For generations, the marsh-surrounded town of Shimmer, Maryland has played host to a loose movement of African-American artists, all working in different media, but all utilizing the same haunting color. Landscape paintings, trompe l'oeil quilts, decorated dolls, mixed-media assemblages, and more, all featuring the same peculiar hue, a shifting pigment somewhere between purple and pink, the color of the saltmarsh orchid, a rare and indigenous flower. Graduate student Xavier Wentworth has been drawn to Shimmer, hoping to study the work of artists like quilter Hazel Whitby and landscape painter Shadrach Grayson in detail, having experienced something akin to an epiphany when viewing a Hazel Whitby tapestry as a child. Xavier will find that others, too, have been drawn to Shimmer, called by something more than art, something in the marsh itself, a mysterious, spectral hue. From Lambda Literary Award-nominated author Craig Laurance Gidney (Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories, Skin Deep Magic) comes A Spectral Hue, a novel of art, obsession, and the ghosts that haunt us all.

Dazzling drag couture and cosmic terror weave together to reveal a tale of horrifying design. "Spyder Threads" by Craig Laurance Gidney is one of 27 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio-only horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries including Laird Barron, Indrapramit Das, Shaun Hamill, Daniel M. Lavery, Matthew Lyons, T. Kingfisher, Seanan McGuire, Nibedita Sen, and Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #58. This issue kicks off our Halloween celebrations with a holiday-inspired tale. An incomplete draft of “Had a Wife...” was found in Janet Fox’s papers following her death, and I completed it. I hope you enjoy it. Keeping up the fantasy theme, we have a powerful tale by Craig Laurance Gidney inspired by the music of Joni Mitchell (selected by our acquiring editor Cynthia Ward). Our other acquiring editors have been busy, too—Michael Bracken presents an original mystery by the talented Kaye George (in which an ancient cave painting holds a clue to a murder), and Barb Goffman presents a tale by Sherry Harris, in which Stew Davis finds himself walking a dusty road in Who Knows Where, Wyoming after his car is stolen.. On the mystery front, we have our ever-puzzle solve-it-yourself story from Hal Charles, plus a pair of historical novels—one by Frank C. Robertson (it’s a mystery-western) and one by John T. McIntyre (set near the turn of the 20th century in New York City).. For our fantasy and science fiction readers, we have the first Darby O’Gill story (most famously filmed by Walt Disney), plus a pair of vintage pulp novellas by Fletcher Pratt and Murray Leinster. Fun stuff!. Here’s the complete lineup:. Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Discovery,” by Kaye George [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “Nothing to Sneeze At,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Last Chance Lost,” by Sherry Harris [Barb Goffman Presents short story] The Boss of the Double E, by Frank C. Robertson [novel] In the Dead of Night, by John T. McIntyre [novel]. Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Maeve’s Quilt” by Craig Laurance Gidney [Cynthia Ward Presents short story] “Had a Wife…” by Janet Fox and John Gregory Betancourt [short story] “Darby O’Gill and the Good People,” by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh [short story] “Potemkin Village,” by Fletcher Pratt [short novel] “The Boomerang Circuit,” by Murray Leinster [short novel]

Craig Laurance Gidney is a magician. His stories are dazzling and transformative. His illusions shame reality for its fragility and senseleness. He pulls hats out of hats and turns everything inside and out. He dares you to take a card-any card-and gives you back your watch, your wallet, your sanity. Only later do you realize these all belong to someone else, and you're a better person for the switch. The stories in The Nectar of Nightmares weave myths, legends, and identities. These tenebrous vignettes capture the consumption of desire, the tragedy of love, and the savagery of heartbreak. They are both phantasmagoric and avant-garde. This is a horror collection for those who've descended so far into the deep, there's nothing left to fear. There is. Craig Laurance Gidney has been nominated for the Lambda Literary Award on multiple occasions. The Nectar of Nightmares is his latest collection of weird and wondrous stories.

A haunting and deeply moving story of one teen's struggle with racism, bullying, and homophobia.

Magic is more than skin-deep. It hides in the folds of a haunted quilt and illuminates the secret histories of Negro memorabilia. Magic reveals the destiny of a great storyteller and emanates from a sculpture by an obscure Harlem Renaissance artist. Magic lurks in the basement of an inner-city apartment building and flourishes in a city park. Magic is more than skin-deep; it shimmers in the ten stories in this collection."Craig Laurance Gidney love words... sensually, sexually, omnivorously. He streams out floods of them in his stories so that you, too, can taste their deliciousness. He wields them with abandon and precision to create little worlds that rise off the page and engulf you in snow globes of sparkling beauty and perceptiveness." --The Fix

New speculative fiction anthology, Nowhereville: Weird Is Other People, explores the weird fictions, from the horrific to the ecstatic, that are inherent in city life and in the ways we love and hate and express, in the ways we interact and cope and deal with one another. Releases December 17, 2019, from Broken Eye Books.These are stories of the city, of people interacting with the complexities that are other people. These 19 short stories explore a landscape that is not quite fantasy and not quite science fiction, tales blurring the lines between genres. These are the strange stories of the strange decisions we make and the strange ways the city affects us.

Spray Can Mimesis (representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature). New spiritual fiction from Jay Michaelson, Farrell Davisson, Craig Gindey and others.