Best New Horror 27 Read online

  Two months later, a collection of movie posters discovered after more than sixty years under a linoleum floor in York County, Pennsylvania, went under the hammer in Dallas, Texas. A one-of-a-kind “Style D” one-sheet for Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) sold for $83,650, while a rare one-sheet for Doctor X (also 1932) made $23,900.

  In the same auction, a window card for the Karloff Frankenstein sold for $89,625 and an oversized Swedish poster for King Kong (1933) went for $31,070. A Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) one-sheet realised $21,510; a Things to Come one-sheet made $20,510; a three-sheet for Son of Kong (1933) sold for $17,925, and a Swedish one-sheet for Bride of Frankenstein (1935) reached $15,535.

  The Troop by Nick Cutter (Craig Davidson) was named as the winner of the inaugural James Herbert Award for Horror Writing at a ceremony held in London on April 1. Aimed to “discover and publicise a new generation of horror authors and celebrate the boldest and most exciting talent in the genre”, the winner received a £2,000 prize and a commemorative statuette. The panel of judges included Ramsey Campbell, Sarah Pinborough and Herbert’s eldest daughter, Kerry.

  The 25th World Horror Convention was held in conjunction with the HWA Bram Stoker Awards Weekend over May 7-10 in Atlanta, Georgia. Author Guests of Honour were Lisa Tuttle, John Farris, Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden and Kami Garcia. Unfortunately, Tom Piccirilli was unable to attend due to health issues and he tragically died a couple of months later. Bob Eggleton was Artist Guest of Honour, Chris Ryall was Editor Guest of Honour, and Jonathan Maberry was Toastmaster.

  The numerous Bram Stoker Awards were presented at a ceremony on the Saturday night, which featured Jeff Strand as “Emcee” (MC) and Dacre C. Stoker as Special Presenter.

  Superior Achievement in a Screenplay went to The Babadook, the Graphic Novel Award went to Bad Blood by Jonathan Maberry and Tyler Crook, and Tom Piccirilli’s Forgiving Judas won for Poetry Collection.

  The NonFiction Award was won by Lucy A. Snyder’s Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide, and Snyder also won the Collection Award for Soft Apocalypses. Ellen Datlow’s Fearful Symmetries was awarded Anthology.

  Superior Achievement in Short Fiction was a tie between ‘The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family’ by Usman T. Malik and ‘Ruminations’ by Rena Mason. The Long Fiction Award went to Joe R. Lansdale’s ‘Fishing for Dinosaurs’.

  The YA Novel Award was won by Phoenix Island by John Dixon, First Novel went to Mr. Wicker by Maria Alexander, and Steve Rasnic Tem’s Blood Kin collected the Novel Award.

  Life Achievement Awards were previously announced for the late Tanith Lee and Jack Ketchum, Canada’s ChiZine Publications was the winner of the Speciality Press Award, and Rena Mason received the Silver Hammer Award for outstanding services to the HWA. The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service went to the organisation’s publicity team.

  Meanwhile, William F. Nolan was named Grand Master at the same World Horror Convention.

  Co-editors Eric J. Guignard and Bailey Hunter produced an impressive trade-paperback souvenir book, which was limited to 500 copies and included fiction and articles by all the Guests of Honour, along with Jill Bauman, Joe R. Lansdale, Aaron J. French, Joe McKinney, Nancy Holder, Weston Ochse, Tom Monteleone and Mort Castle, amongst others.

  The 2015 Hugo Awards for achievement in science fiction were thrown into chaos when two separate conservative groups, the “Sad Puppies” and the “Rabid Puppies”, used campaigns to nominate works they promoted as a response against what they perceived to be a liberal “bias” to the awards in recent years. This resulted in huge amounts of controversy both online and in the mainstream media, leading to some authors withdrawing their work from consideration, while other nominees were disqualified after the initial ballot had been released. In the end, the “No Award” option beat out many of the agitators.

  FantasyCon 2015 was held over October 23-25 in Nottingham, England. The Guests of Honour were Jo Fletcher, John Connolly and Brandon Sanderson, while Juliet E. McKenna was Mistress of Ceremonies.

  The winners of the British Fantasy Awards were announced after the Banquet on the Sunday. Guardians of the Galaxy picked up the award for Best Film/Television Episode. Adele Wearing’s Fox Spirit Books was announced as Best Independent Press, Holdfast Magazine edited by Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee won the Best Magazine/Periodical Award, Through the Woods by Emily Carroll was the Best Comic/Graphic Novel, and Karla Ortiz won for Best Artist.

  The Best NonFiction Award went to Letters to Arkham: The Letters of Ramsey Campbell and August Derleth, 1961-1971 edited by S.T. Joshi, Lightspeed: Women Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue edited by Christie Yant won the Best Anthology Award, and Best Collection was presented to Nick Nightmare Investigates by Adrian Cole.

  Stephen Volk’s ‘Newspaper Heart’ won Best Novella, and Emma Newman’s ‘A Woman’s Place’ won Best Short Story. The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel went to No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill, while Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song picked up The Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

  The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer was won by Sarah Lotz for her novel The Three, and Juliet E. McKenna was the recipient of The Karl Edward Wagner Special Award.

  The 2015 World Fantasy Convention was held in Saratoga Springs, New York, over November 5-8. The many Guests of Honour were Steven Erikson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Glen Cook, Lloyd Currey, David Drake, Kathe Koja and Rick Lieder, with Paul Di Filippo as Toastmaster (replacing the late Graham Joyce). Unfortunately, the organisation left much to be desired, with the result that no souvenir book was ever produced.

  The World Fantasy Awards were presented at the Sunday afternoon Banquet. The Special Award—Non-Professional Award went to Ray B. Russell and Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press while, somewhat confusingly, the Special Award—Professional went to another independent press, Sandra Kasturi and Alexander Savory’s ChiZine Publications.

  Samuel Araya won for Artist, the Collection Award was a tie between Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall and The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings by Angela Slatter, and Anthology was presented to Monstrous Affections edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant.

  Scott Nicolay’s ‘Do You Like to Look for Monsters’ won Short Fiction, We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory was winner in the Novella category, and the Novel Award went to The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

  Ramsey Campbell and Sheri S. Tepper were the previously announced recipients of Life Achievement Awards.

  During the awards presentation, it was announced that the World Fantasy Convention Board had bowed to public pressure and was “retiring” Gahan Wilson’s iconic awards bust of H.P. Lovecraft (the “Howie”) because of the author’s alleged racist views. The award had been presented since the first World Fantasy Convention in 1975, but it was only recently that a small number of newer writers complained about it on social media.

  The Board opened submissions for a new award to artists “proficient in the three-dimensional form” with the ideal design representing “both fantasy and horror, without bearing any physical resemblance to any person, living or dead”.

  As some of my readers will know, my mother—Violet—died earlier this year (hence the dedication at the front of this book). Over the years, she met many of the authors I’ve worked with, and although I don’t think she ever quite understood exactly what it is I do instead of having a “proper” job, she always supported me and was always kind and considerate to my friends and colleagues.

  Her death got me thinking about family and this great community that we are all a part of…

  I grew up in London in the 1950s and ‘60s. Yes, I was one of the post-war “Baby Boomers” so reviled by the post-millennial “Generation Z”, but things were tough back then. We were a typical middle-class family, and we certainly had no contact with anyone in either the literary or movie businesses. But my parents encouraged me to read from an e
arly age (which is why we all need to be protecting our local libraries from closure).

  I also started reading British comics before moving on to their much more interesting American counterparts from DC and Marvel. From there I discovered the monster movie magazines like Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland and, especially, the more eclectic Castle of Frankenstein. It was in the pages of the latter magazine that I started reading Lin Carter’s book reviews, and it wasn’t long before I was buying Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Mars” and “Venus” series, Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” novels, and Carter’s own “Thonger” books.

  However, perhaps the book that had the most impact on my teenage self was a British paperback edition of Dagon and Other Macabre Tales that I picked up in Woolworth’s one afternoon after school (and I still have that exact same copy on my bookshelf today).

  Yet as much as I lapped up H.P. Lovecraft’s stories of cosmic horror—I had never read anything like them before—what impressed me most was August Derleth’s Introduction, where he mentioned Weird Tales and the authors who contributed to that iconic pulp magazine: Lovecraft, Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and so many others.

  Not only did this make me seek out the work of those writers, but I was captivated with the idea that authors—and artists, and editors—could all know each other, and socialise together, and collaborate with each other on different projects. That these fabulously creative people shared their lives and careers with one another absolutely thrilled me.

  As I’ve said, my family had zero contacts within the Arts, but that didn’t stop me dreaming. I expanded my reading horizons and became a regular moviegoer. I started writing and drawing, although I had no idea what to do with the results outside my school magazine.

  And then, in the early 1970s, I lucked out. While working at a part-time job, one lunch break I called in to a small specialist bookstore in south London. It was run by a young guy and his mum and, seeing that I was interested in the various British and American magazines they stocked, they kindly suggested a few titles to me, which I duly bought. By the way, that guy turned out to be Stan Nicholls who, many years later went on to become the best-selling author of the “Orcs: First Blood” series. But back then, he was just a store manager helping out a young fan.

  In one of the magazines I bought that day I found an advertisement for The British Fantasy Society. It sounded like a cool thing, and so I joined. And I quickly discovered that there were many other people out there who, just like me, were also interested in this horror, fantasy and science fiction stuff. Pretty soon I was contributing to fanzines and, within a couple of years, I was editing my own.

  I had been going to some comic conventions in London, but while attending my very first science fiction convention I met two men who were to have a huge influence on my life—editor David A. Sutton and writer Ramsey Campbell. They recognised my name from some snotty letters I had had published by the BFS, and yet still they invited me to join them at their table in the bar. And for the rest of that convention they took me under their wings and introduced me around.

  And that’s how it works. It was through the British Fantasy Society that I first met Karl Edward Wagner, and he introduced me to Manly Wade Wellman, and David Drake, and H. Warner Munn, and Dennis Etchison. And Dennis introduced me to William F. Nolan, and George Clayton Johnson, and Roberta Lannes, and Richard Christian Matheson, and Nancy Holder, and Lisa Morton. Ramsey Campbell introduced me to Clive Barker, and Clive in turn introduced me to Peter Atkins. Charles L. Grant introduced me to Alan Ryan and Tom Monteleone and Douglas E. Winter, and they introduced me to so many others. And so it goes on and on…

  I got to meet—and work with—Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Michael Moorcock, Brian Lumley, James Herbert, Brian Aldiss, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Tanith Lee and so many other legends of our field.

  And that’s because we are a community. A family. And like any family, we need to look after each other. Over the past forty years I have grown up within this genre that I adore. The writers, and artists, and editors are the creative family that I wished I could join while reading August Derleth’s Introduction to that Lovecraft book all those years ago. And it actually happened. With the help of so many people, I managed to carve out a career for myself doing the one thing I love most in a genre that I care about more than anything else.

  And in turn, I’ve done my best to bring other, newer writers into the fold: Kim Newman, Neil Gaiman, Joel Lane, Nicholas Royle, Michael Marshall Smith, Joe Hill, Angela Slatter, Robert Shearman…the list goes on and on. But I hope that, in some small way, I have been able to influence their careers and helped them become the talents they were always destined to be.

  Which is why it truly saddens me when I see what is happening to our community these days. I am bitterly disappointed when any group with their own political axe to grind highjack awards systems for their own selfish ends, or when an iconic award honouring not just one but two giants of our genre has to be replaced by something innocuous just so that it doesn’t offend people who are unable to put historical events into context.

  I’m saddened when people who have so much to offer to our genre are attacked and ostracised for beliefs they renounced decades ago or things they might, possibly, could have said but never did; or when people we trust behave in ways that betray that trust. Everybody in our community should feel safe at all times, no matter who they are; no matter what their beliefs; and no one should expect to be cheated by someone they considered to be a colleague or even worse, a friend.

  As a family, that is not what we should be about. Sure, all families have problems. All families have arguments. But there’s no need for us to be dysfunctional. We, as a genre, are better than that.

  We—the horror community—should be more understanding, more accepting of our diversity, and embrace it. In America, the two major political parties tore themselves apart this year because of differing ideology. The same happened in the UK over a public referendum.

  We—the dreamers, the fiction-makers, the Creatives—should always be above that kind of behaviour.

  And personally, I like to believe that we are.

  —The Editor

  October, 2016

  ROBERT AICKMAN

  THE COFFIN HOUSE

  ROBERT FORDYCE AICKMAN (1914-81) was an acclaimed writer of “Strange Tales”, which were collected in We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories (with Elizabeth Jane Howard), Dark Entries: Curious and Macabre Ghost Stories, Powers of Darkness: Macabre Stories, Sub Rosa: Strange Tales, Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories, Tales of Love and Death, Intrusions: Strange Tales and Night Voices: Strange Stories. He was also the author of the slightly mystical novel The Late Breakfasters and the posthumous novella, The Model: A Novel of the Fantastic.

  Although much of his time was taken up with the Inland Waterways Association, which he co-founded to preserve and restore England’s inland canal system, Aickman also edited the first eight volumes of The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1964-72).

  One of the author’s best known stories, ‘Ringing the Changes’, was adapted for television in 1968 for the BBC2 anthology series Late Night Horror. Four further tales were filmed in the late 1980s for the HTV Night Voices series, and Tony Scott directed ‘The Swords’ for a 1997 episode of The Hunger. In 2002, Jeremy Dyson directed a short film of Aickman’s ‘The Cicerones’ starring Mark Gatiss.

  Robert Aickman was the first Guest of Honour at the British Fantasy Society’s Fantasycon in 1976. His short story ‘Pages from a Young Girl’s Notebook’ had received the World Fantasy Award the previous year, while ‘The Stains’ won the British Fantasy Award in 1981.

  In recent years, Tartarus Press has done a marvellous job of bringing Aickman’s eight collections and two-volume autobiography back into print and, in 2015, they added The Strangers and Other Writings, a collection of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, nonfiction and poetry, from which the fol
lowing “Strange Tale”—originally written circa 1941—is taken.

  The author’s friend and literary executor Heather Smith notes in her Preface to the book: “Various themes, familiar in the later work, are foreshadowed in these stories; for example, an outing which turns out to be other than expected, leading to a need for shelter and sustenance. (Robert loved expeditions!) Just at the point of despair, the characters come across a refuge—and always a strange one at that.

  “In ‘The Coffin House’, there are two young girls, spending precious free time from their war-work as Land Girls, on a rather miserable walk, when they are caught in a storm. They come across a ramshackle hut where they are offered shelter.

  “Both the dwelling and the occupants of the ‘Coffin House’ are every bit as scary as in the later tales such as ‘The Hospice’ and ‘The Unsettled Dust’, their strangeness well described and subtly emphasised by the tea the woman produces for the guests. There is even an ‘inner room’ where the coffin-maker plies his trade.”

  It is my great pleasure to open this volume of Best New Horror with a “lost” tale by one of our most important and influential authors of subtle chills…

  DURING THE THIRTIES Jessica Yarrow had found a publisher for no fewer than four volumes of verses, and the pleasant little parties in her studio had led to her being regarded with affection by many of the more subdued Bohemians; but now, it being 1941, she had been in the Women’s Land Army for nearly a year, and seemed to have only a single friend in the world, her resigned fellow-sufferer, Bunty Baines, daughter of a veterinary surgeon in Shropshire, and one to whom animals and the land seemed truly the order of nature. Mr. Honister, the farmer, a widower and a Methodist, worked both of them as strenuously and as systematically as he could. At Christmas, even Bunty had revolted at the sombre, elderly festivities (to which, moreover, they had barely been invited); and the two women found themselves on a long lonely walk together across the bulrush-green fells. Their land girls’ costume stood them in good stead against the heavy, ranging gusts which blew from horizon to horizon every other minute, but they had been able neither to bring much food nor to find shelter in which to eat with comfort the little they had. They had eaten as they walked; but they had started early in the hope of avoiding arguments, and once more were hungry when, shortly after half-past three, the heavy wind fulfilled its threat of heavy rain.