Beyond the cemetery gates lies a world shaped by memory, silence, and the faint echo of footsteps no longer heard. Angels, Oaks, and Iron Gates, the first volume in The Cemetery Diaries, presents a collection of fictional short stories inspired by real places, local legends, and the emotional weight of history.

Told in a quiet, investigative first-person voice, each story is set in a historically plausible Southern or Midwestern town, where the past clings to grave markers, and the uncanny hides in plain sight. These are not tales of gore or spectacle, but of mood, memory, and the deeply human experiences we leave behind. Ghosts appear without fanfare. Secrets unfold slowly. Every story walks the line between truth and folklore, grounded in the textures of rusted gates, moss-covered stones, candle stubs, and whispered names.

Written with the atmospheric subtlety of Shirley Jackson, the realism of early Stephen King, and the awe of Algernon Blackwood, Bud Steed brings readers into intimate contact with the supernatural through quiet dread and emotional resonance. These fictional accounts feel unsettlingly real, shaped by the author's long interest in folklore, cemeteries, and the unseen corners of American history.

If you’ve ever stood in an old graveyard and felt watched, if you’ve ever passed a decaying house and wondered who still lives there, or if you believe that some places remember us, then The Cemetery Diaries will speak to something deep inside you.

These are stories of grief and wonder, of lives half-remembered, and spirits that linger. The dead are fictional, but the unease is real.