Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Interviews, ReviewsLeave a comment on CJ Leede, Pray for Us 
Cemetery Dance is proud to present this special review/interview combo from Bram Stoker Award & 6x International Latino Book Award winning author Cynthia Pelayo.
“Well, we don’t know everything. I mean, we know basically nothing,” a character says in American Rapture, and in a way this is the major question explored by CJ Leede’s main character in her highly anticipated sophomore novel — “What do we know?”Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories How I Spend My HalloweenLeave a comment on How I Spend My Halloween: Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo 
If you know anything about Cemetery Dance, you know that the arrival of October…The Spooky Season…is a very special time of year for us. To celebrate, we’ve invited some of our favorite spinners of spooky tales to share their favorite Halloween traditions and memories with us.
Today we’re joined by Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo, the Chicago-based, award-winning author and poet. Apple cider donuts and The Rocky Horror Picture Show are just some of her Halloween traditions — read on to learn more!
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Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dark PathwaysLeave a comment on Dark Pathways: The Stories That Linger 
I just finished reading Cynthia Pelayo’s Children of Chicago, another of this year’s Stoker Award nominees for Superior Achievement in a Novel. I want more. I want ten more books. I want Pelayo to go comb through every single fairy tale she’s ever read and mine each one for the horror lingering between the words and turn each one into a story.
OK, I might be a little biased. I did, after all, write The Grimm Chronicles, so I have a little experience with modern-day fairy tales. But Pelayo is playing with a story that I entirely forgot about: The Pied Piper. From the book’s description:
Chicago detective Lauren Medina’s latest call brings her to investigate a brutally murdered teenager in Humboldt Park—a crime eerily similar to the murder of her sister decades before. Unlike her straight-laced partner, she recognizes the crime, and the new graffiti popping up all over the city, for what it really means: the Pied Piper has returned.
Part horror story, part murder mystery, Children of Chicago expertly weaves the tale of the Pied Piper into something truly horrifying. I know what you’re thinking: OK, the original story was already horrifying … after all, the guy just took a bunch of people’s kids! Yes, point taken. But incorporating any sort of myth or fairy tale into an original story can be an absolute disaster. It requires an understanding of culture, history, and, yes, meaning.Continue Reading
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