Exhumed: 13 Tales Too Terrifying to Stay Dead

by David Yurkovich (Editor), Jeffrey D. Keeten (Introduction), J.C. Raye

Gravelight Press proudly presents EXHUMED, a collection of 13 terrifying tales by some of today's most interesting voices:

Includes tales by
Bernie Brown
Ellie Cooper
David W. Dutton
Robin Hill-Page Glanden
James Goodridge
Andrea Goyan
Heidi Lobecker
Bayne Northern
Josephine Queen
J.C. Raye
Russell Reece
Linda Rumney
Elizabeth Vegvary
Featuring an introduction by book critic Jeffrey D. Keeten.
EXHUMED is the perfect read for Halloween or any time after dark.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2020

About the author

David Yurkovich is the 2017 Delaware Division of the Arts Fellow in the category of literature (fiction). David began writing in 1992 with a focus on graphic novels and comics. His first self-published comic was funded by a grant by the Xeric Foundation. As a writer and illustrator, his works include Death by Chocolate and Less Than Heroes (both published by Top Shelf Productions) and Altercations (published by Sleeping Giant).

In 2007 David wrote, designed, and published Mantlo: A Life in Comics, a benefit magazine to help aid in the medical expenses of Bill Mantlo (creator of Rocket Raccoon and numerous other Marvel properties). In 2016, David was among 10 prose authors statewide selected to attend the Delaware Seashore Poetry & Prose Writers’ Retreat. His short story, “The Last Day of Summer,” appeared in the 2016 anthology Beach Nights (Cat and Mouse Press). He has published two prose novels, Glass Onion and Banana Seat Summer, with two manuscripts in development. In June 2017, David provided an introduction to the second volume of the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus, published by Marvel.

Most recently, David designed, edited, and contributed to Halloween Party 2017!, the first issue of The Milton Workshop Anthology Series, published by Devil’s Party Press. He and his family reside in historic Milton, DE.

David can be reached at davidyurkovich.wordpress.com

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Aegean’s full of the restless dead,” she said and made the sign of the cross. Her husband laughed. “You sound like an old woman.” He held her head between his hands. “The dead are dead.”
She twisted from his hold. “It isn’t safe.” - from The Sea Cemetery

Chase shot his wife, Rebecca, a sarcastic grimace. “I don’t see how anyone could miss that monstrosity.” He motioned to the large, yellow and white confection with its ornate tower. It dripped gingerbread and confused the eye with its many gables and dormers. - from Sandcastles

I felt an unexplained, strange vibe about this place, but couldn’t understand why. - from The Stumpville Affair

Out in time for the holidays, Exhumed offers a baker’s dozen short stories of the horror persuasion, introduced by GR Hall-of-Famer, Jeffrey Keeten, at long last bringing in a few shekels for his top-tier writing skills. I included a link in EXTRA STUFF to a video of JK reading his intro.

The stories range from scary monsters to scary humans, from ghosts to werewolves, covering many subjects familiar in horror; revenge, guilt, comeuppance, dark prophecy, inexplicable imprisonment by a faceless jailer, madness, magical objects, magical power, and possession.

It all begins with a Yuletide tale. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, well, until, that is, the persistent whisperings began echoing down the flue every year, only to vanish on the 26th. I still enjoy reading The Polar Express to my kids cats every year and watching It’s a Wonderful Life, although it seems to get harder and harder as the years go by to hear it over that bloody yammering from the chimney. Nevertheless, it could be worse, and in …And All the Trimmings it very definitely is, for Professor Norman Tack, a nobody destined to become a very definite somebody, for a while anyway. This one might prompt you to look into the history of the holiday, then throw away everything you have read, and maybe take some extra security precautions as the season approaches.


David Yurkovish - editor of the collection, looking like he just got away with something awful

The collection features a handful of stories having to do with the beach, or aqueous locales, which summons to mind a bit of scariness of my own. When I found a body on the beach, while out walking my golden retriever, Bloch, just this summer past, there was a moment when I was uncertain. Did we just find him there, or had I put him there? That cut across the neck certainly did look like one of mine, although I do not usually engage in such antics so close to home. I will definitely have to check the cutlery at home, make sure everything is clean. One of the downsides of getting older. Some things just slip past, ya know? The sea certainly offers up some terrors of its own, like encroaching surf, restless dead, or relentless reminders of things we’d rather forget. For example, In Darkness, Lost brings us two brothers who are trapped by a seemingly seamless vessel on the beach, but have no idea what it is or how to get out. The Sandcastle offers a look at what can remain and who what might succumb to the incoming tides. Waves, like years of relentless remorse, can erode a person’s as well as a building’s foundation. The Aegean provides a spooky passage to a family in peril in The Sea Cemetery, one with much contemporary relevance. A young girl experiences a trauma at the gravel edge of a river, in The Dark Augur, that portends ill for her as an adult. The beach can be a scary place, even without a giant shark, or a serial killer.

A lifetime ago, I used to ride the PATH train between Manhattan and Newark, passing factories of unknown sort in the unpopulated marshland between. One factory, when all lit up, particularly at night, seemed to me a fascinating image of a post-apocalyptic hell. I can’t be sure what I saw--because, ya know, me a bit sleepy heading home from work, darkness, moving train, with a bit of bouncing, interior light reflecting off the windows--but I could have sworn at least one of the flames arcing out of that place took on a human form, and headed toward the tracks. It was only the one time. I never saw it again. I only worked in Newark for a year, so did not have much opportunity for a repeat. I’m sure it was nothing. I am sure you have had the experience of falling asleep on a bus, a train, or even as a passenger in a car, and waking up to find yourself seeing a strange sight, or maybe being in a strange place. In Violet’s Blossoms, Jessica emerges from an unpleasant dream on a bus to debark in Shadow Hills. The name of the town says it all. Yea, though I walk through the Valley of Shadow Hills, I will fear no evil. Well, maybe you should, and thanks for the flowers. I loved how the author used scent to convey the range of emotional content.

Small towns and/or suburbs site several of the tales. Well, The Doggone Ghost, set in a department store, could be in a city, I suppose, but I picture it more in an older suburb. In addition to Violet’s Blossoms, noted above, The Stumpville Affair takes place in upstate New York. The locale in Teacher’s Pets seemed small townish and Mirror, Mirror takes place 30 miles outside Austin. The Seamstress is set in a “grimy mill town in western Pennsylvania.” No manifestations of urbophobia or polisophobia here. We all know small towns are much more terrifying than big cities.

The only real touch of city is in The Stumpville Affair, in which the occult PIs are based in 1930s Manhattan, although the action takes place elsewhere. But that is not why this one is my favorite in the collection. I love the two lead characters, who are both special in different ways. They have class, style, and toss in cultural and historical references that give the story not only a temporal anchor but racial piquance. My first thought on finishing this one, just a few days past the Harvest Moon, was that it had the heft and the bones to be a fabulous series, when lo and behold, a quick google search revealed plenty more tales with these two. Toss in some physical mayhem of the ripped-to-bits sort, and some hostile locals, including a young thing with a wicked heater, and keep an eye out, particularly during that special time of month. You never know what might be staring at you with red eyes from the cover of darkness. You can find the author, James Goodridge, at Who Gives You the Write on Facebook. But forget sneaking up on him. I am sure his senses are much too sensitive to allow that.

One nice touch in Exhumed is that all the authors are at least 40 years old, or as I might call them, whipper-snappers.

Sorry, I did not get many chills, well, ok, maybe a few. That is par for the course for me. It is the rare piece of horror writing that can make the gray hairs on my arms, and far too many other places on my chia-pet body, stand and salute. Things political, and maybe involving ex-wives, are likelier to give me serious shivers. There were stories that were uplifting, that left me eager to read more from that author. Some made me smile. Is it ok for horror stories to do that, or does it say something about me? But really, who doesn’t enjoy some high-octane well-deserved come-uppance? Some offer excellent atmospherics and there are enough surprises to keep you reading. So, even if you do not leave the lights on after reading Exhumed, it remains an engaging, fun read, and, since you are not me, it might just scare the bejesus out of you.

Exhumed is the first horror collection published by Gravelight Press, a new imprint of indie publisher Devil’s Party Press, based in Delaware. It was definitely a fun, season-appropriate read, and a quick one, too, at 154 pages. I hope they can dig up some more material and give it a jolt, with someone providing the mandatory scream of “It’s Alive!”

Gravelight Press provided a review copy in return for a post mortem that did not assail them while they were sleeping.

============================THE STORIES

…And All the Trimmings by J.C. Raye
An everyman is remade into a stand-in for the big guy, and learns some things about Christmas he had never suspected.

Violet’s Blossoms by Josephine Queen
Definitely not Zuzu’s petals. A young woman gets off the bus at the wrong stop and finds herself in a mostly boarded up town, with one shop in particular that draws her in, and finds there unwanted reminders of a pain-filled past.

The Doggone Ghost by Bernie Brown
Payback’s a ghostly bitch for a suit salesman in a department store. Cleanup in Men’s clothing.

The Stumpville Affair by James Goodridge
Occult PIs on the job in upstate New York after one of the residents is ripped to bits by a werewolf. Howlingly good.

Teacher’s Pets by Linda Rumney
A dull-as-dishwater teacher is pursued by a divorcee who interests him not at all. He has a large secret, and prefers his privacy.

In Darkness, Lost by Bayne Northern
Reminiscent of Andy Weir’s Annie’s Day, two brothers, mysteriously trapped inside a large, seamless vessel while at the beach, try to find their way to freedom.

Mirror, Mirror by Ellie Cooper
A magic mirror found at an auction house outside Austin shows more than mere reflection.

The Dark Augur by Elizabeth Vegvary
A woman recalls a traumatic incident from her youth, one that included a dire prophecy.

The Sandcastle by David W. Dutton
A troubled family finds that even the most well-off lives can turn to sand.

Waves by Robin Hill-Page Glanden
Guilt over losing a child generates a lifetime of dark visions.

Mr. Gibb’s Banner Year by Heidi J. Lobecker
A nebbishy teacher is tasked with stepping in to coach the boys’ football team, but is haunted by the team’s erstwhile, and late, championship coach.

The Sea Cemetery by Andrea Goyan
A desperate refugee family face a hauntingly roiling sea as they struggle to reach Greece.

The Seamstress by Russell Reece
An abusive husband finds himself at the mercy of the woman he’d mistreated for decades. I was reminded of Olivia de Haviland in The Heiress, having learned so well from her afflicters.


Review posted – October 9, 2020

Publication date – August 11, 2020

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Items of Interest
-----Jeff Keeten reads the Introduction
-----Gravelight Press is an imprint of Devil’s Party Press

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have something special to share with all my friends and followers. For the first time ever I've been video taped reading something I wrote. The video is available on youtube and I would appreciate all of you letting me know what you think. David Yurkovich of Gravelight Press recorded me on zoom, social distancing was observed at all times... approximately sixteen hundred miles. Here is the link...Jeffrey D. Keeten reading the introduction to Exhumed



WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT HORROR is the way fear lights up our brains like
a pinball machine on tilt and forces us to feel more alive. It is like driving fast along a
dark road in a 1955 Ford Thunderbird with the top down and the headlights off.
You’ve got Bill Haley & His Comets playing on the radio. A pretty girl with a cherry-
tipped cigarette dangling from her lips is hanging her long legs out the passenger-side
window. Then you go into a skid, gravel sprays, and with heart racing you see
something blacker than the night coming straight at you.

WE ARE ALL LEAD CHARACTERS in the novels of our lives, and reading horror adds
zesty, vicarious moments of apprehension to our plots. Robert Louis Stevenson
deploys a magnificent sense of dread by describing how Mr. Hyde comes alive in Dr.
Jekyll: “That insurgent horror was knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an eye;
lay caged in his flesh, where he heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be born.” Reading
horror is like that for me, awakening something raw and primeval buried deep within.

THE TERROR that reading tales of horror inspires does not stay locked in our
minds, carefully controlled like a caged beast, but escapes into the shadowy nooks of
our dwellings, to lodge in the creak on the stairs and unsettle us with the tap tap tap
on the window glass. The disturbing images writers put in our heads bleed into our
real universe. So readers caught in the web of another’s imagination must be prepared
to have their senses expand and possibly even glimpse out of the corner of their eyes
the manifestation of the fears that a talented writer has conjured for them. These are
shared fears; the writer is taking her worst anxieties and infecting her readers with
fresh nightmares.

WE HAVE 13 TALES IN THIS ANTHOLOGY, an unnerving baker’s dozen. These stories
have all been published in other anthologies, which means they survived the cut against
hundreds of other contenders, and then they withstood yet another rigorous selection
process when Gravelight Press chose the very best of them. Congratulations to all the
writers. As happy as these 13 writers are, you, as a reader, should be even happier. This
stringent process has ensured that you will be chilled, thrilled, and thoroughly entertained.

WHAT I REALLY APPRECIATE about this collection is that Gravelight Press, like
its parent company Devil’s Party Press, only accepts stories from writers who are likely
to be suffering from Dickensesque gout, Poe’s anxiety, and achromotrichia. In other
words, the writers are all over 40. They have endured the trials and tribulations of their
youth and now, with a plethora of real life experiences lining the bookshelves of their
minds (think Green Apple Books in San Francisco or The Strand in New York), they
are able to leaf through their memories to add nuances to their stories that only those
with wise eyes can share.

So what are these stories about?

THERE ARE MONSTERS—beautiful ones, fanged ones, hairy ones, and even a
Frankensteined Santa Claus that will soon become a staple in the Keeten household over
the holidays. There are zombies, ghostly creatures, and an eggplant *shiver* cassoulet.
There is the creature feature town of Stumpville, and if I ever have to visit there, I’ll
be sure to keep Dean and Sam Winchester on speed dial. There is a sandcastle imbued
with supernatural power. There is a Halloween seamstress who creates shivers with
her skills. There are haunting pieces of writing that leave residual trails of horror in my
brain, like, “Your skeleton becomes a perilous snag.” Or how about a little taste of
Franz Kafka with “exoskeletons clicked like castanets?” There is a hoarsely whispered
mantra that will make your ears tingle: “Mothers can be tricky. Daughters can be
Slippery.”

THIS BOOK also provides helpful hints. For instance, should I ever find myself
a member of the walking dead and embarrassed by the stench escaping my rotting
corpse, I will be sure to put “pine tree fresheners in the pockets of my blazer to hide
my rotten egg smell.” Ha! Brilliant! There is also plenty of shared wisdom about what
not to do, and isn’t that another reason we read tales of horror or watch the latest
installment of Friday the 13th? We are seeking enlightenment as well as entertainment.
We like to ask ourselves, What would I do? I sure as heck wouldn’t open that door leading to the
creepy basement or hide out in the barn with all the pointy things hanging from the rafters. We know bad things happen in those circumstances because horror has provided us with those insights.

I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT to set the mood properly to fully enjoy the stories you
are about to read. I read them late at night, long after everyone else had gone to bed,
and I could hear every creak and moan from the house. The wind just happened to be
blowing, jangling loose things and rattling the eves. I lit candles to add those dancing
shadows to the room. I poured two fingers of 10-year-old Scotch. A reader must be
properly fortified. I sat in the safe pool of my reading light and let these stories play
like flickering movies in my head.

I hope you all enjoy being unsettled by these tales as much as I did. May your
dreams be spiked by joyous moments of TERROR.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/

[Glenn Russell]

Exhumed - 13 Tales Too Terrifying to Stay Dead is a crackerjack collection of short horror stories with an Introduction by top Goodreads reviewer Jeffrey D. Keeten.

For a tempting taste of the terrifying, here are two prime Keeten quotes coupled with my comments before I shift to share reflections on three frightening tales from this Gravelight Press publication.

"What we like about horror is the way fear lights up our brains like a pinball machine on tilt and forces us to feel more alive." Thanks, Jeffrey! What a great image - our brains lighting up the way a pinball machine lights up when we shake the sides and flip the flippers too violently. TILT! And that key word - "horror," along with key phrase "feel more alive." Let me address these keys one at a time:

Here's a famous H.P. Lovecraft quote: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Of course, fear thrives on our mind projecting into the future, specifically, very bad things, even horrific things happening in the future, things like confronting a ghost or suddenly feeling hairy fingers squeezing our neck.

All of us have pictured ourselves as the victim of such ghoulish, ghastly shocks and a writer of horror stories will work a reader's imagination to the point where we can feel the bony hands around our neck or see the apparition in vivid detail and be chilled from first sentence to last. Ahh, the horror, the horror.

One thing's for sure - chokehold or ghost would count as one of our most intense, most memorable experiences, exactly what makes us feel totally alive. As Joseph Campbell tells us: “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive."

Jeffrey goes on to say: "The terror that reading tales of horror inspires does not stay locked in our minds, carefully controlled like a caged beast, but escapes into the shadowy nooks of our dwellings, to lodge in the creak on the stairs and unsettle us with the tap tap tap on the window glass." Oh, yes, these stories will not only transform you but they will invariably also transform the objects and happenings around you. Now that's sweet storytelling power!

Link to a YouTube video where Jeffrey reads his Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWyR-...

THE DOGGONE GHOST by Bernie Brown
A delicious tale about an obsessive compulsive young salesman, the head salesman, working in men's suits at a large department store. The name of Mr. Perfection is Marvin Truelove.

Hints of both Edgar Allan Poe and H.G. Wells as Marvin comes face to face with...well, you'll have to read for yourself. However, I can share a quote that serves as prelude to the concluding scene:

"For the third time that year, the suit on the meticulously dressed mannequin - a double-breasted Yves Saint Laurent cotton-wool blend adorned with matching shirt and tie - had been replaced with something entirely inappropriate.
A bikini.
It was, in fact, the yellow polka dot variety popularized in that dreadful Brian Hyland song from Marvin's youth."

Oh, Marvin, the wild, frenzied, chaotic energy of Dionysus has a way of extracting revenge on those unfortunates who try to tame life on their own terms.


Bernie Brown

THE STUMPVILLE AFFAIR by James Goodridge
Horror meets action/adventure in this riveting yarn that's almost too good to be true. Here's a snip from the first pages:

"The creature snatched at him as razor-sharp fangs bit into Mason's right arm, snapping it off at the elbow. Blood, bone, and muscle mass splattered about in the moonlight. Mason's lower arm sailed end over end into the air, finally landing atop the weathered house roof. As shock set in, August Mason howled in pain, body quivering. His cries reverberated into the village of Stumpville before trama took him into eternal darkness."

Are we talking werewolf here? For each reader to discover. Warning: do not read this tale if you have a heart condition.


James Goodridge

THE DARK AUGUR by Elizabeth Vegvary
"You don't hear him approach. He is not there, and then he is there. Standing at the tree line, the thin rocky border of land lying ragged and useless from the toes of his battered cowboy boots to where both of you are wading barefooted."

A tale of horror where there's no need of the supernatural - a strong dose of sinister and evil is all it takes, especially when those dark elements are combined with the threat of violence and sex as two girlfriends, age twelve, are isolated down by a river.


Elizabeth Vegvary

[Lars Jerlach · Rating 4 out of 5]

H. P. Lovecraft, the founding father of American horror said: '.....the strongest sense of fear is the fear of the unknown', and though he died in 1937, I find this sentiment equally relevant today.

As a fundamental reaction, evolved to protect us against a perceived threat to our integrity or existence, fear is perhaps as old as life itself. The sound of a door creaking in the night, the rapping on a windowpane during a storm, a low growling in the darkness or the sound of footsteps behind us, can make the hair on our neck stand up, and make us hyper sensitive to our surroundings. No matter what frightens us, or whether the threat of harm is real or imagined, we all know fear as a primary response. The brain becomes hyper alert, our pupils dilate, our breathing accelerates, our heart rate and blood pressure rise, and blood flow to the muscles increases.

However, the most troubling element of fear is that it's often deeply irrational, and that we can learn to become afraid of almost anything. Depending on individual terrors; sharks, clowns, snakes, heights, holes, ventriloquist dolls, open spaces, etc. etc. all have the ability to send us over the proverbial edge. Furthermore, fear can drive us to do things we might never have considered doing, and it can make us react like someone we never planned to be. Fear puts on in a flight or fight mode and forces us to choose between safety and risk, but in horror we also find a certain dangerous enjoyment, and that is of course the stuff upon which great fiction is created.

In the collected tales in 'Exhumed' (13 Tales Too Terrifying to Stay Dead), splendidly introduced by Jeffrey Keeten, the characters are confronted with situations to which the only possible response is horror. A horror that either paralyzes, overwhelms the senses, disrupts rational thinking, dissolves defenses, and one that inevitably pushes the victim closer towards greater peril. In addition, the horror portrayed is not of your usual jump-out-from-behind-the-door variety. Clawing and gnawing, like an insatiable monster, it comes at you in multiple and diverse forms, including a Frankensteinian Santa, a pair of toothy occult detectives, a very cool dinner date, a revenging ghoul, a supernatural sandcastle, a foul-smelling football coach, and a very skillful seamstress to name just a few.

The fear that these stories stimulate, is an internal and irrational reaction that we can all relate to, and although we are armchair travelers, and that we might not be screaming out loud, the fictional realm of these tales, whose terrors are lurking just within the borders of our suspended disbelief, are bound to make us think about what personal horrors might be waiting for us out there.

In case something heinous and dank should come scratching in the night, I would recommend that you read this well edited anthology after first having checked that the door to the basement is securely bolted.

Four stars.

Jeffret Keeten reading the introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWyR-...

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several pretty good short stories in Exhumed. My favorite was the one with the vampire and werewolf crime solving duo. Other odd and scary stories, too. Jeffrey Keeten, my favorite Goodreads book and movie reviewer did an excellent horror review for the book, as well as a video. Thanks Jeffrey for your insight and willingness to share. You are a wonder.

[Dianne Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Keeten is the fifth highest reviewer on all of Goodreads. He does literally hundreds of reviews a year, and I am a subscriber to his reviews. I knew that if he had picked this book to actually write an introduction for, it had to be a good collection. And I was right!
This is a great mix of horror genres, from lightly creepy to downright terrifying. I still haven’t made it all the way through “the seamstress.” I especially like the pieces by JC Rae, Josephine Queen, and Ellie Cooper. “Daughters can be tricky...”
There’s a really cool piece in here by James Goodridge that is actually a combination of horror and detective fiction, my two favorite genres.
Halloween is coming.... time to welcome fall with this creepy collection.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some excellent stories introduced by Jeffrey Keeten. This collection distinguishes itself with original ideas. I especially loved "The Stumpville Affair" by James Goodridge (which was funny and very surprising) and "The Sea Cemetery" by Andrea Goyan (touching and scary).

[J.C. Raye]

Sometimes, there's a stigma associated with reprints. There's a perception. Stories that are "used" let's say. That the tales in this tome couldn't possibly stand up to the newest and the hottest of the day. So if that's you, maybe it's time to start thinking about a book like Exhumed in a different way. Powerful and gripping stories that were actually so good, they didn't die an early death. Someone decided that enough people hadn't read them yet and that those poor horror-starved souls were missing out on a truly blood-curdling experience. Like when you have a party and everybody keeps commenting on your amazing coconut macaroons, begging you for the recipe? Not only taking the risk of consuming those bizarre fluffy meatballs, but now brazen enough to steal the recipe and share it with others. Being a part of this devilish publication, some might say I'm biased. Yet, there are some that might say the publishers have bestowed upon us authors the highest compliment there is.
These stories are dark, twisted and beautifully executed. This publishing house
knows exactly how to make you squirm!