Summer Scare 2!
Getting very chilly in here!
Your second Summer Scare is here! The chills go on from now until the Autumn Equinox when the official Halloween Season begins. Not all shivery stories involve ghosts, goblins, a zombie or two, a werewolf, even a wendigo, along with things that go bump in the night. Sometimes it’s just the human condition that sends that shudder throughout your being.
Readers, rest assured that the writing is ALL done by humans, but not necessarily alive or in one piece!
Oh, and at the very bottom of this post is a second excerpt from my new book From the Files of Fontaine Investigations, a paragraph or two to give you a clue as to some of the lesser known goings on in the U.S. capital city. I will be including excerpts in the weekly scary posts.
Note: I just stumbled across Haunts You Later (a lifelong horror obsessive) who reviews horror movies.
Get ready to shiver:
Starting out with a book promo. Lyndsey Resnick brings you some dark tales in Well Water and other odd tales. Check out the title story here:
And she gives us even more chills here:
Speaking of not needing any weird creatures to write a creepy story, Wendy Cockcroft weaves a chilling tale with some “shrooms” mixed in:
One of my fave people on here, Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ , brings on the bat horde:
A bit of horror from Redd Oscar here:
A couple of scary movies coming up, as A. B. Frank shows here:
And here:
Start here with part 1 of R. M. Greta’s chilling tale (can’t wait to read part 2):
An eerie tale from Ian Patterson :
You can always count on Grace Anderson-Author for something shivery:
A new project for you spooky scribes from Haly, the Moonlight Bard ✒️ , and strictly AI-free:
Subscribe here:
And reminding you to check in often with Jennifer Morrow who keeps things going year round and has launched her own endeavor to give you chills even on the hottest days:
A shorter list this time. But scout out stuff by the people below to find the thrill and chill you know you crave.
More Writers Who Produce Scary (and Sometimes Cute) Stuff (in alphabetical order):
Some writers on here who, as far as I’ve seen, write stories in that scary arena. If I’ve missed adding you here or have tagged you in error, please let me know.
NOTE: Every writer named here has assured me they don’t use AI in any aspect of their writing. I don’t knowingly promote AI-generated junk. Thanks for reading.
A. B. Frank – Victorian Vignettes – Exploring eerie elegance of Gaslamp Horror in Victorian era
Adi Out Here – Turn on the Light – Murder, mystery, sex, romance, sci-fi, horror
Amanda V Shane – Monsters & Mystics – Fantasy, paranormal romance
Andy Futuro – Cyberpunk, horror, dirtbag literature
Brian B Baker – My Head is Unraveling – Horror writer, book reviewer
Brian Schell – Horror Weekly
Bryan Beal – Dead Heretic – Cyberpunk, Science fiction
Caroline Barnard-Smith – SwampWitch
Chris J. Franklin – Tales of the Zeitgeist – Contemporary fiction, humor, horror, Science fiction, host of Wednesday House of Haiku
Colin Devonshire – Colin’s Dark Stories
Connor McGwire – Ars Corvi – Gothic, noir
Dungeon Mistress – Dungeon Mistress Chronicles
Emily S Hurricane – The Eye of the Storm – Romance, erotica, horror, gamelit
FranB – Tales at Twilight – Speculative stories with dark edge, humor
Grace Anderson-Author – Grace’s Spook Show
Jane Dougherty – Jane Doughtery’s Bestiary
Jennifer Morrow – Autumn Lives Here
Jessica Maison – Monster of the Week
John Coon – Strange New Worlds – Science fiction, horror, humor/satire
Leigh Parrish – Halcyon Horror
Lyndsey Resnick – Poison Ivy House
Michael B. Morgan – AroundSciFi - Read - Imagine - Discover
M.P. Fitzgerald – Graphomania with M.P. Fitzgerald – Darkly humorous Science fiction & horror
Natalie Phillips – Plotted Out – Cornish fantasy & dark humor
Nocturnal Narrator – Speculative Fiction and Dark Tales | Nocturnal Narrator – Dark speculative fiction, builds interactive worlds to tell strange stories
Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ – Twisting the Myths
Redd Oscar – ReddOscarWrites – Fantasy, science fiction, and horror
S.L. Stallings – Ghost Stories – Paranormal fiction, tech horror, dystopia
Sam Bartol – Ghost Notes
Scrawls of Dread – Scrawls of Dread’s Substack
Shane Bzdok – Matte Black – Science fiction, dystopian, horror
The Dread Legacies – Reimagining classic monsters
Theo Priestley – Tales of the Unexpected
Travis Blake – Dracula’s Ghost
Wendy Cockcroft – Wendy Cockcroft’s Writings
And speaking of scary, an excerpt from my latest book:
From the first case file (“The Divorce”):
“The book can’t be that old,” said Jessica. “Book binding like that didn’t come about until thousands of years later.”
“True,” said Elzeel. “The book is from the 1600s. A local scholar came across the original writings and copied them onto those sheets of parchment that were then bound into that book. It is unique.”
“Did he translate the text?” asked Zachariah.
Elzeel looked up at him. “Well, yes, but not into English. It is in a language no longer spoken in that country. I have been able to translate some of it, mostly the first parts. It tends to get more complicated further into the book as if the scholar were trying to obscure those parts. But I have heard there are others who have had more success.”
“Can you at least tell us what the cover text means?” asked Jessica.
“Roughly,” said Elzeel, “it means ‘The Book of Mynn’.”
“What does ‘min’ mean?” asked Zachariah.
“In truth, I do not know,” said Elzeel, appearing more afraid than ever. “From the description in the book, I do not want to know.”
“Description? Of what? An object? A creature? Something like this?” Zachariah showed Elzeel the photo he had taken of what he thought was a holographic image.
Elzeel shuddered. “Maybe. The description certainly fits that creature.” He stared more closely at the photo. “A transporter.”
“Transporter?” asked Zachariah.
“That’s what the book calls it,” said Elzeel. “That pedestal. I thought it was bigger.”
Zachariah thought a moment and then gasped. “Transporter? Turn it on and that creature transports from wherever to here?”
“I assume so,” said Elzeel. He shuddered as he saw the look of shocked realization on Zachariah’s face. “What is it?”
“I left it on, I’m pretty sure, when I was in there planting those bugs,” said Zachariah.
He pulled up the feed from the basement bug and saw the transporter on but no creature in it. Then a face like the head of a grasshopper filled his screen. Zachariah almost dropped his phone. The stream ended, and the screen went blank. Zachariah switched to streams from the other bugs he planted. They showed everything looking normal. A woman in a maid’s uniform was making the bed in the master bedroom on the second floor of the townhouse. When she left the room, he switched to other streams, following her. She went downstairs to the kitchen and then unlocked the basement door. She went in, and the door slammed shut behind her. Zachariah heard a faint scream. Then that stream also ended.
“I need to get to Cecily’s house,” he told Jessica. “And we need to have the police there.”
Read the rest in ebook or paperback (hopefully, audio will be available soon). And check out my other 4 books:
Where to Buy:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Apple Books | Kobo | Smashwords
Angus & Robertson | Fable
Thalia (German) | Vivlio (French/English)
Nice lineup of scariness
Thanks for the shout out!