Book Chain 8: Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth

Book Chain Campaign: BookChain8: Tracking Log for:

Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth:

i. Bought on Amazon, July 28, 2024

ii. Given from Eric J. Guignard to Kate Maruyama at Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Glendale, August 25, 2024

iii. Where to next...? Only chance and the last reader involved may determine! #BookChainChallenge

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NOTES:

Book back copy: In a world where the dead can testify against the living, someone is getting away with murder. Because to every generation are born a select few souls with violet-colored eyes, and the ability to channel the dead. Both rare and precious—and rigidly controlled by a society that craves their services—these Violets perform a number of different duties. The most fortunate increase the world's cultural heritage by channeling the still-creative spirits of famous dead artists and musicians. The least fortunate aid the police and the law courts, catching criminals by interviewing the deceased victims of violent crime.

But now the Violets themselves have become the target of a brutal serial murderer—a murderer who had learned how to mask his or her identity even from the victims. Can the FBI, aided by a Violet so scared of death that she is afraid to live, uncover the criminal in time? Or must more of her race be dispatched to the realm that has haunted them all since childhood?

(pub. Dell Books (Penguin Random house), 2023

Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Through-Violet-Eyes-Stephen-Woodworth/dp/0553803379

And reviewed on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Through-Violet-Eyes-Stephen-Woodworth/dp/0553803379

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/through-violet-eyes-stephen-woodworth/1100302107

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/478628.Through_Violet_Eyes

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AND READ WHAT #BOOKCHAIN IS ABOUT HERE!  

https://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-chain.html

Book Chain 7: The Evolutionist by Rena Mason

Book Chain Campaign: BookChain7: Tracking Log for:

The Evolutionist by Rena Mason:

i. Bought on Amazon, June 22, 2024

ii. Given from Eric J. Guignard to Jo Kaplan at Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Glendale, August 25, 2024

iii. Where to next...? Only chance and the last reader involved may determine! #BookChainChallenge

###

NOTES: 

Book back copy: Las Vegas suburbanite, Stacy Troy, dreams that everyone is dead. She dismembers the bodies of loved ones, stuffs them into a shopping cart, then takes them two at a time to the pile where she will burn their remains and say her last goodbyes.

Waking nightly to her own screams, Stacy is convinced she’s on the brink of a mid-life crisis and begins secretly seeing a psychiatrist. Dr. Light and his methods seem strange and unconventional, but his treatments work, and her circumstances improve. Until the nightmares return with a vengeance, taking on a life of their own.

Uncertain what to believe, Stacy carries on living the only life she remembers. Nosebleeds and head-splitting alarms only she can hear, become a regular occurrence. In physical and mental decline, the nocturnal world in her mind refuses to die. The images it reveals hold clues that lead her to a shocking discovery.

Threatening to unravel the last thread of her sanity, Stacy must make a heartrending decision... before her post-apocalyptic nightmares come true.

(pub. Encyclopocalypse Publications, 2023 <orig. Nightscape Press, 2013>)

Available here: https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/product/the-evolutionist-rena-mason/125

And reviewed on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Evolutionist-Rena-Mason/dp/1938644085

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-evolutionist-rena-mason/1120676038?ean=9781960721082

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17199632-the-evolutionist

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AND READ WHAT #BOOKCHAIN IS ABOUT HERE!  

https://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-chain.html

September, 2024 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

HWA L.A.: For September, 2024
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Unréal (AE)
https://aescifi.ca/unreal-call-for-submissions-lappel-des-textes/
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 1,000–5,000 words
Deadline: November 15, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: by January 31, 2025
Description: Stories and poems in with fantastical or speculative elements set on the island of Montréal. Submissions may be science fiction, fantasy, horror or any adjacent genre. They may be set in the distant past, the distant future, or any time in between. They may feature Montréal as we know it today or an alternate Montréal that has never been. The island or city of Montréal must, however, be an essential element of the story.


TWO SEPARATE ANTHOLOGIES from Flame Tree Publishing
Payment: 8 cents a word (6 cents/ word for reprints)
Story Length: 3,000–4,000 words (soft range)
Deadline: September 22, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: within 4 months of the submission deadline

1. Morgana le Fay: Fiction short stories about the Arthurian character, Morgana le Fay.
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/morgana-le-fay-submissions-0

2. Achilles: Fiction short stories about the Greek mythological character, Achilles.
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/achilles-submissions-call-0


The Deadlands
https://thedeadlands.com/guidelines/
Payment: 10 cents a word (1 cent for reprints)
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (preferably 3,000–4,000 words)
Deadline: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Two weeks
Description: Speculative fiction stories about death, or what death may involve. EX: A ghost in a shadowed wood. An afterlife discovered through a rusted door. An abandoned house in the middle of a haunted field. A skeletal figure moving with intent toward something unseen. Death personified; stories from a worldwide perspective, different cultures, different approaches to death.


You, Human, Vol. 2 (Written Backwards)
https://nettirw.com/submissions/
Payment: 10 cents a word (capped at 5,000 words, thus max of $500)
Story Length: 7,500–15,000 words
Deadline: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Within three months
Description: Dark sci-fi and all blended sub-genre (horror, fantasy, etc.) novelettes regarding: What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be real? What does it mean to exist? What does it mean to be human?


Utopia SF Magazine (Flash Fiction issue)
https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/submit
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 1,000 words for flash fiction issue (normally up to 4,000 words)
Deadline: November 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: Up to four months
Description: See site for quarterly themes! December issue is Flash Fiction and Poetry. Mag is also interested in art and non-fiction, all science-fiction related.


Analog Science Fiction and Fact
https://www.analogsf.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
Payment: 8–10 cents a word (9 cents a word for non-fiction)
Story Length: up to 20,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 2–3 months
Description: Science fiction stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse.



***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

Solarpunk Conflicts
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o9cXEU-IJLIq6Qpufrxl9UgbstygkycE/view
Payment: 5 cents a word (Canadian; translates to about US 3 cents/word)
Story Length: 2,500–8,500 words (also open to poetry, no longer than 2 pages)
Deadline: November 1, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: By January 1, 2025
Description: The conflicts related to the hopeful and optimistic nature of Solarpunk; Stories and poetry should explore a solarpunk conflict, either one manufactured entirely for the story, or one based in a real-world point of contention you feel currently divides solarpunks, or that has done so in the past. Conflicts can be as small or as grand as you would like, though the story as a whole should be legibly solarpunk and should not champion a non-solarpunk ethos.


Strange New Moons
https://frenchpresspub.blogspot.com/2024/08/open-call-strange-new-moons.html
Payment: 3 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–5,000 words
Deadline: Open between September 1–September 30, 2024
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Werewolf stories! Looking for something wild, strange, and new!

Book Chain 6: How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie

Book Chain Campaign: BookChain6: Tracking Log for:

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie:

i. Bought on Amazon, June 22, 2024



ii. Given from Eric J. Guignard to Stephen Woodworth at Comic-Con, July 28, 2024

iii. Where to next...? Only chance and the last reader involved may determine! #BookChainChallenge

###

NOTES: 

Book back copy: “Horror isn't horror unless it's real.

Max Maurey should be on top of the world. He's a famous horror director. Actors love him. Hollywood needs him. He's making money hand over fist. But it's the 80s, and he's directing cheap slashers for audiences who only crave more blood, not real art. Not real horror. And Max's slimy producer refuses to fund any of his new ideas.

Sally Priest dreams of being the Final Girl. She knows she's got what it takes to score the lead role, even if she's only been cast in small parts so far. When Sally meets Max at his latest wrap party, she sets out to impress him and prove her scream queen prowess.

But when Max discovers an old camera that filmed a very real Hollywood horror, he knows that he has to use this camera for his next movie. The only problem is that it came with a cryptic warning and sometimes wails.

By the time Max discovers the true evil lying within, he's already dead set on finishing the scariest movie ever put to film, and like it or not, it's Sally's time to shine as the Final Girl”

(pub. Redhook, 2024)

Available here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/craig-dilouie/how-to-make-a-horror-movie-and-survive/9780316569316/?lens=redhook

And reviewed on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Horror-Movie-Survive/dp/0316569313

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-make-a-horror-movie-and-survive-craig-dilouie/1144153518

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199263513-how-to-make-a-horror-movie-and-survive

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AND READ WHAT #BOOKCHAIN IS ABOUT HERE!  

https://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-chain.html

Book Chain 5: Tiny Dreadfuls: Horrors, Oddities, and Tales of the Dark by S. Faxon

Book Chain Campaign: BookChain5: Tracking Log for:

Tiny Dreadfuls: Horrors, Oddities, and Tales of the Dark by Sarah S. Faxon:

i. Bought on Amazon, June 24, 2024 (Pictured here with author Sarah S. Faxon)



ii. Given from Eric J. Guignard to KC Grifant at Comic-Con, July 28, 2024

iii. Given from KC Grifant to David Neuhausal at Scream Diego, October 13, 2024

iv. Where to next...? Only chance and the last reader involved may determine! #BookChainChallenge

###

NOTES: 

Book back copy: “Prepare yourself for a tour through the dark! Inspired by the classic Victorian Penny Dreadfuls, this collection of horror short stories and oddities from award-winning author S. Faxon takes you through cursed orchards, opium-stoked alleyways, haunted houses, and to the high-seas. With some of these stories based on real-life paranormal encounters, this book is a must-read for those who love the fanciful and unexplainable!”

(pub. No Bad Books Press, 2021)

Available here: https://sfaxon.wordpress.com/tiny-dreadfuls/

And reviewed on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Dreadfuls-Horrors-Oddities-Tales/dp/1735726184

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57838235-tiny-dreadfuls

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AND READ WHAT #BOOKCHAIN IS ABOUT HERE!  

https://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-chain.html

Book Chain 4: Exploring Dark Short Fiction #1: A Primer to Steve Rasnic Tem

Book Chain Campaign: BookChain4: Tracking Log for:

Exploring Dark Short Fiction #1: A Primer to Steve Rasnic Tem, edited by Eric J. Guignard, with fiction written by Steve Rasnic Tem:

i. From Dark Moon Books, May, 2024 (Pictured here with author Steve Rasnic Tem way back in 2014!)



ii. Given from Eric J. Guignard to Rena Mason at StokerCon, June 2, 2024

iii. Where to next...? Only chance and the last reader involved may determine! #BookChainChallenge

###

NOTES: 

Book back copy: For over four decades, Steve Rasnic Tem has been an acclaimed author of horror, weird, and sentimental fiction. Hailed by Publishers Weekly as “A perfect balance between the bizarre and the straight-forward” and Library Journal as “One of the most distinctive voices in imaginative literature,” Steve Rasnic Tem has been read and cherished the world over for his affecting, genre-crossing tales.

Dark Moon Books and editor Eric J. Guignard bring you this introduction to his work, the first in a series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction. Herein is a chance to discover—or learn more of—the rich voice of Steve Rasnic Tem, as beautifully illustrated by artist Michelle Prebich.

Included within these pages are:

•  Six short stories, one written exclusively for this book

•  Author interview

•  Complete bibliography

•  Academic commentary by Michael Arnzen, PhD (former humanities chair and professor of the year, Seton Hill University)

•  … and more!

Enter this doorway to the vast and fantastic: Get to know Steve Rasnic Tem.

(pub. Dark Moon Books, 2017)

Available here: http://www.darkmoonbooks.com/Primer_1.html

And reviewed on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Dark-Short-Fiction-Primer/dp/1949491080/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/exploring-dark-short-fiction-1-eric-j-guignard/1126739559?ean=9781949491081

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35674991-exploring-dark-short-fiction-1

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AND READ WHAT #BOOKCHAIN IS ABOUT HERE!  

https://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-chain.html