As I mentioned in a post last week, Flame Tree Press is releasing a new anthology titled American Gothic Short Stories, which includes the first publication of my story “Gothic American.” To celebrate the release of the anthology, Flame Tree has put another Author Q&A post up on its Fantasy and Gothic blog. One of the prompts this time around is: “What are your favorite stories from this genre?” Click on over to find out my choices, along with those by writers such as Lucy A. Snyder and Ramsey Campbell.

More wit and wisdom unearthed: another eight epitaphs have been posted to the Grave Marker Macabre page above.

Venture back in October for the final octet from the dead set…

After receiving over 7000 reader nominations, NPR has published its list of 100 Favorite Horror Stories. The choices (novels, individual stories, and anthologies) have been grouped into ten categories–Blood Roots: Foundational Horror; Zombies and Vampires and Werewolves: Oh My; The Fear in Our Stars: Cosmic Horror and Weird Fiction; Horrible Houses: Ghosts and Hauntings; Final Girls: Horror By and About Woman; Horribly Ever After: Fantasy and Fairy Tale Horror; Hell is Other People: Real World Horrors; Short and Sharp: Story anthologies; The Kids Aren’t All Right: Creepy Kids; and Scar Your Children: Horror for Beginners. The judges (Stephen Graham Jones, Ruthanna Emrys, Tananarive Due, and Grady Hendrix) wax a tad political in their selections/commentary–(modern revisions of) Lovecraft’s racism seems to be a recurrent theme–but overall the accompanying summaries to each text are quite enjoyable to read. So whether you are looking to revisit a classic or to discover lesser-known scare fare, you can now be guided by an ultimate syllabus of horror. Quot libros, quam breve tempus, as some guy named Stephen King likes to say.

And eight more makes eighty-four: the latest batch of black-humored epitaphs have been added to the Grave Marker Macabre page above. Come check out the wit and wisdom of the checked out…

Another ten epitaphs have been added to the Grave Marker Macabre page above, bringing the grand total (here on 7/6) to 76. The plan is to post 100 total, so hopefully the dead keep passing on their wit and wisdom to me!

Another half-dozen epitaphs have been posted to the Grave Marker Macabre page above (which, here on June 6th, coincidentally brings the total to 66).

Death enjoys a holiday here on May 5th: another handful of epitaphs have been posted to the Grave Marker Macabre page above.

Sadly, actor/comedian Harry Anderson passed away yesterday at the age of 65. He is best remembered as the honorable jokester presiding over Night Court (one of my favorite 80’s sitcoms), and also starred in the miniseries adaptation of one of my most beloved books from my youth, Stephen King’s It. Here’s one last beep beep for the first (adult) Richie Tozier.