Happy Halloween 2023! Chills and thrills, and ghosts and goblins to all horror readers out there. This next anthology from Wicked Shadow Press is holiday-themed, and the very lengthy story I have within its 240+ pages is BRAND NEW. Never to be reprinted in print. There are familiar story writers such as Don Money, Brian Smith, not just myself. There’s even a new young girl making her horror writing debut, which I think is fabulous. HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: Jack O’ Lantern is available for Amazon Kindle or in glossy, beautiful looking paperback. And on Kindle retails at only $3.99, the price of a Starbucks coffee. While most stories might harbor around All Hallow’s Eve, my tale is a devastating one of loss. My story is about Cupid and Love. Unrequited love. A love that you really can’t dismiss. I’ve never written about Cupid before. I will be closing the book out with a story close-to-novelette length. Read, “The Barn Cupid” in Wicked Shadow Press’s new holiday reading extravaganza, HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: Jack O’ Lantern! Links and pics below!
HALLOWEENTHOLOGY JACK O’LANTERN – HALLOWEEN 2023 ANTHOLOGY
from Wicked Shadow Press – Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty
Featuring exclusive Lawrence Dagstine horror story,“The Barn Cupid.”
ALL Links where to purchase in paperback or digital (Amazon box is above):
Buy HALLOWEENTHOLOGY: JACK-O’-LANTERN (the paperback) from Lulu:
It’s the year of the nightmare. First, my story collection from Dark Owl, The Nightmare Cycle. Now, from Wicked Shadow Press, Flashes of Nightmare. And boy do I love the wraparound cover art for this one. Kind of has a Fatal Frame aesthetic to it (if you are familiar with that horror game franchise). I will put ordering links for print and digital versions at the very bottom of this blog post. This isn’t the first time I’ve appeared in Wicked Shadow Press anthologies. They really go all out on their interior layout. I was in their zombie flash anthology, Flash of the Dead and the bestselling crime ebook earlier this year, Murder on her Mind.
I have a brand new micro tale this time around. Micro fiction is what flash fiction is. Stories that are 1,000 to 1,500 words in length. They are compact, quick to read, easy to mentally digest when you are outdoors or chilling in the park or in bed, say on public transportation commuting back and forth. And my story is just that: a tale which falls around 1500 words in length, is politically incorrect in some respects, but is an absolute nightmare that just happens to take place on public transportation. Read my latest offering, “The Bus Ride” in Flashes of Nightmare. A horror book involving bad dreams and circumstances.
WICKED SHADOW PRESS presents…
“FLASHES OF NIGHTMARE”
An Anthology of Stories regarding Bad Dreams/Nightmarish Circumstances
And after the release of my new book, The Nightmare Cycle, comes a short story of oceanic terror that will leave you at the edge of your seat. I have a story in the latest Skywatcher Press anthology on Amazon, THE DEPTHS UNLEASHED BOOK #2. I know there is a Kindle version, not sure if a print version is in the works. All links will be down below, and book pics off to the side as usual. Skywatcher Press is well known for their bestselling undead anthologies, and similar fare, such as Pandemic Unleashed and The Dead Unleashed. I’m sharing a TOC with some familiar names too, like Jeff Parsons and Gregory Norris, who you might recognize from short story magazines of the 2000s era. The name of my story is: “The Underwater Menace.”
Remember, I’m in BOOK 2. The one with the horrific fishy and diver staring it down.
THE DEPTHS UNLEASHED VOLUME 2
Anthology of Underwater Horror – Featuring my story:“The Underwater Menace”
ORDER ON AMAZON KINDLE (preview below, be redirected):
So today is here. Today is the day of my third official story collection: THE NIGHTMARE CYCLE, from Dark Owl Publishing. It is available in print and digital formats (Paperback and on Amazon Kindle). And as the year goes on, straight thru 2024, will be available at book fairs, from various literary vendors, horror and comic-themed conventions, the odd novelty or specialty store, or wherever other fine horror books or goods are sold. I will keep you updated on this website. The spooky fun starts in Arizona first and New York second.
A short story collection is a book of tales by one single author, where an anthology is a book of stories usually centered around a theme from not one but many authors, from many different states or countries or diverse backgrounds. The Nightmare Cycle was an idea for a book that came to me one day in a dream (go figure), but is not about being in a dream. It gets its title from every single story being “A Nightmarish Scenario,” one warped tale leading into the next (the theme of cycling and unending), and then the one thereafter. There is no finality. Just horrific circumstance after circumstance. Undulated terror. Beginning, middle, end. Think Rod Serling’s The Night Gallery, but modern day, my take.
THE NIGHTMARE CYCLE by Lawrence Dagstine
From Dark Owl Publishing – NOW AVAILABLE worldwide
You have mostly new stories between the pages, but you have some obscure offerings as well. Tales from my humble beginnings as a horror author. The 2000s era. There are stories like Thursday’s Children. Imagine pitting zombie youth against each other the same way people hold backroom cockfights for money. The Adopted, where werewolf adoption in Southeast Asia is more complex than you think. Human Transfer, a very dark and dystopic tale of population control, and betrayal by the people you thought you knew and trusted most.
There are Dark Owl exclusives, tales which are theirs and theirs only, such as The Thing about Eden. Imagine Mars in the future where life under one dark leadership only becomes concerning, overbearing, and darker with the next. The Acrylic Man, about a painter of spectral portraits who captures his love interests with not just grace but permanence. The Show Must Go On, a story about a sharpshooting djinn and her western travels, but also her wretched past.
You have new offerings such as Princely Homecoming, a unique take on Snow White, who longs for her long dead prince. There is Pet, a tale set during the backdrop of the Nixon era, which puts a twist on just “who” or “what” constitutes man’s best friend. Genetically speaking, of course. There is Our Family Awaits, a witch’s tale unlike any other, about foster care and deep dark secrets. This is one which will have you clutching the blankets. And there is so much more; there’s even a novelette within The Nightmare Cycle’s pages.
AMAZON KINDLE “EBOOK” VERSION:
(Sample a few pages below, or shoot for the paperback version)
Here’s the horror convention calendar for Dark Owl Publishing and The Nightmare Cycle. This calendar will obviously grow. I will be away in July (after the 4th), but I will have my netbook with me, keep in touch via social media. Dark Owl will also have some of their horror wares and anthologies available from a talented stable of other authors as well, so be sure to keep tuning in to this link below:
Oh, by the way, the fabulous cover art was done by Fernando JFL (Giotefeli), who is a professional horror illustrator and death metal artist from South America. He takes a rather retro, vintage approach to his work. If you are looking for an artist, might I recommend him: https://www.instagram.com/giotefeli, and https://giotefeli.tumblr.com/
The book is available first on Amazon, then Terror Trader second (Arizona’s Number One Horror Marketplace). Then it will go to the usual vendors and themed cons, and through the usual distribution channels/networks.
It is with great pleasure to announce that I’ve nabbed my fifth “Zombie-themed fiction” acceptance in the last year, and it goes to the new publishing outfit Red Polka Books. The name of the anthology this time is called QUARANTINE, and it is a book of short stories featuring many different authors from many diverse backgrounds. I am headlining the book (I’m actually the first short story as soon as you open it up). And it is a book centered around deadly viruses, pathogens, and pandemics. Even worse than Covid-19. It will be available in the States on platforms such as Lulu (Amazon later), should you want a print or digital copy for your daily commute to work, and will eventually creep its way into other countries such as the UK and India. My story is based off a deadly pathogen, and military scientists have to actually shut down a school with kids inside. Undead children who have become victim to HOS (a hostile pathogen with a science behind it, and yeah, some goofiness as well). Read my short story in Quarantine today, entitled, “Classroom of the Dead.”
QUARANTINE – Anthology of Modern Pandemic/Horror Tales
Featuring Lawrence Dagstine’s: “Classroom of the Dead”
QUARANTINE – DARK LOCKDOWN TALES for the 21st Century
Edited by Simon Dubois & Rasiika Sen – for RED POLKA BOOKS
Coming Spring 2023. A new collection, with mostly new stories. Along with some of the best and most obscure tales from the author’s earliest years as a horror writer. Thirteen stories that transcend the meaning of sleeplessness. Each story a nightmarish scenario or circumstance, one after the other, from beginning to end. From Dark Owl Publishing. THE NIGHTMARE CYCLE.
Prepare yourself for a LOT of bad dreams and restlessness.
Happy Halloween 2022! I am pleased to announce that I am in yet another anthology this autumn, this time again from Culture Cult Press. And it’s a horror short inspired by “real life events.” The name of the story is: The Nightmare of Bayhurst. And you can find that short story along with 33 other fabulous authors weaving their own little tales of haunted mansions, manors, houses, dwellings, apartments, what-have-you. My story centers around the time I first moved to Brooklyn, New York City between 2000 and 2001. Hard to believe that was so long ago. I was in my twenties, it was my first place, and I had lived in the basement of a few-story walk-up (what some in NYC would call a very small, dinghy six-apartment tenement). It was close to subways, a movie theater, drug stores, a baseball card store, parks, and shopping. The rent was fantastic. I paid around 650 to 700 per month. You’ll never see that kind of rent again in New York. But there was something eerie and ominous coming from the boiler room, which I just happened to live next to. And the super/owner, as well as a few of the tenants knew about it too. Strange sounds, strange occurences. Like a young girl moaning. Well, now you can read a fictional account of those events in the Halloween Book, ‘HAUS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF HAUNTED HOUSE STORIES.’ That is basically the theme, and like my last anthology from Culture Cult Press (I Cast You Out!), this is also edited by Jay Chakravarti. It is available in paperback, and sold in the US, UK, and India. I will put any and all necessary pics, banners, links, book covers below or to the right-hand side for your convenience. It is on Amazon right now, matter of fact.
If you are a fan of zombies, then I am pleased to announce that I have a brand new undead tale about parenthood, life after death, belonging, and unrequited love, in Wicked Shadow Press’s debut anthology: “RISE: Stories of the Undead.” Interesting lineup of authors here, and some really interesting and original zombie stories. 250 Pages, Edited by Parth Sarathi Chakraborty, and available in paperback and in digital format (Second Printing is exclusive to Lulu). It’s available worldwide. Wicked Shadow Press is a new small press publisher mostly specializing in horror. Links and pics below with info.
I am quite pleased to announce that I’ve got a new, exclusive story appearing in the recently-released paperback anthology, “I CAST YOU OUT: Stories of Possession.” Featuring 27 different authors from around the globe (including India), touching down on the psychological and horrifying effects of demonic possession. At this time it is only available on Amazon. I am not sure whether it will see a digital release. So this might be print only. I’ll put all the usual links to the right hand side or pictures in this post, should you be interested. Edited by Jay Chakravarti. 336 Pages.
My tale, which comes in around 5100 words, is called “Trevor’s Nagging.” Location-wise it takes place in a mental hospital with a psychiatrist figure, and a young lad named Trevor…but just what is nagging at him? If you are a fan of movies such as The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose, this story and many of the others contained within may be up your alley. Just make sure to read with the lights on.
You can order the anthology DIRECT from Amazon below:
Also, if you would like to follow me on a modern day reader, tablet, or android device, or keep up-to-date whenever a new anthology featuring my works of speculative fiction and horror come out, I have an author page here:
You can also find me on Twitter (my social media of choice the past 13 years), where I not only talk about fiction literature, but talk shop on video games, toys, comic books, pop culture, Doctor Who, and art: http://www.twitter.com/ldagstine
You must be logged in to post a comment.