Terror in the Shadows-Sneak Peek 2

Yesterday, Terror in the Shadows (Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations, Book 3) went live. Pick up a copy or read for free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.

I have mixed feelings about having most of my books exclusive on Amazon. But the one thing that is difficult to argue against is making more money. All of my books except for The Rocheport Saga are exclusive to Amazon. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to figure out how to make as much money going wide as I do now being exclusive to Amazon. But until that day, exclusive it is.

If you have an iPad, you can get the Kindle app to augment iBooks. That’s what I’ve done. There are also ways to read Kindle books on Nook and Kobo devices. A little Internet research will show you how to do that.

Last week I gave you a sneak peek from chapter 1 of Terror in the Shadows. This week’s peek is from Chapter 6. Enjoy!

***

When the big black SUV pulled into the lot, Mostyn and Kemper saw a big old Pontiac a short distance away, not far from the tree line. The car was bouncing, the squeak of the springs just barely audible.

“Looks like someone’s going for a ride,” Mostyn said.

“Idiots.”

“What? You never did that, Kemper?”

“A car? You’ve got to be kidding?”

“Nope.”

“Forget it. Now what?”

Mostyn put the SUV in park and shut off the engine. “Let’s go for a walk.”

They exited the vehicle, flashlights in hand. The old Pontiac stopped bouncing.

“I guess he scored,” Kemper said.

“Hope they don’t regret it.”

“Now who’s the cynic.”

“Just saying. Babies you know.”

“Gotta point there, Mostyn.”

“This way, Kemper.”

Mostyn cut across the lot on a path that would give the occupants of the Pontiac their space. Kemper was next to him. Their flashlight beams illuminated the asphalt, and when the asphalt ended, the short strip of grass before the woods.

Just before the trees, Kemper hesitated. “Awfully dark in there.”

“That it is. And there may or may not be a bogeyman in there.”

“Yeah, right.”

Mostyn and Kemper carefully picked their way into the woods. Behind them, in the east, a golden moon began coming up over the treetops. They heard the Pontiac start and drive out of the lot.

“Bet they’re wondering whose SUV that is,” Mostyn said.

“Probably scared shitless someone was spying on them and will tell their parents.”

Mostyn chuckled. “Probably.”

Out of the darkness a rock knocked Kemper’s flashlight out of her hand. Mostyn turned his off and they dropped to the ground. All around them they heard grunting and feral sounds. Neither one said a word. Whatever was making the sounds, and there had to be several of them, they were obviously looking for Mostyn and Kemper.

Mostyn touched his pistol to Kemper’s hand and then touched her hand with one finger, followed by a second, and then a third.

Kemper wrote “OK” with her finger on Mostyn’s hand and pulled her pistol out of the fanny pack.

Mostyn tapped Kemper’s hand once, twice, three times. They jumped up, and fired into the darkness.

Several rocks came flying in their direction and Mostyn grunted when one connected with his thigh. And then all was quiet.

Mostyn turned on his flashlight and panned the light and his pistol in a circle around them. Nothing. There was nothing but trees and darkness beyond the flashlight beam.

He squatted down and played the beam of light around until he found Kemper’s flashlight. He picked it up and tried the switch.

“Must’ve broken the bulb.”

He heard Kemper say, “Let’s go.”

He stood and they made their way out of the woods. In the middle of the parking lot, Kemper suddenly stopped.

“What is it, Dot?”

“You know those sounds they were making?”

“A lot of grunts.

“Some were. But most of them…?” She paused, her voice tinged with fear, and turned to face Mostyn.

“Go on.”

“They followed the pattern of speech.”

***

I hope you enjoyed the snippet. Comments are always welcome! And, until next time, happy reading!

Terror in the Shadows - Sneak Peek

The third Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation — Terror in the Shadows — goes live next week. And today I thought I’d give you a sneak peek. Whet your appetite, so to speak.

Terror in the Shadows draws inspiration from the world HP Lovecraft created for his story “The Lurking Fear”. And as I explained last week, Lovecraft utilized the American Gothic fiction theme of the abhuman for the basis of his story.

The term “abhuman” was coined by William Hope Hodgson in his Carnacki stories, among others. The idea itself growing out of Darwinism. If we came from beasts, how are we not beasts? What is it that makes us human? And can we return to the bestial? Or maybe we simply are beasts hiding behind a veneer of civility.

Today’s sneak peek is from chapter 1 of Terror in the Shadows. Enjoy!

***

Mostyn looked out the window. The country through which they were driving could be described as nothing less than idyllic. Yet in all of the United States there are areas no more remote or unknown than parts of Appalachia. In spite of the relatively low height of the mountains, the region possesses some of the most rugged and nearly inaccessible terrain on earth.

From the beauty of the passing scenery, Mostyn once again turned his gaze back to the report. From the Catskills to Georgia, the same occurrences of cannibalism and human carnage. As abruptly as the Georgia horror had begun, in the 1940s, it had ended, news reaching the Federal government too late for war-stretched agencies to do anything about it. Then thirty years later, in the same area, bizarre tales of cannibalism and of the inhabitants of several small communities being torn apart on dark, storm tormented nights. Only blood and body parts being found in the morning.

And once again, as abruptly as the atrocities began, they ceased, news reaching Federal ears too late for any kind of government intervention. These accounts, along with many others, were passed on to the OUP when it was created. This time, however, word reached Doctor Bardon’s ears almost before it had reached the media. And when it did, Doctor Bardon jumped on it.

Mostyn read about the three reported incidents that had occurred so far this year in West Virginia, the four that had occurred last year, and the one the year before that. Brutal murders. Evidence of cannibalism. Vague reports of hairy, beast-like creatures that walked upright with an oddly human gait.

Around him were the sounds of Baker’s camera, Kemper’s and Cashel’s discussion, and Jones softly singing some ‘80s song. Somewhere out there, in the lush greenery of the hills they were passing through, was a hidden horror, a lurking fear that was terrorizing the people in the vicinity of the hamlet called Heirloom, West Virginia.

Four days ago, in the middle of a wild nighttime thunderstorm, was the most recent occurrence. In the little unincorporated village of Shiloh, located several miles to the southeast of Heirloom, a witness reported seeing at least half a dozen shapes, “things” the witness had called them, come out of the dense forest. That’s all the person saw because he’d found his missing dog and was on his way home.

The next day, however, the entire community quickly became aware of the disaster that had struck in the night. The Ardilla and Bosk families had been murdered in their sleep and eaten. Raw. The perpetrators showed no concern about hiding the dead or of concealing evidence. The county sheriff got numerous fingerprints, handprints, and casts of bare feet. Samples of hair were also collected. The forensic analysis concluded the hair was human, as well as the teeth marks on the bones.

And that’s when Doctor Bardon stepped in and claimed jurisdiction. Mostyn looked at Bardon’s small neat script and read his conclusion:

The incidents in the Catskills and those that occurred in Georgia in the 1940s and 1970s are too similar to these current incidents to ignore. Your mission is to determine the source, assess the danger level, and take appropriate action to eliminate the threat, if a threat exists, to the United States of America.

Mostyn’s gaze returned to the scenery outside his window. Somewhere out there was a horror that had been quietly at work for nearly a hundred years. Perhaps more. A horror hidden in the shadows of this beautiful paradise.

***

I hope you enjoyed the snippet. Comments are always welcome, and until next time — happy reading!

HP Lovecraft — His Influence

My first HP Lovecraft books

Lovecraft primarily saw himself as a poet. Fiction was, for him, a sideline; something at which he made the occasional buck to supplement his meager inheritance, which he shared with two maiden aunts. Yet, the literary impact of that fiction is huge. As a poet, though, he was mostly mediocre.

The very first Lovecraft story I read was “The Colour Out Of Space”, which Groff Conklin included in his fabulously wonderful Omnibus of Science Fiction. A truly outstanding sci-fi anthology. I read “The Colour Out Of Space” sometime back in the early 1960s when I was in elementary school. And it captured my imagination.

The next time I ran into Lovecraft was in my senior year in high school when I bought the Beagle Books reprints of the Arkham edition of Lovecraft’s fiction and Ballentine’s Fungi from Yuggoth & Other Poems.

One of the first stories I read in those paperbacks was “The Lurking Fear”, which plays on the classic American gothic theme of the abhuman. The abhuman is the degenerate, bestial human. The human that has regressed to a point where he or she no longer functions as a human, but as a beast.

At that time, the theme was new to me and I was fascinated by it. Reverse evolution, as it were. But there’s also the metaphysical question of just exactly what is it that makes us human. Are we angels that are prone to sin? Or are we beasts with but a veneer, a mask, of civility?

In Terror in the Shadows, I explore the abhuman theme by building on Lovecraft’s story. And I give one possible explanation for why the abhuman might come into existence. I’ll give you a hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with a mother’s love, or lack thereof.

There is a wide range of opinion as to Lovecraft’s storytelling ability. There are those who place him second to Poe. There are those who think he wrote drivel. I’m somewhere in the middle. When Lovecraft was firing on all cylinders, he knocked the ball out of the park. The problem is, he didn’t always fire on all cylinders. In fact, a lot of the time he didn’t. He was quite inconsistent as a writer.

From early on, I maintained that Robert E Howard was consistently a better writer than Lovecraft. But when Lovecraft was on top of his game, he was second to none. That’s why I think Lovecraft developed such a devoted following. Other writers saw his rare genius and also saw him as an approachable person, which allowed Lovecraft to share his opinions with other writers and hopeful writers. HPL was one of the 20th Century’s great epistolarians.

I appreciate Lovecraft from the perspective of a reader as well as from the perspective of a writer. Possibly his single most important contribution to the craft of writing is his emphasis on atmosphere. When reading one of Lovecraft’s stories, one cannot escape the mood, the feelings, the details, the colors that all lead to a general feeling of dread. For Lovecraft, the atmosphere was everything. Without it, the tale of terror would be nothing.

But atmosphere is important in all genres of fiction, because it sets the scene. It lets us know what we see and touch and taste and smell. The atmosphere instills in us a general feeling, whether of happiness or terror, joy or dread. Whenever a writer can create an atmosphere that lets me see and touch and smell, I thank Lovecraft.

If character is king in storytelling, then atmosphere has to be the queen.

HP Lovecraft was a literary giant who produced but few gems. But the ones he did produce blind us with their light. I think I’ll stop now and go read once again “The Colour Out of Space” — the story that for me started it all.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

The High Cost of Books

I love to read. Reading provides a joy few things can match. If you follow this blog, you’re aware of that. However, books are expensive to buy. And when I tally up my outlay for the printed page, whether physical or digital, I go into a bit of sticker shock.

Perhaps that’s one reason subscription libraries such as Scribd and Kindle Unlimited are popular. For a monthly fee, you can read as much as you want. And if you are an avid reader, the service can easily pay for itself. Of course there are the public libraries, which your tax dollars pay for. The only problem I have with public libraries is that you have to return the books. And I suppose that goes for subscription libraries too.

Awhile back, Amazon gave me a 60-day free trial of Kindle Unlimited. However, once the trial was over, I dropped it. Even though I did end up reading at least $20 worth of books, that’s $10 for each month, I found that I had to sift through a lot of chaff to find the wheat.

For me, I find it a better use of my wallet and time to go the sample route. Download a sample. After all, they’re free. I can read it at my leisure, and if I like the sample, then I buy the book. I spent an awful lot of my reading time on KU partially reading books I didn’t like, all the while feeling the pressure to tally up $10 worth of reading for the month. I’m retired. I don’t want or need pressure.

Since I discovered subscription libraries (and public libraries) aren’t my cup of tea, what alternatives do I, and you, have?

Free Books

The world is awash in free books. Indie writers trying to secure a fan base have given away lots of books. They are everywhere. Some are very good, others not. Many are short stories, or novellas (which I happen to like, but many don’t), and some are just samples.

For the voracious reader, the free stuff can be good.

Another source of free books can be found at places like Faded Page, Project Gutenberg Australia, and Project Gutenberg. These places offer books that are out of copyright. Which means the books are older. And you can usually find many classics in their lists.

I recently downloaded Raymond Chandler’s novels from Faded Page. A great deal.

There are plenty of free books available. Which can keep us reading for a long time.

Used Books

I love used books. Great deals can be found in used bookstores, and especially garage sales, where the books are often close to being free.

Libraries often have sales of the books they discard. They are another source for good cheap reads.

For a long time now, I’ve only purchased used copies of traditionally published books due to their high cost when purchased new. Paperbacks selling for $15 and up. I simply can’t afford that. And let’s not even discuss hardbacks.

However, over the past couple years, I’ve noticed used books going up in price. Especially on Amazon and Amazon-owned ABE. And ever since Amazon bought bookfinder.com, the search results have deteriorated. The cheap books seem to have disappeared and the search results appear to be skewed towards Amazon and its affiliates.

Of late I’ve gone directly to ThriftBooks, bypassing their selections on Amazon and ABE. If I buy $10 worth of books, I get free shipping and that is a big help. The free shipping is not available if you buy Thrift Books offerings on Amazon or ABE.

All in all, used books remain a great bargain for the avid reader.

Ebooks

Deals on new ebooks are possible if you are willing to read indie authors.

I rarely buy new ebooks from the Big Five Publishers. They’re too expensive. The same goes for the regional, university, and small presses. An ebook of 100 pages for $15? Seriously? I saw that recently. And the author is dead. So who’s benefiting?

However, over the past couple years, I’ve noticed indie authors up-pricing their books. It’s now not at all uncommon to see self-published ebooks going for $4.99 and up, when just a short while ago the norm was $2.99 and $3.99.

Nevertheless, very good reads are available for $3.99 and less. It just takes a bit of looking. It also helps to stay away from authors bragging about their books being “bestsellers”.

Personally, I don’t spend more than $3.99 for an ebook. I just won't do it. I self-publish. And I know for a fact one does not have to spend a dime to put out a book these days. If self-published writers think they need to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to produce a book, and pass the cost onto me, then I’m not going to subsidize their poor judgment. And what’s more, I own a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell them.

Recap

The prices for new books are only going to continue to go up. Those 35¢ and 50¢ paperbacks I knew as a kid aren’t ever coming back.

But there are still plenty of inexpensive options available to those of us who are avid readers. We just have to think smarter and quit buying the high-priced books.

So, what are our options?

1. Free books. There are plenty out there, both new and out of copyright.
2. Used books. Don’t buy new, if you can buy used.
3. Don’t pay more than $3.99 for an ebook. Because in reality, they cost nothing to produce. That gives the author, if self-published, about $2.75 for royalty. As a self-published author, I’m telling you no one needs to pay big bucks to produce an ebook. So don’t go out of your way to make someone else rich and subsidize their unnecessary production costs.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

Stairway to Hell is Live!

Stairway to Hell, the second Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation, went live officially yesterday.

I did a soft launch over the weekend to my VIP Readers. They got a reduced price bonus. If you want to get in on future Pierce Mostyn extras, become a VIP Reader!

So what’s all the fuss about Pierce Mostyn anyway? And what’s so special about Stairway to Hell? I’m so glad you asked!

Special Agent in Charge Pierce Mostyn works for the Office of Unidentified Phenomena. The OUP actively works those X-File cases, and Mostyn is one of their top agents. Unlike Fox Mulder, Mostyn has the support of the bureaucracy. Well, at least those very few bureaucrats who even know the OUP exists. Because officially it doesn’t.

After all, in its infinite wisdom, the US government deems it’s in our best interest that we remain ignorant of the potential threats and dangers to us from what’s out there.

But what is out there? To learn that, my friends, you’ll have to stay tuned to this channel. The only channel bringing you this super classified information. Because the people have a right to know!

So where exactly is this hell that the stairway leads to? Conforming to tradition, hell is down. It is beneath our feet. It is in the subterranean world of K’n-yan.

What’s more, the K’n-yanians, while “human”, aren’t homo sapiens. In fact, they aren’t even from this planet. Or even this dimension. There distant ancestors were the original worshipers of The Great Old Ones. Those insane blasphemies of unwholesome anti-physics.

HP Lovecraft, before he died, got hold of an account of someone who’d been to K’n-yan. Lovecraft disguised fact as fiction, as he often did, in a story called “The Mound”.

Now, decades later, another entrance to K’n-yan was discovered. Stairway to Hell is the account of Mostyn’s detainment, along with his team, in the subterranean world. And, following Lovecraft, I’ve disguised truth as fiction. Which is simply a safeguard, because we all know the truth is out there.

Get Stairway to Hell on Amazon.

The truth will set you free.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

“Stairway to Hell” - Sneak Peek #2

Stairway to Hell, the second Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation, goes live Monday, February 26. Three weeks ago I gave a sneak peek into the story and I thought I’d do the same this week.

Pierce Mostyn and his team are in rural Oklahoma investigation an ancient stairway, accidentally uncovered, that leads deep into the earth. Construction workers have disappeared, and some have been found with their entire personality gone.

This is definitely a job for the Office of Unidentified Phenomena, but something doesn’t want Mostyn and his people to come anywhere near the stairway. Here’s today’s sneak peek.

***

Shortly after sunrise, Mostyn and his team were peering into the excavation site. At the bottom, on one end, was the uncovered stairway.

“From here, the workmanship of the stone looks to be pretty advanced,” Zink said.

Baker took several photographs of the stairway, the large pit, and the surrounding area. The staircase was about twenty-five feet below the surface of the ground.

“Let’s go down and take a closer look,” Mostyn said.

On one end of the excavation, was a ramp leading down into the large hole in the ground. The team walked down the ramp. Four Rangers and two military police remained above. There were no construction workers. They’d been sent home pending the outcome of the investigation conducted by Mostyn and his team.

“What was that?” Doctor Slezak said, her voice betraying a trace of fear.

“What was what?” Kemper called out.

“I felt something push against me,” Slezak replied.

“That was Jones trying to get into your panties,” Kemper shot back.

“I felt it, too,” Doctor Beames said. “Perhaps there are spirits here.”

“Ghosts?” Kemper said, her tone of voice taunting.

Beames stopped. “Don’t you feel it?”

The others stopped and looked at her.

Beames continued, “The evil, the malevolence.”

“Yes,” Slezak said softly.

A wind sprang up, swirling dust and dirt around the group.

“Something’s pushing me,” Slezak cried out.

DC Jones rushed to her side, and the wind ceased as abruptly as it started.

“This isn’t normal,” Beames said, “There are evil spirits here.”

Kemper guffawed. “Evil spirits. You can’t be serious.”

Beames was angry. “I am serious, Doctor Kemper. There is something very bad here.”

“Alright, ladies, now is not the time to argue,” Mostyn said. “We have a mission to accomplish.”

Mostyn started walking towards the opening where the stairway was located. Almost immediately a wind sprang up.

“Good God,” Zink blurted. “It’s as if something’s trying to deliberately stop us from going to the stairs.”

Kemper muttered, “Superstitious twits”, charged ahead, pushed past Mostyn, and suddenly fell backwards.

He rushed to her side, and at the same time a shot rang out. Behind him he heard, “Did you see that?” And, “A ghost. I saw a ghost.” Mostyn stood and looked up at the MP with his rifle trained on the stairway opening.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded of the soldier.

“I saw a white shape, sir. It pushed, or seemed to push, Doctor Kemper.”

Dirt and small stones were swirling about the opening. And then Mostyn himself felt as though something took hold of his wrist and was pulling him away, pulling him back the way he came. He shook his arm and took a step back. Dotty stood and went to his side, where both felt invisible hands, as it were, pushing against them. They looked at each other and then Mostyn gave the command to fall back.

Slezak and Beames ran up the ramp and out of the excavation site. Zink and Baker followed. Jones waited, pistol in his hand, until Mostyn and Kemper were halfway up the ramp and then he, too, followed, walking up the ramp backwards. Once everyone was at the top of the ramp, the wind in the hole ceased.

***

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into the next Pierce Mostyn adventure. Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

The Worlds Beneath

Katerloch Cave in Austria

Google maps is a wonderful thing. I can get a look at just about any place on this planet. There are few unexplored, or little explored, places left on the globe. However, as my friend Jack Tyler noted last week, “Step into any cavern anywhere… and anything is certainly possible.”

Google has yet to picture what’s beneath our feet. That territory is fair game for the fertile mind of any novelist.

And I am glad it is. Caves and caverns are fascinating places. Although I don’t think I have it in me to be a spelunker, a touch of claustrophobia puts the damper on pursuit of the hobby, I can enjoy the pastime from the comforts of my armchair.

The internet is ripe with photos of our subterranean world, both natural and man-made. Real places that exist below ground.

Actionsquad.org is an absolutely fascinating site to see what lies below the surface of Minneapolis and St. Paul. There’s also gregbrick.org and Brick’s book, Subterranean Twin Cities. Along with scores of articles and blog posts. And that’s just for what’s beneath Minneapolis and St. Paul.

I used Actionsquad.org and Brick’s book to create the underground world of the neo-Aztec cult in Festival of Death. But what’s even better than a simple adventure in a cave or cave system, is an entire subterranean lost world. I think that’s what makes A Journey to the Center of the Earth so interesting. And enduring.

Bulwer-Lytton’s 1871 novel, The Coming Race, which had a profound impact on occultists during the 1920s and 1930s, is set in a subterranean world inhabited by a race of beings who call themselves the Vril-ya. These beings have harnessed an energy source they call Vril. The book is about the accidental visit of a young man to the land of the Vril-ya and tells of his adventures there and his return home. The book ends with a warning that the Vril-ya are running out of space underground and they see the surface as fair game. Knowing the secrets of how to use Vril, the Vril-ya will make us their slaves.

Supposedly, there was a Vril Society in Weimar Germany. Vril was also claimed to be the power source for the UFOs spotted after World War II. And it is thought the Thule Society conducted a search for sources of Vril energy, and later had an influence on the supposed occultism of National Socialism.

I wonder if Bulwer-Lytton ever thought his imaginary subterranean world would cause such hoopla?

In the March, April, and May 1935 issues of Wonder Stories, Stanton A Coblentz’s novel, In Caverns Below, was published. It’s the story of two men who are exploring a mine shaft and become trapped below ground due to an earthquake. They find themselves in a vast subterranean world inhabited by two countries, Wu and Zu, which are locked in perpetual warfare.

These countries are technologically far advanced compared to 1935 America and Europe. They have death rays and land ships capable of tunneling through the earth.

The novel was republished in 1957 as Hidden World, and was seen as a satire on the cold war between the West and East. Coblentz, however, most likely used the novel to warn readers of the waste warfare generates, the massive destruction it causes, and how it keeps people in a perpetual state of enslavement to the state. Something along the lines of Orwell’s perpetual war for perpetual peace. Coblentz also raised awareness that the only ones who really profit from war are the large corporations because of their obscene profits. A warning about the military-industrial complex long before Eisenhower.

Beneath the earth’s surface is a great place to put prehistoric worlds. Jungles are disappearing and by means of satellites we see everything. So what better place to discover dinosaurs and cavemen than underground? It’s what makes Pellucidar so exciting. Sword and sorcery, sword and planet, and planetary romance — all right beneath our feet, instead of out there among the stars.

And because Pellucidar proved to be so popular, Burroughs had lots of imitators.

HP Lovecraft created his own subterranean world in The Mound, ghost written for Zealia Bishop. It is the world on which I based Stairway to Hell, which will make its publication debut on 26 February.

Lovecraft’s world of K’n-yan is advanced far beyond us. But their pursuit of pleasure, coupled with exceedingly long lives, has led K’n-yanian society to intense ennui and cruelty. Toss in the Cthulhu Mythos, and we have an evil world par-excellence. Or more accurately, a world in which nothing remains of significance.

Subterranean fiction it is alive and well. From primitive worlds to advanced races to the Cthulhu Mythos, there’s something for everyone — right beneath our feet.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time — happy reading!