Small Horrors

Five years ago, the demon Azazel tricked Ben Spencer into giving him possession of his body. After countless frustrating and heartbreaking dead ends, Ben’s family and his girlfriend Katy Ruskin have finally located him. Will their daring rescue attempt work, and will they be able to free Ben from the demon? And with Ben free, is everything truly over…or is it only just beginning? A Pattern of Shadows brings the Small Things trilogy to a stunning conclusion that pits Ben and Katy and their families against the very forces of heaven and hell itself.

Tucked away in the foothills, surrounded by pine forests, loaded with kids who still play outside, Millwood is the small town everyone knows. For Heather Bradley, it's a place that keeps her family safe; her biggest worries are the daily grind of her job and the kids coming home late. She doesn't know that unfathomable forces are set to converge on her town and thrust their neat lives into darkness, but when her oldest son Stuart opens a one-sided door in the woods and a black cloud pours out, the Bradleys and their whole town find themselves locked in a desperate struggle for survival.

Calamity James, a reluctant paranormal detective, returns to her hometown for the first time in ten years to attend her aunt’s funeral. When the local sheriff blackmails her into helping with a missing persons case, Cal can’t say no. Using her unique gift, sharp wits, and even sharper tongue, Cal flirts with death to solve the case. In Red River, the dead talk, and Cal is the only person who can hear them.

Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.

A Mysterious Incident at the Mental Institution is a spooky, chilling tale from Nikolai Leskov based on a true incident.

Thirteen years ago, Jori Trahan’s boyfriend vanished without a trace. Now, after moving back home to Alabama to care for her ailing grandmother and autistic brother, she comes face-to-face with the deadly mystery behind his disappearance. Jori has a rare form of synesthesia, meaning she can “hear” colors; to her, tones of voice are as unique as fingerprints. With the help of this ability and a sympathetic cop, Jori comes dangerously close to uncovering the truth. But those responsible will go to any length - including murder - to keep their dark secrets buried.

The foothills of upstate New York are alive with something terrifying. It hunts, it tempts, it traps, and there’s no escape. Thomas R Clark reinvents Irish mythology and takes you on a bloody, emotional, and horrific journey back through time with the tale of the McEntire clan, and the devastating secrets they hold. The author of the Splatterpunk Awards-nominated Bella’s Boys: A Tale of Cosmic Horror has crafted a story that’s part The Wicker Man and part Cycle of the Werewolf, but at the same time like nothing you’ve heard before.

Asadi's world has ended with the murder of his wife, Taqiya. Yet, even as he buries her, a new tragedy occurs in the small town of Still Water. It seems the sheriff has returned and a member of the Guild has fallen at his hand. As the Guild reels from the blow, Asadi meets a strange being who will challenge the way he sees them. Is the creature telling lies? Or will Asadi learn the Guild is not all it seems?

Dean is a best-selling writer who struggles with writer's block ever since the scandal. Between the accident and the public scandal, no publisher wants to work with him anymore—until his agent calls him one day to tell him he managed to sign a deal with a small publisher. Dean isn't thrilled, but his lack of excitement turns into frustration when he learns that his deadline to come up with an idea for a book is 30 days.

Sheila Tulane is in love with the resort's pool boy, Teague Harmon, and will do anything to please him - even if it means murdering Guild member Sam Carstens. Meanwhile, Asadi doubts his position in the Guild when he is forced to violate his own personal code. Are his days with the Guild numbered?

From the Bram Stoker Award-winning publisher Crystal Lake Publishing comes the fiction series, Still Water Bay. In the first episode, “The Guild”, we meet Asadi and his pregnant wife, Taqiya, a couple who have just moved to the small Georgia town of Still Water, on the edge of Still Water Bay. Asadi has joined a group for those suffering from grief to discuss the violent nightmares associated with his past. What he doesn’t know is that Still Water Bay is a haven for monsters, and they’re about to make his worst nightmare come true.

A body has been uncovered in a mudslide just outside the village of Andwiston. In the pub they talk of murder, but Dan - sometime mechanic, constant drunk - is finding it hard to sift through his jumbled memories. Watching him from the dark is Lorna, a lost soul living in the woods, haunted by ghosts and a vision from her childhood: a cold boy standing alone in Gallinger's field.

A horrific monster has robbed Asadi of what he loves most, forcing him to make a decision that will change his life forever. Will he make the right choice? Discover the truth in Still Water Bay's episode two, A Call to Action.

October, 1982. Forced to move to the quiet seaside town of Tasker Bay by her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money to return to her old stomping grounds in Silicon Valley. Her self-taught skills with all things electronic make her a perfect fit for a job at the dingy local arcade. When Polybius—a new game of unknown origin arrives—the shop is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting for time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic grips Tasker Bay while a violent coastal storm rolls in, isolating it from the outside world.

Things still linger in the creeks, swamps, and low places of our childhoods. They never venture into the road, nor rise to stand in open fields. They crawl about in the spider corners of aging barns, moan from mist-choked river banks, and stand hunched and patient in the shadows as we age and die. These beings neither heaven nor hell can claim.

Emily Sinclair is a teacher in seclusion, reeling from the loss of several of her third-grade students by the hands of a shooter that opened fire on several classrooms within Marie-Glen Elementary. While dealing with the anxiety of leaving her home and facing the people of the town, Emily is terrified by what is waiting for her outside that takes the shape of shadowy figures resembling her deceased students and the ghostly kids that she refers to as “the pales” that get closer to her with every step she takes.

Mayhem explodes when monsters mix with guns, rednecks and beer. Craig Nybo's second novel, Small Town Monsters, visits the town of DePalma Beach, Montana, a peaceful lake community with a five-star rating in any tour travel guide. Monster hunter isn't in the job description when Kurt McCammus, a Los Angeles homicide detective, leaves the big city and all its violence behind to take a job as chief of police in DePalma Beach. He falls in love with the clean air and peaceful community. That is until a local rancher finds 50 head of sheep mutilated on his spread.

A carefully crafted collection of short stories derived from the urban legends of small-town America. Each fictional supernatural thriller inside was made to get your heart racing and question whether they were in fact stories or something far more sinister.

There can be no light without darkness.The sun cannot rise without night preceding it, and the setting sun of the day must inevitably fade to black. If life were all sunshine and roses, there would be no contrast. Perpetual sunshine would be both blinding and devastating. We need the darkness. It is an integral part of the whole. Part of us. Horror stories are a reflection of our darker side.

Small Bites is a collection of 14 short stories of the paranormal, horror, science fiction and fantasy. Each a tale of curiosity, hunger, longing, fear and love.