DREAD: The Best of Grey Matter Press – Volume One Announced

Chicago Indie Press Kicks Off Year-Long Celebration, Begins New Chapter in Dark Fiction Publishing, Announces Table of Contents for DREAD: The Best of Grey Matter Press – Volume One

A unique volume of dark fiction containing stories chosen solely by fans and featuring an array of award-winning authors and masters from the horror, science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction genres, DREAD: The Best of Grey Matter Press – Volume One, will be released in March of 2016.

To commemorate its second anniversary, publisher Grey Matter Press kicks off the year with the publication of the reader curated DREAD, marking the beginning of a twelve-month-long celebration that signals the release of a full complement of novels, novellas and anthologies from the Chicago-based independent publisher of dark fiction.

“The release of DREAD is the start of a new chapter for Grey Matter Press,” said Anthony Rivera, publisher and Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editor. “To mark this occasion we allowed the greatest fans of genre fiction, our readers and supporters, to have the unique experience of editing an anthology of their own. The volume assembled is a greatest hits of dark fiction that fans worldwide are going to be thrilled to read as it includes the work of some of the most renowned authors we’ve had the pleasure to publish.”

DREAD is a multi-genre anthology curated by readers who served as the sole editors during a selection process that took place earlier this year when the company handed over the reins of editorial decision-making to its fans. The reader-editors chose their favorite short stories from all Grey Matter Press titles published during its first year of business (2013-2014), and they compiled the first installment of its planned “greatest hits” anthology series. Choosing work by some of the most recognized names in modern fiction, fans honored master authors Jonathan Maberry, Ray Garton, John F.D. Taff, William Meikle, Tim Waggoner, John Everson, Bracken MacLeod, JG Faherty and many more with their selections.

To curate DREAD, readers selected twenty works of short fiction from a total of seventy short stories published in five previous volumes. Titles from which work was chosen include the company’s debut release and its first Bram Stoker Award nominated anthology Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror – Volume One (published September 2013), the volume of extreme horror with a point Splatterlands: Reawakening the Splatterpunk Revolution (October 2013), science fiction and horror mashup Ominous Realities: The Anthology of Dark Speculative Horrors (December 2013), the second volume in the Dark Visions franchise Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror – Volume Two (December 2013) and the anthology of post-apocalyptic horrors Equilibrium Overturned: The Heart of Darkness Awaits (June 2014).

Following the publication of DREAD is a planned schedule of releases that include the company’s first novel, Mister White, a long-fiction adaptation of John C. Foster’s short story of the same name that also appears in DREAD; the highly anticipated Peeling Back the Skin, featuring an all-star cast of horror authors that includes Jonathan Maberry, Ray Garton, Tim Lebbon, Nancy A. Collins, Yvonne Navarro, Lucy Taylor, Graham Masterson and more; the shared-world novella collection, I Can Taste the Blood, edited by Bram Stoker Award-finalist John F.D. Taff and with a special appearance from New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman; and a twelve-month-long publication schedule that includes a diverse selection of novels, novellas and anthologies whose details will be released as they become available.

Upon publication, DREAD will be available at booksellers worldwide in both trade paperback and digital formats compatible with Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Kobo and other EPUB and MOBI readers, along with other special surprises yet to be announced by Grey Matter Press.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DREAD: The Best of Grey Matter Press – Volume One
(Alphabetical by Story Title)

“Amnion” – John Everson (Equilibrium Overturned)
“Angie” – John F.D. Taff (Ominous Realities)
“City Song” – Trent Zelazny and Edward Morris (Dark Visions Two)
“Heirloom” – Michael Laimo (Splatterlands)
“Housesitting” – Ray Garton (Splatterlands)
“How to Make a Human” – Martin Rose (Ominous Realities)
“Martial Law” – JG Faherty (Equilibrium Overturned)
“Mister Pockets – Jonathan Maberry (Dark Visions One)
“Mister White” – John C. Foster (Dark Visions Two)
“Moonlighting” – Chad McKee (Dark Visions Two)
“On the Threshold” – William Meikle (Ominous Realities)
“Pure Blood and Evergreen” – Bracken MacLeod (Ominous Realities)
“Release” – Jane Brooks and Peter Whitley (Dark Visions Two)
“Second Opinion” – Ray Garton (Dark Visions One)
“Show Me” – John F.D. Taff (Dark Visions One)
“The Last Elf” – T. Fox Dunham (Ominous Realities)
“The Troll” – Jonathan Balog (Dark Visions One)
“This is Not a Horror Story” – Tim Waggoner (Equilibrium Overturned)
“Through the Ghostlands” – Rose Blackthorn (Equilibrium Overturned)
 “Wormhole” – J. Daniel Stone (Dark Visions Two)