Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire (35 page)

Tanith Lee
was born in 1947, in London, England. She worked at various jobs until in 1974-75 DAW Books began to publish her sf and fantasy, beginning with The Birthgrave. Since then she has published over ninety books and over three hundred short stories, written for TV and BBC Radio. Her latest novels are available from the Immanion Press and reprints—such as Flat Earth sequence and The Birthgrave Trilogy—via Norilana Books. Much of her work will soon be available in ebook form via Orion, and other houses. She lives on the Sussex Weald with her husband writer/ artist/photographer/model maker John Kaiine.

Although his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories brought
Fritz Leiber
(1910-1992) regard as one of the fathers of sword and sorcery, he excelled in all fields of speculative fiction, writing award-winning work in horror, fantasy, and science fiction. His work continues to influence and inspire writers today. In addition to multiple Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Lovecraft, and World Fantasy Awards, Fritz Leiber received the Grand Master of Fantasy (Gandalf) Award in 1975, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1976, the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and the Grand Master Nebula Award in 1981.

Charles de Lint
is a full-time writer and musician who presently makes his home in Ottawa, Canada, with his wife MaryAnn Harris. His most recent books are Under My Skin and Eyes Like Leaves. His first album, Old Blue Truck, came out in early 2011. For more information about his work, visit his website at www.charlesdelint. com. He’s also on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

Catherine Lundoff
is the award-winning author of Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing, Night’s Kiss, A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories, and Silver Moon: A Werewolf Novel. She is also the editor of Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories and co-editor, with JoSelle Vanderhooft, of Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic. In her other lives, she’s a professional computer geek who sometimes teaches writing classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

Stewart O’Nan
was born and raised and lives with his family in Pittsburgh. His thirteen novels include Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. In January, Viking published his latest, The Odds.

Edgar Allan Poe
(1809–1849) was an author, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe, one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, is considered the inventor of the genre of detective fiction and credited with contributing to the then-emerging genre of science fiction. A master of the macabre, his influence on horror and dark fantasy is incalculable.

Laura Resnick
is the author of the popular Esther Diamond urban fantasy series, whose recent releases include Vamparazzi, Unsympathetic Magic, and Doppelgangster. She has also written traditional fantasy novels such as In Legend Born, The Destroyer Goddess, and The White Dragon, which made the “Year’s Best” lists of Publishers Weekly and Voya. An opinion columnist, frequent public speaker, and the Campbell Award-winning author of many short stories, she is on the Web at www.LauraResnick.com.

John Shirley
(john-shirley.com) is the award-winning author of more than forty novels including Everything Is Broken, published earlier this year. Many of his multitude of short stories have been compiled in eight story collections, the most recent of which is In Extremis: The Most Extreme Stories of John Shirley. He has been called the “post-modern Poe” and is considered seminal to sf’s cyberpunk subgenre. (An omnibus edition of his classic A Song Called Youth cyberpunk trilogy has just been released.) As a screenwriter he is best known as co-writer of The Crow; as a musician he fronted several bands and written lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult.

Steve Rasnic Tem
’s latest novel is Deadfall Hotel from Solaris. Crossroads recently released the ebook version of In Concert, collecting all his collaborations with wife Melanie Tem. Fall 2012 will see publication of Ugly Behavior, collecting the best of his noir fiction, from New Pulp Press. And in 2013, ChiZine will publish Celestial Inventories, collecting the best of his recent contemporary fantasy and slipstream fiction.

Lee Thomas
is the Bram Stoker Award- and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of the books Stained, Parish Damned, The Dust of Wonderland, and In the Closet, Under the Bed. His latest novel, The German, was released to critical acclaim in March 2011. Forthcoming titles include Torn from Cemetery Dance and the short story collection Like Light for Flies.

Conrad Williams
is the author of the novels Head Injuries, London Revenant, The Unblemished (winner of the International Horror Guild Award), One (winner of the British Fantasy Award), Decay Inevitable, Blonde on a Stick, and Loss of Separation. He ghost wrote Princess Spider: True Experiences of a Dominatrix and is the editor of the anthology Gutshot. His short stories are collected in Use Once Then Destroy and Open Heart Surgery. He lives in Manchester, UK, with his wife and three sons. Recent or forthcoming story appearances include Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead, Subterranean, Weird Tales, and The Mammoth Book of Body Horror.

Special thanks to all the editors who first published these stories.

“Medusa’s Child” © copyright 1991 by Kim Antieau. First Publication: Final Shadows, ed. Charles L. Grant (Doubleday Foundation, 1991).

“Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes” © copyright 1978 by Lawrence Block. First Publication: Gallery, 1978.

“Hymenoptera” © copyright 1995 by Michael Blumlein. First Publication: Dark Love, ed. Nancy A. Collins, Martin H. Greenberg & Edward E. Kramer. (Roc/Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).

“She’s Not There” © copyright 1995 by Pat Cadigan. First Publication: Killing Me Softly, ed. Gardner Dozois. (HarperPrism, 1995).

“My Lady of the Hearth” © copyright 1998 by Storm Constantine. First Publication: Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers: Magical Tales of Love and Seduction, ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. (HarperPrism, 1998).

“Calypso in Berlin” © copyright 2005 by Elizabeth Hand. First Publication: SciFiction 07.13.05, ed. Ellen Datlow. (SciFi.com, 2005).

“Lady Madonna” © copyright 1991 by Nancy Holder. First Publication: Obsessions, ed. Gary Raisor. (Dark Harvest, 1991).

“In the Cold, Dark Time” © copyright 1991 by Joe R. Lansdale. First

Publication: Obsessions, ed. Gary Raisor. (Dark Harvest, 1991). “Nunc Dimittis” © copyright 1983 by Tanith Lee. First Publication: The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror, ed. Charles L. Grant. (Dodd, Mead, 1983).

“The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” © copyright 1949 by Fritz Leiber, Jr. First publication: The Girl with the Hungry Eyes and Other Stories (Avon). Reprinted with permission of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc.

“Tallulah” © copyright 2010 by Charles de Lint. First Publication: Dead End: City Limits, ed. David B. Silva & Paul F. Olsen. (St. Martin’s, 1991).

“The Snake Woman’s Lover” © copyright 2006 by Catherine Lundoff. First publication: Garden of the Perverse, edited by Sage Vivant & M. Christian (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006).

“Land of the Lost” © copyright 2010 by Stewart O’Nan. First Publication: Stories: All-New Tales, ed. Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio. (William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2010).

“The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe. First publication: Broadway Journal, April 26, 1845.

“The Hound Lover” © copyright 1996 by Laura Resnick. First Publication: Phantoms of the Night, ed. Richard Gilliam & Martin H. Greenberg. (DAW, 1996).

“Barbara” © copyright 1995 by John Shirley. First Publication: Dark Love, ed. Nancy A. Collins, Martin H. Greenberg & Edward E. Kramer. (Roc/Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).

“Close to You” © copyright 1991 by Steve Rasnic Tem. First Publication: Bones #1, Fall 1996.

“An Apiary of White Bees” © copyright 2007 by Lee Thomas. First Publication: Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Ellen Datlow. (Tor, 2007).

“The Light that Passes Through You” © copyright 1998 by Conrad Williams. First Publication: Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers: Magical Tales of Love and Seduction, ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. (HarperPrism, 1998).

Embraces

Best New Paranormal Romance

Best New Romantic Fantasy

Zombies: The Recent Dead

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2010

Vampires: The Recent Undead

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2011

Halloween

New Cthulhu: The Recent

Weird Brave New Love

Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012