Cemetery Dance Online

Who is the True Villain in Carrie?

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 25, 2018May 29, 2018What I Learned from Stephen KingCarrie, Columns, Jason Sechrest, What I Learned from Stephen King8 Comments

Stephen King’s first novel Carrie debuted on April 5th, 1974 with little to no fanfare. One might say that, like the novel’s title character, Carrie was always destined to be a late bloomer. Shy to the spotlight, you might find Carrie hanging out at your local library or bookstore, sitting there all but invisible upon the shelf. All the while, of course, Carrie held a great secret. A special power. Quiet and patient, Carrie was waiting to make her mark on the world, to have her revenge on those who had underestimated her, and to make Stephen King a household name. Continue Reading

Review: Stirring the Sheets by Chad Lutzke

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 23, 2018May 21, 2018ReviewsBloodshot Books, Blu Gilliand, Chad Lutzke, Reviews, Stirring the Sheets2 Comments

Stirring the Sheets by Chad Lutzke
Bloodshot Books (April 2018)
130 pages; $8.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Read enough horror, and you start feeling like you can predict where a book or story is going to go within a few pages or chapters. I’m not saying that all horror is predictable or formulaic; just that enough of it is that some reviewers (like me) might find themselves getting a little cocky after a few successful predictions. Then someone like Chad Lutzke comes along with a novella like Stirring the Sheets, and gleefully knocks you off your high horse.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent Reviews The Outsider by Stephen King

Bev VincentMay 21, 2018May 21, 2018Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Columns, It, Mike Hanlon, Mr. Mercedes, News from the Dead Zone, Reviews, Stephen King, The Outsider2 Comments

Reality is Thin Ice
The Outsider by Stephen King

Reviewed by Bev Vincent

One of the themes of Stephen King’s 1986 novel It was the notion that adults lose the ability to believe in the kinds of things they embraced as children. Mike Hanlon contemplates this issue when he’s planning to summon his childhood friends back to Derry to confront the monster they defeated but did not destroy nearly three decades earlier. He wonders if they’re up to the task because their former ability to believe in the power of certain talismans gave them the strength to hurt Pennywise.

The inability to believe plays a major part in The Outsider. Continue Reading

Exhumed: “End of the Line” and “Seed”

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 18, 2018May 17, 2018ExhumedColumns, Erin L. Kemper, Exhumed, Franklin E. Wales, K. Edwin FritzLeave a comment

Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review every short story and novel excerpt ever published by Cemetery Dance magazine. In their 29 years of publication, that comes to over 550 pieces spread out over 76 issues. Since each Exhumed post covers just two pieces (one “old” and one “new”), I think I’m going to be doing this for a while. I sure hope you’ll join me along the way.

If so, then welcome, friend! Feel free to read each story along with me or just take it all in while I do the hard work and wax poetic with my observations.

Either way, grab your shovel and dig in. There’s no telling what we’ll unearth together.Continue Reading

Serial Box, Brian Keene introduce new fiction series SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 16, 2018May 15, 2018Breaking NewsBlu Gilliand, Brian Keene, Melissa Lason, Michelle Garza, Richard Chizmar, Serial Box, Silverwood, Sisters of Slaughter, Stephen Kozeniewski, The Door, Tony ValenzuelaLeave a comment

If you follow Brian Keene on social media, you probably noticed he’s been teasing us all a lot lately. I don’t mean teasing in a mean, name-calling, bullying kind of way; I mean he’s been dangling a mysterious new project in front of us like a carrot on a stick. Finally, during a May 11 telethon that featured a rap battle and Keene wearing tights, among other things (oh, and that raised over $21,000 for the Scares That Care charity!), the beans were spilled: Keene has joined forces with Serial Box and a room full of talented horror writers to produce a new prose fiction series called Silverwood: The Door.Continue Reading

The Playwright by Kealan Patrick Burke, a very unique collectible!

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 14, 2018May 14, 2018Breaking NewsLeave a comment

In 2015, Biting Dog Press published THE PLAYWRIGHT, a limited edition hand-printed broadsheet written by Kealan Patrick Burke and printed with woodcuts and art by George A. Walker.

There were only 200 copies produced, each one BY HAND, and each was signed by the author and artist! We had a few tucked away in a safe place and this is an incredibly cool collectible!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Review: Blood Standard by Laird Barron

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 14, 2018ReviewsBlood Standard, Blu Gilliand, Laird Barron, ReviewsLeave a comment

Blood Standard by Laird Barron
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (May 29, 2018)
336 pages; $26.00 hardcover; $12.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

While The Godfather Part III is not the most revered entry in that series, that Al Pacino line is one of the franchise’s most memorable quotes. The idea behind it—the notion that people play certain inescapable roles in their life, no matter how hard they may try to change—is the basis for quite a bit of crime fiction, and it forms the backbone of Laird Barron’s new novel, Blood Standard.Continue Reading

Video Visions: There’s Spaghetti Sauce in My VCR—Why I Don’t Love Italian Horror

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 11, 2018May 6, 2018Video VisionsColumns, Hunter Shea, Video Visions2 Comments

I’m going to be brutally honest here and you may try to take my horror club card away, but here goes.

I’m not a fan of Italian horror. I mean, at all. I am a fan of Italian women, so much so that I married one. But I digress. I know that people wax poetic over the artistry of Argento and the trippy avant garde mastery of Fulci, but at best, their movies leave me scratching my head. Or dead asleep. I tend to sleep a lot when I watch Italian horror. And this from a guy who can stay awake through The Haunting of Whaley House (as bland and uneventful as the actual Whaley House tour) and The Darkness (even Kevin Bacon can’t win them all). Continue Reading

A Game in the Sun and Other Stories by John Coyne!

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 9, 2018Breaking NewsLeave a comment

We’re pleased to report we’ve sent another very special new project to the printer and it will be published later this summer!

A Game in the Sun and Other Stories by John Coyne is a stunning new collection by one of our favorite authors. For those who aren’t familiar with his work, this would be an excellent time to become acquainted with it!

John Coyne is the author of 25 books of fiction and non-fiction, including a bestseller, The Legacy, which was also a successful film starring Sam Elliott. His short stories have been included in several “best of” anthologies, such as Modern Masters of Horror and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Review: Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 9, 2018May 6, 2018ReviewsDave Simms, Glimpse, Jonathan Maberry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry
St. Martin’s Press (March 2018)
352 pages; $20.19 hardcover; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Those fans who are hoping to find the swashbuckling heroics of the Joe Ledger novels or the zombified madness of the Rot and Ruin series will be in for a big surprise with Glimpse. Maberry has penned a decidedly different book here, a thriller that delivers for that genre yet still hits on the edges of reality, stretching the imagination in a manner that is utterly human, but entrenched in a Twilight Zone-type story.Continue Reading

The Listener by Robert McCammon: Final Copies of the First Edition, First Printing Are Flying Out the Door!

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 7, 2018Breaking NewsLeave a comment

We’re pleased to report we’re down to our very last copies of the FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING trade hardcover of The Listener by Robert McCammon and the second printing is due to arrive later this week!

If you want a 1st/1st for your collection, please place your order now, so you don’t miss out!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Abandoned Voices in the Rain: A Look at “Ghost EVP in Buckner Building, Whittier, Alaska”

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 7, 2018May 7, 2018ReviewsAlaska, Buckner Building, Funemployment Radio, Reviews, Robert Brouhard, WhittierLeave a comment

“Ghost EVP in Buckner Building, Whittier, Alaska”
Funemployment Radio podcast (April 2018)
Reviewed by Robert Brouhard

Greg Nibler and Sarah X Dylan with Funemployment Radio may not be totally household names, but Sarah’s art has appeared on the cover of Cemetery Dance magazine, and their great and funny podcast with over 2,000 episodes is a must-listen.Continue Reading

Revelations: Ray Bradbury

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 4, 2018May 3, 2018RevelationsColumns, Dandelion Wine, Kevin Lucia, October Country, Ray Bradbury, Revelations1 Comment

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012.

First period, 10th Grade Honors English. Roughly 9 a.m.

That’s when I heard the news.

Even today, as I write this, I feel a chill. Looking back, it was not only a surreal and an unbelievable experience…it also offered a moment of affirmation for me as a teacher that hasn’t been rivaled, since.Continue Reading

Review: Sharkwater Beach by Tim Meyer

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 2, 2018April 29, 2018ReviewsPeter Tomas, Reviews, Sharkwater Beach, Tim MeyerLeave a comment

Sharkwater Beach by Tim Meyer
(May 2017)
180 pages; $9.99 paperback; ebook $2.99
Reviewed by Peter Tomas

When a shark breaks out of a sketchy underwater research facility, the seas surrounding Sharkwater Beach suddenly grow ice-cold as the prehistoric predator begins her reign as “Queen of the Ocean.”

Our protagonist, a sarcastic and rather realistic woman by the name of Jill McCourty, finds herself stranded on Key Water Island, on which Sharkwater Beach resides, along with a small group of friends, strangers, and a particularly interesting trio of rough-around-the-edges men. Together, they must collaborate and fight for their lives against their massive oceanic captor until help arrives, but eventually they come to realize that, even on land, they aren’t safe.Continue Reading

Review: Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 30, 2018April 29, 2018Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Blanky, Kealan Patrick Burke, ReviewsLeave a comment

Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke
CreateSpace (September 2017)
80 pages; $6.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I love the tagline on the cover of Kealan Patrick Burke’s new novella, Blanky: “The gift that keeps on living.”

And then there’s the opening, one that immediately draws the reader into the story:

You say you can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child.

Let me make it easy for you.

It’s the beginning of the end of your world.

Reality is Thin Ice The Outsider by Stephen King

FREE email updates!

Categories

Reality is Thin Ice
The Outsider by Stephen King