Jason Sechrest Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Exhumed: “Night Game” and “Orange Grove Court”

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 17, 2023February 16, 2023ExhumedColumns, Exhumed, Jason Sechrest, K. Edwin Fritz, Night Game, Orange Grove Court, William Relling Jr.2 Comments

banner reading Exhumed - The Fiction of Cemetery Dance by K. Edwin Fritz

Hi there. I’m Keith… or “K. Edwin” if you prefer. I’m a middle school English teacher, a writer, and like any perfectly normal fan of horror these days, another random guy who is totally obsessed with Cemetery Dance Magazine. Ok, maybe I take it a bit further than most… I actually own every single copy (but that’s a story for another post).

Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review every short story and novel excerpt ever published by CD. In their 34+ years of publication, there have been 577 (and counting!) pieces spread out over 77 issues. Since each Exhumed post covers just two stories (one “old” and one “new”), I think I’m going to be doing this for a while. I sure hope you’ll join me along the way, whether that means reading each piece as I review it (assuming you can find them all) or just taking it all in while I do the hard work and wax poetic with my observations. Either way, grab your shovel and dig in. There’s no telling what we’ll unearth together. Continue Reading

Dead Air: The Company of the Mad – The Stand Podcast

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 19, 2021January 18, 2021Dead AirAnthony Breznican, Blu Gilliand, Columns, Dead Air, Interviews, Jason Sechrest, mike flanagan, Stephen King, Tananarive Due, The Company of the Mad, The StandLeave a comment

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logo of The Company of the Mad podcast 2020 was a hell of a year to be reading Stephen King’s 1978 novel, The Stand….never mind devoting an entire podcast to it.

Jason Sechrest thought the same thing — in fact, he was reading it when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. He took to Twitter with his thoughts about the book, and with a dream about examining it in detail in a podcast, and before he knew it he’d assembled an amazing lineup of co-hosts: director Mike Flanagan, author Tananarive Due, and journalist/author Anthony Breznican. The result is a six-episode podcast that is entertaining, informative, and incredibly timely. (You can WATCH The Company of the Mad: The Stand Podcast at TheStandPodcast.com, or LISTEN on Apple Podcasts here.)

With the final episode set to go live on January 20, Sechrest took a few moments to talk to Cemetery Dance about the origins of the project, and what he and his mad company learned along the way.Continue Reading

Fiction: The Road That Takes You There by Jason Sechrest

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 24, 2019April 24, 2019Free FictionFiction, Free Fiction, Jason Sechrest, The Road That Takes You There3 Comments

Meet George Tinker. Each day, George fires up his ’57 Thunderbird and drives down the road in his small home town—the same road he’s been driving since he was old enough to get behind the wheel.

But, for the first time in his life, George is about to come to the end of that road—and he’ll finally have to face what’s waiting for him there.

Cemetery Dance is proud to present “The Road That Takes You There” by columnist and author Jason Sechrest. Continue Reading

What I Learned from Stephen King: IT & Other Childhood Demons

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 8, 2019February 8, 2019What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, It, Jason Sechrest, What I Learned from Stephen King1 Comment

Tim Curry as Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

No book has had a more profound impact on me than Stephen King’s It.

For one thing, It is the book that introduced me to Stephen King. In 1990, I was 10 years old, and like many kids my age, I was entranced by the clown in the storm drain I’d seen on prime time television. You can bet your fur that every kid at school was talking about Stephen King’s It the night after it aired, but like most things that captured our imagination as children, it faded from the periphery of playground conversation within a day or so, only to be replaced by more common maintains like debating who should be the villain in the next Batman movie, or when we would get another Gremlins or Ghostbusters. Continue Reading

Firestarter and Standing Up to “The Man”

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 24, 2018August 22, 2018What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Firestarter, Jason Sechrest, What I Learned from Stephen KingLeave a comment

It’s easy to see why Stephen King’s Firestarter was nearly the novel we never read.

Abandoning his manuscript on several occasions, King felt the book was too much like Carrie and feared he would be copying himself. While Carrie White had telekinesis (the ability to move objects with her mind), Charlie McGee’s gift (or curse) in Firestarter is pyrokinesis — the ability to start fires with her mind. Both Carrie and Charlie are adolescents. Both have unnaturally co-dependent relationships with a parental figure. And, both are going through a painful process of learning how to control their extraordinary powers.Continue Reading

Everyone Has An Annie Wilkes

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 20, 2018July 15, 2018What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Jason Sechrest, Misery, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen King3 Comments

In 1987, the gods of creativity were looking favorably upon Stephen King, who blessed Constant Readers with three books in a ten-month period — a new record for the already highly prolific author. Among the three novels published that year was Misery, an instant bestseller that would become hailed as one of King’s classics. At the time of its release, however, it might not have seemed very King-like at all. Continue Reading

Who is the True Villain in Carrie?

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 25, 2018May 29, 2018What I Learned from Stephen KingCarrie, Columns, Jason Sechrest, What I Learned from Stephen King8 Comments

Stephen King’s first novel Carrie debuted on April 5th, 1974 with little to no fanfare. One might say that, like the novel’s title character, Carrie was always destined to be a late bloomer. Shy to the spotlight, you might find Carrie hanging out at your local library or bookstore, sitting there all but invisible upon the shelf. All the while, of course, Carrie held a great secret. A special power. Quiet and patient, Carrie was waiting to make her mark on the world, to have her revenge on those who had underestimated her, and to make Stephen King a household name. Continue Reading

The Letter I Wrote to Stephen King, and the Response that Changed My Life

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 8, 2017September 8, 2017What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, It, Jason Sechrest, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen King17 Comments

When I was 10 years old, I sent Stephen King the first thing I had ever written.

It was a short story called “Murder on Washington St.”

The reply I received changed the course of my life forever. Continue Reading

The Flexible Bullet of Madness

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 25, 2017August 19, 2017What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Jason Sechrest, Stephen King, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, What I Learned from Stephen KingLeave a comment

“This is a story about the genesis of insanity.” – Stephen King, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet

PROLOGUE: LOADING THE GUN

If I try really hard, I can remember it all.

If I close my eyes and really concentrate, it’s almost like I’m right there. I can nearly smell the smells, and hear the sounds of what it was like. The soft elevator music that played in the lobby, and those halls that reeked of aged bodies. I can see myself as a 12 year old boy, visiting my great-grandmother in the old folk’s home. I can recall how she thought my mother was her daughter, or that it was December in the heat of June. Continue Reading

‘Thinner’ and the Blame Game

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 21, 2017April 12, 2017What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Jason Sechrest, Stephen King, Thinner, What I Learned from Stephen KingLeave a comment

What I Learned from Stephen King by Jason Sechrest

“There are no curses, only mirrors you hold up to the souls of men and women.” – Stephen King, Thinner

A disclaimer before we begin: As is the case with most of these doo-dads, there are spoilers ahead for those who have not read Thinner. More spoilers than usual in fact, as I found it necessary to employ the book’s end in my final analysis. If you, Constant Reader, should wish to check out now, we will hold no grudge, nor lay the blame. For if there is anything to be learned from Thinner (and I believe there is, or I would not have written said doo-dad), it is that blame is like a spinning wheel. Round and round and round she goes… 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

'Night Shift' and the Nature of Fear

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 29, 2016What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Featured, Jason Sechrest, Night Shift, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen King8 Comments

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Night Shift and the Nature of Fear

Let’s talk about fear. We won’t raise our voices and we won’t scream; we’ll talk rationally, you and I. We’ll talk about the way the good fabric of things sometimes has a way of unraveling with shocking suddenness. – Stephen King, Introduction to Night Shift

I finished reading Stephen King’s first collection of short stories, 1978’s Night Shift, a few months back, but have avoided writing down any thoughts on it.

No one wants to expound on a subject of which they feel they have little to contribute, and for me everything that needs to be said about Night Shift was said perfectly by Stephen King in his introduction to the book. In fact, it may be one of the most perfect pieces King has written, if not certainly the most perfect he had written in 1978.

King’s opening act serves as an essay on the nature of fear: why he writes horror, and why people read it. I found myself not only more mesmerized, but more haunted by this than any of the tales in King’s gruesome set list. Continue Reading

What I Learned from Stephen King: 'Christine' & The Roads Traveled

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 1, 2016What I Learned from Stephen KingChristine, Columns, Featured, Jason Sechrest, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen KingLeave a comment

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Christine & The Roads Traveled

On the evening of February 10th, 2016, John got into his black Cherokee Jeep and went to console an old friend. It seemed like the right decision at the time. He had received Sally’s email just after sundown, informing him of the news that her brother, Peter, had died of an overdose. Sally and Peter had been John’s friends in a time and place that seemed as far away as the memories of his early childhood, and yet it had only been four years ago. These had been his “party” friends. Four years had passed since John made the decision to get sober, and, as such decisions will do, it had created distance between himself and his old friends. He hadn’t told them he couldn’t hang out with them anymore. He wasn’t that kind of guy. He hadn’t even made any concerted effort to stay away from them, really. They just drifted, as friends sometimes do when the road of life they had once tread together diverged in separate directions. Continue Reading

'Misery' on Broadway – What Every Other Review Won't Tell You

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 23, 2016October 5, 2016Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBroadway, Bruce Willis, Featured, Jason Sechrest, Laurie Metcalf, Misery, Reviews, Stephen KingLeave a comment

Misery on Broadway – What Every Other Review Won’t Tell You
by Jason Sechrest

In the Fall of 2015, Misery came to Broadway – but that’s not necessarily as bad as it sounds.

The stage adaptation of the novel by Stephen King made its run at the Broadhurst Theater from November 15th, 2015 to February 14th, 2016, starring Bruce Willis as romance novelist Paul Sheldon (who has suffered a near fatal car accident in a snow storm), and Laurie Metcalf as Annie Wilkes, his “#1 fan” who has rescued him from said crash only to hold him captive in her home.

Now, we could have reviewed Misery on Broadway during its run, but where is the fun in all that?Continue Reading

What I Learned From Stephen King: What Makes a Great Teacher

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 15, 2016What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Featured, Jason Sechrest, What I Learned from Stephen King3 Comments

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What Makes a Great Teacher

kingteach1 With a title like What I Learned From Stephen King, I suppose at some point you and I are going to need to sit down and discuss the subject of teachers. I also suppose now would be as good a time as any.

Stephen King once said, “Good teachers can be trained, if they really want to learn. Great teachers, like Socrates, are born.” He should know. He taught writing to high school students at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine, plus spent a year teaching as a writer-in-residence at his alma mater, the University of Maine, in the late 1970s while still establishing himself as a writer. Continue Reading

Night Shift and the Nature of Fear

Christine & The Roads Traveled

Misery on Broadway – What Every Other Review Won’t Tell You by Jason Sechrest

What Makes a Great Teacher

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Misery on Broadway – What Every Other Review Won’t Tell You
by Jason Sechrest