Best New Ghosts and Zombies

The tireless and talented Paula Guran -- who seems to be cranking out anthologies for Sean Wallace's Prime Books on an almost daily basis -- has seen fit to include my 2005 short story, "Between the Cold Moon and the Earth", in her upcoming GHOSTS: RECENT HAUNTINGS, a gathering of modern ghost stories all written within the last decade. As you can see from the names on the cover --

 -- she's put together a very impressive line-up of authors, and I'm honoured to be included among them. I've also read at least half of the stories in there, and can offer a genuine and enthusiastic thumbs up. Comes out sometime in September, I believe, but the Prime Books website (primebooks.com) will provide all necessary details.

In an earlier post, I already mentioned Steve Jones latest volume in his BEST NEW HORROR series. Here's the updated cover. You'll notice not only that Joan Aiken's name is now spelled correctly but that I've been added to the masthead, nestled snugly between Ms. Aiken and the great Ramsey Campbell, a perch I assure you I would not deserve had merit, rather than alphabetisation, been the deciding factor. The full line-up can be glimpsed at Steve's website (stephenjoneseditor.com), and is extremely impressive.

Along with BNH, the fall will also see the release of Steve's follow-up to his hugely succesful "mosaic novel" of 2010, ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. I was lucky enough to be among the contributors to the first one and am thrilled to report that I've been asked back to the party. The sequel (in fact, book two of a projected trilogy) is called ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: FIGHTBACK and here's a look at the sophisticates and charmers that modelled for its cover:

Again, full details (including the stellar list of contributors) can be found at Steve's website.

All three of the books will be in bookstores by Halloween, so you should obviously buy multiple copies in order to hand them out to trick-or-treaters in lieu of candy. Think of it as your contribution to the War on Childhood Obesity. Mrs. Obama will think well of you, I promise.