By Her Hand, She Draws You Down

Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist Best New Horror Selection Cath, a beautiful young sidewalk artist, is driven by a mysterious hunger that feeds from the portraits she draws of her victims. Joe loves Cath still, but as Cath’s hunger grows, so does Joe’s fear--fear that one day she may draw him down. "The best of the bunch...a haunting variant on the vampire legend with an understated and brutal ending." —Publishers Weekly “Highlights among the stories include Douglas Smith's delightfully creepy ‘By Her Hand, She Draws You Down,’ about a young woman who is driven by a mysterious hunger to sketch people and steal their life force as her horrified lover looks on.” —Booklist "I was reminded of the tone of some of Harlan Ellison’s best work...where many of the protagonists seemed to be the unwitting victims of dark, irrational forces.” —The Fix “...a title that rules. ...psychic vampirism, creepy street performers, the horrors of small coastal towns. And Smith took the story somewhere that surprised me. The twist is sustained.” —Jay Lake, Tangent Online “...examines vampirism from an unusual and genuinely horrifying angle.” —SF Site Review "Well done and with a nice twist..." —Fantasy Book Critic "Haunting passages and scenes..." —Strange Horizons “...a chilling, weird tale of an artist with a great hunger.” —The Haunted Weblog “Familiar subjects...dealt with in an original form and with a final turn that will surprise you.” — Bibliopolis