Spanning a career of over twenty years, the 16 tales in Stephen Mark Rainey's Other Gods depict an alluring yet macabre world, rendered by one of the horror genre's most vivid imaginations. With settings ranging from the remote backwoods of Virginia to the urban wilderness of Chicago, the veneer of Rainey's world appears familiar, even comforting; yet, beneath its surface, ancient, malignant power lurk, ready to spring forth and destroy any who discover them--whether intentionally or inadvertently. Laced with humor and recounted by a captivating voice, the tales in Other Gods wait for you with open arms--but beware, for they are also laden with darkness. And in that darkness, danger waits. "Stephen Mark Rainey is a master at grounding horror and terror in a time and place. His stories are effective because he understands character, as well as the motivations of both his people and his monsters. And, in a field often tinged with cynicism, Rainey shows us that monsters can also be fun. One of our best contemporary storytellers." -Scott Nicholson, Author of They Hunger
The writer is not the infamous Stephen King antihero Mort Rainey, but the far more nefarious author of the novels Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie, HarperCollins, 1999), Balak (Wildside Books, 2000), The Lebo Coven (Thomson Gale/Five Star Books, 2004), The Nightmare Frontier (Sarob Press, 2006, and in e-book format by Crossroads Press, 2010), and Blue Devil Island (Thomson Gale/Five Star Books, 2007); three short story collections; and over 80 published works of short fiction.
Those with long memories may recall that I edited Deathrealm magazine, from 1987 to 1997. In its decade-long history, Deathrealm won a bunch of nice awards and featured hundreds of short stories, poems, and essays by authors ranging from the most established professionals to young, aspiring first-timers, many of whom proceeded to carve out names for themselves in the horror/dark fantasy field.
In 2004, I edited a new anthology for Delirium Books, titled Deathrealms, which features a wide selection of short stories from the magazine. I've edited a couple of other anthologies as well. The Song of Cthulhu (Chaosium, 2001) features 20 stories of Lovecraftian horror, and in 2006, I co-edited (with James Robert Smith) a new anthology for Arkham House titled Evermore, which features short stories about Edgar Allan Poe.
In summer, 2008, Dark Regions Press released a new collection of my short fiction, titled Other Gods, featuring 16 of my tales. Dark Regions is scheduled to release another collection of my short fiction, titled The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits in 2011.
