Mister October

by Christopher Golden

  Graham Joyce, a winner of the O. Henry Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award, lives in Leicester, England, with his family. His books include The Silent Land, Smoking Poppy, Indigo (a New York Times Notable Book of 2000), The Tooth Fairy (a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998), and Requiem, among others.

  Matthew Costello has written and designed dozens of best-selling games including the critically acclaimed The 7th Guest, Doom 3, Rage and Pirates of the Caribbean. His novel Beneath Still Waters was filmed by Lionsgate. His recent novel, Vacation, was a 2011 release from St. Martin’s Press, and the sequel, Home, was published this past October. Next year brings Star Road, co-authored with Rick Hautala.

  __________“What is it like to be in an anthology that you could never, ever imagine? Mr. October (indeed!) gone? Unbelievable. But at least we have this massive and rich effort thanks to his good friend Chris Golden, a true memorial and honor from peers that —trust me! —old Rick would have just loved…."

  Michael Marshall Smith has published three novels, Only Forward, Spares, and One of Us, and is the only person to win the British Fantasy Award for best short story four times. Writing as Michael Marshall, he is also a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling thriller writer. His most recent novel is We Are Here.

  __________Our genre—heck, any genre—shines most brightly through people like Rick, was not just a great writer, but great at making others feel included and welcome.

  Chet Williamson is the author of over two dozen books, most in the field of horror and suspense, and over a hundred short stories which have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines such as The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His backlist is available in ebook format through Crossroad Press and Amazon, as are his two newest novels, Hunters and Defenders of the Faith. An actor, he has narrated dozens of audiobooks for Audible.com, including several of his own, as well as the works of Clive Barker, Jack Ketchum, Michael Moorcock, and others.

  __________I first met Rick at our universally-beloved NECON, and Laurie and I both fell in love with his humorous, self-effacing manner which earned him the sobriquet of "The Eeyore of NECON." And later we fell just as hard for Holly, who made his final years so happy. I picked "Figures in Rain" for this volume because it's a ghost story (and Rick loved ghost stories), and is about not only the survival of life after death, but of love after death. I can't think of any concept that better honors Rick Hautala. His love for people and their love for him will live for a long time. Calm seas and prosperous voyage, my friend....

  Elizabeth Massie is a two-time Bram Stoker Award- and Scribe Award-winning author of novels, short fiction, media tie-ins, and social studies/science educational materials for the global market. She lives in Virginia with illustrator Cortney Skinner, and in her spare time knits, manages Hand to Hand Vision (through Facebook), and tracks down geocaches.

  __________Rick was one of my best friends in the horror field. Funny, self-deprecating, honest, and just plain adorable; a talented nut in a pair of flip flops. It was always more fun with Rick was around, and he never held back a kind word when there was one to share. I absolutely loved Rick Hautala.

  Peter Crowther is the recipient of numerous awards for his writing, his editing, and, as publisher, for the hugely successful PS Publishing (now including the Stanza Press poetry subsidiary and PS Artbooks, a specialist imprint dedicated to the comics field). As well as being widely translated, his stories have been adapted for TV on both sides of the Atlantic and collected in The Longest Single Note, Lonesome Roads, Songs of Leaving, Cold Comforts, The Spaces Between the Lines, The Land at the End of the Working Day and the upcoming Jewels In The Dust. He is the co-author (with James Lovegrove) of Escardy Gap and The Hand That Feeds, and author of the Forever Twilight SF/horror cycle and By Wizard Oak. Pete lives and works (and still reads a lot of comicbooks and buys far too many CDs!) with his wife and PS business partner, Nicky on the Yorkshire coast of England. He is currently writing a sequence of novelettes set against a background of alien invasion and the implosion of the multiverse.

  __________Rick and I didn’t get to meet up too often—a couple of World Fantasy Conventions maybe, and NeCon (of course)—but he was someone Nicky and I always looked forward to spending time with (particularly at the NeCon dart-throwing Championship). We first ‘met up’ via Moonbog (thanks to Stephen King’s cover-puff—see, never let anyone tell you that blurbs aren’t worth a damn) and we corresponded pretty regularly after that, with me ending up chasing him for stories for various anthologies I was doing (plus the wonderful Reunion novella he wrote for PS). When Chris asked for a story I didn’t hesitate in picking ‘Thoughtful Breaths’. It’s pretty much everything I want to say about that dreadful time when friends and lovers have to part. Happy trails, fella!

  Matti Hautala lives in Austin, Texas with his fiancée Aly Dixon and their pup Tengo. Matti is an intake counselor at a mental health clinic in Texas but he’s always enjoyed reading and writing in his spare time (must be a genetic thing). Matti’s story “Abduction,” co-written with his father and his brother Jesse, can be found in Rick Hautala’s short-story collection Occasional Demons.

  __________The support and love for my father that came from the writing community has been a great lesson in karma. My pops had me convinced he was an introvert, so it’s been surprising to see that he kept up regular correspondences with so many students, fans, and new writers. My dad gave 200% of himself to everything he did, whether it was writing, teaching, mentoring, being a father or just fully investing himself in each moment he spent with you. Thank you all for giving 200% back. Whenever Rick talked about death he would say “I think I’ll just let the mystery be,” quoting an Iris Dement song. It’s no mystery to me now how Rick will live on—he lived his life in books and he’s still there.

  Mark Morris became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further thirteen novels, among which are Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Mr Bad Face, Fiddleback and Nowhere Near An Angel. His short stories, novellas, articles, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly-acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror-movie essays by genre luminaries. Forthcoming work includes a Hellboy novel entitled The All-Seeing Eye and another book in the immensely popular Doctor Who range, published by BBC Books in the UK.

  Richard Chizmar is the founder and publisher/editor of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than a dozen anthologies, including The Best of Cemetery Dance, Night Visions 10, October Dreams, and the Shivers series. Chizmar’s fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories.

  __________I chose "Blood Brothers" because it was always one of Rick's favorites. In fact, he and I had planned to adapt it into a short script at some point. Rick really understood this type of story about dark love and darker choices.

  Stephen R. Bissette, a pioneer graduate of the Joe Kubert School, currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies and is renowned for Swamp Thing, Taboo (launching From Hell and Lost Girls), '1963,' Tyrant®, co-creating John Constantine, and creating the world’s second ‘24-Hour Comic’ (invented by Scott McCloud for Bissette). He writes, illustrates, and has co-authored many books; his latest include Teen Angels & New Mutants (2011), the short story “Copper” in The New Dead (2010), and illustrating The Vermont Monster Guide (2009). Bissette is currently completing S.R. Bissette’s How to Make a Monster (Watson-Guptill/Random House) for 2014 publication.

  __________My contributions, "Inn Cleaning" and the "Little Brothers" sketches, are here because (1) Rick loved ghost stories, and this is my favorite of the few ghost stories I've scribed; (2) Rick always thought my character Cardinal Syn was creepy, and that's Syn cleaning the inn
s; and (3) the "Little Brothers" is explained in my intro for those sketches.

  Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than a dozen novels, including Edge of Dark Water, the Edgar Award-winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

  Yvonne Navarro lives in southern Arizona and works on historic Fort Huachuca. She’s had twenty-two novels published so far, including award-winning solo novels and media tie-ins, plus a whole bunch of short stories. Her latest adventure is a quarterly column called “Double X Chromosome” in Dark Discoveries magazine. www.yvonnenavarro.com

  __________I met Rick at the very first NeCon I attended decades ago, and his smile never dimmed in all the years I knew him. Now, from somewhere in the Great Writers' Beyond, Rick's smile sends sunshine down on all of us.

  José R. Nieto is the co-author (with Keith DeCandido) of Spider-Man: Venom's Wrath. His short stories have been published in David Hartwell’s Christmas Magic, the Ultimate Supervillains anthology, and the literary magazine Washington Square. José is also an award-winning graphic designer and is currently senior creative at Argus Communications in Boston.

  Duane Swierczynski is the author of several crime thrillers and also writes the X-Men spinoff Cable and Immortal Iron Fist for Marvel Comics. His latest novels include Expiration Date; Level 26, co-written with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuicker; and Severance Package, which has been optioned by Lionsgate films. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and children.

  Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of the acclaimed Cedar Hill Cycle, which includes the novels In Silent Graves, Coffin County, and A Cracked and Broken Path. His most recent collection, Rose of Sharon, was released this fall. Gary’s work has been honored with six Bram Stoker Awards. Visit him online at www.garybraunbeck.com

  Craig Shaw Gardner served as president of HWA at the same time that Rick Hauaula served as V.P., and they never once stopped speaking to each other. Craig has also written bunches of short stories and dozens of novels. You can find out more about them at craigshawgardner.com.

  __________I got the idea for "Overnight Guest" while staying in a very rustic motel on the coast of Maine. When asked to submit a story to this anthology, the creepy story about Maine seemed the proper choice.

  Jack M. Haringa is the co-founder of Dead Reckonings, a review journal of horror and the dark fantastic. His stories and essay have been published by Hippocampus Press, Prime, Necro Publications, and St. Martin’s. He has been on the board of advisors for the Shirley Jackson Awards since their inception and served as a juror for the 2012 and 2013 awards. When not writing, he teaches English at an independent school in central Massachusetts.

  __________Mention of Rick's work always brings to mind certain tropes at which he excelled: the ambiguity of ghostly encounters; the complex dynamics of domestic life; and the importance of a sense of place, of landscape and locale that informs so many of his novels. I was lucky enough to count Rick as a friend, and I cherish the memories of discussing writing and literature with him at conventions and dinners over the fifteen years that I knew him. His humanity, his humor, and his generosity are reflected in many of his protagonists, but those qualities—along with his determined humility—shone so much brighter in the man himself. I chose "Springfield Repeater" because it attempts to use those elements that I found most powerful in Rick's work, though I know I employed them far less expertly than Rick would have done.

  Tom Piccirilli is the author of The Last Kind Words, Shadow Season, The Cold Spot, The Coldest Mile, A Choir of Ill Children, and other titles. He has won two International Thriller Writers Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire. A native of Long Island, New York, he lives in Colorado.

  __________I chose this story "Conjurer" because it was filled with supernatural/occult matters and atmosphere reminiscent of Rick's work.

  F. Paul Wilson is the award-winning, NY Times bestselling author of fifty books and many short stories spanning horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything between. More than nine million copies of his books are in print in the US and his work has been translated into twenty-four foreign languages. He also has written for the stage, screen, and interactive media. Cold City and Dark City feature his urban mercenary, Repairman Jack. His latest is The Proteus Cure, a disturbing medical thriller written with Tracy Carbone. Paul resides at the Jersey Shore.

  http://www.repairmanjack.com.

  __________This story was born one day as I was thumbing through the Rolling Stone Rock Almanac and noted all the deaths, injuries, drop-outs, and plain bad luck that had befallen every single major name in rock ’n’ roll during a two-year period in the late fifties. They had dropped like the proverbial flies. Most people would say, "Isn't that something," and read on.

  I, of course, saw a hideous conspiracy.

  I chose this one for the anthology because Rick and I both loved old rock ’n’ roll, and I believe he loved a good conspiracy theory more than I. It seems a perfect match.

  Jonathan Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The King of Plagues, The Dragon Factory, Ghost Road Blues and Rot & Ruin, among others. He also wrote the novelization of the movie The Wolfman. His work for Marvel Comics includes Captain America, Punisher, Wolverine, DoomWar, Marvel Zombie Return and Black Panther. He has been inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

  John M. McIlveen is...

  __________I will always remember and —more so —miss Rick’s kindness, loyalty, and sense of humor, and how huge a role this humble and kind man played in my life in our nearly thirty years of friendship. I first called Rick in late 1984 when I was a mere 22 years-old. I was fairly new to book collecting and brand new to author stalking–Rick was my first. I had read Rick’s first two novels Moondeath and Moonbog, and loved them. Garnering the nerviness we book addicts have, I looked up Rick’s number and called him. I figured, worst-case he’d see me for the stalker I was and hang up, but he was pleasant, funny, very humble, and even suggested we meet for lunch at some point. I agreed, figuring he’d forget me as soon as we hung up, but he called back a couple of weeks later saying he was going to be in southern New Hampshire and that we should get together, which we did. The first time I met Rick in person he was carrying a huge manuscript for his forthcoming novel Nightstone, which he inscribed to me. This was Rick. I still have the manuscript… always will.

  I owe a lot to Rick. If not for him I may have never attended a little convention called Necon. Through him I met some of my dearest friends, Christopher Golden, James A. Moore, Bob, Mary, Dan Booth, Sara Calia, Matt Bechtel, Jack Ketchum… the list is quite long. Though he may be gone, Rick will live on in the hearts of so many.

  Weston Ochse is the author of Seal Team 666 and many other novels. He won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for short fiction. He is a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer and is currently an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

  Morbideus W. Goodell is an artist and illustrator living in Maine with his wife and two children. Morbideus and his wife, Dee, also own and run Postmortem Productions of Maine, selling t-shirts, Morbideus’s artwork, and Dee’s photography.