Katherine Kerestman

In less than a decade, Katherine Kerestman has established herself as a vibrant new voice in weird fiction. Drawing upon the classic work of Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and others, she infuses her writing with lush, richly textured prose, a keen sensitivity to the strange and bizarre, and an ability to transform venerable motifs into something new and fresh.Kerestman has made a specialty of the short-short story-a most difficult form to master. In this volume of more than thirty tales, sketches, and vignettes, she writes of vampires, witches, the mysterious antics of cats, and other spectral creatures that disrupt the fabric of our commonplace existence.Houses, castles, and other dwellings are of particular fascination to Kerestman, and some of her most gripping tales are set in domiciles that should be havens of security for their occupants but prove to be very different, and very dangerous, places.

A well-told horror story has much in common with your own cherished puss. Kitty jumps upon your lap and purrs, and you turn the page of your book.Pray, take heed Some dire thing is afoot On your lap, Kitty stirs, her ears lifting into two small velvet tents. She raises her chin, stares expectantly into the gloom beyond the aura of the reading lamp, gazes at something which you cannot see Her silken hairs begin to fluff, signaling her unease. Swiftly, Kitty moves from your lap onto the arm of your chair, where, channeling Bastet, she strikes an Egyptian-cat pose, her expectant stance and twitching whiskers communicating unseen peril.The hairs on your neck begin to rise in sympathy. As you doggedly continue reading your book, you cast frequent glances at your cat: Kitty provides you with a sixth sense which you lack, a window into the unseen and the uncanny. You are mindful that cats dwell in a larger world than our own, the gulfs and abysses of which we can obtain but a shadowy glimpse, through their eyes.In The Weird Cat you delve into that larger realm through more than three dozen classic and contemporary short stories, poems, and essays by masters of the craft including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary A. Turzillo, Christina Sng, Darrell Schweitzer, and others. Edited by Katherine Kerestman and S. T. Joshi.

A well-told horror story has much in common with your own cherished puss. Kitty jumps upon your lap and purrs, and you turn the page of your book.Pray, take heed Some dire thing is afoot On your lap, Kitty stirs, her ears lifting into two small velvet tents. She raises her chin, stares expectantly into the gloom beyond the aura of the reading lamp, gazes at something which you cannot see Her silken hairs begin to fluff, signaling her unease. Swiftly, Kitty moves from your lap onto the arm of your chair, where, channeling Bastet, she strikes an Egyptian-cat pose, her expectant stance and twitching whiskers communicating unseen peril.The hairs on your neck begin to rise in sympathy. As you doggedly continue reading your book, you cast frequent glances at your cat: Kitty provides you with a sixth sense which you lack, a window into the unseen and the uncanny. You are mindful that cats dwell in a larger world than our own, the gulfs and abysses of which we can obtain but a shadowy glimpse, through their eyes.In The Weird Cat you delve into that larger realm through more than three dozen classic and contemporary short stories, poems, and essays by masters of the craft including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary A. Turzillo, Christina Sng, Darrell Schweitzer, and others. Edited by Katherine Kerestman and S. T. Joshi.