Tag Archives: New Release

‘I’m Tired’ by Brent Abell | #Horror #DarkFiction #Author #books #Dragonflies #SmallTownTerrors #release @Sirens_Call @BrentTAbell

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I’m Tired

by Brent Abell

From the Diary of Frank Hill

I’m not sure where I want to begin. I can feel the change in the air every time I step outside. Drake feels it too when I let the poor dog outside, and he doesn’t even have the touch about him. I wish I hadn’t been chosen for this duty. Protecting White Creek as sheriff was one thing, but I also protect it from the evils bound to the earth below the streets and houses.

Chris knows something isn’t right either. I feel sorry for him, but he’s along for the ride now. The evil is finally leaking out, and for the first time, the town experienced it in all its horrific glory. I don’t think I have it in me anymore. What I had to go through during the storm was something I hope to never feel again. It’ll take years for the town to heal, and I don’t think we have years left around here.

I don’t know why I’m writing this. What I really need to do is hit my favorite stool at Telly’s and drink a pitcher of beer. I hate this self-doubt. Maybe old man Helfrich didn’t make the right choice when he tapped me to be White Creek’s protector. So far, I haven’t done a good job of keeping the people safe. There are some in town who I figure are secretly working against me. I can’t blame them, I mean if I was part of the four founding families, I’d want certain bits of White Creek’s history left in the dark too.

Good night, I have a lot of paperwork from the storm. I guess I’ll stop here and come back later if the night stays quiet. I can’t help but think this is only the beginning. I want to go back in time and run away from all this, but I see Carl’s maddened face all those years ago, and I change my mind.

I’m tired, but I have to battle on. I have to be the light in the darkness. I am Frank Hill, sheriff and protector of White Creek from all the things that go bump in the night.

Dragonflies, a White Creek Horror!

Sheriff Frank Hill knows about the evil simmering beneath the surface of White Creek. He’s battled it before, and it cost him dearly. Once again, he must step up to do the job he’s tried to run from for a lifetime.

Ten years ago, Eric Dean survived his brush with death. Taken by a killer and saved by a miracle, the experience left his world in shambles, and his mind infested with visions of dragonflies. Eric hasn’t seen the dragonflies in years, but as a new horror threatens the town, the visions have returned. Drawn back to White Creek to team up with the Sheriff and his partner, Chris, will they be able to overcome the odds and fight the evil brewing there? Or is the threat simply too much for them to handle this time?

One thing is certain, White Creek is no longer the safe place the residents believe it to be.

Dragonflies is currently available on:

Amazon: US | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | The Netherlands | Japan | Canada | Australia

Small Town Terrors, a collection of White Creek horror stories!

White Creek isn’t your average small town. Behind the smiling faces and rustic charm lurks an unholy
evil. The idyllic façade masks a bloody history buried deep beneath Main Street and hidden in the dense
forests that surround it. The bonds that restrain the malevolence are breaking—White Creek is slowly changing as the terrors bleed out of the ground.

What deals were struck by the founding-families of White Creek? What is the price of protecting it from the horrors that lurk below? What forces await discovery by the innocent? And, in a moment of weakness, how does one choice change everything?

Come visit the sleepy town of White Creek, see what goes on once the sun sets and the evil comes out to play. The only certainty—nothing will ever be the same again.

Small Town Terrors is currently available on:

Amazon: US | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | The Netherlands | Japan | Canada | Australia

A Monstrous Evolution, by Mary Parker – author of The Endless Hallway | #Horror #DarkFiction #Book #Creepy @Sirens_Call

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A Monstrous Evolution

by Mary Parker

The Endless Hallway features a creature that has haunted me since I was a teenager. This vile thing, with disgusting claws, rows of teeth, and black, void-like eyes, has featured in my writings for two decades. As the years go by, its appearance gets worse and worse: a monstrous evolution that personifies my mental illnesses.

My senior year of high school, I went with my parents to spend the weekend at my grandparents’ house.  They lived in a small town about 75 minutes away from us.  On the drive down, I listened to music, daydreaming as I watched miles of hills and highway pass by. Suddenly it appeared to me: an emaciated human-like creature, completely bald with shiny, slimy skin, no nose, two gaping voids for eyes, mangled claws, and vicious teeth.  I imagined the creature standing in front of me, opening its mouth to inhuman levels, and swallowing my head. I didn’t know if this was my depression consuming me or setting me free.

This image stuck with me, and I immediately wrote about it in the composition notebook I always carried with me.  Over the next several months I wrote a story featuring this creature, but more in link with a vampire – think of a play on Nosferatu.  In this iteration, the monster’s main features were rows of fangs and knotted, gnarly hands with claws, along with the bald head and void-like eyes.  Later, I wrote a short story featuring the creature that was a meditation on how depression shapes a person’s growth from adolescence to adulthood.  In both stories, the ending was more finite: in the first, the monster is burned to death; in the latter, it swallows the protagonist.

A decade on, I got married and had my daughter. Postpartum depression and anxiety hit me hard.  Again, I imagined the creature looming over me, ready to strike.  This time it was more disgusting and vicious: now its teeth dripped black ooze and its mangled, jagged claws were ready to take everything from me. As I rocked my daughter to sleep, I vowed I would not let it.

Instead, I wrote it all down.  I owned the monster and made it do my bidding. On the page, it couldn’t hurt me.  The depression could threaten us, it could lurk around every corner of the life I always wanted, but it would never touch us. 

Yet, as I finished The Endless Hallway, I found the ending was more ambiguous.  Age had taught me that the depression never really goes away.  Instead, we would live with it, like a haunting; deal with it whenever it decided to show its monstrous face.  There’s a comfort in that, a comfort in knowing that while we can’t always defeat our demons, we can always overcome them.

Even if we still check the baby monitor for claws creeping through the bars of the crib, and double-check the corners of the baby’s room for dark figures.

Picture of the Creature drawn by the author in 2005.  From the author’s writing scrapbook.

The Endless Hallway

by Mary Parker

Molly has it all – a good job, a handsome husband, a beautiful new baby, and a supportive family. Her life is everything she once prayed it would be. But something sinister is lurking within the walls of her tiny townhouse. A strange voice comes from the darkness as Molly rocks her infant to sleep. Lights that were left on are suddenly turned off. Molly has nightmares in which her husband’s throat is slit. In the middle of the night, a thin, pale arm reaches over the rails of the crib and lunges for the baby with fierce, jagged claws. The voice in the darkness soon seems to be coming from inside Molly’s head.

Are the visions Molly has been haunted by a subconscious warning or something more vicious?

Paperback and Kindle available on Amazon:

US | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | The Netherlands | Japan | Canada | Australia

About the Author

Mary Parker is a horror author and journalist from Southern Illinois. She has worked for examiner.com and horrornews.net. A collection of short stories, Predilection, was published in 2009. Her work can also be found in the anthologies “Vampires Aren’t Pretty” and “Slaughter House: The Serial Killer Edition, Vol. 2.” Her story “Sweet Nightmares” placed in the Top 100 of Wattpad’s Horror Contest sponsored by TNT. She is a proud contributor to, supporter of, and past ambassador of Women in Horror Month.

Visit Mary’s Amazon Author Page at: Mary Parker

New Release! The Bury Box

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After Lorie and her family move into their new home, strange things start to happen – things Lorie can’t explain. To make matters worse, her husband, Tom, starts to behave oddly, leaving Lorie to deal with the inexplicable on her own.

Meanwhile, her son, Reggie, experiences a different sort of phenomena: he encounters a figure he believes to be God. This being instructs him to dig a hole and bury himself. Is something trying to steal Reggie’s body or soul, or perhaps both?

Trapped in a desperate game for survival, can Lorie keep her family together, or will unseen forces tear them apart?

My second novella, The Bury Box, explores more traditional aspects of horror than my previous release, Zero Perspective. Set in a house in rural New York, this story explores death, and how a family perceives and deals with it, both adult and child. Born from my own obsession with death from a young age, the concepts in this tale represent not only my own understanding of our connection with it, but a shared connection of all things which live, and ultimately, die.

I hope you enjoy reading The Bury Box as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Get it in paperback or eBook on Amazon HERE!

New Release: Safe Harbor

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My latest in horror fiction, Safe Harbor is now available on Amazon!

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A group of strangers are trapped together in a hotel room. Outside, roam creatures risen from the sea…

Excerpt from Zero Perspective

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In celebration of publishing my novella, Zero Perspective, I’d like to share an excerpt from the first chapter with you, the awesome person reading this post. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for reading, and an even bigger thank you if you decide to pick up a copy of Zero Perspective!

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…After suiting up and meeting Grant and Miles at the airlock, John led the team into the Esometa.

“It’s a ghost ship,” Grant said, shining his helmet light down the dark, silent corridor.

“Have you ever heard a ship be this quiet?” Miles asked.

“It’s completely shut down,” John added. “Dead in the water, so to speak.”

“Why are the gravity systems still operational?” Miles noted.

Grant shook his head. “Strange. They shouldn’t be.”

They made their way down the hall. John tried to prepare himself for the sight of corpses, which he felt sure they’d find. His stomach cramped at the thought.

“Where’s the bridge?” Miles asked. “You know the designs on these ships, don’t you Grant?”

“I thought I did,” Grant answered. “This corridor should have ended ten meters back and I still can’t see the end of it. It doesn’t conform to the design specifications. I don’t understand.”

“You’ve got the right display, haven’t you?” Miles’ tone carried a wavering anticipation.

“Of course I have the right one.”

“Then where the hell are we?” Miles asked.

Grant studied the information on his arm display. He seemed transfixed, the soft glow of the screen casting pale light on his face. His eyes stared hard, jaw locked in concentration.

“Well?” Miles took a step closer to Grant.

“I don’t know,” Grant said. “Let’s turn around and go back. Maybe we just missed it in the dark.”

“Where does your computer say we are?” John asked.

“It’s not working,” Grant answered.

“But what does it say?”

“It says we’re not even on the ship. It says we’re out there,” he pointed a gloved finger at one of the port windows, “in space.”

“Then it’s obviously malfunctioning,” Miles said.

“No shit,” Grant replied. “I just said it wasn’t working.”

“We’ll turn around and make our way back,” John said. “We don’t want to get lost in here. We’ll go get a replacement so we know where we’re going.”

Grant looked hard at John. “Sure, we need a new computer. But something still isn’t right about this. I know these ships like the back of my hand. And I’m telling you, there’s no way this corridor is as long as it is. I don’t need the computer to tell me that.”

“Radio the captain,” John said. “Let him know our situation before we move on. Maybe he knows something about the ship we don’t.”

“This is Grant to Tyson. Come in, Tyson.”

They waited for an answer, but were met with silence. Not even static came through the speaker.

“Grant to Tyson. Can you read me?” He tapped his helmet. “Hello? Tyson, are you there? This is Grant. We have a situation.”

Sweat beaded on John’s brow. A drop ran down the bridge of his nose and rested at the tip. He focused on it, blurring all else in his vision. It shook slightly, as though seismic activity rumbled beneath the surface of his skin.

“I’m not getting anything,” Grant said. “Nothing at all.”

“This is John. Can anyone hear me?” He tried to keep his voice calm, despite the simmered blood rushing through his heart. He didn’t want anyone to panic. That would make a bad situation worse. And things were already off to a less than perfect start…

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Zero Perspective is available from these retailers:

Print edition on Amazon

Kindle edition

eBook on Smashwords

Signed copies are also available! Contact me by email at LeeFormanAuthor@gmail.com