***Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in the Anthology category***
Want to see something weird?
Embrace the odd? Satisfy your curiosity? Surrender to wonder?
From Crystal Lake Publishing and the Bram Stoker Award-winning co-editor of the smash hit Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories comes Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders.

Sixteen stories and two poems take you into the spaces between the ordinary—and the imaginations of some of today's masters of dark and thrilling fiction.

• A travel writer learns the terrible secrets at a hotel that's not at all as it seems.
• A disfigured woman and her daughter explore methods of weaponizing beauty.
• An amateur beekeeper acquires an object that shows her the true
  danger of the hive-mind.
• Drifters ride the rails seeking something wondrous that could change their fates forever.
• A strange creature that holds our very existence in its hands shapes the lives of two lovers to touching and devastating effect.
• A young man helps his grandfather—and something much more monstrous—atone for bargains made during wartime.
• And much, much more…

Featuring Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Morton, Brian Kirk, Hal Bodner, Stephanie M. Wytovich, John Langan, Erinn L. Kemper, John F.D. Taff, Patrick Freivald, Lucy A. Snyder, Brian Hodge, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Coake, Sarah Read and Richard Thomas. Foreword by Josh Malerman. Illustrations by Luke Spooner. Cover art by John Coulthart. Brought to you by Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor Doug Murano and Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with the editor:

What kinds of short stories will readers find in this anthology?

Doug Murano: I wanted this book to encompass a lot of the things I love about weird fiction, fantasy and horror—as well as give a tip of my cap to some of the things I loved growing up. So, it’s not exclusively a horror anthology, though you’ll find there’s plenty of darkness and dread throughout the book.

It was important to me that the stories throughout the anthology embraced and celebrated the odd—so you're not going to find stories of big-top exploitation or carnival freak shows here. The closest, perhaps, you'll find to this angle is in Lisa Morton's story—but that piece turns the freak-show trope on its head and aspires to something much more daring, interesting, and, ultimately, haunting.

Some tonal touch-points for much of the book are actually Jim Henson's work — like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal — particularly in the Undefinable Wonders section. I also drew tonal influences from Guillermo del Toro’s filmography, especially his Spanish-language films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. As in those films, there’s terror and darkness here, but there’s beauty, wonder, and magic, as well. In other words, the book is willfully bizarre, wide-ranging, and beautifully strange.

Have you seen A Serbian Film?

How about Salo?

Martyrs? 

You ain’t seen nothing yet!

After six years and more than fifty authors, Blood Bound Books completes the Unholy Trinity D.O.A. III, featuring stories from Bentley Little, John Skipp, Kristopher Triana, Shane McKenzie, John McNee, Wrath James White, Jack Ketchum, Ed Lee, and more

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll vomit

Experience a new type of extreme horror—blood, guts, and a story

This is Writers on Writing – An Author’s Guide where your favorite authors share their ultimate secrets in becoming and being an author. 

Learn the craft of writing from those who know it best. 

This is Writers On Writing – An Author’s Guide Vol.3, where professional authors share their secrets in the ultimate guide to becoming – and being – an author. 

In this third volume you’ll find in-depth essays from authors such as Jonathan Janz, Kealan Patrick Burke, Nerine Dorman, Hal Bodner, Ben Eads, and James Everington. Edited by Joe Mynhardt:

“Creating Effective Characters” by Hal Bodner 
“Fictional Emotions; Emotional Fictions” by James Everington
“Home Sweet Home” by Ben Eads
“You” by Kealan Patrick Burke
“How about them free books, eh? (the art of becoming a book reviewer)” by Nerine Dorman
“Treating Fiction like a Relationship” by Jonathan Janz

Writers On Writing gives young authors the guidance they need, but also has advice for all authors, from the interested newbie to the seasoned veteran.

The Writers on Writing series carries on the proud tradition of Stephen King's On Writing.

Are you ready to unleash the author in you?

Proudly brought to you by Crystal Lake Publishing – Tales from the Darkest Depths

Interview with one of the authors:

Tell us more about your essay in Writers on Writing.

James Everington: My first piece, ‘Embrace Your Inner Shitness’ is about the freedom in letting yourself go and writing a bad first draft–but a finished one. Because finishing things is key. But then how do you take that mangled, disjointed first draft and make something great from it? I give my perspective. My second piece is called ‘Fictional Emotions; Emotional Fictions’. It’s a cliche that good writing should evoke an emotional response but what exactly do we mean by that? What different techniques and perspectives can writers use to generate & convey emotion?

Why should authors read Writers on Writing?

James Everington: Because it’s a great book to argue with, and that’s what you want in a book of writing advice. There’s no point in passively learning from one writer about how they write, because what if that doesn’t work for you? You want a book with a multitude of voices, clashing complimenting, and contradicting each other. A book you can find your own space within, a book that makes you think about how you write, rather than being told how you should. Come join the conversation.

Writers on Writing eBook categories:

• Authorship
• Publishing and Books
• Writing Reference
• Writing Skills

Twenty-six authors to agreed to write stories based on the Tarot... with the Tarot cards determining which story subject the authors would write. 
 
We took a tarot deck and the list of the twenty-six authors: read the author’s name, shuffled the deck, and drew a card.  
 
That tarot card and its traits were all the authors had to go on.  
 
The card was removed, the deck was reshuffled, and the next name was read off.  
 
Never Fear - The Tarot, contains twenty-six stories based on the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana and the four cards of the Minor Arcana.  
 
Award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors combine their talents to deal out twenty-six dark tales influenced by the Tarot.

Heather Graham, Lori Avocato, Michael M. Hughes, Tim Waggoner, Tara Nina, C.M.C. Dobbs, Michael A. Stackpole, Matthew Costello, C.L. Wilson, Tori Eldridge, Lisa Mannetti, Patrick Freivald, Jamie Rush, Rebecca Paisley, Edward DeAngelis, Richard Devin, Lance Taubold, Jeff DePew, Lee Lawless, Hal Bodner, Jennifer St. Giles, Jayne Belmont and Janice M. Jones

If you came here to read short stories about tranquil lakes, run to the nearest exit. Run as far away as you can from Ramsey Campbell, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, and our array of international voices.

Tales from The Lake volume two also includes the three winners from Crystal Lake Publishing’s Tales from The Lake Horror Writing Competition:

1st: Descending by John Whalen

2nd: Forever Dark by Jonathan Winn

3rd: Ripperscape by Vincenzo Bilof

Beneath this lake you’ll find nothing but mystery and suspense, horror and dread. Not to mention death and misery – tales to share around the campfire or living room floor. Dive beneath a frozen lake with Rena Mason’s “Winter’s Dollhouse”; allow Tim Lebbon to introduce you to “The God of Rain”; don’t go into the lake when Jim Goforth takes you to the haunting sit of “Lago de los Perdidos”; and never get in an elevator again with John Whalen’s award-winning “Descending.”

So dive on in.

The water’s just…right.

Interview with the Authors:

So what makes Tales from The Lake so special?

Ben Eads: As a reader: Legends and up-and-comers in the field of horror consistently knock each volume out of the ball park. It’s a great anthology. As a writer: Aside from sharing the pages with some of the best writers in the biz? The open-theme affords me a broader canvas to write. And, of course, the recognition!

Raven Dane: Publisher Joe Mynhardt and his team of genre enthusiasts strive to bring the reader only the highest quality short fiction in the Tales From The Lake series. Whether the author is well established name or a bright future star, excellence and innovation is always foremost. This is a publishing house with great integrity and passion, a deep-rooted love of horror and total respect for both writer and reader. And no…I do not work for their PR department! This is my genuine experience as both contributor and reader of Crystal Lake books.

Tell us more about your story?

Lisa Morton: It was inspired by two separate ideas: 1) I enjoy weird westerns and wanted to try one; and 2) I was interested in writing something about a succubus, and I had this question: would a gay man be affected by a supernatural temptress who presents as an exotic woman? I started doing a little research on the Old West (train lines, towns, gunslingers, etc.), and the story started to coalesce from there.

Why should readers give this series a try?

Ben Eads: Everyone loves an end of the world story, right?

Raven Dane: The best reason of all, meticulously produced books packed with intriguing stories from an international collection of great writers. There are many horror anthologies available now, with a resurgence of enthusiasm for short fiction. Sadly not all are worth bothering with, to be brutally honest! A reader is in safe hands with a Tales from The Lake volume. Crystal Lake is fast becoming synonymous for high quality production and wonderful story telling.

Proudly brought to you by Crystal Lake Publishing - Tales from the Darkest Depths

Tales from The Lake eBook categories:

• Horror short stories
• Horror anthologies
• Dark Fiction
• Speculative Fiction

Psychotic killers, devious ghosts, alien monsters, howling storms, undead creatures, and other dark forces haunt the highways and the truckers who drive them in these 18 chilling tales!

A ghostly voice on a trucker’s CB radio knows more about his life than it should… Two drivers find their cargo gives them inhuman appetites… A boy in a truck stop encounters a supernatural force that threatens to destroy the world… The hypnotic singing lulling a driver to sleep might not be coming from the tires… A fender-bender between a big rig and a four wheeler is not as accidental as it seems… The sinister cargo lurking in a rock and roll band’s fleet of trucks is unleashed at their final show...

Hit the road with this anthology of trucking horror fiction!

Contains the 2016 Bram Stoker Award winning short story "Happy Joe's Rest Stop" by John Palisano.