Childhood Nightmares Anthology Book Tour

“Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed”

 from Sirens Call Publications

What creeps and crawls, and stalks the dark hallways of a child’s overactive imagination in the wee hours of the night? Twelve different authors offer us a taste of what might be lurking in the deepest recesses of a child’s nightmare ridden world - each a unique take on a story of horror spun from their own minds.

Those whispered tales of monsters hiding under the bed, or of the demons lurking in the shadowy corner where we dare not glance for fear that seeing them will make them all too real. Oh, how the innocent landscape of a child’s imagination lends fertile soil to horrors ready to be sown on the slightest of sounds; the tales and the terror they wreak on our youthful minds never quite leaves us.

We asked the authors in this collection to reach into the forgotten recesses of their twisted minds and share with us the tales of nightmares that can only thrive in the hidden corners of a child’s imaginings; the bogeyman under the bed, the outlandishly fiendish creature lurking in the dark, the slight murmur of sound coming from the hall… did you close the door completely?

Explore the myriad terrors that only a child can twist from nothing into some ‘thing’ in the span of a single rapid breath. Do you dare delve into your own memories? Perhaps you’ll start sleeping with the lights on again...

Tell us, who is Under the Bed?

Contributing Authors:  Colin F. Barnes, Nina D'Arcangela, Phil Hickes, Amber Keller,

Kim Krodel, Lisamarie Lamb, John McIlveen, Kate Monroe, Brandon Scott,

Joshua Skye, Julianne Snow, and Jack Wallen

Look for ‘Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed’ at:  

            eBook:   Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it

                                Smashwords.com (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Sony, PDF)

Print book: Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com

www.SirensCallPublications.com

 A small sampling of the excerpts from “Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed”,

and a link to a downloadable preview featuring all twelve authors:

‘Excess Baggage’ - Lisamarie Lamb

“And now Nigel could see someone. A small, round man in a pair of white trousers and a deep blue shirt, sweat circles staining his underarms, his stomach straining the buttons running down his chest, down his stomach. The man’s curly dark hair rippled in the sunlight as he bobbed his head up and down. He was peering out of a small gap between two houses. He was smiling, beckoning to Nigel; and when Nigel moved towards him his smile became a grin, all teeth and harmless joviality.

Nigel went to the man against his better judgment. He went against his worst judgment, feeling strangely calm about it all, despite thinking he had wandered far too far, into a bad area. Into the sort of area a tourist shouldn’t go. And he had been caught. He felt rather stupid about the whole thing, and rather sad about leaving Maggie and Bob. But there was a certain inevitability about it all.

Even if Nigel couldn’t quite remember why…”

‘Baby Teeth’  - Kim Krodel

“She adds every tooth she gets to her disgusting smile.  But the screws keep growing out of her gums.  She never runs out of space for more teeth.”

“Why does she want them?”  Brian’s voice was small.  His eyes bugged, as if the skeletons stacked in God’s closet were tumbling out at his feet.

“For biting, Dummy.  She likes to eat little kids.”  Cal grinned as he spoke.  "If she bites you with her screws, your skin gets stuck to 'em, so she likes teeth better; so she doesn't have to floss so much."

“No, she doesn’t.  She’s nice—she gives presents!  Mom said!”

“That’s what Mom wants you to think.  Otherwise you’d freak out about it.”

Brian blinked, staring and processing; weighing his brother’s words against those he had gathered from adults.

“See this?”  Cal rolled up a pant leg to reveal a jagged run of lumpy, silver skin.  “She bit me hard the first tooth I lost ‘cause I didn’t know what was coming.  Now I’m big enough to fight her off.”  Calvin posed like a weight-lifter…”

 ‘Madeleine’ - Julianne Snow

“Mommy.”

Nothing.

“Mommy?”

Still nothing. No tell-tale shuffling sound of socked feet on the hardwood floor.

“MOMMY!”

Nothing… Where was she? How could she have not heard?

“MMOOOMMMMMYY!”

With tears streaming down her cherubic face, Stella wondered if her dream had come true. As she debated running the short distance over the oaken surface to her parent’s room, she listened intently for the sounds of her mother’s imminent stirring.

Finally.

Stella heard the soft sounds of her mother’s footfalls in the hallway. She was coming.

More tears welled up in her young throat.

As her door burst open, she was surprised to see the form of her sister in the light of the hallway, a smell pervading the room unlike anything she had ever smelled before. Burnt. Wet…”

Please visit the Sirens Call Publications web site for an extended preview available for download.