Category Archives: Lawrence Dagstine New Horror

QUEER HORROR: “Spectral Spectrum” – Anthology of Modern Gay Horror, from Wicked Shadow Press

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):

Paperback: https://www.lulu.com/shop/rasiika-sen-and-parth-sarathi-chakraborty/spectral-spectrum/paperback/product-nvwnq7m.html

Epub: https://www.lulu.com/shop/rasiika-sen-and-parth-sarathi-chakraborty/spectral-spectrum/ebook/product-jen29zp.html

All India Free Delivery! Whatsapp 9830652666 to order your copies now!

Wicked Shadow Press Socials:

Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/wickedshadowpub

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

PIRATE BOOKS: “The Black Beacon Book of Pirates” – Pirate & Horror-Themed Anthology

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 of Pirates.” 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

Published by Black Beacon Books

Featuring BRAND NEW Dagstine story: “The Mutineer”

BLACK BEACON BOOKS WEBSITE (click link):

https://blackbeaconbooks.blogspot.com/

ORDER ON AMAZON (sample below):

Table of Contents:

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.

LINK: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Black-Beacon-Book-Pirates/Lawrence-Dagstine/9780645247183?id=9202635427834

New Entries: “Books & Anthos” and “Digital Credits”

SCIENCE FICTION DIGESTS: “The Triumvirate, Vol. #5” – Journal of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror

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: “After the 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!

Other New Entries: “Magazines”

Wicked Shadow Press: “Masks of Sanity – The Monster Within” – ANTHOLOGIES!

Let it be said Wicked Shadow Press is slowly dominating the horror anthology market! Their anthologies focus on a particular theme, keep to that theme, they make their books beautiful both inside and outside, some times with art, give each title collectible value (I saw one book fetching $95.00 on Ebay few months back), and they have heavy exposure in India. The next title is no exception, and I have a story within its pages which I first wrote in early 2004. Twenty years ago, and it’s nice to see my tale within this next book. Wicked Shadow Press presents: “Masks of Sanity The Monster Within: Stories of Secret Psychopaths”

This is the perfect year for psychopath stories too, with Joker 2 due out in the Fall with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. My tale is called, “The Scourge of Nine-Rah.” It’s about an investigative writer who gets mixed up in an whole underground cult of psychopaths who do the most horrific things. Think Charles Manson mentality. Heavy on the horror, just as uneasy on the suspense, be sure to check out Masks of Sanity: The Monster Within. Pictures and links below or off to the side (scroll down).

MASKS OF SANITY – THE MONSTER WITHIN

STORIES OF SECRET PSYCHOPATHS

Featuring Dagstine Cult-Psychopath story: “The Scourge of Nine-Rah”


Paperback: https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/masks-of-sanity-the-monster-within/paperback/product-kv98726.html

Epub/Ereader: https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/masks-of-sanity-the-monster-within/ebook/product-yvnzr4n.html

All India Free Delivery! Whatsapp 9830652666 to order your copies now!

Like Wicked Shadow Press on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow Press on Instagram: https://instagram.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow Press on X: https://twitter.com/wickedshadowpub

Be part of Wicked Shadow Press’s Facebook group to get regular author-related info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7867933553277077/

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

Days of the Dead Horror Convention: “The Nightmare Cycle” – Dark Owl Publishing

It’s with pleasure to announce that small press Dark Owl Publishing and my 2023 book, The Nightmare Cycle, will be coming to ‘DAYS OF THE DEAD Horror Convention.‘ Dark Owl Publishing will be an official vendor, they will have a booth, and it will be in Phoenix, Arizona on the following days: June 28th thru June 30th 2024 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. You can book flights and hotel reservations now, it’s going to be a major event. A lot of dealer tables, and a lot of actors and actresses and authors and horror artists. Such famous names as Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Michael Ironside (Starship Troopers), Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street), Michael Biehn (Aliens & Terminator), and so many more! Including, to my knowledge, the cast of George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead. There will be autograph opportunities, cosplays, contests, you name it! Just click the links below for the guest list so far.

DAYS OF THE DEAD – Major HORROR Convention:

June 28th to June 30th 2024 – Sheraton Phoenix Downtown

LINK 1: http://www.daysofthedead.com

LINK 2: https://www.daysofthedead.com/phoenix/

Vendor/Publisher: Dark Owl Publishing

Copies on hand of The Nightmare Cycle by Lawrence Dagstine

I’ll also be appearing around that time period in an anthology with a brand new, lengthy tale of cosmic horror set during the golden age of piracy. Will keep you all updated.

New Entries: “Conventions”

POST APOCALYPTIC BOOKS: “Apocalyptales, Judgment Day!” – Wicked Shadow Press

NOTE: This anthology was late to press because of the holidays. The book will most likely have debuted January 2024. Hence the tardiness of this website post plugging it.

It’s most likely safe to say this is my last story appearance of 2023. And what a year it has been. A small press book deal, two professional-identifying markets, and a TON of print and ebook anthologies. 2023 marked my return to science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was also the year I wrote the most fiction in a very long time. What better way, I say, than to end the year with a disaster of epic proportions. I’m talking stories of doomsday, the near future, and what fictitious calamaties just might await us. I have a story in the latest illustrated anthology from Wicked Shadow Press, called: “Apocalyptales – Judgment Day!”

Apocalyptales is a book of stories featuring nothing but post-apocalyptic fiction, and my story is about a peculiar weather phenomenon that threatens to bury all of mankind. I originally wrote The Big Dirt Nap (the name of my tale contained within) in early 2010. It took me almost fourteen years to find a home for it. Here we are, late 2023, and it finally has a home. I like to call tales like The Big Dirt Nap “Attic Stories.” Attic stories are hard to place, you sit on them for more than a decade, dust it off when the correct themed market comes along, send it on in. Any way, Happy New Year.

APOCALYPTALES – JUDGMENT DAY Anthology

In Epub or Illustrated Paperback – published by Wicked Shadow Press

Featuring post-apocalyptic Dagstine tale: “The Big Dirt Nap.”

ORDERING INFO/LINKS TO BUY:

Order the illustrated paperback: https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/apocalyptales-judgment-day/paperback/product-v8829zp.html

Order the epub: https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/apocalyptales-judgment-day/ebook/product-rmmk8g6.html?page=1&pageSize=4

FOLLOW WICKED SHADOW PRESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Follow Wicked Shadow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow on X: https://twitter.com/wickedshadowpub

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: “Memento Mori – Remember the Dead…”

Pleased to announce I have a new short story of high seas thrills, chills, and undulating terror. A story about a gloomy and ominous siren entitled, “The Songstress.” It’s just one of the tales gracing the pages of Culture Cult (Pulp Cult’s) new horror-themed anthology, MEMENTO MORI: REMEMBER THE DEAD. I’d say the story fits the theme quite well too. I’ve been published with Culture Cult about eight or nine times now, and I find their books get fantastic sales and exposure in India of all places. Since I’ve been with Pulp Cult/Culture Cult, I’ve had a few Hindi or Desi readers/fiction enthusiasts reach out, and appreciate the kind words. I know there are a lot of descriptions for those races in India, so I will just use Hindi and Desi here. The book is edited by Jay Chakravarti. I’ll put pictures, wraparounds, ordering links, all that necessary stuff off to the side or way down below. And I will see you on the next one.

MEMENTO MORI: REMEMBER THE DEAD Anthology

Published by Culture Cult/Pulp Cult Press – Edited by Jay Chakravarti

ORDER DIGITAL OR PRINT VERSIONS (US or INDIA) DIRECTLY BELOW:

Order Paperback from Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/jay-chakravarti/memento-mori-remember-the-dead/paperback/product-2m2z4kk.html

Order Epub from Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/jay-chakravarti/memento-mori-remember-the-dead/ebook/product-yv7wyz9.html

Order Paperback from Pothi (INDIA ONLY):

https://store.pothi.com/book/jay-chakravarti-ed-memento-mori-remember-dead/

Order the Ebook from Pothi (INDIA ONLY):

https://store.pothi.com/book/ebook-jay-chakravarti-ed-memento-mori-remember-dead/

Follow Culture Cult at their socials:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CultureCultPress

Instagram: https://instagram.com/culturecultpress

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/CultureCultPub

Visit them at: https://CultureCult.co.in

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos”

HALLOWEEN BOOKS: “Halloweenthology Jack O’ Lantern” – Wicked Shadow Press

Happy Halloween 2023! Chills and thrills, and ghosts and goblins to all horror readers out there. This next anthology from Wicked Shadow Press is holiday-themed, and the very lengthy story I have within its 240+ pages is BRAND NEW. Never to be reprinted in print. There are familiar story writers such as Don Money, Brian Smith, not just myself. There’s even a new young girl making her horror writing debut, which I think is fabulous. HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: Jack O’ Lantern is available for Amazon Kindle or in glossy, beautiful looking paperback. And on Kindle retails at only $3.99, the price of a Starbucks coffee. While most stories might harbor around All Hallow’s Eve, my tale is a devastating one of loss. My story is about Cupid and Love. Unrequited love. A love that you really can’t dismiss. I’ve never written about Cupid before. I will be closing the book out with a story close-to-novelette length. Read, “The Barn Cupid” in Wicked Shadow Press’s new holiday reading extravaganza, HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: Jack O’ Lantern! Links and pics below!

HALLOWEENTHOLOGY JACK O’LANTERN – HALLOWEEN 2023 ANTHOLOGY

from Wicked Shadow Press – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty

Featuring exclusive Lawrence Dagstine horror story, “The Barn Cupid.”

ALL Links where to purchase in paperback or digital (Amazon box is above):

Buy HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: JACK-O’-LANTERN (the paperback) from Lulu:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/halloweenthology-jack-o-lantern/paperback/product-w45we2q.html

Buy epub version of HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: JACK-O’-LANTERN from Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/parth-sarathi-chakraborty/halloweenthology-jack-o-lantern/ebook/product-yv7kjeg.html

Halloweenthology: Jack-o’-Lantern is coming soon to Pothi TOO (India only)!

Follow Wicked Shadow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow on Instagram: https://instagram.com/wickedshadowpress

Follow Wicked Shadow on X: https://twitter.com/wickedshadowpub

Be a part of this Facebook group to get regular author-related info and submission calls from Wicked Shadow Press and other publishers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7867933553277077

Other New Entries: “Books & Anthos, Digital Credits”