Linda Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community

September is National Preparedness Month, so prepare to read something different!

Linda Addison recommends

doungjai gam‘s short fiction has appeared in LampLight, Distant Dying Ember, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, Wicked Haunted, and the Necon E-Books Best of Flash Fiction Anthology series. Born in Thailand, she currently resides in southern Connecticut. Her first collection of poetry and short-shorts is currently available: glass slipper dreams, shattered. This book is filled with work that takes our breath away with a turn of a phrase, a dark play on words and images; every syllable paints unexpected shadows in our imagination.

Recommended Reading from: glass slipper dreams, shattered.

that girl with the hair.

She sat alone at the bar sipping a colorful drink when he approached with whiskey bravado. She stared at him coolly with one eye, the other hidden underneath a brunette wave. She rejected his advances and excused herself to use the ladies’ room. He knew this trick, and quietly trailed her as she slipped out the side door. Before she left the alley, he grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around.

“Going somewhere?” He yanked her hair.

“No—please don’t,” she begged. He laughed as he pulled her closer and brushed her hair back to reveal her hidden eye.

“What the hell—?”

Moments later, she smiled as she fixed her hair, covering her right eye which, when covered, no longer glowed.

Another man turned into stone. With one touch he turned into rubble.

“I warned you.”

Follow the author at: https://doungjaigam.wordpress.com/.

LH Moore could tell you about the night she spent in the “Hut O’ Terror,” but she’d rather let you know that she is a writer and poet. Her speculative fiction short stories and poetry have been in magazines and numerous anthologies such as all three of the Dark Dreams‘ paranormal horror and suspense anthologies, as well as anthologies Sycorax’s Daughters (HWA Bram Stoker Award® finalist) and the 2018 anthology Black Magic Women edited by Sumiko Saulson.

She’s a historian with an MA in Historic Preservation from Goucher College; historical fiction and factual smackdowns are her specialty. She has also written articles for the African American National Biography series published by Harvard/Oxford U. Press. She is a DC native exiled in Maryland who loves classical guitar, architecture, gaming, and technology.

Recommended reading: Check out her story, “Here Kitty,” about a young woman who helps an older woman find her lost kitty in the anthology Black Magic Women (Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC, 2018).

The wooden steps creaked and felt unsteady under their weight as they went down. “Kiki? Kiiii-kiiii? Are you down here?” Mrs. Mills called out. Josie held onto the railing for dear life going down. The last thing that she wanted to do was trip and fall.

Even with the lights on, the cellar seemed dark. Ugh, I hate basements so much, Josie thought as she followed Mrs. Mills and the tap of her cane on the concrete floor.

Light filtered in through a narrow, bar-covered window, yet it still seemed dim and gray. Old chairs were stacked up in a corner. There were stacks of books and papers everywhere. A workbench covered with jars was in another corner. Who knows what is in those jars? Josie thought, shaking her head as they wound their way through the cellar. It wasn’t large, but the stacks and piles were like obstacles as they made their way through.

“You know, I would think that we would have heard her mewing or something before now though, especially if she was stuck.”

Mrs. Mills stopped for a moment as if to think. “That is a very good point! I haven’t heard her meow or anything since this morning, either. That is rather strange. That is also pretty worrying as well. I am definitely worried that something’s happened to her now!”

Keep up with the author at Twitter at @ellehm; https://lhmoorecreative.com/. Credit: Photo of LH Moore by Matthew D’Agostino.

Lauren Salerno recommends

R.H. Stavis‘ first foray into the writing world began at the age of eighteen with the development of a screenplay with Sony Pictures called Honor’s Price. The story revolved around an undiscovered heroine during the Revolutionary War. Shortly after, R.H.’s popularity expanded globally with the fictional work for one of the most popular video game characters of all time, Lara Croft. As a result of Tomb Raider‘s success, R.H. has been interviewed by National Public Radio and has contributed an article entitled “Writing in Your 20s” for Writer’s Digest. Since that time, R.H. has worked on multiple novels, graphic novels, and video games, including Daniel’s Veil, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Tales from Moon Lake, and Something Monstrous. She enjoys long walks on the beach, fruity drinks, zombies, and the apocalypse.

Recommending her memoir: Sister of Darkness. The world’s only non-denominational exorcist—the subject of a forthcoming major motion picture—tells her astonishing true story: a riveting chronicle of wrestling entities from infected souls, showing how pain and trauma opens us to attachment from forces that drain our energy … and can even destroy our humanity. As a secular exorcist, Rachel H. Stavis has cleansed thousands of tormented people, from small children and Hollywood moguls to stay-at-home moms and politicians. But for many years, the horror screenwriter and novelist denied her gift. As a little girl, she began to see “monsters” floating around her bedroom or attached to other children. Told it was only her imagination, Rachel learned to ignore the things she saw. But a series of events in adulthood forced her to acknowledge her unique ability and embrace her power to heal. Since then, Rachel has dedicated her life to helping others cast off the forces feeding off of us. Performing her services pro bono, she quietly worked in the shadows, until she unknowingly revealed her work to a journalist, who told her story to NPR. A unique look at demonology removed from religious dogma, Sister of Darkness recounts Rachel’s journey to becoming an exorcist and chronicles some of her most extreme cleansings cases, including those that put her and her clients in peril. Going deep into her world, we meet the diverse range of people she has helped—young, old, famous and not—in gripping stories of danger and sometimes sadness, that are ultimately about redemption. Rachel teaches us that there is a diverse range of “entities” surrounding us—some of these are playful or misguided, while some are dangerous and harmful. She introduces each of them and explains their power, helping us understand what is attacking and hurting us, and what we can do to protect ourselves. Frightening, eye-opening, and utterly enthralling, Sister of Darkness brings to light a world ruled by destruction, chaos, and fear, and the woman who bravely fights to protect those who seek her out.

For more information, follow R.H. at http://twitter.com/rhstavis.

Janet Joyce Holden recommends

Wendy Heard was born in San Francisco and has lived most of her life in Los Angeles. When not writing, she can be found hiking the Griffith Park trails, taking the Metro and then questioning this decision, and haunting local bookstores.

Recommended reading: Hunting Annabelle.

“Her scream echoes in my memory. I know what happened. Whether anyone believes me or not, I know.”

Sean Suh is done with killing. After serving three years in a psychiatric prison, he’s determined to stay away from temptation. But he can’t resist Annabelle—beautiful, confident, incandescent Annabelle—who alone can see past the monster to the man inside. The man he’s desperately trying to be.

Then Annabelle disappears.

Sean is sure she’s been kidnapped—he witnessed her being taken firsthand—but the police are convinced that Sean himself is at the center of this crime. And he must admit, his illness has caused him to “lose time” before. What if there’s more to what happened than he’s able to remember?

Though haunted by the fear that it might be better for Annabelle if he never finds her, Sean can’t bring himself to let go of her without a fight. To save her, he’ll have to do more than confront his own demons … He’ll have to let them loose.

Wendy’s latest novel, a chilling, deeply suspenseful page-turner set in the 1980s, Hunting Annabelle is a stunning debut that will leave you breathless to the very end.

For more information, follow the author at  https://twitter.com/wendydheard.