Book of the Week #43

Live Free or Undead by Diverse Hands and edited by Rick Broussard (Concord, NH: Plaidswede, 2010)




From the press release:

"An anthology of short fiction in a horror vein written by local authors and set in the familiar locations of New Hampshire will appear in bookstores just in time for Halloween. “Live Free or Undead: Dark Tales from the Granite State” is being released by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord and should be available across the state by Oct. 14. The book presents 20 spine-tingling tales, some by first-time writers and some by such well-known New Hampshire authors as Rebecca Rule, Brendan Dubois, David Elliott and Hugo Award winner James Patrick Kelly. The book cover is illustrated by Dover artist Marc Sutherland and the whole project was edited by New Hampshire Magazine Editor Rick Broussard."

Last Friday night I attended a reading for this book --as part of the Concord Literary Festival-- where many of the contributing authors were in attendance and read to us from their story. Becky Rule and James Patrick Kelly both read their entire stories, everyone else left the audience at a cliffhanger. Luckily the books were available for sale at the event so I didn't have to wait long to find out what happened in the various stories.



If you weren't able to be there Friday, you have several more opportunities coming up to hear the stories read by the various authors:

• Double Midnight Comics, Manchester, is planning a double dose of zombie fun as the creators behind the hit comic anthology Zombiebomb join some of the creators behind the new NH short story anthology Live Free or Undead to sign their books!
  
• A horror-fiction reading event at Rye Public Library, Wednesday October 27th, 2010 at 7 pm
  Selections from the new collection Live Free or Undead with guest authors Brendan DuBois, Michael DeLuca, Elaine Isaak, and Andy Richmond.
  
• On Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 11am Toadstool Books, Peterborough will host a reading from this brand new collection of spooky tales edited by Rick Broussard and featuring a story from local author Seth Blake and stories from Joyce Wagner, Kristopher Seavey, & Lorrie Lee O'Neill who will be there to read and sign.
  
• At 7pm on Saturday, October 30, 2010 Toadstool Books, Milford will host Lorrie Lee O'Neill, David Elliott, David O'Keefe & Gregory L. Norris reading their contributions to Live Free or Undead.