AL SARRANTONIO

'Al Sarrantonio' (born May 25 1952, in New York City) is an American horror and science fiction author who has published, over the past twenty-five years, more than forty books and sixty short stories. He has also edited numerous anthologies and has been called “a master anthologist” by Booklist.

Contents

Background and education

Career

Select awards and honors

Select bibliography

Novels

The Orangefield Cycle

The "Five Worlds" trilogy

The "Master of Mars" trilogy

Short Story Collections

Anthologies containing stories by Al Sarrantonio

Books Edited by Al Sarrantonio

External links

Background and education

Sarrantonio was born in New York City and grew up in Hicksville, on Long Island. He began his professional career at the age of 16 with a nonfiction appearance in the legendary Ray Palmer’s publication ''Flying Saucers''. He continued to write throughout university, and in 1974, after graduation from Manhattan College with a B.A. in English, he attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop at Michigan State University. Other prominent attendees that year were Bruce Sterling and James Patrick Kelly.

Career

In 1976 Sarrantonio began a professional editing career at a major New York publishing house. His first short fiction, “Ahead of the Joneses,” appeared in ''Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine'' in 1978, followed by a story in ''Heavy Metal'' magazine the following year. In 1980 he published 14 short stories. In 1982, after leaving publishing to become a full time writer, he began his first novel, ''The Worms'', followed by ''Campbell Wood'', ''Totentanz'' and ''The Boy with Penny Eyes''. He quickly established himself in the horror field with such much-anthologized stories as “Pumpkin Head”, “The Man With Legs”, “Father Dear,” “Wish”, and “Richard’s Head,” (all of which appear in his first short story collection, ''Toybox''). “Richard’s Head” brought him his first Bram Stoker Award nomination.
Sarrantonio is currently in the midst of a horror saga revolving around Halloween, which takes place in the fictional upstate New York town of Orangefield (novels to date: ''Hallows Eve'' and ''Horrorween'', which incorporates three shorter Orangefield pieces: the short novel ''Orangefield'', and [novelette|novelettes]]
''Hornets'' and ''The Pumpkin Boy''). Other horror novels include ''Moonbane'', ''October'' and ''Skeletons''. He has also written Westerns (''West Texas'' and ''Kitt Peak''), mysteries (''Cold Night'' and ''Summer Cool'') and science fiction (the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inflected trilogy ''Haydn of Mars'', ''Sebastian of Mars'' and ''Queen of Mars'', omnibused as ''Masters of Mars'' by the Science Fiction Book Club, 2006).
Sarrantonio was book reviewer for ''Night Cry'' magazine, the short-lived digest-sized offshoot of the ''Twilight Zone Magazine'', and has been a critic and columnist for other publications. Because he has worn so many hats (novelist, short story writer, critic, essayist,editor,
anthologist) and worked in so many genres (he has even edited three collections of humor, including ''The National Lampoon Treasure of Humor'') his work, always interesting and often brilliant, has not, perhaps, gained the attention it deserves.

Select awards and honors

Winner:

★ 2000: Bram Stoker Award – 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense
Nominated:

★ 2002: Locus Award – Best Editor

★ 2000: International Horror Guild Award - Toybox

★ 2000: World Fantasy Award – 999 New Stories of Horror and Suspense

Select bibliography

Novels

★ ''Summer Cool'' (Walker, 1993)

★ ''Kitt Peak'' (Evans, 1993; Leisure, 2006)

★ ''Skeletons'' (Bantam, 1992)

★ ''House Haunted'' (Bantam, 1991)

★ ''West Texas'' (Evans, 1990; Leisure, 2006)

★ ''October'' (Bantam, 1990)

★ ''Moonbane'' (Bantam, 1989)

★ ''Cold Night'' (TOR, 1989)

★ ''The Boy with Penny Eyes'' (TOR, 1987)

★ ''Totentanz'' (TOR, 1985)

★ ''Campbell Wood'' (Doubleday, 1986; Berkley, 1987)

★ ''The Worms'' (Doubleday, 1985; Berkley, 1988)

The Orangefield Cycle

★ ''Halloweenland'' (Leisure Books 2007) - Scheduled to be published October 2, 2007.

★ ''Horrorween'' (Leisure, 2006) - A retelling of "Hornets," ''The Pumpkin Boy,'' and ''Orangefield''.

★ ''The Baby'' (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2006) - A novelette

★ ''The Pumpkin Boy'' (Endeavor, 2005) - A novelette

★ ''Hallows Eve'' (Leisure, 2004; Cemetery Dance Publications, 2006)

★ ''Orangefield'' (Cemetery Dance, 2002)

★ "Hornets" - A short story

The "Five Worlds" trilogy

★ ''Return'' (ROC, 1997)

★ ''Journey'' (ROC, 1997)

★ ''Exile'' (ROC, 1996)

The "Master of Mars" trilogy

★ ''Masters of Mars'' (Science Fiction Book Club collection of all three titles in one hardcover, 2006)

★ ''Queen of Mars'' (Ace, 2006)

★ ''Sebastian of Mars'' (Ace, 2005)

★ ''Haydn of Mars'' (Ace, 2005)

Babylon 5 series

★ '' (Del Rey Books, 1997)

Short Story Collections

★ ''Hornets and Others'' (Cemetery Dance, 2005). Includes:
:"The Ropy Thing"
:"The Only"
:"The Beat"
:"In the Corn"
:"Two"
:"The Coat"
:"The Haunting of Y-12"
:"Billy the Fetus"
:"Stars"
:"Bags"
:"The Red Wind"
:"The Green Face"
:"White Lightning"
:"The Glass Man"
:"Violets"
:"The Quiet Ones"
:"Hornets"

★ ''A Little Yellow Book of Fevered Stories'' (Borderlands Press, 2004). Includes:
:"Preface"
:"Father Dear"
:"The Ropy Thing"
:"The Electric Fat Boy"
:"Sleepover"
:"In the Corn"
:"Stars"
:"The New Kid"
:"Pumpkin Head"

★ ''Toybox'' (Cemetery Dance, 1999; Leisure, 2003). Includes:
:"Pumpkin Head"
:"The Man With Legs"
:"The Spook Man"
:"Wish"
:"Under My Bed"
:"The Big House"
:"Bogy"
:"The Corn Dolly"
:"The Electric Fat Boy"
:"Snow"
:"Garden of Eden"
:"The Dust"
:"Father Dear"
:"Children of Cain"
:"Red Eve"
:"Pigs"
:"Richard's Head"
:"Boxes"

Anthologies containing stories by Al Sarrantonio

★ ''Retro-Pulp Tales'', edited by Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean Press, 2006). Includes the short story, "Summer."

★ ''Midnight Premiere'', edited by Tom Piccirilli (Cemetery Dance Publications 2007). Includes the short story, "Baby Boss and the Underground Hamsters."

★ ''Stalkers'', edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg. (Dark Harvest Books 1989). Includes the short story, "Children of Cain."

★ ''Cemetery Dance: a Fifteen Year Celebration'', edited by Richard Chizmar. (Cemetery Dance Publications, to be published in 2007). Scheduled to include the short story, "Landing Earl."

★ ''Quietly Now'' (a tribute to Charles L. Grant), edited by Kealan Patrick Burke (Borderlands 2004). Includes the short story, "Dust."

★ ''Trick or Treat: A Collection of Halloween Novellas'' edited by Richard Chizmar. (Cemetery Dance 2001). Includes the short story "Hornets"

★ ''Shivers'', edited by Richard Chizmar. (Cemetery Dance 2002). Includes the short story, "The Green Face."

★ ''Shivers II'', edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance 2003). Includes the short story, "The New Kid."

★ ''Shivers III'', edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance 2004). Includes the short story, "Hedges."

★ ''Shivers IV'', edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance 2006). Includes the short story, "The Man in the Other Car."

★ ''The Ultimate Halloween,'' edited by Marvin Kaye. (I Books 2003). Includes the short story, "Pumpkin Head"

★ ''Razored Saddles'' edited by Joe R. Landsdale and Pat LoBrutto. (Dark Harvest, 1989). Includes the short story, "Trail of the Chromium Bandits."

★ ''Bruce Coville's Book of Spine Tinglers: Tales to Make You Shiver,'' edited by Bruce Coville (Apple Paperbacks 1996). Includes the short story, "Letters From Camp."

★ ''The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy'', edited by Mike Ashley. (Carroll & Graf Pub 1998). Includes the short story, "The Return of Mad Santa."

★ ''Shadows 4'' edited By Charles L. Grant. (Doubleday Science Fiction 1981). Includes the short story, "Under My Bed"

★ ''Shadows 5'' edited By Charles L. Grant. (Doubleday Science Fiction 1982). Includes the short story, "Boxes"

★ ''Shadows 6'' edited By Charles L. Grant. (Doubleday Science Fiction 1983). Includes the short story, "The Man With Legs"

★ ''Shadows 8'' edited By Charles L. Grant. (Doubleday Science Fiction 1985). Includes the short story, "Wish"

★ ''Shadows 10'' edited By Charles L. Grant. (Doubleday Science Fiction 1987). Includes the short story, "Pigs"

★ ''Chrysalis 7,'' edited by Roy Torgeson (Doubleday, 1981). Contains the short story, "The Artist in the Small Room Above."

★ ''Chrysalis 9,'' edited by Roy Torgeson (Doubleday, 1981). Contains the short story, "That They Be Saved."

★ ''Weirdbook 18,'' published by W. Paul Ganley, 1983. Includes the short story "The Quiet Ones."

★ ''Weirdbook 23/24,'' (Double issue) published by W. Paul Ganley, 1988. Includes the short story, "The Red Wind."

Books Edited by Al Sarrantonio

★ ''Stories'' - co-edited with Neil Gaiman. Scheduled to be released February 2008.

★ ''Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy'' (ROC, 2004). Includes his short story "Sleepover."

★ ''Redshift: Extreme Tales of Speculative Fiction'' (ROC, 2001)

★ ''999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense'' (Avon, 1999; Perennial, 2001)

★ ''100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories'' (with Martin H. Greenberh, Barnes & Noble, 1993)

★ ''The National Lampoon Treasury of Humor'' (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1991)

★ ''The Fireside Treasury of New Humor'' (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1989)

★ ''The Fireside Treasury of Great Humor'' (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1987)

External links

★ [1] Al Sarrantonio's Official Website

★ [2] Robert McCammon interview

★ [3] Cemetery Dance Publications

★ [4] HarperCollins Publisher