Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror (26 page)

Ray noticed deep scratches across Amanda's arms. “You okay?”

Amanda nodded as she left the cabin. Moments later she came back with a towel wrapped around her arms but without the dog. Ray reached for the first-aid kit but Amanda suddenly pushed past him and dropped to her knees.

Amanda laughed as a tiny lizard ran up her left arm and over her head, hiding itself in her red hair. She giggled and plucked it free, stood up, then held it by the tail only inches from her nose.

“No more running away, you hear me?” She looked at Ray. “Told you he'd find me.” Greeny swung back and forth, upside down. Ray smiled until the tiny creature swiveled its head in his direction.

The lizard blinked, and Ray gasped as he made eye contact with the gecko.

He recognized those eyes. They had tracked him across the dining car, followed him across the roof of the train. He looked from the lizard to Amanda, who was staring at him once again as if she'd read his mind.

Ray felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and wondered if it was only a side effect of his father's invention. He blinked, but where he saw spots only moments before, now he saw only coincidences.

Ray glanced over at his dad, who was watching him and Amanda with a bemused expression, trying to connect the dots. Amanda still held the gecko only inches from his face. Ray forced a smile and said the first thing that came to mind.

“Hey, Dad, can we get a dog?”

Phil Gunstein looked from his son to the lizard, then back again.

“Ray Gun,” he said, “I think that's a great idea.”

R
.L. Stine loved horror stories as a kid, and when he discovered that the local barbershop carried copies of two horror comic books, he started getting a haircut every Saturday. He wrote lots of jokes and stories, kept writing through college, then moved to New York City to work as a writer. The first job he found was with a fan magazine, and he said that it was good training because it taught him to write fast and make up stuff.

He edited a humor magazine for a few years, but when it folded, he decided to try horror, and his series for teenagers, Fear Street, became a huge success. So he wrote a series for younger kids, Goosebumps, and his sales went through the roof. For several years in a row in the 1990s, he was voted not just the bestselling children's author in the country, but the bestselling author. He has written more than three hundred books and sold more than four hundred million copies. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, and his dog, Minnie. His son, Matthew, is a musician, sound designer, and composer.

N
ew York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author Heather Graham was born somewhere in Europe and kidnapped by gypsies when she was a small child. She went on to join the Romanian circus as a trapeze artist and lion tamer. When the circus came to South Florida, she stayed, discovering that she preferred to be a shark and gator trainer.

Not really.

Heather is the child of Scottish and Irish immigrants who met and married in Chicago, and moved to South Florida, where she has spent her life. (She has, at least, been to the Russian circus in Moscow, where she wished she was one of the incredibly talented and coordinated trapeze artists.) She has written over one hundred and fifty novels and novellas, has been published in approximately twenty-five languages, and has over seventy-five million books in print. Recent titles include
Nightwalker
,
Dust to Dust
, and
Unhallowed Ground
.

S
uzanne Weyn grew up in Williston Park, Long Island, New York. As a girl she was very interested in theater and in reading. Louisa May Alcott was her favorite author, but she also read every Sherlock Holmes story. She now lives in upper New York State in a 1930s cottage on a horse farm. She was graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton and received her master's degree from Pace University.

Suzanne's recent novels include
The Bar Code Tattoo
(2004) and its sequel,
The Bar Code Rebellion
(2006).
The Bar Code Tattoo
was selected by the American Library Association (ALA) as an '05 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and was an '07 Nevada Library nominee for Best Young Adult Fiction.

Her mystical, historic romance,
Reincarnation
, came out in January 2008 from Scholastic, and her novel, the bestselling
Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic
, was published in 2009. Her newest novel,
Empty,
came out in September 2010.

J
ennifer Allison's “The Perfects” was inspired in part by an old Victorian house the author passed each morning on her way to school in her small Michigan hometown. The author's favorite childhood memories include sharing spooky urban legends and ghost stories with friends while sitting up in a barn hayloft or around a campfire. “Part of the fun of being scared by a story was sharing that feeling with my friends and bonding with them through that experience. People respond to horror fiction very physically; maybe that's why the frightening tales always stuck in my memory.” After working as a book editor, news reporter, and high school English teacher, Jennifer Allison rediscovered her childhood passion for stories that are both spooky and funny. She writes a series of novels about a teenage sleuth named Gilda Joyce—a much-loved character among young readers. Books in the
Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator
series have received starred reviews and a nomination for the Edgar Award.

H
eather Brewer was not your typical teen growing up, and she's certainly not your typical adult now. She's a huge fan of the macabre, and when she's not reading horror, she's writing it. Heather completely blames her father for her warped mind, as she recalls fondly watching
The Twilight Zone
as a young child, as well as every cheesy horror film you can imagine. Heather is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling
The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod
series, as well as the upcoming Slayer Journals series and Bloodbound series. She doesn't believe in happy endings . . . unless they involve blood. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children. Visit Heather at
www.heatherbrewer.com
.

P
eg Kehret's middle-grade books have won dozens of state young reader awards, as well as the PEN Center West Award in Children's Literature, the Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and the ASPCA's Henry Bergh Award. Her thriller,
Abduction!
, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

She enjoys writing thrillers because she gets so many letters from readers who tell her, “I love scary books!”

Peg has two grown children and four grandchildren. She volunteers with animal welfare groups, and has included dogs, cats, llamas, elephants, bears, horses, and monkeys in her books. Three of her books are co-authored by Pete the Cat, who now gets fan mail of his own. Peg lives in Wilkeson, Washington, with her dog and two cats, all rescued animals.
Ghost Dog Secrets
was published in 2010 by Dutton Children's Books.

P
eople fascinate me—why do they do what they do, and how do their life experiences impact their choices? Since my best friend, Savannah, was the victim of a serial killer, I've spent a lot of my time studying the minds of murderers. I do believe in evil, but I also believe that
every
person is valuable, and I enjoy individuality—all are welcome at my table.

“Because of Savannah I began to write, winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award for my first novel. And, although I've published in other genres, the theme of mortality is a constant draw. In my YA Sleuth Forensic Mystery series, Cameryn, who works for her coroner father, sees death medically. Currently I'm expanding ‘Dragonfly Eyes' into a novel that will explore the idea of justice and falling in love on the ‘other side.' Through my family and my thirty-plus books I've learned to embrace life. Because you really never know . . .”

A
s an actor Ryan Brown has held contract roles on
The Young and the Restless
and
Guiding Light
. He has also appeared on
Law & Order: SVU
, and starred in two feature films for Lifetime Television. His first novel,
Play Dead
, a comic supernatural thriller, was published in May of 2010. Ryan lives in New York with his wife and son.

F
. Paul Wilson is the award-winning, bestselling author of forty books and numerous short stories spanning science fiction, horror, adventure, medical thrillers, and virtually everything between. His work has appeared on the
New York Times
and other bestseller lists. His novel
The Keep
was made into a perfectly awful film, and
The Tomb
is presently in development hell in Hollywood. He's perhaps best known for his urban mercenary character, Repairman Jack; he's written about Jack as an adult and most recently as a teen in
Jack: Secret Histories
and
Jack: Secret Circles.

His work has been translated into twenty-four languages. He also has written for the stage, screen, and interactive media. He has won the Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award, the Porgie Award, and multiple Prometheus Awards. He was voted Grand Master by the World Horror Convention and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers of America. He is listed in the fiftieth anniversary edition of
Who's Who in America
.

Paul resides at the Jersey shore and can be found on the web at
www.repairmanjack.com
.

M
eg Cabot (her last name rhymes with
habit
—as in, “her books are habit-forming”) is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of over twenty-five series and books for both adults and tweens/teens, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide.

Her Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over thirty-eight countries, was made into two hit movies by Disney. Meg also wrote the bestselling paranormal series The Mediator as well as the 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series
Missing
was based).

Meg is currently writing an edgy new YA series Airhead, as well as the Heather Wells mystery series for adult readers. Her new adult paranormal,
Insatiable
, was just released.

Meg divides her time between Key West, Indiana, and New York City, with a primary cat (one-eyed Henrietta), various backup cats, and her husband.

E
dgar Award-winner Walter Sorrells is the author of around thirty mystery and thriller novels, including books written both for young people and for adults.

Walter's most recent book for young adults is
Whiteout
, the third in his Hunted series.

A devoted martial artist, Walter holds a third-degree black belt in karate, and has also studied Brazilian Jujitsu, aikido, tai chi, and various Japanese sword arts. Walter is also a part-time swordsmith who specializes in hand forging Japanese-style swords and knives. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Patti, and son, Jake (who is a heck of a baseball player). Someday Walter wants to write a book about the fun and insanity of youth baseball . . . but he hasn't gotten around to it yet!

J
ames Rollins is the
New York Times
bestselling author of adventure thrillers, sold to over thirty countries. As a veterinarian, he still does volunteer work, but you'll often find him underground or underwater as an avid caver and scuba diver. These hobbies have helped in the creation of his earlier books, including
Subterranean
,
Deep Fathom
, and
Amazonia
.