Archive by Author

Cover Reveal: No One Dies from Love by Robert Levy

You may have heard this was coming. You may even have seen the starred review in Publishers Weekly. We’ve been a little quiet as we worked to get all the moving pieces into place. But we couldn’t be prouder to make this announcement and show off this cover. Dropping imminently (May 30) is the debut collection from Lambda Award and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Robert Levy, No One Dies from Love: Dark Tales of Loss and Longing. This collection includes twelve tales of horror and desire (one never before published), an introduction from Paul Tremblay, and a gorgeous cover design by Matthew Revert (reworking Carl Goos’ 1830 painting Orpheus and Eurydice).

No One Dies from Love: Dark Tales of Loss and Longing by Robert Levy

Preorder today from Word Horde, and you’ll also receive a signed bookplate from Robert Levy, and a free eBook in your preferred format.. Here’s just some of the advance praise for No One Dies from Love

“Levy delivers a viscerally unsettling collection of 12 horror shorts rooted as much in human psychology as in the fantastical and speculative… Levy’s stories are made all the more powerful by his unwillingness to shy away from the illicit. By embracing the taboo with the tools of horror and speculative fiction, he at once demystifies these subjects while imbuing them with a magic of his own… The result is a triumph.”
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Robert Levy’s No One Dies From Love may well end up being the book of the year for me. There is a frankness, a boldness, and a compassion in these stories that give real weight to the darkness they hold. It’s easy to caricature human pain and vulnerability in service to a horror story, but Levy writes with honesty and depth, and it makes all the difference. I saw some of my own dark corners reflected back to me in this book, and felt the peace that comes from recognition. And that, to me, is what stories are all about.”
—Nathan Ballingrud, author of The Strange and North American Lake Monsters

“Robert Levy’s No One Dies From Love is a masterful collection of dark fiction—a consecrated and intimate ceremony of human loss and longing. With sumptuous prose and a keen understanding of how grief reshapes us, it’s impossible to not be enthralled with Levy’s macabre vision.”
—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since Last We Spoke

No One Dies From Love is one of the most original collections I have read in recent years. Again and again I found myself stunned by Levy’s stories: their depth and range at making the heart expand to encompass the wonders of the world.”
—Morgan Talty, National Bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez

“Shocking, erotic, and horrific. Robert Levy proves that, one way or another, love will be the end of us all.”
—Priya Sharma, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Ormeshadow

Cover Design by Matthew Revert

Pub Date: May 30, 2023

Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-956252-06-4

Format: eBook
ISBN-13: 978-1-939905-75-8

The Children of Old Leech: Excerpt: “Pale Apostle,” by J. T. Glover and Jesse Bullington

Today’s excerpt from The Children of Old Leech comes from J. T. Glover and Jesse Bullington‘s collaborative tale, “Pale Apostle,” which I’m sure you’ll agree sets up the fireworks with a dangerously short fuse…

The bell at the front of the shop tinkled, and Wah clicked her teeth—she hadn’t heard his key in the lock, which meant he’d left the door open again. It was bad enough he insisted on making deliveries to all the family associations himself, but his forgetting to lock up was simply unsafe. Ducking through the curtain, her slippers whisking against the boards, she saw his familiar silhouette across the dark shop. He’d turned and was locking the door.

“It doesn’t do much good, now,” she said, trying to keep the chiding tone from her voice. “When I’m in the back, though, try to remember to—oh!”

The white man smiling at her across the shadowed bins and shelves was not her father.

“I sorry, honorable sir, but we closed right now,” she said, speaking with deliberate fresh-off-the-boat awkwardness even as her mind raced.

Her father was probably talking over old times at some association by now, and might not return for hours. It wasn’t late enough yet for the police to be rattling doorknobs, and they rarely took much notice of crime in the Chinatown anyway. Who would hear if she screamed? Mr. Dong next door, perhaps, but perhaps not…

Top shelf, middle aisle. As she stepped around the counter, she studiously kept her eyes on the intruder, instead of the modest display of cutlery. If she could just—

“How excellent,” the stranger said, speaking in perfectly unaccented Szechuanese as he glided toward her, past the knives. “That means we shall not be disturbed.”

The smile he gave her stretched his strangely ageless face into a rictus—like most white men, his exotic features somehow coalesced into a bland, nondescript whole. His black coat and broad-brimmed hat were wet with the night’s rain, leaving puddles on the floor, but his skin looked parched as scrolls from a temple. He reached inside his coat, and Wah flinched, wondering if it would be a weapon, or worse, handcuffs—given the choice between a stickup man or a plainclothes Seattle policeman, she would take the lesser villain. Instead, he held out an envelope to her, as dry as the withered hand that held it.

“My name is Clarence Kernochan, and I have a business proposition to discuss with you.”

“My father—” Wah began, but he cut her off in the rude fashion of Americans, waggling the envelope.

“I trust you will surely find this to the advantage of both yourself and your father, Miss Sung.”

Wah looked back at his face, and in the instant before she saw him straight-on, she could have sworn that his black pupils seemed to undulate, as if something wriggled behind them.

The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron may be ordered directly from Word Horde or wherever better books are sold. Ask for The Children of Old Leech and other Word Horde titles at your favorite bookseller.

What to Read in July

Have you been asking yourself “What am I going to read this July?” Barnes & Noble has you covered with this handy list of new releases, including Word Horde’s own The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron. Here’s what B&N blogger Paul Goat Allen has to say about the anthology in his recommendation:

A nightmare-inducing tribute to Laird Barron and his Carnivorous Cosmos, this stellar anthology features 17 original stories from some of weird fiction’s brightest stars—John Langan, Gemma Files, Jeffrey Thomas, Michael Cisco, and Paul Tremblay, to name just a few. You will look under the bed after finishing this creepy collection.

Check out the full list of awesome reads at this link. To order The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron from B&N, click here.