Deadman's Switch & Sunder the Hollow Ones (42 page)

Paranormal Tales, Science Fiction, Horror

Seven short stories and novellas

(keep reading for descriptions of each story)

 

The Grin

The Scenario Egg

A Thing for Zombies

Reached in Error

Raise the Dead

The Sacrifices We Make

The Promises We Keep

 

Approximately 84,000 words

For older teens and adults

(all titles also available individually)

When seventeen-year-old Cassie Ingersoll gets a last-minute call to babysit on Christmas Eve, she's tempted to just blow it off. Who in their right mind thinks they're going to find someone on this night of all nights? But the extra money could really come in handy, and maybe Christmas won't be such a meager affair this year because of it.

Her problems begin almost immediately: a dead car battery, a house in the middle of nowhere, a storm brewing. Then, just before he leaves, the father gives her a mysterious warning: don't feed the boy.

She should've heeded it.

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Approximately 11,000 words (roughly 40 pages)

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

A man's death liberates his soul.

Humanity's death liberates the world.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A successful hi-tech speculator learns first-hand that technological progress has a dark side: though it builds, it can also destroy in an instant.

We were all about new-tech, looking at anything that was different... Computer processing was the buzz word, but conventional processors were obsolete; they'd run their course. We'd seen them pretty much max out on the macro-scale and they sure as hell had nowhere to go in miniaturization. Moore's Law hadn't just hit the wall, it had slammed head first into it, and its brains were oozing out all over the motherboard... Even subatomic circuitry and photonic processors had become commodity items by then. China was exporting about a trillion units a year, manufacturing twice that many. But the world kept demanding faster, better. More. We were depleting resources faster than we could mine them just to manufacture what was no longer keeping up.

After recovering from the shock of waking up in an alternative reality, he'll blindly do anything necessary to keep this new fragile existence from shattering.

Anything.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Approximately 15,000 words (about 55 pages)

It's funny, the things you get used to seeing, now that they've passed the Undead Amnesty laws. Funny how quickly you learn to ignore them. But then one of them walks in like this and you realize there are some things you'll just never get used to.

Like zombies wearing g-strings.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Velasco is about to have his heart broken.

As if crushing on his lifelong best friend, Jamie, weren't bad enough, she's obsessed with someone else, or...some thing: the Undead. How can a guy compete against that?

So, when an attractive young zombie shows up at the pool where they lifeguard, Kevin becomes desperate. But his pushing forces Jamie to make a mind-blowing confession, leaving Kevin to wonder how far she's willing to go for the Undead.

And, more importantly, how far is he willing to go to win her back?

Ages: young adults and older.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Length: approx. 10,500 words (roughly 39pp)

 

A series of eerily disturbing phone calls sends parapsychology major Ellen Grabowski rushing home from college, fearful that her little brother is in peril. Her sense of foreboding is heightened by interminable train delays, dropped calls, strange visions, an unseasonal snowfall... and a mysterious woman who insists that all is well, even as the train comes to a juddering halt deep below ground. But when they finally resume their journey, nothing is well at all.

 

Recommended for readers age 14 and older

If I had listened what Mama said, I'd be at home today.

“
Being so young and foolish, poor boy, let a rambler lead me astray.

—from the old English ballad, "Rising Sun Blues"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So what if Chris Stephens can't sing? He's a damn fine guitar player -- good enough, he believes, to jam with the best. Maybe even make it big someday. But when his mother puts the kibosh on their jamming sessions in the garage, the last place he expects his fledgling band to wind up is somewhere out in the sticks. Even worse, right next to Edgemont's potter's field.

But the new arrangements grow on him and all seems good...for a while. By the time Chris finally realizes the sacrifice he must make to ensure his rock'n'roll dream comes true, it's too late to turn back.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Recommended for readers age 14 and older

A double dose of horror and suspense:

The Sacrifices We Make
: The abduction of a child reawakens a town to a recurring horror it wishes only to forget.

The Promises We Keep
: Two young lovers make a vow to each other that will come back to haunt one when the other suddenly dies.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Approximately 23,000 words (roughly 80 print pages)

Not recommended for readers under the age of 15.