Bram Stoker Award-winner for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction!

Nightmares come to life in this comprehensive how-to guide for new and established authors…

Book two in Crystal Lake Publishing’s The Dream Weaver series picks up where the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Where Nightmares Come From left off.

It’s Alive focuses on learning the craft in order to take your story from concept to completion.

With an introduction by Richard Chizmar and cover art by Luke Spooner. Featuring interior artwork from horror master Clive Barker!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Richard Chizmar
• Confessions of a Professional Day Dreamer by Jonathan Maberry
• What is Writing and Why Write Horror by John Skipp
• Tribal Layers by Gene O’Neill
• Bake That Cake: One Writer’s Method by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale
• Ah-Ha: Beginning to End with Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Bailey (Discussing the Spark of Creativity)
• They Grow in the Shadows: Exploring the Roots of a Horror Story by Todd Keisling
• Sell Your Script, Keep Your Soul and Beware of Sheep in Wolves' Clothing by Paul Moore
• The Cult of Constraint (or To Outline or Not) by Yvonne Navarro
• Zombies, Ghosts and Vampires─Oh My! by Kelli Owen
• The Many Faces of Horror: Craft Techniques by Richard Thomas
• Giving Meaning to the Macabre by Rachel Autumn Deering
• The Horror Writer’s Ultimate Toolbox by Tim Waggoner
• Sarah Pinborough Interview by Marie O’Regan
• Conveying Character by F. Paul Wilson
• Sympathetic Characters Taste Better: Creating Empathy in Horror Fiction by Brian Kirk
• Virtue & Villainy: The Importance of Character by Kealan Patrick Burke
• How to write Descriptions in a story by Mercedes Yardley
• “Don’t Look Now, There’s a Head in That Box!” She Ejaculated Loudly (or Creating Effective Dialogue in Horror Fiction) by Elizabeth Massie
• Point of View by Lisa Mannetti
• What Came First the Monster or the Plot? In Conversation with Stephen Graham Jones by Vince A. Liaguno
• Building Suspense by David Wellington
• Conveying Horror by Ramsey Campbell
• Unveiling Theme Through Plot: An Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” by Stephanie M. Wytovich
• Interview with Clive Barker by Tim Chizmar
• World Building (Building a terrifying world) by Kevin J. Anderson
• Speak Up: The Writer’s Voice by Robert Ford
• Writing for a Better World by Christopher Golden
• Shaping the Ideas: Getting Things from Your Head to the Paper or on Screen. Interview with Steve Niles, Mick Garris, Heather Graham, Mark Savage, and Maria Alexander by Del Howison
• On Research by Bev Vincent
• Editing Through Fear: Cutting and Stitching Stories by Jessica Marie Baumgartner
• Leaping into the Abyss by Greg Chapman
• Edit Your Anthology in Your Basement for Fun and Profit! . . . or Not by Tom Monteleone
• When It’s Their World: Writing for the Themed Anthology by Lisa Morton
• Roundtable Interview by John Palisano
• The Tale of the Perfect Submissions by Jess Landry
• Turning the Next Page: Getting Started with the Business of Wri

Tales Of The Lost Volume II: A Covid-19 Charity Anthology 

Edited by Bram Stoker Award Winner Eugene Johnson and Steve Dillon 

We lose many things during our time in this universe. From the moment we are born we start losing time, and loss becomes a part of our life from the beginning. We lose friends (both imaginary and real), loved ones, pets, and family. We gain stuff and lose stuff, from our socks to our money. We can lose our hope, sanity, passions, our mind, and perhaps even our soul! In the end when death finds us, we end up losing everything... Don't we?

Loss is part of who we are. We can't escape it. We learn from it, grow from it, and so much more. Some of the greatest stories ever forged come from loss. Within this book is some of those stories.

Featuring stories and poetry by an amazing lineup including: 

Tim Waggoner * Lisa Morton * Neil Gaiman * Joe Hill * Heather Graham *  Christopher Golden * Tim Lebbon *  Christina Sng * Vince Liaguno * John Palisano * Kaaron Warren * Chris Mason * Greg Chapman * Tracy Cross * Stephanie W. Wytovich * Alexis Kirkpatrick * Ben Monroe * Lucy A. Snyder and Matthew R. Davis.

Edited by Bram Stoker Award Winner Eugene Johnson and Shirley Jackson award nominated author Steve Dillon. Coming in 2020 from Plaid Dragon Publishing in association with Things in The Well. With cover art by the brilliant Francois Vaillancourt, and interior art by the amazing Luke Spooner. 

Money raised by the anthology will go to benefit the Save the Children Coronavirus response. 

"Tales of the Lost 2 could be called "Tales of the Dark Heart!" From a coming home story that ends in a not-so-typical cemetery scene to a couple of ultimate sacrifices driven by love, this is a book filled with stories to tear at your heart while making you shiver. There are macabre jack-in-the-boxes and soul-stealing virtual reality games and an apocalypse vision of a mother's love the likes of which I've never read before. These are stories of love and longing and selfless giving and aching loss ... with frequent visits from the monstrous things that inhabit the night. This is a volume of horrific heart and chilling beauty."

- John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and Voodoo Heart

"Comprising unnerving tales of loss from horror's best-loved writers, LOST 2 is haunting, uncanny, and deeply disquieting. Prepare to lose sleep while reading this one." - Lee Murray, award-winning author of INTO THE ASHES.

Copyright Plaid Dragon Publishing © 2020 

Published by Plaid Dragon Publishing in association with Things in The Well.

The storm is coming, so batten down the hatches and let Lighthouses guide you into the darkness!

★ If the films The Vanishing and The Lighthouse rocked your boat, you simply must read this dark anthology! ★

Black Beacon Books presents an anthology of dark tales about lighthouses and beacons. This unique book offers you, the most daring of readers, fourteen original stories of horror, mystery, suspense, and adventure. Within these pages lurk monsters from the depths of the seas and the far reaches of the cosmos. There are murders to solve, hauntings to investigate, and loved ones to be rescued. There are tales of hidden treasure, timeless curses, and ancient orders. Seafarers face ferocious storms while families fall apart and lighthouse keepers lose their sanity.

Light House, Dark House - Greg Chapman
Scrimshaw - Duncan Richardson
Horror at Hollow Head - Cameron Trost
Psychopomp - Mark McAuliffe
Trepidation - Danielle Birch
Cloak of Madness - Matthew Wilson
The Cape - B. Michael Radburn
The Last Keeper - Linda Brucesmith
In Search of Jimmy - David Dolan
Into the Light - Alice Godwin
The Crystal Lighthouse - Sam Muller
To Keep the Lamp Alight - Steve Cameron
The Tower - B. T. Joy
Will o’ the Wisp - Deborah Sheldon

Reviews

"I downloaded this wonderful treasure in the dead of night. Sleepy-eyed, I thought I'd just read a few pages, then go to sleep. Little did I know that this is a book that once you start, you can't put down. I'll be wanting the hardcover now, so Lighthouses can grace my shelves right next to Poe, Lovecraft, and Maupassant. Now, I don't throw reviews out like confetti, so it has to be worthy, and Lighthouses is one of the best reads I've had in a while. It's one of those great books that keep you up all night and leave you thinking about it the next day... Simply brilliant!" - Catherine Forte

“This enthrallingly magnificent collection of shorts will delight the connoisseur of the supernatural, and scare the pants off the casual reader.” – Goodreads reviewer

“I would highly recommend this for any nautical horror shelf.” – Goodreads reviewer

Publisher's recommendation: If Lighthouses gives you a thrill, you'll also like our anthology, Shelter from the Storm - available through Amazon like all Black Beacon Books titles.