horror

Join us Saturday, March 23rd at 8 p.m. for the next Shades & Shadows reading event!

After a long, dark, and very wet winter, slumbering beasts are not the only thing waking up. Shades & Shadows is returning with a new lineup of incredible authors from across the genre spectrum.

We are thrilled to have this lineup, featuring:

Justin Robinson splits his time between editing comic books, writing prose, and wondering what that disgusting smell is. Degrees in Anthropology and History prepared him for unemployment, but an obsession with horror fiction and a laundry list of phobias provided a more attractive option. He is the author of more than 10 novels in a variety of genres including detective, humor, urban fantasy, and horror.

Justin is the co-host of Tread Perilously a weekly “worst of television” podcast (featured on Fanbase Press).

Joe R. Lansdale has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as “Batman: The Animated Series.” As of 2018, he has written 45 novels and published 30 short-story collections along with many chapbooks and comic-book adaptations. His stories have won ten Bram Stoker Awards. a British Fantasy Award, an Edgar Award, a World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, a Sugarprize, a Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, a Spur Award, and a Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and several of his novels have been adapted to film, including the cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep. His new novel, The Elephant of Surprise, hit shelves on March 19th. You can find him online at JoeRLansdale.com.

Keith McCleary is a writer and graphic designer from New York, currently living in Southern California. He is the author of several graphic novels, as well as assorted prose, poetry, and digital media. Keith holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC San Diego, and a BFA in Film from NYU. He teaches and writes about comics, composition, and multimedia. His first novel, CIRCUS+THE SKIN, is now available from Kraken Press.

Janet Joyce Holden was born in the North of England, a land of boisterous winds and persistent rain, and currently lives in Southern California where the air is dry, the winds are hot and precipitation is a rare but mostly benevolent gift. She is a writer of dark, supernatural fiction, is the author of Carousel and a number of short stories published in various anthologies. Other activities include photography, mixed media art and dallying with sharp objects: sewing, embroidery, the study of historical European fencing, and the custodianship of twenty or so feisty and decidedly prickly rose shrubs.

Julia Dixon Evans is author of the novel How to Set Yourself on Fire. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, Paper Darts, Pithead Chapel, Fanzine, Flapperhouse, Hobart, San Diego CityBeat, and elsewhere. She is Senior Columns Editor for The Coil (an imprint of Alternating Currents Press), Nonfiction Editor for Noble Gas Qtrly, and hosts the brand new literary reading and workshop series Last Exit. She is the former program director and editor for So Say We All, a literary nonprofit and small press. She lives in San Diego.

Hosted by Xach Fromson

Saturday, March 23rd, 8 p.m.
The Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum
3204 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
Doors open at 8 p.m.

Books will be available for purchase, courtesy of Mysterious Galaxy!

Holy crap, it’s been FIVE YEARS?! It feels like we just started. And in a way, we have. 2018 brought new challenges and new changes to Shades & Shadows, and this event is going to cap off our main Los Angeles events for the year. So we’re going to close out with a BIG BANG. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, or this is your very first time coming to one of our events, you’ll be in for a spectacular treat as we give you a phenomenal lineup of authors.

And, if you’ve been to an anniversary show before, you know there is one other thing to expect: CAKE.

We’ve got more than just cake, though. This lineup is out of this world. No, really, not a single thing takes place in a world you’d recognize.

Bree Barton is a novelist, ghostwriter, and dance teacher in Los Angeles. Heart of Thorns is her debut YA trilogy.

Maura Milan is a short, Filipino girl from Chicago, IL. Now, she resides in Los Angeles, where she can be found in cafes all throughout Koreatown, drinking green tea lattes and writing and writing and writing. In her free time, Maura enjoys watching Korean soap operas and eating rice krispie treats.

Maura received a BA from USC’s School of Cinema-Television and has placed a number of short films in festivals all over the United States. Her most notable and favorite short film, “Crocodile,” is based on her days running around the Australian outback during her summer vacations visiting the Aussie side of her family.

To this day, Gilbert Blythe is her ultimate boy crush.

Steven Barnes is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning novelist and screenwriter who is the creator of the Lifewriting™ writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He recently won an NAACP Image Award as co-author of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with actor Blair Underwood and his wife, Tananarive Due.

Nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace awards, writer of the Emmy-winning “A Stitch In Time” episode of The Outer Limits, winner of the Endeavor and the NAACP Image Awards, NY Times Bestselling author, Steven has written comic books, animation, newspaper copy, magazine articles, television scripts and three million words of published fiction published in seven languages, making him one of the world’s most honored, diverse and popular writers.

Once a nationally ranked karate competitor, he now makes his home in Southern California with his wife, American Book Award winner Tananarive Due, and his son, Jason.

Maria Alexander is a produced screenwriter, games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, interactive theatre designer, prolific fiction writer and poet. Since 1999, her stories have appeared in acclaimed publications and anthologies.

Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Publisher’s Weekly called it, “(a) splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood,” while Library Journal hailed it in a Starred Review as “a horror novel to anticipate.” Her breakout YA novel, Snowed, was unleashed on November 2, 2016, by Raw Dog Screaming Press. It won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel and was nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Children’s/YA Novel. She’s represented by Alex Slater at Trident Media Group.

When she’s not stabbing someone with a foil or cutting targets with a katana, she’s being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a Jewish Christmas caroler, and a purse called Trog.

Jeff Sweat has made a living from words his entire career, starting out as an award-winning tech journalist for InformationWeek magazine and moving into marketing.

He led the content marketing team for Yahoo and pioneered its use of social media. He directed PR for two of the top advertising agencies in the country, Deutsch LA and 72andSunny. He now runs his own Los Angeles–based PR and marketing agency, Mister Sweat.

He grew up in Idaho as the middle of eight children—seven boys and one girl—and attended Columbia University in New York. Jeff lives in a big blue house in Los Angeles with his wife Sunny and their three kids, two cats, and a racing greyhound.

He loves to travel and writes everywhere he goes, even when there’s not a desk. He likes karaoke, motorcycles and carpentry. He was once shot in the head with a nail gun, which was not a big of a deal as it sounds. But it still hurt like crazy.

Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum

3204 W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505

$10 tickets available at the door and online.

Expansion Show: Seattle on June 30th!

Posted by admin on June 19, 2018

Posted in: Shows. Tagged: Aaron Besson, Annette Fuller, author events, Crystal Connor, dark fantasy, fantasy, genre fiction, horror, Jesse Bullington, literature, live readings, nerd events, nerd shit, nerds, sci-fi, seattle, seattle literary scene, special shows, TImothy Long, Tyrell Johnson, wolves of winter, zombies.

The only year-round literary event in Los Angeles for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror fans is coming to Seattle!

For five years, Shades & Shadows has been putting on live reading events featuring a mixture of authors from across the genre fiction spectrum. Now we’re taking our show on the road, and our first show is at the University Bookstore!

Just because it’s summer time doesn’t mean you can’t get a chill sent down your spine. This is going to be unlike any reading event you’ve been to. Shades & Shadows lives our motto: It’s literature, but with monsters.

FEATURING:

Tyrell Johnson received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside where he studied fiction and poetry. He’s passionate about the outdoors, and can often be found on the mountain with his Siberian Husky, or on his mother-in-law’s ranch feeding her horses and a donkey named Jim. Originally from Bellingham Washington, he now lives in Kelowna, BC, with his family. The Wolves of Winter is his debut novel.

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Jesse Bullington is the author of three weird historical novels: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World. Under the pen name Alex Marshall he recently completed the Crimson Empire trilogy; the first book, A Crown for Cold Silver, was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

He’s also the editor of the Shirley Jackson Award nominated Letters to Lovecraft, and co-editor (with Molly Tanzer) of Swords v. Cthulhu. His short fiction, reviews, and articles have appeared in such diverse publications as the LA Review of Books, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 13, and VICE. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Timothy Long spent time in the US Navy, worked for a major game corporation, an aeronautics company, and was in the IT field for 15 years as an engineer before becoming a full-time author.

He is an active member of Horror Writers Association, SFWA, and International Thriller Writers.

Tim resides outside of Seattle where he spends time with his partner in crime, author and publisher Katie Cord, as well as 2 children, 2 dogs of various sizes and dispositions, and a near constant supply of overpriced and overcooked coffee beans.

Crystal Connor is a Washington State native who loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys, rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high-heeled shoes & unreasonably priced handbags. She is also the founder of CrystalCon, a symposium that brings both Science Fiction & Fantasy writers and STEM professions together to mix and mingle with fans, educators, and inventors in attempts to answer a new take on an age-old question … which came first, the science or the fiction? When she’s not terrorizing readers she reviews indie horror and science fiction films for both her personal blog and www.HorrorAddicts.net

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Annette Fuller writes YA under the pen name Anna Imber. She holds an MFA from UC Riverside’s Palm Desert, Low-Residency program. Speculative fiction is her first love, and you’ll often find her writing about what good people do when bad things happen to them. Too many of her stories have dogs in them, because she really, really wants a dog of her own.

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Aaron Besson is a writer of horror and weird fiction currently residing in Seattle,WA with a lovely woman and three horrible cats.

His other interests include reading a lot and dark ambient music.

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And hosted by Xach Fromson

Saturday, June 30th, 4 p.m.
The University Bookstore

4326 University Way, N.E.

Seattle, Washington 98105

Oh, and just to make sure you know: It’s free. But the bookstore will have the authors’ books on hand, so maybe be prepared to buy those.

Episode 12!

Posted by admin on June 26, 2017

Posted in: Podcasts. Tagged: Ben Loory, Carlos Allende, creepy l.a., dark literature, horror, l.a. literature, Lauren Candia, literature, los angeles horror, los angeles reading series, los angeles sci-fi, reading series, Shades & Shadows, Shades and Shadows, Steph Cha, stories, storytelling, Xach Fromson.

Getting ever closer to the present. Now we’re in March of 2016. This episode features Steph Cha, Carlos Allende, and Ben Loory, and was recorded live at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

(NOTE: If you aren’t seeing the links to buy the books, turn off AdBlock or white list our website.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

(You’re free to download it, play it, share it, etc. so long as you leave it whole and don’t charge anybody for it.)

It’s here! Our special event held on April 28th, 2017 at the Horror Writers Association’s Stoker Con! Featuring Barbara Barnett, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due, Elizabeth Hand, Chuck Wendig, and Jonathan Maberry! This episode is presented uncut and in its entirety. It being at a horror writers’ convention, there is some (lots of) adult language and content. Listen at your own peril.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

(You’re free to download it, play it, share it, etc. so long as you leave it whole and don’t charge anybody for it.)

July 16th 2016 Show!

Posted by admin on June 30, 2016

Posted in: Shows. Tagged: author events, dark literature, david d. levine, fantasy, glen hirshbirg, horror, l.a. lit scene, l.a. literature, Lauren Candia, live readings, paul tremblay, sara gran, sci-fi, Shades & Shadows, Shades and Shadows, stephen graham jones, vesta vaingloria, Xach Fromson.

It’s summer. Everything is on fire, melting, or exploding. Everybody is one power outage away from convincing themselves we’ve entered the world of Mad Max.

Which, hey, isn’t far off from what we’re offering. Leave reality behind for a while. Come see what we have on tap as we bring in our mix of award winning authors and emerging voices in the literary scene! It’s a genre experience like no other!

Featuring:

Paul Tremblay is the author of DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK and the award-winning A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, both published by William Morrow. His other novels include THE LITTLE SLEEP, NO SLEEP TILL WONDERLAND, and the YA novel FLOATING BOY AND THE GIRL WHO COULDN’T FLY (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones).

He is the author of the short story collections COMPOSITIONS FOR THE YOUNG AND OLD and IN THE MEAN TIME. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and numerous year’s best anthologies. He is the co-editor of four anthologies and is a member of the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, has a master’s degree in Mathematics, has no uvula, and once drove around the town of Burlington with Glen Hirshberg in his trunk. True story. You can find him online at www.paultremblay.net.

Stephen Graham Jones is the author of sixteen novels, six story collections, and more than 250 stories. His current book is the werewolf novel Mongrels (William Morrow). Stephen’s been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Fiction, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Award for Fiction, the Independent Publishers Awards for Multicultural Fiction, three This is Horror awards, and he’s made Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Novels of the Year. Stephen teaches in the MFA programs at University of Colorado at Boulder and University of California Riverside-Palm Desert. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, two children, and too many old trucks. @SGJ72 / demontheory.net”

Vesta Vaingloria is a Los Angeles native whose writing work concerns the subjects of gender, sexuality, aesthetics, deviance, and the confusing condition of being a human person. She earned her MFA in writing from CalArts in 2014, and shortly thereafter, founded Wilde Words, a monthly Oscar Wilde themed reading series. Her work has been published in literary journals Writing for a Real World, The Truth About the Fact, and Next Words Anthology, as well as by Which Witch Press and The Poetry Society of New York. She is also a performance artist and member of the New York based Poetry Brothel, with whom she has just performed for four days and nights at the Electric Forest festival in Michigan.

DDLevine-Portrait-Med

David D. Levine is the author of novel Arabella of Mars(Tor 2016) and over fifty SF and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic. You can find him on Twitter as @daviddlevine and his website is daviddlevine.com

Glen Hirshberg: Good Girls, the sequel to Glen Hirshberg’s 2012 novel, Motherless Child, has just been published by Tor. Glen is also the author of two previous novels (The Snowman’s Children and The Book of Bunk) and three story collections (The Two Sams, American Morons, and The Janus Tree). He is a three-time International Horror Guild Award winner, five-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and has also won the Shirley Jackson Award. Glen writes, teaches, and lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, son, daughter, and cats. Visit him online at www.glenhirshberg.com, and follow him on Twitter (@GlenHirshberg).

Sara Gran is the author of five novels.

Hosted by Xach Fromson and Lauren Candia!

Books will be sold on site courtesy of Skylight Books!

Doors at 7:30 p.m.

Readings begin at 8:00 p.m.

The Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum

3204 W Magnolia Blvd

Burbank, CA 91505

April Fundraiser

Posted by admin on April 1, 2015

Posted in: News. Tagged: dark fiction, fantasy, fundraising, horror, l.a. lit events, l.a. lit scene, l.a. lit series, l.a. reading series, literacy nonprofit, nonprofit, sci-fi, Shades & Shadows, Shades and Shadows.

As you no doubt noticed, our home page is a big ass plea for funding.

No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. This is real. The plea is real, and the benefits are real.

Shades & Shadows, Inc. is currently a Public Benefit Corporation, which means we have to demonstrate actions we have taken in the public good. With every show we put on, one of our aims is to help keep up the appeal of reading, namely by reminding people that reading can be fun, and can have monsters, aliens, murderers, spaceships, and everything else in our imaginations. But we want to take it one step further. We want Shades & Shadows to have nonprofit protections so that every single cent we put in gets turned back around as more cool stuff for you, and for people like you.

So, what do you get out of it? Well, for starters, a book! Donate in any amount of $10 or more, and we’ll send you something amazing: A portal into worlds you haven’t yet imagined, full of endless wonder. But past that, there are tons of things you could see once we have our nonprofit status. We could start doing shows at college campuses, or in partnership with other nonprofits. We could apply for grants that would let us bring out big name authors from across the globe to lend their support to a debuting author who would get a huge boost in visibility. We could have a presence at conventions, promoting the value of reading the books before they become movies or HBO series. The list goes on. All of it, every single bit, can only happen with your help.

So please, contribute out in any amount. Nothing goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

April Fundraiser!

Winter may have forgotten to visit, but Shades & Shadows will be here. While our friends on the East Coast will still be digging themselves out of mile-deep snow banks, we’re bringing you a delightful mix of prose and poetry from six amazing authors who will give you the chills you so desperately longed for.

Come out and enjoy the only literary show in L.A. that brings together science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things weird! This month, we are featuring:

Leslie Ann Moore is an award-winning science fiction/fantasy author and international speaker who serves as Vice President of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society, the largest writers’ group in Southern California. She recently appeared as a panelist at the 72nd Annual World Science Fiction Convention–home to the celebrated Hugo Awards– in London, U.K. In 2008, her debut fantasy novel Griffin’s Daughter won the prestigious IBPA Ben Franklin Award for Best First Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Literary Landscapes, the official magazine of G.L.A.W.S, and have been produced on the ClonePod sci-fi/fantasy podcast. In 2011, her short story Invisible won Honorary Mention in the Writers of the Future contest. A practicing veterinarian since 1988, in her spare time, she studies the ancient and beautiful art of belly dance. www.leslieannmoore.com

Tiffany Tang is a writer, actor and sci-fi geek. While her academic and creative pursuits have found her in Massachusetts, England and New York City, she currently resides in her hometown of San Diego, California. She is a contributor to the San Diego Union-Tribune Arts Section and a writer for Intrepid Shakespeare Company. ‘Creepy Little Death Poems’ is her first book and promises to be the most uplifting. www.tiffanyanntang.com.

Christopher Allan Poe is an author and touring musician from Los Angeles. He writes paranormal fiction with an emphasis on themes that shed light on social problems for women and children. A member of the International Thriller Writers and MWA, he travels the country speaking about the craft of writing to aspiring authors.

Tracy L. Carbone writes novels and short stories in the horror and suspense genres. To date, she has published five novels (including one co-written with F. Paul Wilson) and one collection of her dark stories and cautionary tales. Dozens of her other short stories have appeared in print in various anthologies and magazines throughout the U.S. and Canada. A lifelong New England resident, she has recently relocated to Southern California. She is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. Her most recent novel, My Name is Marnie, a ghost mystery tale was released in late 2014. Please visit her website to keep up to date on her appearances and upcoming titles at www.tracylcarbone.com

Robert Payne Cabeen is a screenwriter, artist, and purveyor of narrative horror poetry. His latest book, Fearworms: Selected Poems, was published by Fanboy Comics and is a 2014 Bram Stoker Award nominee. Cabeen’s 1994 illustrated horror book, Tainted Treats, also included some of his short fiction. His screenwriting credits include Heavy Metal 2000 for Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures, A Monkey’s Tale, and Walking with Buddha. As creative director for Streamline Pictures, Cabeen helped anime pioneer Carl Macek bring Japanese animated features, like Akira, Robot Carnival, Lupin, and dozens of other classics, to the western market. Cabeen received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Otis Art Institute, with a dual major in painting and design. Since then, he has combined his interests in the visual arts with screenwriting and story editing for a broad range of entertainment companies including Warner Brothers, Columbia/TriStar, Disney, Sony, Universal, USA Network, Nelvana, and SEGA. http://robertpaynecabeen.com/

Del Howison is a Bram Stoker Award winning editor and author. He has also been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill award. His next book due out from Tor in July is “Midian Unmade” which he co-edited with Joseph Nassise and Clive Barker. Along with his wife, Sue, he co-owns Dark Delicacies in Burbank, CA known as “The Home of Horror.”

Hosted by Lauren Candia and Xach Fromson

Books will be sold at the event.

Lyric Hyperion Theatre & Cafe
Doors at 7:30
Show at 8:00 p.m. SHARP

Buy your tickets online HERE!

Already coming? RSVP on Facebook here.

Tickets are limited, so be sure to get yours early. You may not be able to buy them at the door!