# Jonathan Janz

Jonathan Janz (born October 27, 1973) is the pen name of Craig Shaeffer, an American horror author of multiple novels.

## Early life

Jonathan Craig Shaeffer grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was raised by his mother near a graveyard, where she would check out books on albums from the library. Early influences during this time include The Twilight Zone, In Search Of..., the works of Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the audio version of The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens. During childhood, he was prone to sleepwalking, and describes a time when he woke up in a pitch-black room of a friend's house, navigating his way through a maze of boxes because the family had just moved in. He adopted the pseudonym of Jonathan Janz as a way of honoring his maternal grandparents, who helped to raise him.

## Career

In 2011, Janz published his debut novel, The Sorrows. The book received praise from author Brian Keene, who called it "the best horror novel of 2012." Keene would also describe Janz as "One of the best writers in modern horror to come along in the last decade."
Between 2011 and 2016, eight of Janz's novels were released by Samhain Publishing. After this, Janz signed a deal with Flame Tree Publishing, which published four more novels as well as reprintings of his earlier works. Other novels have been released through Sinister Grin Press, Earthling Publications, and Cemetery Dance.
His manager, Ryan Lewis, also works with Josh Malerman.
Janz cites multiple influences on his career, including Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Richard Matheson, among many others.
In March of 2023, Janz won the Wilburn-Thomas Award at the Scares That Care event in Williamsburg, Virginia. This is a charity event organized by author Brian Keene and the award is given to authors who have helped other writers and their community.

## Personal life

Jonathan Janz is the pen name for Craig Shaeffer. Janz teaches high school English, film literature, and creative writing at West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School. He currently resides in Indiana with his wife and three children.

## Novels

| Year | Title | Publisher | Pages | Notes |
| 2011 | The Sorrows | Samhain Publishing | 272 | |
| 2012 | House of Skin | Samhain Publishing | 312 | |
| 2013 | The Darkest Lullaby | Samhain Publishing | 272 | |
| 2013 | Savage Species | Samhain Publishing | 315 | Originally published as a 5 part eBook |
| 2013 | Bloodshot: Kingdom of Shadows | Kindle Direct Publishing | 187 | Out of Print; Originally published as an eBook |
| 2014 | Dust Devils | Samhain Publishing | 280 | |
| 2014 | Castle of Sorrows | Samhain Publishing | 337 | Sequel to The Sorrows |
| 2015 | The Nightmare Girl | Samhain Publishing | 304 | |
| 2015 | Wolf Land | Samhain Publishing | 314 | |
| 2016 | Children of the Dark | Sinister Grin Press | 392 | Booklist Top Ten Horror Book of the Year for 2016; re-published in a revised edition by Cemetery Dance Publications in 2023 |
| 2017 | Exorcist Falls | Sinister Grin Press | 458 | contains the novella Exorcist Road |
| 2018 | The Siren and the Specter | Flame Tree Publishing | 295 | Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for Best Horror 2018 |
| 2019 | The Dark Game | Flame Tree Publishing | 352 | Library Journal Best Horror of 2019 |
| 2020 | The Raven | Flame Tree Publishing | 245 | The Raven, Book One |
| 2022 | Blood Country | Flame Tree Publishing | 320 | The Raven, Book Two |
| 2022 | Marla | Earthling Publications | 288 | Limited to 500 copies |
| 2022 | The Dismembered | Cemetery Dance Publications | 178 | |
| 2024 | Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers | Cemetery Dance Publications | 396 | Sequel to Children of the Dark |
| 2025 | Veil | Blackstone Publishing | | |

## Collections

| Year | Title | Publisher | Pages | Notes |
| 2018 | Tales From the Shadow Side | Thunderstorm Books | 263 | Limited to 60 copies. Includes excepts from an unreleased novel, Garden of Snakes |

## Short Fiction

| Title | Type | Originally published in | Collected in | Notes |
| "Witching Hour Theatre" | novella | Kindle Direct Publishing (July 2005) | Tales From the Shadow Side (2019) | Originally published as an eBook |
| "Old Order" | novella | Kindle Direct Publishing (September 2010) | Tales From the Shadow Side (2019) | Originally published as an eBook |
| "The Clearing of Travis Coble" | short story | Kindle Direct Publishing (March 2013) | Tales From the Shadow Side (2019) | Originally published as an eBook |
| "Throwing Monsters" | short story | Piercing the Darkness (February 2014) | Tales From the Shadow Side (2019) | |
| "Exorcist Road" | novella | Kindle Direct Publishing (September 2014) | Appears revised in the paperback version of Exorcist Falls (2017) | Originally published as an eBook |
| "A Southern Evening" | short story | LampLight Vol. 4, Issue 4 (June 2016) | Tales From the Shadow Side (2019) | |
| "Vanilla Sunshine" | short story | Clickers Forever: A Tribute to J.F. Gonzalez (February 2018) | - | |
| "Titan, Tyger" | short story | Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road (July 2018) | - | |
| "Night and Day and In Between" | short story | Welcome to the Show (August 2018) | - | |
| "The Kiss of Diana Antonov" | novella | Leaders of the Pack: A Werewolf Anthology (January 2020) | - | |
| "Room For the Night" | short story | Close to Midnight (October 2022) | - | |
| "The Humpers at the Threshold" | short story | The Drive-In: Multiplex (Fall 2023) | - | Set in the world of Joe R. Lansdale's The Drive-In |
| "Midwinter Tales" | short story | Literally Dead: Tales of Holiday Hauntings (October 2023) | - | |
| "Dobrogost" | short story | Swords in the Shadows: An Anthology (October 2023) | - | |
| "The Third Shannon" | short story | Morbidologies (October 2023) | - | |
| "The Drolls" | short story | Fear of Clowns: A Horror Anthology (September 2024) | - | |
| "Lenora" | short story | The End of the World As We Know It: Tales of Stephen King's The Stand (August 2025) | - | Set in the world of Stephen King's The Stand |

## Non-Fiction

| Title | Type | Originally published in | Collected in | Notes |
| "Treating Fiction Like a Relationship" | essay | Writers on Writing, Vol. 3 (April 2016) | - | Originally published as an eBook |
| "Elizabeth: An Unnaturally Forgotten Novel" | essay | Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall, Valancourt Books edition (April 2017) | - | |
| "Introduction" | introduction | Midnight in the Graveyard (October 2019) | - | |
| "Introduction: Step Into the Spinning Tunnel" | introduction | Illusions of Isolation (February 2023) | - | |