For Edmonton book lovers, Halloween comes early with 'Ghost Box'

An Alberta publisher has assembled a collection of chilling tales guaranteed to give you goosebumps, just in time for Halloween.

The Ghost Box IIis a collection of individually bound short stories, not recommended reading if you want to sleep without going bump in the night.

'A horror nut'

The collection promises fewerapples, more razor blades this spooky season.

"Literary razor blades," said Michael Hingston, co-founder of Edmonton-based Hingston and Olsen Publishing.

It's the second iteration of the collection they've published, curated by comedian/horror aficionado Patton Oswalt.

"He's a horror nut," Hingston said in an interview Wednesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

"He's been reading this stuff since he was a teenager. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of it. And he's always seeking out new things that he hasn't read before."

The Ghost Box includes short stories from a dozen authors, including Joe Hill, GertrudeAthertonand Stephen King.

I'm a wimp so they all work their magic on me.- MichaelHingston

The Los Angeles Timesdescribed the inaugural collection as a "a creepy black box full of even creepier ghost stories."

That's a fair critique, according toHingston, who admits he's a recent convert to the horror genre.

"I'm a wimp, so they all work their magic on me,"Hingstonsaid.

• Short Story Advent Calendargives book lovers a yuletide reading list

The spooky literary project has some unlikely origins. Hingston said Oswalt pitched him the idea after the comedian stumbledacross his first publishing project,the short story advent calendar an annual collection of 24 short stories intended to help readers count down the days of Christmas.

In 2015, Hingston and business partner Natalie Olsen published their first edition of the yuletide collection, which has become a holiday tradition among devotees.

Hingston hopes his holiday readers will give horror a chance.

"It's not there just to gross you out," he said. "When you read a horror story, you know you're going to get scared. But along the way to getting scared, they touch on a whole lot of different things.

"Horror stories are great metaphors."