Search Results for: Valancourt

A Classic Returns: In A Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner

In A Lonely Place (Valancourt Books, January 17, 2023) Ah, Valancourt Books. You’re always full of delightful surprises. How well I remember that fateful day in 2014 when I first laid eyes on your table at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, D.C. Groaning it was (the table, not the convention), under the weight of uncountable literary treasures. Since that day I’ve kept a keen eye on your catalog, and you’ve never disappointed. I’ve been extra-special not disappointed this week,…

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Creative Visions of the Weird: Five Great International Horror Collections

It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed such a good reading run in horror — five great collections read consecutively. I was reminded of my early reading of horror, into my teens, when I discovered so many new authors of dark matter (even hourly when reading my Dad’s Derleth horror collections). Way back then, my enjoyment of the field was writing my own future. I can see that now. And I enjoyed that feeling of discovery and excitement again…

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Goth Chick News: Not a Bit Jealous of the 2021 Stoker Award Winners

  Back in March, I laid out the list of nominees for the Horror Writers Association’s 2021 Stoker Awards for superior literary achievement in horror, in a variety of categories. The Bram Stoker Awards (literally the coolest award in history) were instituted in 1987 and the eleven award categories are: Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Screenplay, Graphic Novel, and Non-Fiction. As I previously explained, I’ve tried everything short of writing a…

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Goth Chick News: If I Could Buy One, I Too Would Be a (Sort Of) 2021 Bram Stoker Award Nominee

Well, you can’t blame me for trying. Every year around this time, The Horror Writers Association announces the nominees for the annual Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror and dark fiction. Also, every year, I go on an Internet search for one of these amazing awards for sale somewhere. I mean come on, people have sold their Oscars, which admittedly are not this cool and are probably not this difficult to get. A general search got my…

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The Last Wolf: Karl Edward Wagner is a Warts-and-All Look at One of the Exemplars of Sword & Sorcery

The Last Wolf (Knight Visions/Yellow Rose, December 12, 2020) Documentaries seem to be sort of a thing right now. And they can be absolutely fascinating when the subject is something you’re into. The ones I most enjoy tend to be about my favorite bands, albums, or movies. But I especially like documentaries about my favorite authors, particularly when those authors are on the verge of being forgotten. At Black Gate we often bemoan the neglect, or approaching neglect, of authors…

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Goth Chick News: The Stoker Awards Are Back, And I Need One

Gather round friends – as we’re all still stuck at home, we can at least take consolation in the idea that writers all over the world continue to have plenty of time to create stories with which to entertain us. And as always, the end of January gifts us with the most awesome reading/watching list of the year: the annual preliminary ballot list for the coolest award ever. The Bram Stoker Awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the…

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Evil Space Plants, Lecherous Dragons, and the Mysteries of the Vampire: Weird Tales 364 Arrives

Weird Tales #364. Cover by Lynne Hansen What’s this? Can it be? Two issues of Weird Tales magazine published in a single year? That hasn’t happened since (hastily checks notes) 2012! There are other changes afoot as well, not just this insanely overambitious publication schedule. Marvin Kaye, who took over as editor in 2012 with issue 360 and managed just four issue in the last nine years, is no longer on the masthead. Replacing him as editor is Jonathan Maberry,…

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Goth Chick News: Christmas Spirits

As I enter the last leg of my doctoral studies, I couldn’t help taking advantage of my university’s very impressive library to take a bit of an intellectual detour. I did a search on the origins of modern-day Christmas traditions. Not unsurprisingly our current celebrations owe most to pagan winter festivals, and the rest to mid-19th century England; either way, very little has changed. And because you’re here at Goth Chick News, you’ve got to know that I zeroed in…

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Out of the Past: The Scarecrow and Other Stories by G Ranger Wormser

The Scarecrow and Other Stories G Ranger Wormser Edited by William P. Simmons Shadow House Publishing (161 pages, October 26, 2020) Originally published in 1918, this collection of short stories is the first installment of a Macabre Mistresses series aiming to unearth forgotten dark fiction, much to the joy of genre fans. As William P. Simmons points out in his insightful Introduction, Wormser’s work has nothing to do with the horror genre in its more blatant expressions, but relies upon…

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A Scientist’s Science Fiction Novel: Fred Hoyle’s The Black Cloud

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle First Edition: William Heinemann, 1957. Cover by Desmond Skirrow (click to enlarge) The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle William Heinemann (251 pages, £1.50 in hardcover, 1957) Fred Hoyle’s 1957 novel The Black Cloud was the first novel by the renowned, perhaps now forgotten (because his big ideas turned out to be wrong), astronomer of the mid-20th century. It’s still his most famous, and likely best, novel, out of some nearly 20 novels he would…

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