A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.

    The side effects were anything but hopeful. Mara and Sebastian are young, in love and newlyweds. Far too soon, they will face tests to their love that most others won’t survive. Their bond strengthens with each loss, destruction and unbearable race against time. In each other, they find the will and hope to endure. Hand in hand, they will face the darkening of humanity with strength and integrity and an undeniable spirit to survive; together.

    But when Ren fails to show up for their rendezvous at The Wolf’s Den Tavern, Honora, always the investigator, goes searching for him and is pulled into a dangerous adventure where elemental magic rules. She will need all her Mayhem talents—and some help from tavern owner Roslyn Van Harbor and an eccentric gang of magical ax-wielding earth wizards—if she’s going to rescue Ren and set things right in the fabled North Woods. The Ice Witch is a stand-alone, short story that fits perfectly between the second Mayhem Sisters Novel, Fly By Midnight, and Midsummer Night’s Mayhem, the third in the series.

    But at the end of the world, danger is never far away. When a young woman is kidnapped, and the local authorities are powerless to help, Eric and his stalwart friend Lincoln Great Hawk embark on a rescue mission. But the kidnappers, a band of ruthless savages, will stop at nothing to get what they want. To succeed, Eric and Lincoln will need to enlist help from an unlikely ally. And while the fate of the hostage is unclear, one thing is certain. Blood will be shed. Don’t miss this exciting new short story set in the Surviving the Dead universe!

    The last either expects is romance, but that’s what they get as they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete and total disaster.When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution — and solace — he will sorely need. And when the life of a serial killer tragically collides with the lives in the tattoo shop, Mike and Deb will stop at nothing in their quest for revenge, even if it means stepping outside the known boundaries of life and death. Ink that is full of crematory ashes, a sociopathic killer, and pain in its rawest form…this is going to hurt.When the hope of redemption runs headlong into the dark side of life’s chaos, we are left with one of the most haunting thrillers in recent memory. A Good and Useful Hurt delivers the bittersweet essence of life with the sting of a needle in skin.

    The long hours. The helpless customers. The enormous eldritch horror living deep below the building… As the only full-time employee at the twenty-four hour gas station at the edge of town, Jack has pretty much seen it all. But when he decides to start an online journal documenting the bizarre day-to-day occurrences, he unwittingly attracts the attention of much more than just a few conspiracy theorists. With the body count steadily on the rise and a dark, ancient force infecting the dreams of everyone around him, Jack will do everything in his power to stay out of the way and mind his own business. After all, he’s just a gas station clerk. It’s not like he’s getting paid enough to wage battle against the nightmarish aberrations plaguing his community. Besides, he already has his hands full attempting to manage all those mysterious lawn gnomes, the mutant raccoons, and the charming phantom cowboy who lives in the bathroom. Based on the award-winning creepypasta by GasStationJack, Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One is a love letter to the pioneers of classic horror tailored to a generation that grew up in the era of smartphones and WiFi.

    A girl is dragged into a crypt during a field trip to an eighteenth-century cemetery. A group of friends meet their fate after an unsettling visit with a backwoods psychic. And that's just the beginning. Celebrated author Vivian Vande Velde is at her spine-tingling best in this collection of thirteen scary stories, all of which take place on Halloween night. With tales that range from the disturbing to the downright gruesome, this is one collection that teens will want to read with the lights on . . . and the doors locked.

    Smith is a cultural genius."DESCRIPTION: From international best-selling thriller author Christopher Smith ("FIFTH AVENUE") comes a new young adult series of paranormal thrillers written under the name, C.R. Smith. "BULLIED" is the first novella in THE BULLIED SERIES, which focuses on Seth Moore, a relentlessly bullied 18-year-old boy who is gifted an amulet that ignites within him telekinetic powers. If Seth uses the amulet properly, it will protect him from those determined to crush him. But after so many years of being beaten down and humiliated by the school's popular crowd and the teachers who protect them, the question is whether Seth can keep away from the dark side the amulet offers--and not become a bully himself, even when all hell breaks loose. BULLIED is an intense thriller that will speak volumes to anyone who has ever been bullied and wished they had a powerful way out. It's also a cautionary tale on the act of bullying itself.The series contains violence and language appropriate for a PG-13 rating.YOU CAN REACH C.R. SMITH AT ChristopherSmithBooks@gmail.com.JOIN C.R. SMITH'S BLOG HERE FOR NEW BOOK UPDATES: http://www.christophersmithbooks.com/INTERACT WITH C.R. SMITH ON FACEBOOK AT THIS LINK (JUST "LIKE" THE PAGE IN YOUR BROWSER): http://on.fb.me/g9Z1RY

    She was found hiding in her apartment’s bathtub, barely clinging to life.With only fragments of shattered memory, she’s been trying her best to move past the nightmares ever since. Now in Boston, she lives a somewhat reclusive life, working from home as a medical transcriptionist and bingeing on mindless television shows.She can’t shake the fear that her attacker is out there, waiting to finish what he started, and Elizabeth, a nurse she met after the murders, is the only person she can trust.When someone from her past reemerges, Chelsea starts receiving disturbing messages and worries that her every move is being watched. As the messages mount and her memories begin to return, she’s led to a very terrifying and lonely place. But she needn’t be afraid. She won’t be alone there for long.

    Each story is designed to be intrinsically and intimately about Halloween-its traditions, its myths, and its effects-and they run the gamut from horrifying to heartbreaking. Halloween night is the tapestry through which a haunted house, a monstrous child, a late-night drive to a mysterious destination, and other tales are weaved. Demons are faced, death is defied, and love is tested. And not everyone makes it out alive. The End of Summer has arrived.

    The human race has finally succeeded in perfecting the art of food production at the molecular level. GMO-24 was a strand of altered proteins that could be inserted into the genetic layout of any crop, allowing it to maximize the natural nutrients of the soil around it. Can you imagine the harshest environments where thousands of square miles of soil lay untouched and unused because of low nutrient content now able to support crops to help feed the starving masses of the world? Imagine crops that yield double to triple the level of vitamins and minerals without the need for harmful pesticides. Imagine… Everything that could go wrong. Alex Grives is living in that realm, the world where GMO-24 triggered the very famine it was designed to prevent. James Hunt, author of the “Broken Lines” and “Exiled” series takes you into a world where that hunger is never fulfilled, and always leaves you wanting more.

    Empty tents flap in the breeze, but there’s no sign of the carnies. For a group of close friends, the festivities have just begun. A masked figure haunts Trevor Sheevis in every reflection. Cole Reagor’s dream of being a stand-up comedian suddenly isn’t so funny, and Tommy Gallaghan’s cell phone makes ominous threats. At school, Angela Rayburn is smiling at Mathew Potts, and for Ashley Gifford, the monster he fears most sleeps under his very same roof. When their friend, Steven Delhomme, turns up missing, their worst fears come true. The smell of autumn leaves is in the air, the first pumpkins are aglow, and the crows are gathering in the cornfields. The moon is full, and something is visible beyond the veil between the living and the dead calling itself the Scarecrow King. As Halloween approaches, the dead exchange places with the living, and the All Hallows Eve Midnight Traveling Spook Show opens its doors. In Hill Haven Creeps, every fear will come to life, and every dream will turn into a nightmare. But will Halloween will have the final say? Or is something more ominous on the night wind?

    Terrifying urban myths, malicious ghosts, cursed architecture, malignant city deities, personal demons (in business or relationships) twisted into something worse virtually anything that inspires the contributors to imagine some bit of urban darkness."

    everyone has gone home hours ago.As Harold prepares to close up the office, he receives an email from someone claiming to be Stephen King.

    McCammon, Whitley Strieber, Michael McDowell, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Charles L. Grant and others. Edited by Alan Ryan, author of The Kill and Dead White.