“Yikes! That’s a creepy story!”

bearing copy

As you can probably tell already, I enjoy Halloween, and I never lost my childhood love of creepy, scary stories. What I find most terrifying in horror stories is not the big reveal of the monster or the alien or the big gory mess but the signal that something isn’t quite right in a chilling and unnatural way. Subtle abnormality creeping up, a sneaking shift in reality. (Some favorite examples of this are the beginnings of Gregor Xane’s horror novellas Six Dead Spots and The Hanover Block.) That’s the kind of scariness I aimed for in Bearing, so the above comment from an early reader made me happy.

I read horror, but never thought I’d be writing it. Then I shared some data on authors’ earnings in various genres with one of my Goodreads groups, and a horror writer commented that he would have to switch to romance because that was where the money was. I replied, “Horror-romance?” We were joking, but a few other writers began to play with the idea and one suggested we should create an anthology of horror-romance short stories, each based on one of the seven deadly sins. My choice: sloth. I enjoyed the challenge of making laziness frightening.

Because my story was more than three times as long as the other contributions to the anthology, far exceeding the word count limit, I withdrew from the project and set my horror-romance aside for a while. Now, it’s almost Halloween, and I’ve released it as a ninety-nine cent stand-alone.

Bearing

 A tale of paranormal horror based on Native American myths.

Mikayla, young Apache woman attending a powwow with her family, becomes entranced by an outsider, a Cree man who shows up without his Apache girlfriend. As her fascination consumes her, Mikayla changes in ways both pleasurable and frightening, powerless to overcome his dark magic until it may be too late.

https://amberfoxxmysteries.wordpress.com/buy-books-retail-links

Scavenger Hunt #uncannyquarry

lantern

I’m a late October Scorpio, so throughout my childhood I had Halloween-themed birthday parties. This suited me; I’ve always been a fan of scary stories and been intrigued by mysterious, inexplicable events. When I was around ten or eleven, my father set up a scavenger hunt in a friend’s orchard for the party. It was spooky and cold at twilight, and the old trees against the sky had that horror-movie look. Ever since then I’ve had a fondness for scavenger hunts.

The scavenger hunt Uncanny Quarry is for people who like to read paranormal fiction. Over thirty authors are participating, and their books cover the full range of paranormal genres from mystery to romance to fantasy. The grand prize is pretty grand, and second and third place are nice, too. One of my favorite authors, Virginia King*, is participating, as well as many who are new to me.

Curious? Ready to discover new authors?

Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/1616239271959563 to learn more and to join the event. Clues will be posted on the Facebook page and also on some of the authors’ web sites. Put on your puzzle-solving hat starting Sunday the 18th and keep it on through the 25th—by sheer coincidence that’s my Halloween-ish birthday—and follow the clues to win books.

Another note in keeping with the season: My new short fiction release, Bearing, comes out later this month. It’s a stand-alone story that I like to describe as subtle horror.

Happy scavenger hunting.

*Posts related to Virginia King:

https://amberfoxxmysteries.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/the-thorn-in-my-soul

https://amberfoxxmysteries.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/virginia-king-mything-in-action