Buy the Book
from Amazon.com
TOP

Midnight on Mourn Street: A Play in Two Acts
Creative Guy Publishing, 2010, 116 pp.

“As an admirer of the original novel of Midnight on Mourn Street, I was wondering how Christopher Conlon would manage to convey the story’s intricate and intimate twists and emotions within the confines of a theater stage…if anything, he’s managed to distill the tale down into something even more poignant, shocking, and tragic. Conlon has crafted both a superb example of the difficult art of adaptation, and an enthralling and deeply moving stand-alone read.”

—Lisa Morton, author of The Castle of Los Angeles

“One should read both the novel and the stage adaptation back-to-back for a perfect lesson on how transferring one form of storytelling media into another can produce new insight into the core work. This is quite simply, in my eyes, an amazing achievement.”

—Gary Braunbeck, author of In Silent Graves

“The play concentrates on two characters who have secrets. Conlon is masterful in his unexpected reveals…the characters themselves are so layered as to keep the audience/reader interested.”

—Karen Newman, The Black Glove

“If you loved the book, I urge you to buy the play.”

—Mark Sieber, Horror Drive-In

Midnight on Mourn Street
Earthling Publications, 2008, 220 pp.

“Simply one of the finest novels I’ve ever been privileged to read. Conlon is a powerful force among the new writers of the 21st century.”

—William F. Nolan, author of Logan's Run

“Midnight on Mourn Street is a superb accomplishment.”

—Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons

“With Midnight on Mourn Street, Christopher Conlon makes one of the strongest and most affecting debuts as a novelist I’ve ever read. This story of loneliness, guilt, revenge, and the quest for self-redemption left me nearly in tears. Exquisitely written and profoundly moving, this is a novel that will haunt you for years to come.”

—Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winner
author Gary A. Braunbeck

“Conlon keeps the suspense taut while slowly peeling back the layers of his protagonists’ troubled psyches. His masterfully moving tale has already garnered praise from authors of every genre and easily distinguishes itself as a top-drawer first novel.”

—Carl Hays, Booklist

“Poe feels like an apt comparison, especially in terms of the atmosphere which Conlon is adept at establishing. The feeling of gloom and dark brooding that pervades the novel is one of its strongest points. While Poe focuses, perhaps, on the more startling images of the macabre, Conlon expertly exposes and taps into more realistic veins of horror, the terrible things people do to each other and to themselves. Conlon employs dreams, memories, and madness, even, in ways that warp conscious perception in his characters and add a subtle phantasmagoric effect. In doing so, he does something new, redefines the standard conventions of horror or expands the genre into other domains of the novel. It also speaks to Conlon’s craft that he’s created characters…that remain with us after we’ve finished the book, worrying at our sensibilities, poised on a razor’s edge between redemption and condemnation.”

—Paul Shovlin, Peace Corps Writers

“Midnight on Mourn Street is a haunting, exquisitely written novel of secret guilt, regret, and revenge…a compelling psychological thriller.”

—Mayra Calvani, The Dark Phantom Review

“Conlon has a way of getting to the grit that makes us actually empathize with his characters, even those who in other writers’ hands might turn out to be south of Deplorable, headed for the Despicable offramp…Midnight on Mourn Street offers readers the kind of novel that lives in memory long after you finish it; scenes will stay and play again and again on the movie screen of your mind.”

—Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column

Thundershowers At Dusk
Gothic Stories
Rock Village Publishing, 2006, 113 pp.
Introduction by Gary A. Braunbeck
Cover Art by Janice Olson

“Thundershowers at Dusk by Christopher Conlon (Rock Village Publishing), the author's excellent second collection (the first was mainstream), contains four contemporary gothic stories and the titular novella. The novella and ‘Bathing the Bones,’ the other story published for the first time, are beautifully written and powerful.”

—Ellen Datlow, Year’s Best Fantasy
and Horror, 20th Annual Edition

“Thundershowers at Dusk: Gothic Stories by Christopher Conlon (Rock Village Publishing) is the kind of collection that immediately establishes its author as Someone To Watch. Every few years we're graced with a collection by a new writer that either redefines the boundaries of this dark genre, or forces us through its undeniable craftsmanship to re-examine our preconceived notions about the genre; in 2003 we saw Glen Hirshberg's The Two Sams immediately (and justifiably) move its author to the forefront of short story writers in the field; in 2005, Joe Hill knocked our socks off with his superb 20th Century Ghosts; in keeping with the tradition set by those two superior achievements, Conlon's new book is going to be the breakout collection of 2006. Like Hirshberg, Conlon approaches horror from a decided literary standpoint (comparisons to Peter Straub would not be misplaced), and like Hill, that standpoint does not exclude the influence of past masters in the field—Serling, Matheson, and Beaumont spring readily to mind—albeit filtered through Conlon's own storytelling sensibilities. Conlon delivers the goods here; each story is a stunner, culminating with the novella “The Unfinished Music” that is, hands-down, one of the 10 finest novellas I have ever read in any genre.”

—Gary A. Braunbeck, Page Horrific (Hellbound Books)

“Ready for five short tales that radiate long after you're finished with them? ...All of these stories offer mystery, frankness, and an exploration of deep curious thought.  Energetic, psychological imagining, and although supernatural, achingly real.“

—Christina Francine Whitcher, Yet Another Book Review Site
(yetanotherbookreview.com)

“When someone new to me makes an impression as big as Christopher Conlon does in this book, I feel I owe it to my fellow readers as well as the author to spread the word. My experiences verify Ted Sturgeon's famous '90% is crap' comment, and truthfully, of the 10% that's not 'crap,' only a tiny percentage is really worth shouting about from the rooftops. The five stories in Thundershowers At Dusk are in that last category.” 

—Mark Lancaster, Hellnotes

“This slim collection of longish stories, Thundershowers At Dusk, is a strong one. As the title states, this is a collection of gothic tales. But these are not your standard Goth fare. No teen angst, depressing Victorian repression or vampire lust. These are original, complex tales of loneliness and alienation that are sometimes disturbing and uncomfortable, but also poetic and beautiful...Conlon has a wonderful command of the language and a deft touch on characterization...I would not be surprised at all to see a couple of the stories get picked for the Year's Best anthologies. I know I will be looking for more of Mr. Conlon's work in the future.”

—James R. Beach, Dark Discoveries

“[Reading Thundershowers at Dusk] was like eating sushi for the first time—you can't believe how good it tastes... The care Conlon displays in word choice is admirable. And I am not talking about one or two sentences here or there to punch things up a bit. No, I am talking about them all. It is an exhaustive way of writing if you are unaccustomed to it as there is a danger of over-attention to individual words at the expense of other necessary elements of plot and character. It is a difficult style to write well in, and Conlon shows in this tiny collection he is a master of it. Highly recommended. Buy it now.”

—Wayne Edwards, Cemetery Dance Magazine

Poe's Lighthouse
All-New Collaborations With Edgar Allan Poe
Cemetery Dance Publications, 2006, 330 pp.

“Found among Edgar Allan Poe's papers after he died (at 40, all too young) was an untitled story fragment with an intriguing preamble. Consisting of three short diary entries by a newly indentured lighthouse keeper, the fragment affords few clues about Poe's plot intentions. The assignment for the 23 contributors to this unique collection was to finish the tale by using Poe's language, themes, and predilection for curdling the blood. The results range from stylistically faithful narratives to improbable yarns that use Poe's introduction as a springboard for the author's own vision. In one entry, the diary pieces make up an ancient artifact viewed by an archivist in a future civilization. In another, the journal is inspected by detective Auguste Dupin, a figure familiar from such Poe classics as 'The Purloined Letter.' Perhaps the most outstanding entry is John Shirley's masterly continuation, in perfect faux-Poe fashion, of the diary to disclose the lighthouse keeper discovering a macabre use for his polished lantern. Must reading for Poe enthusiasts, in particular.”

—Carl Hays, Booklist

“The open-ended quality of the story fragment set the authors often in wildly different directions, resulting in everything from straight-up homages that incorporate Poe's words to postmodern takes on the Master and his influence on horror fiction... they are never boring and just might inspire the reader to trade their own licks with the genre's most accomplished virtuosos.”

—Rue Morgue Magazine

The Twilight Zone Scripts of Jerry Sohl
BearManor Media, 2004, 177 pp.

“Looking at these Twilight Zone scripts, I am brought to recall how uncanny Jerry's ability was... it was a marvelous talent and one that should have been put to greater use.”

—Twilight Zone writer George Clayton Johnson