My 5-Star review for the poetry collection Temperate Darkness by Jerry Langdon

There is passion in turmoil. The deepest feelings rise to the surface when one is suffering. This is the verse of Jerry Langdon. It draws you in, and breaks your heart. The cry of the poet is a piercing one. It is nigh impossible to ignore.

There is a rhythm to these lines, like the pulsing of blood through a body. A slight repetition serves to heighten tension and drive home the point as in this selection from the poem entitled "Frozen":

I'm just frozen in place
It looks like I'm here to stay
Frozen where I stand
Frozen heart and soul
Like some arctic land

Dark things are examined thoroughly and sometimes the lines pound through your sensibilities, like this selection from "Darkness":

Children of night
Dwellers of shadow
Awaiting feast
Avoiding sight
Melancholy Darkness
Beloved Darkness
My Dear Darkness
What secret hold

There is pain in these words, raw and real. They speak of life and death; love and loss. In the midst of this is a voice crying to be heard. It calls from the shadows, in the depths where madness steals the breath away. There in the stillness, you can hear it. In the darkness, you can feel it.


You can find Temperate Darkness here:

http://www.amazon.com/Temperate-Darkness-Jerry-Langdon-ebook/dp/B00DP3KNFQ

My 5-Star review for Cinderella: The Ultimate Collection

Ah, the allure of the fairy tale! And one in particular has appealed to both young and old the world over. The story of Cinderella has been told many times and in different ways. Basically, it is the tale of a girl who experiences tragedy. She is taken from a comfortable standard of living to a miserable one, usually by the coldness of new family members and their jealousy over her beauty. Through the help of others, both mundane and magical, she is able to gain the attention of royalty or those of privilege. Thus, she ends even better than she started. This is a fine collection of such tales.

Often, the girl has lost her mother and the father remarried. The stepmother favors her own child, and mistreats that of her new husband. And the stepdaughter is forced into servitude and wallowing in filth.

In the midst of this, supernatural forces intervene on the girl's behalf. Sometimes, this is the work of actual fairies. Often animals come to her rescue, or even the mother assists her from beyond the grave.

Usually, she contrives to attend some gathering and is provided overwhelmingly beautiful garments through supernatural means. The particulars of the clothing vary by culture, and tend to be dresses of various hues and styles. Also, the shoes can be golden, silver or even glass.

While in several tales women of the land are invited to a royal ball, in many the girl contrives to go to church. While there, she is not recognized and makes quite a scene. Everyone is talking about her, and a person of high standing takes a deep interest in the girl.

These meetings tend to happen three times, and she escapes the first two without her identity being revealed. The third time various forces intervene and in her haste she leaves behind usually her shoe which is found by or delivered to the person of high standing.

Overcome with desire, he sends word that whoever the shoe fits will become his bride. He is often a prince, but may also be any man of great power and influence.

Women from all over try on the shoe, but it fits none. At this point, through some means, the girl is revealed and tries on the shoe. It fits perfectly and he marries her.

The tales differ in all these particulars, and some go in an entirely different direction. But the similarities between these stories cannot be denied. The timelessness of this tale is what speaks to us. One girl's tragedy turns into triumph, and she is elevated beyond even her first state. She retains her goodness, and is found worthy of her great fortune. We are enchanted by this tale of rags to riches, and this collection reminds us that dreams really do come true.

Cinderella: The Ultimate Collection can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Collection-Illustrated-Annotated-Different-ebook/dp/B00H9SRCN4

Keep calm and Promote Horror

If you write, read, film, watch, or even just love horror... check out Promote Horror. Go there to learn about horror books and movies. Watch clips and find out how to promote your own horror right on their website. For all the scares you can stand (and possibly a few more), check out the link below. And remember to Keep Calm and Promote Horror...


http://www.promotehorror.com/

My 5-Star review for Fresh Fear: Contemporary Horror

Fear comes in many forms and speaks with countless voices. This is a collection of stories from authors living in diverse places. It is a tapestry woven from these disparate elements and presented all for the love of horror.

The introduction is a selection from W.J. Renehan's "The Art of Darkness: Meditations on the Effect of Horror Fiction." Entitled "Why We Turn to Horror," it is an illuminating piece on the very attraction of horror in all its many forms.

Launching into the book, we find Scathe meic Beorh's "God of the Winds." It is a vision of human depravity with a taste of ancient terrors. Ramsey Campbell's "Welcomeland" takes you on a journey into an amusement park, forgotten by time but not by the memories which lurk within its depths. Lily Childs brings us "Strange Tastes," a tale of secret hungers revealed.

In "Nouri and the Beetles," Lincoln Crisler tells of primal desires and awful betrayal. Jack Dann's "Camps" takes us into the mind of a dying man with nightmares of a haunted past. In "High Rise," Robert Dunbar reveals a deadly seduction while Thomas A. Erb's "Spencer Weaver Gets Rebooted" is a shocking tale of vengeance.

Brandon Ford's "Scare Me" tells of a woman forced to drive to an inevitable fate. In "Raised," Carole Gill tells of ancient magic and an obsession with death. Lindsey Beth Goddard weaves a tale of unspeakable tragedy and the price to change one's fate in "The Tooth Collector."

In "Love Hurts," J.F. Gonzalez speaks of a love for pain taken to a horrific level. Dane Hatchell's "The `takers" is about a mind's descent into madness, while in "Justice through Twelve Steps," E.A. Irwin speaks of insanity talking to those who will hear.

Charlee Jacob brings us "Locked Inside the Buzzword Box," a story about devouring hunger. K. Trap Jones speaks of a demon hunter faced with a deadly choice in "Demon Eyed Blind." Tim Jones' "Protein" is a fight for survival against cannibal hunger.

Vada Katherine's "Block" describes the hunt for a killer and the desire for release. Roy C. Booth and Axel Kohagen tell of a man facing a lover's vengeance in "Just Another Ex." Shane McKenzie's "So Much Pain, So Much Death" is about a father finding his daughter, only to discover an awful truth.

Shaun Meeks brings us "Perfection Through Silence," the tale of a man constantly vexed by a disturbing noise. In Adam Millard's "The Incongruous Mr. Marwick," a boy learns that some solitary souls are better left alone. Christine Morgan's "Nails of the Dead" is a disturbing journey into mythological depths.

Billie Sue Mosiman's "Verboten" tells of sisterly love with fatal results. D.F. Noble's "Psych" pulls you into the psych ward to learn what hideous presence lurks in the shadows. In "The Door," Chantal Noordeloos reminds us dangers can be found on either side.

W.H. Pugmire's "Darkness Dancing in Your Eyes" is about a lost being and that which it sees in the depths of a mirror. William Todd Rose gives us the seduction of an urban legend in "The Grave Dancer," while Anna Taborska's "Out of the Light" speaks of a soul's desire pulling a man into the darkness.

William Cook has truly brought us a fresh perspective, like a sharpened blade that cuts to the quick. The forms of fear are many and you will find them all waiting for you here. For just like flesh, horror will decay... unless you keep it fresh.


Fresh Fear: Contemporary Horror can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Fear-Contemporary-Ramsey-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00GMRDRU0

Shutter Speed by Mark Taylor

Jimmy Tasker is an ordinary child. He loves to take pictures: has an eye for it. When some common bullies take things too far, Jimmy ends up burned… and different. It starts when his father is killed in a mysterious house fire. Him and his mother move away… change names… disappear.

Some years later a group of friends are finding it tough. They are unemployed, short of cash, and one of them comes up with a great idea. A robbery. But they are a rag-tag bunch, and Steve declines, leaving the other three, a misogynist, an addict, and poor, easily led Peter, to pull off the “robbery of the century”.

But Jimmy is still in there, somewhere…

…and he’s killing for fun.

Shutter Speed is available here:

http://www.npuniverse.com/books/shutter-speed/

An excerpt from Hallowed: The Collection

An excerpt from Hallowed: The Collection:

It was the time of the gathering. Cloaked figures assembled once more around the stone table. They had come, as they did every year to hear great tales of terror. Garbed as they were, one could barely tell one face from another. Were they male or female? It was hard to know.

Each stood silently, waiting for the Lore Master to speak. He studied them all from beneath his cowl. His robes did not distinguish him. Only his deep, resonant voice set him apart. “Welcome, to the gathering. Open your ears to hear what must be heard. Open your minds and be guided to understanding. Open your hearts and receive these gifts, to the enrichment of the soul.”

Those assembled, bowed their heads and a chanting began, “To hear what must be heard. A guide to understanding. Enrichment of the soul.” Then, they grew silent once more.

The Lore Master continued, “In darkness men stumble. But it is the darkness within that they live with every day. Cast off the evil and purge the filth from your souls by the reading of the word.”

And they chanted, “The reading of the word.”

Spreading out his hands, the Lore Master proclaimed, “It is a glorious day of awakening. Learn from the folly of others, and you shall find the peace you seek. May our hearts be as one.”

They responded, “May our hearts be as one.”


Hallowed: The Collection is available here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/387287

http://www.amazon.com/Hallowed-Collection-Donald-White-ebook/dp/B00H92WS9I

My 4-Star review for Coyote: The Outlander by Chantal Noordeloos

Know your enemy. Charlotte Webb aka `Coyote' is a bounty hunter. She hunts Outlanders, those beings who enter through the rips between worlds. And she has been hired by the Pinkerton agency to track down an especially dangerous one...

The world of this work has a western flavor with a touch of science fiction thrown in for good measure. It is an intoxicating brew, one that will carry you on into the heart of the dream. The main character is tough, yet troubled. In her imperfections, we see her humanity.

An interesting group of people surround her: from quiet associate Caesar to the wise shaman Tokala. The world is full of strangeness and wonder. There are twists and a few unexpected turns along the way. And all along, Coyote must make choices for good or for ill.

The task is simple: kill the Outlander. And it is amazing how complicated such a simple thing can be. In the crossroads of America, Coyote will come to her own crossroads. Nothing worth doing is easy, and the hardest person to look at is the one in the mirror. Coyotes hunt and kill. But what a tragedy it would be for a young woman to turn into a beast...

You can find Coyote: The Outlander here:

http://www.amazon.com/Coyote-The-Outlander-Chantal-Noordeloos-ebook/dp/B00E392ZBQ