Hey Everyone,
Let’s all give a hearty cheer for The Beast Within author Lee Battersby: his story “Claws of Native Ghosts” has been announced as the WINNER of the 2008 Australian Shadows Award– Australia’s equivalent to the Stokers.
Check out the official announcement is here:
http://www..australianhorror.com/index.php?view=153
CONGRATULATIONS, LEE!!!
Read an interview and preview of Claws of Native Ghosts here
Bret Jordan - Author & Freelance Artist
Instead of a Christmas Giveaway this year we have decided to do something a little different. We wanted to give back to the writing community. After a lot of thinking we decided to select one member from our community who will receive the following:
A mentorship from an HWA member for a completed novel
The mentor will help this person polish their manuscript before submitting it to Graveside Tales.
After stepping back and taking a long look at all our family here at Graveside Tales we have chosen Bret Jordan to be this years receipent. Bret has done so much for Graveside Tales and without him I have no idea where we would be. Bret dedicated a lot time doing artwork and several other projects. He was the first person to take us up on writing an online eSerial with his novel Plague. Bret’s outstanding attitude, drive, dedication and determination is exactly what we look for.
His mentor will be HWA member and community member Rio Youers author of Everdead and Endtimes.
Plague by Bret Jordan
Story Synopsis
Renier is a port city that stands as a glorious gem on the edge of the kingdom. The people are justly ruled by their beloved Duke with the assistance of a benevolent wizard and a self-involved priest. Within twenty-four hours everything changes as a small group of strange lepers enter the port and cause a mysterious and deadly illness to rage through the city, killing most of the residents. Violent illness and gruesome death isn’t the end of the horror for the residents of Renier. Not by a long shot, as thousands of dead bodies rise from the cobblestone streets in search of living prey. Sword and sorcery battle against an unstoppable hunger as the few living residents try and escape the walls of an undead nightmare.
“Bret Jordan’s Plague blends dark fantasy and zombie horror with genuinely chilling results. You won’t be disappointed – get hooked on this serial!”
~David Dunwoody, author of Empire
“Bret Jordan has created an intriguing medieval world where blood & guts zombie mayhem is delivered with the brutal edge of a sword, not the barrel of a .45. Read it – you’ll dig it!”
~Vince Churchill author of The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth & The Blackest Heart
Steven Shrewsbury Author
Event: Blog Talk Radio Show – The Odd Mind with Angel Lesa
Guest: Author Steven Shrewsbury
Date: 12/6/2008
Time: 9 a.m. central time
Length: 1 hour
Call In Number: (347)945-7025
Steven Shrewsbury is from the mid-west. He is the author of HAWG, GODFORSAKEN, THOROUGHBRED, NOCTURNAL VACATIONS, BULLETPROOF SOUL and DEPTHS OF SAVAGERY
Forthcoming books: TORMENTOR May 2009 Lachesis Publishing
KING OF THE BASTARDS (with Brian Keene) sometime in the future
You can also email your questions to angellesa @ hotmail.com
2 lucky callers will win an autographed copy of HAWG.
Please call and show your support.
Originally aired 12/06/2008
Rio Youers Author
Rio Youers was born after The Beatles broke up and before Jim Morrison died, a time when there was sufficient psychedelia in the air to impact his imagination. He has been described by the bestselling novelist Peter Straub as “… one of the most vital, most exciting young talents to come along in this decade.”
Rio’s first novella Ellie’s Boy was published in 1999, and he has since had stories published in dozens of magazines and ezines. His debut novel, End Times, was published in 2007 to outstanding reviews (“Powerful and disturbing … a tightly woven story told in lyrical prose.” -June Pulliam, Necropsy: The Review of Horror Fiction; “Youers is a word magician … Not since I had read Jonathan Livingston Seagull all those decades ago was I so astounded by the resolution of a story.” -Chris Perridas, The Horror Library). Rio has followed the success of End Times with his second novel, Everdead, an intense vampire story set in the vacation hotspot of Ibiza. Published by Graveside Tales, Everdead has received praise from some of the most noteworthy names in the genre (“After all this time, I would never have imagined that I’d be open to yet another vampire novel, but I read this one in a state of absolute pleasure.” -Peter Straub, New York Times Bestselling Author of Ghost Story and Shadowland; “Everdead is filled with vivid descriptions and locations that come to life on the page. A skillfully-crafted and evocative novel … I loved it.” -Derek Gunn, author of Vampire Apocalypse). Rio is currently working on a new novella, and a new novel, which he hopes will see life some time in 2009.
Rio has several projects forthcoming from various publishers. Early 2009 will see the release of his novella Mama Fish, through Shroud Publishing. He also has short stories appearing in Northern Haunts, Ten Nails, Harvest Hill, and the multiple-award winning magazine Postscripts. In fall of 2009, PS Publishing will release Rio’s novella Old Man Scratch, and they will follow this in 2010 with a special limited edition of his novel End Times.
Rio is a proud member of the Horror Writers’ Association. He lives in Canada with his wife Emily. Find out more about Rio and his work on his website: www.rioyouers.com.
Mr. Youers has delivered us a flavorful new vampire tale just as the genre needs rescue from the paranormal romance shelves. In Luca, he's given us a new and classic monster. As an added bonus, we get drama, action, and vivid characterization. "His senses were so finely tuned … the beating of her heart filled his head with the furious sound of bombardment … raw emotion … stripped to its core …" Rio Youers is a bright light among the new wave of writers coming forth. He delivered his audience a terrific impact with his recent End Times novel, and now he's given us a helluva story with his new book Everdead and it's intertwined plot. His fans will be delighted, and new readers will be entranced. He writes with a literary style but gives the reader a page turning drive. Luca doesn't start off to be a bad person, but he gets there anyway. Lust has a way of doing that. We learn of his origins, how he abandons his family, his sleepy country-side 19th century world, and eventually even abandons life itself in pursuit of something greater and more exciting. Maybe all serial killers lust for a fantasy they can't have, and thus are how monsters born. We are very afraid of Luca, but like a horrible accident, we can't turn away and Youers makes us care for him. However, it's one thing to read about evil, and another thing to experience it. Youers brings it home to a resort and party town, and the fireworks spark. Scenery. You are there with the narrative of this book. "The music jumps … people come and go … they spin. They dance. They sing … laughter, a thousand lights gazing at the black curve of the Mediterranean." Characters. That's how a strong American novel transcends the ordinary book, and Everdead gives us real people within its pages. Cass, Toby, Sheri, Natalie, Maria, Johnny, and Ben do what comes natural for young people on the sunny beach of San Antonio, Spain. They are young, looking for fun, sex, and maybe love. They're blood runs hot. They are full of life. What more could a vampire want? Youers introduces a few twists to the legend of the vampire which is refreshing, and in doing so he resurrects some energy from the late Richard Matheson. There is a lot of humanity to Luca's monstrousness and it turns out that even monsters have enemies. It's not only the sun that makes Luca sleep in the shadows and among minions of cockroaches and rats. If you're a human-cum-vampire, you need to be very afraid. In real life, when evil bursts into your house and attacks, you rarely recover even if you live. This novel is gritty and real, so just when Toby and Cass meet and begin to dance the rituals of love, terror grips them. However, pluckier than most, they are not going to let Luca steal their passion for one another, steal their youth away, without putting up a fight. And what a rip rousing fight it is, too. Two predatory worlds are exposited, and while the blood flies, the real desperation is the fight to not be lonely. In our ever changing, over crowded world, loneliness is the one darkness that we can't tolerate. Even death may be more preferable, than to not be able to live, love, and have friends. Perhaps loneliness is the worst death of all – to be separated from all that you care about. That's the real battle. Graveside Tales has burst from the gate with clever anthologies, online serials, and most recently Hawg by Stephen Shrewsbury. Now, Graveside Tales and Mr. Youers have a winner with Evedead. I predict that it'll sell fast. Grab a copy – before it's too late. Graveside Books
Rio Youers Author
San Antonio, Ibiza. A non-stop carnival for the young, where excess reigns and rules are made to be broken. But this summer, something else has joined the party. Something cruel and dark-hearted. An evil that moves through the night with an appetite for sin.
Toby Matthews has come to San Antonio to recover from a broken heart, and it seems that beautiful Cass Tait may be the cure. But as their relationship begins to bloom, they stumble upon an unspeakable darkness. They stare evil in the eye, they see its true heart, and know that only they can stop it. Before the sun goes down, they must decide whether to run … or whether to stand like heroes and fight.
This is the hunting ground. The live wire. Where hearts were made to beat harder. This is San Antonio … one long exhilarated scream.
Rio Youers is one of the most vital, most exciting young talents to come along in this decade… Peter Straub
Order your copy today at
Throughout history they have existed in folklore and nightmares…
By day they walk among us, hidden in plain sight. They are our neighbors and friends. But when the sun sets and the full moon rises, the beast within comes out…
And the hunt begins.
Grab a silver bullet and prepare yourself for 20 tales of animalistic terror crafted by authors from around the world. Travel across the ages and go beyond the myth to discover the horrific secrets of the werebeasts. See what lurks in the swamps of Florida; sprint across the rooftops of London in a deadly chase; follow an unfortunate soldier’s footsteps into the forests of Africa; find pity for a wounded soul who has yet to realize the full nature of his powers. These stories and others are ready to take you through a series of bone-snapping transformations that will make you howl for more.
From ancient cultures to the high-tech future, nowhere is safe from the shape-shifting bloodlust of The Beast Within.
The Beast Within Final TOC
The Claws of Native Ghosts by Lee Battersby
Like Cat and Dog by Michael Stone
Gift of the Bouda by Rick Farnsworth
Hatchet Job by John C. Caruso
Yard Sale by Norma Lehr
Desert Heart by William D Carl
Let’s All Welcome The New Guy by Raoul Wainscoting
Beached by Joel A Sutherland
Needs to be Met by Mark W Coulter
Some Touch of Pity by Gary A BraunBeck
The Night John Fell by Richard Moore
Okie Werewolf Seeks Love by Steven Wedel
The Marine by John Palisano
Lure of the Wolf by Belea T Keeney
SQ 389 by David W Hill
Crop Frogs by Gina Ranalli
Of Silver Bullets and Golden Teeth by Trent Hergenrader
By the Light of a Silvery Moon by Vince Churchill
Colugo Men by Mike Hultquist
The Immaculate Conception by Matt Hults
Steven Shrewsbury Author
Blue collar tough Andrew White knows that in the rural community of
Miller’s Fork bad things are best left in the dark. He soon learns that
monsters wear many shapes.
In a populace rife with of vice and deception, something has broken
loose…something hidden and feral. Set free from a neighbor’s barn, a force rampages through the locality. Hungry and insatiable, the berserk wrath unleashed from Mr. Solow’s shed is holds a darker secret than anyone could imagine.
Only a factory worker, a twisted biker, an unsure sheriff, and a wounded addict stand in the way of the beast. Can they put aside their differences and defeat what lurks inside them in time to defend what they love?
Come, peer inside the souls of Miller’s Fork and see if they possess the courage to stop the primal fury that is…HAWG.
“Shrewsbury is an accomplished storyteller with a gift for story and character development. Realistic…gory…the plotting is masterful and endlessly exciting.”
–Laurel Johnson, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“Steven L. Shrewsbury does what all writers should strive to do. From its first sentence HAWG ignites that creeping essence we seek from horror and Shrewsbury shows us he has no boundaries. This may be the best work I’ve read all year.”
–John Paul Allen, author of GIFTED TRUSTand MONKEY LOVE.
Order HAWG by Steven Shrewsbury $14.95
