THE YEAR of THE STAND 2020 Stephen King Catalog Desk Calendar!

We’re pleased to report we’ll be getting some copies of THE YEAR of THE STAND 2020 Stephen King Catalog Desk Calendar by Stephen King Catalog, which includes trivia, quizzes, quotes, facts, and informative articles covering the novel and the original film directed by Mick Garris from a screenplay written by Stephen King.

Our allotment of these won’t last long, so please don’t wait to place your order today!

Stephen King Calendar

Read more or place your order while our supplies last!

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

Review: Doll Crimes by Karen Runge

Doll Crimes by Karen Runge
Crystal Lake Publishing (November 2019)
222 pages; $11.66 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

We could be looking at the next Jack Ketchum here. Actually, Karen Runge is quite her own identity, her own voice that simply delves into the deep, dark places which Ketchum mined so well. Doll Crimes is a novel that will likely disturb while it also examines the human soul, the good, the bad, and the downright evil in a manner that digs so deep, readers will have a tough time forgetting the characters long after the final page is turned.Continue Reading

Four New STEPHEN KING Novellas Coming Soon!

Some of Stephen King’s very best stories are novellas — Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Body (filmed as Stand by Me), and The Mist being just a few examples — which is why we’re so excited about If It Bleeds, his brand new novella collection due out in just a few months!

This collection includes FOUR original, never-before-published novellas: Mr. Harrigan’s PhoneThe Life of ChuckRat, and the title story If It Bleeds—each of which pull readers into intriguing and frightening places.

We are getting copies of the US hardcover edition, and we’re also producing one of our famous custom slipcases, but we’re going to have to cut off sales soon, so please don’t wait to place your order today!

If It Bleeds

Read more or place your order while our supplies last!

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

The Best of Cemetery Dance 2 is rolling along at the printer!

The Best of Cemetery Dance 2
An Epic Anthology Two Decades In the Making!

Read Stephen King’s “The Glass Floor,” Which Has Never Appeared In His Collections! (Story Includes An Introduction By King As Well!)

Hi Folks!

A couple of quick, important notes:

* As you might remember, a long-time Cemetery Dance staffer is parting with some of her small press collection this month via eBay, including some much sought-after CD titles, and some of the most popular auctions are ending TONIGHT! More will be ending later this week. Keep checking this eBay link for new listings, and please bid early and often!

* The Best of Cemetery Dance: Volume Two has been rolling at the printer, and things are moving along very nicely on this BIG book! This new special edition showcases the very finest short stories from Cemetery Dance magazine, picking up where the acclaimed and award-winning first “Best of” volume left off.

For those Stephen King fans out there who want to read one of his earliest published short stories, this massive anthology concludes with his short story “The Glass Floor,”
which was originally published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1967 and marked King’s first professional sale, earning him $35! We reprinted this one in Cemetery Dance a few years ago and are very pleased to be able to include it in The Best of Cemetery Dance: Volume Two with an introduction by Stephen King that appeared in Weird Tales way back in 1990!

Featuring a virtual “who’s who” of today’s greatest authors of dark fiction, The Best of Cemetery Dance: Volume Two will be one of the most important anthologies published this year. Just a handful of the contributors include Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, Bentley Little, Michael Marshall Smith, Ray Garton, Jack Ketchum, Douglas Clegg, Poppy Z. Brite, Joe R. Lansdale, Nancy A. Collins, Peter Crowther, Norman Partridge, Ed Gorman, William F. Nolan, F. Paul Wilson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Simon Clark, Richard Christian Matheson, David J. Schow, Stewart O’Nan, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell, and dozens of others!

Cemetery Dance magazine has been published for more than thirty years now, and is the winner of the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Critics Guild Award, as well as a nominee for both the British Fantasy Award and the American Horror Award. Don’t miss what’s sure to be one of the most talked about anthologies of the year!

Best of Cemetery Dance 2

Read more or place your order while our supplies last!

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

Review: The Chill by Scott Carson

The Chill by Scott Carson
Atria (February 11, 2020)
448 pages; $24.30 hardcover; $12.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

What is The Chill?  Answer: the first great novel of 2020 that sets a high bar for the rest of the genre with a story that both mines familiar territory but digs deeper than most.Continue Reading

Brian Keene’s History of Horror Fiction, Chapter Eight: The Monk and 1796 Cancel Culture

In our last column, we discussed Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto—a novel written in 1764 that merged supernatural situations with realistic characters in a natural setting. I mentioned that while it was inarguably the world’s first supernatural horror novel, the marketing category of Horror wasn’t invented until the Eighties, so it was instead categorized as a “Gothic.” Continue Reading

New Signed Limited Edition Announced: The Notch by Tom Holland!

First Novel Ever by the director and screenwriter of Fright Night and the original Child’s Play!

We’re very pleased to report we’ll be publishing The Notch by Tom Holland, the very first novel ever by the director and screenwriter of Fright Night and the original Child’s Play!

About the Book:
Joe Arachro pulled to a halt on a small hillock, looking across the expanse as it rose up into a sudden flat top butte. There was another jagged butte tilting at an angle next to the mesa, not as wide or long. It was like they just appeared from nowhere, dropped down here in the middle of the desert. And in the shimmering glare in the notch between these two buttes, a ten-year-old boy walked out of the sun, surrounded by the blazing rays.

The boy doesn’t speak, but he has startling powers: he heals a young girl’s torn cuticle, and later erases all damage to a man’s badly burnt hand, and it seems there’s no limit to the miracles he can perform. After a dog gets run over by a car, the boy apparently brings the animal back to life, and a video of the event goes viral. Suddenly everybody has an idea of who the boy is, and what he might do for them — and it’s a race against time to see who can get to the boy first and gain control over him.

In the wrong hands, the boy’s powers could be catastrophic.

From Tom Holland, director and screenwriter of Fright Night and the original Child’s Play, comes this new fast-paced thriller with surprises at every turn.

The Notch

Read more or place your order on our website while supplies last!

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

Review: Bloody Walls – A Collection from a Fractured Mind by Thomas Scopel

Bloody Walls: A Collection from a Fractured Mind by Thomas Scopel
Independently Published (July 2019)
236 pages; $7.99 paperback; $0.99 e-book
Reviewed by R.B. Payne

A corpus is technically defined as a collection of a single writer’s work or grouped writings about a particular subject—in this case, Thomas Scopel and his horror scrivenings. Given there are eleven tales of terror in this volume and about an equal number of speculative dark fiction shorts, there is certainly something here for everyone.Continue Reading

Review: Grim Harvest by Patrick Greene

Grim Harvest by Patrick Greene
Lyrical Underground (September 2019)
197 pages; $7.85 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by R.B. Payne

Grim Harvest by Patrick C. Greene is the second novel of “The Haunted Hollow Chronicles,” a planned series centering on Ember Hollow, an isolated community in the American heartland where cell phones and the internet simply don’t work. When, at the annual Halloween Harvest, events take a nasty supernatural turn, they have only themselves to count on. 

And that may not be enough.Continue Reading

Dead Trees: Nightmare Seasons by Charles L. Grant

Charles L. Grant

2020. As I write this, the new year and new decade are seven hours away. I think back to the years and years I have spent as a horror reader, and I am reflecting on the one moment when it all crystallized and became embedded into my soul.

I’d have to say the year was 1984. Thirty-six long years ago. Years that brought joy beyond belief, heartbreak, laughs, fun, agony, laughs, tears. All of this and lots more.Continue Reading

Review: Every Foul Spirit by William Gorman

Every Foul Spirit by William Gorman
Crystal Lake Publishing (October 2019)
112 pages; $9.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by R.B. Payne

In horror fiction, there are often remote towns and villages such as Oxrun Station (Charles L. Grant), Cedar Hill (Gary Braunbeck) and even Ulthar (H. P. Lovecraft). In these wicked places on the backroads of fear, dark forces gather and do evil upon the innocent and not-so-innocent. These are off-the-main highway places where malignant entities rise and make a bloody and horrifying mess by ravaging pets, murdering children, compromising priests and virgins, befouling police officers, and corrupting any responsible adult who doesn’t have the sense to get the hell out of town when the first flesh-stripped beheaded corpse appears. Continue Reading

Review: Spungunion by John Boden

Spungunion by John Boden
Fungasm Press (January 15, 2020)
106 pages: $9.95 paperback
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

Once every blue moon, a reader will encounter an author who possesses a storytelling style that works for them every damn time. I have a few of these authors. Let’s call them the “Do-No-Wrongs.”

John Boden is a “Do-No-Wrong.”Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews The Outsider (HBO)

Stephen King News From the Dead Zone

“There’s Always a Reasonable Explanation”

This Sunday, January 12th, HBO premieres the first two episodes of their 10-episode adaptation of The Outsider. Is it good? Absolutely. One of the best. Before I get into that, let me take a little step back.Continue Reading

Important Update On New Horror Auctions and BIG DISCOUNT on Gwendy’s Magic Feather SIGNED 1st Edition Hardcovers!

For some reason, the eBay link we used for thsoe auctions by along-time Cemetery Dance staffer didn’t work for everyone. Here’s a different link to try if you would like to see her listings!

In other news, yesterday Richard Chizmar started promoting a big Amazon.com sale on Gwendy’s Magic Feather, only to see the price go back to normal a few minutes later. To make it up to everyone who missed out, we are temporarily reducing the price of the Signed 1st Edition Hardcovers of the book on our website to just $12.50! This price won’t last long, though, so be sure to order ASAP if you want one!

Gwendy's Magic Feather

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

Auctions! Auctions! Auctions! Also: Don’t Forget to Visit the Cemetery Dance Forum!

A long-time Cemetery Dance staffer (25+ years!) is parting with some of her small press collection this month via eBay, including some much sought-after CD titles! Keep checking this eBay link for new listings over the next few weeks, and please bid early and often!

Also, have you been chatting with other horror fans, readers, and collectors on the Cemetery Dance Forum? If not, now would be a great time to join everyone there. It’s free and many of our top collectors are there to discuss books, movies, and more!

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