Today is the one year anniversary of an exciting series of books from Demain Publishing. To celebrate 22 books from the Short Short Shocks! series will be FREE for you to download from Amazon. A list of the qualifying titles are below.
I’d love to hear which of the titles you have claimed. Maybe let me know in a tweet #ShortSharpShocks
Short Sharp Shocks! #2
The Stranger & The Ribbon: Tim Dry
Abusive, out of control drunkenness, a dreadful accident, sexual desire, hallucinations, cigarettes, two daughters whose father is a shape-shifting alien, a house that constantly remodels itself, heads will roll and more, so much more. Welcome to the dark imagination of writer, actor and musician, Tim Dry!
Short Sharp Shocks! #4
Monster Beach: Ritchie Valentine Smith
From author Ritchie Valentine Smith: “People often ask where writers’ ideas come from. In the case of Monster Beach I can be specific: from the north coast of Cuba. After a torrential tropical storm had flooded much of the resort where I was staying, I heard shouting from outside. One of the staff was fighting a very large black crab with a long stick. The crab was a true pugilist, hitting out with its claws, left, then right, then left again, always scuttling aggressively forward. A larger crab might have killed, I thought… That is now in Monster Beach – along with other beautiful monsters – in an eerie setting I use in my fantasy novel Words of Fury.”
Short Sharp Shocks! #6
Every Moon Atrocious: Emile-Louis Tomas Jouvet
Headline of L’Echo: Saturday 22nd December 2018
“Tragedy of local shipping magnate. Police Corruption. Three Dead. Mother of murdered girl arrested.”
Celestine Theret has been murdered and someone has to pay in Book 6 of the Short Sharp Shocks! Series Every Moon Atrocious by Emile-Louis Tomas Jouvet.
Set in Calais, northern France and taking a novel approach, the kidnapping, ransom, murder and subsequent investigation into Celestine’s death is recounted via answer machine messages, tape recordings, cctv footage, emails and written evidence.
Inspector Descartes of the Calais prefecture is convinced that the man sitting in front of him, Yohan Duvall, is responsible for a young girl’s kidnapp.
But despite all the evidence stacked against him, Yohan isn’t playing ball and constantly denies everything.
Then the body of Celestine Theret is found and his confidence begins to crumble.
Will Descartes be able to solve the crime and is Duvall responsible? Because if he isn’t…who is?
Read Every Moon Atrocious to find out.
Short Sharp Shocks! #9
The Other: David M. Youngquist
David Youngquist writes about ‘The Other’: “A lot of writers don’t really know where they get their ideas. I admit most times I don’t either. It’s usually an organic thing where several ideas kind of gel into one storyline. In the case of ‘The Other,’ there actually were things which inspired it: I did used to teach, when Fay and I first married; after that I worked second shift at a local factory for five years. Many nights found me up late grading papers, and then after working a late shift and getting home past midnight, I would often be awake into the wee hours of the morning. I am one of those people who can’t just come home and jump into bed, so I stayed up working on a writing project or something. There were several times, I heard something in my garage, like someone rustling around working on something in there, but when I would go to check on it, the garage would be empty except for Fay’s car. I always wanted to expand on this happening as a story, so ‘The Other’ is my offering to that.”
Short Sharp Shocks! #11
Shattered: Anthony Watson
Set during three different time periods, the story begins in Vienna 1938 on Kristallnacht with the Nazis flexing their muscles by dispatching the Brownshirts to smash the windows of Jewish owned businesses. “Shattered” then takes several leaps back in time to tell the history of one of those windows in particular and why breaking it was the worst possible thing anybody could have done…
Short Sharp Shocks! #20
Plain: David T. Griffith
Essy is released from a psychiatric hospital after orchestrating her mother’s death a few years earlier. She moves to the neighboring town, where she can continue therapy with her psychiatrist. In pursuit of an idealistic happiness and normalcy, she finds herself both haunted and driven by those she hurt…
Short Sharp Shocks! #21
Supermassive Black Mass: Matthew R. Davis
In 1971, the wicked cult of science-sorceress Thelma O’Therion vanished from Oddfellows Observatory – and rumour is that the place has been growing ever since. Now, in the name of love, stoner-metal singer Terrance will discover the madness that lies within its walls – a terror transcending time, space, and sanity itself…
Short Sharp Shocks! #22
Whispers Of The Sea & Other Stories: L.R. Bonehill
Playing with Dolly:
Vivian has lost everything she ever cared about, is torn apart by grief. All she wants is for her daughter not to be alone, all she wants is to be a mother and to love unconditionally…in whatever way she can.
Whispers of the Sea:
Michael knows that words have power, knows that stories can conceal secrets and rituals. The whispers he hears on the midnight tide offer dark promises…can they really bring back the dead?
The Beachcomber:
A stranger on a beach carries a bag weighted down with loss… but what else does he collect and can he really help David let go of his own pain?
Short Sharp Shocks! #23
Magic: Eric Nash
Ex-con Grange races against the shape-shifting terrors of the Wild Hunt for one last chance to see his daughter. Old magic is comin’ to town in the latest addition to the Short Sharp Shock book series…
Short Sharp Shocks! #24
The Plague: R.J. Meldrum
In a small, isolated Russian village, nestled in the foothills of the Ural Mountains, children are being struck down with a strange new disease during an unseasonal dry winter. The village priest and local doctor soon discover the cause of this plague and realise they will not only have to battle a supernatural monster, but the villagers themselves, to free the village from the curse.
Short Sharp Shocks! #25
Candy Corn: Kevin M. Folliard
On Halloween, 13-year-old outcast Blake is lured into the home of the sociopathic Candy Cornfield and her lobotomized husband Carl. Chained to the wall in the Cornfields’ basement dungeon, Blake must act out the role of Candy’s ideal fantasy son, play her strange party games, and use his limited resources to regain his freedom – before he ends up like the frozen head in the freezer.
Short Sharp Shocks! #26
The Elixir: Lee Allen Howard
Pauly needs cash – NOW – for a fix. When he encounters Belia Demkakova, he negotiates to do yardwork for her. But the old woman has something that can erase his withdrawal symptoms. At a price. What will Pauly give to be free of his addiction? More than he bargained for!
Short Sharp Shocks! #32
Apples & Snail Trails: Russell Smeaton
Apples is a tale of a father and daughter finding themselves; Apples is a short dive into the horrors to be found in the English Countryside
In Snail Trails, Dave and the love of his life―Walter the dog―out on a walk one day discover all the snails, slugs and worms heading towards the hills. Dave and his faithful friend investigate. So begins the apocalypse…
Short Sharp Shocks! #34
The Necessary Evils & Sick Girl: Dan Weatherer
From award-winning writer Dan Weatherer comes two new stories ‘The Necessary Evils’ and ‘Sick Girl’.
Talking about both stories Dan said: “Where to start…they are different…they explore the themes of religion pressed upon me from an early age…they incorporate family. They are deeply personal tales. [In particular in ‘The Necessary Evils’] The two characters are based on (and named after) my two children. As a parent I’ve often looked at the world and worried as to the horrors they will inevitably be exposed to at some point in their lives. This tale is how I see them now, innocent and protected from evil. It is how (like many a parent, I imagine) I’d like them to remain.”
Short Sharp Shocks! #36
The Camp Creeper & Other Stories: Dave Jeffery
“The Camp Creeper” – three exciting horror stories by Dave Jeffery
The Camp Creeper
A scout troop is haunted by heavy footfalls and growling in the night. One scout is determined to find out if one of their number isn’t who they appear to be. No matter what the consequences…
Guess What We’re Having For Supper?
A lost Outward-Bound group are starving, stalked by something lurking in the moorland fog. Two of the team leaders go off to get help but fail to return. Then the snarling in the mist begins…
Cross Your Heart…
An act of remembrance, the memory of a terrible mistake, and a plea for forgiveness doomed to fall on undead ears …
Short Sharp Shocks! #37
Flayed Sins: Ian Woodhead
“Flayed Sins” by Ian Woodhead
From a young age, Selma Feist was abused, humiliated and bullied. Would this emotional and physical torture define her existence or would there ever be a light at the end of this tunnel?
If there was then perhaps it was a bright blue light? An unknown entity silently promising her revenge on everybody who had ever done her harm―for a price.
Naturally.
Short Sharp Shocks! #38
Hearts & Bones: Theresa Derwin
“Hearts & Bones” a collection of two short stories by 2019 HWA Mary Shelley Scholarship recipient, Theresa Derwin.
Of ‘Doris’ Theresa recently said: “Well, I decided to write my own interpretation of the Harlan Ellison story ‘A Boy and his Dog’ but with a woman instead.”
And ‘Fruit Of The Womb’, a Christmas story gone wrong – inspired by a Partridge in a Pear Tree. As Theresa herself says: “I love Christmas horror. And it’s a bit of a folk horror involving the idea of fertility.”
Short Sharp Shocks! #40
The Coffin Walk: Richard Farren Barber
When Harry leads a small gang of ghosthunters into The Coffin Walk they expect another quiet evening, but as a mysterious figure follows them, and eerie sounds escape from the recording equipment, the evening turns into something darker…
Short Sharp Shocks! #41
The Straitjacket In The Woods: Kitty R. Kane
When Abi and Jay lose a game at Halloween, their friends have a challenge for them. Simply enter the deep forest where a legendary crazy woman named Pendulous Sedge is said to live, obtain a trophy and bring it back.
Nothing however can prepare them for what they find after spotting a blood covered straitjacket hanging from a tree…
Short Sharp Shocks! #42
Heart Of Stone: M. Brandon Robbins
There’s a table in the basement, and there’s a heart on it.
A desperate lover has done a desperate thing, and it’s only the beginning.
Short Sharp Shocks! #43
Bits: R.A. Busby
Elementary schoolteacher Nadie Denneby is having a terrible day. Not only has her car been wrecked on the way to work, but she feels like she’s falling apart―literally.
At first it’s just a tooth.
Then a finger.
How many bits of herself can she lose?
Short Sharp Shocks! #44
Last Meal In Osaka & Other Stories: Gary Buller
Last Meal In Osaka & Other Stories by Gary Buller, containing:
Swashbuckle Cove:
Swashbuckle Cove is a closed-for-repair boat ride in a dying seaside resort. Harry Bootle and his brother climb aboard for one last ride, but little do they know what lies beneath the surface.
Or how hungry it is.
Last Meal in Osaka:
Influential billionaire Curtis Makin, bored of the finer things in life, books a table at the secretive and exclusive restaurant ‘Ouroboros.’ Will the experience be as good as he hoped?
Or will ‘Ouroboros’ claim its pound of flesh?
Rise of the Chiggy-Pigs:
“Don’t touch, whatever you do,” dad said. “If you do, you might just turn into one.” They live at the bottom of the garden, in the cold damp, feasting silently on decay, but someone is about to disturb them…
…and learn a very important lesson.
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