“Short tales to appease your monstrous hunger for suspense” is how we describe SWC Horror Bites, a series of done-in-one digital chapbooks that currently consist of Clemence Annie Housman’s White Fell: The Werewolf and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Now that we’re knee deep in the Christmas season—or so it appears if the Hallmark and Lifetime Channels’ Christmas round-the-clock movie marathons are any true indicator—it’s time to announce the next addition to the Horror Bites imprint: a yuletide ghost story—and it’s not by Charles Dickens!
On December 15, we’ll be releasing The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall, by John Kendrick Bangs, the author of such supernatural-tinged novels as A House-Boat on the Styx and The Enchanted Type-Writer. First published in the pages of Harper’s Weekly magazine in June 1891, it’s a humorous tale about a bothersome ghost who’s been nagging one family for generations. Here’s the back-cover copy to pique your interest:
The Ghost of Christmas Pest.
Harrowby Hall is haunted; has been for generations of Oglethorpes. It’s not a particularly frightening ghost, though—not the sort of malevolent spirit you’d expect to find in a Hell House or a Hill House or in Amityville. The self-proclaimed Water Ghost isn’t out-and-out evil, she’s just…really annoying.
Every year around Christmas, she pops in to terrify the current owner…and drench his furniture—as well as him—with seawater. Every. Year. So, it’s less a haunting and more an ongoing prank that has reached an intolerable level. But all that spiritual tomfoolery might soon be coming to an end.
The most recent lord of the manor, Henry Hartwick Oglethorpe, is not one to put up with ghostly shenanigans. He has a plan to rid himself of this bothersome spook, and if luck is on his side, this ghostly war on Christmas will finally be put to rest—although not necessarily in peace…
The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall goes on sale December 15. Stay tuned for further information!
We experienced a bit of that at ’Warp Central, too, with the scheduling of new titles. It was just after the February release of my nonfiction comics history, 
In the Age of Coronavirus, one of the hardest hit businesses this year is the convention industry, which first and foremost depends on social gathering in order to make money, and the more people you can squeeze into an exhibition hall the better. But with a global pandemic in full effect, a majority of con organizers have taken the safer approach of either canceling their shows this year, in the hopes that the health situation will improve in 2021, or have taken them online. San Diego Comic Con, Dragon Con, and New York Comic Con are just three of a growing number of shows that set up virtual counterparts to accommodate fans eager for some sort of convention experience.
Actually, it’s not as much “us” as one of our authors: Richard C. White, writer of the fantasies For a Few Gold Pieces More and Harbinger of Darkness, the noir-fantasy collection Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase, and the nonfiction writers and gamers creative guide Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination. When I learned of SiouxperConline and that one of its major focuses is on gaming, it made all kinds of sense to me that in place of an SWC virtual vendor booth, I’d set it up so that Rich could be “in attendance” since he’s so good at promoting his books—especially Terra Incognito—and singing the praises of their awesome publisher!
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