Anthologies

Welcome to the dream world. What you are about to encounter is the unfiltered stuff of the dream, and that is wild, terrifying, provocative, and unsettling material. In this volume, some of the best living Southern writers are offering up a feast of their dreams, wonderful and awful in equal measure, for you to enjoy. These dream stories and poems will tell you what you have always known, but what you are too afraid to say out loud in the full light of day: that we are a race of chimeras, beings made up of the incompatible parts of innumerable mutually antagonistic creatures. Our pieces do not fit together. We are, when we¿re willing to tell the truth about ourselves, surreal at our hearts. Welcome to the Surreal South.

"Sublimity, as we choose to define it, is that quality a story possesses when it is, in its entirety, completely unpredictable as well as completely inevitable and authentic.... A story-a real story, of the type that we've gathered here; not the mock-stories, the painless, bloodless vignettes that make up so much of today's "literary" fiction-involves apocalypse. Apocalypse means a revelation (the literal meaning of the word apocalypse is a "lifting of the veil"), and a very specific type of revelation: the destruction of an old order, followed by a time of disorder and chaos, and the replacement of the old order by a new and entirely different order.... Sublimity and apocalypse. Anti-rationality and surreality. The call for the literary artist is nothing less than to reveal and remake everything; and the writers whose work you are about to experience have boldly answered that call. We invite you to abandon to its well-deserved fate the wreckage of the rational, and to enjoy." - from the Introduction, by Laura & Pinckney Benedict

If you thought standing in line at your local megastore was murder, then you haven't been to Megamart. These flash fiction tales of superstore madness and mayhem will make you think twice the next time you hear "clean up on aisle 13." This anthology contains works by: Patricia Abbott, Sophie Littlefield, Kieran Shea, Chad Eagleton, Ed Gorman, Cormac Brown, Fleur Bradley, Alan Griffiths, Laura Benedict, Garnett Elliot, Eric Beetner, Jack Bates, Bill Crider, Loren Eaton, John DuMond, John McFetridge, Toni McGeeCausey, Jeff Vande Zande, James Reasoner, Kyle Minor, Randy Rohn, Todd Mason, Byron Quertermous, Sandra Scoppettone, Stephen D. Rogers, Steve Weddle, Evan Lewis, Daniel B. O'Shea, Sandra Seamans, Albert Tucher, Donna Moore, John Weagly, Keith Rawson, Gerald So, Dave Zeltserman, Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen, Jay Stringer, Anne Frasier, Kathleen A. Ryan, Eric Peterson, Chris Grabenstein and J.T. Ellison. DISCOUNT NOIR has been nominated for Outstanding Anthology in the 2011 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll.

This is the third and, in our humble opinion, the best, densest, and most exciting edition of the Surreal South anthology series. When we began this series, with the original Surreal South in 2007 (we did not know then, though we hoped, that it would be followed by Surreal South '09 and now this third volume), we wished to put together a book that in some sense bridged the gap between work that is perceived as 'literary' and work that is perceived as 'genre.' The first category is, as we take it, defined primarily by the excellence of its execution and the loftiness of its ambition. The second category is demarcated by its accessibility (indeed, its addictive quality) and its concentration on plot and pacing. This volume of profoundly weird stories is, we believe, an almost-perfect nexus of the literary and the genre. The stories it contains offer brilliant prose and unabashed plots. They are highly intelligent and compulsively readable. And they all celebrate ghosts and monsters. We really like ghosts and monsters. We're betting that you do too.

A delicious selection of short fiction cooked up to benefit the Lupus Foundation of America. It started online when a group of writers and editors learned that a friend, writer and book blogger Sabrina Ogden, needed expensive jaw surgery. So they did what writers and editors are best at doing—they put together a book of killer fiction to benefit Sabrina. After a successful fundraising publication through an indiegogo project, they, along with Sabrina, decided to make FEEDING KATE available to everyone, and keep the fundraising going to benefit The Lupus Foundation of America. From the Foreword: “Our guidelines [for FEEDING KATE]? The stories had to involve food or involve a character named Kate. The result is a broad selection of story genres—from pulp to horror to comedy to crime to young adult—by writers with just as wide a range of voices and publishing experience. Like Sabrina, each piece is unique. One of the surest proofs of her specialness is that nearly three-fourths of the stories in the collection were written especially for her and this project.” FIRST COURSE: REVENGE IS SERVED Wax Fruit by Dan O’Shea Rivka’s Place by Linda Rodriguez The Hollow Woman by Laura Benedict Dolores is Dead by Daryl Wood Gerber Crush by Chad Rohrbacher SECOND COURSE: CRAVINGS The Well by Chris Holm Gavage by Chuck Wendig Anniversary by Hilary Davidson THIRD COURSE: CRIMINALLY DELICIOUS The Jaws of Life by Laura K. Curtis Down Cumberland Ferry by Ron Earl Phillips Addictions by Neliza Drew Reunion by Joelle Charbonneau Cakewalk by Chad Eagleton A Hungry Soul by Ellie Anderson The Rewards by Steve Weddle FOURTH COURSE: HARD CORE FOODIES Kamikaze Death Burgers at the Ghost Town Café by Thomas Pluck Roach Coach by Stephen Blackmoore Young Americans by Josh Stallings Pizza Face and the Cheeseburger Deathgrip by Kent Gowran FIFTH COURSE: JUST DESSERTS That’s a Sweet Invasion, Craig by Clare Toohey There’s No Place Like Home by Jenny Gardiner Simon Sez in The Snickerdoodle Kerfuffle by Johnny Shaw Just Part of the Job by Holly West “Disgusting and delicious.” –Scott Phillips, Author of The Adjustment and The Ice Harvest

Looking for a little fright to go with your fa-la-la? Three thrilling horror writers—Lisa Morton, Carolyn Haines (aka R.B. Chesterton), and Laura Benedict—bring you three short, sharp tales of terror to liven up your holiday fireside reading. The Christmas Spirit By Lisa Morton In a last-ditch effort to save their troubled marriage, Elise and Ray decide to get out of London for Christmas and spend time together at the tatty, atmospheric Yorkshire cottage Elise has inherited from her Aunt Priscilla. When Ray surprises Elise with The Christmas Spirit, an old book he’s bought in the village, Elise reads it aloud, anxious to make their stay a success. But the tale of murder and violence transcends time, reaching out for Elise and Ray, threatening not just their marriage, but their lives. The Christmas Ornament By Carolyn Haines (aka R.B.Chesterton) Homesick and stuck at Cornell University over the Christmas holidays, Clair and four of her fellow grad students accept Carlos Ard’s invitation to spend Christmas at his great-uncle’s isolated Victorian summer home deep in the woods. After a Christmas Eve feast, everyone settles in to hear ghost stories, but after Carlos brings out a box containing a family heirloom from Romania—a Christmas ornament that’s so cursed that it cannot even safely be seen—the adventure becomes a nightmare from which Clair may never wake. The Christmas Gnome By Laura Benedict Venus Hansen has a perfect face, a perfect house, a perfect husband and two perfect children. When her mother-in-law in Norway sends them a shabby wooden Christmas gnome, Venus’s perfect husband, Steffan, insists on surprising the children each morning before Christmas with some holiday-themed mischief that the gnome has gotten into, just like a certain elf that lives on a shelf. Venus doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, but when Steffan’s pranks go awry, and the gnome starts telling Venus vicious secrets, Christmas turns deadly, and her perfect life will never be the same. Stick around after the end of the stories, if you dare. Lisa, Laura, and Carolyn have all included thrilling samples from their other, current books as a special treat.

Look at this picture. Tell me what you see... The American South is rife with stories of a haunted past--especially its houses. In this eclectic and impressive collection, thirteen novelists were asked to build their tales around the photo of a dilapidated mansion. They were given two requirements--the house must appear in the story, and it should be a Southern Gothic tale. And they delivered. From childish demons to a mad novelist, from the Mississippi delta to the Appalachians, this collection from emerging voices and New York Times bestselling authors explores what happens when secrets that lie beneath the dust are disturbed--and our worst nightmares begin. Darkness lurks behind every corner, especially dead ends.

The day Mia Jensen died, she finally got to live. We've all played the "what if" game. For forty-year-old Mia Jensen, "what if" is a fact of life. Dissatisfied with her choices, she often dreams about what could have been. Now she has the chance to know. But that knowledge will cost her dearly. Only through death can she fully realize the value of her life. After a terrible day, trying to figure out how she's come to this point--alone, on the cusp of divorce--Mia hears a strange noise in her kitchen. When she investigates, she is attacked and left for dead. As Mia dies, she experiences some of the lives that could have been hers had she only made a different choice. Can one woman find peace with the path she's chosen before it slips through her fingers forever? Through the unique voices of New York Times bestsellers and rising stars in women's fiction, A THOUSAND DOORS examines how our smallest decisions create lasting effects, and asks the ultimate question-- can we actually change our lives? Bringing Mia to life are the following authors: Kimberly Belle Laura Benedict A.F. Brady Patti Callahan Henry Paige Crutcher Rebecca Drake Heather Gudenkauf Joy Jordan-Lake Alisha Klapheke Ariel Lawhon Kerry Lonsdale Catherine McKenzie Kate Moretti Lisa Patton Kaira Rouda

The crime fiction canopy's a broad one, with room to give shelter to writing of all sorts, as editor Lawrence Block shows with At Home in the Dark: “Some of these stories have one or both feet planted in another genre. James Reasoner's story is a period western, Joe Lansdale's is bleakly dystopian, and Joe Hill's novelette slithers through a little doorway into another world. “And now that I've singled out those three, I suppose I should go ahead and list the rest of the gang: N. J. Ayres, Laura Benedict, Jill D. Block, Richard Chizmar, Hilary Davidson, Jim Fusilli, Elaine Kagan, Warren Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Ed Park, Nancy Pickard, Thomas Pluck, Wallace Stroby, and Duane Swierczynski. “If you're looking for a common denominator, two come to mind. They're all dark stories, with nothing cozy or comforting about them. And every last one of them packs a punch. “Which is to say that they're all very much At Home in the Dark—and we can thank O. Henry, master of the surprise ending, for our title. 'Turn up the lights,' he said on his deathbed. 'I don't want to go home in the dark.'”