The Afterlife of Ellen Easterling

Volume Two of One Buck Horror is out this week, an ebook anthology of five short stories, including one of mine: The Afterlife of Ellen Easterling. The best "in a nutshell" description blurb I can give is that it's about a passive-aggressive ghost. But hopefully not in a silly way.

The other four stories (What Swims These Waters by Daniel Ausema, Holes by Sean Logan, Beastie by David Bischoff and 3 Monkeys by Adam Howe) are all excellent with varying degrees of sublety, each of them working on multiple levels. Daniel Ausema does a wonderful job of describing his monsters using senses other than the visual. Sean Logan mixes urban horror with Lovecraftiana better than most who try, while keeping the emotional core of the piece firmly set in love and redemption. David Bischoff manages to piece together a story both mythic and mysterious, suggesting a whole other world without giving the reader the comfort of a full explanation. We are disturbed because even after it's over, we don't know exactly what we've witnessed. Adam Howe's story managed to scare me before even getting to the "scary part" once I figured out the third monkey. Even the cover by Shawn Conn creeped me out. Just look at her eyes!

I'm honored to be included in this collection and hope you'll check it out. The title's a bit misleading in that it's really only ninety-nine cents (Ninety-Nine Cent Nightmares?). You can learn more about the ebook at One Buck Horror or just risk the ninety-nine pennies and buy a copy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Let me know what you think.

Stories I've finished since last post: Serial and To Make Her Smile Again.