Shirley Jackson Award Finalist: Delphine Dodd

"In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic."

I am happy to announce that Delphine Dodd, first in a series of three novellas related to my novel Knock Knock, is a finalist for a Shirley Jackson Award. It's wonderful news and I couldn't be happier.

Thanks to the jurors, and congratulations to all of the nominees! Here is the complete list.
 

NOVEL

    The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (ROC)

    The Devil in Silver, Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)

    Edge, Koji Suzuki (Vertical, Inc.)

    Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Crown Publishers)

    Immobility, Brian Evenson (Tor)

NOVELLA

    28 Teeth of Rage, Ennis Drake (Omnium Gatherum Media)

    Delphine Dodd, S.P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)

    I’m Not Sam, Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (Sinister Grin Press/ Cemetery Dance Publications)

    The Indifference Engine, Project Itoh (Haikasoru/VIZ Media LLC)

    “Sky,” Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)

NOVELETTE

    “The Crying Child,” Bruce McAllister (originally “The Bleeding Child,” Cemetery Dance #68)

    “The House on Ashley Avenue,” Ian Rogers (Every House is Haunted, ChiZine Publications)

    “Reeling for the Empire,” Karen Russell (Tin House, Winter 2012)

    “Wild Acre,” Nathan Ballingrud (Visions, Fading Fast, Pendragon Press)

    “The Wish Head,” Jeffrey Ford (Crackpot Palace, William Morrow)

SHORT FICTION

    “Bajazzle,” Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)

    “How We Escaped Our Certain Fate,” Dan Chaon (21st Century Dead, St. Martin’s)

    “Little America,” Dan Chaon (Shadow Show: All New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow)

    “The Magician’s Apprentice,” Tamsyn Muir (Weird Tales #359)

    “A Natural History of Autumn,” Jeffrey Ford (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2012)

    “Two Houses,” Kelly Link (Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

    Crackpot Palace, Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)

    Errantry, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)

    The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, Andy Duncan (PS Publishing)

    Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine Publications)

    The Woman Who Married a Cloud, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean Press)

    Windeye, Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

    21st Century Dead, edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s)

    Black Wings II, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publishing)

    Exotic Gothic 4:  Postscripts #28/29, edited by Danel Olson (PS Publishing)

    Night Shadows, edited by Greg Herren and J. M.  Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)

    Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle (William Morrow)

This year’s awards will be presented on Sunday, July 14th at Readercon 24, in Burlington, Massachusetts.

FREE Kindle Edition of Knock Knock

This is the last FREE day for Knock Knock. Until midnight readers can download the Kindle edition of the novel for free.

"Along with Brendan Connell's The Architect, I rate Delphine Dodd as the best novella I read in 2012, and Knock Knock as the best book I read in any category."
Peter Tennant, Black Static

"Beautifully written and relentlessly suspenseful, it's a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night. Just be sure to keep the doors locked and all the lights on!"
Lucy Taylor, The Silence Between the Screams

"With her distinct voice, Miskowski takes you deep into the back woods of America, where shadows chase you and people do the unthinkable."
Angel Leigh McCoy, Wily Writers

"...more than a great read; it is a fascinating meditation on the nature of horror. There are supernatural elements to the book, yes, but the setting (an impoverished, ruined logging town) and the main characters (three school girls with hopes and dreams made improbable if not impossible by their realities) are a beautifully rendered commentary on the cyclical nature of real-world human tragedy."
Molly Tanzer, A Pretty Mouth

Black Static 33

Pete Tennant reviews Knock Knock and Delphine Dodd in issue #33 of Black Static. The Case Notes feature includes an interview in which we talk about the fictional town of Skillute and the spirits haunting its residents.

"Along with Brendan Connell’s The Architect, I rate Delphine Dodd as the best novella I read in 2012, and Knock Knock as the best book I read in any category."

"Eventually the story achieves a momentum all its own, rushing headlong to a shattering finale, and the prose, which Miskowski uses with such care and accuracy throughout, in the final pages attains a fever dream intensity, so that we can’t trace any clear divide between reality and the skewed perspectives of the characters, the two blurring into each other, everything viewed through a blood red filter and in the light cast by flickering flames."


-- Peter Tennant

KNOCK KNOCK Listed by Literary Darkness

Over at Goodreads, Robert Dunbar writes about the book discussion group Literary Darkness:

"LITERARY DARKNESS is a book discussion group on Goodreads with roughly two thousand members, many of them teachers, librarians and writers – passionate readers all. For three years, our knowledgeable and enthusiastic members have been analyzing and appreciating dark literature. This first annual list of notable books is in no way intended as an award, nor is it meant to be exclusive. Many wonderful books are out there, and we hope to read them all. Our goal is to help others discover them as well.

Some books become lights in the eternal darkness. What follows is a list of recommendations and commendations… combined with heartfelt thanks to the many fine writers who keep readers awake at night."

I'm happy to report that one of the books selected by Literary Darkness for their list is my novel Knock Knock. I couldn't be more pleased. Here is the complete list with categories and descriptions:

Fresh Blood:
These are new titles selected by the group for having made a considerable impact during the past year.

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME by Donald Ray Pollock
THE DROWNING GIRL by Caitlin R. Kiernan
THE FACELESS by Simon Bestwick
THE FLAME ALPHABET by Ben Marcus
GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
HABIT by Stephen McGeagh
THE HOARD by Alan Ryker
JOHN DIES AT THE END by David Wong
KIN by Kealan Patrick Burke
WESTLAKE SOUL by Rio Youers

Contemporary Titles:
These may be collections of short fiction or literary essays, anthologies or novels. All are from the (more or less) recent past and all are extraordinary.

THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE by Thomas Ligotti
THE HAIR WREATH AND OTHER STORIES by Halli Villegas
KNOCK KNOCK by SP Miskowski
THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters
THE MARBLED SWARM by Dennis Cooper
A MATRIX OF ANGELS by Christopher Conlon
OCCULATION by Laird Barron
THE ROAD by Cormac McCarty
THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt
ZOMBIE by Joyce Carol Oates

Vintage Works:
Sometimes calling a book a Classic is like entombing it. Many readers would sooner pry open the lid of a coffin than peer between those musty pages. Often this represents a sort of tragedy. Many of these books seethe with life and emotion… and cry out to be read. These are amoung our favorites.

THE CASTLE by Franz Kafka
THE GOLEM by Gustav Meyrink
GRENDEL by John Gardner
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
MCTEAGUE by Frank Norris
NARROW ROOMS by James Purdy
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde
THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA by Yukio Mishima
THE STRANGER by Albert Camus
TALES OF MEN AND GHOSTS by Edith Wharton

Buried Treasures
This is a list of titles, some celebrated, some obscure, that in so many ways evoke the finest qualities of literary darkness.

ICE AGE by Iain Rowan
KELLAND by Paul G. Bens, Jr.
THE KING IN YELLOW AND OTHER HORROR STORIES by Robert W. Chambers
LET’S PLAY WHITE by Chesya Burke
SOUTHERN GODS by John Horner Jacobs
STAY AWAKE by Dan Chaon
SUICIDE BLONDE by Darcey Steinke
SUSPICIOUS RIVER by Laura Kasischke
THE WASP FACTORY by Iain Banks
WORSE THAN MYSELF by Adam Golaski

Many thanks to Literary Darkness, Robert Dunbar, and Goodreads! I have a lot of reading to do.

Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards®

Each year the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards® for superior achievement in novel, first novel, young adult novel, long fiction, short fiction, screenplay, anthology, fiction collection, non-fiction, poetry and graphic novel.

I am delighted to say that Delphine Dodd is included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards® in the Long Fiction category. Soon the current list will be narrowed down, and the works on the Final Ballot will be the year's nominees.

Here is the full Preliminary Ballot. Congratulations to all of the writers listed, and to all of the writers on the HWA Bram Stoker Award® Reading List. This has been a hell of a year for horror.


2012 PRELIMINARY BRAM STOKER AWARDS® BALLOT

Voting Members will receive ballots and instructions on how to vote approximately February 1, 2013.

NOTE: For those appearing on this ballot – your work is NOT a "nominee" at this point (that only occurs if you appear on the Final Ballot).

NOVEL
Bodner, Hal – The Trouble with Hairy
Clines, Peter – 14
Ethridge, Benjamin Kane – Bottled Abyss
Everson, John – NightWhere
Faherty, JG – Cemetery Club
Jordan, Lee F. – Coronation
Kiernan, Caitlin R. – The Drowning Girl
Little, Bentley – The Haunted
McKinney, Joe – Inheritance

FIRST NOVEL
Boccacino, Michael – Charlotte Markham and the House of Darklings
Coates, Deborah – Wide Open
Day, Charles – The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief
Dudar, Peter – A Requiem for Dead Flies
Gropp, Richard – Bad Glass
Hatchell, Dane – Resurrection X: Zombie Evolution
Holm, Chris – Dead Harvest
Jones, K. Trap – The Sinner
Soares, L.L. – Life Rage
Sterbakov, Hugh – City Under the Moon

YA NOVEL
Bickle, Laura – The Hallowed Ones
Bray, Libba – The Diviners
Burt, Steve – FreeK Show
Collings, Michaelbrent – Hooked: A True Faerie Tale
Lyga, Barry – I Hunt Killers
Maberry, Jonathan – Flesh & Bone
McCarty, Michael – I Kissed A Ghoul
Stiefvater, Maggie – The Raven Boys
Strand, Jeff – A Bad Day for Voodoo
Waters, Daniel – Break My Heart 1,000 Times
Wilson, Connie Corcoran – The Color of Evil

LONG FICTION
Burke, Kealan Patrick – Thirty Miles South of Dry County
Faherty, JG – The Cold Spot
Giglio, Peter – Sunfall Manor
Ketchum, Jack, and Lucky McGee – I’m Not Sam
Malfi, Ronald – The Mourning House
McKinney, Joe, and Michael McCarty – Lost Girl of the Lake
Miskowski, S.P. – Delphine Dodd
O’Neill, Gene – The Blue Heron
Prentiss, Norman – The Fleshless Man
Thompson, Lee – When We Join Jesus in Hell

SHORT FICTION
Bailey, Michael – Bootstrap
Boston, Bruce – Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest
Breaux, Kevin James – The Journal of USS Indianapolis Survivor: Stefanos
“Stevie” Georgiou
Cushing, Nicole – A Catechism for Aspiring Amnesiacs
Lake, Jay – The Cancer Catechism
McKinney, Joe – Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens
Ochse, Weston – Righteous
Palisano, John – Available Light
Snyder, Lucy – Magdala Amygdala

SCREENPLAY
Hill, Susan, and Goldman, Jane – The Woman in Black
Kim, San Kyu – The Walking Dead, “Killer Within”
Minear, Tim – American Horror Story: Asylum, “Dark Cousin”
Olynyk, Signe – Below Zero
Ross, Gary, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray – The Hunger Games
Sanchez, Eduardo, and Jaime Nash – Lovely Molly
Whedon, Joss, and Drew Goddard – The Cabin in the Woods

ANTHOLOGY
Beebe, Eric – Fear the Abyss
Castle, Mort, and Sam Weller – Shadow Show
Gallows Press – Tales from the Yellow Rose Diner and Fill Station
Guignard, Eric J. – Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations
Miller, Eric – Hell Comes to Hollywood
Salter, Richard – World’s Collider
Scalisi, Patrick – The Ghost Is the Machine
Scioneaux, Mark C., R.J. Cavender, and Robert S. Wilson – Horror for Good: A
Charitable Anthology
Swanson, Stan – Slices of Flesh

FICTION COLLECTION
Cain, Kenneth W. – These Old Tales: The Complete Collection
Carroll, Jonathan – Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories
Castle, Mort – New Moon on the Water
De Winter, Corrine – Valentines for the Dead
Hand, Elizabeth – Errantry: Strange Stories
Hirshberg, Glen – The Janus Tree
Lane, Joel – Where Furnaces Burn
LaSart, C.W. – Ad Nauseam
Oates, Joyce Carol – Black Dahlia and White Roses
Onspaugh, Mark – Christmas Ghost Stories
Yardley, Mercedes M. – Beautiful Sorrows

NON-FICTION
Aisenberg, Joe – Carrie: Studies in the Horror Film
Amazing Kreskin, The, and Michael McCarty – Conversations with Kreskin
Collings, Michael – Writing Darkness
Klinger, Les – The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1
Matthews, Araminta Star, Rachel Lee, and Stan Swanson – Write of the Living Dead
Morton, Lisa – Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween
Paffenroth, Kim, and John W. Morehead – The Undead and Theology
Perry, Dennis R., and Carl H. Sederholm – Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture
Phillips, Kendall R. – Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film

POETRY
Addison, Linda, and Stephen M. Wilson – Dark Duet
Boston, Bruce, and Gary William Crawford – Notes from the Shadow City
Collings, Michael – A Verse to Horrors
Dietrich, Bryan D. – The Monstrance
Ong Muslim, Kristina – Grim Series
Simon, Marge, and Sandy DeLuca – Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls
Turzillo, Mary A. – Lovers & Killers

——————

The following will not appear on the Preliminary Ballot. As there are only
five works, these will proceed directly to the Final Ballot.

GRAPHIC NOVEL
Bunn, Cullen – The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound
Moore, Terry – Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death
Thornton, Ravi – The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone
Wacks, Peter J., and Guy Anthony De Marco – Behind These Eyes
Wood, Rocky, and Lisa Morton – Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times

The Next Big Thing: ASTORIA

Molly Tanzer and Lucy Taylor tagged me to answer ten questions about my latest writing project. The self-interview is part of The Next Big Thing, which is tearing around online at the moment. Over the past month I've been tagged by some delightful artists, including David Kempf, Carole Johnstone, and Kate Jonez. To these writers I say: Many thanks, and sorry it took me so long!


1. What is the working title of your book?

Astoria. Most of the book is set in Astoria, Oregon.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

One of the characters in my novel Knock Knock walked away at the end of a chapter, got into a car, and drove away. She was absent from the rest of the novel. After the novel was published I wondered where the character had gone. Did she end up in a city? How did she survive what she had experienced in the novel? From there a new story took shape in my imagination. So I climbed into the car next to this character and took notes.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

I leave it to the reader to decide if the book is psychological or supernatural horror.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Cherry Jones or Julianne Moore would be good as the central character, Ethel.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A grieving mother seeks refuge in a place she loved as a child, but is she safe or is she pursued by a ferocious entity that plagued her hometown for fifty years?

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Knock Knock and the three related novellas, including Astoria, are published by Omnium Gatherum Media.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Not long, but I'm still revising it! Say a prayer for me.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I wouldn't be brassy enough to compare it to these classics, but the book has themes in common with The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House, among others.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The central character haunted me until I gave her a book of her own.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

If you read Knock Knock and these novellas as a set, there should be a kaleidoscopic effect. The characters and ideas, across all four books, ought to create a large, complex, and mysterious world. I hope the experience will be both satisfying and disturbing.

So there you have it. And I am tagging Ennis Drake because he's on fire. Well, his fiction is on fire and you owe it to yourself to read his work.

Delphine Dodd 2nd excerpt

Recently Louise Bohmer was kind enough to post an exclusive excerpt from Delphine Dodd. To read the excerpt, visit Louise's beautiful blog.

Thanks, Louise!