The small town of Samhattan has a secret. A thing everyone knows but nobody questions.
That is until high school baller Kit and her friends play a game of “Ask the Rim.” The rules are simple: ask the rim a question, you shoot the basketball, a swish is a yes, a miss a no.
And the rim never lies.
What was Kit thinking when she asked the rim about the local legend of a “freak” named Daphne?Continue Reading
If you know anything about Cemetery Dance, you know that the arrival of October…The Spooky Season…is a very special time of year for us. To celebrate, we’ve invited some of our favorite spinners of spooky tales to share their favorite Halloween traditions and memories with us.
Today we’re joined by Stephen Graham Jones, whose novel My Heart is a Chainsaw took the horror genre by storm last year and will, in true slasher tradition, be followed by at least two sequels. Continue Reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cemetery Dance will publish Thomas Smith’s Something Stirs on October 13, 2022. In this special guest essay, the author shares a behind-the-scenes look at the journey the novel took from its original publisher to its new home at Cemetery Dance.
In October, Cemetery Dance will re-release my book, Something Stirs. And while it’s a big deal for me, the fact that they are releasing it is, in itself, not news. That’s their job.
Their passion.
They create books.
But this particular book is something a little different for them. Something Stirs was one of the first (if not THE first) haunted house novels written for the Christian market. The original publisher (I won’t name them because they did their best) loved the idea, bought the book, then didn’t know what to do with it. They even hired a company to make what was probably the first book trailer of its kind. It was literally a mini movie. So, they had the right idea. Continue Reading
Cemetery Dance is proud to publish Every House is Haunted, the debut collection of short fiction by Ian Rogers. This collection includes the story “The House on Ashley Avenue,” which is currently in development as a feature film for Netflix.
“There are haunted places in the world, all existing in reality and every bit as tangible and accessible as the house next door. Sometimes it is the house next door.”
In this brilliant debut collection, Ian Rogers explores the border-places between our world and the dark reaches of the supernatural. A mysterious double murder draws the attention of an insurance company with a special interest in the paranormal. A honeymoon cabin with an unspeakable appetite finally meets its match. A suburban home is transformed into the hunting ground for a new breed of spider. A nightmarish jazz club at the crossroads of reality plays host to those who can break a deal with the devil…for a price. With remarkable deftness, Rogers draws together the deadly and the disturbing in twenty-two showcase stories that will guide you through terrain at once familiar and startlingly fresh.
Night Time Logic is the part or parts of a story that are felt but not consciously processed. Those that operate below the conscious surface. Those that are processed somewhere, somehow, and in some way other than… overtly and consciously. The deep-down scares. The scares that find their way to our core and unsettle us in ways we rarely see coming…
Hello and welcome. My name is Daniel Braum, I am an author of strange tales, a term used by Robert Aickman to describe his unique brand of stories. Many of Aickman’s stories were what we now may call “quiet horror.” Often it was ambiguous as to what if any supernatural elements were present and in play. Aickman’s strange tales operated with “Night Time Logic,” the kind of scares and elements that were felt but not consciously processed. In this column, which shares a name with my New York based reading series, I explore the phenomenon of Night Time Logic and other aspects of horror fiction by diving deep into the stories from authors ranging from award winning favorites to emerging new voices.
My previous column with Gwendolyn Kiste explored her latest book, Reluctant Immortals, a fresh take on some very well-known characters in a time and setting we haven’t seen them before: California during the Summer of Love. Today I talk with author Rudi Dornemann about his settings-based fiction and more. Dornemann’s work is filled with alternate worlds ranging from those just a little bit different than ours to those strange, horrific, and not familiar. We begin our conversation with a look into his cover story from the August 2022 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a publication that has delivered to us many horror classics over the decades.Continue Reading
Dr. Chris Mcauley is a writer of prose novels, magazine short stories, video and tabletop games and audio dramas. Chris has been given the Reggie Bannister award for excellence in Horror writing and is nominated for a similar award in science fiction. Jeff Oliver writes that he “began writing Dark Poetry at just 11 years old. Transferring darkness to paper at such a young age. There are thoughts about a troubled childhood, thoughts of love and imagination that never elude his pen. A poet by passion and a father of 8 beautiful children. Yes you read that right 8! His dedication to his family & his craft is second to none.” Their newest collaborative collection is New World Monsters, which is illustrated by Dan Verkys. Continue Reading
If you know anything about Cemetery Dance, you know that the arrival of October…The Spooky Season…is a very special time of year for us. To celebrate, we’ve invited some of our favorite spinners of spooky tales to share their favorite Halloween traditions and memories with us.
Today we’re joined by Hailey Piper, who is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, The Worm and His Kings, Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Benny Rose, the CannibalKing, and The Possession of Natalie Glasgow. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where their mad science experiments are secret. Continue Reading
Time for another Stephen King news update, don’t you think? Recently we saw the publication of King’s latest novel, Fairy Tale, and I have news about the next adaptation, which launches this week. In addition to those items, I’m going to talk about two associational projects, one of which involves yours truly and the other that involves someone from New Brunswick in Canada—and it’s not me! Continue Reading
Deep in the hills of a small town, a cloud of birds explode into the sky. Their screeches disturbed as though their shelter surged jolts of pain into them.
It’s haunted. Well, some thought so. Others say Gallows Hill was cursed, laced with a poisonous vestige of murder and betrayal.Continue Reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cemetery Dance is proud to publish Paul F. Olson’s novel Alexander’s Song in September 2022. We’ve invited the author to give us all a peek at the inspiration and work that went into the book. Catch up on Part One and Part Two.
Now, here’s Paul!
As I mentioned in part one, I began writing Alexander’s Song in good spirits, with high hopes. In those early days I dared to think some fairly audacious thoughts: that this book could be a breakthrough book of sorts, big enough, different enough, ambitious enough to lift me out of the midlist and carry me to … well, to some higher place. Back in those days, that generally meant things like hardcover publication with a modest advertising budget, to be followed, of course, by a nice little paperback deal, some foreign sales, and possibly even the holy grail — a three-book deal for the next contract. I didn’t think about those things much when actually writing the novel. I was too caught up in the struggle, in finding the story and bringing it to life. But when I had finished, I allowed myself to entertain the fantasies again. Continue Reading
Rebecca Buchanan is the editor of the Pagan literary ezine Eternal Haunted Summer, and is also a regular contributor to ev0ke: witchcraft*paganism*lifestyle. She is also the editor-in-chief of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the publishing arm of Neos Alexandria. Her newest collection of fairy tale poems is Not a Princess, but (Yes) There was a Pea, and Other Fairy Tales to Foment Revolution.Continue Reading
This was unexpected. Then again, for those who have ever been treated to one of Kiste’s works, the unexpected is part of the gift she gives to her readers. Gorgeous prose wrapped around the darkest reaches of the human condition in plots that are anything but overdone.Continue Reading
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cemetery Dance is proud to publish Paul F. Olson’s novel Alexander’s Song in September 2022. We’ve invited the author to give us all a peek at the inspiration and work that went into the book. Catch up on Part One before you dive in.
Now, here’s Paul!
The new Cemetery Dance edition of Alexander’s Song is dedicated to five writers whose work has inspired, informed, and enriched my own. In the months before I began writing the novel, I happened to read books by two of those writers. Peter Straub’s brilliant Mystery was one of those books. The other was Charles Palliser’s ingenious The Quincunx. Alexander’s Song bears little resemblance to either one, but I felt their influence, still strong inside me, with every word I typed.Continue Reading
Cemetery Dance is proud to publish Paul F. Olson’s novel Alexander’s Song in September 2022. Check out the trailer below, and don’t forget to read Olson’s behind-the-scenes essays on the creation and publication of the book. Part One of “Singing Alexander’s Song” is here and Part Two will be available tomorrow!
ABOUT THE BOOK
For a time in the 1940s, Alexander Bassett was one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament, an acclaimed novelist, poet, and playwright, a voice for social justice. But the years took their toll, Bassett’s work fell out of favor, and eventually, the man himself dropped out of sight. By the time the world learned of his death in 1969, few noticed or cared.
Years later, a school teacher named Andy Gillespie sets out to write about Bassett’s life and visits the author’s hometown, eager to learn about his early years. He arrives in Rock Creek, Michigan, expecting to find a small town proud of its famous son, but what greets him is something much different. Only a handful of old-timers even remember Bassett’s name, and most have no interest in Andy’s quest. Doors are slammed in his face. People turn away. Even the few who seem willing to talk – an enthusiastic high school student, an eccentric shopkeeper, a colorful hotel owner, an elderly hermit – raise more questions than they answer.
Despite the odds against him, Andy continues to dig. From dusty library shelves to the neglected stones in a lonely graveyard, from the pages of forgotten journals to the shores of a remote island, he keeps on searching, and gradually he begins to unbury fragments of the truth, revealing glimpses into Alexander Bassett’s past that are unexpected, mysterious, and frightening.
Then the notes start to arrive.
Alexander’s Song is the story of an author nearly forgotten by time, a man whose life was nothing like it seemed, and a chain of darkness that began decades ago and is not finished yet.
Nat Cassidy’s Mary: An Awakening of Terror opens with one of the most genuine author’s notes I’ve ever read. Cassidy details a close relationship with his mother, who, like many of us, was a Stephen King fan. Upon seeing the film poster of De Palma’s 1976 film adaptation of Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek, Cassidy was “messed up bad.” Continue Reading
Daphne by Josh Malerman
In October, Cemetery Dance will re-release my book, 
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cemetery Dance is proud to publish Paul F. Olson’s novel 
