Humorous Horror

More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. The three divorcées - Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie - have left town, remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada, Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance. Why not, Sukie and Jane ask Alexandra, go back to Eastwick for the summer?

Dead Clown Barbecue is a collection of 29 gleefully macabre tales, seven of which were written just for this collection. There’s even a brand-new one about a ventriloquist dummy. Those things creep you out, right?

Wynn Powe comes from a long line of powerful women, but when an elusive enemy draws too close for comfort, Wynn pursues a creature who can put an end to the fight. But when the powerful Guardian she calls forth makes her heart beast faster and her breath quicken, she must handle something she didn't count on at all - an earth-shattering attraction to the monster himself. Enter Knox. He may be a newly summoned gargoyle, but he possesses all the skills and memories of his race...and that includes protecting the beautiful woman he's bound to.

Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners. But the final wishes of the Keeper of Lost Things have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters....

In this short story from the novel “SuperHero – Retirement”, a recently retired SuperHero gives a young SuperHero lessons on humility.

Messina, Noah, and I headed off to Chicago for a little TLC involving "stumping" some vampires. While in the Windy City, the cannibals blew back into our path, and everything started going downhill from there. A rest-stop massacre, Stacks' penchant for getting his ass in a sling, a drunk witch armed with a tube of cookie dough, firebombing explosions, Tom Waits, a hunter dive bar, demonic kid hitchhikers, throwing bodies in dumpsters, and run-ins with two of my exes.

After everything that went down in Nevada, to say that we were reeling was an understatement. Now, I’ve got an additional little liability riding around with me, an Archeri on the loose, some cryptic clues from a dead god, a supernatural CPA to find, Death, Disneyland, kidnappers in polo shirts, angels, and a new conspiracy theory from Stacks and Luke that might just be true. Trust me when I say the working man has nothing on an armed and sleep-deprived working woman.

ONE Girl & SIX Men! Some Girls Can Take the HEAT! And Keep Coming Back for MORE!!! Going ALL in with ALL HOLES FILLED by strangers who just happen to be firefighters! A free-spirited nymph where anything goes, Suzi takes one for the gang! After her MFM night with two hot guys, Suzi has to come up with an idea to get with even more guys at the SAME time… for even more pleasure the answer is a Reverse Harem… and she knows just the HOT guys to make her fantasy a trill!!! Sexy coed Suzi is anything but shy, and at nineteen she’s ready to take on the entire fire department … all six of ...

Bestselling author Jason Hutchinson is at it again! By day, Brian is a talented, yet low-tier IT consultant... ...by night? Well, he's generally even less than that! Living in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Brian's job sucks, his boss is overbearing, and he doesn't see much future in it. That is, until he walks into the halls of MCC, Magical Community College. Things are going well, at least until his first class session. He might have been a little bit distracted by gorgeous Pandora, the hot and overly-curious subject of his magical history class and allowed her to open ...

Since 1985, more than 500 overweight teenagers have come to Camp Wašíču looking to lose weight, gain self-confidence, and turn their lives around. Phillip McCracken arrives, weighing in at almost 400 pounds; but the baggage he carries from the past affects him much more deeply than the numbers of the scale. When a homicidal maniac hell-bent on revenge attacks, Phillip will be forced to either find the courage to save the people around him or fall victim to his own self-doubt...and possibly a machete.

Damian Stockwell was raised from birth to be a force for good. Trained to combat the evils of the world and blessed with the physique of a demigod, he travels the globe on a quest to confront evil and punch it in the face. At his disposal is a vast fortune, an endless array of gadgets, and an army of loyal allies. The year is 1937. A mysterious curse has possessed Stockwell's friend, and nothing will stop him from dishing out justice one fist at a time. From the bowels of the darkest jungle to the armpit of the Statue of Liberty, there is no place that evil can hide from Damian Stockwell.

In this story from the novel, “SuperHero – Retirement”, when a recently retired SuperHero in his Alternative Identity meets his daughter’s father-in-law to be sparks fly.

It's not really about the boots … or is it? Boot Points is a set of short tales about Violet Parker's purple boots. It is set in the story time between the third and fourth books in the Deadwood Mystery series. Each tale not only explains more of Violet's history, but also shows the role each character plays in Violet's life. In addition to this short story, there is a deleted scene from Nearly Departed in Deadwood, the first book in the Deadwood Mystery Series.

Welcome to another kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven exquisite tales of living, dying, and the terror that lies in between.

Jaunty the Clown just wants to entertain families with lighthearted slapstick antics, but people think of clowns as terrifying, nightmarish creatures who hide in closets or under beds. When Jaunty, along with his fellow performers, are fired from the circus, they're told that the world just doesn't like clowns anymore. Still, clowns have to eat. And since these clowns don't eat children, to make ends meet they're eventually forced to take a job in a popular haunted attraction, the Mountain of Terror. But millions of oversized spiders are about to invade....

Tom Rittenhouse is in over his head. After only one season, his best friend Lord Justyn is leaving him to run their dinner theater alone. With seven days to perfect their production of Franken-freak, Tom braves a Nor’easter on his birthday to lead their first dress rehearsal. To add to his stress, the set is plagued by strange accidents and mysterious messages. When an employee vanishes, Tom fears one of his feuding castmates may be out for blood. With danger, ghosts, and nylon stockings around every corner, this is certain to be a birthday Tom will never forget.

In this short story from the novel, “SuperHero- Retirement”, recently retired Arch-Villains can’t help themselves. It’s so good to be bad.

In this story from the novel, “SuperHero – Retirement”, retired SuperHeroes Trisha & Winston learn the hard way why their daughter told them not to give her kids sugar, while they babysat them as she went off to save the world.

They were sisters... when one calls on Satan for revenge the other is willing to assist. With a deadly combination of black magic and teenage hormones, the girls soon get what they asked for and more!

The witch of Tophet County has three primary preoccupations: Kentucky bourbon, Amish romance novels . . . and protecting her true identity from the chthonic monsters who rule humanity with an iron tentacle. Despite her best efforts to get fired, the witch is trapped in a draconian, century-long contract that condemns her to work for the Archons of the Nether Realms in the banal misery of county government. But when she accidentally pleases her many-armed overlords, the Dread Lord of Human Resources curses her with an unwanted promotion. And it involves meetings.