Sorry for the late notice, but we wanted to let you know that Richard Chizmar will be speaking at the Jarrettsville Branch of the Harford County Public Library system TONIGHT — Wednesday, 10/12/2011 — at 6:30 PM.

The topic of discussion will be Cemetery Dance Publications and the publishing business in general. There will be a Q&A following the presentation. This will be a great chance for our customers and any local writers to meet Richard in person since he rarely attends conventions these days!

Although the library has a registration process for attending these events, registration is not required.  Walk-ins are welcome.  That said, Richard was thinking of bringing some freebies with him, so if you do register, it’ll help him know how much is needed so no one misses out.

If you’re thinking of attending, here are two webpages of interest:

The library’s website page for the speaking program

More information about the library and driving directions (at the bottom of the page)

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, William Peter Blatty, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Frank Darabont, Brian Keene, Ronald Kelly, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, Richard Matheson, Kirby McCauley, William F. Nolan, Michael Slade, Peter Straub, Thomas Tessier, Chet Williamson, F. Paul Wilson, Douglas E. Winter, and many others!

Hi Folks!

Today we’re pleased to announce we’ve finally cataloged all of our replacement dust jackets from every book we’ve ever published (plus a few from other presses!) and we’re now selling them on our site! This is something people have been asking us for years, so be sure to place your order sooner than later because most supplies are VERY limited!

Why might you want a replacement dust jacket? Easy! Sometimes a collector needs to replace the DJ that came with their book (which will improve the value!) and sometimes customers ask about purchasing just the DJ so they can hang it on the wall because they like the artwork so much!  (Some collectors have even been known to matte and frame the DJ as a true work of art!)

These DJs are from books by a “Who’s Who” in the genre: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, William Peter Blatty, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Jay Bonansinga, Gary Brandner, Gary A. Braunbeck, Kealan Patrick Burke, Dominick Cancilla, Hugh B. Cave, Richard Chizmar, Simon Clark, Douglas Glegg, Nancy A. Collins, Geoff Cooper, Justin Cronin, Peter Crowter, Frank Darabont, Terry Dowling, Dennis Etchison, Brian James Freeman, Robin Furth, Mick Garris, Ray Garton, Christopher Golden, Ed Gorman, Beth Gwinn, Rick Hautala, Brian Hodge, Stephen Jones, Brian Keene, Ronald Kelly, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Laymon, Tim Lebbon, Edward Lee, Michael Marano, Graham Masterton, Richard Matheson, Kirby McCauley, Thomas F. Monteleone, James A. Moore, David Morrell, Robert Morrish, William F. Nolan, Norman Partridge, John Pelan, Tom Piccirilli, Gary Raisor, Al Sarrantonio, John Shirley, John Skipp, Michael Slade, Peter Straub, Thomas Tessier, Chet Williamson, F. Paul Wilson, Douglas E. Winter, and many others!

These dust jackets are sold First Come, First Served while supplies last and some of these are extremely limited!

Read more or place your order while our supplies last!

The Cemetery Dance “Will Tweet For Books” contest is now over!  Thanks to everyone who participated!  Here are the names of the 10 winners, who were contacted today about redeeming their prize:

1) Richard T.
2) Julie S.
3) Adrian T.
4) Michael F.
5) George J.
6) Michael P.
7) Laura
8 ) Gregg K.
9) Larry F.
10) Rebecca D.

Congrats to all of the winners and thanks again to everyone who took part!

Vacation by Matthew J. Costello
A New Novel Inspired By The Classic Cemetery Dance Short Story!

“Costello is a master at lean, swift pacing. I read this book in three big gulps.”
— Jack Ketchum

Hi Folks!

Today we’re pleased to announce Vacation by Matthew J. Costello, which we’ll be publishing as a signed Limited Edition hardcover with a print run of just 550 copies and a Deluxe Lettered Edition of just 26 copies! Both of these editions are already well past the 50% sold out point, so we expect this title to be hard to find on the secondary market down the road!

About the Book:
In the near future after a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear . . . something even more deadly happens. Groups of humans around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These “Can Heads” grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT-style police protection become absolutely necessary in order to live.

After a Can Head attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded, Jack takes his wife and kids on a much-needed vacation. Far up north, to a camp called Paterville where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake, and pretend that the world isn’t going to hell.

But the Can Heads are never far away, and nothing is quite what it seems in Paterville…

SPECIAL BONUS: This special edition includes the original short story that inspired the novel!

Read more or place your order while the signed editions last!

If you’ve read Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King, you know this is a book with a really dark heart, which made deciding on a cover image and designing that cover a serious challenge.

A lot of collectors never get to see “behind the scenes” of the creation of a Limited Edition book, so Brian James Freeman has written an essay about the cover artwork and design for this Stephen King book fcame to be.

He’s also posted several dozen images including the several versions of the cover artwork and ALL of cover designs we tried, along with information about why we made the decisions we made at each stage.

Visit The Stephen King Book Covers That Might Have Been to read the rest!

Hi Folks!

We’re pleased to report that we’ll be getting a limited supply of Blood Harvest by long-time Cemetery Dance favorite James A. Moore, which will be published this Halloween by Earthling Press!

About the Book:

Five years ago, Jason Soulis experimented on the town of Black Stone Bay, creating an army of vampires for the sole purpose of seeing which ones would survive and if the creatures could evolve. Five years later, his experiments are bearing dark, bloody fruit. A new breed of monster has come from the ashes of the old, a deadlier predator with a far greater ability to kill and destroy whatever it touches. Black Stone Bay was wounded before, but the infection left behind has festered and the darkness is spreading faster than anyone has noticed, because this time the evil is better at hiding.

Maggie Preston was one of Soulis’s victims, a college-aged girl who has become something far darker. She’s fed her urges and kept her secrets with the aid of her lover and protector, but that relationship is fraying, and the hungers she’s suppressed are growing stronger and the family she has protected in the past has fallen victim to the new evil that Soulis unwittingly unleashed.

Five years have passed, and the town of BlackStone Bay has recovered from the horrors of the past, just in time to get caught in the crossfire of the undead and a new, virulent darkness.

Sometimes the devil you know is your only hope of salvation.

Read more or place your order while our limited supplies last!

Four Legs in the Morning
by Norman Prentiss

Hi Folks!

Today we’re very pleased to announce Four Legs in the Morning by Norman Prentiss, a brand new signed Limited Edition in our acclaimed Cemetery Dance Signature Series line! This book is already rolling at the printer and will be published next month, so don’t wait around to place your order! Many of our Signature Series titles sell out before publication and given Norman’s growing following, this tiny print run of just 550 copies for the Limited Edition won’t last long!

PLEASE NOTE: Both editions are now more than 50% sold out due to strong demand from collectors.

Four Legs in the Morning (Cemetery Dance Signature Series #9)
by Norman Prentiss

Featured Artist: Steven C. Gilberts

About the Book:
Dr. Sibley, long-standing Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department at Graysonville University, has outlasted many of his detractors. In this collection of three linked stories, mysterious consequences await those who defy or disappoint him:

• a new colleague, whose avant-guard theories offend Sibley’s traditional critical sensibilities, uncovers a new answer to an ancient riddle (“Four Legs in the Morning”)

• a student plagiarist learns to regret his dishonesty (“Flannel Board”)

• a young administrator attempts to curtail some of Sibley’s power, until he discovers the fate of his predecessor (“The Mask of Tragedies”)

All of these characters eventually learn — sometimes too late — that Dr. Sibley may be far more powerful than he seems.

Click here to read more or to place your order!

THIS SPECIAL HAS ENDED!

“Ransom’s style mimics that of the early Stephen King and Dan Simmons’s horror fiction.”
— Library Journal

Today we’re pleased to announce Killing Ghost by Christopher Ransom, which we’ll be publishing next year as a Trade Hardcover Edition, a signed Limited Edition hardcover with a print run of just 350 copies, and a Deluxe Lettered Edition of just 26 copies!

Killing Ghost
by Christopher Ransom

About the Book:
James Hastings once enjoyed a lucrative but hollow career pretending to be someone else. But when his wife Stacey dies tragically behind the Los Angeles mansion she so lovingly restored, James finds himself alone, spiraling into grief, and haunted by a familiar menace that is not ready for him to move on.

Salvation comes in the form of Annette Copeland, a beautiful widow who moves into the house next door. James and Annette bond quickly over the spousal losses they have suffered, but as their unconventional romance escalates, Annette begins to exhibit uncanny manners and desires that belong to Stacey. Concerned friends and former lovers who try to come between them meet with increasingly diabolical fates, and James becomes convinced Annette’s cosmetic changes are only the beginning of a horrific yet alluring case of possession.

Driven to isolation far outside of Los Angeles, James and his unstable companion return to the deserted gated community of Sheltering Palms, where evidence of Annette’s family tragedy is waiting for him, and James’s investigations unwillingly draw the attentions of two dangerous personalities: Rick Butterfield, a delusional policeman who knows Annette’s history and still pines for her; and Aaron, a 10-year-old boy who wanders the desolate subdivision nightly, waiting for his parents to come home.

With every attempt to atone for his failings as a husband plunging James deeper into a nightmare struggle for survival, he must finally confront the ghost of the man he used to be, the origin of his resurrected other half, and the true face of the evil that has brought them together.

Killing Ghost is at once a descent into psychological terror, a midnight meditation of the addictive nature of love, and a novel that redefines the ghost story for a culture obsessed with dark entertainments.

Previously published in the UK as The Haunting of James Hastings, this Cemetery Dance hardcover edition brings the novel to the US for the first time.

Read more or place your order while the signed editions last!

Since we launched a lot of titles at the same time, we’d like to draw your attention to a few of them at a time when we have space. Today’s featured eBook is…

Invisible Fences
by Norman Prentiss

About the eBook:
Do you see the point of the story, Nathan? We all cut parts of ourselves away, but we never lose them. Things stay with us—souvenirs with memories attached. We can’t always choose what to keep, what to throw away.

Nathan’s parents devised cautionary tales for him and his sister—gruesome stories about predatory cars racing along the “Big Street” at one end of their neighborhood, or dope fiends lurking in the woods behind their house and ready to plunge hypodermics into the skin of foolish young trespassers. These stories served their purpose during Nathan’s gullible childhood, essentially constructing an invisible fence around the yard and keeping the boy close to home where he’d be safe.

Such barriers are not so easy to discard in later life. As an adult, Nathan no longer believes his parents’ stories, and yet they still confine him. He lives cautiously, avoiding serious relationships, avoiding risk. But despite his efforts, something from his parents’ cautionary tales threatens to creep beneath that invisible border…and the enclosed yard might not be as safe and secure as it always seemed…

You can purchase from the Cemetery Dance website or:

Hi Folks!

Today we have a few production updates for anyone who hasn’t had a chance to swing by our Production Status page on the website:

It: The 25th Anniversary Special Limited Edition by Stephen King

The interior design is now set and the signature sheets are with Stephen King for signing. We hope to send everything to printer in September if all goes as planned. The Gift Edition is now more than 75% sold out.

It: The 25th Anniversary Edition Limited Edition Artwork Portfolio

The signature sheets have been sent to the artists. The prototype for the portfolio itself has arrived and we’re making a few small production tweaks, but it looks incredible. One box of art prints was damaged during shipping from the printer, but they have been pulped and will be reprinted before the artists are done signing the signature sheets. This is now more than 80% sold out.

Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke:

At the printer and on schedule for a fall publication.

Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child:

This book has been sent to the printer and is on track for a fall publication date.

Four Ghosts (Cemetery Dance Book Club 3.0 Exclusive)

This title is being proofread one last time and then it will be ready for the printer.

Four Killers (Cemetery Dance Exclusive Collectors Set #2):

The reprints have been scanned, one of the originals has arrived, and the other original is in the works.

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette:

We’ve added the exclusive introduction by Bill Hader to our file, and Stephen R. Bissette is hard at work on the exclusive artwork he is providing for this edition (including the cover). After that artwork is added to the book, this one will be ready for the printer.

Smoke and Mirrors edited by Richard Chizmar:

The book is all set for the printer now and we’re just waiting on the last TWO authors to sign the signature sheets. We’re hoping they’ll be able to sign during the next few months as their schedules allow.

The Mailman by Bentley Little:

Undergoing one last proofread. The author has not had a chance to sign the signature sheets yet, but we are still hoping to have this published at the end of the year.

Cemetery Dance #65 (unannounced):

This is another of our “Special Author” issues and it is now being proofread so we can send it to the printer next month.

“This book is filled with rich pleasures and textures — it reminded me of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. I highly recommend it.”
— Stephen King

New Book Announced Today!
The Dropper
by Ron McLarty

Hi Folks!

Today we’re pleased to announce The Dropper by Ron McLarty, a brand new signed Limited Edition hardcover with a print run of just 350 copies for the Limited Edition and just 52 copies for the Deluxe Lettered Edition! And because we were so blown away by this book, there will also be a trade hardcover edition for retailers and bookstores!

The Dropper
by Ron McLarty

Featuring Cover Artwork by Les Edwards

About the Book:

Some say it’s Death, Some say it’s darkness, I say it’s a game of light…

Gutsy 17-year-old Albert “Shoe” Horn is an apprentice plumber and part-time boxer in England in 1922, but when his mother dies, he finds himself responsible for an abusive, alcoholic father and a younger brother with special needs.

This marvelous novel follows the indomitable Shoe’s day-to-day survival with poetic grit, cynical genius, respect, and deep affection as he navigates a world full of very real characters: the gentle giant McAvy, his slave-driving boss, the Irish louts that resurrect his temper, the tempting ladies who seek him out, his hilarious plumbing clients, and the formidable “Dropper,” who Shoe fears will take away the most true thing in his life, his brother.

Find out for yourself why Stephen King proclaimed “The Dropper avoids sentimentality, but not sentiment; Shoe and his brother Bobby live and breathe” when this novel is published as a Cemetery Dance Publications exclusive next year.

Click here to read more or to place your order!

Hi Folks!

The answer to the question in the headline is simple: they’re big fans of Michael Koryta, author of So Cold the River, The Cypress House, and The Ridge.

Because we’re also big fans of Michael’s work, we’ve made special arrangements for him to SIGN and even inscribe some copies of his most recent hardcovers for our customers!

This is a very limited time offer and we’re selling these special copies for the original retail price — NO MARK-UP!

If you’d like your book(s) personally inscribed to you, please reply to your order confirmation and let Mindy know what you’d like for the inscription. Otherwise, your copy will be flat-signed by the author (which some collectors prefer anyway for collectibility reasons.)

Click on a cover to learn more about each book: