The Richard Laymon President's Award for Service was instituted in 2000 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2000 while serving as the Horror Writers Association's President. As its name implies, it is given by the HWA's sitting President. The Award is presented to a volunteer who has served HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.

HWA's President Rocky Wood has chosen James Chambers to receive the 2012 Richard Laymon Award. "Jim stepped up a couple of years ago to Chair the Membership Committee. Since then he has completely revamped the Committee, bringing in and documenting processes, training people to assist, overviewing our Outreach program and welcoming hundreds of new members. In addition he conceived of and implemented the Halloween Haunts blog program, which has become a staple of our public blog each October," Wood said. "It is contributors like Jim who represent all that is good about HWA's all-volunteer structure."

James will receive the Award at the Bram Stoker Awards® Banquet in New Orleans on June 15, 2013.

James Chambers' tales of horror, crime, fantasy and science fiction have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. Dark Regions Press published his collection of four Lovecraftian-inspired novellas The Engines of Sacrifice in 2011. Publisher's Weekly described it as "chillingly evocative." Most recently, Dark Quest Books has published his zombie novellas, The Dead Bear Witness and Tears of Blood, the first two volumes in the Corpse Fauna novella series. Chambers is also the author of the short story collections Resurrection House and The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales with illustrator Jason Whitley. His stories have appeared in Allen K's Inhuman, Bare Bone, Deep Cuts, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Walrus Tales, and many other anthologies and magazines. He has also written numerous comic books, including Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, the critically acclaimed "The Revenant" in Shadow House, and The Midnight Hour. His website is: www.jameschambersonline.com.

PAST RECIPIENTS of the Richard Laymon President's Award for Service include:

2011 - Karen Lansdale
2010 - Michael Colangelo
2009 - Vince A. Liaguno
2008 - John R. Little
2007 - Web team: Stephen Dorato, Christopher Fulbright, Mark Worthen
2006 - Lisa Morton (second time)
2005 - Lisa Morton
2004 - Lee Thomas
2001 - Kathryn Ptacek, Judi Rohrig

(Photo: 2011 Richard Laymon Award winner Karen Lansdale; photo courtesy of Tonya L. De Marco)