Tag Archives: david peak

THE HORROR BUNDLE FROM WORD HORDE

Word Horde is proud to present a collaboration with StoryBundle, curated by Molly Tanzer. Here’s Molly:

We are fortunate enough to be witnessing a lush flowering of horror. From New Weird to throwback splatterpunk, the modes and expressions of the genre these days are as diverse as its writers. Whether you’re intimately familiar with the contemporary horror field, or just looking to dip your toe in a very deep—and monster-infested—pond, this bundle of horror novels and collections from sensational independent publisher Word Horde is not to be missed. You’re sure to find something strange, something scary, something transgressive, something that jumps out at you and demands to be reckoned with.

Word Horde’s list is eclectic, in the best way. Readers will find plenty of cosmic horror here, such as Brian Hauser’s Memento Mori, nestled alongside literary works such as John Langan’s The Fisherman, and lighter fare such as my own weird western Vermilion. You’ll also find a lot of music-inspired horror such as David Peak’s Corpsepaint, Tony McMillen’s An Augmented Fourth, and Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods. If you like your horror shorter, if not necessarily sweeter, we have a few stand-out collections, too. Orrin Grey’s Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales will dazzle you, Nadia Bulkin’s She Said Destroy will rebuke you, and Livia Llewellyn’s Furnace will incinerate you from within. As you can see, every book in this bundle has been selected because it’s essential reading for the up-to-date reader of modern horror fiction.

Like all speculative fiction, horror serves as a lens; as a mirror, really. When we read horror, we read about ourselves. That’s why it makes us shiver and squirm. So, enjoy seeing yourself reflected throughout the Horror Bundle from Word Horde. Only you’ll know if you’re seeing yourself in the heroes—or the monsters.

–Molly Tanzer

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.
• Corpsepaint by David Peak
• A Sick Gray Laugh by Nicole Cushing
• A Hawk in the Woods by Carrie Laben
• The Fisherman by John Langan
• She Said Destroy by Nadia Bulkin

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular books, plus TEN more books, for a total of fifteen!
• Beneath by Kristi DeMeester
• An Augmented Fourth by Tony McMillen
• Memento Mori – The Fathomless Shadows by Brian Hauser
• Stonefish by Scott R. Jones
• Furnace by Livia Llewellyn
• Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales by Orrin Grey
• The Human Alchemy by Michael Griffin
• The Raven’s Table by Christine Morgan
• The Unnamed Country by Jeffrey Thomas
• Vermilion by Molly Tanzer

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com

David Peak’s CORPSEPAINT one of the best books of 2018

David Peak’s apocalyptic black metal novel Corpsepaint has been picked as one of the best books of 2018. Here’s Gemma Files (Experimental Flim) for LitReactor:

“Reading this book is like listening to Funeral Doom Metal while staring up at the Sub-Arctic sky during an eclipse of the moon and freezing to death, eyes riveted to the very last second on an endless cosmic void so bleak the stars barely seem to flicker. Everything’s simultaneously numinous and nihilistic, a ghost at best, a god at worst. It’s dazzlingly depressing. I loved it.”
Gemma Files, LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2018

Corpsepaint by David Peak

Likewise, Tony Jones of HorrorTalk picks David Peak’s Corpsepaint as one of his Top 10 Horror Novels of 2018:

“The astonishingly bleak Corpsepaint ranks amongst the finest releases of 2018 and is a totally riveting and lyrical read which had me hypnotised from beginning to end. I love intelligent, highly original horror novels, which are enveloped within layers of menace and nihilism, and this had it all.”
Tony’s Top 10 Horror Novels of 2018, HorrorTalk

Experience Corpsepaint for yourself, or give it as a gift to the metalhead in your life. You can find Corpsepaint wherever better books are sold, or order direct from Word Horde.

Publishers Weekly reviews David Peak’s Corpsepaint

Publishers Weekly reviews David Peak’s apocalyptic black metal novel Corpsepaint this week, calling it a “visceral, folkloric horror tale” and saying, “Peak uses nightmarish imagery, slowly building a sense of brooding, creeping dread. No one is innocent in Peak’s carnival of horrors, and readers hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel won’t find it, but those who appreciate moody, nihilistic horror will be rewarded.” Read the full review at this link.

Corpsepaint by David Peak

Other recent reviews of Corpsepaint include the following:

“David Peak captures the apocalyptic tension gripping the world today, one that is also expressed on several levels by the microcosm he has chosen to focus on: black metal.” —Invisible Oranges

“…a novel which throbs in astonishing levels of darkness right until its brutal and shocking apocalyptic ending, which fits uncomfortably within the broken world of today. A truly outstanding novel.” —HorrorTalk

“To anyone who enjoys bleak, innovative tales of impending anti-cosmic evil, this is a pretty sure bet.” —Aaron Besson

Have you read Corpsepaint yet? We’d love to hear what you think: Post a review, share a link, make a recommendation. Help us spread the weird!

She Said Destroy and Tales from a Talking Board nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award

Big news this week: Two Word Horde titles, Nadia Bulkin’s collection She Said Destroy and Ross E. Lockhart’s anthology Tales from a Talking Board have both been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. Needless to say, we are honored to have received this recognition, and to be included among so many talented authors and remarkable books. Read the full list of nominees here.

In other news, David Peak’s black metal novel Corpsepaint has been reviewed by This Is Horror, who say, “Bleak is a word used to describe so many releases within the horror and dark fiction worlds… With Corpsepaint, David Peak seeks to raise the bar in the reader’s understanding of what bleak really means.” Read the full review at this link.

And an interview with David Peak is featured this week at Hellnotes, where he talks about the origins of Corpsepaint, black metal, misanthropy, and Romanticism (among other things). Read the full interview here.

Fright Into Flight coming this fall, an open call, and Corpsepaint is unleashed upon an unsuspecting world…

This fall, Word Horde will be releasing Fright Into Flight, an anthology of horror stories by women themed around the idea of flight, edited by Amber Fallon. Whether you’re flying the unfriendly skies or safe on the ground, we think you’re going to enjoy this turbulent ride. Here’s a peek at the cover…

From the earliest depictions of winged goddesses to the delicate, paper-winged fairies of the Victorians, from valiant Valkyries to cliff-dwelling harpies, from record-setting pilots to fearless astronauts, women have long since claimed their place in the skies, among the clouds and beyond.

Word Horde presents Fright Into Flight, the debut anthology from Amber Fallon (The Terminal, The Warblers), in which women take wing. In these stories connected by the unifying thread of flight, authors including Damien Angelica Walters, Christine Morgan, and Nadia Bulkin have spread their wings and created terrifying visions of real life angels, mystical journeys, and the demons that lurk inside us all. Whether you like your horror quiet and chilling or more in-your-face and terrifying, there’s something here for every horror fan to enjoy.

You’re in for a bumpy ride..So fasten your seatbelt, take note of the emergency exits, hold on to your airsick bag, and remember that this book may be used as a flotation device in the event of a crash landing.

Amber Fallon has picked a great lineup of stories for Fright Into Flight so far, and we’ll be opening up preorders soon, but for now, we’re looking for a few more stories to fill in the gaps. As Amber says, “I want stories with wings and teeth, I want fear, I want heartbreak, I want depravity and darkness. I want to read things that will make me afraid to look up into the sky. The interpretation of the theme ‘flight’ is really up to you. You can go more traditional and give me stories of airports, airplanes, and demons on the wing or you could stretch it and offer tales of winged harpies, space crafts, flying beasts, angels, demons, or anything in between. The ideal story would be between 2,000 and 5,000 words in length.” If you’re a woman who has the right stuff, reprint or original, please drop Amber a line at amber[at]amberfallon[dot]net. This open call closes Monday, May 14, 2018, so move with the speed of Nike if you want your story to be considered.

We’ve also just released David Peak’s black metal horror novel Corpsepaint onto the world. Here’s just some of the press Corpsepaint has received so far…

“If you live and breathe both black metal and literary horror, this book is a gift.” –CVLT Nation

“An icy hymn to apocalypses both cosmic and personal, David Peak’s novel is as savage and grim as the music of Darkthrone, but also as intricate and otherworldly as that of Emperor. A black metal masterpiece…” –Ginger Nuts of Horror

“I loved Corpsepaint. I love black metal, I love cosmic horror. This book is a match made in heaven (or should that be Hell?!) for me.” –The Grim Reader

“Cosmic-pessimism is Peak’s speciality, and when you combine that with the brutal aggression of a black metal band recording an album with a strange cult act, you know things are going to get pretty weird.” –This Is Horror

Corpsepaint is best read at maximum volume. Ask for Corpsepaint wherever better books are sold, or order direct from Word Horde today.

Cover Reveal: CORPSEPAINT, by David Peak

COMING WALPURGISNACHT–April 30, 2018–from David Peak (The Spectacle of the Void) comes Corpsespaint, a novel of black metal brutality, human malevolence, and pure cosmic horror.

Corpsepaint by David Peak

It’s been years since the groundbreaking debut of black metal band Angelus Mortis, and that first album, Henosis, has become a classic of the genre, a harrowing primal scream of rage and anger. With the next two albums, Fields of Punishment and Telos, Angelus Mortis cemented a reputation for uncompromising, aggressive music, impressing critics and fans alike. But the road to success is littered with temptation, and over the next decade, Angelus Mortis’s leader, Max, better known as Strigoi, became infamous for bad associations and worse behavior, burning through side-men and alienating fans.

Today, at the request of their record label, Max and new drummer Roland are traveling to Ukraine to record a comeback album with the famously reclusive cult act Wisdom of Silenus. What they discover when they get there will go far deeper than the aesthetics of the genre, and the music they create–antihuman, antilife–ultimately becomes a weapon unto itself.

Equally inspired by the fractured, nightmarish novels of John Hawkes, the blackened dreamscapes of cosmic-pessimist philosophy, and the music of second-wave black metal bands, author David Peak’s Corpsepaint is an exploration of creative people summoning destructive powers while struggling to express what it means to be human.

Here’s some of the praise David Peak’s Corpsepaint has received so far:

Corpsepaint is an imaginative, doom-laden foray into the contested domain coupling black metal’s disabused hostility to liberal-capitalist ideology with an ethereal and perforce transgressive henosis of hate.”
—Edia Connole, co-author of Floating Tomb: Black Metal Theory

“Novels about rock bands are usually just that: novels about rock bands: depictions, imitations. Peak’s Corpsepaint is much more than that. It captures the dark spirit, howling aesthetic and nihilistic philosophy of black metal and makes it the motor of the fiction. A grim and unforgiving book that steps deeply into the darkness and invites you to follow.”
—Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses

“Beautifully, wonderfully, tragically dismal! Thought provoking horror that reaches deep inside you, rips out your still-beating heart, then asks you to consider what it means.”
—Amber Fallon, author of The Warblers

“Sliding into darkness and doom like a tourbus on black ice, Corpsepaint starts harder and darker than most poser potboilers finish, with a true metalhead’s understanding that the real demons of nihilistic aggression and self-destruction are more diabolical than anything Tipper Gore thought she heard playing Stained Class backwards. When the amoral engine of metal madness reveals its true philosophy and purpose, the grimy walls falls away and the intimate green-room misery becomes a coldly glorious symphony of cosmic horror. Get in the pit with this one. You won’t want to come out… and it won’t let you.”
—Cody Goodfellow, Wonderland Award-winning author of All-Monster Action and Sleazeland

“A work of true cosmic horror set in the death-tinged world of the black metal scene. Peak drags the reader below ground to confront forces seeking to spread a powerful, ancient darkness. Corpsepaint is a bleak, terrifying ride.“
—Michael Griffin, author of The Human Alchemy

“This book is brutal in the way only stoner metalheads can say the word. But it’s also brutal in the way only real lived human suffering is. Total, unending and strangely life affirming if you can manage to walk away from its wreckage in any way intact. Corpsepaint bludgeons the senses with an eerie alchemy of occult dread, jackbooted human malevolence and surprisingly affecting sorrow. The spell cast here by Peak perfectly conjures up a sensation of being lost on a winter night in the woods and knowing that something ancient and inhuman watches your every step, marking you as trespasser and seeing you for what you know you truly are: alone.”
—Tony McMillen, author of An Augmented Fourth

“Gripping and mythic, bleak in a way that makes nihilism look cozy; if there’s a darker metal than black, this book is it.”
—Christine Morgan, author of The Raven’s Table

Corpsepaint is a bleak descent into the romance of drugs, decay, the occult, and black metal. This one will stay with you like the voice of a choir singing from the surface of long dead distant planets.”
—Christopher Slatsky, author of Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales

Order your copy of Corpsepaint today!