The ground here is ancient, its dark soil rich with blood and marrow, its trees swaying in diseased wind. The air is cool even in summer and sunlight never touches the earth. Birds speak here, as do the things wriggling through the dirt. Be careful, now, for what they say has broken stronger minds than yours. Step through, child. Don’t be afraid. We’re all here, and we’ve been waiting for you. Welcome to the place WHERE CARRION GODS DANCE. In this, his first collection of short fiction, acclaimed author and screenwriter Brad C. Hodson visits what Ray Bradbury called “the October Country,” that place where it’s always fall and dread things whisper from dark corners. The 17 stories inside tell of spirits brought forth by cursed plays, visions waiting in the space between breaths, and fleshly pleasures locked behind attic doors. A couple who have lost a child are given a second chance at parenting while two friends become addicted to dying. Childhood trauma comes back to scratch at the window in one tale while a corpse tears a crime spree across the Midwest in another. So step into the clearing, pull that log close to the fire, and see why Hodson has been called “a master of atmosphere” and “a writer who easily weaves emotional landmines throughout the fear.” Step into the place WHERE CARRION GODS DANCE.