My first-ever anthology appearance was “The Disciple,” which was published in Dead But Dreaming, a book of Cthulhu Mythos fiction from DarkTales Publications. The book received a great response from readers. For example, Matthew T. Carpenter, who has reviewed 100+ Mythos books on Amazon.com, calls Dead But Dreaming “The absolute finest Lovecraftian collection of new fiction in more than a decade.” (He was also nice enough to mention my story as one of his favorites: “The best of these stories were excellent reads: ‘Bangkok Rules,’ in which a hitman finds he didn’t really want to know too much about his employer; ‘Why We Do It’ shows us life as a cultist; ‘The Disciple,’ about learning how to contact ancient evil entities in a university seminar setting; ‘Fire Breathing,’ about how callously victims are selected and how little anyone cares; ‘The Other Names,’ about learning to read by picking up the wrong book; and best of all is a vision of the end of the world in ‘Final Draft.’ It’s not that the rest of the stories were low quality. I just singled out the ones I liked best for special mention. I really do wish we could see more anthologies like this. A belated bravo to all who were involved.”)
Unfortunately, very few people ever got to actually see the anthology, because the publisher went out of business the same week that the book was released, and only 75 copies were printed. How hard is it to get a hold of one? Well, a few used copies are available on Amazon, but they’re a little pricey:
Fortunately, Dead But Dreaming is now being re-released by a new publisher, Miskatonic River Press, so hopefully the book will get a bit more exposure this time around. The book is apparently at the printer as we speak, and there’s a page up for the new edition at Amazon. And this time they even listed me as one of the authors:
That’s the first time I’ve been listed like that as an author at Amazon.com. It’s a small thing, but in the publishing world you have to take what you can get. I also like how they put that (Author) next to my name. So next time I wonder, “Am I really an author?” I can just go and check on Amazon.com. “Oh, yup. I am. Says so right there.”
For more on the anthology — including the complete table on contents — see my page for “The Disciple.” (That page also includes the illustration for my story that was done by Allen Koszowski for Weird Tales, and a link to the Pseudopod horror podcast audio production of the story.)
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