Beyond Rue Morgue Anthology: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective

THE CONTRIBUTORS

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-49) is possibly one of the best known genre writers of all time. He saw himself as primarily a poet — his most famous poem probably remains “The Raven”— but it is with his tales of mystery and imagination that he has become synonymous. Stories such as “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat,” and of course “The Tell-Tale Heart” have cemented his place in horror history. But some critics have also labeled him the originator of the detective story (due to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”), while others see him as an early forerunner in the science fiction genre. Greatly admired and imitated, his work has been adapted for film and television many times, most notably by Universal Studios in the 1930s, Roger Corman in the 1960s, and by the Italian Master of Suspense Dario Argento and Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero in the 1990s.

MIKE CAREY was born in Liverpool, but moved to London in the 1980s after completing an English degree at Oxford. He taught English and Media for several years before resigning to become a freelance writer in 2000. Initially he worked mainly within the medium of comic books, coming to prominence with the Lucifer ongoing series at DC Vertigo. Since then, he has written Hellblazer for DC, X-Men and Fantastic Four for Marvel, Vampirella for Harris and Red Sonja for Dynamite Entertainment. He also wrote the Marvel Comics adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow, and has recently launched a creator-owned book at Vertigo, The Unwritten, which (in collected format) has made the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list several times.

More recently, Mike has moved into prose fiction with the Felix Castor novels, supernatural crime thrillers recounting the exploits of a freelance exorcist, and (under the pseudonym of Adam Blake) with mainstream thrillers such as The Dead Sea Deception. Along with his wife Linda and their daughter Louise he has co-written the fantasy novel The Steel Seraglio, soon to be published in the UK as City of Silk and Steel. His movie screenplay, Dominion, is in development with US producer Intrepid Pictures and UK’s Slingshot Studios.

SIMON CLARK’s latest novel, Inspector Abberline & the Gods of Rome, blends crime and the occult into a horror-thriller set in ninteenth-century England. His other books include Blood Crazy, This Rage of Echoes, Death’s Dominion, Vengeance Child and the award-winning The Night of the Triffids, which continues the story of Wyndham’s classic The Day of the Triffids.

WESTON OCHSE is the author of nine novels, most recently SEAL Team 666. His first novel, Scarecrow Gods, won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel. He’s also had published more than a hundred short stories, many of which appeared in anthologies, magazines, peered journals, and comic books. His short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and been Bram Stoker Award finalists. FYI, his last name is pronounced “oaks.” According to Harlan Ellison, “Weston Ochse sounds like a stately trailer park or a nursing home where good people go to die.” The trailer park lives in the Arizona desert within rock throwing distance of Mexico. For fun Weston races tarantula wasps and watches the black helicopters dance along the horizon.

YVONNE NAVARRO lives in southern Arizona, where by day she works on historic Fort Huachuca. She is the author of twenty-two published novels and well over a hundred short stories, and has written about everything from vampires to psychologically disturbed husbands to the end of the world. Her work has won the HWA’s Bram Stoker Award, plus a number of other writing awards. Visit her at www.yvonnenavarro.com or www.facebook.com/yvonne.navarro.001 to keep up with slices of a crazy life that includes her husband, author Weston Ochse, three Great Danes (Goblin, Ghost, and Ghoulie), a people-loving parakeet named BirdZilla, painting, and lots of ice cream, Smarties, and white zinfandel. Her most recent novels are Highborn and Concrete Savior, the first two books in the Dark Redemption Series. Only once in a great while does she fight it out, er, co-write with her husband.

JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times best-selling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include Assassin’s Code, Flesh & Bone, Ghost Road Blues, Dust & Decay, Patient Zero, The Wolfman, and many others. Non-fiction books include Ultimate Jujutsu, The Cryptopedia, Zombie CSU, Wanted Undead or Alive, and others. Jonathan’s award-winning teen novel Rot & Ruin is now in development for film. He’s the editor/co-author of V-Wars, a vampire-themed anthology, and was a featured expert on The History Channel special Zombies: A Living History. Since 1978 he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. His comics include Captain America: Hail Hydra, DoomWar, Marvel Zombies Return, and Marvel Universe Vs The Avengers. He teaches the Experimental Writing for Teens class, is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and co-founder of The Liars Club. Jonathan lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Sara, and their dog, Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com

JOE R. LANSDALE is the author of over thirty novels and two hundred short pieces, articles, and stories. He has been awarded The Edgar, The Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, nine Bram Stokers, is a Grandmaster of Horror, and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from The Horror Writers Association. His work has been made into films, and he is Writer in Residence at Stephen F. Austin University. He is the Grandmaster and Founder of Shen Chuan Martial Arts and has been inducted into both the International and United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

ELIZABETH MASSIE is a Bram Stoker Award- and Scribe Award-winning author of horror novels, short horror fiction, media tie-ins, mainstream fiction, historical novels, and non-fiction. More recent works include Desper Hollow (horror novel), Naked, On the Edge (collection of horror short fiction), and Homegrown (mainstream novel). She is the creator of the Skeeryvilletown slew of cartoon zombies, monsters, and other bizarre misfits. In her “spare” time she manages Hand to Hand Vision, a Facebook-based fundraising project she founded to help others during these tough economic times. Massie lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and shares life and abode with the talented illustrator/artist Cortney Skinner.

LISA TUTTLE began writing while still at school, sold her first stories at university, and won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer of the year in 1974. Her first novel, Windhaven, was a collaboration with George R. R. Martin published in 1981; her most recent is the contemporary fantasy The Silver Bough; and she has written at least a hundred short stories — science fiction, fantasy, and horror — as well as essays, reviews, non-fiction, and books for children. Born and raised in Texas, she now makes her home in a remote, rural part of Scotland.

STEPHEN VOLK is best known as the creator of the notorious BBC-TV “Halloween hoax” Ghostwatch and the award-winning British TV drama series Afterlife. He co-wrote the recent big screen ghost story The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, while his other credits include Ken Russell’s Gothic and William Friedkin’s The Guardian, as well as standalone scripts for Channel Four’s Shockers and the short film The Deadness of Dad, which won him a BAFTA. His short stories have been finalists for British Fantasy, Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards, and have appeared in several Best-of anthologies. His first collection, Dark Corners, was published in 2006, followed by the acclaimed novella Vardøger, while 2013 sees the publication of Whitstable, his new novella featuring Peter Cushing. Visit his site at www.stephenvolk.net

CLIVE BARKER was born in Liverpool, England, where he began his creative career writing, directing, and acting for the stage. Since then, he has gone on to pen such bestsellers as The Books of Blood, Weaveworld, Imajica, The Great and Secret Show, The Thief of Always, Everville, Sacrament, Galilee, Coldheart Canyon, Mr. B Gone, and the highly acclaimed fantasy series Abarat. As a screenwriter, director, and film producer, he is credited with the Hellraiser and Candyman pictures, as well as Nightbreed, Lord of Illusions, Gods and Monsters, The Midnight Meat Train, Clive Barker’s Book of Blood and Dread. Mr. Barker lives in Los Angeles, California.