Part of Series
Halloween. The season many wait for all year. A time when people can be anything they want to be. A time of costumes and candy, spooks and frights. Or it can be a time of terror and carnage, where those with sinister intent hide behind the guise of innocence. Where malevolent souls hunt their prey. A night where the only thing that matters is trying to survive. Call it what you All Hallows Eve, Halloween, or All Saints Eve, but if evil comes looking for you, there’s nowhere to hide. Don’t fool yourself into thinking everything will be okay… The only thing you will ever be is dead or dying. Join us for tales of Halloween Horror in this volume of If I Die Before I Wake, but bring your body bags—no one gets out alive. The Better Off Dead series delves into the farthest corners of your mind, where your deepest, darkest fears lurk. These masters of horror will haunt your dreams and stalk your nightmares, taking you to the edge of sanity before pushing you to the brink of madness! Contains stories by Richard Chizmar & W.H. Chizmar, Steven Pajak, R.E. Sargent, and others. With foreword by Nick Roberts, author of The Exorcist’s House.
Authors
David Rider is the author of "Tweakers, Crane Girl and the Semi-pocalypse" on Kindle, as well as the novel series We Are Van Helsing. He grew up in Calumet City, Illinois, where the smiley-face water towers never looked the same after a leering stranger in a green sedan invited him for a ride. He now lives with his wife and kids in a small Midwestern town that has no smiling face on the water tower…although the people there are arguably more sinister. He sometimes busts out a costume and Photoshop for pretentious author pictures.
Richard Chizmar is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author. He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award. Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little. Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra. His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow’s Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, Billy Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film. Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.
