Dead Lines

A literary mix tape that explores the entwined boundaries between sound, material culture, landscape and esoteric belief. Trees rigged up to the wireless radio heavens. A fax machine used to decode the language of hurricanes. A broadcast ghost that hijacked a television station to terrorize a city. A failed computer factory in the desert with a slap-back echo resounding into ruin. In High Static, Dead Lines, media historian and artist Kristen Gallerneaux weaves a literary mix tape that explores the entwined boundaries between sound, material culture, landscape, and esoteric belief. Essays and fictocritical interludes are arranged to evoke a network of ley lines for the “sonic spectre” to travel through—a hypothetical presence that manifests itself as an invisible layer of noise alongside the conventional histories of technological artifacts. The objects and stories within span from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, touching upon military, communications, and cultural history. A connective thread is the recurring presence of sound—audible, self-generative, and remembered—charting the contentious sonic histories of paranormal culture.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A new kind of phone awakens the dead in this technological horror novel “reminiscent of Koontz at his best” (Booklist). Ever since his life was shattered by the kidnapping and murder of his young daughter, Peter Russell has become a ghost of a man. Once a successful director of adult films, he has been reduced to running questionable errands for an eccentric California millionaire. But everything changes when a Los Angeles start-up offers him the opportunity to create promotional videos for their revolutionary new technology, Trans. The product offers exceptionally powerful, crystal-clear mobile communication that can operate anywhere and everywhere—and Peter sets out to put it into every palm. But as he uses the device himself, he starts to see his murdered little girl . . . Soon, there are other voices—disembodied, confused, angry—emanating from a newly invaded dimension. Many are even malevolent . . . and hungry . . . and deadly. As the death toll of Trans-users skyrockets, Peter’s life begins a new spiral downward. Now, he must race to make sense of the horror Trans has wrought before the gateway to Hell bursts wide open. With Dead Lines, author of the Eon series Greg Bear transforms the literary realm of Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, and Stephen King into something unique by ingeniously blending the speculative with the supernatural. You’ll never look at your phone the same way again.

This digital edition of DEAD LINES includes a new foreword by David Niall Wilson, as well as an Author's Foreword by Criag Spector, and an Afterword by John Skipp. DEAD LINES is about a young writer/artist type, Jack Rowan, in NYC, whose career never took off. Hs life is in the toilet. He's broken up with his girlfriend and crashing on the couch of his more successful photographer friend, Glen's, loft while Glen is off in LA on a shoot. In the first chapter, Jack finishes his manuscript — a collection of short stories titled NIghtmare NYC — swigs off a bottle of vodka, then boxes the manuscript up, writes DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DOOMSDAY on it, and hides it in a crawlspace in his friend's apartment. Then he walks up a ladder he set up in the living room, puts the rope he knotted to a steam pipe around his neck/ He takes one last swig off the bottle, looks at a photo in his hand of himself and a woman, says, look what you made me do. Then he tosses the bottle and pitches off the ladder. The rope goes taut. Jack's neck snaps as he pinwheels around in mid-air, knocking over the ladder, swinging wildly as he hangs himself. Finally he goes still. His body hangs there for weeks, visible thru the fourth floor windows of the loft… if anyone was looking, which no one is. He remains there until Glen gets back. Glenn freaks out and promptly moves out. The loft is renovated for new tenants — a couple of girls who don't know each other move in. One, Meryl, is from a wealthy family in Boston and trying to escape her overbearing father by going to college at NYU; the other, Katie, is a waitress who used to know Glenn… and Jack. Meryl convinces Katie to pretend to be her roommate to get Meryl's father off her back. At first Katie says no thanks, but then she goes back to her Svengali-esque boyfriend Colin's apartment (where she lives) and finds him in bed with two girls — customers, as Colin is a low level drug dealer and all around scumbag. They fight. Katie shows back up on Meryl's doorstep that night and takes her up on the offer. Meryl is surprised…. she wasn't expecting a roommate for real — but Katie has no place to go, she Meryl lets her crash there. They start to become friends. One night while Meryl is fixing up her room, she finds the box containing Jack's lost manuscript. She starts to read the stories and becomes intrigued with this 'mystery' writer and his dark, brooding, moody vision of the city. What neither Meryl nor Katie realize, is that Jack's soul, upon the moment of his death, literally imploded into the atomic substructure of the apartment — frozen, in a kind of tormented limbo, forever. Until Meryl starts reading his stories… and the sheer energy of her reading his words in bed each night, and fantasizing about him, starts to bring him back. His soul coalesces; bit by bit, awareness and consiousness returns. Suddenly, he's back, and he's Jack — but he's dead, a presence haunting the loft, which is his prison now. But Meryl keeps reading, drawn deeper into his world each night. By day she searches for him in bookstores — but his work has never been published. She see echoes of his images on the streets of the city. She can feel his presence thru his stories. Her nightly fantasies become dreams… and the power of her dreams allows Jack to visit her, succubus-like, a night lover in spirit.

In a lively collection of feature obituaries and related news stories, longtime newspaper reporter George Hesselberg celebrates life, sharing the most fascinating stories that came from decades of covering the obit and public safety beats. In more than forty years at the Wisconsin State Journal, Hesselberg frequently found himself writing about fatal accidents, crime investigations, and the deaths of the wealthy, famous, or notorious. But he was most drawn to the curious, the unknown, and the unsung—the deaths that normally wouldn’t make much of a splash, if any mention at all, in the news columns of a daily paper. Digging deeper, he uncovered the extraordinary among the ordinary, memorializing the lives of a sword designer, a radio villain, a pioneering female detective, a homeless woman who spoke fluent French, a beloved classroom tarantula, and many more. Their stories are alternately amusing, sad, surprising, and profound. Together they speak to a shared human experience and inspire us to see the people around us with new eyes, valuing the lives while they are still being lived.

In a gripping debut novel that combines power, politics, and the press, John Luciew introduces a rogue reporter whose new lease on life may be the end of him.... Obituary writer Lenny Holcomb has reached a dead end. Burned-out and uninspired, he knows life in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has nothing left to offer. Until the secrets of the dead begin to reveal themselves in his work -- sending Lenny back into the streets armed with a shrewd mind and a recharged sense of purpose. Lenny is hot on the trail of a popular governor with presidential ambitions who may have had a role in the death of his beautiful press secretary. Teamed with the sexy investigative journalist Jacquelyn "Jack" Towers, Lenny uncovers widespread political corruption leading all the way to the governor's majordomo -- a ruthless and mysterious behind-the-scenes powerbroker who has been pulling strings for his boss all along. When Lenny puts together the murderous truth, he realizes that he's just made a very powerful and dangerous enemy -- and that the last obituary he pens may be his own.

A teenaged murder victim speaks from her afterlife.

Here is the autobiography of Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist of the Dead Boys, one of the greatest punk bands ever. It’s a tale of success--and excess: great music, drugs (he overdosed and was pronounced dead three times), and resurrection. The Dead Boys, with roots in the band Rocket from the Tombs, came out of Cleveland to dominate the NYC punk scene in the mid-1970s. Their hit “Sonic Reducer” soon became a punk anthem. Now, for the first time, Cheetah dishes on the people he’s known onstage and off, including the Dead Boys’ legendary singer Stiv Bators, Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls, the Ramones, the Clash, Pere Ubu, and the Ghetto Dogs, as well as life at CBGBs, a year with Nico, and more. Straight from the man, these are the backstage stories that every punk fan will want to hear. Never mind the Sex Pistols, here’s Cheetah Chrome!

DEAD LINES: THE SCREENPLAY by Craig Spector & Philip Nutman adapted DEAD LINES, by John Skipp & Craig Spector Jack Rowan thought his life was a living Hell. Then he tried dying. Now he'll do anything to get back into the world. Anything. DEAD LINES: THE SCREENPLAY, the adaptation of the bestselling and harrowing book by John Skipp & Craig Spector, is now brought to chilling screen life by Craig Spector & Philip Nutman. With forewords by Spector and Nutman, an afterword by Skipp, and an essay by Spector on converting an idea from small screen to big and print to screen (through two collaborations!) DEAD LINES: THE SCREENPLAY is a must read for anyone who loves movies, books, and the magic of the written word. So turn the lights off and let the screen glow. This is digital reading for the movie in your mind. Meet young struggling writer, Jack Rowan. His career never took off. His life is in the toilet. His girlfriend dumped him. He's crashing on the couch of his successful photographer friend. Jack finishes his book — a collection of short stories titled NIGHTMARE NYC. Boxes it up and hides it in a crawlspace. Then climbs a ladder in the living room, puts the rope around his neck, takes one long last swig off a bottle of vodka. Looks at a photo in his hand: of himself, and his ex. Says: look what you made me do. Jack steps off the ladder. And into oblivion. Months later. Two girls -- Meryl, Boston Back Bay bred and trying to escape her overbearing father; and Katie, a waitress from Nowhere, Texas -- become unlikely roommates. Then start to become friends. One night Meryl finds the box containing Jack’s lost manuscript. She becomes intrigued with her ‘mystery writer' and his dark, brooding, moody vision of the city. As Meryl reads and slowly falls in love, stange things begin happening in the apartment, and her dreams. Jack's back, but he's dead. He needs a body. He decides, Meryl's will do. If she will let him in....