Corey Schultz Carter's Blog, page 5

Nasty Trolls: Now Bend Over While I Verbally Spank You!

Indie authors from all over the world joined together yesterday to celebrate their pride and accomplishments. I had a blast, gave away almost 200 copies of my short story, Nobody’s Home, and enjoyed watching a diverse and talented group of writers celebrate one another. Despite all of the magical rainbows and fun, there always seems to be that one douche lord that wants to spoil a perfectly good time.

I put out a tweet, accompanied by my #IndieBooksBeSeen support picture, encouraging readers to buy an indie book. I stated that indie authors work hard, because we do; the majority of us at least. Enter douche lord! Douche lord decided to get his/her digital panties in a bunch over my tweet and stated something along the lines of, “Why should people support the work of amateurs?” Blah, blah, blah.

I blocked this person, and I didn’t respond. As I’ve stated before, I do not negotiate with terrorists, trolls, or toddlers. (Okay! Occasionally with toddlers.) I then made a follow up comment on my own tweet, explaining that all authors, both traditional and indie, work hard. However, yesterday was INDIE PRIDE DAY. Indie authors do work hard. It’s not a simple task to write, edit, design your own cover, conduct research about an ever-changing industry, and market your face off around the clock, while you wait months or years to get noticed. All the while, authors are leading a very public life, which opens us up to pointless attacks from people like the above mentioned douche lord.

After we’ve polished our books, and feel that we are providing readers with quality material to enjoy, authors rely heavily on reviews. If we get enough positive feedback from our amazing readers, people might begin to finally notice our work. No reader is forced to buy our books. They can read the reviews and sometimes the first 3 chapters, before making the decision to purchase. You can usually tell if an author has written an entire novel in one night and neglected to edit their work. Allowing readers to discover this for themselves seems like a reasonable deal to me.

Thank you for reading, and please keep up the hard work. While writing may or may not lead all authors to financial rewards, your work is still an amazing accomplishment. It is important to respect and consider constructive criticism, but do not let anyone discourage you; particularly the nasty trolls who will eventually cross back over their bridge of negativity, so they can wallow in their own misery.

Warm and fuzzy wishes to you all,

Corey Schultz Carter

Nobody’s Home: A Free Look Inside!

Nobody’s Home

The unwelcome chill of fall air cut through Catherine’s car, as she made her way through an intricate string of winding, country roads. She launched the core of her apple out and quickly rolled up the window. Catherine relied solely on the warmth of the sun, which was now barely sneaking through the thick of the treetops, to warm her skin. Leaves of gold, orange, brown, and red spilled from the towering trees, which lined the roadways like a wall of forbidding giants, isolating her from civilization. According to her GPS, the student volunteer cabin was only two miles ahead, and she hoped that the other recruits had made it there before her.

The GPS lost its signal just after it robotically announced that she had reached her destination. When she caught a glimpse of the dilapidated cabin ahead, she felt an instinctive urge to turn around, but the handgun in her purse put her mind at ease, so she continued to drive. Catherine had gotten off to a late start earlier that morning, so there should have been other students at the cabin by now, but she didn’t see any vehicles. She took her foot off of the gas, and allowed her car to coast down the long and narrow dirt road.

Catherine pulled her car nearer to the front door of the abandoned dwelling, which appeared much too small to accommodate a group of eight students. The students had each volunteered to study rare bats, which were on the federal endangered species list and found in the mountain region of North Carolina. The windows of the cabin were boarded up, and the wooden steps, along with the surrounding porch, had rotted to the point that the slanted decking seemed to be sinking into the earth below. Catherine noticed that the front door was slightly ajar and bravely stepped out of her car to investigate.

Aside from the cabin, the surrounding forest was enchanting. The crisp leaves echoed the sounds of the fall breeze, and she could here an orchestra of birds sounding off, as they prepared their nests for the winter ahead. The subtle flow of a nearby river called to her, as she approached the mysterious cabin. Catherine realized that she would have to climb over the sunken stairway to get to the front door, and she rolled her eyes, wondering how the campus volunteer coordinator could have expected anyone to lodge in a place that obviously should have been condemned.

Catherine gave the antiquated door a firm shove, and it let out an agonizing, rusty creak, as it swung open. The interior was in no better condition than what she had already observed outside, so she stepped in with extreme caution, careful not to put too much weight on the decayed flooring beneath her boots. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an injury in the middle of an abandoned forest.

She pulled her cell phone from her cargo pants, only to find that she had no service. As Catherine continued further into the dark confines of the cabin, it was clear to her that no one had been there for at least five years. Other than the complete absence of any furnishings, vines had grown up through the floorboards and attached themselves firmly to the walls. Dust covered every surface of the cabin, and the one mirror that hung on the bathroom wall had corroded and hung sideways, partially shattered. Although she hadn’t used the bathroom during the final two hours of her trip, she didn’t dare lift the lid of the toilet, worrying that some wild, unnamed creature might jump out and attach itself to her body.

Once she was convinced that she must have been given the wrong address, she made her way back to the front door, which was now closed. Nailed to the door, was a note that read, “Where are you going, Catherine?” She stood there, motionless and wide-eyed, wanting nothing more than to be back in her cozy, one-bedroom apartment on campus. She snatched the note off of the rusty nail in the door. This was not a coincidence. The large, bright-white sheet of paper was the only item in the cabin that had any semblance of life left in it.

As she studied the note, Catherine heard the muffled sound of footsteps, just outside of the front door. She watched nervously as the knob turned, and the door let out another menacing screech. Catherine took a giant step away from the entrance and raised her keychain, which was armed with pepper spray. An attractive young man poked his head through the door and looked at her as if she was some unkempt wild woman. Before he was able to speak to her, Catherine lunged forward and shot the pepper spay directly into his eyes.

The man dropped to the ground; his eyes raging with heat and pain. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Catherine thought about running, but the stranger was clearly immobilized, and she wanted answers. “Who are you? Did you write this note?”

“My name is Pete Jenson.” He fought to speak between each painful groan. “I’m supposed to be meeting a group of volunteers out here this weekend. Who the hell are you? Why did you just attack me?”

Catherine insisted, “Answer the question! Did you write this note?”

“What freaking note, lady? I can’t exactly see right now, in case you haven’t noticed! I didn’t write any sort of note. I just got here. I volunteered to work on a group project, studying bats, and this is the address I was given.”

“This doesn’t make sense.” Catherine kneeled down beside Pete. “I’m also a part of the volunteer program. We’re supposed to be here for three days, but when I arrived, all I found was this miserable shack, so I figured my GPS had misguided me.”

“Yeah. This place is definitely not the cozy weekend cabin that I envisioned either, but that still doesn’t explain why you just shot me in the face with pepper spray.”

Catherine slid the note across the dusty floor, and Pete read aloud through his blurred vision, “Where are you going, Catherine?”

He rubbed his eyes, which only intensified the stinging sensation, and slid the note back to her. “I’m assuming you are Catherine?”

Continue Reading Nobody’s Home        

Tourist Fishing: Pull Up Your Beach Chair, Grab a Cold Beer, & Brace Yourself for Hilarity!

After befriending several natives on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina, I was introduced to the masterful art of tourist fishing. I was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn the craft! Tourist fishing is absolutely one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed a group of grown men attempt. All you need is a beautiful seashell, a fishing rod, and a gullible passerby. The results vary, so if you attempt this on your own, be prepared for a variety of outcomes. Unsuspecting tourists either laugh it off or become somewhat enraged, once they finally realize that they’ve been duped.

I like to weave my writing with a healthy balance of fiction, my own life experiences, and anything useful (or hysterical) that other people have shared with me along life’s path. In my romantic thriller novel, the fast moving plot remains suspenseful, as a money hungry psychopath attempts to stalk Annabelle across several states. Despite the seriousness of Annabelle’s situation, the characters manage to work in a relaxing beach day, filled with ice cold beer, volleyball, and tourist fishing.

Tourist Fishing Explained: An Excerpt from Shadows of Deception:

Worn out after too much liquor, sunshine, and volleyball, the guys sat close to the shore in their beach chairs. They laughed hysterically as Cole taught Jake about tourist fishing. Annabelle and Kara watched from afar in amusement. As the sun began to set, the girls giggled at Jake and Cole from their giant beach blanket. Despite the circumstances, the four lifelong friends were glad to be reunited again.

 “You see this shell?” Cole presented Jake with a beautiful, white conch shell and a fishing rod. “Tie the shell to the end of the line, and then cast it out near the edge of the water. When someone walks by and tries to pick it up, jerk your line a bit, and then slowly reel in the shell. To the unsuspecting tourist, the shell just seems like it’s drifting around in the surf. You gotta keep it within their reach though, man. They’ll just keep on chasing it!”

 Jake laughed so hard that he nearly tipped out of his chair. “Cole, you’re a genius!” Jake cast his first shell out into the surf and watched. “Wait…do people ever get pissed off at you? I’m not trying to get my ass beat by some steroid junkie, bro.”

 Cole laughed, “Most people are pretty cool about it. Once they realize that the shell is tied to a fishing line, they either look away in embarrassment, cuss you out, or come over and have a beer with you. It’s a great way to fish for hot women too!”

Kara yelled, “Hey! You guys do realize that we can hear you back here, right?”

Cole and Jake played dumb and continued on with their mischief. They wanted to catch one more tourist before they left the beach. Annabelle and Kara decided that it was time to start cleaning up their mess from the day. They were both starving and ready to get cleaned up for dinner that evening. As they gathered all of their towels, chairs, and coolers into one neat pile, Annabelle could tell that Kara had something on her mind. Annabelle finished brushing the sand off of her legs, and plopped back down on the blanket beside her friend.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to share your own experiences with tourist fishing. If, after reading this, you grabbed your fishing pole, and you are now rushing off to the beach to catch your first tourist, please remember to exercise great caution, and be prepared to hand out beer.

Corey Carter

The 24/7 Indie Author Experience: Writing & Promoting On Your Own

I’m sure that almost every seasoned Indie Author will tell you that the majority of us work endless hours with little pay in the beginning. This has been my own experience thus far. After I published my first novel, Shadows of Deception, I was proud of my achievement, but then I realized that Amazon wasn’t going to just miraculously sell my book for me. I spoke with my cousin, a well established Indie Author, and she warned me of the obstacles and hard work ahead. The purpose of this post is to give both new, and already established authors, some insight about my own experiences in this industry so far.

Start marketing before you write your book! 

I can’t emphasize this enough. I won’t lie; I had no idea what twitter was, until after I published my romantic thriller novel. No clue! With the exception of my own personal Facebook and Goodreads pages, I established all of the following accounts after I published my novel. It takes time to build these accounts; months and years. Here’s a basic list of platforms that you need to establish immediately, if you want at least 1 person to know your work exists:

My Personal Accounts Include:

Twitter
Facebook Fan Page (or at least your own personal FB account)
A Website & Blog
Pinterest
Stumble Upon
LinkdIn
Goodreads

Authors Support One Another:

It’s important to connect and communicate with people in your field. When you show support for fellow authors, bloggers, artists, and your readers, they are likely to reciprocate. Talk to people, be kind, and don’t just selfishly throw your book ads around and expect others to help you, when you don’t bother to help them along the way. Join groups and discussion forums on Facebook, Goodreads, and wherever else to happen to stumble across them. They offer an excellent learning opportunity. You get a taste of what other writers are experiencing, how they advertise, and you can even find beta readers for your books.

I believe in Karma & I’m also a very nice person:

I’m connected with so many authors on twitter, and like myself, they run some incredible book promotions to promote their work. If their book is free, I download it to my kindle. It may sit there for a month, maybe longer, but I eventually get around to reading it, and I post a review if I like what I read. They say it’s important for writers to read as much as possible, so it’s a win win deal to me! I have had several supportive authors buy my book and/or short horror story recently, and I try to reciprocate as much as my budget will allow.

Don’t Be an %@$#*%# 

I have had several authors download Shadows of Deception and The Black Shadow during a free book promotion. They then contacted me to inform me of their “purchase”, rudely demanding that I buy their book (NOT for free) and review it as soon as possible. It seemed to be more of a threat than a friendly request. There was no personal conversation to get to know me prior to these requests, and I had no idea who these authors were, so I was very turned off. I always appreciate support from my colleagues, but I do not negotiate with terrorists! Again, build relationships. Please.

Paid Advertising:

Clearly, if you are in a situation similar to mine, you don’t have a ton of cash to toss at a major advertising campaign for your book. Through my research and growing connections, I have stumbled across plenty of free advertising routes. Readers Gazette, for example, offers a ton of services and support for authors, and Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook are other useful, free options. I have paid a reputable book promotion service to tweet my book for a week, and it didn’t have any significant impact on my sales, however, they also tweet about my blog posts upon request, which has driven a significant amount of traffic to my website. I have also dumped about $150 into paid Facebook advertising, but I did not find that to be very helpful. However, as an emerging author, I have not yet established a large fan base through Facebook, which I believe would make my ads visible to a much larger community of readers.

Taking the leap to become an Indie Author has been a major learning experience for me. I have made some excellent connections and friends in just a few months, and I value them greatly. My best advice is to do plenty of research before and while you are writing your book. When I’m not writing, I spend at least 5 hours of my day on book promotion and research about the industry. To effectively promote your own book, you have to be prepared to work around the clock, and it requires lots of time and patience on the part of the writer (and their significant other…..and toddler, in my case).

Thanks for reading,

Corey Carter

Irresistible Kindle Countdown Deal: Shadows of Deception Only .99c! Limited Time!

Don’t Miss Out on this Irresistible Kindle Countdown Deal for Shadows of Deception:

Highly Rated Romantic Thriller Novel
On Sale from May 15th to May 22nd
Starting Price is Only .99c.
Free w/ Kindle Unlimited
Read 3 Chapters Free

Highlights from reviews on Amazon & Goodreads:

Fast Paced
Well Written
Exciting Plot
Relentless Villain
Hot Hero
Strong Heroine

Book Detail: 

What would you do if you found out that your entire marriage was based on a lie, and your seemingly perfect husband was actually a money hungry psychopath with a dark and twisted past? One phone call from her husband’s mistress was all it took to unravel Annabelle’s otherwise perfect life, sending her on a dangerous journey of fear, paranoia, and unshakable nightmares. After a yearlong divorce process with the man she once knew as a handsome, charming, American hero, Annabelle learns that Evan Montague has been stalking her for months, and he is not at all the man that he claimed to be when they first met. In order to protect herself from his violent threats, including his attempt to extort all of her money, Annabelle is forced to leave her charming Virginia estate.

She travels to the Outer Banks of North Carolina; the last place her ex-husband would think to look for her. Although she has not spoken to her childhood sweetheart in years, she turns to Cole Cross for help. Cole owns an oceanfront beach house and several rental properties on the Outer Banks, and he is generous enough to provide Annabelle with a cottage to serve as her temporary refuge. Once Annabelle reunites with Cole, nothing can extinguish the fiery passion that they harbor for one another; not even the malevolent stalker that waits in the shadows.

As two detectives work tirelessly to put Evan in prison, Annabelle fears that her ex-husband may find her before the police are able to apprehend him. The last time they spoke, Evan vowed to kill her if she didn’t pay up, and there wasn’t a chance that Annabelle would even consider meeting his demands. When a flicker of light from a beach bonfire reveals Evan’s face from the nearby shadows, Annabelle fears that he has somehow found her; or could it have been her overly anxious imagination?

Paperback & eBook Versions Available Now:

Shadows of Deception

My Story of Anxiety & Persisting Shortness of Breath

Every one of us experiences stress, and we all handle it differently. Unfortunately, it’s just one of those unavoidable parts of life. I have always suffered from mild anxiety and occasional panic attacks throughout my life, but severe anxiety has affected my life substantially within the last year and a half. Around the time that I was planning my own wedding (hold the jokes), I began having shortness of breath. I thought the worst; I have COPD or some horrific terminal illness. Web MD only fueled my fears, although anxiety was often at the top of their list.

From August to November, I lived a double life; stay at home mom by day and a writer, publisher, amateur graphic designer, and social media marketer at night. This was a particularly stressful period for me. In December 2014, I finally published my first romantic thriller novel, so I thought that my stress level would drop, and perhaps I’d be able to breathe normally again. I was wrong.

The shortness of breath, which had started off slowly, only increased in intensity as the year rolled along. It eventually got to the point that it would occur for hours at a time throughout the day, causing me to constantly take deep breaths or yawn to feel like I was getting what still seemed to be an inadequate amount of air. It was both physically and mentally exhausting. In case you have not personally suffered from this sort of medical condition, the feeling of not being able to breathe is REALLY FREAKING SCARY. I went to the doctor, and he ran every test imaginable to ensure that my heart and lungs were in healthy working condition. He even checked my thyroid. Everything was fine in all of those areas, so he determined that it was anxiety, and he started me off on a low dose of Zoloft (daily) and Xanax (as needed). Neither seemed to help.

My doctor slowly increased my dosage of Zoloft, until the problem was resolved. A year and a half has passed since the onset of this problem, and the shortness of breath is almost nonexistent. Occasionally, I’ll have a few seconds of breathlessness, but I can manage those few seconds easily when I remember the hours of struggle that I used to suffer through. I opted not to continue with the Xanax, because of its addictive properties and the fact that the Zoloft alone works for me, but there are still people who do require that extra measure to control their anxiety. I’m hoping to slowly stop taking any medication in the near future, and through my research, I’ve created an awareness board for anxiety and depression on Pinterest, which offers many ideas and solutions to mange these issues with or without medication.

I felt alone for a while; Like something was wrong with me that I could not explain, and no one understood. When I tried to search for answers, I came across so many stories about other people who suffer from this same condition. I hope that people going through this same struggle will read this deeply personal story, and check out my awareness board to find that they are not alone. There are natural and medicinal remedies for anxiety related shortness of breath as well as depression, but you have to recognize and address the problem immediately, so it does not take complete control of your life.

For a growing board of resources to help overcome and spread awareness about anxiety and depression, visit https://www.pinterest.com/coreyschultz/anxiety-depression-awareness/

Thank you all for reading!

Corey Carter

Mirror by Sylvia Plath: A poem every woman should read at least once.

As an English major, I was required to read an extraordinary amount of literature during a four year period. Much of it I loved, and some of it made me fall asleep on my couch by 8:00 on a Friday night. One evening, when I wasn’t bored into a way too wordy book coma, I stumbled across this poem as I was doing a research project on the life and works of Sylvia Plath. I was so moved by this poem, that it has never been good enough to know that it’s always available right here on my bookshelf, so I printed it out, and it hangs proudly on my refrigerator for all of my guests to read. This is one of my many favorite poems.

Mirror

by Sylvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

What ever you see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful—

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is a part of my heart. But it Flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.

In me she had drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Indie Author & SAHM Extraordinaire: A Balancing Act

Caution: Run-on sentences that seem to take on the form of entire paragraphs. Why? I’m exhausted, and I can.

I woke up especially early this morning. Not because I wanted to get out of bed at 5:30 a.m., but because it was music and story-time day at the library. If I want to bathe without a 2 year old, smaller version of my husband flooding the entire bathroom floor, while playing her own EPIC version of duck pond in the bathroom sink while mommy showers, or turning the lights off, just as I’m attempting to shave my legs for the first time in three days, this is what I have to do. Within a 24-hour period, waking up early at least gives me an hour of privacy; a beautiful sliver of my own time to think, dream, plan, and smell nice.

The few hours leading up to our time together at the library was great! After demanding strawberries, pickles, and two frozen yogurts for breakfast, it was time for her bath. After scrubbing the frozen yogurt from nearly every inch of her body (and later the carpets), my self-declared princess decided that she would escape the evil villain known as mommy and run through the house, stark naked, dive into her Dora the Explorer ball tent, filled with 100 brightly colored balls, yelling “I pee-pee I-pee”, while laughing hysterically at her now breathless mother. Upon further inspection of before mentioned @#&$%*# tent, mommy finds that, in fact, princess has peed everywhere, but at least within the confines of the tent! I am then faced with the AMAZING task of soaking 100 balls and the giant, plastic, @#!$%&* blow-up Dora tent in its very own special bath, but not before I’ve given my child her own second bath. This is the fourth time today that I have used the bath/shower facilities in my home. HELLO CITY WATER BILL!!! I’ll need more book sales for this adventure alone.

We hop in the car. My child has everything that she requires: Goofy (one large and one       small version of the exact same stuffed animal), her juice, a green (not any other @#$!&^% color) bowl of goldfish, a pacifier that she has nearly chewed the tip off of because she is in teething hell, and some random flashlight that I am NEVER to forget before leaving the house. Yup! We’re good! We are waiting at a busy, five minute long stoplight, which leads to the library, when I mistakenly ask, “Honey, are you excited about library time?” Protest ensues! “NOOOOOOO. Park and play, park and play, park and play”. You get the point, right!? We finally get to the library, she finds a friend, all is right with the world, and we play, story-time, and dance our faces off. Woohoo!

Then comes the grocery shopping. We Shop. It’s great. She behaves until we get to the checkout point of our adventure. All of the sudden, my sweet child transforms into a tiny spider monkey and declares, “Mommy pick up, mommy pick up!” Before I can even compute her demand, she stands up in the cart and lunges at me. I catch the airborne spider monkey, realizing that I am now suddenly wet. Coincidentally, I now smell like pee too. I attempt to check out, while holding a ridiculously sized purse, which keeps slipping off of my shoulder, and I’m trying to slide the #$%^&*@ debit card, while the spider monkey is somehow making her way from her position on my waist to some unknown destination above our heads; likely my own head, or even the ceiling, because after all, spider monkeys are sneaky little creatures. The man behind me is laughing hysterically at my chaotic checkout situation, but my hands are too busy to punch him in the face or to toss the spider monkey at him, so I give him my best %&*# you fake laugh. I’ll inevitably write him off as a douche bag, or maybe even Satan, in my next book.

When we finally arrive home, I give my darling toddler her third bath of the day. This time, it’s mommy’s fault for forgetting to change her diaper in between point A and point B. I settle her to sleep, allowing myself a solid two hours to work on marketing my novel and my short story. I am only able to write in the evenings, because it’s hard to concentrate with a spider monkey hanging from your leg, while attempting to form an intelligent sentence, not to mention an entire novel. No matter how hectic my days are; I adapt. Trying to strike the perfect balance between caring for a child around the clock, while attempting to build a writing career is a trying task, but it’s not an impossible task. I love my family, and I feel truly blessed to have an opportunity to work at my own pace and on my own terms as an Indie Author.

An afterthought:

This week in particular has been incredibly trying. My teething toddler contracted a wicked cold from the deepest pit in hell from her adorable boyfriend at the library, decided to drop her midday nap, and she also learned how to spider monkey her way over the crib rail. (Yes! All in the same week, which is how long it has taken me to work on this rather short blog post.) I have lost my marketing break during her naptime, and once I removed that crib rail, all hell broke loose. Day after day, I have dedicated two hours of my evening writing time to sitting in the floor by her new big girl bed, making my best attempt as a first time mother, to console my anxious child, who was previously the world’s greatest sleeper. Last night, I woke up at 2:00 a.m. to my now night roaming spider money, bouncing happily on my chest, while yelling “UPTOWN FUNK! Let’s do it mommy! Music time!” All I could do was wrap my arms around her and laugh, knowing that this is just a phase, and I’ll be able to return to my writing eventually.

 

 

Thank you for reading!!

Corey Carter

 

 

 

Readers and Writers Unite; The Indie Author Experience!!

Originally posted on Author: Corey Carter:

I’m so excited that I finally published my first e-book to amazon kindle! Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can’t express enough how truly amazing the Indie Author experience has been for me. I think the fact that writers, who otherwise would have been pushed aside or overlooked by traditional publishers, have been given a platform in which they can share their unique writing talents and stories is an incredible opportunity. I love that writers can make the first several chapters available for readers to decide whether or not they like the quality and writing style of individual authors. As a reader, I love having this option afforded to me, before I purchase a book. I admit, I had no idea that promoting my own book would be so challenging, but I love a good challenge. I’m new to the twitter community and many of the Facebook…

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The Black Shadow: A Short Horror Story Inspired By My Own Experiences.

 T

Have you ever had to suffer the wrath of someone that was so unforgettably cruel, that they somehow managed to slip into a dark, unguarded corner of your mind; Even in the absence of their presence, they managed to haunt your dreams and strangle your spirit? My new short horror story, The Black Shadow, was inspired partly by my own childhood experiences with a nasty pair of siblings that rode the bus with me. While the main antagonist, “Denny”, did not actually meet the fate that he was served at the end of this horror story, he was a very real threat to me as a young girl. His awful sister, “Teresa”, is someone that I only had to face once, because she rode the bus one afternoon specifically for the purpose of helping her brother harass me. Thankfully, I never saw her after that day, but I was still left to deal with the devil. Between my vivid imagination, and my unfortunate experience with “Denny” and his sister, I dreamed up this short horror story and wrote it within a matter of days. A few weeks later, I decided to lengthen it, and I added in even more personal details and suspense. While this story was inspired by actual events, keep in mind that it is still a work of fiction.

The Black Shadow: Now available on Amazon. http://t.co/jUMsbBliIw