Gary A. Braunbeck
Gary is a former Horror Writer’s Association President, winner of the International Horror Guild Award and thrice winner of the Bram Stoker Award. Oh yeah, he’s an Ohio horror writer, too.
Title List | Links | Series Page | Ohio Connection
 Coffin County  |
Coffin CountyAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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| The small town of Cedar Hill is no stranger to tragedy and terror. Nearly two centuries ago, when the area was first settled, a gruesome mass murder baptized the town with blood. More recently there was the Great Fire, the notorious night the casket factory burned down, taking an entire neighborhood with it. But no one in Cedar Hill can be prepared for what is to come — shocking murders that grow more horrendous with each victim, and a trail of taunting clues that point to the past . . . and to an old, abandoned graveyard. | ||||
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 Mr. Hands  |
Mr. HandsBonus Novella: Kiss of the Mudman |
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This book also contains the author preferred version of Kiss of the Mudman, the 2005 IHG Award winner Recognizing Outstanding Achievement in Long Fiction. The doll is odd, carved out of wood, with long arms and huge hands. Little Sarah named it Mr. Hands and loved the doll until the day she was murdered. Now her mother, Lucy, discovers something amazing about Sarah’s doll — it allows her to control another Mr. Hands. This Mr. Hands is a living, terrifying being with horrendous power. At Lucy’s command he will do whatever she tells him — even kill. This is Lucy’s chance to see justice is done. She decides who will live and who will suffer a horrible death, and Mr. Hands carries out the sentences without mercy. But once Mr. Hands is unleashed, will anyone be able to stop him? |
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 Smiling Faces Sometimes |
Smiling Faces SometimesAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Gary A. Braunbeck delivers a dark, poignant story of dreams and loss, and the horror that lies beneath. |
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 Prodigal Blues  |
Prodigal BluesAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel Gary Braunbecks first novel to plumb the depths of non-supernatural horror. After he finds himself stranded at a truck stop in Missouri, Mark Sieber gets one of the biggest shocks of his life when he recognizes the face of a little girl on a Missing poster as belonging to the same little girl he saw only a few minutes before. Looking around for some sign of her, he comes back to his table in the restaurant to find the little sitting there, waiting for him. “I’m sorry, mister,” is all she seems capable of saying. As the police and media begin to converge on the truck stop, Mark retreats back to his hotel room to call his wife and let her know what’s going on, only to be taken hostage by the same people who released the little girl. But his abductors are little more than children themselves. Ranging in ages from 12 to 19, Mark’s abductors are in the process of escaping from a sadistic pedophile known to them only as “Grendel” — a man whose practices include torture and mutilation — specifically, mutilation of the face. Mark’s abductors have all been mutilated by Grendel — who may be very close behind them — and need someone with a “normal face” to help them carry out their plan for justice and returning home. For the next few days, Mark will come to understand not only the inhuman horror that these children have suffered, but how they eventually learned to fight back — and how they discovered that Grendel and his practices are at the center of a very complex network catering to those who tastes run toward the molestation and mutilation of children. |
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 Destinations Unknown |
Destinations UnknownAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Winner of the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection A three-novella collection of original dark fiction concerning itself with people, cars, and the open road. Table of Contents:
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 Keepers  |
KeepersAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel Everything changed for Gil Stewart on the day he saw the old man die. Gil had witnessed the bizarre accident on the highway and stopped to help. The old man couldn’t be saved, but just before he died he clutched Gil’s shirt and whispered a warning: “The Keepers are coming!” That was when Gil’s nightmare began. At first he thought it was merely odd, a series of weird coincidences. Household pets started acting strangely. Zoo animals escaped. But now he can see a pattern emerging, a chilling reminder from a past that he can’t — or won’t — remember. As the true horror becomes clear, and terror builds upon terror, Gil can only await the coming of . . . the Keepers. |
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 Home before Dark  |
Home before Dark: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (The Collected Cedar Hill Stories #2)Author: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Contains the 2005 IHG Award winner Recognizing Outstanding Achievement in Long Fiction, Kiss of the Mudman. This is the second collection of short stories and novellas all centering around Gary’s town of Cedar Hills, Ohio. Most stories have appeared in magazines and other anthologies but these represent the definitive author’s vision. Table of Contents:
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 In the Midnight Museum  |
In the Midnight MuseumAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Martin Tyler is a 44-year-old janitor whose life has come to a sputtering halt; he has no friends, no family, and no promise of better days ahead. In the grip of blackest depression, he attempts to take his own life, only to find himself waking up in a local mental health facility where he has been placed for observation. But something more has happened to Martin than just a failed suicide attempt; certain doors of perception have been unlocked in his mind, allowing him to see fantastic creatures that lurk outside on the streets of Cedar Hill - creatures only he can perceive. Over the next 48 hours, Martin will discover what these creatures are, who controls them, and why he must enter The Midnight Museum, a place with no doors or windows, but many entrances and exits; a place just outside the perception of everyday life; a place where Martin will discover how and why he inadvertently holds the fate of the world in his hands. |
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 We Now Pause For Station Identification  |
We Now Pause For Station IdentificationAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Winner of the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction The dead have come back to life and the world as we know it has come to an end. A lone talk-radio DJ is trapped in his broadcast booth, low on food and water, and dangling at the end of his sanity. All he has left is the sound of his own voice and the fading hope that there’s actually someone still alive out there to hear him . . . From the Undead Rat: |
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 In Silent Graves  |
In Silent GravesAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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A slightly revised mass market paperback version of the difficult-to-get Stoker Award nominated novel: The Indifference of Heaven. Robert Londrigan seems to have it all. He is a newscaster with a rising career. He has a beautiful wife, Denise, and a new baby on the way. But in just a few short hours Robert’s world is turned upside down. Now his family is gone. But the torment only gets worse when his daughter’s body is stolen from the morgue by a strange, disfigured man. . . . Robert is about to begin a journey into a world of nightmare, an unimaginable world of mystery, horror and revelation. He will learn, from both the living and the dead, secrets about this world and things beyond this world. Though his journey will be grotesque, terrifying and heartbreaking, he will not be allowed to stop. But can he survive with his mind intact? Can he survive at all? |
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 A Little Orange Book Of Odd Stories  |
A Little Orange Book Of Odd StoriesAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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A special collection of short stories in the “Little Books” series published by Borderlands Press. |
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 From beneath These Fields of Blood  |
From beneath These Fields of BloodAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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A powerful collection of short stories and novellas. |
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 Graveyard People  |
Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (The Collected Cedar Hill Stories #1)Author: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement for a Fiction Collection A powerful collection of short stories and novellas all centering around Gary’s town of Cedar Hills, Ohio. Most stories have appeared in magazines and other anthologies but these represent the definitive author’s version. Table of Contents:
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 Sorties, Cathexes, and Personal Effects |
Sorties, Cathexes, and Personal EffectsAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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A collection of short stories on CD-ROM, including introductions and a reading by the author. |
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 Escaping Purgatory: Fables in Words and Pictures  |
Escaping Purgatory: Fables in Words and PicturesAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. and Clark, Alan M. |
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Escaping Purgatory is about personal hells. We all create them. We find ways to convince ourselves that we are comfortable with the really cruel ones, at least for a while. It’s understandable. After all change is frightening. But inevitably there comes a time when we are willing to do anything to end the torment. In this book you’ll meet some of those extremes and perhaps you’ll recognize yourself. Table of Contents:
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 This Flesh Unknown  |
This Flesh UnknownAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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What happens when we dream of our spouse as he or she once was? Does a door in the universe open, letting these secret fantasies become all to real? Paul and Vanessa Howe are about to find out what happens when their erotic passions and fantasies go to far and take on a unique life of their own. |
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 In Hollow Houses  |
In Hollow Houses (The Dark Matter Series #1)Author: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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It’s all true. It’s not a nightmare. It’s all possible. An unspeakable evil stirs beneath the nation’s capital, the gateway to a world of terror few have seen. The Hoffman Institute may be our only defense . . . but is it part of the solution or part of the problem? Reality and paranoia collide when dark forces converge on a world that seems normal. This is In Hollow Houses, the first novel in a new line of dark, contemporary fantasy fiction. |
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The Indifference of Heaven  |
The Indifference of HeavenAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2000 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel When his wife dies giving birth to a stillborn child, Robert Londrigan’s grief quickly turns to horror with the theft of his dead daughter’s body. As his hold on reality fades, he encounters a mysterious man named Rael who rules over an underground haven filled with children who may or may not be dead. Though not for the squeamish, Braunbeck’s first solo novel nevertheless presents a compelling and disturbingly graphic exploration of grief and redemption that should appeal to fans of dark fantasy and psychological horror. This book is out of print and difficult to get. It was, however, reprinted as In Silent Graves with minor rewrites. |
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 Things Left Behind: A Story Cycle  |
Things Left Behind: A Story CycleAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 1997 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement for a Fiction Collection A firm believer that speculative fiction in all of its forms is the supreme mythic literature of our times, Gary A. Braunbeck accomplishes what all serious genre writers set out to do: to entertain, to instill honest emotion and incorporate the writer’s own sensibilities into his or her fiction, and — when the job has been done well — perhaps leave the reader with a little food for thought afterward. That Braunbeck has done so is exceptional; that he has done so repeatedly is evidenced by many of his stories regularly appearing on several “Year’s Best” lists. Things Left Behind not only displays the versatility of Braunbeck’s work (with stories from the horror, fantasy, mystery, literary, suspense, historical, science fiction, and popular mainstream fields) but showcases it in a structure that only a handful of writers have attempted. Some will call it “a collection,” others might deem it an “episodic novel,” what cannot be argued is that it is unlike anything else you will encounter in genre fiction this year. Read the book as you would a novel — straight through to the end, for Things Left Behind is much more than an assortment of meticulously-crafted short stories and novellas; it is an exploration of the myriad realms of mystery, violence, grief, rage, loneliness, joy, and horror that lie just beneath the surface of the everyday world, and what can happen when one goes looking for answers to questions that cannot — and perhaps should not — be found. Focused and unified in ways that recall Peter Straub’s Houses Without Doors, Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Russell Bank’s Success Stories, Braunbeck’s Things Left Behind is a disturbing portrayal of archetypes (the outsider, the warrior, the ghost, the werewolf, the magician, the killer, the singer, the vampire, the storyteller, and so on) of a small, archetypical society — in this case, the fictional town of Cedar Hill, Ohio. The book begins with “Dreams and Permanence,” essentially a brief study of the outsider, and, coming full-circle, ends with “Searching For Survivors,” a horrifying, powerful, and ultimately moving meditation on the effects of unspeakable violence, wherein the outsider becomes the storyteller. Along the way, readers will be treated to some of Braunbeck’s most popular pieces — “After The Elephant Ballet,” “By Civilized Means,” “Cyrano,” and the controversial novella “Some Touch Of Pity,” presented here for the first time in its original, uncut form — as well as several brand-new works (nearly two-thirds of the stories presented here have never been published before), including a 30,000 word novella, “The Sisterhood Of Plain-Faced Women,” perhaps the most accomplished piece of short fiction Braunbeck has thus far written. This Cemetery Dance edition, illustrated by Allen Koszowski, also boasts a stunning cover by World Fantasy Award-winning artist Alan M. Clark, a Preface by J.N. Williamson, an Introduction by the legendary William F. Nolan, an Afterword by Ed Gorman, and is signed by all contributors! Things Left Behind promises to be the most talked-about debut of the year, so open the book, turn the first page, and let your journey into the unique, terrifying, and heartbreaking world of Gary A. Braunbeck begin. And hang on to something. Table of Contents:
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Non-Fiction by Gary A. Braunbeck.
 Fear in a Handful of Dust: Horror as a Way of Life  |
Fear in a Handful of Dust: Horror as a Way of LifeAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Nominated for the 2004 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction This provocative book is on one level a series of re-worked critical essays on music, film and books and on another level a biography of one of the best authors spinning horror stories. Gary is the author of over 200 short stories of which the 2003 Stoker Award winner “Duty” can be found in here. From Gary A. Braunbeck: |
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Science Fiction by Gary A. Braunbeck.
 X3  |
X3Author: Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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A collection of Gary Braunbeck’s science fiction stories. |
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 Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots: Time Was  |
Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots: Time WasAuthor: Braunbeck, Gary A. and Perry, Steve |
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Annabelle Donohoe, the CEO of World Tech, is mad as hell. Her dreams of world domination died the day Zac Robillard discovered her evil plans and fled World Tech, taking his greatest creation, his beloved I-Bots, and all his research, with him. More than super machines, more than robots, the I-Bots are eerily human in appearance, but not in abilities. Their genetic components — based on human DNA — and mechanical infrastructures give them physical strength and powers humans can only imagine, and a measure of free will impossible in robots. Annabelle wants them back and will stop at nothing to get her way, including hiring the world’s deadliest assassin to find Zac, and his I-Bots — the beautiful Radiant and Killaine, clever Itazura, Psy-4, and Stonewall — and bring them in . . . or kill them. For if Annabelle cannot have the I-Bots she vows that no one else can either. But Janus, the ruthless killer, is not the only hunter they must elude . . . Surrounded by enemies, Zac and the I-Bots can find no safe place, not even the streets. In the year 2013, the Silver Metal Stompers, a neo-Nazi gang, roam the nation’s cities wreaking havoc on robots, especially Scrappers, out-moded homeless robots who huddle in hobo camps, rusting away unless they are repaired by a mysterious humanitarian and robotarian called DocScrap. In an unlucky twist of fate, the Stompers discover DocScrap is none other than Zac Robillard and that the I-Bots aren’t exactly human . . . and vow to crush Zac and the I-Bots into wreckage. |
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Anthologies edited by Gary A. Braunbeck
 Five Strokes to Midnight |
Five Strokes to MidnightEditors: Braunbeck, Gary A. and Schwaeble, Hank |
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Winner of the 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology Five authors. Five Strokes to Midnight. Pray for the light. Five Strokes to Midnight brings five authors of dark fiction together in one book, with each author providing approximately 20,000 words of original fiction in a theme of the authors own choosing. It also includes cover art and five interior illustrations by Hellraiser star Ashley Laurence, and an Introduction by Tim Lebbon. Table of Contents:
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 Masques V  |
Masques V (Masques #5)Editors: Williamson, Jerry N. and Braunbeck, Gary A. |
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Jerry Williamson’s Masques is back, and fans of the series will be glad to hear that the series is as strong as ever, with Volume V serving up twenty-nine stories that run the gamut from good to great, all providing a satisfying reading experience. Editor Williamson has provided a winning mix of new and established authors, artfully arranging the tales for maximum impact. Standout stories include: “Recall” by Ray Garton, wherein a businessman is forced to reassess his values; “A Thousand Words” by Judi Rohrig, a tale of a photographer who suffers to perfect her art; “How Sweet It Was” by Thomas F. Monteleone, a story which focuses on the power of childhood memories and on insidious influence of television on young minds; and “Waters Dark and Deep” by Tim Waggoner, a claustrophobic tale in which the heroine realizes that although “pressure makes diamonds,” it can also utterly crush things as well. Sadly, this is the last Masques to be edited by the late Jerry Williamson, who indicated in his introduction that this would have been his last volume at any rate. Hopefully, someone as protective and knowledgeable of the field as Williamson (maybe Braunbeck, whom Williamson certainly held in high esteem) will pick up the torch that Williamson so ably held aloft these past decades, carrying this important and memorable anthology series into a bright future. Table of Contents:
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Summary:
Title List:
1. Things Left Behind: A Story Cycle
2. Time Was: Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots
3. The Indifference of Heaven
4. In Hollow Houses
5. This Flesh Unknown
6. Escaping Purgatory: Fables in Words and Pictures
7. Sorties, Cathexes, and Personal Effects
8. Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Vol. 1)
9. From beneath These Fields of Blood
10. X3
11. A Little Orange Book Of Odd Stories
12. In Silent Graves
13. Fear in a Handful of Dust: Horror as a Way of Life
14. We Now Pause For Station Identification
15. In the Midnight Museum
16. Home before Dark: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Vol. 2)
17. Keepers
18. Destinations Unknown
19. Prodigal Blues
20. Smiling Faces Sometimes
21. Mr. Hands
22. Coffin County
Title List: The Novels
1. Time Was: Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots
2. The Indifference of Heaven
3. In Hollow Houses
4. This Flesh Unknown
5. In Silent Graves
6. We Now Pause For Station Identification
7. In the Midnight Museum
8. Keepers
9. Prodigal Blues
10. Mr. Hands
11. Coffin County
Title List: Short Stories and Novellas
1. Things Left Behind: A Story Cycle
2. Escaping Purgatory: Fables in Words and Pictures
3. Sorties, Cathexes, and Personal Effects
4. Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Vol. 1)
5. From beneath These Fields of Blood
6. X3
7. A Little Orange Book Of Odd Stories
8. We Now Pause For Station Identification
9. In the Midnight Museum
10. Home before Dark: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories (Vol. 2)
11. Destinations Unknown
12. Smiling Faces Sometimes
Title List: Non-Fiction
1. Fear in a Handful of Dust: Horror as a Way of Life
Title List: Anthologies
1. Masques V
2. Five Strokes to Midnight
Weblinks List:
Gary A. Braunbeck — Official Site
For a complete list of books and short stories, check out Gary A. Braunbeck — Bibliography
Series Page for:
The Cedar Hill Stories
Ohio Connection:
Gary A. Braunbeck was born in Newark, Ohio and currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and fellow writer Lucy A. Snyder.
