APRIL FOOLS’ HORROR HILARITY!!!

Ah, April Fools’ Day, a silly holiday where retailers try to convince you that their Blu-ray dispensing machines will teleport to your house, and you’ll try to trick grandma into believing you accidentally melted her dentures in the microwave, and then everyone yells, “April Fools!”

And then grandma has a heart attack.

Well, this new book release isn’t a trick and it won’t give your grandma a heart attack but it’s sure to get her laughing until she does. It Came From the Trailer Park: Volume 3.5 is officially out today, and it’s filled with hilarious horror-comedy stories from Kevin J. Anderson, William Joseph Roberts, Philip K. Booker, Melissa Olthoff, Jennifer Roberts, and my new story, “She Ain’t No Vampire.” It goes like this:

Inspired by an early-2000s era TV show, Harley Duane-Bob Jenkins resolves to turn his troubled life around by doing good deeds for others, hoping that in return good fortune will came back to him—starting by rescuing his missing friend from a bloodthirsty vampire! But when he and his best friend, Zeke, set off on their dangerous quest, Harley quickly discovers everything he knows about vampires is made-up by Hollywood, and that the creature he’s hunting might not even be a vampire, after all.

It Came From the Trailer Park: Volume 3.5 will be the most fun you’ve had since that April Fools’ Day when you convinced your little sister that toad really was a prince, and she only has to kiss him 50 more times to turn him back! So head on over to Amazon and pick yourself up a copy before grandma buys them all!

Amazon

Tales of Halloween Terror!

It’s almost Halloween, a time for costumes and candy, ghosts and ghouls, a time for the vile things that live in the shadows to come out of their hiding places and walk among the living for one night…and the perfect time for a Halloween Horror book drop from Sinister Smile Press!

Say hello to If I Die Before I Wake, Vol. 8: Tales of Halloween Horror. Here you’ll find twisted tales from Richard Chizmar & W.H. Chizmar, Steven Pajak, R.E. Sargent, and many others, as well as a forward by Nick Roberts, author of The Exorcist’s House. You’ll also find my new story, “Witch Hunt.” Here’s the synopsis:

Karla Weston longs for the days when being a police officer on Halloween simply meant keeping the peace by breaking up teen parties gone too far or busting drunk drivers, but six years ago witches announced their presence to the world in a bloody and terrifying way, and now those earlier days are gone, replaced by long, dark nights filled with fear, dread and suspicion. This year, the witches are throwing a Halloween party at the police station, and Karla’s been invited! And when the dark magic begins to flow and the dead start to rise she’ll need to rely on every ounce of her police training, instinct, and cunning if she and her fellow officers expect to survive until sunrise.

Not too scared yet, are you? Don’t worry…you will be. But if you love Halloween as much as I do, be sure to head on over to Amazon and check it out!

Not too scared yet, are you? Don’t worry…you will be. But if you love Halloween as much as I do, be sure to head on over to Amazon and check it out!

Amazon

THE WOLVES ARE AT YOUR DOOR

It’s new release book time! This will be my second story published with Sinister Smile Press, an amazing publisher of horror novels and anthologies. If I Die Before I Wake Volume 7 – Tales of Savagery and Slaughter drops on June 6^th 2022, and can be preordered right now for only $0.99.

Here’s the synopsis for my story, “Outrun the Wolves.”

Harper had been looking forward to a fun weekend of camping and partying in the mountains with her boyfriend and best friend, but the shifty couple in the beat-up camper next to theirs is also looking for fun, and theirs is a kind that’s sharp and brutal and won’t be any fun for Harper. When the sun sets on this isolated campground and the wolves begin to howl, Harper will be forced to summon every ounce of strength she possesses to hold onto her sanity and find a way to escape these shadowy woods alive.

Sound pretty wicked? You bet it is! The anthology contains my story as well as stories by Steven Pajak, Scott Harper, LP Hernandez, Aric Sundquist, Richard Clive, and many others! Do yourself a favor and check it out on Amazon while it’s only $0.99!

https://geni.us/IIDBIW-V7-eBook

The Dead Crave Your Flesh

I took a bit of time away from writing these last couple of years, finishing up a college degree program, but now that’s complete and I’m back with a brand new short story!

“Reflections of Us,” was selected for publication in the upcoming anthology, If I Die Before I Wake, Volume 5: Tales of the Otherworldly and Undead, from Sinister Smile Press. This nightmare-inducing book is filled with terrifying stories of otherworldly and undead creatures tormenting the living, and it’s especially cool that the book’s foreword will be written by Richard Chizmar, a New York Times bestselling author and publisher/editor of Cemetery Dance magazine.

Here’s the story synopsis:

Three friends take cover inside an abandoned house, using it to hide from the horrors stalking them in the night. But within these strange mirror-covered walls they’ll be forced to face down their greatest fears, overcome the darkness inside themselves, and they may not all survive to see sunrise.

The book drops on June 14^th, 2021. If you’re interested in checking out “Reflections of Us,” as well as the other twelve dark and twisted tales included in the anthology, it’s available for pre-order right now at Amazon. Head on over and take a look!

https://geni.us/IIDBIW-V5-Kindle

AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE

Crime fiction. Guns, gangsters, and good guys who operate in the grey area. Vigilantes and femme fatales. It’s the dark stuff. It’s gritty, dirty and bloody, and sometimes you aren’t completely sure which side you should be cheering for. It takes you on a tour of the meanest streets in the most dangerous neighborhoods—or sometimes the dangers in your own backyard.

Crime Syndicate Magazine publishes some of the very best crime fiction out there. Issue three is out today, featuring hard-hitting stories from Eryk Pruitt, Kevin Z. Garvey, Paul Heatley, Max Booth III, and several other amazing authors, and I’m privileged to have one of my own stories appearing alongside them.

“The Contractors,” is a crime story about a detective who must confront the darkness from her past as she attempts to track down a pair of career criminals who disguise themselves in order to infiltrate people’s homes to rob and murder them…and try not to get killed in the process.

Find the issue at: Amazon

And be sure to check out all of the other great content at their site: Crime Syndicate Magazine

HOW DOES AN OGRE FIND A JOB?

Hey, Guys! Hope everyone is having a great summer! I know I haven’t posted here in a while but I assure you I’ve been hard at work on my writing, and I have a couple new short story releases to share with you as a result.

“No Work for an Ogre” was just published in the July issue of Fabula Argentea magazine. It’s a humorous fantasy tale about an ogre going into an unemployment office to search for a job. It’s a quick but funny story, and it’s free to read, so be sure to head over there and check it out. They’ve got a lot of other great stories on their site as well so make sure to poke around and see what they’re all about.

Link: “No Work for an Ogre”

My other new story is called “The Contractors,” soon to appear in issue three of Crime Syndicate Magazine. It’s a much darker crime story about a police detective trying to track down a pair of criminals who disguise themselves as contractors in order to infiltrate peoples’ homes and rob and murder them. I’ll post more info on this one when the issue comes out. Until then, make sure to check out their website and the first two issues of the magazine. It’s well worth your time.

Link: Crime Syndicate Magazine

That’s all for now. I still have more work on its way—several more short stories and a novel in progress—so stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for reading!

LOVECRAFT EZINE SALE

For anyone interested in Lovecraftian fiction (and honestly, who isn’t?), the Lovecraft eZine is running a sale right now that gets you all four Lovecraft eZine Kindle megapacks for only $1.99! That means you get four years’ worth of issues, over 230 stories by authors such as Joe Pulver, William Meikle, A.J. French, and myself, for a ridiculously low price. That’s a lot of reading, so head on over and check it out, and make sure to stick around and peruse the site for all of their other great content!

Megapack Sale

SANITARIUM MAGAZINE CLOSING

These days, it’s not surprising to see small press publishers closing their doors. Since I’ve been writing and having my work published, I’ve seen a lot of small shops come and go, but this one is especially unfortunate, since Sanitarium was one of those magazines that helped new writers are artists get their work out and get paid for it, publishing quality stories, articles, and artwork in their magazine and on their website. Sanitarium published one of my stories, “On Wicked Wings,” several years ago, when I was first getting started, (issue 18), and has helped many other writers get their start since then. New publishers will no doubt arise and fill the void that Sanitarium is leaving, but this doesn’t diminish the loss that their closure brings. Issue 50 will be their last, so if you’re interested in checking out what they’ve done in the past and reading some great horror stories by new authors, now would be a good time to head over to their website and pick up an issue or two before they’re gone for good.

Sanitarium Magazine

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UPDATE: It appears the company is back up and running with new ownership. Great news! Head over to their site and check it out!

http://sanitariumpublishing.com/

 

WHAT I’M READING NOW: THE MAILMAN

I’m a big fan of Bentley Little’s books. He writes an interesting and often thought-provoking variety of horror that uses black humor and the macabre to poke fun at major American institutions: universities, resorts, Walmart. I’ve read quite a few of his novels already, but for some strange reason I’ve never read one of his earliest and most famous books: The Mailman. It’s a mistake I’ve decided to remedy now.

The Mailman follows a schoolteacher named Doug and his family during one particularly gruesome summer break, during which their usual friendly and universally beloved mailman kills himself in his bathtub at home, and is replaced with a tall, creepy red-headed guy named John Smith, who brings not only the mail to residents of the small town of Willis, Arizona, but a sadistic variety of death and psychological torture that threatens to destroy them all.

I’m only maybe a third of the way through the book right now, but so far it’s been an excellent read. Bentley Little has a gift for taking normal everyday situations and turning them into something nightmarish and disturbing, while at the same time showing us how dependent we’ve all become on these modern institutions and how easily they can be corrupted. For anyone who hasn’t read Little yet, this one would be a great place to start.

Otherworldly Things

Have you ever waken in the middle of the night to a darkened bedroom, unable to move or speak, with the inexplicable and unnerving sensation the something otherworldly is in the room with you? If so, you’re not alone. This is a real-world, medical condition called Sleep Paralysis. Some say it has a logical, biological explanation behind it, but others say that the sinister thing in the room with you is real…and it’s there for nefarious reasons. But what is it? Where does it come from? And why is it after you? These are the questions Sam Peterson is forced to ask in my new story, “The Thing in the Corner,” out now in issue 36 of Lovecraft eZine. The issue is crammed full of dark Lovecraftian stories, and it’s free to read on the website so there’s no risk in checking it out. Head on over and take a look right now. But make sure to leave the lights off while you read…if you dare.

Lovecraft eZine Issue 36