Fifteen new bronze haunted-house statuettes were handed over to the writers responsible for creating superior works of horror last year. This year’s winners are:

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL
The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL
Life Rage by L.L. Soares (Nightscape Press)

Superior Achievement in a YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster)

Superior Achievement in a GRAPHIC NOVEL
Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times by Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton (McFarland and Co., Inc.)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION
The Blue Heron by Gene O’Neill (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION
“Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy Snyder (Dark Faith: Invocations, Apex Book Company)

Superior Achievement in a SCREENPLAY
The Cabin in the Woods” by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy Productions, Lionsgate)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY
Shadow Show edited by Mort Castle and Sam Weller (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a FICTION COLLECTION (tie)
New Moon on the Water by Mort Castle (Dark Regions Press)
Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco Press)

Superior Achievement in NON-FICTION
Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween by Lisa Morton (Reaktion Books)

Superior Achievement in a POETRY COLLECTION
Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls by Marge Simon (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)

Works can be recommended by any member of the HWA. Juries in each category also compile their top picks, and members with Active status then vote on works from both the member recommendations and the jury selections in a preliminary ballot. From there the field is narrowed to the final ballot and a list of nominees, from which Active members vote to choose the winners. The award is named for Bram Stoker, best known as the author of Dracula. The trophy, which resembles a miniature haunted house, was designed by author Harlan Ellison and sculptor Steven Kirk.

In addition, HWA presented its annual Lifetime Achievement Awards and its Specialty Press Awards. Robert R. McCammon was on hand to accept his Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mark Miller accepted on behalf of Lifetime Achievement Award winner Clive Barker. The Specialty Press Award went to Jerad Walters of Centipede Press.

The Silver Hammer Award, for outstanding service to HWA, was voted by the organization’s Board of Trustees to Charles Day. The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award was given to James Chambers.

Samhain Publishing served as the Platinum Sponsor for the event.

We thank our Platinum Sponsor, Samhain Publishing, without whose generous support this would not be possible.

Tune in from 10pm US Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday 15 June!

Live Webcast Link

My guest this week is Kendare Blake, author of the critically acclaimed ANN DRESSED IN BLOOD. Kendare lives and writes in Lynnwood, Washington. She writes books, enjoys scary movies, digs trying new food, goes hiking and plays (she insists) really bad tennis.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Welcome aboard, Kendare. Let’s jump right to the big question upon which Scary Out There is built. What scares you?

KENDARE BLAKE: Uncertainty scares me. The unknown.

JONATHAN MABERRY: How so–?

KENDARE BLAKE: It’s a fairly universal human fear, and it scared me as a teen, too.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Anything else?

KENDARE BLAKE: Also, zombies. And that old preacher guy from Poltergeist II. I’d like to think that I’ll never lose the link to my childhood fears.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Except now you channel that into your fiction and scare the bejeezus out of teenagers.

KENDARE BLAKE: Sure.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Where do you stand on the debate as to whether horror fiction is too intense for teens?

KENDARE BLAKE: I disagree.

JONATHAN MABERRY: All the time?

KENDARE BLAKE: All the time. Heartily.

JONATHAN MABERRY: What’s your stance?

KENDARE BLAKE: Reading is a safe space. And being afraid in a safe space is great. Like being on a roller coaster, unless you’re that guy who lost his foot on that roller coaster.

JONATHAN MABERRY: What about extreme horror?

KENDARE BLAKE: To be fair, there is a difference between horror and straight up torture porn. So, maybe no torture porn for kids. But horror? All the horror they can handle.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Do you have a practical definition for ‘horror’?

KENDARE BLAKE: I define horror fiction as anything horrifying. Anything unsettling. Anything disturbing.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Is there only one kind of horror?

KENDARE BLAKE: No, it doesn’t have to be monsters tearing people apart, or psychos slicing folks up the middle, though both of those are nice. It can be as subtle as a lake with no bottom, as quiet as a girl who may or may not have poisoned her dog.

JONATHAN MABERRY: How does that play out in your own books?

KENDARE BLAKE: Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares tell the story of Cas Lowood, a young ghost hunter who goes up against Anna, the strongest ghost he’s ever seen. And she wipes the floor with him. Lucky for him, the two form a connection, and she becomes the catalyst for a journey of discovery about the magic knife he wields, and the terrible specter who murdered his father.

JONATHAN MABERRY: They’re terrific books, too. I remember grabbing ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD based on the recommendation of one of my teen writing students. I browsed a couple of pages at the book store and by the time I took it to the register I was four chapters deep. And I heard a rumor about it being optioned?

KENDARE BLAKE: Yes, it was optioned by Stephanie Meyer’s Fickle Fish production company.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Nice!  Best of luck with it! So…what’s next?

KENDARE BLAKE: Next up is something that is perhaps less horror. It’s called ANTIGODDESS, and it features dying Greek gods in contemporary America and the reincarnated heroes who get caught in their war.

JONATHAN MABERRY: That’s a book I had the pleasure of reading for a cover blurb. I devoured it. I believe my blurb said: ‘ANTIGODDESS is a riveting and chilling horror thriller that deftly blends ancient legends with modern horrors. Highly recommended.’ And I stand by that statement. It’s a killer of a book, though not straight horror.

KENDARE BLAKE: There are horrifying elements to it, lots of blood and disturbing imagery, but it’s more of a thriller, or hero’s quest than straight horror.

JONATHAN MABERRY: If you had to recommend just three YA horror novels –past or present—which books make your must-read list?

KENDARE BLAKE:  I’m going to cheat a little bit here.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Yeah, that seems to be a running theme when I ask that question.

KENDARE BLAKE: I tend to think that horror as a genre can be read by any reader at any level at any time. So these won’t necessarily be categorized as YA, but I think young adults would like them anyway.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Fair enough. Hit me with your first pick.

KENDARE BLAKE:  It’s a classic: Shirley Jackson’s WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE, a magical, whimsical, disturbing stories about a pair of sisters whose entire family was murdered.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Nice. And your second pick?

KENDARE BLAKE:  Next, Stephen King’s IT, because it’s a big, fat popcorn bucket of horror tropes.

JONATHAN MABERRY: No joke. It stands up well to re-reads, too. And third–?

KENDARE BLAKE: Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, even though I haven’t finished it. If you’re into horror and you haven’t read him, you’re missing out.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Joe’s a great guy and a friend of the Horror Writers Association. Hell of a writer. Well, Kendare, thanks for swinging by for a chat. Best of luck with your books, and we’ll see you ‘round the cemetery.

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Visit Kendare’s blog, on find her onTwitter @KendareBlake and Facebook.

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SPECIAL NOTICE: The Bram Stoker Awards will be announced this week (Saturday night!) at the Horror Writers Association banquet at the World Horror Convention in New Orleans. Here’s a link to the live webcast: http://www.horror.org/blog/?p=3952

And here are the finalists in the Young Adult Category:

Barry Lyga: I HUNTER KILLERS (Little Brown)

Jeff Strand: A BAD DAY FOR VOODOO (Sourcebooks)

Jonathan Maberry: FLESH & BONE (Simon & Schuster)

Libba Bray: THE DIVINERS (Little Brown)

Maggie Stiefvater: THE RAVEN BOYS (Scholastic Press)

Michael McCarty: I KISSED A GHOUL (Noble Romance)

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Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include EXTINCTION MACHINE, FIRE & ASH, PATIENT ZERO and many others. His award-winning teen novel, ROT & RUIN, is now in development for film. He is the editor of V-WARS, an award-winning vampire anthology. Since 1978 he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and co-founder of The Liars Club. Jonathan lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Sara Jo and a fierce little dog named Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com Find him on Twitters at @JonathanMaberry and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry

The Future of Agents

Do you think all the recent technological advances in publishing are sounding the death knell for the literary agent? Agents used to be the gatekeepers in the classical publishing model, deciding who gets through and who remains in obscurity, but that barrier seems full of holes now. If literary agents are to remain part of the publishing process, how will they need to adapt?

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You can follow the Roundtable discussion in the comments section of this post.

Note: the page will auto refresh every 5 minutes.

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Special Guests:

Joe McKinney has been a patrol officer for the San Antonio Police Department, a homicide detective, a disaster mitigation specialist, a patrol commander, and a successful novelist. His books include the four part Dead World series, Quarantined, Inheritance, Lost Girl of the Lake, Crooked House and Dodging Bullets. His short fiction has been collected in The Red Empire and Other Stories and Dating in Dead World and Other Stories. In 2011, McKinney received the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. For more information go to http://joemckinney.wordpress.com.

Doug Grad spent 22 years as an editor with Pocket Books, Ballantine, New American Library and ReganBooks/HarperCollins. He edited numerous bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction, including the historical novelists Jeff Shaara and John Jakes. He left the corporate side to become a literary agent in 2008, and has sold books to publishers big and small—mysteries, horror, sports, business, true crime, military, music, history, memoir and humor. In 2011, Doug formed an ebook company, Antenna Books, publishing both frontlist and backlist titles.

Richard Curtis, president of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., is a leading New York literary agent; founder of E-Reads, an electronic book publisher; and a well-known author advocate. He is also the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including several books about the publishing industry. His interest in emerging media and technology has enabled him to help authors anticipate trends in publishing and multimedia. He has lectured extensively and conducted panels and seminars devoted to raising consciousness in the author and agent community about the future of communications. He was president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives. His popular blog about publishing appears regularly on http://curtisagency.com/blog/.

Robert L. Fleck has spent most of his adult life in the publishing business. In 1990 he joined AE Press and Midnight Zoo Magazine, rising to become the managing editor. After two years there, he became the personal assistant to author and editor Janet Berliner-Gluckman. Between 1992 and 2004 he worked with Janet on novels and anthologies, including work with illusionist David Copperfield, and authors Kevin J. Anderson, Peter Beagle, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Jack Kirby, Joyce Carol Oates, F. Paul Wilson, and many others. In 2004, following Janet’s extended hospital stay and the retirement of her prior literary agent, Robert Fleck reopened the agenting side of Professional Media Services, where he represented Janet as well as many other writers with whom he’d developed relationships over the years as well as exciting new authors. Following the passing of Janet Berliner-Gluckman in 2012, Bob reformed the agency as The Fleck Agency.

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Rules and Etiquette

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Darkeva: To quote the Oxford Companion to English Literature, you’re “Britain’s most respected living horror writer,” which is a great esteem. What do you feel have been some of the great honors of your writing career so far?

RC: Well, that was certainly one. The Lifetime Achievement awards from HWA and WHC were two spectacular ones, and some years ago I was honoured in Rome at the Fantafestival with a similar career award, together with the great Ennio Morricone, no less. But having my own issue of Weird Tales – a magazine that had been magical for me ever since I coveted a copy I saw in a shop window when I was seven – was special, and so of course was being published by Arkham House all those years ago, alongside such heroes of mine as Robert Bloch, John Metcalfe and William Hope Hodgson. I’ve had quite a lot of dreams come true over the decades. May more do so!

Read the rest of the interview at Darkeva’s Dark Delights.

My guest this week is Ilsa J. Bick. Ilsa’s bio reads like it belongs to ten other people. She’s a child psychiatrist, a film scholar, a surgeon wannabe, a former Air Force major, and an award-winning author of dozens of short stories and novels, including the critically acclaimed Draw the Dark (Carolrhoda Lab, 2010); Drowning Instinct (Carolrhoda Lab, 2012); Ashes, the first book in her YA apocalyptic thriller trilogy (Egmont USA, 2011) and Shadows (2012); and the just-released The Sin-Eater’s Confession (Carolrhoda Lab, 2013). Forthcoming:  Monsters, the final volume of the ASHES Trilogy, (Egmont USA, 2013) and White Space, Book I in the Dark Passages series (Egmont USA, 2014). Ilsa lives with her family and other furry creatures near a Hebrew cemetery in rural Wisconsin. One thing she loves about the neighbors: They’re very quiet and only come around for sugar once in a blue moon.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Hey, Ilsa…thanks for stopping by. You’re a child psychiatrist, so let’s jump right in and talk about fear. What scared you when you were little?

ILSA BICK: You know, I’ll be honest. When I was a kid, I wasn’t scared of very much except being alone in a dark house late at night.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Was that scary in general or…?

 ILSA BICK: No, I think it was the stillness that got to me.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Did you have something that helped you cope with that fear?

ILSA BICK: So long as there was some kind of white noise—a fan, say, or some steady drone—I was fine. But once it got ~~quiet~~, every bump and creak used to freak me out.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Was there anything else besides silence?

ILSA BICK: I hated windows without blinds or curtains; who the hell knew what was out there looking in? So, of course, when I babysat, I made sure every light was on and the TV just loud enough so that when the homicidal maniac came through the door, I wouldn’t hear him until it was too late.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Good plan.

ILSA BICK: It was a wonder no one docked my pay to cover the electric bill.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Does silence still freak you out?

ILSA BICK: No. As an adult . . . I crave silence. I like being alone. I love the dark. So, go figure.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Yeah. I left my childhood fears behind, too. I outgrew them, or maybe they got stale. Hard to say.

ILSA BICK: Honestly, nowadays, very little freaks me out. I wasn’t even all that worried for or about my kids, although I do remember turning all ninja-mom when some bozo spooked one of my girls. Guy was lucky to leave that grocery story with his teeth.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Angry moms are scary, no doubt about it.

ILSA BICK: Another true story: big old wasp—we’re talking something with BOEING written on the side—landed on my baby’s shoulder? I barehanded that sucker, threw it down, ground it to paste. My husband’s eyeballs about fell out of their sockets. Then we all went back to our burgers.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Note to self…do not scare Ilsa’s kids. So, is it parenting that chased your fears away.

ILSA BICK: In part, though I think my tolerance for the horrific is because of my past life as a doc. You know, hang around the emergency room or a psych ward or women’s prison for a while, and you see some pretty terrible stuff.

JONATHAN MABERY: That’s acquired toughness, but is it the same thing as being fearless? Aren’t there still things that frighten you?

ILSA BICK: Sure. I really don’t want to be held up at gunpoint; I don’t think I’d care much for, oh, drowning, being strangled or knifed to death. A stiletto pointing at my eyeball would be right up there on my freak-out-o’meter. Come to think of it, maybe all those times I put my poor characters in those life and death situations, I’m really trying to work through things.

JONATHAN MABERY: Hmmm…interesting insight.

ILSA BICK: You see, this is what comes of being a shrink. You navel-gaze a lot.

JONATHAN MABERY: But experience has made you practical about fear?

ILSA BICK: I guess there comes a point where, sure, you can be scared, but if you don’t do something, you’re dead. So if I get scared, I get competent. At this point, the things that freak me out all revolve around things that make me mad (and sad) because there’s no way I can become competent. Climate change and mass extinction are right up there. Scare the bejesus out of me because I know there’s very little I can do except scream at politicians and be as environmentally responsible as I can.

JONATHAN MABERRY: There’s been a running argument about whether intense subject matter in fiction is doing harm to our kids. You’re a mental health professional and a doctor…I’d love to have you weigh in on this.

ILSA BICK: Oh, for heaven’s sake. Short and sweet? People who do a lot of handwringing around this? Take a breath.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Totally agree, but the nay-sayers insist that kids can’t handle intensity or disturbing subject matter.

ILSA BICK: You want to know real horror? Go revisit any natural disaster and see how altruistic everyone isn’t. We make war on a hugely destructive scale. Yeah, yeah, ants do, too, and so do chimpanzees and wolves, but they don’t take the rest of the planet down with them. Take a good long look at what we’re doing. Agent Smith (The Matrix) is spot-on: we are locusts, consuming our resources, and procreating out of control and the planet’s carrying capacities. Do I think there are some people who try? Sure. But those voices will always be small until the point of virtually no return when everyone panics. By then, I’m afraid that, given the current pace of environmental degradation, it’s too late. For many species and habitats, it already is.

JONATHAN MABERRY: What about gore?

ILSA BICK: Do I think gore can go too far, or object to things that are only a gore-fest? Sure, if it’s all just gratuitous violence and blood’n guts. But, get real: kids love being scared silly. Blood’n guts hold this real fascination. Why do you think so many people flock to the lions’ cage at feeding time? Or slow down for an accident? Or tell ghost stories around a campfire? Or watch scary movies through their fingers? Or sit around their TVs watching terrible things happen to other people and say things, like, oh my God, did you see that; isn’t that horrible; those poor people when, really, they’re thinking: Whoa, better you than me.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Kids seem to be fascinated with scary things. When does that kick in?

ILSA BICK: Thing is, this fascination with the horrific—and the relief that follows because, when all is said and done, you are still safe and your life goes on and that terrible stuff happened to someone else—starts when we’re really young. This will sound stupid, but think about peekaboo for a second. Yes, it’s a sweet little game, but what you’re playing at is the (fleetingly) scary moment of a parent’s disappearance counterbalanced against that giddy relief at their reappearance. It’s the same reason some little kids just hate going to bed. It’s not necessarily the dark that frightens them. It’s the isolation, the fear that if they close their eyes, you might not be there when they wake up. Sue me: I’m a shrink. 

JONATHAN MABERRY: So it isn’t horror writers who are introducing kids to scary concepts?

ILSA BICK: Honestly, there is very little a writer can dream up that a little kid hasn’t already thought about. Worse, there are tons of things adults are too scared to talk about that kids want to discuss. And, conversely, there are things that freak out adults but which don’t faze kids much at all. I know people are gonna yell at me . . . but school shootings? All that back and forth about what to say to your kids? Most of that was to handle the adults’ anxiety. I’m not being flip or dismissive either. Adults don’t want horrible things to happen to their children, but children don’t necessarily worry about these things. Drives adults nuts, too, because they can’t understand how it is that, say, a six- or eight-year-old isn’t more upset and would really rather go play.

JONATHAN MABERRY: So if the adults are demonstrating extreme reactions…?

ILSA BICK: Kids look to their parents to decide how they should feel. Honest: the next time a little kid falls down, see where the kid looks first to decide if she should be freaked out or not. What a child knows, how she determines what to feel or think, is often influenced by what she reads in her parents’ eyes.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Very good point. Getting back to the concept of horror…what does that word mean to you? What is it?

ILSA BICK: Horror is anything that scares you so silly you can’t look away/stop reading. I’m completely serious here. Horror and religious awe share a lot in common. In fact, if you think about it—I won’t go all biblical, just saying—the most intense confrontations between the divine and humans are all mediated through horror as a synonym for awe.

JONATHAN MABERRY: How so?

ILSA BICK: No one can look at the face of God without going crazy or being destroyed. Now, is that because that face is so horrible a person can’t stand it? Or is that because true horror is irrational, illogical, and inexplicable? There is no language; there is only emotion, and it is so intense, so all encompassing, that it is mystery and awe, all rolled into one.  It’s why Moses covers his face, or God appears as a burning bush; or the ancient priests used to wear bells on their garments. The encounter with the divine could kill you, or drive you crazy. So, for me, the only true horror is psychological: so intense you simply can’t look away even as it’s gotten under your skin, in your dreams, driving you nuts.

JONATHAN MABERRY: How much of your writing includes elements of horror?

ILSA BICK: Oh, gosh, I find that I write horror into practically everything because, regardless of genre, I’m intensely interested in the psychologically complex. People have all kinds of demons. That sounds trite, but it’s true. As a shrink, I mucked around in a lot of private sewers. Really, you wouldn’t believe some of the monstrous things otherwise “normal” people think, and do.

JONATHAN MABERRY: It must have been fascinating to glimpse into all of those dark, mental cupboards.

ILSA BICK: When people walked into my office, they were in their darkest moments, at the brink of the apocalypse. I’m not joking. People came to me when all their normal modes of functioning or coping had broken down and life was no longer business as usual. Until the moment they walked through my door, parents could hang onto the idea of—and hope for—a perfect child. Seeing me was not only synonymous with defeat: it meant the death of that future. If that’s not catastrophic—if that’s not horror—then I don’t know what is.

JONATHAN MABERRY: And now this informs your writing?

ILSA BICK: All my books feature, you know, people and conflict and catastrophe of one sort or another, so horror seems to be part of that territory, whether I’m writing about guilt and loss in Draw the Dark, abuse and redemption in Drowning Instinct, murder and the loss of self in something like The Sin-Eater’s Confession, or the post-apocalyptic world of the ASHES Trilogy.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Break down one of your books, take us inside the horrific elements.

ILSA BICK: Well . . . hmmm . . . okay, you still want specific books? Then let’s go with the ASHES Trilogy. The skinny: a wave of EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) sweeps the sky (and, maybe, the globe). In a heartbeat, everything with solid-state processors—computers, power grids, communications—just flat-out dies. Nuclear power plants go up; so do nuclear waste storage facilities. People drop dead right off the bat, notably those between the ages of about 25-65 (so the folks who might actually be able to fix things), leaving only the very young and the very old. Those in-between, the teenagers, are all “Changed” into people who make interesting life-style choices and become, therefore, not the ideal folks to meet in a dark alley.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Who’s our point of view character for this?

ILSA BICK: ASHES follows Alex, who’s not only an orphan (both her parents died in a crash three years ago) but dying in her own right: she’s got a terminal brain tumor. At the beginning of the story, she’s left her aunt and gone off into the Waucamaw Wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on what might very well be a one-way trip. And then the world comes crashing down around her ears, and we go from there. Now, when the world’s gone to hell as it has in ASHES, the horror’s more obvious. Still, the obstacles my characters must face really are private catastrophes in the context of a larger apocalypse. Sometimes their struggles are against memories of a past in which they were the victims (Chris and Lena); for others, that conflict arises as a consequence of choices (Tom and Peter). And, of course, Alex faces the biggest challenge of all: is life really worth the effort when you’ve got an expiration date?

JONATHAN MABERRY: Is the whole series written?

ILSA BICK: Monsters, the third and final volume of the ASHES Trilogy, is set to hit shelves in September. In spring 2014, look for WHITE SPACE, a very dark psychological horror-thriller and the first book in the Dark Passages series, to come out from Egmont USA. Then, it’s on to the sequel, The Dickens Mirror.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Anything else on the stove?

ILSA BICK: At the moment I’m in hand-to-hand combat with a new standalone which has, shall we say, its horrific moments. Even the cats know to think twice.

JONATHAN MABERRY: What are your go-to recommendations for teen horror fiction?

ILSA BICK: You know, I think I want to be ornery here and change this up a bit.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Go for it.

ILSA BICK: I’m kind of a visual person; in fact, when I got really bored during my child psychiatry residency, I went back to school at night and got a masters in film and literature then wrote a ton of academic stuff about film and psychoanalysis. There’s just something about a nice tub of popcorn and a good flick. So, instead of three horror books, I’m going to offer my three must-see horror flicks. A caveat: I don’t actually watch or enjoy most of what’s offered these days as horror. Slashers are just boring; and, honestly, life is tough enough. Yeah, these kinds of films are horrific . . . I guess . . . but <snore>. I mean, if you’re into blood and stuff, sure, but way too many people equate a ton of gore with what’s scary. Most of these slasher flicks with the guts and the sadistic chop-em-up sequences? Meh. It’s corn syrup, folks.

JONATHAN MABERRY: So what flicks push your buttons?

ILSA BICK: What’s much more intriguing/frightening/sacrilegious to me are the things you only imagine and don’t see: that Boogey-Man under your bed, for example, or what you only see out of the corner of your eye. So my vote for three, truly excellent horror flicks start with the first Blair Witch film: oh, how super was that? I adored the way it exploited the unseen. I think I must’ve poked my husband a couple hundred times: What did he say? Did you see that? What was that? Honestly, I kept craning, trying to get a better look. You know, squint and bring things into focus? It was brilliant.

JONATHAN MABERRY: Good call. It was one of the few horror films that gave me a serious jolt. I didn’t see that ending coming. What’s your second fright flick pick?

ILSA BICK: Night of the Living Dead and, in a close tie, 28 Days Later.

JONATHAN MABERRY: I never would have pegged you as a fan of the living dead.

ILSA BECK: And here I confess that I am not really into zombie flicks per se and I don’t watch The Walking Dead. Just doesn’t float my boat. But Night is such a CLASSIC precisely because it is so dark, so gritty, so in-the-moment.

JONATHAN MABERRY: And you also dig 28 Days Later–?

ILSA BICK: Not for the zombie moments—which were, yes, awful—but more for the quieter pathos. You know what got to me the most? The little girl’s goldfish, in that inch of water, gulping air. I am completely serious. When the protags left that apartment, it really bothered me, thinking about how the water would slowly evaporate from that bowl and that little goldfish would be all alone and no one would think to check and . . . see? I’m all upset.

JONATHAN MABERRY: You are such a shrink and a mom!  Those two flicks were a double second choice. What’s your third pick?

ILSA BICK: Alien: a film I just adore. In my film academia days, in fact, I wrote about the first three. Although, no, I have not seen Prometheus and got zip interest in doing so.

JONATHAN MABERRY: It was a disappointment that paved no new ground.

ILSA BICK: Been there, done that, published the paper already. That first film is another superb example of things that scariest when they are a) unexpected and b) ever-shifting/hardly seen. At its core, Alien is a brilliant example of a haunted house film, set on a ship in outer space. And, frankly, the real reason I will always have a soft spot for that film: Alien made my date scream like a girl.

JONATHAN MABERRY: A lot of manly men may have, um, yelped a bit at that one, too.  Ilsa…thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your insights. This has been great.

*****

Visit Ilsa online at www.ilsajbick.com. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter @ilsajbick.

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Join me next week when my guest will be Kendare Blake, author of the brilliant ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD. Until then…sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite (they’ve mutated).

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Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include EXTINCTION MACHINE, FIRE & ASH, PATIENT ZERO and many others. His award-winning teen novel, ROT & RUIN, is now in development for film. He is the editor of V-WARS, an award-winning vampire anthology. Since 1978 he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and co-founder of The Liars Club. Jonathan lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Sara Jo and a fierce little dog named Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com Find him on Twitters at @JonathanMaberry and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry

The topic this round is The Future of Agents (thanks for the idea, Joe McKinney!). Please join our special guest Joe McKinney, Robert Fleck, Doug Grad, and Richard Curtis, as they discuss the following:

“Do you think all the recent technological advances in publishing are sounding the death knell for the literary agent? Agents used to be the gatekeepers in the classical publishing model, deciding who gets through and who remains in obscurity, but that barrier seems full of holes now. If literary agents are to remain part of the publishing process, how will they need to adapt?”

So come join us right here at 3pm EST on June the 10th for what should be a very interesting discussion.

IMAGINE THE SIXTIES and Seventies… Hammer films and American International Pictures… The time of Plague of the Zombies, Lust for a Vampire, Quatermass and the Pit, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace and The Masque of the Red Death.
Imagine we’re back there now.

No mobile phones, no videotapes or DVDs, no personal computers. And iPads and Kindles are decades away. Where we are now, music is played on vinyl records with a stylus picking up the recorded sound on an old fashioned “radiogram” or a “portable” record player.

Horror stories had their emphasis on strong supernatural themes; this was an era when you could believe in vampires and strange otherworlds. Ghosts, demons, monsters, maniacs, black magic. These are the subject matter of this anthology of yarns from the deathly realm. A stage magician and his horrific secrets revealed to a meddling assistant. The bizarre appearance of an Arabian market in a Surrey garden. A railway station from which none of the ill-fated travellers can escape. A man searching for his lost wife in a dreamlike realm. A film director trying to capture the essence of a witches’ coven and its sacrifice. The writers in this book offer up their weird and peculiar offerings for your reading pleasure. Twenty-three short stories… start your journey now!

Table of Contents:

Marianne’s Boy by Elizabeth Fancett,

Prison by Bryn Fortey,

Broadcast by Ramsey Campbell,

Television Wife by W. T. Webb,

Goat by David Campton,

The Hollow Where by Michael G. Coney,

Infra-Man by Roger Parkes,

The Farmhouse by David A. Riley,

Under the Tombstone by Kenneth Bulmer,

Grooley by James Wade,

Demoniacal by David A. Sutton,

The Inglorious Rise of the Catsmeat Man by Robin Smyth,

The People Down Below by Julia Birley,

Phantasmagoria by W. T. Webb,

The Winner by E. C. Tubb,

The Time of Waiting by Richard Davis,

Mr. Nobody by R. W. Mackleworth,

Charley’s Chair by David Rome,

A Bottle of Spirits by David A. Riley,

The Darkness by Robert P. Holdstock,

Shrewhampton North-East by Bryn Fortey,

The Ghosts in the Garden by Rosemary Timperley,

The Other House by Ramsey Campbell.

Publisher: Shadow Publishing

Release_Date: 25 March 2013

ISBN_10: 0953903269

ISBN_13: 9780953903269

When Alex Converse, heir to a coal company fortune, visits Silver Gap, Colorado to make an environmentally themed documentary film, he’s hoping to change some minds and to soothe his own troubled conscience. But there’s more going on—in his mind, and in Silver Gap—than Alex knows. People are dying and women are disappearing. Some of the killers have fur, fangs, and claws—but some don’t. What is Alex’s connection to the missing women? Will anyone live long enough to find out? And what’s up with those wolves?

Season of the Wolf is a heart-stopping supernatural thriller about climate change, the human capacity for evil, and the epic struggle between a small town’s citizens and impossible creatures from the dawn of history.

Season of the Wolf will go a long way to further Jeff Mariotte’s reputation as one of today’s best writers of horror and dark fiction. It is highly recommended. —TT Zuma at Horror World.org (http://horrorworld.org/hw/2013/01/season-of-the-wolf/)

Mariotte has created a story which will grab the attention of readers and will have them hooked until the very last page; hoping for the survival of characters that they will come to love, even when the odds are against them. —Rebecca Lovatt at The Arched Doorway (http://archeddoorway.com/2012/11/20/season-of-the-wolf-by-jeffrey-j-mariotte-review/)

I could hear echos of Stephen King and Dean Koontz while reading Season of the Wolf and, for this genre, there’s no better praise than that. —Lori Spier at Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/475394213)

Publisher: DarkFuse

Release_Date: Feb 26 2013

ISBN_10: 193777161X

ISBN_13: 9781937771614