Mammoth Books presents Unexpected Encounters

Book 356: Mammoth Books

by Caitlin R. Kiernan, Mark Samuels, Richard L. Tierney, Simon Kurt Unsworth

Genres: Horror

Synopsis

Autumn Chill - Richard L. Tierney Inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long, Tierney's poetry has been collected in Dreams and Damnations, The Doom Prophet and One Other, the Arkham House volume of Collected Poems, Nightmares and Visions, The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror. S.T. Joshi has described Tierney as "one of the leading weird poets of his generation." The Lemon in the Pool - Simon Kurt Unsworth"In the summer of 2009, I went on holiday with my family - the extended version. As well as my wife and son, Wendy and Ben, there were my parents, my sister and her husband, and my mother-in-law all sharing a villa in Moreira, Spain."One of the delights of the holiday was having a private pool, and seeing Ben enjoy himself in the water, where over the course of seven days he learned to swim. Perhaps even more fun was seeing his joy when things started to appear in the pool on a daily basis - a tomato, a lemon, two courgettes, three green chillies."I have no idea where they came from, but I suspect that children in a neighbouring villa were playing a joke on us and Ben loved it. It got to be one of the most exciting things about the holiday, waiting to see what would appear that day. After the appearance of the courgettes, my sister said, 'This'll find its way into one of Simon's stories,' and everyone laughed and someone (I think my mum) said, 'Even he couldn't write a story about this.'"Mum, if it was you that said that, this story is entirely your fault." Losenef Express - Mark Samuels About the story, Mark Samuels explains: "I think most fans of horror will recognise at once the late, great American author upon whom the central character of this tale is based (or, perhaps more accurately, filtered through my imagination). We never met, although I did once catch sight of him across a room at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention in London and, prompted by curiosity, took a hasty, half-obscured photograph."A number of my friends knew him well, and I regret I myself never had the chance to do so. Sadly, I only discovered his brilliant work years after his untimely death." As Red as Red - Caitlín R. Kiernan"I don't know that 'As Red as Red' had any single source of inspiration," says Kiernan. "It coalesced from numerous experiences and accounts of the supernatural in Rhode Island. Also, I very much wanted to write a non-conventional vampire story which was also (and maybe more so) a werewolf story and a ghost story."It's also true that I was just coming off having finished The Red Tree, and, in some ways, 'As Red as Red' is an extended footnote to that novel. I was still trying to get The Red Tree out of my system."

Release date: July 26, 2012

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Print pages: 160

Sample

RICHARD L. TIERNEY LIVES in his house, “The Hermitage”, in Mason City, Iowa. He has a degree in entomology from Iowa State University and worked with the US Forestry Service for many years. An editor, poet and critic, his seminal essay “The Derleth Mythos” is considered a cornerstone of modern Lovecraftian criticism.

A great admirer of the writings of Robert E. Howard, Tierney edited Tigers of the Sea and Hawks of Outremer for publisher Donald M. Grant, completing a few unfinished tales in the process.

His novels include The Winds of Zar, the “Bran Mak Morn” pastiche For the Witch of the Mists (with David C. Smith), The House of the Toad, The Scroll of Thoth: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones, The Gardens of Lucullus (with Glenn Rahman), The Drums of Chaos, and six “Red Sonja” books (1981–83), also in collaboration with Smith.

Inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Donald Wandrei, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long, Tierney’s poetry has been collected in Dreams and Damnations, The Doom Prophet and One Other, the Arkham House volume of Collected Poems, Nightmares and Visions, The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror.

S.T. Joshi has described Tierney as “one of the leading weird poets of his generation.”

HOWDY, YOUNG FELLOW! WHAT brings you down here

To this old graveyard in the piney woods?

Not many folks come wandering this way.Lost, you say? Well, I figured you must be.This family plot of mine’s a right far pieceFrom any town. But, don’t you worry none,Just keep on this dirt road ’bout two miles moreAnd it’ll bring ye to the Aylesbury Pike.But why not stop and rest a spell, young sir?The evening’s fair and clear, and I don’t getMuch chance to chat and hear the outside news

From folks like you just passing through.

Yes, yes, I know you can’t stay long,

But bear with me a bit.

I’m a mite lonely here since brother Ned,My only close kin, recently passed away.Come on, I’d like to show ye ’round this place,If you can spare some minutes from your trip.Good! I won’t keep ye long. Come, follow me.The evening’s mild and mellow – aye, and look!There’s bright Orion climbing up the sky.

See how his jewelled sword-belt gleams!

And here comes Sirius, nipping at his heels!Just hear that night-breeze starting up to whisper—Listen to how it makes the dry leaves rattle

Like skeleton spiders!

A sad and spooky time o’ day it is,The sun gone down behind the piney ridge,The autumn afterglow a-fading out.

But, look, here’s what I wanted you to see—This ancient graveyard nestled ’midst the trees.It’s old, young sir, older than this Republic,And ’most all of my kin lie buried here.Look how those headstones hump up from the mossWith skulls and crossbones carved upon their faces.

They’re centuries old, some of ‘em.

But, see that fresh-dug mound and wooden cross?Poor Ned was buried there a week ago.Ain’t even got a proper headstone yet.Ned, he was sort of odd and troublesome,You know, like some of closest kinfolk are,But I was mighty heartstruck when he upAnd died so sudden . . . But, my God! What’s that?

You seen it too, young fellow, didn’t you?

Looked like a ’possum running fast, you say?

Well, I allow you may be right.

Just let me catch my breath a bit. ’Twas quite

A shock to see that critter scuttling from

Ned’s grave. You’re right, it must have been a ’possum . . .

Shaking, you say? Well, yes, I guess I am.

Gave me a start, that critter did, and I’ve

Been brooding some about poor brother Ned.

He’d read these books Great-grandpa’d handed down

Full of strange things most folks don’t know about.

Our family goes a long way back, y’know,

And some of them has had the wisdom-gift.

Ned, now, he had it too, I guess, ’cause soon

After he’d studied them old books awhile

The folks he didn’t like took sick and died,

Like cousin Henry and old Auntie Liz,

And when he started looking dark at me

I took to sleeping with an axe at hand.

They say a grave can’t keep a sorcerer,

But surely if his head’s been split in half

He can’t—

My God! That hole above Ned’s grave—

It don’t look like no ’possum could have dug it,For look at how the fresh black dirt is moundedAs if it’s been pushed out! And now, what’s that—?A rustling in the weeds, heading this way—No ’possum goes like that with thin white tendrilsWaving above the grass. No. No! It’s Ned!His brain’s done burrowed up beneath the sod,Dragging its spinal cord like to a tail,Waving its nerves like sorcery-poisoned stings.It’s coming for me—see it? It’s his brain!

No, no, young fellow, don’t run off like that,Don’t leave me here to meet that thing alone!Come back!



SIMON KURT UNSWORTH WRITES when he’s not working, spending time with his family, cooking, walking the dogs, watching suspect movies, eating pizza or lazing about.

His stories have appeared in the Ash-Tree Press anthologies At Ease with the Dead,Exotic Gothic 3 and Shades of Darkness, as well as in Lovecraft Unbound, Gaslight Grotesque, The Sixth Black Book of Horror, Never Again and Black Static magazine. His story “The Church on the Island” was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and was reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume Nineteen and The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror.

His first collection, Lost Places, was published by Ash-Tree in 2010, and his collections. . .