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Issue 2: Week of April 18, 2002
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Welcome back. We're a little late this week, but we have some amazing stories for you to read. This week, I did something I normally won't do, but I had too...I highlighted two stories from one magazine. Why? Well, one of the authors is Joe Lansdale and I am a Lansdale addict. If you have never read Joe Lansdale, then you are really missing an outstanding author. The story we've selected here will definitely get your feet wet...then you can go out and read The Bottoms.

Besides Mr. Lansdale, you'll find an variety of stories from small press authors here for your perusal. All are well worth a few minutes of your time. So sit back and enjoy. And be sure to have a blanket around as a few of these are sure to send a shiver up your spine.

If you're new to "This Week in Horror Fiction," here's a little information about us. Each Tuesday, we'll be scouring the web for dark fiction and poetry that we feel deserves your readership. We may even throw in a few pieces of art and other horror-related articles. There is so much to read on the web that sometimes you can't get through it all and if you're new to the small press horror genre, you might find it overwhelming. We've tried to give you a condensed version of "the best" (our subjective opinion that is) and hope you'll feel compelled to read more as your time allows.

Check out last week's issue here.

If you have a story up at a website that you'd like to have featured here, please email me at horrorliterature@bellaonline.org.

What Came Out of the Elevator
by Roger Pollock at The Harrow

And we all waited eagerly in front of the elevator. But the sounds coming up that shaft were monstrous, a screeching, banging, groaning clangor, like the sound of a steel foundry at peak production time...READ this story

When It Rains
by Christopher Fulbright at Savage Night

She may have been overreacting, a combination of the roaring storm and the power outage working on her nerves. It wasn't a tornado, and there wasn't any real reason to believe anything on that kind of scale was going to happen, but the newscast still had her worried...READ this story

Pool Party
by Marge Simon at Chiaroscuro

Her fiancé/is out of town/so she's alone/when she receives...READ this poem.

My Darling Clementine
by Lavender Blue at The House-of-Pain

Inside it was as black and cold, like the interior of a coffin, and it had the same claustrophobic unpleasantness. I had to remind myself to breathe as I fumbled for the light-switch, desperate to get rid of the dark.....READ this story.

Coffin Lover
by Jeff Martin at Gathering Darkness

The next morning, I opened the coffin and there she lay. Her skin was now an ashy blue. Several of her fingernails were missing and her hands were bloody...READ this story.

On A Dark October
by Joe R. Lansdale at Savage Night

The October night was dark and cool. The rain was thick. The moon was hidden behind dark clouds that occasionally flashed with lightning, and the sky rumbled as if it were a big belly that was hungry and needed filling....READ this story.