Patricia S. Bowne

Catherine Lundoff

Naomi Kritzer

Mark Rich

Eleanor Arnason

Kristine Ong Muslim

Patricia Russo

Hank Quense

Tony Pi

Gerard Houarner

Katherine Woodbury

F. J. Bergmann

Stephen Dedman

Ann K. Schwader

Sue Isle

Lyda Morehouse

James P. Roberts

Terry A. Garey

Martha A. Hood

S. N. Arly

Stephen Couch

Michael A. Pignatella

Terry Faust

Camilla DeCarnin

Sandra Lindow

Cornelius Fortune

Terry Leigh Relf

Tales of the Unanticipated #29

Once and now, a little girl who plays with ghosts and spirits is lost in the desert… No family, no friends, just memories of an old life in a world of cities and cars, and a head full of visions and dreams that don’t belong in the world. She likes to tell stories. She stinks of camel. Once, she will say, “The scorpion was not always a creature of pain, just as each of us was not always what we have become.” Many times, she wonders what she is worth to the living who sell her, buy and steal her, to the spirits and ghosts and djinn and ghuls she plays with, to the Caravan of the Dead she comes to belong to, to the dead who wake her and are awakened by her. Once and now, she wonders what others are willing to pay for her stories… “A redemptive story of the saving magic of story itself. Lose yourself, and find yourself, in the tale of Aini, a virgin storyteller cast adrift by selfish parents to the whims of the desert to make her way in the world…maybe all the way to the Caravan of Dreams. In this short novel, Houarner has crafted a fantastic, beautifully dark journey to the center of the secret heart!” — John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and NightWhere "Houarner, always a maestro of the “smart” horror tale, further hones his art in this scary provocative nod to The Thousand and One Nights and other ancient traditions of phantasmal story-telling. Chock full the macabre and populated by the arabesque horrors of a culture far older than ours, this great new work by Houarner is a Must Read for all venturers into weird fiction.” —Edward Lee, author of White Trash Gothic and City Infernal

In the Country of Dreaming Caravans

Randy Chandler

K. Trap Jones

Featuring all new stories from some of the top authors in modern horror and includes an all new novelette from Edward Lee! This book takes us deep, deep into the bowels of Painfreak, the traveling club that arises out of the dark and calls to those seeking the ultimate in pleasure and pain. If you wear the invisible mark of the bone on your hand then enter through the door. Many come to experience the ultimate in decadence and debauchery. And many get lost in a labyrinth filled with depraved sex, beautiful death, and wonderfully horrible sights. You've been given the mark, now step into the heart of...PAINFREAK. Featuring the following stories: "Introduction: Why Painfreak?" by Gerard Houarner "Welcome to the Mercy Museum" by Charlee Jacob & Linda Addison "Henry-Tobacconist" by John Urbancik "The Night Sitter" by Edward Lee "Painfreak" by Gerard Houarner "The Thick of Chaos" by K. Trap Jones "Exclusive" by Randy Chandler "He Who Whispers the Dead Back to Life" by Lucy Taylor "The Reverend's Wife" by Tony Tremblay "Ownership" by Wrath James White "The Danse Macabre" by Monica O'Rourke "The Rut" by Gerard Houarner "Coping Mechanism" by Jeff Strand "Pretty Me Up" by Michael T. Huyck, Jr. "Sacred Meat" by Jeffrey Thomas "Aikiko's Blade" by Colleen Wanglund "Divine Red" by Ryan Harding "Bondage and Godhood" by Jordan Krall "They Deal in Pain, But Pleasure Is Better" by Chesya Burke 'Sing Blue Silver" by John Everson "Storming the Museum" by Charlee Jacob

A Journey of Decadence and Debauchery

Into Painfreak

THE MAN WHO FLED When Tralane, an itinerant bard, was captured by the dread Sorcerer King, his only hope lay in stealing the Eye of Wyden. With that powerful amulet, he was able to escape to another variant world. But he could not so easily escape the destiny that seemed to pursue him. As he fled from world to world, each seemed to offer only greater misery and danger. And now he was stalked by the mocking figure of the Jade Warrior, a mysterious creature who waited patiently for his failure or death. The final world was that of the Worm-God Wyden, from whom the Eye had been ripped, and the Man of a Thousand Faces, who sought to trap him into an eternity of futile degradation. In the end, Tralane was forced to flee once more - back to face himself and his unknown beginnings. SPECIAL BONUS - This digital edition includes the previously unpublished story GHOST SWORD OF THE HEART

The Bard of Sorcery

Edward Lee

Simon Clark

Brian Keene

Mark Mills

Ray Garton

Charlee Jacob

Wrath James White

Stephen Kozeniewski

Ryan Harding

Alessandro Manzetti

Gabino Iglesias

Lucy Taylor

Kristopher Triana

Lucas Mangum

Joshua Chaplinsky

Ali Seay

Jeremy Wagner

Joe Koch

Matthew Warner

John Urbancik

Eddie Generous

Monica J. O'Rourke

David G. Barnett

Regina Garza Mitchell

Jacqueline Mitchell

Laura Blackwell

Paolo di Orazio

Robert Lupton

Ryan Harville

The Big Book of Blasphemy

Twelve tales of the human condition as seen from the dark side, through the lens of myth, nightmare, romance, the weird and the surreal. The collection’s title story sets the table, turning over love’s joy to explore where such an emotion might come from, and what it might cost. Other stories include: -“The Question Man,” in which Derek is compelled to find the answers to the questions of a mysterious caller -“Spider Goes to Market” finds the trickster god Spider caught in the horrors of the African slave trade -“The Dead Mothers’ Club” seeks to answer the question of what happens to the children who cannot recover from the loss of their mothers - “Twelve Nights” is the length of time it takes for a man to transform into something else, once the reality of what he knew to be his life is broken Other stories included in this collection are "The Oddist", "The Lighted Window", "The Good Dead", "Five Pregnant Vampires", "The Abandoned Mother", "Our Lady of the Jars", and "Not an Exit". From the first print edition of this collection, John Pelan writes in his introduction: Gerard Houarner is an artist, one that’s not afraid to venture into new territories and try different hues and shades in his prose painting. The artist has hung an entirely new show in his gallery, and it’s well worth coming in to view, the admission fee is inexpensive and the memories will linger a lifetime. And, from Asimov’s SF Magazine, Paul Di Filippo writes in his On Books Review: …the stories that flesh out this book (flesh bruised and broken) are hardly romantic trifles, cynical or otherwise. They are instead Grand Guignolish shockers reminiscent of John Shirley’s work. Houarner’s introductions show a concerned and ethical individual at work, and his sharp literary skills insure that he always adheres closely to his personal moral compass, without sacrificing horrific impact. “Out Lady of the Jars” is my favorite here, straying as it does into the Borgesian territory of imaginary beings.

I Love You and There Is Nothing You Can Do About It

The Beast inside Max has made him the ultimate killing machine--an assassin powered by an inner demon. But the Beast is very real and alive. He is all of Max's dark desires and murderous impulses--and he will never let Max forget he exists. Now Max finds himself as the prey--the target of past victims.

The Beast That Was Max

What visions may come, when peering into the darkness through the shattered lens of a broken world: —the sins of the father being vested on the son in "The Chain-Lynched Man." —the nature of angels, the price of their existence in “The Unborn.” —the horrors of drug addiction, in "Bone House." —Lovecratian cosmic dread, with a distinctly un-Lovecraftian heroine, in “Out of the Shadows.” —the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet manifesting herself in New York City in "Finding the Lost Children." —the Apocalypse, lurking on the periphery in 9/11 tales “Signs of Death" and "Things I Wish I Had Not Seen,” stepping out for a view from other perspectives in “Dead Ground” and “The Changeover.” —the ending and breaking of gender and sexuality in "Clown Fish." —the secret hard edges of "Those Who Cast Shadows." —the path that should not have been taken in “On the Road.” Visions Through A Shattered Lens presents the twenty stories, 9 original to the collection, plus two new additions to this Crossroad Press edition, all searching for meaning in the splintered realities of our existence in shadows and corners, among old gods and goddesses reborn in a modern world, in twisted faith, apocalypse, loss and transformation. Other stories included in this collection are: "Visions Through a Shattered Lens", "Bui Doi", "Children in the Moonless Night", "Born from the Womb of Forever", "Like Tears, Cast in the Steps of Her Mother", "The Mutilation Missionary", and "Bones of the Maker". What others have said: In his fourth story collection, native New Yorker Houarner (Painfreak, etc.) offers 20 tough, uncompromising horror tales, nine of which are previously unpublished. No reader is likely to enjoy all the stories, with their mostly urban settings and in some cases overly familiar themes, but there’s something here for every taste in adult horror.” Visions Through A Shattered Lens, Publishers Weekly, October 14, 2002 Houarner's greatest strength is, hands down, his versatility of idea and style. In this collection, we experience the grand, almost poetic tales for which the author is often lauded, the ones that sweep off the pages in a lush beauty……and trail blood in their wake. Naturally, the old horror standards of pain and loss are also in abundance, but this collection has a more playful resonance, a wider breadth of ideas and stylistic forms, than some of his earlier collections, and it's all the stronger for it. Gerard Houarner is rapidly shaping up to be one of the finest horror authors in print today through such divergent works as THE BEAST THAT WAS MAX, PAINFREAK and others. Visions...., Richard Laymon Kills site, 12/02 Visions Through a Shattered Lens does indeed offer a skewed portrait of the realities, both seen and unseen, that encompass the mysteries of our existence. This is powerful, primal work by a far from ordinary writer. It taunts with concepts too large to fit on the screen of the mind’’s eye, illuminating just enough of what can’t be clearly conceived to terrify and intrigue, while maintaining the essential mystery of enigma. This is the most definitive collection yet by an author who’’s only begun his journey of morbid discovery. Visions....., Hellnotes, Vol.7, Issue 3, January 16, 2003 “…Houarner is a good writer, and he constructs some unusual plots…” Joe Bob Briggs.com, 5/03

Visions Through a Shattered Lens

Max is a man. An assassin, to be exact. But within him lurks the Beast, an unholy demon that drives Max to kill – and to commit acts even more hideous. Throughout the years, the Beast has taught Max well, and Max has become quite proficient in his chosen field. He is an assassin unlike any other. To put it mildly. But now Max has a son, an unnatural offspring named Angel, born of Max's pain and hunger. Through Angel, the spirits of Max's former victims see a way to make Max suffer, to make him pay for his monstrous crimes. These vengeful ghosts fight hard to trap Angel in their world forever. And while angel battles his father's demons, Max himself must try to escape from the government agents intent on capturing him – dead or alive.

Road to Hell

Itinerant bard Tralane avoids capture by the Sorcerer King by stealing a powerful amulet, the Eye of Wyden, that allows him to escape to a variant world, stalked by the Jade Warrior and his own destiny

Gerard Houarner

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