Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dead TreesLeave a comment on Dead Trees: The Nightrunners 
The October 1988 issue of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine had a big feature about Splatterpunk authors. Editor Tappan King was reportedly trying to create a movement.
There were photos of authors from a convention who were purported to be Splatterpunks: John Skipp, Craig Spector and David J. Schow, of course. R.C. Matheson and Ray Garton. I can buy all of that, but Joe R. Lansdale was proclaimed to be one of the Splat Pack. Even more ridiculously, so was Robert McCammon.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Ink Vine by Elizabeth Broadbent 
Ink Vine by Elizabeth Broadbent
(April 2024)
118 pages
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen 
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Poisoned Pen Press (May 2024)
384 pages
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen exceptionally invokes gothic tropes such as unearthing buried secrets at a dire cost, and relics of her predecessors to craft a chilling, sapphic love story that is possessive, haunting, and beautiful.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dark PathwaysLeave a comment on Dark Pathways: Of Headless Men and Estranged Brothers 
If you haven’t already, make sure you put In The Valley of Headless Men by L.P. Hernandez on your “to-read” list. It’s a tight, well-paced novella that hits right in the gut. Here’s the blurb:
Nahanni National Park is one of the last truly wild places on earth. Accessible only by plane, and only when the weather cooperates, it’s the perfect place for estranged brothers Joseph and Oscar to have an adventure following the death of their mother. Gillian, Joseph’s first love, invites herself along in the spirit of friendship. The park is much more than beautiful. It’s mysterious, with legends of giants and hidden, prehistoric animals. And among its few visitors, an outsized number of violent deaths inspire its second, more seductive name.
The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories by David Small
Liveright (March 2024)
192 pages
Reviewed by Danica Davidson
The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is a haunting triptych of tales about “the dread of things internal.” Done in an illustrated format, it’s kind of like a picture book for adults, and it shows the depth and artistic aesthetics possible in graphic storytelling. This is a book to stay with readers long after they’ve finished the last page, and I’ve never seen anything else quite like it.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories The Comic VaultLeave a comment on David Small and The Werewolf at Dusk
Author and illustrator David Small’s latest book, The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories, contains three yarns — “The Werewolf at Dusk,” “A Walk in the Old City,” and “The Tiger in Vogue” — all connected by the theme “the dread of things internal.” Two are based on short prose stories by other authors, and one is largely based on a dream Small had. Small spoke to Cemetery Dance about how the stories came together, his approach in writing and illustrating The Werewolf at Dusk, and what he would like readers to take away from the book.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay 
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
William Morrow (June 11, 2024)
288 pages
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
In his classic, fatalistic tone, Bram Stoker Award-winner Paul Tremblay cleverly assembles a haunting level of empathy between readers, the narrator, and characters in Horror Movie. At times the story felt all-too real, which will appease fans of Tremblay’s previous work like A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) and The Pallbearers Club (2022). Down the road, maybe even a few weeks from now, the characters’ names from Horror Movie may evade you but you’ll never escape the reality-bending and unsettling “horror void.” Continue Reading
“Lack of belief is the curse of intelligence”
It’s a short story collection. No, it’s a novella collection. No, it’s two…two…two things in one! OK, you have to be really old to get that reference to an old Certs commercial. They don’t even make Certs anymore, I’m displeased to discover.
Anyhow, You Like It Darker is a hybrid of two types of books we’ve come to expect from Stephen King. It’s a collection of the seven short stories published since The Bazaar of Bad Dreams but it also contains five brand-new long works ranging from a novelette (“The Dreamers”) to novellas (“The Answer Man,” “Two Talented Bastids” and “Rattlesnakes”) to a story long enough to be considered a novel by the SFWA and other awards criteria (“Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”).
When the Lights Go Out by Kevin Lucia
Cemetery Dance, May 30, 2024
The Synopsis
When the lights go out…that’s when things change. When masks are put aside, and eerie truths are laid bare. It’s when towns grow extra streets and cul-de-sacs which don’t exist in daytime. When whispered wishes and fantasies become reality. When our deepest fears and most powerful longings become flesh. When ambitions become obsessions which overpower us, and leads us to our ends.
But it’s also when our imaginations run free, unfettered by the trappings of mundane living. Just as the dark unleashes despair, it also fuels fantastical leaps impossible to take during the day. It’s the canvas upon which we paint worlds and universes which take the darkness and create something out of nothing.
In his new collection, one of the leading voices in small press horror offers up an eclectic collection of strange tales — the kind which can only happen when the lights go out, and we close our eyes.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Night Time LogicLeave a comment on Night Time Logic with Gwendolyn Kiste 
“Ghost Stories. Interstitial Spaces. Crossing Over.”
Opposite of the “Day Time” part of a story, which is the part that deals with rules, linear logic, and things we consciously process, Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed.
Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.
While author Howard Waldrop coined the term, the phenomena is certainly on display in the work of British author Robert Aickman. Any of his books of stories are a fine starting place for those looking for recommendations to read what he called “strange tales.” My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories. It can be found here.
In March 2024 I spoke with Gwendolyn Kiste about her new book, ghost stories, haunted houses, and much more. Our conversation is available on YouTube.
Kiste’s newest novel The Haunting of Velkwood is out now from Saga Press. We begin our conversation by talking about ghost stories…Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Where the Worm Never Dies by Quinn Hernandez 
Where the Worm Never Dies by Quinn Hernandez
Swann + Bedlam (June 1, 2024)
114 pages; $18.00 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Quinn Hernandez loves the full spectrum of speculative fiction, and he is currently working on expanding his fiction universe. His poetry collection Life and Other Unfortunate Horrors is available from Madness Heart Press, and his short story collection Viva La Muerte! is available from Nightmare Press. His second poetry collection Where the Worm Never Dies is forthcoming from Swann and Bedlam Press.Continue Reading
Innocence Ends by Nikolas P. Robinson
Uncomfortably Dark (June 21 on Godless/June 30 on Amazon)
The Synopsis
Six friends meet together in an isolated mountain town in Northern Idaho to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a close friend’s suicide. A week of hiking, spending time in nature, and a bittersweet reunion soon takes a sinister turn as the friends find themselves fighting for their lives and struggling to survive. A seemingly tranquil community bombarded by late spring storms becomes a trap filled with monsters and threats everywhere they turn. Terrifying secrets are revealed and the survivors are left to wonder what will be left of the world outside if they can find a way to come through the gauntlet alive.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Where the Dead Wait by Allie Wilkes 
Where the Dead Wait by Allie Wilkes
Atria (December 2023)
400 pages; $20.49 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
What do you get when gothic horror goes to the arctic? Pure poetry with a fiendish dark heart.
For those who read the pitch-dark All The White Spaces from Allie Wilkes two years ago, this is a worthy follow-up. It’s not a true sequel, meaning readers can start with this novel and enjoy it, as Wilkes covers the backstory in a manner that isn’t overkill with infodumps. Instead, readers are treated to another great study in character building and setting.Continue Reading
Europea Halls: A YA Slasher Trilogy by Alan Shivers
Crystal Lake Entertainment (May 2024)
The Synopsis
When the survivors of the summer massacre in Budapest are forced to go to Brussels, they will learn the hard way that the final chapter of a Slasher Trilogy always goes back to the beginning.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories The Comic VaultLeave a comment on Derek Charm’s Toxic Summer
Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Derek Charm is mixing horror with humor in his new comic, Toxic Summer, and its first issue drops on May 1 from Oni Press. High school graduates and friends Ben and Leo are expecting a great summer as lifeguards, but things go from bad to worse when there’s a toxic spill. Charm spoke to Cemetery Dance about his influences, the extremes of horror and humor, and what he hopes readers take away from his newest work. Continue Reading
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