Hello, hello! Today I am extremely excited to host a guest post from my friend, horror author Steve Stred!
Steve is one of the most selfless people I know. He’s always paying it forward, giving back to the horror community, supporting fellow authors, etc. If you’ve known Steve any amount of time, I’m sure you already know what a wonderful person he is. Personally, he’s helped me in more ways than he will never know, especially encouraging me to write more.
Steve was looking for a home for a guest post to talk about his latest book, The Night Crawls In, which comes along with an outstanding project he’s working on!! Without hesitation, I messaged Steve and offered him a space here on my blog where he’s welcome any time.
Enjoy!
Miranda
Hey everyone!
As you may or may not have heard/seen, the fantastic Ladies of Horror Fiction crew have partnered up with yours truly to official launch the 1stAnnual LOHF Writers Grant. I wanted to find a way to give back to the horror community and the Ladies of Horror Fiction were all about helping facilitate this!
For full details and how to apply, please click the link:
https://www.ladiesofhorrorfiction.com/2019/07/26/2019-lohf-writers-grant/
If you clicked on the link – you’ll have read that this idea festered and grew spores after a convo I had with my friend Miranda (who is kindly hosting this post!). I don’t recall how I connected with Miranda – it may well have been over on author JZ Foster’s Facebook page. Now that I write this – I’m almost certain that’s how we connected, but it didn’t take long before we became friends. She’s beta-read a number of my works and has always been a great supporter. Her photography is amazing and (while she won’t readily admit it) she’s a fantastic writer! I keep pressing for her to get a collection together and release it!
Now to help fund the initial grant disbursement, I’m releasing a poetry/drabbles collection. On September 1st, 2019 The Night Crawls In will arrive. Containing 33 drabbles and 17 poems, all ebook presales and 1stday paperback sales will go towards funding the first grant. All additional sales there-after will be put towards future grants!
I worked with Mason McDonald once again to create some killer artwork for the cover, which you can see here as well!
Now – in order to get you excited and maybe even get you wanting to pre-order, please enjoy a drabbles and a poem, featured in The Night Crawls In!
First Day. (A Drabble)
My little boy, growing up before my eyes. The years fly by so fast. Then one day, he’s got his backpack on and he’s waiting at the bus stop.
I sit in the car across the parking lot, watching. He doesn’t want his dad cramping his style, even at this age he’s become too cool for his old man.
The bus pulls up, the kids start to file on one at a time, he’s near the back.
Finally he climbs aboard, turns and sees me.
As the bus pulls away he smiles and waves.
He’ll always be my little boy.
END
The Other Side. (A Poem)
The doc gave me a red pill, to help me forget
A white pill to help relax me a bit
He gave me a yellow pill to open the door
And a little bag containing some more
Then he had me close my eyes and stare at the wall
It started to shimmer and slowly dissolve
Then the doctor told me to stand and said I could walk
And when I passed through the flicker, he asked me to talk
I didn’t look back to see what he said
The tentacles descending ensured I was dead.
END
As for the content of each –‘First Day’ was written when we signed up my son for playschool. He turns three in a few weeks, as of writing this, and I just can’t believe how fast he’s growing up and how fast time is moving.
‘The Other Side’ was a short story idea I had sitting there for over a year, at least. Originally I had been thinking of writing a story about the government experimenting with people taking pills and allowing them to walk through the shimmer of reality and end up in a monstrous other side. Then I started to think maybe it’s too much ‘Stranger Things-ish’ and decided to scrap it. But it just lingered there and so I wrote this drabble!
So – there we go!
Big massive thanks to Miranda for offering up a blog spot!
Pre-order The Night Crawls In here.
Steve Stred is an up-and-coming Dark, Bleak Horror author.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun and his most recent release was the coming-of-age, urban legend tale The Girl Who Hid in the Trees.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
Find all of Steve’s books here.
Miranda Crites 