Love and Darker Passions is a collection of provocative short stories by today’s up-and-coming authors of dark, urban and Gothic fantasy. One man falls in love with an ancient monster, another becomes enchanted by a voice that drives him to a frenzy of self-punishment, and another can’t understand three very odd days he’s spending with his girlfriend. Award-winning author Karen Duvall sends a Millennial Alice through a very different looking glass, and acclaimed author Lee Barwood sends the Sighted bard of her upcoming series into the passionate world of faerie to find a child and a special destiny. Bestseller C.E. Murphy makes her twisted fairytale tell what drives a lover into the arms of her questionable beloved, and Tenea D. Johnson works a soul-stealing spell of magic. In Love and Darker Passions, edgy and cult fantasy authors combine their talents to make us question what inspires love, why we crave revenge against those who’ve stolen love from us, and why we despair when love’s pain is lost.

R/evolution (Book One), a novel-in-stories, will be released in ebook and print this Fall.

Want some public sex and magic in your life? Check out Release in A minor appearing in Tangle XY from Blind Eye Books. Available now.

From the Blind Eye Books site:

11 stories of magic, mystery and the fantastic future, all featuring gay heroes. Swordsmen, cyborgs, magicians, ghosts, psychic lovers and enchanted lords fill this anthology with adventure, laughter and passion.

An excerpt from “Release in A minor”:

“Just tell me what you see.”

For a second more, his back remained tense. He turned to his lover, craning his neck to come eye-to-eye. “I saw magic.” He paused, waiting for reproach. Only the cicadas answered.

“Balls of fire in the sky, over there,” Tony said, pointing off to the left, “and there.”

Clyde rested his chin on Tony’s shoulder and looked up into his eyes, a smile playing at his lips.

“Ball lightning.” His voice was soft, satiated. “No one knows what causes it.”

“You’ve seen it before?” Tony asked, wonder calming his tone.

“Every time, mon cher,” Le Appeleurf replied. “Every time.”

View Tenea’s author page at Blind Eye Books.

The Taken, a short story, is now available as part of Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III collection.

African-American horror writer and editor Massey has another slam dunk with his third Dark Dreams anthology (after 2006′s Voices from the Other Side). Outstanding stories by returning contributors include Tananarive Due’s Summer, exploring a toddler’s eerie possession; Robert Fleming’s The Wasp, a heartbreaking portrait of an abused wife; Chesya Burke’s My Sister’s Keeper, examining a sister’s terrifying choice; and the best of the bunch, Terence Taylor’s brilliant discussion of racism, friendship and Hurricane Katrina in WET PAIN. Bright newcomers’ tales include Lexi Davis’s hilarious cautionary tale about bad brothas, Are You My Daddy?; Randy Walker’s obsessive-compulsive To Get Bread and Butter; and Tenea Johnson’s provocative meditation on revenge, The Taken. In Massey’s introduction, he hopes someday any black writer can pen a tale of horror and suspense… without being likened to being merely a black version of a white author, without being viewed with suspicion or even fear. In the meantime, this excellent series continues to fill a now shrinking void. (July)

- Publisher’s Weekly

Deep Night, a short story, is available as part of the award-winning anthology Necrologue: Diva Book of the Dead and Undead.

From the Amazon.com:

The first themed collection from Diva Books ranges from death on the bus to sex in the graveyard, via self-cannibalism and mind-reading, ghosties and Ouija, vampires and ashes. Appealing to a literary readership as well as horror fans, Necrologue builds on the success of the first two Diva collections by interpreting the themes of mortality, the occult and the unknowable in broad and surprising ways.

“Helen Sandler has outdone herself with a wonderful mix of short stories by British, American, and Canadian lesbian authors.”
— Gay City News

“Plenty of good stuff.”
— Guardian

“An impressive cast list.”
— Time Out

“Proof that new lesbian fiction is alive and kicking . . . A real accomplishment.”
— Rainbow Network