2012 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

The 2012 Stoker Preliminary Ballot has been released by the Horror Writers Association:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• The Trouble With Hairy, Hal Bodner (Phantom Hollow)
• 14, Peter Clines (Permuted Press)
• Bottled Abyss, Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Redrum Horror)
• NightWhere, John Everson (Samhain)
• Cemetery Club, JG Faherty (JournalStone)
• Coronation, Lee F. Jordan (Black Rose Writing)
• The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
• The Haunted, Bentley Little (Signet)
• Inheritance, Joe McKinney (Evil Jester)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Charlotte Markham and the House of Darklings, Michael Boccacino (William Morrow)
• Wide Open, Deborah Coates (Tor)
• The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief, Charles Day (Noble YA)
• A Requiem for Dead Flies, Peter Dudar (Nightscape)
• Bad Glass, Richard Gropp (Del Rey)
• Resurrection X: Zombie Evolution, Dane Hatchell (Post Mortem)
• Dead Harvest, Chris Holm (Angry Robot)
• The Sinner, K. Trap Jones (Blood Bound)
• Life Rage, L.L. Soares (Nightscape)
• City Under the Moon, Hugh Sterbakov (Ben & Derek Ink)

Superior Achievement in a YA Novel

• The Hallowed Ones, Laura Bickle (Graphia)
• The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little Brown)
• FreeK Show, Steve Burt (Burt Creations)
• Hooked: A True Faerie Tale, Michaelbrent Collings (self-published)
• I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga (Little Brown)
• Flesh & Bone, Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster)
• I Kissed A Ghoul, Michael McCarty (Noble Romance)
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
• A Bad Day for Voodoo, Jeff Strand (Sourcebooks)
• Break My Heart 1,000 Times, Daniel Waters (Hyperion)
• The Color of Evil, Connie Corcoran Wilson (Quad Cities)

Superior Achievement Long Fiction

• Thirty Miles South of Dry County, Kealan Patrick Burke (Delirium)
• The Cold Spot, JG Faherty (Delirium)
• Sunfall Manor, Peter Giglio (Nightscape)
• I’m Not Sam, Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (Sinister Grin)
• The Mourning House, Ronald Malfi (Delirium Books)
• Lost Girl of the Lake, Joe McKinney & Michael McCarty (Bad Moon)
• Delphine Dodd, S.P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• The Blue Heron, Gene O’Neill (Dark Regions)
• The Fleshless Man, Norman Prentiss (Delirium)
• When We Join Jesus in Hell, Lee Thompson (Darkfuse)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “Bootstrap”, Michael Bailey (Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad)
• “Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest”, Bruce Boston (Daily Science Fiction)
• “The Journal of USS Indianapolis Survivor: Stefanos ‘Stevie’ Georgiou”, Kevin James Breaux (Zombie Jesus & Other True Stories)
• “A Catechism for Aspiring Amnesiacs”, Nicole Cushing (Lovecraft eZine, March 2012)
• “The Cancer Catechism”, Jay Lake (Dark Faith: Invocations)
• “Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens”, Joe McKinney (Best of Dark Moon Digest)
• “Righteous”, Weston Ochse (Psychos)
• “Available Light”, John Palisano (Lovecraft eZine, March 2012)
• “Magdala Amygdala”, Lucy Snyder (Dark Faith: Invocations)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Fear the Abyss, Eric Beebe (Post Mortem)
• Shadow Show, Mort Castle & Sam Weller (HarperCollins)
• Tales from the Yellow Rose Diner and Fill Station, Gallows Press  (Gallows)
• Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, Eric J. Guignard (Dark Moon)
• Hell Comes to Hollywood, Eric Miller (Big Time)
• World’s Collider, Richard Salter (Nightscape)
• The Ghost IS the Machine, Patrick Scalisi (Post Mortem)
• Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology, Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender, & Robert S. Wilson (Cutting Block)
• Slices of Flesh, Stan Swanson (Dark Moon)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

• These Old Tales: The Complete Collection, Kenneth W. Cain (Distressed Press)
• Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean)
• New Moon on the Water, Mort Castle (Dark Regions)
• Valentines for the Dead, Corrine De Winter (Shadowfall)
• Errantry: Strange Stories, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer)
• The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean)
• Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)
• Ad Nauseam, C.W. LaSart (Dark Moon)
• Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
• Christmas Ghost Stories, Mark Onspaugh (self-published)
• Beautiful Sorrows, Mercedes M. Yardley (Shock Totem)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Carrie: Studies in the Horror Film, Joe Aisenberg (Centipede)
• The Conversations with Kreskin, The Amazing Kreskin & Michael McCarty  (Team Kreskin Productions)
• Writing Darkness, Michael Collings (self-published)
• The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1, Les Klinger (Vertigo)
• Write of the Living Dead, Araminta Star Matthews, Rachel Lee, & Stan Swanson (Dark Moon)
• Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, Lisa Morton (Reaktion)
• The Undead and Theology, Kim Paffenroth & John W. Morehead (Pickwick)
• Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture, Dennis R. Perry and Carl H. Sederholm (Palgrave MacMillan)
• Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film, Kendall R. Phillips (Southern Illinois University Press)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Dark Duet, Linda Addison & Stephen M. Wilson (NECON eBooks)
• Notes from the Shadow City, Bruce Boston and Gary William Crawford (Dark Regions)
• A Verse to Horrors, Michael Collings (self-published)
• The Monstrance, Bryan D. Dietrich (Needfire Poetry)
• Grim Series, Kristine Ong Muslim (Popcorn)
• Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls, Marge Simon (Elektrik Milk Bath)
• Lovers & Killers, Mary A. Turzillo (Dark Regions)

The following will not appear on the Preliminary Ballot. As there are only five works, they will proceed directly to the Final Ballot.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

• The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound, Cullen Bunn (Oni Press)
• Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death, Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)
• The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone, Ravi Thornton (Jonathan Cape)
• Behind These Eyes, Peter J. Wacks & Guy Anthony De Marco (Villainous Press)
• Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, Rocky Wood & Lisa Morton (McFarland)

Horror Writers Association members will vote to choose final nominees from this list, and then vote again to determine winners. The Final Ballot (Bram Stoker Award nominees for 2012 calendar year) will be announced on February 23.