Showing results by author "Catt Dahman" in All Categories

For the month of October 2017, J. Ellington Ashton Press, on their Wicked Little Things blog-talk radio, broadcasted a series of Halloween stories. These “Fireside Stories” (as they were called) were a big hit with the listeners, and the decision was quickly made to publish these tales of terror in an anthology.

Short stories with bittersweet themes that suggest horror, despair, and uncomfortable emotions. Featuring: Essel Pratt, Catt Dahman, Mark Woods, Brian Woods, Tabitha Baumander, D. A. Roberts, Amanda Lyons, TL Decay, Sharon Higa (editor’s choice award), Dona Fox, Michael Kanuckel, Nick Hatfield, Sam Reese, Shaun Meeks, Edward P. Cardillo, Richard Ramsey, Roy C. Booth, Axel Kohagen, Christina Engela, Justin Hunter, and Kerry Lipp.

Polar Knights is based on true events. In 1845, The HMS Erebus and Terror set out for a study of magnetism and the search for the Northwest Passage. Every member of the crew either vanished or was found as a mummy or a skeleton. The native people tried to explain what happened to the men and even claimed that some men survived and lived among them. No one believed them. In 2016 the world became interested in the story again after the ships were found, sunken far from where expected. (But exactly where the natives claimed they could be found.)

In Northeast Texas, the epic adventure of a group of survivors begins as they take refuge in a hospital, waiting to see if the worldwide red infection can be stopped before all humanity is wiped out. As victims awaken from a coma, they now have the basic need to attack loved ones, spread the infection, and feed on warm flesh. Only rage remains. In days, the dead outnumber the living, and the US turns to the ultimate weapons to stop the infection.

The mysteries surrounding the deaths of nine young, experienced ski hikers in 1959 have never been solved. On a trip through the Ural Mountains, the group of students first were reported missing and then were found deceased, but several were not located until months following the tragedy. Despite exhaustive investigations, there has never been a theory that explains exactly what killed the nine, and because of this, many unusual conjectures have arisen.

At the start of the day Ripley had nothing more on her mind than doing well at her new job. She never envisioned that a lunch date with some of her co-workers would ensnare her in a nightmare involving abduction, rape, and death. Shaken and terrified, Ripley manages to evade the bloody fate in store for her, with the assistance of retired police officers Henry and EZ, but her relief is a fleeting thing. Stranded by the storm in the strange township of Carn, with the local authorities seemingly in no rush to lend assistance.

Beside the still water...the zombies roam. A slightly different take on the zombie genre, Smooth asks if the world be better if we were all neutral and complacent (without violence, greed, hatred, and yes, love, and compassion) in our personalities? The road to absolute peace is filled with more than just bumps and gravel when Catt Dahman tells it; heads will roll...literally. The town of Cold Springs is about to receive the gift of full serenity and some people intend to fight it (as well as the zombies) all the way to the end!

Big Bill: an older African American man who can’t read or write, Johnny: a truck-stop waitress who loves fighting the undead, and Juan: a handsome Hispanic man with a big heart are the new heroes left to fight for the world. Like an event horizon, it’s too late to stop the infection that has turned most of the world’s population into flesh-eating zombies, but those who have survived have a lot to accomplish.

1865. Those aboard the HMS Khione and the American ship, Mary Lou wish to solve the mystery of the lost Franklin Expedition and while there is no sign of Terror and Erebus, there are plenty of clues as to the fate of the lost men. Lost in the Arctic and trapped by the ice, the men and women of the ships find themselves believing they are victims of a curse based on the lost expedition, and the Chaplain swears that only bloodshed and fire will save them. But that isn’t the only danger.

David seems to be the only one who has tied together the string of murders going on in his hometown, but even if he told someone, no one will believe that the murders are connected with a haunting. After David spirals into the ultimate despair, he flees town, returning only for his high school reunion where he finds the people he cared most for are all suffering the same obsessions and misery that strangles the town, killing one by one.

Don't hint that Richard Hauptmann was executed as an innocent man. Don't dare to think that Charles Lindbergh had clean hands when it came to the kidnapping and murder of his son. It's unpopular and may be dangerous to say aloud, but there was no kidnapping at the Lindbergh estate in 1932...No kidnapping...Instead of the story of the American hero and the trial, those parts are summarized, and the emphasis is on the actual evidence and the investigation. Hauptmann was innocent, there was no kidnapping, and the true killer is named.

New Orleans will never be the same when a hurricane blows in hungry sharks. An uppity family is stuck on a houseboat with a family of swampers who have more secrets that you can shake a stick at. Beware as the swampers keep up the family tradition, proving again why their gumbo always has that special taste....

The old west was not as most think. Hidden in dark corners and acting in secret, vampires hunt in saloons and small towns. Fortunately, there are Hunters on their trail: Tell Starr, Kit Darling, the notorious Paris Fallon, and Doc Holliday. Wild Boys explores the loves and losses of Doctor Henry Holliday, famed gunslinger, but also delves into the mysterious blood suckers and their insatiable thirst.

Everdeen is a perfect town. There is no crime, crops are bountiful, and everyone is happy. Idyllic. Grand Harvest comes every five years, and this year, there is a problem deciding the Harvest Maid. No one wants the honor because Harvest Maids go away and are never seen again. Beverly Fontaine is in the middle when her sister is chosen, and then she discovers that someone has been molesting teens. Once a plan is in place to stop the abuse, she and a group of townspeople have to face a bigger problem: Cain is coming and demands a sacrifice.

In 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and over the course of a few hours, plunged to the bottom of the sea, leaving a fraction of the passengers and crew to bob about the frigid sea in small lifeboats. The others, husbands, fathers, third class passengers, froze to death in the icy water, but they were the lucky ones; there was much worse in the sea that fateful night.

Did you know Helen of Troy had fangs? No matter...the secrets of Helen are about to be revealed. Stories of Greek mythology are richly revisited, and Helen finally tells all in this terrifying historical novel. Helen is revealed to be a huntress by night, seeking out blood-wine and seducing men as she is cursed to be the most beautiful woman on earth.

Elizabeth is attending a foreign university when she is kidnapped and brutally beaten into submission. Over the course of months, she is punished cruelly for disobedience and rewarded with luxurious gifts when she is compliant. Spoiled by opulence, she lives in fear, wondering about her captor’s motives.

Transformed into a formidable warrior, Alice and her friends join a rabbit-like guide on a mission to stop the dead walking the earth. On their epic quest, they meet an amazing caterpillar, the King of Hearts, an infernal Duchess, and more demonic delights as they fight through the horrific nine circles of Wonderhell.

At a carnival spook ride, young women vanish, never to be seen again. On a dark Texas road, women disappear after being stranded and then saved by friendly Texans. Alice is one of the women who have been shackled and hand cuffed in a basement where she and her new friends are tortured physically and emotionally to force them into compliance with their new family.

Time has no meaning. When the storms come, time, place, and world no longer matter. A ship of brave souls faces the ultimate battles as Lilith and her ilk prey upon men, slaughtering them if they are fortunate. And when the ships are tossed into the world of the Old Ones, there is a battle, unlike any other.