HALLOWEEN FOR SCAREDY CATS

Just a few days to Halloween. I’m always torn about the day. A little part of me thrills to the creepy… possibilities of the day. The rest of me—you know, the natural coward part—wants to pull the covers up and stay there until it’s all over.

In 2016, I wrote a post for the now-defunct Not Your Usual Suspects blog. It was about an experience I had staying at an older hotel on the Oregon coast. I went to this hotel at least once a year, to attend amazing writing workshops. I never thought twice about it until the day someone told me about the ghosts that lived there. Here’s the link to the post. It might give you chills. Or it might make you laugh at my foolishness.

Anyway. At this time of year, I like to remind folks about the only two remotely scary stories I’ve ever written. One is a spooky novel, based on my experience at the hotel. The other flirts with horror—again, not my comfort zone (and honestly, not that horror-filled a horror story).

Here’s the write-up for Shelter, my spooky novel:

After six long months on the run from her abusive husband, Ash Gantry finally finds a place to call home in Albans, Ontario. It doesn’t take long for her to fall for the small town with the big heart. But more than the town itself, more than its inhabitants, it’s the house on Hawk Street she falls in love with. Then she discovers that her new home hides a dark secret, one even more dangerous than the man hunting her. By the time he finds her, she may already be dead…

A buy link, in case you’re interested: https://books2read.com/u/mYRKPd

As for the short story, “On a Dark Road to Nowhere” is the story of Naomi, whose car breaks down on a deserted road in the middle of a Yukon winter night. She’s lucky to stumble across Maggie’s cabin. Then Maggie shows her what’s hiding in the woods around the cabin…

Buy link: https://books2read.com/u/mvvrX8

Have a Happy Halloween, all. Don’t let anything bite…

Recommended Christmas Reading

While my short story, “A Yukon Christmas,” is still FREE until the end of the month, I wanted to point out that Kristine Kathryn Rusch recommends two of my other Christmas shorts on her web site: https://kriswrites.com/2022/11/25/special-holiday-recommended-reading-list-2/

A Yukon Christmas: https://books2read.com/u/bPdDrb

After her 20-year marriage collapses from inertia, Beatrice Talsma sets off on a year-long, cross-Canada journey to discover where she truly belongs. When she reaches the Yukon, however, her short pause turns into a decision to settle down in this strange new place.

In a complete break with the past, she rents out a cabin in the Yukon wilderness. It’s a wonderful spot, except that her closest neighbor, Henry Pekarik, also her landlord, seems determined to help Beatrice out, whether she wants it or not.

McKell’s Christmas: https://books2read.com/u/brWJ8w

Deputy Chief Rob McKell doesn’t trust Christmas. Bad guys don’t take time off during the holidays so why should he? Then the lovely Jillian, a gemologist with an independent streak, invites him to dinner on Christmas Eve for the all-important meeting of her friends. Soon, he starts to revise his feelings about the holiday—and his fear of long-term commitment. But before the evening ends, Jillian’s dangerous past will rear up to prove that Christmas is no time to let his guard down.

Running Away from Christmas: https://books2read.com/u/b6Z7LZ

When Faith decides to escape Christmas and her friends’ matchmaking efforts by spending the holiday alone in the big city, she never expects to find Christmas waiting there for her.

Training Run in the Holiday Spectacular

DECEMBER 17, 2022 UPDATE: I have taken down “Training Run,” as my contract allowed me to keep up for one week only.

December 10, 2022: Today, my short story “Training Run” is the feature story in the WMG Holiday Spectacular. I will post the story here for one week–on December 17, it comes down. The Holiday Spectacular is a calendar of short stories, one a day, from American Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, delivered directly to your inbox. One a day for 39 days! It’s not too late to subscribe and get all the stories emailed to you. Just visit https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/spectacular/.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who edits the Holiday Spectacular, says of my story:

“Marcelle Dubé writes great atmospheric mysteries, sometimes venturing into Gothic territory. Her work has finally caught the attention of the Crime Writers of her native Canada. They gave her short story, “Cold Wave,” the award of excellence in the short fiction category in 2021, and shortlisted her novella, “Identity Withheld,” for the novella category of the same award just this year.

“Her stories appear everywhere, including Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Crime Wave, and many other publications. She has also written a number of novels. Her most recent, The Wronged Woman, just came out in January. Find out more about her work at marcellemdube.com.

“So now that I’ve told you all about her mysteries, I’m going to tell you that “Training Run” isn’t mystery at all. It’s a time travel story, but it does have crime and a haunting sense of wrong at its heart.

“It’s a powerful tale about truth and lies, history and family. And it’s set in Quebec on one very snowy Christmas Eve.”

The A’lle Mutation in a new StoryBundle

The 2022 Aliens Among Us StoryBundle, curated by Dean Wesley Smith is now up! It includes eight novels, one anthology and one collection, including my A’lle Chronicles mystery, The A’lle Mutation (previously called Epidemic):

Two months after the events in Backli’s Ford, Constance A’lle, first A’lle investigator for Lower Canada, and Chief Investigator Desautel still haven’t identified the cabal responsible for the kidnapping and murder of so many A’lle.

While they pursue their investigation in Montreal, Constance is sidetracked by family and the threat of an epidemic—an epidemic for which the immune A’lle might be responsible, intensifying the already simmering human resentment against the A’lle.

Here’s what Dean has to say about The A’lle Mutation:

“In The A’lle Mutation, award-winning writer Marcelle Dube gives us an amazing place in Canada set in 1912 when an alien ship crashes and the humans and the aliens must learn to work and live together. This book gets you thinking almost from page one and won’t let you put it down. Stunning story.”

The other writers are: Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kari Kilgore, Rebecca Senese, Robin Brande, Cameron Cooper, Robert Jeschonek, Raymond Eich, Dean Wesley Smith, and the writers from the Pulphouse anthology, Aliens Among Us.

These story bundles are a fantastic deal: $5 for the first four books, or $20 for all ten. That’s $2/book. What a great opportunity to discover new-to-you authors. Read more about it here: https://storybundle.com/aliens

The Holiday Collections

I am so very pleased that my Christmas Magic: Three Romantic Holiday Tales is part of StoryBundle’s Holiday Collections. The bundle consists of 11 collections of holiday short stories ranging from sweet romance to horror. In all, there are 72 short stories, by very talented writers.

StoryBundle’s Holiday Collections

Dean Wesley Smith, the curator of the Holiday Collections bundle, says “Wow, is this bundle going to be fun. Fantastic writers and 72 different holiday short stories. That’s right. 72. And you can get all of them for one low price that works out to about 20 cents per story.” You can read his entire essay and check out each of the collections at https://storybundle.com/holiday.

I’ve already started reading and you should, too. The bundle is available until the end of the month, then it disappears. Don’t wait–this is the perfect reading to get you in the holiday mood–whatever mood that happens to be.