New Story in Fiddleblack's print antho "Apparitional Experience"

I'm a bit late with this news: Fiddleblack.org's first-ever print annual features a new story of mine entitled "The Curse of Desert and Flesh." (It's sort of a companion piece to my story "The Face in the Wall," which appeared in Fiddleblack #4. ) The theme of the annual, which is titled Apparitional Experience, has to do with the idea of "ghost stories without ghosts."

It can be ordered from the publisher here or on Amazon here. Check out the publisher's link for an evocative book trailer and to read about the other fine authors featured.

New story in "The First Book of Classical Horror Stories"

My story "Beyond Two Rivers: A Symphonic Poem" appears in The First Book of Classical Horror Stories, available directly from the publisher or from the Amazon corporation.

Some very fine authors are represented here, the price is nice, and every purchase supports independent small-press publishers and authors like Mr. D.F. Lewis, the contributors, and myself.

My story is a tale of supernatural revenge set in a fictional repressive Middle Eastern nation involving a conductor who's not as good (morally) as he could be, a terrorized orchestra, and strange music both real and imagined.

The Core of an Enormous Black Rose

It has arrived: Dan Ghetu and D.P. Watt's homage anthology for the immortal Bruno Schulz, This Hermetic Legislature. My story "The Notched Sword" appears herein.

To buy, go to its page on the Ex Occidente site, or check one of the retailers to the right.

Cisco, Watt, Schneider, Lane, Insole--another titanic emanation from Bucharest.

Full contents are as follows:

1. Fugue for Black Thursday by George Berguno
2. Great Ruins of Tomorrow by Stephen J. Clark
3. The Fall of a City Planner by Karim Ghahwagi
4. The Messiah of the Mannequins by Rhys Hughes
5. Letters in Black Wood by Joel Lane
6. The Original Light by Mark Valentine
7. With Shadow All the Marble Steps by Oliver Smith
8. Manual of Quiet Destruction by Charles Schneider
9. Silver on Green by John Howard
10. The Subjugation of Eros by D.P. Watt
11. All in a Hot and Copper Sky by Dominy Clements
12. My Ruined Father by Douglas Thompson
13. The Notched Sword by Adam S. Cantwell
14. A Calendar of Cherries by Colin Insole
15. The Vile Game of Gunter and Landau by Michael Cisco
16. A Posthumous Messiah by Reggie Oliver
17. The Restaurant Saint Martin by R.B. Russell
18. My Heretical Existence by Mark Samuels

New story online at fiddleblack.com!

Proud to announce that a new story of mine called "The Face in the Wall" appears in the latest issue of the online literary journal Fiddleblack. Navigate to Issue #4 to find my tale.

This will be the first time my work appears outside of expensive limited editions, so I'm very happy that some new readers might get a chance to sample my work.

Fiddleblack is worth keeping an eye on - in addition to the already interesting journal, they will soon be starting a press for real physical books.

The story itself-I'm calling it a conte cruel with exotic elements, in which a man undergoes a terrible punishment. Hope you enjoy it.

Review Compendium for "A Pallid Wave..."

Here are links for all the reviews (that I know of) of my book A Pallid Wave on Shores of Night.
-On The Stars at Noonday 
-a D.F. Lewis real-time review 
-On Goodreads 
Anyone interested in reviewing the book please contact me in the Comments, thanks.

"Delicate Toxins" named year's best horror antho by Black Static's Peter Tennant

Black Static is, of course, the UK's most prominent horror fiction magazine, and their fiction reviewer Peter Tennant has picked Delicate Toxins as best horror anthology of 2011.

Read more.

My story "The Filature" received favorable notice in Mr. Tennant's full review of Delicate Toxins in the December 2011 issue of Black Static. He wrote: "‘The Filature’ by Adam S. Cantwell plays out like a mix of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and the film Silk, with a German entrepreneur at the silk factory of a Chinese magnate witnessing the transformation of a young woman, the story starting out naturalistically enough and then drifting into uncharted waters of the imagination, along the way taking in social commentary and the dangers of a too literal reading of religious symbolism."

Congratulations to editor John Hirschhorn-Smith and to the other writers!

Review: "The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies"

 The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies
edited by D.F. Lewis. Megazanthus Press, 2011.

D.F. Lewis deserves credit for, among other things, devising an original theme for his latest collection: every story features a collection of horror stories as an element of the plot. In the world of horror anthologies, this is the age of the theme. Aside from Year's Best collections, most multi-author collections depend for their coherence on one theme or another (involving, as likely as not, vampires, zombies, the creations of H.P. Lovecraft, or some combination thereof.) Lewis, a seasoned author, anthologist, and reviewer, loves to play with ideas and question common assumptions. But he also knows his audience. Delivering on expectations is, by definition, a primary consideration of genre fiction, but even here success demands originality enough to stimulate even the most saturated sensibilities. So credit Lewis with putting together a themed collection that plays with expectations while at the same time delivering solid, satisfying horror fiction from newcomers and from some of the best in the field.

There are weak stories here, but it's almost in the nature of the form to tolerate or even welcome a few (hopefully interesting) failures in the mix. Stealback's "The Writer" is technically weak and conceptually muddled, and could have been omitted; on the other hand, A.J. Kirby's contribution is well-written enough for a mainstream horror venue, but I found it overlong and unoriginal. The biggest problem I had with the book, however, was that several of the less successful tales appear merely to graft the horror anthology device onto a preexisting story. S.D. Tullis' "Horror Planet" is silly, with many cringe-inducing lines, but at least the concept is audacious and its use of the horror anthology element is central to the story's conception.

In the best pieces the device of the horror anthology is integral to the story. Joel Lane's beautiful meditation "Midnight Flight" treats its themes - the elusive fictional anthology at its center, urban alienation, aging, regret - with deceptive delicacy and control. Some of these elements, especially the urban grayness and decay seen through the eyes of an outsider narrator, have been worn thin by the heavy tread of decades of urban horrorists, but Lane folds his story inward to its conclusion with a convincing feel for the workings of fate and, in the process, strikes unsettling notes that carry after the last page is turned. The other standout story here, nearly worth the price of admission, is Reggie Oliver's "Flowers of the Sea." It shares with Lane's story a mysterious quality of the best horror fiction - a command of pace, incident, and climax which, in the hands of a master, is even more persuasive and nerve-wracking than that other prized attribute, the convincing evocation of atmosphere. We are drawn in by a true and skillfully depicted human tragedy, hypnotized by visionary weird elements, then stunned with the horror of a climax which shockingly melds the tale's ideas and emotions with a vivid physical presence.