If you haven’t already heard on social media, my partner in darkness. Dan Rabarts, and I learned yesterday that our supernatural crime-noir Hounds of the Underworld made the Preliminary Ballot of the international Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a Novel. It’s a huge honour to get this far, especially given this is Dan’s first published novel and I’m no less delighted, with two books making this long list in the past two years. There’s still a long way to go ‒ two rounds of member voting ‒ before the award is announced at a banquet dinner at the HWA StokerCon conference, in Providence, Rhode Island. However, given the competition, we don’t hold out much hope of proceeding to the next round, so we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind support of our work, and there are a lot of you. In the meantime, we’re going to revel in the feeling of having our work listed alongside horror greats like Stephen and Owen King, Christopher Golden, Josh Malerman, and Adam Nevill among others.
2017 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Barker, J.D. – The Fourth Monkey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Golden, Christopher – Ararat (St. Martin’s Press)
Jemc, Jac – The Grip of It (FSG Originals)
King, Stephen and King, Owen – Sleeping Beauties (Scribner)
Malerman, Josh – Black Mad Wheel (Ecco)
McGrath, Patrick – The Wardrobe Mistress (Hutchinson)
Miskowski, S.P. – I Wish I Was Like You (JournalStone)
Nevill, Adam – Under a Watchful Eye (Pan Macmillan)
Rabarts, Dan and Murray, Lee – Hounds of the Underworld (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Purcell, Laura – The Silent Companions: A Ghost Story (Raven Books)
Tem, Steve Rasnic – Ubo (Solaris)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Cabeen, Robert Payne – Cold Cuts (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Davidson, Andy – In the Valley of the Sun (Skyhorse Publishing)
Hartwell, Ash – Tip of the Iceberg (Stitched Smile Publications)
Hayward, Matt – What do Monsters Fear? (Post Mortem Press)
Hepler, Jeremy – The Boulevard Monster (Bloodshot Books)
Rosson, Keith – The Mercy of the Tide (Meerkat Press)
Thomas, Scott – Kill Creek (Ink Shares)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
French, Gillian – The Door to January (Islandport Press)
Leveen, Tom – Hellworld (Simon Pulse)
Liggett, Kim – The Last Harvest (Tor Teen)
Lukavics, Amy – The Ravenous (Harlequin Teen)
Porter, Sarah – When I Cast Your Shadow (Tor Teen)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Carey, Mike and Arvind, Ethan David – Darkness Visible (IDW)
Duffey, Damian and Butler, Octavia E. – Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (Abrams ComicArts)
Ferris, Emil – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Fantagraphics)
Haun, Jeremy and Hurley, Jason – The Beauty Volume 3 (Image Comics)
Hickman, Jonathan – The Black Monday Murders (Image Comics)
Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 2: The Blood (Image Comics)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Baxter, Alan – The Book Club (PS Publishing)
Deady, Tom – Weekend Getaway (Grinning Skull Press)
Edelman, Scott – Faking it Until Forever Comes (Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them) (Written Backwards)
Jones, Stephen Graham – Mapping the Interior (Tor.com)
Keisling, Todd – The Final Reconciliation (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Kiernan, Caitlín R. – Agents of Dreamland (Tor.com)
McGuire, Seanan – Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Tor.com)
Taylor, Lucy – Sweetlings (Tor.com)
Vandermeer, Jeff – The Strange Bird: A Borne Story (MCD x FSG Originals)
Waggoner, Tim – A Kiss of Thorns (DarkFuse)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Bailey, Michael – “I Will Be the Reflection Until the End” (Tales from the Lake Vol. 4) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Bodner, Hal – “The Baker of Millepoix” (Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities & Undefinable Wonders) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Fawver, Kurt – “Etch the Unthinkable” (Gamut #1) (Gamut Magazine)
Lombardi, Nicola – “Even the Stars Fall” (The Beauty of Death Vol. 2: Death by Water) (Independent Legions Publishing)
Mannetti, Lisa – “Apocalypse Then” (Never Fear: The Apocalypse) (13Thirty Books)
Marceau, Caitlin – “No Filter” (Read-Only: A Collection of Digital Horror) (WatchMojo Publishing)
Neugebauer, Annie – “So Sings the Siren” (Apex Magazine #101) (Apex Publications)
Rourke, Naomi Brett – “Coyote” (Straight Outta Tombstone) (Baen)
Taff, John F.D. – “A Ware That Will Not Keep” (Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities & Undefinable Wonders) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Wahl, M.F. – “Absolution” (Feverish Fiction Magazine Issue #6) (Sleazy Viking Press)
Walters, Damien Angelica – “All the Windows, All the Doors” (Chopping Block Party: An Anthology of Suburban Terror) (Necro Publications)
Yardley, Mercedes M. – “Loving you Darkly” (F(r)iction Magazine #8) (Tethered by Letters)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Cain, Kenneth W. – Embers (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Cataneo, Emily B. – Speaking to the Skull Kings (Trepidatio Publishing)
Dorr, James – Tombs (Elder Signs Press)
Fracassi, Philip – Behold the Void (JournalStone)
Hill, Joe – Strange Weather (William Morrow)
Hussey, Derick – The Dreamer in Fire and Other Stories (Hippocampus Press)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe (JournalStone)
Malerman, Josh – Goblin (Earthling Publications)
Matsuura, Thersa – The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales (Independent Legions Publishing)
McGrath, Patrick – Writing Madness (Centipede Press)
Sheldon, Deborah – Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories (IFWG Publishing Australia)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Aronofsky, Darren – Mother! (Paramount Pictures, Protozoa Pictures)
Del Toro, Guillermo and Taylor, Vanessa – The Shape of Water (TSG Entertainment, Double Dare You Productions)
Duffer, Matt and Duffer, Ross – Stranger Things: MadMax, Episode 02:01: Chapter One (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
Ducournau, Julia – Raw (Frakas Productions/Petit Film/Rouge International)
Frost, Mark and Lynch, David – Twin Peaks: The Return “Gotta Light?”, Episode 3:08 (Rancho Rosa Partnership Production)
Palmer, Chase, Fukunaga, Cary, and Dauberman, Gary – It (New Line Cinema)
Peele, Jordan – Get Out (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment)
Shyamalan, M. Night – Split (Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Bailey, Michael and Speegle, Darren – Adam’s Ladder (Written Backwards)
Brooks, Kinitra, PhD., Addison, Linda D., and Morris, Susana, PhD. – Sycorax’s Daughters (Cedar Grove Publishing)
Datlow, Ellen – Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales: An Anthology (Pegasus Books)
Eads, Ben – Tales from the Lake Vol. 4: The Horror Anthology (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Ferguson, Cin and Campbell, Broos – Mother’s Revenge: A Dark and Bizarre Anthology of Global Proportions (Scary Dairy Press)
Kaheaku, Danielle – California Screamin’ (Barking Deer Press)
Maberry, Jonathan and Romero, George A. – Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Manzetti, Alessandro and Lester, Jodi Renee – The Beauty of Death Vol. 2: Death by Water (Independent Legions Publishing)
Matthews, Mark – Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror (Wicked Run Press)
Murano, Doug – Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities & Undefinable Wonders (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Price, David – Northern Frights: An Anthology by the Horror Writers of Maine (Grinning Skull Press)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Brittany, Michele – Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre (McFarland)
Brooks, Kinitra D. – Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror (Rutgers University Press)
Cardin, Matt – Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears (Greenwood)
Hendrix, Grady. Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction (Quirk Books)
Jones, Stephen – The Art of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books; Ill edition)
Mynhardt, Joe and Johnson, Eugene – Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre – (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Rhoads, Loren – 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die (Black Dog & Leventhal)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Bolivar, Adam – The Lay of Old Hex: Spectral Ballads and Weird Jack Tales (Hippocampus Press)
Fantina, Michael – Alchemy of Dreams and Other Poems (Hippocampus Press)
Frazier, Robert and Boston, Bruce – Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Hanson, Michael H. – When the Night Owl Screams (MoonDream Press)
Manzetti, Alessandro – No Mercy (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Ness, Mari – Through Immortal Shadows Singing (Papaveria Press)
Razvi, Saba – Heliophobia (Finishing Line Press)
Simon, Marge and Turzillo, Mary – Satan’s Sweethearts (Weasel Press)
Sng, Christina – A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Weikel, Cynthia O’Quinn – Return to Graveyard Dust (Goose River Press)
Wytovich, Stephanie M. – Sheet Music to my Acoustic Nightmare (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Praise for Hounds of the Underworld:
“…a wild and gruesome treat, packed with mystery, action, and dark humor. Horror fans will devour it!” —Jeff Strand, author of Wolf Hunt
“Filled with an incredible unity of voice and magnificent world building, Hounds of the Underworld was impossible to put down. I was hooked on the first page.” —Jake Bible, Bram Stoker Award-nominated novelist and author of Z-Burbia, Mega and Salvage Merc One
“A dark tech-noir so near to our future, it could be tomorrow, hard-boiled and hair-raising! One of the best speculative fiction novels ever written.” —Paul Mannering, Engines of Empathy
“Written with verve, Rabarts and Murray’s novel has as much heart as suspense.” —Publishers Weekly