Linda D. Addison born in Philadelphia, PA is an American poet and writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Addison is the first African-American winner of the HWA Bram Stoker Award®, which she won five times for her collections Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (2001); Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (2007); How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend (2011); Four Elements (2014) and The Place of Broken Things (2019, with Alessandro Manzetti). Addison has received the HWA Mentor of the Year Award and the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, she was designated as the Science-Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) 2020 Grand Master.

She has published over 400 poems, stories and articles and is one of the editors of Sycorax’s Daughters (Cedar Grove Publishing), an anthology of horror fiction/poetry by African-American women (HWA Bram Stoker finalist). Catch her latest work in anthologies Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda (Titan Books); Miscreations (Written Backwards), Don’t Turn Out the Lights (HarperCollins); Under Twin Suns anthology (Hippocampus Press); Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology! (Brigids Gate Press); Attack from the ’80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press); HyBriD anthology (Hybrid Sequence Media) & Predator: Eyes of the Demon (Titan Books). Addison is a founding member of the writer’s group Circles in the Hair (CITH), and a member of HWA, SFWA, SFPA and IAMTW.

TODD KEISLING is the two-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of Devil’s Creek, Scanlines, Cold, Black & Infinite, and most recently, The Sundowner’s Dance, among several others. A pair of his earlier works were recipients of the University of Kentucky’s Oswald Research & Creativity Prize for Creative Writing (2002 and 2005), and his second novel, The Liminal Man, was an Indie Book Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013). He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

Kelli Owen is an American author, editor, reviewer, podcaster, and indie film producer, whose work spans dark fiction, thrillers, and suspense. While her nonfiction has appeared in various places—including the Bram Stoker Award–winning It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life—she is best known for her fiction, which explores characters, consequences, and the uneasy shadows of everyday life.

She has published more than a dozen books, including The Headless Boy, Teeth, and the Wilted Lily YA series. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines alongside Stephen King, Robert McCammon, F. Paul Wilson, and Josh Malerman, and in multiple Bram Stoker Award–nominated collections such as Arterial Bloom (2020) and Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (2018).

She has also been a reviewer, editor, podcaster, and indie film producer, and has spoken at countless conventions and events, including the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA, about the craft and field of writing.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, she now lives in the dark woods of Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit her website.

Armand Rosamilia is a full-time crime thriller and horror author who loves coffee, bourbon and bourbon-favored coffee.

He's written over 200 stories that are currently available, including crime thrillers, supernatural thrillers, horror, zombies, contemporary fiction, nonfiction and more. His goal is to write a good story and not worry about genre labels.

He also loves to talk in third person... because he's really that cool. Maybe.

Naching T. Kassa is a wife, mother and writer. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Naching serves as Talent Relations Manager for Crystal Lake Publishing.

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many works including BEAUTIFUL SORROWS, PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRLS: A NOVEL OF MURDER AND WHIMSY (now available as a graphic novel with art by Orion Zangara), and the Stabby Award-winning APOCALYPTIC MONTESSA AND NUCLEAR LULU: A TALE OF ATOMIC LOVE.

She is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner for her realistic horror novella LITTLE DEAD RED and her magical surrealism short story "Fracture." She was a Bram Stoker finalist for her short story "Loving You Darkly" and for her ARTERIAL BLOOM anthology, for which she was editor. Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars.

Jennifer Loring’s short fiction has been published widely, appearing in anthologies such as Nightscript IV, Not All Monsters, Would but Time Await: An Anthology of New England Folk Horror, and Arterial Bloom, as well as online in The Literary Hatchet and City. River. Tree., among many others. Longer work includes four novels and several novellas. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction with a concentration in horror fiction. Jenn lives in Philadelphia, PA, where she and her husband are owned by a turtle and two basset hounds.

John Boden was mostly raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in the small town of Orbisonia.

He is a bakery manager by trade and finds a regular sleep schedule overrated.

He currently resides with his beautiful wife and two sons, in a house sweetly haunted by the ghost of a beautician named, Darlene. He likes collecting lots of things and won't usually shut up about it.

His writing is fairly well received and has been called unique of style.

His work has been published in the form of stories in several anthologies and as novellas. He is slowly working on his first novel.

Carina Bissett is a writer, poet, and educator working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including What Remains, Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Weird Dream Society, Hath No Fury, and the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. V, VI, and VIII. She has also written stories set in shared worlds for RPGs at Green Ronin Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing. In addition to writing, she has edited several projects; the most recent is in the role as co-editor for the award-winning anthology Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas.

As an educator, Carina has taught at Pikes Peak Community College, Glendale Community College, and Arizona State University. She also participated in the Colorado Writing Project and works with educators to develop writing instruction in college and secondary school classrooms. She currently offers workshops focused on story generation at The Storied Imaginarium. Her fiction has been nominated for the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and was a finalist for the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award. In her editorial capacity, she’s received recognition as a Winner at the Colorado Book Awards 2022 (Anthology) and as a Finalist in the Fiction: Anthologies category of the 2022 International Book Awards.

Dino Parenti is a writer of dark, speculative fiction. Author of the novella, Bitter Breed, as well as the Imadjinn Award Finalist short-fiction collection, Dead Reckoning and Other Stories, he also won the first annual Lascaux Review flash fiction contest and was featured in the Anthony Award winning anthology Blood on the Bayou.

When not purging his soul into a laptop thanks to a far-too-early exposure to Stephen King, Scorsese movies, and Camus, he can be found photographing the odd junk pile, building furniture, or earning a few bucks as a CAD drafter. He lives in Los Angeles.

Since its founding in August 2012, Crystal Lake has quickly become one of the world’s leading publishers of Dark Fiction and Horror books. In 2023, Crystal Lake officially transitioned into an entertainment company, joining several other divisions, genres, and imprints, including Torrid Waters, Sinister Smile Press, Crystal Lake Comics, Crystal Lake Games, Crystal Cove Press, Crystal Lake Kids, Memento Mori Ink, and The House of Shadows & Ink on YouTube.

While we strive to present only the highest quality fiction and entertainment, we also endeavor to support authors along their writing journey. We offer our time and experience in non-fiction projects, as well as author mentoring and services, at competitive prices.

With several Bram Stoker Award wins and many other wins and nominations (including the HWA’s Specialty Press Award), Crystal Lake puts integrity, honor, and respect at the forefront of our publishing operations.

We strive for each book and outreach program we spearhead to not only entertain and touch or comment on issues that affect our readers, but also to strengthen and support the Dark Fiction field and its authors.

Not only do we find and publish authors we believe are destined for greatness, but we strive to work with men and women who endeavor to be decent human beings who care more for others than themselves, while still being hard-working, driven, and passionate artists and storytellers.

Crystal Lake is and will always be a beacon of what passion and dedication, combined with overwhelming teamwork and respect, can accomplish. We endeavor to know each and every one of our readers, while building personal relationships with our authors, reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, bookstores, and libraries.

We will be as trustworthy, forthright, and transparent as any business can be, while also keeping most of the headaches away from our authors, since it’s our job to solve the problems so they can stay in a creative mind. Which of course also means paying our authors.

We do not just publish books, we present to you worlds within your world, doors within your mind, from talented authors who sacrifice so much for a moment of your time.

There are some amazing small presses out there, and through collaboration and open forums we will continue to support other presses in the goal of helping authors and showing the world what quality small presses are capable of accomplishing. No one wins when a small press goes down, so we will always be there to support hardworking, legitimate presses and their authors. We don’t see Crystal Lake as the best press out there, but we will always strive to be the best, strive to be the most interactive and grateful, and even blessed press around. No matter what happens over time, we will also take our mission very seriously while appreciating where we are and enjoying the journey.

What do we offer our authors that they can’t do for themselves through self-publishing?

We are big supporters of self-publishing (especially hybrid publishing), if done with care, patience, and planning. However, not every author has the time or inclination to do market research, advertise, and set up book launch strategies. Although a lot of authors are successful in doing it all, strong small presses will always be there for the authors who just want to do what they do best: write.

What we offer is experience, industry knowledge, contacts and trust built up over years. And due to our strong brand and trusting fanbase, every Crystal Lake book comes with weight of respect. In time our fans begin to trust our judgment and will try a new author purely based on our support of said author.

To date we’ve published around 300 books, and with each launch we strive to fine-tune our approach, learn from our mistakes, and increase our reach. We continue to assure our authors that we’re here for them and that we’ll carry the weight of the launch and deal with third parties while they focus on their strengths—be it writing, interviews, blogs, signings, etc.

We also offer several mentoring packages to authors that include knowledge and skills they can use in both traditional and self-publishing endeavors. This includes Shadows & Ink Creators on our The House of Shadows & Ink YouTube channel and our Crystal Lake Academy.

We look forward to launching many new careers.

This is what we believe in. What we stand for. This will be our legacy.

Welcome to Crystal Lake Publishing—Where Stories Come Alive!

Jonathan Cosgrove is a writer of dark fiction.

Born and raised in the north-east of Ireland, it wasn't until moving to Japan and reading authors like Haruki Murakami, Amelia Gray, and Brian Evenson, that Jonathan began to seriously consider crafting stories as an almost full time activity. Since then he hasn't been able to stop.

His short fiction has appeared in Arterial Bloom from Crystal Lake Publishing.

"Dreamy and obsessive and terrifying and beautiful.”

- Mercedes M. Yardley, editor of Arterial Bloom.

Grant Longstaff is from Gateshead; a small, suitably dismal town in the North of England where nothing much happens. He had no choice but to write fiction. Though he now lives in Glasgow, his heart remains in the North East.

His debut novelette, Between the Teeth of Charon, was released by Demain Publishing in June 2022.

His short fiction has appeared in the Bram Stoker Nominated Arterial Bloom, Shallow Waters Vol. 8, and Aurealis Magazine, and on The Other Stories and Tales to Terrify podcasts.

You can find him on Twitter @GrantLongstaff or visit www.grantlongstaff.co.uk.