At long last the winners of the third annual Black Quill Award have been announced and I have the results right here.
The Black Quill Award is unique in horror fiction awards in that they give out an Editor’s Choice and a Reader’s Choice award. Most of the time the Editor’s Choice is different from the Reader’s Choice which was selected by popular vote. Sometimes the editor and the readers agree. This year it only happened once — in the category of Best Cover Art and Design
I offer my heart-felt congratulations to the winners below.
Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the book cover or the colorful icons below the summary to order it from an online bookseller through an affiliate link.
Dark Genre Novel of the Year
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Dark Places: A NovelAuthor: Flynn, Gillian |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Dark Genre Novel of the Year: Editor’s Choice I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived — and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her. The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details — proof they hope may free Ben — Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members — including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started — on the run from a killer. |
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Drood: A NovelAuthor: Simmons, Dan |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Dark Genre Novel of the Year: Reader’s Choice On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens — at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world — hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London — mere research . . . or something more terrifying? Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens’s life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens’s friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), Drood: A Novel explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author’s last years and may provide the key to Dickens’s final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, Drood is Dan Simmons at his powerful best. |
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Best Small Press Chill
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KellandAuthor: Bens Jr.,Paul G. |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Small Press Chill: Editor’s Choice When the Truth Is All That Matters — The truth begins with a family evacuated from Saigon during the final days of the Viet Nam War. Or perhaps it begins later, with a devoutly Catholic child with the voice of an angel who is troubled by visions both sacred and profane. Or perhaps later still, with a couple drifting apart following a tragedy. Kelland appears to them all in the guise of a small boy, a lover, a priest . . . Kelland is an enigma, a puzzle, and an almost imperceptible presence. Kelland is violence, sorrow, and joy. Kelland is the common thread tying five disparate strangers together. |
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As Fate Would Have ItAuthor: Calvillo, Michael Louis |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Small Press Chill: Reader’s Choice Montgomery, a gourmet chef on the fast track to fame, has a teensy weensy problem. He’s a murderous cannibal addicted to human flesh. Guilt and worry eat his brain and beg him to stop, but his headstrong girlfriend Liz won’t let him quit. She blames Montgomery for getting her hooked on the succulent meat and refuses to curb her carnal urges. Ashley, a twenty-something trying to figure her place in life, desperately wants to kick the nasty heroin habit she acquired with her boyfriend Henry a year and a half ago. Henry wants to make Ashley happy and quit, but no matter how hard he tries he can’t seem to resist the drug’s consuming pull. As Montgomery and Ashley struggle with codependence, with love, with loss, with sorrow and regret they seek to find salvation in the unlikeliest of places — each other. |
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Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection
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The Haunted Heart And Other TalesAuthor: Currier, Jameson |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection: Editor’s Choice Haunted? . . . Or blessed? Ghosts? . . . Or guardian angels? Twelve new stories of gay men and the memories that haunt them. A circuit boy stays at a haunted hotel. An actor recounts a grisly murder in the English countryside. A gay parent unravels a mysterious souvenir. A journalist chases a story through the streets of Amsterdam. An artist grapples with his muse. A musician is inspired by the spirit of a sailor. Acclaimed author Jameson Currier modernizes the traditional ghost story with gay lovers, loners, activists, and addicts, blending history and contemporary issues of the gay community with the unexpected of the supernatural. |
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Monstrous AffectionsAuthor: Nickle, David |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection: Reader’s Choice A young bride and her future mother-in-law risk everything to escape it. A repentant father summons help from a pot of tar to ensure it. A starving woman learns from howling winds and a whispering host, just how fulfilling it can finally be. Can it be love? Bram Stoker Award-winning author David Nickle takes multiple stabs at the question in his first collection of short fiction, Monstrous Affections. Three stories are published here for the first time. Others have appeared in places like Cemetery Dance, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Queer Fear 2, and the Northern Frights series. Monstrous Affections also features an introduction by award-winning editor, author and journalist Michael Rowe. Table of Contents:
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Best Dark Genre Anthology
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Midnight WalkEditor: Morton, Lisa |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Anthology: Editor’s Choice This all-original horror anthology features 14 tales of terror and suspense. Inside, Armand Constantine’s “Monsoon Devil” offers up an American stranded in India seeking a legendary demon; in “The Tennatrick”, John Palisano creates a wildfire-starting monster in Southern California; Jodi Kaplan Lester’s “The Guixi Sisters” describes three Chinese-American children who have an especially strong connection to their heritage; a young boy undergoes a Halloween rite of passage in Richard Grove’s “Silver Needle”; in “The Measure of a Man” by George Willis, 19th-century Zulu warriors fight something far worse than British invaders; Mike McCarty’s “The Grieving Process” offers a middle class husband learning to cope with more than just the death of his wife; Vince Churchill’s “Late Check-In” puts a new spin on the classic ghost tale set in a lonely, deserted inn; “Inside Out” by Lisa Majewski gives a vain model a particularly loathesome come-uppance; in the novelette “Diana and the Goong-si”, Lisa Morton provides a look at 19th-century China seen through the eyes of a British noblewoman in search of her missing husband; Del Howison’s “Alley Oops” is a vicious little twist-of-fate story about an elderly woman and a robber; Kelly Dunn’s “The Mysterious Name” rips the veneer of wealth from a well-to-do small town and finds evil lurking beneath the surface; in “Eddie G. at the Gates of Hell”, R. B. Payne limns a serial killer trying to survive a road trip; “The Bear Who Swallowed the Sky” by Jason M. Light mixes Native American folklore and contemporary dread as a man fights to save his family; and Joey O’Bryan’s “The Svancara Supper Society” is a novelette set in a future where synthetic food becomes all too addicting. The book also includes an introduction by Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton. Table of Contents:
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Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan PoeEditor: Datlow, Ellen |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Genre Anthology: Reader’s Choice Compiled by multi-award winning editor, Ellen Datlow, this collection commemorates the second centenary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth. It features Poe — inspired tales by some of the finest talents in the field, including Kim Newman, Pat Cadigan, Sharyn McCrumb, Lucius Shepard, Laird Barron, Suzy McKee Charnas and others. This all-star line-up has several Hugo, Edgar, Tiptree and British Fantasy Award winners Table of Contents:
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Best Dark Genre Book Of Non-Fiction
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Writers Workshop of HorrorEditor: Knost, Michael |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Book Of Non-Fiction: Editor’s Choice Writers Workshop of Horror is a collection of articles/interviews by/with some of the biggest names in the horror and dark fiction genres, focusing on improving specific elements of writing. It focuses solely on honing the craft of writing. You won’t find anything in these pages on marketing, promotions, or submission tips. That’s another book for another time. What you will find is solid advice — from professionals of every publishing level — on how to improve your writing. Although this project is centered on writing horror and/or dark fiction, the principles and advice inside this book will transcend all genres and all forms of writing. It doesn’t matter if you write romance, science fiction, western, mysteries, fantasy, or memoirs, you will benefit from the information, ultimately improving your craft by bringing polished elements of horror, fear, anxiety, or dread to your work when needed. Here’s to creating better nightmares. Table of Contents:
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The Stephen King Illustrated Companion: Manuscripts, Correspondence, Drawings, and Memorabilia from the Master of Modern HorrorAuthor: Vincent, Bev |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Book Of Non-Fiction: Reader’s Choice An interactive approach to Stephen King’s greatest works, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion features a wealth of unseen memorabilia from the author’s desk and insightful text that reads between the lines to uncover King’s own compelling biography. Supplemented with rare and previously unpublished ephemera from King’s archives, such as hand-edited manuscript drafts, revealing letters between King and his editor, and personal mementos from his career, this unique companion volume tangibly illuminates the writer’s works and life in a way never done before. |
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Best Dark Scribble
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“Flatrock Sunners”Author: Totten, Sarah |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Scribble: Editor’s Choice “Flatrock Sunners” was published in a print magazine called Black Static issue #12. You can purchase a back issue by clicking on the link or the magazine cover. |
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“Night Nurse”Author: Shannon, Harry |
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for the Best Dark Scribble: Reader’s Choice “Night Nurse” was published on a website called Horror Drive-In. You can view the story by clicking on the link or the no cover image. |
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Best Cover Art and Design
Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Cover Art and Design: Editor Choice
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Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Cover Art and Design: Reader’s Choice
Best Dark Genre Book Trailer
Book Trailer for:
Audrey’s Door
Production by JT Petty
Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Book Trailer: Editor’s Choice
Book Trailer for:
Far Dark Fields
Production by John Palisano
Winner of the 2009 Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Book Trailer: Reader’s Choice
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Dark Genre Novel
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Small Press Chill
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Dark Genre Anthology
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Dark Genre Book Of Non-Fiction
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Dark Scribble
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Cover Art and Design
- The 2009 Black Quill Nominations for Best Dark Genre Book Trailer
- The 2009 Black Quill Award Winners
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