Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror

[ellen_datlow]

Here is the TOC and the tentative jacket --please note that the names on the front of the jacket are not final. There will be more/others. Not sure about the back cover, but we may put all the names there. I'm also assuming the snake will show up more than it does here. The book will be out from Tachyon February 2010.

Darkness: 25 Years of Modern Horror


Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament Clive Barker 1984

Dancing Chickens Edward Bryant 1984

The Greater Festival of Masks Thomas Ligotti 1985

The Pear-Shaped Man George R.R. Martin 1987

The Juniper Tree Peter Straub 1988

Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds Dan Simmons 1988

The Power and the Passion Pat Cadigan 1989

The Phone Woman Joe R. Lansdale 1990

Teratisms Kathe Koja 1991

Chattery Teeth Stephen King 1992

A Little Night Music Lucius Shepard 1992

Calcutta, Lord of Nerves Poppy Z. Brite 1992

The Erl King Elizabeth Hand 1993

The Dog Park Dennis Etchison 1993

Rain Falls Michael Marshall Smith 1994

Refrigerator Heaven David J. Schow 1995

---- Joyce Carol Oates 1995

Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture) Neil Gaiman 1996

The Specialist’s Hat Kelly Link 1998

The Tree is My Hat Gene Wolfe 1999

Heat Steve Rasnic Tem 1999

No Strings Ramsey Campbell 2000

Stitch Terry Dowling 2002

Dancing Men Glen Hirshberg 2003

My Father’s Mask Joe Hill 2005

Comments

Cool!

[themadblonde]

Definitely vote for more snake.

Re: Cool!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It shows up more in the catalog. The blues are also different tones in the catalog. I'm sure there will be tweaks to the art and type.

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Looking forward to it Ellen.

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

Wow! Lots of stories I have not seen anthologized to death, very nice selection. Now I'm prompted to go try to locate a Joyce Carol Oates story I read once which keeps coming back to me (it involves a young girl trespassing into an old abadnoned house and meeting up with this creepy Baba Yaga/old woman figure who is very creepy).

I vote for more snakes, too.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh good. That's what I like to hear (that not all the stories have been over-anthologized).

I doubt there will be MORE snakes but there should be more SNAKE :-), in other words, it will "pop" more as an image.

I don't recall that specific Oates story. Maybe someone else will.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

2004 can go fuck itself, yeah!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

So can 1986 and 2001!

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Looks awesome!

[mlamprey.livejournal.com]

Leiber's "Horrible Imaginings" misses by one year!

Well, that'll go into my collection of all-time greats.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

He wrote it that late? I'm surprised.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I give up--if anyone can tell me HOW I screwed up the insert I'd appreciate it.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It's back and I think it's the better version. (I will never try that again)

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

I canNOT wait for this one. Yay!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You'll have to :-)

[splinister.livejournal.com]

What a fabulous line-up!

[p-straub55.livejournal.com]

Ellen, I am very happy to be in this book.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Delighted to have you in it. I still can't figure out why I didn't take "The Juniper Tree" for YBFH the year it came out...I thought I had but looking it up, nope.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

As I've said elsewhere and mean, I'm only sorry that I didn't have about 100,000 more words. If I had, I'd feel I really covered everyone I wanted to. Oh well.

[jeffpalmatier.livejournal.com]

I wish they would make it a common practice to list the contents of short stories in the product description section on Amazon.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

That's up to the publisher, I think. Or in any case, the publisher can certainly do it.

[steve-vernon.livejournal.com]

That's an awesome line-up Ellen.

And between you and me and the thousand people who will read this journal I still dream of someday writing a story that is just plain good enough to appear in one of your fine, fat anthologies.

Keep 'em flying, ma'm.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Steve.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you issimusly for making the dates prominent. It saves me doing what I do with all anthologies that span time - pencil in the date under the title.

Anna Tambour

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll be putting the dates in the TOC but they will of course be on the copyright page, in addition to where the stories were first published.

[chalkhorse.livejournal.com]

I remember many of these stories from previous YBFH anthologies. The Pear-Shaped Man, Refrigerator Heaven, Teratisms, and the story by Oates: amazing!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yup. You could think of this as the substitute Best of the Best that we all wanted to put together for the 20th anniversary but didn't--plus three years before the series began.

[crowinator.livejournal.com]

I'm really excited for this one. Plus, Hill's "My Father's Mask" is one of my all-time favorite horror stories. (c: So very disturbing.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Mine too. It gets better on each reading.

[clockworkquill.livejournal.com]

Lovely line-up. How I adore "The Specialist's Hat"!

-Miranda S.

[scottedelman.livejournal.com]

I'm getting chills just reading the titles!

Impressive

[daj42.livejournal.com]

Lots of good stuff. The stuff I have read I'd put among my favorite horror titles, and the stuff I haven't I'm looking forward to reading. Suddenly 2010 cannot get here soon enough!

[rhondaparrish.livejournal.com]

You are like the queen of awesome covers.

Just sayin'

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Not my decision--in fact rarely my decision...thank my publishers.

[jmantoothwriter.livejournal.com]

Maybe I've spent too much time on Facebook, but after reading this entry, I kept searching for the Like (thumbs up) button. Since this is not Facebook, I'll just say it: I like this. I really like this.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I think so. Although my lj is connected to facebook so you could go over there and give it a thumbs up :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Very cool! I knew it would be awesome.

-Nancy G.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

:-)

I've finished my brief intro and Stefan D showed me the first part of his overview and it looks smashing--now if he's just finish it, the book could go into production!