Garden of Ravens is unleashed!

A collection of dark poetry that journeys through folklore, twisted tales, mental breakdowns, and depression.

We hide in shadows

We wither under layers

Sunlight is for beautiful people

Darkness is for us

Store Links: 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Ravens-Krystal-Jane-Ruin-ebook/dp/B07T1T563Z/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/garden-of-ravens-krystal-jane-ruin/1131936714

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Krystal_Jane_Ruin_Garden_of_Ravens?id=JDabDwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/garden-of-ravens

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1466734954

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46028426-garden-of-ravens

Bio:

Krystal is a writer of paranormal and supernatural fiction residing in the Tennessee Valley. When she’s not writing, she can be found sipping matcha frappucinos and searching for unicorns in the wild.

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/planetkrystal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystalsquared/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKteMnsm90Muk_QQK2qWNjQ

Upcoming Release: After Dark by Liz Butcher

What's waiting for you in the shadows?

Ghosts, curses, and creatures of the dark, these stories take you on a journey from the secret whisperings of the trees, to the torments of the subconscious mind.

Release date: May 1st, 2018

Pre-order now for just 99c!

The price will go up after its release.

Find Liz on her website and at Facebook.

Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations Release!

Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations
by Shannon Lawrence

Release Date: March 15, 2018

Horror short story collection

A collection of frights, from the psychological to the monstrous. These tales are a reminder of how much we have to fear: A creature lurking in the blue, sludgy depths of a rest area toilet; a friendly neighbor with a dark secret hidden in his basement; a woman with nothing more to lose hellbent on vengeance; a hike gone terribly wrong for three friends; a man cursed to clean up the bodies left behind by an inhuman force. These and other stories prowl the pages of this short story collection.

Excerpt

From Shifting Sands:

"When the next day went much the same--sand slid out of his phone receiver, his laptop--he left wok early, citing an appointment. But when he opened his car door to leave, his seat was full of sand, two words etched into it: NO ESCAPE."

Buy the Book

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Amazon Australia | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Also available from Apple and other countries through Amazon

About the Author

A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes mostly fantasy and horror. Her stories can be found in magazines and anthologies, including Space and Time Magazine, Dark Moon Digest, and Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things. When she's not writing, she's hiking the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings, where, coincidentally, there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster.

Social Media Links

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | 

Smashwords Author Page

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remakes Blogfest

Most of remakes suck. Big time. And they're making so many of them nowadays! Yet there is that moment when one comes along that is better than the original.

The marvelous hosts of this blogfest, Alex J. Cavanaugh and Heather M. Gardner, want to read about those remakes that don't suck. Be it movies, music, or books. Click HERE to find a linky list of participants and discover some awesome remakes.

I've watched a lot of movies in my years. Many of them horror flicks. I'm much more into the suspense side of the horror genre now, but once upon a time, it's was all about the gore. One of my favorite movies was Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. So when I heard they were remaking it, I refused to see the new one. No way. Bruce Campbell rules!

But I couldn't resist watching a little of the remake...

And then all of it. The 2013 remake was awesome! It didn't try to capture Raimi's quirkiness and the star didn't try to be Bruce Campbell. It stood on its own. It's gory, nightmare level, but it isn't trashy. Highly recommended for horror fans.

What are your favorite remakes?

Review for Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth

Blurb:

It had been a time when the world needed legends, those years so long past now. Because there was something else legends could offer, or so the Poet believed. He didn't know quite what—ghouls were not skilled at imagination. Their world was a concrete one, one of stone and flesh. Struggle and survival. Survival predicated on others' deaths. Far in the future, when our sun grows ever larger, scorching the earth. When seas become poisonous and men are needed to guard the crypts from the scavengers of the dead. A ghoul-poet will share stories of love and loss, death and resurrection. Tombs is a beautifully written examination of the human condition of life, love, and death, through the prism of a dystopian apocalypse.

 

My review:

In the distant future where land and seas are polluted, an eater of the dead searches old stories for legends. This ghoul-poet, rare among his kind, seeks to learn more than heroics. The times are dismal, needing something much more powerful. Sharing with us tales of love and loss, life and death, the poet examines the human condition on a planet that is heaving its last breaths.

This is a mesmerizing collection of short stories all set in our distant future where the sun is frying Earth and many humans left are ill or mutated. The Tombs is the place where people bring their dead, a massive walled cemetery and city. There are those that work and live in the Tombs, serving the dead and protecting them from ghouls. I was fascinated by this dystopian world, the various people and their cultures. Every story brings the reader deeper into the world, unveils something beautiful and horrifying. Those two things are twined intricately here as we dance with gothic tales of life and death.

My favorite stories include "The Beautiful Corpse" as I did wonder if Gombar was loved as much as he loved. "The Female Dead" with the embalmer who so loved that he did everything he could to protect a beauty's corpse from the ghouls. There were only a few survivors in "City on Fire" and one was a woman who made the final trek for the man she loved.

 

It's release day for the Tombs!

Share your congratulations with the author

and buy the book on Amazon or B&N!

You can find James Dorr on his site.

James is one of the writers who belong to the local critique group, S.C.I.F.I. (South Central Indiana Fiction Interface) which I attend every month. He has over 500 pieces of short fiction published, and I've learned so much about the art of short story writing from him. This collection of stories is my favorite from him yet.

The Witchy Bundle

Are you counting down to Halloween already?

Only 174 more days!

Here is something to tide you over until the creepy season. Eleven magical books touching every genre. This collection takes us all across our own world as well as into other lands that touch upon ours. There are American witches and witches battling the Nazis in war-torn Europe. There are dark twists on fairy tales and witches in the wild west. There are witches who don't know they have the power or the sight until dire need comes upon them.

The bundle also includes a newsletter bonus book!

Books in the Witchy Bundle

The Tatterdemon Omnibus by Steve Vernon

Hedge Witch by Simon Kewin

Coyote Cal by Milo James Fowler

Academia of the Beast by K.N. Lee

The Full Moon by David Neth

Muddy Waters by Sara O. Thompson

Nine Candles of Deepest Black by Matthew S. Cox

Darknight (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 2) by Christine Pope

Witch of the Cards by Catherine Stine

The Gray Tower Trilogy by Alesha Escobar

*Bonus Newsletter Novel: Darkangel (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 1) by Christine Pope

Just click here to learn even more about this fantastic bundle of books and buy it.

The Witchy Bundle ends May 18th. So grab yours now!

Maybe I'll be a witch for Halloween this year...

RPGs & Writing - guest post by Steven Arellano Rose Jr.

RPGs: Child’s Play We Writers Still Play

By Steven Arellano Rose, Jr.

Many of us speculative fiction writers have been playing RPGs (role playing games) since as far back as kindergarten. However, the RPGs we played at that early age weren’t necessarily card, board or video games. Many of them were live action RPGs (also known as LARPs). Like other RPGs, LARPs involve players assuming the roles of a game’s characters. Unlike other RPGs, they involve the players physically acting out the characters and their situations.

Many gaming groups go to parks and act out their favorite fantasy, sci fi or even horror characters (zombies have become popular for this type of gaming). This form of activity, LARP, contains structured plots and rules where players are rewarded points when meeting certain challenges. But, because these are role playing games, the plots are often not fixed but are continuously developing by the players and their characters’ actions and decisions. Well, perhaps minus the game point system, many of us have been playing RPGs of this sort since as early as age five.

 

Before we reached teenage-hood when we would get more freedoms, our world was that of books, TV, movies and video games. And so we mimicked the characters of those medias. It wasn’t enough to simply watch them on screen or even maneuver them on it by way of a gamepad. We wanted to participate in the adventures of our favorite characters of science fiction and fantasy because we got tired of the everyday world of school and home controlled by adults. So we played LARPs. This was common with all us kids. The only difference between us writers of speculative fiction and other grownups today is that we never stopped playing out these childhood fantasies. We never stopped playing RPGs.

All that said, my first experience with LARPs that I can remember was when I was around five or six back in the ‘70s. I, my brother and friends would engage in our active fantasies of super hero adventures, especially Batman which was one of our favorites. We did similar with Star Trek’s characters. Then when the first Star Wars movie came out we played our favorite characters from that, acting out our own stories and adventures. That was the great thing: unlike the comic books, TV shows and movies these characters came from, we didn’t have to stick to the storyline of a single episode or movie; we could develop our own stories, creating our own adventures and journeys into our imaginations.

As an adult, I play RPGs in the form of board, card, and video games. I don’t get as much time as I would like to play them and much less time for LARPs. Whenever I get a weekend void of any events or am just plain board with everyday routine, I’ll play electronic RPGs such as Facebook’s Vampire Wars, Spore, or Beast Quest, or deck-based ones such as Arkham Horror. Some people can never stop playing their childhood fantasies and so are die-hard players of these and live action games. But don’t get me wrong, I’m proudly far from immune from this Peter Pan syndrome of a type. That’s why I write science fiction and horror.

Fiction is, in many ways, RPG in writing. When I write science fiction or horror, I have to take up the role and so the mentality of not only my protagonists but also my antagonists and secondary or minor characters. In order to advance the story I need to know what my characters would do in given situations and when I make one character handle a situation differently than another would, doing so takes the story in a direction different than the one it started in.

So I’m a writer of fantastic fiction because I am one of those people who can’t stop playing RPGs of a sort. We writers and artists of speculative fiction are Lost Boys and Girls; we refuse to grow up.

Author Bio

Steven Arellano Rose Jr. is a freelance writer and artist. He published his first short fiction collection, The Fool’s Illusion, in 2013 and recently came out with a horror short story, “Circa Sixty Years Dead”, on Kindle. Besides horror and dark fantasy, Steven writes science fiction, movie reviews and computer technology articles.

The following are Steven’s many other interests: treasure hunting for ‘60s and ‘70s pop cultural artifacts; jazz, rock and disco; video games; diet colas; history; mythology; Eastern meditation. You can catch him at his blog www.FarOutFantastic.blogspot.com or tweet him at @Starosep2.

 

Links To Books

The Fool’s Illusion: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F785ZJQ

“Circa Sixty Years Dead”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LHCFW5M

Ghosts of Fire is now here!

From USA Today, Amazon bestselling and popular science fiction and fantasy authors comes Ghosts of Fire, a supernatural anthology of ten thrilling tales. Meet paranormal detectives, imprisoned dragons, dark demons, cursed jewels, and handsome prophets. Explore shifting realms trapped in mirrors, and a disturbing future where a president aims to rid the world of Otherkind. Ghosts of Fire is the third, long-awaited Elements story collection from the dynamic and inventive Untethered Realms group.

Amazon / AmazonUK / AmazonAUS / AmazonCAN / AmazonDE /  B&N / iBook / Kobo / Googleplay / Smashwords

• The Flaming Emerald by Jeff Chapman
• The Cost of Greatness by Meradeth Houston
• On Day 168 by Cherie Reich
• The Vagaries of Eloise Stanton by M. Pax
• Mind the Gap by Gwen Gardner
• Ryan by Misha Gerrick
• Rollerskate Boys by Catherine Stine
• The Torchbearer by Christine Rains
• In Plain Sight by Angela Brown
• Demon in the Basement by River Fairchild

I'm so excited about this collection. My fellow authors in UR just keep getting better and better. I'm so lucky to included among them. If you haven't checked out the previous two anthologies - Twisted Earths and Mayhem in the Air - be sure to do so. They're only 99 cents! The final book in our Elements series will be out next year.

9Tales Told in the Dark #7 is free until the 28th!

Terror creeps up everywhere. The Dark goes international in this collection of short tales of horror, featuring zombies, curses, ghosts and vampires.

9Tales Told in the Dark #7 is free from now until November 28th. Don't miss out on this fantastic collection of scary stories.

My short story, "All I Want For Christmas" is included in this great anthology. Find out what happens when a little boy asks Santa to get rid of the monster in this closet.

Friday Five for October 30, 2015

1. Big excitement this week as Mayhem in the Air is now available. It's a marvelous collection of short stories from the talented authors of Untethered Realms. My horror sci-fi, "The Silent Wind" is included in the anthology. Next week, we'll start a two week tour with exclusive excerpts and a giveaway where you could win a $40 gift card! The collection is only 99 cents. A steal with all the awesome stories in it!

2. Oh, more fantastic short stories! I received word yesterday that 9Tales Told in the Dark #7 is available for pre-order and will be released November 23rd. My horror story, "All I Want For Christmas" is one of the nine scary tales. This makes up for the rejection I received earlier this week.

3. I've had a good writing week even with my son having a couple of early dismissal days from school. I finished the first novella in a new series for my publisher. The series is called The Sasquatch Susies. I'll leave it to your imagination what that's about for now.

4. My mom will be visiting next week. We do all our Christmas shopping, so we don't have to freak out at the last minute. It's nice to have it all done before December, but it's difficult to find places to store gifts in our little house! Not just store them, but keep them out of sight of my little guy.

5. One day until Halloween! I love this time of year. We had a fun time last weekend at the Trick or Treat Trail, and we went trick or treating at the university on Wednesday. Tomorrow I get to see all the costumes as the kids come to our door. My little guy, er, puppy is super excited.

(My son and his buddy at the Trick or Treat Trail.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wicked Wednesday - giving your readers the creepy-crawlies

Giving your readers the chills is a tough thing to do. There's only one Stephen King. As for the rest of us, we have to use all the tricks at our disposal.

- When I think creepy atmosphere, I think setting. Graveyards, haunted houses, empty streets. Just placing your characters in an ill-lit room will help immensely. Yet it doesn't have to be a horror stereotype. If you're good, you can make any setting spooky. The reader is going to expect something out of the ordinary even if you place the scene in the ladies' restroom or a wig shop.

- It's in the details. Don't over do it with lavish descriptions of dusty cobwebs, the wind blowing the drapes, and something lurking in the shadows. Drop a chilly detail here and there. Something that might be normal but isn't quite. Something that will make the reader wonder. A writer's best tool in creating a spooky scene is the reader's imagination. The reader will always imagine something horrible and help to give themselves goosebumps.

- Part of the creepiness of a story is in creating suspense and tension. You want the reader on the edge of their seat. An effective way of doing this is through the characters' reactions. Don't let your text be filled with too much thinking. Describe what they're seeing, hearing, smelling. Use all the senses. Write their physical reactions. Spooky stories are about showing rather than telling.

- Even with paranormal tales where things are out of the ordinary, try to keep things as realistic as possible. What scares people the most is if they start thinking something like that is possible. Hit on the things that frighten people the most and use them to help build up the tension.

What tricks do you use for creating a spooky atmosphere in your stories?

(Note: I've been a little busy lately. So these tips are reposted from a post I did in 2011. I've been doing Wicked Wednesdays that long? Wow.)

Click on over to the spooky Untethered Realms and find yourself an enchanted drink. We have the recipes! Even one from Jezebel.

Review for Dorianna

Blurb:

Internet followers, beauty, power. It all sounded good.

Until it transformed into a terrifying reality Dorianna couldn’t stop.

When her father is jailed, her mother ships lonely, plain Dorianna to her aunt’s. There, Dorianna yearns to build a new identity, but the popular Lacey bullies her—mostly for getting attention from her ex, Ander.

Ander takes Dorianna to Coney Island where Wilson, a videographer, creates a stunning compilation of her. She dreams of being an online sensation, as she’s never even had a birthday party, and vows she’d give anything to go viral. Wilson claims he’s the Prince of Darkness and warns her the pledge has downsides.

Dorianna thinks he’s joking. She has no idea of how dire the consequences might be.

 

My review:

This is Dorianna's second chance. She's the new girl at school, and this time, no one will tease or ignore her. When the mysterious Wilson tells her to pledge her soul for beauty and popularity, Dorianna doesn't think he's serious when she does so. She becomes Sungirl and acquires a huge internet following. People adore her, she has a cute boyfriend, and it's everything she hoped it would be. Until her videos grow dark and twisted. Nothing she can do stops them. Her vow to Wilson was more than a joke. And it is far more than she bargained for.

DORIANNA is a YA horror that puts a modern twist on "A Picture of Dorian Gray." I do love the way the author did so with the internet and videos. The descriptions of Dorianna's videos made me feel as though I was watching them. I was shocked and yet reveled in it with how they evolved as her soul darkened.

Dorianna was a girl I liked and hated at various times, but I think that was the intention. She was so caught up in wanting to be beautiful and popular that I couldn't root for her, and even though that could be frustrating, the twist at the end made the read worthwhile. Wilson was an awesome bad boy. Odd, charming, and artistic, he was the perfect dark lure for Dorianna. My favorite character was Bailey, the artsy best friend who was cool without being fake. Lacey as a frenemy worked well, and I think I respected Lacey a little by the end.

This is a fantastic read for YA lovers who love the trouble that comes with high school cliques, popularity contests, and parties that get out of hand all with a supernatural edge.

 

Buy links: Amazon * B&N * Evernight Teen

 

Add it to read on Goodreads.

 

Stalk Catherine Stine here.

Review for Once Upon A Nightmare & Sale!

Blurb:

A legend awakens…

A monster hunts us. After hibernating for a decade, it’s ravenous. We long to stop this nightmare, but the end of the road is far. There is no waking up once a legend sets its sights on you.

Disappearances every ten or so years make little impact on the small town of New Haven, Virginia. Hikers get lost. Hunters lose the trail. Even when a body is discovered, the inhabitants’ memories last about as long as the newspaper articles.

No one connects the cases. No one notices the disappearances go back beyond Civil War times. No one believes a legendary monster roams the forests in Southwestern Virginia.

I don’t either until the truck breaks down on an old mountain trail. Cell phones won’t work in this neck of the woods. It’s amazing how much a person can see by starlight alone. So what if we can’t feel our fingers or toes as we hike toward the main road. How many more miles left to go?

Crrraaack!

Hear that noise? 

My review:

Three chilling tales that will keep you awake on long winter nights.

We begin with a short terrifying piece that gives the reader a peek into how a monster is born. Nightmare at the Freak Show pulls at your heartstrings and leaves you pale and horrified, sitting with your mouth agape. Cherie Reich builds great tension in this opening tidbit. It'll leave you hungry for more.

Once Upon A December Nightmare grips you with its vivid detail and nail-biting suspense. It seemed like a normal night for the young folk, but I fast on the edge of my seat, and I couldn't relax even when I reached the end. The most unique part of this story is that the reader is allowed to see through all the characters' eyes. Each of the four characters have their own sections, and it's like peeling back layers of an onion. More is revealed about the dynamics of the group and each individual's inner most feelings. Cherie does a marvelous job with characterization.

Nightmare Ever After is my favorite of the stories. It takes place a decade after the last tale, and lets the reader peek into the life of someone who survived one horrible night. Cassie is a fascinating character that must not only deal with living with the trauma of that night, but also with the fact no one believes her. She struggles with her fears, but she's a survivor. Tim is the perfect complement to her character. They're thrown into the chaos of a case that's never been solved. The mystery haunts the reader through the pages, slowly unveiling the horror. The tension builds as the number of murders grow until you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see what's going to happen. The story has a definite X-Files feel. Though Tim is more Scully where as Cassie would be Mulder.

This is an amazing collection of horror stories. An intriguing mystery, masterful characterization, and heart pounding suspense. Oh, you'll see your fair share of horrific things, but there's so much more to these tales.

Buy links: Amazon * B&N * Book Depository * CreateSpace 

Add it to read on Goodreads. 

Haunt Cherie Reich here.

#IWSG for October 2015

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

The awesome co-hosts for this month will be TB Markinson, Tamara Narayan, Shannon Lawrence, Stephanie Faris, and Eva E. Solar!

It's that month of things that make us squirm, give us chills, and frighten us to death. For writers, that's every month when it comes to our insecurities.

 

Just remember...

You are not alone. Don't pull a horror movie faux pas and go off by yourself. We can survive if we stick together.

Review for Demon in the Basement

Blurb:

Thirty-two stories, including a novelette by the same title, to keep you awake at night.

A time-traveling Chevy, an ancient church of evil, a house possessed by black magic. Stories to fill you with dread, draw you into places you'd rather not go, smack you in the face with ironic possibilities.

Meet the monsters of myth, the creatures that lurk under your bed, the phantoms you thought didn't exist. Travel to the real Atlantis, strap in for the Bermuda Triangle. Terror lurks in the ocean, while an asteroid hides a secret .

Leave a nightlight on before you go to sleep. Something's coming for you.

My review:
A chilling collection of thirty-two horror stories that will make your skin crawl and your heart race. Evil like you've never known it and, more frightening, evil that you do know with terrifying twists. It doesn't matter if the characters are good or bad. Each of them live their own nightmares, and some never to wake.

Some of my favorites include "Food Chain" where something so innocuous becomes a Lovecraftian monster. "Metamorphosis" brings us to the beautiful Atlantis with its horrifying secret. And finally, we have the novella which holds the collection's name. Robert is tormented by a demon through his teenage years, and years later, he returns to battle it. But how to defeat it?

Buy it here: Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords

Add it to read on Goodreads.

Stalk River Fairchild here.

Friday Five for September 11, 2015

1. I didn't get as much time to write this week, but I passed the 10k mark with my newest project. I finished the first round of edits for the first book in The Paramours series. Not much needed to be changed at all. My editor might send it back to me once more for an okay, and then it can be sent on for formatting. That's when I get my release dates!

2. My holiday horror short story, "All I Want For Christmas" was accepted by 9 Tales for their upcoming release, 9 Tales Told In The Dark. Yay! It will be released late this year. Another one of my stories was short-listed by a pro venue. I've been sending stories to this venue for the last few years, and this is my fourth time being short-listed with them. Maybe the fourth time is the charm!

3. Have you heard of the movie Tusk? It's a Kevin Smith film. A ridiculous shock horror about an insane man who kidnaps people and makes them into a walrus. I expected utter silliness when I sat down with my husband to watch it. What I found instead was brilliance. Not the story itself, but in the performances from Michael Parks and Johnny Depp. I haven't been this blown away by a pair of actors in a long time.

4. It's getting to that time of year where there are a lot of scary movies and shows on TV. When I do my exercises during the weekdays, I don't watch talk shows or soaps. I watch ghost and monster hunters. I've been seeing a lot of commercials for what's coming in October. Here's one show you might not have heard about: Exorcism Live! Yes, they'll be doing a live exorcism. Don't let the ads fool you (like they did me!). They're not exorcising a person. It's a house. I always wonder about these live shows. What do they do if absolutely nothing happens?

5. It's almost the weekend! What are your plans? We have a BBQ & Blues Fest and a hot air balloon festival going on nearby. It'll be the perfect cool autumn weather for it too.

Once Upon a Nightmare tour - 7 Tips on Surviving a Horror Story

7 Tips on Surviving a Horror Story

by Cherie Reich

1. Never split up.

The first one to split from the group is almost always the first to die.

2. Phones are bad.

They never work when you want them to, and when they do work, it’s usually a way for the killer to get you right where he wants you.

3. Never look back.

Run, run, run and never, ever look back. You’re more likely to trip and die, if you do look back.

4. Off with its head!

There aren’t too many monsters out there, except hydras, that can live or grow stronger without their heads. So chop away!

5. Don’t live in small towns, forests, or near cornfields.

They’re crawling with monsters and aliens.

6. Don’t laugh at guys with chainsaws.

This one is from personal experience. No one likes to be laughed at, and it’s more dangerous to do so when the person has a chainsaw.

7. Romance will get you killed.

Whether it’s a one night stand or a romantic tryst with your beau, it’s better to be single in a horror story. Romance (or sex) clouds your judgment and makes you great monster bait.

What’s your favorite tip on surviving a horror story?

A monster hunts us. After hibernating for a decade, it’s ravenous. We long to stop this nightmare, but the end of the road is far. There is no waking up once a legend sets its sights on you.

Disappearances every ten or so years make little impact on the small town of New Haven, Virginia. Hikers get lost. Hunters lose the trail. Even when a body is discovered, the inhabitants’ memories last about as long as the newspaper articles.

No one connects the cases. No one notices the disappearances go back beyond Civil War times. No one believes a legendary monster roams the forests in Southwestern Virginia.

I don’t either until the truck breaks down on an old mountain trail. Cell phones won’t work in this neck of the woods. It’s amazing how much a person can see by starlight alone. So what if we can’t feel our fingers or toes as we hike toward the main road. How many more miles left to go?

Crrraaack!

Hear that noise?

Purchase Once upon a Nightmare: A Collection by Cherie Reich at Amazon. From June 22-28, the collection is only $0.99!

Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction author and library assistant living in Virginia. Visit her website and blog for more information.

Review for Polar Day

Blurb:

The midnight sun bakes Fairbanks, Alaska as residents gather for the annual summer solstice baseball game. Amidst the revelry and raucous shouts of “Play ball,” a spark alights and a jogger bursts into flames. Detective Danny Fitzpatrick, still reeling from his near death at the hands of vampire Aleksei Nechayev, watches in horror as the man burns alive.

Someone is burning Fairbanks and its residents and leaving nothing but smoldering embers behind. As the city sweats under a record-breaking heatwave and unexplained fires claim more victims, Danny and his colleagues struggle to find an arsonist who can conjure fire out of thin air.

To Danny’s horror, the only one who may be able to help him stop the arsonist is his nemesis Nechayev. Will the vampire help in the hunt for a witch?

My review:

It starts with a jogger bursting into flames. Detective Danny Fitzpatrick can't figure out how it ignited and neither can the police arsonist specialist. The case doesn't make any sense, but Danny has met with a monster before. If there's no logical explanation for the fires, he must search outside the box. And as much as he hates it, the only one that might be able to help him is the vampire Aleksei Nechayev, the monster that still haunts his dreams.

An excellent sequel to Polar Night with plenty of suspenseful and intense moments. I've never been to Alaska, but I felt as if I were transported there with the amazing descriptions. Especially the little details. And instead of freezing, it was an unusually hot summer where the sun sets for only a few hours. The setting really came alive.

I'm still a big fan of Danny, the gruff and flawed detective. His partner Tessa is the perfect balance for him, but she's just as determined as he is, and what's more, she believes in him. When everything seems against them, they make a powerful team. I was really excited to see Aleksei back. Even more so, to get a little peek at what's been going on with him.

This is a must read for all fans of supernatural and horror stories.

Buy the book here:

Amazon Kindle ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble 

Check out Julie Flanders at:

Blog * Website * Facebook * Twitter 

Once Upon a Nightmare will bring you chills!

Excerpt: 

Cassie cringed at each bump along Tree Branch Trail. Gravel crunched underneath the truck’s tires, yet somehow the dilapidated vehicle withstood the beating. Squished between her best friend Mary and the door, Cassie tensed and tried not to hit anything or anyone as the truck vaulted over another pothole. She wished she had a seat belt on, but with two seat belts and four people in the front seat, it wasn’t happening. They should’ve taken her car, but it never would’ve made it on this backcountry road. Why didn’t they stick with the plan and not come out here anyway?

“How do you like your first off-roading adventure, Cassie?” Denise asked with the harsh laugh of a smoker while shifting her plump hips between her boyfriend James and her sister Mary.

“It’s great,” Cassie said without enthusiasm and with a whole truckload of sarcasm. The vehicle ran over a monstrous rut, and her head knocked against the window. She sucked in air through her teeth. Checking for a bump, she glanced over to Mary. Although three years younger and still in high school, Mary was Cassie’s best friend and confidante. Cassie had missed her most since she moved to Missouri for college. She leaned close to Mary’s ear. “I think we should’ve stayed and watched a different movie.”

“Me too,” Mary whispered back.

James slammed on the brakes, and the truck fishtailed to a stop.

Cassie pressed her hand against the glove compartment. Dashboard lights illuminated Mary’s grimace and her white knuckles from clutching the seat belt so hard.

“What’s out there?” Cassie peered ahead.

Book Description: A monster hunts us. After hibernating for a decade, it’s ravenous. We long to stop this nightmare, but the end of the road is far. There is no waking up once a legend sets its sights on you.

Disappearances every ten or so years make little impact on the small town of New Haven, Virginia. Hikers get lost. Hunters lose the trail. Even when a body is discovered, the inhabitants’ memories last about as long as the newspaper articles.

No one connects the cases. No one notices the disappearances go back beyond Civil War times. No one believes a legendary monster roams the forests in Southwestern Virginia.

I don’t either until the truck breaks down on an old mountain trail. Cell phones won’t work in this neck of the woods. It’s amazing how much a person can see by starlight alone. So what if we can’t feel our fingers or toes as we hike toward the main road. How many more miles left to go?

Crrraaack!

Hear that noise?

Purchase Print/Ebook on Amazon! The ebook is on sale for $0.99 until April 30th.

About the Author: Cherie Reich has more books than she can ever read and more ideas than she can ever write, but that doesn't stop this bookworm from trying, even if it means trying to curb her TV addiction. She is a speculative fiction writer and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her books include the paranormal horror collection Once upon a Nightmare and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles and The Fate Challenges. Reborn is her debut novel. She is a member of the Virginia Writers Club, Valley Writers, and Untethered Realms. For more information about her and her work, please visit her website and blog.

Cover Art: Amygdala Design

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A legend awakens... Once upon a Nightmare: A Collection by Cherie Reich is now available on Amazon as an ebook and a paperback. This paranormal horror/thriller collection features the novelette Once upon a December Nightmare, the novella Nightmare Ever After, and the short story “Good Nightmare, Scary Monster.” From April 16-April 30, you can purchase the ebook for only 99 cents. http://smarturl.it/OuaNKindle

A monster hunts us. After hibernating for a decade, it’s ravenous. We long to stop this nightmare, but the end of the road is far. There is no waking up once a legend sets its sights on you. Cherie Reich’s Once upon a Nightmare: A Collection is now available on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. From April 16-April 30, you can purchase the ebook for only 99 cents. http://smarturl.it/OuaNKindle