New Release: Rise of Valor

Take a peek at the dark side of Rock in Mark Taylor's, Rise of Valor.


Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:
Diane plays guitar. She plays it well. When the guitarist of sensational local rock group, Split Horizon, goes solo, she sees her opportunity to play in a band. The band.

What follows is the terrifying truth behind rock music gigs: vicious rivalry, alcohol-fueled rages, and open drug abuse.

Nicknamed Valor, Diane must learn new ways to overcome the overbearing Killer-B, lead singer of Split Horizon, and hateful misogynist and serial abuser.

A gripping drama, Rise of Valor demonstrates that having great talent is not enough in the turbulent world of rock.

You need great strength.

About the Author 

Mark Taylor's debut novel crash landed on planet earth in 2013. Its dark brooding style benchmarked his writing and has led to further releases of novel and short story collection alike.

While most of Mark's work is macabre, occasion has it that he will write about kittens and daisies. Just not very often.

Some say he is a product of his environment, others, a product of his own imagination.

Whichever it is he works happily, portraying dark existences on this planet and others. He relays his fears and doubts on his characters, so always has a smile. If Mark is real, as some say he is, you might find him in England.

Perhaps.

Website: www.authormarktaylor.com

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.





I'll be back in January 2017

Fridays 5 with David Kummer

My name is David Duane Kummer. I'm a teenager, with a couple published novels and a collection of short stories.

I live in a small, river-town on the Ohio River in southern Indiana. Along with taking care of younger siblings (I have eight total), I make time for writing in between school and sports.

I've been writing since I was young, with As Trees Turned Away being my first published work and She being my first published novel. Along with writing, I am an avid reader and watcher of all things horror, and enjoy writing reviews on them for others who might want to know my opinion on them.

When I'm not writing, I enjoy talking with my hilarious friends and amazing girlfriend, spending time with my loving family, watching movies, and working out to burn all of the calories I get from binge-eating Hawaiian Rolls. Those things are really addicting, am I right? I'd rather get payed in those than money.




1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)  Well, when I was in early elementary school I already loved writing. By third grade, I'd had a copy of one of my "books" (actually a novella) printed professionally ten times, but it was never on sale. I had a brief hiatus from writing, then returned in May of 2015 to publish with Kindle Direct Publishing.

At first, I had no plans to make any money. I just thought it was cool. But with time I realized that you could legitimately make money off of this author thing. That's when the wheels started clicking and I hope to one day make a living off of writing books. (Funnily enough, since this realization sales have gone down. Fate is cruel.)

So, to answer your question, I got serious about June of 2015.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.)  The hardest part right now is not getting discouraged when sales don't go how you had hoped. It's tough work, putting all those emotions and long nights into a book, only to have it not sell well. If I had to give advice to an indie author, it would certainly be: Don't get discouraged. Keep fighting.

The actual writing/book/words part, though, is leaving my characters behind. It's not the same with short stories, but even my novella My Abigail, which was only 20k words made me sad to leave behind those characters. It was especially tough with She, probably because of how that one ended.


Click on cover for more info or to order!


Synopsis:

They have grown strong in the shadows, the kingdom of Oldon. The land is void of hope and of strength against them. The human kingdoms grow corrupt everyday, so that the lines between good and evil are slurred.

One young man from a small village in the valley could change all of that. He fights with the passion of a warrior and the luck of a magician. And when the barbarians force him out of his home, the journey begins.

Trained by a knight, shadowed with secrets, and against the kingdom he once called home, Jonathan is an outcast, a rebel. But more than anything, he is a leader.

Enden is a world filled with wars, famine, sieges, torture, and death. But the greatest battle of all is to survive. Only one thing is certain. Something is rising, in the distance near the edge of the world where forgotten secrets brew. Something has risen. And it is coming.

It is coming.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  When I published my first book officially in 2015 (see above), I was thrilled. Amazed. We immediately ordered 10 copies, and I set to work writing a full-length novel soon afterwards. Every time I publish something, it's a rush of adrenaline that keeps me going for weeks afterwards. There's nothing like it.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.)  Character is, by far, more important to me. The story is what they do. Without them, there would be no story. They are the cause to the story's effect.

I strive to make my characters as familiar as possible, especially for myself. I want readers to relate to them. I pour myself into every one of them and try to entertain. Without them, I wouldn't have anything published.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  Well, if we're going by weekdays, it's normally wake up for school (yeah, I still got that; I'm only in high school), go to either basketball or cross country practice afterwards depending on the season, and then come home and shower. I'll either work out or practice more, or I'll bypass that step and go straight to the computer. I'll stay on there until 11 or 12, read for maybe an hour, then go to bed and repeat the whole thing over again at 7 the next morning.
(Is that healthy? Probably not. That's why there are mangoes.)

Writing what you don't know.

While writing the first book of the Dreadland Chronicles, coming of age in a post apocalyptic world, I was confronted with a small dilemma. Most of my fiction takes place around where I live, in Western Maryland, an area I’m intimately familiar with. Though sometimes I run across a place that surprises me right in my own back yard.

In All Roads Lead to Terror, book one in the Dreadland Chronicles my main character Meat, and his three closest friends, Window, Einstein, and Billie-Bob travel to Richmond Virginia to rescues a group of young children who had been taken by a savage band of survivors.

I’ve been through Richmond several times, and when I was driving a truck I’ve delivered several loads to different businesses in that city. But I didn’t have the intimate knowledge needed to create a realistic setting for my characters. Realism in my fiction is very important to me, I believe it’s imperative that the reader feel like they’re actually at the location I describe. With that in mind I use real world settings as backdrops for my characters.

Faced with this dilemma I turned to Google Earth. The program contains a little gem called street view, where one can go down to street level and view 360 degree photographs of the actual street and buildings that lined it. That was how I learned Chef Mamusu’s Africanne Café was located across the street from an Enterprise rental store. The café was a small place, the main entrance right on the corner. A drive thru bank had been built directly behind the café with the entrance on one street and the exit on the street that ran perpendicular to it.

Something else happened while I was researching their path through Richmond. Two blocks down the street from that corner café stood a nondescript row of buildings. One in particular had been painted white. Above the single glass door the word hope had been written in black paint. Around it that same sentiment was repeated in a multitude of different languages.

It’s gone now. I’ve gone back to look, and the wall of the building that was once white has been repainted a drab brown. But when you stop and think about it, it’s strange really that given my mindset as I worked on the first book in the series, struggling to get the story just right. It’s important, at least to me, that the story be right. Hovering on the verge of just giving up and working on something else, that I should run across a message like that.

It was a message that not only gave me the desire to continue the series, but also offered up the answer every writer struggles to uncover as we write. The underlying theme that transforms the story from simply words on the page to a living thing that breaths with a life of its own. That message of hope has become the cornerstone of the foundation that the Dreadland Chronicles rests upon. Hope is what these four boys offer in a dangerous, post apocalyptic world.



All Roads Lead to Terror

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

On the day of his birth the dead walked and society crumbled. His mother took one look at him and pronounced him Meat. He survived, she didn't.

Fourteen years have passed and obscurity means survival in an increasingly dangerous world. For the survivors compound at Bremo Bluff that obscurity is threatened when a savage band abducts a group of children from the compound.

Accompanied by his three friends Window, Einstein, and Billie-Bob, Meat embarks on a quest to rescue the children. A journey that will lead them into adulthood, with a brief detour through the Dreadlands, as they confront the harsh reality of a brutal world beyond the barriers that had served to protect them.

In the dead city of Richmond, Meat and his friends will confront a savage cult of children who worship a creature of the night. These creatures, once considered the nightmare imaginings of a fevered mind, are now awake in a world where the population that once served as their food source has been severely reduced.

Awake and very, very, hungry.

Also available through these fine online retailers.

    Barnes & Noble  
   
    Kobo   


Monday Motivation

Did ya ever notice Monday always seems to come at the beginning of the week?


Fridays 5 with Desiree Moodie

Desiree has been writing since before she could talk. Or at least, that’s how it seems. As a child, she’d spend her weekends making books. She’d scribble anything that came to mind on notebook paper and then staple all the pages together. Before she knew it, she had a stack of books.

The original self-publishing.

In junior high, she graduated to writing terribly melodramatic novels in tattered composition notebooks. These books were a hit with her classmates, and they would spend more time passing around and reading the newest installments that they would spend actually paying attention in class.

Since then, she’d had short stories published in anthologies such as Lust Chronicles and The Mile High Club and her musings have appeared in publications like The Huffington Post and The Frisky.

While her early writing was mostly centered on naughty things, she’s since entered the dark and twisted world of the thriller. White Rabbit is her first novel.

When she’s not writing or reading comic books, she picking apart the storylines of her favorite TV dramas and movies.

And when she’s not doing that, she’s usually whipping up something scrumptious in the kitchen. She’s a rabid foodie who’s accustomed to receiving marriage proposals after having made someone, man or woman, a meal.

And when she’s not doing any of the above, she’s traveling. She loves her hometown of Brooklyn, New York but feels the need to get away three or four times a year, especially to the Caribbean where her family is originally from.

Harrison Ford was her very first celebrity crush, and she still loves him to this day.

She’s never met a whiskey she didn’t like.

She can recite the lines to the movie Annie, backward and forward.

She never backs down from a Scrabble challenge and once scored 75 points with the word clitoris.

Her prized possession is an official Star Wars replica lightsaber...in green, of course.

She’s a huge fan of professional wrestling and still watches WWE twice a week, religiously. She asks that you not judge her for this.

You can keep up with her antics at  desireemoodie.com


1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

 I've been writing all my life, but I'd say I only got serious about it two or three years ago. I resolved the finish the novel I'd been playing around with for years. But when I did finish it, I didn't think it was good enough, and so I went back to the drawing board for a few more passes. Then I hired an editor and finally published the thing. I'm currently working on the sequel.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

Focusing on one idea though to completion. I get shiny object syndrome quite a bit.


Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

Would you do the one thing you promised to never do again to save someone you love?

Logan Alexander is in exile.

It's a self-inflicted exile but an exile nonetheless.

As the most gifted hacker on the east coast, he’s made a few bad friends and even more of the worst kind of enemies.

A routine job takes a wrong turn, and the aftermath, Logan goes into hiding. With a terrible tragedy eating at him, he makes a vow never to repeat history. If he can just manage to stay away, to disappear for good, then no one else will ever get hurt because of him.

Or so he thinks.

One phone call is all it takes to change that. To change everything. Forever.

One phone call brings the ghosts from his past, the ones he’s been desperately running from, front and center. One phone call thrusts him back into a world he swore to leave behind. One phone call forces him back to the home he can’t bear to return to. One phone call presents him with an impossible job, and puts his family, what’s left of them anyway, in the gravest danger possible.

Logan tries to make things right, tries to prevent all hell from breaking loose, but it seems he’s doomed to take two steps backward for every step he takes forward.

Did he really think it would be so easy?

Silly rabbit...

Spies and betrayals at every turn. No allies, no one to turn to. And the person he trusts least of all is himself.

Out of options, he plays his one final, desperate card. Disaster is inevitable, and Logan soon learns that true redemption is often elusive.

And sometimes paid for with blood.

One phone call.

And then it’s down the rabbit hole we go...


3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

It's what I imagine  a new mother must feel like after giving birth. I cradled my Kindle in my arms as I read through my book and very nearly got weepy.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

Story. You need compelling characters, don't get me wrong. But then something has to happen to them. They need something to do, something to accomplish. Characterization without story is just a glorified diary.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

My story world? Or my personal world? Well in my story world, it's all about foiling the villain's evil plan. We don't rest until we do that. My personal world is a bit less exciting. I wake up, do my morning routine, write for 4 hours, take a three hour break, write for 4 more hours, then wind down and go to bed. I start it all over the next day. I try to take weekends off but that doesn't always happen.



Author Links

Twitter: http://twitter.com/desireeallday
Facebook:http://facebook.com/desireefrombk
Goodreads:http://goodreads.com/desireemoodie
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/desiree.moodie

New Release: Re-Civilize: Chad

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

Chad hates everything about life. He hates his sister for being a brat, his parents for being in denial and pretending life is perfect, and the world he lives in for the adherence to social pressures and norms. He wants it all to go away.

When the zombie apocalypse wipes out the world he’s used to, he’s left alone…and bitten. He’s sure he’ll die and become one of the undead. Instead, he becomes severely sick and recovers…still fully human.

Believing he can’t be the only exception, the only one immune to the zpoc virus, Chad goes out into the world to find others like himself. Once he does, he’s sucked into a plan to re-civilize for the good of all the survivors.

Chad and the other exceptions are expected to protect and provide for the weak and vulnerable survivors. He’s not sure he wants to take on the role expected of him in the new society, but he knows that if he refuses the survivors will die.

The fate of the human race weighs heavily on Chad’s young shoulders and he has to make a decision that he can live with in the new, re-civilized world.

About the Author:

I'm the author of "Undead Drive-Thru, Undead Regeneration, Cursed Bounty, Twisted Pathways of Murder & Death, Hall of Twelve,” and “Nurse Blood (Limitless Publishing)." I'm also a graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature. My work has appeared in the Coshocton Tribune, Irish Story Playhouse, Spaceports & Spidersilk, joyful!, Soft Whispers, Illuminata, Common Threads, Golden Visions Magazine, Stories That Lift, Super Teacher Worksheets, Living Dead Press Presents Magazine (Iss. 1 & 2), FrightFest eMagazine, An Xmas Charity Ebook, The Stray Branch, and The Undead That Saved Christmas (Vol. 1 & 2) and the Signals From The Void charity anthologies. I have multiple stories in anthologies by Living Dead Press, Wicked East Press, Pill Hill Press, Hidden Thoughts Press, Knight Watch Press, Coscom Entertainment, Crowded Quarantine Publications, and Collaboration of the Dead (projects), and one (each) in an anthology by Post Mortem Press, NorGus Press, Evil Jester Press, Horrified Press, Atria Books (S&S Digital), and Nocturnal Press Publications. I also have a poem in an anthology by Naked Snake Press and a children’s poem in Oxford Ink Literature Reader 4 from Oxford University Press (India).

My nonfiction children's article about skydiving, written for my writing course with the Institute of Children's Literature, was published by McGraw Hill for NY Assessments.

I'm also an editor and have edited: Dark Dreams: Tales of Terror, Dead Worlds 7: Undead Stories, and Book of Cannibals 2: The Hunger from Living Dead Press; Earth's End from Wicked East Press; End of Days: An Apocalyptic Anthology (Vol. 4 & 5/co-edited) from Living Dead Press; and I've co-editing Feast or Famine (a zombie anthology).

When I'm not busy writing and/or editing, I'm formatting book covers, building/maintaining websites, and writing book reviews.

For more information, visit my website: www.rebeccabesser.com 

Fridays 5 with Sarah Doebereiner

Sarah Doebereiner is a short story author, novelist, and poet. She graduated from Wright State University in 2010 with her BA in English. Sarah lives in central Ohio with her husband and two small children. She enjoys writing short stories including: micro-fiction, flash fiction, and novella length works. Macabre themes fascinate her because of their tendency to stay with readers long after the book has been closed, but the joy in short fiction is the opportunity to try out all kinds of genres.

Amazon author page: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile
Website: www.sarahadoebereiner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahadoebereiner

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)  I didn't get serious about writing until college. I had always loved to read and write. There is this tendency when you are young to think that passion is enough to propel you forwards, but when you get a little older you see how much you need to learn before you start.  In college, I poured over great works, learned craft, style, and grammar, and met professional writers who nurtured what skills I had. It was only in my third year of college that I felt my writing had evolved enough to be taken seriously, so that's when I decided to major in English / Communications.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.)  I typically write horror, and even when I don't, there is often a darker element to my writing. I think the hardest part for me is writing when I am in a particular mood and then having to go back and edit when I am no longer in that mindset. Walking away from a manuscript can be great for perspective, but it's tough to step back into that creepy, atmospheric feeling at ten AM on a Wednesday in the hours before my day job.

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:
They each have a secret that could destroy their relationship…

Crystal and Sylvia are best friends, each the only one the other one trusts. But they each have a dark secret, and neither one knows how to tell the other. Crystal’s secret is that she’s gay and strongly attracted to Sylvia. She wants more than friendship, but she’s afraid to destroy what they already have by letting Sylvia know. And after all, friendship is better than nothing, isn’t it? But Sylvia’s secret is more sinister. It could not only destroy their friendship, it could also hurt Crystal—in more ways than one.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  I should probably say something profound, but the truth is I felt very legitimized. Artist life in general can be seen as sort of whimsical or philandering. Having someone of merit look at something that I created and judge it artistically valuable is a wonderfully validating feeling.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.)  That's a tricky question, but for me its the character because without a character to invest in, the story is devoid of emotional resonance. I read to feel something. I watch television to feel something. For me, it's not the situation, problems, or plot that ultimately get their hooks into me. I may not remember every twist and turn, every plot arc, or every place name. I will remember how I empathized with the character- the core of them as I perceived it.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  I have two children so my typical day is severely lacking in the adult conversation arena. We get up. The kiddos watch cartoons with breakfast, and I either read, write or edit. Then, we play usually a mix of princess and super hero type games. After lunch, I have to head over to my day job (hopefully after a shower). Later comes dinner and a bit more playing. The kids go to bed, and I slush read, beta read, work on promotional material, or write before sleep.

New Release: Little Monsters

A Collection of Appalachian Horror

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

19 Stories by master Appalachian storyteller, Tim Wellman! Academically sound, these horror stories are sure to scare you, entertain, and amuse you. All the stories revolve around little girls, either evil, or fighting evil. And as a long-time Appalachian writer, educated in Creative Writing at Marshall University, these stories from the former editor of the literary journal, Et Cetera, are sure to please even the most discriminating reader! 300+ pages!

About the Author:


Tim Wellman was born and raised in West Virginia. He attended Marshall University for four years as a Creative Writing major and won several state and school awards for writing, and has written several novels for younger readers, YA, and adults. He was the editor of Marshall University's literary magazine, Et Cetera, for two years. He has also had several horror short stories published in anthologies.

Monday motivation

One of the toughest things you will ever do is say no to quitting.


Fridays 5 with Robert Knox


I am a husband, father, rabid backyard gardener, Boston Globe freelance writer, and blogger (prosegarden.blogspot.com) on nature, books, films and other subjects. My short stories, poems and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary publications. I was named a Finalist in the Massachusetts Artist Grant Program in fiction for a story about my father (“Lost”).

My story "Marriage" placed in a fiction competition held by Words With Jam and was published recently in the anthology "An Earthless Melting Pot." Another story, "Love in the Other Place," was published in the latest issue of The Tishman Review. "Commitment" recently appeared in the debut issue of 3288 Review. My nonfiction story "Preparing A Place" was published last month in Lunch Ticket, and my short story "House Mates" is currently up this month (January 2016) on Scarlet Leaf Review.

My novel on the origins of the Sacco-Vanzetti case, "Suosso's Lane," was published in October 2015 by Web-e- Books.com.

As a contributing writer for Verse-Virtual.com, my poems appear there every month. Poems have also appeared recently in Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, The Poetry Superhighway, Bombay Review, Earl of Plaid, Rain, Party, & Disaster Society, Semaphore Journal, Metaphor, and Scarlet Leaf Review. Some poems were also accepted for the upcoming anthology "Peace: Give it a Chance," and a collection of poems ("Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty") will be published in 2016 by Coda Crab Books.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.) In my twenties. I had just been fired from my teaching job (four different jobs in four years). I had no idea what I was going to do for a living, but I had been writing poetry for a few years and keeping one of those running self-consciously serious writer's journals, from which (I hoped) I would material for "stories" once I got around to writing them. I moved to Boston, then Cambridge, and became part of a self-publishing poets co-op. We published a tabloid newsprint poetry quarterly with our own work in it, gradually opening up to outside writers, and gave group readings in the Boston area. It was great to have something in print, but I was still not making a living.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.) Getting published. I was determined to write novels. I pushed poetry to the side when I went to graduate school in English literature to improve my employability. I would finish a novel but couldn't find an agent or a traditional publisher, and self-publishing was looked down on then. I worked as adjunct faculty teaching English composition at various colleges and writing on the side, as we say, but resenting the time teaching and correcting papers took away from 'my own' work. Eventually, I switched to working for newspapers. Same deal. Except newspapers were way more fun than teaching, but they did not open doors for my creative projects.



Synopsis:
Historical fiction, Suosso’s Lane dials back the clock to revisit the flawed trial of Italian immigrant Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a believer in "the beautiful idea" of a classless society in which all would work for the common good.

A sober-minded laborer, Vanzetti suffers from the exploitation of industrial workers in the early decades of the twentieth century. Outraged by the greed and injustice that mar his idealistic hopes for the "New World," he joins other anarchists in promoting strikes and preaching revolution.

In 1920, Vanzetti and his comrade Nicola Sacco are nabbed by police looking for radicals and subsequently convicted of committing a spectacular daylight robbery and murder. After seven years in prison, even as millions of workers and intellectuals around the world rally to their cause, the two men are executed.

Seventy years later, when a young history teacher moves into Vanzetti’s old house in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he learns of a letter that might prove Vanzetti’s innocence. But his search for the truth faces obstacles posed by a local conspiracy theorist, the daughter of Vanzetti’s lover, a shady developer, and a fatal fire set during his search of an old Plymouth factory.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  It's hard to say what my 'first' was. My recent first was the accomplishment of that long-ago goal of publishing a novel. My novel "Suosso's Lane," published last October by Web-e-Books.com, takes off from the famous (and infamous) Sacco and Vanzetti case, which exposed American prejudice against southern and eastern European immigrants in the 1920s, especially Italians. Conventional wisdom said "ignorant, backward" Italians could never fit into American society. What does history say about that prediction? When that book finally saw daylight last fall I was ecstatic. I had pushed for years to find a publisher and rewritten it about a dozen times along the way. An earlier would-be publisher had collapsed before getting to my book. Writing and publishing that book was the water tower on my bucket list. I have a half-dozen other projects backed up behind it. Whether they'll see light remains to be seen. But one thing I know: I'm in print. And I feel like I earned it.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.) What's important to me is voice. Somebody has to be telling something -- let's say 'story' -- in a compelling way. Somebody has to have something to say, and has to know how to say it. The writer, through whatever artifice -- first-person narrator or third-person omniscient or anywhere in between -- has to speak with authority, invite, seduce, or demand the reader's attention. And hold it by delivering the goods. You probably need both story and deep, complex, credible characters to do that job, but you don't get in the door, at least my door, without a tongue in your head.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  Sleep late. Sort through email for the free-lance job I still do for the Boston Globe. Decide what I'm going to do that day to promote "Suosso's Lane." Write emails to possible sources of interest? Mail out promotional copies? See what social media forums such as Goodreads has for me? Then I write a poem or work on my current novel. I'm a contributing writer for an online poetry journal called Verse-Virtual.com, so I produce publishable work each month for that journal. I spend my days mostly in solitude, but they're not carbon copies. I grow flowers and vegetables in the growing season. Take walks in autumn. Go to the gym some days. Eat dinner and spend the evening with my wife. Go back to doing stuff like this after she goes to bed. I am mostly free, often quite happy, and still rather driven.

New Release: God's Rogue

Click on cover for more info or to order!

Synopsis:

Kaden Hunt has been fighting a hidden war for humanity, alone. A war That changed one night when his oldest friend tried to kill him. Now Kaden the most powerful human in existence has drawn the complete focus of Enki and Shamash the two warring leaders of the Annunaki; the aliens who created humanity. Both are determined to stop Kaden from becoming what he once was, who he once was. For if he becomes the Traveler a more powerful enemy will be freed.

About the Author:

Kevin S. Chambers was born May, 3, 1990. Kevin has always had a wild imagination, often creating and writing stories during, church and school when he should have been paying attention. Not
only did Kevin like to tell stories, he loved to read; until he entered high school.

Rich Martin a shop teacher at Kevin’s high school handed him a book, Eragon. For over a year Kevin held onto the book, until he finally read it. After which he continued to read, eventually finding the Sword of Truth Series.

Since 2010 Kevin has spent his time between reading, and writing not only novels, but screenplays as well.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?
A.) Well I've been writing for a long while, stories to entertain myself. I would say that when I really started writing, it was back during my freshman year, when I had just finished Brisingr, and did not want to wait 3 years for the next book. So I began writing my version of the final book.
Then I found Terry Goodkind, and began reading his novels. When I finished the Sword of Truth series, I decided to write my own series, and to get it published. Since that time, about 2010 I've been switching back and forth between novels, and screenplays.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?
A.) Actually having the time to write. With a full time job, a wife, and a social life; sometimes I'm just out late. That and the fact that I had an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for English and Grammar. Which is now a 504.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?
A.) Great, I'm nervous. Sitting here is this going to do well? Is it going to flop? You put so much work into a novel, that you wan it to succeed. Just like you'd want a child to not fail.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?
A.) The story is the character to me, so they are both important. The story shapes the character, and without the character there is no story.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?
A.) Up before the sun comes out, working on marketing my book, or writing. Take care of our animals, eat a little breakfast, go to work as an Operations Manager for a well drilling company. Come home, make dinner with my wife, eat, watch some TV, work on marketing or my book, and go to sleep.

Kevin on Goodreads.

Monday Motivational


Fridays 5 with Exie Smith

Exie is a Spiritual Medium, Energy Reader, Best Selling International Author and Speaker.  Her daily life has spirits and Ghosts coming to call no matter where she happens to be. 

When she was 12 years old her life changed, forever.  In one night, she knew she was going to have to grow up keeping a secret.  The fact that she could hear and see things that other people could not. 

“I never went in search of the dead, but it seems the dead has come in search of me.”

In her first book, Welcome to My Para“Normal” Life, talks about the growth of my gift.  “As time went on, what I thought was a single event, became more. More than a seriously creepy thing in my closet, and occasional footsteps on the basement stairs.”

In her second book, “When The Dead Come Calling,” she goes into detail as never before about ghosts, spirits, shadow people, orgs and vortices and taking ownership of her gift.  

Join her on the journey of a lifetime, but it might be a good idea, to leave the light on while you do!

Links:  Website:  www.exieparanormal.com

Facebook: Welcome To My Para”Normal” Life

Twitter: @exieparanormal

Email:  exieparanormal@gmail.com

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.)  In 2007 I started to write and in 2009 I quit my job to write full time. 

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.)  At first it was finding my time of day to write.  Meaning, what time of day were my sweet hours.  I am a morning person, so moved some items out of that time slot so I could write everyday.

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Synopsis: 
In this, my second book, I go into detail as never before about ghosts, spirits, shadow people, orbs and vortices. An excerpt from the book: "Working on the computer all afternoon I took a break and visited my social network page. Looking at different pages, someone had posted a picture that literally jumped off the screen at me. I was taken back at how much this picture spoke to me. I could tell by looking at the picture, which was someones home, that it was haunted. Preoccupied with the picture, I had not read the caption with the photo. "Looking for help, what do you see in the photo?" "...I could not see any spirits with my eyes. I felt that something was there. At first I felt one spirit, a child, I thought. Then, I thought no but realized I was picking up a second spirit an adult, male possibly Native American." I found spirits in this woman's home, believed in what I was feeling and knew I had to have the courage to help her. On this paranormal journey one of my goals is to achieve a balance within myself while helping people find peace in their world. The book also contains the amazing experiences people have share with me, and with their permission sharing with you. I want you to know that you are not alone in your experiences. People all around you are seeing, hearing and feeling things from a different realm. Join me on my journey, see if any of it mirrors your life!

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.)  I told my mom one night, as she sat and read me a bedtime story, “I want to do what this person has done, I want to write a book too.”  I was 3 years old.  When I got the first copy in my hot hands I cried!  They were tears of happiness and of a life long dream fulfilled.  Then I jumped around the room hooting with laughter grinning like a fool.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.) My books are paranormal memoirs with events taken from journals that I have kept for over 43 years.  My goal with these books is to get a message of understanding to people.  An understanding of what the paranormal is, what hauntings are, what spirit is, etc. 

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  I work out first thing, then settle into a bit of computer work.  That might be marketing, booking author events, conventions or speaking events.  Ship materials.  Work on speeches, I do at least 2 different ones and each of those has a 30 min, 45 min and 60 min length.  Emails, social media pages and phone calls.  I also do research, read other authors paranormal, spiritual works and define definitions of words in my world. I journal almost everyday, it depends if the event is something I think will work with my 3rd book.

Election 2016


Wow!

To say I'm stunned would be an understatement.

Truthfully going into this election I felt neither candidate really deserved my vote. Yet I feel I had an obligation to make a choice, and let my voice be heard. As a veteran it became a matter of who I felt had my back, and the backs of those who continue to sacrifice every day in the defense of this great nation. Men and women who have freely stood up and taken an oath to defend our country against all enemies foreign and domestic. With that in mind I could not in clear conscious stand behind a candidate who publicly likened the death of a United States Ambassador to a bump in the road.

Remember Benghazi?

So yes, I voted for Trump.

I am part of a silent majority, we don't post political or religious stuff on our Facebook walls if we even have one, we tend to ignore the pollsters when they call. We are tired of elected representatives making empty promises as they fight to keep their job. We are fed up with elitist, out of touch, politicians who believe they know best. And we've had our fill of being told that we have to pay just a little bit more to make things work out right when we've already paid more than our fair share.

So the election didn't go the way you had hoped it would. You're angry, upset, mad at the world, or at least those who disagree with you.

Remember choice? We all have the right to make our own choice, right? After all isn't that what freedom is all about? Doesn't choice lie at the heart of our democracy? It was one of the reasons I raised my right hand and took an oath to defend this country to the best of my ability. Because that choice made us the greatest nation in the world.

What will happen with Trump as the president? None of us can say for sure. He may rise to the occasion and become one of the greatest leaders our nation has even known. He may fall flat on his face while his four years in office pass uneventfully. What happens remains to be seen. So stop with the doom and gloom and all that drama. If you feel the need to flee this country and rescind your citizenship, I have only one thing to say to you.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out

Just an update.

While work slowly progresses on Library of the Damned, book three of The Dreadland Chronicles, I have been rewriting my novel A Father's Love that I plan to submit to a publisher upon completion. I've always believed in aiming high so I'll start at the top and work my way down from there. There are a couple of smaller publishers I'd love to work with to bring this story to life, unfortunately neither of them will be accepting work in the foreseeable future.

I have been working on the cover for Library of the Damned while time permits. I know, covers are something better left to those who know what they're doing, but I enjoy the process of uncovering that final image. This time there are two distinct directions this cover can go in so I'm pursuing both. I'll share them here when they're ready.

In the new year I'll be transitioning to a static website and when my obligation to those who submitted their interviews for Fridays 5 ends in February I'll be closing this blog. There has just been too much for me to keep up with. I work a full time job and write when I'm able, and my blog along with social media,  which I'll be cutting way back on, have interfered long enough with my need to write.

It's been fun, and I've enjoyed having  everyone stop by, but it's time I refocused my energies on what's really important to me, my writing. I'll be fifty eight at the end of this year and the time I have left has grown shorter than the time I've been here. I want to spend that time wisely.

Origin Part VI

Some things are better left undiscovered.

In no time they were wrapping themselves about Charlie, who screamed as he was enveloped. One brushed against her, the contact filling her mind with images of subterranean chambers buried deep beneath the earth, inhabited by slug-like creatures that had been waiting in a form of suspended animation for millennia. They had been left to guard the secrets these chambers contained by those who had built them.

Why she did it she wasn’t entirely sure. It might have been instinct, or her training as an archeologist. With Charlie’s screams echoing in her mind, she snatched the now-closed box from its place and raced across that vast chamber to escape. As she did she became aware of a multitude of slender appendages trailing her across the room, twisting and turning, slithering over around and under one another as they pursued her.

Reaching the passageway, she turned right and raced headlong down that narrow corridor, the beam of her flashlight bouncing crazily as she ran. Flashing to and fro, briefly illuminating those searching appendages that pursued her as they twisted over and around one another. They covered the floor, the walls, and the vaulted ceiling above her. Keeping pace with her fleeing figure. She became aware of a gentle wind pushing at her back as the corridor behind her filled with the creature these slender appendages were attached to. The air around her became stagnant, filled with a sickening stench that reminded her of primitive swamps rotting beneath a blazing sun.

She raced past the intersection, following the two sets of footprints that were clearly defined in the dust covered the floor. Pushing away the despair that threatened to make her stop in her tracks. Driven by a terror of the unknown and what lay behind her. Ahead she saw a faint light that indicated she was nearing the main chamber. Behind her she felt those searching tentacles as they whispered across her back.

She could have stopped then, sacrificing herself to save the others. No one would have known, she and Charlie would have just vanished into the antediluvian void that lay at the heart of the chamber. But it was a moot point, for the others would have come looking for them. In their turn awakening that which now pursued her.

She ran into the main room, screaming in an unintelligible voice. The others looked up from their assorted tasks as Sandra raced across the floor. From the narrow crevice, the first searching tentacles of an unimaginable beast emerged from the shadowy depths. Slender appendages slithered along the walls, the ceiling, and the floor as Sandra fled towards the distant opening and the safety that lay beyond.

Jenny and her assistant were the closest to the opening, working on several samples to the right of the corridor. A tentacle wrapped itself around her assistant’s ankle and she was yanked off her feet, screaming in terror as she was hoisted into the air, her cries cut short when she was dashed against the floor and her lifeless body was dragged back to the narrow opening, leaving a bloody trail on the floor. 

Jenny fared no better. Several of the tentacles wrapped themselves around her body as she cried out and struggled against them. Her cries became a gurgling moan as her body was torn in half; the two parts were then dragged back to the opening, leaving bloody swaths in their wake.

“Get out!” Sandra screamed as the tentacles washed over the larger chamber and the gathered scientists, each in turn, looked up to see what all the commotion was about.

One of the guards fired at the invading nightmare, the bullets passing harmlessly through the meaty substance of the tentacles. His shots were cut short when a tentacle slapped him with enough force to separate his head from his body, sending it bouncing across the floor as screams echoed through the chamber. There was a moment of confusion where no one was sure of where the threat was coming from. The sound of gunfire came from every direction as those tasked with protecting the scientists suddenly found themselves thrust into a life and death struggle against an unimaginable enemy.

Albert and a few others backed away from the radio table just as it was snatched away from them; without hesitation they turned and ran through the shattered opening. Sandra followed and the four of them huddled together for warmth against the leeward side of a massive stone.

From within the chamber, the sound of screaming and gunfire was replaced by the voice of the restless wind. A deep rumbling came from beneath their feet; the ground shook as another earthquake rocked the area. The wall of the structure, already weakened by a previous shockwave, surrendered to gravity and collapsed. Voluminous clouds of dust shot out of the narrow cracks around each massive stone to be whipped away by the relentless wind.

They were freezing. With a wind chill of minus sixty it wouldn’t be long before the cold claimed them. Having fled the relative warmth of the inner chamber, none of them had donned their parkas before fleeing.

Sandra realized she was still carrying the marble box that had started everything. With her mind’s eye she saw the mummified remains of those sub-human creatures.

It had to go back. Pushing herself to her feet, the wind slicing through the thin layer of clothes she wore, taking her breath away as she struggled to breathe through her nose to at least warm the air a bit before it reached the delicate tissue of her lungs. It didn’t matter if she died or not. She had to put the object back where it belonged. She had no idea what lay in the box, only that to open it would awaken  something from the distant past, something that should remain undisturbed. Something that threatened mankind’s very survival. 

“Sandra, what are you doing?” Albert yelled against the shrieking wind.

“It has to go back,” she said as she held up the small box for Albert to see. “We can’t keep it.” Her tongue felt thick in her mouth as she was overcome with a bout of confusion.

Her heart struggled to pump her thickening blood through her veins. The cold air froze the soft tissue of her nose and she was forced to slowly sip at the air with her mouth, the chilled air burning in her lungs, giving life, yet at the same time slowly taking it away as living cells were crystallized upon contact with the cold air. She didn’t have much longer, none of them did, the cold would soon take its toll and they would slip away to the lulling warmth of their core as the blood vessels in their extremities constricted and their bodies sacrificed arms and legs in a last-ditch effort to survive. She shivered uncontrollably as her body tried to warm itself.

“You can’t take it back.”

Sandra ignored him and turned back to the structure. There was still a narrow opening; if she could make it to that, get inside, she could give this thing back to what lay in the emptiness beyond. The wind pushed against her, freezing her flesh on contact as she leaned into it to cross that open space between the stone she had been hiding behind and that narrow opening.

Her perspective changed and she realized that she had dropped to her knees. She couldn’t feel her legs, her feet, nor could she feel her arms and hands. They had become useless clumps of frozen flesh. She willed herself to move forward, but it was no use. Her body had sacrificed her extremities in order to survive. Stuck now, away from the warmth of the small group, in the open, she knew it wouldn’t be long and her mind turned to happier times as the last of her life-giving warmth was slowly consumed by the relentless wind.

Maybe they wouldn’t find it. She tried to reassure herself in those last moments. But she knew better. Man’s insatiable curiosity would always seek out those things that were better left undiscovered.

THE END
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2016 HHAC E. Storm

No author photo available.

E. Storm is a screenwriter and horror author. Instead of pursuing a Hollywood dream, E. lives in his own dreams.

He'd love to connect with friends and readers:
https://www.facebook.com/E-Storm-1787096131560003/ 

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Synopsis:

"Gloomy Sunday" caused more than two hundred suicides in 1931. Now, the serial-killer song is back in a small college town. You hear it, you die. Can the odd threesome—Jen, West, and Miranda —lift the curse and stop its rampaging murder?

2016 HHAC Pete Chown


When I was young, my passion was for technology. That became my job, and I ended up running a technology company during the first dot-com boom. I also helped start a charity, got an interesting and—I think—important change made to the Fraud Act 2006, and so on.

It was an exciting time, but sometimes I wished the world was different: more exciting, more meaningful. I've always had the gift or the curse of being able to daydream, and having it feel almost real to me. I wondered if other people would be interested in reading the stories I experienced, because they were stories, even though I didn't always write them down.

Telling the stories in a compelling way wasn't easy. It took a long time acquiring the skills needed to write them, but here they are. I'm proud of them and many people have enjoyed them. I hope you do too. 

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Synopsis:

Abby’s last ever robbery seemed to go perfectly. She got a wallet full of cash, and she wasn’t followed by any have-a-go types who might let the police know where she was.

Someone, though, had seen the whole thing. He wasn’t likely to talk to the police, but he hadn’t fed for quite a while, and he was very hungry. He was also quite sweet for a monster, and ordinarily Abby would have enjoyed meeting him.

The murder squad want to know who is stealing people’s blood, then dumping the bodies around London. But there are other people hunting the monsters too, who know more about monsters than the monsters do themselves. A monster could start feeling unloved.

2016 HHAC Maison Crow

No author bio or photo available!

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Synopsis:

Vampires, sea monsters, aliens, banshees, slashers and more. Ten horror-themed micro stories, each a spooky, bite-size treat at exactly two hundred and fifty words. Read one just before bed if you dare!