I teased you folks last week about my latest offering, a short story titled “Fail House.”
Curiosity Quills Press explores yearning, regret, and fear with the Darkscapes Anthology — a spellbinding collection of dark fantasy, sci-fi, cyberpunk, horror, and detective fiction.
Delve into worlds of terrible family secrets, unexpected doppelgängers, a home invasion on an alien planet, androids and assassins, places and people who aren’t as stable as they seem, frustrated musicians going to desperate lengths — and more.
Jordan Elizabeth and W.K. Pomeroy – EXLEY AVENUE
In 1920s upstate New York, a tormented girl learns that her family’s new stone castle was built on a former cemetery, and in 2014, a former police detective uncovers horrible secrets
Benjamin Sperduto – LENA’S SONG
In the near future, two frustrated musicians and creative partners get in on the ground floor of neural firestreaming — but an old guitar creates an unexpected effect
Mark Woodring – SORRY FOR THE MOUSE
A veteran back from Afghanistan develops a strange hobby to stay sane — but it doesn’t work as well as he had hoped
J.R. Rain – SKELETON JIM
A skeleton detective who leads a double life as an Internet sensation takes a beautiful woman on as a client — and gets more than he bargained for
S.E. Bennet – OF LUSHER AND SLEEP
In this modern, alternative imagining of Romeo and Juliet, a veteran from an old-money family returns to London for his mother’s funeral and is confronted with a toxic history of two warring families — and a lost love
B.C. Johnson – ROOMIES
Housemates experience something deeply unsettling during an earthquake
Piers Anthony – IN THE SHADOW OF THE SONG
An American’s car is rear-ended by a lost Muslim traveler with diplomatic immunity; the traveler sings in the American’s place at his daughter’s school recital — with surprising results
Robert J Defendi – THE GIOVANNI EFFECT
A man who lives alone with his family on a terraformed wind turbine farm receives a disturbing visitor
J.E. Anckorn – FOUR HUNDRED EYES, SIXTY-FOUR HUNDRED TEETH
An existentially anxious former star of a London goth rock band, missing fame and creativity, regains something he thought was lost
Darin Kennedy – CIRCULAR ARGUMENT
A severely dehydrated man is trapped in an endless loop on an external tram-shuttle around his base — and his patience with the on-board AI is fraying
Andrew Buckley – MOSES AND THE TALKING BUSH THAT WAS INCONVENIENTLY ON FIRE
An exhausted Moses herds sheep for his father-in-law until a burning bush gives him a holy quest he’s rather reluctant to do
J.P. Sloan – FAIL HOUSE
On the night the Chinese land the first mission to Mars, unemployed roommates in a crumbling American city navigate through riots to their government-subsidized housing — but is it the safe place they thought it would be?
James Wymore – ICU
A workaholic lawyer wakes up in an intensive care unit with painful regrets
Tegan Wren – BOOTHEEL
An aged German soldier returns to the Missouri Bootheel where he picked cotton as a POW, digs up an old mirror — and dares to look at his reflection
Nathan Croft – SECOND SENTIENCE
In this New Weird goat fantasy, two caprifauns explore a lost city — and their possible past lives
Rena Rocford – LANDING A JOB IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
When an Imperial assassin’s Keeper betrays the Empire, the assassin goes off-planet — to transition out of government work as fast as possible
Ann M. Noser – TRAPPED
A woman is trapped inside a body with Alzheimer’s disease
Matthew S. Cox – OUT OF SIGHT
Unwanted kids wake up in an escape pod after years in stasis, and an AI bracelet is their only chance to make sense of a wild uncharted planet
Randy Attwood – A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
A processing plant worker on a cattle farming planet boards an interstellar ship to bring back a wife — and learns a hard lesson
Katie Young – THE ONE YOU FEED
A wolf hunter offers his services to a professional steer roper, hoping the cowboy will be his champion at the right time
Richard Roberts – HEART OF THE HARVESTER
A boy’s father sends him to a dangerous city populated with machines in order to bring back the heart of a harvester — but will the boy pass his test and become a man?
There are some serious best-selling authors in this anthology, and if you’re into dark fantasy, sci-fi and thrillers, you’re guaranteed to find a story to scratch that itch!
Darkscapes publishes on January 31st, so get your mouse-fingers warmed up!
J.P.Sloan's Fistful of Fiction 