Occupation Writer, novelist Role Fiction writer Name Ronald Kelly | Period 1986–96 and 2006– Nationality American | |
Notable works Fear, Blood Kin, Dark Dixie: Tales of Southern Horror Books Pitfall, Moon of the Werewolf, Father's Little Helper, Hindsight, Blood Kin, Something Out There Influenced by Joe R. Lansdale, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Richard Matheson Similar People Joe R Lansdale, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Richard Matheson | ||
Ronald Kelly Trial
Ronald Kelly is best known as a speculative fiction and "southern-fried" horror writer. His tales are usually set in the Southern United States and feature language and actions that are associated with those regions.
Contents
Undertaker's Moon
Biography
Ronald Kelly was born November 20, 1959 in Nashville, Tennessee where he was raised a Southern Baptist. He attended Pegram Elementary School and Cheatham County Central High School (both in Ashland City, Tennessee) before starting his writing career.
Ronald Kelly began his writing career in 1986 and quickly sold his first short story, "Breakfast Serial," to Terror Time Again magazine. His first novel, Hindsight was released by Zebra Books in 1990. His audiobook collection, Dark Dixie: Tales of Southern Horror, was on the nominating ballot of the 1992 Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album. Zebra published seven of Ronald Kelly's novels from 1990 to 1996. Ronald's short fiction work has been published by Cemetery Dance, Borderlands 3, Deathrealm, Dark at Heart, Hot Blood: Seeds of Fear, and many more. After selling hundreds of thousands of books, the bottom dropped out of the horror market in 1996. So, when Zebra dropped their horror line in October 1996, Ronald Kelly stopped writing for almost ten years and worked various jobs including welder, factory worker, production manager, drugstore manager, and custodian.
In 2006, Ronald Kelly started writing again. In early 2008, Croatoan Publishing released his work Flesh Welder as a stand-alone chapbook, and it quickly sold out. In early 2009 Cemetery Dance Publications released a limited edition hardcover of his first short story collection, Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors. Also in 2010, Cemetery Dance is planning on releasing his first novel in over ten years called, Hell Hollow as a limited edition hardcover. Full Moon Press had made a deal to release all of Ronald Kelly's previous novels in hardcover format with bonus material and a brand new added novella in each release. They were calling the series of books The Essential Ronald Kelly, but the deal fell through when Full Moon Press closed its doors. Ronald Kelly has announced that a new publisher has taken over the project, but the name of the publisher has not been revealed.