“We are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.” —President John F. Kennedy

Are you one of us?

From the esoteric to the pragmatic, history is built on secret societies made as much of myth and rumor as blood and bone. Some societies are real organizations with documented histories. Some are patchwork figments of speculation, malevolence, conspiracy theory, and perhaps even the delicious specter of world domination.

It’s no secret these societies change lives.

Six of today’s best horror writers explore those changes for better or worse alongside the darker implications and motivations of such Sinister Societies–the existence of which has never been proven.

1) A foster kid finally feels as though she’s a part of something much bigger than the hellish life she was living, when a new home brings her old life into fractious focus.
2) A secret agent—a dancer, singer, assassin—investigates a series of mysterious murders in Europe that point to an invisible killer with inhuman characteristics.
3) In a dark, dreamy town, a line of otherworldly women is tasked with keeping the carnivorous landscape at bay.
4) An accidental murder in a Cleveland, Ohio alleyway during the height of Prohibition—and the discovery of a mysterious book—sparks a series of events that threaten to engulf the entire world.
5) In a late-1800s mining town, the Molly Maguires arrive to help workers fight for better working conditions—but even they can’t save the ones sent to work in Tunnel 17.
6) The Rat King controls the underground, and the Coin King controls the overstreets, but when a pickpocket proves that power can be stolen, chaos reigns.

Join Mercedes M. Yardley, Tom Deady, Sarah Read, Errick Nunnally, Cindy O’Quinn, and Michael Burke as they uncover the darkness that infests the hidden corners of the mind and the soul.

With a foreward by John Skipp. Edited by Linda Hartley.

Spring.

Even in the shadows of skyscrapers, spring sees an awakening in the concrete jungle that we call “the city.”
Spring in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is the next anthology in Ruadán Books’ “…In the City” series that takes place in the different metropolises around the world during the changeable, unpredictable return of life from its cold slumber.

But what awakens is not always beautiful.

• In Stockholm, the vengeful goddess of spring awakens, ready to begin her hunt once again…
• Faced with an impossible choice, Detroit teens must confront a malevolent entity to protect their urban neighborhood from the creature’s insatiable hunger…
• A journalist escapes to Cape Town to research folklore and only encounters terrifying creatures from local legends, blurring the lines between reality and nightmare…
• When mysterious fireballs devastate Tel Aviv, a young girl is gifted with extraordinary powers which she must embrace to confront a prophesied cosmic entity…

Hell hath no fury…

Up-and-coming young artist Jefferson Fontenot has everything going for him: The hot New Orleans art scene has noticed him, and he’s finally found his true love, Nevaeh Parker.

But Fontenot’s bright future hides a darkness known as Gemma Landry— the artist’s lover and art scene influencer. Gemma believes Jefferson’s talent holds the key to her seizing control of the popular Carondelet Street Gallery. But when Gemma discovers Jefferson’s infidelity, she enslaves the artist with a poison she acquired from swamp-dwelling witch Mirlande St. Pierre.

Now trapped in a rotting body and plagued by hellish visions, Jefferson finds himself reduced to a zombie-like servant for his unhinged ex, while Nevaeh is forced to embrace her past, hoping to save the man she loves. As the dark curse courses through Jefferson’s veins, everyone involved soon discovers—in the most brutal of fashions—the terror that awaits when you cross Gemma Landry.

A prisoner inside a ghoul-infested fortress, Erzelle must play her harp for the entertainment of the flesh-eating cult that murdered her parents.

Her nightmare’s upended in the space of a day by the arrival of Olyssa, a fellow musician, and so much more.

Erzelle joins the quest to find Olyssa’s missing sister, a journey across a mutated landscape that leads to an enemy responsible for the deaths of millions.

To end the slaughter, the pair has no choice but to draw on the deadly magic that reshaped the world … a power that’s consuming Erzelle even as she fights to control it.

 

The city.

Noisy, crowded, ever in motion, the city can be more than a setting—it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped out characters. The city can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike.

Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is an anthology of dark speculative fiction tales that takes place in 18 different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter.

After midnight is as dark as it gets…

Whether thanks to an overnight college radio shift or cable pumping flickering videos into TVs across America, the music of the alternative era was the soundtrack to our lives, and sometimes our deaths. 120 Murders is an anthology of power chord crimes and keyboard horrors–the best noir, dark fantasy, and transgressive fiction from writers inspired by grunge, goth, ska, synthpop, and every eclectic sound of the alternative era.