Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Hearts Strange and Dreadful, the new novel from Tim McGregor and Off Limits Press, out now
New England, 1821—Hester Stokely, an orphan with unusual abilities, struggles to find her place in the pious town of Wickstead. A house-servant in the employ of her uncle’s upright family, Hester is treated as little more than a pariah by the judgmental townsfolk. When a deadly plague comes to town, Hester becomes indispensable as a healer. Yet as Hester watches the town’s residents rapidly fall ill, she realizes that something more dangerous than disease has come to Wickstead. Soon the buried dead are exhumed on rumor of superstition, and occult fires burn fiercely into the night. As the townspeople turn on each other, a mysterious traveler arrives, furthering the growing paranoia. Hester must confront the dark forces which have invaded Wickstead, or all who live there may be lost… their souls included. Available in paperback and eBook, pick up your copy right now, here.
Grimmfest returns with an online Easter event
Grimmfest announces the launch of our Grimmfest Easter Edition, a new annual event, taking place over the Easter Weekend, and complimenting the long-established festival in October. Easter is traditionally a time for rebirth, renewal, resurrection. But as the Pandemic continues to rage, and the world remains on lockdown for the foreseeable future, it is also a time for rethinking. Thus, while the Grimmfest team had hoped to be hosting a ‘live’ Easter event, instead, the Grimmfest Easter Edition will be taking place online, and will build on the success of Grimmfest 2020 online experience. Running from 1 April to 5 April, as ever, Grimmfest will include UK premier showings of films, along with horror classics and curated features. For full information, including ticketing, visit the Grimmfest website, here.
Coming 14 February from CC Adams and Dark Minds Press, the new novella There Goes Pretty
For Denny and Olivia, life is good. In a lavish wedding, the couple have taken another step forward, with a beautiful honeymoon and bright future to look forward to. Like many relationships, theirs is one that needs love, trust and commitment – qualities that are slowly and surely tested, with insidious forces at work. And, gradually, the couple and their relationship will start to suffer, as the cracks begin to show. …as does something else. Available to pre-order in eBook, with the paperback coming soon, you can guarantee your copy for the 14 February release date, here.
Available now from writer Michael Patrick Hicks, Friday Night Massacre
After succumbing to a deadly virus and incurring the wrath of voters in the 2020 election, the president of the United States makes a deathbed deal with the devil. Imbued with supernatural power, President Tyler Coleridge refuses to surrender office after being defeated by his rival candidate and rings in the new year with a White House bloodbath. After Coleridge turns against the press and his own Secret Service detail in a violent display of savagery, it’s up to the lone survivor of the president’s protective detail, Mike Hutchinson, to put a stop to Coleridge’s reign of madness before the nation is utterly crippled. Inspired by the events of 2020, Friday Night Massacre is a splatterpunk horror action novel in the grindhouse fashion, with a dash of comic book sensibility. Available in paperback and eBook, you can pick up your copy now, here.
Coming 5 April from writer Piper Mejia and IFWG, Dispossessed, a horror-tinged young adult novel
Nobody likes you when you’re the ugly new kid. A hoodie and a new foster home won’t hide the creeping dread that you are dangerous. So, when you’re offered the chance to meet a grandfather you never knew, you jump on a plane to the bush-covered mountains of New Zealand. Slate longs for a home when he finds himself living among an ancient race masquerading as travelling performers. Dispossessed and disillusioned, Slate fears being trapped in a life hiding from the world; one his own father had to run from.
However, the decision to stay or leave is taken from him when he is held captive by hunters on the trail of the ultimate game trophy. Tortured and alone Slate fears that the only way to escape is to become the monster he never wanted to be. Available for pre-order in eBook format, with the paperback coming before the 5 April launch date, you can guarantee your copy here, now.
Available now from James C. Harberson III, A Disgusting Supermarket of Death, the new short story collection from Markosia Enterprises
A Disgusting Supermarket of Death collects hard-boiled shorts about satanic Christmas movies, performance art euthanasia, child sacrifice skincare, and other demented goodness from Jim Harberson, co-author of Markosia’s acclaimed graphic novel, Stay Alive. Among the characters you’ll meet within are a corrupt prison warden who sells true crime fanatics a serial killer meet and greet; healthcare workers who cause a massive car pile-up so they can murder its victims; and a Hollywood undertaker who sells rich perverts carnal access to recently-departed celebrities. Horror tinged with comedy, or comedy tinged with horror, these stories should delight even the most jaded speculative fiction fans. Available in paperback or eBook, you can pick up your copy now, here.
KEV HARRISON
