Fairy tales are fantastical tales in which anything absolutely anything can happen. Most fairy tales don t involve fairies. Some have morals, some don t. Some are for kids, some aren t. The oldest were told by adults to adults. 
Fairy tales are populated by the weird and the bizarre. Elves and dragons, bridge trolls and deep-sea mermaids, sprites and goblins, talking animals and talking trees and sometimes, even fairies. There are no limits to what can be used in a fairy tale, or to what a fairy tale can be about. Once Upon an Apocalypse contains fairy tales about zombies. Or, in some cases, zombie stories with fairies, or even fairy tales in which zombies also appear. 
If you ve never read real fairy tales then you might ask: Wait, aren t fairy tales cute stories about talking bunnies and Disney characters? The answer is yes and no. 
Not the old ones. If you never read the Brothers Grimm are you in for a shock! The 'fairy tale ending' we ve come to know is a far cry from what Jacob and Wilhelm were writing back in early nineteenth century. Things tend to end very, very badly for the characters even the good guys. 
Not all of the stories in Once Upon an Apocalypse are scary. Some are hilarious, some are tragic, and some are disturbing. However each contains a spark of real magic that special element separating these stories from others of the horror genre. 
In fairy tales absolutely anything can happen. There are no rules and there are few happy endings. These are fairy stories, and they re zombie stories, and they are absolutely magical. 
And we mean that in the least-comforting way possible.

Once Upon an Apocalypse: 23 Twisted Fairy Tales

Literature & Fiction

Jonathan Maberry

Randy Lindsay

Sean Eads

Suzanne Robb

Justin Short

Trisha Wooldridge

Celeste Hall

Christopher Peruzzi

T. Fox Dunham

Rachel Kenley

Wendy Dabrowski

Katherine Marciniak

Herb Shallcross

Tracy L. Carbone

Genre Fiction

Chaosium, Inc.

In the field of mad science, women have for too long been ignored, their triumphs misattributed to mere men. Society has seen the laboratory as the province of men. Jacob's Ladder electric arcs, death rays, even test tubes have phallic connotations, subliminally reinforcing the patriarchy. The mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, advocated that women appear more masculine to earn respect. If Marie Curie had been allowed to develop her Atomic Gendarmerie for the Institut du radium, surely she would have been awarded her third Nobel Prize, for Peace. 
 Thankfully, the women working to dangerous and/or questionable ends in the pages of Daughters of Frankenstein are unafraid of the patriarchy--indeed, as lesbian mad scientists, they prefer the company and comforts of their own gender. Androids? Pfeh, the gynoid is superior. Etheric dynamos have a more pleasing design, one that is vulvar, than Tesla coils. Eighteen imaginative, if not insane, women; eighteen stories told by some of the finest writers working in queer speculative fiction: Traci Castleberry, Sean Eads, Gemma Files, Amy Griswold, and Melissa Scott.

Daughters of Frankenstein: Lesbian Mad Scientists!

Gemma Files

Melissa Scott

Orrin Grey

Christine Morgan

Romie Stott

Megan Arkenberg

Tracy Canfield

Traci Castleberry

Thoraiya Dyer

A.J. Fitzwater

Amy Griswold

Aynjel Kaye

Tim Lieder

Rafaela F. Ferraz

Claire Humphrey

United States

Lethe Press

Wilde Stories 2014: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction

Oscar Wilde said: ''I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.'' Thankfully, the authors featured in Wilde Stories 2014 possess the ability to create men on the page that love and risk and suffer and mourn, deeds that deserve telling despite the frailties of fictional flesh. Once more editor Steve Berman has collected a variety of stories that range from the fantastical to the eerie to surreal-yet all possess the spark of imagination that is what brings storytelling the closest to a divine act of wonder an individual can perform. Authors in this volume: Matthew Cheney, John Chu (his story ''The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere'' is a finalist for the Hugo Award), R.W. Clinger, Sean Eads, Eli Easton, Casey Hannan, Clayton Littlewood, Sam J. Miller (his story, ''57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides,'' won the Shirley Jackson Award!), J.E. Robinson, Damon Shaw, Cory Skerry, Robert Smith, Nghi Vo, and Kai Ashante Wilson.

Sam J. Miller

Robert, Smith

R. W. Clinger

Matthew Cheney

John Chu

Eli Easton

Casey Hannan

Clayton Littlewood

J.E. Robinson

Damon Shaw

Cory Skerry

Nghi Vo

Kai Ashante Wilson

Lethe Pr

Lord Byron is troubled. Is his new poem a catharsis of self-loathing at being attracted to other men or an incantation that turns him into an incubus that seeks such sins? Or perhaps something much worse: an apocalyptic prophecy. Present-day Professor Adam Fane is beginning to suffer from what he believes is dementia, which causes him to have the same visions Byron experienced centuries ago. A closeted gay man, Professor Fane interprets these visions to be products of guilt. He's lived for decades with a terrible guilt over the fate of his childhood friend, George, with whom he was in love. His only son, Gordon has grown into more than a passing resemblance of George. Gordon, a star college basketball player, is unaware of his father's past. His heart belongs to a young English professor named Amber, who is a colleague of his father's. As Gordon pursues a relationship with her, he suddenly starts to experience visions similar to those of Byron, as well as a crawling sensation under his skin that makes him fearful of being touched. The interlocking stories of three characters leading parallel lives tells a dark tale of impending personal--and perhaps even global--doom, is written by Sean Eads, a stunning new voice in speculative fiction, whose first novel, The Survivors, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Lord Byron's Prophecy

Contemporary

Lambda Literary and Shirley Jackson Award finalist Eads's first collection of surreal and dark fantastical fiction promises to caress the hackles raised while reading about a ruthless Eva Braun's obsession with Rosie the Riveter, zombies can be fascinated by reciting the plays of William Shakespeare, and troubled young men taken for ''correction'' at an institute discover the shocking truth behind the promise of healing.

Seventeen Stitches

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Books by Sean Eads