Things that are and things that shall be

That’s just a portentous way of announcing that I have a lot to announce: some stuff is coming out that I can now talk about, and some other stuff is already out.

First, get yourself on over to Nightmare Magazine because the fine folks there have allowed me ramble on at length about things to do with the South and horror: Southern horror writers and growing up in the South and how that has shaped me as a writer and as a writer of horror fiction. You can read “The H Word: The Dirty South” for free.

Next, Aickman’s Heirs is finally out, which means that you can order it from Amazon US, Amazon UK (or all the other Amazons I presume) or Barnes & Noble. I am very excited about and proud to be in this book for a lot of reasons, including the fact that Robert Aickman is so, so important to me and it seemed like for years and years you would say his name and people would go “Who?” I love that there seem to be so many of us publishing now who also love Aickman and were influenced by his weird off-kilter fiction, and I am very honored to share a table of contents with so many of my talented colleagues.

There is also another Black Static out with my column “Notes from the Borderland” and will you just look at that lineup of writers? TTA Press has always published superior horror fiction, first in The Third Alternative and now in Black Static, but damn if they just don’t seem to be moving from strength to strength and outdoing even themselves recently with fiction lineups that read like a who’s who of exciting talents in the genre.

Finally, some other things are forthcoming. My story “The Secret Woods,” which is, among other things, inspired by Arthur Machen’s “The White People,” will be in the anthology Soliloquy for Pan. (Unfortunately, there’s no way to permalink to that news item, but it’s announced on the May 16, 2015 entry.) I read part of this story last summer at Loncon. Soliloquy for Pan is coming out in June from Egaeus Press. Pan has long been one of my favorite gods, and Egaeus Press makes gorgeous books. Once again, I’m so excited to be part of this brilliant lineup writing about something that is very close to my heart.

Also coming up is my story “Yellow Bird” in the Joe Pulver-edited anthology of King in Yellow stories by women, Cassilda’s Song, published by Chaosium Press. Joe’s assembled a terrific lineup of women writers for this one–including Helen Marshall, S.P. Miskowski, and Maura McHugh–and it’s due to be launched at Necronomicon in Providence, Rhode Island in August. This is the second King in Yellow-inspired story I’ve written–the first, “The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper,” appears in the British Fantasy society anthology The Burning Circus. For those of you who don’t know, Robert W. Chambers was a hugely popular writer around the turn of the 20th century, but what has survived is his contribution to weird fiction, a cycle of stories known as The King in Yellow. Lovers of the weird have always been hip to Chambers, but he recently came to much broader public attention when True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto riffed on his work in season 1 of that series. It’s a fascinating mythos to play around in.

And last but not at all least, the 30th issue of Supernatural Tales is coming up, and to celebrate the longevity (15 years!) of this terrific little magazine of weird and supernatural fiction, editor David Longhorn went and asked some former contributors if they might like to write something for this special anniversary issue. The result is a breathtakingly fine lineup of stories by Steve Duffy, Michael Kelly, Helen Grant, Mark Valentine, and Adam Golaski. And also me with my story “An Element of Blank.” This will be out in the autumn.

Wait! Not last! Because while I am here, I might as well also mention that I have an essay coming up in Spectral Press’s tribute to Nigel Kneale, We Are the Martians, edited by Neil Snowden and due out in December 2015. You can preorder it now.

And there’s more to come! Stay tuned.