TWENTY TERRIFYING TALES FOR HALLOWEEN, THE MOST FRIGHTENING NIGHT OF THE YEAR! “The Dead walk beside us in October…and this Halloween, they have a story to tell…” SEASON OF THE DEAD: SUPERNATURAL HORROR FOR HALLOWEEN opens the veil between the living and the dead with 20 classic and rare supernatural stories set on or around All Hallows Eve. Macabre masters and unjustly forgotten authors revisit centuries of Halloween legends and folklore with stories of witches and demons, faeries and specters. These deliciously dark narratives from 19th & 20th centuries visit a time when the tricks were deadly, the treats horrifying, and people feared the dead. Halloween—Samhain—Nut Crack night—Dia de los Muertos…on this night, ghosts, goblins, and ghouls cross into our realm, the familiar turns strange, and our most intimate fears are unmasked. A night of dark wonder and magic, mystery and the macabre. A Season of the Dead.… Experience Halloween like never before! Light your pumpkin, lock your door, and listen to leaves scurry…the dry, rustling feet of the dead. Open this book, and try not to think about who, or what, might be peering in your window to set by the fire. From landmark supernatural fiction by Edgar Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and H.P. Lovecraft to literary nightmares by William Huntley, H.B. Marriott-Watson, Douglas Hyde, and Fritz-James O’Brien, there is a dark treat for every taste…along with some frightful tricks! Forgotten female authors appear in funerary finery, including E. Nesbit, Edith Wharton, Mrs. Henry Wood, and Mrs. J.H. Riddell. Horror favorites M.R. James, W.W. Jacobs, Bram Stoker, J.S. Le Fanu, and Robert W. Chambers stand alongside Nobel prize winning author Anatole France. Feel October’s mingling of dread, lounging, and excitement. A celebration of olde halloween, when the monsters were real, the dead returned, and demons stalked every road. Editor WILLIAM P. SIMMONS ushers readers through the Undiscovered Country of All Hallows with “Stories the Dead Know”, a thorough Introduction examining the holiday’s history, lore, and literature. Notes and Annotations create an eerie and informative context for readers. TABLE OF CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION: STORIES THE DEAD KNOW, by William P. Simmons ULALUME: A BALLAD (1847) by Edgar Allan Poe MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE (1887) by E. Nesbit THE LOST ROOM (1858) by Fitz-James O’Brian KEN’S MYSTERY (1883) by Julian Hawthorne THE LAST OF SQUIRE ENNISMORE (1888) by Mrs. J.H. Riddell THE THREE SISTERS (1914) by W.W. Jacobs THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM (1865) by William Hunt COUNT MAGNUS (1904) by M.R. James TEIG O’ KANE AND THE CORPSE (1888) by Dr. Douglas Hyde DRACULA’S GUEST (1914) by Bram Stoker THE CHILD THAT WENT WITH THE FAERIES (1870) by J.S. Le Fanu THE SCARECROW (1918) by G. Ranger Wormser MASS OF SHADOWS (1927) by Anatole France YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN (1855) by Nathaniel Hawthorne REALITY, OR DELUSION? (1868) by Mrs. Henry Wood THE DEVIL OF THE MARSH (1893) by H.B. Marriott-Watson THE MESSENGER (1897) by Robert W. Chambers THE VOW ON HALLOWEEN (1924) by Lyllian Huntley Harris THE DUNWICH HORROR (1928) by H.P. Lovecraft ALL SOULS (1909) by Edith Wharton __________ Editor William P. Simmons is a supernatural fiction author, critic, & journalist. Seven of his stories earned Honorable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. By Reason of Darkness was praised by Publisher’s Weekly, All Hallows & Cemetery Dance. Graham Masterton, Hugh B. Cave & T.M. Wright endorsed his fiction. He has interviewed such authors as Richard Matheson, F. Paul Wilson & Caitlin Kiernan. SHADOW HOUSE PUBLISHING Preserves our Horror Heritage with special editions of supernatural literature.
Author
'Simmons draws from a well with waters dark and deep, that taste of guilt, despair and fear, to cultivate his surprising and inventive tales of horror.' — ADAM NEVILL (British Fantasy Award Winning author of THE RITUAL and NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE). William Simmons is an acclaimed author, critic, anthologist, and journalist specializing in supernatural horror fiction. He is an Active Member of the HWA. Eight of his stories received ‘Honorable Mentions’ in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. His collection WE FEED THE DARK received accolades from such horror legends as ADAM NEVILL, ERIC J. GUINGARD, and FORREST AGUIRRE. “Avoiding horror’s traditional icons and their premeasured fright potential ... (Simmons is) a writer whose approach is both original and refreshingly unconventional.”
- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY His collection BY REASON OF DARKNESS received rave reviews from Cemetery Dance, All Hallows, and Publisher's Weekly, who called him Simmons “…evokes both Ray Bradbury and Joyce Carol Oates.” – PETER BELL, All Hallows His first collection BECOMING OCTOBER sold out quickly upon release, and he collaborated on the Halloween collection DARK HARVEST with author Paul Melznick. His stories have appeared in several venues, including Cemetery Dance, Flesh & Blood, Darkness Rising (1-9), Infinity Plus, Dark Discoveries, and many more. His poetry has appeared in Chizine, Gothic.net, Lullaby Hearse, Dead Cat Bouncing, etc. GRAHAM MASTERTON, author of The Minatou, said Simmons “has the gift of making an ordinary day seem scary.” NANCY KILPATRICK, author of The Goth Bible, said “Simmons has a knack for constructing dark, creepy, introverted tales, full of obscure terrors that reflect nearly mythical realms.” And T.M. WRIGHT, author of Strange Seed, compared Simmons’ horror fiction to “like being taken back forty years and discovering Poe for the first time, and M.R. James, and Shirley Jackson.” Simmons has contributed reviews, essays, and scholarship to Rue Morgue, Publisher’s Weekly, Wormwood, Hellnotes, Gauntlet, Cemetery Dance, and others. His review columns include “Dark Devotions”, “Literary Lesions”, and “Folk Fears”. He contributed an introduction to Falling into Heaven, by Maynard & Sims, and his reviews have been blurbed for several books. As a journalist, he created Our Ladies of Darkness, one of the earlier interview columns devoted to female genre authors, and Beyond the Fifth Dimension: The Twilight Zone Interviews, which spoke with surviving scribes of the influential television series. He also conducted two special chapbook length interviews with Richard Matheson and F. Paul Wilson, both for Gauntlet Press. His reviews have been used as blurbs by Tartan Asian Extreme and he has contributed Liner Notes to DVD releases. “His anthologies are carefully crafted, the stories bleeding into each other with seamless precision.” – MAYNARD & SIMS, Demon Eyes. As an anthologist he has edited the bestselling SEASON OF THE DEAD: SUPERNATURAL HORROR FOR HALLOWEEN (reviewed by Rue Morgue) and the bestselling WILDWOOD: TALES OF TERROR & TRANSFORMATION FROM THE FOREST. His other anthologies are MONSTER CARNIVAL and YULETIDE FRIGHTS. He is the series editor for Shadow House Publishing has several anthologies and single author collections in development. for Shadow House Publishing, including The Library of Weird Fiction and Horror Hall of Fame Novellas.
