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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 29, 2020 23:49:16 GMT
I've always been interested in horror fiction set in the US South and/or Appalachia--probably because I grew up in Kentucky and then lived in North Carolina for five years--so I thought I'd try starting a list. My favorite author from the region is Manly Wade Wellman, who lived in North Carolina and wrote numerous tales set in that state's mountains: Who Fears the Devil (1963; a collection of stories about John, a.k.a. Silver John, a.k.a. John the Balladeer) The Old Gods Waken (1979; a novel about the same character) After Dark (1980; likewise) The Lost and the Lurking (1981; likewise) The Hanging Stones (1982; likewise) The Voice of the Mountain (1984; likewise) The Valley So Low (1987; collects other stories set in the South/Appalachia) Another author from the South is Michael McDowell, who wrote four horror novels set in Alabama: The Amulet (1979) Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980) The Elementals (1981; originally published in six parts) Blackwater (1983) The last pair are my picks of the litter, though I liked the other two as well. Valancourt Books recently republished them all. Then there's Davis Grubb. Though he's most famous as the author of the thriller Night of the Hunter (1953), he also published a collection, One Foot in the Grave (1966), that includes several memorable horror stories set in West Virginia: "Busby's Rat" "One Foot in the Grave" "The Horsehair Trunk" "Where The Woodbine Twineth" The anthology Dark Forces includes "The Crest of Thirty-Six," a Grubb story that mines a similar vein. A more recent author from the region is Caitlin Kiernan. Of her book, my favorites are the ones that feature a young demon-hunter named Dancy Flammarion who wanders the Deep South: Threshold (2001; a novel which features Dancy in a supporting role) Alabaster (2006; a collection of stories about Dancy) Comes A Pale Rider (another collection, forthcoming from Subterranean Press) Grady Hendrix, known in these parts for his nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell, has written a trio of horror novels set in the South: My Best Friend's Exorcism (2016) We Sold Our Souls (2018; the main character makes her way from Pennsylvania to Kentucky before heading out west for the story's climax) The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020) I liked the first two a lot and will probably read the third when it comes out in paperback.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 30, 2020 0:19:46 GMT
Among the women who wrote for Weird Tales, one standout is Alabama native Mary Elizabeth Counselman. Some of her Southern-themed stories are collected in Half in Shadow (1964), including my favorite of her tales, "Parasite Mansion." Leah Bodine Drake is less famous, but she wrote a pair of entertaining stories set in Kentucky, "Whisper Water" and "Mop-Head."
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Post by cromagnonman on Dec 30, 2020 1:03:45 GMT
Charles Gramlich's COLD IN THE LIGHT [Invisible College Press: 2002] is a fine horror novel set in the Ozark Mountains of the author's native Arkansas.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 30, 2020 16:48:47 GMT
Two authors who directly emulated Manly Wade Wellman's Appalachian horror stories were his friends Karl Edward Wagner and David Drake. The former used southern settings in tales such as ".220 Swift," "In the Pines," and "Where the Summer Ends" (all three appear in his 1983 collection In a Lonely Place). The latter wrote a series of stories about a "cunning man" in Tennessee; collected in Old Nathan (1991), they're modeled on Wellman's "John the Balladeer" tales but have a harsher edge to them. I have mixed feelings about All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, a lamia-themed novel by John Farris, but it features plenty of Southern atmosphere and one of my all-time favorite titles. More recently, Cherie Priest has turned to writing Southern horror novels. She's probably best known for her Clockwork Century series about steampunk zombies, but The Family Plot (2016; Chattanooga, Tennessee), Brimstone (2017; Cassadaga, Florida), and The Toll (2019; the Okefenokee Swamp) all feature Southern settings, as does the young adult novel/graphic novel The Agony House (2018; New Orleans). In terms of Southern-themed horror anthologies, Martin H. Greenberg and his collaborators edited a few: Dixie Ghosts: Haunting Spine-chilling Stories from the American South (1988) More Dixie Ghosts (1994) Southern Blood: Vampire Stories from the American South (1997) These include stories by obvious suspects such as Wellman, Counselman, and Grubb along with tales by Ambrose Bierce, Robert Bloch, Hugh B. Cave, Talmage Powell, and William Tenn, among others.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 30, 2020 18:09:45 GMT
There is Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs (2011 Night Shade Books). "A Memphis DJ hires recent WWII veteran Bull Ingram to find Ramblin' John Hastur, a mysterious bluesman whose dark, driving music - broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station - is said to make living man insane and dead men rise"
For the comics friends there is Hellboy: The Crooked Man by Mignola and Corben, a tale of the Appalachians. It is a one-shot.
I don't know if Anne Rice counts, I seem to remember that some of her vampire novels had a Southern setting.
Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite (1992, Delacorte). Also about vampires in New Orleans.
Mystery Walk by Robert R. McCammon (1983, Holt, Rinehart&Winston) is set in Alabama. I never read his Boy's Life and Gone South.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 30, 2020 18:39:22 GMT
By some bizarre coincidence, I've set aside a YA novel with an Appalachian setting for next novel ... Here are a few. E. C. Tubb - Mirror Of The Night (Stephen Jones [ed.], New Terrors, 2004. Theodore Sturgeon - Vengeance Is (Kirby McCauley [ed.] Dark Forces, 1980, which, along with the Grubb story, also includes KEW's Where The Summer Ends and Wellman's Owls hoot in the Daytime) Graham Watkins - Hillbettys (Jeff Gelb [ed.] Hottest Blood, 1993). Don't have a copy, but I think Lisa W Cantrell's novel The Manse (Tor, 1987) qualifies.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 30, 2020 19:02:30 GMT
For the comics friends there is Hellboy: The Crooked Man by Mignola and Corben, a tale of the Appalachians. It is a one-shot. Thank you for reminding me that I need to get around to reading the Hellboy comic books. I like Mignola's art and enjoyed the first two films about the character (I passed on the reboot), so they're probably my sort of thing. I don't know if Anne Rice counts, I seem to remember that some of her vampire novels had a Southern setting. I'm sure she counts, though the only story of hers I've read is "The Master of Rampling Gate." I did watch the Interview with a Vampire film (it was OK), and I always liked that Concrete Blonde song based on the book ("Bloodletting").
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Post by andydecker on Dec 30, 2020 21:36:01 GMT
Thank you for reminding me that I need to get around to reading the Hellboy comic books. I like Mignola's art and enjoyed the first two films about the character (I passed on the reboot), so they're probably my sort of thing. The best price for value at the moment is the omnibus edition. It combines the long stories with the short stories chronologically. To avoid are the old tradepaperbacks which cost the same for much less material. If you want to go digital, wait for a discount sale. I think this year there were at least 6 Dark Horse Hellboy half price sales at Co*x*o*y.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 30, 2020 23:36:43 GMT
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin (1982). Must have read this not long after it came out, and I don't remember much about it now - but it's got vampires on an antebellum Mississippi steamboat.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 30, 2020 23:39:02 GMT
The best price for value at the moment is the omnibus edition. It combines the long stories with the short stories chronologically. To avoid are the old tradepaperbacks which cost the same for much less material. Very helpful. I ordered the first omnibus. By some bizarre coincidence, I've set aside a YA novel with an Appalachian setting for next novel ... Synchronicity! I also recently read an anthology of Appalachian-themed horror stories, several of which have youthful protagonists and a YA feel to them: Aimee Renee (ed.) - Witches of the Wood (Big Small Town Books, 2019) Beca Harris - Legacy Tracy Sue Needham - Wampus J. Warren Welch - Caroline S.S. Marshall - Still Dustin Street - Light Denver Muncey - Haven Patrick Brian Cooley - Neighbors Amy N. Edwards - Wayward I enjoyed the book quite a bit. For me, the highlights were Harris's "Legacy" (a dark haunted house story), Needham's "Wampus" (a folklore-infused tale in the spirit of Wellman's work), and Street's "Light" (a ghost-light tale with some interesting twists).
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 30, 2020 23:46:16 GMT
Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin (1982). Must have read this not long after it came out, and I don't remember much about it now - but it's got vampires on an antebellum Mississippi steamboat. I read Fevre Dream a while back, too. I seem to recall that Martin's vampires are different in some ways from traditional ones. I also remember liking the historical Mississippi River setting and the steamboat captain character. I preferred the book to "Sandkings" and "Nightflyers," the other works by Martin I've read (I've never mustered the fortitude to read or watch the Game of Thrones series).
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jan 9, 2021 13:31:44 GMT
A pair of entertaining stories by Weirdbook editor Douglas Draa:
"Neighbors Good and Fair" (from Bound by Blood, ed. Dane Hatchell, Terri King, and S. Kay Nash): Two brothers from Newark, Ohio, go trick-or-treating on Halloween night, 1940. Only one comes back. A year later, their grandmother sets out with him to recover the lost child with her knowledge of Appalachian and Scottish folklore. Includes references to Weird Tales, the aos sí, the Unseelie Court, the Shonokins, the Mound Builders, and Manly Wade Wellman's favorite folklore book, Pow-Wows; or, Long Lost Friend.
"Fishing Boots" (from 32 White Horses on a Vermillion Hill: Volume One, ed. Duane Pecise): A man fishing in the Ohio River near Portsmouth (in the Appalachians, near where Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia meet) finds himself caught between two feuding wizards. Judging by a reference to Ray Bradbury's "The Fog Horn," the story takes place in 1952.
Both stories pay homage to Wellman and Davis Grubb.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 28, 2021 12:45:53 GMT
Andrew Brosnatch Harry Harrison Kroll - Fairy Gossamer: ( Weird Tales, Dec. 1924). The legend goes that Israel Hicks, believing himself persecuted by demons, retreated to a cavern in the Kentucky Mountains to incubate spiders reasoning that they would trap any evil spirit in their silky webs. William Thompson, an arachnologist attached to a local college, descends deep into Hicks' lair in search of specimens. He finds a whole lot more. High on suspense and terror until undone by wretched happy ending. From the 100 Creepy Little Creatures thread. Bonus points for featuring a spooky sinkhole in Kentucky. The protagonist is an interloper from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 4, 2021 9:45:26 GMT
Andrew Brosnatch Harry Harrison Kroll - Bloody Moon: ( Weird Tales, April 1925). A Thrilling Tale of the Kentucky Caves. A family curse, originating back to pioneer days when settler Alligator Pearson, having first killed her family, clubbed a 16 year old Indian Princess into submission then took her for his wife. She died in childbirth. The wretched Pearson met with a horrible end shortly afterward. Henceforth, each generation of Pearson men has died in mysterious, grisly circumstances on the night of the Bloody Moon.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 27, 2021 18:47:14 GMT
Tor.com has an interesting article that touches on Appalachian horror: "The Hills are Haunted; the Mountains are Hungry: Digging Into Appalachian SFF." It begins with Manly Wade Wellman's stories about John the Balladeer but also includes some other interesting-sounding books. I ordered one of them, Asher Elbein's short story collection Ghost Days, based on reviewers' comparisons to Wellman's work and Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories (the illustrations by Tiffany Turrill look good, too).
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