Horror Writers Association Adds Shroud to the Approved Publishers List

There are few honors in dark fiction publishing as important as to be recognized by the preeminent horror author advocacy organization, The Horror Writers Association. Shroud was thrilled to be nominated for a Bram Stoker Award last year by the HWA for "Best Anthology" for Beneath the Surface. This year Rio Youers' Shroud novella, Mama Fish made the final update for the award, and since Shroud's inception several of Shroud's authors have been recommended for the award.

However, it's not always about awards. From a publisher's standpoint it is more important to be recognized for treating authors the way they should be treated. Since Shroud's first issue, first novella, and first anthology, we have always insisted on paying our authors for their efforts. In the beginning, we paid professional rates and were responsible for helping a few authors secure Active HWA status. As economic conditions got rocky, we were forced to scale back our payment scheme, and thus helped writers attain their affiliate status. We always pay advances on longer work, and we hope to return to professional rates in the very near future.

The president of the HWA, Deborah LeBlanc, has informed us that the HWA board has voted to add Shroud to their list of Approved Publishers. Our name will be added to the list in the next few weeks after the Stoker Awards process quiets down.

Thank you HWA!

D. Harlan Wilson Interview in Bull Spec

D. Harlan Wilson, the critically acclaimed other of a number of works within Bizarro and Irreal fiction, and the author of the Bram Stoker long-listed Shroud title, Peckinpah, An Ultraviolent Romance, recently sat down with the staff at Bull Spec for an interview.

BULL SPEC (blog here)is a professionally- and royalty-paying speculative fiction market and quarterly print magazine with DRM-free, commons-friendly e-books and audiobooks available for "donate what you like" in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, based in Durham, NC, US.

D. sent me a copy of the interview. It's compressive, intelligent, and enlightening. In it he says:

"Peckinpah is a satire that makes an explicit and absurdist critique of small town American ethics and lifestyles. I don’t know if this critique stems from events, technologies, cultural formations, etc. of the early 2000s. In many ways it could apply to the 80s and 90s. Perhaps Peckinpah’s fragmented, disjointed, unconventional style indicates a recent current in narrative—similar stylistic experimentalism is visible in, say, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas."

You can order a copy of the first issue of Bull Spec today.

Shroud Writers: Payment Processing Reminder

Just a quick note to remind Shroud's wonderful writers that (as the contract indicates) I need a simple email invoice before I can process your payment. I know it's a bit different from some fiction publishers, but it helps me track things, and then reconcile for tax season.

The invoice simply requires (in the BODY of the email):

Name

Amount Due

Type of payment (check or Paypal)

Address (if check desired)

Thank you!

Dread Central: Shroud Magazine "Beautiful"

We are honored by Elaine Lamkin's review of Shroud Magazine on Dread Central.

Lamkin says:

"Have you ever come across something SO amazing that you wanted everyone to know about it? Well, that happened to me recently when I received the latest issue of Shroud magazine. Looking nothing like a traditional magazine – more like a trade paperback-size book - Shroud is the brainchild of Timothy Deal and his love for the literary and artistic world of horror is evident in how beautiful this magazine looks."

Read the entire review on their site.

Buy Shroud Now.

"A gleeful homage to Peckinpah's work"

JoSelle Vanderhooft at Pedestal Magazine has written a thought-provoking and in-depth review of D. Harlan Wilson's masterfully-written novel, PECKINPAH:

"Wilson’s blood-bucket descriptions and wild imagination together would be enough to make Peckinpah a delightful Bizarro novel, and a pretty good parody of Peckinpah’s style (at least, as I understand it). But Wilson does not stop there; rather, he mixes camera angles, stage directions, and, most astonishingly, digressions into film criticism to make his novella not only a gleeful send-up/homage to Peckinpah’s work, but a thoughtful study of it."

Read the comprehensive review HERE

Hiram Grange and the Twelve Little Hitlers Shipping Now!

Hiram Grange and the Twelve Little Hitlers is available now, and shipping from Amazon!

On the heels of the release of Hiram Grange and the Village of the Damned (B&N, Amazon, SP), Scott Christian Carr's wildly original novella, Hiram Grange and the Twelve Little Hitlers, has already begun to create some excitement among readers. Hitlers is the second installment in the Scandalous Misadventures of Hiram Grange series.

One of those readers is none other than Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma Entertainment and Creator of the Toxic Avenger. Kaufman read Hitlers, and said it was:

"more fun than a barrel full of Hitlers... The best novel since Don Quixote!"

Greg Hall, the master of ceremonies over at the Funky Werepig radio show was equally impressed:

“Somewhere in the Underworld, Lovecraft is grinning with delight and Hunter S. Thompson is raising his bottle high. You won’t find a darker, more twisted character than Hiram Grange.”

But the lavish praise and adoration doesn't stop there! Renowned sci-fi author Patricia Anthony, who wrote Cold Allies, Brother Termite, Conscience of the Beagle, Happy Policeman, Cradle of Splendor, God's Fires, Flanders, and Eating Memories said this about Hitlers:

"Scott Christian Carr is one of the most insightful writers I know. He's also one of the funniest. Reading 'Twelve Little Hitlers' never fails put you under an intellectual pleasure-dome, which is great in and of itself --- The unexpected surprise is, you'll also laugh your ass off!"

Shroud's 20 Most Recommended Reads of 2009!

By Kevin Lucia, Shroud Magazine Review Editor

Book reviewing is a strange gig. Everyone likes different things. Taste and preferences vary. So do style and voice. As much as we don't want to admit it, it's often all a matter of opinion. One reader's bestseller is another reader's most despised literary atrocity ever put to page. That, and how to account for the way one book impacts some readers, yet glances off the head of others? Sometimes, it has everything to do with quality, style, taste, and timing. Other times, books simply hook readers in "just the right way".

Read the recommended reads HERE...