ellen_datlow

a bunch of good book reviews & news & interview

2012-07-05T21:49:05Z

Just got back from Florida, helping out my mom, who is ailing-it's been tough and I'm very glad to be home. I was down there three times in the past two months, for 7-8 days each time. I have more traveling this summer (Readercon, Launchpad, Chicon) and possibly another trip to Florida in August.

So because all this is kind of emotionally draining (and I hate hate hate having to cook and/or prepare food regularly -even if most of it's not from scratch-plus doing dishes for two people regularly --now I know why my mom uses the dishwasher--I stupidly insisted on doing the dishes in the sink every time. Next time, screw it. Dishwasher it is).....I'm glad to have two great pre-pub blog reviews of AFTER plus the official news that the book has been taken for the Junior Literary Guild, for January 2013. For those who don’t know what that means (I didn't), you can read about it here:

http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/how-jlg-works/how-jlg-works

but basically choices by the Guild are recommended to member libraries for their collections. (more sales, more readers).

Oops. I forgot the interview Charles Tan did with me for the Jackson Award website: http://tinyurl.com/7dd6lu4

(and yes, I'm too tired to get rid of the urls. Sorry.)

Here are the two reviews:
on the Bundles of Books blog: http://tinyurl.com/88ts25e

and from Alamosa Books: http://tinyurl.com/cxzvndt

And there's a rave review of The Best Horror of the Year volume 4 by Stefan Dziemianowicz in the July Locus.

He talks about each story (which I'm not going to quote) but will quote his summing up:
"As in all previous year’s-best volumes that she has compiled, Datlow provides an overview of the year in horror that reveals tastes as eclectic as the stories she has chosen. Increasingly, the benefit of her year’s end summaries cannot be overestimated. Over the last two decades horror has become less circumscribed as a genre and more diffuse as a sensibility that percolates through other types of fiction and seeps into many areas obscured to the average reader. Datlow finds horror worth noting in many unlikely places, which makes her summation as indispensable the stories she selects."

This makes me very happy.

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Honorable Mentions in The Best Horror of the Year volume four

2012-03-17T15:29:34Z

For those of you who can't wait, here's the list of Honorable Mentions that will be appearing in The Best Horror of the Year volume four (I'll post the full list at a later date):

Atkins, Peter “Dancing Like We’re Dumb,” Rumours of the Marvellous.
Ballingrud, Nathan “Sunbleached,” Teeth.
Barron, Laird “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven,” Supernatural Noir.
Barron, Laird “The Men From Porlock,” (novella) The Book of Cthulhu.
Barron, Laird “The Siphon,” Blood and Other Cravings.
Baxter, Alan “Punishment of the Sun,” Dead Red Heart.
Bear, Elizabeth “Needles,” Blood and Other Cravings.
Bowes, Richard “Blood Yesterday, Blood Tomorrow,” Blood and Other Cravings.
Braunbeck, Gary A. “And Still You Wonder Why Our First …”The Monster’s Corner.
Carroll, Jonathan “East of Furious,” Conjunctions: 56, Terra Incognita.
Colangelo, Michael R. “Blacklight,” Chilling Tales.
Cowdrey, Albert E. “The Bogle,” F&SF January/February.
Davidson, Craig “The Burn,” The Cincinnati Review, April.
Dowling, Terry “The Shaddowesbox,” Ghosts By Gaslight.
Fowler, Christopher “An Injustice,” House of Fear.
Frost, Gregory “The Dingus,” Supernatural Noir.
Gresh, Lois “Wee Sweet Girlies,” Eldritch Evolutions.
Hand, Elizabeth “Near Zennor,” (novella) A Book of Horrors.
Hand, Elizabeth “Uncle Lou,” Conjunctions 57: Kin.
Harwood, John “Face to Face,” Ghosts by Gaslight.
Hirshberg, Glen “After-Words,” The Janus Tree and Other Stories.
Hodge, Brian “Hate the Sinner, Love the Sin,” Picking the Bones.
Hodge, Brian “Scars in Progress,” Demons.
Johnstone, Carole “Electric Dreams,” Black Static 23, July/August.
Jones, Stephen Graham “Little Monsters,” Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters.
Kiernan, Caitlín R. “The Maltese Unicorn,” Supernatural Noir.
King, Stephen “Under the Weather,” Full Dark, No Stars.
Langan, John “The Third Always Beside You,” Blood and Other Cravings.
Langan, John“TheUnbearable Proximity of Mr.Dunn’s Balloons,”Ghosts by Gaslight.
Lees, Tim “Durgen’s Party,” Black Static 22, April/May.
McMahon, Gary “What They Hear in the Dark,” chapbook.
Miéville, China “Covehithe,” Guardian May.
Nate Southard “The Blisters on My Heart,” Supernatural Noir.
Oliver, Reggie “A Child’s Problem,” (novella) A Book of Horrors.
Oliver, Reggie “Dancer in the Dark,” Mrs Midnight and Other Stories.
Oliver, Reggie “Hand to Mouth,” Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead.
Partridge, Norman “Vampire Lake,” Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy 2.
Piccirilli, Tom “But For Scars,” Supernatural Noir.
Pinborough, Sarah “The Screaming Room,” The Monster’s Corner.
Shearman, Robert “Alice Through the Plastic Sheet,” A Book of Horrors.
Shepard, Lucius “Ditch Witch,” Supernatural Noir.
Smith, Michael Marshall “Sad, Dark Thing,” A Book of Horrors.
Stalter, K. Harding “A Summer’s Day,” Black Static 24.
Tem, Melanie “Afraid of Snakes,” Portents.
Thomas, Lee “Comfortable in Her Skin,” Supernatural Noir.
Travis, Tia V. “Still,” Portents.
Tremblay, Paul G. “The Getaway,” Supernatural Noir.
Valentine, Genevieve “Bufonidae,” Phantasmagorium #1.
Wall, Alan “The Salt of Eliza,” Black Static 22, April/May.
Warren, Kaaron “All You Can Do is Breathe,” Blood and Other Cravings.

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word counts and venues for Best Horror #4

2012-01-04T17:24:55Z

Best Horror of the Year

The Little Green God of Agony by Stephen King A Book of Horrors 9700

Stay by Leah Bobet Chilling Tales 8300

The Moraine by Simon Bestwick Terror Tales of the Lake District 6700

Blackwood’s Baby by Laird Barron Ghosts by Gaslight 13,000

Looker by David Nickle Chilling Tales 6000

The Show by Priya Sharma Box of Delights 4000

Mulberry Boys by Margo Lanagan Blood and Other Cravings 7500

Roots and All by Brian Hodge A Book of Horrors 11,000

Final Girl Theory by A. C. Wise Chizine #48 4800

Omphalos by Livia Llewellyn Engines of Desire 10,800

Dermot by Simon Bestwick Black Static 24 3500

Black Feathers by Alison Littlewood Black Static 22 5200

Final Verse by Chet Williamson F&SF May/June` 7300

In the Absence of Murdock by Terry Lamsley House of Fear 5900

You Become the Neighborhood by Glen Hirshberg The Janus Tree 8300

In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos by John Langan Supernatural Noir 12,000

Little Pig by Anna Taborska The Eighth Black Book of Horror 2300

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub Conjunctions 56 16,000

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The Best Horror of the Year Volume Four -table of contents

2012-01-04T16:52:31Z

Table of Contents
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Four

The Little Green God of Agony Stephen King

Stay Leah Bobet

The Moraine Simon Bestwick

Blackwood’s Baby Laird Barron

Looker David Nickle

The Show Priya Sharma

Mulberry Boys Margo Lanagan

Roots and All Brian Hodge

Final Girl Theory A. C. Wise

Omphalos Livia Llewellyn

Dermot Simon Bestwick

Black Feathers Alison J. Littlewood

Final Verse Chet Williamson

In the Absence of Murdock Terry Lamsley

You Become the Neighborhood Glen Hirshberg

In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos John Langan

Little Pig Anna Taborska

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine Peter Straub

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