Charles Black (ed.) – The Eleventh Black Book Of Horror

Just arrived from darkest Mortbury. What a brilliant way to see out a month!

Charles Black (ed.) – The Eleventh Black Book Of Horror (Mortbury Press, Sept. 2015)

Illustration: Paul Mudie

Thana Niveau – Two Five Seven
Edward Pearce – East Wickenden
Tom Johnstone – Slaughtered Lamb
John Llewellyn Probert – Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Stephen Bacon – Lord Of The Sand
Kate Farrell – Alma Mater
Stuart Young – Keeping The Romance Alive
Anna Taborska – Teatime
David A. Riley – Lem
Tony Earnshaw – Flies
David Williamson – And The Dead Shall Speak
Marion Pitman – Every Picture Tells A Story
Sam Dawson – The Weathervane
John Forth – Molli & Julli

Blurb:

14 TALES OF TERROR Selected by Charles Black

DO YOU LIKE HORROR?
DO YOU LIKE TO BE FRIGHTENED?

” …. I suddenly felt a chill go up my back, as though a spider had dropped inside my shirt and was creeping towards my neck.’
Two Five Seven

OR PERHAPS, REVEL IN SADISTIC GLEE?

“As soon as the needle pierces your skin, you’ll feel a stinging, then, as the drain cleaner enters your vein, it will start to burn. The burning will make you want to tear apart your flesh and dig into your own veins to relieve the pain…”
Teatime

DO YOU TAKE A GHOULISH DELIGHT IN THE GROTESQUE?
“His eyes were gone, the sockets filled with flies that crawled and buzzed. His mouth, open and lipless, was a black hole of moving shapes. The odour was overwhelming.”
Flies

AH, YES, THAT SMELL …

“…the pungent, nauseating reek of putrefaction.”
Slaughtered Lamb

SICKENING, ISN’T IT?

AND YET, YOU CAN’T RESIST, CAN YOU‘?

DARE YOU?

 

David A. & Linden Riley (eds.) – Kitchen Sink Gothic

Out now David A. & Linden Riley (eds.) – Kitchen Sink Gothic (Parallel Universe Publications, Aug. 2015) Cover illustration: Joe Young

Stephen Bacon – Daddy Giggles
Franklin Marsh – 1964
Andrew Darlington – Derek Edge and the Sunspots
Gary Fry – Black Sheep
Benedict J. Jones – Jamal Comes Home
Kate Farrell – Waiting
Charles Black – Lilly Finds a Place to Stay
David A. Sutton – The Mutant’s Cry
Walter Gascoigne – The Sanitation Solution
Mark Patrick Lynch – Up and Out of Here
Adrian Cole – Late Shift
Shaun Avery – The Great Estate
Jay Eales – Nine Tenths
Craig Herbertson – Envelopes
Tim Major – Tunnel Vision
M. J. Wesolowski – Life is Prescious
David Turnbull – Canvey Island Baby

Blurb:
Coined in the 1950s, Kitchen Sink described British films, plays and novels frequently set in the North of England, which showed working class life in a gritty, no-nonsense, “warts and all” style, sometimes referred to as social realism. It became popular after the playwright John Osborne wrote Look Back In Anger, simultaneously helping to create the Angry Young Men movement. Films included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Entertainer, A Taste of Honey, The L-Shaped Room and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. TV dramas included Coronation Street and East Enders. In recent years TV dramas that could rightly be described as kitchen sink gothic include Being Human, with its cast of working class vampires, werewolves and ghosts, and the zombie drama In the Flesh, with its northern working class, down to earth setting. In this anthology you will find stories that cover a wide range of Kitchen Sink Gothic, from the darkly humorous to the weirdly strange and occasionally horrific.

Charles Black – Black Ceremonies

Charles Black – Black Ceremonies  (Parallel Universe Publications, Jan. 2015)

Cover:Paul Mudie

The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs
Call of the Damned
The Revelations of Dr Maitland
Tourist Trap
Face to Face
The Coughing Coffin
The Madness Out of the Sea
Death on the Line
The Necronomicon
A Bit Tasty
A Fistful of Vengeance
To Summon a Flesh-Eating Demon
The Strombolli Collection

Blurb:
Those that participate in the thirteen strange dark rites that comprise Black Ceremonies find themselves at the mercy of sinister forces.

Make an invocation to evil.
Witness the horrors of war.
Hear the sound of death.
Feel the hand of vengeance as it reaches out from the grave.

Are you ready to join the doomed and the damned?

“When it comes to dark and twisted tales, they don’t come much darker and more twisted than this. If you have a taste for the macabre, you really will be biting off as much as you can chew with this exciting debut collection from renowned editor and creator of the Black Books of Horror, Charles Black.” – Anna Taborska, author of For Those Who Dream Monsters

‘Charlie’s yarns are very entertaining.” Johnny Mains, editor of Best British Horror

4th Vault Advent Calendar

As has maybe been mentioned on here, the Vault forum is where you’ll find the bulk of the contributors to this place, and if you’ve yet to register, now is as good a time as any. At present, we’re currently halfway through our fourth annual advent calendar, a daily treat in the run-up to Christmas featuring horror fiction, old and new, from several of our very favourite authors. Get with it at Vault – Your one-stop shop for festive mirth!

Charles Black – The Tenth Black Book Of Horror

Charles Black – The Tenth Black Book Of Horror  (Mortbury Press, October 2013)

 

Paul Mudie

Angela Blake – Stiff
Tom Johnstone – The Easter Bunny
David Surface – The Last Testament Of Jacob Tyler
Carl P. Thompson – The War Effort
David A. Sutton – The Pre-Raphaelite Painting
Chris Lawton – Christmas In The Rain
Gary Power – Deeper Than Dark Water
Paul Finch – Marshwall
Ian Hunter – Exploding Raphaelesque Heads
John Probert – The Best Christmas Ever
Mike Chinn – The Pygmalion Conjuration
David Williamson – The Boy
Andrea James – The Last Wagon In The Train
Kate Farrell – Dad Dancing
Thana Niveau – Guinea Pig Girl

The official launch will be at World Fantasy Con, Brighton, 31 October-3rd November .

Tenth Black Book Of Horror …. coming soon

Many thanks to Charles Black for giving us his blessing  to break this welcome news.

1. The Tenth Black Book Of Horror is penciled in for publication to coincide with the World Fantasy Convention at Brighton, Oct.31st – Nov 3, 2013.

2. Here’s a sneak preview of Paul Mudie’s tasteful cover artwork.

More details to follow as and when.

Vault Advent Calendar 2012

Those of you who’ve yet to investigate the Vault Forum might like to do so now as we’re currently compiling the 3rd Annual Vault Advent Calendar. Stories from a variety of ‘thirties pulp magazines & collections supplemented by works from such contemporary greats as Thana Niveau, John Llewellyn Probert, David. A. Riley, Franklin Marsh, Craig Herbertson, Paul Finch, Ramsey Campbell, James Doig, Johnny Mains, and Charles Black. You’ll need to register to download the stories, but hey, you can always delete your account when you’ve had enough! Many, many thanks to all who’ve given of their time and talent to help.

dem

Charles Black – Ninth Black Book Of Horror

Coming October 2012 from Mortbury Presss

Charles Black (ed.) – Ninth Black Book Of Horror (Mortbury Press, Sept. 2012)

Paul Mudie

John Llewellyn Probert – The Anatomy Lesson
Craig Herbertson – The Mall
Simon Bestwick – Salvaje
Gary Fry -Pet
David Williamson – Ashes To Ashes
Anna Taborska – The Apprentice
Sam Dawson – Life Expectancy
Paul Finch – What’s Behind You?
Gary Power – Ben’s Best Friend
Thana Niveau – The Things That Aren’t There
Tom Johnstone – Bit On The Side
Marion Pitman – Indecent Behavior
Kate Farrell – His Family
John Forth – A Song, A SIilence
Marc Lyth – The Man Who Hated Waste
David A. Riley – Swan Song

NEWSDUSK: Farewell Interzone@TYPE, recent Books, Mags & Zines, Zardoz, etc.

NEWSDUSK: Farewell Interzone@TYPE, recent Books, Mags & Zines, Zardoz, etc.

The Vault forum doesn’t leave me as much time as i’d like to post regular news updates, but there’s been plenty to report of late so lets get down to business.

Firstly, it is our sad duty to report that interzone books are no longer an ongoing concern. The TYPE shop still stands and is always worth a visit but, alas, no more row upon row of beloved pulp paperbacks to wade through! It was brilliant while it lasted and we thank Milan for all the effort he put in and wish him well with his future endeavours. We understand he is still planning for the Zardoz Book Fair on November 6th and it is highly likely there will be a scowling vault contingent staggering about the Plaza basement.

On the anthology front, personal favourite of recent months has been, predictably enough, Charles Black’s Eighth Black Book Of Horror. I hope to have copies of the Paul Finch edited Terror Tales Of The Lake District and Gary Fry’s Death Rattles (both Gray Friar Publications) shortly, so avoid our forum for next few weeks unless you wanna be subjected to my entirely worthless verdict on same.

Lots of magazines! As posted earlier, Justin Marriott’s indispensable Paperback Fanatic has now clocked up twenty superb issues in five years, an incredible achievement! The second issue of Martin Jones’ Bedabbled!: British Horror and Cult Cinema is imminent – a ‘Cult Of Satan’ special and, from a rough pdf i’ve seen, a very impressive beast it is, too. Have also received the first five issue’s of Cranston McMillan’s wildly entertaining a-bit-of-everthing-really! fanzine, Kontinental X. The links for these last two lead straight back to the Vault forum, mainly because neither mag has much of a web presence just yet though you can catch up with Martin on faceache.

Sara of the very beautiful My Love Haunted Heart is interviewed at some length on her passion for vintage Gothic Romance over at the impressive After Dark In The Playing Fields. And good luck to The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society in their quest to “make reading sexy.”

thanks for reading

Bloody kisses,

gloomy sundae

Charles Black – The Eighth Black Book Of Horror

Charles Black (ed.) – The Eighth Black Book Of Horror   (Mortbury Press, 2011)

cover illustration: Paul Mudie

Reggie Oliver – Quieta Non Movere
David A. Riley – The Last Coach Trip
Stephen Bacon – Home By The Sea
David Williamson – Boys Will Be Boys
Gary Fry – Behind The Screen
Mark Samuels – The Other Tenant
Paul Finch – Tok
Anna Taborska – Little Pig
Tina & Tony Rath – Casualties Of The System
John Llewellyn Probert – How The Other Half Dies
Marion Pitman – Music In The Bone
Thana Niveau – The Coal Man
Kate Farrell – Mea Culpa