#OctoberFrights Spooky Fiction #Halloween, Stephen D Sullivan

 

* Go to October Frights 1 and Giveaways - See Next - Halloween Reading List - 3

Are you enjoying Halloween?

* Don't forget to stop by the other October Frights blogs!

OCTOBER FRIGHTS PARTICIPANTS:

Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Night to Dawn Magazine & Books LLC

Hawk's Happenings - Heidi Angell - Curiosities

James McDonald - Always Another Chapter

Spreading the Writer's Word - Yours in Storytelling

Carmilla Voiez - Hello Romance

GirlZombieAuthors - Frighten Me - M'habla's!

Angela Yuriko Smith - Brain Matter - NLCARTERWRITES.COM

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Today I'm featuring an eerie Halloween story by self-acclaimed "Monster Kid" Stephen D. Sullivan.  The story (below)  is part of Sullivan's "Frost Harrow" series. Click his name for more free stories and get information on the books in the series. 

Sullivan is also the author of several monster books, including his latest Dr. Cushing's Chamber of Horrors , with a cool cover by Screem Magazine illustrator Mark Maddox. 

In this Vincent Price-movie inspired story, the twins' idea of a fun summer is ruined as things go drastically wrong at their father's waxworks... Vampires, werewolves, mummies... none of those could be real... right?

Today's Story: 

The Weeping Ghost 

By Stephen D. Sullivan

(Photos: pixabay.com)

I wake to a plaintive wail echoing through the mansion’s deserted halls.

I open my eyes, but darkness surrounds me. This is not my room.

Where am I?

Fallen asleep on the couch in the west wing again, it seems.

Why did I come here dressed only in this gossamer nightgown?

I don’t remember; I’m still groggy.

A flash of lightning illuminates the sitting room, and a crack of thunder shakes the oak-paneled walls of my ancestral home.  Driving rain beats in staccato syncopation on the lounge’s many-paned windows.

Above the fury of the storm, I can still hear the weeping.

Where’s it coming from?

Frost Hall is huge, built up by generation after generation of a family rich enough and eccentric enough to do the Winchesters proud: my family, the Frosts.  You could hide an army within these looming walls, but fewer than a dozen of us survive, each living in our own reclusive domain, our chambers scattered throughout the decaying heap.

Noises play tricks here, and the house’s ancient timbers have their own groaning voice.

It’s a woman crying, and the sound seems familiar, though I can’t quite place it.  The wailing continues unabated, a mournful counterpoint running beneath the rainfall.

She sounds disconsolate, suffering not from injury but from loss.

Did someone die?

Stealthily, I move through the darkened corridors toward the weeping.

Only three of my relatives are women, but the voice does not sound like any of them, nor like our handful of servants.

Who is this stranger?  What is she doing in my house?

The wail grows louder as I near my chambers.

I turn a corner and see her: a white wraith, limned by flashes of lightning, gliding across the corridor.

I freeze, unsure what to do, as the figure walks to my own door … and passes inside.

Terror grips me.

Family legends insist that more ghosts now reside within Frost Hall than living souls. 

 I’ve seen apparitions before, fleeting glimpses in darkened corridors, nothing I could be sure of.  Nothing like this.  And never here.

She’s in my room!

I hesitate outside the door.

The weeping continues, piteous, heartbreaking.

She has lost something she cares about very much—a friend or a loved one.  For her, the world has ended.  The thunder and rain are fitting accompaniment for this oh-so-personal apocalypse.

Dare I intrude?  Can I find the will to confront this mournful specter?

Is it the will to remain in a place that creates ghosts?

The crying grows softer now, becoming muffled sobs punctuated by gasping breaths.

I gather my courage and enter the room.

Everything seems normal: no possessions out of place, no specters floating in midair, not even my bedsheets ruffled.

But the door to the adjoining bathroom stands ajar.  A sliver of pale light leaks out from within.

The weeping has stopped.

Trembling, I push the door open.

A woman lies in the bathtub, rivulets from her wrists staining the water crimson.  Her hair floats around her head in a wavy black halo.  Her eyes are closed, and she looks almost peaceful … glad to be done with it all … though she’s very young.

I recognize her.

It’s me!

How could I?

Was the knife’s edge really so … comforting?

What have I done?

I cry for my family—my aunt, my uncle, my cousins—calling to anyone for help.

But my plaintive wail echoes through the mansion’s deserted halls. ##

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Want more spooky reads? Check out the Haunting Reads deals  on KU through Halloween! 

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Was Lizzie Borden's doctor haunted? 

A ghostly love story. Halloween Sale! 99 cents.

The Haunting of Dr. Bowen: A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River 

New Wolf Shifter #Fantasy #Romance: Only Protector Alphas

USA Today Bestselling author Rosemary Johns has a new shifter fantasy romance for adult readers!

Only Protector Alphas: A Wolf Shifter Fantasy Romance Series  (Rebel Werewolves Book 3) -

I was gifted three wickedly handsome wolf princes…

…but now I’m the wolves’ prisoner.

I’m Crimson Tide. For centuries, witches have been at war with werewolves. As a kid, mom coached me that I was a Charmer with the badass magical power to control the scorching hot shifters.

Except, what if controlling them makes me the bad guy? How do I save my own witchy ass, as well as Wolf Kingdom, when I’m trapped in a wild land of fanatics and secrets?

To survive in the Kingdom of the Alphas, I must:

Rule #1 Never be tempted by the cursed protection of an Alpha

My pack hold dark and dangerous pasts, but I’m still driven to protect the gorgeous shifters, angels, mages, and gods who are mine.

Am I right to trust that they’ll protect me back? Or will loving the wolves get me killed?

Either way, I’ll fight for the wolves’ freedom and create a new legacy for the name Crimson Tide……or like the Charmers before me, I’ll become my princes' worst nightmare.


* Get the entire trilogy here. 

Writing Blog Hop: Horror with WD Gagliani

Today for the Writing Blog Hop,  I'm talking with horror author W.D. Gagliani about his writing process. 


 Name: W.D. Gagliani

Author of: The Nick Lupo Series of Horror-Thrillers (Wolf’s Trap, Wolf’s Gambit, Wolf’s Bluff, Wolf’s Edge, and Wolf's Cut, plus the thriller Savage Nights)
Website: www.wdgagliani.com

1. What am I working on?

I’m working on various projects, but most importantly at the moment Wolf’s Blind, the 6th Lupo thriller. Also a standalone novel with my long-time collaborator David Benton, as well as a few other things on various degrees of simmer.

2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?
I like to bring in elements from other genres, so my horror is full of thriller tropes (and vice-versa), plus some historical fantasy, erotica, and strong echoes of crime and noir. I like to think it makes for a spicier blend than average, but I guess readers have to judge if I’m successful or not.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I grew up on thrillers and came to love horror early on, too. I’ve always enjoyed SF and Fantasy and crime and mysteries. I just naturally gravitated toward writing in those areas and, whenever possible, blending the elements together. I’ve always enjoyed adventure tales of all kinds, so I try to make my work active and adventurous. But even in my non-horror reading, I was always most attracted by the darker elements. I guess I’m the result of all these influences!

4. How does my writing process work?

I would need dozens of paragraphs to explain it. I like to loosely outline a novel but leave in a fair amount of “gaps” so at any time I can take it in any direction the characters prefer. I like parallel stories, so I often work on two that become intertwined through the book. And I love to use various characters as viewpoint characters in their own sections, so the story is seen a little bit like a movie, where we end up seeing what happens to different people in different places, sometimes the same events from several POVs. 

Heh, my process is to write completely out of order sections and HOPE I can stitch them together in a way they’ll make sense. So far, this system has worked for me despite the stress it induces. Oh, do you mean on a practical level? I force myself to write 2 hours per night Mon-Thurs and at least 4-5 hours each Sat and Sun (with exceptions, of course). This includes a fair amount of time-wasting with promotion, Facebook, email, research, daydreaming, and otherwise useless internet meandering.

 ** See other Writing Blog Hops:

W. D. Gagliani - Horror
Jean Rabe  - Sci Fi
C. A. Verstraete - Horror/zombies

Coming up:  

Courtney Mroch - Short fiction