Mysterious Galaxy brings you the local talent of more than a dozen authors — in our genres and beyond — who are enthused to share their works with us. We will mingle for a bit, hear a little about each author’s work, and have some holiday refreshments to top off the afternoon. There will be a variety of genres and subjects — ranging from bizarre inheritances to counter-terrorism — from history to mystery to fantasy. These fun gatherings are a great opportunity to meet new people and have a chance to support our local authors. You just might be the first to discover a future bestselling author of our time!
Participants at press time include: Cody Goodfellow, Richard Carrico, T.E. Grau, M. Lee Buompensiero, David W. Coons Jr., Robert Rogers, Brent J. Griffiths, Patricia Benke, V.D. Povall, Konni Jensen, Jeffrey Seay, and Scott MacDonald.
Cody Goodfellow has emerged as one of the most dynamic writers of neo-Lovecraftian fiction in recent years. This volume gathers the many provocative tales he has written over the past decade or more, including several novellas that lavishly expand upon core Lovecraftian themes and motifs. Chief among these, perhaps, is "In the Shadow of Swords," strikingly set in Iraq, where American soldiers during the Iraq War encounter entities far more baleful than the terrorists of the Taliban. A similar setting is used in "Archons," which features a denouement both horrific and poignant.
Other stories play imaginative riffs on other Lovecraftian ideas. "The Anatomy Lesson," set in the 19th century, is an ingenious take-off of "Pickman's Model." "To Skin a Corpse" transmutes the central idea of "Herbert West-Reanimator" into a gritty 1930s hard-boiled idiom. The key Lovecraftian notion of dreams is the basis of the pensive story "Broken Sleep." And a spectacular and previously unpublished story, "Swinging," employs "The Shadow out of Time" as the springboard for an
Goodfellow is gifted with a prose style of exceptional lyricism and evocativeness, and his narratives are infused with all the compelling readability and cumulative terror that distinguish Lovecraft's own. Vibrantly contemporary in setting and expression, they nonetheless constitute a fitting homage of the dreamer from Providence.
Cody Goodfellow has written five novels and three collections. He wrote, co-produced, and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene film "Stay at Home Dad," which can be viewed on YouTube. He is also director of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival-San Pedro, and co-founder of Perilous Press, an occasional micropublisher of modern cosmic horror.
What if the "not so" dearly departed could return from the other side of the grave to make amends and right the wrongs they committed during their lives on earth?
Francis and Marie-Claire Liebersohn have unfinished business-they want someone to set the record straight-eighty years after their deaths.
Kate Post just inherited the old Liebersohn mansion-her estranged mother's bizarre bequest to the daughter she rarely saw and barely knew. Kate doesn't want the house, nor any reminder of her mother's abandonment. When an odd inscription on a slab of concrete beside a garden pathway haunts her dreams and drives her back to the old place, she decides that a period restoration will make for a quick sale, taking it off her hands for good.
But Kate's plans and the long-dead Liebersohns' scheme are about to collide. The result will unhinge Kate's world, uncover haunting family secrets, and set her on a mission to undo the wrongs that only she can set aright.
EVIL HAS BECOME AN ART FORM.
Gabe has a problem.
If he wants to spend an evening with the woman of his dreams, he must suffer through the insufferable - an entire day at the newest, largest art gallery in town: Arte Blanche.
Once there, his low expectations are confirmed. He is painstakingly led through one indecipherable exhibit after another.
What he didn't expect, however, was that things could get much worse than mere boredom and confusion. An ancient evil has awoken in the gallery's vaunted halls.
Gabe quickly realizes that - at the Arte Blanche - it isn't only the artists who suffer for their art.
*This edition contains the bonus short story: The Black Ring*
When you find yourself widowed at the age of 31 with two small children, what do you do? A. Put on a black veil and live a life of semi-solitude with twelve cats B. Take up yoga and meditation to namaste the shit out of your anxiety attacks C. Join a church and devote your life to volunteer work and prayer while using the phrase, "This is all a part of God's plan" incessantly D. Put on a pair of black leather leggings and meet a boy at a bar who you will later discover has a wife and/or girlfriend Michelle chose D and then she documented her adventures in this gritty, tender and surprisingly humorous memoir about the places loss can take us. Follow her on forty-six of her most memorable and cringe-worth dates as she copes with the harsh reality of the modern social-media-infused dating scene and the inevitability of her insurmountable grief.
Bishop Bone, having been run out of California by a corrupt banker and developer, ends up in the middle of a mud slinging gubernatorial campaign between the banjo-picking governor, Peacher Mac, a shopping center developer and a state senator. Bone's participation resulted from having rescued the granddaughter of developer, Seth Campbell, from an assault by oil field roughnecks. Bone becomes a project manager while the campaign is progressing. Almost immediately, Seth's investigator is killed. Bone is helping with a project planned for the Mississippi Delta headed up by a popular black preacher who supports Seth. Next the state senator is killed right before he was scheduled to meet with Seth. Bone discovers that Seth is having an affair with a local attorney, Jean, who also has connections with Preacher Mac's campaign manager, Trish. They play together in tennis tournaments and are sisters but keep that fact private. Mac plans to use the affair to discredit Seth. Bone puts an end to that plan and thus puts himself at risk. Everything comes to a boil during the Neshoba Fair political rallies when Seth's granddaughter and Jean are kidnapped and threatened unless Seth withdraws. Trish is outraged that her sister would be put at risk and tries to free her. At the same time, Bone threatens Mac with knowledge about his wife and son. As a result, he is almost killed but survives and ends up at the kidnap site to try and rescue the girls before they are killed.
The plot twists keep coming in this novel that interweaves three stories that unfold over forty millennia uncovering a struggle that hints at the origin of our species.
In Edinburgh a severely disfigured genius hunts the supernatural predators ...
Twelve compelling stories of young girls in conflict with their Arabic culture and the world around them. As religions clash, the mysterious suicide of a promising high school student leads to a young girl's understanding of vengeance and redemption. A Syrian child farmed out to another family during the Great Depression brings humorous clarity to poverty and the will to survive. In a postwar coal town, a mischievous child discovers the secret life and dignity of a wandering violinist whose existence depends on begging. A daughter's memories and a diary expose what is true and not true about her father. Out of a young woman's peripheral vision pops an Arabic grandfather she hated, a ghost from the past that, like it or not, she must now deal with. Together and separately the stories explore a complex range of universal themes and experiences common to many immigrant populations, especially those involving challenges faced by girls. Whether set in Pennsylvania or California or on a train in between, the stories in Qudeen the Magnificent are probing and entertaining, a chorus of individual voices spanning the East and West coasts and the decades of the 20th century.
In the picture book "Peter & the Closet Monster," Peter has had enough of the scrapes, rustles, burps and laughter coming from his closet every night; He bravely decides to investigate. We follow Peter's capture of the Closet monster, a friendship forming and a brother's misunderstanding that forces the monster out on a WILD adventure trying out new jobs while Peter is looking for his lost friend. A sweet and funny picture book, sure to make you laugh, cry and pull at your heart strings. This book takes away the fear of the dark closet and teaches you not to judge people who are different, or you don't know yet.
Sarah Salas buried her clairvoyance at age six, bowing to her family's insistence that she become "normal" to fit into society. But the opposite occurred. Sarah's struggle to suppress her psychic abilities forced her into a lonely, isolated life.
Fifty years later, soon after Sarah accepts an offer too tempting to refuse, as if on cue, her clairvoyance bursts out, compelling her to abandon her safe life and relocate to a secluded house in the North Cascades of Washington State.
An irresistible psychic pull leads her to a box full of old photographs in the attic. Each photo offers a story to Sarah's paranormal senses. One by one, the deceased residents of not only her house, but also its twin, the home of her neighbor Conrad Thompson, share a fragmented tapestry of jealousy, incest, and murder.
As Sarah explores the past, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Conrad. Alone most of her life, she's now surrounded by Conrad's loving family-alive and dead. Only once before did she attempt love but the relationship ended in heartache and humiliation. Unless Conrad can accept Sarah for all she is, history could repeat itself-a disgrace Sarah dares not relive.
Saving Investa: How An Ex-Factory Worker Helped Save One Of Australia's Iconic Companies (Paperback)
It was the biggest investment in the history of Morgan Stanley's $100 Billion real estate fund business; it was one of the largest deals in the history of Australian property. In 2007, Morgan Stanley bought Investa Property Trust for more than $6.5 billion. In less than a year, the investment was in trouble.
Scott MacDonald, an American CEO with no prior experience in Australia, agreed to meet with the Company and Morgan Stanley executives in Sydney for one week in 2008. He returned home more than five years later after guiding Investa through its perilous journey to survival.
The Company moved from crisis to crisis from 2008 through 2012, sometimes avoiding insolvency by hours. The drama of corporate survival is played against the backdrop of the Global Financial Crisis.
The story of corporate struggle draws upon Scott MacDonald's personal experiences as chapters alternate between his life growing up and the fight to save Investa. His career includes an amazing range of experiences from fortune telling, street sweeper, and corporate CEO. Using stories and antidotes from every stage of his life, the Investa story is personalized and much more than a business memoir.
Description: Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author T.E. Grau delivers a tale of obsession, alienation, and a teenage girl in search of something beyond the reach of death. But sometimes, when they journey too far, They Don’t Come Home Anymore.
Dead End Follies describes They Don’t Come Home Anymore as “both a fragmented nightmare and a heartbreaking allegory you won’t forget anytime soon," while Larval Forms calls the book "a wonderful novella about death and obsession and the more frightening and fallible crannies of the human condition. It delves into some really interesting psychological areas, but the story also feels like a study in the decay of the flesh, of all things material, all things human."
Author Bio: T.E. Grau is the author of dozens of stories and other written works, including the books The Mission, Triptych: Three Cosmic Tales, The Lost Aklo Stories, and The Nameless Dark, which was nominated for a 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Single-Author Collection, and ranks as the bestselling book published by Lethe Press in both 2015 and 2016. His most recent work is the novella They Don't Come Home Anymore, which was published in late November 2016 through UK press This Is Horror. Grau lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, and is currently working on his third novella, second collection, and first novel.
Description:
Marcus Lanehart has lived a lonely life in San Diego. He is haunted by recent loss in his personal life, as well as being disowned by his family for being gay. Most of the aristocratic, wealthy, and right-wing Lanehart family still live under one roof at Ten Points, a 197-year-old former cotton plantation in north Louisiana.Marcus returns home after the death of his father, but a dysfunctional family of characters is the least of what awaits. His sister Flannery, a pariah for reasons only a select few seem to know about, is also begrudgingly welcomed back. It soon becomes clear their older brother Geoffrey has fallen under the influence of a demon named Conrad, whose sadistic and sometimes sexual manipulation of the household—and uninvited invasion of Marcus’ dreams—sets the stage for the affluent family’s ultimate destruction.
Author Bio:Throughout his adult life, Trent St. Germain's heart has been torn between "the two souths," as he calls them. His homeland of Louisiana and southern California, his "adopted home state." Much of the inspiration for his fiction comes from his upbringing in the Deep South.St. Germain graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, with a major in mass communication and a minor in history. Colonial America and Ancient Rome are among his favorites, when it comes to the latter. He lived for eleven years on the West Coast, returned to north Louisiana in 2010, and made his way back to California in 2015. St. Germain enjoys the gym, running, and "reading, reading, reading" when he isn't writing. He's fascinated with fiction of all kinds, biographies, and he's a self-proclaimed "pop culture nerd." Don't get him started on anything 1980's! Trent St. Germain enjoys corresponding with readers and other writers.
A well-illustrated and informative history of the origins and development of wine and wine making in San Diego County. From the mission period to the present day San Diego has hosted a bevy of colorful characters and historic events that shaped our wine industry.
When Beth Vogelsang's Uncle Jerry is tortured and murdered Beth's estranged friend Regan is the first cop on the scene. Regan hopes for reconciliation, but they've led different lives. Beth has been abused, beaten, raped, and has experienced a devastating death in the family. She's also fallen in love with her lesbian therapist. Will she reunite with her genderqueer friend? Or will their individual secrets keep them apart. Meanwhile, there's a serial killer on the loose, putting both their lives at risk.
The extraordinary story of a thirteen-year-old boy who, after almost losing his sight, uses a special power received in an Indian healing to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel revealing the thief and the rightful owner.