horror – ghosts & haunted houses

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Summary: Clarity (noun) Four definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) Coherent and intelligible 2) Transparent or pure 3) Attaining certainty about something 4) Easy to see or hear Clarity features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: Emma and her Aunt Agathe share a family resemblance - they can both speak to ghosts. But Agathe, rejected by her family and constantly beset by heartache, has spent her whole life fleeing her unusual gift. Emma, however, embraces it. Grave Songs for the Dead is a cycle of three interconnected short stories, gothic with a touch of magic realism, set in the late 19th century.

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Summary: INK (NOUN) Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) A colored fluid used for writing 2) The action of signing a deal 3) A black liquid ejected by squid 4) Publicity in the written media 5) A slang word for tattoos Ink features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: Like a spout pushing its way through soil extending deep mighty roots as it grows firm and tall, Michael like those around him has become renewed in the sun. The Wheel of Creation continues to turn through tragedy and triumph with secrets and mysteries revealed, truth discarding deceit to rot away into dust. Terror still lurks in shadow, hinting at battles yet to come and while the union of souls may reign down catastrophe upon all involved, there is a newly shared optimism that this town, rebirthed and revived again after decades can meet the oncoming storm together. Bonded in battle, humbled in heart new friendships have replaced old animosities as all the residents are finding their place in creation.Despite the odds, the couple continues their path toward blending, but if the sun sets on their hopes or the union is not supported by the Mother, disaster could befall not just Michael and Kurra but the entire Grove.Book four of The Place Of Things is Blood. The blood spilled and shared through trial and combat, forged in a family or spilled through injury, death, or pain and joy. Will the Great Mother approve of a blending of souls, or will the remains and splatter of not just Michael, but all those he holds dear be splashed in chunks upon the wedding alter.As this story concludes in the middle it continues on like the cycle of the seasons. Never ceasing always evolving. Until next time, Love from the Sacred Grove.

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Summary: Who doesn't crave a little escape? Dreaming of small town life and rural charm, Alex and Rainey find a deal on an old rustic home they can't resist. But soon after Rainey moves, her preoccupation with weird local history and the complications of living alone in the woods take a toll. Alex worries that the long nights and growing isolation are driving her stir crazy. When the Sugar House is damaged and Rainey goes missing, Alex doesn't know where to turn. Was it a storm, vandals, or something worse? What happened at the Sugar House? The only thing worse than wondering is finding out.

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Summary: Short Synopsis Agata Rosso, a once-mighty yet now prematurely aged European witch, believes that the special gifts in a young girl named Lía Munro can restore youth and vitality both to herself and her bedridden husband. She sets a deadly plan in motion to capture and use Lía—but will the girl have enough power to protect herself, plus the father she loves so much? Outline 1940 in a small farming region, and children have disappeared from the land. Local families—old-time Australians and newer European arrivals—know what to do about packs of wild, scavenging dogs in the forests, but they seem to have no way of finding children whose very bones have vanished from the earth. They also don’t know how to deal with the strange couple Mr and Mrs Rosso, who might just hold the key to everything—including the miraculous breaking of a ten-year drought. Now it’s 1977 and the wider city is growing, encroaching into these outlying communities and turning pristine farmlands into new housing estates. Paul Munro and his daughter, Lía, have arrived to inspect an available property; it’s the secluded hillside old home of the Rossos. Paul and his wife—who has recently died—grew up around the area. Paul wants to show Lía the countryside of his early years, but when Lía experiences Rosso House for the first time its undeniable spell and the spirits it hides makes her understand that this is the place she really wants to be. Just turning sixteen, grieving the loss of her mother, experiencing a spiritual awakening she doesn’t understand, Lía loves the quiet isolation and rural beauty that Rosso House and its land has to offer. At first her new life with her father seems idyllic, yet she’s soon drawn into committing a terrible act of mercy. At the same time Paul meets the beautiful and enigmatic Candela, only to become ensnared in the evils that hold her and her baby captive. The connection between Lía’s suffering and Candela’s troubles might just be the wizened old witch, Agata Rosso. Constantly searching for a way to restore her youth and her husband’s powers, Agata soon discovers just how useful Lía could be. She sends the most ruthless of men to capture her; in parallel, the terrifying man-wolf-father of Candela’s baby will do anything to get his son back. Lía desperately needs her father’s help; Candela is trying to escape a world of violence; both women are soon confronted by the very definition of evil. Will they find help from others, or is there some deeper answer within themselves? The shadow-worlds of ancient evil and modern corruption collide in this supernatural thriller, blending past and present, history and fiction, into a mesmerising adventure.

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Summary: “Reality took a greasy slide off-kilter. He had to be mistaken. Please, please God let him be mistaken…” Miles Baumgartner lost his boyfriend. His house. His job. Worst of all, he lost his nephew when Ian—his almost-son—died, crushed to death in a car accident nine months ago. So how is there a recent photo of Ian on Facebook? A series of lies and half-truths leads Miles far north to a long-abandoned orphanage. Secrets slink within St. Hamelin’s shadowed halls, and when Miles starts piecing the truth together, the horrors that walk within its rooms tighten their grip. They say that time heals all wounds, but time is running out for Miles. How can he start his life over now, knowing what really happened to Ian and the children of that unholy place? To have any chance, he must escape before dark forces curse him to walk eternally with the evils inhabiting St. Hamelin’s.  

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Summary: When a curse comes calling, Dan and Chad confront their greatest challenge yet. Hauntastic Haunts is investigating the historic Ivarsson School. With Halloween right around the corner, the vlog is in peak season. Dan and Chad are eager to explore the decades-long string of strange deaths among the school’s young scholars. While they delve into the mystery, both men must come to grips with Chad’s newfound talents as a medium. Dan and Chad’s efforts to uncover the haunting’s truth meet with mixed messages from both the living and the dead. They’re left wondering if this month’s site is full of tricks, or if there’s a treat awaiting discovery. The locals blame a curse for all the misfortune at the one-room schoolhouse, and if the pattern holds, the guys are at risk of becoming the latest victims. Join ghost hunters Dan and Chad on their third hauntastic adventure in this trans M/M paranormal romance.

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Summary: A teen without a home. A dangerous residence. Can she survive one terrifying night to secure her future? Charlene Griffin never thought she’d be without a home. But when she’s kicked out on her eighteenth birthday, she has no choice but to sleep inside an ominous Victorian mansion. And with the owner offering the estate to anyone who can spend a full night in the haunted property, Charlene decides to risk life and limb to get off the streets. Refusing to heed the warnings of those sent running in fear for their lives, Charlene is confident she can last from sunset to sunrise. But she’ll need all her wits about her to withstand the hours of terror, because these ghosts are determined to get rid of her. Will Charlene outsmart her supernatural foes and make it to dawn? Defying the Ghosts is an eerie YA haunted house story. If you like heart-racing action, fearless heroes, and survival adventures, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s thrilling tale. Buy Defying the Ghosts to explore forbidden shadowy corners today!

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Summary: So what's a young gay boy living in the eighty's from suburbs of Dayton, Ohio to do, when he comes out to his family, only to finds out his family has been keeping their own secrets. Jason Wynwood just turned 18 finding out he is in a long bloodline of witches. As Jason searches for love, he falls for a mysterious black haired gentleman named Damien. Jason is thrown into a dangerous world of magic with witches, vampires and werewolves, and a glittery nightlife sexual pleasures. He also discovers Young gay men have been turning up dead at rest stops all over surrounding areas. Police suspect that it's the work of a serial killer. But when a friend ends up dead it becomes personal. Can Jason find the killer before anyone else turns up dead?

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Summary: IN-NO-VA-TION (Noun) 1) A new idea, method, or device. 2) The introduction of something new. 3) The application of better solutions to meet unarticulated needs. Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites. Innovation features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: Henry Ross Murray was a Revolutionary War hero, and his house in Boston has been converted into a museum. Everything is original to the period… including the ghosts. The Ghost U team is called in to help figure out who’s haunting the Colonial mansion in Beacon Hill. They encounter family secrets and angry spirits in the course of their investigation, and they learn that some heroes aren’t as heroic as they seem. So much drama. And that’s nothing compared to what’s happening behind the scenes. Faces in the Fog: Ghost U Volume Two is a paranormal Reverse Harem adventure with horror elements and is intended for mature audiences.

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Summary: When ghosts cry out, Dan and Chad heed their call. Daniel and Chad are on the road to Hawk Lake, Maine, to investigate rumors of a haunting. With his new role in Daniel's life, Chad feels like he has something to prove. He is determined to make the Hawk Lake haunting videos the best Hauntastic Haunts has ever aired. Daniel gets sidetracked when he realizes that he might have gotten in over his head with his long distance apprenticeship to a genuine medium. Old insecurities rear their heads and threaten the budding relationship between Dan and Chad. Neither member of the Hauntastic Haunts crew is ready for what they uncover when they discover the truth behind the ghost ship haunting Hawk Lake. Secrets and lies that threaten to tear apart a community that is still healing from their grief might be better left buried. Daniel and Chad have to decide which is more important, telling the stories of the living or preserving the memories of a handful of ghosts. Get ready for another hauntastic adventure with this paranormal trans M/M romance.

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Summary: Ian Trahan is a science prodigy with a genius streak like no other. Growing up in New Orleans under the strict guidance of a Deacon with a dark side, it leaves no question as to why he chose the life of crime. His understanding and use of DNA, computer hacking and looking like the guy next door, compiles a terrifying character that you will never forget!  Magda Volkov, a native Russian, works for the BAU division of the FBI.  Her clairvoyant ability is something that her director has learned to trust and use to their advantage, especially with a seeming "Ghost Killer" at hand. The deeper she gets into his psyche, the more they are both surprised when their strange vivid dreams begin to intertwine. Childhood experiences shape both the killer and the FBI agent who urgently wants to stop the grisly murders. Delve into the surprise twists and turns of this page turning thrill ride. The occasional comedic relief provides you with a brief release of the terrorizing heart palpitations!  This series is not for the faint of heart. Personas is the first in a new thrilling psychological crime series to come. Log into www.lauralollie.com to subscribe for the updates on the releases of the books to follow.

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Summary: Damien is a 14 year old orphan that has grown up  in foster homes all his life. He finds out that he is a "Vampeal" , a child born from a vampire and human. If that wasn't bad enough Damien is a teenager that is dealing with his feelings for other boys. Damien is put into a home that the foster parents are very religious and he ends up on the street. Patrick is Damien's caseworker and if fresh out of college is assigned to look after him but finds out that Damien is no longer at the foster home. So Patrick sets out to look for him, which turns out to be a very dangerous road for both of them.

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Summary: Miller College's Parapsychology Department has a student-run ghost hunting group that's all the rage on basic cable. The third season is about to begin filming, and the producers want to up the ante. The three macho, pseudoscience brosephs - Quinn, Tyler and Brent - are about to be joined by a very female psychic, Emma Ray. The team is instantly resentful of her presence on their show, and lead investigator Quinn has made it clear that he doesn't believe in psychics. They're going to give Emma the hardest of hard times until they can expose her as a phony. They're going to learn that Emma is the real deal, and that it's not always wise to bully a psychic when you don't know how many ghosts are in her posse...or exactly what you’ll be facing in the next haunted house. "Ghosted by You" is a medium-burn Reverse Harem paranormal ghost-hunting adventure. Not suitable for readers under 18 years of age.

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Summary: ONE UNDERWORLD ENTANGLEMENT. ONE HAUNTED MUSIC VENUE. ONE CHANCE TO MAKE IT OUT ALIVE. Despite the ghosts, Barry Matthews takes on the job as booker for the Boardwalk View Hotel. But the renovations uncover something much more sinister. When Barry “Bazza” Matthews leaves his band The Maggots to become the booker for Melbourne’s hottest music venue, he never expects to find a link to the past buried deep within the rubble from the renovations. And now the new spate of threatening phone calls are becoming as troubling as the disappearing visitors and the malevolent activity in the basement. Trapped within the hotel with the alluring Simon, or Felicia, depending on his choice of outfit, they must join together to survive the threats from outside, as well as the dangers growing within the walls of the hotel. But the longer the renovations go on, the stronger the dark forces become. Will Barry and Simon uncover the secrets behind the hotel’s sinister history before it’s too late, or will they become the hotel’s latest victims? Rainbow Awards 2021 - Honorable Mention "Wonderfully strange" - Rainbow Awards

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Summary: American owner of a failing gallery, Toni, is unexpectedly called to England when she inherits a manor house in Hertfordshire from a mysterious lost relative. What she really needs is something valuable to sell, so she can save her business. But, leaving the New Mexico desert behind, all she finds is a crumbling building, overgrown gardens, and a wealth of historical paperwork that needs cataloguing. Soon she is immersed in the history of the house, and all the people who tended the gardens over the centuries: the gardens that seem to change in the twilight; the ghost of a fighter plane from World War Two; the figures she sees in the corner of her eye. A beautiful testament to the power of memory and space, Threading the Labyrinth tells the stories of those who loved this garden across the centuries, and how those lives still touch us today. “A poignant and elegant meditation on time and identity”– M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts “absolute garden of delights, full of sensual mystery, strange dreams, and haunting and peculiar magic. A beautiful debut.”– Alison Littlewood, author of The Hidden People and Mistletoe “If Robert Macfarlane wrote a ghost story this would be it. Haunting, delicate and multilayered, Angus channels her own humane understanding of our relationship with the quiet places of the world, the places hidden away, neglected, but always eager to blossom with the right kind of attention.”– Helen Marshall, award-winning author of The Migration and Gifts for the One Who Comes After “Tiffani Angus has achieved a masterwork of mystery. Angus’ changeling tale, woven throughout, creates the perfect air of supernatural mystery, which is enhanced by her refusal to reveal the truth. We are allowed only hints and second hand, sometimes even third-hand, whisperings. In fact the entire novel thrives on myth, rumour and gossip in the most delightful way.”– British Fantasy Society

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Summary: Can you hear it? Whispering in the dark. Secrets only the dark knows. Joseph Moore, choir director for the First Baptist Church of Lenora, Nebraska, has secrets of his own. Terrible, lonely secrets. One that involves natural human desire. One that calls forth powers he cannot begin to understand. Both with the potential to destroy him and those he loves. Now the world is changing. The darkness, the shadows, the ghosts, are closing in—and Joseph and his lover, Kevin, are being stalked by a merciless demon, hell-bent on possession. Can you hear it now? There in the dark. It's whispering your name.

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Summary: Coasters, carousels, an old cemetery, and a sprawling hotel on a stormy lakeside. Visit this haunted tour of scrapbook memories where legendary summers intersect with history and rumor. Told in vignettes that weave stories, newspaper clippings, postcards, and images, Ghastly Tales follows four families through the decades at a lakeside resort and amusement park where everyone eventually returns.