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Monday, February 25, 2019

Bram Stoker Finalists and Why You Need to Pay Attention To My Horror Recs All Year Longs

This weekend, the Horror Writers Association announced the finalists for the Bram Stoker Awards. The announcement is below and I have added links to my GLOWING reviews of many of these titles. Some were among my favorite overall reads of the year, not just for horror.

But more important than the list and all the ways you can use it as a RA tool just like any awards list, I need you to focus on this-- there is a reason I am the library world's horror expert and it is because I understand what is a good horror read AND I understand the library leisure reading market. There are some wonderful horror titles out there that I know are NOT a great fit for all public libraries [just the ones with loyal horror readers], and I don't push those on everyone. I let you make your own choices there. But I will not allow anyone to argue with me over what horror will play for a large audience. 

No other resource understands where the 2 markets collide better than I do. Yet, even though I have a long track record in "getting it right" and understanding how much patrons will love these books even if you don't think "horror" will get read in your library, many of you still ignore horror. Why? It is very hot right now. You are letting your readers down simply because you are not a fan or are scared of the genre. 

Look, you don't have to be a fan or even read horror to add it to your collections and promote it with displays because you have me. I am your resource. Remember one of my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service is to use resources [#7]. 

As you can see on the finalist ballot below, where I have added many links to the books I have covered this year, there are many of my top horror picks of the year-- 4 of the 5 in the novel category, 1 of the first novels, & 1 collection finalist. That's 6 out of ten in my best horror of the year appearing on this ballot. Oh, and one fo the YA finalists made my overall best of the year list too. The 1 "novel" finalist I didn't list was because a colleague at Booklist read it and gave it a star, so there you go! Others found on the finalists list, I featured in Library Journal. I have links to more info from me added to the official ballot below.

Use those links not only to make you purchasing decisions, but also to book talk these titles. Remember, as I said here originally-- and it even made the 10 Rules too-- you can use the words of others to books talk. You don't have to have read it or even enjoyed it to hand sell it to a patron. And that goes for any book, not just a horror title.

For example, with Cabin at the End of the World by Tremblay, I book talk this title by acknowledging that it may be too much for some people by saying, "This book will break you, but that's the point." I have had dozens of readers come back to me thanking me for recommending it, agreeing that it broke them, but they appreciated that they experienced it because without my book talk with a tiny bit of warning [yet zero spoilers], they might not have finished it understanding that it was supposed to leave them feeling that way. 

Also, please scroll down to see all of the categories because I don't want you to miss some of the best titles you can add to your library, like-- Eric Guignard's, A World of Horror (Dark Moon Books) which I think every library should add and I said so in my July 1, 2018 Horror Preview in LJ [link requires premium access].

Just remember, there is a reason I have been able to be the library-horror expert for so long. It is because I get it. I am not trying to brag here, but I am standing firm because I need you to stop making excuses that horror is not right for your libraries because it is. From coast to coast to coast, towns big and small, these are books your readers will love. Please see below, click on some links and start promoting these exceptional reads.


2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot 

The Horror Writers Association announces the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot. The HWA is the premier organization for writers of horror and dark fantasy. “This year’s nominees demonstrate a continued lineup of quality work in the horror genre,” said Lisa Morton, HWA President. “Our members and awards juries have again chosen truly outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.” 

The presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards® will occur during the 4th annual StokerCon™, to be held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The gala presentation will happen on Saturday night, May 11th. Tickets to the banquet and the convention are on sale to the public at http://stokercon2019.org/. The awards presentation will also be live-streamed online via the website. 
Named in honor of the author of the seminal horror novel Dracula, the Bram Stoker Awards® are presented annually for superior achievement in writing in eleven categories, including traditional works of various lengths, poetry, screenplays, and non-fiction. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates, and Neil Gaiman. The HWA is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. The HWA formed in 1985 with the help of many of the field’s greats, including Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Joe R. Lansdale. The HWA is home to the prestigious Bram Stoker Award® and the annual StokerCon™ horror convention. 
We proudly provide the list of talented nominees who reached the final ballot below for each category. 
Superior Achievement in a Novel 
    Maberry, Jonathan – Glimpse (St. Martin’s Press)
    Stoker, Dacre and Barker, J.D. – Dracul (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel 
    Fine, Julia – What Should Be Wild (Harper) 
    Grau, T.E. – I Am the River (Lethe Press)
    Stage, Zoje – Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s Press) 
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel 
    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) 
    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) 
    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)  [Appeared in my July 1, 2018 Horror Preview in LJ which requires premium access]
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)

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