Summer Scares Resources

Click here to immediately access the Summer Scares Resource page so that you can add some professionally vetted horror titles into your reading suggestions and fiction collections for all age levels.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Upcoming Book About Horror and its Appeal-- Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern

Today I have a press release about an upcoming book that is great for all public library collections AND I wrote the afterward. Specifically my afterward is about the importance of libraries in cultivating horror collections both the literature and the books about horror. It's titled, "Guardians of the Damned: Horror Scholarship and the Library." That afterward will not be reprinted here on the blog. It is ONLY in the book. 

Here are all the details via the Horror Writers Association press release:




Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announces a new release in the Fall 2019 from McFarland Books.

Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modernism: Critical Essays.

Click here to pre-order


These essays were initially presented at Ann Radcliffe Academic Conferences during StokerCon® events. All scholars and academics were invited to submit presentation abstracts related to Horror Studies for consideration.

The book is edited by Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak, with a Foreword by Lisa Morton, six-time Bram Stoker award-winning author and former President of HWA, and an Afterword by Becky Spratford. From the back cover:
“This collection of new essays explores a gamut of topics ranging from historic works such as Ann Radcliffe’s Gaston de Blondeville to contemporary novels, including Max Brooks’ World War Z, as well as essays on weird fiction, Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Australian-Indigenous monster mythology, and horror in picture books for young children.”
The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conferences have been a tremendous success, with many presentations covering a wide range of Horror studies. The co-chairs, Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak, are looking for completed research or works-in-progress: art, cinema, comics, literature, music, poetry, television, and video games.

The next conference will be held during StokerCon® 2020 at the Royal and Grand Hotels in Scarborough, United Kingdom.

Michele Britany is an independent popular culture scholar. She is the editor of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre, and James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy, both published by McFarland Books. Michele is the book review editor for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, and she is the co-chair of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference held in tandem with the Horror Writers Association’s annual conference, StokerCon®. In addition, she is the editorial manager and contributing writer for Fanbase Press, and she is a regular guest on the “Voice of Olympus” podcast series. She has presented at the SWPACA annual conference and at Wondercon Anaheim as part of the Comic Arts Conference series. Michele often moderates panels at conventions held in Southern California where she resides.

Nicholas Diak is the editor of The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Scandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s (McFarland Books). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from DeVry University. Later, he returned to school at the University of Washington (Tacoma) and earned a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, where he did his thesis on Italian genre director, Antonio Margheriti and his film Castle of Blood. Currently, he resides in Orange, CA and has been working to establish himself as a scholar in different fields of pop culture, including Italian genre films, post-industrial music, synthwave music and outrun culture, and H. P. Lovecraft studies. He has contributed essays, chapters, and reviews to various academic anthology and pop culture websites.

Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and award-winning prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening”. She is the author of four novels and more than 130 short stories, a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, and a world-class Halloween expert. She co-edited (with Ellen Datlow) the anthology Haunted Nights; other recent releases include Ghosts: A Haunted History and the collection The Samhanach and other Halloween Treats. Lisa lives in Los Angeles.

Becky Spratford is a Readers’ Advisor in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All, and is on the Steering Committee of the Adult Reading Round Table. She is under contract to provide content for EBSCO’s NoveList database and writes reviews for Booklist. Becky is also known for her work with horror readers as the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition [ALA Editions, 2012] and is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association. You can follow Becky on Twitter @RAforAll.

The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is part of HWA’s Outreach Program. Membership to the HWA is not required to submit or present. If interested in applying to the Horror Writer’s Association as an academic member, please see www.horror.org/about/

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Updates to Summer Scares Resources

Great news, we have added even more resources to help you to confidently suggest horror to all age groups this summer. In general you should be using the Summer Scares Resource and FAQ page to find the titles, suggested reading lists, and details about how you can use our program to get more scary titles into more hungry readers' hands.

But here are the most recent updates.

First we have completed the podcast series and now there is an episode for each age level of titles. Each episode provides a discussion of each title with a sample book talk on how to hand sell it to patrons and information about the appeal of horror for adults, teens, and kids. The final episode in particular, with Kiera Parrott, has in depth information about how to work with the parents of middle grade readers when suggesting horror.

Here are all of the links from the Summer Scares Resources page pertaining to our podcasting partners.
In the author interview section, another Summer Scares author, Micol Ostow, has answered Grady Hendrix's interview questions here.

Also as part of Librarians' Day at StokerCon 2019 we had three Summer Scares authors join us on a panel where they talked about their work, their inspiration, and titles that they wish more people would read. The link to the notes from that specific panel are here. But you can also click here for the resource sheet for the entire Librarians' Day slate of programs.

That's what is new, but there is so much more for you to use at your library today, tomorrow, and all year long. Just click here for one-stop shopping.

Coming soon we will have official Summer Scares readalikes-- 3 readalike titles for each of the 9 titles. This means you will have even more horror to confidently suggest at every age level/

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

StokerCon Librarians' Day Resource Sheet Now Available for All

On Friday May 10th I hosted Librarians' Day at StokerCon in Grand Rapids Michigan.

For all, whether you were in attendance or not, I created this resource sheet.

You can click here to access it.

I would also like to thank our sponsors: LibraryReads and NoveList

But I wanted to leave a comment here that didn't make the resource sheet. During the Summer Scares panel Grady Hendrix, friend to libraries everywhere and our Summer Scares celebrity spokesperson shared a story about his childhood librarian, who had recently died. There was a book that little Grady loved and checked out every time he came to the library. But this book was out of print and the librarian was worried that it would be lost one day or it wouldn't be there when Grady came in or it would break, so she scoured the used book outlets [much harder without the internet] and made sure there was a copy behind the desk always, just for Grady. He was tearing up as he told the story and then he told the group of library workers that we have no idea how much we do. We are superheroes. We are there to take care of people's souls. We see the best part in everyone and people need that.

Thank you Grady, even if you did make everyone cry.

Now click here for all the details and resources.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

This is Horror Awards Announced



Today the This is Horror Awards in 8 categories were announced. You can always find the current and past award winners in my Horror Awards Index. Also the post for this year's award winners has easy links to get to all past winners [at the end of the post].

These awards are voted on by the public and interestingly, this year's novel winner and runner up won the Bram Stoker Awards for First Novel and Novel respectively this past weekend. So, the professional writers and the fans are clearly on the same page. That is very nice to see.

Below I have reposted the Novel category announcement, but click through to read them all including 2 podcast categories. And of course, don't forget the importance of Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool.


The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn KisteNovel of the Year

“This news is such a surprise and such an honor. Thank you so much to everyone who’s read and supported The Rust Maidens. It means the world to me. Thank you to my fellow nominees for being the kind of writers that inspire all of us, day after day. And incredible thanks to This Is Horror. Michael, Bob and their fantastic team of writers do so much for the genre, and I can’t express my gratitude enough for all they’ve done over the years. Congrats to all the nominees and winners this year, and I can’t wait to see all the great new horror that 2019 has in store for us!”
—Gwendolyn Kiste, author of The Rust Maidens
THIS IS HORROR NOVEL OF THE YEAR

Monday, May 13, 2019

StokerCon Notes Info and Stoker Awards Recap

I am freshly back from Stoker Con and I will have a much longer post here on the blog about everything, all of the details, and information you can use to help patrons right now. I went to many panels and took copious notes.

I also ran Librarians' Day and I have started the resource sheet here. I am still adding to it, including notes from the presentations themselves.  I will make sure that in the next 7-10 days everything is clearly posted and accessible through a post and in my various indexes here on the horror blog.

The Bram Stoker Awards were also announced on Saturday night. Here is the direct link to the announcement of the winners and here is the link to the RA for All post about the awards and using them as a RA tool.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

New Reviews Added and Summer Scares FAQ Update

The following books have been added to the Horror Review Index

Another episode of the Ladies of the Fright covering Summer Scares went live recently. It was added to the FAQ page also.