Steve Rasnic Tem

Steve Rasnic Tem's new novel Blood Kin is set in the southern Appalachians of the U.S., alternating between the 1930s and the present day. It's a dark Southern Gothic vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, Kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression. Steve Rasnic Tem's new novel Blood Kin is set in the southern Appalachians of the U.S., alternating between the 1930s and the present day. It's a dark Southern Gothic vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, Kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression. Blood Kin is told from the dual points of view of Michael Gibson and of his grandmother Sadie. Michael has returned to the quiet Appalachian home of his forebears following a suicide attempt and now takes care of his grandmother— old and sickly but with an important story to tell about growing up poor and Melungeon (a mixed race group of mysterious origin) while bedeviled by a snake-handling uncle and empathic powers she but barely understands. In a field not far from the Gibson family home lies an iron-bound crate within a small shack buried four feet deep under Kudzu vine. Michael somehow understands that hidden inside that crate is potentially his own death, his grandmother's death, and perhaps the deaths of everyone in the valley if he does not come to understand her story well enough.

Blood Kin

The Deadfall Hotel is where our nightmares go, it’s where the dead pause to rest between worlds, and it’s where Richard Carter and his daughter Serena go to rediscover life — if the things at the hotel don’t kill them first. Think of it as the vacation resort of the collective unconscious. With the powerful prose that has earned him awards and accolades, Steve Rasnic Tem explores the roots of fear and society’s fascination with things horrific, using the many-layered metaphor of the Deadfall Hotel. Drawing inspiration from literary touchstones John Gardner and Peter Straub, Tem elegantly delves into the dark corners of the human spirit. There he finds not only our fears, but ultimately our hopes.

Deadfall Hotel

Suzette Haden Elgin

Robert Charles Wilson

J. N. Williamson

Barbara Hambly

Neil Randall

Jack McKinney

Mark C. Perry

Victor Mullen

The Devil's Hand

The Sentinels

Stephen King

Clive Barker

Peter Straub

Edward Gorman

Brian James Freeman

Norman Partridge

Jack Ketchum

Bentley Little

Ronald Kelly

Brand new stories by Stephen King, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Jack Ketchum, Bentley Little, Ed Gorman, and many others!

Turn Down the Lights

"All my life I've dreamed of the dead." Thanatrauma: the dread of it erodes you, the shadows waiting at the end, the impending conclusion, the troubling dream from which you will not wake. These 21 stories - four published here for the first time - explore some of our fundamental fears: death, loss, grief, and aging. In "Reflections in Black," a man takes a phantasmagoric Halloween journey in search of a former love. In "The Parts Man," a man enters a desperate contract with a sinister entity in a long, vintage automobile. The darkly beautiful "The Dead Outside My Door" is a haunting post-apocalyptic tale unlike any you've ever read. Other offerings include "Whatever You Want," in which a Christmas wish has terrible consequences; "Torn," a bizarre version of a highly personalized Hell; and "The Way Station," a tribute to the legendary Stefan Grabinski. Also included is "August Freeze," from the lost, undistributed Winter 1985 issue of Weird Tales. Winner of the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards, Steve Rasnic Tem has established himself as one of today's finest writers of horror and weird fiction. In this new collection, which is by turns chilling and thought-provoking, Tem is at his very best.

Thanatrauma

In this new collection award-winning horror author Steve Rasnic Tem showcases a variety of ghosts and other creatures aiming to keep you up all night with the lights on. Read about the two best friends chased by a strangely familiar figure. Or the teenager who woke up one morning with fur sprouting from every nook and cranny on his body. Or the fellow from a poor family who has to take care of both his little sister and his crazy mom whose magical powers only make things worse. Or an old man who finally tells his grandson the terrible thing that makes their crops grow. Or the mechanic who keeps his cars running on oil, gasoline, blood, and broken bones. The stories in Everything Is Fine Now range from subtle supernatural tales to the legends you might hear sitting by a campfire. For adults, teenagers, and mature middle-grade readers.

Everything Is Fine Now

A blend of science fiction and horror, award-winning author Steve Rasnic Tem’s new novel is a chilling story exploring the roots of violence and its effect on a possible future. Daniel is trapped in Ubo. He has no idea how long he has been imprisoned there by the roaches. Every resident has a similar memory of the journey to Ubo: a dream of dry, chitinous wings crossing the moon, the gigantic insects dropping swiftly over the houses of the neighborhood, passing through walls and windows as if by magic, or science. The creatures, like a deck of baroquely ornamented cards, fanning themselves from one hidden world into the next. And now each day they force Daniel to play a different figure from humanity’s violent history, from a frenzied Jack the Ripper to a stumbling and confused Stalin to a self-proclaimed god executing survivors atop the ruins of the world. The scenarios mutate day after day in this camp somewhere beyond the rules of time. As skies burn and prisoners go mad, identities dissolve as the experiments evolve, and no one can foretell their mysterious end.

Robert E. Howard

Darrell Schweitzer

John Gregory Betancourt

H.P. Lovecraft

The Weird Fiction Megapack collects both modern and classic stories from the classic pulp magazine, Weird Tales, with selections ranging throughout the 20th Century, but focusing mainly on the classic era of the 1930s. Included are works by many famous authors, such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Manly Wade Wellman, E. Hoffmann Price, Tennessee Williams, and many more -- with an emphasis on great but less-well-known stories that readers may not have encountered before. "To Become a Sorcerer," by Darrell Schweitzer (included here) was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Included are: BOY BLUE, by Steve Rasnic Tem TAP DANCING, by John Gregory Betancourt TO BECOME A SORCERER, by Darrell Schweitzer THE GOLGOTHA DANCERS, by Manly Wade Wellman THE DEATH OF ILALOTHA, by Clark Ashton Smith THE SALEM HORROR, by Henry Kuttner THE DISINTERMENT, by H.P. Lovecraft and D.W. Rimel THE SEA-WITCH, by Nictzin Dyalhis VINE TERROR, by Howard Wandrei THE PALE MAN, by Julius Long WEREWOLF OF THE SAHARA, by G.G. Pendarves TRAIN FOR FLUSHING, by Malcolm Jameson THE DIARY OF PHILIP WESTERLY, by Paul Compton MASK OF DEATH, by Paul Ernst THE GIRL FROM SAMARCAND, by E. Hoffmann Price THE MONKEY SPOONS, by Mary Elizabeth Counselman THE VENGEANCE OF NITOCRIS, by Tennessee Williams THE NINTH SKELETON, by Clark Ashton Smith BIMINI, by Bassett Morgan THE CURSE OF YIG, by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop THE HAUNTER OF THE RING, by Robert E. Howard THE MEDICI BOOTS, by Pearl Norton Swet THE LOST DOOR, by Dorothy Quick DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF DURYEA, by Earl Peirce, Jr. IN THE DARK, by Ronal Kayser And don't forget to check out the other volumes in this series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, westerns, single author collections -- and much, much more! Search this ebookstore for "Wildside Megapack" to see the complete list.

25 Stories from Weird Tales

The Weird Fiction MEGAPACK ®

In the worlds of Steve Rasnic Tem a father takes his son “fishing” in the deepest part of downtown, flayed rabbits visit a suburban back yard, a man is haunted by a surrealistic nightmare of crutches, a father is unable to rescue his son from a nightmare of trees, a bereaved man transforms memories of his wife into performance art, great moving cliffs of detritus randomly prowl the world, a seemingly pointless life finds final expression in bits of folded paper, a nuclear holocaust brings about a new mythology, an isolated man discovers he’s part of a terrifying community, a photographer discovers the unexpected in the faces of dead children, and a couple’s aging dismantles reality. Winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards, Tem has earned a reputation as one of the finest and most original short fiction writers of our time, blending elements of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction and surreal nightmare into a genre uniquely his own. This new volume collects for the first time thirty-five of Tem’s best tales, selected by the author, and includes an introduction by Simon Strantzas.

Figures Unseen: Selected Stories

Lisa Tuttle

Elizabeth Engstrom

Since 2005, Valancourt Books has unearthed and republished almost 500 lost and neglected works from the 1760s through the 2000s, and now for this long-awaited fourth volume of the acclaimed Valancourt Book of Horror Stories series, the editors of Valancourt Books are proud to present 15 more great horror tales -- all by Valancourt authors -- from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This volume features five brand new stories that have never appeared elsewhere, two rare foreign stories translated to English for the first time, and eight more scarce and seldom-seen tales. The stories in this volume will take you inside the vivid dreams of a woman who can kill in her sleep; to the set of a reality show where contestants may be transformed into specimens of beauty - or freak show monsters; to a hotel where guests are besieged by a powerful hurricane - and by something even more terrible and deadly. You will read of the bizarre and macabre adventures of a man seeking a skeleton in 1960s London as a gift for his medical student cousin - and his quest's shocking outcome. You will learn how a simple grammar mistake can lead to a terrible and untimely end for a traveler in Venice. These are strange, sinister, and scary stories, by turns suspenseful, horrific, and darkly humorous. Featuring a lineup of rarely reprinted classic tales together with new stories destined to become future classics, this collection is a horror anthology like no other.

The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, Volume 4

Here with the Shadows

3 Tales After Lovecraft

Decoded Mirrors

Daniel is trapped in Ubo. He has no idea how long he has been imprisoned there by the roaches. Every resident has a similar memory of the journey: a dream of dry, chitinous wings crossing the moon, the gigantic insects dropping swiftly over the houses; the creatures, like a deck of baroquely ornamented cards, fanning themselves from one hidden world into the next. And now each day they force Daniel to play a different figure from humanity’s violent history, from a frenzied Jack the Ripper to a stumbling and confused Stalin, to a self-proclaimed god executing survivors atop the ruins of the world. As skies burn and prisoners go mad, identities dissolve as the experiments evolve, and no one can foretell their mysterious end.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Nancy Holder

Lois H. Gresh

Sèphera Girón

Kelley Armstrong

Paul Kane

Ken Goldman

J. M. Frey

David McDonald

Daniel Sernine

Kathryn Ptacek

George Wilhite

Amy Grech

Steve Vernon

Richard Payne

Rebecca Bradley

Melanie Tem

Tobin Elliott

Erin Underwood

Pat Flewwelling

Gar and Judy Reeves-Stevens

Mary E. Choo

Morgan Dambergs

Ryan McFadden

Elaine Pascale

Christine Steendam

Nancy Kilpatrick has gathered together twenty-five original stories by Kelley Armstrong; Nancy Holder & Erin Underwood; Steve and Melanie Tem; Lois Gresh; Gar and Judy Reeves-Stevens; Daniel Sernine; Paul Kane; Sephera Giron; Kathryn Ptacek; Steve Vernon and others to look at the what-if’s of our expiring future.

Experiencing the awe of the miracle that we are.

Expiration Date

Elizabeth Massie

Chuck Palahniuk

Victor LaValle

Zoje Stage

Gary A. Braunbeck

Josh Malerman

Kaaron Warren

Linda D. Addison

Eugen Bacon

Cynthia Pelayo

Eric LaRocca

Gabino Iglesias

Scott Edelman

Hailey Piper

Lee Murray

Gordon Linzner

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

A literary blend of sci-fi and horror by some of the finest contemporary writers of speculative fiction, edited by multi-award-winning editor Michael Bailey and illustrated throughout by Pat R. Steiner.

Vol. 2

Qualia Nous

Paul Tremblay

Lose yourself in twenty-two remarkable stories of earthly horror and cosmic menace. A wave of sinkholes appears on the anniversary of a rural tragedy, and local residents begin to hear the voices of the dead. A woman encounters a predator from her youth-and a chance to turn the tables. A child's inner beast takes on a sinister life of its own. An undetectable serial killer raises tensions on a college campus. Experimental physics reveals another world, and it might mean the end of ours. Shrouded in darkness, lurking in the shadows, NIGHT TERRORS III awaits you. The third installment of the chilling Night Terrors anthology series includes stories from: Jack Ketchum, Steve Rasnic Tem, Dennis Etchison, Taylor Grant, Eric J. Guignard, Aric Sundquist, Jennifer Brozek, John McNee, Simon McCaffery, Patty Templeton and many more

Horror Anthology

Night Terrors III

Stephen Graham Jones

Lavie Tidhar

Michael Cisco

Nick Mamatas

Carrie Laben

Steve Berman

F. Brett Cox

Steve Eller

No ax murderers hunting sexy teens. No brutal torture for torture's sake. Phantom goes beyond the scare! From paranoid gold prospectors to lonely curators, Satan-worshipping Long Island teens, metaphysics-obsessed television reporters, and to Peter and Olivia and their devastating final choices detailed in the last pages of this anthology, the fourteen stories of Phantom present their horrors differently, but they all ask: How does anyone live through this? Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace have collected fourteen stories by today's most thoughtful writers of horror, each asking the questions beyond "what is frightening"? This is just the beginning, however, with stories from Steve Rasnic Tem, Lavie Tidhar, F. Brett Cox, Stephen Graham Jones, Steve Berman, Nick Mamatas, Michael Cisco, among other fresh voices in horror.

Phantom

Richard Chizmar

Jeff Strand

William F. Nolan

Gene O'Neill

Christmas and a birthday collide, criminals get a holiday surprise, a man drifts through a life he once knew, and Santa gets hungrier with each passing year. These are just some of the tales of terror found in Christmas Horror Volume 2, featuring all original fiction from Jeff Strand, Elizabeth Massie, Richard Chizmar, Gene O'Neill, Steve Rasnic Tem and William F. Nolan.

Christmas Horror

Brian Evenson

John Langan

Nadia Bulkin

Gemma Files

Mercedes M. Yardley

Ryan Cole

Shane Hawk

Sarah Read

Dan Coxon

S. P. Miskowski

Steve Toase

Christina Sng

Donyae Coles

Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito

Ai Jiang

Nicoletta Giuseffi

Elizabeth R. McClellan

Nick Bouchard

Bryson Richard

R. Leigh Hennig

K. M. Veohongs

Renee Cronley

Todd Powell

Tehnuka

Jonathan Louis Duckworth

Wailana Kalama

Katie McIvor

Victoria Nations

Mothers are the hand the rock the cradle and the true rulers of the world. In this anthology of 33 stories and poems, we explore the powerful, dangerous, and transcendent nature of mothers. Through the most compelling voices in science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror today, we stretch the concept of motherhood to its limits and show a side of Mother that you've never seen before. Featuring award-winning authors and the most captivating new voices in speculative fiction, this is 300 pages of compelling, weird, and awe-inspiring tales that will have you rethinking everything you know about that most secretive of all women: Mother. Featuring: "The Sire," by Steven Rasnic Tem"Last Leaf of an Ursine Tree," by Hailey Piper"Of a Thousand Arms and More," by Ai Jiang"Passed," by Elizabeth R. McClellan"Mother Made Cake," by Nicoletta Giuseffi"Puerperium," by Donyae Coles"Pelican," by Gemma Files"Fracture," by Mercedes M. Yardley"When Auntie's Due," by Sarah Read"Vé'otsé'e (Warpath Woman)," by Shane Hawk"Stone's Blood," by Nick Bouchard"Shields," by Christina Sng"The Bone Child," by Ryan Cole"The Wives of Tromisle," by Dan Coxon"Duties Terrible and Dear," by John Langan"Worry Dolly," by Nadia Bulkin"(sub)Maternal Instincts," by K.M. Veohongs"720o," by Steve Toase"Number ONE," by Frances Lu Pai Ippolito"Here in the Cellar," by R. Leigh Hennig"She's Untouchable," by Renee Cronley"Lida's Beach," by Stephanie Nelson"Instruments of Bone and the Flesh Songs They Create," by Nikki R. Leigh"Transformative Love," by Tehnuka"The Withering Depths," by Todd Powell"Waiting for Mother," by Brian Evenson"Unchild," by Jonathan Louis Duckworth"Take Care," by S.P. Miskowski"Mother Trucker," by Wailana Kalama"The Last Sin," by Gabino Iglesias"Jacob's Mother," by Katie McIvor

Tales of Love and Terror

Mother

Peter Watts

Aliette de Bodard

Ian R. MacLeod

Robert Reed

Hannu Rajaniemi

Yoon Ha Lee

Damien Broderick

Allen M. Steele

Sean McMullen

An unabridged collection of the “best-of-the-best” science fiction stories published in 2010 by current and emerging masters of the genre. In “Under the Moons of Venus,” by Damien Broderick, a man, who has returned to a mostly deserted Earth from a terraformed Venus with Luna and Ganymede as moons, longs to go back to Venus. In “The Shipmaker,” the 2011 story winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, by Aliette de Bodard, a maker of living spaceships has her career threatened by the birth of a sentient Mind that will come before the ship that will house it will be ready. In “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee, a construct meets with an assassin that is the keeper of a gun that erases a victim’s entire lineage to secure the destruction of another gun made by the same gunsmith. In “Re-Crossing the Styx,” by Ian R. MacLeod, an entertainer aboard a cruise ship falls in love with a zombie husband’s Minder and schemes to free her from her marriage. In the steampunk story “Eight Miles,” by Sean McMullen, an English lord hires a balloonist to take him and a nonhuman female to a great height in order to learn the secrets of another world. In “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi, the gods use a real human to retrieve something important from a city that has become sentient and surrounded by a firewall that protects against gods. In “Alone” by Robert Reed, set in the author’s Marrowuniverse, a traveler aboard the Great Ship has eschewed contact and remained alone for far longer than seems possible. In the winner of the 2010 Asimov’s Readers’ Award for best novelette “The Emperor of Mars,” by Allen M. Steele, a contract worker on Mars becomes enamored with the science fiction retrieved from NASA’s Phoenix lander that arrived on the red planet back in 2008. In “A Letter from the Emperor,” by Steve Rasnic Tem, an imperial envoy visits an outlying colony where a retiring colonel, whose memory is suspect for security reasons, claims to have fought alongside the emperor. Finally, the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award winner for best short story, “The Things,” by Peter Watts, is a retelling of John Carpenter’s classic movie, The Thing, from the perspective of the shape-shifting alien confronting a group of scientists in Antarctica.

The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 3

Steve Rasnic Tem

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