The Burnt Clown

Dark Circus, Volume 1

By: R.J. Josh Stoneburner

Narrated by: Rudy Eisenzopf

Beneath the canvas of the traveling circus, the line between wonder and dread begins to blur. When strangers gather under the dim glow of lanterns and firelight, they find themselves caught in stories older and darker than the show itself, stories of curses that cling to the land, of prophecies whispered in smoke, and of destinies shaped long before they were born.

At the heart of it are Pawlucee and Seimouir, drawn into the orbit of a ring where the performers’ secrets weigh heavier than their acts. Among the fire’s last embers, voices foretell a boy’s ruin, a land that remembers blood, and a spectacle that feeds on what is already dying.

This first volume of the Dark Circus series opens the curtain on a world where every performance exacts its price, and every story, no matter how dazzling, casts a shadow.

©2025 Velma Loftin-Stoneburner (P)2025 Velma Loftin-Stoneburner