Synopsis: In a city built on myth and soaked in rain, truth is the most dangerous thing you can find.
When a women’s corpse explodes in the rain outside the Temple and floods half the Hill, Mara Raven is pulled away from the search for her missing husband and back into the job she never for: using her strange Power to fish for killers in a city rotting from the inside out.
Mara Raven doesn’t believe in gods or monsters. The only thing she puts her faith in is the dream-sea — an eerie, otherworldly current only she can dive into, dragging up secrets others prefer to stay buried. The Temple wants silence, preferring to pray to the Slaughtered Ones, long dead ancestors Mara doesn’t believe ever existed. The constables want results. And someone else, known only as the Revealer, wants to open the ancient Gate to the so-called Abode of the Ancestors, an act which may prove disastrous.
As the city drowns in its myths and murder, Mara follows a trail of blood, lies, and twisted devotion as nightmares from the dream-sea begin to bleed into reality. A seal has been broken. Something is coming through that Gate, and it’s not forgiveness for the city’s sins.
Dark, hallucinatory, and sharp as broken glass, A Tale of Three Cities is a speculative noir mystery for readers who like their heroines mad, bad, and haunted.
About the Author
Born in Ukraine and currently residing in California, Elana Gomel is an academic with a long list of books and articles, an award-winning writer, and a professional nomad. She has taught in Israel, Italy, and the US, and is known in the academy for her (purely theoretical) interest in serial killers, alien invasions, and rebellious AIs.
Her upcoming academic publication is Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. She is the author of more than a hundred stories, several novellas, and five novels of dark fantasy and dark science fiction. Several of her stories appeared in Best of the Year anthologies. Her most recent publications are Nigtwood, a novel of fairy tales and exile, and the collection My Lady of Plagues and Other Gothic Fairy Tales. She is a member of HWA.
People, planes, an entire military base—all have gone missing, transported to an ever-changing cosmic kaleidoscope where they’re hunted, haunted, recruited, and cursed, trapped in time and terrorized by forces they can’t comprehend.
A man afraid of flying boards a never-ending flight. An online paranormal show’s investigation takes a bloody detour. A woman on the run is recruited by a mysterious corporation with nefarious plans. An army guard fights for his life when the military opens a doorway they can’t close.
In An Hour Before Dark, Larry Hinkle returns to the Trail with ten interconnected tales that deepen the mystery while expanding the mythos.
Watch your step on the Trail. It will be dark soon.
About the author:
Larry Hinkle is still probably the least famous writer you’ve never heard of. A copywriter living with his wife and two doggos somewhere in America, when he’s not writing stories that scare people into peeing their pants, he writes ads that scare people into buying adult diapers, so they’re not caught peeing their pants.
His newest collection, An Hour Before Dark, comes out in February, 2026. His cosmic horror novella, The Eris Ridge Trail, was released to great reviews in March 2025, while his debut collection, The Space Between, was published in February 2024. His short stories made the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards (horror’s highest honor) in 2020 and 2022. His stories have also appeared in The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks; The Rack II: More Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks; October Screams: A Halloween Anthology; and multiple times on The NoSleep Podcast, among others.
He’s an active member of the HWA; a graduate of Fright Club and Crystal Lake’s Author’s Journey short story and novella programs; an HWA mentee; and a survivor of the Borderlands Writers Bootcamp.
Every city has places you don’t go after dark. Carver House is one of them.
After a concert in 1984, three suburban friends take a wrong turn into Carver Heights—a neighborhood where the streetlights don’t work and the buildings lean like corpses. When they spot a barefoot boy wandering alone in the cold, they stop to help.
Big mistake.
The address he gives leads to Carver House: a rotting apartment tower where hallways shift behind your back, stairwells spiral into nothing, and doors open onto things that should not exist. The lights don’t work. The air smells like old sickness. And something is hunting them in the dark.
As Jamie, Todd, and Wendy search for an exit, the building twists around them—deeper, darker, stranger. The boy wasn’t lost.
He was bait.
And Carver House doesn’t let go.
Some detours lead you home. This one doesn’t.
A nightmare of living architecture for fans of Scott Smith’s The Ruins, Adam Nevill’s The Ritual, and readers who crave 80s horror nostalgia with cosmic dread.
About the Author
Jonathan Daniel writes horror that breaks you.
Madness. Monsters. Blood. His books deliver relentless scares for readers who want darkness, visceral violence, and characters pushed past their limits.
He got hooked on horror after reading Pet Sematary way too young (thanks for the nightmares, Dad). These days he lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and hyperactive Boston Terrier, Buster—brewing beer, binging 80s slashers, and trying to convince people that creature features are high art.
Subscribe to Unspeakable Encounters and join The Unhinged at: byjonathandaniel.com
From the twisted mind that brought you the short crime thriller, 1+1=3, comes a love story unlike any other!
READ!! The steamy scene between Azrael and Morrigan in their car!
FEAR!! The fake cop who kidnaps them!
RECOIL!! From the gore!
ENRAGE!! At the feeling of seeing a show but being seated in front of a post.
PLUS
WHY…Is there a walk-in freezer in the fake cop’s basement?
WHAT…secret is the fake cop hiding?
WHAT…are Azrael and Morrigan?
All these questions are answered in LOVE BITES, the new Paranormal Romance story from Kieran Ferrara
Content Warning: Due to depictions of sex, violence, gore, and foul language, this eBook is not recommended for anyone under the age of 17. By purchasing this eBook, you do not hold the author responsible for anything that may happen and acknowledge that you are at least 17 years old.
Click on the cover to get your copy now!
About the Author
Kieran Ferrara spent aeons lying dormant before taking corporeal form. With a BA in Creative Writing and English from Southern New Hampshire University, he will use his writings to spread havoc across the cosmos.
When not writing, Kieran enjoys spending time with his wife (The Great Priestess) and two children (Thing 1 and Thing 2). He is the editor of No Happy Endings: A Grimdark Anthology as well as the owner/proprietor of Nobody’s Knightmare Press.
I have officially finished a story that began in 1991. Three books that took more than 34 years to finish has drawn to a close. My Shadows of the Past trilogy is finally complete. I didn’t actually spend that much time writing each book. It was really a matter of letting myself get side tracked between each one. (Squirrel LOL).
Adversary, the very first book I ever wrote, and the first in the trilogy, took me three years to complete. In contrast I wrote Parasite, book two in three months. Last year I decided I was going to finish this trilogy once and for all and began work on Assimilation.
By the end of this week, I plan to release all three. Each one has been reworked to fall into line with the story, updated with new covers and brand new descriptions that will make sense now that everything is done. I do hope you’ll check them out, and if it’s something you like to read maybe you’ll give me a chance with the first book.
Adversary
Synopsis: Haunted by the violent death of his wife, Washington, D.C. homicide detective Sam Hardin struggles with his relationship with his two children, and the bottle. Called to investigate a murder he discovers a connection to an alleged mob boss, and the theft of an ancient artifact discovered in Antarctica. The artifact, a knife, contains an alien power that affects anyone who comes into contact with it.
Jack Griffith served his country in the middle east, losing a leg in the process, and was recently diagnosed with cancer. While clearing a clogged sewer drain he is stabbed by the stolen knife and becomes possessed by an ancient entity that seeks to end the rule of man. His transformation leads him on a violent rampage. His fury focused on a brain damaged four-year-old he believes is the embodiment of his old adversary who holds the secrets of the universe.
The boy’s death could open the passageway between the shadows of the past and present day, allowing old gods to rise to power once again. The only thing standing in his way is Sam Hardin. Guilt, redemption, and the supernatural weave together as Sam and Jack’s paths converge in a climactic showdown from which only one of them will survive.
Parasite
Synopsis: When bullied teen Anthony finally stands up to his tormentor Randy, a violent confrontation leads to a tragic accident. Something ancient and inhuman awakens in the aftermath. As Randy’s broken body is invaded by a bizarre, otherworldly parasite, a wave of grotesque transformations and unexplained violence sweeps through Garret County, Maryland.
Deputy Sam Hardin, haunted by his own past encounters with the supernatural, is drawn into a spiraling nightmare as children go missing, birth defects surge, and a strange, predatory animal stalks the woods. Meanwhile, a prospector in Tennessee stumbles upon a buried alien machine, and a series of grisly incidents across the country hint at a spreading infection that threatens all of humanity.
Told through the intersecting lives of traumatized families, desperate law enforcement, and ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, Parasite explores the terrifying consequences of an ancient evil unleashed. As the parasite’s influence grows, turning victims into hosts and spawning monstrous hybrids. Sam and his gifted son Frankie must confront the horror head-on, racing against time to contain a threat that could spell the end of mankind.
Blending small-town drama, cosmic horror, and relentless suspense, Parasite is a gripping tale of survival, sacrifice, and the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of everyday life.
Assimilation
Synopsis: In the Pacific Northwest, a mysterious alien infection threatens to consume humanity from within. Haunted by the loss of his family, ex-cop Sam Hardin and his gifted son Frankie are on the run, hunting the monstrous creatures unleashed by an ancient artifact. They cross paths with a cast of survivors—a determined crime scene analyst, a traumatized boy, a battle-hardened Marine, and everyday townsfolk—they must confront not only the relentless, shape-shifting enemy but also the darkness within themselves.
When a small town is sealed off by a force field and overrun by infected townspeople and monstrous offspring, the survivors make a desperate last stand at Peskins’ gun shop. With resources dwindling and hope fading, Sam and his allies devise a daring plan to destroy the alien machine fueling the invasion. Sacrifices are made, alliances are tested, and the line between human and monster blurs as the group fights for survival.
As the military closes in and the truth about the infection emerges, the survivors must decide who to trust, and what they’re willing to become to save the world. In the aftermath, the battle continues in the shadows, hinting that the threat may never truly be gone.
Assimilation is a harrowing tale of courage, loss, and the enduring will to resist extinction, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Michael Crichton.
I would also like to thank Sharon Rivet from the Indie cover group on Facebook for the killer idea.
Richard Schiver 