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WAITING FOR OCTOBER
12 Oddities Collected
By Adam Pepper, Sarah Pinborough,
Jeff Strand and Jeffrey Thomas
ISBN# 0-9779686-1-8
$14.95
The second Dark Arts Books release is Waiting for October, a compilation of 12 new tales and rare reprints by four of horror's most evocative authors: Adam Pepper, Sarah Pinborough, Jeff Strand and Jeffrey Thomas.
This volume, including an introduction by editor Bill Breedlove, will be released at the World Horror Convention in Toronto in March 2007.
Table of Contents:
Bill Breedlove:
- Introduction
Jeff Strand:
- Gramma's Corpse
- Bad Candy House
- “Here’s What Happened..."
Adam Pepper:
- The Admirer
- Buried A Man I Hated There
- Old Maid Syndrome
Sarah Pinborough:
- Express Delivery
- The Fear
- Crystal Carla
Jeffrey Thomas:
- The Hosts
- Adoration
- Star est Control
Summary:
From body parts gone missing to body parts inexplicably arriving, from parasitic children to dead grammas, Waiting for October is filled with the harvest of four tantalizingly twisted imaginations.Acclaim for October:
"...a fine showcase of each author's talent, with varied entires featuring elements of horror, scifi and humor . . . i.e. you won't be bored for a second.
Dark Arts Books goes 2 for 2."
"Playing more at times like exercises in surrealism than straight-forward horror, Waiting for October is meant to embody the literary equivalent of “the quaint sampler candy box” and offers readers a nibble of the work of an assortment of dark scribes. On the strength of Pepper's “Buried a Man I Hated There” and Thomas' “Adoration” alone, Waiting for October is worth a few post-holiday calories.
"Not taking away from the talented Pepper or Strand but... I'd purchase Waiting For October simply for the pleasure of reading Pinborough and Thomas, two great short story writers, who know how to disturb and frighten..."
I doubt I'll read a stronger horror-themed collection this year than WAITING FOR OCTOBER, the genre-busting follow-up to Dark Arts Books' 2006 anthology CANDY ON THE DUMPSTER. Like that publication, WAITING FOR OCTOBER features four authors each contributing three stories....readers looking for a consistently themed anthology won't respond to WAITING FOR OCTOBER. For me, however, the book's magic is in its incredibly wide-ranging, always unpredictable contents. Those who say there's nothing new in the horror story universe (and I'll admit I've made that claim myself on more than one occasion) need to read this book - as, in my view, does everyone else!"
-Adam Groves, Fright.com
Read the entire review here.
...if you're familiar with Jeff's, Adam's, Sarah's or Jeffrey's work, then you at least have some sense of what lies ahead — truly original ideas flawlessly executed by four enormously talented writers.
However, if by some fortunate happenstance this book is your introduction to the gifted authors to follow, then you, my friend, are in for quite a treat.
You won't find any of the “usual” suspects here—no vampires, no werewolves, no smilingly hateful little children who kill their nannies. What you will find instead are some very disturbing tales that showcase the full range of what constitutes a “horror story.”
-Bill Breedlove
From the Introduction
"In Waiting for October , four unique voices probe the breadth and depth of dark fiction with tremendous success. This collection offers the subtle and creepy along with the brutal and grotesque. Stylish. Smart. And scary. It's a stunning collection from four of the genre's brightest talents.
-Lee Thomas
Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Stained, Damage and The Dust of Wonderland.