Vampires,
Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My!Heidi
Mannan
Vampires,
Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My!
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1. “All the Delicate Things” by Heidi
Mannan, author of the upcoming novel, Turning
Red, many short stories, and magazine articles. “All the Delicate
Things” is an offbeat vampire tale whose fearless heroine, Rachael, collects
the kinds of exotic creatures that would make other people shudder.
2. “Baron Blood” by Mark Cantrell, journalist and author of the novel, Citizen
Zero, many short stories, and poems. In “Baron Blood,” the truth is
a bitter pill to swallow, as a group of vampires learn when they go in search of
their origins and discover the shocking facts. The awful truth of their
underlying nature may not ease their bloody curse, but it offers them an
opportunity for revenge.
3. “The Curse of Nilofer” by Rekha
Ambardar, who has published more than ninety stories and articles in
print and electronic magazines. She is also the author of two novels, His
Harbor Girl and Maid
to Order. “The Curse of Nilofer” offers an archaeology tale of an
Egyptian queen whose mummy and tomb hieroglyphics hold the key to an ancient
mystery and wield a power that extends beyond the grave.
4. “Teeth” by A.J.
Kirby, prize-winning novelist of Bully,
a supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, The
Magpie Trap: A High Octane Crime Thriller with Teeth, When Elephants
walk through the Gorbals, Call of the Sea (a novella), and more than forty
prize-winning short stories featured in a number of publications including
anthologies. In “Teeth,” a slick marketing man’s finest physical attribute
is cursed by a local drunken councilor, with shocking results that are worthy of
a bow to that familiar human nightmare.
5. “The Twins” by TW
Brown, author of the Zomblog
series and the Dead
series and publisher, MayDecemberPublications.com.
In “The Twins,” Bill Ryan, who worked at an airfield, should not have taken
his kids with him on the day that “weird things” were reported in the region
by the media who held back the worst details.
6. “The Bone Flute Maker” by Carol
J. La Valley, award-winning
journalist and real-life storyteller, and Tales
of a Lifetime biographer. “The Bone Flute Maker” is a futuristic
tale of a blind musical instrument maker with electronic eyes who rescues a
wounded seraph from her former cult.
7. “Palliative” by Chantal Boudreau, an accountant/author/illustrator who
lives by the ocean in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada with her husband and two
children. In addition to being a CMA-MBA, she has a BA from Dalhousie
University. She writes and illustrates predominantly horror, dark fantasy and
fantasy and has several short stories and multiple novels in the works.
“Palliative” is a chilling story of conscientious caregivers, an escape
artist, and a palliative patient with no pulse and sharp teeth.
8. “Late Night Shopping” by Michael
O'Connor, editor, essayist, poet, book reviewer, and short story author
in many publications. "Late Night Shopping" unveils a seemingly
ordinary shopping trip to the local Cheap Choice Freezermart. But strange things
are afoot in the meat department.
9. “Vengeance Was His” by Rekha
Ambardar, who has published more than ninety stories and articles in
print and electronic magazines. She is also the author of two books. “Vengeance
Was His” is a twisted tale of terror in which Count Cesare Vincenti surprises
his younger wife, Lucretia. He survives a shipwreck, returns to old Palermo and
catches her tramping around on him. The Count banishes her to the dungeon and
calls upon a vampire hag with a serious quest to “find Andrea Bellini.”
10. “The Bride of Frankenstein Dances with Celebrity” by Chris
Hugh, a lawyer and former high school teacher and the author of a
growing list of short stories. Her cat, Twitch, was in the book, How
to Take Over Teh Wurld: A LOLcat Guide 2 Winning. It made the New York
Times bestseller list (September 2009, paperback advice). This parody takes a
funny stab at pop-culture icons and the frustrations of being a modern-day
“assembled” monster.
11. “That Whole Being-Dead Thing” by Allison
Ridley, senior at Northern Arizona University. She
loves to read Young Adult Literature, she spent a semester abroad in Mexico, and
her favorite pastime is following authors on Twitter and YouTube. "That
Whole Being-Dead Thing,” features a ghost named Millie who haunts David, her
ex-boyfriend from the tenth grade, and criticizes his lineup of potential
girlfriend material.
12. “DeathHouse Mansion, Inc.” by Chris
Hugh, a lawyer and former high school teacher and the author of a
growing list of short stories. Her cat, Twitch, was in the book, How
to Take Over Teh Wurld: A LOLcat Guide 2 Winning. It made the New York
Times bestseller list (September 2009, paperback advice). The author weaves
together the past and the present in the unfolding of a thousand-dollar bet in
“DeathHouse Mansion Inc.” a fast-paced haunted house thriller of
disappearances.
13. “Third Degree” by A.J.
Kirby, author of Bully,
a supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, The
Magpie Trap: A High Octane Crime Thriller with Teeth, and more than
forty short stories. In “Third Degree” a sun worshiper goes way too far with
his bronze ambition.
14. “Love’s Transformation” by Donna Collins, an author from Upstate
New York. The author unveils more than one surprise to the reader in “Love’s
Transformation,” a paranormal story about a misfit romance.
15. “Pandora’s Boxes” by Eve Paludan, who was twice a #1 Writer’s Digest
Book Club national bestselling author of The Romance Writer’s Pink Pages, a
three-book series published by Prima. Paludan is also an editor of scholarly
work, as well the editor/publisher of this fiction anthology. In “Pandora’s
Boxes,” a young widow who is just beginning to date again is haunted by a sexy
ghost who mistakes her for someone else.
16. “The Night Knows Me Well” by J.R.
Rain, #1 Kindle bestselling vampire author of Vampire
Moon and Moon
Dance, more than a dozen other novels, screenplays, and many short
stories. “The Night Knows Me Well” is unforgettable and stunning. His
story is last here, because Rain is a master of the grand finale.
Excerpt:
All the Delicate Things
HE
WAKES in a dark room, but he's used to that. What he's not accustomed to is
this particular room with the braids of garlic hanging over the doorway.
Obviously, some garlic has been smashed and smeared somewhere. The stench burns
his eyes, stings his nose. He tries to sit, but an unseen force holds him.
Panic.
Then
he notices the cold, unyielding fingers around his neck. Silver. Had to be. Only
silver can disable him like this. Straining, his breath a hard wind in his ears,
he forces his hand to his throat. Hanging as a medallion down the front of the
necklace, a padlock.
His
breathing comes in ragged gulps, partly from effort, partly from the garlic
stench and panic.
Outside,
traffic beats out the rhythms of the night. People shout, babies cry, dogs bark.
Beside
him on the bed lays a note. He's unable to read the elegant cursive.
The
woman?
He
tries to sit again, but the silver restrains him. He manages to angle himself on
the bed until he sees perched on the dresser next to him two wine bottles,
taunting. He can smell their contents from where he lies. They don't smell of
wine, but of fear, what he craves.
He
reaches; it's almost impossible, but he hasn't eaten for too long. He's
desperate, pushes past his greatest ability, catches a bottle in his hand. His
arm falls onto the bed hard, liquid sloshing in glass. It's like moving through
nearly dried concrete, but he manages to unscrew the lid.
Getting
the bottle to his mouth proves harder than anything he's ever done, but the
scent of fear drives him.
He
guzzles.
Blood.
Cold,
thick, blood. And the fear isn't the exquisite tang of sudden terror, but a
metallic letdown of prolonged anxiety.
He
gives it his all, lashing out with his limbs, tossing the bottle a few inches
from him rather than across the room as he intended. The only thing he
accomplishes is spilling blood on the bedspread. The bottle crashes to the
floor, shattering, the sound too much for his sensitive hearing.
The
door opens. Footsteps. They belong to the woman. He remembers them from last
night. She carries the tick-tock of time in her tread. Even turning his head to
look at her is an effort.
"What's
wrong with you?" she asks, flicking on the overhead lights.
He
squints against the blinding glare. "It was cold. I can't drink cold blood.
It's dead."
"Sorry."
She looks at the mess he made, turns out the light. "Guess I still have
some things to learn." She walks around the broken glass and pooled blood
to the foot of the bed. "But I meant why'd you pass out last night?"
Buy it here:
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and Noble
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