There are huge changes coming to Cemetery Dance, starting with issue #61, and I want to thank Jason Sizemore for giving me some space to discuss them.

We’ve just posted the cover artwork for Cemetery Dance #61 on our web site, but we haven’t publicly announced it yet, so this link is a special exclusive for this blog:

http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/PROD/_cd061

If you clicked through, you’ve probably immediately noticed two things:

1. CD #61 is a special Peter Straub issue.


2. The cover features a beautiful Alan Clark painting but the design is different than you expected.

I’ll discuss that in a moment, but let’s start at the beginning.

The first change to Cemetery Dance is a big one: our great friend Bob Morrish is stepping down from his role of editor and designer. He isn’t going far, though. Now he’ll have more time to devote to his acclaimed “Spotlight on Publishing” column.

I’ll be taking on the position of Managing Editor, Andrea Wilson steps up to Assistant Editor, Mindy Jarusek continues as Art Director, and Kate Freeman will be handling the new interior and cover design. In addition, Norman Prentiss will have even more responsibilities in his position of Associate Editor and Richard Chizmar, as always, will continue to run the ship as Publisher and Executive Editor.

Our new production team has two main goals: get back on a real production schedule and continue to publish the best authors working in the genre.

To start, we’ve created a detailed production schedule for the next couple of issues. We’re working out the kinks as we go, but so far, so good. (It’s amazing that you can still be learning new things after 20 years, but that’s the nature of the business. We’re working with a lot of great new people and they’re all bringing exciting ideas to the table.)

In terms of content changes, as noted above, #61 is going to be our first “Special Issue” for an author in very long time. Peter Straub is the focus of this issue and he contributed some incredible material: a short story, a long excerpt from his next novel (A Dark Matter, which isn’t due out until next year), and an insightful interview. In addition, Hank Wagner wrote a wonderful essay called “The Peter Principles, Or Nearly Two Dozen Things You Need To Know About Peter Straub” and Bev Vincent contributed a long feature review of A Dark Matter. The stunning cover artwork for the issue is by Alan M. Clark and it represents a key scene in Peter’s new novel.

Other fiction in the issue includes “Monsters” by Stewart O’Nan (a beautiful novelette that was originally published as a 226-copy signed Limited Edition chapbook by my press, Lonely Road Books), “The Innocents at the Museum of Antiquities” by Douglas Clegg (part one of an original serial novella), and “Johnny” by Bruce McAllister.

There are also some big changes in terms of columnists. As you can see at the link above, there are a lot of returning favorites (Monteleone, Vincent, Marano, and Morrish!) and also some new (but familiar!) names that we’re thrilled to be adding to our list of Usual Suspects.

Here’s an overview of the new contributors:

Leisure editor Don D’Auria will be sharing his views and insights on New York Publishing. Mark Sieber is bringing a fan’s perspective to the table. Ed Gorman, one of our favorite people in this crazy business, is back with a brand new column. Ellen Datlow will be presenting a glimpse into some of her recent reads–and considering how much she reads in a year, the mix is always interesting! Nanci Kalanta, who has brilliantly run Horror World for many years, is now editing our Reviews Section. And we’ll finish each issue with a new feature called “The Final Question” where you’ll gain insights into how today’s best horror authors think.

Something else to note: Alex McVey created brand new “logos” for each of the columnists and they look really amazing. We can’t wait for everyone to see what he came up with.

And this leads to most obvious change to the magazine, which will be the new design. The cover and the interior are going to have an entirely new look to increase the readability and to help the magazine compete on the newsstand. In fact, we sent the new cover design to our distributors last month and they’ve already increased their orders by anywhere from 100 to 1000 copies. Kate Freeman–who has designed books including The Secretary of Dreams, The Devil’s Wine, Sides, Dark Forces, The Arthur Darknell Double, and dozens of others–handled the complete re-design and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.

Okay, here’s one last exclusive for this post. We have several more special issues in the works including:

• William Peter Blatty, who provided never-filmed scenes from his screenplays for The Exorcist and Legion, plus a 6000-word short story he wrote in the 1960s that the Saturday Evening Post refused to publish, plus he sat down for a career-spanning interview
• a Halloween special issue that will be packed full of Halloween stories by the genre’s biggest names
• and another Special Issue featuring two new stories by one of our favorite authors from the “old days.” I can’t say more, other than to give this one hint: if he agrees to an interview, it won’t be conducted by email.

As always, there’s a lot to do and we’ll keep working to improve the magazine, keeping what works and fixing what doesn’t. We’ve learned a lot and had a lot of fun during the first twenty years of Cemetery Dance, and we have a lot more we want to accomplish over the next twenty.

Thanks again to Jason Sizemore for letting me discuss the many changes coming to Cemetery Dance. We’re excited about everything we have in the works, and we can’t wait to hear from our readers as these issues are published.

Brian Freeman is Bram Stoker nominated author of Black Fire, Blue November Storms, The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book (with Bev Vincent), and numerous short stories. He has previously been the marketing director for Cemetery Dance Publications and the publisher of Lonely Road Books.