RJ Reynolds is the acid-tongued leader of The Knucklers, one of the many gangs of blood guzzlers A CANADIAN GENRE LIT CREEPS FORWARD


s stated in this issue’s book feature, Canada does- n’t have much of a history publishing homegrown genre titles, often forcing our authors to sell their


fright fiction (and make their careers) in the US market. For a time, it almost seemed as if there was an organ- ized effort to ensure that literary horror did not have a home in our native land, especially considering how challenging it was to get arts grants for genre proj- ects. Yet Canadians Kelley Armstrong, Michael Slade (pseudonym of Jay Clarke and his daughter Re- becca), Gord Rollo, Nancy Kilpatrick, John R. Little, Edo van Belkom, Douglas E. Wright, Tanya Huff, Sephera Giron and many others have all made con- tributions to the genre – some in the form of inter- national bestsellers, oth-


ers by scooping up Bram Stoker Awards for short fiction, etc. Most, however, are still predominantly pub- lished by US presses. While researching this column, I Googled “Canadian


genre publishers” and the top result was a 2008 news item from bookcatcher.com about a horror writer being “shut out of genre-free Canadian publishing.” But things have started to change, and they are certainly better than they were five years ago when I decided to expand my own micro-press into horror because almost none of the contemporary Canadian genre authors I knew were regularly getting published here. Now, however, there’s ChiZine Publications (see p.55), which stormed onto the scene in 2008. Another newcomer, Books of the Dead Press (brainchild of author James Roy Daley), ar- rived in 2010 with several well-received monster an- thologies. Sci-fi/fantasy house Edge/Tesseracts Books is making more frequent divergences into horror (Michael Kelly’s Chilling Tales was just released, and a sequel to 2010’s Evolve vampire anthology will drop this August). As well, Winnipeg’s Coscom Entertainment switched gears in 2008 to focus on “superhero books, comics and monster-themed fiction,” and now boasts a whole roster of terror tales. And, of course, Mosaic Press still releases the occasional horror title, and Ash-Tree Press (RM#92) motors ever onwards with its award-win- ning lineup of primarily classic genre reissues. We still don’t have the type of robust small press


community that exists in the US or Britain, but it’s a start. And the fine folks at ChiZine have told me that they have even managed to secure some arts grants for their company, giving me great optimism for a future in which Canada’s dark scribes are regularly celebrated (and published) within our own borders. MONICA S. KUEBLER


RM56 T H E N I N T H C I R C L E


moving and shooting junk in the City of Angels. On the suggestion of a rival gang member, RJ and his right-hand man Dez agree to kill an informant as repay- ment for a past indiscretion: the incineration of a gang hang- out at the hands of RJ’s former child star-turned-junkie ex-girlfriend. The assassination goes down easy but also bears unexpected fruit: a treasure trove of heroin that none of the other gangs seem to know about. The fangbangers indulge in their find, while their foot soldiers move the rest of the shit on the streets. Along the way, they accidentally inherit a twelve-year-old hooker named Bait after using her pimp as a blood bong. Three being the proverbial crowd, RJ and Bait’s burgeoning sibling-like relationship causes a rift between RJ and Dez, one which eventually gets people talk- ing about how RJ’s gone soft. Meanwhile, RJ thinks he’s one step ahead of his critics, only to find that the powerful Battlesnakes gang destroy his house, brutally kill his two dogs and kidnap Bait once they catch wind of the missing heroin. Seeking revenge (and Bait), RJ becomes entwined in a grimy quest that sees him held hostage by an extremist religious group before uncovering the truth about the mysterious origins of the entire sect of plasma-pounding drug runners. Unabashedly violent, gory and rippling with smarmy dialogue, Knuckle Suppermostly succeeds


as a funny (but not for the faint of heart) action-comedy steeped in the horrors of drug use. Stepek loses his way in the book’s last act, when Bait’s kidnapping puts the lively give-and-take between RJ and the young prostitute on hold, but rest assured the characters will have another go at it, as a sequel is apparently forthcoming.


TREVOR TUMINSKI ZOMBIES IN NEW YORK AND OTHER BLOODY JOTTINGS British dark fantasy author Sam Stone loves vam-


pires, so much so that despite her latest short story collection being titled Zombies in New York, the pub- lication serves more as a companion piece to her Vampire Gene trilogy of bloodsucker novels. To wit, many of ZiNY’s stories follow her well-known vamp- fatale character Lucrezia from that series. Stone’s pulpy blend of sex-driven mystery/mon-


ster fiction is decidedly decadent, filled with fanged female protagonists and predominantly emotional and sexual themes, which range from the typically monstrous to the utterly bizarre. Her vamps and suc- cubi often live among humans, using their unearthly powers to exist undetected in our culture while still mixing with the supernatural world. Sometimes they present themselves as prostitutes, as in the harem mystery “Ameline.” Other times, vampires detectives run through murder-mystery plots, as in “Fool’s Gold,” which features an extraterrestrial threat to hu- manity that must be stopped. Stone attempts to root her short stories in a recognizable reality that reflects current issues, such as STD transmission, rape and addiction, but often the tales simply devolve into nothing more than hot, steamy monster sex (for example, the vampire- meets-werewolf tales “Tar” and “Red”). “...Other Bloody Jottings” refers to the last third of the book, a grouping of Stone’s poetic


work with a more fantastic focus. The poems on offer range from the dark “Siren Song,” about the courtship between a mortal man and a mermaid, to self-explanatory entries such as “Vampyre,” “Werewolf” and “Phoenix” – which all feel as if they were tagged on at the last minute to flesh out the page count. So if you were expecting a well-rounded collection of shorts or were hoping for some gra-


tuitous zombie action, prepare to be disappointed. (FYI: the title story, “Zombies in New York,” is actually another vamp tale in which the bloodsuckers mastermind a zombie plague.) While diehard Vampire Gene fans will definitely find this book worthwhile supplementary reading material, if you are new to Stone’s fiction, these quick bites and skimpy poems are certainly no place to start.


JESSA SOBCZUK


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