Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Island of the Dead by Brian Keene 
Island of the Dead by Brian Keene
Apex Book Company (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
When zombies, barbarians, giant ants and a group of people also stuck on the island collide!
Brian Keene is well known for his zombie stories and there’s a good reason for it! While this is only my second read by this author, he has certainly found a new fan and I’ll be adding a lot more to my horror arsenal. Continue Reading
Splatterpunk #13 (10th Anniversary Issue) edited by Jack Bantry
Reviewed by David Niall Wilson
When I received this for review, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I’d never seen an issue, but I’d seen author’s names associated with it that I was familiar. When it arrived, and I pulled it out, it felt as if I’d stepped into a time capsule.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Interview: Brian Keene Sinks His Teeth into the Vampire Genre 
Brian Keene is a multi award-winning author of over fifty books in the horror, fantasy and crime fiction world. Heavily influencing the resurgence of current zombie popularity, he also writes comic books in the same DC and Marvel universes he grew up loving. He also organizes the charity event Scares That Care, is a family man who enjoys fishing along the borders of Casa Keene and routinely supports his fellow writers to usher in a new era of dark scribes to help keep this thing of ours trucking along.
Most recently, I sat down with Brian to discuss his newest novella, With Teeth, a breakneck vampire tale several years in the making. Along the way, we also discuss the inner workings and eventual conclusion of Keene’s own Labyrinth mythos, what he’s working on next, his favorite vampire, and a whole lot more.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Shades by Geoff Cooper and Brian Keene 
Shades by Geoff Cooper and Brian Keene
Poltergeist Press (January 2020)
194 pages; $10.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia
By the time I stumbled into the horror scene, Shades was a long-out of print Cemetery Dance title, and I was sad I’d missed the boat. I love coming-of-age stories, and this one looked awesome. Imagine my delight when I learned Poltergeist Press was re-releasing it in paperback and ebook. It went right on the birthday list, and lucky me, it showed up in the mail on that blessed day.Continue Reading
As the 1700s drew to a close, the public furor over The Castle of Otranto, The Monk, The Mysteries of Udolpho and other gothic horror novels continued. Societal keepers and the media of the time became concerned that commoners, particularly young people, were spending too much time engaged in reading, particularly such gruesome fare as The Monk. In our last chapter, we talked about how cancel culture came for Matthew Gregory Lewis, forcing him to revise further editions of The Monk, and to issue a public apology. Continue Reading
In our last column, we discussed Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto—a novel written in 1764 that merged supernatural situations with realistic characters in a natural setting. I mentioned that while it was inarguably the world’s first supernatural horror novel, the marketing category of Horror wasn’t invented until the Eighties, so it was instead categorized as a “Gothic.” Continue Reading
Welcome back. We are still traveling through time, you and I. And though it seems like it has been a year since our last column, we can undo that. We can pretend that I wasn’t almost burned to death in a terrible mishap and that no time has passed at all.
For indeed, it hasn’t. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Ghoul by Brian Keene 
Ghoul by Brian Keene
Eraserhead Press (2012)
228 pages; $11.59 paperback; $7.95 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie Hartmann
“Boys have scars”, he thought. “Some of them fade—and others don’t. Some scars stay with us for life.”—Brian Keene, Ghoul
Even though this book was originally published some years ago, stories this good are timeless and a well-written book can find its audience yesterday, today and tomorrow. Ghoul will now join the ranks of my favorite coming-of-age horror tales. And I know what some of you are thinking right now, “We know all about Brian Keene and Ghoul, Sadie. You’re a little late to the party!”Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Breaking NewsLeave a comment on 10 Horror Authors — One Exquisite Corpse Exquisite Corpse: an old parlor game in which players take turns writing on a sheet of paper folded to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for another contribution. The results of the first use of the technique was a sentence in French: “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau,” meaning “the exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.” — Artopium
On Friday, October 19, Serial Box presents its latest literary experiment, a terrifying celebration of Halloween featuring 10 award-winning horror authors playing a game of Exquisite Corpse. This multimedia storytelling event will see a new, FREE episode released each hour between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST. Readers can sign up for this special email list which will not only let you know when the story begins, but will provide chances at all kinds of free horror goodness — think stickers, promo codes, signed books and more!Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Silverwood: The Door 
There’s collaboration, and then there’s art by committee.
Art by committee rarely works. The committee might have formed in order to pursue a common goal, but it’s typically made up of people with different agendas and different ideas on how to reach that goal. These individuals are often more interested in how this committee is going to elevate them to the next, more important committee than whether or not this committee achieves its goal.
Collaboration also involves individuals working together in pursuit of a common goal, but the difference lies in the approach. Collaborators blend their ideas and visions and voices in service of that goal. The idea isn’t to stand out, but to choose the right ingredients to achieve the best possible end result.
Silverwood: The Door is a collaboration…and a successful one, at that.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Silverwood: The Door – An Interview with Brian Keene
Silverwood: The Door is the follow-up to Silverwood, an original video series from Tony Valenzuela’s Black Box TV (episodes are available on YouTube). Brian Keene acts as showrunner for a writers room featuring Richard Chizmar, Stephen Kozeniewski, and the Sisters of Slaughter – Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason. The result is a 10-episode series, released in weekly installments in both prose and audiobook formats beginning in October. The team promises a mix of horror styles encompassing slashers, splatterpunk, psychological, Lovecraftian, and more.
Brian Keene writes novels, comic books, short fiction, and occasional journalism for money. He is the author of over forty books, mostly in the horror, crime, and dark fantasy genres. Keene also hosts the popular podcast The Horror Show with Brian Keene, which airs weekly on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and elsewhere via the Project Entertainment Network. His Cemetery Dance column “Brian Keene’s History of Horror Fiction,” in which he follows the art form of telling spooky stories from its cave-bound roots up through the present day, will be returning from hiatus soon. In the meantime, Keene took the time to answer a few questions about his work on Silverwood: The Door.Continue Reading
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
Last month, we explored how, after Rome’s Edict of Milan, Christianity spread throughout the world and began to influence supernatural fiction. But since our previous chapter focused primarily on twelfth century werewolf fiction, I want to begin this month by talking about another religious book that had a lasting impact on our genre. Continue Reading
We’ve explored how the supernatural informed much of humankind’s early written works, from the various texts of the world’s religions to cultural folklore and myths to fiction. Eventually, one religion began to influence them all. Around the same time that anonymous writer was penning Beowulf, the Roman Catholic church’s first official accusation of real-life Satanism took place in the French city of Toulouse.
As we’ve already established, supernatural elements informed much of mankind’s early written works, from the various texts of the world’s religions to cultural folklore and myths to one of humanity’s first pieces of fiction—The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Let’s examine some other early works of horror fiction from the dawn of civilization, starting in 1500 B.C. with the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur—a tale of bestiality, royal intrigue, and man-eating monsters. Continue Reading
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