New Horror, Zombie & Mystery Books!

 I've been seeing a lot of interesting new books, so it's the perfect time to share a new reading list. I know there are a few I'll be looking for, and I bet you will, too!

Funny that I'd heard at one point that short stories were dying but I'm seeing more and more collections and anthologies being published. Happy Reading!

* Check out The October Frights Blog Hop - Oct. 10-15. * See my post list and schedule.

 Don't forget to visit the other participating blogs:

Be Afraid of the Dark

Frighten Me
Reading Fiction Blog - Paula Cappa
GirlZombieAuthors
M'Habla's!
Carmilla Voiez British Horror Author
Minnesota (Horror) Nice
Hawk's Happenings
Rob Read - Author

** Double the reading fun! See the Mystery-Crime-Halloween Reading List at the other blog. Oct. 13.

* Don't forget the October Frights Book Fair!

Anthologies/Collections:

Horror  

Behind the Shadows II -  In my story "Blink!", Tommy wakes to a new world and wonders why no one else "sees" what is going on but him.  A little weird and even funny at times! * Get the ebook: various outlets - * Paperback, e-[book - Barnes & Noble -* Paperback  - Amazon US ** Check out the beginning of the story here.

Fear of Clowns: A Horror Anthology: Coulrophobia Stories, Kenneth W. Cain, Editor. The title says it all. And who doesn't like a book using that word? All new stories by Graham Masterton & Karolina Mogielska, Aron Beauregard, V. Castro, Adam Cesare, Clay McLeod Chapman, Rachel Harrison, Jonathan Janz, Gwendolyn Kiste, Red Lagoe, Hailey Piper, Duncan Ralston, Hunter Shea, Thomas Tessier, Tim Waggoner, AC Wise, Dex Bryant, S.B. Caves, Douglas Ford, Bitter Karella, Lisa Kroger, Jonathan Lees, Carissa Ann Lynch, Michael Reed, Mel Reynes, Craig E. Sawyer, Em Starr, Bev Vincent and Daniel Willcocks.

Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales (Dark Tide Novellas Book 17), Kevin J. Kennedy, Gord Rollo, Simon Clark - Viking vampires, werewolf friends and something awakening in the mine... 

* Get Some Gory Horror Giveaways! Ends Oct. 31

 

The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks - Tom Deady, Editor - This looks cool! Twenty throwback stories inspired by the golden years of horror... Includes a Stephen King story, too. 

Weird Horror Magazine - Crowdfunding - donate here - for 2025 issues. Buy print, ebook or read online. 

Wendigo (Kisses and Chaos Book 3), Larry Hoy, Craig Martelle - A couple and their loyal German Shepherd flee to the mountains and find their sanctuary become a nightmare when they're hunted by a supernatural and seemingly invincible Wendigo. (Start the series with book 1, Demon's Kiss.)

Novels: 

* Find some great Horror Books - Sale:  Ends Oct. 30

Ghosts - Horror

 

Draw You In Vol 1. Collector's Item (Draw You in trilogy), Jasper Bark - Can you disappear so completely that only one person remembers you existed? That’s what comics creator Linda Corrigan asks, when her editor, disappears without a trace. Drawn into an FBI investigation by Agent McPherson, Linda and comics historian Richard Ford unearth a chilling link to the forgotten comic artist R. L. Carver, whose work might just hold the key to a series of mysterious disappearances.

Ghostland: Ghost Hunter Edition, Omnibus, Duncan Rolston - Whopping 1,500+ pages. Former best friends reunite at Ghostland, then a computer virus sets the ghosts free...  Box set includes  - The Moving House: A Prequel to Ghostland, Ghostland,  Afterlife: Ghostland 2.0, Ghostland: Infinite

 

Killer Instinct: An FBI Forensic Thriller (Instinct Series Book 1 of 16), Robert W. Walker - The first of the prolific author's most popular series featuring FBI medical examiner Dr. Jessica Coran, who thought she could face anything. Then began the Vampire Killer murders in Wisconsin where the killer drains the victims' blood. And his "love letters" are addressed to the one he wants most.... Coran.

Noncorporeal II - A spooky mix of ghostly stories from near-horror to sci-fi inspired, including he anthology,  featuring my story, "Secrets of the Last Mine." * paperback at Amazon- paperback & e-book: B&N - * Apple, Kobo and other sites; see links here.

* Something Scary for Halloween Reading: Ends. Nov. 1

Zombie

How I Started the Apocalypse, Omibus, Brian Pinkerton -  New omnibus edition contains all three books telling the story of Chaz, a military experiment gone wrong turned zombie and hungry. Includes: How I Started the Apocalypse; The Hunger War; and Zombie Regime.

Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter - C.A. Verstraete - On Aug. 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden took an axe... She was charged with the brutal murders of her father and stepmother, but why? Was it greed? Anger... Or something more horrific.... (More info at www.cverstraete.com.) 

The Headless Corpse, A Heyward and Andersen Mystery (Heyward and Andersen Consulting Detectives Book 3) - A.F. Stewart - Mysteries and headless corpses, quite a combination! The dead are rising and walking away from mortuaries…before returning without their heads. Tasked with investigating, dogged detectives Elspeth Heyward and Lars Andersen must uncover the sinister culprit reanimating the newly deceased and locate the still missing bodies.

Infected, A Dark,Post-Apocalyptic Romance, Jessica Gomez -  In this shattered world, trust is a luxury I can't afford. People are as treacherous as the Infected, and I've learned to steer clear of both. Then I met him. Ian, a man from a time when trust meant something, before the world plunged into chaos. Our connection was fleeting, born from desperation, and dissolved with the morning light. I thought that was the end of it. Until I discovered I was carrying his child.

The Rising: More Selected Scenes from the End of the World, Brian Keene - (Releases Dec. 3) World Horror Grandmaster Keene returns to the world of his classic novel, The Rising, (see below) with a set of new, horrific zombie stories and some reprints.

The Rising: Author's Preferred Edition, Brian Keene - First published in 2003, this uncut edition follows Jim Thurmond, a father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape to find his young son.

-- C.A. Verstraete - www.cverstraete.com 

October Frights! Halloween horrors!

 It's that creepy time of year again - OCTOBER FRIGHTS!

Meaning you can get some great horror freebies, read some scary fiction, and have all kinds of spooky fun!  * Come back 10/11 for a spooky reading list and a  bonus giveaway. 

 * 10/12: Who doesn't like skeletons? See the Skellie Mystery Reading List!

 * Friday the 13th! Excerpt: Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter

First - Be sure to stop by the participating blogs and see what they have going on:

Participant List

Hawk's Happenings - Always Another Chapter

Crymsyn Hart - Be Afraid of the Dark

Camilla Voiez, British Horror Author

Frighten Me - Angela Yuriko Smith: Exercising My Writes

GirlZombieAuthors - James P Nettles

EV Whyte, Author - Silver Hollow Stories

Check out these sites also:

October Frights Book Fair: https://afstewart.ca/october-frights-book-fair/

October Frights Giveaway: https://storyoriginapp.com/to/fPAZCcZ

BONUS: Limited Time Halloween Sale! Why did Lizzie Borden really pick up that axe?

Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter and Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter 2: The Axe Will Fall.

Spooky Sept. Reads #apocalypse #dracula #horror

 Starting the Halloween reading early!

I'm almost finished with The Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste - a "different" kind of Dracula paired up with an evil Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre set in California's 1967 Haight-Ashbury district. (I'm still intrigued and have to read her book, The Rust Maidens.)

Then I'm going to start The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon - an apocalyptic setting where the world is destroyed by drought and famine with a girl whose "tainted" gift conjures up storms, rain, and whatever else. (His book-based movie The Silence had some creepy creatures so I'm anticipating something good here!)

Halloween Reads! MP McDonald's Apocalyptic book, Infection!

Today I welcome (Mary) M.P. McDonald, author of the apocalyptic book, Infection!

and its main character, Cole Evans.

** BONUS! Go to Mary's blog for Lizzie Borden's viewpoint from 

Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter!

About the Book:

What started as a "flu" outbreak on a military base proves deadlier than Ebola and more contagious than the Spanish Flu. Sympatico Syndrome is unlike anything the world has ever seen. Victims' behavior is changing to accommodate the rapid spread of the virus.

Former Navy epidemiologist Cole Evans is well aware of the rare, infectious diseases the military studies. He also knows, first-hand, the government's stance on sharing information with the public, so if the media has already learned about the disease, then it’s far too late to contain the outbreak.

Faced with an extinction event, Cole's only chance to save his family is to establish a safe haven. Isolated, hard to reach, and with enough space for his brother's family as well, he has the perfect location--if only they can all reach it before they're infected...

Meet the Main Character:

As a former Navy epidemiologist, Cole Evans knows first-hand about deadly diseases. Faced with an extinction event, Cole's only chance to save his family is to establish a haven—an island. If only they can all reach it before they're infected...

  

Introduce yourself. What are you best known for?

I’m Cole Evans and I knows about viruses and understand how the military works. As an epidemiologist with the Navy for almost twenty years, I’ve seen what Ebola can do and studied the Spanish Flu. This new virus is deadly and more contagious than either and it scares the daylights out of me—and I don’t scare easily. I volunteered to go to West Africa during the Ebola outbreak and didn’t bat an eye.

I warned the Navy about the virus just before I retired from the Navy to spend more time with my son.  Apparently, they didn’t listen to me. I almost wish I hadn’t retired, but as a widower, I’ve been raising Hunter alone since he was six. He’s a good kid, but he was in high school at the time and needed me around more. Now, he’s in college and I have to figure out how to get him home safely because if this virus is out in the wild, then it’s far too late to contain it.  I have a safe place for everyone, including my brother, Sean’s family, but can we all get to it before we catch the virus?

In the Navy, my job was to save the world from a pandemic. Now, I can only save my family—if I’m lucky.

What inspired this story?

A love of apocalyptic stories and a chance read in a science news story led to an idea about a virus that at first makes the victim feel social and euphoric instead of ill. It does that so victims will gather in groups—which allows the virus to spread much more quickly than most illnesses. The name of the virus is Sympatico Syndrome.

  

Do you think this kind of scenario could happen in real life? Why or why not?

This particular virus, no, but I wouldn’t doubt that someday there will be an engineered virus that could be spread rapidly. As far as seeking a refuge, yes. There are many people who have prepared a ‘bug-out’ shelter for scenarios similar to the one in Infection.

Tell me a little about the author, too.

M.P. McDonald is the author of supernatural thrillers and post-apocalyptic fiction. With multiple stints on Amazon's top 100 list, her books have been well-received by readers.

If her writing takes your breath away, have no fear, as a respiratory therapist--she can give it back via a tube or two. She lives with her family in a frozen land full of ice, snow, and abominable snowmen.

On the days that she's not taking her car ice-skating, she sits huddled over a chilly computer, tapping out the story of a camera that can see the future. She hopes it can see summer approaching, too. If summer eventually arrives, she tries to get in a little fishing, swimming and biking between chapters.

Excerpt from Infection:

Cole turned onto his street and slammed on the brakes.

Yellow barricades like police used when trying to hold back mobs of demonstrators blocked off the street. Three men with guns manned the roadblock. Cole tensed as one of the men approached his vehicle.

Sean was right behind him with the truck and Jenna and the kids following Sean. He hoped his brother wouldn’t jump out and start waving his handgun around. He was grateful for Sean’s forethought to bring the weapon, but it was three against one, and now Jenna and the kids were around. 

Cole rolled his window down a crack, squinting at the man who was backlit by the sun and wearing a baseball cap pulled low. “What’s going on? I live on this street and need to get home.”

“Do you have proof of residence?”

Cole glared. “Since when do I need proof that I live in my house? My key is proof, now get those barricades out of the street and let me through.” He had his license, of course, but that wasn’t the point. He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “The two vehicles behind me are family. Let them in, too.”

“Cole, is that you?”

He blinked up at the face. “Who wants to know?”

The man pulled off his cap. “It’s me. Jerry Keeling.”

“Doctor Keeling? The dentist?” He’d taken Hunter to the guy a few times after their regular dentist had retired.  He’d also spoken to him at the annual block party, but he’d never had the impression the man would become militant in a situation like this.

“Yeah. We’ve had outsiders trying to seek shelter in the neighborhood. They think because we’re upscale here, that we’re safe.”

Cole bit back a retort. Their neighborhood, while nice enough, was hardly upscale. “Look, Jerry, I just need to get home. It’s only going to be for a few hours, then we’re leaving.” Crap. He probably shouldn’t have said that.

Jerry scratched his cheek, his gaze wandering to the other two men as if seeking permission. “Okay, I guess I can let you pass, but the truck and the other car will have to stay out. Only residents allowed.” He smiled as if he was doing Cole a favor.

Cole fixed Jerry with a hard stare. “Listen, Jerry, that’s my brother in the truck and his family in the red Ford. Now, unless you’re going to shoot me, they’re coming, too.”

 “Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?” One of the men circled the barricade. He was taller and heavier than the short, slim dentist, and he shouldered Jerry out of the way. “We say who comes and who goes.”

Cole narrowed his eyes and straightened his shoulders. “As it happens, I know a thing or two about diseases since I’m an epidemiologist. I worked with the CDC for many years and even went to Africa to help manage the Ebola outbreak. Do you have better credentials?”

  

 ** Check out  M.P. McDonald’s other works, including the award-winning bestseller, No Good Deed, at www.mpmcdonald.com

Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MPMcDonaldAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkTaylorBooks

Amazon Page: http://smarturl.it/MPMcDAmazon

* Be sure to come back for another great Halloween Read! * 

It's Almost Halloween!

It's Almost Halloween!!!!

Which means we've got some spooky stuff coming up!

Creepy books, strange characters (no, not the authors! ha!) and more... 

I'll be running Halloween Reads all week so stay tuned!

In the meantime, pick up something perfect to read!

Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter - 

What if Lizzie did  kill her father and stepmother... 

because she had no other choice?

(Print and Kindle - see Amazon.)

About Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter:

Every family has its secrets…

One hot August morning in 1892, Lizzie Borden picked up an axe and murdered her father and stepmother. Newspapers claim she did it for the oldest of reasons: family conflicts, jealousy and greed. But what if her parents were already dead? What if Lizzie slaughtered them because they’d become... zombies?