Randy Chandler

WELCOME TO THE MASQUERADE2020 was a reality horror show. And like most obnoxious entertainment reality shows, this one had its own idiosyncratic rules and penalties. Call it The Big Lockdown. We were forced to go to ground, to hide in our holes. Some went underground and never came back. Uncertainty ruled because the rules kept changing. Were we following the science or the mad scientists? Was the light at the end of the tunnel the fiery mouth of hell? We couldn't say for sure, so we ventured out for food, booze and sundries like scavengers in a slow-motion apocalypse, keeping our distance from fellow human beings because you never knew who might be carrying that heavy viral load.And everywhere we went, we went behind the mask. So, it became obvious: The theme of our offering of extreme horror tales from 2020 had to be Masquerade.Our masquerading storytellers nevertheless did what they do best. They went deep into the belly of the beast and sent up fictions reflective of these "trying" times. Their stories peel away the masks (or in some cases, the skin) to reveal the inner workings of darkest hearts and minds and deeper fears.TABLE OF CONTENTSThe Nipples In Dad's Tool Box - Ronald Kelly Going Green - Christine Morgan Whiskey To The Wound - Rachel Nussbaum/thestrangethingwebecome - Eric LaRocca Hey Valentine - Amanda Cecelia LangIn Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream - Hailey Piper The Pogonip Fog - Sean Patrick Hazlett Gunfire And Brimstone - Alicia Hilton The Happiest Man In The World - Matthew Brockmeyer Synaesthete - Melanie Harding-Shaw Full Moon Shindig - Patrick C. Harrison Iii The Drinking-Horn - Christine Morgan Otto Hahn Speaks To The Dead - Octavia Cade All The Stars In Her Eyes - Deborah SheldonThe Village - Matias F. Travieso-DiazThe Smell Of Night In The Basement - Wendy N. WagnerThe Saint - Alessandro ManzettiHer Wounded Eyes - Robert Guffey

"It was like I was riding on a stolen road, like somebody'd just shanghaied the road and plopped it down in some foreign land." Thus, "stolen roads" entered the esoteric lexicon of popular culture.William Kidd's travels on stolen roads begin when he's a boy on leave from a psychiatric hospital and survives a car accident that kills both his parents.Although hallucinations are nothing new to him, Kidd knows the otherworldly thing crouched on his dying father's chest at the scene of the accident is no hallucination. Nothing in his mental inventory of the planet's natural creatures jibes with this pebble-skinned thing nearly as big as a man, a terrifying beast with spiky shoulders and lizard-like snout, its long knobby limbs folded insect-fashion as if it might suddenly leap or fly away without warning.The beast claws the boy's face, giving him an indelible totem-mark scar he still wears as a young man when he goes on the road in search of the creatures he calls "trocs."Kidd soon meets the Fluckers, a married couple claiming to have happened upon a "lost road," and they entice him to join them on an expedition to ride a suspect blacktop into what may be an alternate world.When Kidd's psych-hospital alumnus Rose Rivers the trippy earth-obsessed rock hound pops back into his life, she invites herself along on what she calls a trip to The Big Nowhere. Rounding out the team is Rita Younger: dive bar owner, former biker club member and acknowledged "badass babe."But The Big Nowhere is filled with otherworldly dangers. And the road home could be a dead end.Buckle up and hit the road for a thrilling ride into the dark fantastic. A literary collision of horror and fantasy on the road to a new kind of hell.

Dark forces are afoot in Vinewood, Georgia, a deceptively sleepy town where the dead don't stay dead and a sinkhole is as sinister as it is deadly. Violent events both natural and supernatural build to a chaotic crescendo of horrors that will threaten the entire town and everyone in it. An odd handful of townsfolk put their lives on the line to save the town, but the darkness may swallow them up before they have a chance. EDITORIAL REVIEWS "Reading Bad Juju is like being bitten by scorpions again and again and again, then asking for more because it felt so damned good." --T. M. Wright, author of Bone Soup "This is a brilliant book, and ranks right up there with James A Moore's Serenity Falls as my favourite town under siege by evil novels of all time." --Ginger Nuts of Horror "A high octane read ... scary as hell." --Walt Hicks, author of The Deathgrip Collection "Outstanding Randy Chandler is horror's best kept secret Buy it immediately, and discover the genre as it should be." --Kelly Tomblin, Horror-Web "I climbed into that sucker and couldn't get out. It was a real Venus Flytrap of a novel, absolutely compelling. I'd recommend Bad Juju without a single reservation to] folks who dig old-time horror." --Steve Vernon, author of Devil Tree "A full-bore, take-no-prisoners, one-man mission to once and forever completely upend & recontextualize the hallowed traditions of the Southern Gothic." --t. Winter-Damon, co-author of Duet for the Devil

This book contains extremely explicit, graphic content.Duet for the Devil was published October 1, 2000, by Necro Publications.Before that, bits and pieces of the unruly opus were published in various small-press magazines and indie journals, often in somewhat different forms.By the time the novel made it between hard covers, its length had been considerably shortened. Some significant characters were lost altogether as their scenes got the ax. Subsequently, much of the "lost" segments from Duet for the Devil were published by Jasmine Sailing as The Forbidden Gospels of Man-Cruel Volumes I & II. These modest chapbooks also contained several scenes as they appeared before they were edited or reworked for the novel.Forbidden Gospels: The Devil's Cut presents Volumes I & II as they originally appeared in chapbook form, including the introductions by Brian Hodge and Don Webb. Also included is an all new addition to the Gospels: "The Devil's Cut-Up."Then comes the Prophet of the Perverse section--a tribute, of sorts, to the late t. Winter-Damon. It also includes Damon's long and rambling preface to Duet for the Devil, which until now has only appeared in the Advanced Uncorrected Proof and on the Necro Publications website. Plus some of Damon's best poetry and several poems he wrote with award-wining poet Bruce Boston. This section also includes moving remembrances by some of the people whose lives were touched Damon."Forbidden Gospels: The Devil's Cut is a literary remix of Duet For The Devil. If it were a movie, this would be the Director's Cut. But of course it's not a movie or a musical remix. It's damned book. The kind of book, according to one reviewer, that made a true book-lover throw the damned thing across the room. The dirty little secret is, that is exactly the reaction Damon and I wanted. The devil made us do it." --Randy ChandlerContributors and Acknowledgements: Jasmine Sailing, editor-publisher of Cyber-Psychos AOD Brian Hodge, contributing author Don Webb, contributing author Bruce Boston, poet and contributing author Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan and contributing author Peggy Nadramia, High Priestess of the Church of Satan and contributing author David L. Tamarin, contributing author David G. Barnett, editor-publisher of Necro Publications Thomas Ligotti, author and living legend Prophet of the Perverse himself: t. Winter-DamonWARNING Not For Sensitive Souls. Do Not Open, Evil Inside.

Red Room Press is proud to present the best writings of the inimitable Randy Chandler in one huge collection of over 30 short stories of horror, crime, fantasy and more. Included are notes for each story from the author."She whispered to him and he wrote down her stories. Tales of dark wonder and awe. Of flesh and fantasy. Of black dogs and gargoyles and cranial holes opening upon other worlds. She showed him wondrous geometries far beyond the four-cornered world of his drab room."Table of ContentsThe StainKudzu ManManchineDevilsRiver RatsTwister ManThe HandymanThe SpookDeadside In Bug CityTerra IncognitaDeath Comes CallingThe GrindLipstick SwastikaDevil In 206Flesh And WordDeathlessJackedFungoidHalloween BashThe Bone TrainManhunterMiss ThangHogbutcher's HeartThe Kitchen WitchA Witch In FaerieSplit Finger(3-D)The CoffinAt The Edge of The WorldUndertakenLife After Living DeathThe God of Broken WorldsMortalHellbent House