Release the Monsters!: Monsters and Mayhem are stories of creatures and an evil ghost

 

One day, when I posted on Facebook that I planned to submit micro fiction stories to a website, a person on my friends list asked, “Do you think you could do a book of these?”

 

I saw that comment and thought, Challenge accepted!

 

This particular person owned a publishing company and I had the idea of submitting such a book to his company. So I reached out to him to inquire how many words the manuscript should be. He gave me a number and I got to work writing stories for it.

 

Later, however, when I submitted the manuscript to his company, an editor contacted me asking if the book could be longer. So I threw in some flash fiction stories to replace some of the micros, since the number of micros in the book did not increase the word count number. The flash fiction stories for only 7 stories in that book made it work.

 

That publishing company ended up shutting down before the book could be published, so I just held on to it. I got busy with other things, all the while keeping an eye out for a new publisher to submit it to.

 

Then the day came when I learned of a new press that would be opening soon. And this press was interested in publishing my book of 7 stories! However, it was some time before this new press got off the ground, but it recently launched and my book of stories was the second ebook it published!

 

Monsters and Mayhem was published by Twisted Dreams Press on August 28 and I am thrilled to see this “surprise book” become available for everyone to read. I’m glad I took that person up on the challenge to put this book of stories together. Who knew that going from submitting micro stories to a website would lead me to creating a book of micro and flash fiction stories?

 

Monsters and Mayhem is available as an ebook from Amazon. It was edited by Jennifer Horgan and the cover was designed by Rebecca Cuthbert.

 

Here is the book’s blurb:

 

“Beware of the monsters who will strike at every turn! They are on a rampage through neighborhoods, hiding on top of roofs, or lurking within your dreams just waiting to materialize.

 

Beware the scary creatures that could tear you from limb to limb or steal you away into the night!

 

These seven flash and micro fiction stories offer new tales of monsters and the destruction they leave in their wake.”

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

 

Swallow Pond

 

 

“It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

The woman looked at her hiking companion, a man in his thirties whom she had met last week at a bar. “What?”

 

“That pond out there,” he replied, pointing at the small body of water the two of them had been staring at. He kept his gaze on the water. “It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

“Funny name for a pond,” she replied, smiling humorously as she looked at it again. “I wonder if it really does swallow anything.”

 

He was silent for a long time. She turned her head to look at him and found him smiling at her.

 

“Do you really want to know?” he asked.

 

“Sure,” she replied, shrugging.

 

He grabbed her and pushed her into the pond. She screamed, but then took a deep breath as she hit the water. To her horror, the pond really did swallow her whole!

 

She groaned as sharp edges that seemed like teeth chewed her up as she descended through a water funnel. The sharp, piercing teeth tore into her body, crunching up her skull and gnashing her to bits until all that was left of her were bloody pieces that drifted to the bottom of the pond.

 

 

And here is the book’s buy link

 

 

Read an E-book Week Day Four: House of the Specter by Steven Farkas

 

House of the Specter
by Steven Farkas

Timothy must return to his family home, which he ran from ten years earlier, due to the reading of his father's will. The house holds violent memories and dark ghosts from the past. Timothy has many bad memories of his bizarre family, including one he has pushed so far down he no longer remembers it. Now he must face those ghosts and that dark memory once again. Will the specters of that house destroy him, or will he be released from the past?

About the Author:

Steven Farkas writes terrifying horror stories of ghosts, murders, vampires, zombies, strange occurrences, evil circus, and demon bookshop. He also has written a science fiction crime series.

Steven Farkas is a denizen of New Jersey where he spends his days writing and thinking of new ways to scare people.


Amazon link
 

NOTE: This is a blog series I am doing for Read an E-book Week 2024. The ebooks posted on here are all PsychoToxin Press titles I have read and recommend to readers. My reviews of these books are either on Amazon or on my book review blog.

Read an E-book Week Day Three: An Inspiration for Your Nightmares by Brandon Wills

 

An Inspiration from Your Nightmares
by Brandon Wills

From Brandon Wills, frequent contributor to the Chilling Tales For Dark Nights podcast network comes ten tales of horror, suspense, and supernatural maleficence. Some families will go to great lengths to save everything. A man is punished for a lifetime of horrific sins. Experience traumatic encounters in everyday life. Tales of toxic people of the highest degree. A local legend of nightmarish proportions. Read the truth behind a heartbreaking phenomenon. This collection sinks deep into fears you never knew you had, brings them into reality, and sets loose a new kind of terror, unlike anything you have experienced.

About the Author:

Brandon Wills (b. 1990) was born and raised in West Virginia. He has been reading, writing, and telling stories since he was old enough to do so. He writes for Paranormality Magazine, is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the WV Writers, Inc., and is a co-host on the Wild & Weird Radio podcast. Many of his stories have also been featured on the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights podcast network. He still lives in West Virginia with his wife, Emily, and three children, Paisley, Brody, and Bryce, along with their plethora of cats, dogs, and chickens.


Amazon link

 

NOTE: This is a blog series I am doing for Read an E-book Week 2024. The ebooks posted on here are all PsychoToxin Press titles I have read and recommend to readers. My reviews of these books are either on Amazon or on my book review blog.

Read an E-book Week Day Two: What Did Not Die by Ruth Anna Evans

 

 

What Did Not Die
by Ruth Anna Evans

Jordan Sharp has been writing for the local newspaper for two years. But when a sinister ghost-child emerges from a suspicious house fire and brings to life her darkest memories, she finds herself in the middle of the story. After a life of isolating herself from others, Jordan needs to reach out for help. And there’s a handsome, sympathetic firefighter just waiting for her to ask. But as people around her start falling victim to the deadly haunting, is it worth putting him at risk? And can Jordan resolve her troubled past before it's too late?

This novella from Ruth Anna Evans is a creepy-as-hell ghost story with relatable characters and an ending you won’t see coming and won’t soon forget.

About the Author:

Ruth Anna Evans is a writer of short horror fiction who lives in the heart of all that is sinister: the American Midwest. She has been composing prose of all types since childhood but finds something truly delightful in putting her nightmares on the page. Her stories are full of twists and turns with relatable protagonists and startling endings. She has published several novellas, a collection of short stories, and her work can be found in horror anthologies from Hungry Shadow Press, D&T Publishing, and Gloom House Publishing. Follow Ruth Anna on Twitter @ruthannaevans for updates on her work.



Amazon link 

 

 

NOTE: This is a blog series I am doing for Read an E-book Week 2024. The ebooks posted on here are all PsychoToxin Press titles I have read and recommend to readers. My reviews of these books are either on Amazon or on my book review blog. However, I discovered I was one ebook short for this series, so I grabbed another one to read. So I truly am reading an ebook for Read an E-book Week! I will post THAT ebook on Friday.  
 

 

Read an E-book Week Day One: Father Figure and Other Twisted Tales of Survival by Dan B. Fierce

 

 

Father Figure and Other Twisted Tales of Survival
by Dan D. Fierce

Honor thy father. Everyone knows the sentiment. Father knows best. He knows what ails you, how to bend you to his will, how to make you survive. After all, it’s for your own good, right? Come and explore the mysticism that surrounds the Father Figure.
A heartfelt letter from son to father turns into an unexpected result. A man and his son are truly, horrifyingly inseparable. Decades longs regrets lead to the corruption of souls.
 

The calloused hands of trauma and fear wrap around your mind. Emotions run high and never let up from one story to the next. Sometimes, a little tough love is just the ticket… to hell.

About the Author:

Dan B. Fierce loves humor and horror alike, and many things in between. A long-time fan of authors such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Edgar Alan Poe, he lets his darker side come out to play in the macabre, "Revenge," demonstrates the tension caused by the coronavirus with "Mistaken," and gives the reader a taste of dark humor with "Warning Shot," all contained between the covers of the 2020 Indie Authors’ Short Story Anthology. His suspense-filled story “Abandoned Bikes” was published in Crimes and Culprits: An Anthology by the Indie Author Group. Both books were put out by Heathory Press.

He has over twenty years of experience writing stand-up and sketch comedy and over 10 years of competitive creative writing in online forums. His work can be found in the archives of various wrestling-based "E-Federation" websites, such as XWF, WGWF, and PCW, with beloved characters such as "The Lunatic," "The Fabulous One" Dan Fierce, Nathan Saniti, and Joey "The Handyman" Handy. He has also had some opinion pieces published in KC Lifestyles Magazine.

Links to social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanBFierce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danbfierce/

Twitter: @DanBFierce1

WordPress: https://www.fiercefantoms.com


Amazon link

 

 

NOTE: This is a blog series I am doing for Read an E-book Week 2024. The ebooks posted on here are all PsychoToxin Press titles I have read and recommend to readers. My reviews of these books are either on Amazon or on my book review blog. However, I discovered I was one ebook short for this series, so I grabbed another one to read. So I truly am reading an ebook for Read an E-book Week! I will post THAT ebook on Friday. 

New Book Explores Just How Healthy a Writing Habit Can Be

 

In the year 2020, sometime after the pandemic hit, I was at the end of my rope. In addition to coping with so many people I knew and loved either getting COVID-19 or passing away from it, I lost my job and things seemed to only get worse as the months went by. I started to lose hope. I dreaded waking up the next day to learn about what new disaster had struck. I was and still am a recovering alcoholic, but I was tempted to start drinking again. (Thankfully, I resisted!) I felt useless, powerless and helpless. The future began to look very bleak – if there was going to be a future at all.

 

Then something wonderful happened.

 

After over two years of being unable to write, the day came when I picked up a pen, grabbed a notebook, and started writing again. Writing was the one thing I knew I could rely on, and it ended up being the only thing which, at that time, brought joy into my life again.

 

Writing made me happy. As page after page of that notebook started to fill up with words, I started to feel better about myself – and the possibility of an actual future. While the world was ending, I tried to keep it all going for just one more day by writing.

 

Not only did writing allow me to pick myself up off the floor, but, later on in life, it also helped me come to terms with certain traumas from my past. I was reading a book which shared information about keeping a “trauma journal.” Apparently, this kind of journal helped A LOT of people who survived trauma, just from writing all about it. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about just how writing could provide other kind of health and emotional benefits to people.

 

I threw myself into researching this topic. The result was my new ebook, Write for Your Life! The Health Benefits of Writing.

 

In my research, I discovered the psychological, emotional and spiritual benefits many people have reaped from writing, either by using guided writing in therapy, random writing sessions with freewriting, timed writing sessions or normal writing activities. Not only this, but writing itself allowed many people facing disease and illness eventually regain their health and improve their sense of wellness. Their blood pressure went down, cholesterol levels dropped and cognitive skills improved. Writing soon became a passion for these individuals, and the more they wrote, the better they felt and the better their health improved.

 

Writing that book was definitely an eye-opener. I never knew the health benefits of writing! However, as someone who was able to write again only when my world seemed to be falling apart, and being better off for it, I can see and understand how writing can have a positive impact on someone’s life. I am so glad I followed my curiosity and researched this topic. I am also glad I was able to write a short book about it! This book may not be an exhaustive discussion on the health benefits of writing, but I hope it will serve as a good introduction to people who are interested in how they can improve their health.

 

The best part? Writing is FREE.

 

Here is the book’s blurb:

 

Have you ever felt better after writing down all of those feelings you kept bottled up? Is your journal your go-to every time life gets a little too stressful? Does writing fiction allow you the opportunity to escape from the harsh realities of life?

 

There's a very good reason why you turn to these methods of writing when you have nothing else to use and no one to go to for relief: Writing can help improve your health. Studies have found that the act of writing has helped people improve their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. Not only this, but the habit of writing has helped improve cognitive skills and otherwise increased a person's overall intellectual health.

 

If you're looking for a low-cost method to help you cope with stress, anxiety and fear, why not turn to something that is available to you 24/7/365? Writing can help improve your overall health and it provides you with a way to boost your creativity. Write for Your Life! shares just what kind of health benefits await you just from adding the writing habit to your life.

 

Buy link