4/20/26
Uploads to the radio station are proceeding faster than I’d expected, which is good. And the first issue of the zine is in the process of shipping. That process will take the better part of a month. If your first name begins with A then your copy is on its way. And the same applies for about half of you whose first name begins with a B.
I suspect that, for the second issue, I might look into using one of these mass-mailing services.
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Here is every book I’ve covered so far for Women In Horror Year:
A Manhattan Grimoire by Sandy DeLuca
AfterAge by Yvonne Navarro
Bishop by Candace Nola
Died by Izzy Von
Dirty Bombs by Dacia Arnold
Hell Hath No Sorrow Like A Woman Haunted by R. J. Joseph
Latin American Shared Stories edited by V. Castro
Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke
Shadow of the Vulture by Regina Garza-Mitchell
The Idol of Flies and Other Stories by Jane Rice
The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor
The Worms and His Kings by Hailey Piper
Thrall by Mary SanGiovanni
Undead Folk by Katherine Silva
Unholy by J.V. Gachs
You’re Mine by Somer Canon
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Women In Horror Year: Day 17
A Necessary End by Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson
LIFE CAME OUT OF AFRICA…But now it's death's turn...It spreads like a plague but it’s not a disease. Medical science is helpless against the deadly autoimmune reaction caused by the bite of the swarming African flies. Billions are dead, more are dying. Across the world, governments are falling, civilization is crumbling, and everywhere those still alive fear the death carried in the skies. Some say the flies are a freak mutation, others say they’re man made, but as hope of beating them fades, most turn to the only comfort left and see the plague as God’s will. He sent a deadly deluge the last time He was upset with mankind. This time He has darkened the sky with deadly flies. And perhaps that is true, for so many of the afflicted speak with their dying breaths of seeing God coming for them. But not everyone dies. A very few seem immune. They call themselves mungus and preach acceptance of the plague, encouraging people to allow themselves to be bitten by “the flies of the Lord” so that they may join Him in the afterlife. Nigel, an investigative reporter, searches the apocalyptic landscape of plague-ravaged England in search of Bandora, a kidnapped African boy. On a quest for personal redemption as well as the truth, his search takes him away from the troubles he can no longer face at home, and into the world of the head mungu, a man who speaks truth in riddles and has no fear of the African flies.A Necessary End is about apocalypse, about love, about the fragile bonds that hold marriages and civilizations together. But mostly it’s about truth – how we find it, how we embrace or reject it, and how we must face the truths within ourselves.
Long before she became one of the reigning champions of the white-knuckled thriller novel, Sarah Pinborough was one of the reigning champions of the 2000s wave of mass-market paperback horror novels put out by Leisure Books. Breeding Ground and Feeding Ground are phenomenal examples of what Jonathan Maberry and J.F. Gonzalez called “munch-out” horror (typified by stuff like the CLICKERS series, James Herbert’s Rats series, Guy N. Smith’s Crabs series, The Swarm, and more, and dating back to classic works such as Arthur Machen’s The Terror and H.G. Wells’ Food of the Gods). Her novel Tower Hill is a great possession tale. And we’ll get to all of these later in the year, but today I want to focus on a transitional novel that occurred in-between her shift from the mid-list horror mines to writing bestselling thrillers. And that work is A Necessary End — a sci-fi/horror collaboration with the great F. Paul Wilson. It will, of course, appeal to fans of Sarah’s and fans of Paul’s, but it will also appeal to anyone who likes the sci-fi horror stylings of authors such as Stephen Kozeniewski, Jeremy Robert Johnson, or some of Michael Crichton’s darker works. Disclaimer: The signed limited edition hardcover was acquired and released by me as part of my Maelstrom line for Thunderstorm Books, so I’m biased. A Necessary End is available in paperback and eBook from Shadowridge Press.
