Special Pre-order Deal: Five Horror Anthologies from Crystal Lake Publishing for $11

http://www.crystallakepub.com/

You can now pre-order all five upcoming Crystal Lake anthologies (eBook format) for only $11 (including Twice Upon an Apocalypse). Check out our new Special Offers page for more info and a link.

Save at least $10 by ordering all of these great anthologies together:

Twice Upon An Apocalypse: Lovecraftian Fairy Tales (more details on this below)

Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders

Where Nightmares Come From

Covers coming for:

Tales from the Lake Vol. 4

C.H.U.D. Lives! tribute anthology

These anthologies include the best of the best,

from Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Maberry, and Joe R. Lansdale, to Ramsey Campbell, Kristi DeMeester, Damien Angelica Walters, Maria Alexander, Gene O’Neill, Kealan Patrick Burke, JG Faherty, Mort Castle, Tim Waggoner, Lisa Morton, and dozens more.

*And, if you order before the end of this June, you’ll be entered into an exclusive draw to win a signed (by the editor) paperback copy of BEHOLD. So order now!

So what will you get for your $11 contribution?

-Five Crystal Lake anthologies
-The opportunity to read these books a week or two before everyone else
-Hours of entertainment
-A chance to win a paperback copy of BEHOLD signed by editor Doug Murano

Twice Upon an Apocalypse, edited by Rachel Kenley and Scott T. Goudsward
Out May 30th, 2017
These aren't your mother's fairy tales.

“You’ll find re-imaginings of “The Snow Queen,” “Jack the Giant Slayer,” “The Little Mermaid,” and several other well-known tales herein, all of them dropped without warning or apology into Lovecraft’s cold and merciless universe.” – Gary A. Braunbeck

Throughout history parents have told their children stories to help them sleep, to keep them entertained. But we're pretty sure none of those parents had this in mind. These are the fairy tales that will give you and your children nightmares. From the darkest depths of Grimm and Anderson come the immortal mash-ups with the creations of HP Lovecraft.

The stories in Twice Upon an Apocalypse will scare and delight “Children” of all ages!

Introduction by Gary A. Braunbeck
“The Pied Piper of Providence” by William Meikle
“The Three Billy Goats Sothoth” by Peter N. Dudar
“Little Maiden of the Sea” by David Bernard
“The Great Old One and the Beanstalk” by Armand Rosamilia
“In the Shade of the Juniper Tree” by J .P. Hutsell
“The Horror at Hatchet Point” by Zach Shephard
“The Most Incredible Thing” by Bracken MacLeod
“Let Me Come In!” by Simon Yee
“The Fishman and His Wife” by Inanna Arthen
“Little Match Mi-Go” by Michael Kamp
“Follow the Yellow Glyph Road” by Scott T. Goudsward
“Gumdrop Apocalypse” by Pete Rawlik
“Curiosity” by Winifred Burniston
“The Ice Queen” by Mae Empson
“Once Upon a Dream” by Matthew Baugh
“Cinderella and Her Outer Godfather” by C.T. Phipps
“Donkeyskin” by KH Vaughan
“Sweet Dreams in the Witch-House” by Sean Logan
“Fee Fi Old One” by Thom Brannan
“The King on the Golden Mountain” by Morgan Sylvia
“The Legend of Creepy Hollow” by Don D’Ammassa

Check out the dedicated webpage to download a sample.

Interview: Cherie Priest (Chapelwood: The Borden Dispatches #2 book tour)

Sharon: Guess we should ask the most obvious question…How often do people mispronounce and misspell your name?
Cherie: All the time! It's spelled like the French term of endearment but pronounced like the beverage. Or, as I tell people - my father's name is Jerry, and my mother's name is Sharon. They smashed 'em together, and came up with "Sherry" but that was just silly, so they changed the spelling so no one would notice. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I have my suspicions...

Sharon: The conclusion to The Borden Dispatches duology, Chapelwood, just released. Tell our readers a bit about your heroine Lizzie and her story.
Cherie: Chapelwood happens thirty years after the events of Maplecroft, and it's set in Birmingham, Alabama - in the midst of some real-life ax murders that were so weird I simply could have never made them up. So Lizzie is older, wiser, and itching to get out of the house. Readers will see some old friends, meet some new friends, and get some answers to lingering questions. Also, I hope...they'll be scared silly.

Sharon: And how did the idea of combining the Lizzie Borden story with a Lovecraftian mythos come about? Do you have a favorite Cthulhu picture?
Cherie: The Borden murders and the Cthulhu mythos were two great tastes that taste great together. Although Lizzie herself was acquitted, I gave her a good reason to be guilty: Her parents were turning into fish-people, and they were trying to eat her. Justifiable homicide if I ever heard of it.
As for favorite Cthulhu picture, I don't know. I really enjoyed DAGON, and the video game DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH. That's what springs to mind, anyway.

sweet dreams kids...

Sharon: You also wrote a steampunk series, The Clockwork Century. Do you do any Steampunk cosplay? What is your favorite prop or accessory?

Cherie: I used to, but I traveled so much that it became more trouble than it was worth. TSA frowns upon carrying rayguns in your carry on, and I was basically getting stopped and frisked every time I went through an airport. So I streamlined it down in recent years, and only break out the corsetry for local events. My favorite pieces are always the crinolines and bustles. I'm fairly petite, and I rather enjoy the opportunity to take up a lot of unnecessary space.

Sharon: You just got back from DragonCon! How was it? How did it compare to past DragonCons?
Cherie: It was a blast! A big, exhausting, crazypants blast! Every year it gets bigger and nuttier; I fear they'll need to cap attendance before long. I've been going for nearly twenty years now, and it's changed a LOT since I was barely legal to drink. So many more people - guests and attendees - so much more programming, so much more trouble to get from place to place. But the vendors hall was less aggravating than the last couple of years (they relocated it from the Marriott), so there's that. My dad's birthday falls on September 8th, so every year he gets DragonCon loot. Vendor hall accessibility and ease-of-navigation are important to me.

Katie: You're a gal who's lived in the South and the Pacific Northwest, which area do you think would be the safest during the zombie apocalypse? (There is talk zombies don't like the cold....thoughts?) And what would your weapon of choice be?
Cherie: I've lived all over, but mostly in the southeast, yes - with a 6-year stint in Seattle. I'm not sure, vis-a-vis zombie apocalypse. Walking Dead is filmed in Atlanta, so they've probably got a head start on how to handle the hordes, but I don't know. All things being equal, I think it'd be best to get out of town (I live in Chattanooga) and make for the Appalachian foothills, where there aren't too many people to zombify. Besides, you don't want to be a zombie in the Deep South, man. Everybody and his brother has a gun and knows how to use it.

Sharon: If the flock made a road trip to your state of Tennessee, where would you suggest we stay?
Cherie: I'm only passingly familiar with Nashville and Knoxville, but Frankfurt has a long-running Rocky Horror Picture Show that comes highly recommended. Here in Chattanooga, I'd say you ought to crash at the historic Read House hotel (not the Choo-Choo, IMO). Ask for the haunted room. No, seriously.

Sharon: Your bio says you love trashy goth music. Give us some bands/songs you enjoy. Were you goth as a teen? Got a pic?

Goth Cherie!

Cherie: Sisters of Mercy (natch), The Cure, Depeche Mode, Rob Zombie, you name it, really. Is it dark? Is it spooky? Is it a little funky? Hand it over. As a teen, I was kind of goth. In my defense, I mostly lived in Florida. It's hard to do goth in Florida. I blossomed a little better once I made it to Tennessee, in my late teens/early twenties. But here's my high school senior pic, class of '93 - velvet and lace, and pearls. And blonde and tan, but whatchagonnado?

Sharon: We're gonna rock out to some Rob Zombie! Turn it up...all the cool kids do.

Sharon: If you could own any piece of art in the world (painting, sculpture, or what-not) what would it be?
Cherie: Probably nothing famous. I'm happier with obscure things that no one would try to steal, so... I don't know.

Sharon: What in nature do you find awe inspiring
Cherie: Halloween. In all seriousness.

I'm showing these Cherie Priest covers because they are creepy!

Rapid Fire

Sharon: gum or mints?
Cherie: Mints.


Sharon: Coke or Pepsi?
Cherie: Coke. What am I, some kind of animal?
Sharon: *whispers to self* Apparently...*can of coke hits Sharon on head and Katie gives her the stink eye*
Sharon: *rubs head and mumbles* sorry Cherie...

Sharon: Godzilla or Cthulhu? (who would win in a fight)
Cherie: I'm siding with the eldergods every time.

Katie: We need a bigger boat or We came. We saw. We kicked its ass. ?
Cherie: We came, we saw. I like sharks too much, man. They get a bad rap.

Sharon: Wonder Woman or the new female Thor?
Cherie: WonderWoman. I've never had any Thor Underoos.

Sharon: sloth under your bed or sloth in your closet?
Cherie: Nope.
Katie: *hits Sharon with Nerf ax* That was just mean.
Cherie :)

CHAPELWOOD
By Cherie Priest
Roc Trade Paperback Original
448 pages
September 1, 2015

Birmingham, Alabama is infested with malevolence. Prejudice and hatred have consumed the minds and hearts of its populace. A murderer, unimaginatively named “Harry the Hacker” by the press, has been carving up citizens with a hatchet. And from the church known as Chapelwood, an unholy gospel is being spread by a sect that worships dark gods from beyond the heavens.

This darkness calls to Lizzie Borden. It is reminiscent of an evil she had dared hoped was extinguished. The parishioners of Chapelwood plan to sacrifice a young woman to summon beings never meant to share reality with humanity. An apocalypse will follow in their wake which will scorch the earth of all life.

Unless she stops it…

About the Author:

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CHERIE PRIEST is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the Clockwork Century series (Boneshaker, Dreadnaught,Clementine), the Eden Moore series (Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Wings to the Kingdom, and Not Flesh Nor Feathers), and the Cheshire Red books (Bloodshot, Hellbent). She has received the Endeavour and Locus Awards and was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee and can be found online at.

Book Review: Poseidon’s Children (The Legacy of the Gods Book 1) by Michael West

Poseidon’s Children (The Legacy of the Gods Book 1)

by Michael West311 pages
Published March 2012
by Seventh Star Press
ASIN: B007LAGUO2 ISBN: 978-1937929954

Man no longer worships the old gods; forgotten and forsaken, they have become nothing more than myth and legend. But all that is about to change. After the ruins of a vast, ancient civilization are discovered on the ocean floor, Coast Guard officers find a series of derelict ships drifting in the current--high-priced yachts and leaking fishing boats, all ransacked, splattered in blood, their crews missing and presumed dead.

And that's just the beginning.

Vacationing artist Larry Neuhaus has just witnessed a gruesome shark attack, a young couple torn apart right before his eyes ... at least, he thinks it was a shark. And when one of these victims turns out to be the only son of Roger Hays, the most powerful man in the country, things go from bad to worse. Now, to stop the carnage, Larry and his new-found friends must work together to unravel a mystery as old as time, and face an enemy as dark as the ocean depths.

Larry Neuhaus is vacationing with his fiancée, Peggy Hern, in the seaside town of Colonial Bay. He is hoping to get rid of the nightmares of a former girlfriend’s death that he feels he could have saved her from. Peggy is with him, hoping to bring him back to the way they were, before the girlfriend called him to say she was killing herself. What the two don’t suspect is the town is more than just a tourist town; monsters live within the depths of its ocean offshore. Maybe within the town itself. Meanwhile thousands of miles away, down in the depths of the Mediterranean ea, lies the ruin of Atlantis, founded by Dr. Carol Miyagi and her friend, partner, and lover, Alan Everson. Neither couple realizes how connected the ancient city and the New England town are. How legends will become fact, terrifying fact.

Author Michael West takes Greek myths and meshes it quite well with Lovecraftian mythology and even with the stories of the ancient astronauts. Right away, I saw the influences of Lovecraft and not only Cthuhlu, but the Deep Ones and their god, Ythogtha in the shape shifting sea monsters and their former gods in this novel. Then he puts the storyline in today and adds one of these sea monsters not wanting to hide what they are, hiding among humans and even more so, vengeance against all humans.

A great story that held me, it is dark fantasy tipping close to the edge of pure horror. Michael West brought a tale worthy of Lovecraft to the 21st century, making it real and natural, bringing the unnatural brimming beneath the surface up from the depths.

5 sheep

Pamela Kinney

About the author:
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Michael West is the bestselling author of Cinema of Shadows, Skull Full of Kisses, The Wide Game, Spook House, and the critically acclaimed Legacy of the Gods series. He lives and works in the Indianapolis area with his wife, their two children, their turtle, Gamera, and their dog, King Seesar.

West avoids manhole covers and sidewalk grates whenever possible. He just doesn’t know what’s down there, and he’s not sure he wants to find out.