THESE I KNOW BY HEART, a short story collection by Brian A. Hopkins

-- from a review by William D. Gagliani

"...poignant, thought-provoking tales of love, death, angels and miracles ... Absolutely stunning."

-- Lesley Mazey, Eternal Night Science Fiction

"Yippee. Please forgive me for being pleased, but this here is a new book we should sell very well indeed. Now that I have all these Hopkins fans on my hands, a new collection in a pretty package signed by ol' Brian himself should virtually fly out of here. You'll like this guy. Obviously well-read, obviously has a passion for the classic, obviously a fearless and highly imaginative storyteller. We've usually got several Hopkins collections in stock - try any one of them - I'm confident you'll be back for the others. As I've said before, for whatever this is worth, we've sold more trade paperbacks by Brian Hopkins than any other writer over the course of the last year or so."

-- Mark V. Ziesing, Bookseller and Publisher

"It's this collection of some of Hopkins' best short stories that will make the cold winter nights warmer, because what Hopkins does best with his words is reach inside and yank at the heart. And the soul. ...With his Michener-like eye for research and detail and his John D. MacDonald penchant for spinning an easily read yarn, Hopkins is quickly gaining his own fine reputation as a writer."

-- Judi Rohrig in the Evansville, Indiana COURIER & PRESS

"This is a collection about experiences of the deepest, darkest, and most excruciating kind. Loss and love, fear and regret, splayed in all its black and painful glory . . . Nothing in THESE I KNOW BY HEART is easy, and that, perhaps, is exactly as it should be. There are lessons to be learned in the turn of a phrase written by a talented hand and a knowing heart, and Brian Hopkins excels indeed in the role of teacher."

-- Yvonne Navarro, from the Introduction

"Brian Hopkins is a skilled writer whose stories show that he's always in control of the elements that make for great fiction: mastery of his craft, a keen sense of story, and boundless imagination. THESE I KNOW BY HEART is the work of a true artist."

-- Edo van Belkom, Bram Stoker Award Winning Author of TEETH

-- James A. Moore, Author of UNDER THE OVERTREE

"Brian Hopkins is one of the most promising new horror writers of the past decade or so. His "Five Days in April" is extraordinarily gripping, a story that lingers and will not let go. He is certainly one of the most intriguing voices to emerge from the small presses since Thomas Ligotti."

-- Darrell Schweitzer, WEIRD TALES

"Beauty and savagery wrapped in sheer elegance of expression, THESE I KNOW BY HEART will capture yours and stay with you long after the pages have been turned."

-- Steve Beai, Author of WIDOW'S WALK

"Brian Hopkins has a rare combination of clear vision, perfect instinct, and mastery of his craft. If you like to laugh and cry and learn, he's your man."

-- Nancy Etchemendy, Bram Stoker Award Winning Author of THE POWER OF UN

"Once or twice in a lifetime you find an author whose own passion for words is matched by his desire for the truth behind the images. Brian Hopkins is one of those rare talents who can take a pile of jumbled facts, obscure details, and endless notes, and bring them to life in words that paint his own inspiration vividly and imaginatively -- capturing them for all to see."

-- David Niall Wilson, Author of THIS IS MY BLOOD

"When I examine my obsession with Fitzgerald and Tolstoy, for Dickens and Dostoevsky, I realize that what keeps me coming back to Gatsby and Anna and the rest is the music I hear when I am with them. That, and my absolute conviction that there is nothing there that I would have had them do differently. So it is with BAH's work. He doesn't simply write; he composes. Long after the reading is done, the melody lingers on."

-- Janet Berliner, Bram Stoker Award Winning Author of RITE OF THE DRAGON

"Brian A. Hopkins can make you laugh or cry in any genre he chooses to write in. From the tear bringing "North" to the soul searching of "Five Days in April" to the horror of his "La Belle Dame" stories written with David Niall Wilson, he is this generation's Harlan Ellison. That is no false comparison, Hopkins is that good and will only get better in the future."

-- Barry Hunter, BARYON MAGAZINE

"Brian A. Hopkins has a sensitivity for shadows. But make no mistake about it. This 'sensitive' man will keep you up well past the witching hour. He is a knight from the nightmare realms, the shaman of shrieks, the director of darkness ... well, you get the idea. But he's also a very down to earth guy, almost folksy in some of his approaches. Super Americana. He's from Oklahoma and sometimes reminds me of Will Rogers. He never met a scream he didn't like."

-- Charlee Jacob, Author of DREAD IN THE BEAST