It’s that time of year again when folks put out scary decorations and pumpkins, fill bowls with candy, and don costumes to blend in with the other ghosts and ghouls. Halloween is in the wind, and nothing quite gets this holiday’s observers in the festive mood better than watching horror.
Movies are the obvious route for experiencing horror at a safe distance, but the television side of the genre has also been a reliant as well as rich source of Halloween activity. And while anthologies can be sparing with tales set around October 31 — they don’t need a special occasion to get scary, after all — these select stories not only celebrate Halloween, they’re a reminder of its power over events and people.
Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988)
The Cutty Black Sow
With every new season of Tales from the Darkside, the series showed less and less straightforward frights.
Movies are the obvious route for experiencing horror at a safe distance, but the television side of the genre has also been a reliant as well as rich source of Halloween activity. And while anthologies can be sparing with tales set around October 31 — they don’t need a special occasion to get scary, after all — these select stories not only celebrate Halloween, they’re a reminder of its power over events and people.
Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988)
The Cutty Black Sow
With every new season of Tales from the Darkside, the series showed less and less straightforward frights.
- 10/24/2022
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Cemetery Dance is one of the longest running and most well-known horror publishers in the game. They recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of their acclaimed horror magazine. Here are some noteworthy books to add to your reading to-do list: December Park by Ronald Malfi: Signed limited editions of this chilling novel are now available, but will be sold out soon. December Park tells the story of several young friends and the horrors they unearth while searching for a young girl's killer. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: Signed limited edition copies of the best-selling novel are available, but they're going fast. Gone Girl (soon to be a major motion picture) tells the story of Nick Dunne, a seemingly innocent man blamed for his wife's sudden disappearance. [Note: cover art shown above is from the Standard Edition.] Sometimes, Cemetery Dance sells other publisher's books like The Hogben Chronicles by Henry Kuttner: 500 special-edition copies will be available from Cemetery Dance, but...
- 3/7/2014
- by Nancy Greene
- FEARnet
[For anther perspective on this historic collection, read Blu Gilliand's review of Turn Down the Lights here.] In October of 2013 – mere months ago – editor Richard Chizmar spontaneously decided he wanted to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Cemetery Dance magazine with an anthology, and that he wanted to bring his friends in horror along with him. The fact that, in mere weeks, Chizmar was able to assemble a collection that included new work from writers like Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker, merely cements the ongoing importance and vitality of Cemetery Dance. Turn Down the Lights functions as both a celebration and a summation; aptly, quite a few of these stories are about endings, quiet and loud. Stephen King’s “Summer Thunder” kicks things off with a bleak slice of post-apocalypse. While King has been exploring the end of the world for six decades now – from 1969’s Stand prologue “Night Surf” to, most recently, 2008’s “Graduation Afternoon” – he continues to find new angles of interest.
- 12/6/2013
- by Kevin Quigley
- FEARnet
Cemetery Dance has announced a brand new anthology coming this December featuring original horror short stories by several of our favorite authors. Read on for the details.
All the info you need is below; visit Cemetery Dance's online store to order your copy.
From the Press Release:
We're pleased to announce a Top Secret surprise addition to our December publication slate, Turn Down the Lights edited by Richard Chizmar, and the trade hardcover edition is already rolling at the printer!
This brand new anthology features original horror stories by Stephen King, Norman Partridge, Jack Ketchum, Brian James Freeman, Bentley Little, Ed Gorman, Ronald Kelly, Steve Rasnic Tem, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub that capture the genuine love of the genre that pushes Cemetery Dance Publications forward year after year.
This exciting new anthology will be published in three states including a trade hardcover for general readers (shipping in December) and...
All the info you need is below; visit Cemetery Dance's online store to order your copy.
From the Press Release:
We're pleased to announce a Top Secret surprise addition to our December publication slate, Turn Down the Lights edited by Richard Chizmar, and the trade hardcover edition is already rolling at the printer!
This brand new anthology features original horror stories by Stephen King, Norman Partridge, Jack Ketchum, Brian James Freeman, Bentley Little, Ed Gorman, Ronald Kelly, Steve Rasnic Tem, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub that capture the genuine love of the genre that pushes Cemetery Dance Publications forward year after year.
This exciting new anthology will be published in three states including a trade hardcover for general readers (shipping in December) and...
- 11/13/2013
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
To commemorate twenty-five years of Cemetery Dance magazine, they’ll be releasing a new book of short stories. Titled Turn Down the Lights, the book will feature new original stories from Clive Barker, Stephen King, Peter Straub, and more:
“It was December 1988: George Bush had just defeated Michael Dukakis in the Presidential Election. Pitcher Orel Hershiser and the Los Angeles Dodgers had beaten the Oakland A’s in five games to win the World Series. People were waiting in line at movie theaters to watch Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Tom Clancy’s The Cardinal of the Kremlin and Anne Rice’s The Queen of the Damnedwere atop the bestseller lists. The most acclaimed genre books of the year were Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs and Peter Straub’s Koko.
And twenty-two year old college student Richard Chizmar had just published the premiere...
“It was December 1988: George Bush had just defeated Michael Dukakis in the Presidential Election. Pitcher Orel Hershiser and the Los Angeles Dodgers had beaten the Oakland A’s in five games to win the World Series. People were waiting in line at movie theaters to watch Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Tom Clancy’s The Cardinal of the Kremlin and Anne Rice’s The Queen of the Damnedwere atop the bestseller lists. The most acclaimed genre books of the year were Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs and Peter Straub’s Koko.
And twenty-two year old college student Richard Chizmar had just published the premiere...
- 11/12/2013
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Things Slip Through by Kevin Lucia, with an introduction by award-winning author & editor Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands), is a collection of connected stories. The beginning tale, “Clifton Heights, New York,” is introduced by the narrator, Chris. He's an outsider cop who has lived in the mysterious and disturbing Clifton Heights for only a year. He starts by discussing the issue of truth, particularly truth between friends. How much truth is too much? But on the issue of what makes Clifton Heights so disturbing: Chris has had enough of just pieces of the truth, or outright lies. He wants answers, and he weighs the consequences of demanding those answers from his friends Fitz, Gavin and Father Ward. Will they still be friends by the end of the evening? He decides that it's worth the risk, even though the thought of the truth scares him more than he's willing to admit. Because people are disappearing.
- 10/9/2013
- by Nancy Greene
- FEARnet
Michael Bailey is the author of the collection Scales and Petals, and he is the editor of a new anthology titled Chiral Mad. Chiral gathers together some of the finest names in horror, as well as some newer writers, and has been well-received. For FEARnet, Michael explains the concept behind Chiral Mad and his love for psychological horror.
You have a new anthology out, Chiral Mad. What's the theme and what does the title mean?
Chiral Mad is an anthology of psychological horror. The theme can be derived from the title. Chirality is a word used to describe an object incapable of superimposing onto its mirror image. In fiction, this can flower many original concepts, which was the intention. What is chiral? Think hands and put them together. Hands look similar, one able to press against the other symmetrically, but they have idiosyncrasies setting them apart: length, scars, fingerprints, any number of things.
You have a new anthology out, Chiral Mad. What's the theme and what does the title mean?
Chiral Mad is an anthology of psychological horror. The theme can be derived from the title. Chirality is a word used to describe an object incapable of superimposing onto its mirror image. In fiction, this can flower many original concepts, which was the intention. What is chiral? Think hands and put them together. Hands look similar, one able to press against the other symmetrically, but they have idiosyncrasies setting them apart: length, scars, fingerprints, any number of things.
- 1/16/2013
- by Nancy Greene
- FEARnet
In 1984, the first of legendary editor J.N. Williamson's five Masques anthologies presented "All New Works of Horror and the Supernatural." Williamson's "principal critical standard for any work included in Masques [was]: 'Scare me!'" Masques never disappointed. As the series progressed, the contents pages read like a guest list at the Stoker Awards: Robert B. McCammon, Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson, Gahan Wilson, William Nolan, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas F. Monteleone, Dan Simmons, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King (among many others) all contributed original short works. It was the first place to read horror high water marks like "Recall," by Ray Garton,...
- 9/22/2011
- FEARnet
Writer’s Workshop of Horror
Edited by Michael Knost
262 pages
Woodland Press, LLC (July 5, 2009)
Isbn: 0982493916
Buy It Here
Writers Workshop of Horror is a collection of essays from Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas F. Monteleone, Deborah LeBlanc, Gary A. Braunbeck, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, Tom Piccirilli, Jonathan Maberry, Tim Waggoner, Mort Castle, G. Cameron Fuller, Rick Hautala, Scott Nicholson, Michael A. Arnzen, J.F. Gonzalez, Michael Laimo, Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Strand, Lisa Morton, Jack Haringa, Gary Frank, Jason Sizemore, Robert N. Lee, Tim Deal, Brian Yount, Brian J. Hatcher, and others. The authors give practical advice on the different aspects of writing and developing horror fiction. This book is a must for any aspiring horror writer, it takes the best advice from horror’s top writer’s and organizes it into a comprehensive guide for creating a masterpiece. Writers Workshop of Horror is...
Edited by Michael Knost
262 pages
Woodland Press, LLC (July 5, 2009)
Isbn: 0982493916
Buy It Here
Writers Workshop of Horror is a collection of essays from Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas F. Monteleone, Deborah LeBlanc, Gary A. Braunbeck, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, Tom Piccirilli, Jonathan Maberry, Tim Waggoner, Mort Castle, G. Cameron Fuller, Rick Hautala, Scott Nicholson, Michael A. Arnzen, J.F. Gonzalez, Michael Laimo, Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Strand, Lisa Morton, Jack Haringa, Gary Frank, Jason Sizemore, Robert N. Lee, Tim Deal, Brian Yount, Brian J. Hatcher, and others. The authors give practical advice on the different aspects of writing and developing horror fiction. This book is a must for any aspiring horror writer, it takes the best advice from horror’s top writer’s and organizes it into a comprehensive guide for creating a masterpiece. Writers Workshop of Horror is...
- 12/3/2010
- by nick
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
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