The sun is bright but that doesn't mean you can't still have your horror dark. The summer always brings a spate of new scares and J...
This Month in Horror || June 2022
Today's Author Spotlight is author Tyler Bell! Read on for the full interview. Publication date: September 17th, 2021 Goodreads In the d...
Author Spotlight || Tyler Bell, Author of The Eyes Beneath My Father's House
Today's Author Spotlight is author Tyler Bell!Read on for the full interview.
Publication date: September 17th, 2021
Can you start out by telling us a little about your latest work?
Where did you get the inspiration to write this story?
When you developed the characters, did you already know who they were before you began writing or did they develop organically?
Which of your characters was your favorite to write and why?
What was more important to you when you were writing: character development or plot?
What was one of the most surprising things you learned (about your story, about yourself, etc.) while writing?
In your opinion what makes a good story?
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
Do you read your book reviews? What do you consider "good" /"bad"?
What led you to start writing?
Do you have any writing superstitions?
What attracted you to the genre(s) you write in?
What is one of your favorite words? OR Is there a word you find yourself using too often?
What are you currently reading?
A lot of authors have a soundtrack while writing. Are there are songs you had on repeat?
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
What are a couple of your favorite movies to kick back with to relax?
Which animal would you say is your spirit animal and why?
Would you rather live in a haunted mansion or a cottage surrounded by fairytale creatures?
What is something about the genre that annoys you?
What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
Are you on social media and can your readers interact with you? What are your links?
Do you have a favorite line that you've written? What is it and why do you like it?
What advice would you like to pass on to aspiring writers that is unconventional but true?
Do you have a WIP? If so, can you tell us anything about it?
Thanks so much for participating in the Author Spotlight! Anything you'd like to add?
Tyler Bell is a USMC combat veteran, the host, author, and creator of the award winning Westside Fairytales podcast, and a former crime and courts journalist with bylines throughout the United States. He released his first collection of short horror and dark fiction stories "The Eyes Beneath My Father's House," in September of 2021, which LEO Weekly said "… deserves to be considered by the editors of the horror genre’s best-of annuals.” He currently lives in Louisville with his wife, Sam, their two rabbits, Marcel and Rosie, and their dog, Buck. Visit westsidefairytales.com to learn more about Tyler, the Westside Fairytales podcast, and "The Eyes Beneath My Father's House."
Publication date: December 10th 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads Ten frightful, shocking and bizarre short stories for those with a taste f...
Feature Fiction || The Hand That Pulls You Under by James Flynn
Publication date: December 10th 2021
Read now
During the late 1990’s James got lured into the thriving London graffiti scene. This huge art movement, which had spread out from New York in the 1980’s, completely engulfed him and changed his life. His childhood portraits gave way to edgy, letter-based designs, and spray paint became his preferred medium. Getting his artwork up across the walls and train lines of the south of England was the only thing that mattered to him for many years, spurring on a new stage of his artistic evolution, but his participation in this underground scene could not last forever. Graffiti was turning him into a criminal, and after a few brushes with the law (as well as brushes with death whilst walking along busy train tracks at night) he decided to turn his attention back to more traditional (and safer) forms of art.
After focusing on letter-based designs for so long he was craving the more intricate nature of portraiture once again, and in his early twenties he began creating a new body of work. Combining all of his learned methods into one, he developed his style and execution in a big way. From around 2008 to 2016 James produced countless portraits, and even began to branch out into figurative work. This was an immensely creative time for him, but another evolutionary step was about to take place.
With so many ideas running through his head, James was beginning to feel frustrated by the limitations of visual art. He had so many visions that he wanted to portray, so many things that he wanted to express, but the medium he was using simply wouldn’t allow it. It was during this creative crisis that he decided to start writing. As James recalls: ‘Visual art can portray a hell of a lot, anyone who’s ever “lost themselves” in a painting can definitely vouch for that, but it still has less dimensions than writing. My creative streak was on overdrive and I needed an outlet for it, I needed a way to express it, and a book seemed like the only way to do it.’ His debut novel was published in early 2017, and at the time it was his biggest ever artistic pursuit. Conservation, a work of SF horror, contains James Flynn’s own blood, sweat and tears, and the book also symbolises the broadening of his artistic passion. Conservation changed the direction of James’s art, and now he has several books in the pipeline. His second book, The Edge of Insanity, is due to be released in 2020, and will be full of new drawings and sketches to accompany the stories that it’ll contain.
Although certain works are available for purchase on this site, James’s primary motivation for creating art is far from commercial. When working on a drawing, painting or book, his only intention is to make something of unique quality. ‘Selling my work is nice,’ he recalls, ‘but even if I knew that I’d never sell a single book or drawing, I’d still create them.’ Much of his work is dark and macabre in nature, focusing on the unpleasant aspects of existence. This may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s become a trademark for James now, attracting a loyal niche following.
Publication date: May 4th, 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads O ne of the most popular role-playing properties in the world gets new life wit...
Review || Walk Among US
Publication date: May 4th, 2021
One of the most popular role-playing properties in the world gets new life with this trio of horror novellas set in Vampire: The Masquerade's World of Darkness by three brilliant talents: Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, and Caitlin Starling
The subtle horror and infernal politics of the World of Darkness are shown in a new light in Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us, an audio-first collection of three novellas that show the terror, hunger, and power of the Kindred as you've never seen them before.
In Genevieve Gornichec's A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES, depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness...
In Cassandra Khaw's FINE PRINT, an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality...
And in Caitlin Starling's THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm.
Three very different stories from three amazing, distinct voices, but all with one thing in common: the hunger never stops, and for someone to experience power, many others are going to have to feel pain.
The subtle horror and infernal politics of the World of Darkness are shown in a new light in Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us, an audio-first collection of three novellas that show the terror, hunger, and power of the Kindred as you've never seen them before.
In Genevieve Gornichec's A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES, depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness...
In Cassandra Khaw's FINE PRINT, an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality...
And in Caitlin Starling's THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm.
Three very different stories from three amazing, distinct voices, but all with one thing in common: the hunger never stops, and for someone to experience power, many others are going to have to feel pain.
Publication date: May 21st, 2021 Publisher: Eerie River Publishing Links: Amazon | Goodreads P repare to die. The sea awakens. Within the...
Review || It Calls From the Sea
Publication date: May 21st, 2021Publisher: Eerie River Publishing
Prepare to die. The sea awakens.
Chris Bannor “Euphoria”
McKenzie Richardson “The Hunter and the Prey”
Dead Ships by Georgia Cook
It washed up at dawn, drawn in on the morning tide from around the curve of the bay; a fishing boat, small enough for a cabin and a crew of three, but of no make or name we recognized. It curved gently towards the beach, its path haphazard and aimless, engines silent and windows dark. By the time it hit the shingle and plowed to a juddering halt a small crowd of us had gathered on the dockside to watch.There’s something about an empty boat--something dragged in off the tide like that, all slow and sedate--you get to feeling it after a certain time at sea, like a second sense. That’s why none of the old fishermen made a move when it finally came to rest; they already knew what we’d find.Perhaps it started with the snow.Great, driving fistfuls were we got that month; merciless, relentless, day after day. A frigid wind howled it down off the clifftops, swamping the roads and transforming the surrounding hills into impenetrable, white monoliths. Nobody arrived in town, nobody left; that’s how things go around here come winter.There’s a saying in these parts that it takes a special kind of madness to move here from out of town, and another kind to stay. The seas and the cold breed a particular type of person--it settles in the bones, then squeezes the lungs; sharp and cloying in every breath. This far north the cold is bitter. Or perhaps it started before that, and none of us noticed.Some of us tried to sail that week, but only made it as far as the curve of the bay before we were forced to turn back. Battered by the gale and the driving snow, there was no thought of casting our nets. Cutting through the snow was like cutting through ice; nothing in either direction but tumbling flakes and shifting, black sea.We watched the snow fall, watched it settle on the water and sink, and out of it all we watched the boat arrive.Philip Abernathy was the first to climb abroad, shimmying up the side like a boy climbing a drainpipe. Twenty-three that May--newly promoted, the youngest Constable in a town of sturdy fishermen and grey-faced old men--possibly he felt it his duty to take charge, or at very least be the first to check. He was, after all, vastly on his own up here until the snows cleared and the mountain roads became accessible again.He’d been our Constable for all of two months, and up until then had contended with nothing worse than the odd Drunk and Disorderly on a Saturday night. It was too cold, too dark, to expect any trouble worth hurrying for.He disappeared inside the captain’s cabin, calling nervously, then stumbled out a moment later and was violently sick over the side.The old fishermen knew, and now we knew too: no ship so silent has ever been manned by the living.Once he’d been helped down, pale and trembling, Abernathy directed a few of us up to find the body. It was slumped across the wheel, he said, tilting back and forth with the rock of the ship, its boots dragging in a slow, steady rut across the floorboards. It might have been a man once, but that was an estimated guess. It no longer had a face, just a slumped, desiccated skeleton.Its hands, Philip whispered, its hands were clasped so tightly to the wheel. So tightly he couldn’t pry them open.We found the rest of the crew below deck.There’s a reason so many fishing communities boast smokeries and salt houses; salted things keep. Salted things keep for a long time, and add to that the conditions of an arctic winter...
Book Tour Schedule
June 7th
Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com
The Consulting Writer (Review) https://theconsultingwriter.wordpress.com/
@jypsylynn (Review) https://www.instagram.com/jypsylynn/
Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/
June 8th
Books, Rambling & Tea (Spotlight) https://booksramblingsandtea.com/
Lunarian Press (Spotlight) https://www.lunarianpress.com/
Jennifer Mitchell, Bibliolater (Review) https://jennifermitchellbooks.com/
Banshee Irish Horror Blog (Review) http://bansheeirishhorrorblog.com/
Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com
June 9th
The Invisible Moth (Review) https://daleydowning.wordpress.com
Stine Writing (Review) https://christinebialczak.com/
Phantom of the Library (Review) https://phantomofthelibrary.com/
Catz Luv Coffee (Review) https://catsluvcoffeez.blogspot.com
June 10th
Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com
@tiny.bibliophile (Review) https://www.instagram.com/tiny.bibliophile/< /a>
Musings of a Final Girl (Review) https://musingsofafinalgirl.wordpress.com/
@dreaminginpages (Review) https://www.instagram.com/dreaminginpag es/
June 11th
Sophril Reads (Spotlight) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com
@happily_undignified (Review) https://www.instagram.com/happily_und ignified/
@amysbooknook8 (Review) https://www.instagram.com/amysbooknook 8/
I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/
Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/
On the Shelf Reviews (Review) https://ontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com
I have never been happier to see a year end. 2020 was just TOUGH, ya'll. Life in the pandemic hasn't been fun. It definitely threw a...
My Favorite Reads of 2020
Today's Author Spotlight is horror author Loren Rhoads! Read on for the full interview.
Search This Blog
Previous Posts
Labels