A Long December

Dust jacket illustration by Edward Miller.

In 1996, Richard Chizmar’s debut short story collection, Midnight Promises, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Publishers Weekly called it “a sterling collection” while singling out “The Silence of Sorrow” as “an understated masterpiece.”

Two years later, Subterranean Press published a mini-collection from Chizmar entitled Monsters and Other Stories. In his introduction, acclaimed genre critic Edward Bryant said, “When all is said and done, this book should leave you in utter silence, giving you time and opportunity to contemplate what you just read. Tough storytelling from a tough writer; but a writer who is not calloused. Chizmar possesses a finely honed gift of empathy. With utter grace and loving kindness he’ll put you right inside the life (and soul) of the monster.”

Now, nearly two decades later, Chizmar assembles thirty-five stories, including a previously-unpublished novella, and presents us with A Long December. This massive new collection features more than 150,000 words of Chizmar’s very best short fiction and includes 8,000 words of autobiographical Story Notes.

Eerie, suspenseful, poignant, the stories in A Long December range from horror to suspense, crime to dark fantasy, mainstream to mystery.

Table of Contents:

• Blood Brothers
• The Man with X-Ray Eyes
• The Box
• Heroes
• Ditch Treasures
• The Silence of Sorrow
• After the Bombs
• Last Words
• Night Call
• The Lake is Life
• The Good Old Days
• Grand Finale
• The Artist
• Family Ties
• Mister Parker
• Monsters
• Like Father, Like Son
• The Tower
• Brothers
• Cemetery Dance
• Blue
• A Crime of Passion
• Homesick
• Devil’s Night
• Bride of Frankenstein: A Love Story
• The Season of Giving
• A Capital Cat Crime
• The Sinner King
• A Season of Change
• Midnight Promises
• The Night Shift
• Only the Strong Survive
• The Interview
• The Poetry of Life
• A Long December
• Story Notes

Limited: 1500 signed numbered hardcover copies and sold out at the publisher