I hope I have found a selection of stories that will cause the reader to smile or chuckle or even feel a little sad or afraid. I have found zombies, vampires, monsters, demons, Lovecraftian lore, ghosts, and other beasties that ‘go bump in the night’. More than anything, I wanted to share some stories about loneliness and despair and show that the stories can be as frightening as any monster story. I hope the reader finds these stories bittersweet and thought provoking. R.J. Spears is a new author. He has Sanctuary available: a witty, tender, scary book about zombies and the attempt of the survivors to regain a semblance of morality and ethics. He is currently at work on a sequel. TL Decay is an award-winning poet and writer of horror, sci-fi, and romance. His work appears in various anthologies, and he has several novels available. Other Worlds is available as a science fiction collection. Scotty Schrier is a horror writer with J Ellington Ashton Press and has released his first novel Jode Unforgiven, a novel about demons and justice. His story for this book invokes some New Orleans-styled voodoo. Scotty also has a zombie book available. Susan Simone is the author of Silent Heart, a novel that defies any genre. Susan enjoys combining elements from all genres and writing emotional, brave stories that are fanciful, mysterious, and sometimes creepy. Her next novel is due to be released soon. Mark Woods, a prolific reviewer, recently began submitting his short stories, only to find that presses were hungry for them. Writing in a beautiful UK voice, Mark has shared a sad and haunting story. His stories appear in various anthologies. Nick Hatfield writes in a very unusual way, clipped and bare, and he never adds a word that isn’t needed. With his streamlines style, he presents several stories that remind the reader of The Twilight Zone because nothing is as it seems. Heart wrenching, his work is brutally frightening. catt dahman is a prolific writer for Severed Press and J Ellington Ashton. With seventeen books published, she finds short stories to be one of the biggest challenges in writing. Christopher D Abbott is, by trade, a mystery writer. Luckily for us, he is venturing outside his usual and into the world of dark dreams and bumps in the night. Sir Laurence Dies is a murder mystery written in a lovely English voice and is popular internationally. Paul Flewitt: Rock and Roller turned dad and writer, Paul is an up and coming author who is never traditional, breaks every rule, and leaves a reader genuinely afraid. He is the author of Poor Jeffery. Patti Geesey is swears she isn’t a horror writer and we nod and go on. If she doesn’t write horror, in her view, I would hate to know what really scares her.
catt dahman is now under contract with Severed Press publishing house for the 9 Z is for Zombie books.
catt dahman has been writing for more than 30 years, has taught in public schools, private schools, home school, and college. Her B.S. and M.S. degrees are from Texas A & M. She is a native of North East Texas, has lived all over the US, (and tries to claim Jamaica as a second home) but is currently back in the Fort Worth, Texas area where she lives with her husband, David (a retired Marine), son Nic, cats, a ferret, and dog. She has also been a public speaker, artist, director for a charity, dabbled as a PI, and more. When not working, she enjoys SCUBA diving (PADI), reading, ruining movies for her family by pointing out mistakes, collecting Tarot card sets , playing Legos with her son, and growing herbs. She now writes full time, working on a zombie series of nine books, short stories, horror, splatter punk, thrillers, vampire books, and westerns.
This book is good, but not great. There are quite a few amazing stories in here, but there are also quite a few ones that did nothing for me. There's also an issue with some of the editing, but I'll normally let little things like that slide. The problem is, the stories I didn't like, I REALLY didn't like, so it affected the rate. I also bought the paperback of this, and I hate saying it, but the cover...it needs some help. It's like a bad photoshop of something a person who has never seen a horror would think is scary or disturbing. This seems to be a common thing with a lot of books put out by JEA.
Enough of the negative though, how about what I did like about it. There are some truly amazing stories in here. Ones that'll have you wanting to sleep with the light on or needing to watch some Big Bang Theory just to laugh away the nightmares. The book starts off with a bang. Essel Pratt's Super Glue is one you're not going to want to miss. The next one to get prepared for is Tabitha Baumander's Evergreen. I'd never heard of Tabitha before, but after this story, I was wanting more. Dona Fox's Flat Tire and TL Decay's Direction both have some serious creep factor and stuck with me for a while. Then there's Shaun Meeks' Under the Apple Tree that has by far some of the most disturbing images in here, and one of the most evil villains as well (made me think of the old Brother's Grimm evil step mothers). Roy C. Booth and Axel Kohagen's Walking Graveyard might be tied, if not a close second to Shaun's story. It's not one you'll soon forget. Christina Engla's Midnight Station was a slow burning story that made me think of the Twilight Zone for some reason, which is a good thing. All in all, it's worth a read. Even the stories I didn't care for at all might appeal to others. That's one of the great things about anthologies, there's something for nearly everyone.
This book contains a short story by Christina Engela, “Midnight Station” – a spellbinding romantic encounter in a bar between two vampires who haven’t seen each other in 50 years.
For those of us who smirk at the eerie, delight in uneasy situations, and find the dark endearing ... This one is for us! A band of keen authors merge to present a thought-provoking anthology of penetrating stories that you're certain to enjoy ... and remember.