Literary Horror discussion

Like the MR James Omnibus... A Pleasing Terror...?
= )

Interesting. Midnight House had published two volumes collecting ELW's fiction. In fact the very first volume published by MH was ELW's House of the Nightmare.

DId anyone know that ELW's short stories are exclusively based on vivid nightmares that he would regularly have.

FYI... there have been a number of posters in one of the TLO threads complaining about god awful customer service with ATP... as in waiting 5 months and still no order shipped.

Not sure... folks are reporting back that e-mails are going un-responded to and phone calls being ducked. You might be screwed if you go beyond the complaint resolution time lines set by paypal.

I think I would just assume purchase my ATP books from e-bay.

I'm sorry to hear that. They have some very very nice editions. I recently acquired the MR James omnibus... for less than a king's ransom... quite a fortunate coup for me.

Anyone have the three Lamsley editions? Are they worth the price tag on the secondary market?

Jodi wrote: "Got some insight today as to why Ash-Tree went e-book. From what I understand, the husband half of Ash-Tree had two heart attacks, which really put a scare into him. Since he and his wife do everyt..."

This is really sad, they published some fine quality books. I take it that Mr. Roden is recovering ? Nothing is more important than your health.

Jodi wrote: "It sounds like he is recovering. I also just heard tonight from another source that he's been hearing they were going to start printing again, but he wasn't aware of the health issues. I think ther..."

Thanks for sharing this information. Usually you never know what all is taking place under the covers.

Jodi wrote:

It sounds like he is recovering. I also just heard tonight from another source that he's been hearing they were going to start printing again, but he wasn't aware of the health issues. I think there's a strong possibility they will start back up, but I think it will be a while before they do.

I'm a little skeptical, but that would be incredibly cool, if true. My own (admittedly limited) understanding of the events at Ash-Tree was that there were a constellation of interrelated, real-life factors that led to the slow-down — Chris' health, other financial issues, and Barbara's own writing.

I'd certainly love to see them start up again (although I doubt they’ll ever churn 'em out at the rate they once did), but what I’d really like to happen is for Chris and Barbara to revive the Ghost Story Society; it’s been something like 6 years since the last issue of All Hallows was released.

Randolph commented:

I forgot about The Ghost Story Society. That would be a great starting point if they wanted to not get in too deep at first.

Actually, I always got the impression that editing All Hallows (which was pretty much all Barbara) was a much more time-consuming gig than doing the books because of having to wade through submissions, etc., etc.

By the way — I just heard that Joel Lane passed away. Terrible news...

Canavan wrote: "Randolph commented:


I forgot about The Ghost Story Society. That would be a great starting point if they wanted to not get in too deep at first.


Actually, I always got the impression that edi..."

That is shocking news. Didn't his book "Where Furnaces Burn" (PS Publishing) just win for best collection at the 2013 World Fantasy convention a few days ago ?

Karl observed:

That is shocking news. Didn't his book "Where Furnaces Burn" (PS Publishing) just win for best collection at the 2013 World Fantasy convention a few days ago ?

Yes, indeed. A couple of weeks ago, I think.

Re Joel Lane, the Locus obit can be read here.

And a tribute by Mark Valentine has just been posted here.

Fifty years old. Wow, that makes this even sadder. What a blow to the genre.

Randolph noted:

It seems like a lot of people died this year. Didn't James Herbert and Rick Hautaula pass away as well. I seem to remember one other that I can't call to mind.

The toll also includes David B. Silva, Basil Copper, and Richard Matheson.

Benjamin wrote (in part):

Anyone have the three Lamsley editions? Are they worth the price tag on the secondary market?

I somehow missed this query when you first posted it over a month ago, Benjamin. Sorry 'bout that.

I have all three of the Ash-Tree collections and I'm extremely happy that I own them. In fact, I recently re-read two of Terry Lamsley's earlier stories, "Blade and Bone" (1994) and "Two Returns" (1993). I thought that during the 90's Lamsley was one of the premier writers of weird/supernatural fiction. His output has rather drastically fallen off over the last decade or so and his last collection, Made Ready & Cupboard Love (2006) — which I own, but haven't read — received mixed reviews. Night Shade Books reprinted one of the original three Ash-Tree collections, Conference with the Dead (1995), and I think used copies of the NSB edition can be had fairly cheaply.

Randolph wrote (way back in September of last year):

Just saw this from Ash Tree on FB: "The first in the series 'The Ash-Tree Press Gerald Kersh' is in production. It's the short story collection THE HORRIBLE DUMMY, and we hope to have it available for readers by the end of the month."

I assume this did not come out as planned. Has anyone seen it?

Sort of responding to my own earlier post about the Ash-Tree Kersh collection.

While looking at the Amazon.com site, I noted that Valencourt published last year an e-book version of the old Fawcett Gold Medal paperback, Nightshade & Damnations , which boasted an introduction by Harlan Ellison.

Faber Finds also has a number of Kersh digital titles listed on Amazon.

Randolph wrote (in part):

I remember how depressed I was when A Common Reader went belly-up and reading about Robert Mustick personally being buried in debt. I think he landed on his feet as an editor somewhere after going through the always grueling bankruptcy process.

Yes, that was depressing. I wish I had saved at least a few of their print catalogs.

Canavan wrote: "Benjamin wrote (in part):


Anyone have the three Lamsley editions? Are they worth the price tag on the secondary market?


I somehow missed this query when you first posted it over a month ago, ..."

Thank you Canavan... I appreciate the feedback. I am rather keen to read Lamsley. And the collector in me is rather keen to get my hands on those three ATP volumes... their covers are quite lovely... very similar to the Duffy cover and a few others. The art work being kind of pulpy I think.

Benjamin wrote (in part):

I appreciate the feedback. I am rather keen to read Lamsley. And the collector in me is rather keen to get my hands on those three ATP volumes... their covers are quite lovely... very similar to the Duffy cover and a few others. The art work being kind of pulpy I think.

Yes indeed. The artist in question was Douglas Walters. He did the covers for a number of the earlier ATP books. Very distinctive style, although I personally prefer some of the later covers done by Jason Van Hollander.