Dark Discoveries

Terror of Octobernomicon!
Golden Goblin Press announces the Kickstarter campaign for a new set of original scenarios for the Call of Cthulhu^® Role-Playing Game from aspiring new authors. Among the stretch goals is a fiction anthology, titled Dark Discoveries, edited by Brian M. Sammons & Oscar Rios. This will feature new stories by Glynn Owen Barrass, Peter Rawlik, Edward Morris, Andi Newton, Joshua M. Reynolds, and... me. It’s a brand-new tale — completed only last week — titled “The Devil Flies in Strix.” Set in the Old West, the story showcases one of the creatures created for the RPG. No giving away the secrets here.... Not yet!

The cover has been designed, and here is a mockup provided by Golden Goblin Press. The final art will be in color.

Visit the Kickstarter page for the project here.

Discoveries: Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy

Received today: my contributor copy of the paperback edition of Discoveries: Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy from Dark Regions Press. This one features my pleasantly deviant little horror tale "Megan," which originally appeared in the mini-anthology Darker Discoveries in 2008. The new anthology, edited by James R. Beach and Jason V Brock, features stories from various Dark Discoveries Press projects, including the magazine, the newsletter, and the anthologies NW Horrors and Darker Discoveries.

Here, we also have works by Paul Bens Jr., Ray Bradbury, Jason V Brock, Kealan Patrick Burke, Elizabeth Engstrom, Paul Finch, Bill Gauthier, Cody Goodfellow, Gerard Houarner, Richard Laymon, Tim Lebbon, John R. Little, Nick Mamatas, Brett McBean, Michael McBride, James Newman, William F. Nolan, Gene O’Neill, Weston Ochse, Wilum H. Pugmire, David A. Riley, Michelle Scalise, John Shirley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Thomas, Tim Waggoner, and Matthew Warner.

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Discoveries: Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy is currently available in ebook and trade paperback; Dark Regions Press will release a deluxe, signed hardcover edition later this year. You can check it out at Dark Regions or at Amazon.com (ebook here or paperback here).

Now Featured at Dark Regions

I am, for the moment, the featured author at Dark Regions Press, publisher of my short fiction collections Other Gods (2008) and The Gaki (2012) as well as the anthologies Christmas Horror, World War Cthulhu, and Discoveries: Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy, which feature my stories "Red Rage," "The Game Changers," and "Megan," respectively. All are available in trade paperback editions, some as hardbacks and e-books. Look at those covers right there. Just look at them! I'm telling you, hie thee over yonder to Dark Regions right now, take a look, and treat yourself to a perfectly frightful smorgasbord. I know you need one. Don't we all?

Visit here: Stephen Mark Rainey at Dark Regions Press

"I finished the book feeling as if I had been processed through the kaleidoscopic imagination of a born storyteller. Other Gods is a superb example of what this sort of long-term collection is good for: It plainly highlights the author's long-running thematic obsessions and shows him circling back to revisit and reshape the concepts, tropes, and emotions that inspire him."

—Matt Cardin, Dead Reckonings #4

Dark Discoveries, Dark Shadows, Dark Decades

The ever-appealing Dark Discoveries magazine, issue #24, has hit the streets, featuring my extensive retrospective look at Dark Shadows, "Dark Shadows, Dark Decades," which kept me quite busy for a couple of weeks back in late May/early June ("Its Business Time"). The article is, per DD's usual standards, nicely presented. If you were a Dark Shadows fan, you'll probably find it entertaining; if you weren't, perhaps you'll learn something fun. There's also a nice interview with Dark Shadows star Kathryn Leigh Scott, lots of news and reviews, fiction by David Morrell, Gene O'Neill, William F. Nolan, Brian Sammons, and much more. Check it out here: Dark Discoveries #24