October Focus on Horror: Richard Thomas
Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian
Our Focus on Horror Month author for today is writer and editor Richard Thomas. We have several of the author’s books in our collection.
“Staring Into the Abyss” is a collection of the author’s stories published in 2013. Thomas writes in a number of genres, and the stories in this collection tend to be neo-noir with a horrific bent. They are full of dark, damaged characters who suffer real consequences for their mistakes.
In 2016, Thomas published the collection “Tribulations.” This collection continues Thomas’s focus on the neo-noir, but also branches out into a range of other dark stories of science fiction and fantasy.
Thomas’s most recent book is the 2022 release “Spontaneous Human Combustion.” Another collection of dark, transgressive fiction spanning a number of genres, this book has gotten great reviews from “Publishers Weekly,” “Library Journal,” and “Booklist,” among others. I’m expecting it to show up on a lot of “Best of 2022” lists.
You can also find stories by Thomas in several anthologies in the Library’s collection, including “Best Horror of the Year, Volume 11,” “Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories,” and “Shadows Over Main Street: An Anthology of Lovecraftian Horror.”
In addition to being a writer, Thomas is also a respected editor. Check out the anthology “Burnt Tongues,” co-edited with Chuck Palahniuk and Dennis Widmyer. It was nominated for the Best Anthology in the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards.
Thomas has also written a lot about creative writing, and even teaches courses. You can read many of his articles in his Storyville column on LitReactor. Check out a book by Richard Thomas today, then head over to LitReactor, where you may be inspired to become a writer yourself!