Terrible Things available for pre-order
“Suffused with atmosphere, populated by horrors half-seen and then, in startling moments of revelation, seen all too clearly, David Surface’s stories stay firmly rooted in ghost story tradition. But where those oddly comforting classical terrors bubble up from grief or loss or regret or revenge, the menaces in Terrible Things sprout from a disturbingly contemporary sense of bewilderment. These are the ghosts of lockdown drills and frayed marriages, identity confusion and forced retirement and that constant crackling hum of a world tilting out of true, and therefore new and now and terrifying all over again.”
––Glen Hirshberg, author of the Motherless Children trilogy
“David Surface is like no one else. His fiction has a precision of detail that is always unsettling, and often heart-breaking. One of our greatest contemporary writers.”
––Ralph Robert Moore, author of Ghosters, As Dead as Me, and Father Figure
I’m very happy to share the news that my first collection of short fiction, Terrible Things, is being published by the great Black Shuck Books. Steve Shaw of Black Shuck is a terrific editor, lovely to work with, and a talented artist as well, as you can see from the cover here (which I’m thrilled with). Terrible Things includes thirteen stories written over the past ten years, and it feels great to have them all gathered together between two covers. I’m also very grateful to the wonderful Lynda Rucker for writing the introduction, which is (as she herself is) immensely kind, and for all her generosity and support. To read kind and thoughtful words about your own writing by writers who you admire and have learned from is a surreal and gratifying experience, so I’m surreally grateful to all the good people who took the time to comment on my collection. A few of their comments appear here––the rest you’ll have to read in the book itself. Which brings me to…
Naturally, I hope you’ll want to have a copy of Terrible Things. If you enjoy literary horror (which is probably how you ended up here), I believe you’ll enjoy these stories. After all, I wrote them for you.
You can pre-order paperbacks (for shipping in late March, 2020) or ebooks at the Black Shuck website, or through Amazon.
“Each of the stories contained within Terrible Things is a small treasure to be marveled at. David Surface unpicks the seam of humanity to reveal the necrosis of our terrible secrets – the harms we visit upon one another, the lies we tell – but also that quiet hope that beneath it all there might still be something worth saving. Compassionate, astute and beautifully crafted, these are horror stories with soul.”
––Laura Mauro, author of Sing Your Sadness Deep
“David Surface’s first short story collection is a reason to rejoice for all lovers of disturbing, off-beat, and ghostly fiction. Well-written and multi-layered, these stories are unpredictable in the best possible way: the author doesn’t allow the cliches of the genre to dilute his own personal vision. Put simply, these stories are some of the very best weird fiction has to offer.”
––James Everington, author of Trying To Be So Quiet and Other Hauntings
David Surface knows home is an alien place and Terrible Things is your expedition report––you’d do well to read it.
–Adam Golaski, author of Color Plates and Worse Than Myself
The Twisted Book of Shadows
Very proud indeed to have my story ‘Angelmutter’ chosen by editors Christopher Golden and James Moore for The Twisted Book of Shadows, an extraordinary new anthology from Haverhill House Publishing.
Golden and Moore are to be applauded for their approach to putting this anthology together––no solicited stories from well-known names, all submissions were “blind” so that the editors had no idea whose work they were reading. They then had the unenviable task of narrowing down over 700 submissions into the 19 stories in this book. (You can imagine now why I’m so proud to be included.)
From the introduction by Linda D Addison:
“New and darkly twisted, some of the stories made me want to turn on more lights, others made my heart ache, and each and every one stands strong. The editors’ vision of creating an anthology of excellent stories from familiar and lesser-known authors, with characters and storylines reflecting an interesting mix of humanity, worked out beautifully…It was interesting to see the common themes that presented themselves. What patterns surface, I believe, are echoes of the real-life shadows in the human condition.”
You can preorder your copy of The Twisted Book of Shadows here through Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Book-Shadows-Christopher-Golden/dp/1949140156
Horror Tales Podcast
A good horror story deserves to be read aloud, preferably in the dark. So I was especially happy to be invited to contribute a story to ‘Horror Tales’, the excellent podcast produced by Max Ablitzer. Max is a true renaissance man, a fine musician and composer, also a true artist with sound. The scores and sound effects he creates for his podcasts are extraordinary, as are his choice of narrators, in this case, Kieran Davison, whose deep and gritty Northern England accent somehow feels perfect.
‘The Last Testament of Jacob Tyler’ is especially suited for the podcast-treatment, and Max and his crew have done a fine job. I’m proud to have my story included alongside others by fine authors such as Brian Evenson, Christopher Slatsky, C.M. Muller, and Clint Smith, to whom I give my grateful thanks for introducing myself and my writing to Max.
So turn out the lights, then click here and scroll down to listen to ‘The Last Testament of Jacob Tyler’. And when you’re done, listen to these other fine tales as well.
http://horrortalespodcast.com/episodes
Uncertainities III
Very happy to finally announce the publication of Uncertainties III from Swan River Press which includes a new collaborative story I wrote with Julia Rust, titled ‘TallDarkAnd.’
When Lynda Rucker invited us to submit a story, I was thrilled; Lynda is one of the writers who first taught me what modern dark fiction is all about, so to be included in this amazing and beautiful anthology is a real honor. Very pleased to be in the same pages with so many wonderful writers like Matthew Bartlett, S.P Miskowsky, Adam Nevill, Robert Shearman, R.S. Knightly, Lisa Tuttle, Ralph Robert Moore, Tracey Fahey, Scott West, and Rosanne Rabinowitz. And it’s a special thrill to appear alongside Joyce Carol Oates, who’s done perhaps more than any other contemporary author to tear down the wall between horror and literary fiction.
Many thanks to Julia for your beautiful and powerful words, to Lynda for giving this strange story a wonderful home, to Tobia Makover for her lovely and haunting cover art, and to Brian Showers of Swan River Press for his support of the Uncertainties series, and all the beautiful books he helps bring into the world.
Uncertainties III will be published in September, but you can pre-order copies here.
Joining the Black Static Case Notes Team, September 2018
Thrilled and honored to report that I’m joining the ‘Case Notes’ team at Black Static magazine. My series ‘One Good Story’ will be appearing as a regular column in Black Static’s ‘Case Notes’ starting with the September 2018 issue. Black Static, in its earlier incarnation as Third Alternative, was where I was first exposed to the world of slipstream and “new horror” writing. It’s a beautiful publication, inside and out, so to have the opportunity to add my voice to it is a real pleasure. I’ll be more or less sticking to the format I’ve used on my website––a short-form hybrid of personal essay and story review––touching on both older and contemporary works. (The essays will continue to be posted on my website some months after they appear in the magazine.) I’m honored to be appearing alongside fellow Case Notes columnists (and favorite writers) Lynda Rucker and Ralph Robert Moore. Many thanks to editor Andy Cox for bringing me onto the team. See you in September!
Supernatural Tales 38, Summer 2018
Very pleased to announce that my story ‘Intruders’ is appearing in a special issue of Supernatural Tales, which will be released in print and on Kindle this July.
Supernatural Tales and its editor David Longhorn are giants of our genre (although David might object to that description). He’s been publishing and championing new writers working the boundaries between genre and literary fiction longer than anyone. This will be my third appearance in ST, and I’m as thrilled and grateful as the first time.
‘Intruders’ is a story I’m especially proud of. Although it acknowledges the reality of school shootings in America, its broader topic is the struggle to create a safe space for ourselves and our children, the bargains we make with the truth in order to protect the ones we care for, and how the truths we try to cover up will find ways to haunt us.
As always, David Longhorn has assembled a fine group of stories from a fine lineup of writers. Here is the TOC:
Supernatural Tales 38
Intruders’ by David Surface
‘Ghost Hunting’ by Jane Jakeman
‘St Magda’s Sunday Sermon’ by Katie McCal
‘Against the Dead’ by John Howard
‘Redriff’ by Michael Chislett
‘The Thirteenth Shelf’ by Stephen Cashmore
Supernatural Tales 38 is available here.
Nightscript III Reading at Lovecraft Bar
Last November, Julia and I had the great pleasure of participating in a panel discussion and reading at the Lovecraft Bar in NYC to celebrate the publication of Nightscript III. Joined by fellow Nightscript contributor Inna Effress, and hosted by Daniel Braum, it was a fantastic evening. Daniel is a wonderful host and a very nice man, as well as a fine writer. Julia Rust read her story ‘Young Bride’, I read ‘Something You Leave Behind’, and Inna (who flew in from LA) read her story ‘Liquid Air.’ We took questions from the audience, signed some copies, and had a wonderful time. Many, many thanks to all the good people who came out to join us, both old friends and new ones. And thanks to editor CM Muller for creating a good home for the stories we brought to life last night.
Nightscript III Featured on The Outer Dark
The Outer Dark podcast on This Is Horror features ‘A Strange and Darksome Night’, a panel discussion of Nightscript III and weird fiction with myself, Julia Rust, Inna Efress, and host Daniel Braum, as well as readings by myself, Julia, and Inna which took place at the Lovecraft Bar in NYC.
The wide-ranging discussion covers “starting points for defining the elusive Weird, how the author’s own works relate to Weird fiction, defying genre conventions, The Weird seeping into mainstream media, working with the supernatural or the ‘strange’ element in their stories, Robert Aickman who is an inspiration for the Nightscript series, the subconscious as ‘magic’, clueing in your muse, ‘major natural disasters’, night time logic, emotions invoked by their Nightscript III stories, the tension when the supernatural may or may not show up, their favorite stories from the anthology, sadness in horror stories, and changes in perspective when writers go Weird.”
Also featured is Scott Nicolay’s interview with Nightscript editor C.M. Muller.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Nightscript III In Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews
As any writer in the genre of horror, weird, or dark fiction will tell you, to have your work written about by the incomparable Des Lewis is both an honor and a pleasure. Des Lewis’ “Real Time Reviews” are legendary, strangely beautiful and beautifully strange, real works of art in themselves. So it’s a thrill to find that Des Lewis has reviewed Nightscript III, story by story. He has some very kind things to say about my story, ‘Something You Leave Behind’, as well as good words for Julia Rust’s ‘Young Bride’, and stories by fellow contributors. Here’s a sample:
“Very much in tune with the many stories in the book, the Surface one may be the most exquisitely poignant example….with the onwardness to beat death, here expressed by Surface as “That person, the person we were, has to die…To make way for a new one…I think that’s why we keep moving around, looking for the right place…” Here, the couple, strangers to each other, but married for years, still in some strange love with each other, but separated by the skin that you shed each night…Unforgettably, incredibly sad while strangely uplifting.”
Nightscript III
It’s a privilege to be appearing for a second time in the pages of Nightscript. To be published alongside authors like Simon Stranzas, Charles Wilkinson, Daniel Braum, Clint Smith, Inna Effress, and Adam Golaski is a thrill…but it’s an extra-special thrill to appear for the first time in the same TOC as my wife Julia Rust, whose story ‘Young Bride’ also graces these pages.
My story, ‘Something You Leave Behind’ which appears in Nightscript III has been through many incarnations, but found its true form in this most recent version when I finally decided to open the wound in this tale of marital and personal disintegration and let the weirdness come in.
Editor C.M. Muller has quietly created one of the most outstanding publications in the genre of literary horror, and one of the handsomest literary journals around. He’s a true craftsman, working patiently and diligently with the highest standards, and the results are evident. Nightscript has received a lot of well-deserved critical acclaim, but my favorite has to be from the estimable Des Lewis, who referred to Nightscript as “Weirdness with truth at its heart.” Amen to that.
Copies of Nightscript III and its predecessors are available here.
