Short Story Collections
Jack Ketchum ( nom de plume of Dallas Mayr) is known for choosing disturbing topics, as in the subversive, even shocking, novel Off Season and the violently nasty The Girl Next Door . His penchant for in-your-face horror is tempered, though, by the underlying moral tone in his fiction. The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard contains 12 short stories (six original to this volume) and a personal essay about the author's encounter with Henry Miller. "The Rifle," the best in the bunch, is a heartbreaking, provocative fable about a gun in the hands of a kid gone bad. It would serve well as a reading assignment for a group discussing the problem of shootings by school children. The other stories include one reminiscent of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, one about random violence on a freeway, three tales in which a villain gets his or her comeuppance, a story about snake phobia, a fantasy fable set in the wintry north, and others that use paranoia, cynicism, and humor in different combinations. (Some readers may find the humor a bit lame.) Also included is a well-crafted Romero-zombie story that was apparently intended for a Skipp-and-Spector Book of the Dead anthology that never materialized. The essay, "Henry Miller and the Push," is a brilliant finale. In the early 1980s Ketchum (Dallas Mayr) found himself in the position of representing Henry Miller for a New York literary agency. His description of the poignant encounter between the young and aspiring writer and the 85-year-old Miller is a real treat. This edition includes several black-and-white illustrations and two beautiful color illustrations on the front and back of the dust jacket by horror artist Alan M. Clark. The introduction is by Richard Laymon and all the stories have short blurbs by Ketchum. --Fiona Webster
This edition of Jack Ketchum's "Broken On The Wheel of Sex: The Jerzy Livingston Years" is the most complete edition of the "Stroup" stories ever collected together. New introduction by Jack Ketchum: "The Goblin On The Dance Floor." These stories, written from 1976 to 1981, and appearing in various men's magazines and other outlets, offer Ketchum readers a look into this author's formulative years. This is where Jack Ketchum honed his writing craft that has become so well known with his novels The Girl Next Door, The Crossing, Off Season and The Lost. Collected here is his character simply known as the "Stroup" stories written under the pseudonym Jerzy Livingston, which are rare and difficult to locate almost thirty years after the original publications gave them life. "I've called these the Jerzy Livingston years because over half of them were written under that name and the rest under my real one. Somehow Jerzy seems more appropriate for this collection. My adoption of that particular pseudonym was both a joke - a play on words -and a nod to a very good writer, which I hoped some day to be." - Jack Ketchum, from the author's introduction. Also includes Afterwords for each story by the author.
This landmark collection gathers more than thirty of Jack Ketchum’s most thrilling stories. “Gone” and “The Box” were honored with the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Whether you are already familiar with Ketchum’s unique brand of suspense or are experiencing it for the first time, here is a book no aficionado of fear can do without. This novel contains graphic content and is recommended for regular readers of horror novels.
For a very long time, Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee have followed their separate paths of line-crossing, gut-wrenching, no holds-barred storytelling. Now, those roads have drawn close and merged for a collection of five collaborative stories guaranteed to shock, amuse, disgust, and bring lovers of extreme fiction back for more. Along with the five stories, the authors have each included the first draft of one of their stories, showing the rough-base that becomes the foundation for their fiction, and giving readers a good chance at separating their voices in the collaborations. Contents include: I'd Give Anything For You Love Letters From the Rain Forest Masks Eyes Left Sleep Disorder & the two first drafts: Good Seeing You - by Jack Ketchum I Would Do Anything For You by Edward Lee
From Award-winning author and storyteller Jack Ketchum, a collection of bleak stories of loss, and pain. This is the author's newest collection, and includes his Bram Stoker Award-Winning novella - Closing Time.Also included:ReturnsDamned If You DoStation TwoElusivePapaThe FountainDo You Love Your Wife?At Home With the VCRThose Rockports Won’t Get You Into HeavenOlivia: A MonologueBrave GirlHonor SystemLighten UpHotlineMonsterConsensualSeascapeSnarl, Hiss, Spit, Stalk
This short collection compiles three plays penned by award-winning and best-selling author Jack Ketchum. The first, KILL: A Confession for the Stage - is the final stage play Ketchum ever wrote...inspired by the Boston Strangler Case - it is powerful, and eerie. Also included in this are DRIVE-IN MOVIE - which Ketchum also penned for theathre, and a short piece titled OLIVIA: A Monologue. These are unique pieces, and a must-read for any true Ketchum fan.
Lose yourself in twenty-two remarkable stories of earthly horror and cosmic menace. Night Terrors III features Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jack Ketchum and an all-star cast from Dennis Etchinson to Paul Tremblay, A wave of sinkholes appears on the anniversary of a rural tragedy, and local residents begin to hear the voices of the dead. A woman encounters a predator from her youth—and a chance to turn the tables. Experimental physics reveals another world, and it might mean the end of ours. Shrouded in darkness, lurking in the shadows, Night Terrors III is a chilling blend of short stories from all sub-genres of horror. You can't kill terror...so you might as well join it! Jack Ketchum - Steve Rasnic Tem - Dennis Etchison - Paul Tremblay - Taylor Grant - Eric J. Guignard - Aric Sundquist - Jennifer Brozek - John McNee - Simon McCaffery - Patty Templeton - Matt Moore - Raymond Little - Dean H. Wild - Jay Caselberg - Kevin David Anderson - Simon McCaffery - Rachel Nussbaum - Peter Charron - Richard Farren Barber - Gerry Huntman - Kyle S. Johnson - Jessica Lilien
What They Wrote is a collection of introductions, articles, and reviews by Jack Ketchum of various horror novels and collections. Included here are introductions for works by Edward Lee, Stanley Wiater, Barry Hoffman, Kealan Patrick Burke, Thomas Tessier, P.D. Cacek, Lucy Taylor, Tim Lebbon, T.M. Wright, and Rio Youers. Also included are reviews of two Stephen King novels, a John Carpenter movie, and a Richard Laymon novel. Contents of this collection: Edward Lee's Quest for Sex, Truth and Reality - Introduction On The Haunting of Hill House - Essay Mysteries of the Word - by Stanley Wiater - Introduction The Midnight Tour by Richard Laymon - Review Judas Eyes - by Barry Hoffman - Introduction Monochrome Love - The Alchemy of Love - by Elizabeth Engstrom & Alan M. Clark The Painter Next Door - On Neal McPheeters, for an Unpublished Collection of his Work - Introduction Midlisters - by Kealan Patrick Burke - Introduction Tessier and the Wolf - The Nightwalkers by Thomas Tessier - Introduction In the Spirit by P. D. Cacek - Introduction Bag of Bones by Stephen King - Review On Chas. Balun: An Opinion of an Opinion - Introduction "It's the Dog Scene That Gets Me" - On John Carpenter's The Thing On Header, Needlepoint, and the Journal of American Medicine - Header by Edward Lee - Introduction Fatal Journeys - by Lucy Taylor - Introduction White and Other Tales of Ruin - by Tim Lebbon - Introduction Dark Arts - Thomas F. Monteleone - Introduction On I am Legend by Richard Matheson - Article Robert E. Howard's Typewriter - SHIFTERS by Edward Lee & John Pelan - Introduction Some Seeds Take – Strange Seed by T. M. Wright - Introduction 'What Rio Sees' - All That I See - by Rio Youers - Introduction From a Buick 8 by Stephen King - Review A Short Peter Straub Companion - Written for the 2006 World Horror Convention Program Book