Meet the Authors of Midnight Roost on Joseph Carrabis’ blog: Today, Michaele Jordan

Book Cover Dark and scary graveyard background Text: Midnight Roost, Weird and Creepy Stories, A WordCrafterr Anthology, Edited by Kaye Lynne Booth

Pre-Order: https://books2read.com/u/318L0l


Book Review: In the Tree’s Shadow: A Collection of Stories That Exist in Your Dreams…and Nightmares

A box full of books Text: Book Reviews

About the Book

A collection of short stories where dreams and nightmares coexist.
Nestled inside these pages, you’ll meet a couple in their golden years who take a trip with an unexpected detour, a boy desperate to give his brother the Christmas gift he asked for, a girl with a small glass dragon who is at the mercy of her cruel uncles, and a young mother who has a recurring dream about murder. You’ll be introduced to worlds where people get second chances and monsters might be allowed their desires, while angels and dragons try to help. Happy endings occur, but perspective can blur the line between good and evil in these twenty-seven tales. Since the stories vary between 99 and 12,000 words, whether you have only five minutes or an entire evening to settle into reading, there is something that will suit your time and taste.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Shadow-collection-stories-nightmares

My Review

In The Tree’s Shadow: A Collection of Stories that Exist in Your Dreams, by D.L. Finn, is filled with stories with magical qualities, stories that we only dream about…, and some, that we hope we never dream about. Some of the tales in this collection will leave readers feeling good all over and full of hope, but others will give you the chills. Filled with tales of angels and aliens, ghosts and supernatural beings, this multi-genre story collection has a little something for everyone.

I don’t like to give spoilers and with short stories, it can be hard to tell you a little about the story without doing so. In the Tree’s Shadow has several 99 word stories, which would be sure giveaway, should I try to tell you about them. So I will give you a brief decription for those I thought to be the best of the bunch.

Among those which stand out for me are:

  • “End of the Road”, which is ironically the paranormal tale of a new beginning. This story leaves reader’s with a good feeling.
  • “A Man on the Peer”, which is a spooky ghostly tale with a warning – Never speak to the man on the peer.
  • “The Dolphin”, which is a hopeful paranormal tale of a lovely ever after.
  • “Lyrical Dragon”, a fantasy tale offering an abused girl escape through a magical talisman.
  • “The Bench” is one of the stories which animal lovers will enjoy as the bench becomes a symbol of love. This story is one the reader will walk away with an overall good feeling.
  • “The Boy”, another tragic ghostly tale offering escape from a bad situation. This story may give you shivers and leave you a little sad.
  • “Deadline” is a paranormal tale about finding answers in dreams. The reason this story stood out for me was the killer first line: “The night’s hand slowly gripped the forest.” How can anyone read that line and not be compelled to read more?
  • “The Bike” is an angelic second chance story which proves sometimes intent weighs heavier than actions.
  • “Alone” is a paranormal tale with a surprising twist that will leave you with a smile.
  • “The Bonsai” is another karmic paranormal tale that will appeal to the animal lover in all. This story is another that will leave readers smiling.

I’m a sucker for paranormal and fantasy, and looking over my list, I discovered that none of the stories with sci-fi aliens made it up there. It’s a matter of personal preference. However, there was one alien story of novelette length, “Stranded”, which was very well thought out, that is worth mention here, as well.

I realize that the list above is not as revealing as some may like, but I feel that with short fiction, it’s best to let you read it for yourself and decide. I found the stories in In the Tree’s Shadow to be quite entertaining whether they were tales from your dreams, or or ones found in nightmares. I give it four quills.

__________________________________________________________

Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.


Book Review: Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires

A box full of books Text: Book Reviews

About the Book

Book Cover: A psychedellic VW bussits below a large meteor with a ladder extending down. On top of the meteor two people in astronaut attire are around a canfire, with pink, yellow, and purple skies all around. 
Text: Tales Told 'Round the Celestial Campfires, Jeseph Carrabis

… everything written here actually happened

No, really, it did. I’ve seen things and been places and met…creatures…most people can’t imagine. Or wouldn’t want to. Or should. It all depends on the person and the creature.But much like Gahan Wilson’s “I only paint what I see”, I only write about what’s actually happened…

So sit back, relax, have something tasty near at hand or tentacle or claw. Read these when other people are around…if you can trust they’re really people. Or read them alone, when it’s dark out. Maybe. Unless you’re not sure what things go bump in the night or scurry unseen in the dark.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Told-Round-Celestial-Campfires/dp/0984140336

My Review

Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires, by Joseph Carribis is a collection of tales of wide variety. A little fantasy, a little science fiction, a bit of horror. They are not tales for the faint of heart, but tales for the strong of mind. The stories which make up this collection create a cross between science fiction, and legend and lore, with a bit of philanthropy thrown in for spice. Readers who enjoy pondering the story, savoring it, delving into the inner depths of it, this collection is for you. Carrabis’ stories make you think. They make statements on human nature and humankind, and the not-so-human kind.

Most Memorable

  • “Winter Winds”, where children are taught about some unusual animals which only come out in foul weather has a clever twist at the end which brought a smile ot my face.
  • “Those Wings Which Tire, They Have Upheld Me”, a rich fantasy story about the ultimate sacrifice and learning human kindness.
  • “The Goatmen of Aguirra”, which is an unusualand thought provoking story about a visit with goat-like creatures on a distant planet.
  • “Cymodoce”, is rather sad tale of forbidden love.
  • “The Boy Who Loves Horses”, is about a gifted boy, more comfortable with horses than with people.
  • “Them Doore Girls”, a hauntingly eerie tale about two sisters who were the only survivors of the shipwreck which took their parents’ lives, is probably my very favorite.

Joseph Carrabis is a master storyteller. He has created a delightfully amusing collectionstories with he potential to keep you awake at night. I give Tales Told ‘Round the Celestial Campfires five quills.

Five Quills - Five circles with the WordCrafter quill logo in each one.

__________________________________________________________________________

Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.


Mind Fields – My award winning story

Sex and the Triple Znar-Foot

Winner of Playboy Magazine’s Best Story of The Year

     Sitting indolently in his gravity couch, Nerl Forfeech was lasciviously eyeing this month’s Plaything centerfold. Two of his tongues hung out from his upper crease as the shiny cellulose pages fell all the way to the floor. Such a lavish display was essential on the planet Znar-foot, a world where six genders struggle to reach alliances and make trysts. The photo that Nerl studied included all the erotic subtypes, built up into naked pyramids of hair, tumescences and  orifices.

     In this issue, as always, a gorgeous nude six sprawled in the typically suggestive pile, gravity being so low on Znar-foot that any other arrangement would have resulted in the lovers floating away. Their faces were lit with the ecstasy of romantic communion, their organs photographed to be all but fully visible. Nerl, idly fondling one of his protuberances, sighed as he viewed the tinted nipples, the arousing half-glimpses of fur-covered apertures.

     Then, suddenly, the door-iris swooshed open and Cloong walked in.  Nerl, hastily stuffing the segments back into the magazine, almost fell from the couch as he attempted to hide the issue under some cushions.

    Cloong giggled at her embarassed partial lover. “Oh, go ahead,“ she piped,  “You can unfold the layout again. I don’t care. They ARE rather lovely… but so impossible, don’t you think?”

     Nerl threw down the magazine in disgust. “I wish you weren’t so right. I’ve had only two sixes in my entire life, and both of them got weird right away… right after….”

     His voice trailed off at the memory of it. The ecstasy! And then, inevitably, confusion.

     Cloong took Nerl by the trunk nooks, and they clung together in mutual frustration. Cloong was Nerl’s Two. And together they had a tentative Three with Albolon Farfing, who, unfortunately, was doing a loose sort of thing with a Two, Three and Four down in the Freesex District, the swinger’s playground in the city of Fichi Forfoot. Albolon had a tendency to be unreliable and he slipped in and out of identities like six-sided dice. He was a Her Two, but no… she is a her3Him… or sometimes a 4femmhe. Albolon was sketchy but still they loved him, if a bit reservedly, in return.

     “What do you want to do tonight?” Cloong asked, licking Nerl’s eyeknobs playfully. To Nerl it only made the craving for someone to be inserting into his side slits more powerful. Cloong was only a quasi-femguy, good for sucking and the like… but he shouldn’t be too unfair to her. After all, he was only a quasi-himgalhim, and had limited abilities, as well. Like it or not, it was the way nature made them. With dozens of erogenous zones, the Znar-feet needed flesh on all sides, working in combination to produce the orgasmic culmination of multiple personalities. You could get off with Three; Four and Five were even better. But being a Six was the ultimate, and pitifully elusive, Total Turn-on.

      “What can we do?” Nerl echoed distractedly. “Is there anything we can actually do to remedy this feeling?”

      “Sure,” Cloong cheerfully volunteered. “We can go pick up Albolon and cruise a Triples Bar. You never know what might happen.”

      “Not again,” Nerl groaned. “I can’t take it, the futile games, the flash and glitter. I’m a simple person. All I need is a good, simple five-to-one relationship. That’s not so much to ask.”

“Come on, “ urged Cloong, lifting her appendages in his trunk nooks. The effect was sufficiently erotic. “You’ll never meet anybody if you don’t show your faces. What can you lose? Would you rather stay home all night and masturbate in the washing machine?”

     “Okay okay,” Nerl gave in. “Let me get my threads on. I’ll wear my jewel-studded trunk shapers and my simulated-tumescence trouser pads.”

     “That’s the way!” Cried Cloong, getting up off Nerl’s abdominal folds. “Dress up sexy!”

     Later the three of them strode snout in snout down the flamboyant promenades of Flesh-Bargain City, the accepted cruising ground for Znar-Foot’s frustrated sexuals.

     Cloong was bouyed up between her partial lovers, dressed in a revealing mini-suit that left quite a few of her tubes exposed. The night was torpid, just right for the ongoing voyeurism of Gendervender Plaza. (Sometimes known as Six Sex Street.) Of course Albolon and Nerl were elegant beyond compare in their striped priapic enhancers. As they progressed down the brightly lit avenue, they caught the envious stares of  lonely Ones or Twos, and occasionally the pitying glances of bustling Fours and Fives. But there were no Sixes. The Sixes would undoubtedly be at someone’s apartment, in bed. Or else arguing.

     Cloong, Nerl and Albolon stopped to peer into various clubs and bars, to see which ones were running Threes that night. The formats always changed, rotating a nightclub’s patronage through the various combinations, Two-Fours, Five-Ones, Singles Night, and so forth. Of course, no one EVER went to a Single Night. Too humiliating.

     As they walked, peering through the transparent view bubbles of the different clubs, they were accosted by street hustlers making suggestive offers: “Say honeys,”a gaudily dressed Non-specific eyed them speculatively. “I got just the Three for you, never been Sixed before, any of them. Got a taste for some fresh action?” Or another: “Need a massage, sports? Got a lovely pair, just juicin’ to get their trunks on you.”

     Ignoring the lascivious stares and remarks, Cloong, Nerl and Albolon arrived at their favorite place, The Sexagram Club, and saw that it was running Triples that night. The house band, The Numbers Racket,  could be heard raucously blaring, and their pulses raced with anticipation at the wild action within. The Numbers Racket, a successful Four offstage, never failed to turn on the audiences with their erotogymnastics and jerk’n’jell music. Cloong, Nerl and Albolon showed their IDs and entered the crowded room that smelled of trunk-pit persp and stimu-mist. 

     “Hey babies,” a Triple, rocking past in an orbiting dance, called out. “Hey hey, let’s get it on.”

     Cloong pulled back. “How unsubtle. Come on, boys, this is no place to meet nice people. Let’s get out of here.”

      But Nerl and Albolon had already spotted some promising looking action. “No, let’s stay, Cloong. It was your idea in the first place. If we don’t like it after a while, we can go someplace else.” They pulled her farther into the seething mass, where dancing bodies yanked and plopped spasmodically, simulating sex.

      Onstage, The Numbers Racket had sprawled atop one another in an explicit orogenital configuration, while, up front, dancing Threes screamed their shock and delight.

       Against the walls of the room, stimu-mist vendors lined up next to sensory-enhancement dealers, exchanging money balls for popular brands of dope. The rest of the room was all dance floor, with sufficient space in which to flirt, writhe and show off simul-sex aptitude.

        Cloong and her hims moved onto the dance floor, their eyes constantly shifting across the room, taking in the more attractive groups, canceling out the ones who held no appeal. Since their tastes were relatively alike, they intuitively crossed through the various combinations until they were close to another sexy Three who seemed alone.

        Perfect! A Three with two fems. Cloong lowered her tubes a trifle suggestively at the him of the group. Meanwhile, Nerl had shown a definite tumescence at the she-she-it in the flaming orange trunk gripper. They danced up closer, coyly initiatiing eyes contact. Albolon, however, didn’t move correspondingly. He was too busy eyeing a fem in a different Three altogether.

        Cloong jerked at him and he staggered forward. “Idiot,” she hissed, but the cute Three had caught the little interchange and had indifferently moved away through the crowd.

       Nerl reprimanded Albolon. “You blew it for us, man. Didn’t you see those gorgeous fems? Himwit! We would have been perfect. I just know it.”

      Albolon cursed. “Ah, the one in the dotted tube-throttler was a pig. I almost scored another Three for us all by myself until you pulled at me so obviously.”

       Cloong waved her eyeknobs impatiently. “Look over there. Do you think we can all agree on one Three to come on to? How about that short-tall-tall number in the corner?”

       Al and Nerl furtively checked it out. “Okay.  Let’s go.”

       Again, they spasmed across the dance floor, dodging single and double Triples to get near the attractive Three that Cloong had pointed out. This one was a good dancer, doing all the most fashionable orifice-openers among several maneuvering Threes. They were dressed in one of the latest cozy-suits, a gauzy garment that joined the three bodies in a spacious but intimate arrangement. There was an obvious zipper where another Three suit could easily be hooked in.

       “We don’t have one of those suits,” Nerl commented negatively. “This Three’s too uptown for us. And look at the competition. I hate standing in line.”

        “Don’t be a onesyhead,” said Albolon, who lusted after high class liaisons. “We’re artists.  Rich Threes need us.”

         “Now that I think about it,” said Cloong abjectly, “rich people have no sensitivity. Maybe we should go check out that long-haired Three over there in the middle.”

         By the time they were in close, Albolon was dragging the others. The music lulled for a moment. Agressively, he leered at the Three and said, “Hey, babies, didn’t we meet at a sensory-awareness clinic in Big Stir?”

         The chic threesome laughed disdainfully and, without even answering, lost itself in the crowd.

         Nerl and Cloong clung to each other in utter embarassment.

         “Albolon,”  she said sadly, “if we don’t get our relationship together, pretty soon we’ll be a Two.”

         Albolon farted from his side vents in frustration.

         “Would that be so bad? I’ve heard you two talking together, I know what you think. You think I care about that Trip up in Snort Beach, the one you guys can’t stand.”

         He was beating his trunks up and down laboredly. Cloong stroked the pits with tender solicitation.

         “No, no,” they said, “we’re not jealous of them, Albolon. It’s just that sometimes your crude come-on ruins our chances.”

         Albolon backed away petulantly. “You’re just possessive, that’s what. Just because I have my style and like to check out things on my own.”

         He turned, broke away from them, while they stood there, stunned. All around, Threes were watching them and giggling.

         “And you know,” Albolon said stingingly, “I do get off on my other Trip. At least my Snort Beach floozy gives me plenty of space. Not only that, but they give better trunk, too.”

         “Albolon, you’re crazy,” protested Cloong.

         “You see,” he said, his eye nooks wide, “that’s what you really think of me when I’m being honest. Well, goodbye.”
       He pivoted and was lost in the whirling bodies. Cloong and Nerl tried to catch him, but the door of the club hissed shut and Albolon was gone.

         Shocked, under the mortifying gaze of  twittering Threes, they left the club. Outside, the street was empty of Albolon. With tears rolling down their face-folds, they made their way across the livid avenue, but the lights and gaiety had lost their charm.

        “Let’s go home, Nerl,” Cloong said mournfully. “This is no way to find your nice, simple five to one relationship.”

        Nerl stood stubbornly in one spot. “Go home? You must be kidding! We just lost our Three. I don’t want to go home alone tonight. I’m just not ready for it.”

        “You’re NOT alone,” said Cloong, a trifle peeved.

        “You know what I mean,” said Nerl, regretting his spite.

        “I guess I do,” she said, fatalistically.

        Nerl gazed up into the dimly visible heavens, reddish in the glow of the street lights. All his anguish at the way they had been constructed poured out of his heart and flailed weakly against the indifference of the cosmos.

       “There are are some worlds out there,” he said distantly, “where I’ll bet they have only three genders, or maybe even just two. Different arrangements entirely.”
       Cloong laughed and took his center trunk with her snout. “Come on, Nerl. That’s absurd. Think how dull life would be. It would all be too simple.”

        He shook his shaggy mane, as if to dispel the far-flung fantasy. Taking his girlfriend by one of her more exposed tubes, he led her down the hysterical walkways in search of a Four-Two club.

_________________________________________________________________________

Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.

Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.

More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com

Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos

_____________________________________________________________________

Want to be sure not to miss any of Arthur’s “Mind Fields” segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress. If you find it interesting or just entertaining, please share.