Review: ‘The Garden of Delight’ by Alessandro Manzetti

The Garden of Delight by Alessandro Manzetti
Comet Press (March 2017)
250 pages; $14.95 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

The Garden of Delight is a sexually charged compilation of stories from Alessandro Manzetti. Most have been previously published, but a few of the tales are new to this collection. All the stories share a similar tone and spirit as they explore human decadance through the centuries. When it comes to sexual relations, nothing is off limits.  Continue Reading

Review: ‘Revenge of the Vampir King’ by Nancy Kilpatrick

Revenge of the Vampir King by Nancy Kilpatrick
Crossroad Press (February 2017)
290 pages; $26.99 hardcover; $14.99 paperback; ebook $4.99
Reviewed by Peter Tomas

Revenge of the Vampir King, a blood soaked tale by Nancy Kilpatrick, is the story of a male vampire, a human girl, and the chaos which surrounds them as they interact with one another. Valada, the princess of the humans, is sent to the vampire king, Moarte, as an unwilling gift by her father Zador, the evil human king. Through a mess of emotions and erotic interactions, the two become wed, and the world around them becomes rife with treachery, confusion, lust, and hurt. They must fight their way to Zador’s throne to end his terrible reign and, with any luck, save their marriage, and the people they love most.Continue Reading

University by Bentley Little eBook Edition Published!

“University is unlike anything else in popular fiction.”
— Stephen King

Hi Folks!

University, the acclaimed novel by Bentley Little, is now available for the first time ever as a bargain priced eBook, but this price may increase at any time, so don’t wait to download your copy!

About the Novel:
Once, the southern California campus was praised for its high honors and distinguished tradition. But this semester, the esteemed institution is going through a change. This semester, UC Brea is really coming alive…

In a dark campus parking lot, a female student senses a presence, but it’s too late to scream…

An unnatural appetite possesses a school janitor who lingers in the stairwells, waiting…

And after nightfall, the sixth-floor library is strictly forbidden. Anyone who’s gone there knows why…

Because something at UC Brea wants to teach the students a lesson…

Amazon.com • Amazon.co.uk • Amazon.ca • Barnes & Noble • iBookstore • Kobo

University

Read more or place your order now!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

The Dungeon of Count Verlock

“The Dungeon of Count Verlock”
(A Budget Studio Production)
edited by Norman Prentiss

This previously unpublished story, an anonymous “novelization” of a movie written and directed by Bud “Budget” Preston, was scheduled to appear in issue 101 of Monster Project magazine. For more information about the history of this story, and how I uncovered it, see my Editor’s Note after the end of the story—and continue reading to find out about my forthcoming novel, Life in a Haunted House, that fictionalizes elements of Preston’s life and filmography.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Little Gift’ by Stephen Volk

The Little Gift by Stephen Volk
PS Publishing (March 2017)
80 pages; £12.00 hardcover; £20.00 signed edition
Reviewed by Gef Fox

If you live with a cat, you live with a natural born killer. Some prey on dangling bits of string, others go after bigger game. And if they like you, they’ll leave you one of their kills as a little gift. In Stephen Volk’s newest novella, it’s one of these little gifts from a family cat that sends the man of the house, our narrator, down a dark winding memory of an encounter with an alluring woman that shook him from his mundane moorings.Continue Reading

The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss eBook Edition Announced!

“A beautifully-written, scary novel that is as much about the dark side of marriage as it is a savagely disturbing Halloween yarn.” — Horror Drive-In

We’re very pleased to report that The Halloween Children, a novel written by Cemetery Dance staffers Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss, will be published by Hydra/Random House this June! You can read more and preorder the book at these links:

Amazon.com • Amazon.co.uk • Barnes & Noble • iBookstore • Kobo

The Halloween Children eBook

Read more or place your order now!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Sleeping Beauties: A Novel by Stephen King and Owen King

A Wildly Provocative, Gloriously Absorbing 800 Page Epic!

We’re thrilled to announce we will be getting copies of Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King, the brand new and spectacular collaboration in which they tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place… The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain?

Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration between Stephen King and Owen King.

Sleeping Beauties

Read more or place your order while our supplies last!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Onscreen Mojo: An Interview with Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale

Many colorful descriptors have been affixed to describe the work of ten-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale, but reigning champion of mojo storytelling (as coined by Lansdale’s friend and webmaster Lou Bark) is the most fitting way to express his dynamic style. Throughout a prolific career, Lansdale has produced an astounding assortment of unique tales gracefully two-stepping between the pulp and the profound. His work is gritty, funny, and violent, characterized by biting dialogue and Lansdale’s ability to seamlessly cross genres while remaining conscious of history and storytelling tradition. Lansdale’s distinct literary voice regales his readers with tales of rough-and-tumble anti-heroes ready to throw down against dangerous criminals, serial killers, and occasional otherworldly monsters running amok in East Texas.Continue Reading

My First Fright featuring D.J. MacHale

I’m a big fan of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the horror/fantasy TV series that ran on Nickelodeon back in the ’90s and early 2000s (if you’re unfamiliar, think Tales From The Crypt Jr., or The Twilight Zone for kids). The show wasn’t my first introduction to horror, but it definitely helped fuel my then-burgeoning interest in the genre. Seen by millions over the last few decades, Are You Afraid of the Dark? is likely the first fright for more than a few writers pounding out spooky fiction today. So, I couldn’t help but wonder, what would it be like to interview the brain behind the show, an architect of First Frights himself, and find out what, in turn, inspired him.Continue Reading

Dark Screams 6 featuring Stephen King, Lisa Morton, Nell Quinn-Gibney, Norman Prentiss, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tim Curran!

Richard Chizmar and Brian James Freeman have once again joined forces with the cutting edge team at Hydra, a division of Random House, to produce five more volumes in their acclaimed Dark Screams horror eBook anthology series!

Each volume collects stories by the best authors working in the business today, and the newest addition to this landmark series is Dark Screams: Volume Six, which is now available for preorder! (Read more about Dark Screams: Volume One, Dark Screams: Volume Two, Dark Screams: Volume Three, Dark Screams: Volume Four, and Dark Screams: Volume Five on their pages.)

Dark Screams Volume Six features…

THE OLD DUDE’S TICKER by Stephen King
Dark Screams 6Richard Drogan has been spooked ever since he came back from ‘Nam, but he’s no head case, dig? He just knows the old dude needs to die.

THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT by Lisa Morton
Even though she made her name revealing the private lives of the rich and famous, Sara Peck has no idea how deep their secrets really go… or the price they’ll pay to get what they desire.

THE MANICURE by Nell Quinn-Gibney
A trip to the nail salon is supposed to be relaxing. But as the demons of the past creep closer with every clip, even the most serene day of pampering can become a nightmare.

THE COMFORTING VOICE by Norman Prentiss
It’s a little strange how baby Lydia can only be soothed by her grandfather’s unnatural voice, ravaged by throat cancer. The weirdest part? What he’s saying is more disturbing than how he says it.

THE SITUATIONS by Joyce Carol Oates
There are certain lessons children must learn, rules they must follow, scars they must bear. No lesson is more important than this: Never question Daddy. Or else.

THE CORPSE KING by Tim Curran
Grave robbers Kearney and Clow keep one step ahead of the law as they ply their ghoulish trade, but there’s no outrunning a far more frightening enemy that hungers for the dead.

Purchase the eBook:
Amazon.com • Amazon.ca • Amazon.co.uk • Barnes & Noble • iBookstore • Kobo

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Review: ‘Blood Infernal’ by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

Blood Infernal by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
William Morrow (January 2016)
576 pages; $19.20 hardcover; $9.99 paperback; ebook $9.99
Reviewed by Peter Tomas

Blood Infernal, James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell’s apocalyptic nail-biter, is a story dripping with tension, religion, and vampirism. The three main characters, which consist of an archaeologist, a military man, and a vampiric priest, are united by a prophecy written in the Blood Gospel, a book Jesus evidently wrote in His own blood during His time on earth. They face off against impossible odds, dangerous individuals, and an array of damned souls, headed by a demon sent from the loving arms of Lucifer himself. The fallen angel is coming back, and only the prophetic trio are capable of keeping him shackled.Continue Reading

Last Day to Order Gwendy’s Button Box Signed by Richard Chizmar!

Today is the last day to order your World’s First Edition of Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar signed by Richard Chizmar!

If you’d like Richard to sign your copy, please order via our website ASAP because time is running out!

Please visit the product page to read more about this exciting news and to reserve your copy today!

Gwendy's Button Box

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Review: ‘Conspiracy of Angels’ by Michelle Belanger

Conspiracy of Angels by Michelle Belanger
Titan Books (October 2015)
368 pages; $7.43 paperback; ebook $7.99
Reviewed by Peter Tomas

Zachary Westland is your average amnesiac protagonist, waking up on the shores of Lake Erie with panic in his nerves and a police notice out for his head. Unable to remember his past, he searches frantically for a way to reconnect to everything he can’t remember, encountering a throng of unique and diverse characters as he goes. Many people know him, know of him, and in most cases, want him dead, and he’s clueless as to why. Eventually, he learns that his past is as dark as the looming future is, and that if he doesn’t step up and right his forgotten wrongs, the people he cares about most could suffer vast and painful consequences. The fight for resolution, and his memory, begins.Continue Reading

“The Janitor” and “We”

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

Last time I reviewed my favorite story from Cemetery Dance #1, Anke M. Kriske’s “The Departing of Debbie” and William Peter Blatty’s semi-controversial “Terry and the Werewolf” from Cemetery Dance #62 (2009).

If you want to know about some really great early horror fiction and/or give your respect to our recently-lost great, Mr. Blatty, do please check it out.

This month, I’m going to review 2 stories from the same author, a man who is clearly one one of Cemetery Dance’s favorite repeat contributors based on the fact that he’s been published in Cemetery Dance numbers 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 14, 34, 36, 39, 50, 64, and 71. He has been published by CD more than only one other author (that’s a column for another day), and has been there since the beginning.

His name is Mr. Bentley Little.

Let’s get to it…Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Haunted Halls’ by Glenn Rolfe

The Haunted Halls by Glenn Rolfe
Shadow Work Publishing (December 2016)
280 pages; $14.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good in-your-face horror novel. Don’t get me wrong, I read and enjoyed an abundance of excellent work in 2016, but when I compare them to The Haunted Halls, the latest from up-and-coming horror writer Glenn Rolfe, they’ve all been rather tame.Continue Reading