Wily Writers Presents
by
Size: 0.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 123
There’s something magical about that sense of terror that grips you in the middle of sleep, when your heart pounds, you can’t catch your breath, and you know the monster is seconds away from grabbing you. While this anthology occasionally records the odd hallucination or vision from beyond, you’ll find no dream sequences here.
These nine stories are designed to induce nightmares.
Table of Contents:
In “La Japonesa” by Lisa Morton, a college professor chasing tenure comes face to face with something with sharp claws and even sharper teeth.
Weston Ochse cuts deep in “Glue and the Art of Supermodel Maintenance.”
Officer Warren Hastings can’t escape the crime he didn’t prevent in Yvonne Navarro’s “Recall.”
In Jennifer Brozek’s “Twenty Questions,” Sara discovers some games must be played until the end.
E.S. Magill reminds us that every civilization has its myths of supernatural protectors of the natural world. During a hiking expedition, Harris Kimball encounters the spectral guardians of California’s Santa Lucia Mountains, whose mission is to stop the greatest threat to nature: humans.
In Angel Leigh McCoy’s “The Haunting of Mrs. Poole,” Amelia seems to have it all: wealthy husband, devoted sister, perfect daughter…and a gothic mansion on the shore of the James River where nothing is what it seems.
The line between reality and delirium blurs for an exhausted new mother in Alison J. McKenzie’s “Into the Quiet.”
In Bill Bodden’s “The House on River Road,” Ed and Jerry discover some urban legends are more than legendary…and some abandoned houses are better left alone.
Finally, Loren Rhoads grew up in a small town. She remembers how they can be in “Elle a Vu un Loup.”
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Languages Available: English
Languages Available: English
Introduction to Tales of Nightmares
by Loren Rhoads
I have the honor of being in several writers groups with Lisa Morton, former president of the Horror Writers Association and award-winning author of an ever-growing number of books on ghosts, Halloween, and zombies, as well as short stories, novels, and podcasts. Lisa was talking one night about these anthologies she had appeared in, alongside John Palisano, Eric J. Guignard, Rena Mason, and Kate Jonez. Each of them edited one book in the Strange Tales of the Macabre series, then each had a story in all five books. I was fascinated by the concept: sort of a round robin set of anthologies.
READ MOREThen last year, Angel Leigh McCoy founded the Wily Writers collective, in which a bunch of writers—not all of them horror writers—support and encourage each other’s work. I had a brainstorm: why didn’t we put together some anthologies by the Wily Writers, to draw more attention to the group and showcase what we can do?
By the end of the first meeting of interested editors in January 2022, we’d hashed out the parameters of the series, chosen titles, and set deadlines. After that, it was just a matter of assembling the stories.
Lisa’s book, Tales of Dread, was the first in the series. It came out in June 2022, a scant six months from when the idea first coalesced. This book—Nightmares—is the second in the series of six. The other four should appear more or less monthly for the rest of this year.
To say I am excited to participate in this series of anthologies would understate it. I am overjoyed to think that the idea I pitched to Angel in December last year is coming to such glorious and immediate fruition.
When we were batting around themes for the books, I was immediately drawn to Nightmares. It’s safe to say that I really like nightmares. I find them thoroughly fascinating. How can imaginary pictures in my head cause such intense physical responses: the pounding heart, the ragged breaths, the muscle aches from running so hard or freezing so still as I hide?
When my kid was little, she was a sleepwalker. Either she would wake up calling my name or, worse, she would roam the house, eyes open but unfocused, terrified but unable to talk. Nightmares are a stage that all kids go through, as they encounter the outer world. Some of us never get past it.
Personally, I have a lot of nightmares, but I don’t think of myself as suffering from them. I think of them as fuel for my imagination. I see them as inspirations. Prompts, one might say.
While these pages contain the odd hallucination or vision from beyond, you’ll find no dream sequences here. These stories are designed to induce nightmares.
Dear reader, I don’t want to wish you sweet dreams. For you, I wish pleasant nightmares.
COLLAPSE
"The anthology is not only entertaining, it serves as a master class in short story writing."
Angel Leigh McCoy
Loren Rhoads
