Horrors – pre-order now

The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors is now available to pre-order. The book will be launched at this year’s FantasyCon and then will be on general sale on 1st November. Available from Amazon and other online booksellers.

Twenty-five tales of horror and the weird, stories that encapsulate the dark, the desolate and the downright creepy. Stories that will send that quiver of anticipation and dread down your spine and stay with you long after the lights have gone out.

Who is Len Binn, a comedian or…? What secrets are locked away in Le Trénébreuse? The deadline for what? Who are the little people, the garbage men, the peelers? What lies behind the masks? And what horrors are found down along the backroads?

Check out the book’s page to see who are the 25 writers.

 

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Compromising the Truth

Now available!

Compromising the Truth by Bryn Fortey

Back in 2014 The Alchemy Press published Bryn’s first collection, Merry-Go-Round and Other Words. Now, four years on, we have his second book — full of equally stunning stories and poems.

In Compromising the Truth we have eighteen stories plus two dozen poems of the weird and wonderful: a touch of science fiction, a tidbit of horror, a sprinkling of the strange.

From Adrian Cole’s introduction:

“His stories reflect a clear understanding of the human condition and he imbues his characters with knowing insights. The tales vary from stark, unnerving urban horror, to blackly humorous, almost preposterous fantasy, although even these hugely entertaining yarns are seated in reality. “

Cover by Peter Coleborn

 

 

So far, so good…

We thought it would be fun to create a mosaic of Alchemy Press books.

 

Elder Things reviewed

The Private Life of Elder Things — by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Keris McDonald and Adam Gauntlett gets a great review on SF Crowsnest:

Although the stories in this volume are inspired by Lovecraft’s work, it isn’t necessary to be familiar with his work but, in the case of Tchaikovsky’s tales, it helps to know where he is coming from. Those unfamiliar with Lovecraft may be inspired to seek out the originals. The volume, though, is a selection of stories worth perusing, regardless of your reading history.

Read the full review here.

Discover more about the book here.

 

Horrors 2. Sub guidelines now posted

2019 sees the second volume of the Alchemy Press Book of Horrors to be edited by Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards.

We are looking for horror stories … but not just horror. We want tales that can be described as “weird”, “strange”, “amazing” and “peculiar”: stories that would have found a home in Weird Tales, Unknown Worlds, Fantastic and Fantasy Tales among other illustrious publications.

The full guidelines can be found here.

 

What’s in Horrors?

There was an avalanche of stories submitted to The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors – especially in the final month of the submission’s window. To be honest, we didn’t expect to receive around 310 manuscripts seeking a home in this anthology. We were worried that we’d have too few submissions.

We read the stories as soon as possible after receiving them (but as indicated, January was a particularly busy month), maintaining a database of comments in order to narrow down to a shortlist.

Yet we managed it quickly – and then the shortlist itself needed to be pruned, and even so we couldn’t cut back to the original idea: an anthology containing a dozen stories. So we succumbed and settled on 25 stories. Without further ado, in alphabetical order (alphabetically by first name that is!), here’s what you’ll be reading in the latter part of 2018.

• Adrian Cole: Broken Billy
• Cate Gardner: The Fullness of Her Belly
• Debbie Bennett: The Fairest of them all
• Gail-Nina Anderson: An Eye for a Plastic Eye
• Gary McMahon: Guising
• James Brogden: The Trade-Up
• Jenny Barber: Down Along the Backroads
• John Grant: Too Late
• Keris McDonald: Remember, Remember
• Madhvi Ramani: Teufelsberg
• Marie O’Regan: Pretty Things
• Marion Pitman: The Apple Tree
• Mike Chinn: Her Favourite Place
• Peter Sutton: Masks
• Phil Sloman: The Girl with Three Eyes
• Ralph Robert Moore: Peelers
• Ramsey Campbell: Some Kind of a Laugh
• Ray Cluley: Bluey
• Samantha Lee: The Worm
• Stan Nicholls: Deadline
• Stephen Laws: Get Worse Soon
• Storm Constantine: La Tenebreuse
• Suzanne Barbieri: In the Rough
• Tina Rath: Little People
• Tony Richards: The Garbage Men

In addition, the book will be garnished with a range of Jim Pitt illustrations. We aim to make this book one you’ll treasure.

 

Sub window closes

No, not that type of sub.

The submission window for The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors is now closed. We have received 297 submissions to wade through (sorry, to read), make shortlists, and then finalised the table of contents. We hope to start contacting folk in a few weeks. Please be patient.