After a long absence of posting OTR shows Graveside Tales is back with four new episodes for your listening pleasure.
1 - Amazing Death of Mrs. Putnam - The premiere episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries.. The tale follows two police officers investigating the reported death of an old lady (Mrs. Putnam) and the bizarre inconsistencies surrounding her apparent demise.
2 - No Coffin For The Dead - A D.A. and his assistant are attacked by an assailant with a knife, wounding the former and killing the latter. He goes through mug shots and identifies the miscreant as the son of his assistant's housekeeper, who had recently escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane.
3 - The Lost Refrain - aka Murder Prophet
4 - The Onyx Eye - A story about an Onyx Eye and the effect it had on the lives and happiness of several people. Cathy is given an eye shaped out of onyx which is supposed to bring good luck. However, where's there's good luck, there always tends to be its opposite as well.....
Visit Graveside Tales Social Netowrk Graveside Tales Social Network. Meet and interact with authors and other fans of the horror genre.As members you can
Harvest Hill submissions are now closed
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Writing and Poetry
Harvest Hill is now closed to submissions. We had more than 100 submissions for this one. We would like to thank everyone who submitted and wish you all good luck. We should be finished with first round readings no later than the first week of July. The editors, Michael Hultquist and Douglas Hutcheson, are planning on sending out both rejections and hold requests at that time. We have received submissions covering everything from prohibition to modern day carnivals and everything in between.
In other Harvest Hill news we will be starting the cover design around the first week of August. It is up in the air right now whether we will illustrate this anthology or not. This anthology, like The Beast Within, has taken on a life of its own. It has a Tales From The Crypt feel to it.
Keep checking back often for updates. If you haven't already, we suggest you take advantage of early updates for this anthology or any of our books by joining our forum.
Blue collar tough Andrew White knows that in the rural community of Miller's Fork bad things are best left in the dark. He soon learns that monsters wear many shapes.
In a populace rife with of vice and deception, something has broken loose…something hidden and feral. Set free from a neighbor's barn, a force rampages through the locality. Hungry and insatiable, the berserk wrath unleashed from Mr. Solow's shed is holds a darker secret than anyone could imagine.
Only a factory worker, a twisted biker, an unsure sheriff, and a wounded addict stand in the way of the beast. Can they put aside their differences and defeat what lurks inside them in time to defend what they love?
Come, peer inside the souls of Miller's Fork and see if they possess the courage to stop the primal fury that is…HAWG.
"Shrewsbury is an accomplished storyteller with a gift for story and character development. Realistic…gory…the plotting is masterful and endlessly exciting."
--Laurel Johnson, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
"Steven L. Shrewsbury does what all writers should strive to do. From its first sentence HAWG ignites that creeping essence we seek from horror and Shrewsbury shows us he has no boundaries. This may be the best work I've read all year."
--John Paul Allen, author of GIFTED TRUSTand MONKEY LOVE.
Copies are signed by the author when ordered direct from the publisher plus FREE Shipping to US customers only.
Graveside Tales is now open to submissions for an upcoming Halloween-themed anthology entitled Harvest Hill.We are seeking stories from 2,000 to 6,000 words.The pay rate is $.01 per word and a contributor's copy.All rights of work revert to the author after two years from the publication date.
The set up:
Harvest Hill, a little town in East Tennessee, seems like an idyllic place most of the year.But it is not always so, and especially not on Halloween--every Halloween.From just after midnight of Oct. 30 until midnight Oct. 31, horrors break loose both big and small.And this has been happening as far back as the 1500s.
The treats we want:
Place your story in Harvest Hill, TN.You can set it on any Halloween of any year from 1550 CE until the end of the 20th century.
Horror is the essential genre here but the stories can include elements of crime, black humor, dark fantasy or even mild sci-fi.Sexual and gory situations are fine as long the plot justifies them.You may use standard Halloween images, but strive to execute them in new and amazing ways.
We will be looking especially for strong three-dimensional characters, as well as unusual disturbing situations.Think about your setting and the characters in it--what are the hidden things that have been near the surface, just waiting for an unseen push to tear free?Tell us those stories.
Do your research, but do not get bogged down in it.We will check your setting against general history as it is knowable, and so should you.Pay careful attention to the time line of Halloween itself, including its varying names and rituals.
The tricks we do not want:
Do not reference other years unless it is directly relevant to your story.Confine stories to their particular year/Halloween.
Do not send us stories in which Samhain is the Dark Lord of the Dead or some other god figure.This was never the case.Samhain simply refers to summer's end.
Do not send us stories in which Satan unleashes his evil on the populace while his worshippers conduct their rituals on his holy day, Halloween.This also was never the case.Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallow Even.
Furthermore, since we are not publishing Chic tracts, no, the Devil did not make your characters do it.It is okay for you to exploit generally "demonic" forces.Do not, however, employ overtly stereotypical figures to engage in trite religious sermonizing.
Upon acceptance your story will become part of the anthology's meta-narrative.This meta-narrative will involve a character or characters who will introduce each story; it will serve as an opening for the volume and have its own resolution as well.The editors will write the meta-narrative after choosing the stories for the volume.
Submissions:
E-mail submissions, as attachments only, to:halloween@gravesidetales.com.Put "Halloween Anthology:your story title" in the subject line.Include the title and a paragraph setting up your story, a brief bio and publication history, and any other relevant information in the body of the e-mail.
For all attachments, please make sure to:
Save in Microsoft Word as .doc or .rtf.
Use a Courier font, size 12.
Double-space between lines.
Position 1" margins all around.
Space twice after any sentence-ending punctuation and after colons.
Underline instead of italicize.
Indicate section breaks by a blank line, followed by centered on a line, and then another blank line before beginning your next paragraph.
Name, address, phone number and e-mail of author should appear on the first page of the manuscript in the upper left corner.The word count should appear in the upper right corner.The header for subsequent pages should contain the author's last name, key title word and page number.
If you are unfamiliar with proper manuscript format, please read and follow the article here:http://www.shunn.com/format/story.html.We will return unread any submissions that fail to follow the guidelines exactly.Authors can then reformat their stories and resubmit them, but they will go to the end of the reading line.
We are shooting for a reading time of four to six weeks for rejections.If we like your story you may not hear back from us right away, so please be patient.If you have not heard back from us within three days to acknowledge the receipt of your manuscript, please feel free to query us.
The submission period will run from March 1 until May 31, or until filled.We will be completing the table of contents from June through August.The release date for this anthology will be September/October 2008.
Dead Reckoning - Something comes out of the water to drag men on to a watery death.
Beyond The Grave - A dead woman and her cat haunt a frightened husband.
The Black Sea Gull - Peter Lorre stars in this excellent show about a man just can't face the loss of his wife.
The Undead - Is a woman's husband a vampire? It's the 1940's, not the middle ages and they live on the 18th floor in a New York apartment. Preposterous... or not?
Over the weekend Graveside Tales received an email from the HWA. It seems that Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths edited by Colleen Morris & Joel A. Sutherland has been recommended for a Stoker Award in the anthology category. This is came as a complete surprise to everyone at Graveside Tales.
We also have received the proof copy of Fried! on Thursday and approved the proof over the weekend. Everyone is very pleased how the book turned out and we are confident you will be to. In the next couple of weeks you should also be able to order Fried! at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders and other fine book stores.
The Beast Within is coming alonge nicely. We have just about finished up the first round readings and moving on to second round readings. If you have not received a rejection yet your story is still being considered.
If you haven't already be sure and stop by the Graveside Tales Forums and sign up. We are getting ready to kick off our 1st annual Christmas Giveaway.
When you have some time stop by the Graveside Tales Social Network a place for authors and fans to hang out. If you sign up you get your own blog, you can post pictures, upload music and videos, receive RSS feeds, and many other great features.
Trailer Trash by Scott T. Goudsward DarkHeart Press Price: $14.99 ISBN-10: 0978731832
The story centers on protagonist Elvis Taggard, kidnapped by a sexy female vampire after she kills his parents.Seizing an opportunity to free himself, Elvis stakes his undead captor and makes his escape, vowingto destroy other 'children of the night' as payback.He meets up with a crazy millionaire named Erik, employed by a mysterious group known only as 'The Sponsors'.
Their mission is suppose to be a simple one - go into 'cold spots' and make sure there are no vampires.The assignments are anything but 'cold'.Following orders from The Sponsors, they make their way across America to the set of a high-budget movie in Hollywood, California.The finale comes rather swiftly yet leaves room for a sequel.
The author balances several subplots at once and does it amazingly well. As Erik researches the vampire species, yearning to join them, fighting amongst the various vampire clans forces twins Dorian and Deirdre to choose their own paths, dividing brother and sister. Meanwhile, Elvis struggles with the thought of being left alone, after he learns Erik's secret desire.
Scott takes you on a teeth-gnashing thrill ride, filled with enough bloody action to keepthe reader turning pages well into the night.I recommend Trailer Trash to anyone who likes a good vampire story.
Local book publisher offers thrills and chills
Category: MySpace
On 11/23 I was interviewed by The Independent our hometown newspaper. Enjoy!
Local book publisher offers thrills and chills
By: Sean Dieterich, The Independent
11/30/2007
LAKESIDE - Dale Murphy enjoys a good scare. He also enjoys scaring others. Murphy, 39, is co-owner of Graveside Tales, a small press publisher of horror novels and anthologies. And Murphy knows scary.
He's the kind of guy that watches horror movies and reads horror books in the dark. "Otherwise, it's no fun," he said, wearing a blood-splattered "George Romero for President" T-shirt. George Romero is the creator of well-known horror classics "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead." "I've been a horror fan all my life. I always liked the thrill of the unknown, to be scared." It was this enjoyment in being scared and the thought of scaring others that prompted Murphy and 24-year-old Anthony Kendall to start Graveside Tales. Discussions began in October 2006, with the company going live last April. Operations are currently based out of Lakeside (Murphy does plans to move the company to Scottsdale in the future) and their Web site at www.gravesidetales.com is up and running. The Web site has added 140 forum members and 160 newsletter subscribers since August. Not bad, considering how far apart the owners live. Kendall currently lives in Illinois. Murphy described Graveside Tales as a print-on-demand company. This way, they can respond to orders and print accordingly, not printing too much or too little. "It allows us to print one to whatever number of books we want based on orders," he said. "It's really cost-effective." Graveside Tales establishes itself as something different from other print-on-demand companies, Murphy said. While other companies charge their authors to be published, Graveside Tales does not. "Our objective is to provide first class horror novels at fair and affordable prices, while helping new authors become established," he said. Graveside Tales' first horror anthology will come out Dec. 3. Titled "Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths," it is a collection of 23 stories from 23 authors, each offering a tale of horror and suspense centered around fast food restaurants. Graveside Tales and "Fried!" kind of fell into each other's laps. In the beginning, Murphy said, he and Kendall discussed various mediums for their new company. "We originally wanted to do a magazine and a writer's critique online," he said. Soon, the discussion turned to taking the best stories from that critique group and creating a book. With the plan in place, all Graveside Tales needed was a place to start. They got it with "Fried!" At first, however, it was supposed to end up somewhere else. "Originally, 'Fried!' was supposed to be done by another small press," Murphy said. "But they lost their editor and they didn't even get started." Looking for another home, the anthology's editors, Colleen Morris and Joel A. Sutherland, contacted Murphy and told him they had collected a group of horror stories. Murphy said he felt what Morris and Sutherland had given him made a perfect fit for Graveside Tales. Murphy said the anthology, while highly anticipated by Graveside Tales and their fans, has also earned a seal of disapproval from a national restaurant chain. Bob's Big Boy, founded in Glendale, Calif., and currently based in Warren, Mich., was contacted by Graveside Tales because they wanted to use the chain's well-known Big Boy mascot on the cover of their book. He said they sent the franchise every bit of material related to their project and awaited a response. "It came back to us in big, red letters, underlined, 'Denied,'" he said. It didn't get Murphy and his crew down, however. They changed the cover art and went ahead with publishing the book. But Graveside Tales will not stop with "Fried!" The company has bigger plans for its future. They will continue to put out horror anthologies, including a yearly Halloween project, but they also want to publish novels, one coming from editor-in-chief Matt Hults. Graveside Tales also sponsors online horror novels. Murphy said the purpose is two-fold: challenging the author to finish their book in a timely manner with biweekly posts online and helping them to establish a fan base. Once an online novel is completed, they encourage the author to go back through and polish it up for a possible print release. Two novels are currently being sponsored: "Plague" by "Fried!" cover artist Bret Jordan and "Jennings Grove" by Jeff Parish. Plans are already in the works for the publishing of Graveside Tales' second anthology "The Beast Within," a collection of stories focusing on were-creatures. Murphy said they received over 400 submissions for "The Beast Within" and will try to publish it in January or February. While the books will be available online, Murphy said he wants to get their books into big chain retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Borders. He said he wants to reach as many people as possible because, deep down, people enjoy a good scare. "People just really like to be scared, but in a safe way," he said. For more information, visit www.gravesidetales.com.
accomplished
excited
