Charles L. Grant – författare

SO YOU THINK YOU LIKE TO BE SCARED...Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the coveted Nebula...the unforgettable tales in this magnificent collection are the work of one of today's most respected masters of horror. Here are stories designed to carry the reader across fear's threshold, to terror...and beyond.Stories included in this collection:A Crowd of ShadowsHear Me Now, My Sweet Abbey RoseTemperature Days on Hawthorne StreetCome Dance With Me on My Pony's GraveThe Three of TensThe Dark of Legends, The Light of LiesCaesar, Now Be StillWhite Wolf CallingThe Rest Is SpenceWhen All the Children Call My NameSecrets of the HeartA Glow of Candles, A Unicorn's Eye

Book Three of the Quest for the White DuckGideon Sunday, an ex-football player who found himself mysteriously transported to the magical world of Chey, must find a way to stop Agnes, the evil wife of the sorcerer Wamchu.

A new season, and the Grim Reaper smiles in anticipation of the harvest to come. No one is safe, no one can be trusted. The lovestruck office boy, the beautiful little girl clutching a posy of violets, the faceless motorcycle gang all seem harmless enough, and yet. Nameless fears stir uneasily, terror bubbles to the surface. and the nightmare is unleashed. Enter the world of Oxrun Station, where evil lurks in unexpected corners, where nerves are stretched to breaking point, where every season brings a nightmare more blood-curdling than the last.Four novellas, each taking as its theme one of the seasons of the year, recount the weird happenings that take place in the fantasy town of Oxrun Station.

Multiple award winner Charles L. Grant has written a vampire novel set in the author's distressing little town of Oxrun Station. It is a region to be found on the same maps as Lovecraft's Arkham and King's Castle Rock.The Soft Whisper of the Dead is the first of the Oxrun tales to be placed in other than a contemporary setting. The first in a trilogy of historical horror novels, it is the account of the evil Count Braslov's attempt to subjugate the Oxrun population to his vampiric will.This first novel of a fast-paced trilogy is fraught with gas-light atmosphere, plucky women, a befuddled constabulary and is filled with the excitement of the classic vampire tale. Great fun!

WELCOME TO OXRUN STATIONOxrun Station could be a spooky place, especially out by the Windsors', right next to the graveyard. At night Natalie heard eerie sounds out in the fog, among the tombstones, unnatural sounds made by unearthly things. Natalie's husband had been born in Oxrun Station. He loved the town, and served it well—and in return it killed him. Ben's death had left Natalie isolated in a strange town she could not call her own. How strange and how deadly Oxrun Station could be, Natalie Windsor was about to learn. Once each year an ancient ritual was recreated, an ancient pact reinvoked—and Natalie Windsor was this year's sacrifice.

THERE IS A REASON IT HAS RETURNED …Something has caused a grim and sudden change in Wyoming's Windriver Valley, something whose dark power was foretold in an ancient Indian prophecy Now after 20 years Jason Clarke comes home to a town gripped by a devastating force which defies all nature—a force that points to something... supernatural.THERE IS A REASON IT HAS RETURNED …Now some ancient predator, born of bloody midnights, throws the shadow of its wings across the valley. Listen!That cry like a woman's laugh. Look! Those mocking red eyes. Now an evil promise will be kept in the gleaming jaws of … THE NESTLING

Yarrows do not die.People do.The family motto. Cynthia Yarrow laughs as she returns to Oxrun Station, her old hometown. The family is assembled to greet the prodigal—but they have changed in the years Cyd's been away.Cyd's mother cuts herself but does not bleed. One evening a horrified Cyd discovers her father's lifeless body—only to see him alive and laughing just minutes later.Everything is fine, they assure her—she'll understand as soon as she visits Dr. Kraylin. When Cyd refuses, she is pursued through Oxrun Station's street by a powerful gray limousine.As the death-car bears down on her, she wonders, is she still a Yarrow—or is she their next target?

Pat Shavers was an artist and a teacher. She'd had a rough life: a divorce, and the loss of her child. But now things seemed to be in order. Except for the strange force riding in the daily movements of her life. A threat rising in the envy of her colleagues, the jealousies of her new lover, the hidden enmity of those who seemed to be her friends. It was a dangerous fury gathering itself against her. The wind rose and swirled, threatening to destroy her.

When Gideon Sunday is handed a ball, he takes it and runs...Unfortunately, the game this unemployed football player has found himself in will probably get him killed.The minute he stepped through his pantry door into the magical land of Chey, Gideon Sunday knew that the last thing he ever wanted to be was a hero. He has been trying to go home ever since. But the events that landed him in this most bewildering land now conspire to strand him forever, and Gideon is desperate. He has one way out, but it is a dangerous one. To find the Bridge that can bring him safely home, Gideon will have to brave monsters and wizards, combat demons and dragons, not to mention placate an amorous giantess that would just love him (probably to death) and confront two of the meanest witches this side of a nightmare. All Gideon has on his side is one oversize ram-horse called Red.And one very used magical baseball bat.Who said the off-season wasn't rough?

Josh Miller has a talent for finding things. So far, the things people have asked him to find - antique tables, old movie posters - have been innocuous enough. And Andrea Montague, the daughter of a local writer, may be his most interesting find so far.But no one's asked Josh to find the missing fifth victim of an unexplained auto accident - the one who vanished from the scene of the crash without leaving a trail of blood, though he must have been badly hurt. No one's asked Josh to look for the other missing people - residents of Oxrun Station who mysteriously and inexplicably vanished on their birthdays.Someone very definitely doesn't want him to find the clearing full of century-old gravestones, the clearing that feels so evil.This time whatever Josh is hunting is hunting him, too...and it's hungry..ABOUT OXRUN STATION:Charles L. Grant wrote 12 books (9 novels and three collections of four related novellas with interstitial material) set in the fictional Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. There is a loose continuity running through the Oxrun Station books, with characters from one novel making minor appearances in others.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Charles L. Grant (1942-2006) won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "e;A Crowd of Shadows"e;, and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "e;A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye,"e; the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award-winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Al Sarrantonio, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association. His story "e;Temperature Days on Hawthorne Street"e; was adapted into an episode of Tales from the Darkside entitled "e;The Milkman Cometh"e; in 1987.He also served eight years as an officer of the Science Fiction Writers of America, served ten years on the Board of Directors of the World Fantasy Awards, is past-president of the Horror Writers of America, served five years as President of the Board of Trustees of HWA, and is on the board of advisors for The Burry Man's Writers Center.In 1987 he received the British Fantasy Society's Special Award, for life achievement. In May of 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from HWA. In addition, he has received two Nebula Awards and three World Fantasy Awards for his writing and editing. He is sorely missed.

Gideon Sunday, an ex-semi-professional American Football player, goes to his pantry to retrieve an awful bottle of his (dead) sister's fruit preserves. When he gets there, he discovers a meadow in his pantry. He closes the door, takes a few breaths, and begins to investigate with as much sanity and candor as Sherlock Holmes. Upon discovering that A) no one is playing a trick on him, B) there really IS a meadow in his cupboard, and C) there is something three-quarters of ugly coming out of it, he decides to beat a monster to death with a baseball bat.Upon his conquest, he meets the lovely, and helpless, and possibly stupid Glorian, who tells him that she has come to get him so that he can fulfill a quest. Gideon, you see, must find a white duck and bring it to a certain river and put its down on the river to keep the land from being flooded. No one has really seen the duck, no one knows what is so special about the duck, no one knows where the duck is (supposedly). Glorian just knows that Gideon has to get it. Why Gideon? Because that is where her magic portal took her.Along with a bellicose young man, a retired weapons trader and master, a dashing and dangerous young lady, and a large, peaceful goat (and a band of singing thieves, like Robin Hood, except with song), Gideon has to break in to the most heavily guarded fortress in the world to rescue Glorian, steal a duck, and save the world.Yes. It's that awesome.