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Mammoth Books presents Out and Back (Mammoth Books #421)
by Barbara Roden"My cousin-by-marriage Sean Lavery, knowing my love for weird and outré websites, sent me a link to the Dark Roasted Blend site (www.darkroastedblend.com)," reveals the author, "where I found several pages featuring photographs of abandoned places. "My imagination was fired by pictures taken at Chippewa Lake Park in Medina, Ohio, which opened in 1878 and was abandoned in 1978, with the buildings and rides left to rot where they stood, and I began looking around for some information about the park. "I've always had a fondness for amusement parks, ever since I was a child visiting Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition with my father and my brother: an annual trip which was one of the red-letter days on my childhood calendar. The photographs of Chippewa Lake Park were equal parts eerie and sad, for anyone who has ever thrilled to the sights and sounds of a midway, and the story sprang, almost fully-formed, into my head; one of the few times that's happened." To see some of the pictures that inspired the following story, visit: www.defunctparks.com/parks/OH/ChippewaLake/chippewa-lake.htm.
Mammoth Books presents Princess of the Night
by Michael KellyKelly recalls: "The genesis of 'Princess of the Night' is a little murky. It was written for an anthology of Halloween tales. Alas, it didn't make it into the book. The tale then sold to a slick new professional magazine, where it promptly languished for four years until the magazine (which published four issues, I believe) folded before publication. I forgot about the story for a while. Then, one day, as I was looking through my files for possible stories to include in a new collection, I chanced upon it again.
Mammoth Books presents Princess of the Night (Mammoth Books #355)
by Michael KellyKelly recalls: "The genesis of 'Princess of the Night' is a little murky. It was written for an anthology of Halloween tales. Alas, it didn't make it into the book. The tale then sold to a slick new professional magazine, where it promptly languished for four years until the magazine (which published four issues, I believe) folded before publication. I forgot about the story for a while. Then, one day, as I was looking through my files for possible stories to include in a new collection, I chanced upon it again.
Mammoth Books presents The Reunion
by Nicholas Royle"The Reunion" is based on actual events," reveals the author, "but the story only really came into focus for me when I was invited to contribute to Ellen Datlow's Poe anthology. Poe is brilliant. I was at a conference recently where a teacher revealed that she had read Poe's 'The Black Cat' to a lecture theatre full of schoolchildren. She switched off all the lights and used a torch to read by. A number of parents lodged complaints, which she took as a measure of the event's success. My tale is inspired by a different Poe story."
Mammoth Books presents The Reunion (Mammoth Books #423)
by Nicholas RoyleThe Reunion" is based on actual events," reveals the author, "but the story only really came into focus for me when I was invited to contribute to Ellen Datlow's Poe anthology. Poe is brilliant. I was at a conference recently where a teacher revealed that she had read Poe's 'The Black Cat' to a lecture theatre full of schoolchildren. She switched off all the lights and used a torch to read by. A number of parents lodged complaints, which she took as a measure of the event's success. My tale is inspired by a different Poe story.
Mammoth Books presents Substitutions
by Stephen Jones Michael Marshall SmithTaken from The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22, edited by Stephen Jones.As Smith recalls: "This story came about in the simplest way, the way I always enjoy most - something happening in real life that makes you think 'What if?' "Our household gets a lot of its food via an online delivery service, and one day when I was unpacking what had just been dropped at our house I gradually realised there was something...not quite right about the contents of the bags."There's two things that are strange about that experience. The first is that - given that every household is likely to buy at least some things in common - you don't realise straight away that you've been given the wrong shopping. You don't immediately think 'This is wrong', more like . . . 'This is weird'. The second is how personal it is, gaining accidental access to this very tangible evocation of some other family's life. You can't help but wonder about the people the food was really destined for."In real life, I just called up the delivery guy and got it sorted out: but in fiction, you might tackle things slightly differently . . ."
Mammoth Books presents Substitutions (Mammoth Books #434)
by Michael Marshall SmithTaken from The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22, edited by Stephen Jones.As Smith recalls: "This story came about in the simplest way, the way I always enjoy most - something happening in real life that makes you think 'What if?' "Our household gets a lot of its food via an online delivery service, and one day when I was unpacking what had just been dropped at our house I gradually realised there was something...not quite right about the contents of the bags."There's two things that are strange about that experience. The first is that - given that every household is likely to buy at least some things in common - you don't realise straight away that you've been given the wrong shopping. You don't immediately think 'This is wrong', more like . . . 'This is weird'. The second is how personal it is, gaining accidental access to this very tangible evocation of some other family's life. You can't help but wonder about the people the food was really destined for."In real life, I just called up the delivery guy and got it sorted out: but in fiction, you might tackle things slightly differently . . ."
Mammoth Books presents Telling
by Steve Rasnic TemThe author reveals the following story "...began with a dreadful image at the end of a dream. I couldn't remember the other details of that dream, but I was determined to find out where that image might have come from."
Mammoth Books presents Telling (Mammoth Books #451)
by Steve Rasnic TemThe author reveals the following story "...began with a dreadful image at the end of a dream. I couldn't remember the other details of that dream, but I was determined to find out where that image might have come from."
Mammoth Books presents That Haunted Feeling: Six Short Stories By Barbara Roden, Reggie Oliver And M. R. James, Chris Bell, Richard Christian Matheson, John Gaskin And Michael Kelly
by Chris Bell John Gaskin Barbara RodenSix short stories to shake you to your core.Out and Back by Barbara RodenAn abandoned amusement park attracts unwary thrill seekersThe Game of Bear - Reggie Oliver & M. R. JamesReggie Oliver completes M. R. James' unfinished classic.Shem-el-Nessim: An Inspiration in Perfume - Chris BellVenturi - Richard Christian MathesonParty Talk - John GaskinPrincess of the Night - Michael Kelly
Mammoth Books presents That Haunted Feeling: Six short stories by Barbara Roden, Reggie Oliver & M.R. James, Chris Bell, Richard Christian Matheson, John Gaskin and Michael Kelly (Mammoth Books #194)
by Barbara Roden Chris Bell John Gaskin M.R. James Michael Kelly Reggie Oliver Richard Christian MathesonSix short stories to shake you to your core.Out and Back by Barbara RodenAn abandoned amusement park attracts unwary thrill seekersThe Game of Bear - Reggie Oliver & M. R. JamesReggie Oliver completes M. R. James' unfinished classic.Shem-el-Nessim: An Inspiration in Perfume - Chris BellVenturi - Richard Christian MathesonParty Talk - John GaskinPrincess of the Night - Michael Kelly
Mammoth Books presents The Unexpected: Six short stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Ramsey Campbell, Simon Strantzas, Nicholas Royle, Robert Shearman and Rosalie Parker (Mammoth Books #204)
by Michael Marshall Smith Nicholas Royle Ramsey Campbell Robert Shearman Rosalie Parker Simon StrantzasWhat Happens When You Wake Up in the Night - Michael Marshall SmithFor Michael Marshall Smith, this was one of those stories that dropped straight into his head, but the problem was that he didn't want it: "It wasn't an idea I liked. It was clearly some part of my brain serving up a notion simply because it could, and because it knew it could frighten me with it."It did frighten me, and so I did what I always do when that happens - which is write it down, in the hope it will go away."Respects - Ramsey Campbell"'Respects' was suggested by a local incident in which a car thief in his early teens killed himself while fleeing the police," recalls Campbell. "A lamp standard at the site of his demise is still decorated with flowers years after the incident, and the tributes on the obituaries page of one Wallasey newspaper were at least as grotesque as the ones I've invented - the romanticisation of a petty criminal.Cold to Touch - Simon Strantzas"Stories often find their origins in unexpected ways," Strantzas reveals. "I was inspired in this case by a photograph of a Zen garden I once used as my computer's desktop background."There was something there in the coldness of the photograph, something that brought to mind the barren vistas of the Canadian Arctic, which ended up being the perfect setting for my tale of tested faith."The Reunion - Nicholas Royle"'The Reunion' is based on actual events," reveals the author, "but the story only really came into focus for me when I was invited to contribute to Ellen Datlow's Poe anthology."Poe is brilliant. I was at a conference recently where a teacher revealed that she had read Poe's 'The Black Cat' to a lecture theatre full of schoolchildren. She switched off all the lights and used a torch to read by. A number of parents lodged complaints, which she took as a measure of the event's success. My tale is inspired by a different Poe story."Granny's Grinning - Robert Shearman"I love Christmas," says Shearman. "Always have done, and always a bit too passionately. The intensity with which I loved Christmas was delightful when I was eight years old, slightly unusual by the time I was eighteen, and increasingly disturbing thereafter."I was the last one to grow up. It suddenly dawned on me one year, looking into the faces of my parents, and of my sister, that they were all older, and fatter, and less and less festive. And that they were trying so hard to keep me happy each Christmas, pretending they wanted all those presents I'd bought, all those sausage rolls and Quality Street chocs. That what I was trying to do, each December, was somehow reach back into the past and resurrect a time that was dead, that was long dead."I still love Christmas. But now I recognize - as I still make them perform party games, as I still make them open their gifts and smile and say thank you - that they're zombies now. All of them, zombies. I'll never get my childhood back again, not really, or the innocence of that family get-together. So I'll make do with the dead, and pretend."This is a story all about that."In The Garden - Rosalie Parker"'In the Garden' was written after I challenged myself to write a horror story about gardening," explains the author. "It emerged more quickly and easily than anything I've ever written. I think of it more as a prose poem than a story."
Mammoth Books presents Unexpected Encounters: Four Stories by Richard L. Tierney, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Mark Samuels and Caitlín R. Kiernan (Mammoth Books #356)
by Caitlín R. Kiernan Mark Samuels Richard L. Tierney Simon Kurt UnsworthAutumn Chill - Richard L. TierneyInspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long, Tierney's poetry has been collected in Dreams and Damnations, The Doom Prophet and One Other, the Arkham House volume of Collected Poems, Nightmares and Visions, The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror.S.T. Joshi has described Tierney as "one of the leading weird poets of his generation."The Lemon in the Pool - Simon Kurt Unsworth"In the summer of 2009, I went on holiday with my family - the extended version. As well as my wife and son, Wendy and Ben, there were my parents, my sister and her husband, and my mother-in-law all sharing a villa in Moreira, Spain."One of the delights of the holiday was having a private pool, and seeing Ben enjoy himself in the water, where over the course of seven days he learned to swim. Perhaps even more fun was seeing his joy when things started to appear in the pool on a daily basis - a tomato, a lemon, two courgettes, three green chillies."I have no idea where they came from, but I suspect that children in a neighbouring villa were playing a joke on us and Ben loved it. It got to be one of the most exciting things about the holiday, waiting to see what would appear that day. After the appearance of the courgettes, my sister said, 'This'll find its way into one of Simon's stories,' and everyone laughed and someone (I think my mum) said, 'Even he couldn't write a story about this.'"Mum, if it was you that said that, this story is entirely your fault."Losenef Express - Mark SamuelsAbout the story, Mark Samuels explains: "I think most fans of horror will recognise at once the late, great American author upon whom the central character of this tale is based (or, perhaps more accurately, filtered through my imagination).We never met, although I did once catch sight of him across a room at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention in London and, prompted by curiosity, took a hasty, half-obscured photograph."A number of my friends knew him well, and I regret I myself never had the chance to do so. Sadly, I only discovered his brilliant work years after his untimely death."As Red as Red - Caitlín R. Kiernan"I don't know that 'As Red as Red' had any single source of inspiration," says Kiernan. "It coalesced from numerous experiences and accounts of the supernatural in Rhode Island. Also, I very much wanted to write a non-conventional vampire story which was also (and maybe more so) a werewolf story and a ghost story."It's also true that I was just coming off having finished The Red Tree, and, in some ways, 'As Red as Red' is an extended footnote to that novel. I was still trying to get The Red Tree out of my system."
Mammoth Books presents Unexpected Encounters: Four Stories by Richard L. Tierney, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Mark Samuels and Caitlín R. Kiernan
by Mark Samuels Caitlín R. Kiernan Richard L. TierneyAutumn Chill - Richard L. TierneyInspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long, Tierney's poetry has been collected in Dreams and Damnations, The Doom Prophet and One Other, the Arkham House volume of Collected Poems, Nightmares and Visions, The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror.S.T. Joshi has described Tierney as "one of the leading weird poets of his generation."The Lemon in the Pool - Simon Kurt Unsworth"In the summer of 2009, I went on holiday with my family - the extended version. As well as my wife and son, Wendy and Ben, there were my parents, my sister and her husband, and my mother-in-law all sharing a villa in Moreira, Spain."One of the delights of the holiday was having a private pool, and seeing Ben enjoy himself in the water, where over the course of seven days he learned to swim. Perhaps even more fun was seeing his joy when things started to appear in the pool on a daily basis - a tomato, a lemon, two courgettes, three green chillies."I have no idea where they came from, but I suspect that children in a neighbouring villa were playing a joke on us and Ben loved it. It got to be one of the most exciting things about the holiday, waiting to see what would appear that day. After the appearance of the courgettes, my sister said, 'This'll find its way into one of Simon's stories,' and everyone laughed and someone (I think my mum) said, 'Even he couldn't write a story about this.'"Mum, if it was you that said that, this story is entirely your fault."Losenef Express - Mark SamuelsAbout the story, Mark Samuels explains: "I think most fans of horror will recognise at once the late, great American author upon whom the central character of this tale is based (or, perhaps more accurately, filtered through my imagination).We never met, although I did once catch sight of him across a room at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention in London and, prompted by curiosity, took a hasty, half-obscured photograph."A number of my friends knew him well, and I regret I myself never had the chance to do so. Sadly, I only discovered his brilliant work years after his untimely death."As Red as Red - Caitlín R. Kiernan"I don't know that 'As Red as Red' had any single source of inspiration," says Kiernan. "It coalesced from numerous experiences and accounts of the supernatural in Rhode Island. Also, I very much wanted to write a non-conventional vampire story which was also (and maybe more so) a werewolf story and a ghost story."It's also true that I was just coming off having finished The Red Tree, and, in some ways, 'As Red as Red' is an extended footnote to that novel. I was still trying to get The Red Tree out of my system."
Mammoth Books presents We All Fall Down
by Kirstyn McDermottI carried the bones of this story around for quite a few years before I finally stumbled upon its beating heart," explains the author. "In my head was the image of a doll house, huge and not quite right, and a woman searching desperately for something concealed inside. But I could never work a story around it that didn't seem twee. Doll houses, you know?"But then Emma and Holly appeared - trapped within their own fractured, futile relationship - and everything just, well, fell together. Beautifully. Awfully. And now I have a doll house story. Of a kind.
Mammoth Books presents We All Fall Down (Mammoth Books #400)
by Kirstyn McDermottI carried the bones of this story around for quite a few years before I finally stumbled upon its beating heart," explains the author. "In my head was the image of a doll house, huge and not quite right, and a woman searching desperately for something concealed inside. But I could never work a story around it that didn't seem twee. Doll houses, you know?"But then Emma and Holly appeared - trapped within their own fractured, futile relationship - and everything just, well, fell together. Beautifully. Awfully. And now I have a doll house story. Of a kind.
Mammoth Books presents With the Angels
by Ramsey CampbellCampbell reveals, "My fellow clansman Paul Campbell will remember the birth of this tale. At the Dead Dog party after the 2010 World Horror Convention in Brighton, someone was throwing a delighted toddler into the air. I was ambushed by an idea and had to apologise to Paul for rushing away to my room to scribble notes. The result is here."
Mammoth Books presents With the Angels (Mammoth Books #202)
by Ramsey CampbellCampbell reveals, "My fellow clansman Paul Campbell will remember the birth of this tale. At the Dead Dog party after the 2010 World Horror Convention in Brighton, someone was throwing a delighted toddler into the air. I was ambushed by an idea and had to apologise to Paul for rushing away to my room to scribble notes. The result is here."
El mamut friolero (Serie Bat Pat #Volumen 7)
by Roberto PavanelloNo te pierdas la séptima aventura del murciélago detective Bat Pat y los hermanos Silver: Leo, Martin y Rebecca. ¡¡¡HOLA!!! SOY BAT PAT.OS VOY A CONTAR UNA HISTORIA QUE OS PONDRÁ LOS PELOS DE PUNTA...¿ESTÁIS PREPARADOS? Hacía un frío gélido y los señores Silver habían decidido llevarnos a la feria de otoño de Fogville. Al llegar, yo me quedé alucinado: ¡aquello parecía el circo de las maravillas! Martin, Rebecca y Leo decidieron subirse a un globo aerostático que capitaneaba un personaje de lo más estrafalario, y yo no tuve más remedio que acompañarles... Mal principio ¿VERDAD? Pues coged aire y tapaos bien, porque aún no sabéis a dónde fuimos a parar...
Man: The Grand Symbol of the Mysteries
by Manly P. HallMan, according to Manly P. Hall, is at the center of the Mystery School tradition. We are the living reflection of the Creator, and all traditions in Western Esotericism are based upon it.“Our purpose has been to bring together not all but only a small part of what may be termed the lore of the human body. For the most part, the origins of the various doctrines are set forth in the text. Some have come from Eastern scriptures, some from the Hermetic fragments. We have called upon a wide diversity of old authorities and, strangely enough, there is an evident consistency among them conspicuously lacking with the moderns. The sages, furthermore, approached their task with veneration; an underlying realization of the dignity of life adds charm to every conclusion. They viewed the human body not as the man but as the house of the man. Antiquity was convinced of immortality and among the wise the science of the soul occupied first place. Much work remains to be done in the field of occult anatomy. There are many old writings yet to be consulted, libraries unavailable to the public to be explored, manuscripts to be deciphered. The Codices of Central America must be made to give up their secrets. The temples libraries of Asia are filled with priceless documents, for in India are preserved records invaluable to science. Our effort, then, is primarily to stimulate interest and to focus the attention of the learned upon this engrossing theme. We are subject to errors which time alone can correct, but the principle of the correspondence existing between man and the world is established upon incontestable grounds.”—Manly P. Hall
The Man
by Bram StokerSquire Stephen Norman, who was the Lord of the manor, presided over the feudal society of Normanstand. Squire Norman marries Margaret Rowly, the younger sister of his dear friend Squire Rowly, who was the squire of the neighbouring town. Wanting to produce an heir to recede him as the Squire of Normanstand, Squire Norman and Margaret decide to have a baby. While Margaret is expecting, Squire Norman eagerly anticipates the birth of his son. However, the baby ends up being a girl.
A Man Among Ghosts
by Steven HopstakenYou'll love this if you like the movie Jacob&’s Ladder, Stephen King&’s The Dead Zone or Shirley Jackson&’s The Haunting of Hill House.After surviving a near-death experience, David finds himself haunted by ghosts in the old Victorian house he is renovating. These tortured souls beg for his help and offer him protection from a demonic presence that wants David dead for a crime he doesn&’t remember committing. Even more surprising, he soon learns these are spirits of people who are not yet dead. Is this real, is he hallucinating, or is someone trying to drive him insane? As his paranoia ramps up, he discovers the truth is even more bizarre. The haunting won&’t stop until he kills a man named &“Fitz.&”
The Man from Beyond: A Novel
by Gabriel BrownsteinFrom the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a debut novel featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is April 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade. To packed houses at Carnegie Hall, he displays photographs of ghosts and spirits; of female mediums bound and gagged, ectoplasmic goo emerging from their bodies. In the newspapers, he defends the powers of the mysterious Margery, one of the most famous mediums of the day. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack. Into this mix of spirit-chasing celebrities enters Molly Goodman, a young reporter whose job is to cover the heated debate. As she wanders into this world of spooks and spirits, murder and criminal frauds, Molly discovers herself: her true love, her place in the world; even her relationship to her beloved dead brother, Carl.
The Man in the Moss
by Phil RickmanThe discovery of an Iron Age body preserved in the peat bogs surrounding the village of Bridelow is one of the finds of the centuryThough dead for two millennia, he remains perfectly preserved in black peat. The Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century, but for the isolated Pennine community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign. A danger to the ancient spiritual tradition maintained, curiously, by the Mothers' Union. In the weeks approaching Samhain—the Celtic feast of the dead—tragedy strikes again in Bridelow. Scottish folk singer Moira Cairns and American film producer Mungo Macbeth discover their Celtic roots are deeper and darker than they imagined. And, as fundamentalist zealots of both Christian and satanic persuasions challenge an older, gentler faith, the village faces a natural disaster unknown since the reign of Henry VIII.