ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING (under the Rough House Pulp™ novel imprint) launches their newest title….BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things!
BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things™ is the second literary Rough House slab of creator-owned nightmare fuel, and the first to collaborate the fantastical writings of novelist, STEVE VAN SAMSON (Mark of the Witchwyrm, The Bone Eater King) with the horror laden art of DEREK ROOK (Gore Shriek, Gates of Hell) to produce one bloody/sweet collection of “horrific short stuff” to help keep that Halloween vibe going well past its expiration date!
For this latest release, ROUGH HOUSE has returned to its horror roots, …and those roots are firmly woven down into the cold bitter end with eleven stories of Monsters, Malice, Murder, Madness and did we say Monsters? Yes, …lots and LOTS of (different types of) MONSTERS!
BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things™, is available in Standard, Premium and Ultimate Editions satiating the bitter tastes of the casual reader, all the way to the ultimate collector of pulp media!
As with all of ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING’s honeycomb of “tangible awesome”, BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things™ is available in a variety of formats to suit any budget, with more Limited Edition collectable extras than the number of stingers on Jonny Knoxville’s scrotum after humping a hornets nest.
CATCHING AN EVENING BUZZ!
Here is the rundown of all you have to choose from when you order these oddities:
That’s right kids, lock up your beekeeper, because these softcover and hardcover editions will scare you harder than a 1980’s Special News report about Africanized Killer Bees flying all the way to Ozark, Missouri just to pop a deadly stinger right in your bitch-ass mouth!
With a title such as BLACK HONEY, and the imagery that accompanies it, one might assume that this was some pulpy blacksploitation shlockfest about an insectistisized madame seeking sweet revenge by sticking it to the MAN, one venomous barb at a time! Although such a theme is far from above the Rough House brow, … acclaimed writer STEVE VAN SAMSON is instead delivering a bounty much more ambitious than just ONE single tale of woe, but rather multiple stories that exploit horror from all corners of the globe, with evil beyond all of its many manifests! The story “BLACK HONEY” being but one, and sets the hellish tone for what’s to come!
Says VAN SAMSON of this new TERRORific night table companion:
“The nightmares in this collection were written in between my novels over a span of just about five years. Some have been published in previous anthologies, others have never before seen the light of day. Lurking within BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things are eleven diverse horror tales. Stories of monsters and madness that will whisk the reader from a cursed village in old Massachusetts to an arcade in the 1980s and even to the plains of a post-apocalyptic Africa. These accounts are sometimes sweet, often unsavory and, if I’ve done my job correctly, are going to leave a sting.”
THE BEES KNEES (on the road to black honey)
CEO and Rough Master General, DEREK ROOK while soliloquizing of the onset of this project shared this piece of BLACK HONEY history: “It was Winter of 2021. We were just about a year into the lockdowns and restrictions brought on by the dreaded pandemic, …the same pandemic that brought forth our newest (at that time) release, MARK OF THE WITCHWYRM™. It was our “Fuck you” in the face of the great reset and it showed our fans that we weren’t afraid to take chances, be ambitious and make something creative and special even if only out of spite.
Perhaps ironically, although filled with monsters and intrigue, Witchwyrm also contained a strong message about honor and hope, something that was on back-order at that time, much like the mothballed supply chains across America.”
“It was around then that Steve pitched me the idea of a collection of his short horror stories, …some previously released through other publishers, and others that were in various stages of completion in his brain. At the time he was calling it DEAD ENDINGS: Tales of Monsters, Madness and of the Cold Bitter End (talk about a mouthful of words a’la negative.)
I wasn’t immediately receptive to it, mostly due to the fact that we already had a comic book property (Gore Shriek Resurrectus) that was essentially an anthology horror as well. But while we were driving up the icy back roads of Cumberland, RI, Steve started telling me about one of the stories …“Black Honey”, and about the Grendel Hive - this image of a woman who was essentially a human surrogate hive hybrid to these mutated bee-like creatures. Her hair was described as dripping and tar-like with these images of trypophobia inducing honeycomb holes encrusting and infused with what’ left of her skin. I was riveted. I couldn’t get the image of her out of my head.”
“As time went on, it became more apparent that this was not an anthology, but much more of a collection….a horrific memoir of oddities past and present with no real connective tissue. Coupled with the idea that Steve and I could work directly on this project with no outside collaborators really cemented the idea. This was after all, the main reason we began this partnership – to marry the art forms of writing and physical illustration into a much more immersive reading experience. I’ve always used Stephen King’s novella, Cycle of the Werewolf as the template for how a Rough House book should look and feel, while adding all the extras that have made our books unique and special to our audience. “
“Fast forward to Spring of 2022. We changed the title to the more ambiguous and palpable, BLACK HONEY, …then we went back to work.”
“This time around, we wanted to present a more straight-forward approach to our marketing campaign while keeping what makes our product special to the Limited Edition collector amongst our brethren.”
Rook continued, “While we’re always looking for fun new ways to present our products onto the unsuspecting public, we wanted this project to be slightly more organic and intimate for the roughians who have stuck with us going all the way back to the beginning.
We sent out a bunch of advanced reader copies to our peers in the biz and allowed BLACK HONEY to be reviewed on its own merits, good or otherwise. The results of that exercise were staggeringly positive. Read them for yourselves!”
“I just finished reading BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things. Steve Van Samson’s collection is both wildly satisfying and perfectly balanced in its diversity of narrative styles and settings. Every story is a lovingly-crafted nightmare waiting to be discovered. I’m greatly looking forward to seeing this young author’s career take off in epic proportions.”
— Peter N. Dudar, author of The Goat Parade
"This is a masterful collection of horrors and you absolutely need this book in your life! Keep your guard up when reading—the contents inside this collection will leave you right where horror means to take you."
— Ashley Greathouse. author of Lily and Hen House
“The stories in this incomparable collection comprise a crash-course into the immense talents of its author, about whom I should expect to hear much in the coming years. Van Samson is a tremendous writer and Black Honey is one of the finest selections of weird and horror fiction I have ever had the pleasure to read.”
— Ed Kurtz, author of The Rib from Which I Remake the World and the Boon trilogy
"BLACK HONEY is one of those collections that offers pieces of everything we love about horror. There are shades of King and Barker in here, but Van Samson also takes us to the dark shadows of Victorian England, to post-apocalyptic madness, and to quiet horror of one's own back yard, with his own fresh twist. “No God But Hunger” and “Letter To Evelene” were my personal favorites, but every story brings something to the table. Top notch!"
— Morgan Sylvia, author of Abode
…TELL ME WHATSA’ HAPPENIN!
The stories presented in BLACK HONEY and Other Unsavory Things read like the back cover of a British heavy metal album! In keeping with VAN SAMSON’S penchant for diversity in location, culture, setting, tone and feel permeates in this body of work and the darkness that lies therein. Take a sneak peek at the synopses below:
A period piece following a young couple as they cross western Massachusetts by stagecoach. While Stewart sleeps, Missy notices an ominous buzzing sound in the distance and becomes obsessed with finding its source. Soon they will both learn that some secrets are better left undiscovered.
A PREDATOR WORLD story, starring the woman in the elephant mask. As Rè and her partner Nico stalk a leopard across the moonlit Serengeti, there is something much worse stalking them.
An unfortunate tale of gardening gone awry, proving that even the most mundane tasks can lead to obsession and eventually, madness. This one really gets under your skin.
Marcus Wade has just been through a nasty breakup. Now, all he wants is to rekindle his old love of running and be alone. Just him and the mountain trails, the open wilderness …and the voice?
The specimen was installed in a quiet lake, somewhere in Missouri. It was supposed to get itself spotted by some locals, get its picture in the papers and hopefully kickstart the tourist trade. Unfortunately, the creature had other plans.
Tino has had a rough couple of months and to top it off, Gavin Labeck and his crew are currently chasing him on their bikes with murder in their eyes. The mountain road is narrow and dangerous and Tino is peddling for his very life. Worst of all, he’s fresh out of friends.
Working a lame job in a dead end town has set Bert in something of a downward spiral. All he really has are some impressive high scores on the hardest game at the arcade, ZANDAXARR. If only he could get that creepy guy in the red hoodie to leave for the night so he can work on beating that high score.
In the dark, John Covington contemplates days long past from the confines of a wheeled chair he has occupied for decades. Though an old contract is nearly due, he wonders if a bargain might be reached with the devilish debt collector. If so, perhaps there is a chance for one last adventure.
On the run, Roman stumbles upon an old house in the woods. At first, he’s just happy to be indoors but before long, a mystery begins to reveal itself. At its center is a strange boy who appears in the yard–always at night and alone. Over and over, he calls out to the malevolent dark, a single repeated question. Who looks for you?
Just like the nursery rhyme says… off the coast of Barrowbrine, lies something that was once a woman. A sad young mother called Molly Maeve who gave herself to the ocean long ago. Now, all know to keep their young ones far away from the shore, lest Molly try to replace what the waves once stole from her.
Beckett can hardly believe his luck. After wanting to go night fishing for so long, his mother has finally decided to take him and Katie to do just that, even as the night itself keeps a cruel secret.
BLACK HONEY and OTHER UNSAVORY THINGS, available in Three Limited Edition tiers and promises to attract unsavory insects if left out in the dark…
…and guarantees to kick you right in the hive!