Enter the Frankenverse! From Raw Dog Screaming and The Selected Papers from the Constortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomenon, comes Mary Shelley novella His Unburned Heart by David Sandner. The novella tells the story of what happened after Shelley’s husband, Romantic poet Percy Shelley, was cremated in a funeral pyre on an Italian beach in 1822. According to historical record, his heart wouldn’t burn. Mary Shelley was disallowed from the funeral pyre for fear of contagion, and the heart ends up in the hands of Leigh Hunt, their publisher. If you want to find out what she has to do to get it back, you’ll have to give the story a read. Artist Lynne Hansen explains, “The vintage hands on the cover represent Hunt, Trelawny, and Byron, the three men who tried to keep Shelley’s heart from Mary.”
The book includes bonus piece, The Journal of Sorrow, named after Shelley’s Journal title when she returned to writing one after her husband’s death–in that gap this experimental piece offers the dreams, fears, and wild imaginings that haunted her when she contemplates what really happened when that storm overtook him out in the open sea–her answers are… unexpected.
Come meet Mary Shelley, Author of Frankenstein!
His Unburned Heart, tells the story of Mary Shelley’s quest to retrieve her husband’s heart from his publisher. History tells us that Percy Shelley was cremated, though his heart failed to burn, but the rest of the details are lost to time. Sandner has channeled Mary Shelley herself to share the story with us. That story is paired here with a second, related, piece. The Journal of Sorrow is named after Mary Shelley’s personal journal, and imagines Percy Shelley’s demise.
“Sandner presents a tender examination on the nature of grief as a literary icon speculates on her lover’s demise and the strange effort to recover the last physical remnant of her dead poet. Compelling and very moving prose.” —Tim McGregor, author of Wasps in the Ice Cream and Eynhallow
Although this is a series, each novella is a separate story and they all stand alone. Get the first 4 books in this series for $40.
Lynne Hansen is a horror artist who specializes in book covers. Her art has appeared on the cover of the legendary Weird Tales Magazine, and she was selected by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew to create the cover for the 125th Anniversary Edition of Dracula. Her clients include Valancourt Books, Cemetery Dance Publications, Thunderstorm Books and Raw Dog Screaming Press. She has illustrated works by New York Times bestselling authors including Jonathan Maberry, Brian Keene, and Christopher Golden. Her art has been commissioned and collected throughout the United States and overseas. For more information, visit LynneHansenArt.com.
The Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena (CSAP) is a line of novellas curated by editor/academic R.J. Joseph. She serves both as editor for the line and also imaginary “Crypt-Keeper,” introducing each tale as a found document and part of the fictional journal produced by the CSAP society. The first book in the series, Bleak Houses, is now available and contains two novellas from Kate Maruyama as are 12 Hours by L. Marie Wood and Asylum by Sarah Hans. Also announced are His Unburned Heart by David Sandner, Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce, Errant Roots from Sonora Taylor and Bottling His Ghosts by S.H. Cooper.
Dr. David Sandner teaches Romanticism, specializing in Mary Shelley. He is at work on The Frankenstein Singularity, an alternate history novel set in, like this novella, what he calls the Frankenverse. Another novel, Egyptian Motherlode (co-written with Jacob Weisman), is forthcoming Fall 2024 from Fairwood, which published novelettes Mingus Fingers (2019) and Hellhounds (2022), both incorporated into the larger work. Edited anthology The Afterlife of Frankenstein: Mad Science, Automata, and Monsters Inspired by Mary Shelley, 1818-1918 came out from Lanternfish in 2023. He is a member of the HWA and SFWA, and has published stories and poems in leading magazines and anthologies, including Asimov’s SF, Weird Tales, and The Mammoth Book of Dark Magic. His scholarship ranges over Mary Shelley, Philip K. Dick, horror, the critical history of the fantastic, science fiction, and the sublime. He is a Professor of English at California State University, Fullerton. See davidsandner.com and Enter the Frankenverse!
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