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What distinguishes Kate Farrell's work is the extraordinary accuracy and vividness with which she sets up her situations. She has an eye for detail and an outstanding ear for the way people think and speak. It is far from fanciful to see this at least partly as the product of her experience as an actress. In the theatre, a natural faculty for observing one's fellow human beings is trained and honed. Listen to the narrator of "Waiting." If you don't know someone like that personally, you will have certainly heard her talking just behind you on a bus at some time. The intonation, the accent, the understanding, and the lack of it, are all so true to life. But the people Farrell evokes are not all from one social stratum, or one nation. Here is an ancient and corrupt Irish Priest ("The Way the Truth and the Life"), here is the wife of a notorious Argentinean dictator ("Las Cosas Que Hacemos por el Amor"), or the two Spanish schoolchildren in "The Efficient Use of Reason," and they are all done with the same conviction, the same ruthless accuracy. Farrell's eye is not heartless, but it is unclouded by any kind of sentimental affectation; her horrors emerge from what we sometimes call the commonplace. Very occasionally she touches on the supernatural, but when she does she does it superbly as in one of my favourites among her stories "A Murder of Crows" which shows that she can do an uncanny rural atmosphere with grim poetry as well as anyone. It is the gift of every worthwhile writer in this genre to make us realise that just beneath the surface of the banal and ordinary, there yawn great abysses of wonder and terror. I don't know quite why this realisation, in the hands of a writer like Farrell, should be so thrilling, enjoyable even, but it is. There is not a dull page, not a dull sentence in And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After. From Reggie Oliver 's introduction to And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After

Weird tales by some of the classic authors of the genre, including J. Sheridan Le Fanu (An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street), E. F. Benson (The Judgement Books), Vernon Lee (Oke of Okehurst), Vincent O'Sullivan (When I was Dead), Edith Wharton (The Eyes), W. C. Morrow (A Story Told by the Sea), Irvin S. Cobb (The Unbroken Chain), Edith Nesbit (From the Dead), Robert Murray Gilchrist (Witch In-Grain), Amyas Northcote (The Downs), and J. H. Riddell (The Uninhabited House).

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.

"The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales" is Edinburgh born Craig Herbertson's new horror collection. There has been a revival of the old style horror exemplified by the gory Pan Horror collections once commonplace in newsagents and train station kiosks throughout the UK. "The Heaven Maker," published in 1988, was one such story; at last it is once again in print along with some unseemly and dreadful companions. Also on the menu are stand alone excerpts from the critically acclaimed dark fantasy novel, "School: The Seventh Silence," followed by an aperitif of dark songs from Herbertson's extensive traditional repertoire. Bizarre philosophical discussions alternate with episodes of fantasy, horror... and occasional whimsy... The images and ideas come thick and fast. A very enjoyable read, perfect for lovers of fantasy that's a bit different.

Elm Tree House had a sinister history but few realised the true demonic power that lurked within its forbidding depths till it was taken over by a cult determined to make use of its horrendous secret.

Mike Chinn lives in Birmingham, UK, with his wife Caroline and their tribe of guinea pigs. In 2012 he took early retirement so he can spend more time writing (and not housework). Over the years he has published over sixty short stories, as well as editing three volumes of THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES, and SWORDS AGAINST THE MILLENNIUM, also for The Alchemy Press. His own contribution to the Pulp Adventure genre, THE PALADIN MANDATES garnered two nominations for the British Fantasy Award in 1999. A second Damian Paladin book, WALKERS IN SHADOW, is to be published by Pro Se Productions; as is a Western: REVENGE IS A COLD PISTOL. In 2015, his Sherlock Holmes steampunk mash-up, VALLIS TIMORIS (Fringeworks), sent the famous detective to the Moon.Radix Omnium Malum and Other Incursions includes the following stories: "Radix Omnium Malum" originally published in THE GRIMORIUM VERUM (c)2015"Two Weeks Saturday" originally published in DARK HORIZONS 23 (c)2004"Kittens" originally published in READ RAW (c)2009"Blood of Eden" originally published in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF DRACULA (c)1997"Suffer a Witch" originally published in SALVO 7 (c)2003"Cheechee's Out" originally published in SECOND CITY SCARES (c)2013"The Owl that Calls" originally published on WikiWorm (c)2013"The Pygmalion Conjuration" originally published in THE TENTH BLACK BOOK OF HORROR (c)2013"To Die For" originally published in BFS JOURNAL 10 (c)2014"Sons of the Dragon" originally published in kZINE 1 (c)2011"Only the Lonely" originally published in DARK VALENTINE 4 (c)2011"Rescheduled" originally published in FINAL SHADOWS (c)1991"Considering the Dead" originally published in DARK MUSES, SPOKEN SILENCES (c)2013"Wednesday Morning at Five O'Clock" originally published in PHOBOPHOBIAS (c)2014"The Streets of Crazy Cities" and "The Mercy Seat" are original to this collection. (c)2017

Joseph Rubas began writing in 2002 after reading Stephen King's The Stand. His earliest efforts reflected his deep love of that novel; he tried again and again to write a rip-off, but finally gave up around 2006 and resigned himself to writing original fiction. His first short story was published in May 2010 on the now defunct Horror Bound Online website. His second story was published in September 2010 in a Pushcart Prize nominated literary magazine for new and beginning writers called The Storyteller. Since then, his work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. His first collection, the now out of print Pocketful of Fear, was released by a small publisher in 2012. His second collection, After Midnight, appeared in 2014. His short fiction has appeared in: Nameless Digest; The Horror Zine; Eschatology Journal; Thuglit; Manor House; All Due Respect, and others. He has self-published three longer works: The Rocking Dead: Seasons 1-3 (a parody of the AMC series The Walking Dead); The Rocking Dead: Season 4; The Shapeshifter; and Dracula 1912, the latter a novel.In addition to writing, he has also edited two anthologies: A Thorn of Death (2012) and The 3rd Spectral Book of Horror Stories (2016). He currently resides in Albany, New York.Stories in this collection include: Passing the Buck, Midnight, Aokigahara, Snowbound, Deja Vu, The Ghostly Hitchhiker, Just a Mask, Meeting Ray Bradbury, 5051 Bartley Square, The Witching Hour, Potter's Field, The Warlock, Confessional, The Thing in the Woods, The Lake House, Chomo, The Travelling Show of 2016, Evildoer, A Perfect Life, Fury, Paint, and Night of the Dog.

David Williamson has been writing horror stories for many years, and was first published in the prestigious Pan Book of Horror series, where he had a tale in number 28. This was followed by a further three stories in Pan number 30 which, sadly, turned out to be the last of that great series. It was not until he was contacted by Johnny Mains, a walking encyclopaedia in the field of Pan Horror and its authors, that his passion for writing horror was once more re-kindled, and Johnny introduced him to Charles Black, the editor of The Black Book of Horror. Since then, David has been a regular contributor to the wonderful Black Books series, alongside many other well known authors both from the Pan era and more recent times. He has also appeared in several other anthologies from publishers such as Hersham Horror, Gray Friar Press and Hazardous Press.He lives in West Sussex near the sea.Stories include: The Procedure The ScryerNo Room at the FlatThe SandmanThe Too Good SamaritanThe Not So Good SamaritanThe Chameleon ManThe SwitchRest in PiecesAshes to AshesBlind DateHerbert Manning's Psychic CircusThe BoyTen WeeksDin-Dins for BinkyA Reflection of the TimesAnd the Dead Shall SpeakBoys Will Be BoysA Night to RememberA Problem Shared

Twelve tales of grisly horror by David Ludford, all of which were previously published in Schlock! magazine: A Place of Skulls; Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down; Almost Human; Bonestaff; Bridesmaids; Dummies; Heretics, Neophytes and Nemesis; Killings Clowns; Skinnybones; Sleepwalker; The Box; and The Burning Tree.

There's a serial killer at loose in London. Janice, who has a chronic fear of the dark, stumbles into a relationship with the man who may secretly be the murderer. Neither know that in the North of England, in a place previously owned by his dead mother, activities are taking place that may unleash a horror that could spell the end of civilisation in Britain - an ancient evil that would make the activities of any serial killer look like child's play by comparison. Could a psychotic killer be the only man capable of ending this?

During his lifetime Irvin S. Cobb was one of the most celebrated writers in American literature, though nowadays he is almost forgotten, apart perhaps from his Lovecraft connection.Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born in Paducah, Kentucky on the 23rd June, 1876. His father, unable to cope with the death of his own father, succumbed to alcoholism when Cobb was only sixteen. As a result, Cobb's education came to an end and he started work, first on the Paducah Daily News, then the Louisville Evening Post. By 1904 Cobb's career in journalism was doing so well that he moved to New York, where he would go on to spend the rest of his life, starting work at the Evening Sun, though it wasn't long before an assignment to cover the Russian-Japanese peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire so impressed Joseph Pulitzer that he offered Cobb a job at the New York World, where he became the highest-paid staff reporter in the United States. In 1911 Cobb moved to the Saturday Evening Post. Three years later he was asked to cover the Great War. Amongst the many stories he wrote while there were the exploits of the Harlem Hellfighters, a unit of black American soldiers who had gone on to earn distinction for their courage and discipline, which Cobb celebrated in his book The Glory of the Coming. Besides his prolific work as a journalist, Cobb's fame largely came from his humorous stories, which were published in the leading magazines of his day, and collected in numerous books during his lifetime. But, though he was best known as a humourist, he did have a darker side, exemplified by the tales collected in this volume. Two of the most famous succeeded in catching the attention of H. P. Lovecraft. It is claimed that Fishhead influenced Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. And there is certainly no doubt that Lovecraft was favourably impressed with this tale. In his groundbreaking essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft wrote: "Fishhead, an early achievement, is banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake..." The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the key idea behind The Rats in the Walls, though in all other respects the two tales are totally different.Besides writing and journalism, Cobb's career extended to Hollywood, where legendary director, John Ford, made two films based on his books: Judge Priest (1934) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953). Other films included Peck's Bad Boy (1921), starring Jackie Coogan, and The Woman Accused (1933), with a young Cary Grant. Cobb also did a stint at acting himself, appearing in ten movies altogether, including Pepper, Everybody's Old Man (1936), Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and Hawaii Calls (1938). It's a sign of the prominence he had achieved that in 1935 he was invited to host the 7th Academy Awards.Other than the tales that inspired Lovecraft, Cobb also wrote some brilliantly dark stories that culminate in a kind of sadistic irony. They are some of the finest conte cruel ever written. Amongst the best of these is the final story in this collection: Faith, Hope, and Charity, whose protagonists, as is often the case in Cobb's stories, struggle against fates that are not only pre-ordained but are horrendously appropriate! It must be added his hapless victims are far from blameless. What fates await them under Cobb's pen have most definitely been brought upon them by themselves! Through most of the tales there is a wry sense of humour, so wry, in fact, that it never detracts from the impact at the end; indeed, it often adds to and embellishes it! I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did and share with me the conviction that it is high time they were revived.

Adrian's latest collection, Tough Guys, contains three previously unpublished novellas and a short. Based on the title theme, these four works are completely different in subject matter and tone. There is, of course, A Nick Nightmare story herein, 'Wait for the Ricochet', in which the gumshoe is entrusted to convey a message about "The Malleus Tenebrarum," a book that names the properties and powers of dark and light, to the Mechanic, one Oil-Gun Eddy... His adversary is the sinister Lucien de Sangreville, plus assorted non-human denizens of the murky lower levels, and his sidekick the sword-wielding business-woman Ariadne Carnadine. In contrast, in 'If You Don't Eat Your Meat' the reader enters a post-apocalyptic world where the very unsavoury Ryan relates his story of rival families and cannibalism. It is gruesome and unflinching horror. In 'A Smell of Burning' a hospital patient finds he is having out-of-the-body experiences. On his astral journeys he visits a man recalling his abused childhood and this leads to a shocking revelation... Finally, 'Not If You Want to Live' explores the fate of Razorjack, who is a Redeemer, a dead man used by a shady organisation to bring back others from death. An intriguing and engrossing story of love between Razorjack (aka Jack Krane) and mobster's moll Rebecca Fellini, with science fictional and satanic elements.

Jessica Palmer has had 28 books published, both fiction and nonfiction. Her novels - horror, fantasy and science fiction - were released by Pocket Books in the United States and Scholastic in the United Kingdom. She has written two textbooks about Native American history, which were published by McFarland, and an encyclopedia of natural history released by Harper Collins' label Element Books and later by Thorson in the UK. Palmer has also written ten science-and-technology manuals on the topics of explosives and radiation. These were distributed globally. It was this work that brought her to Great Britain in 1988.The daughter of a professional clown, Palmer refers to her switch to writing fiction as an exercise in damage limitation. She taught classes and conducted workshops on creative writing and publishing at North Shropshire College in Whitchurch, Stanmore College and the Islington Arts Factory in London. As a journalist, Palmer won awards in New Mexico and Texas for writing features, public service and breaking news - the most recent in 2013. Palmer has also written satirical columns for newspapers, including "A Slice of Life" and "How to Make Love to your Personal Computer."Her two loves are writing and animals. She started a nonprofit in Kansas for wildlife rescue and has held a wildlife rehabilitation permit since 2002.Other Visions of Heaven and Hell are a series of sometimes inter-related stories about our ideas of Heaven and Hell, sometimes hilarious - sometimes horrific - but always entertaining.

Andrew Darlington has had masses of material published in all manner of strange and obscure places, magazines, websites, anthologies and books. He's also worked as a Stand-Up Poet on the 'Alternative Cabaret Circuit', and has interviewed very many people from the worlds of Literature, SF-Fantasy, Art and Rock-Music for a variety of publications (a selection of favourite interviews collected into the 'Headpress' book 'I WAS ELVIS PRESLEY'S BASTARD LOVE-CHILD'). His latest music biography is 'DON'T CALL ME NIGGER, WHITEY: SLY STONE & BLACK POWER' (Leaky Boot Press).

You won't be finding any urban elves or sparkly vampires in the pages of Things that go Bump. Nor will you find gratuitous sex and gore. The chills that we are offering are of the more fiendishly subtle kind. And even when our offerings are lacking in bare breasts and buckets of blood, the theater of the mind is amply capable in painting a canvas that more than compensates for this lack of simple titillation. And it is this vividly morbid canvas that is the backdrop used by Things that go Bump. Our first volume is a treasury of what awaits you in later releases. Here you will relive the oppressive rural horror of Edward Lucas White's "House of Nightmare," the slowly building dread of William Hope Hodgson's maritime classic "The Voice in the Night." We're even delivering a large dose of unexplainable cosmic horror in the proto-Lovecraftian "The Thing from Outside" by George Allan England. Robert E. Howard, the man who gave us Conan the Cimmerian and the puritan avenger Solomon Kane, supplies us with a tale of eldritch horror from beyond time in "The Black Stone." And E. F. Benson, the master of the slow burn, will keep you awake with his "The Room in the Tower," which is an extremely subtle horror story, that once read will make it impossible to stay in a guest room with out asking yourself "what horrid events might have taken place during previous occupancies?"I personally hope that David and I can live up to the collections put together by the great anthologists of the past such as August Derleth, Peter Haining, Lin Carter, Donald A. Wohlheim, Groff Conklin, Mary Danby, Kurt Singer, Roger Elwood, Vic Ghidalia, Leo Margulies, Sam Moskowitz, Christine Campbell Thomson, Hugh Lamb, and Herbert Van Thal. All of these wonderful assemblers of the weird have left some huge footprints that it will be extremely hard to fill. But I can assure that we are up to the challenge. These anthologists inspired the creation of Things that go Bump and it's to their collective memories that this anthology is dedicated. Through their combined efforts, many a great story teller has become a household name and many a wonderful tale has been rescued from oblivion.David and I hope that you enjoy these stories as much as we have. It is our hope that they'll make your sleep this evening just a wee bit more uneasy than it would have been if you hadn't had this treasury of classic weird in your hands. Enjoy!Douglas Draa

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 renownededitor and creator of the Black Books of Horror, Charles Black."Anna Taborska, author of For Those Who DreamMonsters"Charlie's yarns are very entertaining."Johnny Mains, editor of Best British Horror

Classic tales of weird fiction by W. C. Morrow, E. F. Benson, Vincent O'Sullivan, F. Marion Crawford, Richard Middleton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Meade Falkner, Edith Wharton, Vernon Lee, and Oliver Onions.

This is the second volume in our popular Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series of anthologies in the footsteps of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and other pioneers of the sword and sorcery genre. Ten tales of swords & sorcery, of warlocks and warriors, of demons and demigods, from some of the best writers in the genre today: Mike Chinn, Tais Teng, Martin Owton, Susan Murrie Macdonald, Steve Dilks, Andrew Darlington, Pedro Iniguez, Dev Agarwal, Phil Emery, and Adrian Cole. Illustrations by Jim Pitts.Some reviews of our first volume: "This is an entertaining anthology of new sword and sorcery with a diverse range of unique tales.""A varied collection of stories. Not to be overlooked. Available in paperback and e-book from Amazon. And be sure to keep an eye out for Volume Two out next year with more art by Jim Pitts. Recommended!""There is also a refreshing hint of the good old days in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy spiced up with the approach of a new generation of fantasy writers.""What an enjoyable book. Quality sword and sorcery stories and amazing art by Jim Pitts.""Of all the anthologies put out featuring the works of contemporary S&S authors, I think this may be the best I've read to date."