Coming ... October 26, 2010

DIABLERO by Toby Tate

Some legends refuse to die . . . Blackbeard lives! 

DIABLERO is a supernatural thriller incorporating elements of the horror and action/adventure genres. The novel draws on folklore from the death of Edward Teach (a.k.a., Blackbeard the Pirate) and the tales of the Death Defier (Diablero), and H.P. Lovecraft, to weave a story of suspense and terror. There's humor, as well, hiding in the dark corners.

Far beneath the waters off Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, an ancient evil is awakened and an archeologist’s dream suddenly becomes the world’s nightmare. A small town reporter and his wife try to put the pieces of their lives back together after losing their unborn child, and soon find themselves thrust headlong into the midst of bizarre and terrifying events neither of them could have predicted.

From the dark forests of the Great Dismal Swamp to the underground caverns of Cat Island in the Caribbean, the reanimated body of Blackbeard the Pirate moves with blind fury and a single-minded purpose ... to open the gates of Hell on an unsuspecting world. One man knows the true secret of Diablero, and he must be found before time runs out, not only for those who seek to stop the demon, but for the entire human race.

ADVANCE RAVES:

"Blackbeard is fertile ground for pure evil, and Toby Tate's DIABLERO does the subject justice. A well-crafted read."

"DIABLERO is the perfect matchup of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, and Pirates. Ancient evil, modern intrigue, and a fast pace will have readers hanging on the edges of their seats."

     — David Niall Wilson, Author of DEEP BLUE and VINTAGE SOUL —

Pirates, voodoo, and zombies are all creatively wrapped in a shroud of the supernatural in Toby Tate’s DIABLERO. Someone or something has infused the body of Edward Teach, the pirate Blackbeard, with a dose of evil. He roams from the North Carolina coast to the Caribbean in a dream-like state, seeking the source of evil for his reanimator to control. The group hot on Blackbeard’s trail have little more than the hope they can find the key to stopping him before it’s too late. Tate’s skillful treatment of Blackbeard as both an apparition of horror and an empathetic victim is a wonderful twist on the character. Think you know pirates? Think again, and don’t miss this one.

     — Tracy Rud, Author of SEA BEGGAR —

Toby Tate is a freelance journalist living and working in North Carolina. He has been published in The Pedestal Magazine, Scary Monsters Magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and more. Toby is also a musician, songwriter, audio engineer and graphic designer. DIABLERO is his first novel.

You can read more about the author at his Website, www.tobytatestories.com.

Now Available ...

Spanning oceans and generations, Macy Macmillan inherits her parents’ property in the Florida Keys after their sudden death in a car accident. There, she befriends an old acquaintance of her father’s and together they find treasure hidden in a cluster of mangroves.

Flash back to 1719 when a ship called the Sea Beggar roved the Caribbean. Her crew were no ordinary pirates, but rather sea rovers and mercenaries who would fight to the death to protect what they believed in; integrity, duty, love. A merchant ship carrying treasure goes down in a hurricane and Calico Jack and his pirates plunder the treasure. The Sea Beggar captures the pirate ship and takes back the treasure—the same treasure Macy found. Under orders of King Felipe of Spain, the Sea Beggar is now in a race to return the treasure to the Spanish Crown before she herself is pirated. The Sea Beggar and her crew have secrets, which could either be their success or their undoing. One secret is the ship’s mistress, Keary Dunbarton, who is both a lady and a pirate through and through. She experiences great gains and losses as she comes to terms with her legacy on the ship.

The odds are against the Sea Beggar, because the closer she gets to completing her mission, the treacheries increase. There is a deadly faction of pirates broken off from the Spanish armada who also seek the treasure the Sea Beggar carries. The Sea Beggar crew must be wily to keep this faction guessing, so with the help of the Benedictine monks in Montserrat Spain, they hide the treasure. Can these sea rovers finish what they started and return the treasure to its rightful owner?

Back in present day, after finding the treasure buried in secrets and sand for nearly 300 years, Macy discovers something more important—a sense of belonging. But her discovery does not stop there. She also finds that the legacy Keary Dunbarton left, is her legacy as well, and this is the true treasure of the Sea Beggar.

PRAISE:

Just when you believe there remains no adventure worth seeking, there appears upon the horizon the stout silhouette of the Sea Beggar—author Tracy Rud’s stirring saga of lyrical larceny and love upon the high seas. As Rud so aptly pens, "If we sail far enough, we will find our dreams." Indeed, plus much, much more—pirates, both good and bad, and a king’s ransom in treasure, both lost and found. Not even Cap’n Jack Sparrow could have spun a better yarn.

     — Jedwin Smith, Author of FATAL TREASURE and OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER —

DRISCOLL'S EYE

by John Russo

When an Egyptian seer's orb is implanted to replace Marty Driscoll's blinded right eye, its mystical powers alter his personal and professional life forever.

One life-altering moment occurs when Marty Driscoll—Yale’s star quarterback—is severely beaten by smalltime hood, Carmine Brocco, for failing to fix a game. As a result, Marty is blind in his right eye. His footloose roommate, Todd Hamilton, swipes an Egyptian seer’s orb from his Archaeology class and convinces Marty to have it surgically implanted instead of a glass prosthesis.

No longer able to play ball, Marty decides he must do something more meaningful with his life. He transfers to Harvard Law, secretly vowing to seek justice for what Brocco has done to him. While working summers as a security guard in his father’s mall he meets Sara Jenkins, who changes his world and becomes the love of his life. During his summer security work, Marty also begins to experience weird sensations in his implanted eye.

Upon graduation, Marty passes the Bar Exam and is assigned to the New Haven States Attorney’s office. Meanwhile the strange sensations in his eye continue. What is the significance of the colors he sees? What is his prosthetic eye trying to tell him? As he works his way up the legal ladder, learning the ropes, Marty encounters political maneuvering, setbacks and heartbreak, even murder. He becomes more determined to see that those who mindlessly harm others are punished, finally discovering that the strange orb in his eye can guide him in that endeavor.

DRISCOLL'S EYE is a crime thriller from veteran Connecticut author, John Russo. This is not your usual legal thriller, as described by the cover's tagline: "A crime novel with a mystical twist." Author Russo has twisted the usually formulaic legal thriller into bold, unpredictable new shapes.

To order DRISCOLL'S EYE, click Order EYE.

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NIGHTBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

NIGHTBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT is a short story anthology featuring fiction from the fevered imaginations of 19 authors. This is subtle dark fantasy at its finest, 19 stories that examine life beyond the everyday experience.

EXCERPTS: 

     “... My aunt is known throughout the island as an hechicera.”
     “My Spanish isn't that great but doesn't that mean witch or something?”
     “Goodness no, she's not a bruja. Your Spanish really is lousy. Loosely translated, hechicera means a wizard or a sorceress.”

          —  from “The Hechicera’s Ace”
                        by John Russo

     But Pa was strong, and lickety-quick, and somehow he’d got hold of her hands and told her to be still now, he’s gonna pull her right out, like a splinter from a finger. But suddenly something flashed beneath the ice. Danny could see it just under the thin crust. Something silver and moving faster than Frank’s old jalopy along Suicide Road, heading right for Pa and Sarah. And then ...

           —  from “Silver River” by
                         Kathryne Kennedy

     The tallest one opened its mouth, its yawn revealing a long red tongue and two rows of teeth.
     “Teeth in a bird? My god!”
     Their wide leathery wings reminded Carl of a hideous paperback book cover he’d seen. A colorful drawing of a pterodactyl.

          —  from “Dancing In the Shadows” by Gabriele Enyart

To order on Amazon, click Order Anthology on Amazon.

To order NIGHTBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT from our Web site, click Order Anthology.

Coming in 2011 . . .
THE DEADEATERS
by Gabriele Enyart

THE DEADEATERS offers a touch of Michael Crichton’s edgy science and whispers of Stephen King's and Dean Koontz's dark literary visions. New Jersey author Gabriele Enyart's first novel promises to be a must read for genre enthusiasts.

In 1263, a Mongol slave chronicles the massacre of his cavalry unit by mysterious creatures on The Deadeaters Pass.

Switch to current day and the search for what might be offspring of those same ancient Mongolian creatures. Offered the ‘once in a lifetime job’ of the curatorship of deep cave dwelling (hybrid) creatures, paleobiologist Dr. Danny DuWahr is torn and conflicted. He has sworn, “I’ll never cave again!” The scientist must assist in the capture of these creatures with the infamous South African trapper, Dieter Rork. The stigma of the disastrous underground Hobbit Project years before follows the scientist like a curse. His two friends vanished, presumably drowned. 

But soon it is discovered that these creatures are fleeing the safe sanctuary of their underground caves and coming to the surface. Another discovery soon follows. These creatures could be a valuable resource. Their dung contains gold grains. DuWahr's employer intends on cashing in by harvesting this ‘golden geese’ bonanza.

A government agency (The SIR Project) has tracked the surviving populations, and has been unable to find a reason for their fleeing from the depths. The necropsy of an adult creature by famed entomologist Dr. Samantha Kerr reveals a disquieting physiology. 

A Mongol cavalry massacre, deep Indonesian caves, and a plethora of mysterious creatures makes for a satisfying read. A park ranger intent on their annihilation, a secret Federal Agency tracking their movements, and an oil tycoon determined to capture these gold-producing entities enhances the work. The story receives an extra tenebrous jolt when we discover the creatures are not what we think they are, and that there is a monstrous reason for their racing to the surface.

Gabriele's short story, "Dancing In the Shadows" appears in our anthology, NIGHTBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT.

THE WISDOM OF LOONS

by Jeff Dennis 

THE WISDOM OF LOONS is the story of Cal Blevins and Lauren Talbot, two middle-aged people who meet and fall in love at Lake McDowell in the North Georgia mountains. As their fateful affair progresses, they begin to experience supernatural happenings. Cal and Lauren begin to think that the lake resort is haunted, possibly by the ghosts of the Cherokee, who have inhabited these parts for centuries. And then there is Lauren's stroke-addled father, Edgar. Lauren has brought her handicapped father to the lake for his emotional well-being. Edgar develops a strange obsession with the loons that populate the lake, which adds to caregiver Lauren's frustrations. Her father persists in doing loon calls at all hours of the night, claiming he has an insight into the nocturnal birds and that the loons on the lake are actually an integral part of many ancient Cherokee spiritual rites.

THE WISDOM OF LOONS is a romantic dark fantasy with a triple-twist ending that will have you thinking about the story and characters long after you read the final sentence. Readers have referred to the novel as "Stephen King Meets Nicholas Sparks" and "Like 'On Golden Pond' with ghosts." To see more comments by Amazon readers, click Amazon Reviews.

To order THE WISDOM OF LOONS, click Order Loons.

Coming . . . April 2011 
THE SERIAL KILLER'S DAUGHTER
by Heywood Gould

Veteran novelist/screenwriter Heywood Gould brings us his latest high octane noir thriller, THE SERIAL KILLER'S DAUGHTER.

Peter Vogel, a college senior with literary ambitions, has lurid, erotic fantasies about an enigmatic classmate named Hannah Seeley. She favors his overtures with a dismissive smile until one day, out of the blue, she offers him a proposition: if he ghostwrites her papers she’ll have sex with him.

He agrees and turns her into an A student. She pays promptly, but mechanically.

Still, his obsession deepens and when she disappears at the end of the semester he is crushed and tries unsuccessfully to find her.

Then, after graduation, she suddenly reappears, bringing a chain of bizarre events. On their first night together they are attacked by home invaders who are later found dead in a dumpster. And a day later they are almost carjacked by two thugs in an Escalade who are then found shot dead on a service road.

Now, Hannah confesses. She is the daughter of the Robbinsgate Killer, a church deacon and local official who terrorized her small California town in the ‘90s, torturing and murdering 11 people, among them her best friend. Someone is stalking her, trying to kill her. It began with e-mails and phone calls, threatening to make her suffer as much as her father’s victims. A man tried to grab her in a parking lot. Another was waiting outside her apartment. The police don’t believe her; the FBI says it’s not unusual for the families of criminals to be harassed. No one sympathizes with the daughter of a serial killer.

She admits she seduced Peter out of desperation. She was alone, unprotected. She felt safe when they were together. She used him, but now she’s wracked with guilt because she put him in danger. She tells him to forget her and save himself.

But Peter cannot let Hannah go. Instead, he resolves to find out who, if anyone is trying to kill her.

They embark on a journey of discovery. Every step takes them deeper into a state pf paranoid uncertainty in which they don’t know what is real or imagined. Are they fighting phantoms or real assassins? The biker comes back into their lives again. They are shadowed by a blond man in steel-rimmed glasses.

The Houston detective tells Peter that Hannah is lying and is really a courier for the Mexican cartels. Hannah’s pastor is convinced that she is imagining it all as a way to atone for her father’s crimes.

A man follows them. They set a trap and Peter accidentally kills him, but then doesn’t know if he was an assassin or a DEA agent acting on a tip from the Houston police.

They speak to a radical lawyer, who is convinced that her father was the subject of a military experiment gone horribly wrong. Later, that lawyer is murdered and they realize they will be suspects.

In search of clues they visit Hannah’s bitter, self-pitying father in the isolation block of a maximum-security prison. Amazingly, he sees himself as the victim and his victims’ families as his persecutors.

Peter becomes a fugitive. A suspected murderer. All in search of an answer that remains elusive to the very end.

ADVANCE RAVES:

“Heywood Gould never ceases to entertain and amaze. I could not put this book down. The suspense was literally excruciating.”

— Tom Thayer, former president of Universal Television and Emmy award winning producer of “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”  —

“This is the kind of book that you can't wait to finish and then you're sorry it's over.”

— Joseph Stern, Executive Producer of “Law and Order” and “Judging Amy” —

. . .

THE SERIAL KILLER'S DAUGHTER will be Heywood Gould's seventh novel. He is an artistic tour-de-force with many screenplay and directing credits to go along with his novels.

NOVELS:

• ONE DEAD DEBUTANTE (1975 St. Martin's Press ... 1989 Pocket Books)
• FORT APACHE, THE BRONX (1981 Warner Books)
• GLITTERBURN (St. Martin's Press 1981 ... 1988 Pocket Books)
• COCKTAIL (St. Martin's Press 1984 ... 1989 Pocket Books)
• DOUBLE BANG (Simon & Schuster 1988 ... 1989 Pocket Books)
• LEADING LADY (Five Star Press 2008)

SCREENPLAYS:

• ROLLING THUNDER (1977 movie starring William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones)
• THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978 movie starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier)
• FORT APACHE, THE BRONX (1981 movie starring Paul Newman, Edward Asner, Ken Wahl, and Danny Aiello)
• STREETS OF GOLD (1986 movie starring Klaus Maria Brandauer, Wesley Snipes, and Adrian Pasdar)
• COCKTAIL (1988 movie starring Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, and Elisabeth Shue) 
• ONE GOOD COP (1991 movie starring Michael Keaton and Rene Russo; directed by Heywood Gould)
• TRIAL BY JURY (1994 movie starring Armand Assante, Gabriel Byrne, and William Hurt; directed by Heywood Gould)
• MISTRIAL (1996 movie starring Bill Pullman and Robert Loggia; directed by Heywood Gould)
• DOUBLE BANG (2001 movie starring William Baldwin and Adam Baldwin; directed by Heywood Gould)

You can read more bout this amazing literary talent at www.heywoodgould.com