The Black Tapes - by Nick Mamatas & Libby Cudmore (Paperback)

About the Book

It's a promise and a threat--if it's in print, on film, on tape, or saved digitally, it's forever.

Or so one might think.

Everyone from message board mavens and freelance journalists to private detectives and middle-class family guys has revived the search for lost media--forgotten flash games, snatches of song, never-seen TV pilots, and even rare slot machines. The resulting tales and the often-dead media formats they're trapped on will not be fading into the past; they'll be seared on your corneas--and stored in your brain--forever.

Book Synopsis

From Evil Dead to The Ring, there's just something trapped in dead media that keeps drawing us back: a combination of horror and nostalgia that's irresistible. In The Black Tapes, Libby Cudmore and Nick Mamatas bring you haunting tales of lost media, real and imagined, from the best writers working today.

It's a promise and a threat--if it's in print, on film, on tape, or saved digitally, it's forever.

Or so one might think.

Everyone from message board mavens and freelance journalists to private detectives and middle-class family guys has revived the search for lost media--forgotten flash games, snatches of song, never-seen TV pilots, and even rare slot machines. The resulting tales and the often-dead media formats they're trapped on will not be fading into the past; they'll be seared on your corneas--and stored in your brain--forever.

About the Author

Libby Cudmore is the author of The Liar's Deck and Wade & Jacks: Minor Vices (Ruadan 2027), Daddies Girl (Barrelhouse 2026), Negative Girl (Datura 2024; ITW finalist), and The Big Rewind (William Morrow 2016). Her short fiction has been published in Dark Waters, Stone's Throw, Rock & a Hard Place, 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Bowery Gothic, and Eleventh Hour Literary, among others. She co-edited the Anthony Award-nominated Lawyers, Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Warren Zevon with Art Taylor. Libby is an alumna of the Barrelhouse Writer Camp, the recipient of the Eleventh Hour Inaugural Literary Prize, the Shamus Award, and the Black Orchid Novella Prize, among other honors.

Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including the instant cult-classic Move Under Ground, the Lovecraftian crime novel I Am Providence, and the postmodern/posthuman Shakespearean riff Kalivas! Or Another Tempest. His short fiction has appeared in McSweeney's, Best American Mystery Stories, Tor.com, Weird Tales, Asimov's Science Fiction, and many other venues. With Ellen Datlow, Nick edited the multiple award nominee and Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Haunted Legends. With Masumi Washington, he co-edited the Locus Award nominees The Future is Japanese and Hanzai Japan. Nick's editorial work has also been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson awards.