Hiram Grange Launches on BLACK FRIDAY!!!

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Advance Praise for Hiram Grange and the Village of the Damned

The first installment of the Hiram Grange series has begun to receive glowing praise from a number of writers and reviewers in the dark fiction genre.

Due out in late November, 2009, Hiram Grange and the Village of the Damned offers readers their first glimpse of the scurrilous boozer and malcontent in 125 pages of darkly-humorous horror fiction. There will be five installments in the first series, each penned by different authors. More information can be found here.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HIRAM GRANGE

"With 'Hiram Grange', Jake Burrows has created a weird, disturbed, deeply troubled and darkly funny hero. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is quirky and creepy and way too much sick fun. Highly recommended." -Jonathan Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE WOLFMAN and THE DRAGON FACTORY

"Stunning and startlingly original...a must read!" --Nate Kenyon, author of THE BONE FACTORY and SPARROW ROCK

"Twisted, thrilling, and thoroughly enjoyable. Pure pulp, in the best possible way."-- Matthew Dow Smith, artist for DOCTOR WHO, SUPERNATURAL:ORIGINS, and THE KEEP

"A seamless blend of wickedly dark humour and full-throttle horror, the series begins with great promise." -- Dave Jeffrey, THE RISEN, BEATRICE BEACHAM, and FINDING JERICHO

"There is no methadone for Hiram Grange, it will hook you from the first page and leave you jonesing for your next fix." -- R. Scott McCoy, author of FEAST and publisher of Necrotic Tissue.

"...utterly engrossing opium-laced adventure with just the right amount of dark, disturbing wit and a fascinating history." -- Jessica Lynn Gardner, Dark fiction author/Public Relations Specialist

"This is the most balmy brilliant novella I've read this century and lucky me there is more to come." -- Peter Mark May, the novelblog.com

"Hiram is intelligent but an unlikely hero, his adventure is action packed and unpredictable." -- Tammy Kane, Macabre Cadaver

Shroud Poetry Anthology Contributors Announced

Kevin Lucia has been hard at work editing Shroud's first poetry anthology. The author list follows. Congratulations to the talented poets that will have their work featured in this volume!

Synopsis:

When the snows fell hard this past year, the entire Northeast buckled down for a long, cold winter. Among the states affected most was Massachusetts, and one of the places that suffered the worst was a town located in the northeast of Massachusetts - a small hamlet called Miskatonic Falls. Situated inside the Miskatonic Valley Region, there's only one way in and out. Both were blocked off by the snow.

With little in the way of cultural significance and ten miles either way from the nearest town, with power and telephone lines down, Miskatonic Falls had been effectively cut off from the outside world for more than a month when the Miskatonic County Police Department received a garbled call from a pay phone at the town's only diner. The call consists of bursts of static, whistles and unearthly cries...

Investigators arrive to find an empty town. There are signs of violence, mayhem...even bloodshed....but all the townspeople have vanished without a trace. The mystery deepens when repeated references to the "long man" reoccur, in abandoned diaries, recovered emails and texts, and in a smattering of graffitti on walls that read:

BEHOLD! THE LONG MAN COMETH!

Author list:

Roy C. Booth

Scott Christian Carr

Jenna Conduit

Andrei Guruianu

Rachel Saltzman

Mercedes M. Yardley

Casey Quinn

Robert Brouhard

Mark Steensland

Kurt Newton

Dylan Patrick

Michael Clifton

Michael Arnzen

Patrick Rutigliano

John Weagley

Amy Thomas

Anthony Klancar

Adam Whitlatch

Sheldon Higdon

Jenna Conduit

Brian Rosenberger

John Weagley

Isaac Espriu

Bill Durfy

Sean O'Connor

Brandon Layng

Casey Quinn

Erik W. Pepper

Gail Peterson

Steve Vernon

Stephanie Layng

Rich Ristow

Katherine Sanger

Nancy O. Green

Stephanie Layng

Brian Hardin II

Nancy O. Green

Ryan B. Clark

Carol C. Ward

Brian Hatcher

Peggy Christie

Ginger Nielson

Michael Clifton

Glen R. Krisch

Barry Napier

Bill Durfy

Justin Seeds

Robert Brouhard

Daniel Pyle

Jonathan Pinnock

Mark A. Mihalko

Kim Alfano

Mark A. Mihalko

Gene Stewart

Craig D. B. Patton

Michael Clifton

Katherine Sanger

Julie Fletcher

Ryan B. Clark

Brian Rosenberger

Rich Ristow

Adam Huber

Shroud Goes Quarterly...

I would like to announce that there will be a minor change to Shroud. After our national launch, the Shroud crew quickly realized that managing a professional bimonthly nationally-distributed magazine was a bit more ambitious than we had first thought. Now, I become deeply annoyed when ambition collides with reality, but I also realize that managing a periodical means managing expectations as well.

I recognize that not only do we have a readership to serve, but a community of writers artists and advertisers as well. To that point, we have decided to make Shroud a quarterly magazine instead of a bimonthly. This will have no impact on the amount of issues that go out to existing subscribers, but you will likely see some changes in the very near future to new subscriptions.

Fiction does not have a shelf life. It’s timeless. A quarterly distribution plan will allow Shroud to remain on the shelves longer, which will provide greater opportunities for authors to be read and for advertisers get more bang for their buck. We look forward to being around for a long time, and feel the wew distribution schedule will help us do just that.

Thank you all for your ongoing support.

-Tim

Flash Fiction #7 Finalists and Winner Announced!

After a very difficult process, Shroud Magazine has announced the five finalists and the winner of our Flash Fiction #7 writing contest. Authors were challenged with writing an original piece of flash fiction based on a true news story about a stolen Humpty Dumpty and Cheshire Cat costume in New Hampshire.

The winner of the contest will receive paid publication in Issue 7 of Shroud Magazine. The five runners up will receive the option to have their stories featured in the same issue. There were a record number of entries in this contest--the bulk of which were extremely entertaining and well-crafted. Thank you all for participating!

The Winner:

PEGGY MCFARLAND

Runners Up:

Mary Daley

Brian J. Hatcher

Anthony Klancar

Laura Langford

Justin Pilon

Shroud Flash Fiction Contest #7 Semifinalists Announced

I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting these results out. Among a number of other competing issues, this contest had a record number of entrants, the preponderance of which were thoroughly entertaining. There were a few entries that, although well-written, did not meet the submission guidelines.

I want to thank you all for taking the time to write such imaginative pieces for this contest. The following stories resonated with me a little bit more than the others. This is not to say that those not mentioned here lacked quality. Many submission were very similar and I had weed out some to avoid repetition.

Shroud Flash Fiction Contest #7 Semifinalists, in no particular order:

Sarah Adams

Emily Leverett

Robert Swartwood

Laura Langford

Andrew Wolter

Carrie Harris

Anthony Klancar

Mary Daley

Peggy McFarland

Jamie Eyberg

Juston Pilon

Brian Hatcher

Gay Degani

I hope to have final results by Monday!

Thank you and congratulations.

Can Indie publishers take on the giants?

Can an independent publisher survive in an environment seemingly dominated by massive corporate publishing houses? I believe so. Not only can independent publishers survive, they can thrive. In a research report published by BML data, independent publishers gained overall market share from their larger competitors by five percentage points over the last five years, increasing sales through all channels except the internet, which was essentially flat. The report revealed that Independent publisher market share had grown from 26% in 2004 to 31% in 2008. Furthermore, independent publishers saw purchases through independent booksellers grow from 38% of the total to 49%.