Enter the dark, mycelia-laden world of mushroom horror:
• A food blogger hunts for a killer recipe.
• Ceaseless rain drives a lonely man into his fungus-covered town.
• A grieving son purchases a kit to regrow his dead mother.
This anthology explores the mysterious world of fungi, spores…and things that dwell in the dim forest under the rotting leaves. Here you’ll find 31 stories and 5 poems of quiet, cosmic, and body horror—plus subtle humor. Works examine themes of loneliness, desire, consumption, and connection with what lurks in the shadows.
Edited by Carol Gyzander and Rachel A. Brune, Dark Spores is the fourth volume in the Stories We Tell After Midnight horror series. Devour these stories—before they devour you!
Featuring works by Meghan Arcuri, Rachel A. Brune, Samantha Bryant, R. E. Carr, James Chambers, Rick Claypool, Randee Dawn, Teel James Glenn, Maxwell Ian Gold, Timothy Granville, Rob Grimoire, Carol Gyzander, John G. Hartness, Pedro Iniguez, Jo Kaplan, Nicholas Kaufmann, Ariana Khaim, Gwendolyn Kiste, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Jamie Lackey, Gordon Linzner, M. Lopes da Silva, Lee Murray, Victoria Nations, Candace Nola, Gregory Norris, Tonia Ransom, Daniel Roop, Jef Rouner, Rebecca Rowland, Sumiko Saulson, Shannon Scott, Angela Yuriko Smith, Sara Tantlinger, Elizabeth Twist, and L. Marie Wood.
With a special foreword by Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters: A Novel.
Cover: Lynne Hansen
Contents:
Mushrooms in Our Blood: Foreword by Clay McLeod Chapman
Swamp Fever by Jamie Lackey
The Epigeous Dead by James Chambers
Appetizers A Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter Short Story by John G. Hartness
Flesh, Fungi & Farewell by Gwendolyn Kiste
Dead and Forgotten in Manhattanville by Nicholas Kaufmann
Ballerinas of the Earth by Sara Tantlinger
The Fourth Girl by Meghan Arcuri
In the Dark by Teel James Glenn
Lichenthropy by Gregory L. Norris
Real Science Shit by L. Marie Wood
The Parasitium by M. Lopes da Silva
Point Zero by Lee Murray
Butterfly Hisses by Tonia Ransom
The Cycle of Consumption by Rebecca Rowland
Fruiting Bodies by Victoria Nations
Devilish Deeds by Candace Nola
Fun Gus by Pedro Íñiguez
Notho-Pan: A City on Angel Wings by Maxwell I. Gold
A Dark Infestation by Ariana Khaim
Wold by Jef Rouner
A Dark Spore Grows in the Rot by Rachel A. Brune
Of Teeth and Mushrooms by Nicole Givens Kurtz
The Mushroom Child by Samantha J. Bryant
The Greenhouse by Carol Gyzander
The Must of Your Body Covers Me by Sumiko Saulson
The Angels of Scruggs County by Daniel Roop
Tender Flesh by Elizabeth Twist
Cordyceps Angelus by Rob Grimoire
Buttons by R.E. Carr
Sporadikos, or Why We Don't Date Mushrooms by Angela Yuriko Smith
An Indisposition by Timothy Granville
Foraging by Shannon Scott
New Mom Grow Kit: Two Stars by Rick Claypool
New Life by Gordon Linzner
An Unwanted Growth by Jo Kaplan
Pretty Maids All in a Row by Randee Dawn
