A missing tech mogul…
…a jaded reporter…
…a damaged AI returned from a horrifying reality…
…and something lurking in the woods.

When journalist Den Secord is tasked with locating enigmatic tech guru Gregor Makarios, he soon finds his understanding of reality under threat. At the edge of the world, surrounded by primeval forests, in the paradisiacal environs of Gregor’s hi-tech hermitage, Den learns of the true nature of our Universe.

This is the way the world ends.

Heart of Darkness meets The Magus meets bleeding-edge psychedelic gnosticism in Stonefish, the debut novel from Scott R. Jones (When Stars Are Right, Shout Kill Revel Repeat).

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Some recent returns means lots of new arrivals in our Scratch & Dent section. And while the condition of these books is less than perfect, we’d still love to find good homes for them. Perhaps your home. Novels, collections, and anthologies at great prices! Help us make room for more.

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Word Horde books are now available on the Apple Books ebook platform. Look for our Class of 2019: Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods, Brian Hauser’s Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows, Craig Laurance Gidney’s A Spectral Hue, Nicole Cushing’s A Sick Gray Laugh, Jeffrey Thomas’s The Unnamed Country, and more (including Scott R. Jones’s Stonefish). And we’re still uploading, so if you don’t spot your favorite Word Horde titles at Apple Books now, you will soon!

Max Booth III said the following of Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods, “Consider this book the Geek Love of witchcraft. […] This is the best debut novel you’ll read all year.” And Max also names Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods one of the best weird and dark books of 2019 for the San Antonio Current, saying, “Laben’s novel is a gloomy celebration of black magic and everything that comes with it.”

NPR and Vernacular Books both picked Craig Laurance Gidney’s A Spectral Hue as one of the best books of 2019, as did Rosanne Rabinowitz and Bogi Takács.

LitReactor called Nicole Cushing’s A Sick Gray Laugh and John Langan’s The Fisherman two of the best books of the decade!

Signal Horizon‘s Carson Winter picked Nicole Cushing’s A Sick Gray Laugh and Brian Hauser’s Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows as two of the best books of 2019

TBN Weekly recommended Jeffrey Thomas’ The Unnamed Country, as did Paul StJohn Mackintosh of Grey Dog Tales, who writes, ““This is a modern classic of writing about another country or culture on the level of Lafcadio Hearn or ltalo Calvino.”

And we had a nice write-up in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, too!

“A deft look at obsession through a group of outsider artists in touch with something truly outside. A Spectral Hue is the kind of book that creeps up on you, baring its teeth only once you have moved calmly into the depths of its trap.” –Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World

“A town and an art movement arise from a ghostly source in this arresting, hypnotic debut novel from Craig Laurance Gidney. Upon a grim undercoat drawn from America’s shameful histories of slavery and homophobic oppression, Gidney masterfully layers a centuries-spanning tale of survival, triumph, and obsession, with a memorable cast of characters linked by a secret both joyous and frightening. No simple tale of terror, A Spectral Hue enthralls as much as it disturbs.” –Mike Allen, author of Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident

“A Spectral Hue is a subtly disturbing hymn to the joy and terror of working with a muse, to queer passion and creation, and to the power of art to channel both ancestral voices and personal journeys with equal intensity.” –Ruthanna Emrys, author of Winter Tide

Ask for A Spectral Hue at your favorite bookseller, or order your copy direct from Word Horde today!

For generations, the marsh-surrounded town of Shimmer, Maryland has played host to a loose movement of African-American artists, all working in different media, but all utilizing the same haunting color. Landscape paintings, trompe l’oeil quilts, decorated dolls, mixed-media assemblages, and more, all featuring the same peculiar hue, a shifting pigment somewhere between purple and pink, the color of the saltmarsh orchid, a rare and indigenous flower.

Graduate student Xavier Wentworth has been drawn to Shimmer, hoping to study the work of artists like quilter Hazel Whitby and landscape painter Shadrach Grayson in detail, having experienced something akin to an epiphany when viewing a Hazel Whitby tapestry as a child. Xavier will find that others, too, have been drawn to Shimmer, called by something more than art, something in the marsh itself, a mysterious, spectral hue.

From Lambda Literary Award-nominated author Craig Laurance Gidney (Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories, Skin Deep Magic) comes A Spectral Hue, a novel of art, obsession, and the ghosts that haunt us all.

“A Spectral Hue is a subtly disturbing hymn to the joy and terror of working with a muse, to queer passion and creation, and to the power of art to channel both ancestral voices and personal journeys with equal intensity.” –Ruthanna Emrys, author of Winter Tide

“This is the book we have been waiting for. One of our best short fiction writers finally brings his edgy scary sexy gifts to bear on a novel. A brilliant concept, gorgeously executed. Haunting and unforgettable. Go ahead and give it all the awards right now.” –Sam J. Miller, Nebula Award-winning author of Blackfish City

Cover by Matthew Revert

Pub Date: June 18, 2019

Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-939905-50-5

Format: eBook
ISBN-13: 978-1-939905-51-2

Preorder today!