Cover Reveal and Preorder for Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces
Plus, the fabulous Lupus in Fabula and some fun submission calls!
Let’s Vanish and Fade Together!
How do you design a cover for a book that’s indescribably weird? I don’t have the slightest clue personally, but Trevor Henderson nailed the assignment for Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces. His illustration captures what I admire most about D. Matthew Urban’s work: a melding of the surreal, the uncanny, the grotesque, and the mundane. Alan Lastufka designed the text for this cover, further bringing out that feeling of eerie, scratchy strangeness found in Dave’s stories. Behold the horrors below!
So what will you find in this book? Here’s a little preview:
Budget cuts drive a burned-out humanities professor to master the art of annihilation. A girl on the verge of a transformation seeks out a new member for her isolated, inhuman family. A glitching brain implant shatters its owner's sense of reality. A high-school athlete's body becomes the vessel of a fleshy apocalypse.
In Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces, characters twist in the grip of forces beyond their understanding. Infused with the weird and uncanny, these stories probe the crannies and dead ends where humanity confronts the implacably alien, where even the most familiar faces begin to change, waver, and fade.
Those are just a few story sneak peeks, but there’s a whole lot more to enjoy in the collection. If you’re intrigued, consider preordering the book from us directly. We’ll throw in a free “family legends” zine edited by D. Matthew Urban and me (Eric Raglin). Check out the links below:
Lunar Transformations
In January, we released the fabulous collection Lupus in Fabula by Briar Ripley Page. Many have praised the book for its unflinching approach to very real horrors and its willingness to make readers uncomfortable. Check out one of my favorite reviews of the book below:
Want a slimey, uncomfortable good time? Snag a paperback or ebook from us and we’ll throw in a free “creature in the bathroom” zine Briar and I put together. You might get nauseous, but you won’t regret it!
Current and Upcoming Submission Calls
For the writers out there, here’s a look at our current and upcoming submission calls.
Right now, we’re open to horror and Weird fiction collections from BIPOC writers until the end of February. Whichever book we accept from this submission call will be published in 2026. Check out the guidelines here and send us something wild!
We’ll also have some zine submission calls coming up. I mentioned the “family legends” zine Dave and I are putting together as a bonus for those who order Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces from our store (hint!) But we’ll also be holding a submission call (or rather, several simultaneous submission calls) for our next zine bundle sometime this spring. Check out the themes below:
Issue #11: Liminal Workplaces (Weird fiction, nonfiction, and poems)
Issue #12: Endlings (fiction, nonfiction, and poems about the last living creature of a particular species)
Issue #13: Strange Entries in the Guinness Book of World Records
Issue #14: Inside Thoughts (horror and Weird fiction, poetry, or nonfiction about the “inside thoughts” we have during times of apocalyptic capitalism and fascism)
Issue #15: Sexy Ghosts (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)
Our zine bundles have historically been a combination of the political and the playful, and this one is no different. Once we nail down a date for the call, we’ll post about it to let everyone know. But in the meantime, be aware that you can submit one piece for each of these prompts, and each piece can be 500 words max. As usual, we’ll pay 10 cents per word.