Where You'll Find Me: About 'The Haunted Heart and Other Tales'

Sunday, August 9, 2009

About 'The Haunted Heart and Other Tales'

I’ve just finished proofing the galleys of my collection of gay-themed ghost stories, The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, so the book should be shipped to the printer soon. The pub date is October 1, 2009. There are twelve stories included in this new collection published by Lethe Press, including six never before published stories.

The gorgeous cover painting was done by Richard Taddei, a painter I have long admired. If you want to see more of Richard’s work, you can find him online at http://www.richardtaddei.com/.

The logo design was done by John Malloy, a talented graphic designer. More of John’s work can be found at http://www.johnmalloy.net/.

I also gave Vince Liaguno, co-editor of the Stoker-winning anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, a sneak peak at the collection, and he has posted his generous review on line at Dark Scribe Magazine, which he edits and publishes. Read it at: http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/

And I am also doing a reading on October 29th in Manhattan at Housing Works Bookstore with two other talented writers (and friends) who have new books coming out -- Tom Cardamone, author of Pumpkin Teeth: Stories, and Sean Meriwether, author of The Silent Hustler. Here’s the details on the event.

Tricks and Treats: Gays, Ghosts, and Goblins
Thursday, October 29, 2009
7:00 pm
Housing Works Bookstore Café
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY
Admission is free and all book sales proceeds benefit people living with HIV.

The Haunted Heart and Other Tales
ghost stories by Jameson Currier

In his newest collection of short stories, The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, author Jameson Currier modernizes the traditional ghost story with gay lovers, loners, activists, and addicts, blending history and contemporary issues of the gay community with the unexpected of the supernatural.

“Jameson Currier’s The Haunted Heart and Other Tales expands upon the usual ghost story tropes by imbuing them with deep metaphorical resonance to the queer experience. Infused with flawed, three-dimensional characters, this first-rate collection strikes all the right chords in just the right places. Equal parts unnerving and heartrending, these chilling tales are testament to Currier’s literary prowess and the profound humanity at the core of his writing. Gay, straight, twisted like a pretzel…his writing is simply not to be missed by any reader with a taste for good fiction.”
Vince Liaguno, Dark Scribe Magazine

Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories by Jameson Currier

Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories by Jameson Currier, published by Lethe Press, brings together 20 of the author’s short stories about the impact of AIDS on the gay community which have been written over the last three decades. Along with ten stories from Currier’s debut collection Dancing on the Moon (1993), praised by The Village Voice as “defiant and elegiac,” are ten newly selected stories written by one of our preeminent masters of the short narrative form. And for this new collection the author has also chosen stories that revolve around gay New Yorkers—those lost, those surviving, those displaced, those undaunted, and those who became expatriates.

"In these stories, Currier fictionalizes queer life and times from three decades of the AIDS era, capturing the years in his prose. It has the literary heft of Camus and the quiet urbanity of Cheever…. Currier chronicles not only a defining era in gay America, but the private lives of the people who triumphed through what looked like defeat. These lives are often so finely drawn, Currier never has to resort to cliché… Gritty, esoteric, funny and passionate, Currier’s courageous prose reminds us that we must never forget."
Lewis Whittington, EDGE