Chasing the Dragon by Mark Towse (VBT, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT ADULT title

 

I have the pleasure of hosting author Mark Towse, who answers my question:

ELF:  What scares you the most or makes you the happiest about writing?

 

MT:  I've chosen this topic because I'm all for facing my demons.

 

I'll start with the happy stuff. Writing is my comfort zone. It's my portal into a thousand other magic worlds. Coming from a place of trauma, it is cathartic, therapeutic, and a chance to unload the bile. When I know I have a day's writing in front of me, it's almost impossible to rip the grin from my face. Think about it: all those adventures and places to explore. Seriously, I feel like a millionaire behind my writing desk. What more could I need besides my imagination, the key to limitless worlds?

When I'm writing, everything else drops out of my head: no more anxiety, stress, fear, or insecurity. It's just me and my guilty giggles as I chill, thrill, and put my characters and readers through the wringer.

Happy doesn't even cut it. But just like playing in the woods as kids, the sun comes down all too quickly. It's a shame, as I could stay there forever.

 

What scares me?

 

Failure scares me. That said, I know I have something unique and extraordinary to bring to the table. I haven't always possessed my current confidence level, but I genuinely back myself now. And some. After spending years writing prolifically and mastering the shorter form, then graduating to novellas, I know this novel kicks ass, and I will champion 'Chasing The Dragon' until I'm blue in the face.

 

To me, this is more than a hobby—it's everything. It's hard to say that out loud, but it's true.

 

I know I'm good enough, but there's a lot of noise out there. Not being heard scares the living daylights out of me.

 

Readers, please give me a try; you won't regret it. That's a Towsey guarantee.

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Chasing the Dragon

by

Mark Towse

 

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GENRE:  Vigilante Crime Thriller/Horror

 

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BLURB:

 

A town on its knees, dread's bony fingers wrapping around its throat and squeezing, death rattles soon to follow.

 

Drugs, filth, and a lack of human decency are starving it of hope.

 

Introducing Simon Dooley, our trauma-driven wannabe superhero, the relentless voice of his dead mother pleading with him to "end the chaos." Dressed in a leotard and armed only with a dozen dog poop bags, Simon's plight will find him falling in love and going head to head with the seediest characters walking the streets.

 

The town needed a hero... it got Reformo.

 

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EXCERPT

It’s happening. It’s finally happening.

 

I strip off in front of the full-length mirror, part self-admiration for my new frame and part sorrow for the shy and squeamish young boy who first walked the corridors of the youth detention centre. 

Okay, not The Rectifier. What then? Captain Justice has been done, you muppet! The Shadow? Nope. Been done, too. The Silhouette? Too jazzy. Unable to wait any longer, the hairs bristling on the back of my neck, I carefully lift the costume from the bed and slip my arms through.

Oh, yes!

It’s as though electricity runs through my veins. I feel alive, reborn. I feel—

“I’m a superhero.”

 

Amazon Buy Link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Mark Towse is an English horror writer living in Australia. He would sell his soul to the devil or anyone buying if it meant he could write full-time. Alas, he left it very late to begin this journey, penning his first story since primary school at the ripe old age of forty-five. Since then, he’s been published in over two hundred journals and anthologies, had his work made into full theatrical productions for shows such as The No Sleep Podcast and Tales to Terrify, and has penned fourteen novellas, including Nana, Gone to the Dogs, 3:33, and Crows. Chasing The Dragon is his debut novel.

 

Amazon Author Page

Twitter: @MarkTowsey12

Website

Instagram

Facebook

 

 

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Monsterland by Michael Okon (VBT, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

It is my pleasure to share a guest post by author Michael Okon, who shares...







MO:  I have been writing since I’m 15 years old. I started with screenplays, honed my skills, and moved into novels. No matter how deep my subject was, I knew exactly how every single story was going to end. Every character’s arc was mapped out with important questions on how I was going to get them from point A to B, and how they were going to change along the way. It’s not enough to just sit down and write, but you must have a roadmap. I beat out my character’s stories and then intertwine them throughout the novel. Always give yourself ample time when writing, don’t think you are going to lose an idea because you haven’t started Chapter 1 in your novel. Gather notes, know your characters, feel what it would be like to live in their shoes. Writing a novel is creating your own universe. Know every aspect of that universe, inside and out. Know how your characters will react to certain things in that universe. Once you figure out where you want to go, and how your characters are going to be, then begin writing. Before you know it, you’ll be ten chapters in.


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Monsterland

by Michael Okon

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GENRE:  Horror (Monsters)

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BLURB:

Welcome to Monsterland—the scariest place on Earth.

Wyatt Baldwin's senior year is not going well. His parents divorce, then his dad mysteriously dies. He’s not exactly comfortable with his new stepfather, Carter White, either. An ongoing debate with his best friends Melvin and Howard Drucker over which monster is superior has gotten stale. He’d much rather spend his days with beautiful and popular Jade. However, she’s dating the brash high-school quarterback Nolan, and Wyatt thinks he doesn’t stand a chance.

But everything changes when Wyatt and his friends are invited to attend the grand opening of Monsterland, a groundbreaking theme park where guests can interact with vampires in Vampire Village, be chased by werewolves on the River Run, and walk among the dead in Zombieville.

With real werewolves, vampires and zombies as the main attractions, what could possibly go wrong?

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EXCERPT

What were the interlopers doing here? Billy thought furiously. This was their territory. The humans didn’t belong in the swamp. The moon continued its trip to the heavens, the familiar agony beginning in his chest. Billy fought the demons churning within his body, feeling the pain of metamorphosis. He curled inward, hunching his shoulders, the curse of his nature making his spine pull until his tendons and muscles tore from their human positions to transform into something wicked. A howl erupted from his throat, followed by another, and then another. Grabbing handfuls of dirt, he tried to fight the awful change, but, as the sun dipped to its fiery death, the moon took control of his life, and the unnatural force tore through his unwilling body. Reason fled; his heart raced. Falling on his hands and knees, he let loose a keening cry as his face elongated, his body changing into a canine, fangs filling his mouth. He raced in a circle in a demented dance, knowing his fellow pack members did the same thing. Slowing, he regulated his labored breathing, forcing the icy calmness he needed to keep some semblance of reason. He peered through the dense brush. Lights from the search party bobbed in the distance. The odor, the stench of humanity, filled the clearing.

He turned, digging furiously on the ground, throwing dirt on the flames, hiding their existence. It was no good. Discovery would ruin everything. No one could live with their kind. Humans brought disease, humans brought anger, humans brought hatred. They were there; he could smell them, see their clumsy bodies invading his home. “They’ve found us,” he growled in the special language they used. “Run!” he barked as he turned to his pack, watching his friends’ naked skin transform until it was covered with the same silvered fur. They cried out in unison at the pain, howling with the injustice, and then ran in fear from the interlopers threatening their habitat.

Buy links:

 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Michael Okon is the award-winning and best-selling author & screenwriter formerly known as Michael Phillip Cash. His originally self-published book Monsterland was picked up in a two-book publishing deal by WordFire Press. Michael is happily married and writes full-time on the North Shore of Long Island with his two screaming monsters in the background.

For more information, details and updates, visit:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Email Michael

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Dead Corpse by Nuzo Onoh (VBB, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

Dead Corpse

by Nuzo Onoh

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GENRE:   Horror

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BLURB:

When the only child of a humble medicine woman is murdered for ritual magic, she will call on all the awesome powers of her deity, the Earth goddess, and exact a terrifying vengeance on an entire village. The angry dead shall rise again and a dark cloud of terror will shroud both the guilty and the innocent in a deadly supernatural curse.

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EXCERPT

There were three doors leading off the living room. He paused again, uncertain which door to try first. The last thing he wanted was for the witch to hear him trying out the wrong door.

That was when the light came on in the room to his right, seeping out from the high gap underneath the shut door. Fucking witch had wakened. Eze cursed and reached for the light switch on the nearest wall, flooding the living room with light from the single dusty bulb overhead. There was no time anymore for caution or delay. He rushed to the door, his movement surprisingly swift, adrenalin fuelled. He turned the knob and pushed the door in with a loud shout, intent on shrieking terror into the heart of his opponent.

His shout caught in his throat. Hot piss gushed out of his bladder, washing his trousers with terror ammonia. A tight band gripped his heart, squeezing the breath out of his lungs. He stumbled back, backwards to the door through which he’d crashed into the room. His eyes, horror-wide, starred at the apparition before him, the albino girl he had last seen inside a secret shrine, drenched in her own blood, her warm heart pulsating inside the witch-doctor’s bowl. Eze moaned, his lips quivering like a child deprived of food. Her cackle hit him like a bullet, sending chills right through his veins to every nerve in his body.

The book is currently on sale for $.99.

Amazon link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Nuzo is an author of horror fiction from the African continent. She has featured on numerous media platforms, spearheading this new and unexplored horror subgenre.

A British writer of African descent, Nuzo Onoh lived through the Biafran/Nigerian civil war as a child refugee, an experience that has continued to influence some of her works. She attended Queen’s School, Enugu before proceeding to the Quaker boarding school, The Mount School York, England and St Andrew’s Tutorial College, Cambridge, from where she obtained her A’ Levels.

Nuzo holds both a Law degree and a Masters degree in Writing from The University of Warwick, England. Her published works include: The Reluctant Dead (2014), Unhallowed Graves (2015) The Sleepless (2016), as well as featuring in some anthologies. Nuzo enjoys playing the guitar and the piano as well as taking long walks, haunting cemeteries and ancient gravestones. She is a strong believer of The Law of Attraction.

                       

Website

Twitter: @Nuzoonoh

Read the latest review of Dead Corpse by the horror writer, Perry Lake - link

In preparation for her latest release, Nuzo has written a blog for Female First Magazine - link

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The Flip by Michael Phillip Cash (VBT, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

I have the pleasure of sharing a guest post by author Michael Philip Cash, who explains...



-->ELF:  What is your writing process?

MPC:  My day begins at 530am. I’m up early because I like to throw in a quick lifting workout before I begin my day. I kiss my wife and kids goodbye and make the long trek to my den to begin my work.  When I’m writing about a certain subject i.e. werewolves, ghosts, zombies, etc…I must know everything there is about the subject.  My entire day is filled with research and development.  I comb google and take notes and develop ideas for my book. Then by the time the wife and kids get home, I have a general idea on where my story needs to go.  We eat dinner together, I play with them, and then tuck them in for bed.  Then, it’s off to the races and I write every single night. Whether it’s a paragraph or chapter I try to put down as much as I learned about that day, into my book.  Food Network or Travel Channel will always be on mute in the background. I do this 7 days a week. I have managed to pump out 14 plus books in over 5 years, and I’m just getting started.  I just signed a two book deal with WordFire Press for Monsterland 1 & 2 that will be due out end of 2017.   

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The Flip

by Michael Phillip Cash

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GENRE: Ghost/Haunted House/Horror

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BLURB:

Julie and Brad Evans are house flippers. They buy low, clean out the old occupants junk, and try to make a profit. Enter Hemmings House on Bedlam Street in scenic Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Too good a deal to pass up, but with an ominous secret. The old Victorian Mansion has dwellers that do not want to be dispossessed. As the house reveals its past, will the couple's marriage survive The Flip?

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EXCERPT

“I hate this place,” Brad grumbled, as he shoved another piece of crap into the super thick black garbage bag. The basement smelled like shit, and here he was, alone on his birthday and shoveling hundred-year old junk from a dank cellar. This had to be the worst flip they’d ever attempted. He gave the creaky stairs a gimlet-eyed glance and for a nanosecond hated Julie. Really hated her and her cockamamie ideas. Where did that idea of hate come from? he wondered. He loved his wife, didn’t he?

“It has so much charm,” she’d cooed every time they discussed the place. And then, last night, she’d sprung it on him. “Let’s keep it.”

“Over my dead body,” he told the decaying piles of newspaper. Once they finished this job and paid their bills, he had some thinking to do. She picked the homes, went back to her tidy little job in the city, and left him to muck around in the garbage. He couldn’t see himself doing this for the next twenty years, not anymore. Not after this dump. It wasn’t that he was afraid of work, or even plain old elbow grease. There was something about this project that turned him off. From the moment he entered the house, his skin crawled, and he found himself unaccountably angered by Julie and her insistence that they buy this place. It was as though his opinions didn’t count, and she made him feel like a hired hand instead of her partner.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Michael Phillip Cash is an award winning and best-selling author of horror, paranormal, and science fiction novels. 

He's written ten books including the best-selling Brood X, Stillwell, The Flip, The After House, The Hanging Tree, Witches Protection Program, Pokergeist, The History Major and Battle for Darracia series.  Michael’s books are on the Amazon best-seller list and have also won numerous awards. Additionally, he is a screenwriter with 14 specs under his belt. Michael resides on the North Shore of Long Island with his wife and children.

“Stillwell: A Haunting on Long Island”, “The Hanging Tree”, and “Schism: The Battle for Darracia” have all been named to Foreward Reviews Book of the Year Awards.  His newest book, “The History Major”, has been taking readers and reviewers by storm.

If you’d like more information on Michael Phillip Cash, check out his websites:

Website

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon Author page

Barnes & Noble

Email

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New York Night by Stephen Leather (VNBtM, guest post, excerpt and GIVEAWAY) GFT

It is my pleasure to share a guest post from author Stephen Leather, who shares his answer to my question...


 

ELF:  What is your writing process?

SL:  I’ve never been one for writing in silence – in fact I often do my best work as I sit in airport lounges waiting for a flight.  When I’m working at home you’ll find me in front of the TV with my Mac on a coffee table. I watch TV as I write and always have done.  I did most of my homework at school and university with the TV on, and most of my working life was spent in busy newspaper offices so I need a buzz around me as I write. Working with the TV on helps when I need to describe a character’s clothing and the credits are always a good source of names! I drink a cup of coffee pretty much every half hour and my cat Peanut Butter sits on the sofa next to me to keep me company.

Early on in a book I probably write about a thousand words a day, and I do it haphazardly, writing the scenes that I have in my head no matter where in the book they are! It’s not unusual for me to start writing scenes that eventually appear right at the end of the book!  After about a month of doing that I become more methodical and start at the beginning and link in the scenes I have already written. At that point I am probably writing fifteen hundred words a day.

Readers say that I’m very productive, but if you think about it, 1,000 words a day is more then 350,000 words a year, which is four novels, pretty much. So it seems to me that a writer producing just one book a year isn’t really trying!

When I first began writing full time, publishers generally only wanted one book a year from a writer. They would publish in hardback – often a year after delivery – then the following year they would publish that book as a paperback, along with a new hardback. There are still a lot of writers who work that way.

But eBooks have changed all that and now readers seem to prefer – even expect – a writer to be more prolific. So while I write one Spider Shepherd novel for my publisher each year, I also self-publish books, such as the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective series.

As I near the end my word count starts to accelerate and over the last ten days I probably write thirty thousand words! I always think of it as a roller coaster, with a long lead up followed by a dash to the finish!  It’s the part of writing that I really enjoy, where I am so caught up in the writing that the real world no longer seems to exist. It’s sometimes a shock to reach the end and to jerk back into reality. But that doesn’t last for long because I’m soon on to the next one, and the roller coaster begins again!

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New York Night
by Stephen Leather

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GENRE: Horror/Supernatural

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BLURB:

Teenagers are being possessed and turning into sadistic murderers. Priests can’t help, nor can psychiatrists. So who is behind the demonic possessions? Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate, and finds his own soul is on the line. New York Night is the seventh novel in the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective series.

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EXCERPT

The yellow cab driver was from Sierra Leone originally and during the drive he told Dee-anne how his family had been hacked to death by teenagers with machetes and that he had been lucky to escape with his life. Dee-anne had listened to the man’s story and had nodded and made encouraging noises at the right places but there was something definitely off about what the man was saying. It sounded too rehearsed as if he’d gone over it time and time again to make sure it had the ring of authenticity. Her fingers touched his as she handed over the fare and she instantly knew the truth. The man had been one of the attackers, he had killed and mutilated hundreds of men, women and children and had used the money he had stolen from his victims to pay for his passage to the United States.

‘I know what you did, Emmanuel,’ she said as she took her change. ‘You should keep up the good work here in America, Get yourself a big knife and have some fun.’

His mouth opened and he nodded slowly. ‘I will, mistress’ he said.

‘Enjoy yourself,’ said Dee-anne. She climbed out of the taxi and slammed the door.




Buy links 

Amazon
Kobo
iBooks
Smashwords

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan "Spider' Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels.


Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country's most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. In 2011 alone he sold more than 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.

Born in Manchester, he began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website and you can follow him on Twitter 



Jack Nightingale has his own website



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Beneath by Robin Heggelund Hansen (VNBtM, Guest Post and GIVEAWAY)

I have the pleasure of a guest post from author Robin Heggelund Hansen, with his musings on Eldritch City.


The World of Eldritch City

It is a wondrous place, this eldritch city. Here anything can happen to anyone, and by that I mean anything. Things you could only have imagined in your wildest dreams, or your wildest nightmares. For some it is a place of opportunity. For others it can be a place of perdition. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing which before you’ve gone there yourself. By the time you know your fate, there is no going back.

There have currently been released two stories in my series of Eldritch City shorts. Both have focused on some of the city’s strange occurrences, which can be fun in the right circumstances. But what about the place’s history? What is it that makes Eldritch City the place it is?

In my next installment, I will try to shed some light over the history of the place. Of those who lived there even before it became a city. The natives, who are surrounded by as much myth and mystery as the place itself. And just like Eldritch City, the rumours that has been spread about these people may very well be true.

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Beneath

by Robin Heggelund Hansen



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BLURB:

Nine years have passed since the tragic and mysterious deaths of Mr. Phillips and his daughter. A new clue surfaces, one which the lead investigator will follow to the brink of insanity.

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 EXCERPT

To whoever reads this: I feel that I must apologize if what you find on these pieces of paper appears to be nothing more than a collection of near-indecipherable words. I can assure you that I have tried everything I can think of, and yet I cannot keep my hands from trembling. This, however, is only a symptom of my much greater problems.

I cannot eat, or sleep, or even close my eyes for longer than the briefest of moments. I feel as if I’m about to lose my mind, but I’m clear enough to realize that I have to get this story off my chest, before it consumes whatever sanity I have left. Unfortunately, the only recipient I can trust with a story as bizarre and horrible as this are the same pieces of paper upon which these words are written.

Amazon


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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Robin was born on a cold winter night in Oslo, Norway, 1989. Growing up, he was always fond of telling stories, leading people to wonder when, not if, he would move on to writing stories of his own. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, he wrote his first short story, 'Beneath', in 2015.



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Nightlife series by Matthew Quinn Martin (spotlight)

This Summer, Read The Stars!

 

 

And Enjoy Nightlife Like You Never Have Before….

 

 

“Thrilling, edgy, and scary as hell, Nightlife is an outstanding debut and––along with Justin Cronin’s The Passage and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels––it's also one of the most original takes on the vampire novel I’ve ever read.”

—Jason Starr, Bestselling Author of The Pack

 

 

Matthew Quinn Martin first terrified horror fans with Nightlife: Night Terrors (Pocket Star EBooks; October 2013; $5.99), the captivating story of two unlikely monster hunters determined to save the city of New Harbor from the Night Angels—bloodthirsty creatures that feed on the forgotten. Jack Jackson and Beth Becker are among the few who can see these creatures for what they really are, but as they hunt the creatures, a mysterious organization known only as The Division is hunting them.

 

 

In the novella Nightlife: Hazardous Material (Pocket Star EBooks; May 11, 2015; $.99), we get a glimpse of The Division’s origins and aims, when a young man stumbles onto a long-abandoned video arcade—which three decades ago was the site of the largest mass shooting in New York history—and unwittingly uncovers a relic of unimaginable power and mind-altering terror.

 

 

 And in Nightlife: Night Terrors (Pocket Star EBooks; July 27, 2015; $1.99) readers will discover the never-before-released As the Worm Turns, where Jack and Beth are back, along with their faithful dog, Blood. For months they’ve been keeping just one step ahead of The Division, whose enigmatic leader has been pursuing them with the single-minded obsession to capture them by any means necessary. But as Jack and Beth continue their quest to rid the world of the creatures once and for all they find themselves facing off against something even more terrifying than the Night Angels––something that could hold the key to humanity’s salvation…or its doom.  NIGHTLIFE: NIGHT TERRORS is three amazing horror stories in one chilling bundle...the only thing you won't fear is the price!

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 Author info

Matthew Quinn Martin was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, it wasn’t until Matthew moved to Manhattan that he realized he was a writer. These days, he lives on a small island off the North Atlantic coast of the United States where it gets quiet in the winter…perhaps too quiet…

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