The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror:2013 and The Best Horror of the Year Volume 5

Paula Guran and Ellen Datlow have now annouced the contents of their annual anthologies.

“Pearls” originally appeared in Issue 4 of Bourbon Penn (April 2012)

“The Ballad Of Boomtown” appeared in Issue 28 of Black Static (April-May 2012)

A huge thank you to Ellen, Paula, Andy Cox (editor of Black Static) and Erik Secker (editor of Bourbon Penn).

The Best Horror of the Year Volume V (Ed. Ellen Datlow) 
Nikishi  by Lucy Taylor
Little America by Dan Chaon
A Natural History of Autumn by Jeffrey Ford
Mantis Wives    by  Kij Johnson
Tender as Teeth by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski
The Callers by Ramsey Campbell
Two poems for Hill House by Kevin McCann
Mariner’s Round by  Terry Dowling
Nanny Grey by Gemma Files
The Magician’s Apprentice by Tamsyn Muir
Kill All Monsters   by Gary Mcmahon
The House on Ashley Avenue by Ian Rogers
Dead Song  by Jay Wilburn
Sleeping, I  Was Beauty    by Sandi Leibowitz
Bajazzle  by Margo Lanagan
The Pike by Conrad Williams
This Circus the World  by Amber Sparks
Some Pictures in An Album by Gary McMahon
Wild Acre by Nathan Ballingrud
Final Exam by  Megan Arkenberg
None So Blind   by Stephen Bacon
The Ballad of Boomtown  by Priya Sharma
Pig Thing by Adam Nevill
The Word-Made Flesh by Richard Gavin
Into the Penny Arcade by Claire Massey
Magdala Amygdala  by Lucy Snyder
Frontier Death Song by Laird Barron

The Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: 2013 (Ed. Paula Guran)
Laird Barron, “Hand of Glory” (The Book of Cthulhu 2)
Peter S. Beagle, “Great-Grandmother in the Cellar” (Under My Hat)
Peter Bell, “Glamour of Madness”  (The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows)
Joseph Bruchac, “Down in the Valley” (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothic 4)
Jim Butcher, “Bigfoot on Campus” (Hex Appeal)
Mike Carey, “Iphigenia In Aulis” (An Apple for the Creature)
Terry Dowling, “Nightside Eye” (Cemetery Dance #66)
K. M. Ferebee, “The Bird Country” (Shimmer #15)
Jeffrey Ford, “The Natural History of Autumn” (F&SF, July/August 2012)
Neil Gaiman, “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury” (The Shadow Show)
Theodora Goss, “England Under the White Witch” (Clarkesworld, Issue 73)
Maria Dahvana Headley, “Game” (Subterranean, Fall 2012)
Robert Hood, “Escena de un Asesinato” (Postscripts #28/29: Exotic Gothic 4)
Stephen Graham Jones, “Welcome to the Reptile House” (Strange Aeons #9)
Caitlín R Kiernan, “Fake Plastic Trees: (After)
Ellen Klages, “The Education of a Witch” (Under My Hat)
Marc Laidlaw, “Forget You” (Lightspeed, June 2012)
John Langan, “Renfrew’s Course” (Lightspeed, April 2012)
Joe R. Lansdale. “The Tall Grass” (Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations)
Tim Lebbon, “Slaughterhouse Blues” (Nothing As It Seems)
Alison Littlewood, “The Eyes of Water (The Eyes of Water)
Good Hunting, Ken Liu  (Strange Horizons, October 2012)
Helen Marshall, “No Ghosts In London” (Hair Side, Flesh Side)
Sarah Monette, “Blue Lace Agate” (Lightspeed, January 2012)
Ekaterina Sedia, “End of White” (Shotguns v Cthulhu)
Priya Sharma, “Pearls” (Bourbon Penn 04)
Robert Shearman, “Bedtime Stories for Yasmin” (Shadows & Tall Trees 4)
John Shirley, “When Death Wakes Me to Myself” (Black Wings II)
Cory Skerry, “Sinking Among Lilies” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #92)
Simon Strantzas, “Go Home Again” (Fungi)
Rachel Swirsky, “The Sea of Trees” (The Future Is Japanese)
Melanie Tem, “Dahlias” (Black Wings II)
Karen Tidbeck, “Arvid Pekon” (Jagganath: Stories)
Genevieve Valentine, “Armless Maidens of the American West” (Apex, August 7, 2012)
Brooke Wonders, “Everything Must Go” (Clarkesworld, Issue 74)

The Ballad of Boomtown

My short story “The Ballad of Boomtown” appeared in Black Static Issue 28 in 2012. I am thrilled to bits that it’s made the Locus’ 2012 Recommended Reading List.
Thanks to Andy Cox of TTA for publishing it and to the lovely people who decided to include it.

There’s some great stuff on the list which includes writers like  Aliette de Bodard, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, E Catherine Tobler, Lavie Tidhar and  K.J. Parker.

Quite a few stories from TTA Press appeared – I particularly enjoyed Carole Johnstone’s “The Pest House”.

‘‘Beasts’’, Elizabeth Bourne (Interzone 240), novelette  

‘‘The Pest House’’, Carole Johnstone (Black Static 28), novelette

‘‘The Philosophy of Ships’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Interzone 243), short story

‘‘Twember’’, Steve Rasnic Tem (Interzone 239), short story

I’m also very pleased to see ‘‘The Ballad of the Wayfaring Stranger and the Dead Man’s Whore’’ by Sean Demory is in there. It’s a self published story that’s available for 77p, which is a steal for something that’s so brilliant.

“Breaking the Bow: Stories Inspired by the Ramayana”, Anil Menon & Vandana Singh, eds. (Zubaan Books) was in the original anthology category (congratulations Anil!)

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade Books) and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 Paula Guran, ed. (Prime Books) both were in the reprint/best of anthology category. I was lucky enough to have stories in both of these (“The Show” in the former and “The Fox Maiden” in the latter). Thanks to both Paula and Ellen for including me.