Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Gary A. Braunbeck (Author), Deena Holland (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Earthling Publications; 1st edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972151826
• ISBN-13: 978-0972151825
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,381,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary A. Braunbeck is a prolific author who writes mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mainstream literature. He is the author of 20 books -- evenly divided between novels and short-story collections; his fiction has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, German, Czech, and Polish. Nearly 200 of his short stories have appeared in various publications.

He was born in Newark, Ohio; the city that serves as the model for the fictitious Cedar Hill in many of his novels and stories. The Cedar Hill stories are collected in Graveyard People, Home Before Dark, and the forthcoming The Carnival Within, all published by Earthling Books.

His fiction has received several awards, including 5 Bram Stoker Awards: the first for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction in 2003 for "Duty"; the second -- also for Superior Achievement in Short Story -- in 2005 for "We Now Pause for Station Identification"; his collection Destinations Unknown won the Stoker for Superior Achievement in Fiction Collection in 2006; and 2007 saw Gary winning 2 Stoker Awards; the first for co-editing the anthology 5 Strokes to Midnight, and the second for his novella "Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway." His novella "Kiss of the Mudman" received the International Horror Guild Award for Long Fiction in 2005.

As an editor, Gary completed the latest installment of the Masques anthology series created by Jerry Williamson, Masques V, after Jerry became too ill to continue.

He also served a term as president of the Horror Writers Association. He is married to Lucy Snyder, a science fiction/fantasy writer, and they reside together in Columbus, Ohio.

Gary is an adjunct professor at Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania, where he teaches in an innovative MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction.

His nonfiction writing book Fear In A Handful Of Dust: Horror As A Way Of Life has been used as a text by several college writing classes. (A revised and expanded edition of the book will be coming out in late 2010/early 2011, from Apex Books.) Gary has taught writing seminars and workshops around the country on topics such as short story writing, characterization, and dialogue.

His work is often praised for its depth of emotion and characterization, as well as for its refusal to adhere to any genre tropes; some joke that the term "cross-genre fiction" may have been invented to describe his work -- a rumor he does everything in his power to propagate.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense at its best., January 9, 2007

By 

Shirley J. Herendeen (Ohio) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Hardcover)

I just recently discovered the Gary A Braunbeck books and have enjoyed all of them that I have read. I was very surprised when I started reading the Cedar Hill series and realized that they were based in Licking County - Ohio. I lived in that area for 30 years and recognized all of the places that he wrote about in the stories.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A criminally underrated author, December 28, 2005

By 

Yumyum (U>S) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Hardcover)

After finally being brought into the mass-market light with Leisure books recent publication of both In Silent Graves and Keepers, Gary Braunbeck has started to make a stir among horror and dark literature fans. But the sad fact of the matter is that he's been publishing stories for over two decades now, but has been relegated to the outskirts of a sub-genre that has been bludgeoned to a bloody death by 'gore and grue' authors such as Brian Knight and Dean Koontz. The line between 'horror' and 'shock fare' has been entreated upon so many times that a well-developed plot and fleshed out characters is likened to that of a ghost in countless haunted house tales.

Fortunately Gary Braunbeck is no stranger to plot, and the depth he imbues into every character he creates never fails to move and inspire. This is his first anthology set in his hometown of Cedar Hill, Ohio, and is part of an ongoing series of vignettes that will likely extend to 4-5 volumes.The world he creates is one of desolation and despair that weaves the lives of its inhabitants into a web there is no escape from. The topics range from a comic book that foretells the future(Mordoc Rising), to the literal reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh(At the Gates of Eternity), to the discrimination of being middle eastern descent after 9/11(Aisle of Plenty). While every story within is a gem(no fillers here), my favority is probably "Tessellations" a moving novella about family disentegration and trying to cope with putting the pieces back together. Set at halloween time, the characters Gary creates proves it is indeed possible to feel shivers down ones spine at the same time your heart bleeds for them. The use of a quilt passed down from generation to generation is a brilliant metaphor that is threaded(sorry about that) into the story like only a master craftsman can do.

Clearly the predominant theme in all the stories revolves around family life, and the unbearable sadness that comes with both closeness and seperation. Bleak for sure, but never stoops to pedantic melodrama, this is sentimentality that comes at a price to both writer and reader.

While I can't say this is one for everybody, those that are not turned off by a slow and involved read, or have enjoyed any of his alternate works, this collection is golden. My only complaint is the font size, which is much to small, and seems like a sinister attempt to weed out old folks, which fortunately I am not...yet. So although it is around 400 pages, it is really probably closer to 600. So please, do yourself a favor, preferably during cold winter months, and buy this book and soak up the world within. You won't regret it.