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Monday, April 20, 2015

Short Fiction... er... Monday: Dark Screams vol 1 edited by Brian James Freeman & Richard Chizmar

It's Monday! I've spent the weekend reading some things that I have to hold a bit for review and this Friday has a tour post scheduled, so I'm posting a short fiction Friday post on a Monday! Gasp!

Readers, I've been super busy, which is amazing because to the outside world it would seem I have lots of free time. But I am doing a few publishing things that I won't yet mention. I've also been trying desperately to do some spring bookshelf cleaning. That plus the handful of things that I've read ahead on have bumped some short collections up in my TBR. Short collections like Dark Screams volume 1.

So author Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance have put together a series of horror e anthologies for Random House's Hydra imprint. Cool right? Volume one released in December, two released in March, three is set for May, four is due out in August, and five is TBD. (I'll be reviewing vols 2 and 3 here on April 29 for TLC book tours.)

Each collection features a handful of horror's best and a combination of new and old tales. This first, for example, features one of King's earliest and new tales from the other four contributors. 

Here's the full TOC: 

Stephen King: Weeds 
Kelley Armstrong: The Price You Pay
Bill Pronzini: Magic Eyes
Simon Clark: Murder in Chains
Ramsey Campbell: The Watched

Each of the stories is very different - there's no overarching theme to the collection except the genre itself - but each is a fun taste of terror. In "Weeds" a man is transformed after coming into contact with a meteorite. "The Price You Pay" is literally about the price you pay for certain deeds in life. "Magic Eyes" finds a man recounting how he ended up in the loony bin while "Murder In Chains" finds a man trapped in truly deadly circumstances. Finally, "The Watched" features a young boy caught in the middle of a revenge plot that could have deadly consequences.

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