NEWS
I was recently interviewed by three gentlemen from The Grite Group (Pablo Martinez Burkett, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Emiliano Agular). The intro & questions are in Spanish, then translated into English. My answers are in English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WDDtAK4Uk
I’ve made a large donation of materials to the University of Pittsburgh Horror Studies Collection. This includes books written by me and my late wife Melanie, as well as a representative sampling of our appearances in anthologies and magazines, including many rare items. (This is in addition to the complete collection of our works and papers at Texas A&M’s Cushing Library). The University of Pittsburgh recently partnered with the Horror Writers Association and is home to the George A. Romero Archival Collection, the Daniel Kraus papers, the John A. Russo collection, and the Stanley Wiater Archive of Modern Horror. https://horrorstudies.library.pitt.edu/
BOOKSTORES & LIBRARIES
If you are an independent bookseller, or a librarian, and would like to stock some of my print titles, use the following links. For the collections Figures Unseen and Thanatrauma: https://www.valancourtbooks.com/booksellers.html
For the collections The Harvest Child & Other Fantasies, Rough Justice: Tales of Crime & Deception, Scarecrows: Appalachian Tales, Everyday Horrors, and The Night Doctor and Other Tales: https://crossroadpress.com/bookstore-library-orders/
Links
Wondering which of Steve’s many short story collections to buy or just curious about the differences? You can find that info here.
You can now subscribe to the Steve Rasnic Tem YouTube Channel here.
For information about the Steve & Melanie Tem Collection at Texas A&M click here.
Featured
QUENEAU’S ALPHABET: A Story Cycle
Arnie’s mother oversees Queneau’s Library at the end of their street, quite a grand structure if you omit those rotting, flooded lower levels. Still, it’s an interesting place to hang out with his three best friends. This boy’s dark adventure introduces us to Queneau’s neighborhood, where the pre-WWII bungalows are lettered rather than numbered, originally meant to help young children learn their alphabet. But these quaint-looking facades hide a history of sinister events. There’s a story for each house, each letter of the alphabet, 26 tales in all plus a coda. Over the course of Queneau’s Alphabet a variety of horror themes, characters, and motifs are explored: folk horror, killer clowns, drunken Santas, Halloween terrors, ghosts, possessions, nightmares, nameless creatures, dark crimes, and one ancient, infamous vampire.
Six stories are original to this volume. The reprinted pieces are from a range of sources, including The Dark, Nightmare Abbey, Black Static, Supernatural Tales, Weird Horror, and such anthologies as Wilted Pages, October Screams, Shakespeare Unleashed, and Best Horror Of the Year.
“One of the undisputed masters of the modern genre. “ – Supernatural Tales
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637891768/
Biography
“His work…will haunt your imagination and your heart in equal measure, and it both expands and defines the genre. ” Adam Mills, Weird Fiction Review
Steve Rasnic Tem’s writing career spans over 45 years, including poetry, plays, short stories, and novels in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, crime, regional fiction set in the Appalachian South, as well as a less-classifiable imaginative prose more than one critic has called “Temism.” His collaborative novella with his late wife Melanie Tem, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001. He has also won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and British Fantasy Awards for his solo work. He is a 2024 recipient of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
His recent novel UBO (Solaris, January 2017) is a dark science fictional tale about violence and its origins, featuring such historical viewpoint characters as Jack the Ripper, Stalin, and Heinrich Himmler. Steve’s southern gothic novel Blood Kin (Solaris, March 2014), won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award. His other novels are his YA The Mask Shop of Doctor Blaack (Hex, 2018), Deadfall Hotel (Solaris, 2012), The Man On The Ceiling (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, 2008, written with Melanie Tem as an expansion of their novella), The Book of Days (Subterranean, 2002), Daughters (Grand Central, 2001, also written with Melanie Tem), and Excavation (Avon, 1987). A handbook on writing, Yours to Tell: Dialogues on the Art & Practice of Fiction, also written with Melanie, appeared in 2017 from Apex Books.
Steve has published over 500 short stories. His first collection of stories, Ombres sur la Route, was published by the French publisher Denoël in 1994. His first English language collection, City Fishing (Silver Salamander, 2000) won the International Horror Guild Award. His other story collections are The Far Side of the Lake (Ash Tree, 2001), In Concert (Centipede, 2010-collaborations with Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior (New Pulp, 2012-noir fiction), Onion Songs (Chomu, 2013), Celestial Inventories (ChiZine, 2013), Twember (NewCon, 2013-science fiction), Here With The Shadows (Swan River Press, 2014), the giant 72-story treasury, Out of the Dark: A Storybook of Horrors, (Centipede Press), Figures Unseen: Selected Stories (Valancourt, 2018), The Harvest Child And Other Fantasies (Crossroads, 2018), the YA-oriented Everything Is Fine Now (Omnium Gatherum, 2019), The Night Doctor and Other Tales (Centipede, 2019), and Thanatrauma (Valancourt, 2021).
A transplanted Southerner from Lee County Virginia, Steve is a long-time resident of Colorado. He has a BA in English Education from VPI and a MA in Creative Writing from Colorado State, where he studied fiction under Warren Fine and poetry under Bill Tremblay.
Interviews
I was recently interviewed by three gentlemen from The Grite Group (Pablo Martinez Burkett, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Emiliano Agular). The intro & questions are in Spanish, then translated into English. My answers are in English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WDDtAK4Uk
Interview by Ed McManis on The Compulsive Reader website: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/11/17/an-interview-with-steve-rasnic-tem-king-of-the-horror-short-story/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGnX3pleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHeEY4Q-9GFcoZshwOegvM57oky4uuPj8aunK19QFKc2EOVJUCAwgS-qWvQ_aem_HdrAw30XJR9iAJo3Dj6qpg
Interview at Asimov’s SF Magazine From Earth to the Stars blog: https://fromearthtothestars.com/2022/02/18/qa-with-steve-rasnic-tem/?fbclid=IwAR1OFjm1LhrGMlGoqwpjngTebNNLUhcVy5iyTsuT94cMi4ziZoysXMXeRmc
Interview in Westword, Denver’s alternative weekly: https://www.westword.com/arts/steve-rasnic-tem-colorado-author-consumed-horror-11897235
YouTube interview at Visited By Voices Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBdaGPwwPxI&fbclid=IwAR3jps8mwqpsJ1xunb7u3gdrAv8AItxQSmLlXT0W4BLqq3p5PL0M7I3uBQA
Reading & interview for Nebraska Wesleyan’s Nights of Horror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3vyiPvOoG4
The second half of my interview with the This Is Horror podcast: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/tih-261-steve-rasnic-tem-on-figures-unseen-the-art-and-practice-of-writing-and-the-man-on-the-ceiling/?fbclid=IwAR3hCcIB5xDnHyRh4pkmweQN6dAnRqgUB8L5SXhW8GBVU6WRR5niN4gexek
The first half of my interview with the This Is Horror podcast: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/tih-260-steve-rasnic-tem-on-secret-realities-city-fishing-and-early-life-lessons/
Interview at the Darkness Dwells podcast concerning my new collection Everything Is Fine Now, existential dread, love and loss, and a few writing tips.
Interviewed by Scott Edelman on the Eating the Fantastic podcast.
New interview concerning Doctor
New interview up on Kendall Reviews concerning my writing in general as well as The Mask Shop of Doctor
New interview at Cat After Dark concerning my new middle-grade novel The Mask Shop of Doctor
Read the long interview with Steve in the upcoming second issue of Thinking Horror: A Journal of Horror Philosophy.
June 2018 Interview with Steve on
See a complete list of interviews on
Free Fiction
PERFORMANCES
I love listening to people reading my stories aloud, whether it’s me doing it or another performer. Here’s a free sampling from across the internet:
Edward E. French performs “The Painters Are Coming Today” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wAs66YQx7w
David Powell performs “Late Sleepers” https://pseudopod.org/2020/11/27/pseudopod-733-late-sleepers/
Kate Baker performs “A Space of One’s Own” https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_06_18/
“Dying on the Elephant Road” from Beneath Ceaseless Skies https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio/dying-on-the-elephant-road-by-steve-rasnic-tem/
Alasdair Stuart, Brian Lieberman, Summer Fletcher and Daniel Braum perform “Halloween Street,” “Tricks,” “Butcher Paper,” and “Masks of Me” https://pseudopod.org/2017/10/27/pp-566-fotb-xl-halloween-street/
Washington Sawyer performs “Housewarming” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6vPf3PNX-Y
Stefan Rudnicki performs “Before and After” https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/before-and-after/
Kristin Holland performs “Between the Pilings” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGTmIB31kdA
I perform “The Way Station” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE2FcmT4Gr8
I perform “Field of Shoes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMUrdWdjCtI
I perform “Whatever You Want” (with others) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvYVco7jCpo
OTHER FICTION
“The Winter Closet,” Three-lobed Burning Eye #36
“Black Wings,” The Dark, April 2022
“Whenever It Comes,” Weird Horror Magazine #4
“The Last Sound You Hear,” The Dark, Dec 2021
“Forwarded,” The Dark Magazine, January 2020
“The Family Man,” Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction, October 2019
“For All His Eyes Can See,” The Dark, August 2018
“Red Rabbit,” Borderlands # 6 (reprinted in Figures Unseen)
“The Men and Women of Rivendale,” Nightmare #35.
“Cats, Dogs, & Other Creatures,” Talebones.
See a complete list of free fiction on the Free Fiction page.
Latest Books
EVERYDAY HORRORS
Everyday horrors, the unexpected twists encountered during an otherwise normal day. The skewed perspectives, those moments of transformative paranoia when everything appears as it might through a funhouse lens. The dreamlike narratives and rhythms which fracture consensual reality into genre-bending rides. When life becomes unmoored and the prosaic becomes surreal. These are the worlds portrayed in this new collection of 20 previously uncollected stories by Steve Rasnic Tem, winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and the Horror Writer Association’s Lifetime Achievement awards.
Included are such stories as “A Thin Silver Line” (originally scheduled for The Last Dangerous Visions), the folk horror “Gavin’s Field,” an aging man’s final road trip in “The Old Man’s Tale,” the Halloween musings of “When They Fall,” the personal apocalypse of “Privacy,” the Jack the Ripper revelations of “Monkeys,” the pandemic Wendigo tale “An Gorta Mór,” the cosmic horror “The Things We Do Not See,” a bizarre journey “Within the Concrete” from ParSec, and the heartbreaking “Memoria” from The Deadlands.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637891768/
SCARECROWS: Appalachian Tales
Steve Rasnic Tem grew up in Lee County Virginia, the western most county in the state. It was the heart of Appalachia, isolated, yet beautiful. He has said “Growing up in that small place, it was hard to imagine ever becoming a writer. To me wanting to be a writer was like wanting to become an astronaut or a movie star. I didn’t believe such things ever happened for people like us.”
Now in his seventies, Steve Rasnic Tem’s writings include more than 500 published short stories in a variety of genres, 17 collections, 8 novels, and miscellaneous poetry and plays. He has won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and International Horror Guild awards. In 2024 he received the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Scarecrows: Appalachian Tales collects the best of Tem’s writings about his native Appalachia, 2 poems and 24 short stories (including 5 never before published tales) concerning the farmers, miners, teachers, preachers, lawmen, itinerants, housewives, elders, children, and creatures who call these southern mountains home. The tales represent a range of genres: fantasy, horror, crime, humor, and realistic local color fiction of the region. Available in both paperback and ebook formats.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637891717/
ROUGH JUSTICE: Tales of Crime & Deception
“Kafkaesque” isn’t a term that’s used often or even lightly. So when it finds itself tied to any modern-day author, you know you’ll be in for a real treat. And that’s just what we’ve come to expect from Steve Rasnic Tem.
Collecting the bulk of Steve’s crime stories from such sources as Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, The Saint Magazine, Crimewave, New Mystery, Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir, Cemetery Dance, Argosy, Dark Terrors, Hot Blood, Hardboiled, Savage Kick, Shivers, Constable New Crimes, all the stories from his Ugly Behavior collection, plus the first print appearance of his one act play “Hideous Idea.” 43 pieces in all. 444 pages. Available in both ebook and paperback forms from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJGCBJMQ/
Here With the Shadows Paperback
THANATRAUMA: Stories
“All my life I’ve dreamed of the dead.”
Thanatrauma: the dread of it erodes you, the shadows waiting at the end, the impending conclusion, the troubling dream from which you will not wake.
These 21 stories – four published here for the first time – explore some of our fundamental fears: death, loss, grief, and aging. In “Reflections in Black,” a man takes a phantasmagoric Halloween journey in search of a former love. In “The Parts Man,” a man enters a desperate contract with a sinister entity in a long, vintage automobile. The darkly beautiful “The Dead Outside My Door” is a haunting post-apocalyptic tale unlike any you’ve ever read. Other offerings include “Whatever You Want,” in which a Christmas wish has terrible consequences; “Torn,” a bizarre vision of a highly personalized hell; and “The Way Station,” a tribute to the legendary Stefan Grabinski. Also featured is a special bonus, “August Freeze,” from the lost, undistributed Winter 1985 issue of Weird Tales.
https://www.valancourtbooks.com/thanatrauma-2021.html
The Night Doctor New Paperback
The Night Doctor And Other Tales, out of print in hardcover, is now available in new paperback and ebook editions through Amazon.
You can view a YouTube video of Steve reading the title story here.
John Boden at Ginger Nuts of Horror: “Every story in this collection is marvelous. All of them emotionally heavy and steeped in themes of loss, regret, grief (triple helpings on that one) and despair. All painted in lush realistically thick strokes and colors. All of them masterpieces.”
Publishers Weekly starred review: “’Sometimes it takes all our effort to keep the anxiety of simply being human at bay’ … Tem treads a fine line between the weird and the horrific in these stories, and they are memorable for their subtle power and insidious eeriness. This haunting collection is the perfect Halloween accompaniment.”
FRY DAY: Plays & Poems
Melanie Tem’s FRY DAY, Plays & Poems. Over a career of 30+ years, Melanie Tem received the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards for her writing, which included almost a hundred short stories, twelve solo novels, as well as scripts, poems, and storytelling performances. At the time of her death in 2015, she left behind numerous plays, several of which have been produced, but none have appeared in print. These plays arguably contain some of the finest writing of her final ten years. Those who love her fiction will find familiar subjects here: the anxieties and fears which beset families, or anyone involved in an intimate relationship. FRY DAY collects the best of her plays, along with a selection of her poetry. It’s available in both eBook and paperback formats.
YOURS TO TELL:
Dialogues on the Art & Practice of Writing
The writing guide I wrote with my late wife Melanie, Yours to Tell, recently went out of print. I’m pleased to announce this new digital and paperback edition from Crossroads Press. In this book we discuss plot, point of view, setting, characterization, and more, all in an informal tone that invites you to become part of our conversation. Learn how to find your stories because they are Yours to Tell.
“As I sat in the Odyssey Writing Workshop classroom where Melanie and Steve Tem were serving as writers-in-residence, I thought how fortunate the students were to participate in that magical experience. Through their unique ‘dialogues on writing,’ Melanie and Steve explored topics in a way that was both liberating and illuminating. Writers could disagree on how to write! And they could prompt each other to dig deeper into their thoughts and processes, eliciting unique insights. Students were delighted and fascinated. Now this book allows more writers to benefit from their invaluable explorations.”
—Jeanne Cavelos, bestselling author and director of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SXQF7Y5
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1133666
Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=1ypgEAAAQBAJ
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/yours-to-tell
ABSENCE
Melanie’s posthumous YA science fiction novel is now available in paperback and ebook formats.
Nothing is simple in fifteen-year-old Casey’s life. She has two families and two houses and two rooms of her own. Sometimes this makes her feel lucky, but other times she feels practically homeless. She also has a brother with Asperger’s. He’s interesting to have around, and she loves him very much, but he’s also complicated.
And speaking of complicated, Casey discovers she’s a time traveler.
She’ll be doing her Algebra homework, or on her way to work at the restaurant, when suddenly she’s in some other time and place, in some other body, and she’s supposed to do something. Help somebody. Fix some problem. But how?
Order from Amazon here.
FIGURES UNSEEN
“An incredible collection.” – Toronto Star
Winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy
“It’s a masterful collection. Story after story grabs you from the first sentence or image, shoehorns you effortlessly into familiar places you’ve never been, allows you into another life as it’s coming apart or, perhaps, just coming to rest. These are sensuous tales, with gorgeously worked language and cadences. They breathe. Their hearts beat soundly beneath your own…The stories of Figures Unseen shimmer with beauty, with felt reality, and with the mysteries forever at the heart of all our lives.” – James Sallis, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
THE HARVEST CHILD AND OTHER FANTASIES
THE HARVEST CHILD And Other Fantasies is a massive collection of the wide range of Steve Rasnic Tem’s fantasy tales. These 39 stories include sword & sorcery sagas, chronicles of fairies, elves, witches, wizards, magical creatures, Robin Hood, funny fantasy, and a smattering of science fantasy, as well as some uncollected dark fantasy tales which emphasize the fantasy over the horror. None have appeared in his previous collections. Just a sampling of sources: After Hours, Paradox, Asimov’s, Dragon Magazine, Elsewhere, Infinite Loop, New Frontiers, Jabberwocky, Chrysalis, Grue, Mythellany, Fantasy Book,
Order the paperback from Amazon.
Order the ebook from Amazon.
Order from Smashwords.
Order from Barnes and Noble.
EVERYTHING IS FINE NOW
In this all ages collection award-winning horror author Steve Rasnic Tem showcases a variety of ghosts and other creatures aiming to keep you up all night with the lights on. Read about the two best friends chased by a strangely familiar figure. Or the teenager who wakes up with fur sprouting from every nook and cranny on his body. Or the fellow with a crazy mom whose magical powers only make things worse. Or the mechanic who keeps his cars running on oil, gasoline, and blood. These stories range from subtle supernatural tales to the legends heard sitting by a campfire.
“Some sheer literary classics in this book.” – Des Lewis Reviews
Order from Amazon.
For more new book information go to the Books page.