Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of horror fiction and have always had an affinity for the autumn season. I grew up in North Carolina and have wonderful memories of the time of year when the summer heat finally ends and the chill returns—the season of long walks in the turning woods, campfires, ghost stories, and, of course, Halloween. There’s something about that time that has always stuck with me and finds its way into my writing even now. My first collection, As Summer’s Mask Slips and Other Disruptions, draws on this period of transition and so I absolutely love sharing those works which have influenced and entertained me.  


I wrote

As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions

By Gordon B. White,

Book cover of As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions

What is my book about?

A genderfluid witch in a small Southern town prepares for their Black Cotillion coming out party. Singing worms converge on…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Bound Feet

Gordon B. White Why did I love this book?

This one is a bit of a fudge because it takes place in mid-August during the Hungry Ghost Festival, but the full moon and cool evening breeze capture that atmosphere of summer sliding into fall. Bound Feet is a modern ghost story centered on a grieving mother whose friend helps her break into Portland’s Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum in order to try to connect with her late daughter. What she finds, though, is a sinister presence from centuries ago and secrets that may upend her world. I love a story haunted by literal ghosts of the past, and this one had me smiling ear to ear as it descends into a nightmare phantasmagoria and twist after delicious twist is revealed. A great, quick read for beginning the season. 

By Kelsea Yu,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bound Feet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On the night of the Hungry Ghost Moon, when spirits can briefly return to the living world, Jodi Wu and her best friend sneak into Portland’s Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum. Kneeling before the pond where Jodi’s toddler drowned one year before, they leave food offerings and burn joss paper—and Jodi prays that Ella’s ghost will return for the night.

To distract Jodi from her grief, the two friends tell each other ghost stories as they explore the museum. They stop at the main display, a centuries-old pair of lotus slippers belonging to a woman whose toes were broken and…


Book cover of Autumn Cthulhu

Gordon B. White Why did I love this book?

The “Cthulhu” in the title is a bit of a misnomer, since the big squid doesn’t actually make an appearance, but this anthology does collect some wonderful contemporary authors of Weird fiction exploring the autumn season. I love fiction that hints at the hidden world(s) behind our own, and these stories capture that immense and unsettling feeling of when the world’s disguises rot and fall away. You can open it to any page and find a gem, but my personal favorites include Laird Barron’s invocation of small-town bizarreness in “Andy Kaufman Creeping Through the Trees”; Nadia Bulkin’s election season meets haunted corn maze allegory “There Is a Bear in the Woods”; and Gemma Files’s archaeological horror “Grave Goods.”

By Mike Davis (editor), Laird Barron, Gemma Files , Robert Levy , Nadia Bulkin , John Langan , Richard Gavin , S.P. Miskowski , Daniel Mills , Joseph S. Pulver Sr. , Damien Angelica Walters , Orrin Grey

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Autumn Cthulhu as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award!

H.P. Lovecraft, the American master of horror, understood with horrible clarity that all things must die. After summer is winter, and life inevitably gives way to frozen sterility. In our modern world, we live cushioned existences, and congratulate ourselves on our supposed escape from the old dangers. We think ourselves caught out of nature’s reach by our technological wizardry. Safely cocooned. This foolishness blinds us to the truth that our elder forebears could not avoid. Engulfed by the rhythms of the world, they understood... Autumn means death.

There are far worse fates than mere…


Book cover of A Night in the Lonesome October

Gordon B. White Why did I love this book?

An overlooked classic by the late Roger Zelazny, at one chapter per day, A Night in Lonesome October is a perfectly paced journey through the spookiest month. Narrated by Snuff the watchdog (yes, an actual dog!), readers are quickly introduced to the month-long Game between “openers” and “closers,” magical agents preparing their spells to release/contain Lovecraftian Elder Gods. While the human “players” are a who’s who of the classics – Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, the Universal Monsters, and more – it’s their richly-drawn talking animal companions that take center stage to unravel the hidden patterns and machinations. A star-studded story pitched at an easy lope even as the mysteries are revealed and twists are turned, this one is a pure delight with enough chills to earn its place on any list.  

By Roger Zelazny, Gahan Wilson (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Night in the Lonesome October as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"One of Zelazny's most delightful books: Jack the Ripper's dog Snuff narrates a mad game of teams to cause or prevent armageddon." NEIL GAIMAN

All is not what it seems.

In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff - gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.

Some have come…


Book cover of Dark Harvest

Gordon B. White Why did I love this book?

Every Halloween night, all the teenage boys of this rural Everytown, USA take to the streets to hunt down the October Boy – a murderous scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern head. Killing him is the winner’s one-way ticket out of this dead-end town, but the October Boy has his own secrets and game to play… I love how Dark Harvest captures the autumnal atmosphere not just in the change of seasons, but in the evocation of this dying town. Rather than wistful or elegiac, though, Partridge summons up youthful rebellious discontent and lets it rip across the page. A vibrant mix of horror, coming of-age, and 90s action flick, all delivered in a hard-boiled prose that never tips into parody, this Bram Stoker Award-winner is not your standard Halloween fare.

By Norman Partridge,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Dark Harvest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It is Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol' Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death. Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end…


Book cover of Through the Woods

Gordon B. White Why did I love this book?

This graphic novel collection of horror stories is the perfect companion to ease you through the final stages of autumn and into winter. I’ve been a huge fan of author/artist Emily Carroll since her earliest webcomics, and this book perfectly captures how her gorgeous art and inventive use of space combine with poetic prose to invoke the feeling of the creepiest fairytales and fables. Carroll has a real mastery of the horror of the unknown and unexplained, and her stories provide no easy answers or cheap twists but instead linger long after the end. Even years later, I still get a shiver from my favorite, “His Face All Red”! The settings and moods capture the slow creep of autumn into winter’s chill and the darkness beyond. 

By Emily Carroll,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Through the Woods as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.'

Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss.

These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll.

Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there...


Explore my book 😀

As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions

By Gordon B. White,

Book cover of As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions

What is my book about?

A genderfluid witch in a small Southern town prepares for their Black Cotillion coming out party. Singing worms converge on an old woman and young boy living in a house buried deep underground. Revenge drives an angry spirit through possession after possession in the bare-knuckle boxing ring. A father and son’s canoe trip to one of the world’s “soft places” culminates in an ecstatic encounter with the Weird.

These are just a few of the fifteen stories contained in As Summer’s Mask Slips and Other Disruptions, Gordon B. White’s debut collection of horror and Weird fiction. The recipient of a Publishers Weekly starred review, stories in this collection have appeared in The Best Horror of the Year and a Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology.

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Curiosity and the Cat

By Martin Treanor,

Book cover of Curiosity and the Cat

Martin Treanor Author Of The Logos Prophecy

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Illustrator Reader Jester Quantum physics buff

Martin's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.

Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history. 

An ominous tale of faerie folk.

Curiosity and the Cat

By Martin Treanor,

What is this book about?

Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.

Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history.

An ominous tale of faerie folk.



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