The Book of Roland

Family comes first even when the Zombie Apocalypse happens. Roland begins his day like any other day. Drinking coffee, watching the news, receiving a cryptic call from his brother, the scientist, confirming that what feared had finally come to fruition. Promising to meet up with his brother, Roland forgets about everything and starts his journey. When all others are fleeing Indianapolis, the center of the outbreak, Roland wades into the hordes of undead because family comes first.

On his quest, he encounters others that he will save that will also save Roland in the coming days. One of them is a teenager named Ashley that suffers the loss of everything but gains Roland’s friendship. Another is a gun-slinging, katana wielding, and pop-culture referencing monk named Timothy who informs them about the sinister origins of the undead. Together, the group plunges into the heart of the epidemic and attempt to foil the plans of a demonic threat to their reality.

The Book of Roland can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and TBK Magazine.

The Book of Mark

Returning to your hometown when you despise it is one thing. Returning to your hometown in order to bury your parents is something entirely different. Mark Danvers returns to his hometown of Ophiem after receiving the devastating news that his parents were killed in a tragic automotive accident. Having suffered the loss of his sister, Lysa, Mark left in self-exile, but now he returns as the sole survivor of his family. Mark doesn’t want to stay in Ophiem any longer than is required.

During his stay, he is reunited with his two best friends. Instead of reliving the past, his friends inform Mark that something sinister has taken up residence in his family’s home and may even be behind his parent’s “accidental” deaths. Mark soon finds himself falling down a rabbit hole filled with police cover-ups, vampires, and an ancient entity that hungers for every soul in the small town of Ophiem.

Mark isn’t alone in the battle to thwart the Soul Eater that seeks to devour Ophiem. In order to uncover the truth about the deaths of his family members and the evil that is corrupting the small town, Mark will be forced to ally with old friends and foes. Along the way, he’ll also encounter new allies. The gun-slinging, katana wielding, and pop-culture referencing monk named Timothy has been sent to investigate and defeat those that seek to summon the ancient demon into the mortal realm.

The Book of Mark can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Burning Willow Press, LLC.

The Book of Ashley

Continuing the climactic conclusion of The Book Roland, this new tale of demons and zombies follows what happens to Ashley. She and Brother Timothy follow the destructive path of Velius, the Soul Eater of Gluttony. The demon’s new plan is to possess Jessica in hopes of being born into this world with a cleansed soul as her child. The destination this time  is Columbus, Ohio where the Cult of Velius lie in wait to care for the unborn child, raising it until it comes of age to take over the mortal realm. There are other demonic plans set in motion. Ashley’s wrath for Jessica becomes so consuming that she will do whatever it takes, even forsaking all others, to reach her and exact vengeance for what Jessica and Velius did to not only her but to Roland.

The Book of Ashley can be purchased at Amazon, Burning Willow Press, LLC.

Crossroads in the Dark 2: Urban Legends

32 tales…32 storytellers with a twisted mind to entice you.
When you were younger, the stories told around the campfire were the best you had ever heard. The bedtime stories our elders would tell us were the ones that put us to sleep but the campfire was where you got the chills to stay up because of every sound the woods made at night. It is hard to believe in a world where things do not get creepier at night or the world does not come more to life at dusk. Where the world gets just a little unhinged in the dark.
Urban Legends is a collection with some of today’s up and coming authors in the indie world. Giving you their takes on the tales they grew up with…legends of mystery, of the macabre, of horror, designed to make the hairs on your neck stand alert and your skin crawl. You know some of the stories but do you know the twisted minds of the author telling the tale? Make sure you keep the lights on…things get harder to wrap your thoughts around at the Crossroads in the Dark.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction “Inclusion” by Edd Sowder
Foreword by Kerry Alan Denney
The Game by Kevin Wimer
The Trusted by Samantha Alexandra
Possession of the Hexham Heads by L. M. Barrett
Site 48 by T. J. Weeks
Tommy’s Bend by David Owain Hughes
A Farmhouse Haunting by L. Bachman
Pump One by Richard Farren Barber
The Scarlet Cloak by Karen Bovenmyer
The Yonder by R. M. Warren
Forfeit Tissue by C. C. Adams
Plague by T. Joseph Browder
The Whispering Tree by Glenn Damien Campbell
Sleep Tight by Brian G. Murray
The Miners by Alice J. Black
The Legend of Sugisawa Village by Michael Arnold
Sweet Dreams by Jonathan Shipley
Cemetery Mountain by Jay Michael Wright II
Send in the Clowns by Kerry Alan Denney
Dream Sequence by S. L. Perrine
Friend Request by Frank Martin
Eigengrau by Michael Schutz
Pigman Road by W. T. Watson
The Goatman by Mark Reefe
Sad Sarah by Carl Alves
Urban Legend (With a Modern Twist) by Donna Marie West
Night Hunt by L. D. Ricard
Shadow Ink by Aziza Sphinx
The King of Hollywood by MJ Kobernus
Slow Gurgling Under Water by Sergio Palumbo
The Dark Forest by James Master
The Spirited Children by S. L. Kerns
Severed Attachments by Jonathan Edward Ondrashek

CRITDII: Urban Legends can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Burning Willow Press, LLC.

Crossroads in the Dark 3: Monsters Under Your Bed

A new journey to the Crossroads: our childhood fears ripped apart the fabric of our reality. Others called it make-believe, because, there’s no such thing as monsters. Right?
The monsters that were lurking under our beds when we were children. How many nights did we lie awake and pray for daylight? We snuggled next to Teddy bears, curled up under makeshift blanket tents, and prayed for our night lights to banish the shadows.
Did those monsters really exist or were they fabrications of our overactive imaginations? Nobody knows except us… and the monsters. During those childhood years, they crept out from the darkness under our beds and scraped their claws at the bedsheets. Never to be seen in the morning light. As we grew up, they changed along with us but they never went away.
They were never believed in…except by those held hostage, when nightfall came once more.

CRITDIII: Monsters Under Your Bed can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Burning Willow Press, LLC.

Crossroads in the Dark 4: Ghosts

Foreword by Lily Luchesi, author of the “Paranormal Detective” series, and stories from Kerry Alan Denney, Alice J. Black, Michael Schutz, SL Kerns, Kindra Sowder, James Master, Frank Martin, L. Bachman, Carol Browne, CC Adams, Mirren Hogan, Erin Yoshikawa, Peter Oliver Wonder, Rachel de la Fuente, WT Watson, Cindy Johnson, James Crawford, Nikki Collins-Mewha, Kevin Wimer, Brian G. Murray, and a bonus from Edd Sowder. One night after a close friends’ funeral, you feel a strange tickle on your neck. At first, you shrug it off as a figment of your imagination or a flying pest, but then you feel it again… and again… and again. Turning you do not see anything there. Nothing, not even a shadow. In the far reaches of your sight, you start to make out a somehow familiar figure, arising from the darkness of the corner of your room. You reach for the switch of the nightstand lamp only to knock it over to the floor. Your fear starts to rise along with the hairs on your neck. A familiar voice comes across the room…” Why didn’t you hear me…?” Welcome back to the Crossroads. Crossroads in the Dark IV: GHOSTS is a collection of short stories developed in hopes of bringing awareness to suicide prevention around the world. While the stories do not tell of suicide, they do tell of GHOSTS. For whom are the ghosts that haunt us daily? What are the remains of an otherwise perfect life ended far too soon? Which are the people who we find hardest to move forward from when we lose them? The easy answer is the ones we failed to save.

CRITDIV: Ghosts can be purchased at Amazon, and Burning Willow Press, LLC.