It’s that time again. Wicked Shadow Press time. And I’m in one of their hauntingly beautiful (or should I say hideously ominous?) anthologies about supernatural women! That’s right, ghost girls! This time to a two-volume series in paperback and epub formats. Drop Dead Gorgeous: Damsels of Doom. So remember that. Damsels of Doom. My tale is brand new and inspired by Japanese folklore (Japan’s infamous suicide forest) and the video game series, Fatal Frame. There’s a lot of great stories in these two books, but if you decide to just check out the one I’m in (pictures and links down below), be sure to read: “The Bite of the Cherry Blossom.” You’re in for a tasty treat, I promise. Cheers.
Drop Dead Gorgeous: Damsels of Doom Anthology
Published by Wicked Shadow Press
Featuring Dagstine story:“The Bite of the Cherry Blossom”
Where to order this spooky tome (click links, be redirected):
I’m pleased to announce that I have a novelette in the final edition of the long-running anthology-magazine from Neil Hogan at Space Fiction Books, Alien Dimensions No. #27. This would be my fourth acceptance to the publication over the years, and this one is for the scifi fanatics out there. But this issue of Alien Dimensions has a theme to it: 100,000 Years of Intergalactic Peace. So the tales have to have some element of promoting or ensuring peace for a civilization. My story is about a solar engineer who attempts to save his own people and another race from across the stars. With permission, of course, from his council. There is world building and conflict. There is hard science and a great plot. What started out as a short story draft back in the 2000s with no direction, ended up close to 8500 words in length in 2025. I’m sharing a TOC with some familiar names, such as David Castlewitz and Mord McGhee (I must know Mord at least 20 years). I’ll leave pics and Amazon info below. Read my story about a solar engineer attempting the impossible, through hard science and cooperation: “The Fireball Effect”
Alien Dimensions #27 – 100,000 Years of Intergalactic Peace
The Final Edition – Edited by Neil Hogan, Space Fiction Books
Featuring new Dagstine novelette:“The Fireball Effect”
Sample or order your copy now on Amazon. In print paperback, or via Kindle.
TABLE OF CONTENTS, IN ORDER:
The Garden at the Edge of the Universe by E. S. Foster
The Vicarious by David Castlewitz
The Fireball Effect by Lawrence Dagstine
Rivers Run Deep by Margaret Karmazin
Exploring the Rogue Planet by Geoffrey Hugh Lindop
The Star Child by Hana Elizabeth Rose
Poltergeist 2.0 by Mord McGhee
Hyperspace by Kyle Walker
The Batties of Argamatis by Geoffrey Hugh Lindop
Stapledon by Humphrey Price
The Frozen Galaxy by Neil A. Hogan
EDITED TO ADD: It is with pleasure to announce that, within a few days after release, Alien Dimensions #27 jumped to NUMBER ONE on Amazon Kindle under Science Fiction Anthologies.
Other New Entries:“Books & Anthos, Digital Credits, and Magazines”
My next story is also a newbie. And while the anthology it is being featured in is holiday oriented (one of Christmas-themed horror)… My short story could best be described as dark, dystopic science fiction. It is a tale of warning. With DeepSeek and humanoid robots a reality, the future if we are not careful. A tale of man versus machine. A tale of one prisoner explaining Christmas and yuletide blessings to his captor. A tale of human versus AI. Or, just perhaps, if we are not careful, what AGI might become. There are a lot of great holiday stories in this book. The layout and presentation from Wicked Shadow Press is nothing short of excellent, and these books are hot in India. Prepare yourself for my brand new story of what generative AI might evolve into in a few decades: “For my Enemy on Christmas.” Ordering details at the bottom.
Merry Creepsmas – The Green Book(Xmas themed Horror)
Published by Wicked Shadow Press – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Featuring new Dagstine story:“For my Enemy on Christmas”
ORDER BOTH VOLUMES (I’m in the Green Book/Edition):
THE GREEN BOOK (availability in USA – click below):
Pleased to announce I have a story in the latest horror-themed offering from the fine folks at Wicked Shadow Press. This one is an “animal” and “pet”-themed anthology of thrills and chills. Think rabid werewolves, dogs, cats, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Or even paranormal pets such as ghosts, poltergeists, and imps. Anything goes so long as it fits somewhere into the theme. Hence the very clever title, PETTING BOO! Zoological Anthology of Horror. I’m sharing a TOC with some talented names again too such as Don Money, Joshua Vise, J. Rocky Colavito, Chad Anctil, and Lavern Spencer McCarthy. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty, available in India and the United States. I’ll put all pictures and links in their usual places. It’s a beauty of a cover. And I’ll be seeing you on the next one.
PETTING BOO! An Anthology of Zoological Horror
Published by Wicked Shadow Press – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Where to order in the United States or India (click links below):
In “Petting Boo!”, thirty-six stories prowl the razor’s edge between wildlife and the wyrd. This isn’t your standard ghost story collection—it’s a zoological nightmare where every growl might be a spectral warning and every wicked shadow could conceal something that was never truly alive.
The tales featured in this anthology, from a troupe of worldwide authors consisting of both emerging and seasoned storytellers, reimagine supernatural horror through claws, fangs, and fur. Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty and published by Wicked Shadow Press, “Petting Boo!” transforms the animal kingdom into a twilight realm where the living and dead play a terrifying game of predator and prey.
Are you a keeper of canines? Are you a poodle person or pitbull enthusiast? Do you carry your pooch around with you everywhere you go? Are you a dog lover at heart? Then you’re definitely going to want to check out the latest fiction anthology from Altitude Press, and Editor Nicole McInnes, entitled, To The Dogs: 31 Very Short Stories About Man’s Best Friend. Featuring thirty-one authors of flash fiction (and slightly longer) about canines. Most of the stories in this book fall in the 1000 to 2000-word range, and they are entirely devoted to everybody’s favorite pet. There’s fantasy, popular, literary, and a brand new scifi story by yours truly about dogs of the future and space travel (and one pesky cat!). Read my story set aboard a spaceship, “Every Cosmos Has A Ruling Class.” Links and details below.
TO THE DOGS: 31 VERY SHORT STORIES ABOUT MAN’S BEST FRIEND
Edited and Compiled by Nicole McInnes – Published by Altitude Press
Featuring Dagstine story:“Every Cosmos has a Ruling Class”
Author Lineup and Details (copy-pasted from Amazon)
Celebrate humanity’s canine companions with To the Dogs, a collection of 31 dog-themed stories written by authors from all over the world. Whether it’s literary fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction, mystery/suspense, spooky/paranormal, or myth/folklore/allegory you love most, you’re sure to find plenty of short tales (tails?) within this anthology to enjoy and share. Woof!
Stories by: Hidayat Adams, Chad Anctil, Marie Anderson, Dominic Andres, Diana Ashman, Phil Barnard, Juliette Beauchamp, Anthony Boulanger, R.C. Capasso, Gemma Church, Michael A. Clark, Lawrence Dagstine, Wendy Eiben, Zary Fekete, E. Florian Gludovacz, Jenna Hanan Moore, Laurie Herlich, Robert D. Hill, Valerie Hunter, Fiona M. Jones, Shashi Kadapa, Richard Lau, Angela M McCann, Harding McFadden, Bob Smith, Victor Sootho, Mariah Southworth, Jake Stein, Lisa Timpf, Sue Walsh, and John Weagly
AVAILABLE ON KINDLE OR PAPERBACK FORMAT
ALTITUDE PRESS SOCIALS/WEBSITE (for further info):
Pleased to announce I have a brand new science fiction short story in the latest anthology in the FarFutures Book Series from Blue Planet Press. Edited and compiled by Robert Mendenhall, Far Futures is an on-going series of “space stories” or “interplanetary tales” set on far off worlds, or in faraway universes. The kind of stuff that made science fiction great back in the 1960s and 70s. Only for a modern audience. I highly recommend this book, a lot of thought was put into my tale. It’s one of FOUR new tales within the science fiction genre I have coming out between Fall/Winter 2024-2025. As of October 8th it’ll be available in paperback and ebook formats on places such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, even Apple. I’ll put all links, pictures, details below (and off to the right-hand side). And check out my story, “Round Trip.”
FAR FUTURES BOOK THREE – Science Fiction Anthologies
Published by Blue Planet Press – Edited by Robert J. Mendenhall
Featuring brand new Dagstine story: “Round Trip”
Author Line-Up and Details (copy-pasted):
Tales of broken generation ships and malfunctioning holograms. AI enhanced humans fleeing the solar system. Alien abductees taken light-years away. A NASA spacecraft highjacked in a perilous first contact scenario. Pirates and scavengers and more. These stories are all different, yet all answer the same fundamental question “What… or who is out there?”
The latest edition in the Far Futures anthology series is now available for order. Far Futures Book Three is scheduled for an Oct. 8, 2024 release in both eBook and paperback at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and more.
With stories from talented and rising authors in science fiction representing the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, including: Glynn Owen Barrass, Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Lawrence Dagstine, Caroline Misner, Charles Nadolski, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Robin Pond, and James Pyles.
I haven’t written weird fiction or what I call the “Weird Tale” in a hot minute. Probably since around 2008 to 2010, the days of The Willows Magazine, when I was headlining magazine covers. And the next book I’m in can definitely be considered weird, and inspired by none other than H.P. Lovecraft and many of his tales set around oceanic settings, abyssmal sea gods, waterside cults, and ominous places like Innsmouth and Dunwich. The name of the Culture Cult Press anthology is, “Eldritch Encore– The Innsmouth Volume.” It is a two volume book set. I’m in the first book, Innsmouth (the other volume is called Dunwich). Many of the stories are Eldritch Tales, by definition, but mine is a weird tale set at sea about a Fish-Woman and a Sea Captain caught in a horrible storm. It’s also part love story and, I suppose, in some ways a mermaid tale in disguise. Read my brand new short story, Ocean’s Return, in Eldritch Encore Innsmouth.
Eldritch Encore: Innsmouth Volume – published by Culture Cult Press India
H.P. Lovecraft inspired – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Featuring Lawrence Dagstine weird tale: “Ocean’s Return”
Available to order HERE, by clicking the direct links below:
I’ll try to have a few print copies of Eldritch Encore Innsmouth on hand at my book table when I do my signing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. No guarantees. Here are some of the books I will have on hand. It’s mostly a meet and greet. Two days.
Other New Entries:“Books & Anthos”
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I am pleased to announce I have a queer horror story in the latest LGBTQIA+ anthology, Spectral Spectrum, by the fine people at Wicked Shadow Press in India (they distribute all over the country). This book is really beautiful, well put together, formatted and designed with a specific goal in mind. And it really achieves that goal. The cover is absolutely breathtaking. If you’re a fan of edgy, “Bury your Gay” type fiction, this is definitely a must read. My story takes place right here, in my hometown, down in the East Village NYC. Some times when you’re a loner, and you go to that pick-up spot to wash your worries away, you meet somebody you’d like to take home with you. But you should be careful, you never know the past history of the person you’re trying to click with. Read my gay horror tale, “Heart of Cement” in… Spectral Spectrum.
SPECTRAL SPECTRUM – Anthology of Queer/Gay Horror Tales
Published by Wicked Shadow Press – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Featuring Lawrence Dagstine story:“Heart of Cement”
“In the eerie twilight where the boundaries between reality and nightmare blur, Spectral Spectrum emerges as a chilling collection of queer horror stories. Witness love and fear in a dance diabolique as cursed lovers and ghostly encounters, ancient spirits and unspeakable terrors populate this anthology that aims to explore the darkest realms of horror from the lens of myriad LGBTQ+ experiences. Prepare to be captivated and terrified as these stories delve into the depths of identity, desire, and the supernatural.”
AUTHORS FEATURED IN THIS COLLECTION: Aspen Duscha, Dan B. Fierce, Daniel DiQuinzio, Delaney L. Mathew, Fernando E. Silva, J. Rocky Colavito, JB Corso, Jonathan Reddoch, Joshua Vise, Kira Kamiński, L.Pine, LaVern Spencer McCarthy, Lawrence Dagstine, Linda M. Crate, Michael Paige, Natasia Langfelder, N. S. Anthony, Scot Walker, Tom Guilfoyle AND Toshiya Kamei
For the United States/Canada/Europe…ORDER BELOW (click links):
It’s with great pleasure to announce that I am headlining a very major pirate and horror-themed anthology with a brand new tale which borders on novelette length, and has just the right touch of the Golden Age of Piracy to it (from a historical point of view), and just the right Lovecraftian feel to it (where Cosmic Horror is concerned). But it’s not all about tentacles and eerie and ominous abberations from the deepest corners of the Seven Seas or Hades itself. Presenting, “The Black Beacon Book ofPirates.” Edited by Cameron Trost. Available in the USA, UK, Australia, Amazon, or obtain it from Black Beacon themselves. They have a website, and I will put links, pictures, the table of contents, and any miscellaneous information down below or to the side column. My story, which I first started working on in 2022 and didn’t finish till 2023, is called, “The Mutineer.”
Without giving too much of the story away, The Mutineer is an unsettling tale full of despair, the story of an imprisoned buccanner named Frederick March, who is in service to an evil monarchy and their power-hungry armada. March, who is the Mutineer and witness to everything on this scary voyage, tells his tale of oceanic, cosmic mayhem of how he is sent to the Caribbean to hunt down a Cthulhu-like apparition with great power. This manifestation of ill-omen is known only as The Boatswain. But March soon finds out the merry band of pirates he leads gets a little bit more than they bargained for when they invade the Boatswain’s island habitat and learn he comes from a race of beings and worshippers just like himself. Who will survive? Because you only get one chance. Only one! With the Boatswain… in The Mutineer!
THE BLACK BEACON BOOK OF PIRATES – Edited by Cameron Trost
Personally, I would even go as far as to say The Mutineer is one of my three best horror stories of my life. It’s definitely up there with the likes of Thursday’s Children (which can be found in The Nightmare Cycle), and my tale of vampires and one man’s paralysis, The Paraplegic.
Time will tell.
Oh, the cover art is by the legendary Daniele Serra.
Edited to Add: The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is now available at Books-A-Million.
Fellow genre readers. I have a brand new story of despair and hardship set after the troubling events of the War in Iraq in the latest, book-sized edition of David Oliver Kling’s speculative fiction journal, The Triumvirate. Volume Five. The Triumvirate features tales of science fiction, fantasy, horror, even the occasional essay. It is available for your Amazon Kindle (digitally), or as a paperback in the $10.00 range. It is one part anthology-magazine, one part journal (but I consider it more a beefy digest). This is Mr. Kling’s labor of love, which I highly recommend if you are enthusiastic about old school genre. Kling started the magazine back in 1985 at the tender age of fifteen. Links and cover picture below (and in side column). This is my second appearance with The Triumvirate, and the name of my story this time around is: “Afterthe Soldiers go Home.”
THE TRIUMVIRATE Volume #5 – Journal of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror
Edited and compiled by David Oliver Kling
Featuring Lawrence Dagstine story: “After the Soldiers go Home”
TABLE OF CONTENTS/STORIES & AUTHORS FEATURED:
In “Earth-697,” Mark Mackey introduces us once again to Ambrosial Decarva, the dragon slayer of Dystonia.
Lawrence Dagstine’s “After the Soldiers go Home” takes us to a post-war Iraq plagued by both disease and despair.
Nicholas Hurst’s “You Can Almost See The Shininess” provides a lighter, yet equally enticing, exploration of military life.
In “Back From the War: A 1920’s Vampire Tale,” Mark Mackey transports us to a post-Great War America where Bram Collinwood faces supernatural horrors upon returning home.
Paul O’Neill’s “Mister Sleep” brings terror to the quiet town of Balekerin, where a sleepover turns into a nightmare.
Robert Henry’s “Fall into the Sky” takes us on a mythic journey with Ragnar, a father desperate to save his son.
Larry Johnson’s “The Under People” follows Lew Brown’s unsettling encounters with mysterious workers.
In “Amen” by Ed Perratore, high school senior Walter’s Halloween prank leads to a grim fate.
Finally, in David Oliver Kling’s essay, “What Dreams May Come: A Pastoral Care Perspective,” he provides a thoughtful analysis of the 1998 film “What Dreams May Come.”
Amazon Purchase Link (or sample below):
Also be sure to check out Volume #4. I’m in that edition too!
I’m pleased to announce I have a brand new flash fiction piece of around 600 words in length in the 230-page Kindle and print “Psychological Thriller” anthology, “It’s All In My Mind.” This is a book featuring a whopping forty-four stories by over forty authors worldwide! It’s a book of “very short fictions” you could say, tales which you could read real quick before bed, when you are stuck waiting at the doctor’s office, or just on your daily commute to work by bus or subway and getting off in a few stops. That is what “flash fiction” or “extremely short stories” are. Very quick reads, which are mentally easy and satisfying to digest.
Or are they, as this is an anthology focused primarily on the psyche! The theme: Psychologically thrilling shorts. All links will be below (as always), and book covers to the sides (also as always).
IT’S ALL IN MY MIND – VERY SHORT PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
Edited by Jay Chakravarti of Culture Cult/Pulp Cult Press in India
Featuring flash fiction tale “The Approach” by Lawrence Dagstine
BUY ON AMAZON KINDLE OR AS A PRINT PAPERBACK (click box above).
Wicked Shadow Press really outdid themselves this time in a two volume series of science fiction and miscellaneous speculative tales surrounding dark technology, deadly machines, artificial intelligence, and science that can enslave us or kill us. Easily one of my ten favorite anthology covers of all time. Both books in the series are edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty, and some of the proceeds from the sales of these books goes to help animals in Kolkata, India, where it is already getting a warm reception. My story is not about AI (which has been a heated and dystopic subject of late), but more or less a science fantasy which involves the dark tech surrounding “buildings” and “skyscrapers.” This is a tale about architecture of the future, of other worlds, buildings that graze the clouds, and the “dark architects” who control utopias and dystopias behind the scenes. Not everything is always rosy and picturesque, even in large metropolises filled with tall buildings. Read my tale, “Architects of Change” in Volume Two of Invasion. I’m in Volume Two, so don’t forget that; but I recommend both. It’s available on Amazon Kindle for only $2.99, or as a paperback on places like Lulu. All links will be below the cover pics, as usual. Cheers.
INVASION Volume 2 – THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY
From Wicked Shadow Press
Now Available on Amazon Kindle for only $2.99
Also available in STUNNING Amazon paperback (for the shelf collector)
Featuring Dagstine story:“Architects of Change”
ALSO AVAILABLE ON LULU (and as a print paperback there as well):
Buy a Paperback copy of INVASION Vol. 01 from Lulu.com:
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