Collecting 14 pieces from between 2010 and 2016
- 1st edition – released 29 November 2016.
- Dark Regions Press
- Trade paperback
- Foreword by Damien Angelica Walters
- B&W Illustrations by Pat R. Steiner
- OUT OF PRINT
- Hardcover – released November 2017
- Dark Regions Press
- Limited edition slipcase hardcover, 26 signed & numbered run
- Includes Foreword by Damien Angelica Walters, story notes, bonus story “Grownups”
- Color illustrations by Pat R. Steiner
- SOLD OUT
- 2nd edition – released 24 July 2018
- Written Backwards
- Trade paperback/eBook
- Includes Foreward by Damien Angelica Walters, story notes, Afterword by Bracken MacLeod
2nd edition cover – trade paperback and eBook
1st edition cover – hardcover, trade paperback, eBook
Blurbs!
The following people said some nice things about the book after reading it:
“In Bones Are Made to be Broken, the characters suffer and yearn as their beautifully wrought worlds shatter. Both universal and achingly personal, Anderson’s stories are moody, compelling, and drowning in wonder.” – Erinn Kemper, author of The Patrons
“Bones Are Made to be Broken delivers chills, heartbreak, nail-biting suspense and horror. Paul Michael Anderson gives us a truly superb collection of deeply unnerving short stories.”–Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Patient Zero and Whistling Past the Graveyard
“If your mantra is Bones Are Made to Be Broken, then you can expect suffering and guilt, death and destruction, dark destinies with little hope of survival. But in this powerful collection by Paul Michael Anderson there is also beauty and nostalgia, love and fulfillment, justice and heart. Nothing worth having ever comes easy, as these gothic narratives show us, in all of their horrifying glory.”—Richard Thomas, author of Breaker and Tribulations
“Paul Michael Anderson writes like no other writer in dark fiction. His premises, plots, and story structure are unique. Every story in Bones Are Made to be Broken follows this pattern, and are intriguing and very good. Simply, he writes a Paul Michael Anderson story–the highest compliment any serious writer can hope to achieve. Highly recommended.” – Gene O’Neill, The Cal Wild Chronicles
“Bones Are Made to be Broken is a deftly told, beautifully written collection of horror and humanity. It’s obvious to me that Paul Michael Anderson has stared down the barrel of pain and come back to share these broken tales with us. This is a must-read collection.” – Mercedes M. Yardley, author of Pretty Little Dead Girls, Nameless, and Beautiful Sorrows
“Intense and emotionally crippling, Anderson’s stories are not for the faint of heart.” – Stephanie M. Wytovich, author of Brothel and The Eighth
“What a pleasure to read these fresh and darksome tales! Anderson’s style is tensely exciting. His stories are never quite what you think they are going to be about and his endings resonate with fear. He gives us new horizons in horror that are futuristic and psychical. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but ‘Baby Grows a Conscience’ is simply brilliant! You’ll have to read them all. This collection is a treasure for any horror or dark SF fan’s library.” –Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winner, VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet
“With notes of classic King, Anderson’s Bones Are Made To Be Brokenis filled with stories of the terrible things we see when we close our eyes. Anderson has a talent for rendering nightmares into words, and what he’s collected here are stories that creep inside and make a nest of your innards.” – Kristi DeMeester, author of Beneath
“Bones Are Made to be Broken challenges the mind and punches the gut.” – Craig DiLouie, author of Suffer the Children
“Bones Are Made to be Broken is a dark carnival of rigorous intelligence and compassion, the title novella alone of which is well worth the price of admission. But there’s not a weak sister in this generous bunch. These stories hurt the way only tough-minded character-driven stories can — the human element is never missing. Anderson writes with a sure, steady hand, and I’ll be watching him closely from now on in.” – Jack Ketchum, author of The Girl Next Door and The Secret Life of Souls
Press!
There’s some press concerning the book, which you can find here: Press
Guts!
The cover and all interior illustrations were created by Pat. R. Steiner (the creator of the header image of this very site, actually). Michael Bailey did the editing duties–and a helluva job he did. Damien Angelica Walters came to bat and rocked out an excellent foreword.
Below is the Table of Contents of the 1st edition paperback/eBook edition, along with where they originally appeared:
- Foreword – Damien Angelica Walters
- Introduction – Where You Find Yourself When You’re Nowhere
- “Crawling Back to You” – Savage Beasts (Grey Matter Press)
- “Survivor’s Debt” – Perpetual Motion Machine’s One-Night Stands (eBook single; no longer available)
- “Baby Grows a Conscience” – Necrotic Tissue #14
- “A Nice Town with Very Clean Streets” – Fear the Abyss (Post Mortem Press)
- “The Doorway Man” – Into the Darkness (Necro Publications)
- “Love Song for the Rejected” – The New Bedlam Project (Belfire Press)
- “The Universe Is Dying” – You, Human (Dark Regions Press)
- “Surviving the River Styx” – A Means to an End (Post Mortem Press)
- “The Agonizing Guilt of Relief (Last Days of a Ready-Made Victim)” – Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards/Dark Regions Press)
- “Reflecting the Heart’s Desire” – original to this collection
- “To Touch the Dead” – Death’s Realm (Grey Matter Press)
- “In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” – Qualia Nous (Written Backwards)
- “Bones Are Made to be Broken” – original to this collection
- “All That You Leave Behind” – Lost Signals (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
- Acknowledgements
The deluxe hardcover, released in November 2017, had the standard Dark Regions Press treatment–leather cover, slipcase, signed and limited quantity–but all of Pat’s illustrations were in color, story notes were included, and “Grownups”, which first appeared in the Widowmakers tribute anthology, was added.
Paul Michael Anderson 