Horror Trained

A carnival of horrors, outer space, heaven: these are just a few of the locations visited in this collection of short stories. Though I’ve always found long form fiction to be easier to write, like many other authors, I started by writing short fiction, where words are precious and each pithy sentence must do the work of an entire chapter. Please join me in my early journey through the abbreviated worlds of the short story.

New York Times bestselling author Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw have teamed up to deliver a new dark story where Neil Gaiman meets Jessica Jones with magic, monsters, and mayhem. Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s...

A ceremonial collar, a public unveiling, a name left behind — Clara’s hucow transformation nears its completion. Once defiant, now obedient, Clara has embraced her place in the hucow project. The injections have reshaped her, the training has molded her, and the ceremony will finalize her new purpose. Presented before handlers and clients, she is displayed with pride — renamed, exposed, and aching for use. Her body responds on command, her thoughts melting into instinct and desperate need. The woman she once was is gone. In her place kneels Lulu: full, docile, overflowing, and ready ...

When Ishmael Jones and his partner, Penny, are asked to escort a VIP on the late-night train to Bath, it would appear to be a routine case. The Organisation has acquired intelligence that an attempt is to be made on Sir Dennis Gregson’s life as he travels to Bath to take up his new position as Head of the British Psychic Weapons Division. Ishmael’s mission is to ensure that Sir Dennis arrives safely. How could anyone orchestrate a murder in a crowded railway carriage without being noticed and with no obvious means of escape?

Come on board for a Gothic journey in a funicular railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, an underground railway in Tokyo. Visit stations which lure with the promise of safe shelter but harbour unexpected dangers. Meet the people who work on the tracks – stationmasters, porters, signal-men – and those who travel – commuters, tourists, dead bodies, murderers and ghosts. In this volume, editor Rayne Hall has collected twenty of the finest– and creepiest – railway tales. The book features the works of established ...

In the winter of 1943, a train from Warsaw bound for the Treblinka death camp went missing. Now, in modern-day Poland, the train still haunts the countryside, luring people to leave their homes and step aboard. A group of American travelers with a penchant for ghost hunting decide to look into the disappearances, only to discover a plot that could change the world, and that the Ghost Train's origins reach much further back than the Holocaust.

Jonah Rourke is a railroad man, and railroad men don’t believe in miracles. So when his sister, Nell, disappears into a town that shouldn’t exist—one that won’t let anyone in, and won’t let anyone out, Jonah follows her anyway. Past the last streetlamp. Past the last honest mile. Onto a road that counts down like an execution and charges for every step. On this road, you don’t pay in money. You pay in pieces of yourself. Because something is coming. Something hungry. Something that doesn’t care who you are, only what you’re willing to surrender to keep moving. Jonah isn’t ...

Something deadly is stalking the corridors of the King's Cross train, preying on the passengers. It once attacked commuter Mark Davies and threw him from the train. Ex-policeman Les Chadderton is obsessed with the murders and suicides on the Easst Coast mainline. His own wife has been among the victims. Together, Davies and Chadderton must board the Ghost Train and face their own fears made real, travelling on a one-way ticket on the Nightmare Express....

10 short stories of horror and mystery by Tammy Ruggles: 1. Voodoo. (A bullied teenage girl has had enough). 2. Her (A man suspects that the woman he loves is responsible for a series of murders). 3. Haunted Lake. (Tragedy at a lake turns to horror for a group of close friends). 4. Death Bed Confession. (A long-buried family secret comes to light in a death bed confession). 5. Medallion. (A mysterious medallion creates a chain of tragic events among a group of high school friends). 6. The Drowning.(Questions arise in a family when a friend dies). 7. Night of the Rat. (In a secluded cabin, ...

The 18:05 commuter train was supposed to take him home. Instead, it took him fifty years into the past. Briggs Worth is a forensic structural engineer. He doesn’t believe in ghosts; he believes in load paths, shear forces, and the inevitability of collapse. He has spent his life calculating risk and pushing his estranged daughter away to keep her safe. But when Briggs falls asleep on his evening commute, the world shifts. The smell of stale sweat is replaced by ozone and unfiltered tobacco. The plastic seats turn to crushed red velvet. And the date on the newspaper across the aisle ...

“An addictive read; a strong recommendation for those who like suspense tinged with a little romance.”—Booklist A woman without a memory struggles to discover the truth about her past and her identity in this cerebral and dark thriller reminiscent of works by bestselling authors S.J...

Over the years, Europe has seen more than its fair share of conflict, with mighty empires coming and going and strategic alliances ebbing and flowing between nations. Eastern Europe in particular has found itself at the centre of much unwelcome attention. In the early nineteenth Century, Napoleon’s ego caused him to lead his fabled Grande Armée to smash its way through the region to seize Moscow, only for his mighty Empire to crumble just few years later. A century later, Hitler’s ruthless Wehrmacht, with minds filled of hatred and spite from the constant stream of blatant lies from ...

Fifteen-year-old Bren doesn’t scare easily, especially since her father left, making her head of the house. So when a group of kids dare each other to pass through a tunnel rumored to be haunted by a train that steals people away to "the Nevermore," Bren steps up. But when she reaches the other end of the tunnel, more than she bargained for awaits. For fans of “kids on bikes” ‘80s-style horror.

Marie Duboise is the eighth-generation granddaughter of Marie Laveau, the long-ago voodoo queen of New Orleans. Her many-times removed grandmother, who died in 1881, had bequeathed a very valuable and powerful heirloom to the eighth grandchild of the eighth generation of her passing. Although only a child when first receiving the beautiful ornament, as the years pass, she will come to realize just how powerful the gift is. She will also come to realize that her long-deceased ancestor has some tasks for her. One of these tasks involves a Ghost Train

Some jobs are boring. This one is deadly. When college student Ben Suarez takes a third-shift security job at a desolate railyard, he expects long hours, quiet nights, and the slow creep of exhaustion. What he doesn’t expect is the feeling of being watched. The shadows that move when they shouldn’t. The whispers that slither through the empty train cars. Armed with only his smartphone and desperate texts to his girlfriend, Ben begins to unravel a chilling truth buried beneath the steel and gravel—a past soaked in blood, where the dead refuse to rest. As the nights wear on, his fear ...

From beloved horror author Jonathan Janz, Marla is a slow-burn, full-throttle horror novel about the families we inherit, the guilt we carry, and the terrible gravity of a gaze you can’t forget. The hardcover edition includes a foiled cover, gorgeous sprayed edges, and an exclusive...

On December 18, 1867, the Buffalo and Erie Railroad's eastbound New York Express derailed as it approached the high truss bridge over Big Sister Creek, just east of the small settlement of Angola, New York, on the shores of Lake Erie. The last two cars of the express train were pitched completely off the tracks and plummeted into the creek bed below. When they struck bottom, one of the wrecked cars was immediately engulfed in flames as the heating stoves in the coach spilled out coals and ignited its wooden timbers

Light the candles and shut the door. The Wrong Train is a deliciously creepy and terrifyingly good collection of scary stories for fans of Patrick Ness, R.L. Stine, and Emily Carroll.

When private investigator and lifelong train enthusiast Rodney Burfoot arrives on the mist-shrouded Isle of Ravenshorn, he thinks he's chasing a haunting. But the truth is far more terrifying. A monstrous, skull-faced locomotive called The Doom Train. Each of the island's twelve stations hides a twisted legend, guarded by secretive locals and warped by time itself. But it's not only ghosts that haunt the carriages. It's versions of Rodney himself, trapped across timelines, struggling to communicate. With the new moon approaching, and the tracks looming beneath the sea, Rodney must confront ...

‘When you hide the truth from yourself, you keep the Devil’s secret...’ Sarah Kingsmoor has built a successful career as a family doctor in an idyllic market town. She lives in the cottage of her dreams, enjoys rewarding friendships, and leads the life she’s always wanted for herself. She’s convinced of this. One spring evening, Sarah stumbles upon a brutal mugging. Her intervention saves the victim’s life. And a series of events is set in motion which will jar Sarah loose from her comfortable existence, and change her forever. As she finds herself drawn increasingly closer to ...