Thursday, May 10, 2012

Anthology spotlight: Pill Hill Press

Headed up by Jessy Marie Roberts, Pill Hill Press is a relatively new horror/fantastic fiction publisher. Their first anthology was released in 2009 and WOW have they released a ton of titles since then!  I have appeared in four PHP anthologies, though I haven't submitted anything to them recently. This is a publisher that (at least at the time I was submitting) did not offer payment. I think they might have offered contributor copies or offered copies to contributors at reduced rates. I'm so tired right now that I don't remember!

One of my earliest anthology appearances was "The Middle of Nowhere", featuring horror in a rural setting and fantastic cover art. My story is called Beneath Kent's Bed and was verrrrry loosely based on one of my Uncles. It's a murder mystery, and rather dark.

Also included in this anthology are stories by Jessy Roberts, Aaron Polson, Amanda C. Davis, J. Troy Seate and Rob Rosen, all of whom I would encounter again. I really look forward to seeing what other authors I am sharing a Table of Contents with, to see who I know, who I admire, and so on.

It's been a long time since I read this anthology, but I recall being freaked out by Tommy of the Flood by Aaron Polson.

The second PHP title I contributed to was "Love Kills", a horror/dark fantasy anthology about love gone wrong. WAY wrong! My entry is called Swollen Tick and tells the story about an unusual fellow named Martin, who is perfectly content when his neighbors fight, but faces grave health problems when (because) they work things out and rekindle their romance.

If you get this anthology, make sure you read All Your Pretty Things by Harper Hull. His violent stories always horrify me (in a good way).

PHP has a nice series called "Dark Things." I have a story in Volume II, titled The Old Man of Weevil Creek. It was meant as an homage to one of my favorite old horror stories and one of my favorite old country/southern rock songs. But I'm not saying what they are...

The Weeper by Tim Lewis was my favorite story in Dark Things II. Tension-filled and a really creepy villain/monster. Don't look up!

The most recent Pill Hill Press anthology I contributed to features my number one all-time favorite cover. It's called "Gone With the Dirt" and is a Civil War-Zombie-theme anthology. That makes it sound like you'd be reading the same story over and over doesn't it?  Not the case. I wrote a very positive review for GWTD on Amazon. I really enjoyed it start to finish and am so pleased to be a part of it. Tons of variety, viewpoints, perspectives, plots.

My story, The Restoration Room is about two women whose root cellar is actually an enormous cavern. Thanks to its legendary restorative powers, the Confederacy appropriates the cavern to heal injured soldiers. But the results aren't quite what they'd expected.

Two excellent stories in "Gone With the Dirt" are The Diary of Horatio White by Mark Souza and "Rotten Peaches" by Vic Kerry. But like I said, this whole anthology is consistently good.

That's all for now. Check out the Pill Hill Press web site. They have a lot of titles available.

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