Horror Genre

Word Count: Click here to reveal90000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Intenze is the newest designer drug. Take it, and nightmares come alive. “Edging” is a better rush than the Tower of Terror. It’s a fraction of the price of a Six Flags admission. And it’s the most addictive high that the tiny suburb of New London has ever known. For Rick Carlson, the junkies roaming the streets don’t even scratch the surface of what worries him. He’s trying to win back his cheating wife. He’s trying to protect his residents at Belmont Assistant Living from their own drug-addled grandchildren. And he’s trying to save his twin boy and girl from their mother’s murderous paranoia. But he can’t save them all. The fears of all those who edge summon the Thirst—a living miasma that thrives on terror. It is bringing a storm. And time is running out.

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Summary: Some secrets refuse to stay hidden. Three years have passed since Donnie murdered the man who was brutalizing members of his community at a cruising spot known only as The Stop. He was never charged. Less than a handful of people knew what he'd done. Now, he has a new boyfriend, close friends, and is working his way toward college graduation. He is putting what happened behind him. His growing peace is shaken, however, when a package arrives containing a small ragdoll dressed like a Catholic priest. Someone knows his secret. Someone intent on punishing him as the law had not. As the body count rises, Donnie finds himself once again in a terrifying position. Will he kill or be killed?

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Summary: Most will run, but the brave will fight... A deadly virus is sweeping through America's cities, pitting the worst humanity has to offer against its best warriors and scientists in a race against extinction. The virus doesn't just kill--it transforms and creates monsters of men and women called Variants. New York firefighter Meg Pratt is among those trapped in New York City. Together with her fellow rescue workers and the scattered elements of America's front-line military fighters, Meg fights to survive and save civilians from the coming apocalypse. Across the city, Marine Corps washout Jed Welch is on his own path to survival, and it intersects with Meg and her ragtag group of survivors. If they are lucky, they will see the help they need emerge from within, just as everything around them is coming to an end. Author's note: This story is set in the Extinction Cycle universe of Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

Word Count: Click here to reveal62,900 (Click here to hide)

Summary: A werewolf and seven vampires are all that stand between the world and complete annihilation. When Kai Richter and Ori Bier met, sparks flew. Then a train blew up. Tracking an organism deadly to not only humans, but vampires and werewolves alike, brings Kai and Ori into the Vampire Guard. Decades later, they, along with Operative Team Jack Rabbit, come face to face with the horrors that same virus produces. Dead bodies are coming back to life, and rational people are becoming violent and brutal killers. A massacre is taking place nearly a mile under the Atlantic Ocean. Two teams of The Vampire Guard are in the thick of it, fighting to survive.

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Summary: Praised by literary journals, news outlets, and leading fiction magazines, Nisi Shawl is celebrated as an author whose works are lyrical and philosophical, speculative and far-ranging; “…broad in ambition and deep in accomplishment” (The Seattle Times). Besides nearly three decades of creating fantasy and science fiction, fairy tales, and indigenous stories, Nisi has also been lauded as editor, journalist, reviewer, teacher, speaker, afrofuturist, and proponent and mentor of feminism, African-American fiction, and other pedagogical issues of diversity. Dark Moon Books and editor Eric J. Guignard bring you this introduction to her work, the third in a series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction. Herein is a chance to discover—or learn more of—the vibrant voice of Nisi Shawl, as beautifully illustrated by artist Michelle Prebich. Included within these pages are: • Six short stories, one written exclusively for this book • Author interview • Complete bibliography • Academic commentary by Michael Arnzen, PhD (former humanities chair and professor of the year, Seton Hill University) • … and more! Enter this doorway to the vast and fantastic: Get to know Nisi Shawl. Table of Contents includes: • Introduction by Eric J. Guignard • Nisi Shawl: A Biography • The Beads of Ku (fiction) • The Beads of Ku: A Commentary • Otherwise (fiction) • Otherwise: A Commentary • Just Between Us (fiction) • Just Between Us: A Commentary • At the Huts of Ajala (fiction) • At the Huts of Ajala: A Commentary • Street Worm (fiction) • Street Worm: A Commentary • Conversion Therapy (fiction) • Conversion Therapy: A Commentary • Why Nisi Shawl Matters by Michael Arnzen, PhD • In Conversation with Nisi Shawl • Written On The Water: An Essay by Nisi Shawl • A Bibliography of English Language Fiction for Nisi Shawl

Word Count: Click here to reveal42,203 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Katja has long spent her life buried in the pain and sorrow of her past, a vampire abandoned to her fate for over 300 years, she never expects to meet another who could help her reclaim her existence. Raven, a poet and fellow lost soul, could be the one to spur her on, but in order to have the future she has only begun to grasp, she must uncover the truth about her origins and the awful event which left her alone centuries before. If she cannot face her past and reclaim her strength, she will lose everything.

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Summary: Nobody believes Jonah, a mild-mannered mental patient with split personalities, that his doctor is working with his evil alter ego, Maldeus, to sacrifice women to a sex-crazed demon in the hospital basement. Determined to expose his doctor’s evil plan, Jonah goes undercover as Maldeus. Assisted by a cute nudist mental patient named Aurora, Jonah is thrust into a diabolical plot that forces him to confront the very limits of his own identity. Will Jonah defeat his doctor in time to stop the rise of Satan?

Word Count: Click here to reveal44,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Drawn by promises of excitement and freedom, how could Callum resist Berlin? It's the end of 1932 and the Weimar capital is the heartbeat of the gay world, where a man like him can find companionship and love, even in the shadow of looming political disaster. Still, Callum feels unseen, until he discovers a place where the dead mix with the living, an organization devoted to studying the supernatural, and a man in each world that could capture his heart... or seal his fate. Haunted Hearts – Everyone deserves a happy ever afterlife! Haunted Hearts is an Own-Voices Paranormal Romance Series about love and the things that go boo in the night. Join us on our romantic journeys over ten books from some of your favorite authors! Be sure to read the entire series so you don’t miss a moment of falling in love, or sometimes falling into a happily ever after-life! Each book is a standalone but why not read them all? Everyone deserves the HEA!

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Summary: Coasters, carousels, an old cemetery, and a sprawling hotel on a stormy lakeside. Visit this haunted tour of scrapbook memories where legendary summers intersect with history and rumor. Told in vignettes that weave stories, newspaper clippings, postcards, and images, Ghastly Tales follows four families through the decades at a lakeside resort and amusement park where everyone eventually returns.

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Summary: This horror collection graphic novel contains the following stories: “And They Lived Long Enough to Bury Their Dead” is a dark fantasy comic zine about a group of Gen X goth/punk folks growing older and processing the deaths of loved ones. A paranormal urban fantasy, it centers around Billie, a nonbinary African-American alternative rocker from Oakland who develops the psychic ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Their nesting partner, Davis, a formerly homeless African-American transgender man, their twin brother Sean, a ghostcat, and the ghost of their mother are other central characters. In the story Billie, Davis, and their Gen X circle of friends are coming to terms with aging, the declining health (and loss) of their parents, and adjusting to a new post-pandemic world. It is an urban fantasy taking place in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area “Agrippa” is a dystopic near-future tale that takes place in an unnamed industrialized nation very much like the United States. When foreign creditors demand that the nation repay its considerable international debt or face war it enacts the Dulcetta Reforms, ultra-restrictive laws establishing debtor’s prison, and causing a large number of people – many of them seniors – to go to jail or even face execution if not continuously working to pay off their personal debts to the government. Dr. Tine, an expert in geriatric medicine, is desperately searching for employment at the beginning of our tale, having lost her useful functioning in society as the elders she once treated were rounded up and hauled off to the prison camps. Things were so bad she didn't think they could possibly get any worse. How very wrong she was. Dreamworlds: Beyond Somnalia - the author is plagued by a series of increasing demands from their fictional characters who come to take over the writer's life.

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Summary: Miss Mona is the sweet old lady who lives on the fourth floor. Or, at least, that's what all her neighbors think. But the true soul underneath the cardigan is much, much darker than anyone would ever suspect. Mona is hiding some very disturbing secrets in her home. After all, everyone has their little obsessions, don’t they? Includes the bonus short story “Spark."

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Summary: After their daughter was bullied at school, Kyle and Alejandro decided to make a fresh start and move into a beautiful new cul-de-sac development. As they take up residence, the family enjoys seeing the community come to life. But when lights flicker, shadows lurk, and small objects disappear, they begin to doubt their sanity. When Alejandro and many of their neighbors are struck down by a strange sickness that defies explanation, the family starts to question their recent life change. Feeling trapped they speak with their new neighbors, learning they aren’t alone in the haunted neighborhood. Who do you turn to when the authorities can’t offer any assistance or protection? How do you fight against a sinister force that is older than time? Can Kyle, Alejandro and the rest of the occupants of Golden Hills Court survive or will this nightmarish ordeal destroy them?

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Summary: Emma and her Aunt Agathe share a family resemblance - they can both speak to ghosts. But Agathe, rejected by her family and constantly beset by heartache, has spent her whole life fleeing her unusual gift. Emma, however, embraces it. Grave Songs for the Dead is a cycle of three interconnected short stories, gothic with a touch of magic realism, set in the late 19th century.

Word Count: Click here to reveal135000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: “Aye, well, what is an angel, anyway?” At Samhain, things in Llwyncudd are taking a turn for the strange and bizarre. The red dragon is spotted around town trying to dig its own grave whilst his vessel is happily participating in life elsewhere. Did Stewart’s dragon spirit leave him? Michael, can’t live with the thought. Meanwhile, Dr Lilibeth Blackthorne, PsyD, has moved to town at her brother Sam’s suggestion. Many of its residents are in desperate need of her counselling services and she’s uniquely qualified—even if she’s never particularly seen multiple personalities quite like this. Fairy-halfling Arthen also joins the town after being raised in the local fairy village on the other side. Despite the odd cultural clashes of living in a society that requires silly things like clothing, he is making many new friends and is more special than his former masters would have him believe. Join our friends as they battle their demons from the darker side of the veil in Green Hills and Battlefields—the thrilling fifth book of the Green Hills Series by Celyn Kendrick!

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Summary: Can you hear it? Whispering in the dark. Secrets only the dark knows. Joseph Moore, choir director for the First Baptist Church of Lenora, Nebraska, has secrets of his own. Terrible, lonely secrets. One that involves natural human desire. One that calls forth powers he cannot begin to understand. Both with the potential to destroy him and those he loves. Now the world is changing. The darkness, the shadows, the ghosts, are closing in—and Joseph and his lover, Kevin, are being stalked by a merciless demon, hell-bent on possession. Can you hear it now? There in the dark. It's whispering your name.

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Summary: Flynn Keahi has had a rough year. His nightmares are starting to manifest in reality, but no one believes him. Terrifying creatures are trying to cross out of dreams into the physical realm. Only Flynn can stop them – but doing so might cost him his life. Complicating matters further, one of these creatures cannot help wanting him — in every forbidden way. Will she be able to save him from his fate? Can she even protect him from herself? Book 1 in The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi What People Are Saying!   “A twisted descent into arousal, madness and mad arousal, Happiness and Other Diseases pulls no punches as it peels back the layers of the human experience to reveal our soft, creamy centers. Take that how you want, but if you are looking for a disturbing, sexually charged read with solid writing, Sumiko Saulson delivers.” -- Angela Yuriko Smith, Bram Stoker Awards® Nominated author of In Favor of Pain   "If you enjoy unsettling dark paranormal romances that place power dynamics in sexual relationships under the microscope, look no further. Sumiko Saulson gives us body horror, what feels like an insiders look at mental illness and the mental health system, dysfunctional families, semi-obscure mythological characters, and an excellent depiction of how many of us teeter on the fence between sex and death. Happiness and Other Diseases is a sexy, funny, disturbing, and unflinching tale of the insane lengths people will go to in search of love and acceptance." -- Michelle Renee Lane, Bram Stoker Award Nominated author of Invisible Chains   "In this entertaining novel, Saulson incorporates mythology into what might appear to be normal, everyday life. However, characters, Flynn and Charlotte, are far from normal. I enjoyed how Saulson keeps their relationship lively but honest – even sweet, but not in a saccharine way. Buy this book! For sheer enjoyment, it’s a keeper!" – Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker winner, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner   “It is a very unconventional book that offers a supernatural dimension to the mysterious, sometimes mind-bending world of psychological pathological conditions, psychosis, and disorders.” Justin Boyer, bibliophilesreverie.com

Word Count: Click here to reveal79,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Left for dead behind enemy lines, prince Dominel seeks refuge in an abandoned stronghold of the slaughtered wizards. There he is recruited and trained by undead mages in the once forbidden magics so that he can close the doors into the world of man and halt the advance of the horde of monsters known as the storm. Can the strength of a lone wizard stand against a god of evil bent on ruling all the worlds of monsters and men. Will other races stand as friends or foes in Dominel’s quest? Can Dominel open himself to memories of his past lives without fracturing his sanity and becoming a worse threat than the monsters he seeks to halt? And what of the man who is prince, king and wizard? What space is left for him in a life of crushing duty and wondrous enchantment? For the answers read on

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Summary: The sun and moon have been devoured by the cosmic wolves Skoll and Hati. Fimbulwinter has enveloped the world in the cold and darkness. Men prey on each other in order to survive. Amid the chaos, in the struggle for the throne, comes a war between brothers. Hakon, the illegitimate heir to the throne of Norveig, has obtained a horn that can summon a terror from the depths of the ocean. This monstrosity has been sinking the vessels of his half-brother, Jarl Erik Bloodaxe. Erik sends a company of untried heroes to infiltrate Hakon’s stronghold and steal the horn. As with all things political, there are other agendas. Fjorn, the leader of the team, is Erik’s half-brother who could challenge Erik for the throne. Erik's wife Gunnhild is a powerful sorceress with her own ambitions- could her goals derail the heroes? In life, sometimes a Jarl wins, and other times a Jarl wins.

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Summary: Gavin Booker, a school librarian at Cooper Road Elementary, Raleigh, Northern Carolina, leads an orderly, normal life. Work, jogging, friends from work, his son every other weekend. Gavin is also a secret. He is a hybrid, or part-fairy, and in the Columbian Empire, hybrids are under an automatic death sentence. Magic is illegal. So is loving another man, another capital crime. Fairies are locked away in ghettoes, magical beasts, such as gryphons, unicorns, and pegasi are kept in zoos. The others, the tree and water spirits, the talking beasts, fauns, and the rest, are in hiding. This is the world in which Gavin grew up. He survived, thanks to his mother. He can never forget he is different: ministers preach against people like him constantly; hating the other is a part of every school’s curriculum.   But now, things are changing fast, and apparently, for the worst. Earthquakes, volcanoes, killer storms are all frequent occurrences. The medicine Gavin takes to suppress his body’s glowing, isn’t working. The spells cast by his doctor, a witch, are losing their power. If anyone finds out what Gavin is, he is dead. Under threat, the Empire always goes after its marginalized people. Can Gavin survive the coming catastrophe? Will he ever recover from losing the boys he loved? Can he find the fairy man who has haunted his dreams all his life before it is too late? Can his scarred heart ever heal?

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Summary: "You can't keep running from your past, especially when it has four legs and fangs." In the exciting second installment of Tales of a Gay Witch, we return to Jason and his friends six months later as they are coming to terms with the events of last year. Jason thought he could move on with his life after Damien left in search of information about his mother, after finding out she might be alive after all, but is struggling to adjust to life without him. He is persuaded to go out and meet up with his friends at his favorite night club 1470 West, where he meets a handsome young man named Mickey. That same night, Jason is informed by Detective Miller, now a good friend of his, to be on the lookout for Jo’s ex-husband Rex, who might be coming their way. There have been a number of sexual assaults and murders targeting young lesbian women up in northern Ohio, and Rex is suspected of being involved. Jo’s ex-husband was always a nasty, abusive piece of work, but to make things worse Rex is a werewolf and an alpha to boot. It’s up to Jason to rally his friends again, as he is tasked with protecting the people he cares about, before it’s too late…