I finally picked up copies of Fevre Dream and Sunglasses After Dark. I haven't been able to start either yet but I'm hoping to fix that soon. I'm in the middle of reading too many books for an American Literature CLEP exam and they tend to not include too much horror :)

Self-Promotion bit follows:
As a side note, I just wanted to mention a new group, if anyone is interested in joining. We're hoping to generate lots of discussion involving any and all forms of darker fiction.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2192...

T. wrote: You've been blasted as an elitist because you've railed against self published books?

I've seen it (er, not at Robert, but at "the industry" in general.)By and large I've found there's a certain kind of writer attracted to self publishing. Of course I've also read wonderful, fun self published books and horrible pro published ones (because proper spelling and grammar doesn't always make a book good).

It's a shame that self publishing has gotten such a bad rep, since it could be a wonderful tool for writers to help themselves build and maintain audiences, keep from being ripped off by rights grabs and keep their backlist available for sale.

Actually almost all the self published books I've read have been firmly in the "not horrible, but not ready for public consumption either" category. Whereas the truly horrible, WTF books I've read have been about a 2 to 1 split between micro presses and the big boys.

Oh, you know -- not self-publishing per se, more the whole "rule of dumb" thing. A powerful wave of excellent, literary writers are taking the genre to new heights -- at least artistically -- but so many aspects of the way the genre gets run seem designed to nurture mediocrity. Can't you just picture Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf winning the "Gross Out Contest" at some con? Or Henry James and Isak Dinesen schmoozing with some editor around the pool? The folks who flourish in such situations tend not to be artists of the first flank. It's no accident that works of genius have been pretty much driven underground.

Ah well -- if it were easy, I'd probably get bored.

Robert wrote: "Oy! That could be the mantra for most of my friends. (Problem these days is spotting a vanity press. They hide it well.) Veneration of the amateur is a blight on the genre, but if you rail against ..."

You've been blasted as an elitist because you've railed against self published books?

I can understand being labeled as an elitist because someone denergrated novels that they may consider "unitelligent" or "unprofessional". After all, those are subjective terms (though I've been told they are 'certainly not' by an author/editor whom I love and respect). ; )

T

Oy! That could be the mantra for most of my friends. (Problem these days is spotting a vanity press. They hide it well.) Veneration of the amateur is a blight on the genre, but if you rail against it you will be blasted as an elitist. Trust me. Personally, I don't much mind ...

Hi folks,

I've been a bit shy to post here, but time to bite the bullet.

First, congrats again to Lisa on winning the Stoker for best first novel. I haven't yet read The Gentling Box, but must rectify that soon.

On the topic of classic horror tales: I highly recommend Young Goodman Brown. First read it in college, and it's a story that's never left me. I find the atmosphere in this tale gripping. I think Hawthorne effectively portrayed Young Goodman's paranoia. You can feel it coming through the pages. And I enjoy stories that, like this one, leave something up to the reader's imagination. Did Goodman Brown see the townsfolk cavorting with Satan, or is he simply a neurotic man lost in what he perceived seeing? (Religious furor?)

Louise

Well...popularity and 'Target popularity' are two different things. Target stocks mostly summer chick-lit type stuff..which is why I was surprised to see that book there.

How sad that we all just assume that quality would prevent popularity. It's exactly the kind of thing I talk about in this interview.

http://www.horrorbound.com/news.php

I was pretty surprised to see The Lovers being sold at Target. It seems to be a major release. I wonder if it's on the bestseller list? Does that mean the general public has finally caught on to him or has he changed his writing style to suit the masses a little more? He's always been published by a major company (forget which one), but he's never been a household name...like Michael Connonlly.

Oh, the joys of not having read all of John Connolly's works yet! I envy you.

I'm reading THE LOVERS as slowly as I can ... in order to savor it.

Never fails to amaze me that his excellent novels -- with their ghosts and demons and serial killers -- don't get classified as horror. But I can tell you from experience that a horror publisher would have wanted them "dumbed down."

Robert wrote: "Any John Connolly fans amongst us?"


I, sir, am a John Connolly fan. I've read The Book of Lost Things, Nocturnes, and the first two Charlie Parker books. Loved them all. I've heard good things about his new book The Lovers, but I'm a stickler for reading series books in chronological order, so it may be a few years before I get to it.

I did consider that...but decided against it as I would never be able to buy the book if I was in the pokie. I would have to guess most jails would frown on inmates reading Horror novels, no matter how literate the book might be.
So I opted to buy Maberry's Bad Moon Rising. But I did find another store does have The Shore and will place it on hold and get it on Friday, hopefully. I do need it for the vacation next week.
Yes, I was so desperate to find the book though that I even checked the "Lesbian Literature" section! I had no idea there was such a genre.

What an outrage! You should consider rioting. Maybe take hostages. At least loot something. (Always works for me.)

Odd that my phone goes off right now with a post from Robert in the rescuing Horror thread. I'm standing in a Borders hoping to buy The Shore, but there seem to be no copies here! How can we rescue the genre if we can't find the books!?! Dang it all!

Any John Connolly fans amongst us?

So young, so cynical ...

When it comes to the Stokers nothing much surprises me :)

Fab! Yes, we've talked about Lisa Mannetti's "The Gentling Box" in other threads. I was NOT surprised that it won for Best First Novel. I would have been VERY surprised if it hadn't.

Thanks, Michelle!

Congrats Lisa!!

<<having one foot in the romance genre>>

I have a friend who always insists that she's "straddling" the genres.

I guess I ought to mention that my novel (literary horror) published by DarkHart Press won the Bram Stoker Award for best first novel this year.

www.darkhartpress.com
www.lisamannetti.com

LOL!
It's so easy to get discouraged because of all the drivel out there, so I try to focus on the writers who inspire me. And there are some amazing people out there. Greg Gifune is at the top of my list, but there are lots of others. Over the past couple of months, I gotten to read galleys for upcoming novels by Jeremy Shipp and David Jack Bell and Ron Malfi. All are amazingly fresh voices. (Plus I hear Sandy DeLuca has a new book coming out.) As far as Leisure and its impact on the genre is concerned, well, what can I tell you? Don D'Auria has done a great job of improving the literary quality of their line. I like to think my own novels are an illustration of that fact. There are other schools of thought ...

I started The Terror quite some time ago, but had a hard time getting through it. I am planning to finish it sooner or later, but find the time jumps incredibly confusing and not enjoyable in the least. I now also have Drood sitting on my shelf, but it seems the one constant word mentioned when discussing that one is "dull".

I'm enjoying Jonathan Maberry's Ghost Road Blues right now. So far I am thrilled to know it is a trilogy.

So, my question, is Leisure books doing good for the Horror field, or is it hurting it in any way? It seems to me that they have a pretty strict page (word) count that they are enforcing. I say this due to every single Leisure book being in the 350 page range it seems. Plus it seems that they are the King/Koontz of the publishing world. For the most part the only Horror novels you can find anywhere, including Wal-Mart and Target, is Leisure. Granted, they have some stellar authors on their list, but there is something about them that is kind of causing me to have pause.

Also, anybody here wish to recommend authors to read and/or stay away from? I know that Giufune has jumped to the top of my "must read" list thanks 100% to Mr. Dunbar and how much I have heard him mentioning the guy. Seriously Robert, you need to promote yourself 1/2 as good as you do Greg! You could be a best seller easily then!

Thanks everyone. So many of these look promising.

I'll second The Terror. Great book.

I'm in the middle of George RR Martin's 'Fevre Dream', which is also great in my opinion. Not your standard vampire novel by a long shot....

I loved the Sonja Blue books.

I am about to read the original The Wolfen and Animals by Skipp & Spector for MonsterLibrarian's werewolf month.

Check out the Sonja Blue series by Nancy A. Collins -- the first book is Sunglasses After Dark.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll take a look at the authors mentioned.

"House of Leaves" is extraordinary, but I'm not sure it qualifies as horror, any more than "Dhalgren" qualifies as science fiction. Lovecraft is delicious if you're fourteen years old and prone to bouts of feverish morbibidy and existential panic. (And weren't we all?) But I've never considered his work suitable reading material for an adult. It's a big problem. Most of what's out there of course is drivel, but I've read some wonderful things lately. You could do much worse than to check out novels by Greg Gifune or Ron Malfi or David Jack Bell. Also Jeremy Shipp is a remarkably fresh voice.

Tastes vary so much, but for recent releases, I recommend The Terror by Dan Simmons. For classic horror, it depends on your preference, but if you really want to dig in and if you like short story collections, I recommend the Books of Blood by Barker. for great 80's horror, Swan Song by McCammon is a fav as is The Talisman and the more recent follow up Black House.

Has anyone read any good horror lately? I joined this group as I've noticed a trend in my reading, leaning more towards horror elements. I started The Strain today. I also started Exquisite Corpse, which was promising, but I put it on hold for now. I also recently picked up a copy of House of Leaves based on comments in this group and I am hoping to read some H.P. Lovecraft this next month. I'm sad to say that even though he is a large influence on some of my favorite writers, I have never read any of his books.

So, has anyone been reading anything good lately, or planning to do so?

Joe's stories are very different from his dad's stuff. Heart Shaped Box was kind of Stephen Kingish, but Twentieth Century Ghosts isn't. The stories in there range from literary horror to almost straight up Bizarro.

Read 20th Century Ghosts and get back to us. HSB was OK, but 20th Cent. Ghosts was fantastic. Personally, I haven't seen an overabundance of hype, but I haven't been looking for it either. *Shrug*

It's kind of hard NOT to compare the two, being father and son, but I personally think Joe is writing much better than his dad at this point.

I have to admit I haven't picked up any Joe Hill because it's so hyped I'm afraid of a let down. Also I'm not a Stephen King fan and I'm assuming the styles are similar. Am I wrong?

Garrett wrote: "I think one of the most literary, interesting horror writers out there today is Joe Hill. Blasphemous though it might be to say it, I think his short fiction surpasses his father's. I wasn't too cr..."

I wouldn't call Heart-Shaped Box really literary horror, but I havn't read Hill's other stuff. I thought HSB was ok, but not great

Some day I hope to meet Braunbeck, Gifune, Robert Dunbar, and Steve Vernon.

All within the realm of the possible of course, except for Gifune. I don't think the shackles reach beyond the typewriter ...

I hope you enjoy it!

Also, I've had the pleasure of reading upcoming Skullvines release Black Jack Derringer: The Ace of Spades by Karen Koehler. It's a weird western and not at all a gross out-fest.

Michele wrote: "Have you tried Orgy of Souls? It's tempered by Maurice Broaddus' style so it's not as extreme.

Typically I'm the same way. I can only handle so much gore, but there always seems to be this, I don'..."

I met both Mo and Wrath at Mo*Con this past weekend and picked up Orgy Of Souls based on your recommendation.

If you have some time, you can read about my meeting with both these gentlemen as well as a few other horror authors please click the link below. I will admit that I am a fan boy, I love the genre, and this was the first time I ever got a chance to meet my literary idols. If you do read it, please forgive the typo's and other mistakes, I was in a hurry to post while it was so fresh, and so I wouldn't forget any of the details.

http://horrorworld.org/phpBB3/viewtopic....

Some day I hope to meet Braunbeck, Gifune, Robert Dunbar, and Steve Vernon. Then my fan boy horror obsession will be over and I can retire in relative contentment.

T

Plus, getting to the thrust of the topic, I do believe there's plenty of horror to be found outside "Teh Genre." Want know the best horror poet of all time? Probably Sylvia Plath. And so on....

Hi, all. And I was just thinking that I needed to spend more time on Goodreads lately. Regarding Skullvines and them being "Vile vomit fests of books." TRUE!!!!!!!!

(But only to a point. It really depends on which ones you read. I can't speak for Michelle's book, although I do look forward to reading it. However, they are going to be publishing an illustrated poetry book by Todd Hanks (Grave Bits). I've only seen a few of the pages, and I've read Todd's work as an editor elsewhere, and suffice to say, this probably won't be an over the top title like "Poetry Monster," "Sloppy Seconds," or "Necrotica."

Of course, to be clear, I am clearly biased on this, for reasons that might be abundantly clear.

Howdy, and thanks for inviting me Robert. Scott and Jared from Skullvines are great and Scott is a fellow Minnesotan. Speaking of which, if any of you can make it, come to Minneapolis for Convergence over the July 4th weekend.

Congrats on the Novella Michele. The Skullvines motto is true. They really do publish whatever the *%(* they want and I am not suprised they are speading out. If they love it, they will run with it, and Scott is a tireless promoter. I like his You Tube adverts.

Thank you :)

Michele -- congratulations on the novella! I love the guys at Skullvines.

Have you tried Orgy of Souls? It's tempered by Maurice Broaddus' style so it's not as extreme.

Typically I'm the same way. I can only handle so much gore, but there always seems to be this, I don't know, feeling of window dressing from Wrath's work, as if the gore is there to distract you to either see if you can work past it to get to the meaning, or perhaps to obscure the meaning altogether.

Congrats on your novella! Good luck with it, Skullvines seems to know how to market so I bet you'll have good luck with it.

I got Sloppy Seconds and couldn't finish it. In fact, I have never finished a Wraith James White book that I've started. He is way toooooo intense for my tastes. However, I am going to be meeting him soon and I look forward to any discussion I might have with the man. He is such an interesting character.

Tt

T~ I reviewed Sloppy Seconds and yes, gore, splatter, but you know Wrath's work was pretty intelligent too. Typically the gore wasn't the most disturbing part of his gross out stories. Necrotica is also in my TBR pile as if Karen Koehler's first Black Jack Derringer novella. That latter title is a new kind of Skullvines story, I've been told. It's a weird western.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I actually have a novella coming out through Skullvines. I submitted because I loved what they were doing, and thought for sure they wouldn't take it because it's not a gore fest with cheesy black humor.

I think they're one of the most underestimated presses out there, and you're right, they really, unabashedly love their horror. That's really refreshing these days with so many small presses that just seem to love their owners.

Skullvines is a for real publisher and they've been around for a bit now. I've corresponded with those guys in the past and it is very apparent that they really know and love their horror.

That said, Skullvines publishes the most filthy, disgusting, and vomit inducing books I have ever read. These same books are also some of the most halariously funny and sexually deviant books I've ever come across.

I have reviewed Necrotica for Horrorworld (the review will be published on May 1st) and the review will give you a good idea of the type of reading you can expect with a Skullvines book.

A typical Skullvine release isn't for everybody, hell, I'm not even sure who its target audience is, but if you like that kind of debased, sexually abusive, and black humor flavored story telling, give them a try. Nessie Pimped My Wife or Necortica would be two good places to start.

T

It is. You know I've been surprised by and really liked everything I picked up from Skullvines. I know readers have a lot to be cautious about after all the rip offs and crash and burn presses out there but I don't think Skullvines is one of them.

I also really liked Into the Cruel Sea by Rich Ristow. they promoed it as a sea monster story, but I wouldn't have. The sea monster angle wasn't the only thing going on, which is why I really liked it.

I have Karen Koehler's first Black Jack Derringer novella in my read pile too. It's a weird western they're putting out. I've read some of Karen's other work and I think she's also under rated.

Which brings me to this thought: She primarily writes vampire oriented things (And I'm trying to sell a SF/UF tale with a vampire angle). Do you think readers become dismissive of "yet another zombie/vampire/whatever book" and become unwilling to try new books because of that?

Do good writers miss out because of market timing and reader fatigue? How does an author try to push past that to set their book apart from the crowd (implying that it is)?

Isn't that just like the best title ever?