JournalStone Publishing is donating 100% of the profits from this two volume anthology to the Hautala family.

Featuring over 45 individual contributors, almost 800 pages, over 240k words, original Clive Barker artwork, over 30 illustrations and so much content we had to put it into two volumes.

 

 

Volume I Contributors

 

Neil Gaiman , Graham Joyce, Matthew Costello, Michael Marshall Smith, Chet Williamson, 

Elizabeth Massie,  Peter Crowther,  Matti Hautala,  

Mark Morris,  Richard Chizmar, Stephen R. Bissette, 

Joe R. Lansdale, Yvonne Navarro,  José R. Nieto, 

Duane Swierczynski, Gary A. Braunbeck, 

Craig Shaw Gardner, Jack M. Haringa, Tom Piccirilli,  F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, John M. McIlveen, Weston Ochse, Glenn Chadbourne,  and Morbideus W. Goodell

 Volume II Contributors

 

Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Jeff Strand, Thomas F. Monteleone, J. F. Gonzalez, Stephen R. Bissette, Christopher Golden, Lucy A. Snyder, Sarah Pinborough, Brian Keene, Kevin J. Anderson, Tim Lebbon, Nancy A. Collins, Kim Newman, Sarah Langan, Rio Youers, Jack Ketchum, John Skipp, James A. Moore, Amber Benson, Nate Kenyon, Holly Newstein, Rick Hautala, Cortney Skinner, and Glenn Chadbourne 

 

NOS4A2

 

NOS4A2

by Joe Hill

William Morrow, Hardcover, 2013, $28.99, 692pp.

Review by Wayne C. Rogers 

 

NOS4A2 is Joe Hill's third novel after The Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.  As most readers already know, Joe is one of Stephen King's children, and I can tell you that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  This novel is Joe's masterpiece.  It's the equivalent of King's The Shining, and it cries out to be made into a feature film.  It's been fun watching this young writer learn his craft with each novel over the last few years as he got better and better with the written word, until this stark tale of twisted horror was finally produced.  If Joe continues to write in the horror genre, I see him eventually taking over his dad's mantle.  Now, I'm wondering what Joe's fourth novel will be about, and if it will surpass NOS4A2 in sheer scope and unadulterated terror.

 

The story of NOS4A2 centers around one Charlie Manx, who's probably around 116 years old, but looks much younger.  He drives a black classic Rolls Royce Wraith, which in many ways is the star of the novel.  The Wraith is the totem for Manx.  Though it helped to destroy his family in his earlier years, the car has kept him young in appearance and full of vitality ever since.  At the same time, however, the car needs the presence of children in it so it can suck the positive attributes out of them and replace the emotions with negative ones, turning the little sweeties into fun-loving creatures of the night.  In some ways the car is like a shark, always moving and feeding off the suffering of others.

 

To read the rest of the review, click on the title link above. 

Dreaming in Darkness

Aaron French, Adrian Chamberlin, Jonathan Green, and John Prescott

World Horror Con 2013 edition

Hardcover, $20.00

Reviewed by Michael R. Collings

 

Not long ago, I completed a 10,000-word novelette for the forthcoming anthology Space Eldritch II, a continuation of my entry for SEI, "Space Opera." As a result, my mind has been on things-Lovecraftian for that last little bit.

 

One can understand my pleasure, then, at receiving a review copy of a parallel anthology containing four novellas, evocatively titled Dreaming in Darkness, with an equally evocative (and on its own merits, stunning) dust jacket by Nebezial and full-color interior illustrations by James Powell. Just looking at it-and through it-began to satisfy my craving for the inexplicable, the eldritch...and the Elder.

But an even greater pleasure awaited as I began reading the four long stories, each incorporating Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in unexpected and fascinating ways.

 

To read the rest of the review, click on the title link above. 

Patrick and Phil Freivald - Blood List - 11/15/2013

Jonathan Maberry - Ghost Road Blues (Limited Edition) 3/7/2014

Jonathan Maberry - Joe Ledger: Special Ops - 4/18/2014

JournalStone Publishing is a new and dynamic publishing house focusing in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror genres in both the adult and young adult markets.  JSP also owns and operates the Hellnotes website, offering daily news and reviews of interest to genre readers and fans, and Dark Discoveries Magazine, a slick, full color, distinguished and internationally distributed quarterly magazine.  We publish in multiple formats and market our authors on a global level.  We are also active with numerous major writers' groups, including the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and produce a monthly newsletter with a large circulation.

  

Get the following titles, as well as many other exciting offerings, at JournalStone BookStore.

 

After the bizarre suicide of her sister, Lilith Pierce discovered that the world was full of dangers and villains she could not have imagined, and that the history of human civilization was far from complete. Now, gifted with tremendous powers she barely understands, Lilith is determined to stop whatever plots and schemes her immortal cousins, the Sangha, can hatch. When a simple reconnaissance mission ends in tragedy; however, Lilith's entire focus changes.

 

Attempting to save a child she's never met from a fate worse than death will require every ounce of Lilith's strength, forge new and treacherous alliances, and possibly change the world forever. Suddenly all eyes are on her, and the destiny of the human race is on her shoulders.

 

A thrill ride with soul for a new generation of thinkers!

Table of Contents

 

Wayne Miller COVER ART

 

F i c t i o n    They - by David Morrell   
Coyote Gambit - by Gene O'Neil   
Do Not Disturb - by Eric Red  
The Partnership  -  by William F. Nolan 
Masks - by Brian Sammons  

 

I n t e r v i e w s

Katherine Leigh Scott Interview - James R. Beach 
David Morrell Interview - Joel Kirkpatrick 
Gene O'Neill Interview - Joel Kirkpatrick 
Jeffrey Reddick Interview - Cyrus Wraith Walker

Eric Red interview - Aaron French

Bob Morrish column (Frank De Felitta Interview)

 

F e a t u r e s

Dark Shadows article (overview)  - Stephen Mark Rainey 
ABC Movie of the Week article - Mark Seiber and James R. Beach  
The Group and Television article - Trever Nordgren 
Darkroom article - Trever Nordgren   

Column - by Dr. Michael Collings  

Double X Chromosome: Why I hate Women in Horror - Yvonne Navarro

YA and YA reviews - by Amy Shane

Things that Bite - Jonathan Maberry and David F. Kramer

 

NONFICTION

WHC/HWA wrapup/winners 
Ray Harryhausen Tribute - Aaron French  

 

Hellnotes Reviews

Book reviews 

 

Are you laid off, downsized, undersized?

Call us. We employ. 1-800-555-0606

How lucky do you feel?

 

So reads the business card from Limbus, Inc., a shadowy employment agency that operates at the edge of the normal world. Limbus's employees are just as suspicious and ephemeral as the motives of the company, if indeed it could be called a company in the ordinary sense of the word.

 

In this shared-world anthology, five heavy hitters from the dark worlds of horror, fantasy, and scifi pool their warped takes on the shadow organization that offers employment of the most unusual kind to those on the fringes of society.

 

One thing's for sure - you'll never think the same way again about the fine print on your next employment application!

The first twenty subscribers who reply to this email will receive a free print copy of Rick Hautala's Demon Wife.  Please put "Hellnotes Newsletter Demon Wife Giveaway" in the subject line.  Unfortunately, we can only mail these copies to addresses in the United States.  If you live outside the U.S. however, don't despair.  The next 100 people who respond will get a free electronic copy.  It doesn't get any simpler than this.  All we ask is that you consider writing a review on Amazon.com.

Thanks again for all of your support, and I hope to hear from you soon!

July brought sad news for the entire JournalStone family as we lost someone that we all cared deeply about.  Anne C. Petty lost a long and hard fought battle against cancer.  Fortunately, she was able to have her husband, her daughter, and her beloved cat by her side as she passed from this life.  She was a big part of the JournalStone family, and words truly cannot express how much we will miss her.  Rest in peace, Anne.

Kristina Meister 

in Her Own Words

 

The Thinking Man's Blood and Guts

 

Someone once said, "Science Fiction is the genre of the improbable, and Fantasy is the genre of the impossible." I would like to extend that and suggest that Horror is the genre that scares the skittles out of you. Humans are prone to classification; we nit-pick until we're buried in subcategories like "Slasher Suspense," "Dark Urban Fantasy," or god forbid, "Paranormal Romance." But the key ingredient of an effective Horror story, is that what we thought we knew, turned out to be completely ass-backwards, and may actually be intent upon our destruction. It's ironic, but Horror is by definition the one genre that should always attempt to defy our expectations.

 

Now don't get me wrong, when you're alone on a stormy night, in the home of a retired big game hunter, cat-sitting his hairless, arthritic siamese, there's nothing better than the cookie-cutter creeping menace or Slow Mover Undead flick. They have their place, but really there's very little to them. They scare us, but we know why they scare us, and so we can laugh every time we jump. It becomes a formulaic joke, so much so that movies like Scream induce nods in all who see them.

 

I've always admired stories that unsettle me from beginning to end, and hold me there, unable to reconcile. For example, you may call it Science Fiction or whatever, but that movie The Day After Tomorrow, that was some horrifying film-making, and I'm not just talking about the screenplay. I'm talking about the premise of catastrophe on a global scale, that we began, and cannot outrun. The Stepford Wives may rally feminists, but it's also intrinsically horrifying, because reality is being rewritten and people are being methodically deprived of their humanity. In many ways, this is even more disturbing than Invasion of the Body Snatchers, because it is being perpetrated by people we know and trust, and not by some nameless species of alien hell-bent on our resources, because they never learned how to recycle while they were inventing faster-than-light-speed travel.

 

To read the rest of the article, click on the title link above.