What Screams May Come: Come Out & Play by Patrick Tumblety

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Patrick Tumblety

Come Out & Play by Patrick Tumblety
Uncomfortably Dark (September 2024)

The Synopsis

Scott has not left his house since causing the accident that killed his mother. To keep himself from harming his remaining loved ones, he repeats daily rituals and abides by superstitious, compulsive, and intrusive thoughts. He is successful in the endeavor until the night of his eighteenth birthday when something comes to tear him from the physical and mental walls he has built against the world. 

Something that Scott fears has been sent by his mother to avenge her death.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Red Inside by Bridgett Nelson

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

photo of author Bridgett Nelson
Bridgett Nelson

Red Inside by Bridgett Nelson
Threat Pose Press (July 2024)

The Synopsis

From the morally corrupt, yet oddly sweet, mind of Bridgett Nelson, the Splatterpunk Award-winning author of A Bouquet of Viscera and What the Fuck Was That?, comes a brand new tale of blood-spattered horror.

Bethany can’t wait for the end of her hospital shift — four glorious days of relaxation await. Secretly, she’s most excited about the fun-filled nights reveling in an unexpected flirtation with her co-worker, Michelle. Thoughts of her long, cozy weekend vanish, however, when Francisco Delgado is admitted to her floor from the emergency room. Delgado, a man who came into contact with an unknown arachnid species in South America, and who now has something…squirming…beneath his skin.Continue Reading

Rick Hipson and the Art of Reviewing Books

banner graphic that says Cemetery Dance Interviews

cover of A Reviewer's Guide to Writing Book ReviewsEveryone’s a critic these days, but within the literary universe, the art of critiquing is no task for the meek. Dissecting the nuts-and-bolts of what makes a story work — or not — takes a trained eye. There are miles of distance between a one-star stinker and a five-star phenomenon, and recognizing those differences requires the work of the assertive; those unafraid to flay the flesh from characters and dig deep into the viscera of influences and motives, or to call out those narrative plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. It’s the business of Rick Hipson and the like, shored up by chops that take decades of commitment to develop. Or took decades — a time investment that Hipson’s latest release, A Reviewer’s Guide to Writing Book Reviews: And How to Get Paid for Them (Crystal Lake Publishing), is hoping to shave down as much as possible. Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Placerita by Lisa Morton and John Palisano

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Placerita by Lisa Morton and John Palisano
Cemetery Dance (June 2024)

cover of PlaceritaThe Synopsis

It’s 1928, and something strange is afoot in the desert town of Placerita just north of Los Angeles. When young biologist Alexis Crawford discovers an unidentifiable specimen washed up in the wake of a devastating flood, it begins a journey that will reveal the dark conspiracies at the heart of California and the secret known only to a few: that beneath the City of Angels is an ancient world of tunnels lined in gold, a world that is home to the legendary Lizard People.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Blood Covenant by Alan Baxter

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Blood Covenant by Alan Baxter
Cemetery Dance, May 2024

The Synopsis

cover of Blood CovenantWhat should have been a breeze of a bank heist for James Glenn and his crew goes violently wrong, forcing them to flee, blood-stained and angry. They stumble onto a remote lodge that doesn’t open for another month — a perfect place to lie low until the heat’s off.

Except it’s occupied.

The Moore family, just arrived to prepare for the season, are taken hostage by the criminals, but not without bloodshed. And when blood gets spilled, something ancient notices. Something malevolent. Something ravenous.

Their only hope is the youngest Moore, teenager Rueben, outside and unseen when James and his gang arrive. It’s up to Rueben to get help and save his family, but the influence of the ancient evil is taking a toll on him as well…Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: When the Lights Go Out by Kevin Lucia

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

When the Lights Go Out by Kevin Lucia
Cemetery Dance, May 30, 2024

The Synopsis

cover of When the Lights Go OutWhen the lights go out…that’s when things change. When masks are put aside, and eerie truths are laid bare. It’s when towns grow extra streets and cul-de-sacs which don’t exist in daytime. When whispered wishes and fantasies become reality. When our deepest fears and most powerful longings become flesh. When ambitions become obsessions which overpower us, and leads us to our ends.

But it’s also when our imaginations run free, unfettered by the trappings of mundane living. Just as the dark unleashes despair, it also fuels fantastical leaps impossible to take during the day. It’s the canvas upon which we paint worlds and universes which take the darkness and create something out of nothing.

In his new collection, one of the leading voices in small press horror offers up an eclectic collection of strange tales — the kind which can only happen when the lights go out, and we close our eyes.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Innocence Ends by Nikolas P. Robinson

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Innocence Ends by Nikolas P. Robinson
Uncomfortably Dark (June 21 on Godless/June 30 on Amazon)

cover of Innocence EndsThe Synopsis

Six friends meet together in an isolated mountain town in Northern Idaho to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a close friend’s suicide. A week of hiking, spending time in nature, and a bittersweet reunion soon takes a sinister turn as the friends find themselves fighting for their lives and struggling to survive. A seemingly tranquil community bombarded by late spring storms becomes a trap filled with monsters and threats everywhere they turn. Terrifying secrets are revealed and the survivors are left to wonder what will be left of the world outside if they can find a way to come through the gauntlet alive.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Europea Halls by Alan Shivers

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Europea Halls: A YA Slasher Trilogy by Alan Shivers
Crystal Lake Entertainment (May 2024)

The Synopsis

When the survivors of the summer massacre in Budapest are forced to go to Brussels, they will learn the hard way that the final chapter of a Slasher Trilogy always goes back to the beginning.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: The Day of the Door by Laurel Hightower

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

The Day Of The Door by Laurel Hightower
A Ghoulish Books Publication (April 2024)

cover of The Day of the DoorThe Synopsis

Once there were four Lasco siblings banded together against a world that failed to protect them. But on a hellish night that marked the end of their childhood, eldest brother Shawn died violently after being dragged behind closed doors. Though the official finding was accidental death, Nathan Lasco knows better, and has never forgiven their mother, Stella.

Now, two decades later, Stella promises to finally reveal the truth of what happened on The Day of the Door. Accompanied by a paranormal investigative team, the Lasco family comes together one final time, but no one is prepared for the revelations waiting for them on the third floor.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: No One Is Safe from Philip Fracassi

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

No One Is Safe! by Philip Fracassi
Lethe Press (April 2024)

cover of No One Is Safe!The Synopsis

No One is Safe! presents fourteen stories of macabre, pulpy terror — a book filled with futuristic noir mysteries, science fiction thrillers, alien invasions, and old-school horror tales that will keep you up late into the night. Inside these covers, you’ll discover haunted dream journals and evil houses, birthday wishes gone wrong, a neighborhood cat that cures any disease, a flesh-eating beach, and mysterious skeletons on a hidden moon base. You’ll meet wise-cracking detectives, suburban vampires, murdered movie stars, and monsters of the deep. Don’t get too attached to the characters you’ll meet on these pages because anything can happen, and no one is safe.Continue Reading

The Cemetery Dance Interview: Stephen Mark Rainey

banner graphic that says Cemetery Dance Interviews

photo of author Stephen Mark Rainey
Stephen Mark Rainey

Writing from Martinsville, Virginia, Stephen Mark Rainey (that’s Mark to his friends, peers, and others who he doesn’t owe money to) is the author of over 200 short stories, some of which are available as collections (Other Gods, Fugue Devil: Resurgence) and the editor of the award-winning magazine, Deathrealm (1987-1997). Rainey is also the editor of a few fine anthologies such as Evermore, The Song of Cthulhu, and Deathrealm: Spirits, which is the book that prompted me to chase him down and ask nicely to corner him for his remarkable knowledge of our beloved horror genre.

Rainey did not disappoint and satiated my curiosity, at least for now, about how the tides of the horror industry has changed, the significance of having Deathrealm back in the spotlight, how he managed to rally today’s most esteemed and promising authors writing today under one unified literary roof, and a whole lot more worth leaning forward in your seat for.
Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Bill Mullen’s THE THING IN THE WIND

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

The Thing In The Wind by Bill Mullen
Crystal Lake Publishing (April 5, 2024)

cover of The Thing in the WindThe Synopsis

A woman who has found her place in the world has it overturned by news of her mother’s disappearance in a remote region of northern Saskatchewan. She, her father, and a small group set out to find answers about how and why her mother and colleague disappeared and are suspected to be dead, all the while being haunted by dreams, premonitions, and a strange presence of something stalking them…something not human.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Richard Farren Barber’s ONE OF THE DEAD

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

One Of The Dead by Richard Farren Barber
Crystal Lake Entertainment (March 18th, 2024)

The Synopsis

cover of One of the DeadTerror doesn’t stumble and moan—it walks silently among us, cloaked in the guise of the overlooked. 

Nick, burdened with the rare ability to see these dead predators for what they truly are, faces a nightmare when his girlfriend, Abby, becomes ensnared by their sinister intent.

These are not your typical undead. They blend in, their appearances mirroring the forgotten faces of society, making their predatory nature all the more chilling. A touch is all it takes for them to latch onto their prey, draining life in a way that leaves the body walking but the spirit doomed.

As Abby becomes the focus of such a being’s obsession, Nick is drawn into a desperate struggle not just for her life, but for her very soul. Their fight for survival takes them from the deceptive safety of city streets to the foreboding quiet of a cemetery, where the boundary between the living and those claimed by the shadowy grasp of the dead becomes perilously thin.

One of The Dead weaves a tale not of a zombie apocalypse, but of a quiet invasion, a creeping horror that targets the heart. It’s a story of love tested by unfathomable forces, of a battle against an enemy that never rests, never forgives, and never ceases its pursuit until you become one of its own.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: Owen King’s THE CURATOR

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

The Curator by Owen King
Gauntlet Press(limited/signed editions)/Scribner & Schuster (March 2024)

The Synopsis:

cover of The Curator It begins in an unnamed city nicknamed “the Fairest,” distinguished by many things from the river fair to the mountains that split the municipality in half; its theaters and many museums; the Morgue Ship; and, like all cities, but maybe especially so, by its essential unmappability.

Dora, a former domestic servant at the university, has a secret desire — to understand the mystery of her brother’s death, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum — only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. Robert offers her one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be. Set against the backdrop of an oddly familiar and wondrous city on the verge of collapse, Dora’s search for the truth will unravel a monstrous conspiracy and bring her to the edge of worlds.Continue Reading

What Screams May Come: John Durgin’s KOSA

banner What Screams May Come by Rick Hipson

Kosa by John Durgin
Dark Lit Press (May 17th, 2024)

The Synopsis

cover of KosaIn a secluded mansion hidden away from the outside world, young Kosa lives under the strict and overpowering rule of her enigmatic mother. For Kosa, the rules set by Mother are the guiding principles of her life, shaping her beliefs and actions. She has been sheltered from the truth about the world beyond the confines of their home, conditioned to fear the darkness and malevolence that supposedly lurks outside.

However, as Kosa grows older, she begins to question the reality she has been presented with. Doubts eat away at her, fueled by a deep-rooted curiosity and a burgeoning sense of independence.Continue Reading