Weak and Wounded

"Brian James Freeman's stories will leave you greatly moved and a bit disoriented, as a truth is uncovered, a hope is concealed, a terror is faced, a horror is revealed."
— From the introduction by Ron McLarty

Weak and Wounded: Five Stories
by Brian James Freeman

Featuring an exclusive introduction by Ron McLarty and original interior illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne

About the Book:
This new collection by Brian James Freeman features characters who are searching for answers to deeply troubling questions.

* In "Running Rain," a devastated husband and wife try to pretend life can somehow be normal again after their son becomes a victim of a serial killer known as The Riverside Strangler... but the dark secrets they're keeping from each other push their relationship to the brink.

* In "Marking the Passage of Time," a couple approaches the end of the world in their own ways as the clock ticks down and they try to figure out where all of the time has gone...

* "Where Sunlight Sleeps" is the tale of a grieving father and his young son, both dealing with a shared loss the best they can, who take a trip down a memory lane lined with jagged edges and vicious traps...

* On "The Last Beautiful Day," a devoted husband returns to the scene of the worst day of his life by volunteering for a job that is both morbid and profound.

* "Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13" is the story of a young man visiting the beach front amusement park where his brother died during a terrorist attack. He wants to understand why a madman came to this place and blew himself up and killed so many innocent people... but the answer to that question might not be the only thing waiting for the young man when he starts walking with the ghosts.

These five hauntingly beautiful stories show why Publishers Weekly has called Freeman's writing "skillfully composed prose" and why Tess Gerritsen has said, "Brian James Freeman managed to both scare me and move me to tears."

Brian James Freeman is the author of The Painted Darkness, Black Fire, Blue November Storms, More Than Midnight, The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Trivia Book (with Kevin Quigley and Hans-Åke Lilja), and The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book (with Bev Vincent). He edited Dueling Minds, published by Cemetery Dance Publications in their acclaimed Signature Series, and he is the Managing Editor of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Publisher of Lonely Road Books.

His novella, The Painted Darkness, took the Internet by storm during the summer of 2010 and was published in hardcover in December 2010 by Cemetery Dance Publications. Due to overwhelming demand from booksellers, the first printing went out of print on the day of publication and Cemetery Dance rushed a second printing. The Painted Darkness was also offered as the "Free eBook of the Month" by WOWIO.com in October 2010, and within two weeks it became the most downloaded title in the program's history.

Seven Stories, an eBook exclusive short story collection, was the #1 bestselling story collection on Amazon.com in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, and France, and #2 bestseller in Italy, during the first week of February 2012.

His short fiction has appeared in From the Borderlands, Borderlands 5, Shivers, Shivers II, Shivers III, Shivers IV, Shivers V, Shivers VI, Shivers VII, Corpse Blossoms, Shocklines, and many other magazines and anthologies. His essays, columns, and interviews have appeared in The Stephen King Library Desk Calendar series from Book-of-the-Month Club, Jobs in Hell, Hellnotes, and Cemetery Dance.

Visit him on the web at www.BrianJamesFreeman.com.

"Weak and Wounded plunges us into small worlds, in which people live desperate lives and struggle with impossible decisions. Loss permeates every page: these people survive the deaths of parents, children, spouses, and siblings, only to find that survival might be a fate worse than death. But the power in these pages comes not from what our protagonists suffer, but how they suffer it. How they continue to go on…. By tying these stories together by theme, feel, and intent, Freeman has created a work of collected fiction that stands as one piece. Each story beats with its own punctured heart, but taken as a whole, Weak and Wounded is even better than the sum of its broken and damaged parts."
— FEARnet, Kevin Quigley

"This is the most enjoyable compilation of Brian James Freeman's work that I have read to date. Every single story was entertaining and had tremendous shock value... these tales represented some of his best short story writing. The artwork by Glenn Chadbourne featured at the end of each story just enhanced the chill factor of each tale, bringing the scene imagined by the reader to life. I had a blast reading Weak and Wounded."
— G-POP.net, Melissa Minners

"Brian James Freeman is a brilliant writer whose horror stories do not rely upon vampires, zombies or werewolves, as the present collection (a slim book reprinting five of his previously published stories) clearly demonstrates. In these stories he portrays one of the true horrors afflicting human existence, namely the pain,the hurt and the emptiness created by the loss of loved ones. Freeman describes that horror with skill, insight and finesse, leaving behind a deep sense of sorrow and anger for the atrocities of life… Whether you’re a horror fan or not, it doesn’t matter: anyone fond of good fiction addressing and probing the deep secrets of the human soul will be enchanted by the sheer beauty of those stories."
— SF Site, Mario Guslandi

Published in two states:
• Hardcover Limited Edition of 750 signed (by Brian James Freeman, Ron McLarty, and Glenn Chadbourne) copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn ($35)
• Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 26 signed (by Brian James Freeman, Ron McLarty, and Glenn Chadbourne) and lettered copies bound in leather and Smyth sewn with a satin ribbon page marker ($175)

A Few Sample Images:

Production Status:
Visit our official production update page for the latest news and updates about this project.