BEYOND THE WAIL Book Review and Blog Tour

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About today's author: A. F. Stewart:

A. F. Stewart was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, and still calls it home. The youngest in a family of seven children, she has always had an overly creative mind and an active imagination. She is fond of good books (especially science fiction/fantasy), action movies, sword collecting, and oil painting. Ms. Stewart is an indie author with several published novellas and story collections in the dark fantasy and horror genres, with a few side trips into poetry and nonfiction. She has a great interest in history and mythology, often working those themes into her books and stories.

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Author Interview:

1. How did you come up with the concept of your story?

I’ve always loved ghost stories, so that’s what I decided on when I went to write my paranormal tale. And since the submission theme of the Beyond the Wail anthology was “Losers Weepers”, the the La Llorona, or “The Weeping Woman” ghost story seemed an ideal place to start. I also threw in some inspiration from the eerie tales of the “White Lady”, an oft repeated ghost phenomenon. I tweaked a few details of the original tale, added some family drama, and I had a story.

2. How did you come up with the title?

The title was simple, I combined the names of the two ghost legends. I put “Weeping Woman” and “White Lady” together, and viola, I had The Weeping Lady.

3. What is your preferred writing genre?

I love writing fantasy, preferably darker tales bordering on horror. The Weeping Lady is actually tamer and slightly more upbeat than much of what I write. Although, it is still rather dark.

4. Who is your favorite author? Who has most influenced your work?

I have two favourite authors, Neil Gaiman and Guy Gavriel Kay. They are both exquisite writers and masters of storytelling. I adore their work and refuse to choose just one. My biggest influence, though, is Ray Bradbury. His short stories warped my little child brain and imprinted the love of the written word on my grey cells forever.

5. What's up next for you?

I have several stories in the submission process for anthologies, including one for the charity anthology, Christmas Lites V. Plus, I have two novels in various stages of creation, a steampunk adventure book, called Racing the Hellfire Club, and a fantasy novel, The Prophecy of Seven. And there’s always a chance of another poetry book showing up in the near future.

Just for fun nerd list:

• Star Wars or Star Trek? Both. And yes, you can love both.
• Hunger Games or Divergent? Neither. Not a big YA fan.
• James Bond or Jack Ryan? Jack Ryan, definitely. I’m a big Tom Clancy fan.
• Sherlock: Robert Downey, Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch? As much as I adore Robert Downey, Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch has the edge in the Sherlock department.
• Spock: Leonard Nimoy or Zachary Quinto? Leonard Nimoy. Part of me still sees Zachary Quinto as Sylar from Heroes
• X-Men or Avengers? Probably the Avengers, but it’s a tight race.
• Aliens or Predators? Not big on either. 
• Minions or Penguins? I love them both, although Pinky and the Brain have top spot in my heart. 
• Batman or Superman? Batman, always and forever.
• Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean? Pirates, of course. Pass the rum, boys.
• Beatles or Rolling Stones? Neither. I’d rather listen to The Doors.
• Peter Jackson or James Cameron? Peter Jackson. I was a fan before LOTR.
• Steven Spielberg or George Lucas? Lucas, but that’s just because of the original Star Wars trilogy.
• Vampires or Werewolves? Probably Vampires, but I like them both.
• LARP or MORPG? Neither really, but I’ve always wanted to LARP.

Book:  BEYOND THE WAIL: 12 Grave Tales of Love and Loss

Author:  Amanda Banker, Jay Barnson, Julie Barnson, Sebastian Bendix, Tirzah Duncan, F.M. Longo, Ginger C. Mann, Alex McGilvery, L.K. McIntosh, T.N. Payne, Danielle E. Shipley, A.F. Stewart
Editor: J. Aurel Guay
Pages: 396
Format:  Paperback, Kindle, Kindle Select
Publisher:  Xchyler Publishing
Book Source:  publisher
Category:  Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Style:   Twelve distinct voices, including a range from humorous to eerie to thought-provoking and mind-bending, to tense and perilous ghost stories that tie your gut up in knots. Some stories may not be appropriate for readers under the age of 14.
Giveaway: Scroll down to enter! or visit Rafflecopter or the XP Facebook page.

Synopsis:

What is it about fear and the unknown that pulls so passionately at the human heart? Perhaps we are drawn not to the darkness itself, but to the resolution, the overcoming of what we most deeply dread. After all, the more terrible the struggle, the greater the victory when it comes at last. Presented in this anthology are twelve remarkable stories of the darkness that overshadows us, and the resolution that may be found beyond them. They are stories of fear and oppression, but ultimately stories of hope, stories that will take you BEYOND THE WAIL.

About this project:

True confession: I'm not a fan of paranormal or ghost stories. They're just not my cup of tea. I'm so much not a fan, that when Xchyler held this particular short story contest, our third in the paranormal genre, I left judging the forty-four entries up to my compatriots. I just didn't want to go there. And, I trusted them, implicitly. And not without good cause.

Book Review: Mechanized Masterpieces 2: An American Anthology

Book:  MECHANIZED MASTERPIECES: A STEAMPUNK ANTHOLOGY

Author: J. Aurel Guay, Megan Oliphant, Jay Barnson, M. Irish Gardner, D. Lee Jortner, J.R. Potter, M. K. Wiseman, Scott E. Tarbet, Scott William Taylor, Neve Talbot
Pages: 456
Format:  Paperback, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited
Publisher:  Xchyler Publishing
Book Source:  company project
Category:  Steampunk
Style: Flowing, imaginative prose of differing styles and pacing, dependent upon author voice.

Synopsis:

Ride into the Wild West with ten steampunked expansions of classic American tales.

A Princess of Jasoom: An intrepid young researcher reaches for the stars from the Arizona desert, and finds love where she least expects it.

Winged Hope: The widow of a brilliant inventor fights insurmountable odds to see her husband’s dreams realized and save the life of her daughter.

The Van Tassel Legacy: A stranger arrives in Sleepy Hollow to unearth old conspiracies and bring the Van Brunts to justice.

Invested Charm: A mysterious woman doles out justice in Boston society, but who will catch her first: organized crime or the law?

Payoff for Air Pirate Pete: A pair of train-robbing outlaws bite off more than they can chew when they kidnap the son of a railroad bigwig.

Rise of the House of Usher: A mad scientist gains power over life and death at the cost of his family’s sanity, if not their very lives.

The Silver Scams: A fast-talking confidence man ensnares all of Holland in his scheme to eliminate dikes forever . . . for a price.

Nautilus Redux: Captain Nemo’s crew stumble upon an island castaway who claims to be Captain Ahab of the Pequod. Only Moby Dick knows the truth.

Mr. Thornton: Hounded by tragedy and betrayal, a gifted young blacksmith wanders from The Ohio to The Yukon searching for honor, loyalty, and justice.

West End: A heartbroken Theodore Laurence follows the siren song of steam to Jamaica, where love and law collide with explosive results.

Tidbits: Crossroads

As discussed in my previous post, this short story sprung from a few exercises in flash fiction and grew from there. For more on the history of this composition, read this blog post.

Crossroads by Penny Freeman

Rob understood his brother’s love for the road, especially, as then, in the dead of night. Like himself, Nate had never been one for large crowds. On the road, one was utterly alone. The growling four-fifty-four V8 of Nate’s cherry 1977 El Camino Classic and the steel-belted radials humming on the blacktop lulled to silence all the demands that sucked the life out of Rob. They slipped away like the endless blur of the dotted, white line that streamed beyond the windshield. The highway soothed. Mesmerized. It held life at a safe distance where Rob could nibble off bits at a time, or ignore it altogether as the mood suited.

Except, there he was, returning with his brother’s ashes, hurtling at 75 mph toward the madness: the boss, the job, the mounting bills and overdrawn bank account. The labyrinth of life with no easy way out. Toward Annabelle—his own Nan—and that look of dread in her eyes: anguish that assaulted him and reticence that held him at arm’s length.

Rob jerked awake, jolted from a deep, dreamless slumber by something—the baby? He couldn’t remember. Nan had argued with him, and he put off going to bed until she slept to avoid a demand to hash it out. He turned in very late, and the fog of somnolence melded to his brain like his kids’ sticky hands to his skin. Scarcely lucid, he ignored his transient bob to the surface of consciousness, and surrendered again to the depths of sleep.

Her voice prevented it, however . . . a low murmur . . . hesitant . . . wary—scraps of sound distorted by the cobwebs of his sleep-deprived brain. He rolled over, pried open his eyes, and forced the numerals of the digital clock into focus. 04:00. Good grief. He had to be up in two hours. Couldn’t she cut him some slack?

He turned toward the wall and fended her off with the silence of feigned sleep. He was tired of bending over backward to make her happy, and for what? No matter how he tried, he couldn’t figure out what the devil she wanted.

Short: 3 AM

by Penny Freeman

1am:  Unable to concentrate, I close my book, turn out my lamp, and settle in for sleep.  Dallas turns down the volume on the BBC documentary he is watching on Channel 8.2, the marvels of metal.  Doesn't bother me, as his lamp does not.  I'm used to it, and I'd rather have him here, in bed, than snoring in his office chair, sitting up in front of his computer.

2:20am:  Dallas starts making grunts and other inarticulate noises at the TV.  Groggy and put out, I huff, roll over, and pull a pillow over my head.  I spare him the tongue lashing as I'm too asleep to bother.  It's just a soft murmur now and again.  He should get the hint.  He doesn't.  The intermittent babbling continues as I fade in and out of consciousness.  I think, if you're going to talk to the TV, at least take it in the other room.  PBS has moved on to the wonders of plastics.

2:40am:  The babbling has increased, but now his soft voice is sweetly holding a conversation in nonsensical words.  Wondering if he's a lunatic, I wake up enough to decide he's actually asleep.  The TV and glasses need to go off and the CPAP on so he can settle down into restful slumber.  Getting up and walking around the bed don't quite wake me up, but his glassy-eyed stare does.

Pale and clammy, Dallas is flat on the bed, staring up at me and babbling.  Drenched through, he looks like he stepped into the shower in his pajamas, then came to bed.  His feet are cool—too cool—as are his hands and face.  But, it's not the worst I've seen him.  The worst I've seen him, he was as cold as death.  I had to check his breathing to make sure he wasn't.  That time, I couldn't wake him up with shaking and slapping.  I mean, really slapping his face, like you see in movies.  That time, two of my sons were there when my panic set it.  It was his second ride to the ER in an ambulance.

"You're in trouble, aren't you?"  I say softly.  It's not a question, more like me trying to calm myself with the sound of my own voice.