Spotlight and Guest Post: Suicide Forest

Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates

Published December 14, 2014 by Ghillinnein Books

Horror

Suicide Forest:

Just outside of Tokyo lies Aokigahara, a vast forest and one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Japan…and also the most infamous spot to commit suicide in the world. Legend has it that the spirits of those many suicides are still roaming, haunting deep in the ancient woods.

When bad weather prevents a group of friends from climbing neighboring Mt. Fuji, they decide to spend the night camping in Aokigahara. But they get more than they bargained for when one of them is found hanged in the morning—and they realize there might be some truth to the legends after all.

Book Trailer:

Jeremy Bates Bio:

Jeremy Bates is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller White Lies, which was nominated for the 2012 Foreword Book of the Year Award. He has spent the last ten years traveling the world, visiting more than thirty countries. He has lived in Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Bates is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a degree in English literature and philosophy. He is an active member of Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Inc., and Crime Writers of Canada.

Links

Website  http://www.jeremybatesbooks.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/jemacba

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeremy-Bates/192655100796017

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5327980.Jeremy_Bates

Guest Post by Jeremy Bates

Top 5 Man vs. Environment Movies.

In Suicide Forest, a group of friends get lost in Suicide Forest—where they have to contend with the elements, among other things. Given the plot, I figured a post listing my top five man vs. environment movies would be appropriate. So here it goes:

1)      The Blair Witch Project

Yeah, I know. Some people are probably groaning at this choice. But this is one of the few movies that have genuinely freaked me out. This is due to the fact I watched it in the theater while I was teen working at some secluded resort. I hadn’t heard any hype about it, and I believed it was real found footage (as the found-footage genre was a novelty then). Later that night I had to cut across a dark golf course bordered by forests to return to my cottage—a truly freaky experience.

2)      Open Water

A couple go scuba diving. When they surface they discover their boat is gone, along with all the other scuba divers. Add to this scenario a lack of drinkable water, a lightning storm, and circling sharks, and you have yourself one hell of a nightmare.

3)      Wolf Creek

The Outback is big. Really big. I live there right now. You can drive for hours without seeing much of anything. Imagine being lost out there, chased by a crazy bloke with a knife that makes Crocodile Dundee’s look small. Scary, scary, scary.

4)      Frozen

No, not the Disney flick. This one’s about three friends who pay off a ski lift instructor to let them do one last ski run after closing hours. Unfortunately fort them, the ski lift shuts down while they’re halfway up the mountain. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say the freezing weather eventually drives them to make the decision to jump or not. A classic, What would you do in that situation?

5)      All Is Lost

Robert Redford’s a retired old guy plying the ocean on his small sailboat. Sounds nice, right? Well, when a storm knocks out his radio, and his boat springs a leak, it soon becomes a life or death battle against the elements. There are maybe five words of dialogue spoken throughout the entire film, so it might not be for everyone. But to tell you the truth, the story and acting was so engrossing I barely noticed.

Honorable mention: The Gray. The Reef. The Ruins. Wrecked. 

Author Spotlight: T.W. Luedke

THE SHEPHERD by Travis Luedke

Release Date: September 27, 2014

After saving a mysterious girl from a hit and run, 16 yr. old Mike Evans soon finds his life spiraling out of control. Facing clairvoyant visions of grisly death, Mike struggles to avert disaster and make his way through the chaos.

 ~Synopsis ~

Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation...

THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read.

For me, Mike Evans, a skate punk living in a white-trash trailer park, high school blows.

My dad's an out-of-work drunk. My ex-girlfriend avoids me like the plague. My best friend, Anita, won't keep her hands off me...then there's Moses Lake's champion wrestler. The a-hole is waiting for an excuse to beat my face into the skate park concrete.

Worse, my visions of grisly death are back again, and if I tell anyone what I've seen I might actually cause these terrible events to happen.

I'm in way over my head, and Natasha? The girl I rescued from a hit-and-run? The girl who's stalking me nightly and climbing through my window? There's something seriously wrong with that girl.

Sharp, witty, dark and gritty, The Shepherd is a paranormal thriller for all ages. Get your copy now! 

Excerpt:

Chapter 4

Monday, September 16th

Apart from worrying about Hoodie Girl, who had disappeared for an entire week, I now had a big fat problem with Justin.  He was not happy about the video I posted to my Facebook.  Though I had called him every day, left voicemails and text messages asking how he was doing, he ignored me.

And then a few days ago the text war began.

Justin:  WTF?  (What The Fuck)  I cant believe U sent that video 2 every 1!

Mike:  Sorry dude, it was pretty cool.  You screamed like a girl.  Did U see all the comments it got on my FB?

Justin:  PBIAB!  (Pay Back Is A Bitch)  Im gonna stomp UR ass when I see U!

Mike:  Come on! U got 2 admit that was some funny shit!  ROTFLMAO  (Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off)

Justin:  U better run the next time I see U!

Mike:  Sorry Jus, Im only playing around.  U posted that pic of me pissing on the roadside and that video when I railed my nuts at the skatepark.  What’s the big deal?  I’ll take it down.

Justin:  Im not playin bitch!  Im gonna beat you like the white trash U R!

I tried calling Justin several more times to apologize.  He ignored me, the wicked silent treatment.

Silent indifference is pure evil.  It means they don’t even care enough to rise to the bait.  Silence takes away all your power.  I had always enjoyed getting a rise out of Justin.  He handled it so poorly.  Made for great entertainment.

So, I had stopped by Justin’s house on Northshore drive.  I’d never seen him so mad before.  I had hoped to calm the situation down.  Justin answered the door in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, a scowl painted on his face.  “What the hell do you want.”

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry.  I wasn’t trying to be cruel or anything.  I thought it was funny.  I guess it wasn’t very funny to you.”

“Ha, ha, ha.  Really fuckin’ funny.  See how I’m laughing?  You know what else is gonna be funny?  Me and Tommy and the whole friggin’ wrestling team are gonna beat the shit out of you in front of everyone.  I’ll be laughing really hard then.”

“Dude, I’m sorry, I deleted the video.  I was just playin’ around.  Look, you can check my Facebook page. It’s gone.”  I held out my cell phone to prove it.

“Gimme that.”  He snatched my cell out of my hand and threw it across the yard.  “You’re not sorry, but you will be.”

I chased that phone like a dog after a Frisbee.  I had saved up for two months to buy that phone.  Luckily it landed in the grass, nothing broken.  “Asshole!”  I had a mind to put a foot up his sore ass.

“Get the hell off my property!”  He stood there pointing his finger out to the street, Mr. Righteous.

“You wanna be an ass?  Fine!  Send your gay wrestler buddies after me.  See if I give a shit!”  I stomped off.

“Better watch your back Mikey!  Moses Lake is a small world!”

“Did they test you for drugs at the hospital?  I bet they’d like to know how much of your mom’s Xanax you were on.  Butt plug.”

“Go fuck yourself, Mikey.  Post that on Facebook.”

He used to be my best friend.  We used to tease each other all day long, joking.  Nothing was ever really serious.  So why was he being so serious?

After stewing on the situation for a day, I decided I didn’t owe Justin anything.  And if he was really planning to jump me, why should I be apologizing?  And what made him so special that he could treat me this way?  So what if he had money, and a nice house on the waterfront.  So what if my Dad doesn’t have a dime, and we live in a white trash trailer park.

What gives him the right to treat me like trash when he’s climbing up the side of the damn playcenter high on drugs?

I don’t have very many friends.  I can count them on one hand.  I was so angry with Justin.  I couldn’t leave it alone.  They say you shouldn’t text when you’re angry, but I was too pissed off to care.

The text war resumed.

Mike:  What up Jus?  R U still walkin funny?  Maybe U should stock up on the hemorrhoid cream.

Justin ignored me.

Mike:  Hey ramrod, what up?  A couple extra inches in the pooter?  Have U been able to take a crap yet?

Justin ignored that one too.

Mike:  I hope this has been an enlightening experience.  Im sorry U had to fall on a fence post 2 finally realize U R gay J.  R U planning on coming out of the closet now?

He couldn’t let that one slide.

Justin:  Stop calling me! Im never talking 2 U again!

Mike:  S2BU  (Sucks To Be You)

Justin:  RUFKM? (Are You Fucking Kidding Me)  SFT2M! (Stop Fucking Talking To Me)

Mike:  ILT? (It’s Like That)

Justin:  ILT!

Mike:  Whatever J  Hope U get well soon.  U don’t want to miss out on the video shoot next week because UR ass hurts.

The group of skate punks we hung out with had planned a skate video shoot for the following week.

Justin:  mlm (digital middle finger)

Mike:  BIOIYA! (Break It Off In Your Ass)

Our friendship was officially cancelled for the season.  And I guess it was serious, Justin missed two weeks of school after his playcenter adventure.

As friends we had been somewhat competitive, especially when it came to filming skate videos.  We had constantly tried to outdo each other, to prove who was better.  As enemies, the friendly rivalry morphed into a bitter war.

Friends make the worst enemies.  They have all that personal, inside knowledge to hurt you with.

About the Author

Travis Luedke is a NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy and paranormal romance, best known for his violently sexy NIGHTLIFE SERIES. Travis can be found catching a third degree sunburn in San Antonio, Texas, while arm-wrestling a bottle of red wine. Though often defeated by merlot and shiraz, he never gives up the fight.

As the author of the Nightlife Series novels, Travis lives very vicariously through his writings. He invites you to enjoy his macabre flights of fancy, but be warned: The Nightlife Series is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy.

Facebook // Twitter // Goodreads // Website

Guest Post

Is Teen Fiction Loyal To Teens?

As an author, I write both teen and adult fiction.  Though there are many similarities between the two styles and novels, there is one major difference that seems to be missing from some of today’s teen fiction:  teenage life and issues.

Teens live in a world dominated by school, peer pressure, raging hormonal drives, bossy adults (parents?) and on many occasions, a highly dysfunctional family setting.  Teens are mostly dependent on these family members who may not be very trustworthy or dependable.  Teens have all the thoughts, feelings and urges of adults, but they haven’t quite adjusted to that world yet.

Their existence is a purgatory floating between childish carefree abandon and the weight of responsibility and freedoms of adulthood.

These young adults are told to behave, as though children, and yet, at the same time, they are expected to tackle adult tasks like college applications, job hunting, dating, driving, and all the pressures of the real world.  It’s no wonder they seem schizophrenic at times.  The constant mixed signals are enough to confuse anyone.

Do we expect them to act like adults while treating them as children?  Yes, we do.

In the world of teen fiction, there are many novels today that seem to have forgotten what it means to be a teenager.

So, as you scour the shelves for YA/teen novels, ask yourself, how many books have you found that are loyal to teens and the challenges they face?  Many of these books are simply a platform for some adult to talk down to teenagers in an attempt to preach adult values and morals.

In writing for teens, please remember that acne-ridden, awkward, voice-breaking, hair-growing time in life when very little made sense, especially if it was coming from a math teacher, but somehow, someway, we survived to adulthood.  Remember how it felt when some adult started preaching about making choices and taking on responsibilities, and growing up, and then proceeded to tell you that you cannot have the shoes you want, and you cannot go out past 10:00 p.m., and if your hands ever touch that girl’s ass again, they will be hacked off with a blunt instrument.

In writing my first ever YA novel, I endeavored to craft a story about teens, for teens, a snapshot of that insane, difficult time in our lives when nothing makes sense, but we are expected to understand it all anyway.

Ten books that should be made into films:

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King – One of those HBO series like True Blood.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester – An epic scifi-adventure feature film

Under By Treaty by Kayla Stonor – Epic space opera BDSM romance film (It would probably turn out far better than the upcoming 50 Shades Film)

Rogue Genesis (Shimmer In The Dark Series) by Ceri London – Epic military scifi series on Syfy network like Stargate

The Waeld Fae Journals by Christopher Shields – A trilogy of young adult fantasy films (would be awesomely epic)

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter – another one of those HBO series like True Blood.

A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught – a hilarious romp medieval adventure romance film

Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons – epic space opera series like Star Trek

Bill The Vampire by Rick Gaulteiri – awesome comedy horror film

And of course: THE NIGHTLIFE SERIES by Travis Luedke – another HBO series like True Blood. At least 6 seasons long.

Guest Post by Angela Brown

Beacon

Ripped Ties, Book 1

Angela Brown

Evernight Teen, Released Nov 21^st., 73K

Romance, Dystopian, Urban Fantasy, Interracial

Tsunamis reduced the USA into a shell of itself, called The Fold. Surviving humans and vampires joined forces to form The Colony, where registered citizens do as their told.

They donate blood quarterly and dream of being chosen as Attendees for the Jubilee celebrations, that is, everyone except Macie Breen. With high school graduation near, she’s anxious to ditch the rules in hopes of starting a new life with Thane, an unregistered and also her best friend.

Her hopes fizzle when Macie is selected as an Attendee, forever registered. Any future with Thane…impossible. Being chosen comes with another unexpected price.

Truths about The Colony blaze into ashes and lies when she discovers the vampires haven't kept their part of the bargain. Worst still, Macie’s life unravels as her stint in the city of Bliss forces her to face daunting truths about who, and what, she really is.

Buy Links:     Evernight Teen    Amazon    All Romance eBooks

Excerpt:

As promised, a tent hid in the darkest corner. I could barely make it out. Although my long sleeves kept me warm, the inside of the tent felt cozy, quaint and much warmer since it blocked out most of the wind.

“Didn’t think you’d make it.” He offered me a seat on a pillow. I thought that was nice, because I didn’t much like the idea of sitting on the ground.

“I try to be a girl of my word…I mean, when I can.” Breaking my promise about donating still irked me. All I could do was hope he understood. Although we never promised to share every little thing with each other, we practically did. Keeping the bike incident from him needled at my heart. I wanted to tell him, but I still didn’t know how to explain it.

“You’re right, Macie. We got different situations. I shouldn’t have asked that of you in the first place. I overreacted. I’m sorry.” He pulled his pillow closer and sat beside me. The tent grew warmer all of a sudden.

“Good. I’d hate to lose my only friend over something like that.” I tucked a few loose strands behind my ear. I had my hair down the way he’d said he liked it. That was important to me. He was important to me. Since the day he found me hiding in this very same spot, eight years ago––a little girl crushed, confused, and alone––he’d become so much more than a friend. I wanted him to know, so badly. But how to say it?

I checked out the rest of the tent. Small packs of smoked meat and cheese. Two solar powered holo-visors he probably bartered to get for us, green lit and fully charged. They probably had some cool movie from the banned list on them…hopefully a horror one. There was even a flower. A flower?

“Look, can I confess something to you?” His question pulled me from my little survey and stopped my heart. Maybe I wasn’t alone in feeling something special between us.

“Sure. Go ahead.” I gathered my hands in my lap to hide my trembles. I don’t know why I was so nervous. It was just Thane. Okay, so yeah, maybe that was why I couldn’t still my pounding heart.

He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure how you’ll take it.”

My body fought every command. Don’t look at him. That failed, as my gaze trailed the leanness of his arm. His skin held a soft glow, a moonlit cascade that clung to him like an aura. First time I noticed it.

Don’t stare at him. That failed, too.

He took my silence for listening. “I didn’t know what to expect when I first met you. You were so young, innocent, and beautiful.”

The air grew shallow. A breath stuck in my throat. Don’t look in his eyes. Quicksilver pulsed, radiating as I failed that command as well.

“We’re not kids anymore, Macie. You’ve learned what little The Colony had to say about the vampeer, wights and devil spawn. There’s something else they’ve hidden from you. From all registered citizens. I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time why we met. Just how special you really are. But you won’t want to be my friend anymore once you know the truth. Losing you would be…”

Words trickled from my mouth unfiltered. “I, what do you mean I wouldn’t…”

He turned to me, chewing his bottom lip. The last time he did that was the day I broke first blood.

We were playing at knight warriors, a favorite of ours since we were kids. I thrust my wooden sword forward. It clattered to the ground as I doubled over from a sharp spasm in my stomach. I tried to shoo Thane away, deal with the pain on my own. But, noticing the grimace on my face––I really tried hard to be quiet, but I cried out anyway––he wouldn’t have it. When he glanced at my yellow cargo pants, he chewed his bottom lip, eyes wide. My gaze trailed down to the bloody mess I’d become. My face couldn’t have flashed hotter if I set it on fire.

Now he was doing it again, chewing his bottom lip. What could he possibly have to say? He opened his mouth to speak when the tent flap ripped away. We jerked our heads around to face a tall being covered in shaggy, brown fur from scalp to hoof. A shadowy glow encircled it like a dirty aura. Two arms protruded from both sides. Jagged teeth crowded its mouth. Drool leaked down its chin. Reptilian eyes shone bright white with a red slit down the middle. One set of eyelids blinked side to side as the second set followed up and down. It snarled, spat and drooled some more. My bladder felt one moment away from losing it.

“Frag me,” I whispered, as my world collapsed into a nightmare.

Guest Post

Personal Paranormal Experience

Life has a few guarantees. One is the mystery of the unknown.

With so many things in our lives that don’t fit into some snug easy-to-categorize box, it’s no wonder that we are intrigued by things we simply cannot explain. For example, do ghosts really exist? Are their spirits lingering in the plane of the living having difficulty transitioning to the next phase after life? I haven’t had a personal paranormal experience. But…

***My mother, God rest her soul, died in the fall of 1996. I was barely into my sophomore year at University of Memphis - TN when her passing occurred. To say losing her triggered years of subpar living I oft wish to wipe from my memory is an understatement. However, one thing that will remain in my memory is returning home one evening to find a woman sitting on the porch, her leg bopping nervously. I had little to no regard for the woman because she’d accepted moving into my mother’s bedroom, sleeping (whether sex was involved or not, I didn’t care) in my mother’s bed with the person who was supposed to still be grieving for my mother since she’d barely been gone a month.

I asked, “Why are sitting out here?” Mind you, sarcasm dripped from every word. I didn’t care, was just curious because it was kind of chilly out.

She looked at me with shifty eyes, her leg still bouncing like it had its own agenda. She looked away then answered, “I can’t go back in that house, in that room. Your mama’s there.”

*cue the Twilight theme song*

I just had an older cousin who was close to my mother tell me she’d had a long conversation with my mother a couple of days after she died. And another relative mentioned my mom visiting with her for a little while. So when this lady says this, I’m no longer curious, I’m seriously intrigued.

“Why you say that?” I ask. 

She folds her arms like she’s finally cold, leg stuck doing its nervous jig. She looks at me with wide eyes. “She’s in there. I know it. I was wrong. I know. I shouldn’t’ve come here but I was desperate. I needed a place for me and my babies, just for a bit. But your mama, she let me know it’s time to go. That lamp had no good reason to move ‘cross that dresser. It shouldn’t’ve broke on the floor. I’m sorry. We leaving. We leaving tonight.”

I scoot on past her, go inside and see that she has, indeed, packed her and her kids things. I can’t help myself, so I slip down the hallway and open my mother’s door. The lamp is broke to pieces like it was slammed hard against the carpeted floor. There’s no other soul in the house, at least none living.***

If that had happened to me, I’m sure I’d be making my way out of the house as well. Just as ghosts can’t be pinned to one generic box, there are other things in life we may find difficult to explain.

For the main character in my novel, Beacon, she has an uncanny ability to heal and experiences something in the first chapter that leaves her questioning who, or what, she really is.

Author Bio:

Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, Angela Brown now calls Central Texas home. She's a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness. Steampunk, fantasy and paranormal to
contemporary - mostly young adult - fill her growing library of books.

Mother to a rambunctious darling girl aptly nicknamed Chipmunk, life stays busy. Her favorite quote keeps her moving:  "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." ~ Mahatma Gandhi. She's released Neverlove and They All Fall Down of the Shadow Jumpers series, Frailties of the Bond and Atone of the NEO Chronicles, and BEACON, a YA urban fantasy dystopian published by Evernight Teen publishing.

Contact links:
e-mail: tomewriter@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelaLBrownWrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALBrownwrites
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6476148.Angela_Brown

*****

Giveaway:  $25 Evernight Teen Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Virtual Book Tour and Guest Post: Devils in the Dark

Devils in the Dark

(The Devil in Miss Drake's Class, 1)

Marcus Damanda

16+ / horror/paranormal/27K

To most of the Facebook 15, bullying Audrey Bales was just a game—until two deep cuts with a Swiss army knife changed everything forever. Audrey didn’t want attention anymore. After five weeks at Fairview High School, Audrey wanted to die.

The doctors did the only thing they could with her: they put her away.

But in Fairview, Virginia, the nightmare is only beginning. The chat session had not gone unobserved. The Facebook 15 have drawn the attention of an ancient evil that lives only to punish those who would prey upon the weak.

They are the ghosts of 1,000 dead children—1,000 suicides—and their master…

Their master likes Audrey Bales.

Buy Links:     Evernight Teen    Amazon

Excerpt:

Underneath the blackened veil of her powered-off monitor, the comments kept coming, kept taunting her.

The observer had stopped watching. He leaned back in his chair, head upturned to the ceiling, eyes closed, still eating. The overripe apple had a worm in it, and he sucked it down.

He projected his sight outward, miles and miles from his little home. He didn’t know where he was anymore.

Somebody’s house. An empty room. A closet.

Here he first saw the girl, the one they were tormenting. Her Facebook icon had shown only a skull and crossbones. In real life, she might have been pretty, if she had not worked so hard to hide it.

Familiar too. Something in her eyes and her lips.

She was close, very close, to a bad decision.

She was imagining the ghost of her brother and talking to it, opening boxes that contained his possessions. She listened to him speak words the observer could not hear. Oh, he wished he could. From this distance all he could hear was the pain inside of her, the loneliness, screams within whispers. An oncoming storm.

It made him angry on her behalf.

He returned his gaze to the real world of his apartment. The five of them were still chatting, their cruel banter punctuated by internet abbreviations and emoticons, calling for Audrey-Bear to say something, say something….

More joined the chat.

He shook his head.

You deserve to die, he thought. All of you.

****

Audrey returned to her bedroom and closed the door. This time, she broke a house rule and locked it. She put the blanket back in place and thumbed the monitor back on.

It was nearly one in the morning, yet the number of people on Cody’s page had tripled. Stranger still was the activity coming through on her end.

She gazed in bewilderment.

Benny Talbot has sent you a friend request.

Heather Roberts has sent you a friend request.

Ally Watson has sent you a friend request.

Gabriel Daniels has sent you a friend request.

Eleven requests, all kids from school. Most of them had sent her personal messages too. Some were fake-friendly, some openly mocking. Most pretended to rally in her support, as if they had somehow stumbled upon this Internet lynching by accident, all at the same time, and were offended by it. A virtual party had gathered in Cody’s little corner of cyberspace, and Audrey was the game they were playing.

Had Maggie called or texted them all out of bed?

“Creative,” she said. “You’re really good at this.”

She wasn’t crying anymore. In fact, she was perfectly calm. With the ghost of her brother standing by her side, she set his old Swiss Army knife—he’d gotten it for Scouts, before he had quit—next to the keyboard.

Click Accept, her brother said. For all of them. Now, before they give up and start to log off.

She accepted them all, and the result was chat room bedlam. The comments came faster than she could read. Evidently this was the very height of hilarity.

And, naturally, as soon as she had accepted them all, one-by-one, they unfriended her, and posted.

Just kidding!

Sry! Changed my mind!

What an idiot!

Inspired, she clicked the Like button over every comment. Then, ignoring the perplexed responses to that maneuver, she got to work.

She retrieved the gym shirt from under her bed. Most days this particular item of attire would have remained a crumpled ball in her P.E. locker after school, but she’d had to wear it all day, and so it had come home with her.

“Turn your head, Alex,” she said, as if he were really there.

And as if he were really there, he answered. Not looking, not looking.

Once she had the shirt on and smoothed it out, she sat back at her desk, got out her cell phone, tied her hair in a tail, and took a picture of herself.

****

When the first picture appeared on Cody’s page, the observer knew exactly what was coming. He’d seen it before. The details differed each time, but the common threads were easily picked out: theatrics, spite, spectacle—and from the other end, disbelief. Then there would be panic, frantic attempts to undo the damage, and afterward, there would be remorse.

From most of them.

The picture was off-center. The girl was smiling, posing. The mascara tracks on her face looked like war paint.

Val: OMG, she’s postin selfies!

Cody: Give us a twerk, emo.

How they didn’t see what was coming, the observer could not fathom. But that was part of the pattern too. Bullies, as a rule, didn’t get it until it was too late—for the victim, or less frequently, for themselves.

The observer was truly torn. On the one hand, if she went through with it, she’d set him free. He had made contact with her, though she didn’t know it, and he was the oldest within the host. After many, many years, it was his turn, and he would finally learn what lay beyond this purgatory. But on the other hand, he felt bad for her. He really did.

“Let’s go,” he said to the screen. The suspense was killing him. “What’s next, Audrey?”

A second picture came up even as the first was being liked and shared by nearly everyone on the page. This one silenced most of them.

Audrey was holding an unfolded pocket knife against her cheek with one hand while the other took the picture, still smiling, tilting her head.

At first, the only comment came from Maggie: Drama. Whatever.

Audrey responded: Stick around. This is for your benefit.

Everything slowed down, then. Time rolled out like an empty rug, the Facebook page inert and dead. Minutes passed with nothing.

Then, Val: Audrey?

Still, nothing.

Val again: Audrey, don’t be dumb. Come on.

Five minutes became ten.

Maggie: She went to bed. She wants us to worry all night. As if we would.

After fifteen minutes of relative inactivity, the final picture appeared.

*****

Author Bio:

Marcus Damanda lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with his cat, Shazam. At various times throughout his life, he played bass guitar for the garage heavy metal band.

Mother’s Day, wrote for The Dale City Messenger, and published editorials in The Potomac News and The Freelance Star. Currently, while not plotting his next foray into fictitious suburban mayhem, he spoils his nieces and nephews and teaches middle school English. 

Find Marcus Damanda here:

Website: http://www.marcusdamanda.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarcusDamandaAuthor?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcusDamanda

Guest Post by Marcus Demanda

The Idea Behind The Novel & The Perfect Dream Cast

DEVILS IN THE DARK, and the trilogy it launches, was written shortly after an agent rejected my work, saying, “You’re a talented writer. I might sell you, but I won’t sell your vampires.”

It’s the first non-vampire book I’ve written in ten years, and my goal in its composition was simple: tell a story no one has ever heard before. I knew it would be a horror story, and I knew the target audience would be older teenagers—but at the outset, that’s all I had.

Real-life issues with family, along with similar issues I have to deal with as a teacher, led me to the idea of cyberbullying being at the story’s core. What if a kid was driven nearly to suicide? And what if that kid had unknowingly attracted the attention of a thousand ghosts that really had, as children, taken their own lives?

Oh, yeah, I thought. Let’s go with that.

If I could cast THE DEVIL IN MISS DRAKE’S CLASS, the whole trilogy, as a movie, I'd love to see Maisie Williams in the role of our bullied hero, Audrey Bales, and Thomas Brody-Sangster in the role of Jack Maddox, master of the thousand ghosts. I know those are both GAME OF THRONES choices, but honestly, that's who I see. Williams has the full range of pathos and spunk in her acting repertoire, and Brody-Sangster conjures mystery and dread like he simply sweats it out on a hot day.

In a few years, I imagine Shailene Woodley would be old enough to play the relatively young teacher, Miss Drake. She’s the most popular teacher in the school, even though there are secrets and dark shadows in her past, and I can totally see Woodley pulling off both of those character aspects in her performance.

Give me the old, creepy rock star Meatloaf to play the equally creepy Mr. Downing. Meanwhile, Amandla Stenberg would be absolutely terrific as Monica Adams.

In my fantasy world, I'd take Linda Blair back to her 13th birthday and ask her to play Gale Hastings. Such possibilities, both with her sweetness and her ... other side.

A guy can only dream, you know?

***Giveaway:  1 ecopy of Devils in the Dark to a lucky commenter on any of the participating blogs.