Hurricane Irene is thwomping like a mario character all over the eastern seaboard and our very own Pat Dreadful is battling it out with this beast, so please send him some good vibes! Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear is tearing up downtown Toronto, Colum’s back is killing from hauling all of the free swag he managed to score over Thursday and Friday at the event, and Meli is overcome with envy as she quietly soaks in the last rays of a great Midwest summer. In the coming week you’ll have chances to grab a great deal of goodies from us, but for now we’re just going to throw an update at ya.

Monday saw Colum throwing down another review from a self-pubbed bit of new flesh, Miranda Doerfler. This writer has a great talent, and we here at Dreadful Tales are excited to be bringing it to you. Her third published work – From Blood and Brain, was reviewed here. With a piece reminiscent of Dreadful favorites Brian Keene and Richard Laymon, and “a heavy nod to Kane Hodder,” you don’t want to miss From Blood and Brain!

Pat came staggering out of the gates, alive with a sense of wonder and amazement, with a review of Midnight Rain by James Newman. Coming of Age stories are one of Pat’s specialties, find out how this one renewed his faith in the subgenre.

As an added bit of awesome news, Pat updated us on the creation and awarding of the first ever Horrorfind Literary Award. The recipient of this award is Brian Keene, and we couldn’t agree more with Horrorfind’s decision. Keene has a massive library and a great fan following that continues to grow. Showing no signs of slowing down, Keene has certainly earned this award! Check out that post here.

Speaking of which, Pat’s going to be representing Dreadful Tales at the Horrofind Weekend, so make sure you get in touch with him. He’s the guy with the beard and the black t-shirt. Shouldn’t be too hard to spot him in a crowd of horror writers…

Wednesday saw a review of Mary SanGiovanni’s For Emmy – the brutally heavy, emotional, yet completely engrossing new novella from Thunderstorm books. You can check out what Colum calls “…quite possibly one of the heaviest stories I’ve read all year” here.

Anyone who knows Pat knows that he’s a big huge McCammon fan. It goes without saying that his review of Mine is a glowing remembrance of a book he absolutely loved. Hell, anyone could tell that by Pat’s closing words in his review – “If you are looking for a wonderful page-turner with some truly horrific elements sprinkled in with non-stop action, then Mine may just be the book for you!”

Next up, Colum reminded you that the Festival of Fear was gearing up again, where to find him online, and threw down with a wicked chance to win some cool stuff. All you have to do is look at the guest list and throw out a name, and you win two signed and numbered pieces of awesome. Get out there and check out the guest list, and the post! Will you be “Chosen” to win? (If that wasn’t an easy enough clue, I don’t know what is!)

Colum’s got more stuff to throw your way, but we want to see how sharp y’all are, first. Get “Kraken” on the above mentioned contest!

HEY! Speaking of the Kraken… did you take a look at our new bookmarks? If not, head on over to the Dreadful Tales Facebook page and take a gander. While you’re there, you can check out all of the badass stuff Colum got signed, and picked up at this year’s festival! He’s going to be putting up pictures all weekend long, so go take a look.

Rounding out the weekend, Meli dipped in for round two of her Bit By Bloody Bit feature. This week she’s tackled chapter two in Stephen King’s IT, and wants to hear what you have to say. Contact us in the comments, or at dreadfultales@gmail.com and give us your feedback.

That’s it from us this week. Keep an eye out for some badassery in the future. There’s still 1 more day of the Festival of Fear, and Colum’s bringing the whole fam-dam-ily out for it. He promises tons of pictures, and a whole slew of exciting content over the course of the week.

Also, keep an eye out for a review of a chapbook that shook Colum to the core. We all know how hardcore that guy is (psshhhh), and if this book took him by surprise, imagine what it’s going to do to the casual horror fan? He promises that you will not want to miss this, and may just have a signed copy or two to hand out to the curious.

Wanna have a chance to win some free books?

Sure you do!  There are three ways to win.

1) Sign up for the Dreadful Tales Newsletter by shooting an email over to dreadfultales@gmail.com with NEWSLETTER (in all caps) in the subject line. It’s that easy! Every month we’ll send you a shiny .PDF newsletter letting you know all the goings on in the world of DT. A monthly chance to win special prizes will be offered to those who subscribe.

2) Follow us on Twitter (@DreadfulTales)

3) “Like” us on Facebook

Have a great weekend and thanks for the continued support of Dreadful Tales!

Meli and Colum