Witches & Witchcraft for Halloween!

My contributor copy of the new anthology, Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays, from Hippocampus Press, is in the house! Edited by Katherine Kerestman and S.T. Joshi, this lovely volume features my story "Foragers," a frightful tale of the American Revolutionary War, and the horrors that a company of General Cornwallis's men encounter while marching toward the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

Witches and Witchcraft also features contemporary works by Ramsey Campbell, Debra K. Every, Wade German, Simon MacCulloch, Darrell Schweitzer, John Shirley, and others, plus classic stories and essays by L. Frank Baum, Frank Belknap, Long, Cotton Mather, William Shakespeare, Clark Ashton Smith, and many more.

 

The genesis of "Foragers" comes from a local legend, which I used as the backstory for a few of my geocaches in Greensboro, NC...except that it's not really a legend. It was a quick bit of fiction about a witch named Lillian Gadwick that I came up with to hopefully enrich the experience of hunting geocaches in the woods at night. This faux legend was apparently convincing enough to lead some geocachers to believe it was actually based on local folklore, so when I was invited to contribute a story to Witches and Witchcraft, I decided to re-imagine and embellish the tale.

 

I think it worked.

You can check out the original story of Lillian Gadwick in the cache description at Geocaching.com here.

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Witches and Witchcraft at Hippocampus Press

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Distant Early Warning: Shunned Houses, Coming in October

TO BE RELEASED ON OCTOBER 1, 2024: The new anthology, Shunned Houses, edited by S.T. Joshi & Katherine Kerestman, published by WordCrafts Press. This one features my short story, "The House at Black Tooth Pond," along with over three dozen tales by both classic and contemporary authors.

The hardcover and Kindle editions of the book are already available for pre-order at Amazon.com; the trade paperback will be available on release day.

At Necronomicon-Providence a couple of weeks ago, co-editor Kat Kerestman provided me with contributor copies of both the hardback and paperback editions, and I can verify that this is an absolutely gorgeous volume with an incredible table of contents. The antho includes stories and poems by Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Ramsey Campbell, Margaret Curtis, Maxwell I. Gold, William Hope Hodgson, Frank Belknap Long, Lori R. Lopez, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Lilla Price Savino, Ann K. Schwader, John Shirley, and many more.

For good measure, I'll offer you the opening passage of my story, "The House at Black Tooth Pond," here:

# # #

By combining a high-pitched vocalization with a shrill, warbling whistle, my brother could mimic the cries of the whippoorwills that lurked in the nighttime woods around Black Tooth Pond, convincingly enough that only a trained ear could discern the difference.

I knew the difference.

The cry, mournful and eerie, now wafted from the darkness outside my bedroom window. I knew that sound, and it made me quail.

It wasn’t a whippoorwill’s song, but my brother’s.

My brother was dead.

# # #

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Preorder Shunned Houses at Amazon.com

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New Novel Complete — The House at Black Tooth Pond

After long, hard work for the past six months, I have finished my latest novel, The House at Black Tooth Pond. It's based on a story of the same title, which will be appearing in the anthology, Shunned Houses, edited by Katherine Kerestman & S.T. Joshi, this coming August (the launch is set for NecronomiCon 2024, in Providence, RI, which I'm planning to attend). Like many of my works of fiction, the novel is set in my fictitious version of Martinsville and Henry County, VA, called Aiken Mill and Sylvan County respectively. While the novel is not a direct sequel to any of my earlier works, it does feature recurring settings and characters from The Lebo Coven, Fugue Devil: Resurgence, and many others.

Here's an excerpt from the book I posted a while back: "Work-in-Progress Excerpt: The House at Black Tooth Pond"

The setting of the novel (and the original story), is based on a couple of places that actually exist in this area. The painting above, by friend and fine artist Charles Hill, is one he did based on some of our old visits out to the place. The drawing below is one that I did, back around 1990, which depicts an old abandoned house my brother and I discovered in the woods of Henry County way back when. In the novel, the two settings are combined to create what I think is an exceptionally creepy location at which terrifying events do happen, which I hope will scare the pants of of ye.

More news about the book's publication will follow at the earliest possibility. For more information on "Black Tooth Pond," the real location, check this out: "Black Tooth Pond"

The Weird Cat Is in the House!

Droolie is pleased to announce that our contributor copies of The Weird Cat are in the house! Edited by Katherine Kerestman and S.T. Joshi, it features my story, “Nimbus,” along with a host of contemporary authors as well as masters from the past. The official release date is October 18 from WordCrafts Press. The hardback and ebook editions are now available for pre-order from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com; trade paperback coming soon.

Complete list of authors in The Weird Cat:
• Ambrose Bierce • Algernon Blackwood • William Blake • Adam Bolivar • Ramsey Campbell • Lewis Carroll • Frank Coffman • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle • Lord Dunsany • Jason C. Eckhardt • Alan Dean Foster • Brandon R. Grafius • Lafcadio Hearn • Katherine Kerestman • Caitlin R. Kiernan • Rudyard Kipling • Tony LaMalfa • Lori R. Lopez • H.P. Lovecraft • E. Nesbit • Elliott O'Donnell • Manuel Perez-Campos • Michael Potts • Stephen Mark Rainey • Rainer Maria Rilke • Sax Rohmer • Hank Schwaeble • Darrell Schweitzer • Robert W. Service • M.P. Shiel • Christina Sng • Anna Taborska • Mary Turzillo • M.F. Webb • W.B. Yeats • Cover art by Mike Parks 

Fugue Devil: Resurgence: A Breath of Fresh, Foul, Fetid Air

With the kind permission of author Katherine Kerestman (www.creepycatlair.com), I'm posting her review of Fugue Devil: Resurgence in its entirety, which prompted an uncharacteristically wide smile from the old dude.

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"Reading Stephen Mark Rainey's Fugue Devil: Resurgence (Black Raven Books, 2022) was a breath of fresh (foul? fetid?) air for this voracious reader of dark literature. I had approached this new collection of horror stories hoping for an above-average sophistication of style, a deliciously morbid atmosphere, and some enthralling plots — and what I found exceeded my wishes. Rather than relying on the usual blending of graphic violence and the cheap thrills of gore with supernatural elements, Fugue Devil: Resurgence faces the unutterable horror of human existence in a malevolent universe, Rainey's compelling style drawing the readers into the gaping jowls of a dismal world.

"Fugue Devil: Resurgence is an outstanding work, in that it achieves this outcome with a singularity of grace and style. Throughout the collection, a sustained dread of our most evil imagined outcomes is contrasted with Rainey's melodic prose. In 'Threnody,' you can almost hear the strains of the cosmic music beyond the spheres, which conjures horrific beings. I found myself breathless as I read 'Masque of the Queen' — I had literally been holding my breath, unawares — a tale which takes place in a deadly dimension of mystical beauty, strange gods, and weird planets. 'Fugue Devil' left me physically numb with fear. 'Hell’s Hollow' carried me into a world of rural woodland terror.

"Tinting a Lovecraftian world view with a psychedelic patina, Fugue Devil: Resurgence is the most original volume of horror stories I have read in a long time. The alluring quality of its description magnifies the horror of the dark and rapacious void it depicts. I read most of it in one sitting, unable to put it down."

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Order Fugue Devil: Resurgence here.

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