ellen_datlow

Author Peter Watts Found Guilty

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:53:34 GMT

Peter Watts has been found guilty of "assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer" and will face sentencing of up to two years in prison, April 26th.

Peter is amazingly gracious to all those involved in his trial, including the prosecutor, judge, jury, and even some of the guards. See his blog post Guilty

British Fantasy Award (very) long list

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:28:19 GMT

Interested to see that three of my anthos made the long list (alas, poor Lovecraft didn't) but no stories from my one original antho that made it --Poe-- are on the long list

British Fantasy Awards 2010: the Longlist

My programming for Odysseycon

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:11:52 GMT

As you can see, it's much lighter so I hope to hang around the bar more, perhaps.

Sunday:
Anthologies - The Art of Compilation. 10am-11am. Connaught. What
makes a good anthology? How do you set about collecting and editing
stories to build a harmonious collection? Clare Boothby (mod), Gary
Couzens, Ellen Datlow, Colin Harvey and Ian Whates.

Monday:
Novels, a Product of Their Time. 12pm-1pm. Room 41. Each novel is a
story for its time. Many excellent SF stories are of no interest at all to the
next generation, while others seem to stay perennially popular.
Technology, science, social attitudes and even writing styles change over
time. Which factors are most likely to make an old book popular or
unpopular with new readers? What should new novels reflect? Ellen
Datlow (mod), Caroline Mullan, Graham Sleight and Jetse de Vries.

My programming schedule at the World Horror Convention, Brighton

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:28:37 GMT

Friday
VAMPIRE CAT ANGELS: HOW TO SELL A NEW ANTHOLOGY Russell 11-12pm
P Crowther (mod.), E Datlow, N Kilpatrick, C Prepolec,I Whates

KAFFEEKLATSCHE (Sussex Room, Radisson Blu) 04:00-05:00pm

MASS AUTOGRAPHING Lounge-7:00-9:00pm,

Saturday
FEMME FATALES-HOW CAN WE GET MORE WOMEN IN HORROR?Russell-noon -1pm
A Bird, E Datlow, T Lee M McHugh (mod.), S McLeod, S Pinbourgh

Stoker Awards Banquet at The Pier 7-9pm

Sunday
I CAN BARELY REMEMBER THIS WEEKEND:THE YEAR IN REVIEW Lounge -3-4pm
A Billson, E Datlow,D J Howe, J Jenkins (mod.),M Kuebler, Tony Lee

Photos from the March 17th KGB Fantastic Fiction reading

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:55:44 GMT

The audience with huge and enthusiastic and the readers wonderful. Here are the photos from the Michael Shea and N.K. Jemisin Fantastic Fiction reading

Booklist on Darkness:Two Decades of Modern Horror

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:04:27 GMT

(uncorrected review, forthcoming) Booklist Issue: April 1, 2010

Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror.

Datlow, Ellen (Editor)
Apr 2010. 480 p. Tachyon, paperback, $15.95. (9781892391957).
With several acclaimed horror anthologies to her credit already, including the first volume of the recently inaugurated Best Horror of the Year series, Datlow eschews “best of” labels for her new gathering, instead selecting favorites from her last 20 years of editing. With her only criterion being lasting thrills, the selection favors such familiar genre masters as Peter Straub, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. It also includes a few surprise contributions from such non-horror-genre writers as Joyce Carol Oates and sf master Gene Wolfe. Twenty-five stories in all embrace a wide spectrum of styles, from gore-laced splatterpunk to subtler, psychological horror. A suicidal woman exults in her newfound ability to bump off male tormentors by the power of thought alone. Invading aliens wait for the perfect amusing opportunity to take control of humanity. An engineer tired of his fear of heights devises his own death on a business flight. Datlow’s keen eye for narrative zest makes this one of her most entertaining compilations to date.

— Carl Hays

Tails of Wonder review forthcoming in Realms of Fantasy

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:00:33 GMT

Pleased with this review by Matt Staggs:
Realms of Fantasy June 2010-anyone who wants to post this, may.

Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories, edited by Ellen Datlow, Night Shade Books, trade paperback, $15.95, ISBN: 978-1-59780-170-6
From Ernest Hemingway’s famous six-toed polydactyl pussycats to speculative fiction’s well-known feline fanciers like Michael Moorcock, John Scalzi, and Neil Gaiman, writers and cats have always had a special relationship. Editor Ellen Datlow, no small fan of cats herself, has collected the best of cat-themed fantastic fiction in Tails of Wonder and Imagination. This is the second volume of cat stories edited under Datlow’s capable direction, the first being 1996’s all-original horror fiction collection Twists of the Tale, and three stories from that volume are reprinted here: “Catch” by Ray Vukcevich, “No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be...” by A. R. Morlan, and “Not Waving” by Michael Marshall Smith.
As anyone who shares a home with a cat can tell you, they’re complicated creatures. They are hiding one moment and purring at your feet the next. They’re soft and cuddly, but have sharp claws and fangs like needles. Much like cats themselves, the stories collected in Tails of Wonder and Imagination are an unpredictable bunch. Beyond their consistently high quality, there’s no one theme uniting these stories beyond the presence of cats—or catlike beings—in one form or another. To be sure, there are more than just house cats lurking in these pages: manticores, ghosts, and more inhabit the pages therein, and not all of them are friendly.
There are forty stories in all. Some of the highlights: Charles de Lint offers a story of sorcery, were-cats, and revenge in “Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion,” one of his Newford tales. A manticore’s venom holds the key to recovering a wizard’s long-lost love in Jeffrey Ford’s “The Manticore Spell.” Nancy Etchemendy, who in the introduction to her story relates her own ambivalent feelings toward cats, weaves a tale of a mysterious artifact and even more mysterious deaths in “Cat in Glass.” Peter S. Beagle offers a particularly charming tale of a mouse who decides to attend Cat School in “Gordon, the Self-Made Cat.”
Like any self-respecting feline, most of the fiction in Tails of Wonder and Imagination refuses easy classification, but readers who love cats will find these tales well worth chasing.

Still In Florida and ...

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:26:03 GMT

As you all know I've been in Florida visiting my parents for what was supposed to be a week.

I was supposed to fly home yesterday, but all flights into NY
were canceled because of the weather and I couldn't get another flight out
till tomorrow evening (and I think I got the last seat on that) so I've
been down here an extra two days--saw my dad today again in the nursing
home, which I hadn't planned on so it was nice.

The "and..." is that my cat/house sitter called to tell me that Dinah, my 17
year old ailing cat (she's been ailing for a year), died this morning.
Peacefully, in the bathroom. He found her there. If I'd gotten home last
night I would have been home when this happened--although possibly not
awake.

I've posted about her on here and there are plenty of photos of her (the orange calico) on my flickr account. She was a bitch, but she was MY bitch.

She's had health problems for awhile and I stopped taking her to the vet
over a year ago, when he said there wasn't much to be done for her except
hydration, which was NOT going to happen--she's never stand for it; she
hated going to the vet, puking coming and going and doing worse at times.
I saw no purpose in torturing her and am glad she's gone quickly and (I
hope) painlessly. That's what I'd hoped for. Poor Gordon L will be
kindly taking the body to the vet around the corner first thing in the
morning to have her cremated for me. I owe him a big one. I think he was
more upset than I am.

RIP my sweet, monstrous Dinah.

2 questions round - 2009 Bram Stoker Awards nominees

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:57:40 GMT

I and the other Stoker nominees were asked two questions about what the nomination means to us and if we think it can help our careers. Here's how we responded on Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews

Flooooorida and the parental units

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:54:37 GMT

I'm down here again, not for fun but to check in with my parents. Also, my mom is having an endoscopy/biopsy Monday and asked my sister and me to come down because she's nervous. I just hope she gets the results before we both leave. Lori has been here since Wed and leaves Wed. I leave next Saturday.

The flight was surprise surprise! in to West Palm an hour early, so my sister and mom hadn't left the house yet. But the wait was pretty short. We stopped in at a horrible sports bar for dinner on the way home.

My sister and I caught up on my dad's condition/progress/treatment in Whitehall --my sister has been fantastic--it's been awful and frustrating dealing with this stuff from up north. ( Read more... )

The Happy Cat Rating system for Tails of Wonder & Imagination

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:32:46 GMT

It has come to our attention that some reviewers have asserted that, in Ellen Datlow’s anthology Tails of Wonder and Imagination, "you'll find cats being burned alive, skinned, tortured by evil scientists, strangled by psychos, and murdered in at least a dozen horrific ways." We at Night Shade wanted to assure our readers that relatively very few cats were harmed in the making of this anthology.

In order to reassure cat lovers who are fearful of accidentally coming across a tale of a cat being harmed, we have created this handy little guide:

Two caveats: (and this is totally my fault):
"Catch" by Ray Vukcevich was given two happy cats but probably should only have been given one. I personally have always found the story quite funny but that one seems to have drawn the most upset from cat lovers

"Puma" by Theodora Goss was given only one happy cat, which implies that terrible things happen to the cat in the story. Well, they did, but wayyy before the story begins. In the story itself, the cat is fine.

When you've read each story you can always come back here and complain about my rating or please tell me if you agree that they're accurate.

The Happy Cat Rating System

A spread on the Bram Stoker award nominations

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:55:46 GMT

Here's a spread with photos and bios of all the Stoker nominees

Tails of Wonder and Imagination Reviews

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:23:00 GMT

Tails of Wonder and Imagination has been reviewed in
Publishers Weekly: "This is that rarity of rarities: an anthology of cat stories worth reading."

Booklist: "Datlow brings horror, sf, and fantasy all into the volume on equal footing, making it likely that even genre readers who aren’t cat people will find something very much worth their while in it."— Regina Schroeder

Library Journal: "This broad sampling of cat tales from authors including Tanith Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, and Michael Bishop is a good overall anthology that should appeal to short story fans and cat lovers."

The New York social whirl

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:55:09 GMT

Last week was very busy, with several friends from out of town and much socializing. Tuesday afternoon Jeremy, Amelia, and Joe Monti came over for vodka shots until we went to meet several other NY publishing folk at Hill Country barbecue. I tried desperately not to over-order, having been there once when they first opened. But despite sharing meats and sides with Stefan D, I ended up taking home some bourbon mashed sweet potatoes (too thin), baked beans with port butts (not sweet enough for my taste), and string bean casserole with mushroom soup and fried onions (still a favorite from my childhood). The corn pudding --which we gobbled up--was delicious. They sell the meats by the pound but you can ask for a slice of this or a couple of pork ribs, etc, which is the best way to order. ( Read more... )

Odysseycon (aka Eastercon) membership might be for sale

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:11:18 GMT

I'm attending the WHC/Stokers in Brighton and was thinking of attending the Eastercon at Heathrow the next weekend and bought a membership. But I'm currently reconsidering. If I don't attend, I'll have a membership to sell for $107.55. If you're interested, please contact me at datlow at yahoo dot com (or my real email address if you know it)

All has been worked out, thanks to the effort of Judith Proctor. I wll be attending.

Weekend update

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:14:07 GMT

Caught up on DVD movies, some Angel, and movies in theaters.

Friday night Swimming Pool with Charlotte Rampling as a relatively successful yet insecure and tightly wound British mystery writer, whose long term publisher (and it is hinted, lover)lets her stay in his French vacation house in order to get inspiration for her next novel. After a few peaceful, idyllic days, the publisher's French, illegitimate daughter moves in, plays loud music, lays about the swimming pool, and brings home a string of men with whom she has loud unrestrained sex. The tension between the two woman increases and their relationship evolves into an emotional kind of playing chicken. The ending is intriguing. I don't want to say more but it sent me to imdb to see what other viewers thought of it.

Saturday a friend came to NYC from out of town and we saw the new Roman Polanski (which I forgot was by him till the credits), Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan in a really well done political thriller. Good show. Saturday night (after Helen left town( I watched I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, totally synchronistically with Charlotte Rampling and from 2003 (as was Swimming Pool. She's not the main character in this one -directed by Mike Hodge). Clive Owen plays a gang leader who left London suddenly several years before the movie begins. He returns when his brother commits suicide and investigating his old haunts to try to find out why the brother would do that...disturbing the thugs he left behind (they think he may be trying to horn back into the biz). Another very mysterious ending that had be checking out responses on ibdb. Another very good movie.

Sunday I finally saw Avatar and yes, it's pretty gorgeous to look at, enjoyable, (too long), and has the plot of Dancing with Wolves. As Rick Bowes remarked, they could have easily used an African American or Asian American in the role of Jake and one accusation (the white man saving the day for the natives) would have been kiboshed in one fell swoop --not only that, but casting the character as anything other than white would have brought more depth to the whole movie.

Today I went to the dentist to have a filling that was not solidly on, replaced. I grew up with no fear of the dentist for my childhood and teenage years--because I never had cavities. I did have braces for years and years and years. It wasn't until my twenties that I discovered gum problems and the House of Pain.

My current dentist works across the street from Grand Central Station, which just happens to have a wonderful food market on the main floor--which also just happens to have a Murray's Cheese store. There I discovered something that might almost have made the visit to the dentist worth it: on sale was something called Harvest Song's Tea Rose Petal Preserve, made in Armenia. I tried some on fresh rye bread and it was ok. Then I tried it on Ritz crackers (once my numbness passed)and ohmigod. Ecstasy. The combo of sweet and salt is perfect. The preserves are brownish and the tea rose petals are in little bits and pieces. This stuff is gold.

British Bunny Breaks Biggest Rabbit Record

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:56:43 GMT

He doesn't look that big until the girl who owns him picks him up...He's only 18 months old and the girl's grandmother believes he's still growing. See Ralph, the 40 pound British Bunny

Horror Writers Association announces 2009 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:27:18 GMT

Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in the field of horror writing, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the seminal horror work Dracula. Since 1987, the approximately 500 members of the HWA have recommended, nominated and voted on the greatest works of horror and dark fantasy of the previous calendar year, making the Stokers the most prestigious award in the field of horror literature.

Currently the awards are presented in eight categories: Novel, First Novel, Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Fiction Collection, Anthology, Non-fiction, and Poetry Collection. The organization's Active members will select the winners from this ballot; voting will close on March 3rd, and the awards will be presented this year at a gala banquet on Saturday evening, March 27, at the World Horror Convention in Brighton, UK.

This year’s nominees in each category are:

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan (Harper)
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin)
Quarantined by Joe McKinney (Lachesis Publishing)
Cursed by Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FIRST NOVEL

Breathers by S. G. Browne (Broadway Books)
Solomon’s Grave by Daniel G. Keohane (Dragon Moon Press)
Damnable by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay (Henry Holt)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LONG FICTION

“Dreaming Robot Monster” by Mort Castle (Mighty Unclean)
The Hunger of Empty Vessels by Scott Edelman (Bad Moon Books)
The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
Doc Good’s Traveling Show by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SHORT FICTION

"Keeping Watch" by Nate Kenyon (Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror)
“The Crossing of Aldo Ray” by Weston Ochse (The Dead That Walk)
"In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss (Postscripts #1
"The Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-in)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN FICTION COLLECTION

Martyrs and Monsters by Robert Dunbar (DarkHart Press)
Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories by Dennis Etchison (Cemetery Dance)
A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill (Apex Book Company)
In the Closet, Under the Bed by Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ANTHOLOGY (EDITING)

He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
Lovecraft Unbound edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books)
Poe edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris)
Midnight Walk edited by Lisa Morton (Darkhouse Publishing)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION

Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
Cinema Knife Fight by L. L. Soares and Michael Arruda (Fearzone)
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)
Stephen King: The Non-fiction by Rocky Wood and Justin Brook (Cemetery Dance)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN POETRY COLLECTION

Double Visions by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions)
North Left of Earth by Bruce Boston (Sam's Dot)
Barfodder by Rain Graves (Cemetery Dance)
Chimeric Machines by Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy Publishing)

###

More information on the Horror Writers Association is at www.horror.org. More information on the World Horror Convention is at http://www.whc2010.org.

New Clouded Leopard Cubs at the National Zoo!

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:33:43 GMT

I'm speechless at the cuteness exhibited by the new clouded leopard cubs

Thanks to The_Bastion

Photos from KGB reading February 17, 2010

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:29:42 GMT

Photos from Peter Straub and Daryl Gregory reading at KGB

My wine and I made it home--this morning

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:43:26 GMT

My flights back from Radcon yesterday were all screwed up because the plane I was meant to take from Pasco, WA to Denver and then on home was delayed in San Francisco, supposedly because of fog. (various SF residents have said "what"? But hey, that's what we were told. So my flight was three hours late, I missed the connection in Denver to NY and there were NO OTHER FLIGHTS OUT FROM DENVER TO NY THAT NIGHT--so I was shipped off to Los Angeles (from Denver) and just about made my flight having to maneuver from the United terminal at LAX to the American terminal (there was nothing else till hours later?).... I happily got my luggage, which to me is a miracle, having had it move through four separate airports and two different airlines.

So I got to my front door 10am, checked email quickly, ate some cheese and crackers--I hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday as I didn't have time to grab anything trying to catch my LAX plane home and they didn't serve ANY FOOD --FOR SALE OR ANYTHING on the effing plane.

Took a two hour nap and feel much better. Started unpacking and the two lovely bottles of Washington Wine Bob Brown gave me came through in my checked garment bag came through intact. And I got a note that the TSA searched my luggage--most likely the wine set them off.

Radcon was great but I've gotta say that traveling home from there nearly killed me. If I ever go again, I'm going to stay over somewhere enroute for a few days.

Darkness:Two Decades of Modern Horror Starred review in PW

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:30:57 GMT

Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror Edited by Ellen Datlow. Tachyon (IPG, dist.), $15.95 paper (480p) ISBN 978-1-892391-95-7
This diverse 25-story anthology is a superb sampling of some of the most significant short horror works published between 1985 and 2005. Editor extraordinaire Datlow (Poe) includes classic stories from horror icons Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Stephen King as well as SF and fantasy luminaries Gene Wolfe, Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, and Lucius Shepard. The full diversity of horror is on display: George R.R. Martin's “The Pear-Shaped Man,” about a creepy downstairs neighbor, and Straub's “The Juniper Tree,” which chronicles a drifter's sexual molestation of a young boy, exemplify horror's sublime psychological power, while Barker's “Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament” and Poppy Z. Brite's “Calcutta, Lord of Nerves” are audaciously gory masterworks. This is an anthology to be cherished and an invaluable reference for horror aficionados. (Apr.)

Tails of Wonder and Imagination--book giveaway

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:33:41 GMT

Jason Sizemore just let me know that he's giving away a brand new copy of Tails of Wonder and Imagination at Apex

Snow Day

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:38:15 GMT

It started late, much later than predicted. Nothing by 1:30 am when I went to bed. Not much but a wee bit of snowfall and lots of slush when I went out to do my errands around 12:30 today. But enroute home, finally the snow began to fall in earnest and I can now say yes, we have a lovely snowy blizzard blanketing NYC with the white stuff.

Now that it's here and is supposed to continue through the night, I'm hoping it clears up enough by tomorrow morning so that I can fly out to Radcon in the afternoon.

Finished going over the copy edits of Haunted Legends co-edited by me and Nick Mamatas for Tor. This is our all original anthology of retold regional ghost stories coming out from Tor in September. I'm happy with how it came out.

Cleaning up books from 2009 that I neglected to mention in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two because when I was finishing up the summary I was in Florida and not at home. Some of those books will be mentioned in my Cemetery Dance column that's due next month (but won't be out for several months, as they still have two columns in the can). I'll likely be covering mostly nonfiction/art books.

My dad is now in a nursing home called Whitehall in Boca Raton. He's been there just over a week. The day he was admitted he broke his wrist trying to get out of bed without help again. He seems to be ok otherwise. He can't feed himself (he'll be in a cast from hand to mid-arm for five weeks)because he broke the right wrist but he can drink from cups with his left.

The place is supposed to be very pretty. He was given the swallow test again and he can eat anything other than steak (he was having thickener in everything since his surgery and chopped up meat/chicken). The steak he can't have because he puts too much into his mouth at one time. I don't know what kind of therapy he's getting (my mom is not very helpful as she won't ask questions of the staff ) but he's watching tv (he was doing nothing for several weeks and just wanted to be in bed all the time napping) and more active. It's possible the antidepressants have kicked in and made him feel better but my mom refuses to ask what meds he's on.

My sister's going down again in a few weeks and I hope she can let me know what's really going on. I'll probably go down there again in April.

Poe wins the third annual Black Quill Award

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:18:02 GMT

Black Quill Award Winners Announced
FLYNN, SIMMONS TAKE TOP HONORS IN BLACK QUILL AWARDS

LONG ISLAND, NY, February 9, 2010 — A master of otherworldly suspense and a literary fiction darling have taken top honors in the 3rd Annual Black Quill Awards, as winners were announced today by DARK SCRIBE MAGAZINE, the virtual magazine “dedicated to the books that keep readers up at night.”

Chicago-based author Gillian Flynn snagged the coveted Editor’s Choice award for DARK GENRE NOVEL OF THE YEAR for her sophomore effort, DARK PLACES, while veteran dark scribe Dan Simmons took Readers’ Choice honors in the same category for DROOD, his historical reimagining of the last years of Charles Dickens’ life. Simmons was nominated in the same category in 2007 for THE TERROR.

The Black Quill Awards were handed out in (8) categories honoring works of dark genre literature – horror, suspense, and thrillers – from both mainstream and small press publishers. While six of the awards recognized literary efforts, two of the awards recognized important aspects of book publishing and promotion: cover design and artwork and book trailer production — a growing marketing aspect of dark genre publishing. Peter Mahaichuk and César Puch dominated the BEST COVER ART AND DESIGN category for their work on Michael Louis Calvillo’s AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT for Bad Moon Books, while Calvillo himself took Readers’ Choice for BEST SMALL PRESS CHILL. Filmmaker JT Petty won Editors’ Choice for BEST DARK GENRE BOOK TRAILER for his work on the book trailer for real-life wife Sarah Langan’s AUDREY’S DOOR, while up-and-coming trailer producer John Palisano took Readers’ Choice in that same category for Gary Braunbeck’s FAR DARK FIELDS.

First-time nominees fared well in this year’s Black Quills, with Paul G. Bens Jr. taking top honors in the BEST SMALL PRESS CHILL category (Editor’s Choice) and Stoker Award-winner Lisa Morton scoring an Editors’ Choice nod for her editing work on MIDNIGHT WALK in the BEST DARK GENRE ANTHOLOGY category. Jameson Currier snagged an Editors’ Choice award for BEST DARK GENRE FICTION COLLECTION for THE HAUNTED HEART AND OTHER TALES, while David Nickle picked up the Readers’ Choice award in that same category for MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS. Editor Michael Knost took Editors’ Choice honors in the BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION category for the how-to compilation WRITERS WORKSHOP OF HORROR, while frequent Stephen King chronicler Bev Vincent earned Readers’ Choice honors in the same category for his THE ILLUSTRATED STEPHEN KING COMPANION. Elsewhere, Sarah Totton and Harry Shannon earned Editors’ Choice and Readers’ Choice nods, respectively, in the BEST DARK SCRIBBLE category. Totton’s short story “Flatrock Sunners” appeared in the UK print magazine BLACK STATIC, while Shannon’s “The Night Nurse” ran on the webzine Horror Drive-In.

Prolific genre editor Ellen Datlow – a double nominee this year – added a Black Quill Award to her lengthy list of honors for her editing work on POE: 19 NEW TALES INSPIRED BY EDGAR ALLAN POE. This was Datlow’s third nomination, following last year’s nomination for INFERNO: NEW TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL and a second nomination this year for her work on the LOVECRAFT UNBOUND collection.

Nominations for the Black Quills are editorial-based, with both the editors and active contributing writers submitting nominations in each of the (8) categories. Once nominations are announced, readers of DSM cast their votes for their picks in each category. For this year’s outing, more than 3,300 votes were cast by the magazine’s readers. In a unique spin intended to celebrate both critical and popular success, two winners are traditionally announced in each category – Reader’s Choice and Editor’s Choice. Winners receive recognition in DSM, inclusion in press release materials announcing nominations and winners, a virtual icon to be used on their own website, and a handsome award certificate.

A complete list of all the nominees and winners follows:

DARK GENRE NOVEL OF THE YEAR: (Novel-length work of horror, suspense, or thriller from mainstream publisher; awarded to the author)

• AUDREY'S DOOR by Sarah Langan (Harper)
• CASTAWAYS by Brian Keene (Leisure Books)
• DARK PLACES by Gillian Flynn (Shaye Areheart Books) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• DROOD by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown and Company) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Hardcover)
• THE UNSEEN by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martin's Press)

BEST SMALL PRESS CHILL: (Novel or novella published by small press publisher; awarded to the author)

• AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• FROZEN BLOOD by Joel Sutherland (Lachesis Publishing)
• KELLAND by Paul G. Bens Jr. (Casperian Books) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• LAST DAYS by Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
• THE HARLEQUIN AND THE TRAIN by Paul G. Tremblay (Necropolitan Press)
• VALLEY OF THE DEAD by Kim Paffenroth (Cargo Cult Press)

BEST DARK GENRE FICTION COLLECTION: (Single author collection, any publisher; awarded to the author)

• MARTYRS & MONSTERS by Robert Dunbar (DarkHart Press)
• MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS by David Nickle (ChiZine Publications) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• PUMPKIN TEETH by Tom Cardamone (Lethe Press)
• THE HAUNTED HEART AND OTHER TALES by Jameson Currier (Lethe Press) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• UGLY MAN by Dennis Cooper (Harper Perennial)

BEST DARK GENRE ANTHOLOGY: (Multi-author collection, any publisher; awarded to the editor)

• DARK DELICACIES III: HAUNTED edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Running Press)
• HE IS LEGEND: AN ANTHOLOGY CELEBRATING RICHARD MATHESON edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
• LOVECRAFT UNBOUND edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Comics)
• MIDNIGHT WALK edited by Lisa Morton (Darkhouse Publishing) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• POE: 19 NEW TALES INSPIRED BY EDGAR ALLAN POE edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• SHIVERS V edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications)

BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION: (Any dark genre non-fiction subject, any publisher; awarded to the author[s] or editor[s])

• MORBID CURIOSITY CURES THE BLUES edited by Loren Rhodes (Scribner)
• STEPHEN KING: THE NON-FICTION by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks (Cemetery Dance Publications)
• THE STEPHEN KING ILLUSTRATED COMPANION by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• WRITER'S WORKSHOP OF HORROR edited by Michael Knost (Woodland Press) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE

BEST DARK SCRIBBLE: (Single work, non-anthology short fiction appearing in a print or virtual magazine; awarded to the author)

• “Flatrock Sunners” by Sarah Totton (Black Static #12 / Print) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• “Following Marla” by John R. Little (Horror World, February 2009 / Virtual)
• “Night Nurse” by Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-In, July 2009 / Virtual) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• “The Loyalty of Birds” by Rachel Sobel (Clarkesworld #30 / Virtual)
• “The Man in the Mirror” by Jameson Currier (Icarus #1 / Print)
• “The Mind of a Pig” by Ekaterina Sedia (Apex Magazine, March 2009 / Virtual)

BEST COVER ART & DESIGN: (From any dark genre work of fiction, novel, novella, or anthology; awarded to artist and/or cover designer)

• AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT / Artwork: Peter Mahaichuk; Cover Design: César Puch [by Michael Louis Calvillo from Bad Moon Books] WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE / WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• THE ESTUARY / Artwork: Johann Bodin; Cover Design: Jacob Kier [by Derek Gunn from Permuted Press]
• THE HAUNTED HEART AND OTHER TALES / Artwork by: Richard Taddei; Cover Design: John Molloy [by Jameson Currier from Lethe Press]
• THE PILO FAMILY CIRCUS / Cover Design by: Heidi Whitcomb [by Will Elliot from Underland Press]

BEST DARK GENRE BOOK TRAILER: (Book video promoting any work of fiction or non-fiction; awarded to the video producer or publisher)
• AUDREY'S DOOR / Production by JT Petty (Author: Sarah Langan) WINNER – EDITORS’ CHOICE
• FAR DARK FIELDS / Production by John Palisano (Author: Gary Braunbeck) WINNER – READERS’ CHOICE
• ISIS / Production by Circle of Seven (Author: Douglas Clegg)
• THE LIFELESS / Production by Coscom Entertainment (Author: Lorne Dixon)
• SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS / Production by Seth Dalton and Ransom Riggs (Author: Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters)