ECHOES….

As the kitchen slowly fills with acrid smoke, Hannah considers the details of last night’s dream. All her dreams are similar. They begin with the vultures from Disney’s movie The Jungle Book: Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy, and Dizzy, those adorable guys with their shaggy haircuts and Liverpudlian accents. Hannah suspects she giggles in her sleep as the dream gets underway and the feathered quartet exchange their famous banter: Whatcha wanna do? I dunno. Okay, but whatcha wanna do?

This is when Hitchcock enters belly first, and just like that the mock-Beatles birds have blood red eyes, growl like wolves, sprout dripping talons, and hideous, dagger beaks. Hannah shivers just thinking of them. In the dreams, she searches for and locates herself far below, standing in the middle of a cornfield row. She is shading her eyes, looking skyward toward the row of birds, her body no bigger than a black ant on a picnic table. When the birds screech and launch, spears sailing earthward, Hannah starts sprinting.

The vultures, protected black vultures, are the first creatures we meet in Virginia Watt’s wonderful collection of short stories, ECHOES FROM THE HOCKER HOUSE. Like many of the creatures in Watt’s book, the vultures are not functioning correctly. Their settings have been turned up abnormally high. Why? No one seems to be able to fathom, and instead the focus is on how to adapt, how to live with things that are fundamentally unendurable.

Much like the middle of Penn’s woods, i.e. the state of Pennsylvania, many of Watt’s stories take place in a landscape that is beautiful, but challenging: mountains and trees and rocks and coal. Living to a ripe old age is the exception to the rule, but so is leaving home for easier horizons. These hill country folk love their wooded towns, their unusual neighbors, their God, their country, and their struggles.

echoes from the hocker house by virginia watts
echoes from the hocker house by virginia watts

Have you read the Kirkus review of ECHOES FROM THE HOCKER HOUSE?

ECHOES FROM THE HOCKER HOUSE is a National Book Award nominee, and it is out today in Kindle, with the paperback to release on 11/20/2023. And STILL available at the pre-order price from Devil’s Party Press!

ARE YOU READY FOR SPINE-TINGLING CHILLS?


🎃 Dive into the Darkest Depths of Horror with “THE PUMPKIN KING AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR”! 📚

Are you ready for heart-pounding suspense, and unforgettable nightmares? Gravelight is thrilled to introduce the first volume in a two-book series that will keep you awake at night: R. David Fulcher’s masterful collection of horror fiction.

👻 Immerse yourself in 20 blood-curdling tales, meticulously updated and revised by the author himself, ensuring you experience the definitive versions of these horrifying stories. From eerie gothic settings to bone-chilling encounters, these tales will haunt your dreams for years to come.

🕯️ What’s Inside:

  • Eulogy to E.A. Poe
  • Marienburg Castle
  • The Pumpkin King
  • Heavenly Strains
  • A Matter of Taste
  • My Days With Mahalia
  • A Night Out With Mr. Bones
  • Merry Are We of the Lake
  • The Night Flyer
  • Pumpkin Seed Spit
  • A Night for Animals
  • The Man Next Door
  • Extra! Extra!
  • The Flight Dummy
  • For the Children
  • The Watcher’s Web
  • Dreaming, The Copper City
  • The Huntress
  • The Faerie Lights
  • The October Man

🌕 This collection features a mesmerizing wrap-around cover and a contemporary design, making it the perfect companion for Halloween gatherings, or for those dark, rainy nights when you crave a bone-chilling story to send shivers down your spine.

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👉 Share this post with fellow horror enthusiasts and spread the fear! 💀📚

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Buy from DPP:

The Dunwich Horror and Horror Author Phil Giunta

This anthology of seven eerie, suspenseful tales by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft includes three that involve his famous mythology of the Ancient Ones—especially the monstrous entity, Yog-Sothoth—as well as the grimoire of black magic known as the Necronomicon

“In the Vault” – After finding himself locked in a tomb, a despicable, cantankerous undertaker successfully escapes by stacking six occupied coffins to create a platform, allowing him to reach a small opening above the door. However, just before crawling free, his leg punches through the lid of the top coffin, leaving him with wounds that were not merely inflicted by jagged wood.

“Pickman’s Model”  – An artist of the macabre develops a new and startlingly realistic style when he begins painting demonic figures too grotesque to be displayed in public, but where did he find this latest inspiration?

“The Rats in the Walls” – After restoring the cursed, ruined estate of his ancestors, a young man begins hearing rats scurrying in the walls. An exploration of the cellar reveals an opening to a large chamber, the contents of which divulge the true and terrible history of the property.

“The Music of Erich Zann” – Each night, on the top floor of an apartment building, an elderly violinist plays a haunting, otherworldly melody—and receives a response from somewhere beyond our dimension.

“The Haunter of the Dark” – Robert Blake takes an unhealthy interest in the ruins of a long-abandoned Gothic church whose distant spires are visible from his apartment window. After venturing across town, Blake learns that local residents fear the church and do not speak of it. Undaunted, Blake presses on and finds a way inside. While exploring, he encounters an artifact that conjures frightening visions of the Ancient Ones—one of which is soon unleashed.

“The Dunwich Horror” – In the isolated, backwoods village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, the primitive Whateley family welcomes a grandson named Wilbur, born of Lavinia and an unnamed father who  is believed to be the ancient creature known as Yog-Sototh. Other villagers become fearful of Wilbur’s rapid physical development and inhuman countenance—not to mention the strange growling and rumbling from the surrounding hills that began after his birth. Following Lavinia’s unexplained death, Wilbur and his grandfather begin boarding up the windows of their home as if to imprison something inside. After the deaths of Old Man Whateley, then of Wilbur, the invisible creature bursts from its confinement to wreak havoc on the village. Three professors from nearby Miskatonic University undertake a mission to destroy the creature using the Necronomicon, the grimoire of black magic that initially spawned the beast.“The Thing on the Doorstep” – Edward Derby, an intelligent, but weak-willed young man with an interest in the macabre, marries a homely, eccentric woman named Asenath who is reputed to have a beguiling effect on others. It is claimed by some that once captured by her stare, they found themselves gazing upon their own bodies through Asenath’s eyes. It isn’t long before Derby undergoes a bizarre and dangerous change of demeanor.

Phil Giunta’s novels include the paranormal mysteries Testing the PrisonerBy Your Side, and Like Mother, Like Daughters. His short stories appear in such anthologies as Love on the EdgeBeach Pulp, Space Opera Digest 2022A Plague of Shadows, the Middle of Eternity series, Hard-Boiled and Loaded with Sin, and more. He is a Pushcart Prize-nominated author and member of the Horror Writers Association, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group.

We are always glad to feature stories from Phil in our Devil’s Party Press anthologies. You will love Phil’s writing! Phil is currently working on his fourth paranormal mystery novel while plotting his triumphant escape from the pressures of corporate America where he has been imprisoned for thirty years. Visit Phil’s website at www.philgiunta.com.  

Find him on Facebook: @writerphilgiunta, Instagram: @phil_giunta71, and BlueSky: pgiunta.bsky.social

HAVE YOU READ WALDENLAND?

Copy of the page showing the start of Ben Talbot's short story. The image shows the first paragraph of Ben's story, and the Instant Noodles' header.

“I had the balls to ask my father what happened to my mother.”

What a way to start a story!

Ben Talbot is not new to writing, but he is new to sharing his writing. I think you’ll really enjoy Ben’s style of writing, and I am betting we’re going to see a lot more of his writing.

Take a read of Waldenland and let us know what you think.

BOOK TOUR STARTS TOMORROW: GET YOUR FREE KINDLE TODAY!

BUY CHARLOTTE ON BROADWAY HERE

Or you can pick her up on Amazon! And, if you have KNDLE UNLIMITED, read her for free!

CLICK TO BUY ON AMAZON

STAN SAYS:

The character of Charlotte is based on my older sister. She’s no longer with us, but I hope I did her proud, and I am so grateful to all of you who like her fiesty, independent personality!

Love Stan~