Showing results by author "Elizabeth Alsobrooks" in All Categories

"Secret Santa" by Marcus Mattern: If you think you have problems at work, you will change your mind and think it’s the magic kingdom after reading about Darren Young's day. One just never knows their coworkers as well as they think they do. Do you have a Secret Santa activity where you work? You may not want to participate after you listen to this edge-of-your-seat, hand-over-your-eyes tale. Marcus starts his story off with a bang, and the thrills never end until the surprising conclusion.

Now in its fifth incarnation, Tell-Tale's horror anthologies have become an annual benchmark of emerging talent and well-told stories. The select seven featured here will yank you backward and forward again in time, visiting the exotic and the seemingly mundane, at a pace and a pulse calibrated for Halloween chills. Beware of a cat named Sabrina and a Celtic goddess with a passport to Salem—yes, that Salem. An old farmhouse could hold more vivid memories than just its mortal foundations, and think twice about rescuing the sister of a young boy if you find yourself in a desert.

Ever see one of those seedy-looking hotels in the middle of nowhere and get reminded of Psycho, even as you wonder who might actually stay or work there? Or perhaps you’ve traveled on business and found yourself in the wrong part of town—and the natives are restless.

Offered an enormous sum by an anonymous benefactor for the acquisition of an ancient ceremonial relic, a sum that would keep the antiquities shop in Cairo her father left her afloat while she continued her own archaeological pursuits, Lady Isabella Valentine was distracted rather than tempted, then suspicious, when the dashing young Bedouin slipped in just before closing and promised her a deal she couldn’t refuse - for the very same relic.

Whether it's history itself getting lost in the stone silence of a lighthouse or the time flow of medieval armor clashing from the grave into the now of your mind, this year's honor roll of top stories from Tell-Tale Publishing will pull you up in your chair and set your pulse racing. But that's what you want...isn't it? There will be thoughtful dilemmas to keep you pondering, moral choices and choices for the oldest of reasons - love - and, above all, the test of love versus fate.

Ljluka Vargas, immortal prince and the cool-headed enforcer for the Vargas Dynasty, must go up against his most intriguing enemy, the mysterious Nalini. She intends to beat him to the secret archaeological site of the Book of Life which contains the genetic secrets of their ancient ancestors.