6/16/26
We put out a call for cover artists yesterday. If you are a cover artist, click here to read the submission guidelines.
The main thing we’ve learned so far is that a lot of people don’t seem to actually read the submission guidelines anymore. We got some questions like “What are you looking for?” and “Can I DM you?” and “What’s the best way to submit?” — questions which are very clearly addressed within the guidelines.
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Mary and I have gotten our schedules for GenCon, as first time guests. I’ll post them here to the website later today.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 59
Return To Hell House by Nancy A. Collins
In 1927 the infamous millionaire occultist Emeric Belasco disappeared without a trace, leaving behind dozens of dead bodies in the rambling, isolated mansion known as Hell House. In 1931 a team of parapsychologists entered Hell House in order to solve the riddle of Belasco's ultimate fate, only meet with horror, insanity and death. The doors to Hell House were closed and locked for nine years. Now, in 1940, another team of psychic and scientific experts, including the 15 year-old "Ghost Boy" Benjamin Franklin Fischer--the most gifted physical medium in modern history--has returned to explore the secrets of the most haunted house in the world--only to find Hell House eagerly awaiting its newest guests. This novella was written, with permission from Richard Matheson, as a prequel to his classic haunted house novel, Hell House.
One might think that, for her first entry here during Women In Horror Year, that I would go with one of Nancy Collins’ Sonja Blue novels, or her Swamp Thing run, or her weird westerns. And all of those will indeed get covered here, for sure. But I decided to go with this authorized prequel to Richard Matheson’s classic novel because, quite simply, not enough readers know it exists. Originally published in the signed, limited edition tribute anthology He Is Legend, published by Gauntlet Press, it sort of flew under the radar.
Nancy has always been able to deftly write to all corners of the Horror genre, and this tale has one foot firmly planted in erotic horror and the other firmly planted in extreme horror. Her descriptions are gleefully perverse and while other writers might have chosen, at some points, to pull the reader’s attention elsewhere, she does not shy away from “going there” and shoving their face closer to the page. Stylistically, it’s night and day different from Matheson, but the world-building, plot, and attention to detail are meticulous and respectful, and an absolutely worthy addition to the Hell House mythos — a particularly tough trick to pull off within the confines of a novella rather than a novel.
Do you need to have read the original novel to enjoy this? No. But for God and Cthulhu’s sake, you really do need to read the original novel at some point, kids. It’s on the Mt. Rushmore of horror novels — seminal ground from which so many things have sprung. Maybe get it and this one and make it a double weekend?
Return To Hell House is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.
