Bestselling Pre-ordered Horror Books for January 2010

Long After Dark

Author: Gifune, Greg F.
Format: Limited Edition Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: ??pp.
Pub. Date: February 23, 2010
Publisher: Delirium Books
Also Pub: February 23, 2010 (Lettered Hardcover — Delirium Books)

Harry Fremont hasn’t slept in days. He’s down with a terrible flu: runny nose, fever, a sore throat, the chills, and worst of all, a horrible cough that keeps him up all night.

His wife Kelly is away on a business trip and their son Garret is at college, leaving Harry alone in the house. Though worn out, Harry has been unable to sleep . . . and things are starting to change. He’s seeing unusual things outside, just beyond the windows and confines of his home . . . hearing things . . . experiencing unsettling things that make no sense. And they’re getting worse.

Are they simply figments of a tortured and exhausted mind, or clues to an intricate mystery steeped in evil and deception Harry cannot yet comprehend?

Haunted by remnants of earlier nightmares, disturbing questions about his life and marriage, strange shadowy figures, odd noises, cryptic writings on his doors and glimpses of a hideously disfigured being wrapped in bloody bandages, Harry free-falls into a horrifying world of paranoia, agony and terror where nothing is what it seems.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us . . . long after dark.

Sleep while you still can.

This limited edition contains the following bonus material not found in either the paperback or digital release:

• Long After Dark: Behind The Scenes

The Thief of Broken Toys

Author: Lebbon, Tim
Format: Limited Edition Hardcover
Type: Novella
Page Count: 150pp.
Pub. Date: May 15, 2010
Publisher: Chizine Publications

When a father loses his son and his wife leaves him, he cannot tear himself away from the small fishing village where the boy’s memories reside. They’re all he has left.

Thinking that his life is all but over, he takes to wandering the cliffs, carrying broken things that he always promised his son he would fix, but never did. They’re a sign of his failure, and they keep little Toby close.

And then he meets the thief of broken toys, and everything begins to change.

Only the hardcover of this edition of this title will contain the short story “Ollie’s Oswald”

Moonchild

Author: Crowley, Aleister
Format: Limited Edition Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 350pp.
Pub. Date: May 1st, 2010
Publisher: Arcane Wisdom
Original Pub: 1929 (Hardcover — Mandrake Press)

Moonchild is a novel written by the British occultist Aleister Crowley in 1917.

Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by the protagonist Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians over an unborn child. It was first published by Mandrake Press in 1929.

Moonchild is a novel held in high regard for its magical and occult significance and also for its complex and well written prose.

Aleister Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, playwright, yogi, and possible spy. He was an influential member of occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A A , and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and is known today for his magical writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained notoriety during his lifetime, and was denounced in the popular press of the day as “The wickedest man in the world.”

Crowley was also a chess player in his youth, a painter, astrologer, hedonist, bisexual, recreational drug experimenter, and social critic.

This edition will include a long introduction by Don Webb, a noted horror writer and author of Aleister Crowely: The Fire and The Force provides a long introduction to the work with some wit and perhaps some wisdom.

Cities of Night

Author: Nutman, Philip
Format: Limited Edition Hardcover
Type: Horror Short Story Collection
Page Count: 300pp.
Pub. Date: May 15th 2010
Publisher: ChiZine Publications

Short story collection by one of the greatest voices in the genre.

13 stories

12 cities

3 continents

1 voice . . .

From Atlanta to Blackpool, London to New York; from Rome to Prague to San Francisco . . . from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Birmingham, Alabama, to Washington D.C. (citadel of the dead) to Hollyweird and the city of Lost Angels . . . all are cities of night.

And the night is forever now.

The Undead Rat’s Note: My sources are conflicting about the number of stories contained in this work but after careful consideration, my best guess is that the limited edition hardcover book has 13 and the Trade paperback will have only 10. I was only able to get the titles of the horror short stories in the trade paperback. Of course, this is spectulation. I could be wrong and there is only 10 core stories in both books with an extra story in the hardcover edition.

Hardcover Only Content:

• A frontispiece by Mark Maddox
• An exclusive interview with the author
• And a brand new 1,500-word short story

Table of Contents:

• Unearthly Powers: Prelude to a Nocturne
• Full Throttle
• Pavlov’s Wristwatch
• Churches of Desire
• Memories of Lydia, Leaving
• Blackpool Rock
• Ponce de Leon Avenue
• Still Life with Peckerwood
• Love Sells the Proud Heart’s Citadel to Fate
• A Mother Cries at Midnight
• Unearthly Powers: Over Mulholland
• At least one other unnamed story

Dweller

Author: Strand, Jeff
Format: Signed Limited Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 266pp.
Pub. Date: Apr 1, 2010
Publisher: Dark Regions Press
Also Pub: Apr 1, 2010 (Lettered Hardcover — Dark Regions Press)

When Toby Floren was eight years old, he discovered a monster living in the woods behind his house.

A ghastly, frightening creature with claws, fangs, and a taste for human flesh. As he ran out of the forest, screaming, Toby felt that he’d been lucky to escape with his life.

Years later, Toby finds comfort with the creature. It’s his own special secret — something that nobody else in the world knows about.

Somebody to talk to.

Somebody to confide in.

Sure, Toby has concerns about his own sanity, but really, what boy wouldn’t want to be best friends with a monster in the woods, especially if he’s being tormented by bullies? The creature, who he names Owen, may be the answer to his problems . . .

From Jeff Strand, the author of Pressure, comes the story of a macabre, decades-long friendship. A relationship that will last their entire lives, through times of happiness, tragedy, love, loss, madness, and complete darkness.

Dweller.

The lifetime story of a boy and his monster.

Monster Town / The Butcher of Box Hill

Authors: Savile, Logan
Pseudonym for: Steve Savile and Brian M. Logan
Format: Signed Limited Flipbook Hardcover
Type: Novella Collection
Page Count: 130pp.
Pub. Date: February 14, 2010
Publisher: Bad Moon Books

Monster Town

When down and out Monster Wrangler JD Enron accepts a missing persons assignment from the mysterious blonde with breasts you can ski down, he knows it’s something he’s going to regret.

Especially as the job is going to take him back to Monster Town, the giant prison settlement in the New Mexico desert which houses all of America’s monsters.

Be they Vampires, Werewolves, Gargoyles, Chupacabras, Moth Men, Zombies, Bigfoots or any of the other godless creature to have walked the Earth, Monster Town is the place where they all end up.

And the one place you never want to go . . .

The Butcher of Box Hill

JD Enron is having the time of his life.

As a senior Monster Wrangler for the Brotherhood of the Hand (the clandestine off-shoot of the Catholic church hired by the US government to capture all of America’s monsters), he gets to hunt monsters on a daily basis. And JD really hates monsters.

But when his latest mission takes him to the remote logging town of Box Hill, Montana, in the dead of winter, he soon discovers that not all monsters have fangs.

And that freshly spilt blood looks so very different on snow . . .

Dark Faith

Editors: Broaddus, Maurice and Jerry Gordon
Format: Trade Softcover
Type: Horror Short Story Collection
Page Count: 360pp.
Pub. Date: May 15, 2010
Publisher: Apex Publications

Faith.

So much of our reality is determined by what we believe, and it can so easily become . . . undone.

Editors Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon have created an anthology that explores the dark side of faith and what it may mean. These twenty-six stories and five poems (130k+ words of content) may make you cry, may make you laugh, and will certainly terrify you.

You may never look at the light the same way again.

Table of Contents:

• The Story of Belief-Non a poem by Linda D. Addison
• Ghosts of New York by Jennifer Pelland
• I Sing a New Psalm by Brian Keene
• He Who Would Not Bow by Wrath James White
• Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch’s Damnation by Douglas F. Warrick
• Go and Tell It on the Mountain by Kyle S. Johnson
• Different from Other Nights by Eliyanna Kaiser
• Lilith a poem by Rain Graves
• The Last Words of Dutch Schultz Jesus Christ by Nick Mamatas
• To the Jerusalem Crater by Lavie Tidhar
• Chimeras and Grotesqueries by Matt Cardin
• You Dream by Ekaterina Sedia
• Mother Urban’s Booke of Dayes by Jay Lake
• The Mad Eyes of the Heron King by Richard Dansky
• Paint Box, Puzzle Box by DT Friedman
• A Loss For Words by John C. Hay
• Scrawl by Tom Piccirilli
• Cry Carvings a poem by Jennifer Baumgartner
• Good Enough by Kelli Dunlap
• First Communions by Geoffrey Girard
• The God of Last Moments by Alethea Kontis
• Ring Road by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Unremembered by Chesya Burke
• Desperata a poem by Lon Prater
• The Choir by Lucien Soulban
• Days of Flaming Motorcycles by Catherynne M. Valente
• Miz Ruthie Pays Her Respects by Lucy A. Snyder
• Paranoia a poem by Kurt Dinan
• Hush by Kelly Barnhill
• Sandboys by Richard Wright
• For My Next Trick I’ll Need a Volunteer by Gary A. Braunbeck

Katja from the Punk Band

Author: Logan, Simon
Format: Signed Limited Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 220pp.
Pub. Date: April 29, 2010
Publisher: ChiZine Publications

Katja, like everyone else stuck on the work island they call home, wants to get to the mainland by any means necessary.

Shooting her boyfriend and stealing a chemical vial is one way to ensure her safe passage — the only problem is, she’s not the only one who wants it, and the freedom it will bring: There’s Nikolai the joystick junkie; Aleksakhina, Katja’s parole officer; Vladimir Kohl, the small-time chemical dealer, and his boss Szerynski; the rival chemical lord Dracyev, and his lover, Ylena.

And there’s the Man In Red, ready and waiting for whoever is (un)lucky enough to end up with the vial.

Katja from the Punk Band is Jackie Brown meets the Sex Pistols — a fast-paced industrial crime-thriller that weaves multiple storylines and timeframes, from the author of Pretty Little Things to Fill Up The Void, Nothing Is Inflammable, and I-O.

The limited edition hardcovers will contain a brand new short story, and a companion musical track listing.

From the Undead Rat: This book’s print run was based upon the amount of pre-orders it got. The time period for pre-orders is closed and as of this time the hardcover edition is not available for purchase. I have inserted links to other bookstores in case you’re interested in viewing or purchasing the trade paperback edition to be published April 15, 2010.

The Last Deep Breath

Author: Piccirilli, Tom
Format: Signed Trade Paperback Edition
Type: Novella
Page Count: ??pp.
Pub. Date: September 15, 2010
Publisher: Tasmaniac

His second ‘noirella’ with Tasmaniac that will blow you away! 180 signed soft covers.

The story follows Grey, a drifter on the search for his foster sister, who showed up for the first time in ten years with a knife in her side, then vanished without a trace.

Grey winds up in Los Angeles dealing with manipulative actresses and scummy agents, hoping to find some clue as to what happened to her after she dropped out of a porn career he didn’t know about.

Of Darkness and Light

Author: Kane, Paul
Format: limited edition hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 214pp.
Pub. Date: March 31, 2010
Publisher: Thunderstorm Books

Fear of the dark.

It’s one of the most common phobias, especially when we’re growing up.

For teenager Lee Masterton, his deepest childhood fears are about to become a reality — because not only will he discover that the things living in the darkness are real, he will also find himself in the middle of a war between them and the forces of light.

Set against the normal, everyday backdrop of a council estate, the future of humanity will be decided by the outcome of these events . . . From the imagination of award-winning author Paul Kane (Touching the Flame, Arrowhead, RED) comes a short novel that will make you re-evaluate both the darkness and the light. And everything in-between.