FREE/BARGAIN - Horror - 2014

[toddes]

The Hodgson collection is also available from Baen eBooks either individually ($6 US) or as a five volume set ($25 US):

Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson

They also have Clark Ashton Smith's Collected Fantasies:

Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Washing Machine Holocaust by Alan Spencer (ISFDB), a man vs. machine horror short. Spencer is a Samhain author and we've previously received one of his books from them as a freebie.

NB: the customer reviews indicate that this is rather gory, but some of them also say that it builds up a suspenseful atmosphere well. YMMV.

Tonight is Larry Koche's final shift working at "Get Loaded," a self-service laundry mat that has been bought out by a mysterious new owner. Larry's shift reveals what the new owner is really planning to do with the business, and those sinister washing machines.

Washing Machine Holocaust is exactly what you think it is. Flying body parts, survival horror, double mutilation, surreal terror, and self-reflection loom in Larry's future. Can he save himself from the vicious washing machine's spin cycle of horror?

Fear not life.

Fear not death.

Fear the washing machine.

*Washing Machine Holocaust has been deemed too graphic for general audiences by The American Literary Board of Public Decency. The risk is entirely yours!!!

[ATDrake]

Free from the small-press startup publisher Forgotten Tomb via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Miseria's Chorale edited by David Edward Nell (ISFDB), an anthology which contains stories from 48 horror authors (names listed in the full blurb), most notably the much-published Peter Crowther (ISFDB, Wikipedia), who IIRC we've received a past freebie story collection of from specialty sfnal-best-of-reprinter PS Publishing.

The customer reviews say that this is tilted more towards classical bizarre psychological suspense/things-gone-wrong sorts of horror than featuring currently popular horror-ish monster creatures, and some of the stories have a decidedly sci-fi tilt if you like that kind of crossover appeal.

Miseria's Chorale gathers together award winners, bestsellers, veterans and exciting new stars in one mammoth anthology that represents a broad definition of horror, taking readers on a journey to unspeakable realms and nightmarish self-discovery.

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Storks from Alan Spencer, whose credentials were listed in the post above, so I'm not repeating them. Kristopher Rufty (ISFDB), who's listed as illustrator, is another Samhain alumnus from whom we've also previously gotten another official publisher promo short.

You've seen it all before. A spilled truck of super chemicals infect an entire population of Wood Storks. The seemingly innocent birds turn into menacing creatures of evil. By beak, by eggs, by bird-innovation, they will kill everyone in their path.

Carter King only wanted to visit his hometown after eight years of absence. Trying to confront his emotions involving the tragic accident that cost someone their life, he revisits a painful part of his past. Not only does he have to atone for his sins, he must do battle with a fleet of storks while dodging a band of shotgun totting lunatics and endure the charms of a local nymphomaniac with a penchant for butchering men.

Storks is a novella of emotion, devastation, tragedy, sexuality, gore and bird domination.

Watch the skies, because you are not ready for Storks.

[BetterRead]

Perfect for this time of year.

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon is $1.99 at your favorite retailer. (Couponable at Kobo)

After watching his asthmatic daughter suffer in the foul city air, Theodore Constantine decides to get back to the land. When he and his wife search New England for the perfect nineteenth-century home, they find no township more charming, no countryside more idyllic than the farming village of Cornwall Coombe. Here they begin a new life: simple, pure, close to nature—and ultimately more terrifying than Manhattan’s darkest alley.

When the Constantines win the friendship of the town matriarch, the mysterious Widow Fortune, they are invited to join the ancient festival of Harvest Home, a ceremony whose quaintness disguises dark intentions. In this bucolic hamlet, where bootleggers work by moonlight and all of the villagers seem to share the same last name, the past is more present than outsiders can fathom—and something far more sinister than the annual harvest is about to rise out of the earth.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Kids/YA thread, since Christopher Golden is a much-published sfnal TV tie-in writer who's had a lot of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer novels printed, which people might have read and enjoyed previously:

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon: 2 YA supernatural suspense novels in his Sleepy Hollow High series based on the classic Washington Irving tale, originally out from small-press Razorbill in 2005

Also free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Freakshow: A Twisted Love Story by Donna Burgess (ISFDB), a carnival-set short. Burgess has a few minor story credits in small press outlets. This is not one of them.

Evan O'Leary had a normal life. But in the blink of an eye, everything fell apart and he found himself alone. With a frightening and amazing new gift, he joins a traveling sideshow and finds new love. But not without consequences.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

The Shell Collector a creepy small-town happenings novella by much-published sfnal TV tie-in author Christopher Golden (ISFDB, Wikipedia). This was originally a chapterbook from Cemetery Dance in 2006 and there's a favourable quoted blurb review from Booklist.

It's October in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Richie Feehan was born and raised and has lived his whole life. He's a part-time lobsterman and full-time painter who sells his art at galleries in Rockport and Newburyport. Between the two jobs he makes enough money to get by, living in an in-law apartment in the family home owned by his brother Jim. Jim runs Feehan & Sons Funeral Home, a business started by their grandfather in 1921.

All in all, despite the tension with his brother, and despite the grumbling of his friends, whose business has suffered because of a lengthy red tide and a spectacularly bad overall fishing season, Richie enjoys his life very much. He's content, and believes that's pretty much all a man can ask from his life.

That is, until a horrible mystery begins to unfold in Gloucester.

Mischief by Christopher Golden & Ford Lytle Gilmore, 3rd in their Sleepy Hollow High series of YA supernatural adventures based upon literary horror classics, for which we've previously been given the first two free upthread, originally out from small press Razorbill in 2006.

Mark Hyde’s bad temper has darkened his life with moments of violence and troubles with the law, but he’s tried very hard to put all of that behind him, tried to be a better friend and a better person. Most of the time he seems to succeed, but even Aimee and Shane Lancaster, the new kids in town, have seen what Hyde is like when things go wrong for him.

After a string of violent incidents — when Hyde gives Shane a brutal beating, or when he mouths off to the local authorities, or when he vandalizes a few lockers at the high school — even the people who care most about him begin to worry that he’s falling back on his old ways. But Hyde’s best friend Jekyll swears that there are other reasons for his behavior and that he will calm down soon enough.

When someone starts pulling dangerous pranks and causing thousands of dollars in damage and inflict grievous injury, it’s Mark Hyde that the authorities are looking for. And when the problems get worse, when the vandalism escalates to theft and the pranks lead to deaths instead of a few injuries, it’s Mark Hyde the police intend to take down for the crimes, unless Aimee and Shane can find the real culprits.

ETA: also free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Monochrome Circus by Mary Borsellino (ISFDB), who's had a few things out from small press Drollerie, who were a previous Read an eBook Week participant before they folded, a self-explanatory short.

When young acrobats Gemma and Merry are invited to visit the mysterious Monochrome Circus, is it the start of a brand new life for them or a lethal trap?

[koland]

Raiju: A Kaiju Hunter Novel by K.H Koehler [Severed Press]

His home destroyed by a rampaging kaiju, Kevin Takahashi and his father relocate to New York City where Kevin hopes the nightmare is over. Soon after his arrival in the Big Apple, a new kaiju emerges. Qilin is so powerful that even the U.S. Military may be unable to contain or destroy the monster. But Kevin is more than a ragged refugee from the now defunct city of San Francisco. He's also a Keeper who can summon ancient, demonic god-beasts to do battle for him, and his creature to call is Raiju, the oldest of the ancient Kami. Kevin has only a short time to save the city of New York. Because Raiju and Qilin are about to clash, and after the dust settles, there may be no home left for any of them!

http://www.amazon.com/Raiju-Kaiju-Hu...dp/B00NX785FO/

[ATDrake]

More stuff free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot)

Enemies by Christopher Golden & Ford Lytle Gilmore, 4th in the Sleepy Hollow High YA series for which we've gotten the previous books upthread, originally out from small press Razorbill in 2006.

The supernatural problems in Sleepy Hollow are getting worse instead of better and the strange things that have been happening all seem to be pointing to one thing — an even bigger evil is brewing, something very dangerous, and big enough to take out the entire town.

What seems to be a gang of kids in costumes causes grief on Halloween night, but that’s nothing compared to what arrives just in time to stop them. There are rumors of a giant lumbering around the Old Dutchman Cemetery, and as proof of the possibility, there’s a lot of vandalism going on among the headstones and tombs. To make matters worse, a string of deaths occurs in Sleepy Hollow in which the victims seem to have literally been scared to death.

It’s harvest time in Sleepy Hollow and this year the reaping will be bloody and grim.

Pyre by Christopher Golden, a novella originally published in a Leisure horror anthology in 2002, according to ISFDB.

The day of her father's funeral, Samantha is filled with so much anger that she can barely feel her grief. Her late father was a cold, unfeeling man with no time for his daughter, an alcoholic who had cheated on her mother and left the family in financial ruin, and she has a lifetime of resentment because of it. She had planned to tell him, to have it out once and for all, but now it's too late...or is it?

After the funeral, an encounter with an old friend triggers a memory that Samantha had buried, about a place where it might be possible for the dead to rise again.

But if she wants to resurrect her father, the first thing she's going to have to do is dig him up.

[Purple Lady]

Trapped - A Novel of Terror by Jack Kilborn aka JA Konrath is currently free at Amazon. I loved all the Jack Kilborn books and I wish he'd write some more!

http://www.amazon.com/Trapped-Novel-...3490573&sr=1-1

TERRIFIED...

It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who'd run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan's upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal.

Then Martin told a campfire story about the island's history. Of the old civil war prison hidden in there, and the starving confederate soldiers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Everyone thought it was funny. They even laughed when Martin pretended to be dragged off into the woods.

But Martin didn't come back. And neither did Sara when she went in search of him.

Then the laughter stopped.

...TO DEATH

The group soon began to realize that this deserted island wasn't so deserted after all. And perhaps Martin's ridiculous story had more truth to it than anyone thought.

What's the most horrifying thing you can imagine?

This is a hundred times worse...

[Dr. Drib]

Just picked up the Jack Kilborn novel.

I'm disappointed in the promo copy:

"No one here gets out alive.

TERRIFIED...

It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who'd run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan's upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal."

I mean, how many times have we heard this trite trope? This smarmy smegma?

Why not have Kilborn get off his tired butt and write this:

No one here gets out dead. Watch in utter complacency as six teenagers wearing glasses eat hotdogs and drink coca-cola with the law, along with their doting guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights of beautiful friendship, of campfire singing, and of learning to understand the intricacies algebraic equations.

Well, I did pick this up, so I guess I'll read it.

It better be good!

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Just picked up the Jack Kilborn novel.

I'm disappointed in the promo copy:

"No one here gets out alive.

TERRIFIED...

It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who'd run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan's upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal."

I mean, how many times have we heard this trite trope? This smarmy smegma?

Why not have Kilborn get off his tired butt and write this:

No one here gets out dead. Watch in utter complacency as six teenagers wearing glasses eat hotdogs and drink coca-cola with the law, along with their doting guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights of beautiful friendship, of campfire singing, and of learning to understand the intricacies algebraic equations.

Well, I did pick this up, so I guess I'll read it.

It better be good!

Three nights of beautiful friendship, of campfire singing...? Sounds boring. This is good, gruesome, gory horror that gets going quickly. It also has excerpts from Endurance and Afraid which were good too.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Three nights of beautiful friendship, of campfire singing...? Sounds boring. This is good, gruesome, gory horror that gets going quickly. It also has excerpts from Endurance and Afraid which were good too.

I guess I needed one of these for you to get it!





Horror is my special treat, served with beans and brains on the side.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I guess I needed one of these for you to get it!





Horror is my special treat, served with beans and brains on the side.

And a little Chianti!

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Froide

And a little Chianti!

[GtrsRGr8]

Supposedly Post-Mortem Press (no, I'm not making that name up) is offering a different Kindle book for 99 cents each day in October. Go to http://astore.amazon.com/pmp99centsa...il/B00DQG08BQ? each day to find out the horror special du jour.

I said "supposedly" they're offering a different book each day because I found a webpage showing apparently all of the selections for the month and, after doing a spot check, found that they apparently are already 99 cents each. And, it seems that the books for the days in October that have already passed are there and 99 cents, too. The webpage is at http://astore.amazon.com/pmp99centsale-20.

Some of you may know that I don't "do" fiction. Therefore, I don't have a good sense of what's good and what's not in fiction. That especially holds true for the horror genre. So, I don't know if these books are any good or not. But, I thought that I could at least pass along the information.