We usually do a thread on Twitter once or twice a year announcing upcoming projects, future open calls and publications but there’s too much Cemetery Gates news right now for those little text boxes. If you want to keep up-to-date with what we’re up to, including how you can participate as a horror writer looking to place stories, definitely follow us on Twitter @cemeterygatesm.
February Update: Paul Michael Anderson has signed on to our 2022 short story collections lineup with his latest EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT IN THE END: APOCALYPSE STORIES. The collection will feature 17 pieces, including a novella, 3 of the stories are original to the book. Scheduled to be released in Aug/Sept.
Paul Michael Anderson is the writer of the collection BONES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN, which FANGORIA magazine called “endlessly stunning, supremely disquieting” and author Jack Ketchum called “a dark carnival of rigorous intelligence and compassion”, as well as the novella HOW WE BROKE with Bracken MacLeod.
January brought award possibilities for three of our writers. Ross Jeffery and J.A.W. McCarthy made the preliminary ballot for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards, while R.J. Joseph placed two stories in the short fiction category, including “I Just Want to Be Free” from our quiet horror anthology Paranormal Contact.
On Jan 25th we released Christi Nogle’s debut novel Beulah. It’s really a fantastic ghost/possession story, for fans of haunted houses and coming-of-age clairvoyants. We’re reopening debut novel submissions on May 1st. Just check out our submissions page for details.
On Feb 1st we’ll begin accepting novellas (25k-40k words) for our My Dark Library Novella Series in partnership with Sadie Hartmann.
Late in Feb we’ll be releasing Tyler Jones’ debut collection Burn the Plans. Last fall he released this incredible old west novel Almost Ruth and he’s working on a novella for us right now that’s a little bit secret. All of his novellas and short stories are top notch.
Right now we’re reading stories for an anthology entitled Picnic in the Graveyard. 2000-4000 word horror stories that take place in a cemetery/burial place. No reprints unless your first name is Clive. $0.07/word. Send stories to Cemeterygatesmedia@gmail.com w/ attached doc file. Deadline April 1st.
In Feb or March we’ll release a big anthology A Woman Built by Man ed. S.H. Cooper & Elle Turpitt. Ton of great writers in this one. Hailey Piper, Olivia White, Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower, J.A.W. McCarthy, etc. We’ll post the cover w/ full TOC eventually.
March/April we’ll put out C.W. Briar’s collection Sticks & Stones.
This summer we are scheduling Mark Allan Gunnells’ collection Twilight at the Gates and Ross Jeffery’s collection Beautiful Atrocities.
We anticipate releasing some of the My Dark Library novellas this year. Later in the year we have Wesley Southard’s collection They Mostly Come at Night scheduled, along with an anthology/collection hybrid featuring Sara Tantlinger, Corey Farrenkopf, Red Lagoe, and Jessica Ann York.
If you’ve made it this far you’ll be among the first to know of our sequel to Corpse Cold: New American Folklore. Corpse Cold is our best selling book to date. In 2017 we raised $29,000 on Kickstarter with over 700 backers. After release the book spent weeks at #1 on Amazon’s horror anthology bestseller list. This new book Corpse Cold: Creepypasta will be illustrated by Chad Wehrle in the same style as the original. We grabbed a dozen stories from our Cemetery Gates Society open call and plan to get a few more tales from invitees, though we will likely hold another open call to get a few final stories this spring/summer.
In other top secret news, we’re working with Gemma Amor to produce a beautiful hardcover of Six Rooms with bonus material, illustrations, signed bookplate, etc.
Odds and Ends:
Some of you have been following along and you’re probably wondering what’s going on with the sequels to Places We Fear To Tread and Campfire Macabre. Places We Fear To Tread: New York will have a New York nature/outdoors theme and the open call for that will likely be in late-2022. Campfire Macabre Vol. 2 will be a flash fiction anthology and the call for that will go out in early 2023. Both books have sold well enough to warrant sequels but sequels aren’t as exciting as some of our newer projects.
We get questions all the time about doing this or that book project. We tend to work with writers who enter our sphere through our open calls. In general, the best way to make a name for yourself is to either write a ton of short fic and get paid for it all over the place, or write a killer novella/novel and place it with a publisher who puts out books that you already read and enjoy.
Don’t read with the lights on…this is My Dark Library.
My Dark Library is a collection of novellas curated by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann to represent her favorite themes, tropes, and subgenres in horror fiction today.
If you’re looking for a deal on these paperbacks check out our store.
Stargazers by LP Hernandez –
Paperback and eBook now available here! Released July 5th.
Stargazers is a story of a father’s love for his daughter, of their fight to survive as the world they understand unravels. It began with a curious forum post: “My Neighbor Has Been Staring at the Moon for Hours.” Each night there are more of them. They stand on sidewalks, in darkened backyards and watch the sky with open mouths. When the sun rises, the Stargazers have a new purpose. Some to destroy, some to kill, some simply to die. Revealed through alternating perspectives of subsequent forum posts, and the experiences of war veteran Henry, his wife Judith, and their daughter Penny, Stargazers is a speculative exploration not of the stars, but what may lurk in the darkness between them.
“Stargazers is a transfixing read from start to finish. The mystery is both emotional and frightening as the tension deepens. I can’t wait to read more L.P. Hernandez based on this short tale I could have read more of.” –V. Castro, Author of Queen of the Cicadas and Goddess of Filth
“Stargazers is as tense and eerie as it is entertaining and emotionally gritty. Hernandez masterfully weaves together elements of post-apocalyptic fiction, mystery, and horror into a fast-paced novella that delivers a hell of a punch. This is a literary Creepypasta with lots of heart, and Hernandez is a writer to watch.” –Gabino Iglesias, Author of The Devil Takes You Home and Coyote Songs
#thighgap by Chandler Morrison –
Paperback and eBook now available here! Released August 30th.
Los Angeles fashion model Helen Troy wasn’t always skinny. Drastic weight loss has given her everything–money, confidence, attention, respect. Being thin has legitimized her, and starvation has become an addiction.
Following an encounter with a seemingly “perfect” rival model who destabilizes Helen’s shaky self-confidence and shatters her fragile illusion of control, she’s sent into a tragic tailspin that will take her to the lowest depths of hell. Nightmarish versions of herself begin materializing in mirrors, and her tried-and-true coping mechanisms stop working. Reality comes apart at the seams as Helen’s disease manifests in increasingly self-destructive fashions, forcing her to ask herself…
What does perfection look like, and how much would you sacrifice to obtain it?
“No blurb will be able to fully convey how great this book is. Chandler Morrison’s voice is unique, stylish and powerful. Required reading for fans of Bret Easton Ellis, Tom Piccirilli or Chuck Palahniuk.”
– Brian Keene, Author of Ghoul
“#thighgap is a story of abyssal redemption. A frozen palace of beautiful and broken people. It’s brutal and tragically sexy and doesn’t shy away from any of its dark interiors.”
– Autumn Christian, Author of Girl Like a Bomb
“Morrison beautifully illustrates the brutality and horrific agony that accompanies diagnoses such as anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphia, and other self-injurious, trauma-driven behaviors. The protagonist’s journey of pain is presented with transparent and vicious honesty. #thighgap is a book of importance and a story that has long needed telling.”
– Marian Echevarria, Co-host of Mothers of Mayhem
“Swift. Vonnegut. Palahniuk. All authors who affected societal change through their satiric voices and social commentary. Now, in 2022, it is Morrison’s voice that is added. #thighgap will leave the reader gutted while shining light on an overlooked and too often misunderstood illness.”
– Christina Pfeiffer, Co-host of Mothers of Mayhem
“I fucking love #thighgap, and I adore its protagonist; Helen Troy is a fully realized, honest character, and I respect and am inspired by her grind. She’s my personal icon and North Star.”
– Gigi Levangie, author of The Starter Wife and Been There, Married That
“Fast and dark, like a bitchier, pithier Bret Easton Ellis. Morrison has written a woman—and a dangerous, glamorous milieu—that we will see ourselves in whether we want to or not. Scratch the surface of this book and watch it ooze.”
– Lindsay Lerman, author of I’m From Nowhere and What Are You
Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu –
Order the paperback and eBook here! Released Sept 27th. Add it on Goodreads here.
On the night of the Hungry Ghost Moon, when spirits can briefly return to the living world, Jodi Wu and her best friend sneak into Portland’s Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum. Kneeling before the pond where Jodi’s toddler drowned one year before, they leave food offerings and burn joss paper—and Jodi prays that Ella’s ghost will return for the night.
To distract Jodi from her grief, the two friends tell each other ghost stories as they explore the museum. They stop at the main display, a centuries-old pair of lotus slippers belonging to a woman whose toes were broken and bound during childhood. While reading the woman’s story, Jodi hears her daughter’s voice.
As Jodi desperately searches the garden, it becomes apparent that Ella isn’t the only ghost they’ve awakened. Something ancient with a slow, shuffling step lurks in the shadows…
“Taking us on a thrilling, haunted ride filled with ancient ghosts and startling revelations, Bound Feet unveils what must be broken and twisted in order to don the lotus slipper.”
—K.P. Kulski, author of Fairest Flesh
“Kelsea Yu’s Bound Feet about a mother’s fearlessness, where she reaches into darkness in hopes of grasping light, is a novella carefully plotted and executed without losing realism, heart, or voice of the story. Yu juxtaposes the ancient with the modern, an eerie and jarring inter-section of the past and present that makes everything more uncanny. Yu shows us how loss, grief, and the act of mourning might change you and drive you, taking your mind and body to places you would overwise refuse to enter. A beautiful piece about haunting ghosts who only want their stories told, rather than hidden away, un-finished, untruthful—of friendship, betrayal, lies, and a sisterhood between the living and the dead.
—Ai Jiang, author of Linghun
“Grief and folklore intertwine beautifully in this stunning tale. I look forward to reading more from Kelsea Yu!”
—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered and watch the whole goddamned thing burn
“Utilizing graceful twists and turns, Bound Feet tackles grief and rage passed down through generations. Yu reminds us that the need for not only justice but truth outlives the body.”
—J.A.W. McCarthy, author of SOMETIMES WE’RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES
“Haunted by the specters of unimaginable loss, Kelsea Yu’s Bound Feet unearths the ways in which past and present can be bound together by the hungry ghosts of violence and betrayal. A story that demands to be heard in more ways than one, the rich reversals and revelations will keep readers on their toes until the very end of this exciting debut.”
—Gordon B. White, author of As Summer’s Mask Slips and Rookfield
Taboo in FourColors by Tim McGregor –
To be released November 22nd! Ebook and paperback available here.
New York City, 1972 – Comic book artist, Wally Carson, has been illustrating the stories of a reclusive writer named Salazar without ever having met the man in person. When Salazar suddenly misses his deadlines, Carson is sent to find out what’s happened to the company’s best-selling writer.
Carson meets resistance from the writer’s wife, but when he insists, he is shocked to find Salazar in a catatonic state. When other artists at the company want to collaborate with the elusive Salazar, Carson realizes he will have to make Salazar disappear—piece by piece, if necessary.
“Tim McGregor’s Taboo in Four Colors is a darkly atmospheric love letter to the classic EC Comics’ ‘Crime SuspenStories.’ This is no parody or pastiche. Pitch perfect in tone and content, McGregor does William Gaines and the rest of the EC gang proud with this blood-curdling chiller!”
—Bracken MacLeod, author of 13 Views of the Suicide Woods and Closing Costs
“Taboo in Four Colors is tender yet savage, horrifying yet beautiful, disturbing yet full of love and dark obsession. A beguiling story with fabulous characters and wondrous prose; at times making it feel as if I were listening to a dear friend regale me with a personal tale of woe. McGregor has crafted a powerful story which demonstrates why literature still matters and how it has the ability to move the reader if we let it… a triumph of a book!”
—Ross Jeffery, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Tome and Only The Stains Remain
When Anne O’Donnell arrives on a dock in France in 1789 with no memory of her past, she allows herself to be renamed Marguerite and taken in as governess for Mellian, the petulant daughter of the rich merchant, Donatien Marais. But the chateau holds many secrets, some of them deadly.
“The Bonny Swans brings together all the best of the Gothic tropes – a troubled family, a struggling governess, an unhappy child – and stews them in magic, the French Revolution, and queer vibes. If the mystery of Marguerite’s past doesn’t keep you turning pages, the smoldering relationships and delicious prose certainly will! This snack-sized read is packed with both heartbreak and delight.”
–Wendy N. Wagner, author of The Secret Skin and The Deer Kings
“The Bonny Swans is a work of impressive talent. Beautifully written and morally complex, this dark historical fantasy comes blazing to life though P.L. Watts’s deep insight into the bruised hearts and yearning souls of the women at its center. A gripping mystery of trauma and desire, The Bonny Swans will carry readers away.”
—Gordon B. White, author of Rookfield
Corporate Body by R.A. Busby –
Released March 14th. You can order the eBook and paperback here.
When impoverished college dropout Nick signs up to be a DrugCorp test subject, he’s glad for the easy money. A few inpatient stays, and after too many blood draws to count, Nick can actually pay the rent on the backyard shed he lives in. Best of all, he doesn’t have to be a burden to his father. He’s disappointed the man enough already.
That’s when his friend Charlie lets him in on some classified information: a highly experimental forty-week study at the isolated DrugCorp compound. Nick knows this study involves improving the human genome to extend life, and he knows it involves some minor abdominal surgery, but he isn’t prepared at all for the strange…aftereffects. The nausea. The itching. The unusual abdominal swelling. The internal squirming.
Cemetery Gates Media 