In the tradition of Poe’s 'The Tell-tale Heart', This Way Lies Madness presents fictional interpretations of madness from some of the biggest names in the horror genre – an anthology of dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror. With each contributor giving a unique introduction exploring their inspiration for their bone-chilling tale, This Way Lies Madness will provide a creative benchmark for writers, and challenge mental health stigma, awaken understanding, and offer hope to readers through the lens of horror fiction.
A mix of commissioned authors and stories selected from a hugely popular submissions call, the full list of featured authors in this book is: Alan Baxter, Freddie Bonfanti, Georgina Bruce, Ramsey Campbell, Grace Chan, Ryan Cole, L.E. Daniels, Kayleigh Dobbs, Sean Hogan, Alma Katsu, Amanda Cecelia Lang, Sara Larner, Jonathan Maberry, Marie O’Regan, Cynthia Pelayo, Callum Rowland, Sumiko Saulson, Sayan J. Soselisa, C.D. Vázquez, Emily Ruth Verona, Stephen Volk, Tim Waggoner, and Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Cover artwork and frontispiece by Greg Chapman: dark-designs.com
The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.
Lee Murray is from Aotearoa-New Zealand and is a Shirley Jackson Award and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner with more than forty titles to her credit. Murray holds a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction and is an Honorary Literary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors.
Dave Jeffery is the author of 18 novels, two collections, and numerous short stories. Prior to retirement to write full time, Jeffery worked for 35 years in the NHS, specialising in mental health nursing and risk management. He is the 2023 recipient of the HWA Mentor of the Year Award and current co-chair of the HWA Wellness Committee.
Alan Baxter is a multi-award-winning British-Australian author of horror, supernatural thrillers and dark fantasy liberally mixed with crime, mystery and noir. This Is Horror podcast calls him ‘Australia’s master of literary darkness’ and the Talking Scared podcast dubbed him ‘The Lord of Weird Australia’.
Freddie Bonfanti is a London-based filmmaker and writer with an unyielding curiosity for stories that challenge, unsettle, and provoke. His work often dwells in the borderlands of dark and weird, where familiar worlds twist into disquieting shapes and the human experience is thrust into unsettling new contexts.
Georgina Bruce is a housesitter who also purports to be a writer. Her latest story collection, The House on the Moon, is available from Black Shuck Books. She writes a weekly humorous column on her substack, The Distractionist.
