Review of ‘Vampires, Wine and Roses’

Vampires, Wine and Roses
John Richard Stephens (editor)
Sterling Publishing
August, 2008
ISBN: 9781435108325
366 pages
Horror Stories

So you’ve had it with the sexy vampires who have been walking the earth for centuries only to fall head over heels for a pubescent teenybopper girl? Ever wonder why it is that the vampires of old have become so, well, metro-sexual? If so, then Vampires, Wine and Roses is the book for you (and any other true vampire aficionado).

Vampires, Wine and Roses is a collection of poems, short stories, story excerpts and song lyrics. Each has a vampiric twist that is sometimes expected but at other times comes completely out of left field. Who would have thought that William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet would feature a vignette worth including?

Rubbing shoulders with Anne Rice, the grand dame or all things vampire, Ray Bradbury, Lord Byron and Sting, the topic of the bloodthirsty undead gets the royal treatment. Plenty of other heavy hitters of the horror genre pay homage to the vampire and – best of all – there is not a teenybopper in sight.

What makes Vampires, Wine and Roses a must-read is the earthy back-to-basic approach the stories take. There is no winsome lusting after the eternally young but instead it is a depiction of the animated raw corpse – dead, yet alive – that must lure others and destroy them to survive another night. Some of the stories have you almost smelling the fresh soil of the churchyard – just before the vampire sets out for its nightly dinner.

Humans are no longer the love interests but that which Stoker and those who went before him intended them to be: food. The careful reader will notice that even the order of the stories is not a haphazard choice; like a garden path that gradually descends into a narrower and even narrower dark alley, the stories draw the reader further and further away from the teen vampire image and back to its dark, murderous source. The book ends with a story by the grandmaster of horror himself: Stephen King.

Vampires, Wine and Roses is a wonderful book for any true vampire lore aficionado. The teen vampire fan, well, she’ll probably not ‘get’ the stories but it is always worth a try. With so much literature contained within the book’s pages, this is a great read for anyone (except, perhaps, for impressionable young minds who are not quite ready for the dark recesses of Edgar Allen Poe’s psyche).
***
For the sake of full disclosure: let the kind readers please take notice that I received a copy of Vampires, Wine and Roses – free of charge – from Mr. Clayton Bye.

Here Be Dragons by John B. Rosenman

Here Be Dragons
by John B Rosenman
eBook ISBN: 9781926640624

Price: $ 2.50
Genre: Science Fiction
Sub Genre: Horror
Short Story of 5500 words
Heat rating: 1
Edited by Lauren Gilbert
Cover Artwork by Dawné Dominique
Print ISBN: 9781926647388

Buy Here

About the book:
From space, the planet Mira looks safe and peaceful, but mysterious “dragons” slaughtered the fourteen members of the first expedition. Captain Jordan, leading the second expedition to investigate this tragedy, will do anything to avoid more bloodshed.

After their ship lands, they discover a lovely Eden. While there is no sign of the previous crew, soon a deadly snake enters the garden. Crew members start to die in horrible ways, and Jordan fears his officers have been replaced with clever imitations by an unimaginably alien monster with supremely evil powers.

The question is, what will happen when Jordan and the monster finally come face to face?

Excerpt:
He smiled. The lieutenant was such a gentle, honest man, that she couldn’t imagine him hurting a flea. With Rob Adams, what you saw was what you got. Unlike other men, he’d never hurt or disappointed her.

Still, if they were caught, their affair would probably bring them both a court-martial. So she had to be careful even with him.

Troubled, she turned back to the scope while his hands gently began to massage her shoulders. One descended and caressed her breast. She pulled away. Ordinarily she would have liked it, but something about him seemed wrong.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

She shivered. “I…I’m not sure. You seem different somehow.”

“Different? What do you mean?” His hand found her breast and started to caress it again.

“I can’t explain it. You’re just…not the same.”

His hand froze. He hissed, a strange sound that made her skin crawl. “No matter how hard I try,” he said, “you never accept me.”

Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter: Theatre of Vampires

Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter
Volume 2: Theatre of Vampires
Guido Henkel
Thunder Peak Publishing, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9843891-1-7
Chap Book
61 Pages
Paranormal/Horror

I just finished reading Book 2 in Guido Henkel’s new horror series: Jason Dark, Ghost Hunter. A Gothic piece entitled Theatre of Vampires, the story is a quick and interesting read. Because the story is so short it’s hard to give you an outline without spoilers. Let’s just say that a friend of Jason’s returns to London after a 3 year absence and invites him to watch a bizarre play about vampires. The vampires are, of course, real, and Jason is soon involved in a strange, surprisingly personal case.

A story set in the winter during the time and in the world of Sherlock Holmes, the short volume contains surprisingly well-drawn characters and a solid plot. The hook or revelation is a good one that caught me completely by surprise. That doesn’t happen very often. I would have no problem paying the $2.99 USD retail price for this entertaining little book. One note: I counted four grammatical errors, which is four too many in a work of this size.

For those of you who don’t know, Guido Henkel is a long-time game developer with many credits to his name (Planescape: Torment, Realms of Arkania and Lords of Doom for example). After working for several companies, often as founder or CEO, Henkel now heads up (and, I suspect, owns) G3 Studios, LLC, which is an independent developer and publisher of games. Thunder Peak Publishing is an imprint of this company.

I would think the background mentioned above would provide fertile ground for a fellow interested in writing about the fantastic, the paranormal and the horrific. I’m looking for more from Mr. Henkel.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

The Garden of Ghosts by Scott Thomas

The Garden of Ghosts
by Scott Thomas
Dark Regions Press, 2008
Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-1-888993-62-2
148 pages
Ghost Stories/Horror

Buy now at Dark Regions Press
Buy now at Amazon.com


The Garden of Ghosts: a collection of Victorian ghost stories linked together by the common factor of vegetation. Does it work? Absolutely. The tone of this marvelous book is earthy, visceral and surprisingly committed to its theme.

From the uncomfortable humour of The Ghost who Nibbled Fennel to the wonderful A Night on Little Orchard, Scott Thomas skillfully takes us back to a simpler time, when people had no trouble envisioning terrible things that go bump in the night. And he writes as if he is talking to an old friend, toning down the rigid, stilted and (may I say) boring style of most traditional writers of the supernatural.

I’ll tell you a secret: I’m not a fan of ghost stories. I groan when someone sends me such a book to read and review. Nor will you find many ghost stories in my own library. They don’t scare me, most are as dry as dust and none offer up the vibrant entertainment we all look for in stories. Yet, here comes Scott Thomas with a beautiful book of stories that just happen to be of the ghostly variety. Bad things happen to good and bad people alike. Not all ghosts are interested in haunting, nor are they mere spectres; this author reveals ghosts with a need for real shoes, who have sharp teeth and fire rifles with real bullets. Then there’s a truly unique telling of Jack the Ripper’s tale, which is all about the supernatural, but it didn’t feel like a ghost story, and it was a wonderful piece of entertainment.

I read the final story in The Garden of Ghosts and closed the book with a wonderful sense of fullness and satisfaction, of having been given something both substantial and pleasing to the soul. This is a collection of short stories I will return to again and again.

Thank you Mr. Thomas.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Moonlit Daydreams by Rebecca Carter

Moonlit Daydreams
by Rebecca Carter
Lulu.com, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-557-35588-4
Paperback and Kindle
72 pages
Horror

Buy now at Amazon.com

Moonlit Dreams by Rebecca Carter is an interesting collection of 5 short short stories. Each piece examines a very brief slice of time during which the main character comes to some kind of dark realization. The fact that each of Carter’s characters undergo these mental changes leads me to believe she understands the short story. (At the end of all short stories someone must have changed, been changed or have observed some change or event which alters their perception of the world or themselves.)

From the scientist who destroys her world while trying to save it, to the kidnapped woman who learns that happiness is a relative thing (it depends on your perception or outlook), to the “special” woman who finds out that such gifts can demand a price too high to bear—Carter’s cast of characters face what can only be referred to as nightmares. And it is the process of facing the reality of these nightmares that brings on change in each.

I enjoyed these little tidbits, but must confess to a major concern. Moonlit Dreams in eBook format costs $0.99 USD, a good price for what you receive. However, the print version, which is a mass market paperback that costs $11.99 USD is completely unacceptable. The value is not there. Instead of the typical 9 to 11 words per line, Moonlit Dreams offers up 3 to 4 words per line. Carter’s 72 page book, if printed to industry standards would only be about 24 pages in length. I understand she needs to charge such a price to recover her printing and production costs, but this is not the consumer’s problem. The solution to this unfortunate mistake is obviously more content. I would consider one of my own books of 70 pages or 15,000 words to be pricey at $9.99 USD, except the customer is paying for information rather than entertainment. And I actually offer a 272 page fantasy novel (over 60,000 words) for the same price ($9.99 USD).

So, while I encourage Rebecca Carter to continue to write short stories, I also suggest she take a look at what other authors are offering the customer for $11.99 USD.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

They That Dwell In Dark Places

They That Dwell In Dark Places
Daniel McGachey
Ghost House, Dark Regions Press
Published in 2009
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-888993-72-1
346 pages
Genre: Paranormal


“This is a ghost story about ghost stories. It tells a tale about the telling of tales, and of the need, the absolute necessity, for stories that strike fear into men’s hearts – stories that delve into the unknown and the uncanny…” So says Daniel McGachey on his MySpace page. And it may be the truth of this statement is the saving grace of his 2009 release They That Dwell In Dark Places.

To read McGachey’s book is to step into a world long past, a simpler world where science has yet to push away century old superstitions. This is a time where very few have electric lights and the candle or gaslight is used by night, and everyone knows there are things that lurk beyond those flickering shadows. Things best not talked about or even thought about. Things that bite.

But I am a modern man used to modern entertainment. To sit down and read this collection of flawlessly written ghost stories is an unusual thing for me to do. I crave action and excitement and danger from sentence number one. Instead, McGachey’s narrator meanders through each story as if he has all evening, just as if I were a member of his group of open-minded men who spend many of their evenings smoking cigars, drinking cognac and telling of their latest ghostly discovery. This was a book I wouldn’t have read for pleasure.

It would have been my loss. You see the stories get darker as the book progresses. The few often visited characters like Dr. Lawrence, whose wholehearted embracement of all things ghostly leads him to true evil—in the shape of a man, his old teacher Lucius Shadwell—who marks him as nothing ghostly ever could. Or the narrator himself, perhaps the most fanatical of all the seekers of They That Dwell In Dark Places, who has awaiting him, at the end of the book, a revelation of horrific proportions.

Daniel McGachey dares us to drop our electronic entertainment and venture into a world that actually existed, where the veil between life and death was, perhaps, less substantial. So, put aside your sophisticated imagination and scientific knowledge of the world, and slow down for just a little while to join his characters as they tell stories about those courageous but foolhardy souls who dared to peer through that perilous veil.

An interesting and deceptively complicated piece of writing that I consider well worth the effort. Thanks for the read Mr. McGachey.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Voices From Hades by Jeffrey Thomas

Voices From Hades
Jeffrey Thomas
Dark Regions Press, 2008
ISBN: 1-888993-55-3
Trade Paperback
170 pages
Horror

Buy now from Amazon.com


Horror: that which disturbs or creates fear. Voices From Hades should do that. After all it’s a series of stories about people who have been sent to hell.

When I began to read Voices From Hades, I immediately sensed something different. Perhaps it was the emotion shown by the woman in the first story, The Abandoned. It shows us a woman trying very hard to hold onto her humanity. So hard that she takes on a demon foundling and tries to care for it. Her efforts fail but end with a man entering her life in such a way as to create a sense of family.

No. It wasn’t something as simple as trying to hang onto the trappings of life. There was something more complicated going on. The second story, Black Wings, brought me much closer to understanding. Jeffrey Thomas writes about heaven and hell as we have never seen or imagined them. In the story we have angels coming to Hell to hunt and shoot men, women and children who have been damned–just for sport. After all, they can’t die; angels and the damned, when hurt, regenerate. Then there’s the hunter’s wife, who left to her own resources, seduces a humanoid demon (he loves the feel of her skin). His addiction leads to terrible consequences: his lover attacks the trespassing angel and is killed in the process (Demons do not have souls and, therefore, are not immortal.).

And what do you know: the damned can be brought to heaven as labourers, something which happens in the fifth story, The Secret Gallery. You see, the demons who monitor the behavior of the damned will allow them to rent homes, print books, create art and even build cities. The idea being that one must have some opportunity to experience a relatively normal and painless existence so that they can appreciate the horror and pain of their next “assignment.” In this story a woman’s art shop is trashed by demons, and she is brought to heaven to decorate an angel’s home with her paintings. Unexpectedly, the artist begins to rebel by painting hidden images of the horrors of hell within the beautiful frescoes she has been asked to paint. Her guard figures out what’s happening but allows the art to stay when she shows him how he, himself, has been immortalized in the painting.

Jeffrey Thomas has shown us a heaven and hell made and run by the creator (Satan is a fully human creation). If you believe in god, attend church and have been baptized you are practically guaranteed entrance to heaven, while a 7 year-old boy who died un-baptized is damned forever. Good behaviour or ignorance has no bearing upon the matter. If you break one of God’s rules, to hell you go. The stories in Voices From Hell take place at a time when the damned have created a resistance to fight this cruel God, who is in the process of hunting down and killing all humanoid demons (because they have a tendency to act human) and replacing them with demons that look like ticks or spiders or which have other animal characteristics. Some of the hunted demons have even joined the human resistance.

Enter an angel who is the father of the damned boy just mentioned, who comes to hell and refuses to leave until he has found his boy. When he learns the boy has been taken in by a couple, he seeks them out and acquires their help. They manage to retrieve the boy from a “torture ship,” just to find he will always be damned and his safety can’t be guaranteed. The only possible solution is for the angel to always be present to block the path of whatever demon has been sent to torture the boy. Sickened by what he has seen, the angel and his wife join their son’s new family and choose to stay forever in hell to ensure the boy’s safety.

In the last story in the book, Peace of Mind, Thomas has us follow a pacifist who becomes embroiled in the resistance and, in the end, by resorting to violence (something he said he would never do), he finds the opportunity to relieve the suffering of some of his damned brethren. Somehow, the process makes him feel like a whole man for the first time in what seems to have been an eternity.

Voices From Hades paints an incredible picture of what heaven and hell could actually be. Jeffrey Thomas does this through stories one just cannot fault. This is a collection that doesn’t so much hang together as it is a beautiful tapestry of words that take us to a place never imagined. And in the most sordid and ghastly of places, Thomas shows us time and time again what the human spirit is and can do. This disturbs, but when a demon cries because an artist offers him a form of individual immortality, one cannot deny the beauty found within all this horror.

Terrific book. An accomplishment Jeffrey Thomas can be proud of.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Gleefully Macabre Tales by Jeff Strand

Gleefully Macabre Tales
by Jeff Strand
Dark Regions Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-888993-76-9
Trade Paperback
279 Pages
Horror/Comedy

Buy Now at Amazon.com


Jeff Strand and his short story collection Gleefully Macabre Tales: What should I say?

First, I wish I could produce stories that feel as if they were written without effort, like they flowed out of my pen of their own volition. Why? Because that is exactly what I thought a number of times while reading Jeff Strand’s stories. And it happened because he’s a master craftsman. To quote the great Tony Bennett, “Take the most difficult thing you do and make it look effortless.” Read a few of Strand’s stories and you’ll have an example of what he was talking about.

Second, Strand’s collection is placed in the Genre: Horror/Comedy at his own behest. Yet, as you read you will find honest horror, black humour, the macabre, complete and utter silliness, the gross, the humorous horrific and laugh-out-loud comedy. Strand is a madman with a pen! And he has great fun touching on things even the scariest horror writer alive would shy away from. Some of these tales should be told out behind the proverbial barn; a few of the stories should never have seen the light of day. Which is why I’m an immediate fan of Jeff Strand. Horror is supposed to disturb. Gleefully Macabre Tales disturbs on several levels.

Third, Fourth and Fifth…

There will come a day when the “animal protectionists” read the story Really, Really Ferocious. Strand will go on their most wanted list.

I believe Everything Has A Purpose should be required reading for all students heading into difficult courses.

If Common Sense, Brain Bugs and I Hold The Stick can’t get a smile or a chuckle out of you, then I say with complete seriousness… Get a life!

Sixth, Jeff Strand has a unique voice. I’ve read just one of his books, and I’d be willing to bet I could recognize his writing anywhere. Whatever you think of him and his stories, this is a guy who stands out.

And finally, in a time of zealous political correctness, and in a world chock full of people who have forgotten certain types of humour are supposed to be irreverent when they can, I find Strand to be a breath of fresh air.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Dark Entities by David Dunwoody

Dark Entities
by David Dunwoody
Dark Regions Press, 2009
ISBN: 1-888993-65-0
Trade Paperback
112 pages
Horror


Meet David Dunwoody’s Dark Entities. They crawl across, under and over each page. They’ll get into your head; you’ll feel them in your gut. And if you have any empathy for your fellow man, you’ll be greatly disturbed.

Dunwoody writes a tight, effective and mesmerizing short story. His chosen genre is HORROR, and he isn’t playing around. Not only does Dunwoody frighten and disturb, he’s damned good at it. If you’re looking for something new in horror fiction, Dark Regions Press presents New Voices of Horror 1, Dark Entities by David Dunwoody.

Buy Now at Amazon.com


In The Clay

Detective Kaufman accidently finds a severed finger inside a decorative clay pot. When he tracks the pot back to its maker, he isn’t prepared for what he finds… A King without a face, a lot full of dead people who aren’t really people and a truth he just can’t accept.


Brownlee’s Blue Flame

Death is patient. It/he/she lives in an endless cave rimmed with billions of candles. One goes out, and he marks its passing by snuffing the wick. A new candle bursts into flame—a new life. But then something strange happens, something unique, unknown. This troubles Death enough that
he steps into the world of the living for the first time in hundreds of years. But the answers found lead to more questions and the suggestion of a time to end all times. Read on my friends and watch as death has an identity crisis. It’s a thing of dark and disturbing beauty.


The Ambrosia Supper Club

Vetta likes her job as a hostess at The Ambrosia Supper Club. She also likes her strange Boss, Mr. Clith. It’s too bad, really, because tonight is the last for both Clith and the Club. You see, a party of ten with no reservation insists they’ll be stopping by for dinner, and they won’t take no for an answer. Despite all her efforts to dissuade, the men show up and have their expected meal. I would suggest that life will never be the same for Vetta.


Minotaur

As instinctively as a child steps on the ant crossing his path, so does the hunter search for you in your evening cornfields. He is the Minotaur waiting at the end of the maze, and you will not believe what you see.


Hell’s Razor

The Devil is Sue’s constant companion. They’re like a couple of old friends risen from forced proximity. Until Mom, Dad and her 18th birthday have passed away. Then the truth will out. And Sue won’t like it at all. But who would have guessed the Devil would like it a lot less?


Sunset

Tanner, a man caught up in a fight for his life (his wife wants a divorce), has built a wonderful boat and has headed out to sea on holiday with his two boys and the disgruntled wife. But as is often the case, our troubles travel with us. He can’t even get his wife to enjoy a sunset with him.

While visiting an island he knows, Tanner runs into an old friend. He’s so pleased with the chance meeting and so burdened by the obvious failure of his reconciliation attempt with his wife, Tanner misses the casual but serious warning uttered by his friend: which, paraphrased, urges him to stay away from uncharted islands in the area.

Tanner finds out–the hard way–that there are things much worse than a failed marriage.


A Carrion To Wounded Souls

Twilight Man’s mind was shattered due to a nasty head injury. Before that he was just a serial rapist and murderer. Come take a ride with insanity… Is the mind-vulture hovering close by real or imagined?


Birthright

A unique vision of Hell on the brink of civil war–all because one fallen angel wants to go home.


The Abbot and The Dragon

Mankind done in by its endless quest for knowledge. Now, in a post apocalyptic world, a doomed man stumbles across the recorded and completely meaningless truth.


New Eyes

A self-blinded man who’s life has been spent without purpose might just have found a reprieve, a small bit to play. It depends on whether or not he and death can work out a deal. Oh, I didn’t tell you? The man can now see death and spirits of pestilence and…


The Run

They came to the little island between Athens and Crete to run. Some of the best in the world. And it was because they were runners that they escaped the first attack. But Rafe knows something the others don’t. The things that came out of the sea aren’t of the sea, and they aren’t killing people because they’re hungry for food. No, what the monsters want is much more horrifying. Abe knows it for a fact. Because he’s number one on their hit list…


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Something Different For Stephen King Fans

Just After Sunset
by Stephen King
Pocket Books
October 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-8665-4
539 Pages
Mass Market Paperback
Horror/Collection

Buy now at Amazon.com
Buy now at Amazon.ca


Stephen King’s latest offering of short stories, Just After Sunset, disappointed me when I first read it. I was expecting to be drawn into some horrendous places and to have any number of heroes sacrificed to the writing Gods. Didn’t happen. In fact some of the stories have what, considering this is Stephen King we’re talking about, I would call happy endings.

So, I read the story notes at the back, and I reworked each story. Turns out, for this offering, Mr. King has decided to do away with fairly straightforward horror and offer us stories with meaning. I find that King not only poses some interesting questions, but he suggests some unusual answers. My verdict after revisiting Just After Sunset? A thoughtful, mature and sometimes freaky collection he should be proud of.

Willa – I didn’t like this ghost story, possibly because I just finished a similar story by a different author. Both deal with emotions after death, obviously offering up the assumption that some part of us goes on living after our bodies die. Stephen King’s story suggests that love and compassion and loyalty could all carry over with the soul. Such happenings could lead to interesting situations when it comes time for each individual to cross over. Willa presents us with one of these.

The Gingerbread Girl – A story reminiscent of Duma Key, The Gingerbread Girl gives us a woman trying to literally run away from the tragic death of her baby and a marriage she no longer wants. Having moved into her father’s place on one of Florida’s many keys, Janet has complete freedom to run as much and often as she wishes. Deep down she knows this will be the place that heals her. She’s right, but not in the way she thinks. Because Janet is about to stumble upon a murder, and the murderer, who is very good at what he does, easily adds her to the equation, so to speak. What Janet learns from her captor is frightening enough to bring her back to life–if she can beat him at his own game.

Harvey’s Dream – Janet is analyzing her life and husband of thirty years. It’s not a pleasant set of thoughts. How could she know that in a few minutes she would give everything she has to return those boring, petty thoughts. You see, her husband, Harvey has had a dream. And as Harvey relates the dream, Janet is drawn into a very real nightmare she cannot stop.

Rest Stop – A frightening situation proves to an author that “under the right circumstances, anyone could end up anywhere, doing anything.” He also realizes this means there are endless stories he can write using his favourite character. How does this transformation come about? The author has to call on his alter ego, his pen name, for the strength and hardness of character to deal with the problem at hand. The results are surprising.

Stationary Bike – Richard Sifkitz creates art for dollars. Advertising, commissions, whatever. So imagine his surprise when he suddenly finds himself painting purely for himself. What brings on the change? High cholesterol, too much weight and his commitment to ride his exercise bike every day. Life is good… except there’s something weird going on with his paintings. Also reminiscent of Duma Key, Stationary Bike looks at art as a doorway into some very strange and dangerous places.

The Things They Left Behind – A man suffering from survivor guilt after 9/11 discovers that there is much about the world he doesn’t understand. Yet, his questioning in the face of quiet terror finally leads him past what seems to be a demonic (or at least a very hurtful) game to an answer so simple and beautiful it changes his and the lives of many others forever.

Graduation Afternoon – The rules regarding the pettiness and bigotry of the well-positioned in society continue to operate as a family watches (in brilliant detail) the end of their world, just as their guest (from the wrong side of several million dollars) turns to her own form of country simplicity and takes her usual pragmatic look forward. Are we really such rigid creatures of habit?

N. – Standing stones have long been associated with ancient ritual, power, magic and even as portals to other worlds. Stephen King bundles all these suppositions into one very strange tale about people who spend their lives keeping our world the beautiful place it is. This is a long piece that deals with the concept of reality as a very thin barrier between what we know and the endless, horrifying possibilities that await a chance to come on in.

The Cat From Hell – The best hit man in the business matches his skills against a strange cat in a battle that leaves the loser surprised, out of business and an empty shell of his/its former self.

The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates – An offer that won’t be repeated, just like the strange phone call Anne gets on the day of her husband’s funeral. What would you say or do if your husband of 30 years, dead for two days, called you on his cell phone, in which the battery is dying? Stephen King imagines for us.

Mute – The hitch-hiker: we’ve heard and seen every variation of this story, right? Not a chance! In Mute, Stephen King brings us an amazing, original and damned scary story of generousity and retribution, all wrapped up with a big red bow these kinds of pieces call the moral of the story. His bottom line? You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into when you pick up a hitch-hiker.

Ayana – Godless miracles that carry a strange price tag. Ayana is a commentary on what and how we label things we don’t understand, evoking the name of God or whispering about magic (as examples) when sometimes things… just… are.

A Very Tight Place – Stephen King has been spending part of each year in Florida for a number of years now. As you might expect, The Keys have become a risky place to visit or live. In A Very Tight Place an aging day trader learns (via one of King’s most gruesome settings) that getting along with one’s neighbour is much more than a friendly suggestion.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye