Cassilda's Song eBook

Tales inspired by Robert W. Chambers' King in Yellow Mythos

A 2016 World Fantasy Award Finalist for a Collection and Short Fiction (The Neurastheniac by Selena Chambers)

Cassilda’s Song is a collection of weird fiction and horror stories based on the King in Yellow Mythos created by Robert W. Chambers—entirely authored by women. There are no pretenders here. The Daughters of the Yellow Sign, each a titan of unmasked fire in their own right, have parted the curtains. From Hali’s deeps and Carcosa’s gloomy balconies and Styx-black towers, come their lamentations and rage and the consequences of intrigues and follies born in Oblivion. Run into their embrace. Their carriages wait to take you from shadowed rooms and cobble­stones to The Place Where the Black Stars Hang.

The 1895 release of Chambers’ best-remembered work of weird fiction was salted with nihilism and ennui, and ripe with derangement, haunting beauty, and eerie torments. Poe’s influence was present in the core tales and one could easily argue Chambers may have been influenced by the French Decadents and the disquieting transfigura­tions of the Symbolists. All this and more can be said of the works collected in this anthology. Carcosa, accursed and ancient, and cloud-misted Lake of Hali are here. The Hyades sing and the cloud waves break in these tales. The authority of Bierce’s cosmic horror is here. The talismantic Yellow Sign, and the titular ‘hidden’ King, and The Imperial Dynasty of America, will influence and alter you, as they have the accounts by these writers. Cassilda and other unreliable narrators, government-sponsored Lethal Chambers, and the many mysteries of the mythical Play, are boldly represented in these tributes to Chambers.

Have you seen the Yellow Sign?

THIS IS A DOWNLOADABLE PRODUCT IN MULTIPLE ELECTRONIC FORMATS (EPUB, MOBI, PRC). 

Selected and edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. Cover art by Steve Santiago. 260 pages.

What the Critics Say

"Featuring a who’s who of not just the top women writing weird fiction today but some of the very best authors and stories of the year period."—Scott Nicolay, The Outer Dark podcast.

"2015 was a good year for horror and weird fiction anthologies. Cassilda’s Song is an able demonstration of why. It’s also a pleasant, if macabre, signal that the field is flourishing.... The table of contents is exceptional not for the fact that it’s composed entirely of women, but rather for the high level of quality."—Laird Barron, Locus.

"As Chambers’ stories and the purported apocryphal play revolve around madness induced by contact with the King in Yellow, so too do the stories in this anthology… all of the stories in the anthology are well written and interesting, and you’re certain to find a favorite or several amongst the bunch."—Mad Scientist Journal.

"STAFF PICK - 18 disturbing tales by 18 Daughters of the Yellow Sign"—Powell's Bookstore, Portland OR.

ISBN-10: 1568820828
ISBN-13: 9781568820828

Stories Included:

• Black Stars on Canvas, a Reproduction in Acrylic by Damien Angelica Walters
• She Will Be Raised a Queen by E. Catherine Tobler
• Yella by Nicole Cushing
• Yellow Bird by Lynda E. Rucker
• Exposure by Helen Marshall
• Just Beyond Her Dreaming by Mercedes M. Yardley
• In the Quad of Project 327 by Chesya Burke
• Stones, Maybe by Ursula Pflug
• Les Fleurs Du Mal by Allyson Bird
• While The Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder
• Old Tsah-Hov by Anya Martin
• The Neurastheniac by Selena Chambers
• Dancing The Mask by Ann K. Schwader
• Family by Maura McHugh
• Pro Patria! by Nadia Bulkin
• Her Beginning is Her End is Her Beginning by E. Catherine Tobler & Damien Angelica Walters
• Grave-Worms by Molly Tanzer
• Strange is the Night by S.P. Miskowski