The Canberra Times' Colin Steele reviews Scary Kisses

Scary Kisses falls below the Ticonderoga high standards of Warren and Slatter, partly because the stories by fourteen authors vary in quality and partly because many, such as Canberra author Nicole Murphy's "The Anstruther Woman" need greater length to develop plot and character. Murphy's imagined closed community of Barrengarry, whose farm stock is threatened by outsize dogs, and is the backdrop for a woman's developing relationships, deserved more space in that context . Angela Slatter and L. L. Hannett with "The February Dragon" benefit from a greater length, as a young girl, a hybrid of dragon and human, struggles to find her true home in a misogynistic and brutal society. Scary Kisses' title, and a blurb that promises  "paranormal romance with bite", seem at odds with the content of a number of the stories.

(Sunday Canberra Times, 30/01/11)

Because we love Scary Kisses, we think that comparing it to Dead Sea Fruit and The Girl With No Hands is like comparing apples and pears, but that could just be sour grapes on our part. Check the books out for yourself and tell us what you think.

The West Australian gives Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Grzyb, a positive review.

The stories in this compilation entrance, excite and intrigue. From reincarnation to curse breakers, from dragons to blind dates, you will find yourself shivering one minute and  eagerly rereading the next. Zombies are overtaking the vampire in today's society but the undead are mixed here with traditional fable, the blood sucker and the lycanthrope. Also nice to see are references to Western Australia rather than Louisiana! Watch out for West reviewer Ian Nichols "Fade Away", which has a surprise twist at the end.

From The West Australian, Tuesday 21 December 2010, Today p. 7.

Scary Minds positively reviews Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Grzyb.

You can read the full review here.

Don't let the paranormal romance concept put you off Scary Kisses as there's some down and dirty dark genre writing going on between the covers and a couple of not to be missed stories that make the collection a must purchase. I had a lot of fun between the covers and am more than happy to have dived in.

Scary Kisses can be purchased at indiebooksonline.com here.

Edited by Liz Grzyb

A collection of paranormal romance with bite.

On the menu is a tasty selection of heroines and heroes: time travellers, vampires, zombies, ghosts, witches, trapped spirits, dragons, wizards, monsters, even cartoons. From sweet to sexy, these stories will seduce.

Contents

The Anstruther Woman, Nicole R. Murphy
Fade Away, Ian Nichols
Bread and Circuses, Felicity Dowker
Black Widow, Shona Husk
The February Dragon, Angela Slatter and L.L. Hannett
Growing Silence, Matt Tighe
The Hidden One, Astrid Cooper
A Darker Shade of Pale, David Bofinger
The Valley, Martin Livings
Cursebreaker: the Welsh Widow and the Wandering Wooer, Kyla Ward
Heat, Donna Maree Hanson
Phaedra, Bruce Golden
Date with a Vampire, Annette Backshall
Pride and Tentacles, D C White

Cover design by Amanda Rainey

Editions

Regular Trade Edition. RRP $25 AUD. ISBN 978-0-9806288-4-5.

The SF Site's Mario Guslandi is very impressed with Basic Black: tales of appropriate fear.

To say that this is one of the best collections of dark fiction I ever read may seem obvious, considering that the book, first published by Cemetery Dance in 2006, won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection. And the fact that Terry Dowling is one of the most respected Australian authors of SF and horror should have been a further guarantee. However, I stopped taking things for granted long ago: Award winner books may turn out to be disappointing, ditto celebrated authors (who, as everyone else, have their ups and downs). Therefore, I started reading this volume with a positive but careful attitude, not really expecting to have necessarily in my hands a little masterpiece. Actually, it is.

You can read the full review here: http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ba329.htm

Terry Dowling

Winner of the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection

First Australian publication

Introduction by Jonathan Strahan

It's Dark in Here...

Not just with the absence of light, but with things made for the dark, that work best when the wind is in the trees and the sun has gone from the sky.

There's a carnival, of course - and such a one! - and a six-sided mirror room on a rainy evening. There's a model of a ship made from bone, a hotel room with the hint of a clown's face on the wall, a gun that grows its own bullets (you know they do!).

There's a train, too, that train, called up by a harmless holiday prank. There's the ultimate maze, a dream of blind gladiators, a truly unforgettable cabinet of wonders. Here you'll find the most deadly tomb of all and, yes, revealed at last - the truth behind what ghosts really are! All waiting among these bits of darkling shimmer, in this sharp narrow place, this careful trap.

A trap? You see how it is. This is your next step on the lonely road. The next wrong door you open. The next game you play on the midnight board, with forgotten rules and the sharpest of pieces. How it's to be done this time: with eighteen stories by one of the very best dark fantasy writers we have.

Contents

The Daemon Street Ghost-Trap
Downloading
The Bullet That Grows in the Gun
The Gully
The Bone Ship
Beckoning Nightframe
Stitch
La Profonde
The Saltimbanques
They Found The Angry Moon
Clownette
The Ichneumon and the Dormeuse
The Quiet Redemption of Andy the House
The Maze Man
One Thing About the Night
Jenny Come to Play
Cheat Light
Scaring the Train

Reviews

"One of the best recent collections of contemporary horror." - Carl Hays, American Library Assocation

"The everyday and ordinary show an unexpected malignant side in this collection of 18 uniquely disturbing tales of the fantastic. Dowling grounds his tales in mundane situations, then pulls back slowly to reveal (as the narrator of "Scaring the Train" calls them) "those moments of incidental framing reality where every commonplace surprises you." In "Cheat Light," a roll of film left in a pawnshop camera reveals images of an otherworldly origin. "Clownette" tells of a peculiar blotch on a hotel wall that proves to be something much worse than the harmless mildew stain it's mistaken for. "Maze Man," whose protagonist is trapped in an invisible maze that only he cannot penetrate, is one of several stories in which architecture motifs suggest alternate realities encroaching on our own. This selection of stories new and old makes for one of the year's more satisfying dark fantasy reads." - Publishers Weekly starred review

Editions

Limited Hardcover Edition, 100 copies signed by all contributors. RRP $75 AUD. ISBN 978-0-9803531-9-8. Available from indiebooksonline.com

Regular Trade Edition. RRP $35 AUD. ISBN 978-0-9806288-2-1.