Unnatural Things, Alive or Dead
Orrin Grey is a skeleton who likes monsters.
When asked, he claims to mostly write oubliettes.
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SPLENDIDLAND’S GUIDE TO GHOSTS:
ROW 1:
GHOUL: completely dead, but remains alive through sheer willpower. because of this, it’s impossible to change a ghouls mind on anything.
SKELETON: a kind of ghost that feels attached to its past, and pilots its old body with a nostalgic somber mood. they love old timey black and white movies.
WISP: wandering ghost free of avarice. travels forests and moors with no posessions to its name, all it carries is the memories of its own death.
HAUNTED PAINTING: the soul of an artist who worried so much about their work being appreciated after death that their soul manifested itself as their greatest masterpiece. however, this painting is invisible to the living.
ROW 2:
ZOMBIE: a shy ghost who has never known a life outside of their body, and is working up the courage to finally leave it behind. deeply dysphoric about the appearance of their rotting visage.
POLTERGEIST: a spirit of a bratty child, cursed to be invisible but makes its presence known by throwing furniture around. it’s estimated that around 25% of all birds are actually dead, and are merely puppeteered by a poltergeist.
BANSHEE: a dumpster ghost from the sewer that screams and screams and screams, because it’s afraid of bugs and mice. as long as bugs and mice continue to exist, it will never stop screaming.
COMPUTER: a kind of electrical ghost created by humans. it’s good to stay on its good side, because it knows your credit card infomation and passwords.
ROW 3:
CREEPING FOG: ectoplasmic entity, it forgot everything about its life, so its form deteriorated into a spreading mess. it’s the fate of all ghosts to eventually take on this form, where they will all combine into a single conciousness. to humans, this ghost goes by the name of “clouds”
SHADE: dark and sneaky spirit that lives in shadows. it latches onto others and follows them around because it lacks confidence, but unfortuantly this has lead to it falling into some bad crowds. despite this, it remains optimistic that it will one day overcome its anxiety.
TUMBLEWEED: plant spirit who bumbles and tumbles across the earth with no direction, and can only be moved by wind. it’s forever in a state of panic because it worries that one day it will get blown into a volcano.
MUMMY: when it was alive, it fretted about its body deteriorating, and ensured that it would be preserved forever in a tomb, however now its own body is a tomb, and its ghost is unable to leave. the only way it can be freed is if its body is destroyed, something it refuses to allow to happen.
(via splendidland)
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"It is as if the entire film is set in a graveyard in the middle of the night."— Troy Howarth, writing about Kill, Baby… Kill! in The Haunted World of Mario Bava -
"We’re living at a time when things are perfect for the resurrection of monsters here on earth."— Samson vs. the Vampire Women (1962) -
"The world is soaked in wrongful substances, that’s the truth, and every bit of the earth has been touched by terrible things."— “Mr. Doornail,” Maria Dahvana Headley -
Strix Publishing is pleased to announce the acquisition of author Orrin Grey’s first collection of short stories, Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings. First published in 2012 by Evil Eye Press, this collection put Grey on the map as an up and coming horror author of note. Grey has since become a renowned voice in the genre with such works at Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts, Gardinel’s Real Estate, and Mutagenesis.
Strix Publishing is proud to have acquired the rights to print a new edition of this brilliant and chilling collection. This new edition includes all ten stories from the original, as well as the heretofore hard-to-find “A Night for Mothing” and an all new story, “Goblins.” Illustrated by the brilliant M.S. Corley, this new edition will feature a beautiful clothbound, foil-stamped cover, and a foreword by author Nathan Ballingrud.
Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings will launch on Kickstarter August 15th, 2016. The Kickstarter will offer copies of the book, art prints, and other rewards, as well as a chance to add even more brand new stories to the collection.
Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings
Table of Contents
Never Bet the Devil
Count Brass
Black Hill
The Devil in the Box
Nature vs. Nurture
The Barghest
The Seventh Picture
The Reading Room
Nearly Human
The Mysterious Flame
A Night for Mothing
Goblins
Praise for Never Bet the Devil:
“Never Bet the Devil is a creepy foray into the realm of the weird and the sinister. An intriguing exploration of traditional and modern horror modes. Grey’s debut shows a great deal of promise.”
- Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase“The stories of Orrin Grey are fun, fast, and, surprising enough in a genre where doom, gloom, and ultra-gore are standard issue, rather good-natured. It’s not often you come across ‘pleasant horror,’ but that’s the best way to describe this collection—put a load of classic horror movies and comic books in a blender, liberally add some splashes of Mike Mignola-cool, and you’ve got yourself a monster mash to be reckoned with.”
- Jesse Bullington, author of The Folly of the World“Orrin Grey writes tales that are as eloquent as they are eerie. He deftly blends the high Gothic aesthetics of classical horror with a raconteur’s innate knack for storytelling. Grey is a unique talent, and is destined to become a major name in weird fiction.”
- Richard Gavin, author of Sylvan Dread“Ghosts. Ghouls. Monsters of all sorts. These are what line the pages of Orrin Grey’s Never Bet the Devil. Grey’s voice is solid and secure, with the sort of natural joyful ease other writers only envy. A marvellous debut collection. “
- Simon Strantzas, author of Burnt Black Suns -
"It’s so funny what people who have never been kidnapped think is scary. Talking crows? I would have loved to meet a talking crow!"— Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, “Kimmy’s in a Love Triangle!” -
"Those who live, live off the dead."— Antonin Artaud -
"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity."— Edvard Munch -
"It’s a cruel sort of immortality, I guess, though it probably beats the alternative."— Experimental Film, Gemma Files -
"Every scientific fact accepted today once burned as a fantastic fire in the mind of someone called mad."— The Invisible Ray (1936) -
"Fear, also, is a vice, but it was fear, and very little else, that made the first man out of some whimpering ape."— Fingers of Fear, J.U. Nicholson -
"No vices?
One. I write."— Wax, Ethel Lina White -
Ladislas Starevich, “The Mascot” (1933)