This Is Horror

News Round-up Week Ending 8 January 2021

Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …

H is for Hell, the latest release in Red Cape Publishing’s A – Z of Horror anthology series, coming 13 January

H is for Hell, the eighth book in an epic series of twenty-six horror anthologies. In this book you will find a collection of thirteen horrific tales from some of the most talented independent horror writers on the scene today. Each tale brings to life a different vision of Hell, each unlike anything you have read before. H is for Hell will take you to the depths of the Underworld and you may not return unscathed. Coming 13 January, you can pre-order your copy now, here.


New from Cemetery Gates Media, Campfire Macabre, an anthology of flash horror

50+ original flash horror tales organized by five themes: Spook Houses, Slashers, Witchcraft, Within the Woods, and Cemetery Chillers. A book perfect for time spent around the campfire or a long car trip! Brand new pieces from award-winning storytellers and established authors, such as: V. Castro, Michael Harris Cohen, Corey Farrenkopf, Kevin Lucia, Beverley Lee, Cynthia Pelayo, Doyae Coles, Jason Parent, Sonora Taylor, and so many more! Available in paperback and eBook formats, you can pick up your copy right now, here.


Coming 3 August from The Parliament House and writer Nicole Willson, Tidepool, available for pre-order now

In 1913, Henry Hamilton disappeared while on a business trip, and his sister, Sorrow, won’t rest until she finds out what happened to him. Defying her father’s orders to remain at home, she travels to Tidepool, the last place Henry is known to have visited. Residents of the small, shabby oceanside town can’t quite meet Sorrow’s eyes when she asks about her brother. When corpses wash up on shore looking as if they’ve been torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow is ready to return to Baltimore and let her father send in the professional detectives. However, after meeting Ada Oliver, a widow whose black silk dresses and elegant manners set her apart from other Tidepool residents, Sorrow discovers Tidepool’s dark, deadly secret. With this discovery, some denizens of Tidepool—human and otherwise—are hell-bent on making sure Sorrow never leaves their forsaken town. Lovecraftian dark fantasy gets a modern treatment in this terrifying debut novel. Available for pre-order in eBook format, with other editions coming soon, you can place your order here.


New from YA author C E Lutzke, Bloodletter, book one in The Hemato Pages series, out now

Last year, Brielyn led a normal life in Los Angeles as a tattoo artist. Now, thanks to her estranged father, she’s a vampire with a lust for blood. With no one to mentor her, she stumbles through this new way of life, trying desperately to follow a moral compass that has her snacking on society’s dregs only. Thankfully, her best friend Jared, a defense attorney, points her toward potential meals. But when the two disagree on her next victim, it’s up to Brielyn to find out if the target is deserving. From C E Lutzke, the YA pen name of Chad Lutzke (Of Foster Homes and Flies), Bloodletter begins The Hemato Pages series and is available now in paperback and eBook formats.


Cult vampire novella The Route of Ice and Salt, by Mexican author José Luis Zárate, coming 19 January translated into English for the first time by David Bowles

A reimagining of Dracula’s voyage to England, filled with Gothic imagery and queer desire. It’s an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews. He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he’s done before, it’s routine, a constant, like the tides. Yet there’s something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air, something in the night, someone stalking the ship. The cult vampire novella by Mexican author José Luis Zárate is available for the first time in English. Translated by David Bowles and with an accompanying essay by noted horror author Poppy Z. Brite, it reveals an unknown corner of Latin American literature. Available in paperback and eBook, you can pre-order your copy now, here.


KEV HARRISON