ChiZine Newsletter (July 2009 edition)

~~~~~

Table of Contents
1. 41st issue of ChiZine is now live!
2. Member News
3. Film Reviews
4. New Leisure Books horror titles

~~~~~

The 41st issue of ChiZine is now live!

With fiction by:

“Teddy Bears and Tea Parties” by S. Boyd Taylor
“In Bloom” by Caspian Gray
“In Case of Doubt” by Tarl Roger Kudrick

With poetry by:

"ThreeVisions" by Gary Beck
"Muzzled" by Jennifer Jerome
"Banshee (haibun)" by Lon Prater
"Fox + Deer" by Liz Worth

Go here to access the new fiction and poetry: http://chizine.com/fiction.htm

+++

MEMBER NEWS

From Michael Arnzen:

Michael Arnzen reports his debut publication in France, with the collectible
mini-chapbook SKULL FRAGMENTS (Les Perseides, 2009). Skull Fragments is a
bi-lingual,French-English translation of a series of flash fiction pieces,
all involving skulls found in a ball pit at fast food restaurant.

Arnzen also wants to invite all Chi readers to check out the latest issue of
his Bram Stoker Award-winning horror newsletter, The Goreletter. The most
recent (40th!) issue features a contest for free books, twisted humor
articles (like an exploration of the deep etymology of the term "offal"),
links to some sick and crazy websites and horror games online, original
poetry,horror merch discounts and all the news of Arnzen's latest
weirdness.Subscribe FREE at http://www.gorelets.com


From James S. Dorr:

James S. Dorr reports three new salesfor the month of May (a sign the economy has finally turned the corner?): "The Garden" to DAMNATION BOOKS for their upcoming novella series; short story "River Red" for the first annual edition of ESCAPE CLAUSE, a new sf/f anthology series;and a zombie tale with a difference, "The Dripping Nose that Wouldn't Wipe," for the anthology TOOTH DECAY.


From ChiZine:

Big congratulations to Nadia Bulkin, whose ChiZine story "Intertropical Convergence Zone" has made the Shirley Jackson Awards ballot.

http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2008_ballot.php

Read the story here:

http://chizine.com/intertropical_convergence_zone.htm


From ChiZine Publications (CZP):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The World More Full of Weeping by Bestseller Robert J. Wiersema Caps Off ChiZine Publications’ Five-Book Rush

TORONTO, Ontario (July 1, 2009) – ChiZine Publications announces that Robert J. Wiersema’s The World More Full of Weeping, his first book since the bestseller Before I Wake, is now available for pre-order in limited edition hardcover.

When 11-year-old Brian Page disappears in the woods, the community rallies around his family, sending searchers into the forest. But things take an ominous turn when his father is reminded that he disappeared into the same woods a quarter century earlier, an incident of which he has no memory. What secrets lie in the mysterious forest? Will Brian follow in his father’s footsteps, and emerge shaking into the arms of his family, or will he be claimed by the eternal twilight of the trees?

The book also includes an essay by the author called “Places and Names,” and the short story “The Small Rain Down”, which also takes place in the novella’s setting of the town of Henderson, that will only be available in the hardcover edition. All hardcovers will be signed by the author and cover artist Erik Mohr.

The World More Full of Weeping caps off a five-book rush during 2009 to have books available prior to Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention, which will take place in Montreal in early August. In addition to The World More Full of Weeping, ChiZine Publications will be publishing:

*The Tel Aviv Dossier by Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv
*The Choir Boats by Daniel A. Rabuzzi
*Objects of Worship by Claude Lalumière
*Monstrous Affections by David Nickle

The trade paperback editions of all five books will be officially launched at Anticipation during an event Saturday night (August 8). Though some of the trade paperbacks will not be publicly available until later in the fall, all five books will be available for sale (along with other CZP titles Filaria by Brent Hayward, and Horror Story and Other Horror Stories by Robert Boyczuk). Authors of all five books will be attending the launch and available to sign copies. Full details of the launch can be found at http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/announcements/worldcon-launch-party.php.

Pre-orders for The World More Full of Weeping can be placed on the Horror Mall website athttp://www.horror-mall.com/THE-WORLD-MORE-FULL-OF-WEEPING-by-Robert-J.-Wiersema-Limited-Edition-p-19363.html. The print run for the hardcover edition will be limited to those orders received. Orders must be placed by mid-August, 2009.

More information about The World More Full of Weeping can be found at: http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/books/world-more-full-weeping.php.

A hi-res image of the cover for use in articles and posts can be downloaded from: http://www.imagebam.com/image/b4807839356023.

Contact

Brett Alexander Savory, Co-publisher
ChiZine Publications
http://chizinepub.com
savory@rogers.com

About ChiZine Publications

ChiZine Publications (CZP) is an independent, invite-only publisher of weird, subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length, print version outgrowth of ChiZine (www.chizine.com), an online professional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same type of story material. All of CZP’s publications are hand-picked by Bram Stoker Award winners Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi. Erik Mohr serves as cover artist with publicity by Matthew Moore.

+++

FILM REVIEWS

Phil Brugalette reviews DEAD SNOW.

http://www.chizine.com/potshots.htm

+++

And now a word from our sponsor . . .

Available this month from Leisure Books:

THE BONE FACTORY
by Nate Kenyon

The biggest news in the small northern town of Jackson was the reopening of the local hydropower plant.Until the deaths. First a farmer was found horribly mutilated in his field. Then a little girl disappeared from her home. Deep in the woods a deputy came upon a chamber of horrors straight from a nightmare. And through it all, one child is haunted by visions of the mysterious “blue man,” a madman who brings with him blood and pain and terror, a terror spawned by forces no one can understand.


THE SHORE
by Robert Dunbar

As a winter storm tightens its grip on the small shore town of Edge harbor, the residents are frightened of much more than pounding waves and bitter winds. A series of horrible murders has the town cowering in fear. Mangled victims bear the marks of savage claws, and strange, bloody footprints mar the beach. A young policewoman and a mysterious stranger are all that stand between this isolated community and an ancient, monstrous evil.

Leisure Books

http://dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=1&L2=0


Until next month, stay dark,

Brett Alexander Savory
Editor-in-Chief
ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words
http://chizine.com


**Next ChiZine Newsletter will beAugust 1st, 2009

Hi, all. Just a reminder that today's the last day to take advantage of the 15% off sale we've got on The Tel Aviv Dossier by Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv. Go here to check out info on the book, and order:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/tel-aviv-dossier.php



Only $15.25, plus shipping until tonight at midnight (EST)!

Pretty funny blog about David Nickle's upcoming CZP short story collection Monstrous Affections by acclaimed SF writer Peter Watts. Check it out here:

http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=542

Just wanted to pass along the stellar news that I found out yesterday I got an Ontario Arts Council writing grant for my next novel, Lake of Spaces, Wood of Nothing. Twelve large.

Colour me gobsmacked!

Hey, folks,

Only about 24 hours remain to get Claude Lalumière's Objects of Worship from Horror Mall. Here's the link:

https://www.horror-mall.com/OBJECTS-OF-WORSHIP-by-Claude-Lalumiere-Limited-Edition-p-19228.html

Snag it up while you still can!

Introduction by James Morrow. Cover art Erik Mohr. Interior illustrations by Rupert Bottenberg.

The page went live last night, folks. This is a wonderfully creepy, resonant little ghost story by the bestselling author of Before I Wake:

http://horror-mall.com/THE-WORLD-MORE-FULL-OF-WEEPING-by-Robert-J.-Wiersema-Limited-Edition-p-19363.html

The book also includes a lengthy essay that Robert wrote about the novella. And special only to the hardcover edition is Robert's previously unpublished short story "The Small Rain Down," which is also set in Henderson, where The World More Full of Weeping takes place.

Only $35!

Amazing artwork by Erik Mohr, as always.

I cannot quite describe how in love with this cover I am.



A novella by national bestselling author, Robert J. Wiersema (author of Before I Wake). Limited edition hardcovers going on sale late June at Horror Mall; trade paperbacks hitting bookstores nationwide (Canada) in September.

My cover artist, Erik Mohr, is, quite simply, the shit.

We have a few copies of both Robert Boyczuk's Horror Story and Other Horror Stories and Brent Hayward's Filaria available directly from the CZP website right now.

Copies of Horror Story are signed by the author, something not available anywhere else! Bob recently got a stellar review of his collection in Rue Morgue Magazine:



Click the below link to order your signed copy now!:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/horror-story.php

We also have unsigned copies of Brent Hayward's Filaria available from the website, here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/filaria.php

Check out the glowing review from Quill & Quire here:

http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=6221

Several sections of the post-apocalyptic novel The Tel Aviv Dossier by Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv are now available to download at the CZP site on this page:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/tel-aviv-dossier.php

Click the Audio tab to the left of your screen to get the list of available audio excerpts. These are read by Matthew Moore. We hope you like them!

ChiZine Newsletter (June 2009 edition)

~~~~~
Table of Contents

1. 40th issue of ChiZine is still live!
2. Leisure/ChiZine/Rue Morgue “Fresh Blood” novel contest
3. Member News
4. Book Reviews
5. Film Reviews
6. New Leisure Books horror titles
~~~~~

The 40th issue of ChiZine is still live!

With fiction by:

Winners of the "Enter the World of Filaria" Contest:

1st place—"Maker of Flight" by Richard Thomas
2nd place—"Bonepickers" by Debi Carroll
3rd place—"Elevated State" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Also:

“Fossils” by Sunil Sadanand
“The Bear and the Sea” by Jesse Bullington


With poetry by:

"The Airships Take Us, Even As We Blow Out The Last Candle" by David Clink
"Abscess" by M. Frost
"Extended Hand With The Palm Forward" by Maurice Oliver
"What Tools" by Jacqueline West


Go here to access the new fiction and poetry: http://chizine.com/fiction.htm

+++

FRESH BLOOD CONTEST

In association with Leisure Books and Rue Morgue Magazine, ChiZine welcomes aspiring novelists to check out the “Fresh Blood” contest just announced. Click below for details!

http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SpecialFeatures.cfm?ID=2681

+++

MEMBER NEWS

We're having a 15% off sale right now on pre-orders of the trade paperback of Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv's post-apocalyptic novel, The Tel Aviv Dossier.

From now until June 30th, people who pre-order the book through the CZP website (the only place it's currently available) will get 15% off the cover price. So instead of $17.95, you get it for $15.25, plus shipping. The book will ship July 1st—at which point the sale is over and the full retail price kicks in.

If you're sitting on the fence, we've uploaded the first 40 pages of the novel here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/media/tel-aviv-dossier/Tel-Aviv-Dossier_Chap1-3.pdf

More information about the book—as well as links to order through PayPal or by cheque or money order—is here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/tel-aviv-dossier.php

Be sure to check out the Interlude tab to the left when you click the above link. Fancy!

The pre-order button you'll see is linked directly to PayPal, so you can buy securely through that page. If you'd rather pay by cheque or money order, send me an email and we'll sort that out, no problem. More information about going that route is here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/buy/shipping.php

This is a fun, irreverent, deeply weird post-apocalyptic novel from two of the genre's best writers.

Important Note: Unlike our first two titles, this one—and future CZP books—will not be available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al, but only directly through the CZP site and select independent booksellers.

Cheers, folks, and thanks as always for your continued support!

Brett

+++

James S. Dorr reports three new sales for the month of May (a sign the economy has finally turned the corner?): "The Garden" to DAMNATION BOOKS for their upcoming novella series; short story "River Red" for the first annual edition of ESCAPE CLAUSE, a new sf/f anthology series; and a zombie tale with a difference, "The Dripping Nose that Wouldn't Wipe," for the anthology TOOTH DECAY.

Big congratulations to Nadia Bulkin, whose ChiZine story "Intertropical Convergence Zone" has made the Shirley Jackson Awards ballot.

http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2008_ballot.php

Read the story here:

http://chizine.com/intertropical_convergence_zone.htm

+++

BOOK REVIEWS

Ray Wallace reviews 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS by Joe Hill, and CHILDREN OF CHAOS by Greg F. Gifune.

http://www.chizine.com/raysreviews.htm

+++

FILM REVIEWS

Phil Brugalette reviews DRAG ME TO HELL, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, TERMINATOR SALVATION, and STAR TREK.

http://www.chizine.com/potshots.htm

+++

And now a word from our sponsor . . .

Available this month from Leisure Books:

COVER
by Jack Ketchum

Lee is a veteran who came back from the war a changed man. He’s haunted and scarred. And his grip on reality is weakening, especially since his wife and son left him. He keeps to himself, deep in the woods. But today he’s not alone. A group of weekend campers have intruded on his fragile world. For Lee this means he’s back in the war. For the unsuspecting visitors it means a fight to stay alive.


PRESSURE
by Jeff Strand

They first met in boarding school—Alex, shy and nervous, and Darren, constantly scribbling in his journal. They became best friends in college. Alex always knew Darren was a little odd. He didn’t know his friend was murderously insane until Darren asked Alex to join him in his blood-soaked fun. They could be a team, hunting and slaughtering human prey. Alex doesn’t want any part of it. He’s no monster. But Darren is twisted, deadly…and determined. And he won’t take no for an answer.

Leisure Books
http://dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=1&L2=0


Until next month, stay dark,

Brett Alexander Savory
Editor-in-Chief

ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words
http://chizine.com


**Next ChiZine Newsletter will be July 1st, 2009

CZP's sixth title, David Nickle's Monstrous Affections, is now available for pre-order as a signed, limited edition hardcover at Horror Mall.



Here's the information page about the book at the CZP website:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/monstrous-affections.php

A young bride and her future mother-in-law risk everything to escape it. A repentant father summons help from a pot of tar to ensure it. A starving woman learns from howling winds and a whispering host, just how fulfilling it can finally be.

Can it be love?

Table of Contents
• Introduction by Michael Rowe
• The Sloan Men
• Janie and the Wind
• Night of the Tar Baby
• Other People's Kids
• The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions
• The Pit-Heads
• Slide Trombone
• The Inevitability of Earth [Download MP3 from Pseudopod]
• Swamp Witch and the Tea-Drinking Man
• Fly in your Eye
• The Delilah Party
• Polyphemus' Cave
• Pants Are For Company

"David Nickle writes 'em damned weird and damned good and damned dark. He is bourbon-rough, poetic and vivid. Don't miss this one."
—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother

This signed, limited edition hardcover is only available to order until July 26th, 2009.

This is lots of fun:

http://www.bscreview.com/2009/05/testing-testing-is-this-thing-on-lavie-tidhar-and-nir-yaniv-interviewed/

Around mid-June, BSC will run another interview in this style between CZP authors Claude Lalumière and David Nickle.

Enjoy, folks, and please grab a copy of The Tel Aviv Dossier before our 15% off sale ends!

Very cool:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/25/small-sf-press-ralli.html#comments

Big thanks to Cory Doctorow for helping spread the word!

ChiZine Publications (CZP) is looking for someone to help out with administrative duties, leading up to our big four-book launch at WorldCon in Montreal. Mostly, said person would be helping out CZP's publicist Matt Moore setting up interviews for our authors, keeping our Google Wiki site current, and other little bits and bobs to keep us running smoothly.

We can't offer money for this (hence the intern designation), but the lucky candidate would get an inside look at how a successful small press runs. Tons of contacts will be made through this experience, as well as the undying gratitude of CZP's publisher, Brett Alexander Savory.

The books you'd be helping put out are:

• Daniel Rabuzzi's The Choir Boats
• Claude Lalumière's Objects of Worship (with a foreword by James Morrow)
• David Nickle's Monstrous Affections (with a foreword by Michael Rowe)
• Robert J. Wiersema's The World More Full of Weeping

Could probably throw a free trade paperback of every book you help with, too, so that's something.

Interested? Email Brett at this address.

Big congrats to Nadia Bulkin for making the storySouth Million Writers Award final ballot with her ChiZine story "Intertropical Convergence Zone"!

Here's the email from the founder, Jason Sanford:

******
The finalists for the 2009 storySouth Million Writers Award have been announced, and the public vote for best online story of the year is now open. The top ten stories are:

"The Whale Hunter" by Steinur Bell (Agni)
"Intertropical Convergence Zone" by Nadia Bulkin (ChiZine)
"No Bullets in the House" by Geronimo Madrid (Drunken Boat)
"Fuckbuddy" by Roderic Crooks (Eyeshot)
"The Fisherman's Wife" by Jenny Williams (LitNImage)
"Every Earth is Fit for Burial" by Cyn Kitchen (Menda City Review)
"Interview With A Moron" by Elizabeth Stuckey-French (Narrative Magazine)
"The Tale of Junko and Sayuri" by Peter S. Beagle (OSC's Intergalactic Medicine Show)
"Grief Mongers" by Sefi Atta (Per Contra Fiction)
"Nine Sundays in a Row" by Kris Dikeman (Strange Horizons)

To vote for your favorite story, please go to www.storysouth.com/millionwriters.html. Thanks to the generosity of numerous donors, this year's award features the following monetary prizes:

Overall winner: $500
Runner-up: $200
Honorable mention (third place): $100

In addition, I list some of the other great stories which were on my short list for this year's award at www.jasonsanford.com.

Jason Sanford
founding editor
storySouth
******

Please check out Nadia's story and vote for it, if you dig it!

Thanks,

Brett

Hey, everyone,

We're not officially announcing this until next week, but I wanted readers of this blog to get first wind of it. We're having a 15% off sale right now on pre-orders of the trade paperback of Lavie Tidhar & Nir Yaniv's post-apocalyptic novel, The Tel Aviv Dossier.



From now until June 30th, people who pre-order the book through the CZP website (the only place it's currently available) will get 15% off the cover price. So instead of $17.95, you get it for $15.25, plus shipping. The book will ship July 1st—at which point the sale is over and the full retail price kicks in.

If you're sitting on the fence, we've uploaded the first 40 pages of the novel here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/media/tel-aviv-dossier/Tel-Aviv-Dossier_Chap1-3.pdf

More information about the book—as well as links to order through PayPal or by cheque or money order—is here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/books/tel-aviv-dossier.php

Be sure to check out the Interlude tab to the left when you click the above link. Fancy!

The pre-order button you'll see is linked directly to PayPal, so you can buy securely through that page. If you'd rather pay by cheque or money order, send me an email and we'll sort that out, no problem. More information about going that route is here:

http://chizine.com/chizinepub/buy/shipping.php

This is a fun, irreverent, deeply weird post-apocalyptic novel from two of the genre's best writers.

Important Note: Unlike our first two titles, this one—and future CZP books—will not be available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al, but only directly through the CZP site and select independent booksellers.

Cheers, folks, and thanks as always for your continued support!

Brett

ChiZine Newsletter (May 2009 edition)

~~~~~
Table of Contents
1. 40th issue of ChiZine is still live!
2. New members
3. Member News
4. Book Reviews
5. New Leisure Books horror titles
~~~~~

The 40th issue of ChiZine is still live!

With fiction by:

Winners of the "Enter the World of Filaria" Contest:

1st Place—"Maker of Flight" by Richard Thomas
2nd Place—"Bonepickers" byDebi Carroll
3rd Place—"Elevated State" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Also:

"Fossils" by Sunil Sadanand
"The Bear and the Sea" by Jesse Bullington


With poetry by:

"The Airships Take Us, Even As We Blow Out The Last Candle" by David Clink
"Abscess" by M.Frost
"Extended Hand With The Palm Forward" by Maurice Oliver
"What Tools" by Jacqueline West

Go here to access the new fiction and poetry: http://chizine.com/fiction.htm

+++

NEW MEMBERS

No new members this month. The Chiaroscuro is still 1,987 members strong in 47 countries.

+++

MEMBER NEWS

Big congratulations to Nadia Bulkin, whose ChiZine story "Intertropical Convergence Zone" has made the Shirley Jackson Awards ballot.

http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2008_ballot.php

Read the story here:

http://chizine.com/intertropical_convergence_zone.htm


We also just found out that Paul Tremblay's story "The Blog at the End of the World" was the editors' choice in the short fiction category. Big congrats, Paulie!

Full list of winners is here:

http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/2nd-annual-winners/

Read the story here: http://theblogattheendoftheworld.com/


And finally, information on ChiZine Publications' next title, Claude Lalumière's short story collection Objects of Worship:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Objects of Worship by Claude Lalumière Available in Limited Edition Hardcover

TORONTO, Ontario (April 28, 2009) – Independent publisher ChiZine Publications is releasing a collection of twelve short stories by Montreal writer and editor Claude Lalumière titled Objects of Worship. This collection will be available in a special edition hardcover for a limited time.

Called "the debut of a highly original voice in fantastic fiction" by Jan Lars Jensen, this collection contains stories that have appeared in magazines and anthologies such as On Spec, Year's Best SF, Interzone, Electric Velocipede, and Tesseracts Eleven as well as the previously unpublished "The Darkness at the Heart of the World" and "Roman Predator's Chimeric Odyssey." This volume also features interior illustrations by Rupert Bottenberg (Claude's Lost Myths collaborator), an introduction by World Fantasy Award-winning author James Morrow, and an afterward by the author.

In addition, the hardcover will contain two bonus stories of extreme horror/humour: Claude's tribute to Iggy Pop, "The World's Forgotten Boy and the Scorpions from Hell," and its sequel, "Motherfucker." Also unique to the hardcover edition is a mosaic of 'Objects of Worship' icons by illustrator Rupert Bottenberg on the back cover.

All copies of the hardcovers will be signed by the author, Bottenberg, and cover artist Erik Mohr.

Orders can be placed on the Horror Mall website at http://horror-mall.com/OBJECTS-OF-WORSHIP-by-Claude-Lalumiere-Limited-Edition-p-19228.html. The print run for the hardcover edition will be limited to those orders received.

More information can be found at: http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/books/objects-of-worship.php

A hi-res image of the cover for use in articles and posts can be downloaded from: http://www.imagebam.com/image/06ad2734093370/


Contact

Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher
ChiZine Publications
http://chizinepub.com
savory@rogers.com

About ChiZine Publications

ChiZinePublications (CZP) is an independent, invite-only publisher of weird,subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length,print version outgrowth of ChiZine (www.chizine.com), an onlineprofessional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same typeof story material. All of CZP's publications are hand-picked byBram Stoker Award winners Brett Alexander Savory (Publisher) andSandra Kasturi (Senior Editor). Erik Mohr serves as cover artistwith publicity by Matthew Moore.

+++

BOOK REVIEWS

Stephen Studach reviews PHANTASY MOSTE GROTESK by Felicity Dowker.
http://www.chizine.com/stephensreviews.htm


William D. Gagliani reviews AFRAID by Jack Kilborn.
http://www.chizine.com/williamsreviews.htm

+++

And now a word from our sponsor . . .

Available this month from Leisure Books:

DEATH MASK
by Graham Masterton

He appeared as if from nowhere,brutally slashed a man and a young woman in an office elevator, then vanished again without a trace. The woman survived and gave the police a detailed description of the killer's bizarre face, yet the police can find no sign of him anywhere. It's as if he never existed. But now he's killed again. And again. One woman holds the key to his terrifying secret…but how do you stop a murderer who isn't there?


SACRIFICE
by John Everson

They're coming. They are a race of sadistic spirits known as the Curburide, and they are about to arrive in our world, bringing with them horrors beyond imagination. The secret to summoning—and controlling—them has fallen into the hands of a beautiful, sexy and dangerously insane woman.

Ariana has dedicated her life to unleashing the demons in our realm through a series of human sacrifices, erotic rituals of seduction and slaughter. As she crosses the country, getting ever closer to completing her blood-drenched mission, only three figures stand in her way: an unwilling hero who has seen the horrors of the Curburide before, a burgeoning witch...and a spiteful demon with plans of his own.


Leisure Books

http://dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=1&L2=0


Until next month, stay dark,
Brett Alexander Savory
Editor-in-Chief

ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words
http://chizine.com


**Next ChiZine Newsletter will be June 1st, 2009

Just found out that Paul Tremblay's story "The Blog at the End of the World" was the editors' choice in the short fiction category. Big congrats, Paulie!

Full list of winners is here:

http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/2nd-annual-winners/

As promised, folks, here's the link to pre-order Claude Lalumière's debut short story collection:

http://horror-mall.com/OBJECTS-OF-WORSHIP-by-Claude-Lalumiere-Limited-Edition-p-19228.html

Further info about the book, including the ToC is available at the above link.

Check out the cover art for CZP's forthcoming title, Claude Lalumière's Objects of Worship:


Copyright © 2009 by Erik Mohr

Gorgeous, no?

The signed, limited edition hardcover is now available for pre-order here:

http://horror-mall.com/OBJECTS-OF-WORSHIP-by-Claude-Lalumiere-Limited-Edition-p-19228.html

Table of Contents:

* Introduction by James Morrow
* The Object of Worship
* The Ethical Treatment of Meat
* Hochelaga and Sons
* The Sea, at Bari
* The Darkness at the Heart of the World
* Spiderkid
* Njàbò
* A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens
* A Visit to the Optometrist
* Roman Predator's Chimeric Odyssey
* Destroyer of Worlds
* This Is the Ice Age
* Afterword: Behind the Scenes with Claude Lalumière

Here's a bit about the book:

Objects of Worship, the debut collection by Claude Lalumière—twelve strange, eerie, sensual stories of monstrous gods, disturbing faiths, and urgent desires by a bold new voice in weird fiction. Interior illustrations by Rupert Bottenberg (Claude’s Lost Myths collaborator). Introduction by World Fantasy Award-winning author James Morrow.

HARDCOVER-ONLY EXTRAS:
• Two bonus stories of extreme horror/humour: Claude's tribute to Iggy Pop, “The World’s Forgotten Boy and the Scorpions from Hell,” and its sequel, “Motherfucker”
• Back-cover mosaic of Objects of Worship icons by illustrator Rupert Bottenberg

“Claude Lalumière’s stories are dark, mordant, precisely formed. His first collection is extraordinarily accomplished in its craft and subversive intent.” —Lucius Shepard

“These stories are terrifically creepy. And not unlike Edgar Allan Poe or Potted Meat Product, they gave me the willies.” —Christopher Moore

“Claude Lalumière has a poet’s sensibility. He suggests; never overstates. This finely crafted, stylishly dark collection is a vitrine of objets and curios, a specimen cabinet of elegant bizarrerie. I recommend it to all connoisseurs of lyricism and things passing strange.” —Richard Calder

“You hear about kids locked away in attics, their only toys broken clothespins, a few pipe cleaners, a spool of yarn. Yet with these toys, they manage to concoct imaginary worlds of great wonder and beauty. Claude must have grown up in an attic because he writes like one of those kids.” —Neil Smith

“Claude Lalumière’s extravagant imagination is matched by only two other qualities: his compassion for his characters, and his sparkling facility with language. His stories resound with the clash of ideas, the music of hearts and the howls of indignation that any sensitive creator emits when confronted with a universe less esthetically pleasing and fair-minded than the ones he daily strives to create.” —Paul Di Filippo

“In these stories, life still aches after death, spirits leave the flesh and return, and the only people comfortable with their bodies are rotting zombies. Disturbing and funny, sexy and psychedelic, this collection marks the debut of a highly original voice in fantastic fiction. Read it for the thrill of getting lost, or the pleasure of letting an author lead you into undiscovered places.” —Jan Lars Jensen

“Claude Lalumière's stories are delicious.” —Anna Tambour