The Cemetery Dance Interview: Dacre Stoker and the Origins of Renfield

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Dacre Stoker
Author Dacre Stoker

With the film Renfield staring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as Renfield having recently made the rounds in theatres worldwide, I figured what better time to into the truth of who Renfield really was. Renfield has always been such an enigmatic character portraying a once good man, a brilliant man, gone insane under the weight of an all-consuming manipulative force of evil personified. But what of his roots? What did Renfield stand for? What did Bram Stoker intend to convey through this most fascinating character within the most iconic gothic tale of horror ever told?  These are the questions I posed to none other than Bram’s great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker, a best selling author himself who works tirelessly to bring to life historical pieces of the puzzle within the Stokerverse. As the pieces Dacre has gather click together, so to does our understanding of Bram Stoker, his work, and what Bram was really trying to tell us through his words and life. Continue Reading

Review: Ameri-Scares: Legend of the Night Marchers by Patricia Lee Macomber

Ameri-Scares: Legend of the Night Marchers by Patricia Lee Macomber
Crossroad Press (March 2023)
192 pages; $12.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The Ameri-Scares series built by Elizabeth Massie has been one of biggest surprises in middle grade horror in the past decade. Stories based on legend, folklore, or creepy stories in every state rival the best of Goosebumps, and with serious geography and history. A couple of the authors allowed in her sandbox have proven themselves worthy.
First-timer Patricia Lee Macomber knocks it out of the park, luau-style with Legend of the Night Marchers. A horror tale in Hawaii? Absolutely! There’s a wealth of stories waiting to be mined in the state — yet Macomber goes for the different in the marchers that bring the creepy factor to the nth degree.

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Review: Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums by Maxwell I. Gold

cover of Bleeding RainbowsBleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums by Maxwell I. Gold
Hex Publishers (June 2023)
174 pages; $39.99 hardcover; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Maxwell I. Gold is a multiple award-nominated author who writes prose poetry and short stories in weird and cosmic fiction. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines including Weirdbook Magazine, Space and Time Magazine, Startling Stories, Strange Horizons, Tales from OmniPark Anthology, Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas, and more. He’s the author of the Elgin-Award nominated prose poetry collection Oblivion in Flux: A Collection of Cyber Prose from Crystal Lake Publishing. His newest collection, Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums, is a book of queer, cosmic-horror poetry.Continue Reading

“Across the Darien Gap” by Daniel Braum

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cover of The Night MarchersDaniel Braum writes stories, set in locations around the globe, that explore the tension between the psychological and supernatural.

The following story originally appeared in Cemetery Dance Magazine #55 in 2006. It can be found in the all-new Cemetery Dance Publications edition of his first short story collection The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales which is out on May 19, 2023.

Cemetery Dance Publications will be releasing his novella The Serpent’s Shadow in Fall 2023. Braum is also the author of the books Underworld Dreams, The Wish Mechanics: Tales of the Strange and Fantastic, and Yeti. Tiger. Dragon.Continue Reading

Review: Once Upon a Fang in the West by John Dover

cover of Once Upon a Fang in the West by John DoverOnce Upon a Fang in the West by John Dover
Not A Pipe Publishing (May 2021)
223 pages; $14.55 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Author and musician John Dover began his writing journey with his jazz-noir novellas and comic book series, Johnny Scotch. His most recent novel is Once Upon a Fang in the West.Continue Reading

Video Visions: The Drive-In

Black background with spooky lettering that says Hunter Shea Video Visions and the Cemetery Dance logo

Over the thousand years I’ve been writing Video Visions, I’ve waxed poetic about my days walking those aisles crammed with garish VHS boxes, the smell of popcorn wafting in the air. This time around, I’m going to do something of an evolution chart, only with a surprise ending and no missing links, so there’s no questioning my impeccable logic. 

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Review: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

cover of All the Sinners BleedAll the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (June 6, 2023)
352 pages; $23.79 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Blending social issues, unforgettable characters, and razor-sharp prose, S.A. Cosby has muscled his way to the front of the crime fiction genre. Cosby’s newest, All the Sinners Bleed, showcases his horror/thriller roots in a way we haven’t seen since his debut novel, My Darkest Prayer, and stands poised to cement the author’s position as the new king of the crime hill.Continue Reading

Review: Mouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan

cover of Mouthful of AshesMouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan 
Independently Published (October 2021)
158 pages; $9.99; $2.99 ebook; $14.95 audiobook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.” – Heathers

I’m not typically into vampire stories, except for Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and Bela Lugosi’s performance in Dracula.

However, Briana Morgan’s Mouth Full of Ashes dismembers supernatural horror and dark, campy teen film to conjure something scheming and bloody. Continue Reading

Review: Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey and Tommy Lee Edwards

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cover of Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey

Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey and Tommy Lee Edwards
Upshot (March 2021)
96 pages; $9.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey is an incredible graphic novel that takes the Beowulf saga and modernizes it. The story focuses on Marnie, who leads the all-women biker gang The Harlots. She’s called back to her hometown of Grendel for the funeral of her adoptive father, Clyde, who was supposedly killed by a bear. When she finds out the truth, which is much worse, she seeks vengeance for her father and learns about what it means to be a family and what it means to hold on to family secrets.Continue Reading

Review: Whatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker

cover of Whatever Remains of Us in the EndWhatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker
Independently Published (March 2023)
132 pages; $10.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Power comes at a price in Brandon Baker’s Whatever Remains Of Us In The End, a supernatural thriller looming with feverish occult practices, the classic horror trope of “how far will you go to save those you love,” and lucid imagery reminiscent of the pulp horror era. Continue Reading

Philip Fracassi talks GOTHIC on Citywide Blackout

Philip Fracassi recently appeared on the Citywide Blackout podcast to talk about his novel Gothic, available now from Cemetery Dance. Host Max Bowen introduces the interview, which you can listen to below:

A haunted item is a familiar element in horror novels, but a haunted desk? That’s a new one to me and I am here for it! Continuing our series of interviews with authors on Cemetery Dance,  Philip Fracassi joins me to talk about his recent novel Gothic.

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Night Time Logic with Justin Burnett

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Horror and weird fiction is the labyrinth.”

photo of Justin Burnett
Justin Burnett

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. 

In this column, which shares a name with my New York based reading and discussion series, I explore the phenomenon of Night Time Logic and other aspects of horror fiction by diving deep into the stories from award winning authors to emerging new voices. 

I have an interest in strange tales, the kind of story one might call “Aickman-esqe” and like to discuss them here and look at stories through that lens when I can. My first short story collection is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to the lineage of Robert Aickman’s strange tales. The new Cemetery Dance Publications trade paper back edition of the book can be found here. It discusses strange tales in the all-new story notes and features a full essay on one of Aickman’s tales.

In my previous column I spoke with Ray Cluely about ghost stories, settings in his fiction, his strange tales and more. In today’s column I speak with Justin Burnett about “leaving knots tied,” the uncanny, doppelgangers, music, labyrinths and more.

We begin with a discussion about his debut fiction collection The Puppet King and Other Atonements.Continue Reading

Review: In Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert

cover of In Memory of ExoskeletonsIn Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert
Alien Buddha Press (January 2023)
53 pages; $10.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Rebecca Cuthbert is a speculative, slipstream, and dark fiction and poetry writer living in Western New York. She is an Affiliate Member of the Horror Writers Association. She loves ghost stories, folklore, witchy women, and anything that involves nature getting revenge. Her debut poetry collection, In Memory of Exoskeletons, is out now with Alien Buddha Press. In Memory of Exoskeletons is a book that teeters between the personal and the horrific, memoir and terror, and takes the reader through the shifts and shudders eloquently. Continue Reading

Review: Every Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower

cover of Every Woman Knows ThisEvery Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower
Death Knell Press (March 2023)
189 pages; $14.98 paperback; $4.49 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Every Woman Knows This is a very personal, very pointed collection of stories that reflect Laurel Hightower’s experience of the world as a woman. Experiences that are common enough she can comfortably state that commonality in the title (and yes, she is explicit in her belief that this stands for all women, so please step aside with any gender essentialism). These stories hit on everything from dealing with stalkers to the perils of motherhood to always having to clean up after some manchild that never listens to reason and climbs down into an abandoned submarine just to poke around for a bit BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID, and every one of them hits right in the gut.Continue Reading

The Cemetery Dance Interview: Revisiting Richard Chizmar

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Richard Chizmar
Richard Chizmar

On the heels of reading Cemetery Dance’s recent publication of Stephen King: Revisited Volume One, I was loaded up with tons of questions, the first of which was who would be daring enough to go back in time and re-read every Stephen King book in order of publication? Richard Chizmar, that’s who. As a best selling author and publisher of Cemetery Dance, Chizmar has published several King stories and books over the years and would not only become a friend of King’s but also a collaborator who’s written books with King — the Gwendy trilogy. So yes, I was curious to chat with Rich about his take on King over the years given his unique perspective.Continue Reading