Bev Vincent

Praise

Awards

Nominations

Honorable Mention

Praise for Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life and Influences

What do you get for the Stephen King fan who already has every book he’s ever written? This impressively illustrated volume is the answer. Penned by Bev Vincent, who has been chronicling the author for ages, this collection goes book by book, film by film, and far beyond to gather history, stories, and engaging bits of ephemera (childhood photos, old letters, manuscript fragments) in one place. Vincent’s book is an affectionate one, but he confronts the lows as well as the highs of King’s life and career, incorporating criticism along with the hosannas.  What Vincent accomplishes particularly well, and what King’s Constant Readers will find most satisfying, is the way he goes into detail about how the author’s stories were inspired by events from his life. If anyone ever annoys King with the oft-asked question “Where do you get your ideas?” he can throw this book at them. It’s a heavy one, so he’ll have to throw it hard.

—Anthony Breznican (Vanity Fair)

Bev Vincent writes: “Characters suffering grievous physical injuries began to appear regularly in his books and stories, and the fact that he wrote frequently about pain – which he called the little green God of agony in one story – reveals much about what he was enduring during this decade and beyond.” The observation contextualizes the books that follow, but it’s that almost throwaway detail about King calling pain “the little green God of agony” that proves more telling; it’s representative of Vincent’s intimate knowledge of his subject’s enormous body of work, and also exemplifies the lightness with which he wears that learning…Vincent consistently displays that same knack for expertly tucked-away nuggets amidst a more conventional narrative paved on book publications and career milestones. Vincent writes about King in a direct and simple style that allows King, often quoted verbatim, to rise to the fore. The volume…transcends the simple marketing tool or hagiographic indulgence it might have been by combining studious knowledge with accessibility and insight…“The way I’m built is to try and give people pleasure,” King says at the end of our companionable journey, and that’s a book from which Vincent has, with this informative and entertaining celebration, taken more than a page.

—Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Locus)

Praise for The Stephen King Illustrated Companion

If you’re an avid “King” fan as I am, you’ll want to go to Barnes & Noble.com and order yourself a copy of Bev Vincent’s new Stephen King biography, The Stephen King Illustrated Companion. It was published by Barnes & Noble, and they appear to be the only ones carrying the book. I just got mine in the mail late yesterday afternoon, and I was totally blown away by the book. For some strange reason, I thought it was going to be a Trade size paperback, but it wasn’t. The book is a large size hardcover, and it covers most of the Maestro’s life up to the present. There are hundreds of pictures in the book that depicts King’s life as a little boy to the present as the reigning king of horror, no pun intended. Each chapter seems to deal with a major part of the author’s life from his beginnings as a writer and up through Lisey’s Story and the Dark Tower series. Also, each chapter has an attached envelope that has photocopies of pages from the author’s earlier stories as a teenager to some of his major manuscripts. You’ll see one of his letters to Bill Thomspon, the editor at Doubleday, who changed the course of the world by encouraging a young, unknown writer to finish a small novel called Carrie. Last, the overall quality of Bev’s book is awesome, especially when you consider that it only cost $24.98. This was money well spent, and I’m honored to add it to my once again growing library of Stephen King novels. Don’t waste anytime in getting a copy of this gorgeous book, and no, Bev isn’t paying me anything to write this. I’m doing this a fan of one of the world’s best writers to all of the other fans out there. This is definitely a book you will want to read and own. Enough said.
—Wayne C. Rogers

Bev Vincent’s The Illustrated Stephen King Companion was a first-of-its kind for King fanatics, featuring removable documents that reprinted unpublished King stories and early drafts from his novels. At once, it became one of the best books on King ever published.
—Kev Quigley

Praise for “The Honey Trap”

I’d never heard of Bev Vincent before I read this story, and midway through, I was thinking that this woman really knew her men. The story was about a phenomenon I’d heard my husband and other middle-aged men discuss—the fact that at a certain age, men seem to disappear from everyone’s radar, particularly from the radar of attractive women. I was so surprised that Vincent got this right, I flipped to the biography, and realized I had oopsed. Bev Vincent is a man. Doesn’t take anything away from this story. It’s still incredible. But it’s a bit more understandable—rather than a reach, something a woman wouldn’t think of, it’s something men know and rarely discuss. Vincent uses this to great advantage. Read the story. It’s marvelous.
—Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Recommended Reading List

Praise for “The Bank Job”

“The Bank Job” by Bev Vincent, is another of the collection’s standouts. Frankie, a ne’er-do-well who has real problems staying out of trouble, finds he must pay back an outstanding debt with staggering interest post haste. He and his kindly buddies come up with a scheme. These are good guys who’d rather sit around, drink and play pool than rob banks. Readers are seduced by their camaraderie and the hilarity that ensues. Frankie is alive on the page — rare for short mystery stories where so much plot work needs to be done in less than 5,000 words, in this case. Frankie is the master of witty observation. More of this man, please. It’s the first piece in the book and a must-read.
—Rae Francoeur, Cape Ann Beacon

In particular, the first story, winner of the Al Blanchard Crime Fiction Award, The Bank Job by Bev Vincent, is an excellent example of compelling reading.
—Christine Zibas, Reviewing the Evidence

‘The Bank Job’ by Bev Vincent is a very cleverly written plot with the story cetering on the power of loyalty and friendship among men. Vincent’s story is one of my favorites and I thoroughly enjoyed the humor he injects in his cast of characters. The story sound so ‘Jersey’ I loved it! A quite unusual story.
—Connie’s Reviews

Praise for “Bloody Sunday”

Bev Vincent’s “Bloody Sunday” posits a clever plot behind one of the most notorious real-life riots of the Victorian era.
—Publisher’s Weekly

Praise for “Overtoun Bridge”

“My favourite is, by far, ‘Overtoun Bridge’ by Bev Vincent. In less skilled hands, the plot (dogs committing suicide by jumping from a haunted bridge) would have sounded preposterous. On the contrary, the author tells the story with such a subtlety and carves the leading character, an unhappy young woman, with such ability to create an atmospheric piece of uncommon beauty.”
—Mario Guslandi, SF Site

Praise for “Harming Obsession”

“Harming Obsession by Bev Vincent is possibly the best of the bunch…it’s a story high on atmosphere and carries a real sense of Victor’s panic and relief.”

—Antony Mann in The Fix Issue Five

“My favorite story this issue was “Harming Obsession” by Bev Vincent, the story of a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder, who was afraid to drive for fear of running down someone. When his wife sends him out for candy on a dark and rainy Halloween night in a town filled with young trick or treaters, he is terrified of hitting one of them. Vincent presents a valid picture of this emotional problem in a well-written story that kept me in suspense right up to the nerve-wrenching conclusion.”
— Mary J. Turner at Keltic Circle

Praise for Something in Store

“The collection is also balanced with contributions that have an element of fantasy. “Something in Store”, by Bev Vincent, is an enchanting tale that takes place in a magical bookstore – one that gives its owner anything he desires.”
—Ryan Kelley

Praise for Sunny Pines

“The authors evoke a wonderfully grungy atmosphere and take bold swings in placing both ugliness and tenderness at the heart of their story.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

Praise for One of Those Weeks

“Bev Vincent took a clever, stylistic approach to ‘One of Those Weeks.’ Did you ever get the impression your life was turning inside out? What if it was? What if it rewound slowly, then stopped, then started again in another direction? This is an intriguing bit of prose and all the more rare as a stylistic piece that actually works.”
— David Niall Wilson in Cemetery Dance #48

“Since the Monteleones emphasize newer talent, sometimes a story’s shivers are clumsily achieved, but tales of metamorphosis by Bev Vincent (“One of Those Weeks”) and Bill Gautier (“The Growth of Alan Ashley”) and Dominick Cancilla’s study in psychopathology (“Smooth Operator”) are shockingly polished.”
— Booklist

Praise for Sufficiently Advanced

“Winner of the 2006 Apex Halloween short fiction content, Sufficiently Advanced by Bev Vincent is a riotous and simple story with prose as blunt and to the point as the big guy we all know Bev has written books about. After crash landing on an unknown planet – the only one to escape his ship The Odyssey – Henry comes into contact with what appears to be a primitive race. Appears. The flip-flopping that comes next is nasty and hilarious. A short, sharp piece.”
—Matthew Tait in HorrorScope

“Bev Vincent’s short space travel tale, Sufficiently Advanced, is the best story of the bunch. It takes cultural relativism to a whole new level. The story is well-paced and well-narrated, and Vincent’s use of back-story is sparingly efficient. He tells you just enough to keep you interested and informed without switching focus away from the present. The story naturally progresses from the beginning to the climax to the end, with no jerky movements or awkward pauses. (Insert sexual joke here.)”
—Greg Schwartz in Whispers of Wickedness

Praise for Popup Killer

“Bev Vincent’s ‘Popup Killer’ starts with a scene familiar to many a Web surfer. When protagonist Nate gets an annoying popup ad that refuses to go away, he follows the link to Truist.corp, where the enigmatic Al asks him for a name of someone in his life whose removal would make Nate’s life better. Scoffing in disbelief, Nate clicks off. But Al’s words linger, and Nate eventually revisits the site and gives up a name. The next day, like dark magic, an annoying co-worker named Ted never existed, and only Nate and Al seem to remember the name at all. Al insists that Nate should give him more names, citing three to five as the average number of names that the people Al helps surrender to him. But Nate’s life is not enriched by the erasing of these bothersome forces in his life, and he soon learns the expansive affects of Al’s strange ability to eliminate lives. ‘Popup Killer’ is instantly familiar to the modern Internet user, and it ventures into a cavernous electronic world rich in raw genre material yet to be fully mined by writers of dark fiction. With ‘Popup Killer’, Vincent brings a well-written, cautionary tale to the star power of Gratia Placenti’s pages.”
—Michele Lee in Dark Scribe

“Bev Vincent’s Popup Killer is another memorable and extremely well done tale that mixes classic time paradox along with equally classic ‘dealing with the Devil’ based horror to impressive effect.”
—Norm Rubenstein at Horror World

Praise for Chain Reaction

I really enjoyed reading the shortlist, and was impressed by the way people folded huge stories, even things that felt like novels, into 350 words or less just as I was impressed by the sense of wonder that the writers generated, and the clash between the way we see the world now and the ways we’ve used to make sense of the world in the past…My congratulations to the finalists. You all have a great alternate past ahead of you.
—Neil Gaiman

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About Bev Vincent

Bev Vincent is the author of Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life and Influences, The Dark Tower Companion,  The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award and a 2009 Read moremore →