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

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!

“Other countries have conquered us over our long history, and sometimes they changed our name. Hundreds of years ago, our Emperor Tho tried to think of ways to protect his country from being attacked again, after he managed to drive out the last invaders. And he knew he had to change the name his enemies had given to his country. Then Tho had an idea… a way to keep other people from wanting to come here and steal his empire. He would hide it from their eyes, and their minds, and the eyes and minds of any demon lords who might try to bring more bad luck to his empire. So he gave our land the name it has to this day.”

“And what name is that?”

“The Unnamed Country.”

From Jeffrey Thomas, creator of Punktown, comes The Unnamed Country, a mosaic novel weaving tales of a land and people poised between the ancient traditions of the past and the burgeoning technology of the future. Where devils, gods, and ghosts still haunt the land, and where you may just discover a unicorn.

“Jeffrey Thomas has built a temple for you to visit, but he does not stop at the temple or even the gods for whom the temple stands. He has also realized for you the people who worship there, and the people who refuse to worship there, and the people who play video games of their gods’ adventures, and the people who sell lottery tickets and unicorn horn smoothies to tourists in the shadow of that temple. You might be one of those tourists when you enter, but as with all powerful temples you won’t be one by the time you leave.” –Brian Hauser, author of Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows

Cover art by Long Pham. Cover design by Scott R Jones.

Preorder your copy today.

It requires an army of people to put together an anthology like The Children of Old Leech, so a huge THANK YOU! goes out to the following: Co-editor Justin Steele; authors Allyson Bird, Jesse Bullington, Michael Cisco, Jesse James Douthit-Nicolay, Gemma Files, Richard Gavin, J. T. Glover, Cody Goodfellow, T.E. Grau, Orrin Grey, Michael Griffin, Stephen Graham Jones, John Langan, Daniel Mills, Scott Nicolay, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Molly Tanzer, Jeffrey Thomas, and Paul Tremblay; copyeditor Marty Halpern; hardcover artist/designer Matthew Revert; softcover artist Dalton Rose; softcover designer Scott R. Jones; and, of course, Laird Barron, for letting all of us play in his universe. Thanks also to all of you who purchased the book (and other Word Horde titles), and to all of the readers and reviewers who have taken the time to recommend the book to others. Thanks to the Shirley Jackson Awards Board of Directors and jurors. And thanks to everyone who shared a toast to Old Leech with us back when we launched the book. Cheers!

Read the full list of nominees here: http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/nominees/

HorrorTalk today reviews The Children of Old Leech, saying, “The Children of Old Leech is about paying tribute to a man who has made us be afraid of what lives in the woods in new and terrifying ways, but it also ends up being an outstanding collection of short fiction by some of the best authors out there. Throw in an introduction by Justin Steele and an afterword by Ross E. Lockhart, undoubtedly two of the best dark fiction editors and anthologists, and what you get is a book worthy of being followed into the woods on a dark, moonless night.”

Read the full review at this link, and ask for The Children of Old Leech by name wherever books are sold. Or order direct from Word Horde.

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In his flat on the third floor of the narrow building he had bought with all his savings, ill-gotten and otherwise, Hong pulled a bottle out of the plastic shopping bag she had fetched from her Honda’s seat compartment. “My father likes to drink this sometimes,” she told Gorch. Smiling with charming if unconvincing coyness, she further explained, “It’s good for a man’s baby.”

“Baby?”

“You know,” she said. She pointed toward his crotch and giggled.

“Ah, I see. Makes baby grow up big and strong, yeah?”

“Yesss.”

“Let’s have a look.” He held out his hand. “I’ve seen these things a million times here but I’ve never really wanted to try it before.”

“Oh, but you will drink this one, won’t you? Because it is from me?” She passed him the bottle.

“For you, and for my baby, I’ll do it.”

It was a bottle of ruou, or rice wine, and he had drunk that on its own. But this type of ruou, which he’d seen sold at gift shops such as those at the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Saigon National Museum, had conspicuous extras stuffed into the bottle. Usually it was a cobra, preserved in the yellowish wine as if pickled in formaldehyde, maybe with a huge black scorpion or a fistful of smaller snakes and some herbs added for good measure. Hong’s gift did have some blanched-looking herbs at the bottom, but no scorpion, and the snake coiled inside wasn’t a cobra, unless its hood was closed.

Gorch turned the bottle around slowly to see it from all angles, and held it up in front of the fluorescent ceiling light. His brows tightened. Definitely not a cobra. And maybe it was a result of the animal’s saturated tissues being distorted, but he almost questioned whether it was even a snake. He was reminded of the animal called a worm lizard, an amphisbaenian, which possessed a long pinkish body that looked segmented like an earthworm, with only a rudimentary pair of forelegs. It almost seemed this creature had such forelimbs, if withered, unless those were just bits of sloughing skin. Its eyes were bleached dull gray. It was looped in on itself within the glass, coiled around and around in a spiral as if chasing itself unto infinity.

“A dragon fetus, perhaps? Ace.” He handed her back the bottle to open. He took down a shot glass. “Are you going to drink it with me?”

“It’s a drink for men,” she told him. “I don’t have a baby.” Her smile was a mixture of carnality and passable innocence that made his stomach squirm with hunger, as if he had his own dragon fetus coiled inside him.

She filled his shot glass, and he took a tentative sip. He tried not to show his disgust lest he insult her. After all, her father had unknowingly sacrificed this elixir for his benefit. It tasted just as he had expected: crude rice wine mixed with the essence of a reptile terrarium.

“Do you like it?”

Gorch didn’t think he’d be stocking this beverage in his pub anytime soon, but he said, “A fine vintage. Cheers.” He took another sip.

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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.

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.

Scott R. Jones of Martian Migraine Press touches onto core fears in his review of The Children of Old Leech, sharing a chilling tale of a hollow tree in his detailed examination of stories by Gemma Files, Molly Tanzer, T.E. Grau, Richard Gavin, Paul Tremblay, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., John Langan, and Cody Goodfellow, concluding: “Each is a class in storytelling, every one is entertaining, and every other one is thought provoking. Lockhart and Steele have a winner on their hands, I think; this is one I’ll keep coming back to, much as I do with Laird’s work. Reading TCoOL was like standing in that Tree beside that lake in the hills, up to my ankles in smoky rot and grey grubs, unable to move, while the sun dipped down to dusk. Recommended.” Read the full Martian Migraine Press review at this link.

Over at Betwixt Book Reviews, Benito Corral also digs deep, singling out tales by Gemma Files, Orrin Grey, Jeffrey Thomas, T.E. Grau, Michael Griffin, Cody Goodfellow, and John Langan, saying, “Each story in The Children of Old Leech leads you deeper and deeper into the ‘carnivorous cosmos’ of Laird Barron; all the authors here have crafted glorious tributes to the master, faithfully plumbing his Mythos to create a truly stunning collection.” The review concludes, “The Children of Old Leech is a triumph for Lockhart and Steele, and a tremendous gift for purveyors of dark fiction. Look for this volume to be on multiple ‘best of’ lists this year. Mr Barron would be proud!” Read the full Betwixt Book Reviews review at this link.

The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron is now shipping from Word Horde. Ask for the anthology and other fine Word Horde titles at your favorite bookseller.

There are Things – terrifying Things – whispered of in darkened forests beyond the safe comfort of firelight: The Black Guide, the Broken Ouroboros, the Pageant, Belphegor, Old Leech…

These Things have always been here.

They predate you. They will outlast you.

This book pays tribute to those Things.

For We are the Children of Old Leech… and we love you.

Featuring all new stories by many of the brightest lights in dark fiction:

Allyson Bird
Michael Cisco
Gemma Files
Richard Gavin
J. T. Glover & Jesse Bullington
Cody Goodfellow
T.E. Grau
Orrin Grey
Michael Griffin
Stephen Graham Jones
John Langan
Daniel Mills
Scott Nicolay & Jesse James Douthit-Nicolay
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Molly Tanzer
Jeffrey Thomas
Paul Tremblay

Edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele
Cover Design by Matthew Revert

Pub date: July 15, 2014

Pre-order today!