The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction is now available from
Elder Signs Press. Editor William Jones has selected some of the most horrifying and fantastical tales from the eponymous magazine along with previously unpublished works and award-winning short stories. As the publisher reports on its website, these tales "fearlessly venture into the hidden world of the supernatural, where strange creatures stalk the night and eldritch investigators search for the unknown."
The collection includes my short story "Plague of Fire" along with works by Peter Straub, Alan Dean Foster, Tom Piccirilli, John Pelan, Richard A. Lupoff, John Shirley, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Wendy Leeds, Gerard Houarner, Chirstopher Welch, Sam W. Anderson, C.J. Henderson, Paul Melniczek, Richard Wright, Deanna Hoak, Christopher T. Leland, Bruce Boston, Lee Ballentine, Sherry Decker, Gene O’Neill, James Argendeli, Patricia Lee Macomber, David Niall Wilson, Christian Klaver, Tim Curran, Neddal Ayad and Rachel Gray.
To tempt discerning readers into ordering a copy for the holidays, following is a brief excerpt from my story:
"Outside, the twilight shuddered with bursts of sporadic lightning. Spidery bolts erupted from beyond the horizon, scattered across the sky and invaded Obaid’s apartment in flashes of crimson and blue. The thunder growled with the whisper of the hidden horrors.
A pack of tormented sirens howled through the dusk, scrambling toward a dull, red glow smoldering in the besieged Florida night. Obaid temporarily abandoned his studies and peered through the breach in the curtains covering the window. In the distance, some vast conflagration illuminated the sky, reminding him of burning oil rigs in the desert."
