The Dark Gates are open!

Nuova uscita in lingua inglese, per Kipple Officina Libraria: "Dark Gates - Roads to Hell and Limbo", disponibile in formato ebook su Amazon . Come vedete dalla splendida, arcana illustrazione di copertina, realizzata da Ben Baldwin, anche stavolta non sarò da solo, come per la raccolta di poesie dark "Venus Intervention" scritta in collaborazione con il premio Bram Stoker Awards Corrine De Winter. Il compagno di avventura stavolta è Paolo Di Orazio, firma storica dell'horror nostrano. "Dark Gates - Roads to Hell and Limbo" contiene quattro racconti tra horror e visioni distopiche: i miei "Lu'lu" e "Limbus" (versioni in lingua inglese dei racconti "Kaferdammerung" e "Limbus", pubblicati in Italiano nella raccolta "Limbus - Trilogia di Scarafaggi) e due pezzi di Paolo, "Hell" (versione in lingua inglese del racconto "La Vendemmia", da "Madre Mostro") e l'inedito "Brain Dama". Ma non è tutto, l'eBook contiene anche la prestigiosa introduzione di Gene O'Neill, grande autore di genere statunitense vincitore del Bram Stoker Awards. Un'altro premio Bram Stoker Awards ha collaborato a questo progetto: l'editing dei testi è stato curato da Benjamin Kane Ethridge. Dunque, due autori italiani (anzi, romani) sbarcano insieme sul mercato internazionale, notizia non da poco. Speriamo di farci valere e di riuscire a terrorizzare le genti d'oltreoceano. Sotto trovate l'introduzione integrale di Gene O'Neill a "Dark Gates".

Dark Gates by Alessandro Manzetti and Paolo Di OrazioIntroduction
A Contrast of Literary Stylesby Gene O’Neill
The DARK GATES, with two stories each from Alessandro Manzetti and Paolo Di Orazio, is a good read, but not for the faint hearted. Full of great imagery reflecting the themes of aging, decay, and decline. The two writers have contrasting styles. 
I’ve read Alessandro Manzetti’s work before. Regardless of subject matter, his work always displays the surreal lyricism of a poet. His two entries here are no exception. His New France stories are full of adjective/adverbial rich descriptions of the apocalyptic district of Paris Sud 5, a futuristic, terrible slum of depravity. "Lu'Lu" is a story focusing on prostitution and especially the lure of exceptionally well-endowed Mirabelle. She entices a john home to visit with her mother, the monstrous fat woman, LuLu, who was once a legendary goddess of Paris Sud 5. Of course, the lustful john gets more than he bargained for including an invitation to a dinner offering an unusual entrée. "Limbus" is a slum-like area of Paris Sud 5, with "a fighting arena of the drooling," a place where female gladiators go, after ingesting the drug Cloud 7. The fighters are recruited prostitutes, the drug giving them a taste for more than lethal combat. We see the story unfold through the eyes of Tropez, the chief recruiter and supplier of Cloud 7. The ending is a jarring surprise.
I've never read anything by Paolo Di Orazio before. So I was in for a pleasant surprise. His stories have a less futuristic, apocalyptic feel, more of the hard-edged here and now. The prose is less colourful, flashy in description than Manzetti's, but perhaps intentionally a bit more realistic in structure. "Hell" is a story of an old man retracing his footsteps to an attic of his youth. In that attic he discovers a sealed casket that has remained there all these years. What the old man discovers when he finally opens the casket is surprising and startling. "Brain Dama" takes place in modern day Rome. Susanna goes to a hospital to visit her brother, an internal specialist. She finds him bearing a very incredible wound. And so begins this short vignette that ends abruptly with a very remarkable cure.
The DARK GATES, with its Italian perspective/ viewpoint is a compelling treat for the discerning American reader. Literary but shocking stories, full of surprises.Highly recommended.(Gene O'Neill)

Dark GatesRoads to Hell and Limboby Alessandro Manzetti and Paolo Di OrazioIntroduction by Gene O'NeillCover by Ben BaldwinEditing by Benjamin Kane EthridgeEbook format - Pages: 35Kipple Officina Libraria, 2014Collana K-Noir Available on Amazon