Every year my small press puts out a big anthology and every year it’s a huge time consuming whirlwind of excitement and detail work right to the end. Every year when I hold that book in my hand, I marvel at how an idea can become something tangible, living and expanding like a book.
GRIMM RETOLD was ambitious our first time embracing our own weird vision of horror and gore with the queer, feminist edge of rage and rebellion Spec Pub keeps at its heart. We wanted a fairy tale collection, with all the blood, that flowed the way the old Grimm Fairy tale books did. What we created there with those exception authors, poets and artists was nothing less than gorgeous and I am so proud every time I look at that book.
VAMPIRE HUNTERS: AN INCOMPLETE RECORD OF PERSONAL ACCOUNTS continues what we started, with a vengeance. We had a very specific premise, and River Eno and I let it develop. Once we got a hold of the stories we were using, everything clicked into place. A family secret. A calling passed down through generations. The Record Keepers. A reclusive old man writes to his niece, passing on a legacy of wealth and responsibility. “Vampire are real and so are those who hunt them. We collect and keep their journals, notes, and transcripts”
And so begins the story of generations. From Sir Charles to Cynthia Bledsoe to Ensign Anastasios, to Mx. Robinson to Haruto Bledsoe. From the Trojan War to present day corporate corruption, the record keepers transcribe and classify the personal accounts of vampire hunters.
So far, the reviews have been excellent.
“I’ve read a lot of anthologies, but none has gripped me quite like this one did. I adore the framing of the book: as a collection of information curated and passed down between family through the centuries.”
” I don’t say this lightly, but this book gets it. Like, the dark, creeping dread of something ancient watching from the shadows… but make it literary, historical, and kind of addictive? Obsessed.”
“I’m a huge fan of “Dracula” and other vampire books, so this was an exciting find for me. I’m usually very picky about short story collections, but I ended up loving this one … It felt like reading an alternate history of vampire hunters, and I thought that concept was brilliant. The nerd in me absolutely loved that! I also enjoyed that each story ends with an illustration, it adds a great visual touch.”
“What a deliciously eerie, blood-soaked treasure trove this is.”
It is a pretty great feeling when you get that kind of feedback on something that you’ve pour so much of your heart and time into. A bonus because this is the first anthology I’ve included a story of my own in, since 2022 INCUBATE.
But I want to share a brief run down of all the twenty-two stories because every single one is a piece of the incomplete records that makes this book an extraordinary puzzle I can wait to share with the world.
In order of timeline and appearance in the book.
“The Strix” by George K. Angelou – A soldier in Agamemnon’s army realizes a vampire stalks the camps of Troy.
“The Sherwood Papers” by Dale Parnell – Robin Hood and his men of Sherwood Forrest fight to save their people from a hungry tyrant.
“Saint Orianne” by LCW Allingham – A Knight Templar hunts demons for the church, but is lured astray by folk tales in the French Mountains.
“The Appropriated Journal of Baron Sigismund von Herberstein” by River Eno – A vampire hunters struggles to find his mark during the Lithuanian–Muscovite War
“Blood Stains True” by Nico Martinez Nocito – A Venetian printer takes on a new charge, who’s blood is irresistible to the undead.
“From the Diary of Istvan Rákóczi, known as Lubomir Count of Ostrava” by Lee Meeder – A vampire hunter returns home to escape the stifling laws of the Empress, only to find his own family afflicted with oupires.
“A Drink of Death” by Toni Owen-Blue – a famed hunter prepares for her final showdown with her greatest foe.
“Be Careful What You Wish For” by Henry Herz – Icabod Crane attempts to draw out a vampire stalking Sleepy Hollow.
“The Death of a Raven” by Camellia Landman – N.T. Reynolds tracks the famous American author, Edgar Allan Poe.
“No Mirrors” by Mina Humiston – A nurse learns her hospital is the hunting grounds for a vampire, as she works through the daily horrors of the American Civil War.
“Bloodthirsty” by Caolán Mac an Aircinn – Amidst rising tensions in English occupied Ireland, a Russian Jewish immigrant and a vampire nobleman play cat and mouse.
“The White Hunger” by Bill Mulligan – Russian railroad workers uncover something sinister in the ice of the Siberian north.
“All the Devils at Once” by Gwendolyn Kiste – A village disregards their own vampire hunters for the famous Abraham Van Helsing.
“Attrition” by Johan Robertsson – A World War I officer follows a trail of bodies to a strange plot to feed an old god.
“Double Shadows and Breaths Not Taken” by Juno Crew – A flapper takes notes on how to identify vampires, while immersed in love and life in the Jazz Age.
“Sweet Sister” by A.R.C Mitra – A PI tracks a different kind of vampire across the country, following the trail of suicides.
“Cape Canaveral” by Carter Lappin – During the moon launch, a hunting team travels through Florida to put down a nest of vampires.
“Sick ” by A.C. Wise – A sadistic psychopath directs her special skill toward hunting the undead, and experimenting.
“Party Time at 413 Dallyn Road” by William J. Donahue – Things go sideways when a soldier turned contract killer is hired for a different kind of job.
“Bad Blood” by TT Madden – A collection of cassette and video tapes reveal a family hunting tradition and a unique and horrifying nest of vampires.
“Birds and Beasts” by Hope Madden – A vampire hunts his own kind, leaving a trail of virgins behind him.
“19 Nights in Kiribati” by D.C. Kugtima – An aging hunter is called to a remote island where a simple job turns into a political nightmare.
VAMPIRE HUNTERS: AN INCOMPLETE RECORD OF PERSONAL ACCOUNTS is out Tomorrow on all online book retailers. Links Here.
LC W. Allingham 
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