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Freak Show (The Horror Writers Association Presents) Kindle Edition
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 18, 2014
- File size1.0 MB
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Product details
- ASIN : B00L3ROEC4
- Publisher : Horror Writers Association
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : June 18, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 1.0 MB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 384 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-0985808907
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,972 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,759 in Fantasy Anthologies & Short Stories (Kindle Store)
- #2,771 in Horror Anthologies (Books)
- #3,788 in Fantasy Anthologies
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)
I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, young adult, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 55 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.
I guess I'm best known for the Repairman Jack series which ran 23 novels. Jack is out to pasture now, but I may bring him back if the right story comes along.
THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, BY THE SWORD, and NIGHTWORLD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a coffee at Starbuck's.)
My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.
And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 20 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, Beacon Films has decided that "Repairman Jack" might be better suited for TV than theatrical films. (We'll see how that works out.)
I've done a few collaborations too: with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, A NECESSARY END with Sarah Pinborough, THE PROTEUS CURE with Tracy Carbone, and the Nocturnia series with Thomas Moneleone. Back in the 1990s, Matthew J. Costello and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.
We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We did two novels together (MIRAGE and DNA WARS) and even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.
I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)
Hi there! I'm Nancy Kilpatrick and I write and edit, mainly in the dark fantasy and horror fields, but I've also written fantasy, mystery stories, erotica, and one science fiction story! I've published 21 novels, about 220 short stories, 6 collections of stories, a few issues of a comic book series, 1 non-fiction book and many non-fiction articles. I've also edited 15 anthologies, and written scripts for comics and my own graphic novel. I write under my name, Nancy Kilpatrick, and also two pen names, Amarantha Knight and Desiree Knight.
Three recent titles in the novel series Thrones of Blood:
REVENGE OF THE VAMPIR KING, 1st novel in the series.
SACRIFICE OF THE HYBRID PRINCESS, 2nd novel in the series.
ABDUCTION OF TWO RULERS, 3rd novel in the series (out soon).
Two recent anthologies:
VAMPYRIC VARIATIONS, a collection of 7 vampire stories and 3 novellas, with an introduction by the wonderful writer Tanith Lee. ***WINNER OF THE SILVER FOREWORD REVIEWS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (horror catagory)***
NEVERMORE! TALES OF MURDER, MYSTERY AND THE MACABRE, an anthology that is an homage to Edgar Allan Poe, with stories by Margaret Atwood; David Morrell; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; RC Matheson; Tanith Lee; Christopher Rice; Nancy Holder and many others--a complete list on the book's listing on Amazon. ***WINNER OF THE PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL AWARD FOR BEST ANTHOLOGY***
Website: nancykilpatrick.com
Twitter: @nancykwriter
Blog: nancykilpatrickwriter.blogspot.ca/
Instagram: nancykilpatrickauthor
Join me on Facebook: Facebook: nancy.kilpatrick.31
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the anthology's stories amazing, describing it as a seamless collection of incredible horror. They appreciate the diversity of the writing, with one customer noting that each chapter is written by a different author.
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Customers praise the story quality of the book, describing it as a seamless anthology of incredible horror.
"...for that many different authors to be engaged into so seamless an overall story was amazing...." Read more
"To get so many different writers doing a cohesive storyline is amazing. Some voices are clearer than others, but overall it's quite enjoyable...." Read more
"...Though I felt the ending was a bit cheesy and fell short of my expectations, it did not do so enough to spoil the overall experience of this book...." Read more
"An unusual horror anthology, in which an overriding story ties together all the tales within...." Read more
Customers appreciate the diversity of writers in the book, with one mentioning that each chapter is written by a different author.
"Freak Show is a superbly put together novel, each chapter written by a different author and following a main storyline; like George R. R. Martin's..." Read more
"Great collection of horror from some very talented writers" Read more
"...The stories were well-written, and good grammar, mechanics, spelling, and word usage are important to me...." Read more
"I enjoyed books that have many authors, I always find a few New books to read.I gave this book four stars because I just finished the Peabody book...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2003Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseFreak Show is a superbly put together novel, each chapter written by a different author and following a main storyline; like George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards series. F. Paul Wilson has done a brilliant job of editing this strange foray into the world of the Circus Freak.
With authors like himself (F. Paul Wilson), Richard Lee Byers, Dan Simmons, Rex Miller, Nancy Kilpatrick, and many others each dedicating their talents to a single chapter of the Ozymandias Traveling Circus and Oddity Emporium's journey across the US, focusing on a particular freak and his particular talent; the life that pulses through this amazing collection is realistic and...well...freakish.
Year's ago, Oz's father scattered pieces of a peculiar machine all across the countryside just before committing suicide. Now Oz, a freak himself, has gathered those around him who are like him, different in some way or another. Some with green skin, some with wings, or beaks, or fur, or two faces, even enormously fat or with eerily long fingers; they all fit in with Oz and called the Freak Show home. Oz has promised them that their turn in life is coming, when the freaks will become the norm and the normal people will become freaks; all they have to do is gather and assemble the pieces of the machine his father scattered about years ago.
As we cross the country with this Oddity Emporium, the various authors bring us into the lives of these people, sometimes horrifying and sometimes tender; and we learn what it is like to be them, to feel like them, to live like them. I found myself extremely caught up with this band of outcasts, sympathetic for some and not for others, but always compelled to read more and find out what and who Oz really is, and what will happen if his task is completed.
Though I felt the ending was a bit cheesy and fell short of my expectations, it did not do so enough to spoil the overall experience of this book. Not since Dean Koontz's Twilight Eyes have I enjoyed a carnival/circus book so much, and it is too bad the F. Paul Wilson has said he will not edit another compilation such as this. Personally, I think it is his greatest work.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015Format: KindleVerified PurchaseI loved this book. I would have cut one star for the obvious formatting errors throughout the Kindle edition (it was obviously OCR'd with little to no proofing done after) but not even that could dissuade me from giving it a full five stars. With a story for each major character, you get to know the cast quite well--and for that many different authors to be engaged into so seamless an overall story was amazing. If you have a penchant for oddities, supernatural things and a bit of darker-edged grit, this should be right up your alley.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2022Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseTo get so many different writers doing a cohesive storyline is amazing. Some voices are clearer than others, but overall it's quite enjoyable. The ending, alas, reads like the author was told to hand it in by the end of the day.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2009Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseDo not confuse this book with F. Paul Wilsons
book "The Peabody-Oz Traveling Circus" feb 09.
Wilson wrote that book but in this 1992 version
he gives approx 10 horror authors the character of
OZ and his freaks and they write their own stories.
These people/freaks are touched by Wilson *OTHERNESS*
in ways that will shock you. I love this old book so
much more than the new one. I think you will too.
bp okc aries/60's
- Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2001Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAn unusual horror anthology, in which an overriding story ties together all the tales within. It's horrific, smart and filled to the gills with great characers.
The book relates the story of a travelling circus and freak show - The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus and Oddity Emporium - that, while entertaining (and grossing-out) folks, seeks out pieces of a mysterious machine that threatens all humanity upon its completion. We're treated to all sorts of weirdos, and they're downright frightening, kids. The fiction treatment of even the common types of freak show participants - the mystic, the fattest man, snake-boy - is chilling.
This is a super-rare paperback book, but if you come across it ANYWHERE, even if you don't like horror, get it.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2014Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseSome of theese stories are amazing, but a lot of them are "filler" - even though it's a long, connected story, some of them doesn't feel connected enough. The ending isn't amazing either. But a few of the stories are worth their weight in gold.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2018Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseReally weird book I read when I was younger. Woke up thinking about it one day and found it on Amazon. I've yet to re-read it, but I remember it being a surprisingly great piece of fiction.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2016Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseGreat collection of horror from some very talented writers