Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

Co-published by MonkeyBrain and the Fandom Association of Central Texas (FACT) to tie-in with the 2006 World Fantasy Convention, Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard was edited by Scott A. Cupp and Joe R. Lansdale. The trade paperback collected twenty-one original stories by Ardath Mayhar, Bradley Denton, Gene Wolfe, Howard Waldrop, Chris Roberson, Neil Barrett, Jr, Michael Moorcock and others.

From Golden Gryphon Press with a Foreword by Howard Waldrop, Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts collected nineteen horror stories (one original) by George Zebrowski, who also contributed an Afterword. All the stories differed from their original appearances, and two were significantly revised.

From the same imprint, Charles Stross’ Lovecraftian spy novel The Jennifer Morgue was a sequel to The Atrocity Archives and featured nerdy CIA demon expert Bob Howard.

Jack Ketchum’s 1991 novel Offspring , the sequel to Off Season , was reissued by The Overlook Connection Press in a trade paperback edition, a 1,000-copy signed edition, a 100-copy slipcased edition, and a fifty-two-copy boxed and leather-bound lettered edition. This “definitive” version contained the author’s preferred text, a revised Afterword and a reprint article.

And Hell Followed With Them was an attractive hardcover anthology from Solitude Publications featuring a novella each by Geoff Cooper, Brian Knight, Tim Lebbon and Brian Keene, with impressive cover art by Chad Savage. It was available in signed hardcover editions of 500 numbered copies and twenty-six lettered.

Michael Cadnum’s Can’t Catch Me and Other Twice-Told Tales from San Francisco’s Tachyon Publications collected eighteen stories (two original) that were described as “fairy tales for the tough-minded”. From the same imprint, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel contained fifteen mostly reprint stories by Carol Emshwiller, Bruce Sterling, Kelly Link, Jonathan Lethem, Jeff VanderMeer, Karen Joy Fowler, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Chadbon, Howard Waldrop and others.

Available from Sean Wright’s Crowswing Books, Clinically Dead and Other Tales of the Supernatural was a hardcover collection of ten stories (two original) by David A. Sutton with an Introduction by Stephen Jones and an Afterword by Joel Lane. It was limited to 250 signed copies and a thirty-copy slipcased edition. Also from Crow-swing, The Impelled and Other Head Trips collected eighteen stories (six original) by Gary Fry, along with an Introduction by Ramsey Campbell and an Afterword by the author.

She Loves Monsters was an impressive novella from Simon Clark about the search for a legendary lost movie. Featuring an Introduction by Paul Finch, it was published by Necessary Evil Press in a hardcover edition of 450 signed and numbered copies and twenty-six signed and lettered copies.

Gary McMahon’s Rough Cut , a short novel about another fabled lost film and one man’s journey into his own family’s darkness, was published by Pendragon Press. From the same imprint, At the Molehills of Madness was a collection of twenty-five previously published stories by Rhys Hughes, dating from 1991 – 2003. The book also included a very brief Foreword and Afterword by the author, and a signed stickered edition was available of the first 100 pre-ordered copies.

Edited by Christopher C. Teague, Choices was an anthology of six novellas by Andrew Humphrey, Stephen Volk, Paul Finch, Gary Fry, Eric Brown and Richard Wright, also available from Pendragon Press.

Mirror Mere collected seventeen stories (five original) by Marie O’Regan. Published by Rainfall Books, it had an Introduction by Paul Kane, whose own collection of two novellas and a story, Signs of Life , was reissued by the same imprint with an Introduction by Stephen Gallagher and illustrations by Ian Simmons.

Also from Rainfall, Terror Tales Issue #3 edited by John B. Ford and Paul Kane collected sixteen stories (seven original) from Stephen Laws, Richard Christian Matheson, Simon Clark, Peter Straub, Chaz Brenchley, Joel Lane, Conrad Williams, Mark Samuels, Allen Ashley and others.

Jon Farmer’s iconoclastic study of history and popular culture from Savoy, Sieg Heil: Monographers , was packed with photographs and artwork.

“Hosted” by Ramsey Campbell, Read by Dawn Volume 1 was the first in an annual new anthology series published by Adèle Hartley’s Bloody Books imprint from Beautiful Books. Along with a reprint by Campbell, it contained twenty-six original stories by David McGillveray, Lavie Tidhar, Andrew J. Wilson, Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, David Turnbull, John Llewellyn Probert and others. From the same imprint, Classic Tales of Horror Volume 1 contained stories by M. R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Mary Shelley and Charles Dickens.

Ramsey Campbell’s classic 1979 serial killer novel The Face That Must Die was reissued as a trade paperback by Millipede Press with an original Introduction by Poppy Z. Bright, a new Afterword by the author, and the J. K. Potter illustrations from the 1983 Scream/Press edition. A 300-copy signed hardcover was also available.

From the same imprint, Theodore Sturgeon’s Some of Your Blood contained the short 1961 novel, an associated story and a new Introduction by Steve Rasnic Tern, who signed the limited edition along with cover artist Harry O. Morris. Fredric Brown’s Here Comes a Candle was originally published in 1950. Millipede’s new edition included an extra story and essay by Brown, plus an Introduction by Bill Pronzini, who signed the limited hardcover.

Thomas Ligotti introduced Roland Topor’s surreal 1964 novel The Tenant , which included four related stories and a gallery of art by the author. Ridley Scott supplied a Foreword to William Hjorts-berg’s Falling Angel , which also included an Introduction by James Crumley, and Jonathan Lethem introduced John Franklin Bardin’s obscure crime thriller The Deadly Percheron , also featuring the first chapters of a previously unpublished novel by Bardin. As with the other titles from Millipede Press, it was released in both trade paperback and signed hardcover editions.

From Chicago’s Twilight Tales, My Lolita Complex and Other Tales of Sex and Violence reprinted nine collaborations (including “Buffy” and “Hellboy” stories) between Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens, while Ex Cathedra collected eleven stories (four original) by Rebecca Maines (aka “Pamela D. Hodgson”) in an edition of 200 copies.

Edited by Myna Wallin and Halli Villegas, In the Dark: Stories from the Supernatural was an anthology of twenty-five stories (three reprints) and five poems (one reprint) from Canada’s Tightrope Books. Authors included Gemma Files and Brett Alexander Savory.

Produced by Spectre Library in a 200-copy limited edition, The Surgeon of Souls collected twelve stories about Dr Ivan Brodsky by Victor Rousseau. All but one was previously published in Weird Tales , but Mike Ashley’s well-researched Introduction revealed prior publication details about several of them.

From Ash-Tree Press, Jessie Douglas Kerruish’s classic 1922 werewolf mystery The Undying Monster was available in a new edition with an Introduction by Jack Adrian, limited to 500 copies.

Gothic Press founder Gary William Crawford was the author of Mysteries of Von Domarus and Other Stories , a collection of five tales.

Small Beer Press reissued Howard Waldrop’s 1986 collection Howard Who ? as a square paperback with the original Introduction by George R. R. Martin. From the same imprint, Alan DeNiro’s debut collection Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead contained sixteen offbeat stories (three original).