When the Aurora Turns the Color of Blood...

 

 ..it heralds a time of strife, of ill fortune and death.

Houston police officer Will Clairmont thought he’d escaped his remote Alaska hometown of Tamarack for good. Then he receives the tragic news that his ex-girlfriend, Mia, died suddenly one night while out with friends. When he returns to Tamarack to attend the funeral, he is surprised to learn that the official explanation for Mia’s death leaves more questions than answers. As Will looks into the matter, he discovers that she left a troubling message shortly before she died, one that casts her death in a suspicious light.

As Will tries to unravel the mystery, disturbing events begin taking place around Tamarack that serve to further isolate the town. Are these events somehow connected to Mia’s death? And when he finds that her body is missing, Will begins to question if she really even died in the first place. He soon discovers that an unnatural force has laid siege to Tamarack, and he must team up with a federal agent who is searching for an AWOL military officer, and fight to save the town before it is too late.

 

My new sci-fi horror thriller Blood Aurora is NOW AVAILABLE! Find it at Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google Play, and Kobo.

 

Behold What the Darkness Brings

 

I'm pleased to announce that my new novella, Benedictio Noctis, is now available on the Kindle store, and FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited!

 

When his beloved granddaughter is abducted by the local baron’s henchmen, the ailing Walerin of Antselt must resort to desperate measures to save the child. He is willing to pay any price, though he fears his final hope will taint his soul and lead to eternal damnation.

By casting a knucklebone into the fire, Walerin summons the aid of a mysterious woman who owes him a great, decades-old debt. However, Valeria Constancia is no ordinary woman of flesh and blood. She neither ages nor draws breath. And her hunger is an unholy one... 

Benedictio Noctis is a 28,000 word medieval dark fantasy novella.

 

HOT OFF THE DREAM PRESS!

 

The pic says it all - Dream: Tales From the Pikes Peak Writers is now available at retailers everywhere! I'm honored to have been chosen to participate in the second annual anthology alongside 26 other very talented members of the Pikes Peak Writers.

My humble contribution is the short story, "Dream Eater", featuring Iolanthe, a creature known as a baku who feeds on the nightmares of dreamers.  Her routine hunt for a tasty meal goes awry when she encounters an unusual situation, one that tempts her to do the unthinkable--become involved in human affairs.

Check out the blurb:

    Your climate control is broken, the engine is overheating again, and the traffic has come to a dead stop amidst a swarm of horns. To top it off you're late for work. In a heartbeat, you find yourself in another place, another time. Just for a moment, your mind takes a break. Your subconscious decides to get out of the traffic and set sail along a coast of white sandy beaches and palm trees. Later that night, you wake with a jolt but don’t remember what startled you. Your thoughts are racing as sweat beads on your forehead. What was it? Is someone there? Are you afraid to go back to sleep?
     Whether you are awake or asleep, dreams take your mind and open it to a kaleidoscope of dreamscapes you never knew could exist. In a blink, the dream can transform from a bloody war to a little boy escaping his troubled childhood with his action figures.
     In this second anthology from the Pikes Peak Writers, you will take a journey through the creative minds of the twenty-seven writers who penned the following works based on a simple one-word prompt - Dream. Let yourself experience worlds in a spirit-filled house, on a pirate ship, or teeter on the precipice of Hell. Then, with the turn of a page, walk through the beauty of far-off lands, watch purple ducks on a yellow pond, or run with terror through a town filled with monsters. Enjoy this stroll down a crooked path that could hold your worst nightmare or your most beloved wish. Be careful what you wish for, a genie may be lurking in the labyrinth of your mind waiting to be set free.

Click HERE to purchase now.

Only in Your Dreams

 

I am honored to have been selected to participate in this year's Pikes Peak Writers anthology, Dream, which is produced by my local writers' group.  My humble contribution is the short story, "Dream Eater", featuring Iolanthe, a creature known as a baku who feeds on the nightmares of dreamers.  Her routine hunt for a tasty meal goes awry when she encounters an unusual situation, one that tempts her to do the unthinkable--become involved in human affairs.

Dream will be released this spring!  You can find out more about the anthology, along with the talented writers who are contributing, HERE. 

Stay tuned--more to follow.

 

 

 

Ephemeral Creatures is Now Available!

 

I'm pleased to announce that my new supernatural thriller/horror novel Ephemeral Creatures is now on sale at the Amazon Kindle store, and you can read it for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

When Kevin gets behind the wheel drunk after a night out with friends, that leads to tragic consequences. The ensuing car crash kills his best friend and seriously maims another. After spending ten years in prison for his crime, he believes he’s finally come to terms with the tragedy and is ready to try to put his life back together.

 

That all changes when he starts seeing the specter of the young woman he’d killed. And as she begins to reveal her secrets, one shocking revelation rocks Kevin’s world. Hoping to find both answers and some measure of redemption, he embarks on a perilous road, one that puts him on a collision course with a madman who possesses a terrifying supernatural power. Kevin will have to enlist the help of his old friends, even if they want nothing to do with him, in order to try to right the wrongs of the past and survive the danger that awaits.

 

Ephemeral Creatures is both supernatural thriller and poignant meditation on the power of love and loss.

 

Here's a Sneak Peek...

The dead girl first appeared in the mess hall at breakfast time.

Kevin Bradley nodded in thanks to the kitchen worker that dished up his plateful of runny scrambled eggs, burnt hash browns, and two rubbery sausage links. When he set his plate on his tray and turned to go find a seat, she was suddenly standing there, close enough to reach out and touch.

The specter stared at him, her form translucent and grainy, like an image from an old, degraded VHS tape that had cycled through Blockbuster too many times. She didn’t glow like ghosts in the movies tended to, though. The dead girl was about twenty, short and slim, her head not quite reaching Kevin’s shoulder. Large tawny eyes regarded him from an oval face, and her mop of curly hair, a deep-red dye job with dark roots exposed, was sculpted high atop her head in a style popular in the eighties. The rest of her outfit was pure eighties punk: a glittery shirt hanging off one shoulder and revealing a black bra strap, along with a short black-and-red tartan skirt over holey fishnet stockings. One gold bangle earring dangled from an earlobe, but the other was missing, evidently torn out, judging by her bloody, shredded earlobe.

Kevin barely processed the girl’s outfit, his gaze drawn with a terrible magnetism to her gory head wound. Blood dripped into one eye, and her head was cocked slightly sideways, one temple deformed and spongy, spatters of blood and brains dotting her cheek and neck.

After that initial moment of shock passed and comprehension dawned, Kevin cried out in alarm. His breakfast tray slipped forgotten from nerveless hands and banged on the floor, plastic plate clattering and silverware bouncing across the concrete. A chunk of scrambled egg clung to one leg of his orange Department of Corrections jumpsuit, but he hardly noticed.

The clamor caused him to glance down reflexively for an instant. When he looked back up, the apparition had disappeared as if it had never been. He stood there in the sudden glaring silence with his mouth hanging open, the heavy weight of every staring eye in the crowded mess hall resting squarely on him.

“Guess you ain’t hungry, huh, Bradley?” Tubby finally said with a guffaw, the guard’s loud voice breaking the silence. “That’s all you fuckin’ get, chief. Better get down and lick it up if you wanna eat.” His real name was Jones according to the patch on his uniform, but the inmates all called him Tubby because of his girth.

Chortles erupted, and Kevin was pelted with a number of insults, both good-natured and not. The normal buzz of conversation and scraping of silverware on plates resumed as the other men got on with the important business of shoveling down their breakfast.

“What the fuck, yo?” Kevin’s cellmate, Tito, rested a hand on his shoulder, shaking him and rousing him from his daze. “Look like you seen a ghost, man.”

Kevin swallowed hard but could find no words.

“That shit ain’t gonna clean itself up,” Tubby growled, pointing sharply with his baton, his amusement obviously gone the way of Kevin’s apparition.

Kevin sighed as he knelt to scoop the mess back onto the tray with trembling hands. Whether or not Tito was right about him seeing a ghost, he didn’t know. A more likely explanation would have been a hallucination.

Whatever the cause, the worst part was that he’d recognized the girl. He was the one who’d killed her.