Tag: scifi

Meet the Detectives Who Walk Between Two Worlds

Not every mystery can be solved by ordinary detectives.

Some crimes demand investigators who understand the things that lurk in darkness.

In Terror by Night: The Supernatural Affairs of Madison Cavendish and Sue SunMountain, James Goodridge introduces readers to Madison Cavendish, a vampire detective, and Sue SunMountain, his fiercely capable Lycan partner. Together, they investigate the bizarre, the impossible, and the terrifying, taking on cases that lie well beyond the reach of conventional law enforcement. Across seventeen interconnected stories spanning more than sixty years, their partnership grows while each new mystery opens another door into the uncanny.

Fans of classic detective fiction will recognize echoes of hard-boiled mysteries, while horror readers will appreciate the Gothic atmosphere, supernatural creatures, and steadily building sense of unease. Rather than relying on shock alone, Goodridge creates suspense through memorable characters, clever mysteries, and a world where history and horror frequently collide.

That connection to history is no accident.

Growing up in the Bronx, Goodridge discovered an extraordinary home library devoted to Black history. Those volumes introduced him to historical figures and stories that were largely absent from his classroom education, igniting a lifelong passion for reading, research, and storytelling. Today, that same passion finds its way into his fiction, where lesser-known figures from Black history are woven naturally into supernatural adventures, giving each tale an added layer of richness and authenticity.

The result is a collection that feels both imaginative and grounded. Monsters may stalk the pages, but history is never far behind.

If your ideal evening includes eerie mysteries, unforgettable detectives, Gothic horror, and stories that refuse to fit neatly into a single genre, Terror by Night deserves a place on your bookshelf.

Some cases begin after sunset.

Madison Cavendish and Sue SunMountain wouldn’t have it any other way.

Help! It’s Coming Right At Us! Asteroid 6!

In this newest collection, Fulcher explores concepts of the insignificance of human existence, terror of the unknowable and incomprehensible, and more motifs found in Eldritch horror. Fulcher draws his influence from a wide assortment of authors ranging from Poe and Fritz Leiber to Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

The title story features an astronaut named Jones who, while on asteroid-clearing duty, crash lands onto a massive asteroid where he is drawn to an alien monolith and discovering an ancient race trapped in stasis. Does he dare set it free?

ORDER ON AMAZON

Help! It’s Coming Right At Us! Asteroid 6!

PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

What can scare the heck out of you and keep you from scoring?

https://rdavidfulcher.com

Apparently it’s not a what, but a WHO: David Fulcher!

Have you read any of David’s work?

In addition to running and publishing Samsara magazine, David also publishes short stories and poems!

You can check out these for free, by clicking on the photo:


And how about some David video?

Or listen to a tale of terror, if you dare!

Hockey fans, I believe David is a goalie. Impressive! And give up any thoughts of scoring…. 😉

Gravelight Press on Kindle Vella | Read free!

WHAT IS KINDLE VELLA?

Kindle Vella (or KV, or Vella) is a new service from Amazon that allows anyone to go online and start reading a book IMMEDIATELY! The books are all serialized. They may release one chapter per week, or even a chapter daily. The first three chapters/episodes of any book are free.

USA-ONLY:

For now, Vella is only available to reader in the USA, while Amazon tries out this pilot program. DPP is in on it, and we are even beta-testers for the comments and polls functions. So, some of our stories have comments, and some have polls, and some have both.

FREE AND NOT FREE:

All series (books) being serialized have the first three episodes as free.

For episodes after that, you have to buy them.

You buy them by buying tokens. Most chapters/episodes average out at about six cents/episode.

You cannot currently give tokens as gifts, or buy tokens with gift cards, and you cannot buy someone a Vella story to read, like, “I’ll get this for my friend!” Nope, not now you won’t. But maybe in the future!
And hopefully in the future more countries will be able to get it too.

IS IT GREAT?

DPP’s jury is still out on this one. We’re trying it, and we like how we can put in notes for our readers, and get comments back. As authors it is nice to have connection with readers, because otherwise we never do, and we want to know what readers think. But, it so restricted at the moment with the USA-only tie that we’re not sure how we feel about it. Certainly since we have worked to edit people to are writing their entire novels on their phones, it is appealing to those of us who love our small hand-held devices.

ONE BENEFIT: the reviews a book gets there go with it when it goes into paperback.

ARE YOU THE BETA READER TYPE? ARE YOU JUST INTERESTED IN THE LATEST THING? DPP IS LOOKING FOR YOU!

We’d love to have some folks try out our Vellas and then take a survey on the experience so we can find out what readers think.

Contact us if you want to join in the fun and give us your honest feedback: editor@devilspartypress.com

What do we have on Vella currently?

PICK A READ! ANY READ!

THE PUMPKIN KING AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR

GRAVELIGHT PRESS PRESENTS:

Do you desire to make your spine tingle, your hair curl, and your blood run cold? If so, dare to partake of the dark sacrament of this forbidden tome. Within these arcane pages you will encounter an organist who can summon the dead, trade lives using the currency of the damned, meet a college professor with a very creepy teaching assistant, and experience a night of Trick-or-Treating like no other. Enter if you dare! This story is complete and heading to print Halloween 2023!

Written by master story tell R. David Fulcher

Follow David on Twitter!

JUST A HOUSECLEANER

When Patsy finds her friend and client has passed away in her living room, Patsy’s only thought is how to take care of her friend’s dog and estate, but someone in her friend’s life has other ideas. Can Patsy, still grieving the loss of her friend, help save her friend’s estate?

Written by Amy Willard, a real-life housecleaner!

CAPES AND MASKS:

David Yurkovich, acclaimed author/illustrator of the graphic novels LESS THAN HEROES, ALTERCATIONS, and DEATH BY CHOCOLATE presents a collection of short stories spotlighting the heroes and villains of Combustible. Featuring the tales, “The Vocalist,” “The Confectioneer,” “Mid-Life Crisis,” “…as a Mad Immortal Man,” “The Night it Rained Rembrandt,” and more, CAPES AND MASKS expands the realm of superhuman stories beyond the norm.

HIBERNACULUM:

HIBERNACULUM, an original sci-fi novel by Anthony Doyle set in the not-too-distant-future, will take you to a world where human hibernation has become a common occurrence. For the affluent: it’s the equivalent of a luxury holiday, or a way to sleep through cosmetic surgery. For the sick: it’s a place to rest and wait for a cure. For the activists: it’s a way to decrease their carbon footprint. For the rest it’s a means of surviving in a world that has grown too costly. Would you hibernate?

NEW SANTA/CRIMSON RED

Santa and Mrs. Claus are dead, both victims of tragic, but separate, accidents. Now, The Order of the Beard – a septet of immortals representing the seven continents – must appoint worthy successors. But not even The Order is perfect. They have no idea of the raw carnage that’s about to unfold as the Claus’ marriage begins to unravel. Will New Santa be the last of a long lineage? Award-winning author David Yurkovich presents an all-new black comedy for anti-Christmas enthusiasts everywhere.

SIMONA’S SON

Mob boss Filiberto “Bear” Zappia made his bones maiming his victims before killing them. Now, a squeal has emerged who can send Bear to prison. He needs his best hitman, Angel, known as Ice, to find and whack the squeal. Ice has special ways of torturing his victims. Bear wants Ice to send a message to the squeal and all future rats. But something is wrong… with Ice. His mother, Simona, made a deal with God to trick the mob and save Angel from Hell. But what happens when God changes the deal?

COMING SOON!

Those fantastic Vella titles will soon be joined by:

Noir collection: HARDBOILED And LOADED WITH SIN

Check this blog for links and announcements.

Thanks for all you do to help DPP keep-on keeping-on. We’re getting more late-bloomers published this year than ever before because you read our books!

WHAT IS OUR MOST POPULAR VELLA SO FAR?

Well, a mother never has favorites, but readers do. So far, in the number one spot for readers is NEW SANTA. I guess folks just love Christmas! (Or hate it!)

When you read a DPP book, it means everything!

Being a corpse, zombie, wolfman, or succubus got you down? How about a free book?

Do you have Kindle Unlimited?

If you do, read SOLSTICE: A WINTER ANTHOLOGY free on Kindle Unlimited (KU).

If you don’t have KU, it costs a whopping 99 cents to download this amazing book to your phone/tablet/computer right now!

Like hardboiled?

Get the novel that won the national awards: LET’S SAY JACK KENNEDY KILLED THE GIRL on KU for free, or download to your phone/tablet/computer starting Monday, March 27th, until March 31, on our FREE BOOK promotion! And look at all those 5-star reviews on Amazon! Read it now and get ready for next in the series: IF ONLY TRUMAN WERE DEAD drops this summer!

But, you say, “I want something scary!”

Why not meet James Goodridge’s monsters in HALLOWEEN PARTY? Also free for KU subscribers, or only a little over a buck to buy!! All treat, and no trick! What’s a matter? Not scared are you? We promise to keep you up all night!

Looking for a thriller? The book you just cannot put down? Look no further!

Try GLASS ONION, an espionage ride that will have you clinging onto the top of a suspension bridge, praying not to drop….

Earth too boring for you?

Conquer new worlds without losing your balance with the sci-fi great: BALANCE OF FORTUNE. Also free for KU subscribers, and also running a free Kindle download promotion for non-subscribers: Monday, March 27th, until March 31!

AND IF NONE OF THOSE PROMOTIONS ARE INSTANT ENOUGH FOR YOUR READING HUNGER….

We GOT you with FIVE (5) totally free issues of art and prose and poetry and memoir on INSTANT NOODLES, and we MEAN INSTANT! Just CLICK, and you’re there!

THANK YOU for giving an indie author a bit of your time, for being a reader. It means a lot all of us authors to know someone is reading.

It means everything.

Much love~ from DPP and all our authors and artists

Why not you?

30 days remain

That means it’s not too late to get in on the next Gravelight anthology: HP ’23.

We work hard for our authors, and we’re selective, and we’d like to select you.

Every author you see listed here, in the Exhumed Anthology, was in a prior Devil’s Party Press anthology. We don’t forget our authors, and we put them first for all new opportunities. 

HP ’23 is curated by Jeffrey Keeten, and designed by Juan Cantu~ It’s going to be a gorgeous book!

Guest editor | Halloween Party ’23

by Jeffrey Keeten

Did you know that Jeffrey Keeten is one of the top reviewers on Goodreads? He became interested in DPP books a few years back, and has since partnered with us on many projects, including writing short stories for us, and introducing Halloween Party ’21.

For Halloween Party ’23 Jeffrey is acting as guest editor. He’s reviewing all the entries and picking those that will get published as well as curating the flow of the work within the book.

One thing that’s always captivated me about Jeffrey’s reviews is that they go well-beyond “I like it/I didn’t like it.” He often researches the author, and has read other works by the same writer, and will do a deep dive into the whole canon. Here’s a sample review from Keeten on The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

Take one look at the in-depth review and you can see why we’re incredibly grateful to have this gifted reviewer and editor and author on the HP team. Thanks Jeffrey! We can’t wait to see what you do with HP ’23.

Get Jeffrey to review your work. Submit to HP ’23 today!

Want to join the Horror Writers Association?

Turns out, if you were accepted into HP2021, you can!

You weren’t? Well, there’s still time to submit to HP ’23!

One of the global changes we made to our company last year was to make a commitment to pay all authors we put on paper. With that check, you qualify for the HWA. A few of our most recently included authors have already been admitted, on the strength of that single payment.

We hope, as our fledgling publishing endeavor grows, we will be able to pay more writers, and pay those writers more. We are committed in using this company to help you achieve your writing goals.

So excited to know some wonderful and life-long horror writers with many many publications are finally being granted membership in a group they so deserve to belong to!