Cemetery Dance Online

Review: ‘Quick Shivers About Bugs’ edited by James Leach and Janice Leach

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 24, 2016ReviewsFeatured, James Leach, Janice Leach, Joshua Gage, Quick Shivers About Bugs, ReviewsLeave a comment

Quick Shivers About Bugs edited by James Leach and Janice Leach
Cosmonomic Multimedia (March 2016)
80 pages, $15.00 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Quick Shivers About Bugs is a horror anthology based on articles published at Daily Nightmare. Each piece focuses on bugs in one way or another, though that term is taken as broadly as possible. Most of the pieces are short, one-hundred-word stories or poems, but there are a few longer non-fiction pieces interspersed between the short pieces to give some balance to the anthology. Overall, it’s an entertaining collection.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Dead Souls’ by J. Lincoln Fenn

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 22, 2016ReviewsDead Souls, Featured, J. Lincoln Fenn, Jonathan Reitan, ReviewsLeave a comment

Dead Souls by J. Lincoln Fenn
Gallery Books (September 20, 2016)
352 pages; $10.16 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Jonathan Reitan

How J. Lincoln Fenn’s first novel Poe escaped my radar I don’t know, for it won a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, but after finishing her upcoming second novel, Dead Souls, she’s created a new dedicated fan in this reviewer.

It’s a wonderful thing when a new writer comes out of seemingly nowhere to offer up such a mesmerizing and truly hypnotic work of fiction. When you’re knocked on your ass with its quality…even better. Continue Reading

A Message to the Next Generation

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 19, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road, Featured1 Comment

EndofRoad-web

A Message to the Next Generation

Brian, Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman. (Photo Copyright 2016 Brian Keene) — Brian, Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman.
(Photo Copyright 2016 Brian Keene)

Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman are badasses. Alan is a former private investigator, bodyguard, firearms instructor, and motorcycle repairman. Jude is a former welder and computer micro-assembly technician. They also run Borderlands Books in San Francisco, a name inspired in part by William Hope Hodgson’s horror-fantasy-science fiction classic House on the Borderland.

I was introduced to them by Richard Laymon back in 1999. I first visited Borderlands Books in 2001, right after they’d moved to San Francisco’s Mission District. Indeed, when I visited, they were still remodeling the place. I signed there later on that year with Gene O’Neill, Mike Oliveri, Michael T. Huyck, Geoff Cooper, and Gak. And I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve signed there—or shopped there—since. At least twice with J.F. Gonzalez, once with a large group from the World Horror Convention, once with my ex-wife, once with Nick Mamatas, once with Mary SanGiovanni, and so on. Basically, anytime I’m in San Francisco, I stop at Borderlands.Continue Reading

Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 18, 2016Paper CutsAdam Cesare, Columns, Fandom, Featured, Paper Cuts, Pokemon Go, Willy WonkaLeave a comment

PaperCuts-web

Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Adam wanted to tell you that he’s just released a brand-spankin’-new book, The Con Season, but was afraid to increase his already out-of-control word count, so I told him I would tell you. We now return you to this month’s edition of Paper Cuts.)

Twitter is a lot of things. It can be a place to get your news, try out your comedy chops or keep tabs on your friends.

As a tool for mass communication the social network is powerful enough to overthrow governments, but its uses can be as simple as some R&R spent hurling anonymous insults to let the world know how terrified you are of women.

But I digress.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Kraken Sea’ by E. Catherine Tobler

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 17, 2016ReviewsDavid Simms, E. Catherine Tobler, Featured, Reviews, The Kraken SeaLeave a comment

The Kraken Sea by E. Catherine Tobler
Apex Book Company (June 2016)
128 pages; $11.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

If reading YA has gotten a little cliché for readers, the same old dystopian plots and angst-ridden ghosts, there’s a new wave coming. Back to the intelligence of what made the genre strong, some new authors have decided to push back and take a chance.The Kraken Sea is one such entry. E. Catherine Tobler has given the YA world something it may not have seen before.Continue Reading

New Stephen King eBook Arriving NEXT WEEK!

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 16, 2016September 27, 2016Breaking NewsLeave a comment

SIX SCARY STORIES
Selected and Introduced by Stephen King!
#1 on Amazon’s Movers & Shakers list; Top #25 Bestselling eBook on Amazon!

Hi Folks!

Don’t forget that SIX SCARY STORIES selected and introduced by Stephen King will be published in eBook formats NEXT WEEK, and in print on October 31, so now is the time to place your preorder to lock in your copies! The eBook edition will be available from Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, and Barnes & Noble, and the Amazon preorder link is already live!

The eBook preorder on Amazon.com has ranked in the Top 25 Paid eBooks, our affordable hardcover edition hit #1 on the Amazon “Movers & Shakers” list, and media all over the world is picking up the story about this little project, so this could end up being one of our most talked about projects to date! (Don’t forget, Hodder & Stoughton, Stephen King’spublisher in the UK, will be publishing an edition across the pond, too!)

About the Book:
Number 1 bestselling writer Stephen King introduces and presents six gripping and chilling stories in this captivating anthology!

Stephen King discovered these stories when he judged a competition run by Hodder & Stoughton and the Guardian to celebrate publication of his own collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. He was so impressed with the entries that he recommended they be published together in one book, which Cemetery Dance Publications and Hodder & Stoughton are pleased to report has become a reality. The six stories are:

WILD SWIMMING by Elodie Harper
EAU-DE-ERIC by Manuela Saragosa
THE SPOTS by Paul Bassett Davies
THE UNPICKING by Michael Button
LA MORT DE L’AMANT by Stuart Johnstone
THE BEAR TRAP by Neil Hudson

Reader beware: the stories will make you think twice before cuddling up to your old soft toy, dipping your toe into the water, or counting the spots on a leopard…

Review: ‘Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!)’ by Mark Sheldon

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 16, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Mark Sheldon, Reviews, Sarah Killian: Serial Killer for HireLeave a comment

Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) by Mark Sheldon
Crystal Lake Publishing (July 2016)
216 pages; $13.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I want to love every book I read, I really do. Regrettably, it’s just not possible. There are times when you pick up a title that grabs your interest, but doesn’t quite live up to your expectations. Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) is such a tome.Continue Reading

Review: ‘I Am Providence’ by Nick Mamatas

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 15, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas, ReviewsLeave a comment

I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas
Night Shade Books (August 2016)
256 pages; $10.66 paperback; $15.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I can’t say I read a lot of Nick Mamatas, but what I have read, I’ve certainly enjoyed.

Nick’s most recent work is dissimilar from anything I’ve read before. Set at the fictional, annual Summer Tentacular—“Providence’s premiere literary conference about pulp-writer, racist, and weirdo Howard Philips Lovecraft”—the book is an inside look at the craziness such an event would give rise to.

The attendees at said conference seem to be based on a combination of real writers and an amalgamation of the writers and fans who frequent such a happening.

The story is told from two separate points of view: that of first-time attendee and recently published Lovecraftian writer, Colleen Danzig; and the other, her roommate, a writer know as Panossian who spends most of the book in the morgue, lying on a slab.Continue Reading

Ad Capere Tenebris

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 12, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road, Featured2 Comments

EndofRoad-web

Ad Capere Tenebris

So, I’m boarding an airplane in El Paso, about to traverse the time zones once again and fly to San Francisco, when it occurs to me that the ISIS-fighter’s psychic suicide bomb is still in my carry-on bag. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you need to read last week’s column). The totem is snuggled up against my laptop, three Yeti microphones, my digital voice recorder, an assortment of pens and Moleskin notebooks, half a tin of Altoids, a few cigars, a cigar cutter, and a hardcover of David Schow’s DJSturbia, which I bought way back in Burbank. Nobody in the TSA thought to question the trinket. Why would they? To them, it just looks like a small triangular wedge of red leather with a leather cord attached to it. But I know what it is, and now that I do, I can’t stop thinking about the damn thing.

This in turn leads to unkind thoughts concerning my mother.

Allow me to explain.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Sinister Stitches’ by Mark Cassell

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 11, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Josh Black, Mark Cassell, Reviews, Shadow Fabric, Sinister StitchesLeave a comment

Sinister Stitches by Mark Cassell
Herbs House (October 2015)
128 pages; $6.99 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Mark Cassell’s The Shadow Fabric (2014) was a fast-paced and entertaining romp through a mythos involving the extraction of evil, a unique take on the living dead, and the encroachment of primordial darkness into the modern world. Sinister Stitches collects twelve stories (thirteen in the paperback version) that expand on or relate to the mythos, and an extract of the novel.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Fisherman’ by John Langan

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 10, 2016ReviewsDavid Simms, Featured, John Langan, Reviews, The Fisherman1 Comment

The Fisherman by John Langan
Word Horde (June 2016)
352 pages; $11.03 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

Imagine, if you will, a dark tale co-written by Peter Straub and Thomas Ligotti, filtered through the whimsical sensibilities of Neil Gaiman and spoken to a friend over beers at a campfire. If that image conjures up something quite different than what you’ve read lately, John Langan’s The Fisherman might just be what a jaded reader craves this year.

The term “literary horror” is often misunderstood, sometimes turning away the casual fan and other times focusing more on the writing than the story itself. Fear not, this intriguing novel dispels the misconceptions as it is a smooth read, almost begging to be read on the porch with feet up and a drink in hand.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Shadow Fabric’ by Mark Cassell

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 9, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Josh Black, Mark Cassell, Reviews, The Shadow FabricLeave a comment

The Shadow Fabric by Mark Cassell
Herbs House (September 2014)
340 pages; $12.99 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Leo remembers little of his past. Desperate for a new life, he snatches up the first job to come along. On his second day, he witnesses a murder, and the Shadow Fabric—a malevolent force that controls the darkness—takes the body and vanishes with it.

Uncovering secrets long hidden from humankind, Leo’s memory unravels. Not only haunted by his past, a sinister presence within the darkness threatens his existence and he soon doubts everything and everyone… including himself.

Now Leo must confront the truth about his past before he can embrace his future. But the future may not exist.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Odd Adventures with Your Other Father’ by Norman Prentiss

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 8, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Kevin Lucia, Norman Prentiss, Odd Adventures with Your Other Father, ReviewsLeave a comment

Odd Adventures with Your Other Father by Norman Prentiss
Kindle Press (May 2016)
217 pages; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

Norman Prentiss immediately distinguished himself from average horror fare with his debut novella Invisible Fences. A brilliant character study about the fears we inherit from our parents, and also about the guilt we carry deep inside us, it embodied the best of the “quiet horror” sub-genre with powerful, creeping atmosphere and an exploration of the human psyche.

Invisible Fences won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in long fiction (as a novella), an award well-deserved. Norman followed this up with his mini-collection Four Legs in the Morning, another brilliant exercise in quiet horror, about the machinations of Dr. Sibley, Chair of the English Department at Graysonville University, and the unpleasant fates of those who try to oppose him. Personally, I can’t to read about this mysterious (maniacal?) character again.

With his first full-length novel, Odd Adventures with Your Other Father, Prentiss has once again distinguished himself from others in the horror/weird fiction field. Continue Reading

Time Bomb

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 5, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road, Featured1 Comment

EndofRoad-web

Time Bomb

All roads eventually lead to... (Photo Copyright 2016 Tod Clark) — All roads eventually lead to…
(Photo Copyright 2016 Tod Clark)

Last week’s column ended with high school football coach Tod Clark and I leaving a triumphant, standing-room-only signing in Phoenix, and climbing into his truck to head for Albuquerque. We’ll return to that in a moment. But first, I need to tell you about the bomb I was carrying with us.

Back in the eleventh installment of this column, I wrote: “A fellow Navy veteran gave me a Chief’s badge and a trinket taken from around the neck of a dead ISIS fighter (more on that a few columns from now), both of which I was very touched by.”

Well, here we are at “a few columns from now,” still in Phoenix. Tod and I have not yet gotten into the truck. Indeed, we haven’t even made it to that triumphant Phoenix signing yet. Instead, we are sitting in a hotel room with author Weston Ochse and publisher Paul Goblirsch of Thunderstorm Books.

How is that possible? Well, right now, we are traveling through time, you and I. Continue Reading

Stephen King says: “I loved this book!” Dark Debts by Karen Hall!

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 4, 2016Breaking NewsLeave a comment

Dark Debts by Karen Hall
Book #1 from the Cemetery Dance Gold Seal imprint, personally selected and introduced by Stephen King!
“I loved this book!” — Stephen King

Hi Folks!

We’re extremely excited to announce the Cemetery Dance Gold Seal imprint, an exciting new line of books personally selected and introduced by Stephen King!

The first title in this line will be the subversive classic Dark Debts by Karen Hall, and Stephen King has written a terrific original introduction about why he loves this book so much.

Cemetery Dance founder Richard Chizmar and Stephen King have discussed creating an imprint like this for years, but our new Six Scary Stories anthology (featuring stories selected and introduced by King) really pushed the idea into overdrive this summer.

Every book published under the Cemetery Dance Gold Seal imprint will be personally chosen and introduced by Stephen King, so be sure to look for more information at CemeteryDance.com and watch for future titles!

About the Book:
In Dark Debts, Karen Hall masterfully combines southern gothic, romantic comedy, and mystery in a wildly original theological thriller that has become a cult favorite since being published twenty years ago. In this new anniversary edition, the author has reimagined her work. The result is a suspenseful, irreverent, and deeply spiritual novel that captivates from the very beginning and doesn’t let go.

When Randa, a reporter for an alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, receives an urgent phone call from her estranged lover, Cam, she rushes to his apartment. She arrives to discover that he’s leapt from the building to his death. Police believe that before committing suicide, Cam also murdered someone in a convenience store, but Randa does not believe Cam is capable of such an act. She seeks out Cam’s brother, Jack, who is living off the grid, somewhere near Atlanta, in hope of figuring out what really happened.

Meanwhile, a Jesuit priest named Michael Kinney has been exiled from New York City to the boondocks of Georgia after making controversial public statements. He has said things that educated people of faith are not supposed to express. Even more problematically, he has fallen in love with a woman, and the last surviving member of his family has kept a shocking family secret from him.

How these characters converge is part of the thrilling mystery of Dark Debts, a cult favorite first published twenty years ago. In this new edition, author Karen Hall has re-imaged her southern gothic tale and the result is a work of even greater power—a brilliantly realized and suspenseful evocation of the conflict between good and evil.

Published as a Hardcover Limited Edition:
• Limited to just 750 signed and numbered copies
• Personally signed by Karen Hall on a unique signature page
• Printed on 60# acid-free paper
• Bound in full-cloth with colored head and tail bands
• Featuring hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine
• Printed and bound with full-color endpapers
• Smyth sewn to create a more durable binding
• Wrapped in a full-color dust jacket
• Limited ONE TIME printing of this special edition
• Retail price just $50!

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

A Message to the Next Generation

Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

Ad Capere Tenebris

Time Bomb

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