Craig DiLouie's Apocalyptic Horror Fiction

I admire good poets. With a novel, you can flesh your ideas out in 100,000 words. With a poem, you have only a few words to convey story, image, meaning, and the resulting grade is usually pass or fail. There’s no hiding; every word is out there for consumption, effect and judgment. It takes balls.

Which brings me to HYSTERIA: A COLLECTION OF MADNESS by Stephanie Wytovich. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the World Horror Convention in New Orleans last year and recently picked up her book of dark poetry. Stephanie pulls no punches: HYSTERIA is filled with dark, disturbing ideas and images that will stay with you. It was particularly enjoyable for me as poetry normally isn’t my thing to read.

Check it out if you’re looking for verse that will take you into darker territories.

John Dixon, author of PHOENIX ISLAND, on which the CBS show INTELLIGENCE is based, reviewed SUFFER THE CHILDREN, calling it a “dark masterpiece … the most chilling, compelling, and convincing apocalyptic novel I’ve ever read.”

Thanks, John!

SUFFER THE CHILDREN will be released by Simon & Schuster and Permuted Press May 20, 2014. You can pre-order it on Amazon and BN.com.

For all you folks who love to write.

Here’s a great read for you horror fans–THE TROOP by Nick Cutter. In this novel, a scout troop is led by their scoutmaster into the remote Canadian wilderness on an uninhabited island for their annual weekend camping trip. A man stumbles upon their camp dying of a bioengineered plague, threatening them with infection.

The writing wasn’t my cup of tea at first–like many horror writers, the author at first appeared to be channeling Stephen King when only King should be King. When the infection reveals itself, however, the novel really kicks in and the fun starts. The star of the book, in fact, is the infection itself–it’s truly horrifying and sickening. Both the organism itself and the effects it has on those it infects. It didn’t take long for my plodding to become racing through the pages. And at the end, you will be thinking, “This thing had better get a sequel.” If Cutter writes one–in which the infection breaks quarantine–it’s going to be crazy.

I highly recommend this one for those seeking a familiar horror story that reads like something entirely original.

LPStoBSNonline.org has published a list of some 100 books as part of its ultimate reading list for nurses–”some of the most respected and widely read books about nursing from an assortment of genres”–and included my self-published book, THE THIN WHITE LINE. Previously, this book was named to LVNtoRN.net’s Top 50 Must-Read Books for Nurses in 2012.

Written in 2008, THE THIN WHITE LINE reads like a fictional history of a severe influenza pandemic occurring in 2012. In other words, it’s fictional but reads like non-fiction, dense with well-researched technical detail about what a flu pandemic would actually look like in a Western country, including the difficulties healthcare providers would face under the constant stress of overwork, isolation of quarantine and risk of infection.

It’s a real honor to see my fiction recognized in this way! Thanks for including THE THIN WHITE LINE in the list!

Get the paperback here and the eBook here (the eBook is available FREE).