Honourable Mentions, 2008

Every year Ellen Datlow was editing the Horror section for THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR she would include her list of stories that, though not strong enough to be reprinted in the book, nevertheless should have attention called out to them. It's become a yearly tradition for writers, big and small, to scour the list to see if anything they did might have made her cut.

Alas, with the absence of YBF&H for this year and next, the new book Ellen has created for Nightshade, BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, cannot contain more than the top fifty of her HM list. Instead of printing the full list, she has instead posted it to the Nightshade forums for all to see.

For those too lazy to follow the link, here's my standing for last year:

A Shadow in God's Eye, Beneath the Surface
Leather, Dark and Cold, Bound for Evil
Pinholes in Black Muslin, The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories
Poor Stephanie, Supernatural Tales 14

and, as part of the "top fifty" printed in the book itself:

Under the Overpass, Shades of Darkness

I'm thrilled Ellen Datlow liked the above stories enough to single them out. Three of them can be found in my new collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, which I hope is further incentive for anyone still on the fence about buying a copy.