Ever hear of Maxus R. Crowther? Well, very few have!Matthew M. Bartlett, the Prince of Nightmares, explores one of America's unheralded cult fiction writers, Maxus R. Crowther, a man torn between the real world and the fantasy narratives of his creation. Bartlett's precise prose nails the fateful last days of this iconic American author as he disengages from reality and fully embraces his alter ego, MAXUS.Illustrated by the venerable Mike Dubisch, the master of the macabre....

Clark Ashton Smith -- widely regarded as the third of the "Big Three" to emerge from the early days of the pulp magazine Weird Tales (after H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard) -- published dozens of weird fantasy tales. "The Abominations of Yondo" is one of his finest.

The quiet village of Czern Lesovitsa haunts the edge of the ominous Black Forest, but it's not the bleak shadows and eerie silence emanating from the woods that weigh on the villagers and drain the vibrancy from their dreams.What evil could rob people of their passion without driving them away? What keeps them living their colorless lives? And how can the chilling melody of little girl's lullaby lead someone to ruin? These are the questions an outsider from the bustling streets of ...

The weird, the uncanny, the strange: these are the local conditions of dead weather.And these are stories based on dreams and nightmares, on things barely glimpsed in the moonrise, on places perfectly normal by day but haunted by the light of winter stars.Along with stories that appeared in "All Hallows" (edited by Barbara and Christopher Roden) and in the ROC anthology, "Alone on the Darkside" (edited by John Pelan) are tales that have never seen the light -- but now, as d...

He comes from Scyllia's Wasteland, Guile the wanderer. He prefers to be alone, but Fate has other plans for him.

Written in one night and, since, unedited, Carey tells the story of a man becoming lost. Within The Desperate Light, he captures the spirit of the truly desperate man, the embodiement of a soulless thing searching for something he is destined never to find. Once again, Carey eschews simple exposition in favour of a character's madness.A short story from the writer of Adjective Narcissism and God Metaphor.

Four magicians, four worlds.Magic never makes things easier, and things are never easy.Here you'll find a city grown addictive, a dark wizard mourning his wife, a world that has lost its colour, and a man who can persuade anything into becoming anything, except the woman he loves into loving him.Trent Jamieson is the multi-award winning author of the Death Works series, and the Nightbound Land duology.

A woman named Haroula, tormented by her past, journeys to a far planet to seek the Touchstone, who is rumored to be able to discern ultimate truth. When she encounters the Touchstone and the strange creatures called glims that surround him, she is confronted with a far stranger truth than she had thought possible.

The gods have played the Great Game for eons, and worlds have hung in the balance. Some worlds have survived, some have been destroyed, and some of the playing fields have existed in a draw.The last game nearly brought about the destruction of man anf god alike, requiring drastic measures to reset the board. Now, the current iteration of the Great Game draws to a close, the winner nearly decided. All the gods have played their parts, save one.The God o...

Revenge is best served with cold ironA young boy is left all alone in a harsh world, when he witness the mindless slaughter of his entire village....With the weight of the world on his shoulders, he seeks allies...and perversely obsesses to reap a terrible venegance upon those who took everything he loves...In the boiling cauldron of discontent that is the Nertheilm- secretive factions are vying for control. Nations endlessly bicker in conflicts without end....

Joe guides a nameless warrior through an underground cavern....This is the first 2000 or so words of a story from my next collection.

From behind bars in Federas' jail, master thief Van Raighan shows Pevan a vision of her as his lover. Before he can explain, his allies among the Children of the Wild attack the town to rescue him.Pevan is left with the choice: protect her home, or chase the truth.