Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories edited by Doug Murano and D Alexander Ward

Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, edited by Doug Murano and D Alexander Ward, most certainly gave me a little of everything to enjoy, though there were a fair number that I felt weren't necessarily horror so much as simply dark fiction. The mood is apt to change – some tales are quite literary and magical, while others give more of that visceral gut punch one expects from a good horror tale. While I'm not going to go into exhaustive detail with every story, I will highlight those that stood out for me.

"Arbeit Macht Frei" by Lisa Mannetti isn't a story I'd necessarily classify as horror in the traditional sense – though I feel it delves deeper into the horror that we ourselves are capable of rather. Our narrator is a Jew in a death camp with her mother, acting as a nurse's aide. And it's how she copes, atones for betraying her mother even for fear of repercussions.

"Water Thy Bones" by Mercedes M Yardley is a glorious riot of gore – as a victim and killer fall in love and express their devotion in the act of dismemberment. It's not so much that the trope is new – but the writing is lush.

Something that I'd not expected to find in an anthology was a choose-your-own-adventure style story. "A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some are Broken by Paul Tremblay offers the suggestion that the true horror of the story lies in the way that it loops – you, as reader, are incapable of escaping.

"Repent" by Richard Thomas is darkly rich... A corrupt cop makes a deal with the devil to save his son from cancer. The price is his surrender to the corruption in order for the son to live and for him to be expunged from their lives forever. What I liked about this was the ambiguity. Unsure whether we're dealing with madness or supernatural agents.

There is a reason why Clive Barker is considered a master of this genre (and I'd argue that he crosses genres effortlessly and subverts them at will). "Coming to Grief" is lyrical, evocative. Miriam's mom has died, and she returns to pack up her home. As the title suggests, this is all about facing death personified in the Bogey on the walk above the quarry. I love the ambiguity – you're never sure whether the Bogey is real or an imagined personification of grief.

As with all anthologies, I suspect different readers will like stories for their own reasons. Not all the tales collected here impacted me, but if you're looking for an eminently readable anthology of dark fiction that will do the job of unsettling you, then I figure the editors have certainly done their job right.

Tales from the Lake with Joe Mynhardt

Today Joe Mynhardt of Crystal Lake Publishing takes control of my blog, so a big, scary (and chilly) welcome to Joe!

Every now and then a book comes along that creeps the hell out of a person; a book that leaves you spellbound even days after you’ve read it. For me that book is Tales from The Lake Vol.1. Now you’d think that after editing and working on these stories for the last 9 months I’d be tired of them, but believe it or not, they’re still stuck in my head, whispering to me at all times of the day… and night.

I didn’t want to give too much away, but here are just a few examples:

From Tim Waggoner’s "Lover, Come Back to Me":
He didn’t want to look, but he did. Greywater Lake lived up to its name. The water was murky, but from the ripples on the surface, he thought Jan was right. Before the school of fish had stretched a couple feet from the canoe’s hull. Now it was double – no, triple that. And worse, was their canoe beginning to spin slowly in the same direction the fish were swimming?

From Elizabeth Massie’s "Don’t Look at Me":
I blink. Blurry, painful light bleeds into my eyes. I blink again and Connie comes into view.
I cringe.
She is perhaps eleven, maybe a little younger. She has thin brown hair and a thin sallow face. Bruises the shape of fingers are on her neck and there are scratches on her forehead. Her left eye is blackened.
“I see you,” I manage.
“I know,” says Connie. “Now I got to put you back. Mama said I better be down to fix supper before five o’clock. I’m going to fry some bologna.”

From Taylor Grant’s "Dead Pull":
Mackey swallowed audibly. “Rats?”
Brennan felt a quiet glee warm his heart watching Mackey’s face grow pale. “Rats, snakes, lizards… you name it. Every once in a while one escapes from their cage. The damn things are impossible to catch once they end up down here. And let me tell you… some of those bastards have gotten pretty big.”
Mackey glanced nervously at the darkened corners of the basement.
Brennan continued, “But hey, you’re good with animals, right? Ain’t nothin’ you can’t handle.”

From Bev Vincent’s "The Lady of Lost Lake":
A few moments later, I heard him dragging the canoe from the shore into the lake. This unexpected sound helped me clear my head. Crawling to the open doorway, I poked my head out into the fog-bound night just in time to see Alf paddle into the mist. The moonlight reflected around him, giving the whole scene an ethereal, transcendental look.

What others have said about Tales from The Lake Vol.1:
“The imagination and inventiveness in this anthology display a creativity and diversity of talent seldom found in such collections… This extremely neat, thoroughly edited anthology of carefully selected tales is another proud feather in the cap of Crystal Lake Publishing. For a collection of tales that will thrill, horrify, and generally captivate all readers of horror and dark fantasy, I highly recommend Tales from the Lake Vol.1 as a must-read!” – Ellen Fritz – Books4Tomorrow

“There are ghost stories, weird people of the sea, murderous toys, and super-humans, among other things. Rather than go the safe and typical route, the authors use such fantastical concepts as a starting point in exploring fears that lurk deep beneath the surface. Whatever raises the hairs on the back of your neck, or has you jumping at the slightest sound, chances are that something here will hit close to home. Tales from the Lake Vol. 1 is a collection of tales well worth diving into.” – Josh Black – Hellnotes

So dive right in… the water’s fine.

Universal Amazon Link (paperback and Kindle)
Crystal Lake Publishing (Kindle)
Smashwords (Various eBook formats)

And if my words failed to lure you in, then perhaps this will...

Happy nightmares!

Fear the Reaper (with Joe Mynhardt)

Joe Mynhardt is a fellow South African who's steadily creating quite a buzz in the horror genre. He's definitely one to look out for and I hope to bring him down to Cape Town for one of our SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment events (that's a hint, Joe, BTW).

Anyhoo, Joe's been at the helm of a new horror anthology entitled Fear the Reaper, which is available in paperback and Kindle. It was published on October 25 through his company, Crystal Lake Publishing.

Over to you, Joe!

* * * *

It was some time in the middle of last year that I couldn’t get the thought of death out of my mind. Like always, I was looking for topics or themes for the next Crystal Lake Publishing book, and for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about death. Not so much death as the process or act of dying.

I couldn’t even play with my two dogs without thinking about their eventual demise. Holding them in my arms and watching the life fade from their eyes as they stare up at me. I once had the horrible experience of holding my dog in my arms as she bled out. Luckily we made it to the vet on time to save her. But… that feeling of her body growing weaker, and her cries fading away, has haunted me ever since.

Noticed how I referred to the dog as her, instead of it. What if it’s a person? Someone I love? I know they’re all going to die one day, perhaps I’ll go first. It’s not knowing when or how that can drive you crazy, but knowing might be even worse.

These very personal thoughts haunted all the authors in Fear the Reaper as they created and wrote their stories. Feel free to check out this blog post by Rena Mason as she talks about her sister. We even lost one of the authors along the way. Rick Hautala, you are missed, indeed. I wish we could’ve chatted more.

One shouldn’t dwell on these thoughts of death, but let them motivate you to enjoy life more, even if those bad thoughts scratch at the back of your mind. No wonder most Reaper tattoos are on people’s backs or shoulder.

In this collection you’ll find people fighting death, trying to cheat death, becoming death, even catching death. Each with their own personal issues and motivations, of course. I’ve never seen such a collection of well-established 3-dimensional characters in an anthology.

So be sure to check out Fear the Reaper, you never know when it might be too late.

TOC: Taylor Grant, Joe McKinney, Rick Hautala, Gary Fry, Ross Warren, Marty Young, Stephen Bacon, Dean M Drinkel, Richard Thomas, Sam Stone, Eric S Brown, Mark Sheldon, Steve Lockley, Robert S. Wilson, Jeremy C Shipp, Jeff Strand, Lawrence Santoro, E.C. McMullen Jr., Rena Mason, John Kenny and Gary A. Braunbeck. Includes a poem by Adam Lowe. Edited by Joe Mynhardt.

LINKAGE
Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and check out our YouTube reading of Adam Lowe’s Hecate poem.

All the best,

Joe Mynhardt

Crystal Lake Publishing

Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem with Daniel I Russell

I admit it, it's the cover that got me. So I had to get Daniel I Russell over here to talk about his latest release, Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem published by Crystal Lake Publishing. Welcome, Daniel!

The cover art image creeps me the hell out. Tell me more.

I picked the title of the book from one of the longer stories within, and while that piece is one of my older tales and quite self-indulgent (combining my favourite movie genres of haunted houses, clowns and toys), the title I felt that the title summed up the collection well.

The short story itself, Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem, appeared in a German anthology called Wicked, and each story had its own illustration by the artist Christian Krank. I loved the image as soon as I saw it. Has such antiquity and sinister tones!

When the publisher Joe Mynhardt first mentioned the cover art, this picture immediately sprang to mind. After some friendly negotiation we obtained the rights from Christian and away we went! Have to also give a dip of the big clownish bowler to Ben Baldwin who produced the layout and did a superb job with the creepy old theme. A lot of author collections have had an arty minimalist vibe of late, which I wanted to avoid. My book is like a trip through a creaky old funhouse and I wanted readers to get that from the cover.

Doing a retrospective of stories can be quite daunting, especially if your writing style has shifted over the years (which I assume it has). By what criteria did you pick the stories that eventually went into the anthology? Did you have any themes in mind? That being said, if you look over your body of work, what sort of development do you see in your writing? 

I go into detail over this in my notes, that the stories themselves are like snapshots of life at the time of writing: the places, the people, the thoughts. I wanted a complete, definitive collection of my first (of hopefully many) decades in horror fiction. This just wasn’t feasible. With so many stories to publish, the book would have been an epic volume. I think we looked into it, and the page count would have reflected such a high cover price that we decided early on that this was a no go, and cuts had to be made.

We looked at word counts and had a vague idea of how many had to be chopped. Joe and I discussed what we thought were the weakest stories and then requested the same from the beta readers. Everyone had different opinions!

Eventually we cut some of the more traditional horror subgenres. Penanggalan! was cut, a vampire story that lost us some 10k words, and a werewolf story and a Lovecraftian tale followed. We still weren’t happy with the length, but after some formatting wizardry, Joe managed to get it under 500 pages. Just!

I definitely see the development, as I’m a very different person now as I was at twenty-three. The need to shock and disturb is still there, but I’m slowing down a bit with the execution and utilising less of the red stuff. More events happen now of the page at times with more heart-wrenching results (for example, in the story Devolution). I also have a drive to write in varying styles and don’t shy away from some heavy research sessions before starting a story.

If you had to pick three of the anthology stories to discuss, which would they be, and why have you picked them? 

I thought about this question and wondered which stories would show my development as a writer, or which of the tales has had the most success before being compiled. Then I thought nah, I’ll just go with my favourites!

The Love Revolution was written under a very tight deadline, and is one of those pieces that you think is rushed crap when you get the words down but then it grows on you. I also have a bit of a dig at the new wave of popular romance books and chick lit, which is always fun, and combine it with some of the most obscene images I’ve ever created. I had serious reservations when I submitted this, but thankfully the editor loved it. Sick puppy.

Seeing the Light is what many may consider a traditional zombie story. While I enjoy zombies, there has certainly been a danger of industry saturation of late, made obviously apparent with publishers requesting horror…but not zombies. I always try to do something different with traditional genres, and Seeing the Light is no different. A surprisingly feel good zombie tale.

Finally, the closing story, God May Pity All Weak Hearts. As I mentioned above, I don’t shy away from research any more. This story was way, way out of my comfort zone. Written as a series of diary entries at the turn of the twentieth century, my usual no-nonsense approach wouldn’t have floated. I did extensive reading of work from the time, to the extent of reading letters written by the real life protagonist to capture his voice. I’m usually too hard on myself when I judge my work, but I’m proud of this story.

What sort of feedback have you received from reviewers/readers so far? 

Joe has prepared a blog post with a collection of the early reviews here.

Readers and reviewers have thus far enjoyed the collection. When the likes of Paul Kane and Hellnote’s Matthew Tait are giving you the nod of approval, you know you haven’t released a stinker! Hopefully soon the readers that bought on release day will be sharing their thoughts…

What are you working on now? 

Quite a few pokers in the fire at the moment, which is unlike me. I like to finish one thing before moving onto the next. There’s a few short stories on the go being written for specific anthologies, and a new novel at halfway. I have a fourth child on the way, so I’m aiming to get a few projects off the desk before the big day!

In Conversation with Joe Mynhardt

Some pretty darn exciting stuff is happening here in South Africa nowadays, and today fellow countryman Joe Mynhardt has stopped by to settle in the hotseat for a bit for a Q&A. Welcome, Joe!

Tell us a little bit how your anthology, For the Night is Dark, came about (and they all have stories). Did you have any thematic considerations? Was it an open call or did you approach the authors with a specific idea in mind? Who's in the final line-up? 

I was actually watching an episode of Game of Thrones when one of the characters said that famous ‘for the night is dark …’ line. I remember telling a friend how it would be an awesome title for an anthology. The rest of that episode was quite a blur. My mind was spinning like a hamster on America’s Got Talent.
Realising I already knew most of the ins and outs of publishing, as well as a load of awesome writers, I started thinking about not just writing my own stories, but publishing anthologies.

I immediately worked out all the details, including the theme which is pretty obviously ‘darkness, fear of the dark or what waits within the dark’, and got Ben Baldwin to work on the cover.

I waited till the cover was done (and an editor signed) before I started approaching authors. Since I didn’t have the time to read a bunch of submissions, and knew exactly what I wanted, I set out to fill the TOC.
I took a lot of time to study each writer, reading as many of their stories as I could find online. Each writer in the collection has a unique style and approach to writing and horror.They really brought out the best in each other.

I approached the guys I knew would be interested first, of course, and with an awesome cover, payment and TOC to dangle before the others, I had little to no trouble getting the writers I wanted.

I was quite shocked to get emails from some of the writers I wanted before I even sent them invites.

Everyone just fell in love with the cover and idea.

The final line-up, in no particular order, is:
Shade, by Jeremy C. Shipp
A Snitch in Time, by Robert Walker
The River, by Armand Rosamilia
Father Figure, by Tracie McBride
In the Darkest Room in the Darkest House on the Darkest Part of the Street, by Gary McMahon
His own Personal Golgotha, by G. N. Braun
How the Dark Bleeds, by Jasper Bark
Eternal Darkness, by Blaze McRob
Darker with the Day, by Scott Nicholson
Room to Thrive, by Stephen Bacon
Don’t let the dark stop you shining, William Meikle
21 Brooklands: next to Old Western, opposite the burnt out Red Lion, by CaroleJohnstone
God May Pity All the Weak Hearts, by Daniel I. Russell
Hungry is the Dark, by Benedict J. Jones
This Darkness, by John Claude Smith
On a Midnight Black Chessie, by Kevin Lucia
Lost and Found, by Tonia Brown
Mr Stix, by Mark West
Where the Dark is Deepest, by Ray Cluley
Till Death, by Joe Mynhardt

Were there any surprises and/or co-incidental similarities in theme that came about (I ask because I've often encountered this when pulling together anthologies).

Surprisingly not. Each story is so unique in its approach and symbolism.

There really is a bit of everything in this collection. Some of the stories will make you think, while some will scare the crap out of you and others will give you chills for days afterwards.

Maybe I did an amazing job choosing the TOC, or I’m just DAMN lucky. Damn lucky to know such an amazing group of writers.

Cover art. I know a lot of editors who agonise over the final look/feel. Tell us a little more about your considerations.

I was first introduced to artist Ben Baldwin’s work when he did the Darker Minds cover in 2012, so I immediately got him to work on the cover for my own Lost in the Dark collection.

Ben and I quickly got along. He knows exactly what I like and what I have in mind. It’s amazing to see someone take a picture in your mind and so easily make it a reality.

The idea for the For the Night is Dark cover was my own. I wanted people who look at the cover to reminisce to the nights they sat alone in their rooms, knees pulled up to their chest, staring at the dark corners of their rooms over the bed cover and waited to see what happened next. We’re all like kids again when we get scared of the dark.

I also wanted one of those covers that’s a little more ‘busy’. I want people to continue looking at the cover and finding new things to creep them out. For some it might be the doll, others the shadow, the tree fingers, or perhaps even the uncertainty of the dark world beyond the protection of their homes (hence the rubbed out wall).

Release date? Formats? Where can people buy the anthology? Tell us a little about the publisher.

For the Night is Dark is available in print, Kindle and Kobo (which works on pretty much any eReader available). To eliminate shipping, printing and warehouse costs, For the Night is Dark will only be available on Amazon and various online eBook outlets.

I’ll be sure to order a bunch of copies for South Africans who want to buy directly from me.
Crystal Lake Publishing derives its name from Friday the 13th of course. I choose this name because it sounds professional enough to publish any genre, while still staying connected to the horror genre. Hopefully one day I will also publish Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery and Sci-Fi.

The goal of Crystal Lake Publishing is to bring writers and readers together, as well as give writers the support they need. Writers are extremely hard working people who hardly ever write under ideal conditions. In time, I hope to pay them what they deserve – a lot.

Do you have any existing or upcoming projects you'd like to draw people's attention to?

Except for my own series and short story collection (which will probably only be completed by the end of the year or early next year), the following collections are being worked on right now:

Fear the Reaper is another horror anthology filled with an amazing TOC. It’ll be available Halloween weekend and the TOC includes Taylor Grant, Joe McKinney, Rick Hautala, Gary Fry, Ross Warren, Marty Young, Stephen Bacon, Dean M Drinkel, Richard Thomas, Sam Stone, Eric S Brown, Mark Sheldon, Steve Lockley, Robert Shane Wilson, Jeremy C Shipp, Jeff Strand, Lawrence Santoro, Feo Amante, Rena Mason, John Kenny and Gary A. Braunbeck. The introduction will be written by Gary McMahon. The editor will be myself, Joe Mynhardt.

Children of the Grave is a zombie collaboration between myself, Joe McKinney, Armand Rosamilia, Ian Woodhead and Ryan Miller. It will be one of those ‘choose your own adventure’ books where each writer follows the MC on a different path.

The Outsiders is a Lovecraftian collection by myself, Gary McMahon, Simon Bestwick, Stephen Bacon, Ray Cluley and V.H. Leslie. All the stories will take place in a small gated community where everything is not as it seems.

I’m also publishing two short story collections this year. The first is Daniel I. Russell’s Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem, and the second is Kevin Lucia’s Things Slip Through.

I’ll start filling another TOC towards June for the first of our annual Tales from the Lake anthology, so any writers interested in being a part of it should email me their biographies, with some examples of their work, to crystallakepub@gmail.com.

There is more info on some of these collections on our website’s Upcoming Titles page. There are also a few surprise ideas I’m working on. As publisher of Crystal Lake Publishing, I

aim to bring out a few new approaches to horror collections.

Thanks for having me,
Joe Mynhardt
www.joemynhardt.com