Well, there’s something you don’t see every day

Somehow, some…way, my short story “Mutter” (from Crystal Lake Publishing’s Fantastic Tales of Terror) found its way onto the final ballot of the Bram Stoker Awards. I am in shock. I am in awe. I am not quite sure what to make of it all. But I do know I am grateful. Thank you to everyone who voted for the story, and big congrats to all the authors who made it onto the list (especially Gwendolyn Kiste’s The Rust Maidens and Gemma Files’s Spectral Evidence, both released from my imprint, Trepidatio Publishing)!

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Katsu, Alma – The Hunger (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Maberry, Jonathan – Glimpse (St. Martin’s Press)
• Malerman, Josh – Unbury Carol (Del Rey)
• Stoker, Dacre and Barker, J.D. – Dracul (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Tremblay, Paul – The Cabin at the End of the World (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Fine, Julia – What Should Be Wild (Harper)
• Grau, T.E. – I Am the River (Lethe Press)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Rust Maidens (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Stage, Zoje – Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s Press)
• Tremblay, Tony – The Moore House (Twisted Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Ireland, Justina – Dread Nation (Balzer + Bray)
• Legrand, Claire – Sawkill Girls (Katherine Tegen Books)
• Maberry, Jonathan – Broken Lands (Simon & Schuster)
• Snyman, Monique – The Night Weaver (Gigi Publishing)
• White, Kiersten – The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (Delacorte Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Ahmed, Saladin – Abbott (BOOM! Studios)
• Azzarello, Brian – Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train (Image Comics)
• Bunn, Cullen – Bone Parish (BOOM! Studios)
• LaValle, Victor – Victor LaValle’sDestroyer (BOOM! Studios)
• Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 3: Haven (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Bailey, Michael – Our Children, Our Teachers (Written Backwards)
• Hill, Joe – You Are Released (Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales) (Scribner)
• Malik, Usman T. – Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung (Nightmare Magazine Issue #74)
• Mason, Rena – The Devil’s Throat (Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror) (Adrenaline Press)
• Smith, Angela Yuriko – Bitter Suites (CreateSpace)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• Landry, Jess – “Mutter” (Fantastic Tales of Terror) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Murray, Lee – “Dead End Town”(Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2) (IFWG Publishing International)
• Neugebauer, Annie – “Glove Box” (The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine Volume 3, Issue 4-July 2018)
• Taff, John F.D. – “A Winter’s Tale” (Little Black Spots) (Grey Matter Press)
• Ward, Kyla Lee – “And in Her Eyes the City Drowned” (Weirdbook #39) (Wildside Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Files, Gemma – Spectral Evidence (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Guignard, Eric J. – That Which Grows Wild (Cemetery Dance Publications)
• Iglesias, Gabino – Coyote Songs (Broken River Books)
• Snyder, Lucy A. – Garden of Eldritch Delights (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Waggoner, Tim – Dark and Distant Voices: A Story Collection (Nightscape Press)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Aster, Ari – Hereditary (PalmStar Media)
• Averill, Meredith – The Haunting of Hill House: The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode 01:05 (Amblin Television, FlanaganFilm, Paramount Television)
• Garland, Alex – Annihilation (DNA Films, Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions, Skydance Media)
• Heisserer, Eric – Bird Box (Bluegrass Films, Chris Morgan Productions, Universal Pictures)
• Woods, Bryan, Beck, Scott, and Krasinski, John – A Quiet Place (Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Chambers, James, Grey, April, and Masterson, Robert – A New York State of Fright: Horror Stories from the Empire State (Hippocampus Press)
• Datlow, Ellen – The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea (Night Shade Books)
• Guignard, Eric J. – A World of Horror (Dark Moon Books)
• Murray, Lee – Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror (Adrenaline Press)
• Ward, D. Alexander – Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Connolly, John – Horror Express (PS Publishing)
• Gambin, Lee – The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)
• Ingham, Howard David – We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror (Room 207 Press)
• Mynhardt, Joe and Johnson, Eugene – It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Boston, Bruce – Artifacts (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Cowen, David E. – Bleeding Saffron (Weasel Press)
• Lynch, Donna – Witches (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Simon, Marge and Manzetti, Alessandro – War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Tantlinger, Sara – The Devil’s Dreamland (Strangehouse Books)