by S.R. Mallery
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Holy by Abbie Krupnick
Horror /contemporary dark fantasy
Date Published: April 15, 2017
Publisher: Darkwater Syndicate, Inc.
Gus Stevens has the worst of both worlds. By night, he resides in the Dream World, a place steeped in magic and exotic dangers. By day, a giant snow-lizard stalks him in the Real World, looking to make Gus its next meal. In order to regain control of his life, young Gus must undergo a psychoanalytic exorcism. But this comes with a high price—he must break away from everything he has ever thought was real. Author Abbie Krupnick blends the magical and the mundane in this avant-garde dark fantasy where nothing is as it seems.
Excerpt
The high-pitched scream of a predatory bird echoed from the direction of the Valley. The eagle was approaching at break-neck speed, a maroon streak under the stars. Then it braked and circled lazily overhead a few times before alighting opposite Gus, talons gripping the edge. Gus heard the volcano groan, its anger filling him. The mountain shuddered, its sides growing warm. He slipped out of his cocoon of heat, felt naked without it in front of the bird.
“Hello,” the Magician said, examining him with green eyes. “Why don’t you come down and we’ll talk about things in the grove.”
Gus wondered how much he had overheard.
The mountain was heating up by the second. In a few minutes the smooth stone would scald his feet. A pale orange glow flashed briefly at the bottom of the vent, then colored to yellows and reds too fast, too soon.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Language whispered.
“Don’t listen to him, Gus,” the Magician said. So the Magician could hear, too. What an unsurprising comfort that was.
“Boy, in a few moments, I’m going to flood the whole World with molten rock. Make your choice quickly, because this is the only chance you’ll get.”
“Gus Stevens, you get down from the volcano this instant!” the Magician ordered sternly. Gus couldn’t help snickering at that.
“What are you going to choose, a lifetime of pain here, pretending you’re happy when you can’t even talk about your sham of happiness?”
“I’ll give you a nice, relaxed ride down to the grove. Your Mothers will make your favorite foods. I’ll even make Spear Mother take off her helmet for you.” The last offer disgusted him.
“Gus, he’s a monster.”
“This renegade spirit is crazy.”
“He’s whoring out Spear Mother.”
“I would do no such thing. I’m simply explaining to my son—”
“Boy, friend, vessel, host, house, my stronghold, listen to me: Which do you want? The misery this poor excuse for a Person offers you or freedom?”
I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know!
“Easy, Gus, easy,” the Magician murmured. Gus shot him a poisonous look, took several deep breaths while staring at the rising column of magma. A despairing question anchored him.
I’m going to suffer whether or not I’m free, right? he asked the rock illuminated like a burning mineshaft. The magma rose higher. The Dream World will go under and I’ll be the same?
The magma’s rise halted as Language stopped to think.
“Well,” it replied. “You’ll have me.”
What difference will that make?
“Do you promise not to be angry if I tell you?”
Sure.
“The truth is, I don’t know,” it said, and the magma resumed its journey upwards. It had to be less than seventy feet away. Sixty-five. Sixty. It stopped again. “I don’t know what the Waking World is like except through what I’ve overheard you say.”
So how do you know you’re important there? You don’t even know if it exists.
“I don’t. But I trust Mathis. You do, too, don’t you?”
Dumbstruck, Gus replied, I guess.
“And he told you the mountain would explain everything?”
Yes. He didn’t tell me that the mountain was possessed by a crazy spirit calling itself Language incarnate.
“Exactly, Gus! Well done!” the Magician wheedled, “Don’t trust it. Trust ME. I’ll give you all the knowledge you’ve ever wanted from me if you return to the grove.”
The magma hadn’t started to rise again but its heat was baking his face.
Please, Language begged, now inside his head. Please.
You don’t care what happens to me. So what if I kill myself, right? You lose your chains. I’m still screwed.
I’ll be trapped in your soul again, but YOU will be free to use me. Which is how it should be.
Then you’re exchanging one prison for another.
If you were in my place, you’d be right, but the rules are different for me. Please, Gus. Let me go.
He had nothing to say to it.
Please, Gus. Please. PLEASE.
It was hysterical, its voice rising higher and higher with the magma. His ears were ringing again.
PLEASE. PLEASE. Let me go. Let me go. Let me go. LET ME GO.
Its hysteria was getting to him. He couldn’t stop his own tears from leaking.
Please, Gus. Please let me out. LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!
It was screaming bloody murder. He covered his ears as though this would muffle the sound inside his head. He was ready to smash the sound out of his skull on the vent but Language stopped him with a whimpering, Please.
“Please please please please please!” the Magician mocked, voice muffled. He kept chanting “please please please” as he cleaned his feathers. Gus tuned him out, waited until the bird had finished so he could see the hate on Gus’s face. Long-hidden vows to repay the suffering his mentor had caused him boiled to the surface. He chewed them all into a simple order to Language.
Now.
About the Author
Abbie Krupnick lives in Summit, New Jersey. When she’s not writing, she trains Brazilian jiu-jitsu and makes explosive quantities of visual art.
Contact Links
Purchase Links
TWINS The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, the novella genesis of book 6 by Kim Iverson Headlee
The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, the novella genesis of book 6
by Kim Iverson Headlee
by Kim Iverson Headlee
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Sons of Twilight
Romance, Fantasy
Date Published: June 2017
Publisher: Outskirts Press
A mysterious black towering pyramid pushes its way up in the middle of the Midwestern city of Waterloo, IA, during an earthquake sending the city into chaos. It is the doorway to an underground world, the Garden of Eden where angels dwell. When a special tactical team is sent inside, one of its members Dane Coles is chosen to be among them, spinning his life and those around him into a vortex of twist and turns! Indulge in this hardcore fantasy!
'Sons of twilight', picks up where 'Daughters of Twilight' ends, throwing readers into a deeper complex story as Dane and Asia have been banished from the Garden of Eden to protect them and their twin sons from the evil that dwells there. Dane and his sons escape to the surface with the aid of Asia who is to follow, but not before suffering the wrath of the Ancient one; one of the oldest members of the Garden. He seeks to use the young lovers’ children for his own ends. When denied this, the Garden is thrown into chaos. Bands of angels ranging from war angels to peace keepers, elders to newborns; children of earth men and angels. Dane fights to keep himself and his sons alive while facing many challenges as he waits for his Asia to join him. He is not alone in his fight for survival as his team leader, Captain Ivan Steel and a host of other special team members fight to seal their place in the Garden along with their angel wives at their sides. A global darkness is coming and their new acquired skills are needed not only to protect themselves but the people on earth, globally, as they run interference in order to keep the peace among world warring factions.
Other Books by Collette Jackson-Fink:
Publisher: Outskirts Press
The special tactical teams had been trained for normal encounters with flesh and blood...not supernatural beings.
A quiet little city in the Midwest town of Waterloo, Iowa is about to come to life...with angels! When an earthquake measuring seven hits Waterloo, a huge black pyramid shaped tower pushes it’s way up through a corn field in Blackhawk County spinning the city into the national spot light. It’s thought that the “Black Tower” is dormant, but when special tactical teams are sent inside to investigate, special team member Dane Coles is confronted by the impossible...a beautiful creature that has been cursed and cast down into oblivion within the Garden of Eden, using the ‘Black Tower’ as a doorway to the surface...
Purchase Links
About the Author
Collette Jackson-Fink has been writing since she was 13 years old. A Persian Gulf veteran, Collette works as a respiratory therapist at a trauma center in her home state of Iowa with her husband, Ron.
Contact Links
Purchase Links
Monday, August 14, 2017
The Bridge of Deaths by M.C.V. Egan
The Bridge of Deaths is based on the crash of Lockheed
Electra10A G-AESY August 15, 1939. True events and real people investigated
through conventional and unconventional sources in Denmark, England, Mexico and
the United States. The reader feels that he/she is also sifting through data and
forming their own conclusions.
AMAZON US - CLICK HERE
AMAZON UK - CLICK HERE
Author M.C.V. Egan has spent the better part of the last two decades researching the real-life events depicted in her book The Bridge of Deaths. Her book, when it was published in 2011, gathered critical accolades and reviews. Now, as the 75th anni.versary of the events and World War II are coming, she has revised the book and given it a new cover of The Bridge of Deaths; A Lovestory and a Mystery
FIVE STARS FROM THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW 
What happens in the moments leading up to disaster? "The Bridge of Deaths" follows the story of a true life event of a plane crash shortly before World War II of an international meeting of many individuals. Compiling a work of intrigue based on those who lost their lives and what they may have been seeking.
Join Bill and Maggie in 2010 London as through their love and curiosity they unravel the secrets from known and little known events in the 1930s. Journey to Denmark on August 15th 1939, at the brink of World War II where a British Airways LTD airplane crashed and sunk. Five deaths were reported: two Standard Oil of New Jersey employees, a German Corporate Lawyer, an English member of Parliament, and a crew member for the airline. The reader walks away with his/her ultimate conclusions. "The Bridge of Deaths' is an unusual yet much recommended read.
5.0 out of 5 stars "An unusual yet much recommended read", By Midwest Book Review
The Bridge of Deaths is a love story and a mystery. Fictional characters travel through the world of past life regressions and information acquired from psychics as well as Archives and historical sources to solve “One of those mysteries that never get solved”. Based on true events and real people it is the culmination of 18 years of sifting through sources and finding a way to help the reader feel that he /she is also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions. The journey takes the reader to well known and little known events leading up to the Second World War, both in Europe and America. The journey also takes the reader to the possibility of finding oneself in this lifetime by exploring past lives.
Source Danish Museum of Science and Technology, The Zonen Salvage Collection
The Bridge of Deaths is based on the crash of Lockheed Electra10A G-AESY August 15, 1939. True events and real people investigated through conventional and unconventional sources in Denmark, England, Mexico and the United States. The reader feels that he/she is also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions.
What happens in the moments leading up to disaster? "The Bridge of Deaths" follows the story of a true life event of a plane crash shortly before World War II of an international meeting of many individuals. Compiling a work of intrigue based on those who lost their lives and what they may have been seeking.Join Bill and Maggie in 2010 London as through their love and curiosity they unravel the secrets from known and little known events in the 1930s. Journey to Denmark on August 15th 1939, at the brink of World War II where a British Airways LTD airplane crashed and sunk. Five deaths were reported: two Standard Oil of New Jersey employees, a German Corporate Lawyer, an English member of Parliament, and a crew member for the airline. The reader walks away with his/her ultimate conclusions. "The Bridge of Deaths' is an unusual yet much recommended read.
5.0 out of 5 stars "An unusual yet much recommended read", By Midwest Book Review
|
The Bridge of Deaths is a love story and a mystery. Fictional characters travel through the world of past life regressions and information acquired from psychics as well as Archives and historical sources to solve “One of those mysteries that never get solved”. Based on true events and real people it is the culmination of 18 years of sifting through sources and finding a way to help the reader feel that he /she is also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions. The journey takes the reader to well known and little known events leading up to the Second World War, both in Europe and America. The journey also takes the reader to the possibility of finding oneself in this lifetime by exploring past lives.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Too Beautiful For Words by Ronald M James
Mystery, Detective
Date Published: July 2017
Private Investigator, Sammy Shovel, finally gets the client of a lifetime and rushes to claim his jackpot, but he soon discovers—wealth and pearl coincide.
Beloved Golden Opportunities, CEO, Joel Ceja, is found murdered one foggy morning. Three months after Joel’s death the police are stumped, they still have no clues to his murder. Golden Opportunities’ employees feel they’re being stonewalled and decide to hire Shovel to assist the police. Sammy accepts, figuring it was nothing more than a local homicide.
However, in no time at all, he’s mired in international quicksand filled with a worldwide assassinations ring—and he wants out. But greed overcomes his common sense.
He runs from firefight to firefight to get to the truth, but his adversaries dupe him time and again.
You may deceive Sammy—some of time. But when he put's it altogether—run bother, run for we all know Sammy’s a shoot first and ask questions later type a guy.
About the Author
Ronald M. James was born during the great depression, and as a toddler watched WPA men build a new street, from his home’s big front window. His playmates were a red rider wagon, a small black satchel and rocks. By using his imagination he had conversations with mythical street workers that bloomed into fashioned fantasies by age four. He used cardboard boxes to create fun spaces for his neighborhood playmates to enjoy and he kept telling stories all through high school. In college he abandoned writing and studied architecture. James had a successful architectural career and retired, however he wanted to keep his creative juices fluent, so he returned to his childhood story telling days and joined a writers group.
Contact Links
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)