Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Revelations1 Comment on Revelations: Reverend Peter Laws 
When I proposed “Revelations” to the fine folks at Cemetery Dance, my intent was to examine writers I’d encountered during a specific period in my career. Writers’ whose work had impacted me on a profound level, changed the way I thought about horror, and changed the way I wrote. Never once did I imagine I’d stumbled onto something profound or unheard of. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dead TreesLeave a comment on Dead Trees: The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin 
Many look back to the Splatterpunk days of Skipp, Spector, and Schow for the birth of heavy metal horror. And, certainly, The Scream and The Kill Riff were extraordinary examples of groundbreaking, rock and roll horror of the time. But they were not the first.
My social media feeds are filled with talk about Game of Thrones. The beloved show has finally ended, and the last episode was hotly controversial. George R.R. Martin is the most popular fantasy writer since J.R.R. Tolkien, but once upon a time Martin was poised to be a horror writer.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Revelations4 Comments on Revelations: Robert McCammon
(Before we begin, a moment of shameless self-promotion: For a limited time, the ebook of my novella quartet, Through A Mirror, Darkly, is free on Amazon. That’s a price you can’t beat! Grab it while you can.)
I have friend and colleague Bob Ford to thank for introducing me to Robert McCammon’s work. I’m not sure exactly when I stumbled across his blog entry about Boy’s Life, but it must’ve been late summer or early fall 2010, because I read Boy’s Life for the first time not long after. And, I can say—without an ounce of hyperbole—that novel impacted me more than any novel I’ve ever read. It changed me, fundamentally, as a writer. I made me realize the limitless possibilities of speculative fiction. Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #212 
Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of everything that’s going on in the Stephen King Universe. There are so many projects underway or about to get underway or that could possibly some day get underway that it boggles the mind. This is a new Golden Age for King, especially when it comes to the various adaptations of his work to screens large and small, silver and otherwise. I’m here to help you keep track!
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Cemetery Dance is famous for its long-running magazine and its impressive span of collectable print editions, but we’ve also been quietly building an extensive list of eBooks. We’ve started this column to draw attention to eBooks that some of you might have missed.
This installment is devoted to Bruce McAllister’s story collection, The Girl Who Loved Animals. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dead TreesLeave a comment on Dead Trees: Horror Show by Greg Kihn
Yes, MTV used to show music videos.
Nearly everyone I knew professed to hate the network, but I don’t know many who didn’t watch MTV. It was perfect background fodder for the burnout generation. You could laugh at what you hated, but sooner or later something you wanted to see would air.
One of the mainstays of early MTV was Greg Kihn. Kihn had a few hits, rocking out with cheerfully depressing songs like “The Breakup Song” and “Jeopardy.” I neither loved nor hated Kihn. His stuff was harmless and rather pleasant, but I didn’t buy his records.
I don’t think anyone could have predicted that, out of the blue, Greg Kihn would publish one of the best horror novels of the ’90s. The perfectly titled Horror Show was an immediate favorite of fans everywhere.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Revelations1 Comment on Revelations: Norman Partridge
I first heard Norman Partridge’s name when talking to Norman Prentiss at my second Borderlands Bootcamp in 2010. It came up by happenstance. During dinner, Norman was talking about how someone at the most recent World Horror Convention had mistaken him for Norman Partridge, because of their similar first names. Norman Prentiss‘ wistful response was, “I only wish I was Norman Partridge.”
Not only has Norman Prentiss been a wonderful friend and editor, he’s also been a trustworthy guide to powerful voices in the genre. His endorsement certainly put Norman Partridge’s name on my TBR list. So, the following Halloween, when folks started chattering about this Halloween novel which had been published a few years before—Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge—I figured it would be the perfect entry point. And, boy howdy…what an entry point it was. About the time I hit this beautiful block of prose, which snapped with the ferocity of high-voltage wire, I was hooked…Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Video VisionsLeave a comment on Video Visions: Why Slashers? 
Any horror fan who grew their first pubic hairs during the golden age of the genre in the ’80s has a special place in their cold, dead hearts for slasher movies. How could we not? We were surrounded by game changing flicks like Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a VHS darling in my neck of the woods), and A Nightmare on Elm Street. And then there were the likes of Maniac, The Burning, Madman, My Bloody Valentine, Prom Night and so many others, good and very, very bad. It seemed like every month there was a new villain hacking his way through scores of pot smoking, beer swilling, hormone raging teens and twenty-somethings. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ExhumedLeave a comment on Exhumed: “Markers” and “Scree” 
Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review every short story and novel excerpt ever published by Cemetery Dance Magazine. In their 29 years of publication, that comes to over 550 pieces spread out over 76 issues. For a comprehensive list, you’ll want to check out Michael P. Sauers’ Cemetery Dance Magazine Index (Issues 1-75).
Since each Exhumed post covers just two pieces (one “old” and one “new”), I think I’m going to be doing this for a while. I sure hope you’ll join me along the way. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Revelations4 Comments on Revelations: The Repairman Jack Saga by F. Paul Wilson
As I’ve written this series, I’ve found it necessary to achieve a tenuous balance in my recommendations and recountings of the horror which has impacted me as a reader and writer. I’ve bounced a lot between the descriptions “fun and fast-paced” and “literate and full of substance.” The truth of the matter (as I’ve come to discover it) is this: good fiction and, even more importantly, a good reading diet, shouldn’t ever cater to one end of the spectrum exclusively. Stories should move us emotionally, they should make us ponder the world around us, our existence, and life in general. They should say something about the human condition. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Dead TreesLeave a comment on Dead Trees: Dead White by Alan Ryan
Do you ever think back to times you spent with books? Reliving pieces of your life and the books that defined your existence? Yeah, so do I.
Lately I was thinking of a night back in the winter of 1986/1987. It was a cold year, and I was living in less than ideal accommodations. I was still pretty poor at the time. I had enough for the monthly bills, and I ate reasonably well. Books were a luxury. Well, new books anyway. I mostly did my reading purchases through the local used bookstores. Remember when they were everywhere?Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories RevelationsLeave a comment on Revelations: The Pines by Robert Dunbar
Several months ago I referenced a future column about Charles Grant’s Shadows and Tom Monteleone’s Borderlands anthologies, and that feature is coming, I assure you. However, this column tends to wander around a bit—much like my reading tastes, and my short attention span (ask any student or former student)—and this month, I’d like to talk about Robert Dunbar’s The Pines.Continue Reading
No book has had a more profound impact on me than Stephen King’s It.
For one thing, It is the book that introduced me to Stephen King. In 1990, I was 10 years old, and like many kids my age, I was entranced by the clown in the storm drain I’d seen on prime time television. You can bet your fur that every kid at school was talking about Stephen King’s It the night after it aired, but like most things that captured our imagination as children, it faded from the periphery of playground conversation within a day or so, only to be replaced by more common maintains like debating who should be the villain in the next Batman movie, or when we would get another Gremlins or Ghostbusters. Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #210
Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of everything that’s going on in the Stephen King Universe. There are so many projects underway or about to get underway or that could possibly some day get underway that it boggles the mind. This is a new Golden Age for King, especially when it comes to the various adaptations of his work to screens large and small, silver and otherwise. I’m here to help you keep track!
Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories The Comic VaultLeave a comment on The Comic Vault: Hellboy Turns 25 
After a couple of false starts, The Comic Vault returns to Cemetery Dance just in time to celebrate a milestone anniversary of one of the greatest horror comic characters of all time: Mike Mignola’s blue collar demon, Hellboy.Continue Reading
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