The Worm in Every Heart collected fifteen stories (three original) by Gemma Files, along with an Introduction by Nancy Kilpatrick and an Afterword in which the author interviewed herself. Also from Wildside, Jay Lake’s Dogs in the Moonlight contained sixteen stories (seven original) from the John W. Campbell Award-winning author, with an Introduction by Ray Vukcevich.
From Hippocampus Press, S.T. Joshi’s Primal Sources: Essays on H.P. Lovecraft collected twenty-three articles, most of them originally published in Crypt of Cthulhu or Lovecraft Studies.
Two volumes of the Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft, covering Amateur Journalism and Literary Criticism contained nearly 200 pieces of non-fiction between them, edited with notes by Joshi.
Again edited by Joshi with David E. Schultz, Out of the Immortal Night collected 6 stories, nearly 200 poems and 14 essays by Lovecraft’s associate Samuel Loveman.
Joshi’s seminal The Evolution of the Weird Tale was reissued by Hippocampus in a new edition with revised essays on eighteen authors, including Fritz Leiber, Poppy Z. Brite, Robert W. Chambers and, of course, Lovecraft.
Algernon Blackwood’s 1914 collection Incredible Adventures was reprinted as part of Hippocampus’ “Lovecraft’s Library” series with an Introduction by Joshi, who also introduced The Sword of Zagan and Other Writings, a collection of ten previously-unpublished early stories, fourteen poems and nine fragments by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Dr W.C. Farmer and illustrated by Jason C. Eckhardt.
Edited by Kevin L. O’Brien, Eldritch Blues: Love & Sex in the Cthulhu Mythos was a print-on-demand anthology of twenty erotic Lovecraftian stories and a poem by HPL, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Mark Rainey and others, along with an Introduction by Robert M. Price. It was published by Lindisfarne Press/Cairnsford Tome.
From Rainfall Books, editors John B. Ford and Paul Kane followed up the first edition of their revived Terror Tales anthology with a second volume featuring work from Michael Marshall Smith, Paul Finch, Stephen Gallagher, Gemma Files, Jeffrey Thomas and John Skipp (a novel extract), along with a look at James Herbert’s work and an interview with Earthing Publications founder Paul Miller.
Also published by Rainfall, Sue Phillips’ The Waldorf Street Paradox contained ten stories (seven reprints) illustrated by Karl Owens. Published in 200 trade paperback copies, Charnel Wine collected twenty-three short stories (eighteen reprints) by Richard Gavin with an Introduction by John B. Ford and illustrations by Steve Lines, while Lines also illustrated Ford’s Sargasso Sea novella The Haunted Ocean, published in an edition of just 100 hardcover copies.
Published by California’s Friendly Firewalk Press, Conscience by former “splatterpunk” John Skipp contained the short serial killer novel of the title, along with six short stories and an unproduced film script.
The prolific Steve Burt followed his PoD young adult collections Odd Lot and Even Odder with Oddest Yet: Even More Stories to Chill the Heart, containing eight stories and a subtle ghost novella, illustrated by Jessica Hagerman.
Edited by Garrett Peck and Keith Gouveia, Small Bites from Canada’s Coscom Entertainment contained almost 200 mostly original short-short stories involving zombies, animal attacks and were-creatures by Mark McLaughlin, Wayne Allen Sallee, Scott Nicholson, Edward Lee, Lois Tilton, Nancy Kilpatrick, Simon Clark, Graham Masterton, Michael Arnzen, Tim Lebbon, F. Paul Wilson, Rick Hautala, Christopher Golden, Kealan Patrick Burke, Karen E. Taylor, Charles Gramlich and numerous others. Proceeds from the sale of the book were donated to the medical fund established for writer Charles L. Grant.
From Wheatland Press, American Sorrows contained four long stories (two original) by Jay Lake, with an Introduction by James Van Pelt. Edited by Lake and Deborah Layne, Polyphony Volume 4 featured twenty-four original “slipstream” stories by Lucius Shepard, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Bishop, Bruce Holland Rogers, Ray Vukcevich and others.
Thirteen Ways to Water collected a baker’s dozen of stories by Bruce Holland Rogers and was jointly published in trade paperback by Wheatland Press and Panisphere Books & Audio. It was apparently the author’s first print collection.
All-Star Zeppelin Stories edited by David Moles and Jay Lake was co-published by Wheatland and All-Star Stories and contained twenty stories (one reprint) by Howard Waldrop, Richard A. Lupoff, James Van Pelt, Leslie What, David Brin and others.
Paula Guran launched her new Infrapress imprint with two worthwhile PoD paperback reprints from the now-defunct Stealth Press: Peter Atkins’ serial-killer novel Morningstar and Dennis Etchison’s celebratory collection Talking in the Dark.
J.F. Gonzalez’s novel Survivor was expanded from the author’s novella “Maternal Instinct” and available from Midnight Library, while Egerton House published John Kaiine’s novel Fossil Circus, which was set in a Victorian asylum.
Meisha Merlin Publishing began distributing books published by Marietta Publishing. Both Atlanta-based imprints were founded in 1996. Former punk musician Stephen L. Antczak’s novel God Drug came from Marietta with a cover quote by Michael Moorcock and was nicely illustrated by Andy Lee. Underground Atlanta, from the same imprint, collected twenty-three stories by Gregory Nicoll. Four were original to the book, and another appeared in its complete form for the first time.
From Canada’s Double Dragon Publishing, Scary! Holiday Tales to Make You Scream edited by Paul Melniczek featured twenty-nine stories about different holidays by Michael A. Arnzen, Quentin S. Crisp and others.
Bulletproof Soul contained twenty tales by Steven L. Shrewsbury featuring albino covert agent Dick Shannon. Published by KHP Industries/Black Death Books, most of the stories had previously been published online. Philip Henry’s novel Vampire Dawn was available from the same publisher, as was Michael McBride’s lazily-titled Species, T.M. Gray’s The Ravenous and Drew Williams’ Art & Becoming, the latter with an Introduction by Joe Nassise.
From Stark Publishing, One Hand Screaming collected sixteen stories (three original) and seven poems by Mark Leslie (Mark Leslie Lefebvre).
A Dirge for the Temporal from Raw Dog Screaming collected thirty-four stories (eleven original) by Darren Speegle. From the same imprint, 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories collected 100 short-short stories (forty-seven original) by Michael A. Arnzen, along with an interview with the author.
Everybody Scream! was a new “Punktown” novel by Jeffrey Thomas, Ronald Damien Malfi’s The Fall of Never involved a young woman’s estranged family and a suppressed memory, while Last Burn in Hell by John Edward Lawson was a surreal and sexy look into one man’s complicated life.
Sick: An Anthology of Illness edited by John Edward Lawson from Raw Dog contained thirty-six “existential splatterpunk” stories (eleven reprints) from C.J. Henderson, Jeffrey Thomas, Michael A. Arnzen, Mark McLaughlin, Kurt Newton and others.
From the same print-on-demand imprint, Kevin L. Donihe edited volumes #5 and #6 of his Bare Bones anthology series, which contained mostly new fiction and poetry by Trey R. Barker, Kurt Newton, James S. Dorr, Donald R. Burleson, Gary Fry, Don Webb, Dareen Speegle, C.J. Henderson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Charlee Jacob, Mark McLaughlin, Michael A. Arnzen and numerous others.
James C. Glass’ first collection, Matrix Dreams & Other Stories, was published by Fairwood Press and contained twenty-one reprint stories along with an Introduction by John Dalmas.
Something in a river devoured its victims in Elizabeth Blue’s Drown in Fear, from PublishAmerica, while William Pillow’s Grave Convictions from Gate Way Press was a murder mystery involving reincarnation.
Edited by Frank J. Morlock, Lord Ruthven the Vampire from Black Coat Press featured Lord Byron’s fragment, two French plays and an original story about Ruthven, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. The Return of Lord Ruthven from the same PoD imprint and editor contained Alexandre Dumas’ 1851 play Le Vampire and a new story in which Ruthven and Dumas met in Paris.
The Scaffold and Other Cruel Tales and The Vampire Soul and Other Sardonic Tales were two collections from Black Coat of stories by Villie
rs de l’lsle-Adam, translated from the French with notes and Introductions by Brian Stableford. Artahe: The Legacy of Jules de Grandin was about the grandson of Seabury Quinn’s supernatural detective. Written by “Phillipe Ward” (Phillipe Laguerre), it was translated by David Kirshbaum from the 1997 French novel Artahe.
From the same imprint, Donald Sidney-Fryer adapted and translated French poet Aloysius Bertrand’s 1842 book of macabre prose ballads Gaspard de la nuit. The paperback included an extensive Introduction and Afterward by Sidney-Fryer, a Foreword by T.E.D. Klein, cover illustration by Gahan Wilson and interior illustrations by Bertrand himself. The book was also available in a collector’s edition.
From Colorado’s Centipede Press, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot was a signed and numbered slipcased edition limited to just 315 copies for $470.00. Along with the original novel, it featured fifty pages of alternative manuscript material, the short stories “One for the Road” and “Jerusalem’s Lot”, photographic illustrations by Jerry Uelsmann, and an Afterword by the author.
Peter Schneider and Peter Atkins’ revived Hill House imprint reissued Neil Gaiman’s award-winning 2001 novel American Gods as “The Author’s Preferred Edition” with an additional 12,000 words in a handsome signed, slipcased numbered edition limited to 750 copies. A fifty-two-copy lettered edition was also available. Subscribers also received a free matching numbered trade paperback “Reader’s Copy”, a signed hardcover of A Screenplay (for Good Omens) by Gaiman limited to 500 numbered and fifty-two lettered copies, and The Christmas Booklet, a chapbook story by Gaiman that was originally written as part of the novel, limited to a 500-copy signed edition.
Also issued as a “Christmas card” by Hill House in an edition of just 400 copies, Gaiman’s short apocalyptic poem Melinda was a beautifully designed hardcover, profusely illustrated with black and white art and tipped-in colour plates by Dagmara Matuszak.
In Adam L.G. Nevill’s Banquet for the Damned from Peter Crowther’s PS Publishing, a dark magic returned to the Mediaeval streets of a Scottish town. It boasted an Introduction by Ramsey Cambell.
Campbell’s own new supernatural novel, The Overnight, appeared from PS with an Introduction by Mark Morris. It was set in a failing bookshop built in a haunted business park, where the employees were menaced by a malevolent fog.
Stephen Gallagher’s collection Out of His Mind contained eighteen stories (one original) and three novelettes along with a brief Introduction by scriptwriter Brian Clemens and an Afterword and notes by Gallagher.
Trujillo was a hefty new collection of eleven novellas (including the titular original) by Lucius Shepard with an Introduction by Michael Swanwick.
All PS hardcovers were published in signed and numbered editions of 500 copies and 200-copy deluxe slipcased editions signed by all the contributors.
In the PS novella series, a writer discovered that her life was inextricably linked with that of an old woman whose biography she was writing in Lisa Tuttle’s elegant and elliptical ghost story, My Death, introduced by Thomas Tessier. Featuring a fantastic array of were-creatures in a post-Apocalyptic Britain, Tim Lebbon’s Changing of Faces was a sequel to his zombie novella Naming of Parts, with an Introduction by Simon Clark. Introduced by Mark Chadbourn, Gary Greenwood’s novella Jigsaw Men was a detective mystery set in a world of the reanimated dead where Shelley’s Frankenstein created his Monster, Wells’ Martians invaded Earth and the British Empire still existed, while Paul Park’s No Traveller Returns was set in the afterlife and had an Introduction by Elizabeth Hand. All PS novellas were published in signed and numbered trade paperback editions of 500 copies and 300-copy hardcover editions.
From Richard Chizmar’s Cemetery Dance Publications, Madman Stan and Other Stories collected twenty stories by Richard Laymon with a very brief Introduction by Stanley Wiater and an Afterword by Leisure editor Don D’Auria. Bizarrely, none of the reprint stories carried individual copyright information and the author notes read as if Laymon – who died in 2001 – was still alive and writing.
Available in a deluxe hardcover edition, Fearful Symmetries was the second CD collection by Thomas F. Monteleone, containing twenty-six reprint horror stories, a Foreword by the author and an Introduction by Rick Hautala.
Ray Garton’s Scissors was a new novel about child abuse, while his 1991 erotic novel The New Neighbor was finally issued in an affordable hardcover edition. Both books were published in deluxe editions limited to 1,000 signed copies.
Edited by Richard Chizmar, Shivers III was the latest volume in CD’s trade paperback anthology series containing eighteen original stories by Thomas F. Monteleone, Douglas Clegg, Elizabeth Massie, Al Sarrantonio, Tom Piccirilli, Edward Lee, John Maclay and others, including a collaboration between F. Paul Wilson and his daughter Meggan.
The Devil’s Wine edited by Tom Piccirilli was an anthology of dark poetry by Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub, Graham Masterton, Steve Rasnic Tem, Peter Crowther, Brian Hodge, Elizabeth Massie and many others (including far too much by the editor himself), published in an attractive hardcover edition by Cemetery Dance and illustrated by Caniglia.
Although written twenty-five years earlier, the Sarob Press edition of Basil Copper’s Solar Pons versus The Devil’s Claw marked the short novel’s first publication anywhere in the world. With a historical Introduction from the late Conan Doyle expert Richard Lancelyn Green and wraparound dust jacket art by Les Edwards, the small-sized limited edition hardcover was also available in a signed and slipcased deluxe edition of just fifty copies.
Also from Sarob, Tony Richards’ Postcards from Terri was a supernatural novella about a modern haunting, introduced by Ramsey Campbell. It was published in an edition of 210 limited hardcovers and a forty-copy deluxe signed and slipcased version.
From the same imprint, Paul Finch’s Darker Ages contained two historical horror novellas set in Viking times, along with an Introduction by Mike Ashley. Howling Hounds: The Haunting Tales of Phil Locascio collected thirteen stories (nine reprints). Both were published in limited editions and forty-copy deluxe signed hardcovers.
Falling Into Heaven collected fourteen stories (ten original) by L. H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims with an Introduction by William P. Simmons. It was also available in hardcover and as a signed and slipcased deluxe edition limited to forty copies.
Published especially for Halloween by Paul Miller’s Earthling Publications, Glen Hirshberg’s haunted house novella Mr Dark’s Carnival was reprinted with a new Introduction by the author in a fifteen-copy quarter leatherbound hardcover that sold out within three hours of being announced, and as a forty-two copy numbered presentation chapbook.
James Newman’s debut novel Midnight Train, a coming-of-age serial killer tale set in the 1970s, was published by Earthling in a 250-copy signed and numbered hardcover edition and a lettered and slipcased edition of ten copies, with a Foreword by Ed Gorman, an Afterword by the author, and illustrations by Alex McVey.
Apocalypse Now, Voyager by Jay Russell was the latest adventure of occasional detective Marty Burns, who teamed up with a crazy street woman and a man who thought he was a dog for a surreal journey up the Los Angeles River without a paddle. It was available as a 400-copy numbered softcover and fifteen lettered hardcovers, with art by J.K. Potter.
Conrad Williams’ Game was a novella about a woman who could see various possible futures. It was also available as a signed, fifteen-copy slipcased leatherbound edition.
The fourth volume of D.F. Lewis’ Nemonymous: A Megazanthus for Parthenogenetic Fiction and Late-Labelling contained seventeen more anonymous stories and revealed that contributors to the previous edition had included Brendan Connell, Lavie Tidhar, Joe Murphy, Monica O’Rourke, Len Maynard and Mick Sims, Rhys Hughes, David Mathew and others.
Elvisland was a welcome new collection of thirteen stories (three original) by John Farris, published by California’s Babbage Press. The same imprint was also responsible for Crypt Orchids, a reprint of David J. Schow’s 1997 co
llection with an additional Afterword by the author.
Andrew Hook’s Elastic Press published The Alsiso Project, an anthology of twenty-three stories all with the typo title “Alsiso” written by K.J. Bishop, Justina Robson, Christopher Kenworthy, Allen Ashley, Nicholas Royle, Steve Savile, John Grant, Gary Couzens, Conrad Williams and others (including editor Hook), along with an Introduction by Christopher Fowler. From the same imprint came Allen Ashley’s collection Somnabulists.
Edited by Tina L. Jens and John Everson for Twilight Tales, Spooks! was an attractive-looking anthology of twenty-five stories (eight reprints), two poems, a haiku and an interview by Jay Bonansinga, Charlee Jacob, Maria Alexander, James S. Dorr, Viki S. Rollins, Janet L. Hetherington, Laura Anne Gillman, Jody Lynn Nye, Lawrence Schimel and others, including both editors.
Coming with glowing quotes from Peter Straub, Poppy Z. Brite, F. Paul Wilson, Norman Patridge, Peter Crowther and Forrest J Ackerman, Twilight Tales also presented an expanded edition of Martin Mundt’s 1999 collection The Crawling Abattoir, containing thirteen stories (four original) and an Introduction by Jay Bonansinga.
Published in trade paperback by iUniverse, Beyond Reason: 11 Dark Stories of Human Discovery collected new tales by California writer E.A. Salisbury.
Tom and Elizabeth Monteleone’s Borderlands Press had a busy year with signed and numbered editions of Peter Straub’s novels In the Night Room and its companion volume lost boy lost girl limited to just 350 copies each, with the twenty-six lettered editions sold out before publication.
Borderlands continued its reprint of F. Paul Wilson’s “The Adversary Cycle” with The Touch and The Tomb, featuring a spine mural by Caniglia, while a hardcover of Tim Lebbon’s collection Fears Unnamed was limited to 350 signed and numbered copies.
A Little Purple Book of Peculiar Stories by Craig Shaw Gardner, A Little Blue Book of Rose Stories by Peter Straub, A Little Gray Book of Alien Stories by John DeChancie and A Little Brown Book of Bizarre Stories by Thomas F. Monteleone were limited to 500 signed and numbered copies apiece.
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