TODD KEISLING is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Devil’s Creek. His other works include The Final Reconciliation, Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors, and The Monochrome Trilogy, among several shorter works. He lives somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania with his family where he is at work on his next novel.

(Art by Erik Wilson) Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of seven books: three novels—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), as well as Transubstantiate (Otherworld Publications); three short story collections—Staring into the Abyss (Kraken Press), Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press), and Tribulations (Cemetery Dance); and one novella in The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). With over 150 stories published, his credits include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI (with Stephen King and Peter Straub). He has won contests at ChiZine and One Buck Horror, has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been long-listed for Best Horror of the Year six times. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine. His agent is Paula Munier at Talcott Notch. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com.

Del Howison is an award-winning editor, journalist, fiction author and actor. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award four times (and won it once), for the Black Quill Award twice, for the Shirley Jackson Award and for the Rondo Hatton Award. Along with his wife Sue, he founded and has operated Dark Delicacies (America's Home of Horror) in Burbank for 17 years. His short story The Lost Herd was retitled The Sacrifice scripted by Mick Garris and directed by Breck Eisner and used as the premiere episode on NBC's anthology show Fear Itself. He has co-edited five books including all three of the Dark Delicacies anthologies, The Book of Lists Horror, and Midian Unmade. His nonfiction includes When Werewolves Attack from Jabberwocky. He also co-wrote (under the pseudonym of D. H. Atrial) Vampires Don't Sleep Alone with Elizabeth Barrial. His film acting appearences include Dahmer Vs Gacy, The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula, Blood Scarab, and The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisted.

Visit his website at www.darkdel.com

Michael Bailey is a recipient of the Bram Stoker Award (and nine-time nominee), a multiple recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award, a four-time Shirley Jackson Award nominee, and over thirty independent publishing accolades. He has authored numerous novels, novellas, novelettes, and fiction & poetry collections. Recent work includes AGATHA'S BARN, a tie-in novella to Josh Malerman’s CARPENTER'S FARM, a collaborative novella with Erinn L. Kemper called THE CALL OF THE VOID, and SIFTING THE ASHES, a collaborative a poetry collection with Marge Simon.

He runs the small press Written Backwards and has edited and published twelve anthologies, such as THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD, the CHIRAL MAD series, MISCREATIONS: GODS, MONSTROSITIES & OTHER HORRORS, and the critically-acclaimed YOU, HUMAN. He lives in Costa Rica where he is rebuilding his life after surviving one of the most catastrophic wildfires in California history, which is explored in his memoir SEVEN MINUTES.

Two-time international Bram Stoker Award-nominee®*, Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist based in Queensland, Australia.

Greg is the author of several novels, novellas and short stories, including his award-nominated debut novel, Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum) and collections, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares (Specul8 Publishing) and This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories (Things in the Well Publications).

He is also a horror artist and his first graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, (McFarland & Company) written by authors Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category at the Bram Stoker Awards® in 2013.

He is also a former President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association.

Greg lives in Rockhampton with his wife and their two daughters.

* Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Hollow House (2016) and

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, for “The Book of Last Words” (2019)

Kelli Owen is an American author, editor, reviewer, podcaster, and indie film producer, who has spoken at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA regarding both her writing and the field in general. While her nonfiction has appeared in various places—including the Bram Stoker Award-winner It's Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life—she is primarily known for her fiction.

As a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers, she has published over a dozen books, including THE HEADLESS BOY, TEETH, and WILTED LILY (a YA series). Her short fiction has appeared alongside Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, F. Paul Wilson, and Josh Malerman, among others, and was in both Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies Arterial Bloom (2020) and Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (2018).

A logophile from a young age, Kelli spent a decade as a reviewer and editor, while running a large genre website, before returning to her roots behind the keyboard. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she now lives in the dark woods of Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit her website at kelliowen.com

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many diverse works, including Beautiful Sorrows, Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy, and the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love.

She recently won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for her realistic horror story Little Dead Red and was a Bram Stoker finalist for her short story "Loving You Darkly." Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars. She is represented by Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo Helin and Fountain Literary Management.

Robert Ford has written the novels Burner, The Compound, No Lipstick in Avalon, and Blood Roses, a horror-western. He also has a collection of his short fiction The God Beneath my Garden, a novella collection, Inner Demons, and the novella Larva Me Tender.

He collaborated, with John Boden, on the novellas Rattlesnake Kisses, Cattywampus, and Black Salve, in the Knucklebucket Thang series.

With author Matt Hayward, Robert co-wrote the novel A Penny for Your Thoughts.

Robert lives in Central Pennsylvania, and is usually hard at work on at least two projects at a time. You can find out more about his upcoming releases at www.robertfordauthor.com

Marie O’Regan is an award-nominated author and editor, based in Derbyshire. She’s the author of a novel, Celeste (2022 Silver Shamrock Publishing); three collections: Mirror Mere (2006, Rainfall Books); In Times of Want (2016, Hersham Horror Books), and The Last Ghost and Other Stories, (2019, Luna Press), as well as a novella, Bury Them Deep (2017, Hersham Horror Books), and her short fiction has been published in genre magazines and anthologies in the UK, US, Canada, Italy, and Germany, including Best British Horror 2014, Great British Horror: Dark Satanic Mills (2017), and The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (2108). She was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 2006, and Best Anthology in 2010 (Hellbound Hearts) and 2012 (Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women). She and her co-editor were also shortlisted for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology for Wonderland (Titan Books). Her genre journalism has appeared in magazines like The Dark Side, Rue Morgue and Fortean Times, and her interview book with prominent figures from the horror genre, Voices in the Dark, was released in 2011. An essay on “The Changeling” was published in PS Publishing’s Cinema Macabre, edited by Mark Morris. She is co-editor of the bestselling Hellbound Hearts, Mammoth Book of Body Horror, A Carnivàle of Horror – Dark Tales from the Fairground, Exit Wounds, Wonderland, Cursed and Trickster’s Treats #3, plus the editor of bestselling The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women and Phantoms. She is Co-Chair of the UK Chapter of the Horror Writers’ Association, and is also the Managing Editor of Absinthe Books, an imprint of PS Publishing.

James Chambers writes tales of horror, crime, fantasy, and science fiction. He is the author of The Engines of Sacrifice, a collection of four Lovecraftian-inspired novellas published in 2011 by Dark Regions Press which Publisher's Weekly described as "...chillingly evocative...." He is also the author of the short fiction collection Ressurection House (Dark Regions Press, 2009). Most recently, Dark Quest Books published The Dead Bear Witness and Tears of Blood, volume one and two in his Corpse Fauna novella series. Volume three, The Dead in Their Masses, will be published in late 2013. In August 2005 Die Monster Die Books published his first short story collection, The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, created in collaboration with illustrator Jason Whitley.

His short stories have been published in the anthologies Bad-Ass Faeries, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory, Bad Cop No Donut, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, Breach the Hull, By Other Means, Crypto-Critters (Volume 1 and Volume 2), Dark Furies, The Dead Walk, The Dead Walk Again, Deep Cuts, The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, Dragon's Lure, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Hear Them Roar, Hellfire Lounge, In An Iron Cage, Lost Worlds of Space and Time (Volume 1), Mermaids 13, New Blood, No Longer Dreams, Sick: An Anthology of Illness, So It Begins, To Hell in a Fast Car, Walrus Tales, Weird Trails, and Warfear; the chapbook Mooncat Jack; and the magazines Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Allen K's Inhuman.

His tale "A Wandering Blackness," one of two published in Lin Carter's Doctor Anton Zarnak, Occult Detective, received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Sixteenth Annual Collection.

He has also written numerous comic books including Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, the critically acclaimed "The Revenant" in Shadow House, and most recently a Midnight Hour story for the comics anthology Negative Burn.

He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the current chairperson of its membership committee.

He lives in New York.

Joe Mynhardt is a Bram Stoker Award-winning South African publisher, editor, and mentor.

A former primary school teacher, Joe is now the owner and CEO of Crystal Lake Publishing, which he founded in August, 2012. Since then he’s published and edited short stories, novellas, interviews and essays by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Charlaine Harris, Ramsey Campbell, John Connolly, Jack Ketchum, Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Golden, Graham Masterton, Damien Angelica Walters, Adam Nevill, Lisa Morton, Elizabeth Massie, Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Lee, Paul Tremblay, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Mick Garris, and hundreds more. Yes, hundreds.

Just like Crystal Lake Publishing, which strives to be a platform for launching author careers, Joe believes in reaching out to all authors, new and experienced, and being a beacon of friendship and guidance in the Dark Fiction field. In 2017 he started a coalition of small press publishers to support both each other and their authors.

Joe also became a work-from-home dad in 2018. His daughter, Cayleigh, is named after his childhood influences, Bruce Lee and Stan Lee. Joe’s other influences stretch from Poe, Doyle, and Lovecraft to King, Connolly, and Gaiman (and so many more). Not to mention other great stories found in comics, movies, and television.

You can read more about Joe and Crystal Lake Publishing at www.crystallakepub.com or find him on Facebook.

Jessica is the author of "Homeschooling on a Budget," “The Magic of Nature,” “Walk Your Path,” “The Golden Rule,” and numerous stories and articles. She is a member of The Missouri Writer’s Guild, and currently writes for the "Right Side Broadcasting Network," as well as "Witch Way Magazine." Her work has won 4 Missouri Writer’s Guild Awards, and countless others. Find her at: jessicamariebaumgartner.com

Publications that have featured Jessica Marie Baumgartner’s work: Right Side Broadcasting Network, Sasee Magazine, Extremely American, Giant Freakin Robot,The Foundation for Economic Education, The Vermont Daily Chronicle, Edge of Humanity Magazine, The Conservative New Mexican, The Conservative Woman, Go 2 Tutors Education News, Missouri Conservationist, The Federalist, Aspire Magazine, All Things Weird & Strange, The Gonzo Press, The New American, The Epoch Times, The Sedona Journal of Emergence, American Thinker, Pagan Pages, Magic of Motivational Poetry and Quotes, Evie Magazine, Father and I, Woods Reader, Witch Way Magazine, Light of Consciousness Magazine, Breastfeeding Today, New Spirit Journal, Alban Lake Publishing, Conscious Shift Magazine, Witchology Magazine, LitReactor, Buddy Lit Zine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Kids Imagination Train Magazine, Mothers Always Write, It's Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, Fantastic Tales of Terror: History's Darkest Secrets, The RAC Magazine, Bards & Sages, Aurora Wolf, Spaceports & Spidersilk, My Wandering Uterus, Guardian Angel Kids Ezine, The Society of Misfit Stories, FrostFire Worlds, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Teachers, Outposts of Beyond, Everyday Fiction, The Lorelei Signal, Circle Magazine, Yellow Mama, The Horror Zine, The Witches' Voice, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Spirit One Magazine, Fiction on the Web, Jitter Press, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Postcard Shorts, Hellfire Crossroads, and Quantum Muse and The St. Louis Examiner (where she used to be a staff member).

RACHEL AUTUMN DEERING is an Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated writer, editor, and book designer from the hills of Appalachia. Her debut prose novella, HUSK, was published in 2016 and drew praise from critics and fellow writers alike. Her upcoming novel, Wytchwood Hollow, is set for publication in 2018.

She has also written, edited, lettered, designed, and published comics and short prose for DC/Vertigo Comics, Blizzard Entertainment, Dark Horse Comics, IDW, Cartoon Network, and more.

Deering is a rock 'n' roll witch with a heart of slime. She lives with a bunch of monster masks in the wild, wild midwest.

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others.

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a recipient of the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant and has received the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for non-fiction writing.

Wytovich is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press.

Follow Wytovich at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor.

From the day she was born, Bram Stoker Award-winner and Shirley Jackson Award-nominee Jessica Landry has always been attracted to the darker things in life. Her fondest childhood memories include getting nightmares from the Goosebumps books, watching The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and reiterating to her family that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her mental state.

Since then, Jessica’s fiction has appeared in many anthologies, including Aliens vs Predators: Ultimate Prey, Tales of the Lost, Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles, Monsters of Any Kind, Where Nightmares Come From, Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road, and Fantastic Tales of Terror, which features her Bram Stoker Award-winning short story, "Mutter." Her debut collection, The Mother Wound, is set for release in 2023; and she's edited the anthologies, That Which Cannot Be Undone from Cracked Skull Press, and the multi-nominated, There Is No Death, There Are No Dead, co-edited with Aaron J. French, from Crystal Lake Publishing.

Find her online at jesslandry.com.

After graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Tim Chizmar has written for various magazines, newspapers and websites including Fangoria, First Comics News, and many others. He has sold short stories to such collections as Chicken Soup for the Soul and has written various screenplays for Hollywood production companies. Tim has been a proud member of various writers’ organizations including co-founding the Las Vegas Chapter of the prestigious Horror Writers Association.

Aside from the darker topics, it has not all been a career of terror as his lighter credits to date include ABC, FOX, Showtime, Comedy Central, Playboy, NBC, The Hallmark Channel, and many more. He has produced various pilots including in 2010 he developed a comedy/action series for CMT with wrestling superstar Rob Van Dam. As a headlining comedian Tim was a favorite at The World Famous Hollywood IMPROV, The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club, has toured all over the world playing sold-out casinos, clubs and colleges. To date he has worked with such standup legends as Jeff Foxworthy, Gabriel Iglesias, Jon Lovitz, Daniel Tosh, Brad Williams, and many others.

When he’s not inspiring fellow writers by being on various panels such as San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon, Scare LA, or speaking at Hollywood Success events, he's constantly working on his next project. Because for Tim Chizmar... There’s always a next project! After Tim had been successful enough to become a regular at red carpet premieres, he left all the glitz and glam behind in early 2017 for the mountains of Idaho as he completed his first full length books. He always looks forward to having frank, honest, and engaging discussions on the business of the writing craft with his fellow writers. Tim’s advice to young writers is this…

“Be inspired. Are you alive, or are you just breathing?”

Bram Stoker Award®-winner Eugene Johnson is a bestselling author, editor, filmmaker and columnist. He has written as well as edited in various genres, and created many anthologies. His anthology projects included Fantastic Tales Of Terror from Crystal Lake Publishing, Appalachia Undead with Jason Sizemore,

Attack From The’80s from Raw Dog Screaming Press, Drive In Creature Feature with Charles Day, the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated non-fiction anthology Where Nightmares Come From: The Art Of Storytelling In The Horror Genre, Dark Tides with John Questore, The Tales Of The Lost Series, and many more. He has written articles for various sites and publications including Ginger Nuts Of Horror, The Zombie Feed and more. He lives in Appalachia with his family.

https://www.patreon.com/plaiddradonpublising

Since its founding in August 2012, Crystal Lake Publishing has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books in print, eBook, and audio formats.

While we strive to present only the highest quality fiction and entertainment, we also endeavour to support authors along their writing journey. We offer our time and experience in non-fiction projects, as well as author mentoring and services, at competitive prices.

With several Bram Stoker Award wins and many other wins and nominations, Crystal Lake Publishing puts integrity, honor, and respect at the forefront of our publishing operations.

We strive for each book and outreach program we spearhead to not only entertain and touch or comment on issues that affect our readers, but also to strengthen and support the Dark Fiction field and its authors.

Not only do we find and publish authors we believe are destined for greatness, but we strive to work with men and woman who endeavour to be decent human beings who care more for others than themselves, while still being hard working, driven, and passionate artists and storytellers.

Crystal Lake Publishing is and will always be a beacon of what passion and dedication, combined with overwhelming teamwork and respect, can accomplish. We endeavour to know each and every one of our readers, while building personal relationships with our authors, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, bookstores, and libraries.

We will be as trustworthy, forthright, and transparent as any business can be, while also keeping most of the headaches away from our authors, since it’s our job to solve the problems so they can stay in a creative mind. Which of course also means paying our authors.

We do not just publish books, we present to you worlds within your world, doors within your mind, from talented authors who sacrifice so much for a moment of your time.

There are some amazing small presses out there, and through collaboration and open forums we will continue to support other presses in the goal of helping authors and showing the world what quality small presses are capable of accomplishing. No one wins when a small press goes down, so we will always be there to support hardworking, legitimate presses and their authors. We don’t see Crystal Lake as the best press out there, but we will always strive to be the best, strive to be the most interactive and grateful, and even blessed press around. No matter what happens over time, we will also take our mission very seriously while appreciating where we are and enjoying the journey.

What do we offer our authors that they can’t do for themselves through self-publishing?

We are big supporters of self-publishing (especially hybrid publishing), if done with care, patience, and planning. However, not every author has the time or inclination to do market research, advertise, and set up book launch strategies. Although a lot of authors are successful in doing it all, strong small presses will always be there for the authors who just want to do what they do best: write.

What we offer is experience, industry knowledge, contacts and trust built up over years. And due to our strong brand and trusting fanbase, every Crystal Lake Publishing book comes with weight of respect. In time our fans begin to trust our judgment and will try a new author purely based on our support of said author.

To date we’ve published around 100 books, and with each launch we strive to fine-tune our approach, learn from our mistakes, and increase our reach. We continue to assure our authors that we’re here for them and that we’ll carry the weight of the launch and dealing with third parties while they focus on their strengths—be it writing, interviews, blogs, signings, etc.

We also offer several mentoring packages to authors that include knowledge and skills they can use in both traditional and self-publishing endeavours.

We look forward to launching many new careers.

This is what we believe in. What we stand for. This will be our legacy.

Welcome to Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Tim Waggoner’s first novel came out in 2001, and he’s published close to fifty novels and seven collections of short stories since. He writes original fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. His novels include Like Death, considered a modern classic in the genre, and the popular Nekropolis series of urban fantasy novels. He’s written tie-in fiction for Supernatural, Alien, Grimm, the X-Files, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Transformers, among others. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Writer’s Journal, and Writer’s Workshop of Horror. He’s won the Bram Stoker Award and been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Scribe Award, and the Splatterpunk Award. In addition to writing, Tim is also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College.