"Cliff Burns is a literary pioneer, going independent two decades before it became fashionable. For Burns, it was never about the money; it's always been about artistic integrity and connecting with his audience."
Robert Runte, Canadian SF critic & academic
"If you're fed up with writers whose stories are all the same, you need to be reading Cliff Burns."
TANGENT (USA)
"In a literary market full of stale themes and stagnant prose, Burns' fiction is an invigorating blast of Canadian freshness."
Stefan Dziemianowicz (USA)
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Cliff Burns has been a professional author since 1985.
He has published more than ten books, including THE LAST HUNT (2012), SO DARK THE NIGHT (2010) and OF THE NIGHT (2010). RIGHTEOUS BLOOD (PS Publishing; 2002) was composed of two novellas on the nature of evil, both of which were optioned for adaptation into motion pictures.
Cliff Burns' short fiction has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world and has been selected for numerous anthologies, including THE 20 ALL TIME BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR, CITY DREAMS and TESSERACTS. He has also written for the radio and stage.
Burns refuses to be slotted into a comfortable niche: his first two novels were supernatural thrillers but he has also written in a variety of other genres, including science fiction, western and horror.
For more information on Cliff Burns' books, check out his website, "Beautiful Desolation" (http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com) or follow him on Twitter.
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From the author:
"I've been an independent writer and publisher since 1990, when my first book, SEX & OTHER ACTS OF THE IMAGINATION, was released through an imprint my wife and I created. That little publishing concern, which morphed into Black Dog Press, saved my sanity and provided me with a venue so I could release my stories and novels without editorial interference and tampering. The decision to publish my own work came as a result of my growing frustration with mainstream and small press publishers and editors, the insularity, short-sightedness and sheer venality of many (not all) of the people I encountered in the book biz.
You can find a substantial proportion of my work on my site (over 300,000 words of it), including novel excerpts, many short stories, essays, poems, even short films and recorded music. All of it offered for FREE reading and downloading..."
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Praise for Cliff Burns:
SEX & OTHER ACTS OF THE IMAGINATION (1990)
"This is a book of hot dreams and frozen nightmares. It floats on a plane few writers achieve, where the imagery is raw but the insights are tender. The people in these stories will stay with me for a long time to come."
-Timothy Findley (author of NOT WANTED ON THE VOYAGE & THE WARS)
"At last Canada has found a literary equivalent to David Cronenberg!"
-STRANGE ADVENTURES (U.K.)
"Cliff Burns combines the nightmarish paranoia of Clive Barker with the contemporary voice of Richard Matheson."
-J.F. Gonzalez, INIQUITIES (USA)
"Burns writes like Hitchcock directs, producing gooseflesh without monsters. And that is the scariest writing there is."
-FACTSHEET FIVE (USA)
"A powerful and distinctive voice...unsettling...relentless imagination."
-THE EDMONTON JOURNAL (Canada)
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GENUINELY INSPIRED PRIMITIVE (1993)
"Outrageous...weird...incomparable and brilliant."
-Mark Ziesing
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THE REALITY MACHINE (1997)
"Burns's writing is sparse, minimalist, but his words are as sharp as knives, dissecting our universe with astonishing precision. The Reality Machine, as sharp and memorable as a paper cut, is a real find. These stories have teeth, and they bite. You will not leave unmarked."
-Corey Redekop, author of SHELF MONKEY
"Cliff Burns' books belong on anyone's five-foot shelf of essential reading, lodged snugly between Borges and Burroughs."
-Stefan Dziemianowicz
"Highly effective, chilling and thought-provoking..."
-YOURFLESH Magazine (USA)
"Burns offers such raw imagery, such precise wording and such odd, intriguing settings that these stories are engrossing."
-QUILL & QUIRE (Canada)
"Every story threatens to bust out of itself: I'm not talking about trick endings and poignant twists...but the capacity of language to compress events into an implosive confluence that shatters our hold on the real. That's what Burns is after..."
-BROKEN PENCIL (Canada)
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RIGHTEOUS BLOOD (2003)
"An astonishing feat of fictive shape-changing...an amazement to behold...Cliff Burns plays his hand well and the whole book's a surprise well worth the reading."
-Edward Bryant, LOCUS (USA)
"RIGHTEOUS BLOOD...has two quirky novellas...the author expertly manipulates the reader's sympathy within a very murky ethical system..."
-Ellen Datlow, Introduction to YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR (#17)
"On the strength of these stories I'll be keeping a close eye out for this author, who has just been added to the small list of 'must read'."
-Andy Fairclough (U.K.)
"Cliff Burns has been disturbing readers for around twenty years, crafting dark explorations into the hearts and motivations of characters who, through the clarity of the author's prose and unique, imaginative aplomb, speak to readers' fears and fascinations with the dark possibilities of the world around us and the conflicting worlds within...provocative work in an age of lackluster fluff."
-William P. Simmons (U.K)
"In 'Kept' the unexpected and unpredictable elements make this one of the best stories I've read this year. Unconventional and exciting, RIGHTEOUS BLOOD gets a big, fat thumbs up!"
-John Berlyne (U.K.)
"Two very quirky and strange tales, peopled with characters that are startlingly imagined...memorable, original, energetic...a startlingly bold and inventive work."
-Claude Lalumiere, LOCUS Online (USA)
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SO DARK THE NIGHT (2010)
Rating 5/5 "(A)n accessible and fun read...it all adds up to one book I can heartily recommend. It's a great read and I hope I will one day hold a paper edition in my hands, because this one deserves it."
-ENTROPY PUMP (Germany)
"SO DARK THE NIGHT is a raunchy occult thriller, written with an elegance and humor I couldn't resist."
-John Miedema, SLOW READING
