"Welcome to Count Gore De Vol's Tomb of Dark Delights. I'm J. L. Comeau, horror writer and resident Tomb Keeper. I have been charged with the daunting task of sorting and cataloging the Count's vast library of horror, science fiction and fantasy. Take a torch from the wall and follow me down the stone stairway into the darkness deep beneath the Dungeon. It's cold and damp down here--perfect for the kind of reading we're going to do. Never mind the shambling figures in the shadows, they're probably just some friends of ours looking for a good book. If you click on the cover, you'll be taken to a wonderful place where you can buy the book.
Now, let's reach into the musty stacks and see what we can find..."
(Clicking on the covers gives you more information and prices from Amazon.com and other outlets.)
One of my
favorite authors of horror fiction is classing up the Tomb tonight! Here are two fabulous downloadable digital books from award-winning horror writer and
fellow Virginny gal, Elizabeth Massie!
AFRAID:
TIDBITS OF THE MACABRE by Elizabeth Massie
This is a delightfully shivery collection she put together for "...those who
take a flashlight to bed to read and peek into the shadows..", and that is the
perfect way to read these spine-rattling tales taken from Ms. Massie's long and
ongoing career writing horror fiction. Edgy, terrifying, often funny, but
somehow always quite humane no matter how explicit or violent. These stories are
written with steady hand and unflinching eye. AFRAID opens with a titular poem
that invites the reader into the darkness, followed by a host of very dark short
stories. An obese realizes the truth about every fat person containing a thin
person struggling to be free; a hoarder has a very special treasure hidden among
her piles of junk; a former flower-child finds sacrifice and penitence in the
American Southwest; a newly-unemployed man's walk in the woods takes him much
farther than he could have imagined; a woman joins a group of women who seem
insanely fascinated with reality television; a new neighbor who collects animals
drives the woman next door crazy; an affectionate yellow cat causes unforeseen
mayhem; a terror of thunderstorms reveals to what extent one man will go to
manage his phobia; an explicit, shocking tale of pit-fighting you'll never get
out of your head; a story of magic gone very wrong; a WWI veteran confronts his
worst fears in a wintry forest; and, in closing, a cool one-page trio of truly
creepy micro-flash fiction stories. This collection is a joy to read in bed with
a flashlight, in your favorite reading chair, or anywhere else. Download a copy
and immerse yourself in terror tales by a master of the form. It's skeery,
guaranteed! Lovely original cover art by Cortney Skinner.
SUNDOWN:
INTO THE ENCROACHING DARKNESS AND BACK AGAIN by Elizabeth Massie
The author dedicates this stunning collection to "...all who stare into the
darkness to better appreciate the light." And I can think of no better
description. Each of these tales, taken from the span of her career to date, is
very, very dark, indeed. SUNDOWN opens with a very spooky poem that sets the
mood for the stories that follow: a tale of a sweet piglet that becomes quite a
horrific boar; a dying woman brings out the worst in her family; a man finds
himself outside naked on a winter day with no memory of how it happened; a
reformed alcoholic musician discovers the true power of music; New Year's Eve in
the mountains brings forth the ghosts of a elderly man's past; a first-year
medical student loses a head (not his own); a group of high school kids are
taught the dangers of graven images; a spooky tale based on the true story of a
ghostly WWII airship; an abused child dreads a snowfall that will prevent her
escape to school; a West Virginia mining fortune heiress develops a fear of
mirror--for good reasons; a man checks into a cheap motel and finds ghosts
awaiting his arrival; and, finally, the collection closes with a deliciously
shuddersome poem about long-leggedy beasties titled "Spider's Night Out". The
author's voice is clear as a fine crystal, drawing the reader ever deeper into
her dark world of strange terrors that somehow do manage to make the light
brighter. This is storytelling of the highest order. Beautiful, evocative
original cover art by Cortney Skinner.
I’ve got a
triple-header of fine poetry and prose for TombRats this week—slender
small-press volumes that pack a big punch! Enjoy!
THE
SAUCER UNDER MY BED AND OTHER STORIES by G. O. Clark
There’s one
thing you can expect from poet/author G. O. Clark: the unexpected. In this slim
volume of short stories, Mr. Clark investigates some very weird science fiction
and fantasy realms. A very revealing conversation takes place in “The Interview
with the Monster in the Closet”, a man who dies of cancer decides to catch up on
his reading in “Ghost Reader”, and the titular tale informs the reader exactly
how to respond to finding a UFO under their bed. Funny, scary, informative and
just plain fun, Mr. Clark regales the reader with his trademark weirdness and
sense of humor. Do you know what scary monsters do on their day off? I didn’t
know, either, until I read THE SAUCER UNDER MY BED AN OTHER STORIES. This book
might be too much fun for you, so be very careful when handling it, okay?
PHANTOM
NAVIGATION by Robert Frazier
Award winning poet/author has selected another marvelous collection of poetry
for Dark Regions Press, a wondrous group of poems from modernist sf/fantasy poet
Robert Frazier. With Mr. Frazier at the helm, the reader navigates evocative
landscapes of interstellar darkness and light, worlds recognizable and unknown,
where worlds collide with worlds. Consider the well-known fruit, the lemon, in
which the author delineates “A Crash Course in Lemons”, where the humble yellow
edible telescopes and reduces into shapes and planets both recognizable and
unknown. The city of New Orleans becomes a dark land of terror in “Nekropoleis”,
and a Coelacanth forms a nexus evolution in “Seeking out Lobe-Finned Truths”.
Ghosts, dreams, and darkness stalk the pages of this phantasmagorical collection
that deftly steers the reader into realms unknown.
THE
BRAINPAN CONCERTO by Kurt Newton
I am a fan of Kurt Newton’s poetry and prose, and he doesn’t disappoint with
this wildly imagined novelette of science fiction horror concerning a young man
named Cody Miller, who downloads a music file to his computer called “The
Brainpan Concerto #3 by Unknown”. Cody finds the music enigmatically beautiful,
and he begins searching for the mysterious composer of the The Brainpan
Concerto. It turns out that Cody isn’t the only one looking—a pair of detectives
is looking for the mysterious composer, too. A young woman with a portion of her
skull removed, with an array of electrodes studding her brain is found, and it
becomes clear that the composer of the concerto is a serial killer whose music
is written in the key of human agony. Fast, fun and unpredictable, Kurt Newton
adds another creepy volume to his canon of utterly strange fiction.
To
get even more information about these titles, including some of the best prices
on the Internet, just click on each of the book covers and you'll be connected
to
To visit the individual writer's website, just click on any underlined name.
About the Tomb Keeper (Or, who is this person of mystery)
J. L. (Judy) Comeau is an award winning short story writer whose work has appeared internationally in major horror and dark fantasy anthologies such as the Borderlands series, Best New Horror, The Years' Best Horror, the Hot Blood series, and the Dark Voices series in the UK. She is an active member of the Horror Writer's Association, and she lives in the Washington, DC area where she also teaches short story writing. Click on FIREBIRD to read one of her most anthologized stories.
To learn more about the Horror Writer's Association, just click on their logo!
