"Another recent volume of the Gothic Fantasy series is Haunted House Short Stories, which offers another selection of excellent fiction." - Kirkus Following the great success of our Gothic Fantasy deluxe edition short story compilations, Supernatural Horror, Murder Mayhem, Lost Souls and many others, this latest title takes housebound trapped spirits and creepy gothic mansions as its chilling subject. Contains a potent mix of classic and brand new writing, with authors from the US, Canada, and the UK. Oh, what is that sound within the walls? The creaking floorboards, the children hiding in the mirror, the spirits that rake across the flesh of the mind - all find a home in this anthology of spine-tingling tales. Classic authors include: E.F. Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Bernard Capes, Ralph Adams Cram, B.M. Croker, Joseph Sheridan le Fanu, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, O. Henry, William Hope Hodgson, W.W. Jacobs, M.R. James, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, Guy de Maupassant, Edith Nesbit, Vincent O'Sullivan, Margaret Oliphant, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Charlotte Riddell, Mark Twain, Hugh Walpole, Edith Wharton.

"The House by the Cemetery involves everything that a horror aficionado could ever want-an undead witch, comic relief, a haunted house dedicated to obscure and not-so obscure horror films, and lots and lots of gore...Indeed, The House by the Cemetery could easily be transcribed into an action-packed screenplay" - The New York Journal of Books Rumor has it that the abandoned house by the cemetery is haunted by the ghost of a witch. But rumors won't stop carpenter Mike Kostner from rehabbing the place as a haunted house attraction. Soon he'll learn that fresh wood and nails can't keep decades of rumors down. There are noises in the walls, and fresh blood on the floor: secrets that would be better not to discover. And behind the rumors is a real ghost who will do whatever it takes to ensure the house reopens. She needs people to fill her house on Halloween. There's a dark, horrible ritual to fulfill. Because while the witch may have been dead... she doesn't intend to stay that way. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"Passionate, overwhelming, a classic thriller with a rock rhythm." - Ernesto Gastaldi, screenwriter of So Sweet... So Perverse "I read this story with ever-increasing interest. The dynamics and tension felt reminiscent of my thriller films from the 70s and 80s, which have been appreciated by many American directors such as Quentin Tarantino. It would make a great film for lovers of the genre. Ottimo intrigo!" - Sergio Martino, director of All the Colors of the Dark and Torso "Intricately plotted in the classic giallo style, with plot twists and murders galore. John Everson has written a thriller that is sure to appeal to devotees of lurid Italian mystery thrillers." - Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films Somebody is murdering the Songbirds... A modern Giallo, Everson's homage to the stylish Italian mystery thrillers. When Eve Springer arrives in Belgium to study with the world-famous Prof. Ernest Von Klein at The Eyrie, an exclusive music conservatory, it's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. But that dream is soon to become a nightmare. When the star of the school's piano program is strangled with a piano wire, the only clue to the killer is a grainy picture of the victim during her final moments, mouth wide and screaming, posted on the girl's own Facebook account, alongside a classic music video. What does it mean? Eve soon finds herself taking the girl's place as the enclave's star pupil, in line for a coveted scholarship and a new member of the famed jazz combo, the Songbirds. When Eve is drugged and another Songbird murdered at a campus party, she suddenly finds herself on the list of suspects. Another picture is posted online of the victim in her final moments, and this time, Eve is sure the hands around the girl's throat... are hers! Could she have killed the girl while under the influence of whatever someone had slipped in her drink? The police and others at the Eyrie are suspicious; the murders began when she arrived. Her new boyfriend Richard insists that she could not be the killer. But who would want the Songbirds dead? One of the other Songbirds, like Gianna, the snarky sax player who seems to hate everyone? Or Philip, the creepy building caretaker and occasional night watchman? Or could it be Prof. Von Klein himself, who seems very handy with a camera and has a secret locked room behind his office where the light always seems to be on after dark? Whoever it is, Eve knows she needs to figure it out. Because when a dead canary is left as a bloody message on the keys of her piano, she knows her own life may be in deadly danger. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"Voodoo Heart offers a solid blend of supernatural horror and hard-boiled detective fiction, and should appeal to horror devotees as well as mystery buffs." - Booklist When Detective Lawrence Ribaud wakes alone in a bloody bed with his wife missing, he knows this is more than just a mysterious case of murder. His wife is the latest victim in a string of bizarre disappearances. All across New Orleans, on one night each month, people are vanishing, leaving behind nothing but a pool of blood on the bedsheets... and an abandoned heart. Ribaud doesn't believe in voodoo, but he soon finds himself moving through the underbelly of a secret society of snakes, sacrifices and obscene rituals in search of the mysterious Black Queen ... and the curse of her Voodoo Heart. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"John Everson's newest novel is so powerful, so terrifying, so implacable in the evil it describes, that I could not stop reading." - The Haunted Reading Room Austin secretly wishes his wife would drop dead. He even says so one boozy midnight at the bar to a sultry stranger with a mysterious tattoo. When his wife later introduces that stranger as Regina, their new neighbor, Austin hopes she will be a good influence on his wife. Instead, one night he comes home to find his wife dead. Soon he's entranced with Regina, who introduces him to a strange world of bloodletting, rituals and magic. A world that puts everything he loves in peril. Can Austin save his daughter, and himself, before the planets align for the Devil's Equinox? FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"Voodoo Heart offers a solid blend of supernatural horror and hard-boiled detective fiction, and should appeal to horror devotees as well as mystery buffs." - Booklist When Detective Lawrence Ribaud wakes alone in a bloody bed with his wife missing, he knows this is more than just a mysterious case of murder. His wife is the latest victim in a string of bizarre disappearances. All across New Orleans, on one night each month, people are vanishing, leaving behind nothing but a pool of blood on the bedsheets... and an abandoned heart. Ribaud doesn't believe in voodoo, but he soon finds himself moving through the underbelly of a secret society of snakes, sacrifices and obscene rituals in search of the mysterious Black Queen ... and the curse of her Voodoo Heart. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"Passionate, overwhelming, a classic thriller with a rock rhythm." - Ernesto Gastaldi, screenwriter of So Sweet... So Perverse "I read this story with ever-increasing interest. The dynamics and tension felt reminiscent of my thriller films from the 70s and 80s, which have been appreciated by many American directors such as Quentin Tarantino. It would make a great film for lovers of the genre. Ottimo intrigo!" - Sergio Martino, director of All the Colors of the Dark and Torso "Intricately plotted in the classic giallo style, with plot twists and murders galore. John Everson has written a thriller that is sure to appeal to devotees of lurid Italian mystery thrillers." - Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films Somebody is murdering the Songbirds... A modern Giallo, Everson's homage to the stylish Italian mystery thrillers. When Eve Springer arrives in Belgium to study with the world-famous Prof. Ernest Von Klein at The Eyrie, an exclusive music conservatory, it's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. But that dream is soon to become a nightmare. When the star of the school's piano program is strangled with a piano wire, the only clue to the killer is a grainy picture of the victim during her final moments, mouth wide and screaming, posted on the girl's own Facebook account, alongside a classic music video. What does it mean? Eve soon finds herself taking the girl's place as the enclave's star pupil, in line for a coveted scholarship and a new member of the famed jazz combo, the Songbirds. When Eve is drugged and another Songbird murdered at a campus party, she suddenly finds herself on the list of suspects. Another picture is posted online of the victim in her final moments, and this time, Eve is sure the hands around the girl's throat... are hers! Could she have killed the girl while under the influence of whatever someone had slipped in her drink? The police and others at the Eyrie are suspicious; the murders began when she arrived. Her new boyfriend Richard insists that she could not be the killer. But who would want the Songbirds dead? One of the other Songbirds, like Gianna, the snarky sax player who seems to hate everyone? Or Philip, the creepy building caretaker and occasional night watchman? Or could it be Prof. Von Klein himself, who seems very handy with a camera and has a secret locked room behind his office where the light always seems to be on after dark? Whoever it is, Eve knows she needs to figure it out. Because when a dead canary is left as a bloody message on the keys of her piano, she knows her own life may be in deadly danger. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

HYMN: a song in praise to God, or gods. UNDERBELLY: the underside of an animal; an inferior or concealed part of something. Staple these two ideas together in dark unnatural congress and you get something like a mime with Tourette's Syndrome, shouting random obscenities at a little girl on the street. You get men (and a heavily tattooed, bodily-modified woman named Godiva - rowrrr ) who just aren't right in the head, but who are allowed to roam the streets with razors and drivers licenses and ferrets like they're normal, church-going people, singing normal, church-going songs, right up until that moment when you realize they're really singing demented clown-chants. No, these stories are not hymns, but "The Dark Underbelly of Hymns." Enjoy Martin Mundt's second collection of horror, humor and the macabre contains a dozen must-read tales, including "The Worst Mime In The World" and "The 'Nothing Good Ever Came Out Of Being Asked By Your Girlfriend If You Were A Cannibal' Blues."

The 10th Anniversary edition of "Vigilantes of Love," John Everson's second book-length collection of tales of short fantasy and the macabre, includes a new preface by the author and six additional stories not present in the original release "A woman whose life is shaped and doomed by the "Calling of the Moon..". A girl who learns the secret powers of the "Seven Deadly Seeds..". A boy who finds that the power of music can open a hidden world thanks to a flute hidden in the attic... A man who learns the meaning behind the voodoo curse that brings the "Vigilantes of Love" from the hearts of the New Orleans swamps to punish the adulterers under the light of the full moon..." "Vigilantes of Love" offers these and many more tales of dark magic, the macabre and things that happen when you go one step beyond. "Vigilantes of Love" was originally issued in 2003 by Chicago-based Twilight Tales, a year before a limited edition of Everson's first novel, the Bram Stoker Award-winning "Covenant," was released. While Everson's first book of short fiction, "Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions," focused on erotic horror, "Vigilantes of Love" was something of a flip side -- this collection offers light and dark fantasy tales, mixed with the occasional slice of horror. The Dark Arts Books 10th Anniversary edition of "Vigilantes of Love" is an expanded release that includes six never-before-collected Everson tales -- including his first horror publication, "Learning To Build" -- alongside "Vigilantes of Love"'s original 15 dark fantasy and horror stories. The book includes the voodoo-zombie oriented title story, written especially for the collection, as well as "Calling of the Moon," which received an Honorable Mention in the "Year's Best Fantasy & Horror" anthology, and "Lovesong" a 5th Place winner in the 2000 World Horror Convention Fiction Contest.

For a group of short stories written over a period of several years for unrelated reasons, "The Crawling Abattoir" wouldn't seem a like candidate to have a theme, but it does: the hilarity of horror. The funny side of agony. Hit me with your torture-shtick From the desperation of a lonely necrophile deeply frustrated by unrequited corpse-love; to a really rotten clown's long drawn-out discovery that success comes only after paying his dues in multiple broken bones, lacerated kidneys, lots and lots of blood and more; and to the horrible, horrible, (really horrible) misfortunes of Little Timmy, an innocent youngster badly mistreated by the world for no very good reason other than the reader's enjoyment; this collection will jam a rusty icepick all the way through your funny-bone, and you'll laugh until you cry through months of expensive, excruciating elbow rehabilitation. Enjoy

20 tales of obsession, dark decadence and erotic horror Meet a witch who conjures genital dragons while singing Manilow. A woman who provides a true window to her soul. A dirty deal with the devil on the side of a road. And a real cage of bones The first short fiction collection from John Everson, originally released by Delirium Books, features some of his best erotic horror, including his most popular tale, "Pumpkin Head," a dark tale of jack-o-lanterns... and the dangers of Halloween lusts... TABLE OF CONTENTS: "Introduction" by P. D. Cacek "Yellow" The cave held the seed of ancient gods...their vacation provided the climax of despair. "Long Distance Call" There are some calls you should never answer. "Cage of Bones" It was beautiful. After weeks of preparation it was finished. A full body restraint. Made of steel. Wood. Leather. And bones. "Dead Girl On The Side of The Road" Her body was his, unchanging, for 25 years to enjoy whenever he chose. "Pumpkin Head" She held the browning vine up from her belly, and with squeamish understanding, he dug through his clothes for his pocketknife. "Direkit Seed" Her name was Ceiran, with a C. She sang sexy Barry Manilow songs and worked in a club. And she was a witch. "Every Last Drop" Tony couldn't resist the promise of the perfect blowjob. But more than his orgasm was being sucked away. "When Barrettes Brought Justice To A Burning Heart" The derelict with the milky white eyes promised revenge, and that was something Bill wanted more than life itself. "The Mouth" The defining evidence that separates sex and murder is really only the amount of blood left behind on the bed. "Creaks" Sometimes the most frightening parts of growing up are the discoveries of our own nature. "Remember Me, My Husband" Ella Marie had been dead for 100 years when she gave him her ring. "Wooden" "Tonight," she promised, "I'll be back. I'll bring some matches. We'll have a bonfire, you and I. Dead wood burns best." "Swallowing The Pill" Some pills get easier to swallow...with practice. "Broken Window" In giving him entrance to her soul, had Katrina given too much? "Tomorrow" He was a bored child prodigy who could use his will to make his pets and parents do whatever he chose. What will he do tomorrow? "Mirror Image" The mirror reflects his true nature. Or is it someone else? "Murdering The Language" Gretta only wanted to protect the library's patrons from smut and filth. But some lessons in literature are painful. "Anniversary" Margaret lived for the nights of the full moon. And she wanted this night to be perfect; it was their first anniversary. "The Last Plague" When nothing else is left, what is there left to lose? "Bloodroses" She was blinded by lust and razored by marriage. But at least she had the thorns of her rose garden to soothe her. "Afterword"

"BEST NEW VAMPIRE TALES goes for the throat with chilling and innovative new takes on the undead. Highly recommended for the bloody-minded "
-Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of THE KING OF PLAGUES and WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE

Want the Greatest Vampire Stories Ever Written?
BEST NEW VAMPIRE TALES (Vol. 1)

Approximately 100,000 words

From the people that brought you the Best New Zombie Tales series, comes Best New Vampire Tales

Includes amazing fiction by:

Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Michael Laimo
Bram Stoker Award Winner, David Niall Wilson
Authorlink New Author Award Winner, Tim Waggoner
Bram Stoker Award Winner, John Everson
International Horror Guild Nominee, Don Webb
British Fantasy Award, Science Fiction Award Nominee, Jay Caselberg
Speculative Literature Foundation award nominee, Colleen Anderson
Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Alan Smale
Arthur Ellis Award Winner, Nancy Kilpatrick
And so much more...

Complete TOC:
Michael Laimo - Banalica
James Newman - The New Racism
Steve Vernon - Moving Lines
Tim Waggoner - Preserver
John Everson - When Barrettes Brought Justice
Donn Webb - 13 Lines
John F.D. TAFF - Cold Calls
Barbara Roden - Endless Nights
John L. French - A New House
Fredrick Obermeyer - The Verbpire
William Meikle - Morning Sickness
Scott Harper - Flotsam
David Niall Wilson - A Candle Lit In Sunlight
David M. Fitzpatrick - Sabbatarian
Alan Smale - Bridges
Jay Caselberg - Window Across the Street
Rycke Foreman - A Sunset so Glorious
Matt Hults - Through the Valley of Death
Colleen Anderson - Lover's Triangle
Nancy Kilpatrick - Farm Wife

Preview: Matt Hults - Husk
Preview: James Roy Daley - Terror Town

Photography by: Danielle Tunstall

Want the Greatest Zombie Stories Ever Written?
BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (Vol. 2)
Over 100,000 words

Includes Amazing Fiction by:

Bram Stoker Award Winner, David Niall Wilson
British Fantasy Award Nominee, Rio Youers
Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Nate Kenyon
Multiple Award Winning Author, Cody Goodfellow
Authorlink New Author Award Winner, Tim Waggoner
George Turner Prize Nominee, Narrelle M. Harris
Bram Stoker Award Winner, John Everson
Pulitzer Prize, Bram Stoker Nominee, Mort Castle
And so much more...

"I'm proud to be a part of the Best New Zombie Tales series."
World Horror Grand Master, Multiple Award Winning Horror Legend, Ray Garton

James Roy Daley is doing a marvelous job with his Best New Zombie Tales series-- TERRIFIC Bloody well done "
New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry, author of PATIENT ZERO and ROT & RUIN

TOC:

Sleepwalk: The Deduction ROBERT ELROD
Introduction JAMES ROY DALEY
Bury Me Not RIO YOUERS
Laundry Day STEVEN A. ROMAN
Provider TIM WAGGONER
The Truth About Brains NARRELLE M. HARRIS
Gravedigger NATE KENYON
Coming Home DAVID NIALL WILSON
The Third Option DEREK GUNN
The Worst Is Yet To Come PETE MESLING
La Sequia T. F. DAVENPORT
Viva Las Vegas THOMAS ROCHE
Til Decay Do Us Part MYRRYM DAVIS
We Will Rebuild CODY GOODFELLOW
Dredging Up The Dead J. W. SCHNARR
Camille Smiled JOHN EVERSON
Not With A Bang But A Whimper MONICA J. O ROURKE
Reunion JAMES NEWMAN
Gran ma s in the Bathroom ( and she s not coming out) KEN GOLDMAN
The Old Man And The Dead MORT CASTLE
The Finger MATT HULTS