Kim Newman's new short story collection, Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories, comes out today, and Titan Books has provided us with an excerpt from the story "Yokai Town: Anno Dracula 1899" for Daily Dead readers to enjoy. We also have details on Destination America's new series Terror in the Woods and info on horror author Mylo Carbia's signing at this year's Women in Horror Film Festival.
Read an Excerpt from Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories: “A collection of horror short stories by acclaimed author, journalist, and movie critic Kim Newman. This volume contains twenty-one stories featuring famous figures from Jack the Ripper to Frankenstein's monster, and includes a brand-new, exclusive Anno Dracula story 'Yokai Town: Anno Dracula 1899'.”
"Kim Newman is a well known and respected author and movie critic. He writes regularly for Empire Magazine and contributes to The Guardian, The Times, Time Out and others. He makes frequent appearances on radio and TV. He has won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and James Herbert Awards."
To learn more about Kim Newman's Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories, visit Titan Books and Amazon, and check out our excerpt from "Yokai Town: Anno Dracula 1899," which sets the stage for Newman's upcoming novel Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, due out on October 3rd.
Excerpt from "Yokai Town: Anno Dracula 1899":
Eventually, they arrived at a large, tiered building. Red wood, with flaking white and gold trim. A stack of projecting roofs like large, square hats. A banner bore red characters. Sen Kwai Ji.
‘What does that say?’ asked Christina. ‘“No Hawkers or Circulars”?’
‘So far as I can make out,’ Geneviève said, ‘“Temple of One Thousand Monsters”.’
A deputation of three awaited in the temple courtyard. A squat, child-sized person sat on his haunches, stunted body barely supporting a swollen head which looked like a rotten green potato with a wide face on it and curly fangs stuck out of a slit-mouth.
A white-faced, beautiful woman posed on a mat, playing a samisen – a long-necked musical instrument. Her kimono was decorated with a surging wave motif. She nodded with each plucked note.
A singular little fellow seemed to be a living folded umbrella. He had one bare muscular hairy human leg, a corrugated flesh cone body sporting a single large eye and a smiling set of fleshy lips, and a topknot with a bow in it.
‘These are yokai,’ Geneviève said. She’d known what to expect and was still rattled.
In woodcuts, these creatures looked absurd and almost endearing. In the flesh, they exuded wrongness. In the West, vampire shapeshifters were swimmers who stuck close to the shore. They relied on the familiar forms of bats and wolves – or, in rarer cases, insects and reptiles – but always retained a human template, reluctant to leave behind what they were before turning. In the East, traditions were different – and other shapes, other practices, emerged.
Make no mistake: the yokai of Japan were vampires if distant cousins only to the nosferatu of Europe. The same went for the aswang of the Philippines, the penanggalan of Malaya and the pontianak of Java. They just weren’t the sort of vampires Lord Ruthven would invite to Downing Street for whist and a nibble on the maid.
‘At least the popsy with the sideways guitar looks halfway normal,’ said Whelpdale. ‘Though it sounds like she forgot to kill the cat before stringing its guts on that there plink-a-plonk affair. Is she one of them geisha girlies?’
The woman played and sang. As the tune continued, the musician’s neck elongated by six or eight feet… as if it were string and her head a balloon.
The umbrella yokai hopped behind the long-necked woman, and the green-faced goblin rolled into a ball. The woman’s neck undulated like a serpent. She was her own snake-charmer, head swaying to the music of her hands. ‘I am Lady Oyotsu,’ said the woman, voice ululating from distended vocal cords. ‘Abbess of the temple. These are my attendants, Abura Sumashi and Kasabake.’
Abura Sumashi, the potato-head, rolled around so his grinning face was uppermost. His tongue poked out and she decided she wouldn’t trust him near the back end of her livestock if she had any. Kasabake, the umbrella demon, opened and closed. His struts were bony ribs, attached to a column that was once a human spine.
‘My lady abbess, I am Geneviéve Dieudonné, a physician,’ she said, in Japanese. ‘This is Captain Kostaki, late of the Carpathian Guard, and the Princess Casamassima, who you will find an enormous pain in the neck. We are yokai from Europe. In our language, vampires.’
‘Vampires, you are welcome guests,’ she said.
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Destination America Announces New Series Terror in the Woods: Press Release: "(Silver Spring, Md.) - Destination America today announced that it has commissioned an all-new series Terror in the Woods (wt) (8 x 60') with award-winning UK production company Wild Dreams Films. Production is currently underway.
Terror in the Woods (wt) investigates the most shocking unexplained paranormal encounters in the wild. From gator hunting in Louisiana’s bayou to ice fishing in Illinois, and deer hunts in Montana, these are the real-life stories of people who embarked on an outdoors adventure – only to be scared out of the woods by ghosts, monsters, and other unexplained phenomena.
They came to discover the great outdoors, but something discovered them first. Venturing into the woods, lakes, and mountains of America, the last thing they expected to experience was to come face to face with threatening paranormal entities. Do they panic and make a run for it? Or bunker down inside a cabin, waiting for what’s next? How will they escape? Using shocking first-hand interviews and cinematic drama reconstruction, these terrifying experiences will be brought to life as hunters become the hunted in the outdoors.
Additionally, the series has been signed by Distribution360, who will represent the series internationally having begun discussions with broadcasters and platforms about pre-sales in several markets and will be attending Realscreen Summit later this week for further meetings on the new title.
Terror in the Woods (wt) is produced by Wild Dream Films and Destination America. For Wild Dream Films, Stuart Clarke is executive producer. For Destination America, Cathy Garland is executive producer, Jane Latman is general manager, and Henry Schleiff is Group President of Investigation Discovery, Destination America, and American Heroes Channel.
About Destination America
As the only network that celebrates the people, places, and stories of the United States, Destination America is an inclusive network targeting Adults 25-54 and is available in 54 million homes. From spine-tingling campfire tales to uncovering history’s greatest mysteries, the network’s original series showcase the curiosity and adventurous spirit at the heart of being American, with original series like Paranormal Lockdown; A Haunting; Mountain Monsters; Ghost Brothers; Ghost Asylum, and more.
For more information, please visit www.DestinationAmerica.com, www.facebook.com/DestinationAmerica, or www.twitter.com/DestAmerica. Destination America is part of Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the world’s #1 pay-tv programmer reaching nearly 3 billion cumulative subscribers in 220 countries and territories.
About Wild Dream Films
Wild Dream Films is a multi-award-winning production company based in Cardiff, UK. It prides itself on delivering powerfully crafted programmes and films aimed at large commercial markets. From high impact feature documentaries to international returning series, the company is known for its strong brand of storytelling and a highly visual filmic style. Since its creation in 1998, productions have included major commissions for History Channel US, H2, National Geographic Channel, TLC, MSNBC, Discovery Channel US, and also commissions closer to home for Channel 4, History UK, La Cinq, ZDFE, RTE, Channel 5 and S4C.
Wild Dream Films has carved out a niche in the specialist factual market, using innovative techniques to bring stories alive for the viewer. Their visual signature combines live action with world-class CGI to create a unique look that is instantly recognizable across high impact series like Ancient Discoveries to singles like Medieval Fightbook. Learn more at wild-dream.com.
About Distribution360
Distribution360, a marble media company with offices in London and Toronto, is a rapidly growing leader in international distribution and global rights management, representing a robust catalogue of kids and factual programming and digital media content from award-winning production companies around the world. Learn www.moredistribution360.com."
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Mylo Carbia Book Signing to Take Place at The Women in Horror Film Festival: Press Release: "The Women in Horror Film Festival is excited to announce that the best-selling horror writer, Mylo Carbia, will be in attendance at the festival, which will take place from September 21-24 in Atlanta, Georgia. Mylo Carbia will be hosting a book signing at the festival for her #1 bestselling horror novel, “The Raping of Ava DeSantis,” which has been acclaimed by several prominent publications, including The Boston Globe, Examiner.com, Scream Magazine, and Reuters News.
Tagline for The Raping of Ava DeSantis: A poor college student, brutally attacked by three wealthy fraternity brothers, seeks revenge against their families decades later.
The novel focuses on Ava’s revenge and has been lauded as a nail-biting revenge thriller. More information about Mylo Carbia (@MyloCarbia) and The Raping of Ava DeSantis can be found at www.therapingofavadesantis.com/.
The Women in Horror Film Festival is a one-of-a-kind film fest dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the talented women behind the scenes and starring in horror films, as well as the many creative women horror screenwriters.
The Women in Horror Film Festival is open to submissions of feature films, short films, student films, short screenplays, feature screenplays, and television pilots. Submissions can be made at www.filmfreeway.com/festival/WIHFF via FilmFreeway.
A custom Women in Horror Film Festival trophy will be given to all winners in each of our 19 categories. Feature film finalists will be sent to horror distributor Terror Films for consideration. Screenplay winners will receive a copy of StoryO software from Jungle Software, and all feature screenplay finalists will receive a copy of The Hollywood Screenwriter’s Directory from the Writer’s Store. Other awards will be announced soon!
Women in Horror Film Festival is proud to announce that it is sponsored by Terror Films, Minutemen Press, Jungle Software, The Writers Store, and Dead, Buried, and Back!"
Tamika hails from North Beach, Maryland, a tiny town inches from the Chesapeake Bay.She knew she wanted to be an actor after reciting a soliloquy by Sojourner Truth in front of her entire fifth grade class. Since then, she's appeared in over 20 film and television projects. In addition to acting, Tamika is the Indie Spotlight manager for Daily Dead, where she brings readers news on independent horror projects every weekend.
The first horror film Tamika watched was Child's Play. Being eight years old at the time, she remembers being so scared when Chucky came to life that she projectile vomited. It's tough for her to choose only one movie as her favorite horror film, so she picked two: Nosferatu and The Stepford Wives (1975).
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