November Publications
British horror master Ramsey Campbell offers 10 sly and disturbing stories of an erotic hue in Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death, an expanded version of the 1988 collection of the same name subtitled Seven Tales of Seduction and Terror. Clive Barker provides an introduction, the author an afterword in which he comments with typical wit on his repressed Catholic upbringing. (Tor, $22.95 240p ISBN 0-765-30004-4)
The Literary Werewolf, edited by scholar Charlotte F. Otten, collects 22 werewolf tales from Ovid to Stephen King, whose "February, Cycle of the Werewolf" leads off the opening section, "The Erotic Werewolf." Other categories include the "Diabolical," the "Victimized," the "Guilty" and the "Voluntary" werewolf. (Syracuse Univ., $45 272p ISBN 0-8156-2965-6; $24.95 paper -0753-9)
Mystery writer Michael Bracken's story collection, Canvas Bleeding, contains 24 "tales of natural and supernatural noir," eight of which are published for the first time. Bracken is the editor of Fedora: Private Eyes and Tough Guys and the author of the well-received hard-boiled paperback original, All White Girls (2001), recently reprinted in hardcover. (Wildside [www.wildsidepress.com], $32.95 196p ISBN 1-58715-813-2)
Alan Rogers, the editor of the late lamented horror digest Night Cry, presents a seasonal fairytale for all ages in The Bear Who Found Christmas, a revised and expanded version of a story that first appeared in the anthology Christmas Ghosts (1993), edited by Mike Resnick. T.E.D. Klein, Orson Scott Card, F. Paul Wilson and Raymond E. Feist all provide blurbs testifying to Rogers's writing talent. (Wildside, $24.95 128p ISBN 1-59224-964-7)
On the heels of the critically acclaimed Queer Fear (2000) comes Queer Fear II, edited by Canadian writer Michael Rowe, another top-notch all-original story anthology mixing horror and the homosexual. Contributors include such genre stars as Poppy Z. Brite, Nalo Hopkinson, Edo van Belkom and Steve Duffy, while Clive Barker provides an enthusiastic endorsement of the series. (Arsenal Pulp [www.arsenalpulp.com], $17.95 paper 304p ISBN 1-55152-122-9)
Between 1977 and 1987, former CIA operative Edward Whittemore (1933—1995) wrote the Jerusalem Quartet, a surreal historical fantasy that won many plaudits but little renown for its author. This remarkable epic set in the Middle East deserves a new generation of readers and comes with blurbs from Jonathan Carroll, Ellen Datlow and Mike Resnick. The set comprises Sinai Tapestry(Old Earth [www.oldearthbooks.com], $17.95 paper 368p ISBN 1-882968-22-0), Jerusalem Poker($19.95 paper 462p ISBN -23-9), Nile Shadows($19.95 paper 515p ISBN -24-7) and Jericho Mosaic($17.95 paper 426p ISBN -25-5). The same publisher is also reissuing Whittemore's first novel, which plays with 20th century Asian history, Quin's Shanghai Circus($17.95 paper 344p ISBN -21-2).
