A guest post by Sam Mortimer, #author of Screams The Machine – Bloody Standards, Bionic Madness @gravesideblues

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book, dark fiction, disease, Dystopian Fiction, novel, Sam Mortimer, sci-fi, science fiction, Sirens Call Publications

Bloody Standards, Bionic Madness

Sam Mortimer

Horror is a heavy word. It distorts the image of safety in your mind, invades your mental and physical barriers, and everything you believe will protect you melts. We’re reminded of how fragile life is, how vulnerable our minds can be. Horror is everything dangerous and painful about being human.

Authors of classics like The Exorcist, Hell House, The Hellbound Heart, executed horror stories with an assassin’s skill and grace. The tales were well-wrought and proved sacred ground isn’t always safe, and there’s nothing on the planet that can’t be harmed or desecrated. Nothing is safe. These books raised the bar, and helped horror become a force to be reckoned with. It’s always good to keep the classics’ standards and expectations in mind, but obviously not to copy them. There’s still some bloody terra incognita to uncover.

Technology is great. I love it. It’s always developing, which means there’s always a playing field. Benefiting a horror writer, technology is relevant to the point of great and terrible awe. What was considered science fiction has become (or can become) actualized in the real world. For example, take the circa 1902 silent film, A Trip to the Moon. In the movie, folks are shot to the moon.  Over a century later, we have an international space station. Quantum computing is around the corner, and the Chinese have teleported a photon to outer space.

We have profoundly interesting breakthroughs with artificial intelligence, and we have learned that Facebook’s AI had created its own shorthand form of English, communicating in way humans couldn’t understand. That raised major concerns, and Facebook had to shut the AI down. We also have mass surveillance, and algorithms predicting human behavior with more precision than humans. Bionic limbs. Augmented Reality. Virtual Reality. To boot, I’ve also read about a pending head transplant.

Many developments are fantastic and can be beneficial, but alas, it’s horror’s job to point out what ‘could’ go wrong, what we don’t want to happen, and what would genuinely horrify us if it does happen. Technology is the cornucopia of ideas, and a dark fiction writer’s dream—speaking for myself at least.

A blend of science fiction and horror resounds on a realistic level. Highlighting subjects that are culturally relevant, and developments that might impact humanity’s future, can be steered in deeply horrifying directions.

Many of us grew up with love and respect for science fiction and horror. The genres remain to be the most important styles to me, and I hope my love burns hot in Screams The Machine. Of course, throw some dark fantasy in there as well and the deal is sealed.

Science fiction and horror can wreak serious havoc in the best way possible. The two unleash some bionic madness, expanding the readers mind and hurling them for a strange flight through the phantasmagoric and macabre. I hope Screams The Machine does a fraction of what great books like Richard K. Morgan’s Woken Furies, Steve Nile’s comic Criminal Macabre, and so many more have done for me: Tap ‘dat brain.

Cash carries a disease; one that’s already killed a large majority of the population and something needs to be done. To stop the crisis from escalating, The Solution (a worldwide organization) is formed and rises to great power. They monitor people’s dreams and shape reality to fit their own wants and needs. In an effort to control existence itself, The Solution is searching for what they believe to be the ultimate tool; a person with the ability to master a deep connection with the mysterious, pervasive energy known only as The Ultimate Reality.

Watching her neighborhood decay, her friends and family perish, Elizabeth Reznik needs to find meaning in her life. She discovers her existence is more meaningful than she could ever have imagined. Operatives of The Solution seek her out, take her from her home and perform brutal experiments on her. Their conclusion? Elizabeth is the one they have been searching for; she is the key to gaining complete power.

The stratagem of The Solution is single minded – own the resources and you own the people. And the last resource available is free will. They will own your thoughts, they will orchestrate your dreams; they will dine on your fears. But there is always a cog in the machine… or in this case, a scream.

Available on:

Amazon:

US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Amazon Print: US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

iTunes | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | CreateSpace (Print)

 

About the Author:

Sam Mortimer has worked the graveyard shift in law enforcement, attended film school, and has been writing strange stories since age eleven.

He loves reading, music, and strives to meet the demands of his five cats.

 

Guest Post: Jessica B. Bell, #author of Viscera, a dark fiction, short story collection.

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author, collection, dark fiction, Guest Post, Horror, Jessica B. Bell, Short Story, Sirens Call Publications, Viscera

Borrowing from the Crypt Keeper

Jessica B. Bell

Perhaps my earliest experience with horror, the cheesy, tongue-firmly-in-cheek antics of the grizzled skeleton host of Tales From the Crypt has had a huge influence on my writing. Strange as that may sound (the series would never be considered high literature) I loved the larger-than-life comic book gore and over-the-top villains who were usually just jilted husbands or wives looking for revenge, or else seizing the opportunity to feed one another to some monster under the stairs. As if this is how normal people would act. But then, these were the kinds of stories where creatures from another planet, zombies rising from the dead, and cannibalistic families that looked like the Brady Bunch were commonplace.

More even than Tales from the Crypt, I loved the old Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella comics, which introduced me to artists like Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, John Severin, and Alex Toth. I loved how these stories could take seemingly normal people and put them into the types of situations for which we have no point of reference on how a person would respond. There’s a surreal aspect to it that defies definition, and so much of it depends on juxtaposition. The writer takes a certain situation for which there are already pre-conceived societal expectations – everyone reading is familiar with how things should work out – and then turns it on its head, and then what happens next is anyone’s guess.

While I don’t write pure pulp horror (yet, I should say, as I’m always experimenting) I borrow greatly from this tradition of subterfuge and deception, leading the reader down one path only to reveal, too late, that I have led them into a trap. I loved the Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories, The Outer Limits, and anything by Harlan Ellison that I could get my hands on.

These were the types of stories that dared to ask What would happen if…? What would happen if you actually acted on that impulse to kill your boss? What if you turned left instead of right, and went to check out that dark house at the top of the hill? What if there really were alligators in the sewers? What if you woke up and nobody knew who you were? What if god went on vacation, and left the devil in charge of the world, and made some drastic changes? What if aliens arrived and threatened to destroy us unless we changed our warlike ways, only to return 20 years later, and upon discovering that we’ve negotiated world peace, destroyed us in disgust, telling us that we hadn’t been entertaining enough; that they’d wanted us to be more bloodthirsty, more destructive?

Random Act of Kindness is just such a story – one where seemingly normal people are put into completely abnormal situations – and is just one strange story found in Viscera, published by Sirens Call Publications and available now. It tells of a young girl’s initiation in a Christmas tradition that will leave you stuffed but looking forward to leftovers the next day.

 

Viscera

Viscera is a collection of short stories full of all the things that make you squirm, cringe, and laugh when you know you shouldn’t. You’ll remember why you’re afraid of the dark and experience an abundance of weird creatures: witches, ancient gods, and all-too-human monsters – the scariest of all.

Indulge your twisted sense of humor with stories about unconventional werewolves and a woman with a frog fetish. Know what it’s like to arrive too late to save an unusual alien abductee, or giggle with sick delight as a woman serves up a special Hasenpfeffer dinner to her pig of a husband.

Settle in for bedtime stories fit for monsters.

Viscera will grab you by the gut and squeeze, making you cry for mercy—or laugh like a fiend!

Available on:

Amazon eBook:
US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Amazon Print:
US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Other on-line sources:
Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | iTunes

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About the Author:

Jessica B. Bell is a Canadian writer of strange fiction. It is rumoured that she lives in a damp, dark basement, writing her twisted tales in her own blood on faded yellow parchment. Her stories have been published in various anthologies, the most recent of which is Voices. She also writes under the name Helena Hann-Basquiat, and has published two novels on the metafictional topic of Jessica B. Bell, titled Jessica and Singularity. A third and final novel is planned for 2017.

Find more of Jessica’s (and Helena’s) writing at whoisjessica.com

 

Not Cavities, A #halloween #horror tale written & narrated by Patrick Loveland @PMLoveland

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candy, Demons, Halloween, Horror, Not Cavities, Patrick Loveland, Sirens Call Publications, story, The Sirens Call eZine

This Halloween goodie was written for the October 2016 issue of The Sirens Call eZine by Patrick Loveland. Have a listen as he lends both his literal and creative voice to this devious tale.

Be careful who you Trick and who you Treat this Halloween!

Creating a New World – Guest post by Ela Lourenco, author of Dragon Born, a #YA #fantasy #novel. @ElaLourenco

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book, Dragon Born, Ela Lourenco, fantasy, magic, novel, Sirens Call Publications, YA, young adult

Creating a new world…
Ela Lourenco

The idea for Dragon Born literally just popped into my head after a request from my eldest daughter to write something she could read. I could barely stop myself from hogging the computer and losing myself yet again in a new story and yet I did. Why? Before I could begin the tale of Lara and her friends, before the story could move forward we all had to go back – back into the past of Azmantium (the planet the story takes place on)…

I know some writers plan their stories in great detail while others just let it flow spontaneously – I fall somewhere in between. Once I actually start writing it is all spontaneous and freestyle, but then there are the months of planning that go on in the background before the first chapter is ever started.

World creation – possibly one of the hardest and yet most fun aspects of writing a fantasy adventure. There is much more to it than merely describing a planet or setting. In fact I will let you in on a little secret, it takes me longer to establish the world then to write the actual book! There are all the various races to describe; the dragons, mages, witches… And there is so much to detail beyond their physical descriptions and magical powers. Each race needs its own past – an entire history which helps explain why and how they have become who and what they are. They all have their own rituals, belief-systems, relics which are all essential to the creation and melding together of the world they inhabit.

Every potion, weapon and magical object in Dragon Born has a purpose and ties to the plot and many subplots in a vital way. Each one contributes towards making Azmantium not just a make-believe fantastical planet but a three dimensional real one which the reader can connect with more and more as the histories of the races are unravelled.

Some might argue that creating your own world is easier than writing something factual as there is no chance that you can get anything wrong – I beg to differ!! When establishing Azmantium and telling the tale of its various races, I spent many an hour reading and rereading my own notes just to make sure that all of the details fit, that nothing contradicted itself, and that everything I had ‘created’ built on the story and was not merely added in just because it seemed fun. It is vital to create a ‘believable’ world when writing fantasy or the reader will not bond with the characters or empathise with their plight.

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Far in the distant reaches of the universe is a world called Azmantium. A planet with lilac skies, jade green seas and fiery red suns. A planet where everything, from the tides of the sea to life itself, is rooted in magic. Children are assessed at an early age and trained according to their unique magical talents.

Lara, an orphan who has no memory of her true origins, is unaware that she has a vital role to play in the ancient prophesies that are about to begin coming true. Older than most who are just beginning their magical training, Lara will soon find out that destiny waits for no one, especially when the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

With the help of her new friends, Lara will learn that in order to save the future, she must journey into the past – to a time when Dragons ruled the world!

***

Dragon Born is available from:

Amazon:  US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Smashwords

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About the Author — Ela Lourenco lives in Scotland with her two daughters and husband. She has been an avid reader since childhood and has long enjoyed mysteries, mythology and anything related to the paranormal/supernatural/mystical/science fiction. She loves nothing more than making up stories about faraway people and places (helped somewhat by a mind that just won’t grow up!). When she isn’t nose deep in a book or writing herself she can be found dancing around the kitchen whilst baking. Her biggest wish in life is to infect others with a passion for reading.

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Follow the rest of Ela’s Dragon Born blog tour – click the image below for participating blogs and dates!

OPEN SUBMISSION: The Sirens Call – Issue 24: Lost Souls – #horror eZine; Short #Stories, Flash #Fiction, #Poetry @sotet_angyal

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eZine, fiction, flash, Free, Horror, open call, OPEN SUBMISSIONS, Poetry, short stories, Sirens Call Publications, The Sirens Call

Sirens Call Publications is pleased to announce it’s next call for our bi-monthly #FREE eZine – The Sirens Call.

For this issue of The Sirens Call, we’re looking for stories of ‘Lost Souls’.

The ‘other side’ can be a terrifying place for souls who have passed, an unimaginable place where all sorts of horrors occur. Are these lost souls stuck in Purgatory, forever running from whatever may be trapped there with them? Do they cling to our plane of existence desperately trying to communicate, or malevolently causing harm? Perhaps your story doesn’t speak of the after, but tells of death itself and the soul’s encounter with a Reaper.

Tell your tale from any perspective you’d like – just make sure it features a lost soul and some bite. Remember, this is a horror eZine you’re writing for.

Previously published pieces are most welcome.

***

Submission Deadline: December 5, 2015

Short story word count: 1,000 – 2,500

Flash fiction word count: 300 – 1,000

Poem length: minimum 10 lines; maximum 50 lines (with a limit of five submitted per author)

Drabbles: 100 words (limit of five submitted per author)

Reprints are acceptable as long as you currently hold the copyright.

All submissions MUST be submitted to: Submissions@SirensCallPublications.com

As per our standard guidelines, there will be no stories containing pedophilia, bestiality, or graphic rape accepted.

Full details can be found on www.SirensCallPublications.com 
on our Open Submissions page.

Blog Tour for One Bad Fur Day, by K. Trap Jones – Originality in Writing #horror #thriller #novel @ktrapjones

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book, dark fiction, Horror, K Trap Jones, novel, One Bad Fur Day, Sirens Call Publications, Writing

Originality in Writing
K. Trap Jones

Writers have the ability to create anything they want. A blank page is a massive sandbox; a canvas before a brushstroke even adds color. My favorite part of writing is the brainstorming aspect of the process. I will daydream for days regarding a potential topic and won’t write a single word until I have all of the details organized. In my opinion, there is nothing better than when a story comes together and works. Let’s face it, unless you are making a living at writing, it is a hobby and hobbies should be fun. Otherwise, why do it? Just get another hobby. The fun and creativity in writing keep me coming back to create new tales.

Originality plays a big part in my writing. I refuse to write what others write. An author I look up to is Wrath James White. I read an interview with him back in the day and he said, “If another writer can write your book better than you, then you shouldn’t write it.” That quote conjures up during my brainstorming sessions. I’ve discarded a lot of cool stories because I just didn’t think they were original enough.

Stick three people in a sandbox and instruct them to build a sandcastle. One will push the limits and try to erect a masterpiece, one will play it safe by building a standard castle and the last one will try to copy the others. Originality is the key to any of the arts whether you are a painter, sculptor or writer. Find your voice and carve out your own niche. After all of the fascination of being a ‘published author’ wears off, that is when you truly become a writer.

A few years back, I wrote a short story which completely changed my outlook on writing. It was a story I never thought would see the light of day. The concept was insane, but I had the most fun ever writing when I created it. From that point on, every story was about me having fun at a hobby I enjoy. One Bad Fur Day is a book based on that particular mindset. It was extremely fun to construct this story and push the limits of not only the horror genre, but characterization as well. In order for the book to work, each animal needed to be unique and still keep with the stereotypes of their real life counterparts. In the end, One Bad Fur Day is a unique rollercoaster ride through the beauty and harsh reality of the animal population through times of turmoil.

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ONE BAD FUR DAY

Call it odd, call it off-beat, call it fantasy; but don’t think for a moment that One Bad Fur Day is anything other than a suspense driven horror ride that blurs the lines between harsh reality and brutal imagery…

As Hurricane Katrina barrels through the Louisiana bayous, the animal population is forced to deal with the tumultuous upheaval of their world. Sheriff Sid and his wife are caught completely off-guard by the natural disaster unfolding around them as they battle not only the turbulent winds and flooding waters, but heinous acts committed by other creatures inhabiting the backwaters. Following a brutal assault on his wife, Sid is forced to fight off voodoo-priestess snakes, a junkyard raccoon, deceitful badgers, and a band of roving power-hungry alligators. While clinging to his tenuous hold as sheriff, Sid must find a way to recapture what is rightfully his and exact his revenge.

K. Trap Jones does a fantastic job of pairing the genuine horror of a natural disaster with a story of deceit, betrayal and vengeance that pulls you in and forces the reader to identify with Sid as he journeys through the darkest reaches of the bayous, facing deadly encounters, on One Bad Fur Day!

One Bad Fur Day is available at: 

Amazon: US | UK | Canada | Australia | Germany | France | Spain | Italy | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Smashwords

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About the Author: K. Trap Jones is an author of horror novels and short stories. With inspiration from Dante Alighieri and Edgar Allan Poe, he has a temptation towards narrative folklore, classic literary works and obscure segments within society. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines. His novel, The Sinner won the 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award. He is also a member of the Horror Writers Association and can be found lurking around Tampa, FL.

“Today, there’s a new generation of horror writers bursting onto the scene, and Jones is one of the leaders of the pack.” –Edward Lee, author of City Infernal, Header, and The Bighead

Novels:
-The Sinner
-The Harvester
-The Drunken Exorcist
-The Charm Hunter
-One Bad Fur Day
-The King’s Ox
-The Crossroads

The Cornelius Correspondence: The Cradle Book Tour: Letter 4 of 5 – #horror #novel #Cradle @JoshuaSkye1

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author gust post, book, Cradle, Crepuscule's Cradle, haunted, Haunting, Horror, Joshua Skye, novel, Sirens Call Publications, Supernatural

 

The Cornelius Correspondence: The Cradle Book Tour:
Letter 4 of 5

by Joshua Skye

Dear Joshua,

One hopes one’s letter reaches you while in a pleasant state of mind. If you’re not, so be it. Someone or something has been scratching at the chamber door for hours this evening, so one finds oneself without much concern for your emotional well-being at this time. Oh dear, did that sound catty, in any way unkind? Allow me an hour’s reprieve.

Two hours have passed and still the scratching continues raking cat-like claws across one’s back, down the spine, sending frosty fingertips over the whole of one’s body. One realizes this is a rather eerie opening to a personal letter, but perhaps your Muse has taken form in this, our correspondence. Please, feel free to use this unnerving discomfort in some future story. Don’t forget a wink or a nod in the dedication.

You might ask why one simply doesn’t fling open the door and investigate, and the answer would have to be a resounding: one doesn’t know. Imaginations run wild and fear becomes addiction after a while. One likes it, like a dog to a bone, moth to a flame, an obsession to a fetishist. Ah, one’s latest fixation… fear. Rather ironic, wouldn’t you say? A Shadow fetishizing shadow. Or maybe it’s just fittingly amusing. Like your Muse, the boogeyman, Krampus, or your favorite porn star, one exists to arouse you, nothing more.

One does admire that you love your characters, even those of unredeeming quality. It makes your stories exponentially more disturbing. How could anyone love a mother… or, more distinctively, Scotty’s mother in the wake of her ghastly neglect? Are you the victim of some sort of variant of Stockholm Syndrome, a childhood pathology that crafts a bond with such a vile parent regardless of said parent’s shortcomings? In fact, your “mommy issues” seem a regular motif in your writing. The relationship between Kincaid and his mother in The Angels of Autumn was dysfunctional as well, though in a resplendently dissimilar way. Love takes on many guises, most of which are just plain unsettling in your world. How bravely and incestuously gothic of you, Joshua.

We’ve corresponded about your main characters, what compels you to bring them to life in all their dysfunctional grandeur, the fact they have eerie similarities to the people you know, but allow one to ask you of monsters. Do they too have origins in entities around you? Your fiends in Angels were truly horrific. I was spellbound by your graphic depictions of those oceanic monstrosities and the vivid transformations from their human forms. What made you deviate from revisiting them in Cradle, though it takes place in the same nightmarish realm?

Dreaming,
Cornelius

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Cradle
Joshua Skye

In the deepest vale of Crepuscule’s Cradle, in the cul-de-sac at the end of Direful Hollow Road, is a once grand Folk-Victorian home known as The Habersham House. It’s a place haunted by far more than rot and neglect – evil dwells here, an evil that craves children.

Eight-year-old Scott Michaels-Greene has a fascination for tales of the strange and unusual, especially local folklore. His favorite story is the one about Habersham House; a ruined old place where many curious children have disappeared.

Hours away from Crepuscule’s Cradle, in Philadelphia, author Radley Barrette has just lost the love of his life to a random act of violence. Amongst his endowments from Danny’s estate is an old house in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Habersham House. Though grief stricken at leaving behind the only home he and Danny had ever known, he knows he cannot remain in the city. Besides, the isolation may be just what he needs to clear his mind of the writer’s block he’s suffering from.

Crepuscule’s Cradle is not as he imagined. The locals are inhospitable. The skeletal forest surrounding it is as unwelcoming as the town. And the house itself – there is something menacing, something angry inhabiting it with him, and it’s hungry. Radley’s world slowly begins to unravel; the fringes of his reality begin to fray. In the midst of his breakdown, a local boy with an unhealthy fascination for Habersham House begins sneaking around and the evil residing within has taken notice.

Blending fantasy with horror, Crepuscule’s Cradle is the darkest of fairy tales. The morbidity of classic folklore and contemporary style weaves a web of slowly encroaching unease. Radley Barrette’ winter bound home is more than a haunted house, and Crepuscule’s Cradle is more than a mere horror tale. It’s a bedtime story that will pull you into its icy embrace, lull you into a disquiet state, and leave you shivering in the dark.

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Cradle is available online at:
Amazon: US | UK | Australia | Canada | Germany | Italy | France | Spain | Japan | Mexico | Brazil | India | The Netherlands

Barnes & Noble (Print & eBook) | Kobo | iTunes | Smashwords

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About the Author – Award winning, bestselling author Joshua Skye was born in Jamestown, New York. Growing up, he split his time between Pennsylvania and Texas. Ultimately he settled in the DFW area with his partner, Ray – of nearly two decades, and their son Syrian. They share their lives with two dogs, Gizmo and Gypsy, and a chinchilla named Bella. Skye’s short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies including Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed, and periodicals such as The Sirens Call. He is the author of over ten critically acclaimed novels, among them The Angels of Autumn that takes place in the same nightmarish universe as Cradle.

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Open Submissions: Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s View – #horror #zombie #anthology @CdnZmbiRytr @GlorBobrowicz

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A Zombie's View, Anthology, authors wanted, open call, SCP, short stories, Sirens Call Publications, Through Clouded Eyes, writers wanted, Zombie

Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s View

We’re looking for short stories of horror fiction told from the zombie’s point of view. We will consider different, intriguing, and creative spins on the multiple zombie mythos that currently exist. There are many fine zombie oriented anthologies already published, but we’re putting a spin on ours – at least 75% of the story must be told as the zombie from the zombie’s perspective.

We’re giving the undead a chance to tell their tale through your words!

We will not be accepting the following:

• Fan fiction of any variety – no characters, names, places, or homage pieces.
• Preexisting characterization from a story, novella, novel, or series you write.
• Love stories (no matter how fantastic yours is) – this is a horror only anthology.

We encourage you to be as unique as you’d like and bring a new viewpoint to those who have suffered or perhaps sought ZOMBIFICATION!

If you have questions about the details for the call, please write to submissions@sirenscallpublications.com before beginning your piece.

***

Submission Deadline: June 1, 2015 (midnight PST)

Word Count: minimum 4,000 words; maximum: 8,000 words (anything outside that range will be automatically rejected).

Payment: $25 per story selected for inclusion.

Copyright: First time worldwide copyright for a period of one year after publication.

Reprints will NOT be considered.

All submissions MUST be submitted to: Submissions@SirensCallPublications.com

***

Evaluation period: We expect to have the stories read and chosen within two months of the closing date. We strive to move through the decision making process as quickly and fairly as possible. If we find ourselves overwhelmed with submissions, we’ll contact the submitting authors to inform them of any delay.

Visit Sirens Call Publications for further guidelines and details!

Mental Ward: Experiments – Open Call for Submissions #horror #fiction

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Anthology, Experiments, Horror, Mental Ward, open call, Sirens Call Publications, Submissions

Due to a payment structure change at Sirens Call Publications, we’ve reopened our call for stories of experiments taking place in a mental ward. Here’s what we’re looking for –

Mental Ward: Experiments (A Horror Anthology)

The elevator doors open, the lights are flickering, the gurney is wheeled into a dank, dimly-lit hallway well below ground. Does the Doctor have the patient’s best interests at heart, or is something more nefarious going on? How does the staff figure out what treatments are most effective and which are not?

In our other two Mental Ward collections, we asked you to tell us what happened above ground in the institute itself; what memories of the past were trapped in the abandoned hallways; now we’re asking you to tell us what goes on behind closed doors. The secret experiments that are feared and whispered about among the patients. Tell us what unthinkable things greed, the corruption of power, and the desire to be remembered will drive a Doctor to do to the unfortunate patients left in their care.

Tell your tale from whoever’s perspective you’d like, just make sure the story you tell is a depraved one.

Note: This is a reopened anthology. This is also a HORROR anthology. Your story must contain the following three elements to be considered for inclusion:

• Your story must take place in a Mental Asylum or Institution.
• Your story must involve individuals from the Asylum: doctors, nurses, patients, maintenance staff, etc.
• Your story must contain what would be considered an inhumane experiment that is physically performed.

Submission Deadline: March 1, 2015

Word Count: minimum 4,000 words; maximum: 8,000 words.

Payment: $25 per story selected for inclusion.

Copyright: First time worldwide copyright for a period of one year after publication.

Reprints will NOT be considered.

Please view our website for full guidelines and submission requirements – www.SirensCallPublications.com

Guest Post with Author Aiden Truss

Tags

Aiden Truss, Amazon, book, dark fiction, Demons, Gape, Horror, novel, Rose, Sirens Call Publications

My Demons

Having my novel Gape, published is the realisation of an almost life-long dream. Seriously, if I lost my hands in a bizarre gardening accident and was no longer able to type, I’d put my stumps up and say, ‘You know, it’s OK, because I had my book published!’

Obviously, I could dictate stories to an assistant or into a computer system – or even grasp a crayon between my elbows if it came down to it, but you get what I mean don’t you?

Being an avid and compulsive reader, it seems to make sense that I’d end up trying to write something myself. I started off with poetry, short stories and even a screenplay for the world’s worst horror film ever, but eventually I decided to go for something with a bit of substance.

In a perverse way, it helped that I was working at the world’s worst job; working in a call centre for a utilities company. It was fine while I was training, but after a month I realised I’d made a huge mistake. I had to take twenty calls an hour from irate customers while being told to sell them things that they didn’t want or need. Additionally, the management would stalk the floor between cubicles shouting ‘Phones!’ whenever the electronic call total on the wall rose above a certain level. Even lavatory breaks were timed and you were castigated if you took too long.

Some plants thrive in the worst environments. In one way my mental state was deteriorating, but at the same time, I couldn’t stop writing and I was flowering under the worst possible circumstances.

I’m not saying that I was making great art or anything, but I found my release. The small needle on the meter in my brain box was dancing over in the red full time and I was even diagnosed with clinical depression. The writing didn’t stop though. The people around me became demons and the worst kind of monsters – the cast for my nascent stories. I must have started seven or eight narratives that never really amounted to anything. I’d get these really great, ideas, or so I thought, but I’d never have the stamina to see them through to the end.

Fast-forward a few years and I was in a better place (physically and mentally), and I got bitten by the writing bug again. I picked up a fragment of a manuscript printed on what must have been the old dot-matrix printer I had with my Commodore Amiga. It had no title, but had ‘Copyright 2001 – Astolath’ in large capitals on the front page.

The technology had moved on so I started to transcribe it into MS Word. In doing so, I read it as if it had been written by someone else and it actually seemed pretty good after a bit of time and distance. I added to the story and got as far as finishing about eighty or so pages. And then it went back in to a drawer to yellow and to gather dust.

A period of redundancy a year and a half ago meant that I had time on my hands. This time I was determined to actually finish something. I started to write what I thought was a good idea for a novel. It was a semi-autobiographical piece on growing up as a geek and relying on science fiction to get me through the hard times in my life. This time I reached two hundred pages before the doubt crept in, whispering I was writing something that no one would want to read.

While looking for copywriting jobs online, I stumbled across a call for submissions from an independent US publisher. I dusted off my 2001 piece, now re-titled Gape, as this is what I had done when I first re-read the piece (I worked the theme into the story later on of course).

With a shaking digit, I hit ‘send’ in the hope of just soliciting an opinion as to whether my work had any redeeming features. In the end, I was lucky to have Gape picked up by Sirens Call Publications.

It was validation I hadn’t been wasting all my time. And ironically, it would be my inner demons that would redeem me through their presence in my novel. Every one of whom I have known personally, either in their human form or in their more hellish incarnation.

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Gape by Aiden Truss

Synopsis:

When Rose woke up in her favourite shop doorway, she was resigned to yet another day of hunger, struggle and abuse. This was life on the streets after all.

What she wasn’t prepared for, was a visit from a demon, an invitation back to his temporally insubstantial sanctuary, and forced to take sides in a battle involving most of the denizens of hell. Oh, and a boat trip down the river Thames.

After a disappointing start to the day, things were about to get a bit more interesting…

Where to purchase GAPE:
Amazon: US, UK, CANADA
CreateSpace, Smashwords

Author Bio:

Aiden Truss is a forty one year-old geek who still thinks that he’s twenty-one. Despite never having grown up, he’s now been married for twenty four years and has two sons who have grown up against all odds to be strangely well adjusted.

Aiden spends his time flitting between high and low culture: he holds an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies and can often be seen stalking the galleries and museums of London, but also likes watching WWE, listening to heavy metal music, collecting comic books and playing classic video games.

Aiden lives in Kent, England and Gape is his first novel.