Earlier this year Cemetery Dance Publications afforded me the honour of participating in their anthology October Dreams II: A Celebration of Halloween. The original volume October Dreams has long stood as one of my favourite Horror anthologies, so I was only too willing to contribute to its sequel.
This volume will include my story "What Blooms in Shadow Withers in Light" (which originally appeared in my 2007 collection Omens) as well as a new essay, "My Favourite Halloween Memory: Carrying Primal Fire", which was penned exclusively for this book.
The roster for October Dreams 2 is nothing short of astonishing. Here lies its Table of Contents:
"Mr. Dark’s Carnival" by Glen Hirshberg
"Universal Horrors" by Stephen Graham Jones
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Perspective" by Michael McBride
"The Scariest Thing I Know" by Dean Koontz
"Guising" by Gemma Files
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Gort Klaatu Barada Trick or Treat" by Nancy Holder
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Under the Autumn Stars" by Tim Waggoner
"Monsters" by Stewart O’Nan
"Death and Disbursement" by S.P. Miskowski
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "All the News" by Karen Heuler
"Dear Dead Jenny" by Ian McDowell
"What Blooms in Shadow Withers in Light" by Richard Gavin
My Favorite Halloween Memory by M. Rickert
"The ’Corn Factory" by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
"In a Dark October" by Joe R. Lansdale
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "The Real Darkborn" by Matthew Costello
"The October Game" by Ray Bradbury
"Fear of Fallen Leaves" by James Newman
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Costume" by Melanie Tem
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Dancing With Mr. Death" by Kealan Patrick Burke
"Scarecrow" by Roberta Lannes
"Strange Candy" by Robert McCammon
My Favorite Halloween Memory by Harry Shannon
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "That Which Doesn’t Kill You Earns You Candy" by Nate Southard
"The Pumpkin" by Robert Bloch
"Mr. and Mrs. Werewolf " by Whitley Strieber
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Rescuer?" by Nicole Cushing
My Favorite Halloween Memory by Ray Garton
"Great Pumpkins and Ghost Hunters: Halloween on TV" by Lisa Morton
"The Pumpkin Smasher" by Al Sarrantonio
"The House on Cottage Lane" by Ronald Malfi
My Favorite Halloween Memory by Tim Curran
"The Dry Season" by James A. Moore
"The Spirit of Things" by John Skipp
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Haunting Season" by Orrin Grey
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "The Witch of Walnut" by Elizabeth Massie
"The Little Werewolf Who Cried" by Al Magliochetti
"The Boy in the White Sheet" by Bev Vincent
My Favorite Halloween Memory by Richard Gavin
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "The Last Halloween" by Ronald Kelly
"Sexy Pirate Girl" by Lisa Morton
"Monster Night" by Brian James Freeman
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Screams in the Asylum" by James Newman
"Underfolk" by Tina Callaghan
My Favorite Halloween Memory: "Pumpkin Parade" by Sephera Giron
"October Dreams" by Michael Kelly
October Dreams 2 may now be pre-ordered through Cemetery Dance Publications. Copies may be obtained here.