Free (Kindle KDP) Attic Toys [Horror/Speculative Anthology w/Award-Nominee Authors]

[ATDrake]

To be honest, there isn't really a truly outstanding backlist/established author sf/fantasy book in the lot of today's KDP exclusive-or-else slushpile to use as a feature title.

But this multi-author anthology which does happen to have apparently newly written stories by established authors, some of whom are very well-known in general like Piers Anthony, and others of whom are award-winners in their subgenres like Lisa Morton and Jeff Strand (both have Stokers), seems pretty close.

And we do have a surprising proportion of genuine backlist reprints among the usual established author self-pubs, and in some rather unusual genres as well. Military fiction/history lovers should be happy today.

Attic Toys, edited by Jeremy C. Shipp and out from Evil Jester Press, is an anthology of apparently brand-new horror-looking stories from 19 different authors, some of whom have serious credentials which even I, not a horror reader, recognize, and others whom I'm sure the horror fans in the audience will know off the bat.

Free for who knows how long with who knows what DRM @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description (full list of authors/tales in the actual blurb)
19 amazing tales by the masters and rising stars of speculative fiction.

Includes all new stories by Piers Anthony, Jeff Strand, Joe McKinney, Lisa Morton, Jeremy C. Shipp, Gary McMahon, Aric Sundquist, and many more!

You don’t want to miss this staggering collection of horror and dark fantasy!

I was rather tempted to make the following the feature for some variety and because we just don't really get that much in the way of history freebies, but in the end I decided against [Christian Convert Hitler Youth Biography] because it might have triggered some older people skimming the forum with bad memories and it's a subject matter that's probably of more limited interest anyway.

Traugott Vogel was once the son of an SS officer and a Hitler Youth member, before he became a pastor after WWII. In 1977 he wrote a memoir of his experiences growing up during said war and after, which was printed by Broadman Press, which seems to be a faith-based publisher, and then picked up for wider republication by Bantam in 1978: Under the SS Shadow

Everything after this is unsorted. Enjoy.

Another Robert W. Walker horror/thriller (may be a repeat): Linkage for whatever's still free under his name

More Decadent Publishing LLC mostly-romances, though there's a WWII Australia historical family saga/drama thing in there as well: Linkage for the lot

William C. Anderson offers some historical WWII & Vietnam military action/drama thrillers, both originally published in the 80s by Bantam: Linkage for the lot These are apparently based on true stories and the Vietnam one was turned into a movie starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover, according to the blurb.

More Jazan Wild comics for your collection of such. This is the 1st issue in a new series, it looks like: JAZAN WILD'S FUNHOUSE OF HORRORS

Robert Doherty/Bob Mayer returns with the 2nd in his apocalyptic thriller series, originally published by Berkley in 2000: ATLANTIS: BERMUDA TRIANGLE and the last in his sci-fi thriller possibly-prequel out from Dell in 2004: Area 51 Legend

Dell-published Brent Battles says he has won a Barry Award, whatever that is, and his literary suspense-looking man-finding-himself-via-digging-into-mysterious-background novel has an introduction by HarperCollins-published Tim Hallinan, from whom we'd gotten an official publisher freebie: The Pull of Gravity

Gregory L. Norris (ISFDB entry) quotes praise from Kate "Captain Janeway" Mulgrew of Star Trek: Voyager in his blurb and offers a collection of his shorts: The Fierce and Unforgiving Muse

Elisabeth Waters of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust offers another fantasy short involving cats: Line Dancing

Diane Davis White who has appeared in anthologies beside more established-if-notorious published romance writers returns with another historical romance via "HeartSent Books" which may be an actual small press or just one of those made-up imprint names (I'm not bothering to check): A Curious Heart (Love Vine: A Regency Series)

Lawrence De Maria says he is a Pulitzer-nominated journalist who covered the stock market crash in the 80s, and a Google search does indeed lead to an archived New York Times article by him. Here is his financial/organized crime/murder thriller novel: Sound of Blood

Robert Wolff who writes for Prevention Magazine and other non-fiction outlets returns with some mostly self-help items offered for free (there's some kind of fitness/enlightenment novel in there as well): Linkage for the lot

Hodder-published UK writer Colin Falconer returns with a 1913-set Asia-Pacific fortune-seeking drama thriller involving pearl divers: Bitter Moon Lane

Samhain-published Josephine Myles offers some kind of erotic romance short involving someone whose profession you can probably guess from the title: Pole Star I can't tell whether this is m/m or f/m from the blurb, due to ambiguously-gendered character names. It does have a radiographer in it, and they meet under what sound like entertainingly awkward emergency room circumstances. (ETA: Turns out this is m/m and not KDP, but free to all via Smashwords along with another not-yet-price-matched short.)

M.J. Rose returns with a 2007 MIRA-published volume in her sex therapist vs serial killer series (may be a repeat): The Delilah Complex (The Butterfield Institute)

The Evil Jester Press people have another horror anthology with several ISFDBed authors in it, including Gary Brandner: Evil Jester Digest Volume One

Anne Frasier/Theresa Weir offers some more of her suspense thriller and romance titles. You can find the romance in Britomart's "Some kindle romances" thread along with many of today's other backlist romances, and here's the 2006 Onyx-paperbacked horror/suspense: PALE IMMORTAL (Book One)

Mundania Press-published Elaine Corvidae offers a fantasy adventure novella which may have romantic content: Nocturne

Rosemary McCracken has no other book credits that I can see, but she does quote in her blurb specific praise for her one title from print-published Canadian mystery writers Rick Mofina (MIRA) and Maureen Jennings (author of the Murdoch Mysteries which have been adapted for TV and which are a very entertaining and enjoyable Victorian Toronto-set show) among others. So I therefore include her suspense thriller even though it's missing a "u": Safe Harbor

Sophia Knightly says she has a specified forthcoming book from Samhain in June of this year and that this contemporary action romance of hers is "Grand Prize Winner of Houston Bay RWA Judge A Book By Its Cover Contest": Wild for You (Tropical Heat Series, Book One)

Cathryn Grant says that her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and that a particular specified story of hers received an honourable mention for a particular specified award in 2007. Here is her novella involving a sleuth who can hear ghosts: Fatal Cut (A Madison Keith Psychological Suspense Novella)

Books We Love/BWLPP have some more freebies, including a new YA by Harlequin-published Betty Jo Schuler and the 2nd in that soap-opera murder mystery series by Canadian Jamieson Wolf if you've been collecting it: You know what this linkage is for

Since he's another Stoker award-nominee and it's been some time since his short fiction collection appeared, here's Brian James Freeman's: Seven Stories if you missed it last time.