First up is a review of The Even, over at A Writer Goes on a Journey:

The Even

and then we have a review of How to Make Monsters at Horrorworld:

How To Make Monsters
(scroll down for review)

Both reviews are positive and while I am not so sure I agree with the charge of ‘less than stellar editing’ (from a reviewer who knows not where apostrophes live) and even though I wish the reviewer of How To Make Monsters would work on getting Gary’s titles right, it seems these two are rather popular books just at present!

The Even can be purchased here

and How to Make Monsters here

It appears that the authors who will feature in this year’s Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, edited by Stephen Jones, have now had their stories confirmed and will appear in issue 20 later this year.

Note that Morrigan Books author, Gary McMahon, features on the front cover, and his story Through the Cracks, was chosen from How To Make Monsters, (available on our website).

I think the cover for this year’s is fantastic and I’m very much looking forward to reading the collection, with many authors of note, the likes of Ramsey Campbell, Paul Finch and Simon Strantzas (who will all feature in Dead Souls, along with McMahon later this year).

Simon Strantzas has been nominated for best artist at this British Fantasy Awards, for his cover for How to Make Monsters. Gary McMahon has been nominated for best collection for the same book and Chill (taken from the collection). Paul Kane has also been nominated for his short, The Suicide Room, taken from Voices.

A pretty good week all in all and looking forward to Fantasy Con this year, where we will be launching Dead Souls for an unsuspecting public…

A review is now up on HorrorScope.

“Voices, edited by Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar, consists of a series of stories, with the only connecting thread between them the setting: a hotel room. This shared setting works well, giving the reader the sense that they are wandering through an old, shadowed hotel, getting glimpses of the stories that lie within the identical rooms. The stories all seem fragmented, and yet part of a greater whole. It leaves one feeling like there are empty rooms lying between those occupied ones, pieces of the greater story that are as yet untold.

A further sense of connection is given by Robert Hood’s series of interconnected pieces which frame the book as epilogue and prologue as well as being part of each of the four sections – these pieces really give a true feeling of unity to the anthology.

Each piece in this anthology is vivid and eerie, running the gamut from the faintly creepy to the truly disturbing. Many have an almost dream-like (or perhaps nightmare-like) quality, making the most of their few words to paint truly vivid pictures.

The stories vary in tone. Paul Kane’s “The Suicide Room” is haunting and poetic, and one of the most evocative pieces in Voices. Martin Livings’ disturbing “Bedbugs” and Todd Edwards’ “Paris” are pure horror (and will make you think twice the next time you lay down in that hotel bed or take those pills). Shane Jiraiya Cummings’ work is excellent as always, with the vivid and disturbing “A Picture of Death”.

Every story in Voices is of high quality, and the editors should be commended for their high standards. This is one of the best anthologies of dark fiction to have been released recently, and is highly recommended.”