In May 2007, I wrote a section of a serial novella that didn’t have a title. From time to time I would wonder what became of it, but didn’t ever bother to ask. Well, now it can be told.
The Crane House: A Halloween Story featuring Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Al Sarrantonio, Rick Hautala, Bev Vincent, Brian Freeman, James A. Moore, James Newman, Ronald Kelly, Norman Prentiss, and Ray Garton is being published by Cemetery Dance as part of a three volume collector’s set.
In case you’re wondering, a book like this is written without an outline or any collaboration among the authors. The first author, Brian Keene in this case, writes a section, which is then sent on to the second author, who builds on what came before, and so on. I think we tended to mess with each other a bit with Looking Glass, but we took The Crane House more seriously. I still haven’t read the finished story, so I’ll be as eager as everyone else to see how it came out.
Here’s the copy forThe Crane House: Cemetery Dance has gathered together a group of the genre’s most talented authors to attempt the impossible: tell a coherent and scary Halloween round robin story! This experiment was inspired by the hundreds of encouraging emails we received after we published our first round robin, the Signature Series book Looking Glass, which we’ve since seen sell for over $200 on the second-hand market.
And we have to be honest: having read The Crane House novella several times now, we’re still shocked at how well the story came together! You would think the authors had a plan when they started, but no one had any idea where the story was going when Brian Keene first wrote, “Halloween? Big f—ing deal.”
Each author brought his own unique voice to this terrifying tale set inside and around Bethany Crane’s house, yet together they’ve crafted a unified story. And now the characters are in there, just waiting for you to join them. In fact, right now Gary, Bodie, Rachel, and the others are approaching the woods near Bethany Crane’s house, and although they don’t know it yet, they’re not alone in the dark…
