By Adam Pepper, Sarah Pinborough, Jeff Strand and Jeffrey Thomas
The second Dark Arts Books release is Waiting for October, a compilation of 12 new tales and rare reprints by four of horror’s most evocative authors: Adam Pepper, Sarah Pinborough, Jeff Strand and Jeffrey Thomas. From body parts gone missing to body parts inexplicably arriving, from parasitic children to dead grammas, Waiting for October is filled with the harvest of four tantalizingly twisted imaginations.
This volume, including an introduction by editor Bill Breedlove, was released at the World Horror Convention in Toronto in March 2007. The stories “Buried A Man I Hated There” and “Crystal Carla” were both on the recommended reading list for the 2007 Bram Stoker Award Ballot, and are available to read in their entirety through the links below.
“In Waiting for October, four unique voices probe the breadth and depth of dark fiction with tremendous success. This collection offers the subtle and creepy along with the brutal and grotesque. Stylish. Smart. And scary. It’s a stunning collection from four of the genre’s brightest talents.”
— LEE THOMAS, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Stained, Damage and The Dust of Wonderland
Table of Contents
Click the PDFs below to read free stories!
JEFF STRAND:
Gramma’s Corpse 
Bad Candy House
“Here’s What Happened…”
ADAM PEPPER:
The Admirer
Buried A Man I Hated There
Old Maid Syndrome
SARAH PINBOROUGH:
Express Delivery
The Fear
Crystal Carla
JEFFREY THOMAS:
The Hosts
Adoration
Star est Control
WAITING FOR OCTOBER
ISBN: 0-9779686-1-8
Release Date: 2007
Trade Paperback: 152 pages
AVAILABLE FROM:
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
I doubt I’ll read a stronger horror-themed collection this year than Waiting for October, the genre-busting follow-up to Dark Arts Books’ 2006 anthology Candy in the Dumpster. Like that publication, Waiting for October features four authors each contributing three stories….readers looking for a consistently themed anthology won’t respond to Waiting for October. For me, however, the book’s magic is in its incredibly wide-ranging, always unpredictable contents. Those who say there’s nothing new in the horror story universe (and I’ll admit I’ve made that claim myself on more than one occasion) need to read this book – as, in my view, does everyone else!.
— FRIGHT.COM
Not taking away from the talented Pepper or Strand but… I’d purchase Waiting for October simply for the pleasure of reading Pinborough and Thomas, two great short story writers, who know how to disturb and frighten…
— DARK RECESSES
…a fine showcase of each author’s talent, with varied entires featuring elements of horror, scifi and humor . . . i.e. you won’t be bored for a second. Dark Arts Books goes 2 for 2.
— HORROR FICTION REVIEW
Playing more at times like exercises in surrealism than straight-forward horror, Waiting for October is meant to embody the literary equivalent of “the quaint sampler candy box” and offers readers a nibble of the work of an assortment of dark scribes. On the strength of Pepper’s “Buried a Man I Hated There” and Thomas’ “Adoration” alone, Waiting for October is worth a few post-holiday calories.
— DARK SCRIBE MAGAZINE