed working together, I started talking to him about that part of his life. And I was surprised at how quickly Pete has built Bloodshot Books into a solid publisher of quality horror titles, ones that are worth your library’s dollars.

Exhibit 1, the best horror debut title I read last year was Haven by Tom Deady. Well, Bloodshot Books has just published his follow-up Eternal Darkness. You should go order it right now.

But Exhibit 2 has to do with Women in Horror Month. Bloodshot Books is proud to promote these three awesome titles by female authors that they will be publishing in 2017:

THE BREEZE HORROR by Candace Caponegro (March/April-ish)  It's a reprint of a seriously gory zombie novel from the 80s.  This is one of the earliest examples of sentient zombies that have become so popular in the 21st Century.

ABODE by Morgan Sylvia (Summer) - This is Morgan's debut novel, a story of a haunting that stretches over decades. Prior to this, she has been known for her poetry and short stories.  You can read more about her at https://morgansylvia.wordpress.com/

WHITE DEATH by Christine Morgan (October) - It's set in the 19th century and involves a Native American creature called a wanageeska. Christine's specialty, in my opinion, is historical horror.  She contributed a short story of Meso-American mythology to my first anthology, NOT YOUR AVERAGE MONSTER, and she has a collection of Viking stories called THE RAVEN'S TABLE.  If you haven't read her novel MURDER GIRLS, I highly recommend it. 

What I love about this list is that is spans the full range of horror’s appeal to readers and a full range of writers- from old to brand new to becoming established. Keep an eye out for these books and for everything Pete is publishing over at Bloodshot Books.

I have added Bloodshot Books to my archive of the “Best Independent Horror Publishers for Libraries." This is a selective list. I work very hard to not only make sure that these publishers put out a consistent, high quality product, but also that they fairly compensate their writers for their work. I actively research each on both of those fronts, so you can feel confident about buying from them.

I take my job as your window into the world of horror books very seriously. All I ask is that you consider collecting titles that are worth your horror fan’s time from responsible publishers.