Accepted Poem To Be Published, Another Story To Be Out and Monster Fest Photos

First, you can see the photo I have here and others from Monster Fest: Son of Monster Fest where I was a guest at Monster Fest: Son of Monster Fest .
I had an acceptance for a Halloween poem for Wild Child Publishing's Halloween Poetry contest. It will also be published by them October 25th. The poem is called "Costumed Scare".
Two erotic fantasies of mine that been accepted couple years ago for Beyond the Blackened Mirror: Tales of Dark Romance, "To Teach an Ancinet God" and "Shadow Lover" will finally see the light of day. Coyote Moon Publications mentions on their website that the anthology will come out sometime this month (October). Both those stories are by Pamela K. Kinney, though usually the erotic paranormals are by Sapphire Phelan, this was long before I did that other pen name I use.
Another horror story of mine, "Dangerous City", which has a werepanther and a werewolf in it, will be out soon. The editor just let me know that the magazine it'll be in, Werewolf Magazine Issue #5 is about to come out. Its prints and ships next week. It was on a delay with some of their other publications due to printing issues and some other stuff but its on the way and its their biggest issue of it yet--75 pages big! And my story leads off the fiction. The new issue can be found at Shocklines.com
Magazine City.com
Werewolf Cafe.com
Project Pulp.com and at the publisher's website:
Blood Moon Rising Magazine .
But since I have posted a blog on MySpace about supporting and buying from Shocklines, please order it from there.

Review of Slime After Slime by Mark McLaughlin

Slime After Slime by Mark McLaughlin is that kind of book that not only has terrifying horror, but blends in rib-tickling gross humor too. One moment you terrified out of your skin and then the next, you laughing your head off.

There are so many wonderful stories in this collection, but I’ll mention three of my favorites in it. Like “The Final Broadcast of Sugarville’s Channel 7 Action News”. Most of the time you watch the news for the weather and what’s going on out there, and most of the news people you watch are all right, but who doesn’t wish that something would come along and wipe off the toothy grins from those irritating few you just can’t stand? This story does it, delivering an alien invasion of the most gruesome, cold kind all the way to the very last line to some particularly irritating and clueless news reporters. Another enjoyable story, “Claws of the Internet Witches”, has witches using the Internet to curse mortals. It brings “toil, toil, boil and bubble” to the 21st century with a vengeance. The last story in the book, “Tell Your Secrets to the Slime” was a very poignant science fiction/horror tale. This story is my particular favorite of them all, and I think Mark’s best one in the whole collection.
The title tells it all, so if gross, icky things make you queasy, then this book is not for you. But I promise that you will enjoy it if you do pick it up. Hold on tight though, because Slime After Slime will take you on an amusement funhouse ride that’ll just tickled you scared silly.

5 DRAGONS

Celebrate-It's Not Just Friday the 13th, It's Horror Day!

Horror Day of Action is a campaign to inspire all lovers of the horror genre to reach out to the world on Friday, October 13, 2006. Originally launched as an effort within the Horror Writers Association, the idea caught fire and spread to every area of horror, from haunted house operators to videogame designers to film makers. But the most important and basic ingredient of Horror Day is each fan's participation. On October 13, fans are asked to buy a horror book, give away a horror book, rent a horror video, read ghost stories to children, or talk to the local library, bookstore, video store, newspaper or radio station. The official site for Horror Day, along with suggestions for action, can be found at http://www.myspace.com/horrorday

So everyone, spread the word and do something really scary today. Have fun while you're doing it. I plan to watch a horror flick later today and finish a collection of horror stories today I will be reviewing on this blog Sunday, Slime After Slime by Mark McLaughlin. Next year, I plan to contact my local library or genre bookstore and maybe get something going. So celebrate, and be prepared to be scared, very scared.

My Short Horror Story, Warm Blood, Cold Flesh Is Out!

Dark Gothic: Resurrected is out, which means my horror story, "Warm Blood, Cold Flesh" is out too. You can get the zine at http://www.lulu.com/gratistavampires or more directly at http://www.lulu.com/content/429097 .
Let me just say "Warm Blood, Cold Flesh" is Night of the Living Dead, but with vampires.

Excerpt:

I was about to finally leave my husband and start divorce proceedings when a strange meteorite shower hit us two weeks ago. Suddenly, people came down with strange virus, causing an extremely low drop in their temperatures, anemia, and most peculiar of all, inability to stand daylight. Within a week, the infected would die, their bodies mysteriously drained of all blood. Liam was one of them.

Instead of his ex-wife, I was now Liam’s widow.

I stayed after Liam’s funeral to place some flowers on his grave and gather my thoughts. Though our marriage had been teetering on the edge toward divorce proceeding, my soon to be ex didn’t deserve to die like he did from the virus.

Dusk darkened the sky as late afternoon morphed into early evening. My vision was bleary from tears that I didn’t notice the top soil on the grave shifting, clods falling away until there was a hole where the mound of dirt had been. Wiping away the moisture, I saw the hole. Hands rose out of it and hooked themselves on each side.

What in the hell?

I backed away and tripped over something in the dark, landing on my bottom. From that vantage point I watched as the head rose from the open grave, the torso closely behind.

Dear God, Liam! His eyes glowed, a phosphorous green as he stared at me. I got to my feet and bolted as he dragged himself completely out of the grave.

I ran through the graveyard. At the caretaker’s house, I banged on the door, screaming. The door creaked opened and Mr. Hanson stood there, an old man with thinning grey hair and pale blue eyes that blinked, looking weak. I shoved him back inside as I entered and slammed the door shut behind us. Frantic, my grip still tight on Mr. Hanson’s arm, I locked the door.

"What going on?" he demanded, yanking his arm out of my grasp as I tried to draw him away from there. “Hey, aren’t you the wife of the man we just buried?”

Shaking, I glanced over my shoulder at the locked door. "My supposedly dead husband just dug his way out of his grave!"
Mr. Hanson blinked, trying to absorb the information, and then laughed.

"My dear, dead men don’t come back to life. Believe me; once you’re dead, you’re dead. I should know better than most men, having been the caretaker of this cemetery for most of my adult life."

His hand on my shoulder, he led me over to a plump green couch. "Look, just sit down here and I’ll get you some--"
His words were cut off as the door swung open and hit the wall with a loud bang. The Liam-thing weaved through the open doorway. His mouth wide open, Mr. Hanson took a few steps toward the dead man.

"Damn, she’s right, you’re alive--"

Liam grabbed the old man and in a macabre hug, drew him toward his open mouth.

A snake-like tongue whip lashed out, two sharp fangs on the end. The tongue latched onto the old man’s neck, digging into the flesh and sucking sounds filled the air. I circled around my undead husband and his victim, glad that Liam was too busy feeding to noticed and slipped out of the house, my screams echoing in the night.

I'll Be at Monster Fest This Upcoming Saturday, 10/14

I'll be at Monster Fest this Saturday, October 14th, with copies of Crimson Promise and Beyond the Four Walls, and I will gladly sign them too. It's a free one-day horror convention held at the Chesapeake Central Library 9AM to 4PM on Saturday, October 14th, with later on starting at 8Pm and going on all night, horror films will be shown and there'll be giveaways too. The library is at 298 Cedar Rd. Chesapeake, VA. You can find out about panels and more at http://groups.myspace.com/MonsterFest and also at http://www.chesapeake.lib.va.us/CL_Monsterfest2006

My story, "Azathoth is Here" is in Cthulhu Express Anthology, which is out. Get it at
http://www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks, or more directly at http://www.lulu.com/content/449330. This has stories all Lovecraftian in it, with other great authors sharing the anthology with me.
The print version is $14.03 and the download is $4.99.

Excerpt:

Most days working in a supermarket the only excitement came from jars falling off shelves and breaking or when a customer misuses 'the customer is always right' and makes your life hell. But Saturday night I learned a new definition to the word hell.

My name is Alan Holly and I run one of the registers up front, and I was trying to get Mrs. Piper checked out. A tiny, elderly lady with blue-tinted, thin hair, she managed to slip into the supermarket, as always, just before closing. She’d loaded up a whole cartload of groceries and paper products, and then rushed to check out at my register. Why me, I don’t know. Maybe I reminded her of her dearly departed husband, Joe. He had dark hair and blue eyes like me, plus we both were somewhat plump. And like me, generally he had been a meek and quiet man. I heard she had always liked to irritate him. I sometimes
think that’s the real reason he died, just to get away from her.

Leaving her to irritate me, of course.

But that night, as she shoved item after item on to the moving conveyer belt of the register, she irritated someone else. A little, meek-looking man in his late twenties, stood behind her with a head of lettuce and a carton of milk. With wire-framed glasses perched just on the tip of his bulbous nose, the slate-gray eyes behind them followed every movement Mrs. Piper made. Kinda creepy. The store had some weirdos in it tonight, that’s for sure.

Then the horrible thing happened.

Mrs. Piper grabbed the last item--a package of twenty-four toilet paper rolls--and lifted it ever so slowly while giving me that maddening smile that always drove me nuts. I stood there, waiting and trying to remain patient, as she did this every time, when suddenly the guy behind her tore the bag of toilet paper rolls out of her hands. An unearthly scream came from his mouth, shattering quite a few glass bottles in people’s carts. Ketchup, mustard and other stuff covered the carts, the floor, people, and even my register.

Suddenly he became silent. He kept his mouth wide open like a chasm and something seem to be trying to crawl out of it. The opening stretched wider and wider until cracks formed in his face like mud drying under a hot sun.

Definitely not your everyday, mundane happening. At least not in a supermarket anyway.

Happy October 1st--Ten Scary Films

It's October 1st, the beginning of Halloween month. Yeah, yeah, I know--I haven't wrote anything here since I posted about my other blog for my pen name, Sapphire Phelan. But real life and writing got in the way. Everyone knows how that is.

Anyway, today I'm going to post what I feel are ten scary films for me, to give you to ponder about and decide to rent, to get you in the mood for Halloween and even for Horror Day October 13th. Yep, there's a Horror Day, a day for you to celebrate the genre of horror. On Fri., Oct. 13, 2006, lovers of all things dark will be uniting to help spread their word about their favorite genre. Started as an idea among a few members of the Horror Writers Association, it quickly expanded to include not just horror fiction but movies, haunted house attractions, videogames, art, comic books, and every area of life. You can find out more about it at Horror Day .

The films I will list had some impact on me, whether scaring me silly, or because they were just damn good, to other definable ways . I admit that there are more than ten films for me, but I feel these ten will be a start for you. You can go from there and begin to check out others in the genre for yourself. Decide for yourself. Make your own list for years to come.

Here they are:

1. The Haunting ( 1963)--the book, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a good ghost story to read.This is the only book tom scare me in the daytime, in a room full of people.

2. Alien

3. American Werewolf in London

4. The Howling

5. Dog Soldiers

6. Cat People (both the 1940s and 1980s versions)

7. Dracula (Bela Lugosi)

8. Creature from the Black Lagoon

9. Lady in White

10. Halloween

Well, I hope this starts you on your own exploration of good scary films to watch in preparation for Halloween. And remember, when the leaves swirl their colorful dance on the wind's cooler breath, when the shine of the flesh on the pumpkin seems just a bit more brighter, its Jack-O-Lantern face glittering with supposed malice, and the howl of the dog in the night outside the comfort of your warm walls sounds different, more wolfish, it's only Halloween celebrating by lending its costume to October.

Happy October 1st.