It's not a nice place to visit, and an even worse place to live. Evil dwells in the mountains and lakes surrounding the town. Creatures more ancient than the Appalachian Mountains themselves lurk in the shadows and prey on the unsuspecting.Consisting of three short stories and a novella, The Grass Monkey and Other Dark Tales takes the reader on a terrifying tour of Shallow Springs:A family moves to the Springs from the city, only to discover that their new, peaceful surroundings are nothing but a deception...A telephone lineman, out in a bitter winter storm, must fight demons--both his own, and the ones stalking him in the snowy woods...A group of loggers set out to harass a tree-hugging environmentalist and instead find an ancient horror...A paranormal "handler" returns home to Shallow Springs to help a woman who is being stalked by a creature as intelligent as it is evil...Welcome to Shallow Springs. Sit back. Stay a while. But you might want to be on your way before the sun sets.

     And that’s just a quarter of the thrills. Edited and compiled by Amazon bestselling author Dan Alatorre, this anthology of scary tales brings together the minds and pens of twenty authors, including bestseller Allison Maruska (The Fourth Descendant), bestselling author Jenifer Ruff (Everett), Lucy Brazier (PorterGirl), J. A. Allen, Juliet Nubel, TA Henry, Ann Marie Andrus, Heather Hackett, Barbara Anne Helberg, Scott Skipper, Joanne R. Larner, Christine Valentor, Adele Marie Park, Curtis Bausse, Annette Robinson, Frank Parker, Eric Daniel Clarke, and Maribel C. Pagan. Perfect for Halloween or any time, these stories will make you think twice before walking alone on the beach at night, reading a diary, or innocently watching a train from your car. Consider yourselves warned. NOTE: Warning! American and British spelling ahead. A few stories words are olde English, too. The story The Death Of Mrs. Billen by Mr. Alatorre is from his novel An Angel On Her Shoulder, used with permission.

    Some rend the veil of sleep with heart-stopping madness. Others defy sanity to leave a helpless corner of your mind twitching for release. Sometimes, hours after waking, a nightmare drifts across your memory, tainting your day with wisps of discomfort. NIGHTMARES UNHINGED reveals horror in all its mutable forms—abject to absurd—through twenty tales of terror.Contributors include Mario Acevedo, Edward Bryant, Dustin Carpenter, Sean Eads, Keith Ferrell, Warren Hammond, Jason Heller, Gary Jonas, Stephen Graham Jones, J.V. Kyle, Aaron Michael Ritchey, Jeanne C. Stein, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Dean Wyant. Foreword by New York Times bestseller Steve Alten. Edited by Joshua Viola. Illustrations by Aaron Lovett.A portion of the book's proceeds will be donated to Rocky Mountain Cancer Assistance in honor of Melanie Tem.Contents:Foreword “Terrors In The Night” by Steve AltenIntroduction “Reclaim Your Fears” by Joshua Viola“The Brollachan” by Steve Rasnic Tem“Fangs” by J.V. Kyle“Be Seated” by Keith Ferrell“The Man Who Killed Texas” by Stephen Graham Jones “Scarecrows” by Joshua Viola “Zou Gou” by Mario Acevedo “Needles” by Joshua Viola and Dean Wyant “The Projectionist” by Jason Heller “The Wolf’s Paw” by Jeanne C. Stein “Danniker’s Coffin” by Keith Ferrell “Deep Woods” by Aaron Michael Ritchey “Diamond Widow” by Dustin Carpenter “The Camera” by Joshua Viola “Lost Balls” by Sean Eads “Bathroom Break” by J.V. Kyle “Marginal Ha’nts” by Edward Bryant “Delicioso” by Warren Hammond “The Librarian” by Joshua Viola “Gurgle. Gurgle.” by Mario Acevedo “Taking The Dare” by Gary Jonas Afterword “Melanie Tem: Hubble’s Child” by Edward Bryant

    Suddenly she’s psychic. But that can't be! In her circle, the supernatural is strictly for the superstitious. And yet…people close to her are dying.Vol. 2: LOVE BITES, “An engaging, sinister romp” by Adrienne Barbeau, author of the Vampyres of Hollywood series.The sexy, tongue-in-cheek crime-solving duo of Detective Peter King and Ovsanna Moore is a charismatic alchemy of MOONLIGHTING and TRUE BLOOD. Ovsanna, the successful owner of her own Hollywood film studio and the star of 17 blockbuster horror films, is a 450-year-old vampyre.Volume 3: LOVE AFTER DEATH, the THIRD book in The Jolie Blonde Series: A Louisiana Trilogy by M.A. Harper.Harper creates a unique and spooky triangle: a newlywed couple and the ghost of the woman’s handsome and much-missed husband. Definitely not your average paranormal romance. This is a funny, warm, feel-good tale with enough literary heft and humor to stick to the ribs.Volume 4: BAD GIRL SCHOOL is teen author Red Q. Arthur’s debut novel.One tiny slip-up lands the most accomplished teen burglar in California in a remote residential school for “gifted teens” where she quickly discovers a secret about herself—she's psychic. Reeno learns her dying sister’s disease is the result of an ancient Mayan curse, and to break it she must time travel to an ancient Mayan city and steal the one item Reeno’s mentor needs to save the world. Piece o’ cake.Volume 5: THE DELPHI AGENDA is the FIRST Lisa Emmer Historical Thriller by Rob Swigart.Papyrologist Lisa Emmer’s world flips when esteemed Paris historian Dr. Raimond Foix is murdered. Lisa finds clues at the crime scene to a secret kept hidden for centuries. These clues make her a prime suspect in the murder investigation, and also put her directly in the cross-hairs of a deadly commando group that proves to be none other than a contemporary offshoot of the Inquisition.She discovers that the fugue states she experiences and has always thought were a liability may be an almost paranormal ability to see things in ways others cannot. Volume 6: OTHER PEOPLE’S SKELETONS is the SIXTH book in Edgar-winner Julie Smith's Rebecca Schwartz series.Secrets spill out of these pages like hornets out of a nest, each with its distinct sting, as author Smith weaves a thrill-packed and complicated San Francisco mystery that’s as much about how little we know about our nearest and dearest as it is about whodunit.

    For the first time ever, a monster collection of 26 new original Kolchak short fiction stories by noted authors from comics, horror fiction, and film! With the advent of the new Kolchak ABC TV show, Moonstone proudly announces new contemporary prose adventures of the original Kolchak, TV's first and foremost paranormal investigator! Plus all kinds of other cool stuff, like tales from Kolchak's untold past, monster huntings, noir thrillers, and even horror stories of more cerebral type!

    Since then, many have reinterpreted the ever-versatile vampire over and over again—and female writers have played vital roles in proving that the vampire, as well as our perpetual fascination with it, is truly immortal. These authors have devised some of the most fascinating, popular, and entertaining of our many vampiric variations: suavely sensual . . . fascinating but fatal . . . sexy and smart . . . undead but prone to detection . . . tormented or terrifying . . . amusing or amoral . . . doomed or deadly . . . badass and beautiful . . . cutting-edge or classic . . .Blood Sisters collects a wide range of fantastical stories from New York Times bestsellers Holly Black, Nancy Holder, Catherynne M. Valente, and Carrie Vaughn, and critically acclaimed writers Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Tanith Lee, all of whom have left their indelible and unique stamps on the vampire genre. Whether they are undeniably heroes and heroines or bloodthirsty monsters (or something in between), the undead are a lively lot. This anthology offers some of the best short fiction ever written by the “blood sisters” who know them best: stories you can really sink your teeth into.Introduction: “Welcome to My House! Enter Freely and of Your Own Free Will!” by Paula Guran“A Princess of Spain” by Carrie Vaughn“Shipwrecks Above” by Caitlín R. Kiernan“The Fall of the House of Blackwater” by Freda Warrington“In Memory of …” by Nancy Kilpatrick“Where the Vampires Live” by Storm Constantine“La Dame” by Tanith Lee“Chicago 1927” by Jewelle Gomez“Renewal” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro“Blood Freak” by Nancy Holder“The Power and the Passion” by Pat Cadigan“The Unicorn Tapestry” by Suzy McKee Charnas“This Town Ain’t Big Enough” by Tanya Huff“Vampire King of the Goth Chicks” by Nancy A. Collins“Learning Curve” by Kelley Armstrong“The Better Half” by Melanie Tem“Selling Houses” by Laurell K. Hamilton“Greedy Choke Puppy” by Nalo Hopkinson“Tacky” by Charlaine Harris“Needles” by Elizabeth Bear“From the Teeth of Strange Children” by Lisa L. Hannett“Father Peña’s Last Dance” by Hannah Strom-Martin“Sun Falls” by Angela Slatter“Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy A. Snyder“The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” by Holly Black“In the Future When All’s Well” by Catherynne M. Valente

    Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, Gahan Wilson, and other literary luminaries. Sales of Unnatural Creatures benefit 826DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students in their creative and expository writing, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

    R. James is widely regarded as the father of the modern ghost story, and his tales have influenced horror writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King. First published in the early 1900s, they have never been out of print, and are recognized as classics of the genre. This collection contains some of his most chilling tales, including A View from a Hill, Rats, A School Story, The Ash Tree, and The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance. Read by BAFTA and Emmy-award winning actor Derek Jacobi, and with haunting and evocative music, these tales cannot fail to send a shiver down your spine.

    A slim, sinister text called The King in Yellow drove those who read it to madness. Despite suppression by anxious authorities, it spread through global culture, and history itself, like a virus. Now the contagion bears hideous fruit.New Tales of the Yellow Sign expands the classic horror mythos of weird tales pioneer and Lovecraft precursor Robert W. Chambers into new vistas of unease and imagination. Over the course of eight troubling stories, writer and visionary game designer Robin D. Laws lures you into diseased timelines, impossible pasts, and the all-too-terrifying present.Sterilize your suicide chamber, harken to the remorseless clicking of your black box, and whistle for the monstrous creature that lives in your basement. The pallid mask awaits.

    As in life, there are no happy endings, and no matter how high one flies, theres always gravity.

    Desperate to win back his father’s approval, the boy hatches a plan involving his father’s love of slasher films. If the boy can become a real-life slasher right out of the movies, it just might be an opportunity to make his father proud again, no matter what the cost.In Iain Rob Wright’s “The Reckoning,” the year is 2035 and people live inside their individual worlds. Amelie’s ‘pod’ is a marvel of tech-centric existence, taking care of her every need. But when a serial killer that the press have named ’The Reckoning’ comes calling for Amelie, her futuristic living space turns deadly.In William Malmborg's "Billy's Blade," a budding serial killer bites off more than he can chew when he tries to stab Stacy Collins to death on the Prairie Path. A ruthless investigative journalist, Stacy goes on the offensive, goading the killer with unflattering articles, all in hopes of sparking a second encounter. Will Billy and Stacy meet again?Jeff Strand’s “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” recounts the grisly events surrounding the terrible slasher flick THE ROOFER, remembered only because an obsessed fan tried to reenact the murders as they played out on the screen. When the same theater shows the film twenty years later, will the warnings that this is a really, really bad idea be justified?

    Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

    His chilling mythology established a gateway between the known universe and an ancient dimension of otherworldly terror, whose unspeakable denizens and monstrous landscapes - dread Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, the Plateau of Leng, the Mountains of Madness - have earned him a permanent place in the history of the macabre.In Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, a pantheon of horror and fantasy's finest authors pay tribute to the master of the macabre with a collection of original stories set in the fearsome Lovecraft tradition.Contents:- Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn! (1990) by Jim Turner [as by James Turner] - The Call of Cthulhu (1928) by H.P. Lovecraft- The Return of the Sorcerer (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith- Ubbo-Sathla (1933) by Clark Ashton Smith- The Black Stone (1931) by Robert E. Howard- The Hounds of Tindalos (1929) by Frank Belknap Long- The Space-Eaters (1928) by Frank Belknap Long- The Dweller in Darkness (1944) by August Derleth- Beyond the Threshold (1941) by August Derleth- The Shambler from the Stars (1935) by Robert Bloch- The Haunter of the Dark (1936) by H.P. Lovecraft- The Shadow from the Steeple (1950) by Robert Bloch- Notebook Found in a Deserted House (1951) by Robert Bloch- The Salem Horror (1937) by Henry Kuttner- The Terror from the Depths (1976) by Fritz Leiber- Rising with Surtsey (1971) by Brian Lumley- Cold Print (1969) by Ramsey Campbell- The Return of the Lloigor (1969) by Colin Wilson- My Boat (1976) by Joanna Russ- Sticks (1974) by Karl Edward Wagner- The Freshman (1979) by Philip José Farmer- Jerusalem's Lot (1978) by Stephen King- Discovery of the Ghooric Zone (1977) by Richard A. LupoffCover illustration by John Jude Palencar

    The collection is illustrated with photographs of dolls taken by Datlow and other devoted doll collectors from the science fiction and fantasy field. The result is a star-studded collection exploring one of the most primal fears of readers of dark fiction everywhere.

    Anacondas, piranha, giant crocodiles/alligators/lizards, mutated bears near nuclear power stations, prehistoric sharks. All featured heavily in books and films of the 70s and 80s, when bio-horror was at its modern peak. This anthology of military-bio-horror stories takes you back to those classic days. Think Greg McLean’s Rogue, Lake Placid, Eight-legged Freaks, Anaconda, Meg, Prophecy, Deep Blue Sea, and other films/books where people (in this case soldiers) are fighting against mutated or ultra-dangerous animals. Join some of the best writers working today, along with some SNAFU favourites, for an unnaturally good time. TOC: 1. Here There Be Monsters - Dave Beynon 2. Unborn - Justin Bell 3. The Weavers in Darkness - James A. Moore & Charles R. Rutledge 4. Kill Team Kill - Justin A Coates 5. Restless - Lee Murray 6. A Hole in the World - Tim Lebbon & Christopher Golden 7. Cargo - B. Michael Radburn 8. Vermin - Richard Lee Byers 9. The Valley of Death - David W. Amendola 10. Venom - Michael McBride