by Del Howison
RAY BRADBURY—The author of more than thirty books, Ray Bradbury is one of the most celebrated writers of our time. Among his best-known works are Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He has written for the theater and the cinema, including the screenplay for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2000, Ray Bradbury was honored by the National Book Foundation with a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American letters. Among his most recent books are Let’s All Kill Constance and From the Dust Returned, which was selected as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. HarperCollins published Bradbury Stories, a new collection of one hundred of his short stories, in September 2003, and a short story collection, The Cat’s Pajamas, in 2004. He lives in Los Angeles.
RAMSEY CAMPBELL—The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer.” He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association. Among his novels (most from Tor) are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, and The Overnight. Forthcoming are Secret Stories and Spanked by Nuns. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things, and Told by the Dead, and his nonfiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. His novels The Nameless and Pact of the Fathers have been filmed in Spain. Ramsey Campbell lives on Merseyside with his wife, Jenny. He reviews films and DVDs weekly for BBC Radio Merseyside. His pleasures include classical music, good food and wine, and whatever’s in that pipe. His Web site is at www.ramseycampbell.com.
JOHN FARRIS—The 2002 Horror Writer’s Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Farris is the author of numerous bestsellers including The Fury, Shatter, and Son of the Endless Night. His most recent novel is Phantom Nights (February 2005). He lives in Marietta, Georgia, where he spends five days a week writing and the other two days just staring into space thinking about stuff.
JEFF GELB—Dark Delicacies is Gelb’s twentieth anthology as editor or coeditor. He cocreated the ongoing, internationally published Hot Blood series with Michael Garrett, and coedited the Flesh & Blood anthologies with Max Allan Collins. He has also edited several Shock Rock editions, and Fear Itself. Gelb’s one novel is Specters, and he also has one comic book writing credit: Bettie Page Comics, done with Dave Stevens. Gelb lives in Southern California with his wife, Terry Gladstone, and their son, Levi.
NANCY HOLDER—The Los Angeles Times bestseller is the author of sixty-eight books, and over two hundred short stories, essays, and articles. She has received three Bram Stoker Awards for her short fiction, and an additional Stoker for Best Novel for Dead in the Water. She was a charter member and former trustee of the Horror Writers Association. She has written and/or cowritten approximately four dozen Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel works, including the first two volumes of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Watcher’s Guide and Angel: Casefiles, Volume One. Her recent works include Outsiders: An Anthology of Misfits, coedited with Nancy Kilpatrick, a young adult horror novel, Pretty Little Devils, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Queen of the Slayers. She teaches “Writing the Horror Story” through UC San Diego Extension. Her Web site is www.nancyholder.com.
DEL HOWISON—Along with his wife, Sue, Howison created America’s only all-horror book and gift store, Dark Delicacies, as fans and for fans, and they remain among horror’s biggest aficionados. They, and the store, have been featured on many television documentaries concerning horror and the nature of evil. As a former photojournalist, Del has written articles for a variety of publications, including Rue Morgue and Gauntlet magazines, along with a foreword for the Wildside Press edition of Varney the Vampyre. His short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies. This is his first editing stint.
ROBERTA LANNES—Lannes’s first love was writing. In 1985, she took a course in writing genre fiction at UCLA, where she met horror writer Dennis Etchison. In 1986, he published her first horror story, “Goodbye, Dark Love,” in his acclaimed Cutting Edge anthology. Since then, her sixty-plus short stories have been published in three genres and over a dozen languages, and a movie was made from her work by Ian Kerkhof (Ten Monologues from the Lives of the Serial Killers). Her premier story collection, The Mirror of Night, came out in 1997. Her most recent stories are found in Taverns of the Dead and Don’t Turn Out the Lights. Roberta Lannes is a Southern California native whose day job is fine arts and digital design teacher at a high school. She lives with her husband, poet-author-editor Mark Sealey.
RICHARD LAYMON—Laymon was author of over thirty extreme horror novels and over sixty short stories before his untimely death in 2001. He is still immensely popular, here and overseas. Among his best-known works are The Cellar, After Midnight, Bite, and The Woods Are Dark. Of Laymon, Stephen King wrote, “If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat.”
BRIAN LUMLEY—With Harry Keogh: Necroscope and Other Weird Heroes! Lumley has recently completed his epic Necroscope saga in fourteen volumes. Brian’s list of titles now runs to fifty and counting. A prolific if not compulsive writer, the bulk of his work has seen print in the last twenty-three years, this following a full span of twenty-two years of military service. Although he retired from the Army in December 1980, Lumley’s first work—short stories, and eventually two collections—had been published many years earlier by the then dean of macabre publishers, August Derleth, at Arkham House in Wisconsin. Thus, though he had long been an acknowledged master of the “Cthulhu Mythos” subgenre inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, it wasn’t until 1986, with his military career behind him, that the UK saw first publication of Brian’s dead-waking, ground-breaking horror novel Necroscope, featuring Harry Keogh, the man who talks to dead people. The-not-quite-instant success of Necroscope resulted in four more books in the original series: Wamphyri!, The Source, Deadspeak, and Deadspawn. This success spawned Lumley’s massive Vampire World Trilogy: Blood Brothers, The Last Aerie, and Bloodwars, and almost seven years after the first publication of Necroscope in paperback, such was its continuing impact that it was reissued in hardcover. Since then, all of the first five have appeared in hardcover. Thirteen countries (and counting) have now published or are in the process of publishing these books, which in the U.S. alone have sold well over two million copies. In addition, Necroscope comic books, graphic novels, a role-playing game, and quality figurines have been created from themes and characters in the books. Other books to Lumley’s credit are: The House of Doors and the sequel Maze of Worlds, Demogorgon, six novels in the Titus Crow series, four in the Dreams series, the Psychomech Trilogy, several other one-off novels, and over one hundred short stories—one of which won a British Fantasy Award in 1989. Also, recently, The Brian Lumley Companion has been released. One of his short stories was adapted for Ridley Scott’s “The Hunger” series on the Showtime Television Network, and other tales from Brian’s short fiction list have often been selected for various “Year’s Best Horror” anthologies. At the World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, 1998, Lumley received the genre’s much coveted Grand Master Award in recognition of his work. When not traveling, Brian and his American wife, Barbara Ann (“Silky”), keep house in Devon, England.
RICHARD MATHESON—Matheson is the celebrated author of Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, along with Incredible Shrinking Man, I Am Legend, Legend of Hell House, and other classic novels of horror and fantasy. The prolific Matheson has written well over one hundred short stories, many of which became memorable Twilight Zone episodes that Matheson himself penned. As a screenwriter, he is responsible for the early Spielberg classic Duel, as well as House of Us
her, Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, and many others. Matheson has won numerable prestigious awards, including the World Fantasy Convention’s Life Achievement Award, the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement, the Hugo Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Golden Spur Award, and the Writer’s Guild Award.
LISA MORTON—Lisa Morton’s fiction has appeared in numerous books and magazines, including The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, White of the Moon, After Shocks, Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores, Midnight Premiere, and the award-winning anthologies The Museum of Horrors, Dark Terrors 6, and Horrors! 365 Scary Stories. Her screenplay credits include Meet the Hollowheads, Tornado Warning, Thralls, Blue Demon, and The Glass Trap, and she is the author of two nonfiction books, The Cinema of Tsui Hark and The Halloween Encyclopedia.
STEVE NILES—Currently the hot name in comic book horror fiction, Niles is responsible for the graphic novel 30 Days of Night, soon to be filmed by Sam Raimi’s production company. Several of Niles’s other projects have also been optioned by Hollywood, including his Cal MacDonald horror detective novels and comic book miniseries.
WILLIAM F. NOLAN—With more than eighty books to his credit, Nolan has seen his work selected for some three hundred anthologies and textbooks around the world. Among many honors, he is twice winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Special Award, has been cited for excellence by the American Library Association, and was voted a “Living Legend in Dark Fantasy” by the International Horror Guild. Author of more than one hundred short stories, Nolan has also written extensively for films and TV. He’s best known for his Logan series (Logan’s Run, Logan’s World, Logan’s Search, Logan’s Return), the first of which was also an MGM film and CBS television series. Logan’s Run is now in preproduction as a megabudget remake at Warner Bros to be directed by Bryan Singer (of X-Men fame).
RICK PICKMAN—Pickman is a graphic designer who has designed theatre posters and programs, Web sites, and Flash animations (including an easter egg for the DVD of The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr). As a photographer, his work has appeared in newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and Daily News, and Fangoria magazine. He has also provided illustrations for Conjuring Dark Delicacies, The Altruistic Alphabet, and Lisa Morton’s The Free Way. “Dark Delicacies of the Dead” is Rick’s first published piece of fiction. When not drawing or writing, his interests include collecting antique Halloween noisemakers and studying the written Chinese language. Oh, and he really likes zombie movies.
ROBERT STEVEN RHINE—Rhine has published fiction in over one hundred magazines and a dozen anthologies. His first book, My Brain Escapes Me, was heralded by Publishers Weekly as a “successful mix of humor and horror.” In 1997, Rhine received the prestigious Herman M. Swafford Award for Fiction. His “humorrific” comic books, Selected Reading from Satan’s Powder Room, Chicken Soup for Satan, and Satan Gone Wild led to the graphic novel Satan’s 3 Ring Circus of Hell. Rhine wrote, produced, and starred in the filmed pilot, Vinnie & Angela’s Beauty Salon and Funeral Parlor, grand prize winner at the Australian International Film Festival and Worldfest Houston. The film sold to Universal’s Hypnotic Films and premiered on HBO in Canada. Rhine also wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the epic/cult/satire Road Lawyers and Other Briefs, winner at the Chicago, New York, Houston, and Australian film fests. The comedy was distributed by A.I.P. Rhine’s animated pilot, Sickcom, is touring the world with Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. In 2005, Robert won the fiction contest at the World Horror Convention. His Web site is www.RobertRhine.com.
DAVID J. SCHOW—Schow is a short story writer, novelist, screenwriter (teleplays and features), columnist, essayist, editor, photographer, and winner of the World Fantasy and International Horror Guild awards (for short fiction and nonfiction, respectively). Peripherally he has written everything from CD liner notes to book introductions to catalogue copy for monster toys. As expert witness, he appears in many genre-related documentaries, has traveled from New Zealand to Shanghai to Mexico City for the same, and recently turned to producing/writing/directing DVD supplements. He lives in a house on a hill in Los Angeles. His Web site is www.davidjschow.com.
D. LYNN SMITH—D. Lynn has spent the last fifteen years writing and producing such television shows as The Trials of Rosie O’Neil; Murder, She Wrote; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; Promised Land; and Touched by an Angel. In addition to her television credits, Debbie has published nonfiction articles in the Dark Shadows Almanac and Fangoria, and has a short story slated for publication in PanGaia. She is currently working on a science fiction novel, The Shaman’s Gene.
WHITLEY STRIEBER—Strieber is the author of many bestselling novels and works of nonfiction, and has had four movies based on his books. Among his best-known novels are The Wolfen, which was made into a film with Albert Finney and Gregory Hines, and The Hunger, which was made into a film with David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Catherine Deneuve. His chronicle of strange personal experiences, Communion, became a film starring Christopher Walken. Most recently, The Coming Global Superstorm, which he wrote with radio host Art Bell, became the basis for the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow. He is the author of the Caldecott Award-winning children’s book Wolf of Shadows, and two works of speculative fiction with James Kunetka, Warday and Nature’s End. Strieber is best known for his nonfiction works about a series of unexplained personal experiences that appeared to some to involve alien contact. These books are Communion, Transformation, Breakthrough, The Secret School, and Confirmation. In 2001, Strieber returned to the writing of fiction with The Last Vampire and Lilith’s Dream. The two books are the basis of a miniseries in development at the Science Fiction Channel. His Web site, www.Unknowncountry.com, is the most popular edge science Web site in the world, with over a million monthly visitors generating fifty million-plus hits.
F. PAUL WILSON—F. Paul Wilson is the author of more than thirty books. His six science fiction novels include Healer, Wheels Within Wheels, and An Enemy of the State. He has also written eight horror novels, including The Keep (which became a movie directed by Michael Mann), The Tomb, Reborn, and Sibs. His three contemporary thrillers are The Select, Implant, and Deep as the Marrow. He has also collaborated on a number of novels. He has written seven novels chronicling the adventures of Repairman Jack (now optioned by Paramount Studios), including Gateways and Crisscross, and his newest novel is Midnight Mass (Tor). In 2005, Paul received the Grand Master Award at the World Horror Convention.
GAHAN WILSON—Gahan Wilson is an internationally famous Playboy cartoonist of the macabre, with dozens of collections of his cartoons in print. He is also a well-known and popular horror and mystery novelist. His many works include Eddie Deco’s Last Caper, Everybody’s Favorite Duck, and Gravedigger’s Party.
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO—A professional writer for more than thirty-five years, Yarbro has sold over seventy books and more than eighty works of short fiction and essays. She lives in her hometown—Berkeley, California—with three autocratic cats. In 2003, the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master Award.
COPYRIGHTS
“Foreword, Backward, Upside Downward” copyright © 2005 by Richard Matheson.
“Introduction” copyright © 2005 by Jeff Gelb.
“The Reincarnate” copyright © 2005 by Ray Bradbury.
“Black Mill Cove” copyright © 2005 by Lisa Morton.
“Kaddish” copyright © 2005 by Whitley Strieber.
“The Seer” copyright © 2005 by Robert Steven Rhine.
“The Fall” copyright © 2005 by D. Lynn Smith.
“Part of the Game” copyright © 2005 by F. Paul Wilson.
“The Bandit of Sanity” copyright © 2005 by Roberta Lannes.
“My Thing Friday” copyright © 2005 by Brian Lumley.
“Out Twelve-Steppin’, Summer of AA” copyright © 2005 by Nancy Holder.
“Bloody Mary Morning” copyright © 2005 by John Farris.
“A Gentleman of the Old School” copyright © 2
005 by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
“The Announcement” copyright © 2005 by Ramsey Campbell.
“The Outermost Borough” copyright © 2005 by Gahan Wilson.
“Dark Delicacies of the Dead” copyright © 2005 by Rick Pickman.
“DePompa” copyright © 2005 by William F. Nolan.
“The Pyre and Others” copyright © 2005 by David J. Schow.
“All My Bloody Things” copyright © 2005 by Steve Niles.
“The Diving Girl” copyright © 2005 by Richard Laymon.
“Haeckel’s Tale” copyright © 2005 by Clive Barker.
“Before You Leave” copyright © 2005 by Del Howison.
ALSO FROM DEL HOWISON
When Werewolves Attack: A Field Guide to Dispatching Ravenous Flesh-Ripping Beasts*
Vampires Don't Sleep Alone: Your Guide to Meeting, Dating and Seducing a Vampire*, edited with Elizabeth Barrial
Midian Unmade: Tales of Clive Barker's Nightbreed, edited with Joseph Nasisse
DARK DELICACIES
Dark Delicacies*, edited with Jeff Gelb
Dark Delicacies II: Fear*, edited with Jeff Gelb
Dark Delicacies III: Haunted*, edited with Jeff Gelb
ALSO EDITED BY JEFF GELB
HOT BLOOD SERIES
Hot Blood, with Michael Garrett
Hotter Blood*, with Michael Garrett
Hottest Blood*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood IV: Deadly After Dark*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood V: Seeds of Evil*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood VI: Stranger by Night*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood VII: Fear the Fever*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood VIII: Kiss and Kill*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood IX: Crimes of Passion*, with Michael Garrett
Hot Blood X, with Michael Garrett
