Body Horror

Since the zombie invasion, the island of Manhattan has been turned into a wintery wasteland. The Zombie King has arrived in search of a mythical Opener. A human who can create a bridge to the land of the dead and unleash all its horrors on earth. But, who is the mysterious Giant, and why can no one get onto the island of Manhattan? Then we take a trip to the carnival and learn the origins of the Dead-Killer and why he wants the Zombie King dead forever. And finally, where does the Vamp get her tattoos? And why are they so important?

Electrifying, erotic, terrifying - the fourth novel in the Vampire Chronicles is as rich, as violent, as sensual as the runaway best sellers that precede it. The burden of immortality is weighing upon the vampire Lestat. In a desperate bid to end his everlasting life, he attempts suicide by flying into the sunrise above the Gobi Desert. The attempt fails, but it intensifies his desire to be human again. Just as Lestat resigns himself to the body of a killer, he is approached by the body thief, a creature who covets Lestat's monstrous power and can give him what he wants.

It's midnight. Turn out the lights, cuddle with your true love, and shiver to fright-meisters Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. P. Lovecraft. Quicken your pulse with the elegant terror of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Guy de Maupassant. Chortle at the black glee of H. H. Munro and Ambrose Bierce.

After his first Holy Communion, a boy secretly builds his own Jesus out of communion wafers and the flesh of his dad. On Halloween night, his Jesus shall rise. After a tragic death, a girl tends to the Cemetery of the Innocents, a memorial to the holocaust of abortion and children killed before their time. On Halloween night, the children shall live, and they need to be fed.

Scullery drudge Ann longs to become a lady's maid. Ann can't quite remember how or when she arrived at the grand Ropner Hall, but she loathes spending her days toiling in the dank kitchen. When a chance meeting with Ropner's Lady Charlotte leads to the opportunity to become her personal maid, Ann is convinced she has finally escaped her own version of hell. But has she?

Clancy Reynolds is about to propose to the woman of his dreams, but she dumps him for another man before he has the chance. Blinded by rage, he decides to take matters in his own hands. The plan ends in tragedy, and he's sent to a psychiatric hospital where his caretakers ask him to be part of a secret experiment. In exchange, he will have his freedom if he survives.

This is a story from the The Body Snatcher and Other Stories collection.

They stalk their prey from deep in the menacing shadows, poised and ready to strike at the penultimate moment. Their victims unexpecting, unaware, until they wake in dark rooms, dank basements, or on chilly floors stained with the rotting blood of other hapless victims. The stench fills their nostrils and permeates their pores, the bile rising up in their burning throats. They scream and try to escape, but all attempts are futile. Fear dances like spiders down their spines as they hear ominous footsteps approaching — their eyes spread wide in horror as they realize the end is near.

The Body Artist begins with normality: breakfast between a married couple, Lauren and Rey, in their ramshackle rented house on the New England coast. Recording their delicate, intimate, half-complete thoughts and words, Don DeLillo proves himself a stunningly unsentimental observer of our idiosyncratic relationships. But after breakfast, Rey makes a decision that leaves Lauren utterly alone, or seems to.

"What we have here, is a collection of mostly independent writers tapping into the dark side, all writing on the Barkeresque theme of 'body enhancements gone bad,' surgically, chemically, whatever. ... Zippered Flesh 2 turns out to be a jaw-droppingly fine collection of stories." -- C.M. Briggs YET MORE BODY HORROR FICTION So, you loved the first ZIPPERED FLESH anthology? Well, here are yet more tales of body enhancements that have gone horribly wrong! Steroids from Hell. Horrendous piercings. Bizarre brain modifications. Obscene amputations. Facial reconstruction. Self-mutilation. Implants...

The human form is familiar to all of us. We like limbs connected to bodies. Writers of the dark and macabre are not too concerned if that remains the case. Indeed limbs, or rather pieces of the body, sometimes are best written about when not connected. It’s one of our greatest fears. It quite rightly riddles us with a very unsettling feeling. So why then do we turn the page? We’re about to find out.

The year is 2124. Earth’s first faster-than-light starship makes its maiden voyage into the unknown and disappears, only to be declared missing for the better part of two centuries. The ship’s historic first mission was supposed to be simple, just a test of the experimental displacement drive. The crew was supposed to spend seven days in the depths of space, then snap back to Earth to prove a concept, and nothing more. Instead, they find something impossible. They find something that draws them into a struggle against a horror of meat and metal fifty thousand years in the making. AS THE...

Amy’s father has changed… Gone is the loving dad whose little girl was the center of his life, gone is the level headed parent who raised her. This new father’s enthusiasm for living borders on a manic depressive rage. He brags of a newfound verve for living, but instead of discovering life, he only seems intent on devouring it. Below his wildly smiling eyes and officious grins, exists a clenched jaw and brooding temper that threatens to engulf them both if he can’t have all of what he really wants: her.

Something ancient stirs beneath Meadowvale. Something hungry. Wildlife biologist Stella Hartley returns to her hometown after a career-ending scandal, seeking the quiet life she once knew. What she finds instead are dead rabbits drained of blood. Then, the first human victim appears, and Stella discovers a horrifying truth: beneath her quiet hometown, an ancient hunger has awakened. Every hundred years, it transforms ordinary rabbits into blood-drinking killers that hunt with terrifying intelligence. As the creatures swarm the town and her childhood friend Vincent is bitten, Stella finds ...

A small-town librarian witnesses a murder at his local deli, and what had been routine sleep paralysis begins to transform into something far more disturbing. The trauma of holding a dying girl in his arms drives him out of his own body. The town he knows so well is suddenly revealed to him from a whole new perspective. Secrets are everywhere and demons fester behind closed doors. Worst of all, he discovers a serial killer who has been preying on the area for over a century, one capable of traveling with him through his dreams.

"I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~Satisfied Kindle Reader "FIVE STARS!" ~ Multiple Fans "ALICE CROWLEY IS ONE OF OUR BEST LIVING WRITERS!" ~ G. Taylor Married college professor Roxanne Harder has a creepy stalker lurking among her student body -- only he ain't no human. On her way back to her car from a lecture one night, Roxanne finds out just how hungry and desirous this beast-man can be. Right when she is about to be seized and taken, though, a second man-wolf arrives to engage in battle over mating rights and Roxanne's fertile flesh. Now the professor decides to give the victor...

After Ryan makes a horrifying discovery near the Red River, he is confronted by an unexpected guest. Was he followed? Unfortunately, the horrors only escalate from there. Perhaps little Tony Peterson's claim about the existence of an "ape-man" wasn't so farfetched after all.

Horatio Nightingale, private eye, necromancer, pain in Detective Sergeant Jenn Amato’s backside, has a ghost problem. It’s driving him slowly insane. Perhaps the body in the museum will prove to be a suitable distraction.

I grew up in a world of magic. By the time I was ten I understood nature, talked to the trees, and listened to the wind. When the kingdom of men conquered my town, I was murdered by one of my own - the betrayer of my kind. But I didn't stay dead. I woke to find myself in a strange new world called Los Angeles. The only keys to the life I remembered were my father's ring, my unique abilities, and the onslaught of demons that seemed hell-bent on finding me. Now I must learn who I really am, protect my friends, get the girl, and find my way back to my beloved hometown of Orenda.

"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag": In this chilling tale, the protagonist stumbles upon a mysterious bag that harbors something unimaginable. As he grapples with the horrifying reality of what lies within, he confronts his deepest fears and the secrets he has kept hidden. The story explores themes of dread, the unknown, and the consequences of curiosity, leading to a tense climax that challenges the boundaries of sanity and reality.