Something Stirs

Today’s news of note is that THE NUMBER 121 TO PENNSLYVANIA & OTHERS, my collection from Cemetery Dance Publications has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, and it’s in fine company indeed.

From the HWA website blog:

Each year, the Horror Writer’s Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the seminal horror work, Dracula. The Stoker Awards were instituted immediately after the organization’s incorporation in 1987.

To ameliorate the competitive nature of awards, the Stokers are given “for superior achievement,” not for “best of the year,” and the rules are deliberately designed to make ties fairly probable. The first awards were presented in 1988 (for works published in 1987), and they have been presented every year since. The award itself is an eight-inch replica of a fanciful haunted house, designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author.

The Stoker Awards, like the Oscars, are non-juried awards. Any work of Horror first published in the English language may be considered for a Stoker during the year of its publication. The HWA membership at large recommends worthy works for consideration. A preliminary ballot is compiled using a formula based on recommendations. Two rounds of voting by our Active members determine first the finalists, and then the winners. The winners are announced and the awards presented at a gala banquet held in conjunction with HWA’s annual conference, usually in June.

This year’s finalists for the Bram Stoker Awards are:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

COFFIN COUNTY by Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Books)
THE REACH by Nate Kenyon (Leisure Books)
DUMA KEY by Stephen King (Scribner)
JOHNNY GRUESOME by Gregory Lamberson (Bad Moon Books/Medallion Press)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

MIDNIGHT ON MOURN STREET by Christopher Conlon (Earthling Publications)
THE GENTLING BOX by Lisa Mannetti (Dark Hart Press)
MONSTER BEHIND THE WHEEL by Michael McCarty and Mark McLaughlin (Delirium Books)
THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by David Oppegaard (St. Martin’s Press)
FROZEN BLOOD by Joel A. Sutherland (Lachesis Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

THE SHALLOW END OF THE POOL by Adam-Troy Castro (Creeping Hemlock Press)
MIRANDA by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
REDEMPTION ROADSHOW by Weston Ochse (Burning Effigy Press)
THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. ZACH by Gene O’Neill (Bad Moon Books)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

PETRIFIED by Scott Edelman (Desolate Souls)
THE LOST by Sarah Langan (Cemetery Dance Publications)
THE DUDE WHO COLLECTED LOVECRAFT by Nick Mamatas, and Tim Pratt (Chizine)
EVIDENCE OF LOVE IN A CASE OF ABANDONMENT by M. Rickert (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
TURTLE by Lee Thomas (Doorways)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
HORROR LIBRARY, VOL. 3 edited by R. J. Cavender (Cutting Block Press)
BENEATH THE SURFACE edited by Tim Deal (Shroud Publishing)
UNSPEAKABLE HORROR edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder (Dark Scribe Press)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

THE NUMBER 121 TO PENNSYLVANIA by Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance Publications)
MAMA’S BOY and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel (Apex Publications)
JUST AFTER SUNSET by Stephen King (Scribner)
MR. GAUNT AND OTHER UNEASY ENCOUNTERS by John Langan (Prime Books)
GLEEFULLY MACABRE TALES by Jeff Strand (Delirium Books)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

CHEAP SCARES by Gregory Lamberson (McFarland)
ZOMBIE CSU by Jonathan Maberry (Citadel Press)
A HALLOWE’EN ANTHOLOGY by Lisa Morton (McFarland)
THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR by Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

THE NIGHTMARE COLLECTION by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)
THE PHANTOM WORLD by Gary William Crawford (Sam’s Dot Publishing)
VIRGIN OF THE APOCALYPSE by Corrine De Winter (Sam’s Dot Publishing)
ATTACK OF THE TWO-HEADED POETRY MONSTER by Mark McLaughlin and Michael McCarty (Skullvines Press)

Never one to turn down the opportunity to have fun and do something different, I can officially announce that I will be playing one of the male leads–Cory–in Greg Lamberson’s SLIME CITY MASSACRE, the long-awaited sequel to his cult classic SLIME CITY, an over-the-top, hilarious gorefest, which start shooting in July. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, below you can read the press release and see the delightfully gruesome cover art for the film…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LAMBERSON MASSACRES SLIME CITY IN JULY

CONTACT: Greg Lamberson, The Slime City Massacre Company – glamberson@verizon.net

Cameras will roll on SLIME CITY MASSACRE, writer-director Gregory Lamberson’s sequel to his 1988 splatter film SLIME CITY, in Buffalo, New York, this July. The film is being produced by Marc Makowski, who co-produced the original.

SLIME CITY MASSACRE serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the original cult film. Flashbacks set in 1959 show how cult leader Zachary Devon formed his Coven of Flesh, and why its members committed ritual suicide, setting the stage for the events depicted in SLIME CITY. In the new film’s main narrative, set in a post holocaust New York City, four survivors discover Zachary’s elixir and “Himalayan yogurt” in the ruins of his soup kitchen and become possessed by the spirits of the dead cult members. The story focuses on a battle between three factions: the“Slime Heads,” cannibals and mercenaries.

Popular actress and FANGORIA Radio hostess Debbie Rochon, award-winning horror author Kealan Patrick Burke, and newcomer Jennifer Bihl (who appeared in Lamberson’s short film GRUESOME) join SLIME CITY stars Robert C. Sabin and Mary Bogle for this new chapter in the slime saga. Other parts will be played by scream queen Brooke Lewis, erotic/horror author and tarot card reader Sephera Giron, and Tommy Sweeney, who starred in Lamberson’s UNDYING LOVE and co-starred in NAKED FEAR.

“It’s a much more ambitious project than any of my previous films,” says Lamberson, who anticipates completing the film for a 2010 release. “It’s full of action and really outrageous, over the top gore sequences, as you would expect from any film aimed at fans of 1980s horror flicks.”

The film will utilize old school latex special make-up effects and cutting edge digital work. Special make-up effects will be handled by Craig Lindberg in New York City and Zombified Studios in Buffalo, with R.J. Sevin, one of the founders of Creeping Hemlock Press, creating the digital effects.

Last year, Medallion Press and Bad Moon Books published Lamberson’s novel Johnny Gruesome and McFarland published his nonfiction book CHEAP SCARES! Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets. This October, Medallion Press is reprinting his first novel, Personal Demons, as a mass market paperback.

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Greg Lamberson’s website: www.slimeguy.com