Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His novella, Bubba Hotep, was made into an award-winning film of the same name, as was Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Both were directed by Don Coscarelli. His works have received numerous recognitions, including the Edgar, seven Bram Stoker awards, the Grinizani Prize for Literature, American Mystery Award, the International Horror Award, British Fantasy Award, and many others. His most recent novel is Devil Red, the eighth featuring Hap and Leonard, two good ol’ boys from East Texas who have a way of getting into some bad fixes. All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky, his first novel for young adults will be published in September 2011.
Tanith Lee was born in 1947, in London, England. Though some of her children’s books were published in the 1970s, she was able to become a full-time professional in 1975, with the publication of her fantasy novel The Birthgrave by DAW Books of America. So far she has written/published seventy-eight novels, thirteen collections, and almost three hundred short stories, ranging through SF, fantasy, horror, YA, contemporary, plus gay/ lesbian, and detective fiction. She has also won, or been short-listed for many awards. In 2009 she was made a Grand Master of Horror. She lives on the Sussex Weald close to the sea, with her husband, writer/artist John Kaiine, and under the iron paw of two tuxedo cats.
Now a #1 New York Times best-selling author, George R.R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. Martin also edited the Wild Cards series, fifteen novels written by teams of authors. In the mid-1990s he returned to prose, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. In April 2011 HBO premiered its adaptation of the first of that series, A Game of Thrones, and he was named as one of Time’s most influential people of the year. A Dance With Dragons, the fifth A Song of Fire and Ice book, was published in July. He lives Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife Parris.
Maureen McHugh has published four novels and a collection of short stories. She’s won a Hugo and a Tiptree award. McHugh recently moved to Los Angeles, where she is attempting to sell her soul to the entertainment industry.
Norman Partridge’s fiction includes horror, suspense, and the fantastic—“sometimes all in one story” according to Joe Lansdale. Partridge’s novel Dark Harvest was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2006, and two short story collections were published in 2010—Lesser Demons from Subterranean Press and Johnny Halloween from Cemetery Dance. Other work includes the Jack Baddalach mysteries Saguaro Riptide and The Ten-Ounce Siesta, plus The Crow: Wicked Prayer, which was adapted for film. Partridge’s compact, thrill-a-minute style has been praised by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and his work has received multiple Bram Stoker awards. He can be found on the web at NormanPartridge.com and americanfrankenstein.blogspot.com.
Tim Powers is the author of twelve novels, including The Anubis Gates, Last Call, Declare, and Three Days to Never. His novels have twice won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, twice won the World Fantasy Award, and three times won the Locus Poll Award. Powers has taught fiction writing classes at the University of Redlands, Chapman University, and the Orange County High School of the Arts, and has been an instructor at the Writers of the Future program and the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop at Michigan State University. Powers lives with his wife, Serena, in San Bernardino, California.
Lynda E. Rucker’s fiction has appeared in publications such as Black Static, Supernatural Tales, and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, among others. When not writing, she works as a writing instructor and copy editor. She was born and raised in the South, has lived on three continents and both coasts, and currently calls Athens, Georgia, home.
Ekaterina Sedia resides in the Pinelands of New Jersey. Her critically acclaimed novels, The Secret History of Moscow, The Alchemy of Stone, and The House of Discarded Dreams were published by Prime Books. Her most recent, Heart of Iron, has just been published. Her short stories have appeared in Analog, Baen’s Universe, Subterranean, and Clarkesworld, as well as numerous anthologies, including Haunted Legends and Magic in the Mirrorstone. She is also the editor of anthologies Paper Cities (a World Fantasy Award winner), Running with the Pack, and Bewere the Night. Visit her at www.ekaterinasedia.com.
John Shirley’s novels include Demons, City Come A-Walkin’, Eclipse, Cellars, and In Darkness Waiting; his story collections include Black Butterflies (which won the Bram Stoker Award, the IHG Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly), Living Shadows, Really Really Really Really Weird Stories, and the recent In Extremis: The Most Extreme Short Stories of John Shirley. His work is thought to be seminal in the cyberpunk movement. He was co-screenwriter of the film The Crow, and has written scripts for television. His most recent novels are Black Glass and Bleak History. A new novel, Everything Is Broken, will be published in early 2012.
Michael Skeet is an award-winning Canadian writer and broadcaster. Born in Calgary, Alberta, he began writing for radio before finishing college. He has sold short stories in the science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror fields in addition to extensive publishing credits as a film and music critic. A two-time winner of Canada’s Aurora Award for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Skeet lives in Toronto with his wife, Lorna Toolis (the head of the internationally renowned Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, a reference collection of the Toronto Public Library and one of the world’s best SF libraries). “Red Blues” was inspired in part by his career as a disc jockey and jazz critic, as well as his love of movie musicals and the golden age of American pop songwriting.
Angela Slatter is a Brisbane-based writer of speculative fiction. She is the author of Sourdough and Other Stories (Tartarus Press) and the Aurealius Award-winning The Girl with No Hands and Other Stories (Ticonderoga Publications). Her short stories have appeared in anthologies such as Dreaming Again, Strange Tales II and III, and 2012, as well as journals such as Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Shimmer, and ONSPEC. Her work has had several Honorable Mentions in the Datlow, Link, and Grant-edited Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series; and four of her stories have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards in the Best Fantasy Short Story category, winning in 2011 with Lisa L Hannett for “The Febraury Dragon.” She is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006. She blogs at www.angelaslatter.com.
Sarah Totton’s short fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Writers of the Future XXII, and Fantasy. She was named the Regional Winner (for Canada & the Caribbean) in the 2007 Commonwealth Short Story Competition and received a Black Quill Award (Editor’s Choice, Best Dark Scribble) in 2010. Her debut short story collection, Animythical Tales, was published in 2010 by Fantastic Books (Gray Rabbit Publishing).
S.D. Tullis was the winner of D.F. Lewis’s “Win Immortality” competition for the latest and last edition of Nemonymous—Null Immortalis. Each story in the anthology was required to contain a character named S.D. Tullis or Scott Tullis or Mr. Tullis or Tullis. Thus, a Tullis family appears in his own contribution. Beyond this immortality, he has had stories published in anthologies All Hallows 43, Hideous Dreams, earlier editions of the megazanthus Nemonymous—Cone Zero, Zen Core, Nemo Book, Glass Onion—and magazines Crab Creek Review, Flesh & Blood, and The Third Alternative. He also creates horror-themed digital art, on display and growing slowly at http://tullisart.wordpress.com/
Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, debuted in May 2011. You can learn more about it at the Circus Tresaulti website: www.circus-tresaulti.com. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Fantasy, Lightspeed, Apex, and others, and in the anthologies Federations, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Running with the Pack, Teeth, and more. Her nonfiction has appeared in Lightspeed, To
r.com, Fantasy, and Weird Tales. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog at genevievevalentine.com.
Peter Watts (www.rifters.com) is a reformed marine biologist/convicted felon who feels better about his career since winning the Hugo for his novelette “The Island” in 2010. (His previous novel, Blindsight, was nominated for a shitload of major awards, but only won a few in Europe.) His work has been extensively translated, and his technique of backloading novels with technical bibliographies—originally intended as a defense against nitpickers—has fooled academics into using his work as textbooks not only in science fiction courses, but in those on Philosophy and Neuropsychology as well. He has also been cited as a major influence on Bioshock 2, although he cannot afford to purchase the game to confirm this.
Gene Wolfe worked as an engineer before becoming editor of trade journal Plant Engineering. He retired to write full time in 1984. Long considered to be a premier fantasy author, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Nebula, World Fantasy, Campbell, Locus, British Fantasy, and British SF Awards. Wolfe has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His short fiction has been collected over a dozen times, most recently in The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009). The most recent of Wolfe’s numerous novels is Home Fires (2011).
COPYRIGHT & ORIGINAL PUBLICATION
“How Bria Died” by Michael Aronovitz. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Aronovitz. First published: Weird Tales #356. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Frumpy Little Beat Girl” by Peter Atkins. Copyright © 2010 by Peter Atkins. First published: Rolling Darkness Revue 2010 (Earthling Publications). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Broadsword” by Laird Barron. Copyright © 2010 by Laird Barron. First published: Black Wings, ed. S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Thimbleriggery and Fledglings” by Steve Berman. Copyright © 2010 by Steve Berman. First published: The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People, ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (Viking Juvenile). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Dog King” by Holly Black. Copyright © 2010 by Holly Black. First published: The Poison Eaters and Other Stories (Big Mouth House/Small Beer Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Tragic Life Stories by Steve Duffy. Copyright © 2010 by Steve Duffy. First published: Tragic Life Stories (Ash-Tree Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Thing About Cassandra” by Neil Gaiman. Copyright © 2010 by Neil Gaiman. First Published: Songs of Love and Death: Tales of Star-Crossed Love, ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (Gallery). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“He Said, Laughing” by Simon R. Green. Copyright © 2010 by Simon R. Green. First published: The Living Dead 2, ed. John Joseph Adams (Night Shade). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Hurt Me” by M.L.N. Hanover. Copyright © 2010 by M.L.N. Hanover. First published: Songs of Love and Death: Tales of Star-Crossed Love, ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (Gallery). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Oaks Park” by M.K. Hobson. Copyright © 2010 by M.K. Hobson. First published: Haunted Legends, ed. Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas (Tor). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Crawlspace” by Stephen Graham Jones. Copyright © 2010 by Stephen Graham Jones. First published: The Ones That Got Away (Prime Books). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“As Red as Red” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan. First published: Haunted Legends, ed. Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas (Tor). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Mother Urban’s Booke of Dayes” by Jay Lake. Copyright © 2010 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. First published: Dark Faith, ed. Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon (Apex Publishing). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“A Thousand Flowers” by Margo Lanagan. Copyright © 2010 by Margo Lanagan. First published: Zombies vs. Unicorns, ed. Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier (Margaret K. McElderry). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven?” by Sarah Langan. Copyright © 2010 by Sarah Langan. First published: The Living Dead 2, ed. John Joseph Adams (Night Shade). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Stars Are Falling” by Joe R. Lansdale. Copyright © 2010 by Joe R. Lansdale. First published: Stories: All New Tales, ed. Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Sea Warg” by Tanith Lee. Copyright © 2010 by Tanith Lee. First published: Full Moon City, ed. Darrell Schweitzer & Martin H. Greenberg (Gallery). Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Mystery Knight by George R.R. Martin. Copyright © 2010 by George R.R. Martin. First published: Warriors, ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (Tor). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Naturalist” by Maureen McHugh. Copyright © 2010 by Maureen McHugh. First published: Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Lesser Demons” by Norman Partridge. Copyright © 2010 by Norman Partridge. First published: Black Wings, ed. S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)/Lesser Demons (Subterranean). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Parallel Lines” by Tim Powers. Copyright © 2010 by Tim Powers. First published: Stories: All New Tales, ed. Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Moon Will Look Strange” by Lynda E. Rucker. Copyright © 2010 by Lynda E. Rucker. Black Static #16. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“You Dream” by Ekaterina Sedia. Copyright © 2010 by Ekaterina Sedia. First published: Dark Faith, ed. Maurice Broaddus & Jerry Gordon (Apex Publishing). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Raise Your Hand If You’re Dead” by John Shirley. Copyright © 2010 by John Shirley. First published: Dark Discoveries #17. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Red Blues” by Michael Skeet. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Skeet. First published: Evolve, ed. Nancy Kilpatrick (Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Brisneyland by Night” by Angela Slatter. Copyright © 2010 by Angela Slatter. First published: Sprawl, ed. Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Publishing). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Malleus, Incus, Stapes” by Sarah Totton. Copyright © 2010 by Sarah Totton. Fantasy Magazine, December 20, 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Return” by S.D. Tullis. Copyright © 2010 by S.D. Tullis. First Published: Null Immortalis, ed. D.F. Lewis (Megazanthus Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Dire Wolf” by Genevieve Valentine. Copyright © 2010 by Genevieve Valentine. First published: Running with the Pack, ed. Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Things” by Peter Watts. Copyright © 2010 by Peter Watts. First published: Clarkesworld, January 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Bloodsport” by Gene Wolfe. Copyright © 2010 by Gene Wolfe. First published: Swords & Dark Magic, ed. Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders (Harper Voyager). Reprinted by permission of the author.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Paula Guran is the editor of Pocket Books’ Juno fantasy imprint, Prime Books’ senior editor, and nonfiction editor for Weird Tales. In an earlier life, she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild Award award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination) and edited Horror Garage magazine (earning another IHG Award and a second World Fantasy nomination). Guran has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications. She’s also done a great deal of other various and sundry work in speculative fiction publishing. She lives in Akron, Ohio.
OTHER BOOKS EDITED BY PAULA GURAN
Embraces
Best New Paranormal Romance
Best New Romantic Fantasy
Zombies: The Recent Dead
Halloween (forthcoming)
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird (forthcoming)
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror Page 76
