What Are Your Favorite Dark Fantasy Reads?

Besides Horror, I like to read a lot of Fantasy fiction. No, not the Romance stuff. Old fashioned quests, Medieval battles and strange and sometimes scary creatures.

I was recently asked to pick out my five favorite books and came up with these:

High Moor is a werewolf story worth reading. There’s a three book series and every book holds up with interest and continuity. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Dance of the Goblins is Dark Fantasy with an original take on goblins. Instead of mindless evil, they are a tribal culture close to nature. Their problems with humans are of human making because of prejudice about their appearance. This one is also a trilogy and holds up well, moving to the next generation with each book. It also gives plausible explanations for things like changelings.

Ghosts of the Sea Moon is, you guessed it, first in a trilogy! This one takes us to a nautical setting where gods and superstitions are traditionally to be found in plenty, but again it’s an original take.

Dawn of Assassins starts a series that might not be finished yet. I know of four books so far. Despite the title, it’s actually about a gang of thieves and the prequel (free on the author’s site) has a Dickensian feel to it that reminds me of Oliver Twist.

The Bad Seed is an old classic about a spoiled child who knows how to get what she wants, even if it takes murder. Well worth a read.

All of these are five star reads in my opinion. You can find more author favorites on https://shepherd.com! Have a look around.

New Recommendation Site!

I’ve been made aware of a new site for book recommendations, an alternative to Goodreads and Amazon recommendations (who never suggest anything to me I would actually want to read). My book, Letters to the Damned got a mention!

Shepherd for Authors is worth a look see. https://shepherd.com/

Early days yet but the site is growing!

The Holiday Tales Series

Good news readers, I haven’t died!

I’ve been very quiet on this blog for a while solely due to being busy all the time, but I haven’t been idle about the writing.

First of all, a new book cover for A Halloween Tale is in the works. The current one is cool, but it doesn’t reflect the story and the image came from a stock site, so it might show up on other books.

I thought something to reflect the haunted house nature of the story would be much more appropriate. It’s in the artist’s hands now.

In the meantime, it’s nearly Easter! This has put me in the mood to get work done on An Easter Tale. I’m not going to say it’s next in the series because it’s obviously too late to have an Easter release this year. If I get the first draft done before I run out of chocolate eggs, it should be ready for next year for sure.

In between there could be other holidays. I’m not going to say much, but wild turkeys aren’t out of the question! Though a lot could be done with other holidays in between. Let’s just say I keep notes of ideas for stories for this series.

In the meantime, have a great Easter and I hope to read some other Horror books on the holiday theme, as long as they’re not too much like mine. Let’s just say you’ll never see bunnies the same again.

Smashwords End of Year Sale!

It’s that time of year again!

15 December to January 1st, A Christmas Tale in any e-book format is only 99 cents! Or equivalent in your local currency.

No coupon necessary! Get it here! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1048014

A chilling Christmas story that will keep you awake all Christmas Eve!

Inspired by the Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, three young women decide to hold a séance to raise the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. They don’t expect a result, but what they call out of the aethyr gives them a creepy holiday they will never forget, if they live to tell the tale!

It’s October!

That most wonderful time of the year!

Where did this year go? In fact, where did the last three years go?

Well, once again, I’ve reduced the price of the Kindle version of A Halloween Tale for the full month of October. I was going to reduce the paperback as well, but Amazon says I’m already at rock bottom price.

Come play in a haunted house that doesn’t play by the rules!

It’s time for spooks and goblins, vampires and ghosts! A Halloween Tale is reduced to 2.99 for October!

Come join the fun!

On Amazon!

So This Is Christmas

And time for a good Horror story to make a day with the relatives look good.

Have you ever tried doing a seance? Just for fun?

That’s what Amber, Brittany and Lauren thought it would be. Just a party game on Christmas Eve. To try to raise the ghosts of past, present and future from the famous Charles Dickens novel.

But sometimes a little bit of fun can go very, very wrong.

On Kindle for just .99 or in paperback for only $9.99 through Christmas! Makes a great Christmas gift for the Horror lover in your life!

This is Halloween!

August has come and almost gone and time for trick or treat is nearly upon us!

Oh sure, we still have September and all that back to school malarkey to get through as well as most of October, but social media has brought Halloween forward this year with images of pumpkins and ghosts, witches and ghouls everywhere you look.

Part of this need to get into the spirit of Autumn holidays may be because Covid 19 has kept us all inside far too long. Close, enclosed parties still pose substantial risk and we’re far from out of the woods, but socially distanced trick or treat is on the cards for this year at the very least!

Or perhaps you prefer a quiet night in with a book. With that in mind, my Halloween story, A Halloween Tale, will continue to be priced at $2.99 on Kindle through 31 October. For the first time,the paperback has been reduced to rock bottom, $7.99/£6.99 UK, so don’t forget books make wonderful presents for all your friends birthdays in September and October!

As the nights get colder and getting into the spirit of Halloween becomes more appealing, what could be better than a good haunted house tale?

Get your copy now, before the cold starts creeping in. You won’t regret it!