Archive for May 18, 2013

I couldn’t resist giving a shout out about Troy’s free download of Just Past the Trees on Amazon this weekend!

I’ve read several of Troy’s short stories and enjoyed them immensely.

So, I’ve added in my previous reviews so you can learn what I thought of them!

Don’t forget to get Just Past the Trees free here!

Just Past the Trees

I liked this one. It’s got a couple of writers in it.

I’m a young guy, still live at home. Yeah, I know, get a life. But I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do.

I know I want to be a writer, have for as long as I can remember.

I’ve always felt writing is my strongest suit. I hope you agree. Story ideas can walk into my head like strangers at Thanksgiving, and before I know it, I’m fleshing out characters, plotting some pretty evil schemes for them to fall into, and hearing lines of prose…

But until I become famous, got to earn a living. I work for a company that repairs big rigs. I’m the runner. If they need a part of a tool, it’s my job to get it. Not glamorous, but it’s a living.

One of my jobs is keeping the property mowed.

During a Florida summer breathing makes you sweat.

You’d think I was certifiable, cutting the grass with an old push mower in the blazing afternoon heat. It’s a huge piece of property and takes all week. By the time I’m done, it’s time to start all over again.

“Job security” is what my dad calls it. “Perpetual motion through redundancy” is what I call it..

Anyway, that’s how I discovered the body, or what was left of it.

sasquatch photo: Sasquatch sasquatch.jpg

Like I said , it has two writers in the story. The other one is Doug Robbins. He’s a crypto-zoologist traveling through Florida on the trail of the Skunk-Ape. Ever heard of it? It’s the southern version of Bigfoot.

After hearing about the dead body, Doug suspects the skunk-ape may be involved. He’s here to finally get proof it exists and hopes to write a book about it.

The two young men hatch a plan to get said evidence of its existence and that’s when it gets hairy! Pardon the pun.

Troy can condense a story and make it have such an impact. I felt like I knew these guys. And a story about writers, the struggles they go through and how far they’ll go to write that story is interesting and fun. You get two different views from two writers.

Visually written. You’ll feel like you’re there, looking into the woods, and wondering what may be looking back at you.

Nothing less than Five Stars will do!

~~~

        Here is my review of Little Bernie’s Map.

Little Bernie's Map

This was just supposed to be a nice, relaxing family trip. A way to escape the daily grind and forget, for a while, the problems and worries at home.

Daniel and Gina, along with their son Bernie, are heading home after a trip to Disney World.  Daniel just lost his job, but they decide to go on this vacation anyway. It may be the last one they can take for a long time.

Bernie and his father have a game they play. Bernie loves map, he collects them. At random points in their trip, Daniel would ask Bernie how much farther they had to go and he would look on the map to track their progress.

Bernie had one map that was special. A map given to him by an old woman when they stopped for a break at the Florida Welcome Center. She told him to be careful with it and Bernie tried to be.

But when weird and frightening things start to happen, the map is not first on any of their minds. All they can think about is what just happened.

What came down from the sky that day would be discussed for years to come. Each person would draw their own conclusions. One thing most agreed on was what they saw, what it looked like.

My Thoughts

It has been a long time since I have been this surprised by a story. I had to reread several scenes just to wrap my mind around what was happening. I wanted to try to form an image in my head. I sure wish this had been a movie. You’ll know what I mean when” The Flashpoint” happens.

Troy has a wonderful way of leading you into the story. There is much about this family that you can relate to. The characters are genuine and very likeable. I felt their anguish and their perseverance and really wanted things to be alright for them.

When the event happens I am stunned. I can’t wait for you to read it. It is so wild and kind of funny. It definitely makes you think. Think and say, yeah, I hear ya.

If you like Twilight Zone and Tales From the Darkside, you will love this. I also got a flash of that dread you feel in the scene from the movie The Mist by Stephen King. The one where they are driving into the mist and you just know something inexplicable is going to occur. The feeling lasts long after you finish reading.

Another 5 Star story from Troy

   

~~~

And last, but certainly not least, The Uninvited Guest.

The Uninvited Guest

Looks can be deceiving as is the cover for The Uninvited Guest.

It was supposed to be a celebration. Good times for all. A wedding and new beginnings.

Harlan is crashing the party, kind of. Jose’s mother insisted he go to the wedding and when he asks Harlan to go, he figures why not. There’ll be free food and booze and maybe some babes to dance with.

It seems like it takes forever to get there. The wedding is being held in a lodge surrounded by dense woods.

Finally, they arrive. The wedding goes off without a hitch. Now it’s time to eat, drink, and be merry. Except it’s taking forever to get to the dancing.

Finally the music starts and the happy couple do the traditional bride and groom shuffle. Everyone is oohing and aahing, taking copious pictures and video.

Harlan, standing at the back of the gathering, happens to glance out one of the windows. Everyone else is watching the happy couple, but something made him look.

Something outside, maybe a shadow, slid along the windowsill.  No, not a shadow, it had bulk. It seemed to take a long time to pass.

The windows are spaced about 5 to 6 feet apart. In the time it took to glance to the next window, it was sliding past that one too!

Everyone is still watching the couple. Harlan feels frozen in time. A look at the doors shows they’re still standing wide open.

An overwhelming feeling of dread passes over him. Something is coming. It’s almost to the doors.

The author wrote this story from Harlan’s point of view. It worked really good. I experienced everything with Harlan, felt his confusion, dread, and disbelief. And then his terror.

Have you ever had that feeling like something really bad is going to happen? That’s how I felt, right along with Harlan.

Harlan may have been an uninvited guest, but he’s not the only one.

This gets a Five from me!

~~~

And now from Troy

If you are looking for a story behind the story, I can’t honestly recall what sparked the idea for Little Bernie’s Map all those years ago when I originally wrote it. Although I can say that after hearing about the disheartening news about the debt crisis, along with the various problems many people in the Rust Belt were experiencing – a personal hit for me since I’m from southwestern Ohio – a terrifying thought started eating at the back of my mind: What if I was in one of those situations? What if I had a family to feed and I was out of work? It’;s scary, and my heart truly does go out to those families. Of course, this was around the time that I found Little Bernie’s Map(originally conceived as Little Ian’s Map for those who care) in my writing desk. Naturally, the cogs and gears started turning like they do when I start thinking about the serious issues in the world and how I would express my feelings toward them. In other words, when guys like me consider the money problems of the world, we consider how we would react to a giant mutant….(left blank by me so as not to avoid spoiler). Then again, maybe that’s just me and why I’m not running the show.

Image of Troy Aaron Ratliff

About Troy Aaron Ratliff

Troy Aaron Ratliff was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio and self-educated in writing, art and voice impersonations. When he’s not reading, writing and cooking up his next monstrosity, you can generally find him defending the galaxy from the forces of evil, feeding hippopotamuses, dining with foreign dignitaries and Zen masters, waking up to his supermodel wife, altering the space-time inter-dimensional warp or, more than likely, stuck in traffic somewhere in Southern California.

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I have read every book Evans has written.

All of them are so scary good and I can’t wait to read Screamscapes.

I’ve read most of the stories in it, but a couple are new to me.

Check out this cover!

Screamscapes

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Feast your bloodshot and festering maggot-filled eyeballs on the new trade paperback cover art for Screamscapes, designed by none other than illustrious Bram Stoker Award-winning horror maestro Kealan Patrick Burke, author of Kin and The Turtle Boy.

SCREAMSCAPES: This new collection showcases the dark fiction of  Evans Light.
(Paperback and Special Limited Edition available June 1, 2013.)

Prepare to find your way through a dark world as nightmares and screamscapes unfold in these ten strikingly original tales. Lingering lovesick ghosts, wives hellbent on revenge,along with sinister demons, underground dwellers, forgotten campgrounds and malintent friends haunt this compelling collection of modern horror.

Includes the bestselling novella, ArborEATum!

Stories include:

* Crawlspace
* Whatever Possessed You?
* ArborEATum
* Dark Curtains
* Gertrude
* Black Door
* The Mole People Beneath the City
* Pay Back
* Nose Hears
* The Package

This edition of Screamscapes will be available from Purveyors of Fine Horror everywhere on June 1, 2013.

Be sure to visit THE LIGHT BROTHERS web portal at www.evans-light.com for exclusive discounts and giveaways.

 Check out my reviews!

ArborEATum

Payback

The Mole People Beneath the City

Whatever Possessed You?

Crawl Space

Dark Curtains ~ Reviewing soon

Stories, Inc. ~ Reviewing soon

***written with Adam Light***

Corpus Corruptum – Reviewing soon.

Evans Light

Evans Light

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You can also stalk Evans here.

Freakin Fridays!

Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.

Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!

Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!

Let’s have some fun!

For today’s post, I’ll be telling you about The Dead of Winter by Lee Enderlin

The Dead of Winter

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For a horror story to be really good, it has to have a bad-ass villain.

This book has one.

Don’t let her small size fool you. She’s no longer human and she’s got a taste for man flesh.

This story starts a long time ago. Back in 1714,  when Indians had never met the white man.

It’s the worst famine any of them can remember. They have to make another hunting trip to replenish their food or they’ll all starve when winter truly sets in.

When the hunters fails to return from a hunting foray, White Moon fears the worst. She fears the white men have killed her tribe.

She’s all alone. The only one left alive after the white men killed the other women and children.

It’s been days and she has no idea when or if anyone is coming for her.

It couldn’t hurt to just have a little. Just one small piece. What else could she do?

So, White Moon strips off a small piece of meat from one of the dead. Just enough to get her through one more day.

The next day, other members of her tribe find her. She’s saved.

But she can’t let them see what she’s done. If they do, she’s doomed.

I’m sure you’ve figured out she’s doomed.

They perform a grotesque ritual and bury her body.

One day, she’ll rise again and take revenge on the white men.

windigo photo: Windigo tumblr_m3xrmse1Ka1rutx6lo1_500.jpg

Present day in Claridge, Connecticut.

It’s been a long winter and spring is no where in sight.

Bodies are being discovered. They’ve all been devoured and posed in the same strange position.

No animal could pose them like this, so who or what is killing them.

As the medical examiner puts it, ” I hesitate to use the word ‘human’ in a bizarre case like this, but you got something out there that ain’t no bear or anything like it. In other words, someone put those people in that position.”

There’s some thing out there in the bone chilling darkness. Something hungry. Hungry for man flesh and hungry for revenge against the white men.

Windigo.

I got a good scare with this book.

That tiny creature lurking just on the periphery of the light, standing hunched over and so still. Just creepy.

In the beginning, you feel for White Moon, but by the end, you’ll fear the Windigo.

The story flashes to the past to give the necessary background. Then it returns to present day, where all hell breaks loose.

A very insidious horror story, with some ‘the sins of the fathers’ in it.

I felt sorry for the town of Emergence. These people had no idea why revenge was upon them. Why this creature demanded its pound of flesh.

I had a scary good time reading The Dead of Winter.

I especially liked the authors take on the Windigo. I haven’t found too many stories with this supernatural being in them, and this one had a curious spin on it.

5 Stars for this chilling tale.

I’ve read Lee’s short story collection

Four Tales for Midnight

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Four tales of extreme suspense and mystery aimed at getting the heart pumping. Hard. A soldier on D-Day finds an enemy soldier acting very strangely indeed; a jilted husband creates a grisly scavenger hunt; a marriage reconciliation service ABSOLUTELY guarantees positive results—the question is, how? And more!

Turn out the lights and enter a bizarre world, but remember—don’t go in the basement!

You can read my 5 Star review here.

To learn more about Lee Enderlin and his books you can visit his website

Tales of Mystery and Midnight