Liminal Spaces is a quiet horror anthology from Cemetery Gates Media featuring stories from well-known dark fiction writers such as: Joanna Koch, Jessica McHugh, Mark Allan Gunnells, Anthony J. Rapino, Gwendolyn Kiste, Michael Wehunt, Bob Ford, Kelli Owen, Richard Thomas, Todd Keisling, Chad Lutzke, Kristi DeMeester, Joshua Palmatier, and Norman Prentiss.

“The word ‘liminal’ comes from the Latin root limen. It means ‘threshold.’ A liminal space is a ‘crossing over’ space–a space where you have left something behind, yet you are not fully in something else. It’s a transition space.

“This is my favorite kind of horror and speculative fiction. Fiction which takes place in that ‘crossing over’ space. Stories about characters who have–wittingly or unwittingly–crossed a threshold. Those who have left something behind, yet are not quite somewhere or something else. They are in-between, and are neither one thing, nor another. Classic anthologies like Shadows, edited by Charles L. Grant epitomize these kinds of stories, as did Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, the work of Charles Beaumont and T. M Wright, Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson, and the ‘strange stories’ of Robert Aickman.”

-Kevin Lucia, Editor

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

It’s dangerous out there…
On the road.
The highways, byways and backroads of America are teeming day and night with regular folks. Moms and dads making long commutes. Teenagers headed to the beach. Bands on their way to the next gig. Truckers pulling long hauls. Families driving cross country to visit their kin.

But there are others, too. The desperate and the lost. The cruel and the criminal.

Theirs is a world of roadside honky-tonks, truck stops, motels, and the empty miles between destinations. The unseen spaces.

And there are even stranger things. Places that aren’t on any map. Wayfaring terrors and haunted legends about which seasoned and road-weary travelers only whisper.

But those are just stories. Aren’t they?

Find out for yourself as you get behind the wheel with some of today’s finest authors of the dark and horrific as they bring you these harrowing tales from the road.

Tales that could only be spawned by the endless miles of America’s lost highways.

So go ahead and hop in. Let’s take a ride.

Line-up:

• Introduction by Brian Keene
• doungjai gam & Ed Kurtz — “Crossroads of Opportunity”
• Joe R. Lansdale — “Not from Detroit”
• Kristi DeMeester — “A Life That is Not Mine”
• Robert Ford — “Mr. Hugsy”
• Lisa Kröger — “Swamp Dog”
• Orrin Grey — “No Exit”
• Michael Bailey — “The Long White Line”
• Kelli Owen — “Jim’s Meats”
• Bracken MacLeod — “Back Seat”
• Jess Landry — “The Heart Stops at the End of Laurel Lane”
• Jonathan Janz — “Titan, Tyger”
• Nick Kolakowski — “Your Pound of Flesh”
• Richard Thomas — “Requital”
• Damien Angelica Walters — “That Pilgrims’ Hands Do Touch”
• Cullen Bunn — “Outrunning the End”
• Christopher Buehlman — “Motel Nine”
• Rachel Autumn Deering — “Dew Upon the Wing”
• Josh Malerman — “Room 4 at the Haymaker”
• Rio Youers — “The Widow”

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with the editor:

So what makes Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road so special?
Lost Highways comes at the theme of road stories with the desire to push the boundaries of what that theme means. Because of that, it collects authors of diverse levels of experience and notoriety in the worlds of horror and dark fiction. This brings together voices like Joe R. Lansdale, Cullen Bunn, Josh Malerman, Damien Angelica Walters, Rio Youers, Bracken MacLeod, Rachel Autumn Deering, doungjai gam with Ed Kurtz, and Kristi DeMeester. All of these unique voices bring a fresh and often unexpected take on the theme.

What made you think of this theme for the anthology?
Road trips can be fun but they can also be long and boring. And while you can read a book to yourself to pass the time, it’s not a very social experience. So Lost Highways was born out of the idea that...

Lush. Brutal.
Beautiful. Visceral.

Crystal Lake Publishing proudly presents the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Arterial Bloom, an artful juxtaposition of the magnificence and macabre that exist within mankind. Each tale in this collection is resplendent with beauty, teeth, and heart.

Edited by the Bram Stoker Award-winning writer Mercedes M. Yardley, Arterial Bloom is a literary experience featuring 16 stories from some of the most compelling dark authors writing today.

With a foreword by HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Linda D. Addison, you are invited to step inside and let the grim flowers wind themselves comfortably around your bones.

The line-up includes:
The Stone Door by Jimmy Bernard
Dog (Does Not) Eat Dog by Grant Longstaff
Kudzu Stories by Linda J. Marshall
Dead Letters by Christopher Barzak
The Darker Side of Grief by Naching T. Kassa
Welcome to My Autumn by Daniel Crow
Still Life by Kelli Owen
Three Masks by Armand Rosamilia
Doodlebug by John Boden
Happy Pills by Todd Keisling
What Remained of Her by Jennifer Loring
Blue Was Her Favorite Color by Dino Parenti
In the Loop by Ken Liu
The Making of Mary by Steven Pirie
Mouths Filled with Sea Water by Jonathan Cosgrove
Rotten by Carina Bissett

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with the editor:

Mercedes, this is your debut as an anthology editor. Can you tell us how you went about choosing the Dark Fiction stories included in Arterial Bloom?
MMY: Yes, absolutely! Crystal Lake Publishing put out a call for short horror stories. My job was to ensure authors heard about the call. I basically beat down doors trying to spread the word, making sure that people realized it was an open, inclusive anthology and I was interested in stories of all types. Several hundred stories rolled in. It was a massive undertaking, but by reading open submissions instead of invitation-only stories, I was able to come across several authors who were new to me. This collection is full of award-winning, well-known authors as well as fresh voices. It’s a beautiful mix and I’m very proud of it.

This was an unthemed horror anthology, which means that you weren’t particularly looking for any specific themes. But did you find that a certain theme emerged?
MMY: Oh, yes. The Arterial Bloom anthology is all about monsters. Some monsters are literal. Some are human. But every story shows the juxtaposition of the ugliness and the beauty of humanity and the way we deal with things. It’s an emotional anthology. We deal with horror, grief, trauma, love, and healing. It’s gut-wrenching. It’s visceral and quite lovely, in a way.

How did you come up with the title?
MMY: The anthology itself is gutting and gorgeous. I was trying to find a title that played with that hardness and softness. My friends from The Geeky Writers and I went into our chat and brainstormed titles. Different words, different phrases. We just put them together in combinations until we came up with Arterial Bloom. It was the perfect title. It has that primitive, animal feel as well as being artistic. In my mind’s eye, I could see arterial spray, which is graphic and horrifying, painting exquisite flowers on a white wall.

17 horror Stories. One legendary music venue.

We all know the old cliché: Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Now, add demons, other dimensions, monsters, revenge, human sacrifice, and a dash of the truly inexplicable. This is the story of the (fictional) San Francisco music venue, The Shantyman.

In Welcome to the Show, seventeen of today's hottest writers of horror and dark fiction come together in devilish harmony to trace The Shantyman's history from its disturbing birth through its apocalyptic encore.

Featuring stories by Brian Keene, John Skipp, Mary SanGiovanni, Robert Ford, Max Booth III, Glenn Rolfe, Matt Hayward, Bryan Smith, Matt Serafini, Kelli Owen, Jonathan Janz, Patrick Lacey, Adam Cesare, Alan M Clark, Somer Canon, Rachel Autumn Deering and Jeff Strand.

Compiled by Matt Hayward. Edited by Doug Murano.

Bring your curiosity, but leave your inhibitions at the door. The show is about to begin…

TOC:

• Alan M Clark – What Sort of Rube
• Jonathan Janz – Night and Day and in Between
• John Skipp – In the Winter of No Love
• Patrick Lacey – Wolf with Diamond Eyes
• Bryan Smith – Pilgrimage
• Rachel Autumn Deering – A Tongue like Fire
• Glenn Rolfe – Master of Beyond
• Matt Hayward – Dark Stage
• Kelli Owen – Open Mic Night
• Matt Serafini – Beat on the Past
• Max Booth III – True Starmen
• Somer Canon – Just to be Seen
• Jeff Strand – Parody
• Robert Ford – Ascending
• Adam Cesare – The Southern Thing
• Brian Keene – Running Free
• Mary SanGiovanni – We Sang in Darkness

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with compiler Matt Hayward:

What makes this horror anthology so special?
A: The book is as much an anthology as it is a collaborative novel. Each story explores the history of the Shantyman, a haunted music venue located in San Francisco with a long and bloody past. With the likes of John Skipp, Brian Keene, and Rachel Autumn Deering involved, we not only see the venue change throughout the decades, but also from changing perspectives, everything from psychological horror to extreme horror, and even a splash of comedy.  

Q: Tell us more about the venue and the history of the building?
The Shantyman's history is the product of author/illustrator Alan M Clark. Alan usually tackles historical horror, and I wouldn't have chosen anyone else to take on the task. What Alan delivered was a seven-thousand-word horror juggernaut set in San Francisco’s gold rush era, involving a traveling singer who gets shanghaied. I won't ruin any surprises, but there are cannibals. Alan sets the gruesome scene from which every other story stems.

Q: What made you think of this theme for the anthology?
A: About a year ago, I attended a comedy show at a famous music venue here in Dublin. The main room was seated, and the audience rather docile.