Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Hellraiser: The Toll by Mark Alan Miller

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 5, 2018January 30, 2018ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Clive Barker, Hellraiser: The Toll, Mark Alan Miller, Reviews, Subterranean Press1 Comment

Hellraiser: The Toll by Mark Alan Miller
Subterranean Press (February 28, 2018)
96 pages; $40 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Over the years, the Hellraiser mythology has become something of a hash, combining elements of Clive Barker’s original novella The Hellbound Heart with bits from the Hellraiser movies (mainly the first two in the franchise: Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II). Nowhere is this more evident than in The Scarlet Gospels. In Barker’s 2015 novel, the cenobite known as Pinhead (but not to his face; no, never to his face) was a sometimes confusing mix of the elegant sadist from Hellbound Heart and a bloodthirsty, Hollywood-style slasher.Continue Reading

Brian Keene’s History of Horror, Interlude: Jack Ketchum’s Footprint

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 2, 2018February 1, 2018Brian Keene's History of Horror FictionBrian Keene, Columns, History of Horror, Jack Ketchum3 Comments

In last month’s chapter, we examined one of the world’s first examples of horror fiction—The Epic of Gilgamesh. This month, that was supposed to lead into a chapter on Beowulf, Theseus and the Minotaur, The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Oresteia, Dante’s Inferno, Lucian Samosata’s True History, and more.

I’ve decided we will get to those next month.

Instead, I’d like to use this month’s space to remember a mentor and dear friend of mine. I knew him as Dallas Mayr, but I first met him as Jack Ketchum (which is probably the name you know him by). Continue Reading

In Memorium: Jack Ketchum is Dead; Reflections From His “Idiot Bastard Son”

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 1, 2018February 2, 2018EssaysEssays, Jack Ketchum, Turner Mojico3 Comments

A few days after Jack Ketchum passed away, his close friend—or, as he calls himself, his “Idiot Bastard Son”—Turner Mojica reached out to Cemetery Dance with the following tribute. It perfectly sums up the sentiment we’ve seen in the days since we lost Ketchum: that, while he’ll long be remembered for his writing, his writing isn’t the only thing that made him special. He forged special relationships with the people around him. This is a glimpse into one of those relationships.Continue Reading

A Conversation with Jack Ketchum

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 31, 2018February 1, 2018InterviewsInterviews, Jack Ketchum, Mike Noble4 Comments

A note from interviewer Mike Noble:

Dallas “Jack Ketchum” Mayr and Mike Noble

When I got word from Blu Gilliand that Cemetery Dance was going to release an online preview of my interview with Dallas Mayr (known to horror fans the world over as Jack Ketchum), I was excited that I would finally be able to share something with Dallas. We started this interview at Joanne Trattoria in New York city in 2009 and ended it via email on November 11, 2017.

I knew how sick Dallas was and I emailed him often to check and see how he was doing. I stopped getting replies a couple of weeks before he passed. It wasn’t the first time there had been long gap between replies—he kept himself very busy—so I was hopeful his health wasn’t the reason. He had bounced back before.

On January 24th, Dallas Mayr died. Continue Reading

Review: The Warblers by Amber Fallon

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 29, 2018January 28, 2018ReviewsAmber Fallon, Chad Lutzke, Eraserhead Press, Reviews, The WarblersLeave a comment

The Warblers by Amber Fallon
Eraserhead Press (September 2017)
86 pages; $10.95 paperback; $5.95 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

I stood on our rickety old porch, looking out towards the peeling paint on the back shed as the sunset drained like a stuck pig, bleeding out red all over.

In this first-person, coming-of-age novella, a warbler is a winged creature that isn’t welcome. And after young Dell and his family try to ignore the pack of them, it turns out they’re rather dangerous, too–-–even tearing apart poor Dell’s dog. So Dell and his father set out to rid their back shed of the beasts, but the means to which they do so could prove even worse a predicament than what they’re already up against. Not just for their family, but maybe for the whole town.Continue Reading

My First Fright featuring Grady Hendrix

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 26, 2018January 24, 2018My First FrightColumns, Grady Hendrix, John Brhel, My First Fright, Paperbacks from HellLeave a comment

If you’ve read Paperbacks from Hell, you know that Grady Hendrix is an expert on horror fiction, most specifically mass-market paperbacks produced during the boom of the ’70s and ’80s, with their often eye-popping—some might say “garish”—cover art. What, you might ask, inspired such a fascination for weird, macabre books? In Hendrix’s case, it was a lot of things, but it certainly had something to do with a strange book he discovered while living abroad in England in the late ’70s. A book not intended for kids.

Grady Hendrix is a writer and public speaker based in Manhattan. Along with the aforementioned Paperbacks From Hell (2017), he is the author of the novels Horrorstör (2014) and My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2016). He is currently working on a new novel. Continue Reading

Review: Breathe, Breathe by Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 25, 2018January 24, 2018ReviewsBreathe, Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi, Joshua Gage, Reviews, UnnervingLeave a comment

Breathe, Breathe by Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi
Unnerving (October 2017)
176 pages, $13 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi is an author, writer, journalist, editor, marketer, public relations professional, and photographer. Her first collection, Breathe, Breathe, published by Unnerving Magazine, was released to wide acclaim. This collection of short stories and poetry reached #2 on the Amazon paid Hot New Release Bestseller list, right behind New York Times Bestseller Rupi Kaur’s second book that came out at around the same time. It is a very accessible collection, though it often fails to deliver in terms of craft.Continue Reading

Review: Apart in the Dark by Ania Ahlborn

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 23, 2018January 23, 2018ReviewsAnia Ahlborn, Apart in the Dark, Blu Gilliand, ReviewsLeave a comment

Apart in the Dark by Ania Ahlborn
Gallery Books (January 2018)
384 pages; $8.49 paperback
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Quiet horror is, to me, the most effective style of horror, especially when it comes to written horror. Shocks, gore, jump scares—when done right, those things work in the moment. But quiet horror, when done right, lingers. Stays with you. Comes back to you at the worst (i.e., the best) possible times, like when you’re just about to drift off to sleep and you hear a soft thump behind the closet door, or when you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye that disappears when you look straight at it. Shock hits you and then wears off a second later and you’re laughing, shaking your head, saying “They got me again.” Quiet horror hangs around, and when it comes back to you, nobody is laughing.Continue Reading

Revelations: T.M. Wright

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 19, 2018January 18, 2018RevelationsColumns, Kevin Lucia, Revelations, T.M. Wright2 Comments

At one time, T. M. Wright was like Alan Peter Ryan, Charles L. Grant and so many others—just another name I’d heard here and there, most often in a quote from Ramsey Campbell (also, at that point, just another name), which said: “T. M. Wright is a one-man definition of quiet horror.”Continue Reading

Two Very Special Projects By Robert McCammon In-Stock and Shipping Now!

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 18, 2018Breaking NewsLeave a comment

We’re thrilled to report our first very special projects with Robert McCammon, Tales from Greystone Bay and He’ll Come Knocking at Your Door, are now in-stock and shipping to everyone who preordered them!

Some trade hardcovers are still available, but these may not last long now that the distributor orders are rolling in!

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

Review: The Ghost Club: Newly Found Tales of Victorian Terror by William Meikle

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 15, 2018January 14, 2018Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Crystal Lake Publishing, Reviews, The Ghost Club, William MeikleLeave a comment

The Ghost Club: Newly Found Tales of Victorian Terror by William Meikle
Crystal Lake Publishing (December 2017)
189 pages; $11.44 paperback, $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I love everything about this wonderful collection from Willie Meikle. Take the concept of Willie’s Carnacki collections and replace the dinner guests with the literary greats of the Victorian era, each sharing a ghost story, and there you have the basic premise for this new work from William Meikle.Continue Reading

Exhumed: “Better Than Breadcrumbs” and “Pelingrad’s Pit” by Ronald Kelly

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 12, 2018January 1, 2018ExhumedColumns, Exhumed, K. Edwin Fritz, Ronald KellyLeave a comment

Welcome to Exhumed, my humble attempt to read and review every story and novel excerpt ever published in Cemetery Dance magazine.

Each month I’ll summarize and analyze a pair of related works. Usually this means comparing one “older” and one “newer” piece by the same author.

In their 29+ years of publication, CD has already printed 560 pieces, spread out over 75 issues. I think I’m going to be doing this for a while…Continue Reading

Review: Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 10, 2018January 7, 2018ReviewsAshley Dioses, Diary of a Sorceress, Hippocampus Press, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses
Hippocampus Press (October 2017)
170 pages, $15 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Ashley Dioses has established herself as one of the leading voices in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of rhyme and meter and her melding of the strange and the romantic, Dioses has gathered some of her recent poetry into her first collection—a scintillating assemblage of nearly 100 poems short and long, published and unpublished. Titled Diary of a Sorceress, it is a really exciting collection of weird and dark fantasy poetry sure to appeal to any reader.Continue Reading

Widow’s Point is “viscerally terrifying, realistic, and intense” and “oozes with atmosphere!”

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 8, 2018Breaking NewsLeave a comment

We’re pleased to report reviewers are loving Widow’s Point by Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar!

Here is what just a few of them are saying:

Booklist awarded the novella a highly coveted Starred Review and said, “…this novella is viscerally terrifying, realistic, and intense. It is a modern ghost story that will scare even the most seasoned horror reader and will be eagerly devoured by fans of paranormal-investigation tales as well as those who enjoy intense cursed-place stories…” while Publishers Weekly said, “…this ghost story oozes with atmosphere.” More reviews can be found on the product page for the book!

We’ll be shipping our copies later this month if all goes well, ahead of the planned February publication date, so please don’t wait to place your order!

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

Review: Spungunion by John Boden

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 8, 2018January 7, 2018ReviewsChad Lutzke, Dynatox Ministries, John Boden, Reviews, Spungunion2 Comments

Spungunion by John Boden
Dynatox Ministries (2017)
123 pages; $12.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

The reality is this: Life is just a balloon floating dangerously in a roomful of lit cigarettes.

A lonely truck driver sets out on a desperate course to find the one who killed his wife. A path that leads to mingling with the oddball, the grotesque, and the surreal in this weird fiction trucker tale by an author who is certainly no stranger to offering heartbreaking stories, of which Spungunion is above par.Continue Reading

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