I have been horrible with keeping my blog up to date, and I apologize. I kind of had some heavy gender identity issues I was working through which made it hard to focus on creative things. So the first part of this post is going to talk about that.
​
I am transgender. 

I’ve already come out via social media, but if you don’t follow me on any of those platforms, here it is. I guess the genderfluid thing was a stepping stone for me. A path on my gender identity journey that got me where I am today. It finally hit me (after talking with my counselor for a long time, my spouse, family, and close friends) that I was more than just genderfluid. Once that revelation came to light, I started down the path.

I’m now on hormone replacement therapy. Almost within 24 hours of taking the first dose, I found myself in a better place mentally. All of the foundational level of stress and anxiety I had thought was just normal kind of disappeared. It was amazing! I’m so much happier now than I was before. The future is still scary, and I’m sure there will be speed bumps along the way, but I feel so much better now that I’m on the path.

I’ll be updating my journey more as it continues to develop. But for now, know that I’m back at it, and pushing forward.

As for the writing, that too slowed down during my gender identity struggles. But the happiness and calm I’m experiencing now with HRT has reponed the floodgates and I’m back to writing again. I’m still hella busy with Timber Ghost Press, but I’ve designated Fridays as my writing days and try to limit the scope of my work on that day to my writing and nothing else.

I just finished the Quills Conference in Salt Lake City. While there I co-taught a workshop about Indie Publishing with Willow Dawn Becker of Weird Little Worlds Press and Jodi L. Milner, an award-winning author. It was amazing and fun. I also taught a class on Archery Elk Hunting, and Cosmic Horror 101. I was the moderator for the Horror After Dark Panel featuring Gabino Iglesias, Terra Luft, Theresa Braun, and Johnny Worthen. I also got to sit on two panels about editing and took pitches for Timber Ghost Press. 

I was also appointed as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair for the League of Utah Writers. I can’t tell you how excited I am to start that role. It’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

I also pitched a novel to an agent and editor of a small press and they both wanted to see the first three chapters, so winner, winner, chicken dinner on that! :) 

Finally, I won the Gold Quill Award for Collections for Dead Stars and Stone Arches: A Collection of Utah Horror. I say I, but really it was my press, and the only reason it won was due to the amazing stories and poems by the contributors, the great cover art from Greg Chapman, the beautiful interior design by Firedrake Designs, and the hard work put in by Beverly Bernard with the editing.

Huge shoutout to all of them. Thank you for making this possible.

As for me, I’m finishing up some projects, and I’ll be releasing my upcoming collection: Branches and Bone: The Collected Tales of Evelyn Horn in October, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Take care!

Brian B. Baker writes horror and military/political thrillers. His book Disunion by Force comes out on November 8th, election day in the US. He lives with his wife and kids in Utah. ​

Holy crap! This audiobook has been in the works for most of this year. It took months of coordination, auditions, production, and quality control. I was afraid it wasn't going to make in time for Halloween, but I was pleasantly surprised by the audiobook fairies. 

I've talked about this collection a number of times, and it represents a slice of my publishing career. Each of the stories within were previously published in various anthologies and magazines. Once I had the rights back, I decided to slap them together into my own collection of tales. I talk about the background of each story within, letting you know where it was first published, and some things surrounding the creation of the story. 

This audiobook is narrated by the talented Kris DeCarle, and I have to say, I am super impressed with her ability to spin a yarn. I've included a few of links below. One is if you want to join Audible. If you join you can get the audiobook for free. The second link, takes you to the Amazon page where you can either purchase the book (in electronic or physical form) or the audiobook. I included a third link into the mix. If you want to purchase a signed copy of the book, you can get that direct from me for $5 plus shipping. 

​The storm rages on, leaving death and destruction in its path. With the chaos comes strange tidings and wicked ordeals.

From C.R. Langille, author of the Dark Tyrant Series comes a collection of weird and horrifying stories spanning all across history: the Spanish Conquest; the Old West; present day; and even a desolate, apocalyptic future.

Haunted hotel rooms, mysterious, mind-bending spots, infernal cargo, and misplaced wishes abound in this collection.

Stories Included:
The Spot
Brine & Blood
The Deep Well
All Aboard
Damned
The Scratch
Horishi Tom

Only one thing is certain when the storm passes by--nothing will ever be the same again.

Want a signed copy? It's only $5 plus shipping.

The long awaited third book in my Dark Tyrant Series is finally live! It took me way longer than I anticipated to finish this book. I had to battle through busy life getting in the way, burnout, writers block, and just about everything under the sun. However, it's done. It's ready. It's here! Get your copy today.

Thulisile Mahlangu is the captain of an elite team of paramilitary soldiers trained to deal with large-scale supernatural crises. But when an Alpha Protocol is radioed in from an agent who was reportedly dead, Thuli and her team are put to the test. Their mission: verify the radio call, exterminate the problem, and bring the agent back to the Bureau of Investigation, Observation, and Defense of Extraordinary, Extraterrestrial, Demonic and Paranormal Activity. As time runs out, Thuli begins to question everything and wrestle with her own inner demons. If she doesn’t succeed, the Bureau will release an Omega team, and the Omegas have no problem scorching the earth to fix problems. Alpha Protocol is a fast-paced tale that is one part action thriller, one part supernatural horror, and a dash of dark comedy. ​

It's alive! My second collection of short stories is live! I'm super stoked about this one, because not only does it have stories that have appeared in recent anthologies, it also has some stories that have never been released as well. That's right! You, dear reader, can experience these tales for the first time. This one also has some flash fiction and a rare poem (rare because I rarely write poetry). 

Inside this tome of horrors you can find the following tales:
"The Devouring Maw" which initially appeared in Hunger: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about some folks down in southern Utah on the hunt for a lost arch. Well, they find it, but they also find something else. Something sinister.

"The Dark Place" which appeared in the anthology, Peaks of Madness: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about a young girl who's on the run and takes refuge in a cabin in the woods. The cabin has a small door upstairs with a note that reads, do not open. Simple enough, but then something starts knocking from the other side of the door.

"The Temptation of the Moon to Shadow" is a poem I wrote that appeared in the HWA's Poetry Showcase Vol. 5. 

"The Demons We Bring" appeared in Old Scratch and Owl Hoots: A Collection of Utah Horror and if you're familiar with my short story, "Horishi Tom" then you'll recognize the main character. The events of this story take place before the events in "Horishi Tom". 

"The Cedar Box" is my fantasy western, think gunslinging elves trying to survive in a hellwaste. An old elf carries a precious cedar box with him as he searches for someone. 

"Mr. Abernathy’s Music Box" appeared on this very website as a bonus and is about a peculiar passenger on a sea voyage and his mysterious music box. 

"The Horror of Sunshine Meadows" was a piece of flash fiction I wrote that appeared online. It's about someone who finds a young girl standing outside of a forest. Things are not always what they seem. 

"Final Moment" has never appeared in any anthology, so you're getting it now for the first time. It's about a woman who buys a horrifying painting at auction only to find she's bringing much more home with her.

"Kathy Loves Kittens" appeared on the Tales to Terrify podcast. It's about a man who survives a horrifying car wreck only to find that his daughter isn't only missing, but seeming has disappeared from existence. However, someone knows where she is.

This collection is full of suspenseful stories. If you like horror or dark fantasy, check it out!
​

​Today we get to talk with Stephanie Wytovich and learn about her writing and her upcoming poetry collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. 

• Who or what inspired you to become an author and poet?

I’ve always loved storytelling, and I’ve been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, but I became a poet out of necessity for my mental health because I needed a way to process my trauma and the act of writing was extremely therapeutic to me. When I got to high school, I started getting into horror and monsters, and that’s when that part of myself started to grow and howl and get its teeth. Aesthetically, I knew that I loved the genre because it was dark and honest and all about surviving to the end, and so I started writing longer pieces because I wanted to participate in a genre that made me feel so alive. By the time I got to college, I knew that was going to be my focus point, and honestly, I haven’t turned back since.
 

• Tell us about The Apocalyptic Mannequin and what inspired you to write it?

The apocalypse is something that I think—to some degree or another—is on everyone’s mind lately (climate change, policy changes, nuclear threats, etc.) and whether we’re watching it happen in real life, or seeing it spoon-fed to us in entertainment with fantastic movies/TV shows like The Silence, Annihilation, A Quiet Place, Chernobyl, etc., the notion of who/what we became when it’s all been taken away has kept me up thinking most nights.
 
For this collection, I wanted to explore the definition of self when one is pushed to extreme trauma and revelation. I tried to define bodies when the idea of “body” has been lost among the rubble, and through a series of possibilities—whether environmental, religious, monstrous, or human—I performed lobotomies to erase the trauma, and then shocked my characters back to life as they were reborn in a world unfamiliar to them. In a lot of ways, this collection was one of the scarier ones that I’ve written because I put a lot of personal fears, anxieties, and nightmares into it, and while I’ve written about death and grief as a subject matter before, this one felt darker to me in a realer sense because the threat of destruction in a moral or physical sense is something that I feel like I confront every day when I walk outside, when I read a newspaper, when I pick up my prescription at the pharmacy…
 
Lately, the horror just feels more present than it has in the past.
 

• Is your process for writing poetry different than your process for writing short fiction or novels?

 
Very much so! When I write fiction these days, I tend to heavily outline the entire project—with extra attention spent on character and setting description, whereas my poetry tends to be a little more freeform with some light meditation beforehand. For instance, when I have a subject for a poem I want to write, sometimes I storyboard the idea with visuals/art that helps foster that emotion, and other times, I write done words that I associate it. I’m not necessarily outlining the poem itself, but rather my response to the emotion and imagery that I want to convey. In the end, fiction has always been harder for me, so I need a more regimented approach to it opposed to poetry, which has always felt more organic.
 

• I’ve seen online that you practice witchcraft, has that impacted how or what you write?

Since I’ve started practicing, a lot of routines in my life have changed and evolved, and writing has certainly been one of them. But writing is a fickle beast for me these days, because I’ve had to/chose to take on a lot over the past few years (commissions, teaching gigs, editing projects, mentorships, etc.), so for the better part of my life recently, writing has been a do-it-when-you-can, where-you-can occurrence. I write a lot on my breaks at work, in the evenings, sometimes I even talk out loud and record my ideas on my commute in and out of work. So lately, the magic is just in making time and honoring a practice that brings me joy. However, when I do have time, I do like to make a bigger ritual out of it, and a lot of this helps with stress-management, allowing myself to be vulnerable, and most importantly, it gives me permission to relax. In that regard, I like to make my favorite tea, spend some time journaling/working in my visualization notebook, and even light some palo santo.
 

• What’s one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating your books and poetry collections?

Oh, this is a hard one! Well, some things I learned over the years and then specifically in my most recent collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin, are: 1) sometimes you have cut poems that are good but don’t necessarily belong in the collection, 2) don’t write toward a magic number of poems—when the collection is done, it’s done, 3) the order you place your poems in matters and it’s something to spend time thinking about after you’ve finished writing the book, and 4) poetry often comes from a place of intense emotion or feeling and sometimes it’s going to hurt pulling that out, but it will always be worth it in the end.
 

• What’s your next project?

I’m finishing up a project that I’d honestly hoped to have out last year but life kind of snuck up on me and got in the way there for a bit. It will be a novelette titled The Dangers of Surviving a Slit Throat, and it will be a bizarre horror story about a girl and a radio that she picks up at a yard sale. After that, I have a few short stories and essays that I’d like to finish up, so that will keep me busy for a while.
 

• Where can people follow you online to keep up with all your amazing accomplishments (like the fact that you have a selection of poetry out in the recently resurrected Weird Tales)?

I’m active on Facebook, Twitter (@swytovich), Instagram (@swytovich), LinkedIn, and my blog (http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ ) and my author website (https://www.stephaniemwytovich.com/). 

About The Apocalyptic Mannequin
Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it’s from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats.
This is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you’ve had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who—or what—lives inside us once everything is taken away.
These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what’s moral versus what’s necessary to survive.
What’s clear though, is that the world is burning and we don’t remember who we are.
So tell me: who will you become when it’s over?
What They’re Saying -
“Like a doomsday clock fast-forwarding to its final self-destruction, Wytovich’s poetry will give you whiplash as you flip through page after page. The writing here is ugly yet beautiful. It reads like a disease greedily eating up vital organs. The apocalypse has arrived and it couldn’t be more intoxicating!”
—Max Booth III, author of Carnivorous Lunar Activities
“In this hauntingly sensuous new collection of poetry, you’ll long to savor every apocalyptic nightmare you have ever feared. Blooming in the beauty of destruction and the terror of delight, Stephanie M Wytovich’s poems remind us that we feel the world better, love the world better, when we recognize the ephemeral nature of everything achingly alive beyond our mannequin minds. Here, we are captive to our deepest velvet snarls, zombie songs, and radioactive wishes, at the mercy of a neon reaping. Reading this collection is like dancing through Doomsday, intoxicated by the destructive, decadent truth of desire in our very mortality. In these poems, you will find revelry in the ruins of everything you once held dear — and you will love it to the last as you watch the world unravel around you.”
—Saba Syed Razvi, author of Heliophobia and In the Crocodile Gardens
“Beautifully bleak, Stephanie M. Wytovich’s latest collection posits scenarios of the apocalypse and the horrors to come thereafter with language like fragrant hooks in your skin. Vivid, each word a weight on your tongue, these poems taste of metal and ash with a hint of spice, smoke. She reminds us the lucky ones die first, and those who remain must face the horrors of a world painted in blisters and fear. Leave it to Wytovich to show us there’s beauty in the end, just beneath all that peeling, irradiated skin.”
—Todd Keisling, author of Ugly Little Things and Devil’s Creek
“Set in a post-apocalyptic world that at times seems all too near, Wytovich’s poems conjure up frighteningly beautiful and uncomfortably prescient imagery. Populated by a cast of unsettling, compelling characters, this collection is one that stuck with me.”
—Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl
“A surreal journey through an apocalyptic wasteland, a world that is terrifyingly reminiscent of our own even as the blare of evacuation alarms drowns out the sizzle of acid rain, smiling mannequins bear witness to a hundred thousand deaths, and “the forest floor grows femurs in the light of a skeletal moon.” Stephanie M. Wytovich’s The Apocalyptic Mannequin is as unsettling as it is lovely, as grotesque as it is exquisite.”
—Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked
Pre-Order Available (First 30 receive FREE personalized copy) -
Pre-Order Now!
Stephanie Wytovich, Biography –
Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous venues such as Weird Tales, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Fantastic Tales of Terror, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. 

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press. 
​

Time for a little cross-promotion! I know a few of these authors and they are super talented. So if you like paranormal romance, you're going to want to check out this upcoming anthology. Here's a little bit about the anthology, and an excerpt from Traci Douglass's story, "Blood Strong!"

BORN TO LOVE WILD
A Paranormal Romance Short Story Anthology
Stars and Stone Books
 
Featuring: USA Today Bestselling Author Traci Douglass, Cara McKinnon, Sheri Queen, Pepper McGraw, M.T. DeSantis, Read Gallo, J. Bigelow, and Andie Biagini.
 
Pre-Order Now:
 
Kindle | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play
 
Traci Douglass – “Blood Strong: A Blood Ravagers Novella”
One guardian demon in love. One witch with a secret crush. One evil threatening their newfound connection.
 
Cara McKinnon - “A Change of Heart”
She’s a hybrid shifter who’s not supposed to exist. He’s a wolf who was born to protect her. But her secrets force him to choose: his mate, or his pack loyalty?
 
Sheri Queen - “The Robinson Agency”
Some are born with the gift to see into the future. Others create their own destiny.
 
Pepper McGraw – “Full Moon Shenanigans”
The full moon’s coming and it’s time to embrace the wildness within.
 
M.T. DeSantis - “Forever Love”
To find a chance… A chance to find…
 
Read Gallo – “The Flying Saltines”
When a river falls in love with an ordinary person will New York City survive?
 
J. Bigelow – “Focal Point”
Sometimes a wizard from Sweden needs help from a medium from Michigan.
 
Andie Biagini – “Water Temperature”
An engineering student and a cryptozoologist. One of them can talk to sea monsters, but it’s not who you think.
 
 
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR AUTHORS
 
STARS AND STONE BOOKS: http://starsandstonebooks.com/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40582115-born-to-love-wild
FACEBOOK RELEASE PARTY: https://www.facebook.com/events/230760974194159/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/starsstonebooks
ANTHOLOGY WEBSITE: http://starsandstonebooks.com/born-to-love-wild
 
Excerpt from Traci Douglass’s Blood Strong: A Blood Ravager’s Novella
 
Emma Bradstreet checked her watch again. She hadn’t even finished parallel parking her car outside Seven yet when one of the Frost twins rushed over to her door. Thank God for the rainbow streaks in Liz’s hair, otherwise she’d never be able to tell her and Anna apart. Her frantic expression had Emma hurrying to cut the engine and exit the vehicle. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here,” she gushed. “Anna said you would be the only one who could help.”

She grabbed Emma hand and yanked her toward the club, barely giving her time to grab her purse from the front seat. Liz dragged her inside and over to the bar where her husband, a wolf shifter named Dex, stood. The guy was tall, blonde, and far too intense for Emma’s comfort. Still his violet eyes were kind and he smiled at her warmly when she approached. Beside him stood Anna, Dante’s wife and Liz’s identical twin. Both girls were powerful psychics and together they formed the gang’s Oracle—a powerful conduit for psychic energy used to protect and bind the Blood Ravager members together. Dante, the gang’s leader, stood behind his wife with his arms around Anna’s waist, holding her possessively.

Emma stumbled forward through the crowded space, knocking into several scary looking guys and one turquoise alien who acted as the gang’s official healer.

She managed to stop short of taking a header over the bar and pulled free from Liz’s insistent grip. “What do you need from me?”

“We need you to break a tie,” Anna said. “Which of these colors suits my sister better? I said it was the blue, but she insists on the purple.”

Two swatches were held in front of Emma’s face. Honestly, she couldn’t see much difference in either of the pastel shades, but she leaned slightly to peer at Liz then looked back at the fabric just the same. “The purple, I guess.”

“Perfect!” Liz jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Emma, sticking her tongue out at her sister. “See? I told you so, Anna. Thanks so much, Em.”

“No problem.” Still confused as to why the color choice was important, Emma slowly backed away from the group, only to run smack up against a massive, muscled chest. A chest covered in a soft black T-shirt that smelled absolutely fabulous—like lavender and musk and clean warm male.

“Oh,” she said, raising her eyes to see Spud’s smiling face. “I’m so sorry.”

“No harm done, Emma,” he said, his voice deep and tinged with amusement. “No need to run away either.”

For a moment, she stood transfixed by his handsome, chiseled face and sexy smile. Emma blinked several times to break herself out of her embarrassing daze, swallowing hard against the tingles racing over her skin from his touch.

“I’m early,” she blurted out.

 Seriously? That’s the best you can do?

“That’s okay,” Spud said with a shrug. “We can go ahead and meet now, if you want.”

 “Uh, sure.” She fumbled after him toward the stairs, wishing the earth would just split open and devour her whole. Her cheeks felt so hot she was surprised the fire alarms didn’t go off. “Yeah, that’s great…thanks.”

“Sure.” He grabbed two bottles of water from the bartender then cocked his head toward the back door. “Actually, why don’t we start out back in the courtyard.”

Her breath hitched. In truth, she’d had a crush on Spud from the first moment she’d set foot in Salvation and he’d rescued her after she’d been stung by a bee. Luckily, she wasn’t allergic, but it had still hurt like hell. Her parents couldn’t have cared less, and to her sisters she was like a surrogate mom, so therefore indestructible. But Spud had treated the sting with gentle hands and given Emma a cool towel for her head and a cold drink to wash down the pain meds. He’d even dried her silly tears when she’d cried for one insane moment. In her fantasies, he’d see past her prim, proper exterior and notice her as a woman. In reality, that seemed like a tall order. Especially since he was giving her a slow, head-to-toe appraisal.

Goddess bless it, why didn’t I wear something cuter?

Another gang member pulled Spud aside, whispering and pointing toward a heated argument at the pool table near the front of the bar. Spud handed Emma the waters then raised a finger for her to wait before he took off to break up the fight before it could start.

Guardian demons got a bad reputation because of their formidable size and gruff exteriors. But she’d found Spud to be nothing but kind and generous and loyal to a fault. It still amazed her that he wasn’t mated yet. It also made her secretly happy, because if Spud was still available, Emma might have a chance.
The kerfuffle was broken up in less than ten minutes and Spud slowly made his way back to Emma, his easy swagger highlighting his broad torso and trim waist. His shoulder length brown hair caught the overhead lights and her fingertips itched to run through the silky strands. Through the curls, near his forehead, peeked two tiny horns. Even that she found that insanely attractive.  The only thing about she questioned was his name. She’d have to ask him about that.

Maybe once they got to know each other better.

Once he reached her, Spud flashed that sexy little smile, his warm gray eyes sparkling. “Sorry about that. You play pool?”

 Emma took a deep breath to quiet the zing of awareness through her bones. “Nah. Not really my thing.”

“Not mine either.”

They stood near the back exit in silence for several moments, watching the crowd while Emma tried to figure out what to say next.  The air around them pulsed with electricity and she couldn’t seem to stop fidgeting. She should say something intelligent and thoughtful and cute. Except words escaped her whenever Spud was around. So, instead, she leaned back against the wall beside the jukebox and stared out at the paranormal circus of creatures in front of them.

“Ready to go to the courtyard?” Spud pointed toward the exit with a water bottle.

“Yes!” she said, too quickly. “Please.”

“This way.” He grinned, pressing his palm against her lower back, ushering her through the door and down a short hall into the twilight. The whole time she kept repeating her mantra in her head to combat the buzz of being close to him. 

It’s just work. It’s just work.

Emma kept reminding herself not to go overboard, not to fall for a guy who was so out of her league it wasn’t even funny. With each step, however, she couldn’t seem to shake the feeling they were crossing a threshold, entering a new realm where she would get to see the real Spud, not the tough guy badass he portrayed to the world.

And deep inside, her witch instincts told Emma she wouldn’t be disappointed.
 
© 2018 Traci Douglass
 
 

 

I just put together my first collection of horror stories! I'm pretty excited about this because it revives a lot of stories that have been previously published under various presses. I give a little insight as to what was going on at the time it was picked up, or what inspired each tale. Another cool thing, was this was my first time creating my own cover art. It was quite the learning experience for me, but it was definitely fun. Check it out!

The storm rages on, leaving death and destruction in its path. With the chaos comes strange tidings and wicked ordeals. 

From C.R. Langille, author of the Dark Tyrant Series comes a collection of weird and horrifying stories spanning all across history: the Spanish Conquest; the Old West; present day; and even a desolate, apocalyptic future.

Haunted hotel rooms, mysterious, mind-bending spots, infernal cargo, and misplaced wishes abound in this collection. 

I love doing cross promotion on my site. Here's another one by the talented author, J.L. Gribble.
As her children begin lives of their own, Victory struggles with the loneliness of an empty nest. Just when the city of Limani could not seem smaller, an old friend requests that she come out of retirement for one final mercenary contract—to bodyguard his granddaughter, a princess of the Qin Empire.

For the first time in a century, the Qin and British Empires are reopening diplomatic relations. Alongside the British delegation, Victory and her daywalker Mikelos arrive in the Qin colony city of Jiang Yi Yue. As the Qin weredragons and British werewolves take careful steps toward a lasting peace between their people, a connection between the Qin princess and a British nobleman throw everyone’s plans in disarray.

Meanwhile, a third faction stalks the city under the cover of darkness.

This is not a typical romance. It’s a good thing Victory is not a typical vampire.

Buy links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pPShZH
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/steel-blood-jl-gribble/1126268372
From the publisher: http://rawdogscreaming.com/books/steel-blood/

About the author:

By day, J. L. Gribble is a professional medical editor. By night, she does freelance fiction editing in all genres, along with reading, playing video games, and occasionally even writing. She is currently working on the Steel Empires series for Dog Star Books, the science-fiction/adventure imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. Previously, she was an editor for the Far Worldsanthology.
Gribble studied English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received her Master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where her debut novel Steel Victory was her thesis for the program.
​
She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, with her husband and three vocal Siamese cats. Find her online (www.jlgribble.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jlgribblewriter), and on Twitter and Instagram (@hannaedits).

My newest short story, "All Aboard" is available now on Amazon Kindle. It's the second installment in the Tales from the Storm series. The story originally debuted in Horror the Odd and Bizarre published by Sirens Call.

"All Aboard" takes place in a sleepy Utah town where the residents wake one day to find a set of railroad tracks have appeared out of nowhere. Some townsfolk mysteriously begin to disappear while others find themselves unable to leave the town at all. To make matters worse, those left behind start to receive tickets to a train that is scheduled to depart soon. 

​You can get your copy of "All Aboard" here.