Do-Overs and Detours by Steve Vernon

Detours are amazing creatures. They can shortcut your existence or lead you down a forever long road that will linger far into the distant reaches of eternity. It is these unexpected tangents that people stumble across everyday that haunt in a frightening familiar fashion.

Wander into a laundromat and find a kind of time machine. Indulge yourself in a nasty game of baseball. Hitch a ride on a freight train with the piggyback man, entomb yourself in a trailer walled with books, take a ride on a bus that is going nowhere in particular, or just lean over an empty ocean and wait.

Detour around an overturned trailer of chickens and find a chance to do it all over again. Take a taxi ride with a very hungry passenger or a walk in the park to watch a juggler balance severed heads.

Reality will take you only so far--after that there's nothing to rely on but faith and fear.

Fifteen stories.

Five of them, never before published.

We've come to the edge of the map. Let's travel on a little further.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction by Richard Chizmar • Hyperactive Cleaning Power • A Fine Sacrifice • The Takashi Miike Seal of Approval • In The Dark and The Deep • Rolling Stock • Last Stand of The Great Texas Pack Rat • Gin Bottle Heaven • Voodoo Chicken Do-Over • A Prayer For The Clockwork Twister • Under The Skin, Under The Bone • Once More Round The Block • Jugular • A Wriggle of Maggot • Nail Gun Glissando • I Survived The Apocalypse... (only in Deluxe Thirteen edition) • The Tracks We Leave Behind (only in Deluxe Thirteen edition) • The End of the Road

"This genre needs new blood and Steve Vernon is quite a transfusion." - Ed Lee

"Steve Vernon taps the strange fiction vein like no one before" - Hellnotes

"Steve Vernon is one of the finest new talents of horror and dark fiction" - Owl Goingback

"Steve Vernon is a hard writer to pin down - and that's a good thing." - Dark Scribe Magazine

"Armed with a bizarre sense of humor, a huge amount of originality, a flair for taking risks and a strong grasp of characterization - Steve's got the chops for sure." - Dark Discoveries

Editions

Leather-bound Deluxe Thirteen Hardcover w/slipcase: numbered 1-13, 6"x9", bound in leather, signature page which is signed by both author and artist, front cover stamped and spine stamped with the title and the author's name, includes end papers, colored book ribbon, full colored header, 60lb. natural vellum stock, a slipcase and dust jacket.

200 Signed and Numbered Limited Hardcover: numbered 1-200, 6"x9", bound in leatherette, signed by the author, stamped on the spine with the title and author's name, includes 80lb. natural vellum end papers, colored book ribbon, multi-colored header, 60lb. natural vellum stock and a dust jacket.

Trade Paperback: first 100 copies are signed by the author, 6" x 9", 12 point full color cover, 60lb. natural vellum stock.

About the Author

You'll find Steve’s work in the pages of Cemetery Dance, Tor's Year's Best Horror, The Horror Show, Flesh & Blood, Hot Blood, Horror Garage and many other tastefully titled markets and magazines. Steve's ghost story collections Wicked Woods, Halifax Haunts, and Haunted Harbours (Nimbus) are available in many Maritime bookstores – as well as Steve’s first YA novel, Sinking Deeper - a touching tale of sea monsters and caber tossing. In addition Steve’s collection of weird horror Do-Overs and Detours is available from the good folks at Dark Regions Press.

As of February 2012 Steve has released TEN e-books through Crossroad Press - including his dark superhero collection NOTHING TO LOSE, a never-before published second volume of Captain Nothing tales entitled NOTHING DOWN, his weird west cult novella LONG HORN, BIG SHAGGY, his horror-historical novel DEVIL TREE and his novelette of hockey and vampirism SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME.

Share this book