Four Legs in the Morning: The Collection
(Three Curiosities, featuring Dr. Sibley)
Dr. Sibley, long-standing Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department at Graysonville University, has outlasted many of his detractors. In this collection of three linked stories, mysterious consequences await those who defy or disappoint him:
• a new colleague, whose avant-guard theories offend Sibley’s traditional critical sensibilities, uncovers a new answer to an ancient riddle (“Four Legs in the Morning”)
• a student plagiarist learns to regret his dishonesty (“Flannel Board”)
• a young administrator attempts to curtail some of Sibley’s power, until he discovers the fate of his predecessor (“The Mask of Tragedies”)
All of these characters eventually learn—sometimes too late—that Dr. Sibley may be far more powerful than he seems.
Praise for this collection (originally published in limited edition as part of the acclaimed Signature Series from Cemetery Dance):
“Some wonderfully creepy stuff.”
— Ellen Datlow, The Best Horror of the Year
"Reviewers have compared Norman Prentiss to the late Charles Grant, but he's so much more than just an imitator. A superb stylist in his own right, Norman is marking out a place of his very own in genre fiction. Four Legs in the Morning is quiet, haunting, and as Prentiss dangles unknowable secrets just beyond our reach (which may be for the best), we wait anxiously for a new morning after the long, quiet night. And even if that morning never comes, we wait for it still, in breathless anticipation."
— Shroud Magazine
“Prentiss drenches his stories in heavy mood and atmosphere, creating shorts that hit hard, yet go down like a fine wine.”
— Horror Drive-In
"Norman Prentiss wields a hammer made of whispers. Keep an eye on him, and save a yard of bookshelf space while you’re at it. I have a feeling this talented writer is just getting warmed up."
— Norman Partridge, Author of Johnny Halloween
"Four Legs in the Morning is a subtle, yet suspenseful, collection in the tradition of the classics. The stories are rich and complex, the characters genuine and engaging, and with Doctor Sibley, Prentiss has created an antagonist of Machiavellian proportions. Intelligent, clever, and imaginative; Prentiss is the thinking man’s horror writer."
— Michael McBride, author of IMMUN3 and Innocents Lost
"In his ingenious Four Legs in the Morning Norman Prentiss introduces us to Dr. Bennet Sibley, Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department at Graysonville University—an aging academic who never, ever fails to get what he wants. What is his secret? These three interconnected tales, alternately humorous and horrifying, go some distance in answering that question, and offer further evidence (if any is needed) that Norman Prentiss is one of the most important new writers to come along in the genre of dark fiction in years. Bravo!"
— Christopher Conlon, author of Midnight on Mourn Street and Matrix of Angels, Bram Stoker Award winning editor of He is Legend
About the Author:
Norman Prentiss won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction for his first book, Invisible Fences. Previously he won a Stoker in the Short Fiction category for “In the Porches of My Ears,” which originally appeared in Postscripts 18. Other publications include his mini-collection Four Legs in the Morning, a chapter in the round-robin novella The Crane House: A Halloween Story, and anthology appearances in Blood Lite 3, Zombies vs. Robots: This Means War, Horror Drive-In: An All-Night Short Story Marathon, Black Static, Commutability, Damned Nation, Tales from the Gorezone, Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and three editions of the Shivers anthology series. His poetry has appeared in Writer Online, Southern Poetry Review, Baltimore's City Paper, and A Sea of Alone: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock.
Visit him online at www.normanprentiss.com.
(Three Curiosities, featuring Dr. Sibley)
Dr. Sibley, long-standing Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department at Graysonville University, has outlasted many of his detractors. In this collection of three linked stories, mysterious consequences await those who defy or disappoint him:
• a new colleague, whose avant-guard theories offend Sibley’s traditional critical sensibilities, uncovers a new answer to an ancient riddle (“Four Legs in the Morning”)
• a student plagiarist learns to regret his dishonesty (“Flannel Board”)
• a young administrator attempts to curtail some of Sibley’s power, until he discovers the fate of his predecessor (“The Mask of Tragedies”)
All of these characters eventually learn—sometimes too late—that Dr. Sibley may be far more powerful than he seems.
Praise for this collection (originally published in limited edition as part of the acclaimed Signature Series from Cemetery Dance):
“Some wonderfully creepy stuff.”
— Ellen Datlow, The Best Horror of the Year
"Reviewers have compared Norman Prentiss to the late Charles Grant, but he's so much more than just an imitator. A superb stylist in his own right, Norman is marking out a place of his very own in genre fiction. Four Legs in the Morning is quiet, haunting, and as Prentiss dangles unknowable secrets just beyond our reach (which may be for the best), we wait anxiously for a new morning after the long, quiet night. And even if that morning never comes, we wait for it still, in breathless anticipation."
— Shroud Magazine
“Prentiss drenches his stories in heavy mood and atmosphere, creating shorts that hit hard, yet go down like a fine wine.”
— Horror Drive-In
"Norman Prentiss wields a hammer made of whispers. Keep an eye on him, and save a yard of bookshelf space while you’re at it. I have a feeling this talented writer is just getting warmed up."
— Norman Partridge, Author of Johnny Halloween
"Four Legs in the Morning is a subtle, yet suspenseful, collection in the tradition of the classics. The stories are rich and complex, the characters genuine and engaging, and with Doctor Sibley, Prentiss has created an antagonist of Machiavellian proportions. Intelligent, clever, and imaginative; Prentiss is the thinking man’s horror writer."
— Michael McBride, author of IMMUN3 and Innocents Lost
"In his ingenious Four Legs in the Morning Norman Prentiss introduces us to Dr. Bennet Sibley, Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department at Graysonville University—an aging academic who never, ever fails to get what he wants. What is his secret? These three interconnected tales, alternately humorous and horrifying, go some distance in answering that question, and offer further evidence (if any is needed) that Norman Prentiss is one of the most important new writers to come along in the genre of dark fiction in years. Bravo!"
— Christopher Conlon, author of Midnight on Mourn Street and Matrix of Angels, Bram Stoker Award winning editor of He is Legend
About the Author:
Norman Prentiss won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction for his first book, Invisible Fences. Previously he won a Stoker in the Short Fiction category for “In the Porches of My Ears,” which originally appeared in Postscripts 18. Other publications include his mini-collection Four Legs in the Morning, a chapter in the round-robin novella The Crane House: A Halloween Story, and anthology appearances in Blood Lite 3, Zombies vs. Robots: This Means War, Horror Drive-In: An All-Night Short Story Marathon, Black Static, Commutability, Damned Nation, Tales from the Gorezone, Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and three editions of the Shivers anthology series. His poetry has appeared in Writer Online, Southern Poetry Review, Baltimore's City Paper, and A Sea of Alone: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock.
Visit him online at www.normanprentiss.com.
