Hello and welcome to this week’s Two for Thursday Book Blitz #T4T
presented by Month9books/Tantrum Books!
Today, we will be showcasing two titles that may tickle your fancy,
and we’ll share what readers have to say about these titles!
You just might find your next read!
This week, #T4T presents to you:
Two and Twenty Dark Tales and Very Superstitious Anthologies!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
In this anthology, 20 authors explore the dark and hidden meanings behind some of the most beloved Mother Goose nursery rhymes through short story retellings. The dark twists on classic tales range from exploring whether Jack truly fell or if Jill pushed him instead to why Humpty Dumpty, fragile and alone, sat atop so high of a wall. The authors include Nina Berry, Sarwat Chadda, Leigh Fallon, Gretchen McNeil, and Suzanne Young.
What Readers Are Saying:
“Great short story collection! Allegorical, interpretive, and entertaining.” – Levina, Goodreads Reviewer
“ EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED in this book” – Kwinn, Goodreads Reviewer
“I truly enjoyed the stories in this anthology. Some are dark and depressing, and yet beautifully told…” – Angie,Author
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The stories are based on urban legends, myths, tribal tales and superstitions from around the world. A charity anthology to benefit SPCA International with stories by Shannon Delany, Jackie Morse Kessler, Stephanie Kuehnert, Jennifer Knight, Marianne Mancusi, Michelle E. Reed, Dianne Salerni and Pab Sungenis.
What Readers Are Saying:
“VERY SUPERSTITIOUS is a fine anthology for fantasy readers looking for something slightly creepy for Halloween reading.” – Liviania, In Bed With Books
“A collection of spook-licious tales that will taunt, and in a few cases, tickle the fear bone in any reader.” – S.A. Larsen, Author
A timely collection for a good cause, with some delightful surprises, full of myths and superstitions, and a vast array of stories that will make you laugh, cry and think.” – Tammy, Books Bones Buffy
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
‘Welcome to the world of the Runyons and the Feldsteds, two Mormon families in 1970s Maryland. Far from their Western American roots, they cling to each other like exiles clutching a precious box of topsoil from the old country.
“In The Boxford Stories you will meet Ada Runyon who always turns to Ruthalin Feldsted when she needs an ear—sharing her deepest confidences, her everyday musings, and her bits of horrified gossip. Yet Ada dies inside whenever Ruthalin’s country-cousin manners poke out in public.
“Latham Runyon, a history professor, and Erval Feldsted, a hospital engineer, bond every Sunday night over gooey desserts and vigorous religious discussion, a game their children call Stump the Rabbi. Underneath their balding heads and graying temples, each man desperately seeks a sign that God would choose him as a buddy.
“The Feldsted and Runyon children, running breathlessly through each other’s houses and backyards, have long considered each other substitute cousins. However, Ginni Runyon plots to change herself from the girl next door to the girl Marc Feldsted can’t live without.
“And when Boxford’s Mormons mix with the rest of the town, everybody could use a field guide to the other species.
“Laugh, cry, and shake your head with the Runyons and Feldsteds as they make their way through the decade that brought us leisure suits and urban decay.”
Now Latham stood before the steam-clouded mirror. He squirted shaving cream into his hand and swabbed it over his face.
It was not the best face, to be sure. He imagined how it would look to those sitting beside him in conference tomorrow. There he’d be, his arms folded as he sat on a hard metal chair way at the back of the gym, looking for all the world like Joe Mormon, with the standard white shirt, the standard wing tips, the standard bald spot, and the standard case of scriptures with a sagging, broken spine.
The young fathers nearby would look at him and think, I hope I don’t become that in twenty years. Their young wives would study his pocked cheeks and try to imagine just how bad the teenage acne had been. And teenage girls would decide that he was, no doubt, ten times cornier than their own dads. . . .
Then, when his name echoed forth from the pulpit, and he stood up, his seat-neighbors would look up from their chairs, surprised. They would kick themselves mentally for not taking note of him sooner, for not recognizing his eminence.
His children would look up. Our dad? God wants our dad?
His wife would bow her head humbly and compose a few eloquent remarks, in case they summoned wives to speak.
And as he walked up to take his new place, people would look up from their seats, squinting at him. And when he reached the stand, Elder Sperry would smile, remembering: Oh, yes, him. The one that likes Great Biographies, just like me. Elder Sperry would shake his hand, motion him towards his very own theatre-style seat, a far cry from the metal chairs at the back. Elder Sperry would make him say a few words at the pulpit, where Latham could look down on all those surprised people, who were still taking it in that Latham Runyon was their new stake president.
Praise for the book:
“Standouts include “Gypsy Holiday,” in which Ada’s anxiety over family friends not coming to Thanksgiving devolves into a stark admission of her loneliness and inability to connect with outsiders; “A Little Five-Minute Thrown-Together Something,” which lays bare the squirming insecurities of teenage crushes; and “Flirting Lessons,” which sees Ada’s teenage daughter, Ginni, taking a cross-country road trip with two friends that leads to panic when one goes missing. These stories are unexpected in their subtlety as they explore the reality of what it means to be Mormon—and human.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“’In an almost Faulknerian way, Carson finds the pulse of ambition and uses that tick to reveal the inner voices that can haunt us all, if allowed. We should be looking to the eternities, of course, but in the meantime, we have so many other things to worry us onward into the night, or at least until the next priesthood interview.”
–Association for Mormon Letters on “‘Atta Boy” in The Boxford Stories
Author Kristen Carson
“Kristen Carson was born in Idaho, the caboose baby in a family of six girls. She studied at Brigham Young University.
“Hearing tales of how green the grass was elsewhere, she pledged to move east of the 100th Meridian. Even though she’s never lived in the #1 place on her list (Lexington, Kentucky–have you seen those beautiful bluegrass hills?!), she enjoyed her years in Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania. She currently lives in Indiana.
“Kristen’s stories and articles have appeared in The Indianapolis Star, Chicago Parent, Indianapolis Monthly, Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought and Irreantum.
“She and her husband are the parents of four adult children.
“She loves her two cats for their affection, their paranoia and their sense of entitlement. She takes long walks wherever she goes, because she thinks the best way to see the world is at 3 miles an hour. She loves cooking. All the chopping, stirring and inhaling lend the perfect capstone to her day.
“Kristen is also an avid reader. No doubt she won’t live long enough to finish all the books on her list. Her favorite authors are Herman Wouk, Diana Gabaldon and Tom Wolfe.
“Check out her blog, where she writes about whatever she’s reading and cooking.
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by readinglight.com. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
I haven’t read the first two Hellfire & Damnation collections but I will fix that soon.
Most of you know how much I enjoy short stories and collections and horror and I got all of that with these.
Check out my review.
Enjoy the excerpt.
And enter the giveaway to win a copy!
Hellfire and Damnation III
by Connie Corcoran Wilson
Publisher: Quad City Press (March 1, 2015)
ISBN:978-0-982444-487-0
Category: Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Tour Date: March 16-April 30, 2015 Available in: Print & ebook, 114 Pages
My Review
I’m huge on short stories and collections so I knew I had to read this batch. The author states at the end of the book that she drew inspiration form true events on all but two of the stories. That explains why one of them felt familiar to me.
Some are scary and some are twisted. A few had me grinning sardonically. All are good.
There are the nines sins or as the author titles them, The Nine Circles of Hell. Each delves into crimes and punishments.
Circle One: Limbo – The Cave Robber
You’ll have an encounter with a giant cave spider.
Circle Two: Lust – The MOnster Within
Meet Brian, “The unhappiest man in El Reno,” who’s plotting revenge against his neighbor.
Circle Three: Gluttony – The Battle of Gate Pa
Crawl with the Maori warriors through the first tunnels used in warfare.
Circle Four: Avarice & Prodigality – Boxed In
Be there when a kidnap victim turns the table on his kidnapper.
Circle Five: Wrath & Sullenness – Do Not Go Gently
A cancer patient who thought he’d live forever does not go gently. Vows to be the worst patient ever.
Circle Six: Heresy – The Final Victim
A Reverend needs one more sacrifice for Satan.
Circle Seven: The Violent – KILLAL
An innocent computer game might not be so innocent.
Circle Eight: The Fraudulent – The Mirror
A heated car mirror solves a cold case.
Circle Nine: The Treacherous – A Losing Hand
It wasn’t hypothermia. It was murder.
I enjoyed all of these stories and enjoyed the authors comments afterwards. She explained a bit about each of the stories that came from true events and then where she got her inspiration for the two that weren’t. It was fascinating.
And the pictures peppered throughout the book made it creepier.
While most of these weren’t truly scary, they did have sin in each one. I think I sinned a bit myself when I celebrated some of the characters deeds.
These would be great reads for when you have only a short time, but I’d set aside enough time to finish all of them. They do suck you in and keep you going from one to the next, to the next…
4 Stars
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Description
Hellfire & Damnation III by Connie Corcoran Wilson is another tour of the 9 Circles of Hell described in Dante’s Inferno. It picks up where the first two collections of short stories left off, using the same framing device of stories that explore the sins or crimes punished at each of the 9 Circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
The first book was the winner of the Silver Feather Award (Illinois Women’s Press Association), and the Gold Medal E-Lit Award (Horror category) from the Jenkins group. Five-time Bram Stoker winner Gary Braunbeck said of Book II in the Hellfire & Damnation collection: ” Seriously, Connie: can’t you write just one stinker so the rest of us will feel a little bit better?” Braunbeck added, ” Her writing is stronger, streamlined, and often lyrical, despite the nastiness her words describe. This is another impressive collection of tales from a writer I could very well learn to hate if she gets much better.”
Hellfire & Damnation III is another tour of the crimes or sins punished at each of the Circles of Hell in Dante’s “Inferno.” Like the second book in the series by Connie Corcoran Wilson, there are images whether it is a cave where teenagers are trapped, the lair of a psychopathic minister manipulating a young man of limited intelligence into murder, or a rage-fueled airplane traveler unleashing his pent-up fury on a Flight Attendant.
The author adds a From the Author, an informative peek into the creative mind of the author and the genesis of these 9 Tales of Terror. As one reviewer said (of Hellfire & Damnation II), “Connie Corcoran Wilson has written a book of short stories that will not only keep you up late nights reading, but might also keep you up long after you have stopped reading.”
He drove off in Dave’s truck, heading for Reverend Jeremiah Jones’ trailer, the useless wooden peg leg making a hollow tumbling noise in the empty bed of the truck, like a bird hitting a glass window. It sounded like a heavy object tumbling inside a package. It was a sound like a tennis shoe tumbling in the dryer, only with sharper percussions.
When he reached the trailer park, Lee parked under a large tree near the Laundromat just at the entrance of Happy Hollow Trailer Park. He grabbed the peg leg from the bed of the truck, tucked it under his jacket so no one would see what he was carrying, and began walking towards the Reverend’s plot. This was part of the plan. Jeremiah had explained to Lee that it wouldn’t do for them to be seen together. He wanted Lee to make sure he wasn’t followed and to come to his trailer on foot, using the back way. Lee did all this, as requested.
Upon reaching the entrance to the shabby trailer, Lee knocked on the door. He knocked a second time, more loudly. Lee was standing near the entrance to the attached Sacrificial Shed, as Jeremiah referred to the wooden shanty nearby. Lee thought he heard a noise coming from within. It was a faint sound, no doubt muffled by the sound-proofing. It sounded like a bleating animal. Lee turned away from the trailer door and moved towards the doorway of the nearby Sacrificial Shed. It was slightly ajar.
Within, he saw the specter of Jeremiah Jones, knife raised. A terrified creature, approximately three feet high, eyes glazed with fear, helpless, was tied in front of the Reverend. It was a small goat, immobilized by ropes. Jeremiah brought the axe-like weapon down on the animal’s head just as Lee opened the door to enter.
Jeremiah was breathing heavily from his exertions. The struggling wounded goat was bleeding and making a horrible noise in its death throes, still pinioned at the Reverend’s feet. Jeremiah Jones looked up at Lee Elliot and smiled the evil smile of an ogre. The grin of a conscienceless monster. The smirk of a manipulative Machiavelli.
“Did you bring his leg?” Jeremiah asked.
Lee shook his head yes. He reached beneath his jacket to pull forth Dave Downing’s prosthesis.
Jeremiah glanced at the leg. He looked up at Lee, stepping over the still struggling dying creature to come closer to Lee, bloody axe still in his hand.
“Where’s the money?” the Reverend asked.
“There wasn’t any,” said Lee.
“What? No money? There HAS to be. You took the cash, didn’t you?” Jeremiah screamed.
“No, Sir,” replied Lee. “There wasn’t any money. I killed Dave just the way you said to. I threw his body in a ditch out past Colona. Out near Interstate 80. I took his leg off. But there wasn’t anything inside it.”
“LIAR!” screamed the enraged minister as he lunged at the timid young man, bloody axe raised. “Stupid fucking liar! You took it, didn’t you? You took the money! Where is it? Give it to me!”
The Reverend Jeremiah Jones approached Lee with menace in his manner and murder in his heart.
In that moment, Lee Elliot wished he had brought the large butcher knife with him. But Lee had done as the Reverend Jones had instructed. He had thrown the knife into the raging Rock River, which was at near-flood levels this wet spring. Lee had no weapon. Nor had he thought he would need one.
The man he had trusted and aided in committing the most heinous act of his life was about to betray him. Almost the last thing Lee Elliot saw was also the last thing the goat had seen: a heavy axe-like weapon descending on his skull. Coming down so quickly and so forcefully that Lee had no time to fend it off.
As the weapon found its mark, Lee heard birds twittering. He was not sure if he was once again seeing the birds of Lucifer’s sign to him—the European starlings on his front lawn that day—or if neurons were firing stored memories in his head in death. With that last mortal impression of flocks of black birds tearing at the ground, ripping apart the blades of grass, laying waste to everything they touched, Lee Elliot became just one more in a long string of the Reverend Jeremiah Jones’ sacrifices.
The Reverend stood above him, bloody axe poised to strike again, muttering, “You moron. Lucifer always meant for you to be the final victim.”
View the Trailer:
Praise for Hellfire and Damnation II by Connie Corcoran Wilson:
“This collection of 11 short stories in the horror genre is organized around Dante’s 9 circles of hell in the Inferno–limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, political corruption, and treachery. The stories are by turns chilling and blood boiling. The two times I read one of these just before sleeping I deeply regretted it. NOT bedtime stories folks. Haunting and satisfying.”– Joystory
“I love scary books. Among the first adult books I ever read were Stephen King and Dean Koontz. However, these days I find it hard to find good scary books – ones that don’t make me feel like I’ve read this before…and then I was asked to read Hellfire & Damnation II. Corcoran takes us by the hand and leads us through the 9 Circles of Hell, whispering to us the tales of those we find there and the events that have lead them to this nightmarish place. From the first story set in Limbo, Cold Corpse Carnival (giving me yet another reason to not want to be buried!), to the final circle of The Treacherous and The Bureau the reader will be checking behind doors, under the bed and sleeping with the light on!”–Kylie Purdie, Little Black Marks
“‘Hellfire and Damnation II’ is the sequel to Connie Corcoran Wilson’s first book of short stories published in 2011. This book is another tour of Dante’s ‘Nine Circles of Hell’ from his Inferno. It features eleven original short stories: from the 132-year-old corpse of Norwegian immigrant Ole Monson seeking revenge against the living for the desecration of his final resting place in ‘Cold Corpse Carnival’ to the most intimate betrayal suffered between two brothers in ‘The Bureau’. Each story highlights its particular Circle in a novel way, but is partially based on fact as explained by the author at the end. I really enjoyed this book – it was suitably horrific for me. Each story is well-crafted and believable, and I found myself very satisfied with each story’s pacing. I give ‘Hellfire and Damnation II’ an A+! and I look forward to reading more books by Connie Corcoran Wilson in the very near future!”– Mareena McGirr, Emeraldfire’s Bookmark
“Connie pens “Hellfire & Damnation II” in a plot that will really leave the horror with you. The illustrations are just unbelievably good and will get you really thinking about what you just read. I was totally satisfied with the amount of detail within each “circle of hell” she writes about. Now I really need to find the first book in the series to catch up with. Highly recommended for all who love the thrill of horror.”-Susan, My Cozie Corner
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I’ve read Connie’s The Color Of Evil Series and very much enjoyed them.
Award winning author, Connie Corcoran Wilson (MS + 30) graduated from the University of Iowa and Western Illinois University, with additional study at Northern Illinois, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago. She taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois colleges and has written for five newspapers and seven blogs, including Yahoo, which named her its 2008 Content Producer of the Year.
She is a member of ITW (International Thriller Writers), where she is a writer for their online newsletter, and a member of IWPA (Illinois Women’s Press Association, Chicago chapter), which awarded her its Silver Feather Award in 2012 and 2014, MWA (Midwest Writers Association), AWP (American Writing Program) and MWC (Midwest Writing Center), which named her its Writer of the Year in 2010. She has won numerous E-Lit awards, a NABE Pinnacle award, an ALMA (American Literary Merit Award), Lucky Cinda competition and two IWPA Silver Feather Awards (2012, 2014).
Connie’s third book in “The Color of Evil” series, ‘Khaki=Killer’ was just named a Page-turner of the Year 2014 by “Shelf Unbound” and Writer’s Digest magazine in its December/January 2014-2015 issue!
Her stories and interviews with writers like David Morrell, Joe Hill, Kurt Vonnegut, Frederik Pohl, William F. Nolan, Anne Perry, r. Barri Flowers, Valerie Plame, Allen Zadoff and Jon Land have appeared online and in numerous journals.
Connie Corcoran Wilson’s work has won prizes from “Whim’s Place Flash Fiction,” “Writer’s Digest” (Screenplay) and she has 25 published works. Connie reviewed film and books for the Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa) for 12 years, wrote humor columns and conducted interviews for the (Moline, Illinois) Dispatch and maintains her own blog,www.WeeklyWilson.com, while also twittering (@Connie_C_Wilson), Connie Wilson Author.
Connie Corcoran Wilson was a presenter at the Spellbinders Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii over Labor Day (2012) and at Love Is Murder in Chicago (February, 2014) and will be a presenter at Writers for New Orleans December 19-21st. She has three ongoing series: THECOLOR OF EVIL, HELLFIRE & DAMNATION (short stories organized around the crimes or sins punished at each of the levels of Hell in Dante’s Inferno) andTHE CHRISTMAS CATS, which she writes for her granddaughters. (www.TheColorOfEvil.com; www.RedIsforRage.com; www.KhakiEqualsKiller.com; www.HellfireAndDamnationTheBook.com; www.TheXmasCats.com)
Connie lives in East Moline, Illinois with husband Craig and cat Lucy, and in Chicago, Illinois, where her son, Scott and daughter-in-law Jessica and their five-year-old twins Elise and Ava reside. Her daughter, Stacey, graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, and is currently a Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant.
If you’ve been following my blog, I’m sure you’ll recognize this Author. I’ve read all but a couple of his stories and loved them!
For today I’ll be sharing Trailer
A Short Story by Edward Lorn
My Review
Edward Lorn is a master of the short horror story. This one is no exception.
It’s not fit for man nor beast with a nor’easter raging outside, but Kay has no choice. She left her husband lying in a pool of blood, the frying pan she used to kill him sticking out of his face. Bullying her was one thing, but abusing her son, Tony, a boy with Down Syndrome, was not to be tolerated.
Now, on the road in the middle of the night in a blinding snow storm, Kay must find shelter from the storm when the car breaks down.
Her son had spotted a mailbox a ways back so they find it and follow a narrow path through the trees to a decrepit trailer.
But, before they can get to it, something rises from the snow. Something white, with glowing silver eyes and very sharp teeth and claws. Soon. more rise out of the snow and it’s a race to get to the trailer.
But will the trailer be protection from the screeching beasts outside?
Well, you know I can’t answer that question.
I’ll tell you this though. The beasts are determined to get inside and eat them up and the trailer has been long abandoned and falling apart.
The best thing about Edward’s short stories is his characters. He has this ability to flesh them out quickly. You feel you know them. But don’t get too attached to them. He’s not above knocking them off for a good scene.
Must not forget his creatures. They are all uniquely his own creations and bloody nasty too.
4 Stars
~~~
Synopsis
The less you know, the better.
~~~
AboutEdward Lorn and where to stalk him.
Edward Lorn is an American horror author presently residing in the southeast United States. He enjoys storytelling, reading, and writing biographies in the third person. Once upon a time, during a session of show and tell, a seven-year-old Edward Lorn shared with his class that his baby brother had died over the weekend. His classmates, the teacher included, wept while he recounted the painful tragedy of having lost a sibling. Edward went home that day and found an irate mother waiting for him. Edward’s teacher had called to express her condolences. This was unfortunate, as Edward had never had a baby brother. With advice given to her by a frustrated teacher, Edward’s mother made him start writing all of his lies down. The rest, as they say, is history. Edward Lorn and his wife are raising two children, along with a handful of outside cats and a beagle named Dot. He remains a liar to this day. The only difference is, now he’s a useful one.
Thanks for stopping by for my stop on the tour for Skeletons by Kenneth Buff.
I have some scary good stories to share with you.
Enjoy my review.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
I forgot to mention!
You can get this FREE on Amazon HERE for a limited time!
Skeletons
by Kenneth Buff
My Review
I’ve become hooked on short stories and collections and these are some good ones.
I’m going to break it down a tell a little about each one and then give an overall rating.
And Then There Was Only Us
They say sometimes psychopaths will be drawn to each, like a shared sickness. These two lovers find a portal to other dimensions and take their killing games to a new level.
They enter a dimension and torture and kill their other selves.
“You wouldn’t believe the shock on their faces the first time they saw us. You wouldn’t believe the pleasure on ours.”
Sooner or later something has to happen. The fun stops being fun, at least for one. Then what?
This was the first story and pretty horrific. Twisted psyches and a lust for pain and blood doesn’t make for happy ever after. Even killing yourself gets old. I kept waiting for one to turn on the other.
Re – Tailoring You
2PM. Punch the clock. Work. Punch out. Go home. Repeat.
The man is stuck in his dead end job at All-Mart, the store that has, “Everything you need.” Days, weeks, months, years pass in a blur, and he dies a little each day.
It didn’t come to him all at once. But gradually he realized the other employees were acting strange. They stopped talking. Some of his co-workers noticed too. They started calling them the pod people. I guess that’s from the movie, The Body Snatchers. I called them The Stepford Clerks.
Knowing its becoming dangerous, the group that hasn’t changed split up, trying to reach others like them. Trying to warn them and make their escape.
But, like with all good horror stories, it’s not going to be easy.
I kept waiting for Bruce Campbell to jump on a counter with his boom stick and shout, “Shop Smart. Shop All-Mart!”
Mom’s House
When Henry’s mother dies, Alice knows she has to go with him. She’s all out of excuses for not going to that house. Who would want to. They siblings claim they commune with the ghosts that haunt that place. What would Alice have to say to them?
The funeral is over and the days pass. Alice waits for them to go through their mothers stuff, but soon gets bored. They sit at the breakfast table every morning relating the ghostly visits they had the night before. Felling left out, she takes Henry’s advice and goes for a walk.
Something, a niggle of doubt, causes her to sneak back and peek in the window. They are sitting around laughing, not packing things up.
When Alice confronts them, things get ugly. Then dangerous. It seems Henry had a big secret. One about why he truly brought her there.
This one creeps up on you. Then the secret is revealed and the action kicks in. Alice didn’t strike me as tough or resourceful, but she fooled me. Let’s hope she fools them too.
The Second Coming Of Cortes
He’s come! Jesus has come to Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
It came straight from Jesus on the TV. He appears, inviting all the people of Colorado to climb to the top of Pike’s Peak, to be received by him and enter heaven. There’s a catch. They only have three days to get there.
Brian and Karen drag their son, Alex, to the greatest show on earth. He scoffs at this person. Would Jesus pull a stunt like this? Why Colorado and Pike’s Peak? Why only three days?
His parents are bound and determined he make the climb with them, but Alex wants nothing to do with it. Can he hold out or will he be dragged kicking and screaming to the top of the peak? And who or what awaits them there?
This was creepy. I’d be with Alex. I hardly think Jesus would appear on TV telling us to come to him. Yet again, modern times call for modern measures. Who knows.
You can imagine how bad it gets. All those frenzied people crawling over each other to get to the top, to Jesus and heaven.
It became a bloody mess, people crushed or shot to death. Makes you wonder how they ever thought those actions would get them anywhere but a fast drop to Hell.
The Decoder
Everyone is required to use their decoder until noon. Most of them keep it on until the mandated shut off time of 4 PM. But not him.
He can’t wait for noon so he can shut of the decoder. When it’s on, by the time you think about what you are going to do, it’s done. Time flies by in a blur.
A normal day for him is work, then home. Mow the lawn, do laundry, vac and dust, maybe paint the walls. It’s only 11:30. Imagine watching time crawl while everything you do flies by.
Noon. Done. Decoder off. He sits down to work on the book he’s writing. It’s a good story. Opposite from his, where the decoder slows time down.
I got dizzy just reading this. I’ve seen some movies where they show a person standing still while everything rushes by in a blur of shapes and colors. That’s how this story felt.
I felt the man’s book was about his wish. Perhaps he should write a story about no decoders at all.
All of these were good. I don’t usually play favorites but several scenes in re-Tailoring You got my blood pumping.
For most of you, all of these will creep you out.
Scare a few minutes off your life.
Or at least give you some nightmares.
Horror is as horror does.
4 Stars
~~~~
BLURB:
Skeletons, everyone has one, and in this collection of dark short stories they’re scratching their way to the surface for the world to see. In Skeletons you’ll meet a man who confesses his secret time traveling fetish, a cashier who investigates the eerie behavior of his retail co-workers, a torn lover who travels to her boyfriend’s haunted retreat, a teenager who’s town undergoes some unusual changes, and a father who’s personal time is moving a little too fast.
~~~~~
Excerpt
And Then There Was Only Us
I’m not sure how it started. I know it was me that showed her the portal, but I can’t remember whose idea it was to start killing them. I believe it was hers, but I honestly don’t remember anymore. That’s part of using the portal. You go in too many times and it fries your brain. I couldn’t even pretend to know how many times we’ve gone in. I just know that each time we go back we kill them a new way. That’s one thing I do know. I could lie to you and tell you I didn’t enjoy it, but I did. No woman in the world is kinkier than my Stephanie. Once I showed her the portal, it didn’t take long for her to change the way we dealt with the doubles. Prior to our trips, I had always just waited till my double used the portal before exploring the past. That way there would only be one of me. Steph changed that. You wouldn’t believe the shock on their faces the first time they saw us. You wouldn’t believe the pleasure on ours.
We took full advantage of the fact that no one would ever know about their disappearances.
~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Kenneth Buff was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. He moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2007 to attend Oklahoma State University. He graduated in 2013. He currently spends his days working as an elementary special education teacher and his nights at Aspen Coffee, writing his next novel.
He’s offering his newest release free for this Friday and Saturday!
AWOL
A Character Lost
You can get your free copy at the links provided further in the post.
Come on in.
Check out AWOL.
A Character Lost.
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My Review
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The story begins when the character finds himself in a dark, empty room. Not knowing how he got there, who he is, or where he is, he finally gets the courage to call out for help.
He’s answered, but not by a voice. Words light up on a wall. It’s worse than he imagined.
He’s a character in a book and it appears he’s wandered out of his story and ended up in the room. The author writes his answers and they appear on the wall.
The really bad thing is, the author didn’t write any notes and has no idea which story the character came from, so he needs his help.
This is a story of show and tell and the author guides the character, instructing him and supplying him with scant info on what he should do.
The room has ten doors, each labeled. The character must go through each door in order to find his home story. The author cautions him before entering that what lies behind each door could kill him and he’s not sure if the character will really die or return to the room. It’s an enter at your own risk thing and the character has no choice.
The character approaches the first door labeled Zombies and dives in, as did I.
After the first adventure I didn’t blame the characters hesitancy to go through another. Yet he must and he does. This continues through several more and I was with the character when he got good and mad at the author.
Between each new door, the character returns to the empty room, learns more from the author and goes through the next door. These interludes between each chapter are labeled Interlude.
He encounters many other characters in each story. After a while he learns not to become attached to them. The author’s monsters dispatch them in horrendous fashion.
As for the monsters, the character runs into some werewolves like nothing you could imagine. The werewolves are 8 feet tall, six feet long, with red eyes like lamps and drooling acid. Must not forget the tail of a scorpion that electrocutes you.
The vampires are brown and black spotted things riding black horses. Their eyes gleam yellow, they have no hair and only two fangs, no other teeth. And they have these really wicked whips.
There’s serial killers and these really gross wormy snake things, aliens, and many others. All of them are out to get ya too.
While you know the character goes through all ten doors, otherwise there wouldn’t be that many chapters, that doesn’t mean he finds his home story. It doesn’t mean he survives. The author gives no guarantees.
Half way through, the character is fed up, yet he continues. He must and the author needs him to. Otherwise the character will languish in the room and so will the story.
What kind of author doesn’t keep notes? And what’s with the stories? All of them are horrific. Is the author lying? Does he know which door will lead the character to his home story? Is that what the story really is, him having to jump through the hoops? If so, the author must be a sadist.
Unlike anything I’ve ever read before, the author pulled out all the stops. Monsters beyond imagination. A character lost and guided by his author. An author, frustrated at his own lack of foresight.
This is Anthony Renfro’s best work yet!
5 Stars
Blurb
Imagine that you are a character in a story.
You have a home.
You have a life.
You have it all.
Then suddenly you wake up alone and afraid in a cold, dark place. Somehow you find your courage and your voice. When you ask for help, words light up on a wall in the darkness. You read them and realize you are in the creative center of your author’s mind. Instead of rescuing you, the author asks you for help.
This book is about the journey of that character, as he moves from story to story desperately trying to find his home.
And go HERE to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a print copy!
~~~
Author Anthony Renfro
Anthony Renfro lives in Apex, North Carolina. He is a reader, writer, runner, husband, father, and stay at home dad – one of the toughest jobs anyone could ever do. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, and is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro.
You can find him at many spots on the web, but if you really need to find his center in the social media storm it would be at his blog, apoetryjourney.wordpress.com.
Now reach out, just beyond the light, right into that big black space, and let him take your hand on a journey into cold dark places. You will be scared, and you may even be terrified, but in the end you might just find you liked the ride.
The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!
My 56 for this week is from
Strings
by Ruthanne Reid
My 56
Then the slivers came, and I stopped caring about anything else.
They landed like meteors, foreign and destructive, erupting grass and dirt with the force and etheric power of their crashes. They shook the earth, making Barry stumble. And then it got worse.
~~~
Synopsis
Need help? You probably shouldn’t ask Grey.
He’s a runaway Fey prince in New York City. He feeds on love like some kind of vampire. He really doesn’t like people.
But sometimes, fate doesn’t care who you are or what you like. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you aren’t the one pulling the strings.
~~~
Another fun little story by Ruthanne Reid !
I just finished the first book, A Christmas Dragon and will be reviewing both of these later.
The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!
My 56 for this week is from
The Christmas Dragon
by Ruthanne Reid
My 56
A wall of solid blackness hid our path, like curtains, but it didn’t feel solid. My eyes played tricks on me – solid black against solid black, impossible to see, and definitely not products of my imagination.
We hadn’t been closed off by a barrier. That was a whole dark world out there, some new dimension I didn’t know.
~~~
Synopsis
All Katie Lin wants is to get away from her family: from the magic, from the mayhem, and from the never-ending war. Unfortunately, someone has other ideas, and sends her a box. A box that jumps.
The tiny fire hazard inside may just force her back to Wales – and right into the path of a dragon war, the Crow King, and at least one reluctant elf prince. Sometimes, running away just doesn’t work as planned.
~~~
This is such a fun little story! And I have another one too, Strings.
I’ll be reviewing them for a tour in a couple of months so I can’t tell you much about them.
I loved Anthony’s A Zombie Holiday Trilogy and immediately wanted to read more of his stories.
You can read my reviews of those by clicking on my review page at the top of my blog.
Today’s stories don’t have zombies, but they do have a demonic treadmill, a haunted house, and vampires and werewolves that break tradition.
All were fun and all were scary.
Enjoy my reviews!
Killer Treads
My Review
Hey, look at that. A tread mill, like new, for only twenty bucks. What a steal.
He’s been meaning to get in shape, get rid of that spare tire around his middle.
He should have slowed down, caught the warning signs that something was seriously wrong with the deal. Not been so impulsive.
Alas, it’s too late now, and the deal is going to cost him much more than cold hard cash.
This story teaches you to never buy something when the deal seems too good to be true.
Kind of fun, kind of gory, and I liked it.
3 Stars
~~~
Synopsis
A short story about a man who buys a twenty dollar treadmill and finds out too late that the machine has a taste for blood.
~~~
A Haunted House Tale
My Review
They must have seen the movies, read the books. Yet these five friends think it won’t happen to them.
Clearly something will and does.
The legend is, if you survive the night, you receive untold riches.
The temptation lures them in.
There’s safety in numbers, right?
Then it all goes south and everyone is scrambling to get out.
I never get tired of these stories. I was thinking of Scream, the movie, where they go over all of the rules of what not to do.
If these characters had any sense, they’d know not to go in that house, but then I wouldn’t have had such fun reading what happens to them.
3 Stars
~~~
Synopsis
A short story about five students on Halloween night who discover the secrets and terrors of the town’s most infamous haunted house.
~~~
Daylight Vampires and Sunrise Werewolves
My Review
Three great things in one story.
It’s a supernatural western setting.
There are vampires that hunt by day.
And werewolves that shift at sunrise.
All of these combined to make one rollicking bloody read.
Saltwater Junction, Northern California.
The night of the full moon.
Tomorrow they come. Like they do once every year.
The sheriff gathers the town folk and they get the town ready for the morning.
The werewolves will attack at dawn.
The vampires soon after.
This year will be different.
This year they will win.
No more men lost to the werewolves.
No more women and children bled out by the vampires.
If…. If the people do what the sheriff says. If they stand and fight. If…
I loved this idea. Instead of the moon and darkness being these monsters strengths, it’s sunrise and daylight.
You’d think it would be easier for the people to fight them, easier to survive.
Not so. The werewolves are numerous, mindless, feeding machines. The vampires are cunning, swift, and organized.
Right from the opening scene when the sheriff had a shootout with the Lizard brothers, I knew I was in for something different.
I’d love to see this as a movie. I almost could as the author did an excellent job describing the scenes and characters. My wish is he’d write more about this town and it’s characters. It ended too soon for me.
5 Stars
~~~
Synopsis
A Western short story about a town called Saltwater Junction besieged by creatures of the night who now do their stalking in the bright light of day.
~~~
And this just in! Anthony has a giveaway on Goodreads. You can win a print copy of his brand new release, AWOL, on tour this week. You can catch me review on January 10th.
Then suddenly you wake up alone and afraid in a cold, dark place. Somehow you find your courage and your voice. When you ask for help, words light up on a wall in the darkness. You read them and realize you are in the creative center of your author’s mind. Instead of rescuing you, the author asks you for help.
This book is about the journey of that character, as he moves from story to story desperately trying to find his home.
~~~
Author Anthony Renfro
Anthony Renfro lives in Apex, North Carolina. He is a reader, writer, runner, husband, father, and stay at home dad – one of the toughest jobs anyone could ever do. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, and is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro.
You can find him at many spots on the web, but if you really need to find his center in the social media storm it would be at his blog, apoetryjourney.wordpress.com.
Now reach out, just beyond the light, right into that big black space, and let him take your hand on a journey into cold dark places. You will be scared, and you may even be terrified, but in the end you might just find you liked the ride.
I’ve been hooked on zombie stories and movies for a long time.
I’ve even got a survival kit started just in case. I add to it when something handy crosses my path.
Don’t laugh. If it happens, I’ll be the one with the last laugh!
Ready to have some fun.
I received a copy of A Zombie Holiday Trilogy from Anthony Renfro.
There are four stories, each taking place during the winter holidays.
I’ve reviewed them individually and now have pulled all of my reviews together for the complete trilogy.
Come on in and share the holidays with the zombies. They look forward to having you for, oops, over to dinner.
A Zombie Holiday Trilogy
Stuff the turkey, deck the halls, and ring in the New year in a Zombie Apocalypse
A Zombie Thanksgiving
They say the holidays are no longer celebrated because of the zombie apocalypse.
Try telling that to Dawn. All she wants is to bring a little bit of normalcy into their lives. To remind them they are human, that they are still alive, that there is hope.
Guns and knife in hand, Dawn sets off to the grocery store to see if she can find a turkey. I know, this sounds nuts. But people get desperate for the old days, the easy days.
As Dawn stumbles over dead bodies and crashed, abandoned vehicles, she inevitably runs across some shufflers. She takes care of them coldly, efficiently. This is the new way of life.
Meanwhile, back at the safe place, George is handed a note by another survivor in their group. It appears Dawn has left to get food. Fool girl. Doesn’t she know there are zombies out there. What is so important she’d risk this by herself?
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow the author had me feeling the warmth of Thanksgiving. Even As Dawn and George fought off the ravenous zombies that want them for dinner.
Dawn’s fierce determination has me adding her to my list of top female protagonists. She’s not going to stop until she finds that bird!
And George is just as determined. Determined to find Dawn and get her safely back where she belongs. All limbs attached. I liked how his initial frustration turned to alpha male, to lover, as he set out to find her.
I had my fingers and toes crossed for these two. The ending was not set in stone just because it’s Thanksgiving. Maybe the zombies got a nice dinner. Nobody told them they don’t celebrate the holiday.
A Zombie Christmas
He waited until the zombie messed with Rudolph to take him out. No one messed with his Christmas display. The loud crack of his gun brought more and he took care of them too. Then all was quiet again.
Relaxing in his living room, enjoying the lighted Christmas tree, the silence is shattered by the doorbell. Mike can’t believe his eyes. It’s four zombie carolers, singing songs. Or grunting them. Once he quits laughing he quickly dispatches them too. Their noise would bring others.
The loud knocking on his door is welcome. He’s been waiting for Jim and Fred. He needs them if his plan is to succeed.
The plan. Fight a way through the zombies to reach the mall. There, they will grab goodies for the kids in their neighborhood. Everyone is struggling to make it through the apocalypse and the winter is brutal. A little something on Christmas morning for each child would bring smiles to their sweet faces. Would help them forget, for a time, what was happening outside.
Fred and Jim had taken some convincing, but when Mike explained his plan and they realized he’d do it alone if he had to, they were in one hundred percent.
As gruesome as this story got, it also cracked me up. Those zombie carolers were too funny. And the zombie shoppers, shuffling in and out of the mall with their packages, I could just imagine that scene, and laughed out loud. Nobody told the zombies they couldn’t have a Christmas.
I really liked Mike. He didn’t hesitate to take out the zombies yet kept his sense of humor. And by selecting the only other single men in the neighborhood, he didn’t risk leaving a family without a father and provider.
I think these three gents got as much joy as the children from their plan. It must have brought a small measure of hope and joy to them, playing Santa when the world was falling apart.
While I was writing my review, I happened to glance up at my Christmas tree, and what I saw cracked me up again. Sitting nestled on a branch was a little zombie mummy I had been given. I swear it winked at me.
A Zombie New Year
This short story is also offered in the authors collection, A Zombie Holiday Trilogy.
It is the longer of the stories and really hit home. Just how important is tradition when an apocalypse has occurred? How far would you go to keep a promise? Is there time for love when the world has crumbled?
Becky and Joe become separated during the zombie apocalypse. Both find themselves in dangerous situations as they strive to get to Acorn Drop, the place they first met, and share their promised New Years kiss.
Becky awakens surrounded by men in fatigues. A rough lot. They make their wants known and she tries to stall while making up a plan of escape.
You now that saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Sometimes it’s true. These guys should have thoroughly cleared the house before letting their minds listen to their lower parts.
Zombies stumble out of one of the bedrooms and in the tussle, Becky makes her escape, only to have to fight her way through the ones outside.
Some of the men, still pumped up on testosterone, pursue her and she must find a way to lose them. She doubts when they finish with her they’ll just let her go. And she has some place to be. Someone to meet. Something to do. Acorn Drop. Joe. Kiss.
Meanwhile, Joe is out in the open and vulnerable. The zombies are everywhere and he’s been spotted. Searching, he finally sees a house that looks safe and dashes inside.
First things first, he searches the house finding no immediate threat of zombies. Next, he checks the garage and finds a car. Could the keys be in the house? He reenters to search for them. There’s not much time as the zombies will eventually find a way in.
Joe soon discovers he’s not alone in the house. But it’s not zombies and it’s not people. Of all the houses, of all the streets, he had to choose this one. This is one battle he wasn’t prepared for.
He keeps his mind on his goals. Get to Acorn Drop. Find Becky. Kiss her like it’s the end of the world. But New Years is almost here and he’s got a long way to go.
I believe love is all we have when the world falls apart. Even if it doesn’t. Who will mourn you when you die? Who will fight for you, with you? What will keep you going when all seems hopeless?
The dynamics of people when faced with the thinkable has always fascinated me. Sometimes, the threat by man is every bit as deadly as the threat outside.
I’ve read many zombie books and I know there isn’t always a happy ending, but I have hope for Becky and Joe.
A Vampire At Christmas
The story opens in a tomb. All is calm. All is bright. The little Christmas tree in the corner casts a dazzling display reflecting off of the large coffin.
If you put your ear right up against the coffin, you might hear Jimmy Buffet singing Margaritaville. This handsome vampire loves being a vampire, loves Christmas, and is a fan of the southern artist and has been to many of his concerts. His powers enable him to fly to any location and blend into the shadows to enjoy the the shows.
He’s been waiting 364 days for this night and he grabs his bag of goodies and heads out. But first he must feed.
When he was a new vampire he killed at random. But after many years and witnessing the miracle of Christmas, the warmth and cheer of it, he became more selective. Only killing those who deserved it.
I am amazed at the power of this character with the story being just over 20 pages.
He coldly stalks and consumes his prey, yet he’s also gleeful and excited, like a child. He really gets into the Christmas spirit and spreads hope and joy. Not to his prey, of course, but to those who are in need.
I live in the south and have seen Jimmy Buffet in concert. Been to his restaurant. Met him a few times. While I was reading this story, I hummed Margaritaville and thought, this vampire would like it here.
I loved all of these stories and you can bet I’ll be reading anything everything I can get my hands on by this author.
Each story got 5 Stars from me which added up to 20 Stars. Since I can’t give it that, I give this collection a resounding 5 Stars.
~~~~
Author Anthony Renfro
Anthony Renfro lives in Apex, North Carolina. He is a reader, writer, runner, husband, father, and stay at home dad – one of the toughest jobs anyone could ever do. He was born in Bristol, Tennessee, and is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro.
You can find him at many spots on the web, but if you really need to find his center in the social media storm it would be at his blog, apoetryjourney.wordpress.com.
Now reach out, just beyond the light, right into that big black space, and let him take your hand on a journey into cold dark places. You will be scared, and you may even be terrified, but in the end you might just find you liked the ride.
