Sunday, October 20, 2024
Feel the shake? Hear the roar? Horrorquake is here!
BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF ANOMALOUS WEATHER, SOMETHING PROWLS
Up north, a snowstorm of unprecedented ferocity descends upon Zukunft Falls, Montana, and the nearby Enchanted Point Ski Resort. Within the blinding whiteness created by the storm, something even more ferocious hunts the refugees as they seek shelter from the raging winds and plummeting temperatures.
UNDER THE RISING FLOODWATERS, SOMETHING LURKS
Meanwhile, down south, a storm system forms off the coast of Florida with a speed that defies nature. The Governor quickly rescinds her evacuation order and advises citizens to shelter in place and ride out the storm. But homes and businesses are disappearing, being deconstructed around the terrified residents until they are forced into the open to become potential prey to something from which even the state's most feared predators flee.
BENEATH THE ENDLESS DESERT SAND, SOMETHING HUNGERS
Deep in the Mojave wilderness of eastern California, an unlikely group of people—a vacationing family, a traveling coed, a truck driver, a cop and a convict, a preacher, and some bewildered locals—join together to survive the desolate desert as violent tremors increase in frequency and ferocity. Something stalks them from beneath the sand, threatening to swallow any one of them whole. Who will survive the terror of…
HORRORQUAKE
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Monday, January 30, 2023
Sunshine State Book Festival
I had a great time last weekend at the Sunshine State Book Festival. It was my first time with a booth at an event like this. It was both a learning experience as a participant and an interesting time as an observer. For the first time since I started getting published, I felt like I was a part of the greater community of writers. There is a genuine camaraderie of fellow creatives that has its own kind of energy. Like a jolt of electricity, this first experience dipping my toe in the festival circuit has whetted my appetite for more. Armed with great advice and a little more insight into the process, I look forward to participating in another event!
The festival banner:
My booth:
Some books from fellow authors I picked up (and so should you!):
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Sunday, April 24, 2022
The Infinite Minute
Growing up, my mom, my sisters, and I would often dive into the same series of books. Various YA series were a staple in our rotation: the Twilight series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Artemis Fowl, and the incomparable Harry Potter series. Someone else was always around to share the joy and revelations of a particular series. I'm thrilled to have a book published that I think my sisters will enjoy and that Mom would've loved. Our book club isn't as big as it used to be with Mom gone, but somewhere out there in the Wider World, maybe she's picking up my book with the same excitement of something new to read. Something different. It's a world where time is broken into bits and fits back together in odd-shaped ways, where maybe up north, it's still home. Perhaps it's 2005, and the family book club still has our favorite member. Because the past is the present is the future. For ever.
Monday, April 11, 2022
Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Horroricane is here.
And then please pick up a copy of the novel Horroricane by Edward Newton
Monday, March 21, 2022
Thursday, October 21, 2021
A Season for Horror...
Hello all! Happy Halloween!
First a fun announcement! I've signed on to Grinning Skull Press to publish a sequel to my horror novel! Coming soon...Horroricane!
Now I thought I'd post a few recommendations for some spooky reading if you're in the holiday mood.
Getting colder. Colder. Frightfully cold! Horrorfrost by Eddie Newton.
Fellow NSP author can a supernatural frightfest in The Vampire's Witch by Damian Serbu.
Just gotta love this awesome ominous cover for Immortal Things by Rick R. Reed.
Speaking of scary, summoning evil ought to be left to the professionals...like politicians. Check out what happens to the amateurs in J.P. Jackson's Summoned.
And if reading isn't your fright, then try an audiobook tonight! The Reunion by M.D. Neu.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
What's Your Tribe?
I'd like to thank M.D. Neu for inviting me to make a top ten list! I was a sucker for American Top 40 back in the day.
I still have my list of all-time favorite movies. So any excuse to start ranking something and I'm in!
Check it out here:
Monday, August 30, 2021
Truth to Light Prelude
before i
She had to go back to Academy. The tragedy had given her an excuse for many these long months, but she couldn’t avoid school forever. Mounting pressure had forced her father to exert what little control he had left over his sixteen-year-old daughter, and here she was back in class. She wasn’t ready for this, but time kept moving forward despite her world standing still.
Emilie Mondragon made it to lunchtime. She scurried away at the first opportunity and found a remote retreat away from the rest of the class. They’d spent the whole morning on a field trip along the Tigris River as Professor Deshpande reviewed the history of the earliest civilizations. The lesson had provided Emilie with none of the knowledge she needed to achieve her objective. She needed specific information to enact her revenge. Lollygagging along the Tigris was for children and teachers.
Emilie nibbled at the sandwich she’d made for herself. She’d had to learn how to do everything on her own the last few months. Her father wasn’t well enough to even make her a simple lunch. If supporting yourself and becoming independent at sixteen would’ve qualified for some Academy credits, Emilie would be ready to graduate. She’d suffered a lifetime of experiences over the last year. She could probably teach Professor Deshpande a thing or two.
“Well, look at this,” came a voice from behind Emilie. “It’s the spooky girl.”
Emilie had missed so much Academy the last many months that she hadn’t been able to rejoin her old class. She was essentially held back to the group a year behind her. The students were all strangers. Two of them somehow found her in this remote alcove along the wooded area downriver where Emilie had found a little respite.
“Leave me alone,” Emilie said.
They called her spooky because she had a hooded cloak that she never removed. Her face was hidden within the shadows and the dark robe concealed her true shape. She looked like a mage from some sword and sorcery movie. But Emilie was certainly no magician. She despised sorcery.
How fateful, then, that the boy taunting her now wore a black top hat and pristine matching tuxedo, a blue cummerbund as dark as an ominous thunderhead. He carried a wand made of metal, more tooth fairy than Harry Potter. It even had a tip at the end in the shape of a small star with a sharp edge on each of the five points. The wand was polished to a shining silver sheen.
“She wants us to leave her alone, Ich,” the Magi said, waving his wand like he was weaving a spell.
“It’s a free world, Pyrros,” the other student said. Ichika was the smartest girl in class. Her head was twice as big as Pyrros’s noggin. Her hair was wild, sticking out like a fluffy troll doll and as gray as Emilie’s grandfather’s had been before—
“It’s also a wide world,” Emilie grumbled. “Go find somewhere else to be free.”
“A new girl doesn’t get to dictate the rules, spooky,” Pyrros taunted. “Maybe we’ll follow you around all day.”
“I don’t think I can stand the stink of Magi much longer,” Emilie said.
The teenage boy glared at Emilie. He was blonde and pretty and the scowl only made him appear even more like some hero out of Greek myth. “How about you let me see what’s under that hood and I leave you alone for the rest of the day?”
“How about you leave me alone for the rest of the day and I don’t stick that wand right up your—”
“Hey,” Ichika interrupted. “You don’t talk to him that way!”
Emilie found the girl’s reaction interesting. Did Professor Deshpande know one of his students had a crush on another? Genius girl hearts Magi boy. Did they know how dangerous such affection could be? Emilie knew full well what happened when forbidden love goes awry. She had the scars to prove it.
Pyrros pointed his wand at Emilie. With a flick of his wrist, her hood magically flipped back and revealed her face. Both the other students stepped back and hissed at the sight of her. Emilie quickly grabbed the hem of her hood and yanked it back up. But it was too late. Both her tormentors had gotten a good look.
“Sheesh,” Ichiki said. “Were you in some kind of a fire or something?”
“Something,” Emilie answered.
“Did someone do that to you?” the Genius asked.
“I didn’t do it to myself,” Emilie snapped. “You ask foolish questions for someone who’s supposed to be so smart.”
Pyrros had recovered from the sight of Emilie’s face and stepped forward to defend Ichiki. “I know, I know. ‘You should see the other guy’, right?”
The other guy had been a Magi.
Emilie pulled an item from under her heavy cloak. She wore a utility belt with a dozen pouches around her waist. They could perform all sorts of functions. The item pinched between her fingers was dander from a yeti mixed with a single unicorn tear. She put the smidgen of secret science against her lips and blew the dust toward the two unruly students.
Rainbow frost instantly chilled the two taunting teens. They both started shivering uncontrollably, the temperature plunging dangerously near frostbite in a manner of moments. Pyrros dropped his wand and rubbed his arms. Ichiki started rummaging through her rucksack for some technological device to counteract Emilie’s attack. She pulled out something resembling a curling iron and the tip started to glow a warm orange. They managed to defrost before hypothermia set in.
“Y-y-you just might get expelled f-f-for that!” Pyrros warned.
“You’re right,” Emilie acknowledged as she bent down to pick up the Magi’s wand. “I can’t chance ‘might’.”
Emilie stabbed him in the arm with the sharp point of his wand. Pyrros cried out loudly in pain. The injury was merely a flesh wound, but he was going to bleed a bit. Professor Deshpande would rush in here any moment. Emilie leaned forward close enough that Pyrros could see her face within the shadows of the hood.
“You asked about the other guy...,” Emilie hissed. “He looks blonde and pretty and unscathed right now. But just wait. Soon, he’ll wish he looked like me instead.”
Emilie was about to get expelled. That was okay. She’d wanted that all along. Her return to Academy had always been meant to be short-lived. Pyrros had given her the push. He’d given her a lesson she hadn’t expected to receive. She realized she was ready for the next step. Emilie was ready to move forward. To seek revenge.
She thought to herself: Time to call Sofía.
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