Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Catharsis by Indie Author Jonathan Face

Indie Author Jonathan Face delivers a suspenseful, mysteriously, unfolding tale of a condemned town. As the story slowly progresses, the reader is left with a feeling of dread, a feeling that something bad is going to happen in Spring City. The inhabitants of this small town seem like good enough people, but they all have secrets. Unfortunately, you can't hide your secrets from unknown forces hell bent on bringing justice upon town's occupants.

Throughout the story, you learn a little bit about each character until you have a picture in your head that leaves you knowing that this isn't a good person, despite the warm and fuzzy facade.  Jonathan Face does a good job building the characters into real people, giving away only a little about their pasts.

As a snow storm moves through the town, the inhabitants bear down for a bad storm. Slowly, things draw the residents out (or for some, into their homes) to their deaths. The innocent are pulled away to be saved.

Jonathan Face's writing style is enjoyable to read, and the book was pretty well edited and proofed. The only annoyance that I found was the use of the word 'presently'. Of course, this is only my opinion, if you say that someone did something, I assume that, in the story, they are doing it then. I don't need to know that 'Presently, he walked down the street' or whatever action was taken. In this instance, the story was in the past tense, so no one actually did anything presently. There, my rant is done.

There were a few, I won't call them plot holes, but a few places where I wanted to know more information about the characters. For instance, we get to know the town librarian Kathy. She has a tainted past and moves to Spring City to hide and probably escape consequences. I have no idea what she did, but I want to know. At one point in the story, near the end, she is almost forced to tell her story to another deranged citizen, but their chat is interrupted and Kathy's story is never told. I'm still left wondering what she did.

Overall, an excellent, suspenseful, compelling story. I'll be on the lookout for more novels by Jonathan Face.

Right now, Catharsis is free for Nook and Kindle.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Paranormal Month at eFiction Magazine

Authors, have you submitted to eFiction yet? Well, even if you have, you can still submit another story for our October issue. The theme is Paranormal/Horror. We aren't too picky about what goes on in your story, just as long as it is scary, creepy, and blood chilling.

So what are you waiting for? The process is simple:

  • Go to Submit a Story on our main website.
  • Click on "Submit" under the short story heading.
  • Upload your file (doc, docx, txt, or rtf).
  • Enter the title of your story.
  • Write a cover letter (one or two sentences about yourself, and a short (200 word) bio on yourself.
  • Click the button that says "Submit to eFiction Magazine.
That is it. Nothing to it. The process is painless, I promise. Even if your story isn't picked for the issue, you have the opportunity to get amazing feedback and even workshop your piece if you join our online authors community (which is awesome).

So go, pick a story, and submit. I'll be waiting to read them!