Columns Archives - Page 22 of 27 - Cemetery Dance Online

“Rock of Ages” and “Bad Luck”

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 21, 2016December 21, 2016ExhumedBad Luck, Columns, Exhumed, John Rosenman, K. Edwin Fritz, K.S. Clay, Rock of Ages2 Comments

*Humblebrag… I own all 75 issues. Took me 8 years to track ‘em all down. Just look at that collection!
(Photo Copyright 2016 K. Edwin Fritz)

Hello again, folks. This is the third installment of monthly double reviews studying the structure of great horror fiction published in our beloved Cemetery Dance.

Last time I reviewed David B. Silva’s “Fury’s Child” from CD #1 (1988) and Lisa Morton’s “The Rich are Different” from CD #74/75 (2016).

If you haven’t read either one, do check them out. The Silva story in particular is hard to find… of course. 😉

This month we’ve got another 2 stories from the same 2 issues…Continue Reading

The Dark Highway

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 16, 2016December 14, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the RoadLeave a comment

“Everybody thought it was a big joke… It was so funny, I just kept on going…Everybody thought I was just going to go on tweaking the Major’s balls to the very end. Which was what I did. Then one morning I woke up and I was in. I was a Prime Walker…So I guess it turned out the Major was tweaking my balls.” Stephen King, The Long Walk

Continue Reading

Cautionary Splatter

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 14, 2016December 12, 2016Horror Drive-InColumns, Horror Drive-In, Mark SieberLeave a comment

I’ve been in the process of moving over the past few months. As you may imagine, there are a lot of books, magazines, and other items to be gathered and transported. I’ve been taking it slowly, and looking over a lot of the items I have. Some of which I had almost forgotten about.

I came upon the Footsteps Press chapbook edition of Douglas E. Winter’s Splatter: A Cautionary Tale. I had not read the story in many years, and it has always been a favorite of mine. So I propped up the pillows, climbed under the warm blankets, and read this chilling short story.Continue Reading

God and Country

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 9, 2016December 7, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road3 Comments

End of the Road

The audience in Morgantown, West Virginia was small—easily the smallest since Albuquerque—but the dozen or so people who showed up were enthusiastic and engaged. One guy, Jarod Barbee, had traveled all the way from Texas. It is December as I write this, recounting events that occurred at the end of July, and I’ve been going back through these columns, collecting them into manuscript format so Cemetery Dance can eventually publish them as a book. Many recurring things jump out at me as I re-read them. Continue Reading

Dickens’s Ghosts

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 2, 2016November 30, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road1 Comment

End of the Road

“The allegorical nature of A Christmas Carol leads to relatively simplistic symbolism and a linear plot. The latter is divided into five Staves, each containing a distinct episode in Scrooge’s spiritual re-education. The first Stave centers on the visitation from Marley’s ghost, the middle three present the tales of the three Christmas spirits, and the last concludes the story, showing how Scrooge has changed. The Ghost of Christmas Past represents memory. The Ghost of Christmas Present serves as the central symbol of the Christmas ideal—generosity, goodwill, and celebration. Appearing on a throne made of food, the spirit evokes thoughts of prosperity, satiety, and merriment. Within the allegory, the silent, reaper-like figure of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represents the fear of death, which refracts Scrooge’s lessons about memory, empathy, and generosity, insuring his reversion to an open, loving human being.” – Spark Notes

“Fury’s Child” and “The Rich Are Different”

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 23, 2016November 22, 2016ExhumedCemetery Dance #1, Cemetery Dance #74/75, Columns, David B. Silva, Exhumed, Fury's Child, K. Edwin Fritz, Lisa Morton, The Rich Are Different4 Comments

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Hello again, folks. This is the 2nd installment of “Exhumed”—monthly double reviews studying the structure of great horror fiction published in our beloved Cemetery Dance.

Last time I reviewed Steve Rasnic Tem’s “The Double” from CD #1 (1988) and Michael Wehunt’s “The Inconsolable” from CD #73 (2016). If you didn’t catch that one, do check it out. Both stories are well worth your consideration.

Let’s see what we’ve got on the docket for this month… Continue Reading

Scares That Care (Part 2)

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 18, 2016November 17, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road2 Comments

End of the Road

You ever heard of a crowd being described as “an ocean of people”? That’s what the third annual Scares That Care Weekend Charity Event was like—an ocean of horror movie and television celebrities and their fans, filmmakers and their fans, authors and their fans, publishers and their customers, haunt professionals and enthusiasts, comic book creators and their fans, paranormal investigators and their fans, make-up and special effects artists and their fans, cosplayers, and everyone else—all descending upon the convention hotel in Williamsburg, Virginia, to raise money for burn victims and children and women with cancer.

I was exhausted, but I had no choice but to cast myself into that ocean, to dive into that sea of humanity and hope I wouldn’t drown. Continue Reading

Scares That Care (Part 1)

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 11, 2016November 10, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road, Scares That CareLeave a comment

End of the Road

Scares That Care is an IRS approved 501 (c)(3) horror-themed charity that I donate my time and name to. We fight real monsters of childhood illness, cancer, and more by financially helping families experiencing these overwhelming hardships. Each case is unique. We provide money, toys, utilities, and other items to help sick children and their families. We do the same for women fighting breast cancer. And we also partner with actor Kane Hodder (the Friday the 13th series) to aid children who have suffered serious, life-altering burn injuries.Continue Reading

Introducing ‘Revelations’

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 8, 2016November 7, 2016RevelationsColumns, Kevin Lucia, Revelations4 Comments

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thegrave Over the span of my thus far short writing career, I’ve been fortunate to experience several moments of clarity; moments which have changed me as a writer and a person. One of them came in the form of my first actual critique from an editor, regarding the first short story I ever submitted. The critique stung with its stark, unflinching truthfulness, but it forced me to face my writing weaknesses head on, and showed me the immeasurable value of honest feedback. It set the tone for how I approach editorial critique, to this day.Continue Reading

Time Bubble

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 4, 2016November 5, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the Road1 Comment

End of the Road

And thus began the most grueling part of the book signing tour since Tod Clark and I had driven across the American West—John Urbancik and I spent five days in mid-July crisscrossing Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. That no doubt sounds romantic and adventurous to some of you. Hell, up until a few years ago, it would have sounded romantic and adventurous to me, as well. It would have been my idea of fun. Sadly, it’s not so fun when you’re approaching fifty. Continue Reading

‘Pet Sematary’ and Why Sometimes Dead is Better

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 26, 2016October 25, 2016What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Jason Sechrest, Pet Sematary, What I Learned from Stephen King9 Comments

What I Learned From Stephen King

book There is a bit of lore that exists around the origins of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. It was a novel he never intended to publish, the one he felt was “too dark” to unleash upon us Constant Readers. That is somewhat difficult to believe, considering it was only two years before Pet Sematary’s publication in 1983 that King picked up his typewriter and hit us over the head with Cujo, wherein five-year-old Tad Trenton dies by the novel’s final pages. King has said on numerous occasions that he received a lot of flack for that one, to be sure. One of the most popular questions he would get asked at the time is: Why, Steve, why? Why did you have to go and kill the kid?Continue Reading

Looking Back on Scares That Care 2016

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 12, 2016October 11, 2016Horror Drive-InColumns, Horror Drive-In, Mark Sieber, Scares That CareLeave a comment

Horror Drive-In A funny thing happened at Scares That Care Weekend 3. I was in the Celebrity Room, and I noticed something. The room was laid out with media personalities all around the perimeter, against the walls. Writers were mostly in the center. It occurred to me that, at least at the moment in question, there were more people engaging in conversations and sales with authors than with the actors and such.Continue Reading

Brian Keene’s End of the Road: Balance

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 7, 2016October 6, 2016Brian Keene's End of the RoadBrian Keene, Columns, End of the RoadLeave a comment

End of the Road

Welcome to End of the Road, a nine-month weekly column in which I talk about my ongoing cross-country promotional tour for my new novels Pressure and The Complex. If you’re just joining us, a quick recap—everything was going swimmingly and our hero was triumphant until he received a dire warning from what is either a) the spirit of his deceased best friend, or b) his subconscious tricking him into thinking it is the spirit of his deceased best friend. Since that warning, things have gone from swimmingly to terribly awry. Our hero—having consumed two bottles of bourbon after learning that a) a major signing has been cancelled, and b) he is now orphaned at his mainstream publisher (who published one of the books he is currently out on the road promoting)—is currently passed out in a hotel room in Chattanooga. We now rejoin the column, already in progress…Continue Reading

The Mad Monk of Comics: The Life of Alan Moore

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 6, 2016October 6, 2016The Comic VaultAlan Moore, Columns, Comics, Featured, Svetlana Fedotov, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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alanmoore With the Killing Joke movie selling like proverbial hot cakes, DC has managed to prove that what might be too risky for big screen adaption is a welcome addition to adult animation. Almost 28 years after the initial release of the graphic novel, the storyline is still considered one of the most pivotal stories in Batman history and has not only redefined the Caped Crusader but launched (with other notable works) the career of Alan Moore. But who is Alan Moore? What motivates the author to get up in the morning and what secrets does his beard keep? While we probably won’t know the answer to a lot of questions thanks in part to his propensity for being mysterious, we can at least look back at his history and make some educated guesses. Continue Reading

A Halloween Thing A Day: Terror on TV

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 2, 2016October 2, 2016A Halloween Thing A DayA Halloween Thing A Day, Blu Gilliand, Columns, FeaturedLeave a comment

In recent years, the weeks leading up to Halloween have become a period of frantic DVR cleansing. Whereas in the past we only had AMC’s week-long FearFest plus a handful of sporadic horror films on other channels to look forward to, the last couple of years have seen more and more stations up their horror content considerably during the month of October. This year promises a staggering amount of content—everything from the expected franchise marathons (Halloween, Friday the 13th) to the classic Universal horror films, a ton of kid-friendly scare fare, and much more.

Fortunately, there’s no need to wear out your remote control’s battery paging through your DVR guide in search of the good stuff. The kind folks at Nerd Much? have done the legwork, posting this comprehensive guide to televised terror—and they promise to update it as more networks release their schedules throughout the month. Keep an eye on it, and good luck in clearing out space on your DVR—you’re going to need it.

Blu Gilliand is the managing editor of Cemetery Dance Magazine and Cemetery Dance Online. He still has movies recorded on his DVR from last October that he didn’t get a chance to watch.

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