Showing results by author "Kevin Candela" in All Categories

A Year in the Borderlands writer Kevin Candela's wild second excursion into alternate realities includes 17 tales, twelve of which have appeared in previously released anthologies and are collected here for the first time. These short stories combine with five never before released works, including the novella It's Only Funny if You Laugh, to produce a wide-ranging panoramic view of the worlds and realities that exist beyond our own. Playing With Reality is another vividly detailed page in the Atlas of the Unknown.

A seven percent grasp of the infinite. The universe may be limitless, but our senses are not. Just as the human eye sees but a small percentage of the cosmic wave spectrum, in the same way, most of us are only able to perceive a similar sliver of what we brazenly term “reality”, even with the use of all five of our scientifically acknowledged senses. This month-by-month account of people-supernatural relations spans its own sci-fi/fantasy/horror/comedy spectrum, touring the weird side of the cosmos while leaving the passengers comfy and unscathed in their listening chairs.

In 1972, the Red Bozos were the friendliest faces in frenetic Midlands Amusement Park. Flash forward four and a half decades: Midlands is a ghost park. Closed long ago and nearly forgotten, even by the locals, it sits shrouded in undergrowth and hill-topping forest surrounded by upscale new homes. Ringed with a decaying fence, hidden from sight, it presents a huge temptation to a group of bored, thrill-seeking youths who are about to learn that terror is, in fact, immortal.

From the writer of Ghost Hunter, Little Women with Big Guns, and Krakenstein vs. Koalatron comes an unforgettable excursion into the depths of the unknown. Loaded end to end with chills, this terrifying narrative is loosely based on accounts of encounters with the legendary Pukwudgie, a cryptozoological "myth" originating in Massachusetts' mysterious Bridgewater Triangle.

In this wildly imaginative and bullet-fast tale of advanced warrior legions eager to escape their banishment in a parallel dimension, an unlikely band of heroic women, bold and reckless enough to stand in their way, are humanity’s only hope against an impending incursion by a highly advanced army of invisible, disc-riding warriors.

The Missouri Flying Humanoid is Nosferatu for real - a cryptozoological winged "human" reported to hang around Turkey Creek, Missouri. It's big as a human, with broad wings; a survivor who encountered one reported that it was strong enough to lift his truck up off the road. So when monster hunters Rollie, Eve, Taylor, and Ursula go after it, armed for bear, it's no mere snipe hunt in the woods - the game is life and death, and guns or not, the bold foursome are in way over their heads.

Todd Markway's fate was laid out for him that chilly February 29 when he was born. The Hat Man was coming for him; it was just a matter of time. And no one can stop the Hat Man - no one, that is, but a bunny. Todd's spirit guardian has kept him alive, defending him from the most fearsome "shadow being" in the spectral world on Markway's fourth and eighth birthdays. But the rabbit, Galbey, is gone, and the most critical birthday of all is coming up - Todd's 12th. And this time, he's on his own.

Take a freakishly harrowing journey with an ordinary person who comes to realize that his nightmares have manifested as a power of sorts...though his "gift" is anything but welcome as it stalks and murders at will. The powers of the mind and the campfire scare stories of childhood merge in Tickles: A Little Bedtime Horror Story, creating a monstrous darkness

Working on the High-Altitude Atmospheric and Light Observatory research platform 16 miles above Earth's surface , Crystal Calhoun is used to an alien form of existence. But when she dreams through the waking eyes of a shipboard peer, the game changes, and when she learns that the same thing is happening to others, her paranoia kicks in and she seeks to understand what's happening. The problem is that even the people running the entire operation don't have a clue, and what's worse is that they're more confused and worried than she is. Crystal becomes determined to get to the truth.

In search of the ferocious truth, some would call trying to channel the spirit of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson a fool’s errand. But these are desperate times. So settle in for this trilogy of uppers, downers, screamers, laughers from John Bruni (Tales of Questionable Taste), Kent Hill (Hercules with a Shotgun) and Kevin Candela (Weedeaters: The Complete Acropalypse) as they bring you just what the doctor ordered.

Grayson Lone Feather loves to wander the woods behind his stepdad's property. He finds all kinds of things out there, chief among them typically being peace of mind. But when Gray comes upon a barrel-sized egg exposed by the collapse of a short limestone bluff, and what's inside it turns out to be alive and more than kicking, he finds himself at the center of action far beyond his wildest imaginings. Soon a gigantic "something" is roaming the Illinois skies, and Gray and his friend Jaleen are off to find it.

In Ghost in the Sky, the first installment in the Bob the Interdimensional Trucker series, Sam Gage has picked up an enigmatic motorist whose mere presence, it seems, is making Gage hear the sound of a small propeller-driven passenger airplane...or maybe even a crop duster. But whatever is really making the sound, which his rider can't hear, is not only keeping pace with Gage's truck at an impossibly slow speed for airplane flight - it's also invisible.

Time Weathers didn’t so much mind the car breakdown...just another hassle, albeit at an extremely inconvenient locale. But now reality itself is threatening to do the same, and she’s not quite as adaptable to that. Time was just minding her own business, ambling along on an old road under the blistering Nevada sun, hoping for the kind of road rescue help you aren’t typically going to find in the middle of the desert anyway, when the disconnected phone in the dusty booth outside the dilapidated gas station she was passing began to ring.

Aurora Hayes is probably the most agreeable and least judgmental of the Roads Unlimited driving team, but even she has her limits. When something that sure looks like the scary bipedal "myth" called the chupacabra races in out of the darkness in North Texas and jumps aboard her rig, Aurora finds herself stuck with the edgy, bug-eyed little monster on a long haul across the South to Florida. But dealing with the freakish creature, which appears to have no language and seems determined to stay with the truck, is just the warm-up: The thing's master arrives.

In Vapor, a man trying to collect his thoughts turns at the sound of screams to see other patrons dissolving right in front of his eyes. He makes a panicked escape, but that's only the beginning of his problems - because he's a witness to what happened, and that can't be allowed. Then in Chiller, an uneasy alliance of corporate-minded "pioneers" and scientists come across something impossible: a spot under the ice with a temperature reading of close to 200 degrees below zero. Tense debate ensues...until the anomaly vanishes. But it's not gone, it just moved.

Gray, leaden clouds blot out the sky, a cold wind chills your bones, and a frantic whispering is heard among the trees. What is happening? There is no need to ask, for you already know the truth: The terror of Trick-or-Treat Thrillers Best Paranormal has returned for yet another year.... Whether it is a monster from your worst nightmares, an ancient evil that should not still live, a mysterious entity hiding near your home, or even your own demonic family members waiting to pounce, our authors know what frightens you.

Months have passed, the trail has grown cold, and ZC has all but given up when out of the blue, a back road diversion leads him to the mystical, but apparently not mythical Bizarre - a place where all kinds of beings want all kinds of things...and barter and gamble to get them. He's about to meet some utterly strange new friends, including a dogman named Ekos, a human-like woman with a nest of serpents for a head, and a gigantic bat-dragon that doesn't like being referred to as either.

The saga of Krakenstein concludes in cataclysmic, mind-blowing action in the Next Regeneration trilogy. The former Dr. Max Shepperton, who long ago became a superhero daikaiju by default when he merged with an ancient marine creature and the mutated result grew to immense size, is still at it 20 years after the original trilogy. This time around, he takes on a shape-shifting titan made of nanobots and controlled by his vengeful brother, and battles a life-draining giant horror from the depths of outer space.

Erno the vole is on a mission to beat the Gardener's brilliant series of tomato garden defenses. He may be the greatest vole thief and acrobat in...well...at least the neighborhood - but that doesn't mean he's up for the challenges ahead. He'll need all his wits, wisdom, strength, and stamina if he wants to take a bite out of those luscious pink-orange tomatoes tonight.

Rada Dunn is used to the solitary life of the arid valley north of the little town of Peace. Nothing much happens there, and her bean and wheat crops provide her with just enough to keep her away from the rest of her kind...which is how she's come to like it. But when she comes upon human remains that have recently been burned so intensely that they are merely sticky black bones, her serenity is shattered.