Category Archives: Books

Summer 2022 From Raphus Press

Posted on by under Books

Civilian by Karim Ghahwagi // Raphus Press// Summer 2022

Set a few years in the future, the Behavioral Science department of the FBI are on the threshold of fully implementing a new technology which enables access to the memories and sensations of the human mind.

For almost a decade Simon Wakefield and his team of federal agents have developed and utilized the technology in their most challenging cases. Now they are confronted with their most perplexing case. A renowned child psychotherapist has kidnapped three of her own child trauma patients and hidden them away in an undisclosed location without food and water. She will only reveal their locations on live national television. A few hours before she is to make her grand exposé, she tries to commit suicide in her cell. Dying and unconscious, she has never revealed the secret locations of the three children.

Aberrant pathologies and new technologies collide in this short novel of science fiction and horror.

Limited to 100 hardback copies.

Copies can be preordered at Raphus Press

And via Ziesings in the United States

Forma da Colina

Posted on by under Books

Forma da Colina (Horrill Hill) // Karim Ghahwagi // Translated into Portuguese by Fábio Waki and Alcebiades Diniz Miguel //Vergê Berilo paper 180 g // 19×12.5 // Ateliê Phonte88 // Raphus Press // São Paulo // Brazil // June 2021

The Inhuman Ladder

Posted on by under Books
The Inhuman Ladder by Karim Ghahwagi

The Inhuman Ladder is now shipping from Amazon and Barnes&Noble in paperback. Available in limited edition hardback from Zagava Books in April.

The Inhuman Ladder / Zagava Books/ 2021/ 321 pages.

Some kind words about the stories:

Children of the Crimson Sun

‘One of the best stories of possession I’ve read since the Exorcist.‘

Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual and The Reddening

‘A compelling tale of amoral purpose.’

Mark Andresen- The Pan Review

Horrill Hill

‘This story-story has a gory rictus at its hyphen. And clairvoyant viscera. Its method of stylistic power only imaginable if you read it.’

D.F. Lewis- The Gestalt Real-Time Review.

‘Will stay with the reader permanently.’

Alcebiades Diniz Miguel.

The Sorrows of Satan’s Book

‘A haunting portrayal….An excellent example of cold, sea-drenched gloom.’

Dejan Ognjanovic – Rue Morgue

‘Hallucinatory ….powerful. An oblique but ultimately impressive story.’

Mark Monday

Children of the Crimson Sun

Posted on by under Books, Reviews

children.2.w

 

An Egaeus Press Keynote edition

‘One of the best stories of possession I’ve read since The Exorcist’

Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual and The Reddening

‘A compelling tale of amoral purpose.’

Mark Andresen- The Pan Review

‘A holy revelry. Thoughtful, sometimes visceral or vital work.’

D.F. Lewis- The Gestalt Real-Time Review.

‘As in a nightmare, the monster that emerges from the sleep of reason, transfigured into a powerful and grim narrative.’

Alcebiades Diniz Miguel- Bibliophage

Reviews of Karim Ghahwagi’s fiction

‘A haunting portrayal….An excellent example of cold, sea-drenched gloom.’

Dejan Ohnjanovic- Rue Morgue

‘Powerful, dystopian and disturbing.’

Peter Tennant- Black Static.

http://www.egaeuspress.com/Children_of_the_Crimson_Sun.html

The Liminal Void

Posted on by under Books

Now Available

The Liminal Void by Karim Ghahwagi
Mount Abraxas Press July 2019
Limited edition deluxe oversized hardcover, clothboards with blind folio, silk ribbon, and printed on thick colored paper in two editions.

From the publisher:

”Western sulphur, cults, atavism, murders, heathan rituals and metaphysical journeys, all collide in the Liminal Void, a new superlative horror / folk horror novella by Karim Ghahwagi.

The ghosts of three martyred women trapped in a single body, are assigned by their collapsing Kratocratic pagan regime, to investigate a crime against humanity, in a distant and secluded village, stationed at the end of time. The regime itself, the women suspect, has instigated the very crime they have been charged to investigate. An occult existential terror novella of the dark fantastic, forensic investigation, ancient pagan ritual, and the end of days.”

Books can be purchased by contacting exoccidente@gmail.com, or other fine booksellers.

 

Children of the Crimson Sun

Posted on by under Books

children.4.w

Children of the Crimson Sun

An Egaeus Press Keynote Edition

Now available

A diptych of dark, richly wrought, strange tales, exploring faith, identity, and those mysterious currents which inhabit the spaces in between them. At once psychological tales of mounting spiritual horror, and investigations into the dark fantastic.

The title novella, Children of the Crimson Sun, concerns a young medic of the Hospitaller Knights of Malta, charged with investigating an unsettling case in a local fishing village, where spiritual forces both contemporary and ancient saturate the sprawling archipelago’s villages, churches, monasteries, megalithic temples, and deep subterranean caverns.

In the second piece, A Haunting in Miniature, a village in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic is unsettled by a series of ghostly visitations. The supernatural intrusions give rise to suspicions that the region’s history has resurfaced in strange and foreboding circumstances.

The book is a lithographically printed, 192 page pocket sized sewn hardback (105mm x 165mm); limited to just 220 copies. ISBN 978-1-916465725.

Books can be purchased for 21 English pounds / 27 US Dollars / 24 Euro, including worldwide shipping Here

An accounting of disclosures fantastic

Posted on by under Books

I had the opportunity to work with some extraordinary artists this year. Huge thanks to Alcebiades Diniz Miguel, Márcio Simões and Bethany White at Raphus Press who all did truly magnificent work on Secretariat. Thanks also to Dan Ghetu and Damian Murphy at Mount Abraxas Press for including my story Horrill Hill in their remarkable Cioran anthology Wounds of Wounds. Much gratitude to Mark Beech at Egaeus Press for including my novelette The Sorrows of Satan’s Book in his wonderful anthology Book of the Sea. I couldn’t possibly ask for better circumstances and instances to work with these immensely talented publishers, editors, designers- all truly great artists. And humbled to be in print with such wonderful writers in these two anthologies.  I am also grateful for those who have responded to this work including Des Lewis, Mark Andresen, and Dejan Ohnjanovic of Rue Morgue, and all those who have responded or supported my work. Heartfelt gratitude. You look up, and year is coming to an end already! Immensely looking forward to 2019. Happy Holidays and New Year.

Egaeus Press Book of the Sea and The Last Resort

Posted on by under Books

A collection of dark, strange or uncategorizable pieces for which the sea provides the great mystery; stories and poems which explore its pull on the human heart, its alienness, its treachery, its unfathomable vastness; and more than anything, what it makes us creatures – us unwelcome, gill-less land-dwellers – do, be, become.

The full contents are as follows…

I: Ligan
Others’ Tears by David Yates
Waiting by Rosalie Parker
In The Hold, It Waits by Tom Johnstone
The Figurehead of the Cailleach by Stephen J. Clark
The Sorrows of Satan’s Book by Karim Ghahwagi

II: Flotsam
The Storm Brood by Colin Fisher
By Severn’s Flood by Jane Jakeman
Breakwater Lodge by Michael R. Colangelo
Dancing Boy by Colin Insole
Below Decks by Jonathan Eeds
The Final Flight of Fidelia by Albert Power

III: Jetsam
Withernsea by Martin Jones
Sailing to Trebizond by S.A. Rennie
The Damnation of Captain M’Quhae by Charles Schneider
From Whence We Came by Jonathan Wood
Some Pages from the Journal of James Morris, Founder, Sable Island Humane Establishment, 1801 by Tim Foley

IV: Derelict
Cut Through with Skeins of Shallow Light by Joseph Dawson
The Night They Came by D.F. Lewis
The Woman from Malta by George Berguño
The Lighthouse by Richard Sheppard
The Woman Who Walked in to the Sea by Steven Pirie

Edited by Mark Beech

The book has 320 pages; is a lithographically printed, sewn hardback with coloured endpapers. It is limited to just 400 copies.

ISBN 978-0-993527883.

It can be ordered now for £35.00, inclusive of postage worldwide here and from other fine booksellers.

The triple vinyl gatefold of Anders Trentemøller’s The Last Resort is available now here

From Pokerflat recordings:

”The original vinyl-pressing only included a selection of songs from the original 13-track album release. It missed out on songs which had been released on singles or didn’t “fit” on the so called “vinyl edition”. Due to ‘public demand’ and simply because this album deserves a proper vinyl release we are happy to finally present, for the first time, the full album on vinyl. It spans over three vinyl discs and is packed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve which also holds a download-code.”

  1. A1. Take Me Into Your Skin
  2. A2. Vamp
  3. B1. Evil Dub
  4. B2. Always Something Better
  5. C1. While The Cold Winter Waiting
  6. C2. Nightwalker
  7. D1. Like Two Strangers
  8. D2. The Very Last Resort
  9. E1. Snowflake
  10. E2. Chameleon
  11. F1. Into The Trees – Serenetti Part 3
  12. F2. Moan
  13. F3. Miss You
The original collage film live visuals from the opening track, Take Me Into Your Skin, have just been released and can be seen here.

The Secretariat of Tenebrous Anatomies

Posted on by under Books, Disasterpiece

Secretariat of Tenebrous Anantomies

 

My novella, The Secretariat of Tenebrous Anatomies, is now available for pre-order from Raphus Press in a limited edition. Split into two volumes consisting of a story and a rulebook written by the principal character featured in the first story, the set is additionally accompanied with an A3 poster designed by Bethany White, which also serves as a game board. Alcebiades Diniz Miguel provides a very generous introduction, where he writes: ‘It is a fantastic and puzzling construction, a tribute to the wild imagery intended by authors like Kafka and Mervyn Peake.’

Early orders additionally receive a complimentary  Raphus Press debut pamphlet of The Bestiary series, the first part of which is called  I’ll be your mirror, and you’ll be my mirror by Alcebiades Diniz Miguel.

I'll be your mirror

Publication date for all four parts: 2 limited edition handcrafted books, an A3 poster by Bethany White, and a pamphlet by Alcebiades Diniz Miguel is early July, 2018. All pre-orders placed by May 31st, receive the benefit of reduced shipping. Orders can be placed here

Egaeus Press BOOK OF THE SEA

Posted on by under Books

Konstantinovich.Aivazovsky

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

I: Ligan
Other’s Tears by David Yates
Waiting by Rosalie Parker
The Figurehead of the Cailleach by Stephen J. Clark
In The Hold, It Waits by Tom Johnstone
The Sorrows of Satan’s Book by Karim Ghahwagi

II: Flotsam
The Storm Brood by Colin Fisher
By Severn’s Flood by Jane Jakeman
Breakwater Lodge by Michael R. Colangelo
Dancing Boy by Colin Insole
Below Decks by Jonathan Eeds
The Final Flight of Fidelia by Albert Power

III: Jetsam
Withernsea by Martin Jones
Sailing to Trebizond by Sandra Rennie
The Woman from Malta by George Berguño
From Whence We Came by Jonathan Wood
Some Pages from the Journal of James Morris, Founder, Sable Island Humane Establishment, 1801 by Tim Foley

IV: Derelict
Cut Through with Skeins of Shallow Light by Joseph Dawson
[As yet untitled story] by Charles Schneider
The Lighthouse by Richard Sheppard
The Night They Came by D.F. Lewis
The Woman Who Walked in to the Sea by Steven Pirie

Publication is likely to be May, 2018, though more details will be made available in the weeks to come from Egaeus Press
It is an immense honor.

 

This vast archive of nothingness

Posted on by under Books, Disasterpiece

Just in time to spread some Christmas cheer, and saturate those first winter days of the new year with the blackest of inks and dyes, Wound of Wounds: An Ovation for Emil Cioran, is now available from Mount Abraxas Press.

Inquiries to purchase the book from the publisher can be sent here: exoccidente@gmail.com.  The book will be available from Fantastic Literature in the UK, and Ziesings in the US as soon as they receive their copies. Two deluxe hardback volumes in a beautiful single slipcase, edited by Damian Murphy and D.T. Ghetu with artwork by Louis Soutter and Edvard Munch. With stories:

Misanthropos  Eugene Thacker,
Bach’s Marionettes  Douglas Thompson,
The Aristocracy of Weak Nerves Justin Isis,
This Disquiet Demiurge Alcebiades Diniz Miguel,
He is Heading Your Way Already Rhys Hughes,
The Translator of God’s Silence Thomas Strømsholt,
Saint Severina’s Fire Damian Murphy,
Horrill Hill Karim Ghahwagi,
Dead Engrained Skin Jonathan Wood,
The Funeral Cry Stephan Friedman,
Obsolete Systems, Adam Golaski,
The Genealogy of Night Andrew Condous,
The Infinite Error Jon Padgett,
The Treasons of the Rue de L’Odeon Colin Insole,
Pay No Worship to the Garish Sun D.P. Watt,
The European Monster Part II Adam S. Cantwell,
Writing Instructions Charles Schneider

 

Europa Interview and reading at Bibliophage

Posted on by under Books, Reviews

biblio.image

I am interviewed by author and publisher Alcebiades Diniz Miguel on the Bibliophage website on the origins of Amerika and Europa. To accompany the interview, he has also  created a film with beautiful graphics and with an audio excerpt of our conversation. The interview and the film can be read and seen here at Bibliophage.

Alcebiades Diniz Miguel is the author of the magnificent collection Lanterns Of The Old Night. His fiction has recently appeared in All IS FULL OF HELL a panegyric to William Blake. His imprint Raphus Press, has just published three beautiful chapbooks: Monsters, Black Mirror and The Origins. They will look like this on your living room table as pictured on the bottom tier below, and can be purchased here.

Raphus.web.1000

And Des Lewis has completed his wonderful real time review of Europa.

EUROPA.des.pic

Image by Des Lewis

I was tempted to pull some of his remarkable and eloquent and surprising passages and insights from his reading, but this is one journey into Europa that really has to be experienced in its entirety. You can embark on that journey here.

Mounting Abraxas

Posted on by under Books

Four.books.announcement

It is a great honor and pleasure to announce the release of four new books from Mount Abraxas out in August. The books come with full page illustrations, and with 3 colour text within. Format: 14 inches x 6 inches. Illustrated endpapers, full colour frontispiece page. 

 

Abyssinia

Author: Damian Murphy Art by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal. An original long novella.

Europa

Author: Karim Ghahwagi Art by Denis Forkas.  An original long novella / short novel.

The Ruins of Eden and Other Witcheries

Author: Harold Billings Art by Luciana Nedelea.  A collection of four bleak stories of the occult and the weird folk.

Deeper Flowers Thrive

Author: Oliver Smith Art by Luciana Nedelea.  A collection of four occult sea stories.

Reservations can be made here with the publisher and with Ziesing Books in the US and with Cold Tonnage Books in the UK.

Real-Timing the Dark Fantastic

Posted on by under Books, Reviews

20-Key-face-Surrealism-by-Jeffrey-Michael-Harp

Image by Jeffrey Harp

 

Author, editor and publisher D.F. Lewis has done a wonderful reading of all the stories in ALL IS FULL OF HELL here.

And you can find a link to all his Real-Time Reviews for 2017 here, a veritable living, breathing map of the fantastic fiction that is emerging into the world in these troubled times. Venture deeper, and you will find more than a decade of reviews and ruminations, all writ in an erudite, enjoyable, idiosyncratic style; a treasure that I suspect will become, (and already is), one of the most important and essential chronicles of fantastic literature of the past two decades.

A list of his publications can be found here

All his reviews (39 Volumes so far) have been collected in book form, and are available here