It’s with pleasure to announce that small press Dark Owl Publishing and my 2023 book, The Nightmare Cycle, will be coming to ‘DAYS OF THE DEAD Horror Convention.‘ Dark Owl Publishing will be an official vendor, they will have a booth, and it will be in Phoenix, Arizona on the following days: June 28th thru June 30th 2024 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. You can book flights and hotel reservations now, it’s going to be a major event. A lot of dealer tables, and a lot of actors and actresses and authors and horror artists. Such famous names as Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Michael Ironside (Starship Troopers), Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street), Michael Biehn (Aliens & Terminator), and so many more! Including, to my knowledge, the cast of George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead. There will be autograph opportunities, cosplays, contests, you name it! Just click the links below for the guest list so far.
DAYS OF THE DEAD – Major HORROR Convention:
June 28th to June 30th 2024 – Sheraton Phoenix Downtown
Copies on hand of The Nightmare Cycle by Lawrence Dagstine
I’ll also be appearing around that time period in an anthology with a brand new, lengthy tale of cosmic horror set during the golden age of piracy. Will keep you all updated.
I was supposed to put this book post up a few weeks ago, but I have been busy with diet, fitness, and some much-unneeded (for lack of a better term) surgeries. But The Nightmare Cycle has been out for three-plus months, and it’s doing pretty well on the convention circuit and in digital format (Kindle Unlimited subscribers get to read the collection absolutely free). My editor Andrea is doing a fantastic job at Dark Owl with the public event marketing on her side, and I couldn’t be happier.
But now The Nightmare Cycle is available for purchase either online OR in store at places other than Amazon and Barnes & Nobles. Other large literary retailers. I’m pleased to announce if you live in the UK, you can now get The Nightmare Cycle at Waterstones bookstores. Waterstones is basically England and Scotland’s equivalent to B&N. Here in America, we have Barnes&Nobles super stores. In the United Kingdom, however, they have Waterstones super stores. So if you live in the UK, and you prefer print over digital, why not hop over to the horror section and pick up a copy. Link below the picture.
Do be aware it’s 2023, the Age of Online Shopping and Kickstarter and Reading Apps, the age of online pretty much everything in some shape or form. Not every bookstore these days has a horror section let alone a genre section. Unless you’re signed with William Morrow or St. Martin’s Press or TOR. At the end of the day, it’s about the vendor tables; I learned that the hard way hustling in the trenches. So if your Waterstones branch does not have a copy on hand. You should be able to order a physical print edition within 72 hours from them. You can pick it up at the store or, if you are a resident of the United Kingdom, have it delivered via post.
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
Just here today real quick to announce that my latest horror collection, The Nightmare Cycle, from Dark Owl Publishing, is available in Barnes & Nobles. Not just Amazon or horror specialty stores and conventions. You can obtain it online or through “select physical stores.” Probably the ones that have a horror section. If they don’t have it in stock, it can usually be obtained within two business hours (this can also mean one day). I’ll leave ISBN info down below, in case you want your local B&N brick and mortar to get it in for you. While I love the ease of Amazon and ereaders, personally, I prefer going and sitting with a cup of coffee or tea in a physical bookstore. Call me old-fashioned, but I will never tire of it. I’ll throw up the Amazon link as well. Cheers.
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.
I’ll have a Professional-Level story coming to Calliope Interactive (I also have another professional level tale floating out there, details to come on that in the coming months, and a horror-themed story collection out from Dark Owl Publishing as well). Calliope Interactive is rather new. It is a reading app specifically for fiction stories, maybe if you are into platforms like Instagram per se, but from what I do know, you can download this app, read stories from a tablet or a phone, maybe if you are in bed, or on the bus or the subway on your commute to work. The stories span many genres (in my case, horror, and it is my FOURTH zombie tale accepted in the last 12 months). I don’t know when the exact premiere date is. I will leave the website link down below and you can subscribe to their email newsletter for updates. They will most likely tell you how to download the app. Who knows, maybe the stories will be delivered to your inbox. The stories might be illustrated as well. All I can say is, I worked with a wonderful team of editors, and it was a very rewarding experience through and through, so I have high expectations for the application.
CALLIOPE INTERACTIVE -Featuring fiction by Lawrence Dagstine
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.
Lawrence Dagstine: Author 
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