A Day in My Life by Kevin R. Doyle – Guest Blog and Giveaway

May 1, 2024 By 5 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A Day in My Life

My average day has changed a lot in the last eleven months. Last May, after a little more than a quarter century in front of the classroom, I retired from teaching and took up fiction writing full time. At least, that was the original intention. As often happens, life tends to have other plans, and for the first nine months of my retirement I had to focus on taking care of an ailing parent. A few months ago, she passed on, and things are finally shaking out into what I’d perceived retired life would be.

While one may think that sleeping late is the ultimate joy, most days I wake up around seven, only thirty minutes later than I did while working. Breakfast and the news go together so I can see what happened in the world overnight, and by eight or eight thirty at the latest, I’m ready to hit the computer.

However, I don’t work straight through for any given number of hours or words. While I was teaching and writing on the side, I became accustomed to only doing a page or so at the most at any one time, and I find that now that I have practically unlimited time, I follow pretty much the same pattern. When I first sit down to get to work, I’ll do maybe five hundred words, or a bit more if I’m working on a first draft, then check my e-mail, take a walk, go for a drive, or get some errands done.

Periodically through the day I’ll write another page or so, maybe do a little marketing work, then go off and do something else for a while again. Off and on I’ll be responding to any e-mails I need to, and if the weather’s good maybe go for another walk or two. (All this, keep in mind, before my swimming pool opens up around the end of May. Lord knows how much I’ll be distracted then.)

One of the biggest changes, and one I was most looking forward to, between working and retired life is in the evenings. Even now, nearly a year later, it is so nice to stretch out on the couch and watch TV knowing that there are no lessons to prepare or papers to grade. For example, I taught high-school English, and most years about the time I’m writing this my spare bedroom would be piled with research projects, including outlines, note cards and other miscellaneous materials, that I would have to plow through before May.

This provides me time in the evening, if I wish, to rap out a couple of pages or so, but if there’s something on the tube I want to watch, cramming work in isn’t nearly the priority it was before.

This routine will probably change as the months and a couple of years go by. As I mentioned, though I retired in May of last year, it’s only been since about the first of March, roughly seven weeks ago as I write this, that the parental issue found its natural resolution. As such, I’m only now really able to ease into the retired/writing lifestyle, so I have no doubt I’ll be making some tweaks to my routine as time goes by.

They kept to the shadows so no one would know they existed, and preyed on the nameless who no one would miss. Where did they come from, and who was protecting them? In a city that had seen every kind of savagery, they were something new, something more than murderous. And one woman who had thought she had lost everything there was to lose in life would soon find that nothing could possibly prepare her for what would come when she entered their world.

Please listen to this audio excerpt

About the Author:A retired high-school teacher and former college instructor, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of four novels in the Sam Quinton mystery series, all published by Camel Press. He’s also written four crime thrillers, including And the Devil Walks Away and The Anchor, and one horror novel, The Litter, along with numerous short horror stories published in small magazines over the years. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel. A lifelong Midwesterner, Doyle currently resides in Missouri and has loosely based the city of Providence in the Quinton books on Columbia.

Website | Facebook

Buy the audiobook at Books in Motion, Audible, Barnes and Noble, Chirp Books, Storytel, Overdrive, r Booktopia.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , , ,

The Making of a Horror Writer by Jack Lowe-Carbell – Guest Post and Giveaway

March 6, 2024 By 3 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jack Lowe-Carbell will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Making of a Horror Writer

I think I would classify myself as such. Though Arlya has many different themes and genres present, coming of age, thriller, mystery, at the end of the day it is a horror novel. A tale of something horrifying happening to a family, a town. Most of my short story work is also in the horror genre so I believe I would have a difficult time calling myself anything else.

Anyways, back to the question at hand, what I believe the making of a horror writer would be. I believe one of course has to love horror. You have to be a little strange, to love the feeling of being scared. To read or watch something that gives you goosebumps. The feeling is powerful, to have an emotion you never usually get on a normal day, while safely in your bed or in a theatre.

I have had countless nights wide awake, staring at the closet as a kid, telling myself for sure, for sure there is something behind there that will crawl out any minute. No matter how badly I wanted to turn over, to stop looking at the place where I would see bony hand claw out from around the wood, I would stare. I still do it. I still wake up, and though I hate it, I imagine the scariest thing that could happen right then. Something crawling along the floor moving quickly out of sight to climb into my bed.
Then, I write it down. Use it as a scene, imagine a story around that one single moment of terror.

I believe you have to see things a little differently. Horror is an interesting genre because it is filled with people that were maybe born with a strange, haunting view of the world. I tell people about the scenes I imagine and they scoff, why would I want to think about those things. I think a horror writer allows these thoughts to enter their mind while most people push it away. I have to blame my dad for reading me scary stories and encouraging these thoughts. When we would drive to our cottage, down a dark winding road through the woods, we wouldn’t talk about the next day at the lake, the morning sun, the quiet that comes with the forest at night, we would talk of old women in nighties sprinting through the woods at us, of decrepit beings crawling out in front of our headlights. So yeah, maybe it’s his fault.

I think horror writers are a rare breed, those who do it well at least, and I am not saying I do, although I have had a few people tell me they can’t read my stories at night. Anyways, my respect to all of you weirdos out there who see things a little differently. Keep writing, keep reading, and keep listening to those things that go bump in the night, and imagine them a little more next time, because it might not be “just the pipes”.

Thank you.

Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario, is rocked by a gruesome crime. Four friends must work together with Detective Dylan Grey to find a pattern, a bike, a clue, and a sister before it is repeated.

James and his three best friends, Owen, Tommy, and Mike, have just finished school for the summer. The plan is the same as every other year: they are going to build the biggest fort yet, deep in the Dhoon Woods. After stumbling across a tiny, seemingly unimportant wooden hut, a series of crimes take place and their plans change.

Arlya falls into itself. Doors are locked, curtains drawn, bikes are put away, strangers invade, and kids are off the street. In the first week of summer vacation, a dark and disturbing family history is uncovered; friends turn on each other; a storm rolls through town; and a monster is hiding just out of sight, smiling its toothy grin and crawling through the corn.

Enjoy an Excerpt

One Friday night last summer, the four of them had left James’s house after his parents had gone to bed. They had biked around in the dark, briefly illuminated by the sparse streetlights looming over the side streets. Fog had drifted across the side roads; houses were barely visible through their covered lawns. Somehow, they wound their way to the bottom of Cemetery Hill.

“My grandpa is in there,” Tommy had said quietly.

They had looked out at the long blackness which rose menacingly above them. The trees at the top of the hill had been reaching toward the starry sky.

James had wanted to bike back. If he had left, the others would have surely followed suit. Mike had glanced at James waiting for his decision.

“My dad was supposed to be buried here,” Owen had said, his voice cracking, devoid of moisture.

The fog had continued to thicken around the four of them standing stagnant in the road, straddling their bikes.

About the Author:Jack Lowe-Carbell is a 26-year-old writer living in Vancouver, BC. Arlya is his first novel, and it is based in his hometown, Ayr, ON. Thanks to his dad, who read him horror stories when he was far too young, Jack has always loved the genre. His next novel is a tale of horror based in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

Buy the book at Amazon, Amazon CA, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, or Abe Books.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , ,

If I’d Never Heard of Me, Would I Read My Book? by Ross Victory – Guest Blog and Giveaway

November 14, 2023 By 6 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Ross Victory will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

If I’d Never Heard of Me, Would I Read My Book?

Yes, I would read my books. The biography of Ross Victory paints a portrait of an artist whose works are not merely products of imagination but also powerful extensions of his life’s narrative. The loss of his father and brother, pivotal moments in his life, fuel his creative expressions, which would resonate with anyone who has faced personal tragedies and is seeking solace or understanding through storytelling.

Ross’s literary works, like his award-winning memoir “Views from the Cockpit,” offer an intimate look at family and loss, which universally touch readers. His background as an English teacher imbues his writing with clarity and subsequent educational value that enriches the reader’s experience. Additionally, his engagement with themes of intersectionality and family in his YA horror series “Grandpa’s Cabin” shows a range and depth that promise a compelling read across genres. Also, Ross invests time and effort in his cover art with evocative images like planes crashing in the distance, a boy emerging from an egg, and an evil grandfather character rising from the ground. The colors are always bright, and the covers make you think.

Moreover, Victory appears to be a multidimensional character of the author—his music while confronting contemporary issues like racial injustice and mental health. His advocacy for the Bi+/LGBTQ communities and against elder abuse adds layers of social relevance to his works.

This artist does not shy away from the complexities of the human experience but instead embraces them, weaving them into his art. Your curiosity would be piqued by the promise of engaging narratives and the transformative power of Ross Victory’s words as they reflect a journey through hardship toward advocacy and empowerment.

At eighty-four years old, widower and award-winning geneticist Bernie Crenshaw has reached the end of his life. Bernie gifts his only grandson, eighteen-year-old Inglewood high school senior Nova, his multimillion-dollar property located in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills.

Years after Bernie’s death, Nova hosts a wild twenty-first birthday party weekend filled with alcohol, music, and OnlyFans web cameras. After a handful of eerie encounters in the surrounding Los Angeles forest, Nova’s friends allege that his grandpa’s cabin is the burial ground for people who disappeared during their childhood.

The birthday weekend shifts from celebration to terror as the friends piece together that the man Nova knew as “Popsi” matches the profile of one of the most notorious wanted criminals in Los Angeles-“L.A. Love Hunter.”

Will Nova preserve the Crenshaw family’s sadistic legacy, or will he choose the rare and valuable gift of friendship?

Enjoy an excerpt

Nova did not understand why first grade had ended early. Dozens of armed security guards descended on the elementary school with their guns drawn. The events of the day, which started with learning to tell time on a silly- framed clock and identifying vowels in sentences, had become disjointed puzzles in Nova’s six-year-old mind, a mind easily distracted by dogs’ tails and why his father shaves his face, but his mother shaves her underarms. Today, his bite-sized body would experience panic, and his mind would be introduced to a modern emotion: terror.

Mr. Woodrow, a frumpy man, only thirty-five but looked sixty, paced the classroom, which was decorated in circus-themed letters and talking numbers. His face was pale and fear-stricken as he explained today’s events to the officers, who observed him with deep suspicion.

“Sir, six-year-old kids don’t just run away from chocolate chip cookies and story time. We need you to breathe and tell us the last time you saw the twins.”

Two chairs, which had been occupied before the recess bell, were now empty. A class of twenty bright-eyed first graders was now eighteen. No one knew where the twins had gone.

After hours of waiting, the class was escorted to the pickup lot, where Nova found his mother, Stella, standing next to their black Range Rover and anxiously biting her left thumbnail down its nail plate.

“Oh, my God!” Stella burst out as she hugged Nova’s frail body tightly. She kissed Nova’s head repeatedly. “Are you okay? You must be so scared.” Nova stood motionless and confused by his mother’s panic.

About the Author: Ross Victory is an award-winning author and singer/songwriter from Southern California. After the loss of his father and brother, Ross dove into self-discovery, reigniting his childhood passion for creative writing and music production, launching an independent writing career. Victory has dedicated his life to empowering his community while entertaining listeners and readers. Victory provides a multi-format creative experience in Urban Adult Contemporary music and literature, with a focus on creative non-fiction and thematic novellas. Topics include: adventure, family, religion and philosophy, and identity.

Victory is best known for his father-son memoir, “Views from the Cockpit,” and multimedia production brand, “Books & Bangers.”

Author Website | Book Website | Instagram | Facebook
Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Walmart.

Buy Grandpa’s Cabin Coloring & Lookbook at Barnes and Noble.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror, Mystery/Suspense Tagged With: , , ,

LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: Death’s Dance by Crymsyn Hart

August 22, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Thanks for joining us on our 16th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

Being a psychic, you would think talking to the dead was a walk in the park. However, it’s not always that simple. The hooded specter haunting me is one I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid. One day, he appeared in my bedroom mirror. Good? Evil? I don’t know what his true intentions are.

Enter Jackson, ghost hunting show host extraordinaire – and my ex – to save me from the big bad ghost.

From there…well…it’s been a world wind of complications. My house burnt down. I’m being stalked by an ancient evil and gotten myself back into the world of being a ghost hunting psychic. Jackson dragged me, along with a few other psychics, to a ghost town wiped off the map called Death’s Dance.

From there things went from bad to worse.

Linktree for Crymsyn Hart

Buy the book at Amazon.

Scavenger Hunt:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Social Media:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: ,

LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: A Deathly Undertaking by Crymsyn Hart

August 21, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Thanks for joining us on our 16th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

 

Savege is an undertaker’s assistant. When her boss is killed, she assumes the job of undertaker and all the strange things that go with it. She awakens a mummified hand named Omar. She works with a grim reaper named Oliver who collects the souls of the bodies she works on. New and strange powers awaken within her. A dark necromancer is after something in her morgue.

All she has to do is avoid being killed by him or by some of the bodies she works on. But that’s not the real dilemma. Medusa is trying to get out of purgatory and turn the world to stone, and Darria is the only one who can stop her.

Website

Buy the book at Amazon.

Scavenger Hunt:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Social Media:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: ,

The Charterhouse of Evil by Janice Tremayne – Spotlight and Giveaway

May 30, 2023 By 1 Comment

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Janice Tremayne will be awarding an Audiobook of The Infants Spirits (Book 4) Haunting Clarisse Series to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Bound to life old and new, the sins of the departed still haunt her. When wickedness infects the innocent, can she see the curse undone?

Western Australia. Clarisse Garcia is ready to return stronger than ever. With her husband by her side, the plucky spirit hunter is back on familiar territory with an assignment for Benedictine monks. And now she’s out to vanquish whatever evil is plaguing the monastic village that caused orphans to mysteriously die.

With what could be a voracious demon on her hands, Clarisse partners up with a man who grew up in the local orphanage to investigate suspicious activities. And as they dig through the monastery’s shrouded history, she discovers that some of these servants of God might not be as benign as they claim… and she may be their next quarry.

Can this driven woman end the impiety before more lives are sent to the grave?

The Charterhouse of Evil is the shocking fifth book in the Haunting Clarisse supernatural horror series. If you like bold characters, adrenaline-spiking investigations, and jaw-dropping twists and turns, then you’ll love Janice Tremayne’s malevolent tale.

Enjoy an Excerpt

“So, what do you have to say for yourself this time? Cat got your tongue?” The voice was more pronounced now, with a slight echo. It had a cheeky twist to it.

Father Fitzgerald took hold of his glass of red wine and guzzled it before slamming the glass on the table. There was an endless supply of the red sacramental stuff that he had stolen from the distillery—his only retreat from the monastic life and the dust that penetrated every nook and cranny.

Dust, dust, and even more red dust everywhere—on the bed sheets, the floor, and the table. It also managed to cover his one-inch, overgrown beard.

He ignored the voice for a while, though it was futile—the devil wanted something, and it was payback time. Eventually, he knew he would have to turn around and confront the demonic presence once again and settle his debt.

“The grog isn’t going to solve your problems, monk. You have so many issues that you would need gallons of the stuff. While you drink yourself into oblivion every night, your worries only come back to haunt you the next day. Your devious thoughts are saturating your feeble mind with uncontrollable lust.” The demon scoffed at him then laughed.

“We made our deal, and I delivered the boy to you. Aren’t we done, demon?” Father Fitzgerald pointed toward the ominous shadow in front of him. He knew it was the demon; he had seen it many times before.

“Oh, not so fast, monk. Yes, you delivered, but there is still one problem.” The demon paused for a moment as the room filled with an eerie silence.

“What is it?”

“Hmm, your state of mind. You have become a risk to my enterprise. You have delivered, all right, but you are a drunken fool and a deviant; a man who is not in control of himself. That means you’re a problem … a big problem.”

About the Author:

Janice Tremayne is an award-winning supernatural horror writer from Australia. Her acclaimed novel, Haunting Hartley, was a finalist in the Readers’ Favorite 2020 International Book Awards in fiction-supernatural and was awarded the distinguished favorite prize for paranormal horror at the New York City Big Book Awards. She was recently awarded the silver medal at the IPPY Awards 2021 Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Rim – Best Regional Fiction and the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards 2020 Bronze Award in Adult Fiction.

Janice is an emerging Australian author who lives with her family in Melbourne. The Haunting Clarisse series has regularly reached number one in the Amazon kindle rankings for Occult Supernatural, Ghosts and Haunted Houses, and British Horror for hot new releases/bestsellers. Janice is well-versed in her cultural superstitions and how they influence daily life and customs. She grew up in a family with a cultural heritage where religious taboos and superstitions were entrenched into their way of life. This fascinated her as she was growing up and laid the foundations for developing a passion and style for writing supernatural horror novels for adult readers.

Writing the Haunting Clarisse series was spawned over a cup of coffee many years ago when she finally decided to put pen to paper, and she has never looked back. Her books contain heart-thumping, bone-chilling, and thought-provoking paranormal experiences that deliver a new twist to every tale to the delight of her readers worldwide.

Website | Facebook |
YouTube
Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , ,

LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: Moonlight Becomes You by Robert Herold

August 26, 2022 By Leave a Comment

Thanks for joining us on our 15th anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC (along with other prizes). Follow and visit authors’ social media pages on the second Rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC (along with other prizes)!

The Eidola Project travels to Petersburg, Virginia, to investigate a series of murders in the Black community—rumored to be caused by a werewolf. Once there, danger comes from all quarters. Not only do they face threats from the supernatural, the KKK objects to the team’s activities, and the group is falling apart. Can they overcome their human frailties to defeat the evil that surrounds them?

 Facebook | Bookbub

Buy the book at Amazon.

Scavenger Hunt:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Social Media:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: ,

Shadows in the Night by Thomas Grant Bruso – Spotlight and Giveaway

August 12, 2022 By 4 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Thomas Grant Bruso will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Sequel to Past Sins

Jack Ballinger has seen a lot of horrible things in the six years he’s been a police officer, disturbing images he wishes he could erase from his memory forever. Crime scenes, dead bodies, and the death of his parents dredge up an unsettling time from his past, a tortured childhood he does not want to revisit. But Jack must confront a new waking nightmare that sends him spiraling out of control, down a rabbit hole of indescribable terrors, questioning his existence as a human being, cop, and partner.

Struggling with budget cuts and constantly changing policies within the police department, a cantankerous new police chief, eccentric colleagues, and his on-again/off-again relationship with his boyfriend Steve, Jack must confront an evil entity from a previous life. Grappling with old demons is just the beginning. How long will Jack keep running from the horrors of his past and finally face his fears?

Enjoy an Excerpt

When I step out into the bedroom, dripping water from the shower, I freeze, my heartbeat pulses at the sight of the bedroom door cracked open. “Hello?”

Silence.



Between the balcony doors and the east-side windows, the far corner of the room is empty.

No ghosts or visitors. There is nowhere to hide in this wide-open space.

I walk over to the nightstand where I keep my pistol. I look over my shoulder at the clamoring noise of the construction crew setting up their monstrous machines out on the street. Large yellow Cat loaders and pavers growl to life.

I leave a puddle of water behind me when I reach the dresser and pull out my gun. A noise out in the hallway draws my attention to the open door. I unlock the safety and aim the pistol at my side. I amble to the apartment door, my pulse quickening. I must have forgotten to lock it after Steve left last night, I think.

I stare around the small kitchen: nothing, nobody, but a scattering of spilled coffee beans on the floor. Lifting the gun out in front of me, I walk to the door. A stale, warm, musty smell wafts into the room. I stare out into the dark hallway.

Empty.

My grip tightens on the gun.

My skin bristles in the cool, clammy air.

I raise my gun and step out into the hall, pointing the pistol left, then right, down the long corridor. Vacant. I take a deep breath and lean against the doorframe.



The stairwell door creaks open at the end of the hall. I straighten my shoulders, pointing the pistol into the dark.

I wait.

“Hello?”

No answer.

The door opens again, its hinges groaning.



I turn to glance behind me in the dark at the two other apartments.

Doors closed.

I stay on the left side of the hall in case somebody is in the stairwell.

I meander down the corridor, moving slowly and turning once to check over my shoulder. I hear noises in the dark, but I don’t see anything. The building settles and shifts in the wind. Forcing myself to keep moving, I slink against the length of the wall to the last door on the floor.

I stop. Wait. Listen.

Alarming stillness.

Machinery clangs outside, and the construction workers’ voices echo like trapped spirits in the apartment walls. I clench the gun’s handle and my index finger grazes the trigger.

Creak.

The exit door swings open, and clangs shut. I jump back a few inches. Stare at the door. Shuffle forward, yell out, “Hello?” and wedge my foot between the doorjamb. I fling the door open with my hand.



The stairwell is empty. I walk onto the top landing and point the gun behind the door. Clear.



I stare over the edge of the staircase, three stories down. Sunlight streams into the open space below from one of the stairwell doors. I hear muffled voices, people talking, the noise of machinery reverberating off the walls and drifting up the stairwells.


I am overreacting, I tell myself, and letting out a deep sigh. I yell down the stairs for somebody to close the door. No response.


I head back into the hallway, muttering obscenities at myself for acting foolish. When I am back inside my apartment, I lock the door. Before I pour coffee, I retrace my steps across the entire 400-square inch area, checking locks and windows, looking behind doors.


I lock the balcony doors, drawing curtains and drowning out the jackhammering sounds coming from outside. As I close the left-sided drapes, something on the balcony catches my eye and sends me into another dizzying tailspin.


Fear settles in my chest like angry bees buzzing. My heart races. My nightmares return at the sight of partial muddy footprints leading over the edge of the balcony.

About the Author

Thomas Grant Bruso knew at an early age he wanted to be a writer. He has been a voracious reader of genre fiction since he was a kid.

His literary inspirations are Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Ellen Hart, Jim Grimsley, Karin Fossum, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Connolly.
Bruso loves animals, book-reading, writing fiction, prefers Sudoku to crossword puzzles.



In another life, he was a freelance writer and wrote for magazines and newspapers. In college, he was a winner for the Hermon H. Doh Sonnet Competition. Now, he writes and publishes fiction, and reviews books for his hometown newspaper, The Press Republican.



He lives in upstate New York.

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Facebook

Buy the book at JMS Books

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , ,

The Litter by Kevin R. Doyle – Spotlight and Giveaway

May 4, 2022 By 2 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kevin R. Doyle will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner, and a second drawing for a free e-Book copy of the book, via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

They kept to the shadows so no one would know they existed, and preyed on the nameless who no one would miss. Where did they come from, and who was protecting them? In a city that had seen every kind of savagery, they were something new, something more than murderous. And one woman, who had thought she had lost everything there was to lose in life, would soon find that nothing could possibly prepare her for what would come when she entered their world.









Enjoy an Excerpt

A car came squealing around the corner, someone leaning out and throwing an empty bottle in the kid’s direction. He ducked, glass shattering on the wall behind him, and the car continued on its way, drunken curses floating on the night.

The kid stood still for a moment, face reddening and fists clenching. But he knew it wasn’t anything personal. The morons hadn’t been attacking him, just anyone small and defenseless who they happened to come upon.

He’d spent his whole life small and defenseless.

He cinched the zipper of the ski vest a little bit tighter, jerking the collar upright so that it would partially cover his ears, and headed off down the street.

He had no clue where he was heading, or when he would eat or sleep next, but he’d been on his own for years now and had come to learn the way of the streets. He figured nothing could come up that he hadn’t encountered before, and he managed to stuff way deep down into an obscure corner of his mind the longing memories of the warmth and comfort the shelter had offered the night before.

He was a survivor, always had been, and as he wandered down the nearly-deserted street, in the early morning hours of the Zone, he had no doubt that he would continue to survive.

And that was the last that anyone ever saw of him.

About the Author:

A high-school teacher, former college instructor, and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, and And the Devil Walks Away, and one horror novel, The Litter. In the last few years, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton private eye series, published by Camel Press. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel. The second book, Heel Turn, was released in March of 2021, while the third in the series, Double Frame, came out in March of 2022.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

The book is on sale for only $0.99 at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , ,

The Infant Spirits by Janice Tremayne – Spotlight and Giveaway

December 2, 2021 By 1 Comment

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Five winners will receive a digital copy of the book. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

When a poltergeist takes root in a hospital, can a determined ghost chaser undo a devilish long-lasting curse?

Clarisse Garcia has always fought evil. A driven spirit hunter, she demolishes demonic threats before they can corrupt the innocent. But even this hardened woman is stunned when she enters an eerie Tasmanian maternity ward filled with the anguished cries of babies’ souls.

Undeterred, Clarisse dives headfirst into helping release the spirits bound to a sinister demon. But when the foul entity targets the unborn life in her womb, she faces her toughest battle yet to save her offspring’s future.

Can this spiritual warrior protect her child and free the tormented young ghosts?

The Infant Spirits is the fourth standalone book in the blood-curdling Haunting Clarisse supernatural horror series. If you like chilling apparitions, wicked demons, and a mother fighting for her child’s very existence, then you’ll love Janice Tremayne’s bedtime nightmare.

Enjoy an Excerpt

THE LADIES COTTAGE

New Norfolk, Tasmania 1879

“You’re dirty rotten, Delaney, you witch.” Abbey kicked as hard as she could, but Delaney felt capable of handling her outbursts. She was more robust than Abbey, whose frail body was no match for the hard taskmaster with the nickname Haggus.

“Just ignore her language, Louise. She’ll calm down after the doctor gets here with the morphine. It will knock her out, I hope.”

“You’re a demon, Delaney. Fess up and stop hiding behind that nurse’s uniform, as if you’re the moral light of this cursed place!” Abbey lifted her head and spat toward the nurse, narrowly missing her face with the thick, yellowish mucus that stuck onto her white uniform.

Louise placed her hand over her mouth and nearly chucked. She was an inexperienced nurse, used to the private hospitals in Hobart for dignitaries and the rich. However, she’d had no option but to work at Willow Court Asylum, following her husband’s posting to nearby military barracks.

Abbey continued her rage, holding on to the belly with both hands and pressing slightly in a futile attempt to stop the pain that was ripping through her body. She was eight months pregnant and was giving birth to a pre-mature, illegitimate child. No one knew who the father was, and nobody cared. That was the way it was back then, with a woman caught destitute in an asylum and locked away from the rest of civilization. They turned a blind eye to sexual assaults by staff that were commonplace amongst the patients.

About the Author: Janice Tremayne is an Amazon bestselling and award-winning ghost and supernatural writer. Janice is a finalist in the Readers’ Favorite 2020 International Book Awards in fiction-supernatural and was awarded the distinguished favorite prize for paranormal horror at the New York City Big Book Awards 2020.

She is an emerging Australian author who lives with her family in Melbourne. Her recent publications, Haunting in Hartley and Bolder Blindsided, reached number one in the Amazon kindle ranking for Occult Supernatural, Ghosts and Haunted Houses categories hot new releases and bestseller. Janice is well-versed in her cultural superstitions and how they influence daily life and customs. She has developed a passion and style for writing ghost and supernatural novels for new adult readers.

Website | Send Email | Facebook

Buy the book at a href=”https://www.amazon.com/Infant-Spirits-Curdling-Haunting-Supernatural-ebook/dp/B093Y1WKRK/ref=sr_1_1″>Amazon.

Filed Under: Guest Blogs, Horror Tagged With: , , ,
Next Page »