BOOK FEATURE: Beautiful, Once by Mia Dalia

 SYNOPSIS

From acclaimed author Mia Dalia comes a propulsive, character-driven horror novel that’s a chilling blend of high-tech utopia, isolation, and catastrophic consequences.

When a controversial tech billionaire retreats from society, he constructs a private island designed to be the ultimate controlled experiment: a hand-selected population, sustainable systems, and a flawless model for humanity’s future. A paradise engineered to perfection.

But perfection breeds boredom.

Seeking recognition—and perhaps validation—he sends a message into the cosmos, broadcasting The Island’s triumph to the universe. One day, he gets a reply… and all hell breaks loose.)

Within hours, the community fractures. Neighbors turn on neighbors. A savage, insatiable hunger spreads. Civilization unravels.

Told through three gripping perspectives—the billionaire’s loyal assistant, an island mechanic, and a visiting investigative reporter—Beautiful, Once explores survival, psychological collapse, unchecked ambition, and the terrifying consequences of playing god.

Set in a near-future island enclave, this intense dystopian horror novel will appeal to fans of isolated community thrillers, outbreak fiction, and cinematically propulsive, speculative survival stories in the vein of The Island and The Crazies.

When paradise falls, who gets to live?

BUY LINKS  https://geni.us/BeautifulOnce

EXCERPT

Olivia pushed on, but she could see her words failing, falling to the ground like weakly shot arrows.

She had to go with the ace up her sleeve: violating the institution’s policy.

“I’ve brought someone here to see you.”

No reaction. But did Olivia see a flicker of interest?

The dog had no tag, no name. He was found along with the person, both survivors of the same ordeal. The dog was in much better shape, and after a brief recuperation, seemed strong and lively. He was staying with one of the people who found him, likely to be permanently adopted if the person he’d been found with continued to show no signs of recovery.

The dog, nicknamed Spark by one of the rescuers—aspirationally at first but now living up to it—came in tentatively, his eyes on the person in the chair. He didn’t approach and instead stayed by the door. Slowly, softly he began to growl, pawing at the floor.

“Spark, come on,” said the orderly under his breath. “Behave.”

Olivia watched the face of the person across from her. Watched their head turn toward the dog—an eerily robotic motion.

The dog barked sharply. It served as a slap, a bucket of ice water in the face. Suddenly, the survivor’s eyes sprung wide open, animating with something Olivia couldn’t quite read. It sent a stirring of alarm dragging a nail down her spine.

When those eyes locked on hers, Olivia thought she could see the flames flickering there. But surely, that was merely a trick of the light, only the sun pouring through the uncurtained window.

“There you are,” Olivia said gently. “How are you? How do you feel?”

The person opened their mouth, licked their lips, and closed it again, as if they had forgotten how to speak.

Finally, in a voice rusted out from disuse they croaked a single word: “Hungry.” Then, suddenly, with alarming speed and agility, the survivor lunged across the table at Olivia.

The dog began barking in earnest.

“Hungry,” the terrible voice repeated so closely to Olivia’s ear so that she felt the fiery heat of it. And then the feeding began.

BUY LINKS  https://geni.us/BeautifulOnce

About the author

Mia Dalia is an internationally published, Crime Writers’ Association–nominated author of all things fantastic, thrilling, frightening, and strange. Her short fiction appears widely online and in print anthologies and magazines, and has been featured in multiple narrative podcasts. 

Mia's stories were selected as one of Tales to Terrify’s Top Ten Stories of 2023 and shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s 2024 Dagger Award. Her work has been acclaimed by Library Journal, which “highly recommended it for gothic fiction readers and fans of Shirley Jackson,” praised by Kirkus Reviews for its “imaginative directness reminiscent of Stephen King,” and lauded by Booklist for its “beautifully detailed characters and a subtle slide into dread.” 

Mia is the author of the novels Estate Sale, Haven, and Beautiful, Once, novellas Alakazam, Tell Me a Story, Discordant, Arrokoth, and Do You Know the Muffin Man? and collection Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness. 

Mia Dalia is represented by the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing— Where Stories Come Alive!

Find Mia online:

https://daliaverse.wixsite.com/author
https://linktr.ee/daliaverse

CreativeLife update: the100dayproject, the A to Z blog challenge, and a near studio disaster

 Hey there creative friends!

  As I write this post, February is about to expire and a new month with new challenges and creative projects is almost here. Since I paint on wooden panels, they need a bit of TLC before I can start painting. I started the process a few minutes ago on three new panels.

  I bought 12 of them because they were a good price, and when inspiration strikes, I can't wait to start. For now there will be 3, but there could be more. I painted two panels in this style a while back, they were sold, and I loved the process, so I thought why not paint a few more?

  I already did a few sketches, and there are definitely ideas that make my fingers itch. I like it when that happens! 😁

  The original idea for the project was on the list of projects I made for my art group this year, but once it became time to send them the reference (not to copy though) the muse struck...and a series was born.

˜ ˜ ˜ The100dayproject - a few of my daily collages and paintings below ˜ ˜ ˜ 

    The plan was to start the first painting this week, but that was until I noticed the ceiling in my studio. It was wet around the closet where I store my solvents, and my completed paintings. To say that I had a light panic is an understatement.

   I removed all the paintings as fast as I could - I put them in the living room, along with my largest easel. I also had to move the finished sketchbooks stored on a shelf. Inspection of the inside of the cupboard made the news worse. The ceiling and the wood inside was wet.

 

   

My paintings are okay, although one sketchbook was damp, but fortunately sustained no real damage.

   I packed the cupboard with dehydrating things, and it looks like it will be dry in another day or so. I will fix the ceiling once the geyser has been repaired or replaced. We don't know yet what the insurance will decide.  It's a huge frustration and I hope it will be resolved soon.

When I logged in to start writing this post, I saw posts about the annual blog challenge coming in April. I don't know how many years I have been taking part, and this year will be no exception.

Blogging every day is hard work, but with advance notice, I can definitely make it work by preparing at least ten posts ahead of time.

It will overlap with the 100day project, and two more challenges that I have enrolled in, so planning ahead is necessary. 

My A-to-Z Blog challenge theme for 2026

And my studio is back to normal. 🙏

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

PS: Keep an eye out, if you love horror fiction, there is another exciting book launch coming the 20th!

BOOK FEATURE: Harmed and Dangerous by Jasper Bark

It’s a Southern Gothic, paranormal thriller, set in the steamy state of Louisiana. The plot involves time slips, small town horror and the mysteries surrounding an inscrutable serial killer.

It’s dark and deeply emotional and addresses LGBTQIA themes as well the intensely personal nature of father/daughter relationships.

BOOK LINK: AMAZON

COVER BLURB

Put yourself in Kyra’s place.

You're seventeen years old, lost and alone in a remote town in Louisiana. You're searching for the birth parents you never knew. The heat is crippling. The river often floods, washing houses away and lifting corpses from the ground.

The locals treat you with suspicion. You don't belong here. They're hiding something. All over town, in nooks and hidden alcoves, there’s evidence of a forbidden faith. They keep the old ways here, but no one will tell you what they are.

There's an intangible presence following you. Hiding in your peripheral vision. You can't see, hear or touch it, but you know it's there, waiting for its chance to claim you.

Then the episodes start.

Your vision goes and when it returns you're seeing the world as it was fifteen years ago. Physically you're in the present, but everything you see happened a decade and a half ago.

Suddenly you realize.

You’re seeing through the eyes of the serial killer who murdered your birth mother. He takes control of you, forcing you to watch as he stalks and brutally murders her.

And there’s nothing you can do to stop him. Because he died by lethal injection more than a decade ago.

BOOK LINK: AMAZON

Special essay from the author (Linzé - I love these!)

WHAT I LEARNED WRITING ABOUT REAL VOODOO

  Like all paranormal thrillers, my latest novel, HARMED AND DANGEROUS has a supernatural element. The people of Yeuxville, the small town where the novel is set, keep “the old ways”, a set of customs and magical practises that are older than their town, their state and even their country.

  In writing about these practices, I drew almost exclusively on Voodoo and other African diasporic religions like Candomblé and Santeria. Beliefs that date all the way back to the African kingdom of Benin. Beliefs carried over to the new world by the people captured and sold into slavery, who mixed their ancient beliefs with the Catholicism of the countries to which they were taken. This in turn created new religions which are some of the fastest growing in the world, even today. I have a personal and first hand experience of these beliefs and practices.

  When I was writing my fourth novel WAY OF THE BAREFOOT ZOMBIE, for Abaddon Books, rather than writing about the zombie apocalypse, I decided to go back to the origins of the zombie myth in Voodoo. But I didn’t want to misrepresent the religion in the way I’d seen so many writers do in the past. So, I did a lot of research and I reached out to some important practitioners. One of these was Simone Brightstein, who became a dear friend and practically a member of our family.

  I discovered that when you write an authentic Voodoo ritual that’s intended to summon one of the deities, who are called Loa in Voodoo and Orisha in Santeria, they can actually turn up. In your mind at least, which is where all the action in a novel takes place. Not only do they turn up, but they take over the story. When they appeared, I didn’t write any dialogue, I took dictation. The words spilled out almost faster than I could put them down. And the Loas decide what’s going to happen next, not the author.

  Toward the end of the novel, the Loa known as Papa Legba, who opens the way for all the other Loas, decided to change my story. He told Brigitte, a Mambo, or Voodoo priestess, that he wanted another of my characters, Tatyana, to stay on the island where the novel was set and become one of his followers. This completely changed what I had planned for my ending. But I knew enough at this point not to go against Papa Legba. Especially as he gave a little speech explaining why she should become his follower.

  About a week later, I was contacted by Simone, a priestess of Santeria. She said she’d been contacted by Elegguá, the Orisha equivalent of Papa Legba, with an important message for me. So important, he insisted she write it down, because he told her he wanted me to become his follower. She emailed me the message and it was so close to the speech Papa Legba had made in my novel that some sentences were almost word for word.

  I’d never had something like this happen to me before. I was quite shocked. As Elegguá instructed her, Simone had the altar she devoted to him packed up and shipped to me. I was to make regular offerings to it and be mindful of the Orisha. It sits in my study to this day, in fact, as I write this, it needs to be dusted. And yes, I make regular offerings.

  Papa Legba/Elegguá appears in the pages of HARMED AND DANGEROUS. His presence in this novel is more subtle, but no less powerful. You’ll meet him when you read the ARC. And maybe, he’ll change your life too.

˜˜˜

AUTHOR BIO

Multiple award-winning author, Jasper Bark is infectious – and there’s no known cure. If you’re reading this you’re already contaminated. The symptoms will manifest any time soon. There’s nothing you can do about it.

There’s no itching or unfortunate rashes, but you’ll become obsessed with his mind-bending books.

From the acclaimed Draw You In trilogy and the ground breaking Bark Bites Horror series, to graphic novels like Bloodfellas and Beyond Lovecraft.

Then you’ll want to tell everyone else about his visionary horror. About its originality, its wild imagination and how it takes you to the edge of your sanity. We’re afraid there’s no way to avoid this. These words contain a power you’re hopeless to resist.

You’re already in their thrall, you know you are. You’re itching to read all of Jasper’s bloodstained books.

Don’t fight this urge, embrace it. You’ve been bitten by the Bark bug and you love it.

LINKS

Website: www.jasperbark.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/jasperbark/

INSTA: https://www.instagram.com/barkjasper/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXsjQ4vXFQzUOhK1oRLok9w

CreativeLife update: art, the 100 day project, and finishing the second draft

 Hey there creative friend!

This blog post was supposed to go out last week, but that week went whoosh before I managed to blink. I'm sure it happens to everyone, but it doesn't mean that I like it. When I lose track of the days, it means that I have been working long hours and not doing much on a creative project. Yeah, that is frustrating to say the least.

Small collages I made in January.

I did manage to finish the second draft of the Guardian of Dreams earlier in February. It is now hiding on my computer for another week or two before I tackle the next round of editing. Don't worry, the backups were made, just in case. 😉

I also managed to prep the two panels (I only paint on wood these days) that will be the cover for Grayson's Choice. Instead of using AI to generate the cover image, I thought to do the two paintings that are part of the character development path of the female MC myself.

Of course I can paint, but to make the paintings that reflect the pain and joy of her journey, is a definite challenge. So holding thumbs that I can paint what I am envisioning they should be.

Learning about an amazing artist: Ruth Asawa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Asawa

If you have read my blog before you will know that I did the 100 day project last year, and that it had not been easy. I foresee the same journey ahead of me for the 2026 edition, starting on 22 February. If you want to check it out, the details are on Substack

While I think it is aimed at artists and crafters, I also used the challenge to write. So writers, why not jump in too? Writing for 100 days will definitely get a book a good way towards finishing a first draft without the pressure of a daily word count.

I can write a 1000 words in an hour, but seldom have that amount of time available, but 500 words? Anytime. I suddenly feel the urge to write...

Philosophy - what I am reading next

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

And then a moth lands on my desk and makes a mess with its powdery wings, making me drop my mouse on the floor. 🤨 I am not a fan.

Keep an eye out for a post this coming Friday. It's another book feature if you're into horror fiction. I read the synopsis and boy, it will keep you awake for sure. 😳 

Learning about philosophy: Stoicism vs Existentialism

https://stoicismtoday.substack.com/p/stoicism-and-existentialism

Thank you for catching up with me this week. Next time I will share more about the art journal page I mentioned before. I changed it a bit, but that is okay, since it is still new to me and I am figuring it out as I go.

Stay creative until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

CreativeLife update: art, finishing a first draft, and the house freaked me out 😳

 Hey there creative friend,

Happy 2026 to you! I think it is still appropriate to give new year's wishes in January. 😉 Although if your year started like mine, things just picked up where they left off in December - fast paced, and bordering on overwhelming. That was after we got the house sorted.

On 31 December we started hearing arcing of the electrical connections inside the house. Since we are both engineers, we tried to see if we could figure out what was going on. Neither of us could. It got worse on the 1st and it started to freak me out to the point that I insisted that we get an electrician before the house burned down.

I contacted my business partner's son, who is a qualified electrician, and fortunately he was available to come out on Friday, the 2nd. It took four hours, lots of digging, which hubs helped with, for them to find and fix the problem. The main supply cable to the house was damaged and the arcing we heard came through the pipe the cable was routed with into the house. The bill was a nightmare, but it could have been so much worse.

Dragonfruit in watercolour and
coloured pencil (Jan 2026)

While I am writing this post, I am enjoying an impromptu long weekend (not complaining) because my work was done by Thursday and my clients were not ready for me to start their tests on Friday.

I spent the time transcribing the handwritten words of the Guardian of Dreams. The first draft is finally done. I am not happy with the ending, not the actual ending, but how the story got there. Does that make sense? Anyway, I will fix it when editing, so not really too worried about it.

I am also working on the prequel (a full length novel) of the Guardian of Energy. It is close to being finished too, so lots of editing ahead for me this year. Both the prequel and the story will only be released, once both books are finished.

💜  What I learned this week

Why Caring What People Think Makes You Miserable

https://journeyofideas.substack.com/p/why-caring-what-people-think-makes

I decided to do Inktober52 again this year, and drew the third prompt last night. The first two prompts were listed as free time. While I have done some creative things, a collage and the watercolour of dragonfruit, there was no ink involved.

I am doing the Inktober52 prompts as part of an art journal slash journal monthly page in an A4 sketchbook. This is a new thing for me and I am still feeling my way around the design. I don't want to make it a big deal, but the idea is to have highlights and things worth remembering on one page per month for that end-of-year reflection that happens and then I can't remember the details.

I do keep an actual journal, but rereading a whole year's worth of entries really doesn't appeal. So we will see how this will go towards that goal. Including actual drawings as part of the page, will help me to keep up the practice.

The plan is to share more details on my Substack and Medium pages, but I will share those links on my social media if you are want to learn more.

Stay creative, until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

CreativeLife update: a special sale, finishing a challenge, and December

 Hey there creative friends!

With life still grinding at a pace I can hardly keep up with, am I happy to report that I have finished the Novel November challenge. It feels like a huge achievement, and on some level it is, but with everything going on, it is just that much bigger, you know?

To celebrate the completion of the draft manuscript of my tenth novel in the Nations of Peace series, you can get all the published books in the series (and a few others) either free or 75% off by using the coupon code below.

The coupon is only valid until midnight on 1 December - all time zones.

And only on the Smashwords website. The link will take you directly to my ebooks. Please share this post with everyone, since the coupon is only for readers of my blog. You don't even have to subscribe - seriously!

The annual Smashwords sale is still coming, so you have another chance to perhaps gift someone with an ebook - there are many authors taking part in this sale.

So December is almost upon us, and I am looking forward to a good break. I still have a stack of work to finish, but it suddenly doesn't feel so heavy with the break as the carrot for a year of hard work.

I have a miniature or two to build, a coloured pencil drawing to finish for the Derwent competition, but the lack of work pressure is the one thing I am looking forward to the most.

What are your plans for the upcoming holidays? Any projects you have been looking forward to? Please share in the comments!

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

CreativeLife update: resurrecting an old computer, Novel November, and the December book sale

Hey there creative friends! 

   My tenth novel is behind schedule...I might have mentioned that in a previous post. Well, I wrote it a while (years cough cough) ago and when it came time to edit for publication, I was bored to tears from about halfway. Only one solution for the problem: rewrite the boring half.

   But I have more writing experience now, so the boring half expanded and lots of things are now happening that Anoré and Allyson have to deal with, including their relationship. Of course, constant action is exhausting, so there are still few quiet scenes, but at least I wasn't falling asleep anymore. Hopefully, neither will my readers, once my friend, and professional editor, has had her red pen in my words.

What I read this week

https://donaldrobertson.substack.com/p/my-self-improvement-framework

   With a workload heavier than ever, I decided to go out for breakfast and/or coffee when I could to work on the book. With only a desktop computer (and a work laptop) my choices were limited to an iPad. I hate typing on the iPad and I wasn't in the mood to drag a Bluetooth keyboard around. Then I remembered my tiny Samsung netbook.

   I dug it out, charged the battery, found an old flash drive, and it is working. I had to setup the BIOS again to get to work though. But after remembering the password (surprise!), getting to the BIOS to set it up (real surprise there!), it was working.

   But while fiddling with the BIOS settings, it told me that i bought it in 2010. Fifteen years on and it is still working with good battery life too. Of course, updates are not possible so, the first thing I do is to disable the Wi-Fi to prevent it even trying.

   So cuteness aside, it has really helped me to work on the book, via the Novel November challenge. I am slightly ahead of the target, and I mean slightly, but at least  the book is getting finished...one work at a time.

What I watched on YouTube this week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfaL_3V3lXo

   I’m also excited to announce that all my books, will be available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! This is a chance to get my books, along with books from many other great authors, at a promotional discount.

You can find the promo here: http://smashwords.com/sale

   If you wouldn’t mind lending a hand to me and the other indie authors taking part in this sale, you can share this promo with your friends and family. Just share this post with anyone who would love a chance to find their next favourite book!

Thank you for your help and support! 

PS: You will probably see this promo again in my next post - sorry about that.

Stay creative, until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

Book Feature: ONE-SHOT by Jacy Morris

Synopsis

One-Shot, an Indigenous naturopathic insemination expert, is teetering on the brink of sanity. His life takes a sudden turn when he's tasked with transporting his grandfather's ashes from Pittsburgh, PA, to their ancestral reservation.

As he embarks on this cross-country odyssey, the scars of past traumas reawaken. The highways become a surreal landscape, where spectral figures from Native folklore and twisted horrors of a Lovecraftian nature emerge. These apparitions are not just hauntings but reflections of a fracturing mind, struggling to discern reality from nightmare.

With his grandfather's ashes as his solemn companion, One-Shot confronts these terrors, each mile bringing him closer to a harrowing truth. This journey is more than a physical traverse—it's a pilgrimage through the fragmented realms of memory, heritage, and fear.

What lies at the reservation is more than the end of a journey—it's the precipice of insanity.

BUY on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFH4L1NT

Story Behind the Story

The genesis of One-Shot began some twenty-five years ago. Something happened. I drove cross-country in a little under 48 Hours. During this time, I suffered extreme sleep deprivation, including hallucinations, auditory and visual.

Thankfully, they all went away when I went to sleep, but for a while there, I thought I had gone mad. It's a great story on its own, but when I started playing with it in my mind and adding that splash of horror, it became something different entirely.

I'm proud of it, and hope others find this particular brand of madness as enjoyable as I found writing it.

About the Author

Jacy Morris is an Indigenous author. He is a registered member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.

At the age of ten he was transplanted to Portland, Oregon, where he developed a love for punk rock and horror movies, both of which tend to find their way into his writing. He has written several novels, including the "This Rotten World" series and the "One Night Stand at the End of the World" series.

His latest novel, We Like It Cherry was published August 2025 by Tenebrous Press. His next work will be the novel One-Shot from Torrid Waters (November 2025).

You can find him at the following websites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JacyMorrisAuthor

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jacymorris.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacymorrisauthor/

Website: https://jacymorris.com

CreativeLife update: fixing a boring novel, and Inktober

 Hey there, creative friend!

    I caused a problem for myself on multiple levels: the book I had planned to publish in December, is not finished yet. This means that it is too late to send to my editor, but the bigger issue? If you have read any of my Nations of Peace novels, you will know that somewhere in each story there is usually a binding ritual of some kind to tie the romantic partners together for life. With uneven lifespans, and not-quite-human characters, this was my solution for a happily ever after.

   In case you are not familiar with the series, these binding rituals vary depending on the type of characters. Spoiler alert: my books are only intended for an adult audience.

Back to the problem...

The novel I am talking about is the first of the stories of the High Lords. The Lords of the High Council made their debut in Michael's Mystery. It is the story of Anoré D'Exelmante, the Guardian of Dreams. His abilities include telepathy and telekinesis.

He meets the love of his life. And as things typically go, they want to be together for always, hence the binding ritual. Anoré is immortal, but the woman is human. And here is where I dug myself a proverbial grave: the binding ritual. I couldn't figure it out.

When I wrote the story, I decided to skip it (leave some space in the file) and then carried on with the story. You know stuff that goes wrong, and issues that need to be fixed and talked about, etc. When I started editing it (before sending it for a professional edit) I realised that I didn't like the story. Okay, it became boring. I hate boring, and so will you, my reader.

I do like the characters, so I had to fix it. Period.

I then deleted all the words from that space to the end. Okay, I just moved the words to my Deleted file, because you never know if they would be useful. Then I started to rewrite the story. And I figured out the binding ritual almost immediately- imagine that. 😉

With Novel November just around the corner, I will be finishing the story of the Guardian of Dreams. Do another edit from the start in the new year, send it off to my editor, and then publish it in 2026.

What did I learn from this situation? I need to trust myself. I have been writing for 25 years, and the best stories come from letting the process lead the way, not my engineering brain.

The High Lords are fascinating characters, but Anoré's lady is turning out to be a surprise ... to him. And me, when I started trusting the process.

I have included a few of my Inktober 2025 drawings, to give come colour to this post, but it's not been an exciting challenge for me - mostly because of severely limited available time. Maybe I will bore you with that story next time. 😉

Until then, life creatively!

💜🇿🇦Linzé

BOOK FEATURE: Food to Die For (Book 8 in the Scareville Series) by John Ward

Synopsis

The town of Traverse City, Michigan was everything you wanted out of a Midwest community. Nestled on the banks of Lake Michigan, the city had much to offer. When advertisements began to spread a jolly jingle for a newly opening burger joint, the town went crazy for it.

“Come on down to Chunko Town! Have a burger and meet Chunko the Clown!”

The infamous pudgy clown statue in the commercial gained notoriety quickly and had everyone ready to meet the Chunko Burger mascot.

Things took a turn for the worst when Kira and her friends tempt fate and mess with Chunko. 

Whatever you do – don’t anger the clown!

Buy the book - AMAZON      BARNES & NOBLE

Story behind the story

Clowns have become synonymous with horror. I had been fumbling around with a way to create a unique horror story featuring the dynamic antagonist for quite some time. I was in a drive-thru one day and had my lightbulb moment. Immediately the idea flooded my imagination and I got to work. I think Food to Die For will be a fun, standout story in the series with a very memorable antagonist - Chunko the Clown.

About the Author

John Ward is a horror author hailing from Canton, Ohio. John loves writing horror for everyone and inspiring today's young readers. He lives with his dog, Bo, who is his best friend. When John isn't busy cooking up new stories for the world, he can be found reading, doing paranormal investigations, or taking in a new horror film.

Twitter

Instagram

CreativeLife update: Laughing my ass off making art

 Hey there creative friends!

   This past week I finished the Creative Reset course with Louise Fletcher. One of the exercises we had to do was to draw blind selfies. I share a few below, but I laughed so hard when I saw the results. Some people had a really hard time doing this exercise. While I understand the difficulties people might have, I had no problem staring at my face (no make-up) to do the assignment.

                         

   Blind drawing, in case you don't know, is to draw while looking at the subject, but not at the paper. I used a mirror.

   Then I noticed the Mont Marte September challenge on Instagram. Since I do have a few materials from Mont Marte, and enjoy a challenge, I decided why not? And guess what the first prompt was? Yup...do a selfie. This was no blind drawing challenge, so I had to have a think about which photo to use. What style I want to use. And of course, the medium.

   Oil pastels won, since I have been working on improving my skills with this medium. Since winners are chosen randomly, my chances would be closer to zero than anything else, I thought...let's just go for it.

   It's not a very good likeness, but it was fun nonetheless. What do you think? My profile picture on Instagram is the real me if you want to have a look and compare. Be nice, please.

   So now it's back to the paintings for an actual competition. I have one finished already, one is in progress, and the plan is to do a third since they allow three entries.

  Unit we chat again, have an awesome creative time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

Book feature: THE GREAT DICK: AND THE DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMON by Barry Maher

 BOOK FEATURE

THE GREAT DICK: AND THE DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMON by Barry Maher

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SYNOPSIS

 It’s 1982. His name, Steve Witowski, is an alias. Once he was a counterculture hero. Now he’s a failed songwriter, running from the law.

And he’s just become a killer, rescuing a woman from an horrific assault by what seemed to be the strongest wino in California. Steve should keep moving. But the woman, Victoria, is beyond stunning.

Oddly, she’s recently bought a decrepit old church, with notorious past. Will Steve stay and help? Of course. Even as the face of the man he just killed materializes on his arm. And Victoria becomes just a part of a mystery he can’t unravel.

Until he’s looting the decomposing dead for the secrets of a self-proclaimed  sorcerer. And the mystery becomes a nightmare of fire and blood and death.

The Sorcerer’s spells and rituals can’t actually work, of course. Until they do.

And unknown to Steve, a demon is growing desperate.

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Where the story came from...

How Not Being Able to Tell Time Led to The Great Dick: And the Dysfuctional Demon

I was speaking on an Asian cruise when I realized I could no longer figure out what the hands of the clock meant. Money got confusing too. In Viet Nam, I handed a vender two hundreds and a ten for a $7 baseball cap. It was a really nice cap.

Back home, the first thing my doctor did was have me draw a clock face at ten to three. The second thing he did was take away my driver’s license. He sent me for an immediate MRI. The nurse there wouldn’t comment on the results, but when I asked to use the restroom, she said, “I can’t let you go in there alone.”

Bad sign. Then she said, “You need to talk to your neurosurgeon.”

The neurosurgeon explained that I had a brain tumor the size of a basketball. Or maybe he said “baseball.” I wasn’t tracking too well at that point. What I did understand was that he wanted to slice my skull open with a power saw then carve out the tumor.

My problem was that while I was sure this guy was as brilliant as everyone claimed, I’ve always thought intelligence was overrated. To me, on a scale of everything there is to know in the universe, the main difference between Einstein and Koko the Wonder Chimp, was that Einstein couldn’t pick up bananas with his feet. (As far as I know.)

Anyway, I went into surgery. I may or may not have had a seizure during surgery. They weren’t’ sure. That may explain what happened. Or it might have been a bizarre type of dream. But I came out of surgery with a story in my head that was like a memory. One I couldn’t shake.

My brain could have given me a nice rom/com or Citizen Kane or a few episodes of a sitcom. But, I came back to consciousness with a story full of open crypts, bizarre spells, sudden death and the Ralph Lauren version of the Manson Family. And that story is now The Great Dick: And the Dysfunctional Demon

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What the reviewers said...

“What a page turner! Witty, literate, scary, sexy, and powerfully evocative”

           -Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author.

"An enormous amount of fun. Wholly fresh and original. Wickedly funny . . . The Great Dick is a hot, sweaty, magic- and murder-infused rollercoaster of a story that takes you in every direction except the one you're expecting . . . I loved it."
                           -David Moody, author of Hater and Autumn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Barry Maher

Barry Maher may be the only horror novelist who’s ever appeared in the pages of Funeral Service Insider. In his misspent youth, his articles were featured in perhaps a hundred different publications and, in order to eat, he held nearly that many different jobs. Sometimes he lived on the beach. Not in a house on the beach. On the beach. With the sand and the seagulls. 

After a sentence with a Fortune 100 company, he started speaking professionally. He told stories to audiences across the country and around the world: his client list a Who’s Who of multi-national corporations and large associations. You may have seen Barry on The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CBS or CNBC, or read his Slightly Off-Kilter syndicated newspaper column.

On the downside, he’s actually been incarcerated twice. Once for not making a left hand turn out of a left hand turn lane, and once for aiding and abetting a loiterer. He’s deeply repentant.

Awhile back, Barry lost the ability to tell time, courtesy of a baseball-size, cancerous, brain tumor. He awoke from having his skull cut open without the tumor but with the story of The Great Dick: And the Dysfunctional Demon.

Website: www.barrymaher.com

Twitter: @barrymaher