Cover Reveal
The Cursed Earth: D.T. Neal
Due October 4th 2022
Small towns always guard their secrets, and the quaint Pennsylvania tourist town of Lynchburg is no exception. When members of a Pittsburgh gang retreat to the outskirts of the town in an ill-fated bid to hide from the authorities, they—along with a trio of industrial spies, a would-be celebrity chef, and a happy-go-lucky band of unwary festivalgoers—find themselves set upon by the dark forces behind the town’s 50th annual Fungus Festival.
Set deep in the forests and hills of Pennsylvania, THE CURSED EARTH hurls readers headlong into the heart of a cosmic folk horror nightmare in a town ruled by the enigmatic La Signora Grigia—the psychedelic Grey Lady—where gangsters, partygoers, investigators, and sinister cultists clash in the midst of the wild festival atmosphere. Who is the Grey Lady, and can outsiders ever hope to survive for long in Lynchburg?
Nosetouch Press to Publish D.T. Neal’s Folk Horror Novel, The Cursed Earth, on October 4, 2022
[Pittsburgh] Nosetouch Press continues to cultivate its folk horror offerings with the publication of D.T. Neal’s latest novel, The Cursed Earth.
The novel, set in the fictional town of Lynchburg, Pennsylvania, centers around a plot by some gang members hiding out from the police in the nearby gated community of Hidden Hollow. They are trying to extort the Nightcap Mushroom Farm, an influential-yet-enigmatic local employer located outside of Lynchburg, ahead of the annual Lynchburg Fungus Festival, a major event in the region that brings tourists from around the world.
“Mushroom farming is huge in Pennsylvania,” said Neal. “It leads the nation in mushroom farming, and I thought it would be the perfect setting for a unique sort of folk horror novel. Central Pennsylvania is rich with mystery and the sort of vibe that can really bring out a strong, resonant sort of folk horror story that keeps to the essence of those kinds of stories while unearthing new ideas, as well.”
D.T. Neal is an American author based in Chicago and co-publisher of Nosetouch Press. He has been published in Albedo 1, Ireland’s premier fantasy and science fiction magazine, and won second place in their Aeon Award in 2008. He received an Honorable Mention in the 2009 Best Horror of the Year (edited by Ellen Datlow) for his short stories “Aegis” and “Rotgut”. He also was Runner-up in the 2013 Chicago Reader Best New Novel by a Chicagoan for his vampire novel, Suckage, and was shortlisted in the 2012 Aeon Award for “The Day of the Nightfish.”
“We’re excited to see what D.T. Neal conjures up this time,” said Christine Scott, co-publisher and creative director at Nosetouch Press. “After the ongoing success of our well-received Fiends in the Furrows folk horror anthologies, Nosetouch Press is delving deeper into folk horror, and The Cursed Earth will bring that focus front and center.”
Nosetouch Press is an independent book publisher tandemly based in Chicago and Pittsburgh, with a commitment to bringing classical book design and excellent fiction to readers everywhere.
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