Heather Graham

Emmy Laybourne

R. L. Stine

Wendy Corsi Staub

Steve Hockensmith

Beth Fantaskey

Tonya Hurley

Chris Grabenstein

Peter Lerangis

Daniel Palmer

Carter Wilson

Alison McMahan

Ray Daniel

Jeff Soloway

Doug Levin

Phil Mathews

Joseph S. Walker

Lisa Morton

Stephen Ross

Bruce Hale

A harrowing array of scary stories that all have one thing in common: each either begins or ends with a scream! R.L. Stine—the godfather of Goosebumps—and some of the most popular authors today bring an unrivaled mastery of all things fearsome, frightening, and fantabulous to this terrifying anthology of all-new scary short stories. Scream and Scream Again! is full of twists and turns, dark corners, and devilish revenge. Collected in conjunction with the Mystery Writers of America, this set includes works from New York Times bestselling authors telling tales of wicked ice-cream trucks, time-travelling heroes, witches and warlocks, and of course, haunted houses. Read it if you dare! With twenty never-before-published scary stories from some of the most popular authors today—including Chris Grabenstein, Wendy Corsi Staub, Heather Graham, Peter Lerangis, R.L. Stine, Bruce Hale, Emmy Laybourne, Steve Hockensmith, Lisa Morton, Ray Daniel, Beth Fantaskey, Phil Mathews, Carter Wilson, Doug Levin, Jeff Soloway, Joseph S. Walker, Alison McMahan, Daniel Palmer, Tonya Hurley, and Stephen Ross—it’s sure to leave readers screaming for more.

Spooky Stories from Mystery Writers of America

Scream and Scream Again!

Ellen Datlow

"A Blumhouse Books/Anchor Books original"--Verso.

Haunted Nights

Every year, children and adults alike take to the streets dressed as witches, demons, animals, celebrities, and more. They carve pumpkins and play pranks, and the braver ones watch scary movies and go on ghost tours. There are parades, fireworks displays, cornfield mazes, and haunted houses—and, most important, copious amounts of bite-sized candy. The popularity of Halloween has spread around the globe to places as diverse as Russia, China, and Japan, but its association with death and the supernatural and its inevitable commercialization has made it one of our most misunderstood holidays. How did it become what it is today? In Trick or Treat, Halloween aficionado Lisa Morton provides a thorough history of this spooky day. She begins by looking at how holidays like the Celtic Samhain, a Gaelic harvest festival, have blended with the British Guy Fawkes Day and the Catholic All Souls’ Day to produce the modern Halloween, and she explains how the holiday was reborn in America, where costumes and trick-or-treat rituals have become new customs. Morton takes into account the influence of related but independent holidays, especially the Mexican Day of the Dead, as well as the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions and the impact of such events as 9/11 and the economic recession on the celebration today. Trick or Treat also examines the effect Halloween has had on popular culture through the literary works of Washington Irving and Ray Bradbury, films like Halloween and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Simpsons. Considering the holiday in the context of its worldwide popularity for the first time, this book will be a treat for any Halloween lover.

A History of Halloween

Trick or Treat

After her husband's death, Lady Diana Furnaval learns that the Furnaval family serve as keepers of supernatural portals around the world and must solve the mystery surrounding her husband's death and prevent an apocalypse.

Netherworld

Leslie S. Klinger

Following the success of Weird Women: Volume 1, acclaimed anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger return with another offering of overlooked masterworks from early female horror writers, including George Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Edith Wharton. Following the success of their acclaimed Weird Women, star anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger return with another offering of overlooked masterworks from early female horror writers. This volume once again gathers some of the most famous voices of literature—George Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Edith Wharton—along with chilling tales by writers who were among the bestselling and most critically-praised authors of the early supernatural story, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Vernon Lee, Florence Marryat, and Margaret Oliphant. There are, of course, ghost stories here, but also tales of vampirism, mesmerism, witches, haunted India, demonic entities, and journeys into the afterlife. Introduced and annotated for modern readers, Morton and Klinger have curated more stories sure to provide another "feast of entertaining (and scary) reads" (Library Journal).

Volume 2: 1840-1925: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers

Weird Women

Robert McCammon

Kevin Lucia

John R. Little

Robert McCammon, Kevin Lucia, John R. Little, Lisa Morton, and Mark Allan Gunnells put the horror back in Halloween with a quintet of devilishly delightful tales, curated by acclaimed author and editor Brian James Freeman. STRANGE CANDY by Robert McCammon Chocolate bars and sour suckers are trick-or-treat staples, but beware the odd sweet at the bottom of your bag. You never know who it’s from—or what it might do to you. THE RAGE OF ACHILLES by Kevin Lucia Father Ward should have heeded the warnings about hearing confession on All Hallow’s Eve. Because a man is about to tell him a secret more haunting than any he has heard before. DEMON AIR by John R. Little Fear of flying is not uncommon. But on this transpacific airline, the real danger isn’t the flight itself. It’s whoever—or whatever—is up in the air with you. LA HACIENDA DE LOS MUERTOS by Lisa Morton Trick McGrew, former cowboy star of the silver screen, has never believed in tall tales. But down in Mexico, the land of La Llorona, he’s about to find out just how real urban legends can be. #MAKEHALLOWEENSCARYAGAIN by Mark Allan Gunnells Some people will go to any lengths to rack up retweets, likes, and follows on social media, no matter who they end up hurting . . . or even killing. Praise for Halloween Carnival Volume 1 “[Halloween Carnival: Volume One] provides festive entertainment from an assortment of the genre’s most accomplished regulars.”—Unnerving Magazine “Entertaining . . . I’d suggest reading them in the daytime.”—Journey of a Bookseller “A solid collection . . . A Halloween fan who reads ebooks can’t go wrong here.”—Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, & Creased

Halloween Carnival Volume 1

Wild Girls

 This unique anthology gathers together some of the most intriguing and useful works on the history of Halloween. Ranging from pre-Christian Celtic myths to early 20th century articles, the book's 27 entries include poems, short stories, sections from 19th and 20th century folklore books, a one-act play, Irish and Scottish folk tales, and the first book on the holiday ever published. Noted works contained in the anthology include William Wells Newell's 1904 study of the history of Jack-o'-lantern legends in "The Ignis Fatuus" and Alexander Montgomerie's oft-quoted 1584 poem "Flyting Against Polwart." Organized chronologically, most works are presented in their entirety and many include extensive annotations designed to make the original source materials more meaningful for modern readers. The book also includes 34 vintage photographs and illustrations. 

Literary and Historical Writers over the Centuries

A Hallowe'en Anthology

Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased

From two acclaimed experts in the genre, a brand-new volume of supernatural stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852–1923. While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales. Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time—Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell—and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition. As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Morton and Klinger with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today’s readers.

Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923

On one magical night of the year--when the breeze is scented with dead leaves and pumpkin, when the days have grown shorter and winter's first touch prickles your skin--the barrier between worlds is at its thinnest, and dark magic abounds. Whether it's the legendary trickster Jack about to acquire his first lantern, a teenage girl beginning to discover her own alluring power, or a fallen angel seeking redemption, Halloween's sinister spell enchants all. The four novellas and ten short stories in this collection from Lisa Morton, one of the world's leading authorities on Halloween, bring the ancient festival's beauty and terror to vivid life. In the Bram Stoker Award(R)-nominated The Samhanach, a suburban mother's world is turned upside-down when her daughter is taken by a legendary Scottish shapeshifter. The acclaimed Hell Manor pits a professional trickster against four of the malicious Irish sidh inside a haunted attraction. Other stories offer a young 1930s blues singer confronted by the Devil, a corn maze where a boy learns the real meaning of sacrifice, a rescue worker trapped in Edgar Allan Poe's haunted woods of Weir, and a Halloween expert (named Lisa Morton) who discovers the real truth behind the Celts' celebration of Samhain, the precursor to Halloween. "Now it is your turn to chew on these tasty morsels of fear, delight, horror, and optimism. These treats are now all yours to unwrap and devour. In the words of The Devil's Birthday, you are about 'to join the best Halloween party imaginable.'" --Nancy Holder, Bram Stoker Award(R)-winning author

The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats

Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer's Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism, when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by "spirit rappings;" Daniel Dunglas Home, the "greatest medium of all time;" Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. A hugely entertaining contribution from the supernaturally adept Lisa Morton, Calling the Spirits begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?

A History of Seances

Calling the Spirits

"When Lisa Morton, author of The Halloween Encyclopedia, is called in to consult on the recent discovery of a fifteen-hundred-year-old Celtic manuscript, she's at first excited about the light this monumental find might shed on Samhain, the mysterious Celtic precursor to Halloween....As October 31st approaches, the border between our realm and one of murder spirits begins to dissolve. Can Lisa survive Halloween night and use her knowledge to set the world right again?"--Cover, p.[4]

Summer's End

Tsui Hark, one of China's most famous film artists, is little known outside of Asia even though he has directed, produced, written, or acted in 64 films over the last twenty years, some of which are considered to be classics of modern Asian cinema. This work, the first of its kind about Tsui Hark, begins with a biography of the man and a look at his place in Hong Kong and world cinema, his influences, and his thematic obsessions. Each major film of his career is then reviewed, with thematic comparisons made among them (lesser films are included but receive smaller reviews). Also provided are production details, comments from Tsui Hark himself, box office and awards information, anecdotes, and various other particulars. Also included are a complete listings of Hong Kong locations where information on Tsui Hark can be found, and where his films can be found outside of Hong Kong.

The Cinema of Tsui Hark

From that cheerful puff of smoke known as Casper to the hunkiest potter living or dead, Sam Wheat, there is probably no more iconic entity in supernatural history than the ghost. And these are just recent examples. From the earliest writings such as the Epic of Gilgamesh to today’s ghost-hunting reality TV shows, ghosts have chilled the air of nearly every era and every culture in human history. In this book, Lisa Morton uses her scholarly prowess—more powerful than any proton pack—to wrangle together history’s most enduring ghosts into an entertaining and comprehensive look at what otherwise seems to always evade our eyes. Tracing the ghost’s constantly shifting contours, Morton asks the most direct question—What exactly is a ghost?—and examines related entities such as poltergeists, wraiths, and revenants. She asks how a ghost is related to a soul, and she outlines all the different kinds of ghosts there are. To do so, she visits the spirits of the classical world, including the five-part Egyptian soul and the first haunted-house, conceived in the Roman playwright Plautus’s comedy, Mostellaria. She confronts us with the frightening phantoms of the Middle Ages—who could incinerate priests and devour children—and reminds us of the nineteenth-century rise of Spiritualism, a religion essentially devoted to ghosts. She visits with the Indian bhuta and goes to the Hungry Ghost Festival in China, and of course she spends time in Mexico, where ghosts have a particularly strong grip on belief and culture. Along the way she gathers the ectoplasmic residues seeping from books and film reels, from the Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto to the 2007 blockbuster Paranormal Activity, from the stories of Ann Radcliffe to those of Stephen King. Wide-ranging, informative, and slicked with over fifty unearthly images, Ghosts is an entertaining read of a cultural phenomenon that will delight anyone, whether they believe in ghosts or not.

A Haunted History

Ghosts

Richard Chizmar

Jeff Strand

Gord Rollo

Amy Cross

Kevin Kennedy

Rick Gualtieri

William Nolan

Michael Arnzen

Mark Lukens

A drabble is a short form of fiction that is exactly 100 words long (not including the title). Kevin J. Kennedy, has once again brought together the best of the horror world to bring you an anthology that is packed with creepy tales. Between these pages you will find over one hundred drabbles, written by a wealth of talented authors. From the best indie horror authors to Bram Stoker award winners and Amazon top sellers. We have monsters, mayhem and madness. Come join us. Contains drabbles by, Amy Cross, William F. Nolan, Lisa Morton, Gord Rollo, Michael A. Arnzen, Mark Lukens, Richard Chizmar, Rick Gualtieri, Jeff Strand, Kevin J. Kennedy, P. Mattern, Lee Mountford, Ike Hamill, Michael Bray, Andrew Lennon, Craig Saunders, Matt Hickman, Glenn Rolfe and many more. Praise for the book: "A collection of terse, eerie, and delightful little creepers, each one like a swift uppercut to the solar plexus, proving that dynamite truly does come in small packages!" --Ronald Malfi, author of Bone White "Wow! With the amazing talent involved in this anthology, it's no wonder 100 Word Horrors is such a powerful gut-punch of horror!" --Joe Mynhardt, Crystal Lake Publishing "A delicious collection of tiny tales of horror." --Kelley Armstrong, author of Bitten

An Anthology of Horror Drabbles

100 Word Horrors

Rocky Wood

Greg Chapman

""The graphic novel digs deeper into the issues with graphics and dialogue that bring the witch-hunts to life"--Digital Journal"--Provided by publisher.

A Graphic History of the Burning Times

Witch Hunts

A masterful collection of ghost stories that have been overlooked by contemporary readers—including tales by celebrated authors such as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton—presented with insightful annotations by acclaimed horror anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton. The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) and Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History) set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years—from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 through the Christmas-themed ghost stories of the Victorian era and up to the science fiction–tinged tales of the early twentieth century. In bringing these masterful tales back from the dead, Ghost Stories will enlighten and frighten both longtime fans and new readers of the genre. Including stories by: Ambrose Bierce, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Olivia Howard Dunbar, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Georgia Wood Pangborn, Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Scott, Frank Stockton, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton.

Lisa Morton

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