Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Released 25 March from writer Mark Allan Gunnells and Crystal Lake Publishing, When It Rains
It may be dangerous to go out in the rain … But it may be even more dangerous to stay inside. Just after noon on a sunny spring day at Friedkin University, a layer of strange clouds smudges across the sky, and a mysterious rain begins to fall. This isn’t just a surprise spell of rain—this substance is slimy and gelatinous…and it’s not letting up any time soon. The rain spreads across the country, the hemisphere, and the globe, with growing ripples of panic and paranoia gathering behind it. Is it a natural, undocumented phenomenon? A chemical weapon? Some kind of bacterial contagion? As fear turns theories into conspiracies and no clear answers are given, factions start to form between those who have been exposed to the rain and those who stayed dry. Who is safe? Who is marked? Who is dangerous, and who is not? The rain keeps falling, and at Friedkin University, the sanctuary of the campus bookstore swiftly becomes a dangerous battlefield. Is it man versus nature? Or man versus man? Available to pre-order in eBook, with the paperback to follow soon, you can guarantee your copy here.
Chillercon UK now confirmed for 26 – 29 May
There are just over two months to go until the Chillercon UK weekend, in Scarborough. Co-organiser Paul Kane shares some of the many reasons why Scarborough was selected as the location for the event: “Apart from the fact one of our committee, Alex Davis, ran a hugely successful FantasyCon there a few years ago, and the town is only a hop, skip and a bite away from Dracula country in Whitby where they hold the Goth Festival every year, there’s a very rich history of all things scary and spooky about the place. There are a number of haunted venues in the area, from the Black Lion pub –two former 17th century buildings merged together to form an inn – which is rumoured to be the town’s first mortuary, to Scarborough Castle which sits on a clifftop overlooking the entire city (it is said to be haunted by the headless phantom of Piers Gaveston, the son of a Gascon knight and ‘favourite’ of the ill-fated King Edward II). Indeed, one of the convention venues, The Grand hotel, is itself rumoured to be haunted. The author of The Woman in Black, Susan Hill, has talked before at length about the influence of Scarborough on her work. The town has also played host to film and TV crews over the years, making supernatural and horror productions, from 2014’s Remember Me starring Michael Palin to 2020’s Saint Maud, contender for best horror film of the year.” To find out all about the event, the guests who will be in attendance, and to buy your tickets, check out the Chillercon website, here.
Transitions occur in a liminal space. The familiar is gone. The unknown lies ahead and with it, terrible possibilities. Award-winning author Deborah Sheldon explores liminal spaces in this collection of dark, unsettling fiction. Her characters teeter on frightening thresholds with no way back. Liminal Spaces includes Sheldon’s award-nominated tales “For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights”, “All the Stars in Her Eyes” and Barralang, “Pop. 63”, plus original and unpublished fiction. Available now in paperback and eBook editions, you can pick up your copy here.
Filled with Fears and Fantasy. Death and Dark Dreams. Monsters and Mayhem. Literary Vision and Wonder. Each volume of the Horror Library series is packed with heart-pounding thrills and creepy contemplations as to what truly lurks among the shadows of the world(s) we live in. Containing 30 all-original stories, read Volume 7 in this ongoing anthology series, and then continue with the other volumes. Shamble no longer through the banal humdrum of normalcy, but enter the Horror Library! Available now in paperback and eBook editions, you can grab your copy here.
The Castle of Horror Anthology is back with a brand-new collection of stories intended to curdle the blood and freeze the heart! This time the theme is love– family love, romantic love, dedicated love, obsessive love, but what they all have in common is a misstep, a slide into the uncanny. Featuring stories by Alethea Kontis, Tom Waltz, Scott Pearson, PJ Hoover, Steven Philip Jones, Will McDermott, Mike Owsley, Lewis Figun Westbrook, Frazer Lee, Teel James Glenn, Liz Holliday, and Jeremiah Dylan Cook. Welcome to the wing of the Castle of Horror we reserve for Love Gone Wrong. Available to pre-order in eBook, with a paperback edition to follow, you can guarantee your copy here.
KEV HARRISON