October 1: Two New Anthology Releases

Two beautiful new horror anthologies, both releasing on October 1, each containing one of my terror tales!

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Hospital of Haunts, from Watertower Hill Publishing, edited by Heather Daughrity

23 Wards. 23 Ghosts.
23 Stories.
Features my story, "Insensate." Authors include Christy Aldridge, Simon Bleaken, Bridget D. Brave, Brooklyn Ann Butler, Lexx Christian, Rebecca Cuthbert, Blaine Daigle, Heather Daughrity, Jason Daughrity, Joe DeRouen, John Durgin, Stephanie Ellis, Joshua Loyd Fox, Jennifer Anne Gordon, Gage Greenwood, Caleb Jones, Marie Lanza, Jeani Rector, Susan H. Roddey, Cat Scully, Westley Smith, and Mer Whinery

Hospital of Haunts at Amazon.com

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Shunned Houses from WordCrafts Press, edited by Katherine Kerestman & S.T. Joshi
An Anthology of Weird Stories, Unspeakable Poems, and Impious Essays.

Features my story, "The House at Black Tooth Pond." Authors include Taylor Coleridge, William Hope Hodgson, Cristel Hastings, Frank Coffman, A.E.W. Mason, Edgar Allan Poe, John Shirley, Algernon Blackwood, Kyla Lee Ward, Anna Taborska, H.P. Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell, Ian Futter, G.P.R. James, Rebecca Fraser, Ambrose Bierce, D.L. Myers, Tom Fletcher, Michael Potts, John Greenleaf Whittier, Adam Bolivar, Jonathan Thomas, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Michael Aronovitz, Robert Frost, H.A. Manhood, Ann K. Schwader, Jacob Moon, Katherine Kerestman, Guy de Maupassant, Im Bang, D.J. Tyrer, W.W. Jacobs, Margaret Curtis, Frank Belknap Long, Ngo Binh Anh Khoa, Jessie Adelaide Middleton, Lilla Price Savino, Tony LaMalfa, Cristel Hastings, Lori R. Lopez, Maxwell I. Gold

Shunned Houses at Amazon.com

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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:

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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"