For Crownsville, a new five-issue comic from Oni Press, creator Rodney Barnes took a cue from his past. The actual Crownsville Hospital Center used to be referred to as the “Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland” and has since shuttered. Barnes talked with Cemetery Dance about his personal connection to the hospital, the dark stories around it, and the importance of knowing history.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Interview: Crafting Horror with Jenny Kiefer 
Jenny Kiefer is an award-winning author of spine-tingling, fierce, and cathartic horror. Her debut novel, This Wretched Valley, was a 2024 Bram Stoker Award Nominee and named a Library Journal Best Horror Book of the year. Readers have been anxiously awaiting her second release, Crafting for Sinners, a survival horror story about a queer woman trapped in a craft store run by religious fanatics. It is all over BookTok and Bookstagram as one of the most anticipated horror book releases of 2025.
Together with her mother, Kiefer owns and manages Butcher Cabin Books, an all-horror bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kiefer sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss her debut novel, This Wretched Valley, her new release, Crafting for Sinners, survival horror, her favorite reads of the year, and of course, crafts.
You can find the author on Instagram @_jennykiefer and on her website. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Interviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment on E.M. Carroll Has A Guest In The House
E.M. Carroll’s horror graphic novel A Guest in the House is out in paperback, and Cemetery Dance is excited to share the a few pages below. The graphic novel, which follows a new wife who becomes suspicious about the death of her husband’s previous wife, won the 2024 LA Times Book Prize. Cemetery Dance spoke to Carroll about being drawn to dark subjects, the book’s inspiration, and the creative process.Continue Reading
In the 5-issue horror comic Exorcism Island, the worst instances of demonic possession are all sent to a special island. Writer Jordan Thomas and artist Chris Matthews, who have known each other since childhood and previously worked together on Mugshots, spoke to Cemetery Dance about what led them to teaming up, their inspiration, and how to be both horrifying and highly entertaining.Continue Reading
The holiday Thanksgiving is getting a one-shot horror comedy comic from writer Mark Russell and artist Mauricet, named, simply enough, Thanksgiving. Russell describes it as a “metaphor for what our nation is in danger of becoming” and it will hit bookshelves on October 22. Meanwhile, Cemetery Dance spoke to Russell about why he chose to write a horror comic about Thanksgiving, its three covers, and what he hopes readers take away.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Interviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment on Matt Wagner, Kelley Jones, and the Brides of Dracula
After the graphic novels Dracula: Book I — The Impaler and Dracula: Book II — The Brides, writer Matt Wagner and illustrator Kelley Jones are back with Dracula: Book III — The Count. The third book is currently on Kickstarter, and it’s told from Dracula’s point-of-view. Cemetery Dance spoke with Wagner and Jones about building on the previous books, what research went into this, and how their feelings about Dracula have been affected. Continue Reading
Creatures of Liminal Space by Daniel Braum
Jackanapes Press (June 2025)
The Synopsis
Daniel Braum’s Creatures of Liminal Space explores the spaces in between places and the strange, weird, and numinous encounters you might have there. In this collection, you will find three short story length selections of Braum’s hallmark strange tales (including one original to this book), interspersed among twelve dark and wondrous flash fiction length selections. Braum and illustrator Dan Sauer invite you to traverse these labyrinths of the liminal, and join them on a phantasmagoric journey replete with dark and ethereal denizens haunting exotic borderlands far-flung and shadowy corners just next door.
Discover the heartbreaking secrets of a Loch Ness Monster sighted in the lush jungles of Central America.
Learn who or what the enigmatic Jaguar King is protecting with the wild cats of a remote swath of tropical forest.
Traverse patterns of love and loss and time—and learn if our friendships and truths, like constellations of stars, are real or perceived.
Ghosts. Hauntings. Monsters. Creatures. Cryptids. Fear. Darkness. Loss. Wonder. Heartbreak. Mystery. The Strange. The Uncanny. The Liminal. The Interstitial. Labyrinths of time. Love and Desire. The edges of civilization. Longings for the lost.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Nick Medina on Native lore, The Whistler, and more
Nick Medina is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, and he drew on his heritage and stories passed down by his paternal grandmother, along with research into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) epidemic, as inspiration for his novels including Sisters of the Lost Nation, which earned a Junior Library Guild Standard Selection Award, and Indian Burial Ground. He has degrees in organizational and multicultural communication, and has worked as a college instructor. He also enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, and exploring haunted cemeteries and all sorts of spooky stuff.
Medina’s new release, The Whistler, takes readers back to the reservation for a thrilling blend of Native folklore, mythology, and horror. Much like the paranormal investigators the author writes about, Medina has gone in search of Resurrection Mary, the “Italian Bride,” and the “Devil Baby,” and other spirits of Chicago’s ghost lore.
Medina sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss his new release, The Whistler, Native lore, and his favorite reads of the year. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Interviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment on Ben Wickey on More Weight: A Salem Story
Artist, writer and animator Ben Wickey has turned the infamous Salem Witch Trials into a graphic novel, titled More Weight, concentrating on the life of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death during the trials. While working on it, Wickey learned that he was the descendant of one of the people hanged as a witch. Cemetery Dance spoke to Wickey about his personal connection to this story, how he did his research, and how he approached adapting history into graphic novel form.
Stick around after the interview for a couple of preview pages from More Weight.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Interview: Breathing In, Bleeding Out with Brian McAuley 
Brian McAuley is a WGA screenwriter and HWA author. His debut novel, Curse of the Reaper, was named one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2022. His novellas, Candy Cain Kills and Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying, are essential holiday horror reads and dubbed “A masterclass in slasher fiction” by FanFiAddict. This fall, McAuley returns with a bloody-good slasher called Breathe In, Bleed Out.
McAuley’s upcoming novel has already garnered praise from some of the biggest names in Horror. Upon reading Breathe In, Bleed Out, Nat Cassidy, author of When The Wolf Comes Home and Mary: An Awakening of Terror, said McAuley is “the crown prince of slasher literature.” Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Nat Cassidy on When the Wolf Comes Home 
Nat Cassidy is a USA Today bestselling horror author. He’s received wide acclaim for his work, including his supernatural, perimenopausal horror novel, Mary: An Awakening of Terror, and his Bram Stoker-nominated contemporary horror novella, Rest Stop, that explores historical trauma and reads like a bloody slasher leaping from the page.
He was named one of the “writers shaping horror’s next golden age” by Esquire and his recent release, When The Wolf Comes Home, has been praised by THE KING of horror, Stephen King, who said:“It’s terrific…a classic.”
Cassidy is infamous for bringing the angst and dread, but especially the feels, and his fairytale-inspired horror novel, When The Wolf Comes Home promises all of that and more.
You can find the author on Instagram and TikTok – @catnassidy and on his website.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Daphne Fama talks Monstrous Women 
Daphne Fama’s gothic debut, House of Monstrous Women, is rich with Filipino folklore, female rage, ritual cannibalism, and matriarchal horror. It has been described as Silva Moreno-Garcia’s infamous novel Mexican Gothic — which this interviewer agrees solely based on the brilliant execution of the theme of generational trauma — meets the campy horror film Ready or Not, starring Samara Weaving.
When she’s not writing about monsters and the women who love them, she’s writing about video games or adoring her partner and pup. Her favorite horror games are the Fatal Frame series (minus Maiden of Black Water) and Silent Hill. She loves found footage and folklore drenched horror movies.
Fama’s social media is a celebration and dissection of Filipino folklore including the aswang — an umbrella term that refers to a wide array of monsters, from vampire-like creatures to shapeshifters. These entities became the key inspiration for House of Monstrous Women. You can find her on Instagram at @daphnefamawrites.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Night Time LogicLeave a comment on Night Time Logic with Joshua Rex 
“Ghost Stories,” “Haunted Victorian America,” and “Historical Fiction”
Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.
Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.
My short story collections with Cemetery Dance are full of the kind of stories that operate with Night Time Logic. My latest is called Phantom Constellations and is coming in November 2025.
In June 2025, Joshua Rex was one of my guests as part of the Summer of Liminal Space series. You can hear him in conversation with the panelists as well as hear him read his story “The Caretaker” here.
We began our conversation here with a question about Joshua’s work as a historian.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories The Comic VaultLeave a comment on The Comic Vault: Simon Bournel-Bosson’s Trumpets of Death
French creator Simon Bournel-Bosson, who has a background in graphic design and artistic creation, is releasing his first comic book in America, Trumpets of Death. Trumpets of Death is about the conflicts that continue to cycle through generations as well as the broken connection people have with the world around us. Bournel-Bosson spoke to Cemetery Dance about his inspiration, why he likes magical realism, and what he hopes readers take away from his work.
(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories InterviewsLeave a comment on Jim Burns on Illustrating IT 
Stephen King’s novel IT is getting a new, limited edition (only 500 copies) book from Folio Press that features illustrations from Jim Burns, who is probably best known for his science fiction and fantasy artwork. The limited edition also has an introduction from director Guillermo del Toro. Burns spoke to Cemetery Dance about getting involved with the project, his introduction to IT, working in the horror genre, and more.Continue Reading
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