Bøger af Gemma Files

Angels and insects, holes in the known world's fabric and what comes out of them, the love of death and the death of love. In award-winning horror author Gemma Files's seventh collection of short fiction, the numinous and the awful tango together through a collapsing series of not-so-alternate realities, and everyone they touch emerges changed, whether or not they may have wanted to be. This is fantasy of the darkest sort, horror-cured, marinating in its own transformative juices. So enter a fractured universe of creepy delights, one where the oldest tropes are turned inside out and wrung for their oddest components, as forgotten gods and monsters cavort beneath a storm of BLOOD FROM THE AIR.Formerly a film critic, journalist, screenwriter and teacher, Gemma Files has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published five collections of short work, three collections of speculative poetry, a Weird Western trilogy, a story-cycle and a stand-alone novel (Experimental Film, which won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel). Her collection In That Endlessness, Our End won both the Bram Stoker Award and the This Is Horror Award in that category for 2021.

WHAT WE FEAR IN THE DARK CAN BE TERRIBLE.WHAT WE SEE IN THE LIGHT CAN BE WORSE.... This world is full of places that seem empty, but hide awful secrets. A cinematic ghost escapes from an experimental art project, infiltrating first the internet, then the "real" world; an exterminator debugging a dilapidated building discovers it's inhabited by both insects and angels; an intergalactic invasion begins with a single word; an all-female cult rediscovers an ancient, extremely bloody method of communion. Crammed to the brim with cosmic horror and dreadful invention, Dark Is Better (Trepidatio)-Gemma Files's sixth short fiction collection-acts as both a rough overview of her career thus far and a fitting chaser to her 2021 Bram Stoker Award-winning collection In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe). This cabinet of liminal and sidelong curiosities is the universe horror icon Files's stories inhabit...one full of fractures and secrets, of darkness both cosmic and personal. Bringing together stories published over a period of nearly twenty years, this book includes some of Files' best-known works as well as many not widely distributed until now, encompassing the history of her development as a leading voice in the dark and the weird. As the ghastly light of revelation illuminates awfulness after awfulness, we invite you to learn exactly why DARK IS BETTER

Aghast is a bi-annual journal of dark fantasy and horror short fiction. We publish dark fiction with teeth. Table of Contents Night-Bird Gemma Files Sticks and Bones Leo Norman A Marvelous Neutrality Esther Saxey Plague Mother Jamie Killen Greener Pastures Michael Wehunt Haves and Have Nots Aaron Polson Appearances Craig D.B . Patton Rockport Boys Megan Arkenberg Cleaning Up Tim Waggoner Deformed Son Jeff Strand Rust & Flame Brennen Reece (Tabletop Role Playing Game)

UNWELL... Cody Goodfellow wants to introduce you to a goddess who offers unsurpassed pleasure at an unspeakable price. UNWISE... Gemma Files wants you to see what happens when you look too closely into places and things better left unknown. UNQUIET... Mort Castle wants to play some unfamiliar music for you... the tunes of the lost and the damned. UNDONE... Gary A. Braunbeck wants to take you to the edge of madness and perversity... and push you over. From the agony of unrelenting grief to the desperation of spontaneously-combusting convicts, from the grim battle between a human monster and his otherworldy competition to the salacious secret life of Ro-Man(!). All this and more in strange worlds vividly painted by four supremely talented authors worlds that are twisted, cruel and mighty unclean.

“The rousing conclusion to Files’s remarkable Hexslinger trilogy . . . A bravura performance” from the author of A Book of Tongues and A Rope of Thorns (Publishers Weekly).   A new Civil War is brewing. With the city of Bewelcome as its headquarters, Allan Pinkerton’s Detective Agency leads a siege on Hex City, the town founded by “Reverend” Asher Rook and his consort, the Mayan goddess Ixchel. Monsters prowl the battleground, rocket trails of spells crisscross the sky, and an unnatural rain falls.   Sides must be taken, but Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow, spiritualist Yancey Kloves, and even Rook must choose what ruin or redemption means to each of them. Meanwhile, Chess Pargeter gears up for the greatest fight of his life—and death. A battle out of hell itself . . .  Praise for the Hexslinger Series   “Gemma’s been producing top-notch horror stories for years, and her weird Western Hexslinger trilogy is chock full of hellish horrors.” —Mike Allen, author of Unseaming   “Potent mythology, complex characters, and dollops of creeping horror and baroque gore establish Files’s Hexslinger series as a top-notch horror-fantasy saga.” —Publishers Weekly   “Paints a stark, vivid, and gory picture of the ‘wild west’ in the years following the Civil War . . . Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths.” —Library Journal   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria

“Gemma Files has one of the great dark imaginations in fiction―visionary, transgressive, and totally original.” —Jeff VanderMeer   In Gemma Files’s “boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut,” former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic (Publishers Weekly). He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.   Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.   Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy . . . [which] is chock full of hellish horrors” (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com   “Definitely promising—tantalizing, even, because it sets up such a fertile scenario and hammers home the themes of love, sacrifice, and apotheosis.” —Strange Horizons   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria

The second book in the “top-notch horror-fantasy saga,” following A Book of Tongues, is “a spectacular blend of Aztec religion and Western gunslinging (Publishers Weekly).   Welcome to Hex City. Population: magicians. Thanks to hexslinger “Reverend” Asher Rook, sorcerers now have a sanctuary where they can live and work in peace. But a storm is coming—a tempest known as Chess Pargeter.   Infuriated by his former lover Rook’s betrayal and sacrificed in the name of the Mayan goddess who is Rook’s current consort, Chess leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Caught up in Chess’s crusade is Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow and a young woman spiritualist. But there are more than Chess’s own demons to be reckoned with, including a resurrected lawman with a bone to pick—and a final judgment to deliver . . .   “Paints a stark, vivid, and gory picture of the ‘wild west’ in the years following the Civil War . . . Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths.” —Library Journal   “Files’ prose remains a delight to read, the cadence of her sentences captures the wild west setting perfectly, and the images she paints are a fascinating mix of frontier practicality and magic bred surrealism.” —The Turned Brain  Praise for A Book of Tongues   “Boundary-busting horror–fantasy . . . This promising debut fully delivers both sizzling passions and dark chills.” —Publishers Weekly   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria

Vastarien: A Literary Journal is a source of critical study and creative response to the corpus of Thomas Ligotti as well as associated authors and ideas. The journal includes nonfiction, literary horror fiction, poetry, artwork and non-classifiable hybrid pieces.ContentsVenioGemma FilesThe Lord is an Active ShooterFiona Maeve GeistThe SistersF.J. BergmannHorror Religiosus: The Dark Passions of Mark SamuelsDavid PeakThe Curse of the Biblical MagiSepehr Goshayeshi AharesiaNatalia TheodoridouSilhouette GolemsS. E. CaseyOrchid ArchitectureK. A. OppermanAll the Stage is a WorldForrest AguirreBurger ShopJayaprakash SatyamurthyRat KingLia Swope MitchellVanpoolC. M. MullerMagic, Madness, and Women Who Creep: The Power of Individuality in the Work of Charlotte Perkins GilmanGwendolyn KisteThe Ageless AgelastsRhys HughesIn the Way of Eslan MendeghastFarah Rose SmithEffigies of Former SupervisorsMatthew M. BartlettContributors

The Legend Continues…In the spirit of popular Dark Fiction and Horror anthologies such as Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories and Behold: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, and the best of Stephen King's short fiction, comes Crystal Lake Publishing's Tales from The Lake anthologies.Where are the real horrors? Whether they be a family member returning from the dead, exploring the depths of depression or the deterioration of the mind, you'll find them here.This anthology contains twenty-two tales and three poems to elicit unexpected emotions, to bring you into the story. Welcome to my lake, where dreams really do come true… As nightmares!Includes work from Gemma Files, Lucy A. Snyder, Tim Waggoner, Gene O'Neill, Paul Michael Anderson, Craig Wallwork, Allison Pang, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Michelle Ann King, Cory Cone, Jonah Buck, Lucy Taylor, Laura Blackwell, Marge Simon, Robert Stahl, Jason Sizemore, Meghan Arcuri, Peter Mark May, Lane Waldman, Joanna Parypinski, Samuel Marzioli, Andi Rawson, and Bruce Boston.With an introduction by editor Kenneth W. Cain. Cover art by Ben Baldwin. Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing - Tales from The Darkest Depths.

For almost thirty years, Shirley Jackson Award-winning horror author Gemma Files has consistently served up tale after tale celebrating monstrosity in all its forms: the imperfect, the broken, the beautifully alien and the sadly familiar. Her characters make their own choices and take their own chances, slipping from darkness into deeper darkness yet never losing their humanity-not even when they're anything but.An embittered blood-servant plots revenge against the vampires who own him; a little girl's best friend seeks to draw her into an ancient, forbidden realm; two monster-hunting sisters cross paths with an amoral holler-witch again and again, battling both mortal authorities and immortal predators. From the forgotten angels who built the cosmos to the reckless geniuses whose party drug unleashes a plague, madness, monsters and murder await at every turn. And in "The Speed of Pain," sequel to the International Horror Guild award-winning story "The Emperor's Old Bones," we find that even those who can live forever can't outrun their own crimes....Following in the footsteps of her critically praised Kissing Carrion, The Worm in Every Heart and We Will All Go Down Together, this is the first of two new Gemma Files collections from Trepidatio Publishing, bringing together nine of her best stories from the past ten years. So whether you're returning to Files's dark dreamlands or visiting for the first time, we advise you to get ready to review the-SPECTRAL EVIDENCE

Within the pages of this anthology of weird fiction, you'll find seventeen stories from a diverse group of international authors. Stories that plumb the depths of earth at least as deeply as they explore the human capacity for suffering and enlightenment. The cavern mouth awaits, as does the cistern with hidden depths, the tunnel that twists and writhes, the abyssal space that hums with unknown activity. Note the faint glow to the walls as you descend: mere phosphorescent fungi... or something more peculiar? There is a sound of rushing water that you can't place, and the suggestion of drums and strange flutes in the deep. The rock vibrates beneath the soles of your feet, and your headlamp flickers, fails. But then, you knew it would, eventually. This place is not for you, but here you are. Welcome to CHTHONIC: Weird Tales of Inner Earth.Featuring stories by Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, Orrin Grey, H. P. Lovecraft, Christopher Slatsky, Sarah Peploe, David Stevens, and more. With stunning black and white interior illustrations by aclaimed weird artist Fufu Fruenwahl. Edited by Scott R Jones.

They emerge from the shadows, to claim the night... Women from around the world delve into Lovecraftian depths, penning and illustrating a variety of weird horrors. The pale and secretive Lavinia wanders through the woods, Asenath is a teenager with an attitude, and the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Nitocris has found a new body in distant America.