Cemetery Dance Publications

Stephen King selects Old Flames by Jack Ketchum as one of his 10 Best Books of 2008!

Stephen King, writing in Entertainment Weekly, has selected Old Flames by Jack Ketchum as one of his 10 Best Books of 2008. Here's what he had to say: "Remember Glenn Close as the bunny-boiler scorned in Fatal Attraction? Raise that to the 10th power and you get Dora Welles, the crazy ex-girlfriend in this short chiller."

Featuring a special afterword by the author explaining the origins of the story!

Excerpt from the story:
So here I am again, she thought. This is far too familiar.

There was pain of course but she embraced the pain as she always did. He was big and she was not, so she could count on pain with him. Tears and sweat were pretty much the same thing anyway she thought. She was opposed to neither.

She wanted—maybe even needed this time—to see his face. A face could speak what the body didn’t. His body told her he was close to coming. As was she. But that was all it told her. A glance over her shoulder was insufficient. Especially in the dark. And Owen insisted on his bedroom dark the way he insisted on taking her from behind.

But here in this room on this bed while he filled her he was emptying her too. She could feel a winding down. She fought that. Pushed back hard into his tight flat belly as though the slap of impact flesh against flesh and his own sounds, his grunts and moans and harsh breathing could meld into an invisible wind that might whirl around and enter her again through her open mouth and ears and eyes.

Under the Dome
the epic new novel by Stephen King!
1,500+ Pages In Manuscript Form!

As several of our customers noted, Scribner has officially added the new Stephen King novel, Under the Dome, to their 2009 publication list, so as requested we're adding it to our online store for your ordering convenience!

This is an epic novel die hard Stephen King fans first heard about in the 1980s, when King tried twice to write it without much luck, but apparently he took another shot at it earlier this year and "it's going to end up being comparable to IT and The Stand in length at the rate it's going."

King read from the beginning of the first draft at "The Three Kings" reading event at the Library of Congress back in April and he described the novel as "very, very long." The manuscript for Under the Dome was finished in August and it reportedly came in twice as long as Duma Key, at over 1,500 pages, and "deals with some of the same issues that The Stand does, but in a more allegorical way."

Obviously this is going to be the kind of epic King novel we haven't seen in a long time, so use the link below to place your preorder today!

(Since this is another publisher's book and we expect it to have a higher than normal shipping charge, we have to charge $8 for US shipping. No coupons, discounts, Gift Certificates, Savings Certificates, or store credit of any kind can be used on this special offer due to the low discount we'll be receiving.)

World Fantasy Award winner Cemetery Dance Publications, critically acclaimed artist Glenn Chadbourne, and New York Times bestselling author Stephen King are proud to announce The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two). This second venture into the world of Stephen King's stories contains even more artwork and detailed illustrations that could only have come from the inspired hands of artist Glenn Chadbourne!

The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two) continues where the first acclaimed volume left off: combining classic tales of terror from the mind of Stephen King with the haunting artwork of Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne. This unique book displays an incredible and original blend of King's words with Chadbourne's one-of-a-kind illustrations: text and artwork brought together to tell these chilling stories in a whole new way.

As you venture into this new volume of The Secretary of Dreams you'll discover "The Monkey," "Strawberry Spring," and "In the Deathroom" presented on beautifully designed oversized pages. These stories are heavily illustrated with spot artwork, full page illustrations, and even multiple-page art spreads. Dozens of painstakingly crafted illustrations bring King's characters to life.

Also within this collection are "Gray Matter," "One for the Road," and "Nona," which appear for the very first time in full graphic format as imagined by Chadbourne. Not one word from King's original manuscripts has been left out. Instead Chadbourne presents the stories through a variety of techniques: traditional paragraphs of text merged directly into the artwork, handwritten bursts of dialogue to convey emotion, and even multiple fonts to match the mood of each scene.

Like the first volume, The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two) is a new collection of Stephen King's greatest short stories presented in a way never before imagined. Glenn Chadbourne has spent over two years creating the artwork within these pages, digging deep inside the text to make each of these classic tales burst off the page.

An original Cemetery Dance Publications publishing event, this deluxe oversized hardcover edition is the World's First Edition and there are no other editions planned of this title at this time. As with the first volume (of which there are only a few hundred copies remaining), we will not be selling this title at a discount, and we will not fill any orders for distributors who will be selling it at a discount. Amazon wanted over 2,000 copies of Volume One (which would have sold it out on publication), but The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two) will only be available directly from Cemetery Dance and a few independent booksellers we've worked with for years. Click here to place your order today!

About the Book:
Just in time for Halloween – the first-ever collection of brand-new poems written expressly for the Orange-and-Black holiday, edited by horror master Al Sarrantonio!

Halloween: New Poems contains original poetic gems by some of today's best horror writers – including the first poems ever published (a total of six!) by Joe R. Lansdale.

Along with Lansdale find such horror greats as Tom Disch, Gary Braunbeck, T.M. Wright, Elizabeth Massie, Tom Piccirilli, Steve Rasnic Tem and Brian Freeman, as well as poetry by Al Sarrantonio himself.

This is a book you will take down from your shelf every Halloween season – a real keepsake and one-of-a-kind volume, with a beautiful cover by Alan Clark and fantastic interior art by Keith Minnion.

Halloween: New Poems is sure to become a collectible – and for those who want a real treasure there's a lettered edition of only 26 copies signed by Al Sarrantonio himself. So be sure to order your copy today!

About the Editor:
Al Sarrantonio has been called a "master anthologist" by Booklist. He is the author of more than forty books, including novels, short story collections (including Halloween and Other Seasons, currently available from Cemetery Dance Publications) and anthologies such as 999, Redshift, and Flights.

Note for the 2008 Book Club: This title will not be one of your selections, so don't wait to place your orders!

After twenty years, the classic novel of lycanthropy by horror master Al Sarrantonio is back in print, in a beautiful new limited signed edition.

A fast-paced horror-thriller in the tradition of Richard Matheson's I am Legend, Moonbane explodes with a riveting opening reminiscent of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, and never let's up for a moment.

Moonbane has been hailed as "A great fast read with a super ending." (Rocky Mountain News; also one of their top book choices of the year); "Unabashedly violent...a raw power...that holds the reader's interest until the final pages." (Mystery Scene); "A great evening's read" (Charles de Lint); "A stylish B-movie of a novel. Fast-paced and poetic." (Joe R. Lansdale).

With a new Preface by the author, and with a cover by Alan M. Clark and beautiful interior artwork by Keith Minnion, Moonbane is published here for the first time in hardcover — in an edition that is bound to become a treasured collectible.

Praise and Reviews:
"A novel with real style, informed by a wry and sometimes chilling point of view. Moonbane is not quite like anything you've read before!"
— Ed Gorman, author of Rough Cut

"Al Sarrantonio's Moonbane is a stylist B-movie of a novel. Fast paced and poetic, and scary in the old-fashioned sense of such fine B-chillers as The Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie."
— Joe R. Lansdale

Note for the 2008 Book Club: This title will be one of your selections, but you can still take advantage of this special offer if you want!

Afterlife
by Douglas Clegg
Surprise Announcement! New Signed Limited Edition In-Stock & Shipping Now!

"Clegg is the best horror writer of the post-Stephen King generation."
— Bentley Little

A school for special children. An unsolved murder. A terrified widow. A dream of blood and lost souls. A stranger with an unspeakable secret. It all comes together in the afterlife.

Praise & Reviews:
"Starred Review. Stoker-winner Clegg (The Hour Before Dark) has an uncanny ability to frighten readers by chronicling everyday characters' perilous descents into their own private hells. Julie Hutchinson mentally unravels after the brutal and mysterious murder of her husband, Jeff, in this stand-alone tale full of subtle suspense, inventive twists and credible characters. Julie has erotic nightmares and hideous hallucinations while slowly trying to piece together the decades-old puzzle involving her husband's past work with Project Daylight, a now-defunct privately funded school that conducted experiments on young children with ESP. Eventually, with the assistance of her mother, daughter and stepson, as well as Jeff's ex-wife and Michael Diamond, a popular TV psychic, Julie unearths bizarre secrets about her family that lead her to an underground society of scientific misfits. The book's final sentence is guaranteed to unnerve readers and leave them wanting more."
—Publishers Weekly

About the Author:
Douglas Clegg is the bestselling and award-winning author of more than 20 novels. His recent fiction has included Isis, Mr. Darkness, The Machinery of Night, and Wild Things: Four Tales. An online pioneer, Clegg launched the first e-serial novel on the internet in 1999, making world history with his book, Naomi, which subsequently came out in both hardcover and paperback. He continues to offer free fiction, serials, screensavers and more to the subscribers of his free newsletter at http://www.DouglasClegg.com -- just look for the newsletter page. Clegg lives in New England with his legally-sanctioned better half, Raul Silva, and their menagerie of animals: a dog, a cat, and two rabbits.

The Woods Are Dark (The Original, Uncut Version)
Richard Laymon's Long Lost Second Novel As You've NEVER Read It Before!

The Woods Are Dark (The Original, Uncut Version)
by Richard Laymon

Featuring a special introduction by Kelly Laymon explaining the history of the manuscript, how this version came to exist, and why this edition is more than just 50 pages of deleted scenes added back in, but instead a totally different novel you've never read before!

About the Novel:
Neala and her friend Sherri only wanted to do a little backpacking through the woods. Little did they know they would soon be shackled to a dead tree, waiting for Them to arrive. The Dills family thought the small motor lodge in the quiet town of Barlow seemed quaint and harmless enough. Until they, too, found themselves shackled to trees in the middle of the night, while They approached, hungry for human flesh....

When this classic novel was first published in 1981, it was heavily cut, with nearly fifty pages removed. What remained was rewritten by both Laymon and a Warner Books line editor. Now, for the first time ever, the missing text has been completely restored—along with Laymon's original words and vision—and the novel can finally be read the way it was intended.

An excerpt from Kelly Laymon's special introduction to this edition:
"The version you're about to read was the one that was first submitted to Warner Books... Those of you who have read the Warner edition will notice that the two books are very different after, say, Chapter 8 or so. How did I do it? Especially since my father said it couldn't be done? I'm not sure. It was all there. But the pieces weren't in the same place. There were boxes of thirty year old manuscripts and I had played with the various drafts many times over the last six or seven years. I always believed it could be done. I sure had false starts though. I had to get to know each draft of the manuscript. Not by the content of the pages, but by the pages themselves. I evaluated them based on page numbering styles and other forms of continuity. I didn't want to read any draft until I had settled on what I believed was the true manuscript...."

Click here to read more or to place your order!