If you were a horror fan back in the late 80's and early 90's, the name William C. Rasmussen would have been a familiar one to you, along with folks like Bentley Little, Elizabeth Massie, and Wayne Allen Sallee. Rasmussen was a fixture in the various small press magazines that were so plentiful during that time; a dependable and creative writer who could deliver great stories of darkness and suspense time and time again without disappointment. Bill and I shared the table of contents in quite a few of those limited-run magazines... publications like Deathrealm, Eldritch Tales, and 2 AM, to name only a few. We both appeared in the first issue of Cemetery Dance Magazine, too, so we pretty much found ourselves bumping into one another (story-wise) on a regular basis during those fun days of small press horror. Then toward the mid-90's we both disappeared from the scene; me because of the implosion of the horror market and Zebra's dumping of their horror paperback line, and Bill due to the pressures of family life and working as an FBI agent in New York City, which gave him little time to write, let alone pursue a full-fledged writing career.
Like me, he vanished for a long time. Also, like me, he is back behind the keyboard again. Bill's first short story collection, Claw Marks & Other Disturbing Diversions has just been released as a digital e-book by Crossroad Press. I had the pleasure of reading Claw Marks before its publication and, believe me, Mr. Rasmussen is still a master storyteller with much to offer the horror genre. The collection contains 16 stories. Some are gems from those small press days of the past, while others are new and just as frightfully gripping as a Bill Rasmussen story should be. All in all, it's a fun and entertaining selection of tales that will keep you on the edge of your easy chair.
You can purchase Claw Marks & Other Disturbing Diversions from Crossroad Press at http://crossroadpress.com/ for an incredible $2.99. Take it from me, this would be a wonderful opportunity for fans of Horror Past to relive some great stories from one of the best short story writers around at that time and for current horror readers to discover an incredible talent they were previously unaware of.
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