The Keeper makes the Stoker Award's Final Ballot

Everybody!

THE KEEPER made the Final Ballot for the best first novel Stoker Award, 2006. Winners will be voted for by active members of the Horror Writer's Association, and announced early April at the World Horror Convention in Toronto. Should readers be interested in checking out works from other fine authors in the genre, the nominees are as follows:

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL

Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
Lisey's Story by Stephen King (Scribner)
Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
Pressure by Jeff Strand (Earthling)
Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL

Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
The Keeper by Sarah Langan (William Morrow)
Bloodstone by Nate Kenyon (Five Star)
The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martins)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
Hallucigenia by Laird Barron (The Magazine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction)
Mamas Boy by Fran Friel (Insidious Publications)
Bloodstained Oz by Christopher Golden and James A.
Moore (Earthling Publications)
Clubland Heroes by Kim Newman (Retro Pulp Tales)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION

Tested by Lisa Morton (Cemetery Dance)
Balance by Gene O'Neill (Cemetery Dance)
Feeding the Dead Inside by Yvonne Navarro(Mondo
Zombie)
FYI by Mort Castle (Masques V)
�31/10� by Stephen Volk (Dark Corners)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY

Aegri Somnia: The Apex Featured Writer Anthology
edited by Jason Sizemore (Apex)
Mondo Zombie edited by John Skipp (Cemetery Dance)
Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe Lansdale (Subterranean)
Alone on the Darkside edited by John Pelan (Roc)

Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION

Destinations Unknown by Gary Braunbeck (Cemetery
Dance)
American Morons by Glen Hirshberg (Earthling
Publications)
The Commandments by Angeline Hawkes (Nocturne Press)
The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (Golden
Gryphon)
Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear by Terry
Dowling (Cemetery Dance)


Superior Achievement in NONFICTION

Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We
Die by Michael Largo (Harper)
Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of
Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth (Baylor Press)
Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished byRocky Wood
(Cemetery Dance)
Cinema Macabre edited by Mark Morris (PS Publishing)


Superior Achievement in POETRY

Shades Fantastic by Bruce Boston (Gromagon Press)
Valentine: Short Love Poems by Corrine de Winter
(Black Arrow Press)
The Troublesome Amputee by John Edward Lawson (Raw Dog
Screaming Press)
Songs of a Sorceress by Bobbi Sinha-Morey (Write
Words, Inc.)

** Some worthy works that did not make the ballot, but are worth investigating:
Jennifer Egan, THE KEEP
Nick Mamatas (2007), UNDER MY ROOF
Cormac McArthy, THE ROAD
Joe Hill (2007), HEART-SHAPED BOX
David Wellington, MONSTER ISLAND

Short Fiction:
Brenna Yovanoff Graham's "The Virgin Butcher": http://www.chizine.com/virgin_butcher.htm
Nicholas Kaufmann's "Toad Lily"

World Horror Convention

I'm on the program. Hooray! I'll be signing books that Friday , March 30th, at 8pm, and on a panel April 1 at 11am: YOUNG BLOOD: NEW WRITERS TO LOOK OUT FOR.

Also, I came up with a list of must have horror/dark fiction at HFNN's Reading Room.
A few of the picks:

The Kingdom of This World by Alego Carpentier-The carnage of Haiti in the aftermath of French colonialism. Dogs eat slaves. Aborted fetuses are, "rejected from heaven, which wanted nothing to do with those who died, ignoring the gods." Bulls blood and kings are buried within fortresses. The place becomes hell on earth, and it’s described beautifully.

Confessions of a Crap Artist by Philip K Dick- A satire of the upper middle class, proving that people who play golf are crazier than cult members. By a mile.

The Lover by Margeurite Duras- A young woman learns her currency at an early age in this story about the violence women commit against each other.

Corregidora by Gayl Jones-The story of the great-granddaughter of a slave, who retraces her terrible family history, Chinatown style.

Ironweed by William Kennedy- A band of homeless friends in upstate New York shuffle through their days, unable to escape their haunting pasts.

The Shining by Stephen King- Best haunted house novel ever.

The Ecstatic by Victor LaValle- A first novel with teeth about an obese college dropout who moves home to recover from a nervous breakdown, only to discover that his family is crazier than he is.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson- Post apocalyptic zombie-vampires versus the last man on earth. Love it!

1984 by George Orwell- Read it. Love it. Read it again.

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk-The villains are real estate agents and lawyers, of course.

Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub-Excruciating and terrifying. Probably the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. You corrupted me, Peter Straub!

Plays:

MacBeth by William Shakespeare-The horses eat each other! What could be better?

Our Town by Thorton Wilder-This play is creeeeepy.

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams-If I could, I’d kick Stanley Kowalski in the head.

Collections:

Trailer Park by Russell Banks-Banks nails the despondent voice of people who’ve given up hope, but go on living. His sympathy for them, and his knowledge of their internal lives, makes everything he writes a page-turner.

Labyrinths by Luis Borges

The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka- My favorite is “A Hunger Artist”. Apparently, Kafka thought everything he wrote was gut-bustingly funny. He was bananas.

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link- Wry, wise, and amazing.

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore- In “Terrific Mother,” a woman falls and accidentally kills her friend’s baby. A serious social gaffe.

Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque by Joyce Carol Oates- Dark fiction with honesty and brains.