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Like 9/11, confronting the horror of the 11/13 Paris attacks requires us to recognize the inherent fragility of our lives. We live in an ordered society. We’re lucky like that in the West. Sometimes terror shatters that order. We can confront this evil in a number of ways. We can employ whatever philosophy or belief system we use to give us comfort. We can get angry. We can despair. Or we can ignore it. Some combination of these aforementioned coping mechanisms can work too.

This is not an easy topic to build a book list about, but I am including titles that ponder the nature of evil and violence. I hope that at least one of them might supply some succor.

The Challenge Of Things:  Thinking Through Troubled Times / A.C. Grayling

Freedom:  Stories Celebrating The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights / anthology

Non-Violence:  Challenges And Prospects / Bidyut Chakrabarty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, OR 
11/20/2015

A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Featuring Neil Gaiman, Thomas Ligotti, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Ramsey Campbell, Lois H. Gresh and More w/ Artwork by David Ho

Independent specialty publisher Dark Regions Press has released the first ebook and trade paperback editions of A Mountain Walked: Great Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos edited by world renowned Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi. The book is available on their website at DarkRegions.com, on Amazon and to retailers in the Ingram catalog (ISBN: 978-1-62641-114-2).

H. P. Lovecraft wrote “The Call of Cthulhu” in 1926, initiating the Cthulhu Mythos, one of the most widely imitated shared-world universes in weird fiction. Even in his lifetime, many other writers added to the Mythos, and after his death hundreds if not thousands of authors of weird, fantasy, and science fiction have added their distinctive elaborations on Lovecraft’s basic themes and ideas.

Portland, OR
11/10/2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: darkregions.media@gmail.com

Clive Barker’s latest literary volume is entitled The Body Book and it’s being offered for preorder now in three signed formats from Dark Regions Press at: http://www.darkregions.com/books/clive-barkers-the-body-book

She Loves Me is a 2015 American short-film, directed by Andrew Michalski and starring Matthew Bannister and Maria Nicole Held. Now doing the rounds on the festival circuit, the film won best short horror film at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival.

On a summer’s eve, young sweethearts, Ben and Kat, settle upon a daisy-strewn locale, full of young love, foolish notions and, no doubt, a selection of savoury snacks. Ben is full of bashful good intentions and clumsy small-talk, whilst Kat is equally daffy, as I suspect you must be to partake of Scotch eggs and wine alfresco at midnight. When Ben professes his feelings via the age-old method of plucking one of the profligate daisies and yanking off the petals one-by-one to the refrain of, “she loves me, she loves me not…”, all goes westwards when he takes exception to her insolence, prompting a slightly disproportionate machete attack…

By Brittany Weaver

It was a 1974 candy-apple red Trans Am. It’d just been restored – the tires, brand new; the paint job, metallic flecked and hardly dried. Then it was stolen.

That night, I had parked it in my driveway, and the next morning? Gone. No one knows where it went. Not my neighbors, not the cops. It was like it had disappeared into thin air. Apparently cars can do that now.

Just so you know, the car means nothing to me. I’ve got others. It’s not even the money that bothers me.

I just wish I hadn’t left that body in the trunk.

Mental Floss’ November issue focuses on all things books. Camille Dodero profiles bestselling author James Patterson, he of the thrillers and love stories and multiple series and picture books. Patterson loves writing (longhand, every day!), and he loves reading. He’s using his millions to make sure people around the world have the chance to read and write, too:

In 2013, he took out a full-page ad in The New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly advocating for government intervention to help save America’s books, bookstores, and libraries. He also established a grant program for school libraries. Two months in, the fund had 28,000 requests. “Twenty-eight thousand just saying, ‘Please help us: We haven’t been able to buy books in seven years, we don’t have a librarian, the shelves are literally falling apart, how can we put books in here?” In 2015, Patterson raised his school contribution to $1.75 million.

Though…

Horror Addicts Writer’s Workshop Announcement!

OPENS: October 1st, 2015, 11:59pm PST
Deadline: December 31^st, 2015, 11:59pm PST.

This is an opportunity for aspiring horror or like-genre writers to have their work critiqued by professional writers based on story structure, plot, style, and character development. One lucky writer will have their work produced for a HorrorAddicts.net show for Season 11 in 2016.

Submission criteria:

1)      This workshop is free

2)      You must state you if you are under 18 at the time of submission. We will not accept stories from children younger than 15.

3)      By submitting to the workshop, you are stating this work is yours and yours alone and that you may submit it legally without publication ties. The work cannot be previously published in any form.

4)      Stories must be Gothic, Horror, Steampunk, Clockpunk, Fetish, Dark Fantasy, Horror Romance, or have a horror element of some…

It’s funny how editing commonalities come in spurts. In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of wordy phrases that can be shortened to “because.”

Do you ever use “due to the fact that”? Or maybe “owing to the fact that”?

How about “the reason is because” or “the reason is that”?

That type of wording is great when you’re working on NaNoWriMo and every word counts as you strive to hit 50,000 words by November 30, but in everyday writing, brevity goes a long way to clear communication.

Which of each pair is cleaner:

• School is cancelled due to the fact that a blizzard is forecasted.
• School is cancelled because of the blizzard.

• I like you because you are kind to animals.
• The reason I like  you is because of your kindness to animals.

• She failed the test because she didn’t study.
• The reason she failed the test is…

I Really Like Crimson Peak!

by Kristin Battestella

Struggling writer Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is quickly infatuated with Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) when the English baronet comes to Buffalo seeking investment in his proposed clay mining machine from Edith’s wealthy father Carter (Jim Beaver). The elder Cushing is skeptical of Sir Thomas and his stern older sister Lady Lucille (Jessica Chastain), and Edith’s childhood friend Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam) also hopes to protect her from the Sharpes – even after Edith marries Sir Thomas and moves to the dilapidated Allerdale Hall. The Sharpe family estate is sinking into its clay making hopes, turning the snow red and making for some suspicious bumps, creaks, and groans in the night. The gifted Edith, however, can see the ghostly inhabitants of the so called Crimson Peak, and the phantoms help her unravel the mysterious secrets surrounding Thomas and Lucille’s gruesome family…

Madre De Dios (2015)

LuchaGore Productions

Director: Gigi Saul Guerrero

A woman wakes up bound to an altar, helpless as she is transformed into a flesh and blood statue of Santa Muerte by two elderly Brujos whose sole purpose is to conjure the anti-Christ into our plane of existence.

Before I review this seven minute short film, let’s discuss Gigi Saul Guerrero and her LuchaGore banner. Having made several short films, including the outstanding El Gigante and the highlight of Mexico Barbaro, the segment titled Día de los Muertos, Guerrero has quickly become the most interesting voice in horror. Her style displays a dark, gritty look that is uncomparable to virtually anyone out there. Having secured Raven Banner’s backing for the feature length version of El Gigante, the world is about to have a wakeup call and return horror to its brutal, uncompromising roots.

Creep: An Homage to Classic Horror (2015)

Formed Filled Productions

Director: Daymond C. Roman

When a date ends abruptly, a young woman takes her chances on a long walk home. Little does she know, the creep she left behind in the car is not the same person that is stalking her.

In this 6 minute short film, Roman and crew stay true to the title and play homage to classic horror tropes. This stalk and slash short is sure to please any fan of slasher stories. While the finale isn’t necessarily new or shocking, it is nice to see and left me with a grin on my face.

It is nearing the end of the year which means the world will be inundated with “best of” lists. I will be guilty of releasing several lists and I’ve already started soul searching in order to produce the most pretentious 1-10 on the planet. The following 15 movies  might have gone under your radar and I wanted to get them some press. In an effort to keep this list from being 50 deep I’ve decided to recommend films that were released in under 1,000 theaters

Honorable Mentions: It Follows, Dope, Sicario, Bridge of Spies, The Gift, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and a whole lot more.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

What I love most about this film is that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon trusted his actors and let them own the material. The camera lingers on their faces and there are moments that will leave…