The Black Beacon Book of Horror: Release Date and Table of Contents

We're proud to announce the contributing authors and stories for The Black Beacon Book of Horror. This is going to be huge! The anthology will be published on Friday the 13th of October so everyone can grab an ebook or print copy in the lead-up to Halloween.

Now, are you ready to discover the line-up?

Drum roll...

The Guisers by David Turnbull
The House on the Bluff by Edward Lodi
The Choir by Kev Harrison
Ruby's Syzygy by Matthew R. Davis
Humus by Sam Dawson
Questions a Man Ought Not to Ask by Elizabeth Broadbent
Marjorie by Meg Belviso
Children of Blood by Greg Chapman
Quiver by Angelique Fawns
Cameo by Deborah Sheldon
The Great Invocation by David Schembri
Dominion by Jeff Wood
Divine Liquor by C.C. Adams
Landslide by Harris Coverley
Holiday Home by Cameron Trost
Her Mother's Lullaby by Micah Castle

For the first time ever, this anthology includes stories by both the cover artist, Greg Chapman, and the man behind our logo, David Schembri.

Cover Reveal: The Black Beacon Book of Horror

Our Patreon patrons have already seen it as part of their exclusive benefits, and now it's your turn. Behold Greg Chapman's cover for our very first anthology dedicated solely to horror stories, The Black Beacon Book of Horror! Submissions close tomorrow (the 28th of February) but we already know that this book will be teeming with eerie folk horror, mind-bending cosmic terror, and creepy psychological dread. Expect more news, including the announcement of the table of contents and the anticipated publication date, to be revealed by the end of March.

Is that a shiver of excitement running down your spine...or one of terror foretold? 

A Post-Apocalyptic Interview with Claire Davon

Our next anthology, Tales from the Ruins, is going to be a cataclysmic one! It will be released on the 25th of February but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just 99c instead of $3.99. To celebrate the imminent publication of the first Black Beacon Books anthology exclusively dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction, we’re interviewing the contributing authors. Behold the maniacal workings of their troubled minds!

Hi Claire,

Let’s make the first question a lighthearted one...hmm...okay, got it! Is your story simply an entertaining piece of fiction or are you giving us a peek at the terrifying fate tomorrow will unleash upon us?

My story actually stems from a dream I had back as a wee lass when we were always afraid that Russia was going to drop the "big one" on the US, or vice versa. It felt like a terrifyingly possible reality then, and it’s little different now—only perhaps the method of our demise as told in my story has been somewhat—altered.

What is it that makes post-apocalyptic fiction so appealing? Would the world be better off if more people read this genre?

We live in a world where disaster hangs over our head with every news story, so how can people not think about it? Post-apocalyptic fiction takes us to that natural conclusion. As for being better off if everyone read it? Depends on whether you like your sleep at night !

Do you have a favourite post-apocalyptic author?

Perhaps not an author per se, but I grew up reading all manner of SF and Fantasy, including John Wyndham and Richard Matheson. However, my favorite novel in the genre is The Stand by Stephen King.

Some people like to listen to music while reading. Which song can you imagine providing the soundtrack to your story? 

A heartbeat.

If you woke up in your story tomorrow, what would you do?

Probably the same thing my main character did! 

There are no firearms or ammunition. You have to choose an everyday object from the home or garden as your weapon of choice—what’s in your hands?

A shovel with a long handle.

Time to get more personal. Tell us three interesting facts about yourself. 

1. I live in Southern California and work at a movie studio
2. I used to party on the Sunset Strip in the 1980s/1990s
3. I tend to live life as though I have a soundtrack behind me and have been known to break out into song (to suit the occasion, of course)

What do you aim to give your readers?

A little bit of everything. I write in many genres so someone reading all of my stories will be in for a ride!

What are you working on now?

Edits for a contemporary romance, a PNR shifter novella, a superhero romance series and the final book in one of my self-pubbed PNR series.

Where can we find you online?

I’m lots of places, but here are three of my most active! Thanks for reading!
Website: www.clairedavon.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClaireDavonindieauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClaireDavon

Thanks for playing along. Good luck in the wastelands!

A Post-Apocalyptic Interview with Joseph S. Walker

Our next anthology, Tales from the Ruins, is going to be a cataclysmic one! It will be released on the 25th of February but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just 99c instead of $3.99. To celebrate the imminent publication of the first Black Beacon Books anthology exclusively dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction, we’re interviewing the contributing authors. Behold the maniacal workings of their troubled minds!

Hi Joseph,

Let’s make the first question a lighthearted one...hmm...okay, got it! Is your story simply an entertaining piece of fiction or are you giving us a peek at the terrifying fate tomorrow will unleash upon us?

Hopefully “Cast Upon The Water” is more of an entertainment than a prophecy. I don’t actually specify in my story exactly what caused the evident catastrophe, but it involves devastated land and rising waters. I don’t think you can read the story without thinking of climate change, and if it leads to a single reader taking that problem more seriously, great. For the most part, though, I just wanted to put a few characters in a terrible situation and see how they dealt with it.

What is it that makes post-apocalyptic fiction so appealing? Would the world be better off if more people read this genre?

The world would be better off if more people read, period. What they read is obviously important, but secondary. Unfortunately, post-apocalyptic fiction probably is popular right now because so many people do have an impending sense of doom. This is nothing new—Mary Shelley wrote a novel about a global plague that wipes out humanity hundreds of years ago. The most important moment for the genre, though, was certainly the introduction of nuclear weapons, which suddenly made the end of the world something more than hypothetical. Now we have to worry about the bomb, about pandemics, and about the climate. These are all, by the way, problems made much worse by widespread, determined stupidity, which brings us back to people needing to read more.

Do you have a favourite post-apocalyptic author? 

He obviously doesn’t always write in this genre, but I think the single greatest post-apocalyptic book I’ve read is “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy. It’s probably the text that was most influential on how I wrote my story.

Some people like to listen to music while reading. Which song can you imagine providing the soundtrack to your story? 

Is Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” too obvious?

If you woke up in your story tomorrow, what would you do? 

Cry some, I imagine, then try to find a library or someplace else with a stash of books where I could read away my remaining time. I’m not delusional enough to think I’d suddenly develop survival skills!

There are no firearms or ammunition. You have to choose an everyday object from the home or garden as your weapon of choice—what’s in your hands? 

The obvious choice is a kitchen knife, but truthfully my preference would be a baseball bat.

Time to get more personal. Tell us three interesting facts about yourself. 

-I didn’t begin publishing fiction until I was in my 40s.
-I’ve been to games in 21 Major League Baseball parks and hope to see all of them in my lifetime.
-During the pandemic I became obsessive about building Lego sets.

What do you aim to give your readers? 

Hopefully, a diverting and entertaining experience that will stick with them for a while. I hope most of my stories include a line, or an image, or a character that the reader will find themselves thinking about days later.

What are you working on now?

I write exclusively short stories, and almost all of them are in the mystery/crime genre. I usually have a few stories in different stages of development at any one time. By my count, I’ve had 85 stories published. I’m hoping to get to 100 by the end of the year! 

Where can we find you online? 

I have a website (https://jswalkerauthor.com/) and I’m on Twitter @JSWalkerAuthor. Among other things, the website has links to several of my stories that can be read online for free, so it’s a great way to get a taste of my work.

Thanks for playing along. Good luck in the wastelands!

Thanks. I’m honored to be part of Tales from the Ruins!

All Hail the Reviewer

All Hail the Reviewer (or Book Reviews: A Call to Arms) by Cameron Trost, Black Beacon Books

Independent publishers are always asking readers the same questions over and over again, probably because there are almost as many answers as there are bookworms out there. Why do we do this? Well, its quite simple; we don't have a marketing department, so we need to do our best to work things out for ourselves. Perhaps you've answered the kind of questions and surveys I'm taking about... Do you judge a book by its cover? Where do you buy your books? Choose ONE: print or ebook! Arghhh, hate that last one! But we do this because we want to put our books into the hands of readers likely to enjoy them. That's what the game is all about. Now, one of those questions you've probably been asked, and you've naturally been kind enough to answer, is: Do you read reviews before you buy a book? Am I right? You may have said yes, or you may have said no. Regardless of your answer, the fact of the matter is that many readers are more likely to buy a book with several ratings and reviews (and not just five-star ones) than a book that has none. Understandable, isn't it? That's why we keep posting on social media asking you to take a few minutes to leave a rating and review once you've finished one of our books. Ratings and reviews may not necessarily matter to you, but they do to other potential customers out there in online-land.

Consider this a call to arms to defend the indie approach to publishing. We don't want to (and can't afford to) pay for reviews, and to be honest, it doesn't fit with what we represent. We want to keep it real. So once you've finished that Black Beacon Books title you're currently reading, go and leave a rating and review wherever you can. There are links to the Amazon and Goodreads pages for each book right here on the website. You can even follow us on our Goodreads page. If you want to take it a step further, and you have a blog of your own, we're more than happy to get involved in helping you post reviews, sneak peeks, and interviews. Just get in touch. Anyhow, that's enough for now... I'll let you get back to reading that book of ours! 

 

 

A Post-Apocalyptic Interview with Adam Breckenridge

Our next anthology, Tales from the Ruins, is going to be a cataclysmic one! It will be released on the 25th of February but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just 99c instead of $3.99. To celebrate the imminent publication of the first Black Beacon Books anthology exclusively dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction, we’re interviewing the contributing authors. Behold the maniacal workings of their troubled minds!

Hi Adam,

Let’s make the first question a lighthearted one...hmm...okay, got it! Is your story simply an entertaining piece of fiction or are you giving us a peek at the terrifying fate tomorrow will unleash upon us? 

Well I certainly didn’t hope to bore anyone with it but I think I was trying to get at a particular angle of the apocalypse in the story by considering the way a certain small slice of the population would be little affected by it, though of course only for so long.

What is it that makes post-apocalyptic fiction so appealing? Would the world be better off if more people read this genre?

There can be something cathartic about apocalyptic fiction, especially in the times we live in, where apocalyptic scenarios feel all too imminent. It’s worth remembering that Greek tragedy often served the function of helping Athenians cope with their own struggles and uncertanties and I think this genre can do the same for us. It can even be optimistic in its way, since it’s a genre that is pretty much always about survivors it shows us how people can always endure even through the worst. That’s something I think most people could benefit from.

Do you have a favourite post-apocalyptic author? 

I don’t know if I can single out a particular author who I see as excelling specifically at this genre, though of course there are many superb works that have been produced. Samuel R. Delaney’s Dhalgren (sort of a mild apocalyptic novel) left a profound impression on me, as did Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. And of course we can’t discount all the great apocalyptic cinema out there, especially the Mad Max films.

Some people like to listen to music while reading. Which song can you imagine providing the soundtrack to your story?

Given its natural surroundings, I’d say no soundtrack at all, or perhaps nature sounds if you’re into that sort of thing.

If you woke up in your story tomorrow, what would you do? 

Probably die. I don’t have the survival skills my hero does.

There are no firearms or ammunition. You have to choose an everyday object from the home or garden as your weapon of choice—what’s in your hands?

A hammer. It’s lightweight and easily concealed but packs a deadly punch and might also come in handy if I needed to find some way to drive some nails into a piece of wood.

What do you aim to give your readers? 

I hope my readers come away from my work with something to think about. I’m not interested in just entertaining, I always try to go for something deeper.

What are you working on now?

I just finished up a smattering of short stories to start sending out. While I’m doing that I’ll be revisiting a novel project I had to put on the back burner for a bit because I hit a wall on it, but I think I see my way past it now. There is plenty more coming from me though, believe you me.

Where can we find you online?

I recently quit Twitter for reasons that probably don’t need to be stated (rhymes with Schmelon Schmusk) so unfortunately I don’t have much of a social media presence at the moment, but keep an eye out. I’m sure I’ll pop up again somewhere.

Thanks for playing along. Good luck in the wastelands!

A Post-Apocalyptic Interview with Stuart Olver

Our next anthology, Tales from the Ruins, is going to be a cataclysmic one! It will be released on the 25th of February but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just 99c instead of $3.99. To celebrate the imminent publication of the first Black Beacon Books anthology exclusively dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction, we’re interviewing the contributing authors. Behold the maniacal workings of their troubled minds!

Hi Stuart,

Let’s make the first question a lighthearted one...hmm...okay, got it! Is your story simply an entertaining piece of fiction or are you giving us a peek at the terrifying fate tomorrow will unleash upon us?

Maybe things won’t get quite as bad as my story depicts, but one thing I can be sure of is that humanity will always be treading the thin edge that separates darkness from light.

What is it that makes post-apocalyptic fiction so appealing? Would the world be better off if more people read this genre? 

Who doesn’t love reading about horrible people doing horrible things? Because we know that the future could never really turn out that bad, could it ? Because humans learn from their past mistakes, don’t they?

Do you have a favourite post-apocalyptic author?

I’ve always loved The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Its portrayal of the relationship between a father and son is breathtaking.

Some people like to listen to music while reading. Which song can you imagine providing the soundtrack to your story? 

Slipknot’s ‘People=Shit’ mixed in with Sparks’ ‘Left Out in the Cold’.

If you woke up in your story tomorrow, what would you do?

Given that I’m a big coward, I’d probably ingratiate myself with the nearest powerful warlord.

There are no firearms or ammunition. You have to choose an everyday object from the home or garden as your weapon of choice—what’s in your hands? 

Does a border collie count?

Time to get more personal. Tell us three interesting facts about yourself. 

I used to have a private pilot’s licence.
I played bass in some pretty average garage bands.
I’ve skied in Africa.

What do you aim to give your readers? 

Hopefully they’ll enjoy a good adventure story with some interesting plot twists.

What are you working on now? 

A killer opening for my first novel. Maybe involving a killer.

Where can we find you online? 

I’m on Instagram at olver.stuart. My brother and I maintain a website for our ‘Dawn to Dusk Publishing’ imprint (coffee-table books): robolver.com 

Thanks for playing along. Good luck in the wastelands!