King Blood: A Brand New SIGNED Limited Edition by Simon Clark! In-Stock & Shipping Now!

Hi Folks!

King BloodToday we’re very pleased to announce King Blood by Simon Clark has arrived at our warehouse and we’ve started filling the preorders! There will not be a lot of copies left after the retailers are taken care of, so please don’t wait to order if you’re interested in adding this massive end of the world novel to your collection!

About the Book:
Warm
Rick Kennedy feels pretty good. Tonight there’s going to be the party of the summer. The brother he hasn’t seen for years has just flown in, and this is the night Rick plans to do something about Kate Robinson — the beautiful girl he just can’t get out of his mind. In the pleasant village of Fairburn the evening air is warm…

Warmer
And this is the night that Rick encounters the mysterious stranger in the woods.

Hot
Soon he wakes to find 30,000 refugees choking the streets. People are running for their lives. Only there’s nowhere to run.

Hotter
The ground heats up inexorably. Roads melt. Cities erupt into flame. Lakes boil. Pockets of natural gas explode like nuclear bombs and geysers of scalding water flood through whole communities.

Burning
Survivors search desperately for refuge in a landscape burning forever hotter beneath their feet. But they have yet to confront the Grey Men — and the demons inside themselves…

About the Author:
Simon Clark lives in Doncaster, England with his family. When his first novel, Nailed by the Heart, made it through the slush pile in 1994 he banked the advance and embarked upon his dream of becoming a full-time writer. His subsequent novels include Blood Crazy, Darkness Demands, Death’s Dominion, and The Night of the Triffids, which continues the story of Wyndham’s classic The Day of the Triffids. His revival of the wickedly ambulatory Triffid plants won the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for best novel. He also created and co-presented “Winter Chills” for the BBC TV.

Click here to read more or to place your order before supplies run out!

Picking the Bones by Brian Hodge: Starred Publishers Weekly Review!

Hi Folks!

Picking the Bones

If you haven’t ordered your copy of Picking the Bones by Brian Hodge, you don’t want to wait because Publishers Weekly just weighed in and gave the book a much coveted STARRED REVIEW and they had nothing but great things to say about Hodge’s new collection!

What does this mean for you, the reader or collector? Here’s what happens when our books get a starred review: hundreds of “purchase orders” from book distributors, booksellers, and libraries start pouring into our office… but because we print Limited Editions, we only have so many copies to sell and we can’t fill all of the orders!

Picking the Bones was already headed for very low stock levels due to strong preorder demand and we don’t want our direct customers don’t miss out. We will do everything we can to fill your order if you order through our website this week, but next week we’ll begin filling distributor orders, so the rest of the copies could go very quickly!

Please Note: If you ordered from a big online retailer or bookseller, we can’t guarantee their orders will get filled before we run out of copies. Do NOT depend on one of the large booksellers if you really want this title in your collection. (All of our usual indie retailers are getting their copies if they’re up-to-date on their invoices, so don’t worry if you ordered from them.)

Here’s just a little bit of this terrific review:

PW Star Hodge explores the nature of humankind’s deepest fears and worst failings in his eclectic fourth dark fiction collection. Eloquent, intensely intimate, and infused with existential angst, each of the 17 stories packs a powerful thematic punch… The diversity and quality of stories will more than satisfy longtime horror and dark fantasy fans, and will have new readers hastily seeking out Hodge’s earlier works.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

You can read the rest on our website, but don’t wait too long to place your order because this Signed Limited Edition is going fast!

Click here to read more or to place your order before supplies run out!

Island Funeral by Keith Minnion: Surprise In-Stock Signed Limited Edition Chapbook!

Island Funeral

Hi Folks!

Today we’re pleased to announce Island Funeral, a signed Limited Edition color cover chapbook by Keith Minnion, which is already in-stock and ready to ship!

 

Featuring cover artwork by Steve Gilberts, we’ve priced this one at just $12 to make it a real bargain!

PLEASE NOTE: ALTHOUGH IT IS ALREADY IN-STOCK, THIS ITEM QUALIFIES FOR FREE US SHIPPING FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Free US Shipping

About the Chapbook:
“I want to be buried at home. In the family plot. On the mainland.”

Promises made. Promises kept. Promises broken…

In this haunting novellette, grieving widower Tim Moser finds that a wedding night vow isn’t always easy to keep — especially when his wife’s strong-willed father has other ideas. This atmospheric tale of dread explores family secrets and the strange traditions of an isolated community. It’s sure to be an instant classic.

“Island Funeral” is a signed Limited Edition color cover chapbook by Cemetery Dance favorite Keith Minnion.

Click here to read more or place your order today!

News from the Dead Zone #141

The dust jacket artwork for 11/22/63 has been revealed and is now available at this link. The design created by veteran digital artist Rex Bonomelli offers a glimpse into the epic tale that hits the shelves on November 8th 2011. There’s also a book trailer with some jazzy music here.

King’s new short story, Herman Wouk is Still Alive, can be read online at The Atlantic, along with an interview (Stephen King on the Creative Process, the State of Fiction, and More) and an editorial.

In an interview with Ain’t it Cool News, American Vampire creator Scott Snyder says that King is contributing a foreword to Volume 2, which is due out in May and leaves open the possibility that King might write for the graphic novel again in the future.

King is also contributing an introduction to a new Faber & Faber edition of The Lord of the Flies by William Golding that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Golding’s birth. Publisher Hannah Griffiths says, “We only approached him because we knew he loved the book – writers like him must get 50 requests a day. [But] he was back on email really quickly and said ‘I don’t do a lot of these but this one I’ve got to do’.” King delivered his introduction ahead of deadline, and has written about how he first came across and read Lord of the Flies as well as giving his critical perspective on the novel. “It’s quite autobiographical,” said Griffiths, who described the introduction as “beyond my wildest dreams”. There are “so many boring combos” of authors and introductions out there, she added, but King and Golding “is just the best combination of writers ever”. The book comes out in the UK in August.

On the Dark Tower movie/TV adaptation front, Mark Verheiden has signed on to co-write the NBC TV series with Akiva Goldsman. Verheiden’s TV credits include HeroesSmallville, and Battlestar Galactica.

Mark these dates on your calendar: April 4 – May 13, 2012. That is the date of the recently announced run of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA.  “In keeping with the Alliance’s tradition of producing new American musicals, the company will produce the world premiere of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a chilling new musical with music and lyrics by John Mellencamp and book by Stephen King, as the closing show of the Alliance Stage Series season set for spring, 2012. Based on a true story, one of the world’s most popular authors and one of America’s most honored musicians have created a riveting Southern gothic musical fraught with mystery, tragedy, and ghosts of the past, along with a roots and blues-tinged score that is sure to leave audiences asking for more. Alliance Artistic Director Susan V. Booth directs, with musical direction provided by legendary producer T Bone Burnett. In the tiny town of Lake Belle Reve, Mississippi in 1957, a terrible tragedy took the lives of two brothers and a beautiful young girl. During the next forty years, the events of that night became the stuff of local legend. But legend is often just another word for lie. Joe McCandless knows what really happened; he saw it all. The question is whether or not he can bring himself to tell the truth in time to save his own troubled sons, and whether the ghosts left behind by an act of violence will help him – or tear the McCandless family apart forever.

Production for the second season of Haven is now underway in Nova Scotia, Canada. Vinessa Antoine has signed on for the recurring role of Evidence “Evi” Ryan. Her character is a former con artist and lover of Duke’s. Jason Priestley will also join this season to direct one episode and guest star in a four-episode story arc. The show returns on SyFy on July 15.

 

Picking the Bones by Brian Hodge In-Stock & Shipping Now!

Picking the Bones

Today we’re very pleased to announce Picking the Bones by Brian Hodge has arrived at our warehouse and we’ve started filling the preorders!

This exciting new signed Limited Edition hardcover features exquisite cover artwork by Vincent Chong and a very affordable price tag for the beginning collector, but we’re only printing 750 copies of the Limited Edition and 26 copies of the Lettered Edition of Picking the Bones, and the Lettered Edition sold out within hours of being announced and we don’t expect the Limited Edition to last long after publication!

About the Book:

Dying is easy. Living is hard.

Step back, back into the world of 1996…

“Dark fiction so numbing cold and cutting edge you better hold onto your ass with your free hand … There are no simple ‘entertainments’ or cheap grabs for the throat to be found here. Hodge is deadly serious about presenting a world where the worst punishment is the mere fact that you are aware you will probably live to see another day.”

So wrote critic Stanley Wiater about Brian Hodge’s renowned first short fiction collection, The Convulsion Factory. Three collections later, nothing has changed.

Dying is easy. Living is hard. And forces beyond your control have a bone to pick with you.

Click here to read more or to place your order before supplies run out!

Publishers Weekly has awarded Shivers VI a highly sought-after Starred Review!

Shivers 6We are very pleased to report Publishers Weekly has awarded Shivers VI a highly sought-after Starred Review! Very few books receive one of these, so it’s a huge deal to the booksellers and distributors — it really makes the book standout in the marketplace!

What does this mean for our collectors and general readers?  Well, we were already down to less than 100 copies left of the second printing, and these copies are FLYING out the door as booksellers and librarians grab whatever copies they can of this acclaimed anthology.  We have not yet decided if we’re going to do athird printing, and the turn-around time will be about six weeks if we did decide to print more copies, so we recommend you don’t wait.  Place your order today so you don’t miss out!

Here is that incredible review:

PW StarStephen King tops the list with “The Crate,” a darkly funny monster-on-the rampage tale rarely reprinted since its first publication in 1979. Lisa Tuttle’s “Bits and Pieces” is a deft and disturbing fantasia on the battle of the sexes, and Peter Straub’s novella “A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter” is a grim tale whose stand-alone incarnation was named one of 2010’s best books by PW. The other 18 stories, which include work by Glen Hirshberg, Melanie Tem, Brian Hodge, and David B. Silva, run the gamut from supernatural terror to psychological suspense, and from subtle dark fantasy to violence and gore. The uniformly high quality of writing makes this volume a must for any horror fan.”

Click here to read more or to place your order while supplies last!

11/22/63 by Stephen King: Order Your Copy of the British (UK) Edition!

11/22/63 UKMany of our collectors asked if we could get copies of the UK Hardcover Edition of King’s next book since the British editions feature completely different designs than the US editions and are traditionally printed in much smaller print runs, making them more collectible and harder to find. We checked and we will be able to get a few copies, so place your order today so you don’t miss out!

Please Note:
We’ve been asked for many years if we could make custom slipcases for the UK editions of King’s books (like we sometimes do for the US editions) and today we’re pleased to report we’ll be doing just that for 11/22/63! Scroll down for details.

About this Book:
This fall will see the publication of Stephen King’s heart-stopping new novel, a thousand page tour de force about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination, and we’re pleased to report that we’ll be getting copies for our customers!

King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong and he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best!

Click here to read more or to place your order!

Add A Special Exclusive Slipcase To Your Order To Protect Your Book!

11/22/63 UK slipcasesEven though the UK edition of 11/22/63 by Stephen King is being published by another publisher, we’ve heard from so many customers who want one of our special slipcases to protect their investment that we’ve decided to accept preorders for a custom-made slipcase for this title! This slipcase will be specially designed to match the look and feel of the UK edition, and will be sized to be an exact fit. We will only make enough slipcases to fill our preorders, so don’t wait to reserve yours!

The easiest way to add one to your purchase is by selecting the “UK Trade Hardcover with Exclusive Slipcase!” option above — you’ll also save on shipping by ordering this way! (You can order just the slipcase by itself on the 11/22/63 UK Slipcase product page.)

Don’t know what a slipcase is? That’s okay! It’s easily the best way to protect your book for generations to come. You can see some sample images of other slipcases on the product page. We’re using the same high-quality materials we have used for our previous Stephen King cases, with one color hot foil stamping. The company who makes these for us is the best in the business and you won’t find a better way to protect your investment! (If you are new to collecting, you can read more about slipcases on our Book FAQ page.)

We’re selling these special slipcases for just $24.95, making them an extremely affordable way to protect your book.  These cases will be produced after the book is published because we need a real copy of the book to get the sizing just right and your book and slipcase will ship together. We think our collectors will be very pleased with what we have in mind for these very special cases, and we don’t know how long we’ll be selling this as an option, so don’t wait to place your order!

Click here to read more or to place your order!

Shivers VI and The Painted Darkness: Second Printings Are Shipping Now!

Hi Folks!

As you know, we had to rush second printings of Shivers VI, which contains “The Crate” by Stephen King and dozens of other great stories, and The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman, which was just nominated for the Bram Stoker Award… and those second printings have arrived and are shipping now… but they’re already almost SOLD OUT due to huge demand from collectors and retailers!

We don’t know if we’re going to rush yet another printing of these books — we’ve never done a third printing of ANY edition — so if you don’t want to pay inflated prices on the second-hand market, now is the time to order your copy for your collection! Read more about each book on the product pages while supplies last: Shivers VI and The Painted Darkness.

Shivers 6
The Painted Darkness

News from the Dead Zone #140

Which artist would you like to have illustrate The Wind Through the Keyhole? You get to have your say on this subject via a poll being conducted at King’s official web site. Voting closes on April 1st, so don’t delay!

King’s 6500-word short story, “Herman Wouk is Still Alive,” will be published in the May issue of The Atlantic, on newsstands April 19 and available on the web and to subscribers a week earlier. For those unfamiliar with that name, he is the author of The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.

The official page count for the Scribner edition of 11/22/63 is 864. King first talked about this idea in Marvel Spotlight: The Dark Tower, published on January 27, 2007. It remains to be seen whether some of the ideas he discussed in that interview made it into the book.

King tells Entertainment Weekly that he is in talks to write an episode of the AMC zombie series The Walking Dead, which is executive-produced by Frank Darabont. If this comes about, it could be for season 2 or season 3, and King might share the writing with Joe Hill.

The next cycle in the Marvel adaptation of the Dark Tower is The Battle of Tull, which launches a five-issue arc in June. Eisner Award nominee Michael Lark joins the team for this series. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for Stephen King and the chance to work on the Dark Tower is a wonderful privilege,” said Lark. “I only hope that I can come close to conveying his vision – a daunting task, but a challenge that I’m enjoying tremendously. It has allowed me to explore the darker aspects of my art and really start pushing some of the boundaries of my own style. And who doesn’t love drawing cowboys and horses?!”

Bluewater Comics says it will work with King on a bio-comic about his “incomparable” career. Orbit: Stephen King, scheduled for release in May, will trace the King’s career from rejections and anonymity to global fame. “It includes insight on his legacy as a writer, his love of the Boston Red Sox, forays into film, drug and alcohol issues, and the accident [in 1999] that nearly cost him his life,” Bluewater says in a release. All in just 32 pages!

Sometimes authors are asked to blurb books, and sometimes they are just so taken by a book that they send in their comments unsolicited. Such is the case with King’s comments on Robert McCammon’s next book. “The Five isn’t just Robert McCammon’s best novel in years; it’s his best novel ever. Terrifying, suspenseful, unputdownable, and full of rock and roll energy. It’s also uplifting, a book you’ll finish feeling better about your world, your friends, and your music. Here’s one you’ll beg friends to read.”

And sometimes he’s asked for his opinion, as in the case of the new HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, based on the James M. Cain novel. He writes:  Kate Winslet Is Mommie Dearest in Mildred Pierce.

Filming for the second season of Haven begins in Nova Scotia in April and will carry through until late August. Here’s an article about how happy the locals are to have the production back in the area.

Brand New Book Announced! On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir

Featuring Ed Gorman, Norman Partridge, Bentley Little, Robert J. Randisi, Jon L. Breen, Dave Zeltserman, Jeremiah Healy, and many others!

On Dangerous GroundCemetery Dance Publications is pleased to announce On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir edited by Ed Gorman, Dave Zeltserman, and Martin H. Greenberg, which we’ll be publishing this spring as an affordable, clothbound TRADE hardcover and also as a deluxe traycased Lettered Edition signed by many of the contributors! (Many of our Lettered Editions lately have been selling out in a matter of hours or days, and we don’t expect this one to be any different. The Lettered Edition is the only signed edition of this book, so don’t wait to order!)

This title has already received tremendous reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, so we expect there to be a lot of demand for the trade hardcover edition. Be sure to preorder to receive FREE US SHIPPING and a guaranteed 1st Edition, 1st Printing!

Free US ShippingAbout the Book:

For generations raised on the Saturday afternoon thrills of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, the appearance of the so-called “psychological westerns” of the Forties, Fifties and Sixties came as a surprise. And, to some who didn’t care for them, a shock.

With such films as Blood On The Moon, Winchester `73, and The Naked Spur, audiences saw characters very much like themselves emotionally. Critics argued the authenticity of some of the history in these films but there was no denying their power. Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch confirmed, once and for all, that the western had changed forever, psychologically and sometimes politically relevant to our own times.

On Dangerous Ground features stories of every kind, all with a western setting, all with darkness at their core. And all with the kind of edge that demonstrates how timeless the form is when used well.

Table of Contents:
“Introduction” by James Sallis
“Hell” by Bentley Little
“All Good Men” by Terry Tanner
“Burl Lockhart’s in Town” by Steve Hockensmith
“Canticle” by Desmond Barry
“Colt” by Ken Bruen
“Piano Man” by Bill Crider
“Desert Reckoning” by Trey R. Barker
“Lucky” by Harry Shannon
“Going Where the Wind Blows” by Jan Christensen
“The Old Ways” by Ed Gorman
“In Some Countries” by Jerry Raine
“The Cartoonist” by Jon L. Breen
“Durston” by Norman Partridge
“Emma Sue” by Dave Zeltserman
“Hell Hath No Fury” by T. L. Wolf
“Vanity” by Jeremiah Healy
“Cowards Die Many Times” by Robert J. Randisi
“Lead Poisoning” by Gary Lovisi
“The Conversion of Carne Muerto” by James Reasoner
“Last Song of Antietam” by Patrick J. Lambe
“Through the Golden Gate Bridge” by Terence Butler

Reviews for the Book:
“A wild posse of outlaws populates this dark, moody collection of 21 character-driven tales derived from the psychological westerns popular in the 1950s. Though set primarily in the old American Southwest, these dusty noirs flare with life, death, animosity, danger, duplicity, and realistic characterization… From Santa Fe and San Francisco to the Oregon Trail, the action and adventure consistently thrill and mystify in this unique anthology of the rugged west.”
Publishers Weekly

“This is classic noir fiction at its very best. This skillfully crafted anthology will have great appeal to fans of noir fiction, pulp fiction, and Westerns. The escapism provided through journeying into the bleak shadow-side of human nature allows readers to be guided into a more hopeful reality.”
Library Journal

Click here to read more or to place your order right away!

Congratulations to Stephen King, Norman Prentiss, and Brian James Freeman!

Congratulations to Stephen King, Norman Prentiss, and Brian James Freeman!

Congratulations to Stephen King (Full Dark, No Stars), Norman Prentiss (Invisible Fences), and Brian James Freeman (The Painted Darkness), whose Cemetery Dance books have made the Final Ballot for the HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards — they are now officially Bram Stoker nominees!

Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss sold out quickly after publication, and our edition of Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King sold out pre-publication, but we still have some copies of the trade hardcover from Scribner if you haven’t placed your order yet. The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman sold out on the day of publication, but we’re expecting the second printing to arrive in a few weeks, and there are also several eBook formats now available if you don’t want to wait:

Download from Amazon (US) Download from Amazon (UK) Download from the iBookstore Download for the Nook

Last year was a great year for horror, so good luck to everyone who made the final ballot!

11/22/63: A massive new novel by Stephen King!

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. If you had the chance to change history, would you? Would the consequences be worth it?

11/22/63This fall Scribner will be publishing Stephen King’s heart-stopping new novel, a thousand page tour de force about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination, and we’re pleased to report that we’ll be getting copies for our customers!

In this exciting new novel, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong and he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best!

Click here to read more or to place your order!

Add A Special Limited Edition Slipcase To Your Order To Protect Your Book!

Even though 11/22/63 by Stephen King is being published by another publisher, we’ve heard from so many customers who want one of our special Limited Edition slipcases to protect their investment that we’ve decided to accept preorders for a custom-made slipcase! We will only make enough slipcases to fill our preorders, so don’t wait to reserve yours!

The easiest way to add a slipcase to your purchase is by selecting the “Trade Hardcover with Exclusive Limited Edition Slipcase!” option on the 11/22/63 product page — you’ll also save on shipping by ordering this way! (You can order just the slipcase by itself on the 11/22/63 Limited Edition Slipcase product page.)

Don’t know what a slipcase is? That’s okay! It’s easily the best way to protect your book for generations to come. You can see some sample images of other slipcases we’ve made on the 11/22/63 Limited Edition Slipcase product page. We’re using the same high-quality materials we have used for our previous Stephen King cases, with one color hot foil stamping. The company who makes these for us is the best in the business and you won’t find a better way to protect your investment! (If you’re new to collecting, you can read more about slipcases on our Book FAQ page.)

Click here to read more or to place your order!

News from the Dead Zone #139

StephenKing.com is proud to officially announce The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole. The next installment of the epic series is set for release in 2012. For more information, see the announcement letter from Stephen King.

It won’t tell you much that’s new about Roland and his friends, but there’s a lot none of us knew about Mid-World, both past and present. The novel is shorter than DT 2-7, but quite a bit longer than the first volume—call this one DT-4.5. It’s not going to change anybody’s life, but God, I had fun.