Gratia Placenti: For the Sake of Pleasing edited by Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth
Table of Contents:
“Translatio” – Geoffrey Girard
“Follow the Canary” – Athena Workman
“Crasher” – Debbie Kuhn
“Some Glue Never Dries” – David Niall Wilson
“The Cutting Room” – Shane Jiraiya Cummings
“Bright Red Razors” – Teri Jacobs
“Party Makers” – Adrienne Jones
“Them’s Good Eats” – JA Konrath
“Something Wet” – James Reilly
“Popup Killer” – Bev Vincent
“Only Spirits Cry” – R. Thomas Riley
“The Listening” – Neil Ayres
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow” – Mary Robinette Kowal
Introduction by Jason Sizemore
Cover art by Paul Bielaczyc
Blurbs:
“Gratia Placenti unearths chilling new voices of weirdness. Spooky, anxious, edgy – these stories bite at your heels like crack-head serpents. The vivid sensory angst will blow back your eyelids and make your toenails throb. A scary fun read!”
—M.M. Buckner, author of the Philip K. Dick award (2006) winning novel War Surf, and the novels Neurolink, Hyperthought, and Watermind
“In the fast food culture of entertainment the subtleties and simple pleasures of a well crafted story are too often abandoned in favour of the quick thrill and the killer one-two combo of blood and thunder. Not so here. Showing uncanny deftness, a grace of touch, and craftsman-like precision in the telling, Mary Robinette Kowal, Geoffrey Girard, David Niall Wilson, JA Konrath, and others remind us that the convenant still holds: top and bottom of it, a writer’s job is no more and no less the simple art of pleasing the reader. Read the book then try and tell me there’s something wrong with pleasure for pleasure’s sake.”
—Steven Savile, author of Torchwood: Hidden, Primeval: Madre de Dios, and The Hollow Earth
“The stories in Gratia Placenti are simultaneously disturbing and thought-provoking. This fine new collection of dark tales inspires equal measures of fear and awe, and should wow even jaded fright fans.”
—Bryan Smith, author of The Freakshow and Queen of Blood
Reviews:
“From a Vietnam vet haunted by the ghosts of those he murdered overseas, to a cleaning woman aboard a space station desperate to buy her dying son a new pair of lungs, each and every story contained within Gratia Placenti is noteworthy in its own distinct way. As I mentioned before, this collection is one of the best I have read, to date, and I truly look forward to reading more work by each of the included authors. In a world painted red with the obvious, Gratia Placenti is welcomed drink of absinthe amongst the ordinary. I highly suggest you grab a glass while they last.”
FEARZONE.net, Gabrielle S. Faust
196 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0978867652
