The Fifth Fedora

Stephen T. Vessels, whose untimely passing inspired the creation of The Fifth Fedora, was an author of science fiction, dark fantasy, and cross-genre literary fiction. His earliest inspirations were the horror films of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, and science fiction films like Ib Melchior’s “Journey to the Seventh Planet.” Later he encountered the legendary Modern Library anthology, “Tales of Terror and the Supernatural,” which he read in the back seat while his parents drove through Texas. In 2012 he received the Best Fiction award from the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and in 2014 was nominated for an International Thriller Award for his story Doloroso. He published The Mountain & The Vortex and Other Tales, The Door to Tireless Pursuit, and The Ruptured Firmament.