Once upon a time, Cemetery Dance publisher Rich Chizmar called me up. "Write me a Halloween story for the magazine," he said. "But make it a dark suspense story.""Do you want a mean one?" I asked.
"Sure. Make it as mean as you want."
So I did. The story was called "Johnny Halloween." It was about the kind of ghosts you can never outrun, and it appeared in Cemetery Dance alongside a Stephen King tale. Even so, folks noticed it. Especially editors. "Johnny Halloween" made it into Mystery Scene's Year's Finest 25 Crime and Mystery Stories, and I received several anthology invitations based on the tale's popularity.
Given that little slice of history, it's with great pleasure that I announce Johnny Halloween is back at Cemetery Dance, this time as the lead story in a special Halloween collection due this fall. Along with a fantastic Alex McVey cover, Johnny Halloween features a half-dozen tales of the darkest season, including a new story set in the world of Dark Harvest.
That's right. The October Boy returns in the pages of Johnny Halloween -- and this time he's got a shotgun and one bad döppelganger on his tail. There's also a brand new introduction and a nonfiction piece on the Zodiac Killer ("The Man Who Killed Halloween"). You can check out all the details right here, plus snag a $15 coupon for a future purchase if you preorder the book in the next seven days.
In the meantime, keep your eyes on the shadows. Listen for the whisper of that October wind. It's coming your way... and sooner than you might think.
