For Immediate Release
March 2, 2013

Seventh Star Press Announces Upcoming Release of 
Vampires Don’t Sparkle! Anthology

Seventh Star Press is proud to announce the upcoming release of Vampires Don’t Sparkle!, an exciting new anthology from editor Michael West that features the talents of many of the best writers in the speculative fiction arena, including Gary Braunbeck, Tim Waggoner, Maurice Broaddus, Lucy A. Snyder, and several more exceptional authors.  Featuring cover artwork from the award-winning artist Matthew Perry, the anthology will be available in trade paperback and eBook formats by the end of March.

Vampires Don’t Sparkle! poses the question: What would you do if you had unlimited power and eternal life?

Would you…go back to high school? Attend the same classes year after year, going through the pomp and circumstance of one graduation after another, until you found the perfect date to take to prom? Would you…spend your days moping and brooding, finding your only joy in a game of baseball on a stormy day? Or would you…do something else?

The authors of this collection have a few ideas; some fanciful, some humorous, and some as dark as an endless night. Join us, and discover what it truly means to be “vampyre.”

Below is a full list of authors and stories included in Vampires Don’t Sparkle!

“A New Life” by J. F. Gonzalez
“What Once was Flesh” by Tim Waggoner
“The Darkton Circus Mystery” by Elizabeth Massie
“Robot Vampire” by R. J. Sullivan
“Beneath a Templar Cross” by Gord Rollo
“The Weapon of Memory” by Kyle S. Johnson
“The Excavation” by Stephen Zimmer
“Skraeling” by Joel A. Sutherland
“Dreams of Winter” by Bob Freeman
“Dracula’s Winkee: Bloodsucker Blues” by Gregory L. Hall
“I F*** Your Sunshine” by Lucy A. Snyder
“A Soldier’s Story” by Maurice Broaddus
“Rattenkönig” by Douglas F. Warrick
“Vampire Nation” by Jerry Gordon
“Curtain Call” by Gary A. Braunbeck

A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the anthology will be going to cancer research institutions, which was a prime motivation for editor Michael West in putting the project together. The author of highly-acclaimed novels such as Poseidon’s Children, Cinema of Shadows, The Wide Game and Spook House, Michael decided to take on the editor’s role for Vampires Don’t Sparkle! for some personal reasons.

As Michael recently stated, “It is a very personal cause for me.  One year ago, I lost one of my closest friends, author Sara J. Larson, to cancer, and then my wife was diagnosed with the disease last fall.  I hope that, with this anthology, we can help win the fight against this real-life horror.

And what an anthology it is!  My fellow horror and dark fantasy authors will take you down some very twisted paths, each putting his or her own unique spin on the age-old legend of the vampire. Some of these tales are fanciful, some humorous, and some as black as an endless night. These are stories that will once more strike fear into your heart and make you dread sundown. These are tales to make the vampire cool again.”

To get further information on Michael West, or the Vampires Don’t Sparkle! anthology, please visit Michael’s site at www.bymichaelwest.com or the Seventh Star Press site atwww.seventhstarpress.com

Contact: C.C. James
Public Relations, Seventh Star Press
ccjames (at) seventhstarpress.com

Seventh Star Press is a small press publisher of speculative fiction located in Lexington Kentucky

A Girl and Her Kindle just posted a wonderful new review of my first anthology as editor, Vampires Don’t Sparkle!  Here is an excerpt, one that should make author/contributor Tim Waggoner very happy:

“This isn’t your daughter’s vampire novel. Vampires Don’t Sparkle! is an amazing collection of fiction that features vampires at their most evil. While I’m a huge fan of Twilight, I loved this collection. I believe that ‘What Once Was Flesh’ was my favorite, but they were all so good. Still, ‘What Once Was Flesh’ had such a twist at the end that I just loved it. If you want to read a collection of stories that feature the vampire that Bram Stoker created, you need to read this book!”

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Vampires Don’t Sparkle! here!

My fanclub just notified me that the annual Best of Indy poll has added a new category for Best Local Author.  You just have to write in the name.  Voting ends 11:59 pm on May 31st, 2013.  Thank you all in advance for your support.  I have the best faithful readers in the world!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW!

AND CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FAN CLUB!

The Dolls of Despair have posted a review of my Harmony, Indiana novel, Cinema of Shadows, and they love it!  Here’s an excerpt:

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Cinema of Shadows here!

From APEX Publications:
Cover artwork by Cortney Skinner.

Apex Publications is pleased to announce that the MOUNTAIN DEAD zombie anthology will be arriving soon!

SYNOPSIS:
Almost heaven… or is it?

The mountains’ enduring beauty holds something dark. Something dreadful. Something hungry for our flesh, our brains. Something dead yet not quite dead, driven by magic as old as the coal seams and the hills.

Come see the dark side of the mountains where the undead walk. Appalachia stands against an ever-hungry, never-tiring army created by the region’s own mysteries and lore. Mountain Dead collects intriguing zombie tales by some of the best names in horror, including John Skipp, Jonathan Maberry, Geoffrey Girard, Gary A. Braunbeck, Tim Lebbon, Elizabeth Massie, Lucy A. Snyder, Bev Vincent, Tim Waggoner, and many more.

Introduction by S.G. Browne author of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament
Afterword by Rebekah McKendry of Fangoria Magazine
Edited by Hugo and Stoker Award-nominated editor Jason Sizemore

MOUNTAIN DEAD contains most of the lost stories from the Appalachian Undead project from last winter, along with four new exciting works of zombie horror. This has been a bit of a secret project as I assembled all the pieces together to make it happen. I am ecstatic about bringing these dead stories back to life!

This one comes out in June. Keep your eyes open for the Early 50 order announcement!

Table of Contents:Introduction — SG Browne
When Granny Comes Marchin’ Home Again — Elizabeth Massie
Sitting Up with the Dead — Bev Vincent
Company’s Coming — Ronald Kelly
Repent, Jessie Shimmer! — Lucy A. Snyder
Black Friday — Karin Fuller
Calling Dead — Jonathan Maberry
Times is Tough in Musky Holler — John Skipp & Dori Miller
Reckless — Eliot Parker
The Girl and the Guardian — Simon McCaffery
On Stagger — G. Cameron Fuller
Long Days to Come (New version) — K. Allen Wood
Hide and Seek — Tim Waggoner
Sleeper — Tim Lebbon
We Take Care of Our Own — John Everson
Miranda Jo’s Girl — Steve Rasnic Tem
Being in the Shadow — Maurice Broaddus
Almost Heaven — Michael Paul Gonzalez
Twilight at the Zombie Game Preserve — S. Clayton Rhodes
Hell’s Hollow — Michael West
Brother Hollis Gives His Final Sermon from a Makeshift Pulpit in the Remains of a Smokehouse That Now Serves as His Church — Gary A. Braunbeck
Let Me Come In — Lesley Conner
Deep Underground — Sara M. Harvey
Zombies in a Church — Geoffrey Girard
Afterword — Rebekah McKendry

Note: This is not the official, final table of contents and order of stories.

Mangled Matters just posted a new interview with me on my life, my work, and my first anthology as editor, Vampires Don’t Sparkle!  I also talk about some upcoming projects, including the next chapter in the Legacy of the Gods saga, Hades’ Disciples.

Read the interview here!

And get your very own copy of Vampires Don’t Sparkle! here!

Bitten by Books just posted a wonderful new review of my first anthology as editor, Vampires Don’t Sparkle!  Here’s an excerpt:

“Vampires Don’t Sparkle! is a collection of stories that have one thing in common: they all highlight the good old-fashioned vampire. The vampires here are evil, wicked, and glory in all the blood they can. There are no creatures that regret their existence, pine after mortals, or limit themselves to subsist on animal blood. These are the vampires of old, the vampires that make us humans crave the daylight and fear the darkness. Along with the twisted, fun, and Gothic darkness of these fifteen stories, a major highlight of this anthology is that a portion of the proceeds of the sales of Vampires Don’t Sparkle! are donated to cancer research as a tribute to a dear friend of West who lost her battle, as well as to his wife, who is a cancer survivor. Each story includes a bit of information on the author including their favorite vampires… totally original, inventive, current, and completely fascinating… stays with you long after the last page.”

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Vampires Don’t Sparkle! here!

Bitten by Books has posted a great new four star…er, tombstone review of my latest Harmony, Indiana novel, Spook House.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Spook House gets four tombstones for its familiar landmarks: urban legends, Old Ones, obsessive Celts and the wise old man who turns the hunter into the hunted, a la Captain Quint. These tried-and-true horror elements are tied together with unrelenting action and flowing exposition. Realistic dialogue is a common problem in horror fiction, but West makes his characters’ speech believable, relying on neither strings of curse words nor hokey expressions. While Spook House is certainly a stand-alone story, I will definitely check out West’s Wide Game; I desperately need to know what happened in the corn.”

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Spook House here!

From the Bitten by Books website:

Join us on 4/10 with editor Michael West for an Interview, chat and contest. This event post goes up at 12:00pm Central and runs into the evening. For those visiting from outside of the US, here is the time conversion link. We are in the Chicago time zone:http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

He will be talking about his new anthology Vampires Don’t Sparkle

“What would you do if you had unlimited power and eternal life?
Would you…go back to high school? Attend the same classes year after year, going through the pomp and circumstance of one graduation after another, until you found the perfect date to take to prom? Would you…spend your days moping and brooding, finding your only joy in a game of baseball on a stormy day? Or would you…do something else? Anything else?

Mike from MikesFilmTalk just posted a review of my first anthology as editor, Vampires Don’t Sparkle!  Here’s an excerpt:

“I had given up hope of ever reading a vampire tale that would affect me so much that I had to sleep with the light on and nervously peer into darkened corners or jump, heart pounding, at every creak and pop as the house settles for the night.  But… I had not counted on Horror Master (again the capitals are required) Michael West to collect such an array of brilliantly bloody and violent ‘old-fashioned’ vampires…  He offers, for our entertainment and enjoyment (and terror) fifteen different stories about blood ingesting, super-human creatures who yearn for your blood from fifteen different contemporary authors. There is even a robot vampire!  But all these stories have one thing in common, apart from the fact that all the vampires in them are actually scary and would not appeal to any ‘tween’ that I know of; these stories suffer from originality… If you love  more traditional vampires grab this book with both hands and read it. In a world of 2 and 3 star books and vampires who really aren’t, this collection is a real 5 star glorious bloodsucking creature of the night read.”

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Vampires Don’t Sparkle! here!

MikesFilmTalk just posted a new review for my short story collection, Skull Full of Kisses.  Here’s an excerpt:

“A real 5 out of 5 for creative and non-repetitive horror. If this collection was a musical instrument, it would be the Stradivarius of its peers; playing with a deeper and more resonant sound than other stories in the genre.”

Read the full review here!

And get your very own copy of Skull Full of Kisses here!