Happy shopping-in-your-pajamas weekend!

happy holidays!

If you’re like us here at LitUnd Towers, you really prefer doing Black Friday and your subsequent shopping from your couch, watching silly movies and drinking cocoa. Fortunately, we are all set up to help you get your shopping done without leaving that wonderful couch!

We have a few suggestions for your list, as you might imagine. Can’t make up your mind? We now offer GIFT CARDS! Click here to pick up a gift card that lets your loved ones pick out some really awesome reading AND help support small presses and their authors.

Remember that when you buy from The Literary Underworld, you are buying from the authors and small presses directly, so they will get to keep much more of the sale price. Every little bit helps your favorite author keep creating those fascinating new worlds.

Happy holidays from all of us here at Literary Underworld!

All shipping is $8 flat rate OR free with $49 purchase!

 

Newer releases from the Underlords!

Dreadmire by Elizabeth Donald. Tam is a Moor Knight whose dearest love, the half-elf Wynter, has vanished into the haunted Dreadmire on a quest to destroy the evil at the center of the swamp and set free the people terrorized by its half-dead creatures. But it has been a long time since anyone heard from Wynter. Tam and his best friend, Kancethedrus, enlist the help of guide Alesia and seer Angiss to help them find Wynter – and perhaps complete her mission to destroy the evil Somesuch that has controlled the life, death and unlife of the swamp for so many years. But the way through Dreadmire is not easy, and that’s not just because of monstrous mosquitoes, sentient weregators and cannibalistic undead elves living among the predatory flora and fauna of this twisted bayou. What’s more dangerous than a demonic tree that can eat you alive? The perils of the human heart… and what a man will risk for the woman he loves.

13 Octobers by Alexander Brown. In this mixed bag of treats … and tricks, readers will return toI/ older times. Back when oral tradition warned of grisly things that lurked about on autumn nights. A bygone era when people heeded superstitions and lore, and few dared to brave the forbidden. Readers will encounter thirteen chilling stories presented in four decades of vintage life. These horrors include: ghosts, unlucky animals, murderers, creatures, and the devil himself.

Lost Colony: Alliances is the first science fiction adventure from new Underlord Diana Morgan. Tristan Travs never wanted to be an Admiral. He wanted to serve his time as a top-notch pilot and retire early in comfort on his rich family’s dime. But all that changed five years ago when the Aveeys—humanity’s greatest advancement in AI technology— rebelled and destroyed the planet. He’s now left as the highest-ranking officer of Terran Colony, the only survivors. They move from planet to planet, trying to find a new home, on the run from Aveeys, and pirates—those who live on the fringes of civilized society.

Livia Icini never wanted to be a pirate. She wanted a normal life before the Aveeys destroyed everything. Now, she’s finally found a way to get that again, by seeking asylum in Terran Colony. Life is far from normal, and Livia has secrets beyond her pirate past. She may be seeking asylum, but she may also be the key to the Colony’s survival. If she can get the Admiral to trust her without killing him first. Pirates and killer robots aren’t the only thing out to destroy the last of humanity. There are other things among the stars.

Tangle and Fen from Crone Girls Press. On the European front, there are worse things stalking the battlefield than enemy soldiers. A laid-off ad exec’s second career takes a turn for the bloody. The halls of Shy Rock High welcome the Class of 2005—but why so few attendees to this shadowy gala? The stories in this anthology are the glimpses of the dark places between the forest and a dream. Tangle & Fen is an anthology of dark fiction, featuring tales from the borderlands of horror, speculative fiction, and the nightmare fears that linger even after you turn on the lights.

Baby Monster by John McFarland. Return with us to Ste. Odile, a cursed town indeed. We will also be lured to other areas of the world during periods of history that were dark, foreboding, and unsympathetic to humankind in general. You will find recognizable characters within these pages when we revisit their unfortunate situations. You will also be introduced to some new ones who are unique enigmas on their own. A familiar scientist is conducting a study on teeth, using participants from the women’s wing of St. Mathurin’s Home for the Insane. A resolute woman must perform an unspeakable act to save herself from a life-ending condition. An abandoned and crumbling orphanage hiding a horrific secret, a woman’s obsession with speaking to the dead, and her husband trying to save their son from potential murder come together in a thunderous storm of shock and terror.

Step into the end of intimate acquaintances and the beginning of tenuous relationships. Mysterious men, undaunted women, warped creatures, maddened minds, human atrocities… all await you in McFarland’s second volume of harrowing short stories, including two novelettes, published here for the first time. Then consider picking up the previous Ste. Odile books, The Black Garden and Mother of Centuries.

Bladespell by Steven Shrewsbury. On the east coast of antediluvian Africa, the warrior Rogan escapes the gallows via the magicks of a wizard. She professes to be the spirit of Jezebel Lilith, a mage that has traveled back in time to learn the location of an enchanted sword. Thinking her mad, Rogan tries to find his partner on his journey, the spearman Thyssen. Learning Thyssen has been sold up the river to be part of a sacrifice at the temple of Dagon, Rogan vows to free him. Rogan is accompanied by Lilith and her group of warriors, along with a shaman from the gallows, Oliver Haddo, who also claims to be from the future.

Upriver at the temple of Dagon, as a volcano rumbles, Rogan encounters wizards and others seeking to trigger a terror that will create children to guard the sleeping place afar off at R’lyeh for their god, Cthulhu. A tale of action, twisted wizards, and Lovecraft mythos, Bladespell shows that sometimes those that manipulate others often get more than they bargained for.

A new edition of A Night at Death’s Door by Jim D. Gillentine. Horror-comedy with a touch of romance at Death’s Door, a mysterious and trendy nightclub that actually cloaks the hidden domain of a vampire planning the Rising… only $8!

For the fantasy fan…

Music City by Sara M. Harvey 

Banished from Ireland in the wake of an accident that snatched away both her mortal lover and her banshee voice’s power to sing souls to the beyond, Keela O’Reardon sets out to find the Oran na Céle, the original banshee song, whose power birthed the banshees themselves. The urge to sing is the very core of a banshee, and in Nashville, Keela does the one thing even more forbidden than dalliances with a mortal: she performs. In the spotlight, she discovers a new power to her voice. A power to entrance an audience. A power that others want. The strange Irish girl with the otherworldly voice is the talk of Nashville, but she’s not there to be a star, no matter how much a record producer wants to make her one. She wants to find the banshee song buried in a city without banshees. She’s not the only one.

Reckoning Day by Steven Shrewsbury

A tale of action, adventure, love, sacrifice, and war, Gorias staggers through a bloody trail that will tear his heart loose. Can Gorias combat these deadly forces and stand tall against an arch-demon on what will truly be his RECKONING DAY?

For the romance fan…

The Brothers in Arms series by Silke Campion. Get all eight titles in this hot, flirty, sweet and dirty Brothers in Arms series for only $35! No slow-burning angst here; just a steamy, quickly flourishing devoted love that gets right to the heat. Each title can also be purchased separately for $5!

Beloved Forever by Kit Tunstall is a classic tale of a newly-made vampire whose master believes she is the reincarnation of his first love, found and lost over and over for the last 800 years. Yours for only $5!

 

For the weird Western fan…

Mojo Hand by Steven L. Shrewsbury ($15) After a gun battle in an 1884 Peoria cathouse, one-armed ex-Confederate guerrilla Joel Stuart finds himself at odds with dire magical forces. He runs headfirst into an army of the undead, a demon guard, the persona of African god Damballah, and even finds himself beneath the lid of a coffin.

The Alamo and Zombies by Jean A. Stuntz ($5) is exactly what it says! Zombies at the Alamo, what else could you want?

For the horror fan…

Nocturne Infernum by Elizabeth Donald ($20) compiles the three books of the Nocturnal Urges series into one volume filled with heat, horror and intrigue. In this alternate Memphis, vampires are a dark underclass whose bite offers pleasure and pain in one sweet kiss. Humans take advantage of the pleasures vampires can provide, but call them friends? Lovers? The strain between human and vampire grows as death rises in the streets…

Paradise Earth by Anthony Mathenia ($12) is a deconstruction of faith at the end of the world and beyond. When blazing balls of fire fall from the sky, a religious sect interprets it as the fulfillment of long-held prophecies foretelling the end of the world. The members flee to their religious sanctuary, believing that this global cataclysm is the portent of a new paradise of eternal happiness. Inside, one cold and starving man struggles to hold onto his hope for the future as the torturous night drags on and he struggles to hold onto his hope for the future. Limited quantities available.

A Woman Unbecoming. Crone Girls Press presents a charity anthology of horror and dark tales to benefit reproductive healthcare rights. Award-winning and up-and-coming authors share over two dozen stories and poems.

A thwarted female defense attorney releases the baying of the hounds under a full moon, signaling the death of an era—and the birth of a new one under the Old Gods. Most funerals are celebrations for the living—unless the guests decide to tempt fate and the guest of honor. A bicycle ride becomes a contest of egos, but the male pursuers aren’t the only ones hungry for the race to end. These women are going to cut the world and let it bleed.

If you like intense characters, powerful women, and twists you won’t see coming, then you’ll love this fierce anthology co-edited by Rachel A. Brune and Carol Gyzander.

For the sci-fi fan…

Dream of the Navigator by Stephen Zimmer. For most, virtual realms, substances, and entertainment provide escapes, but for Haven, Cayden, Jaelynn, and Salvador, growing up in Technate 6 is a restless existence. A hunger for something more gnaws inside each of them. Discoveries await that open the gates to transcend time and space, and even new planes of existence. Nothing in their universe, or others, is impossible to explore.

Ace’s Odds by Sela Carsen ($10). Mkhai is a former soldier in debt to the mob boss who runs a glitzy, glamorous space station casino hiding a dark underworld. The only hand he’s got left to play is getting the mob boss’s daughter off the station… but Silbe is no pampered princess, even if her father is one of the most feared men in the galaxy. Embroiled in a desperate scheme to keep her family safe, Silbe must team up with a roguish smuggler who makes her want to bet on him with everything she’s got.

 

For the YA reader…

Moonblood by T.W. Fendley. ($12) Who wants to live a century before seeing the outside world? Not Ariadne. Restless and idealistic, the young immortal sneaks out of the Eves’ secret compound and finds the outside world more dangerous than she could have imagined. Cut off from her own kind and hunted by mortals, she is forced to hide among the Adams, the immortal sons born of her sisters. But the Adams have sinister plans of their own. Ariadne must find a way to stop them, even if it means sacrificing her immortal life.

For something shorter….

Setting Suns: Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth Donald brings a new look to her first collection, including a new story, new afterward and more.

A nightmarish fun house turned deadly.
A couple trapped in a futile journey through time.
A single baleful eye watching from the deep.
An assassin waiting in a snow-covered tree.
A toy that seems to have a life of its own.
A pair of soldiers trapped between death and something worse.
A tenebrous hand reaching out of the shadows.
These are the award-winning tales and terrors of Elizabeth Donald, writer of things that go chomp in the night. This new anniversary edition is being released 20 years after the first story was published, now including a bonus short story and the author’s reflections on twenty years of twilight tales.
In that space between evening and nightfall, between consciousness and sleep, the moment when the light fades and the shadows take over… These are the lands of the Setting Suns.

Side Roads by Rachel Brune is a Crone Girls Press title, and thus is 10 percent off this season. Clockwork fairies, arachnid mothers, the Carnival Ghost…
The stories gathered here take the reader on a winding trip down a darkened road as the battery in your phone slowly dies. The threads of this collection weave a tale of wrong turns in the early morning hours, of faded photographs that don’t quite fit one’s memory, of dying monarchs and has-been superheroes. In these pages, you will find the eerie, the grim, and the lost souls that wander the gloom. These stories were born of dark nights and cold drives and the certain knowledge that, as winter sets in and the nights grow longer, there’s more out there in the darkness than the shadows let on…

For the cosplayer….

A handmade leather mask is the perfect stocking stuffer for the cosplayer on your list! Branson’s General Store has a variety of colors in the simple $10 design, so be sure to indicate your preferred colors in your order!

 

STILL MULLING? THINK GIFT CARDS!

A Special Thank You

The authors and artists of the Literary Underworld are very grateful for your continued support. When you buy from us, you are buying directly from authors and small presses. As we celebrate this holiday season, we hope for a happy, safe and prosperous year for everyone.

You read all the way to the end!
Use the code HOLIDAZE24 to get a discount on your purchase!

It’s Pride!

This month Pride is being celebrated across the nation, and the Literary Underworld is delighted to share some of the work by and about LGBTQ people in our collection. We were proud to have been *technically* censored in Utah long before it was fashionable: when our new credit card processor discovered we had books with *gasp* gay people in them, they dropped us like a bad habit and labeled us pornography. (As the author told us, if it actually WAS pornography, it’d probably have sold more copies…)

Please enjoy these titles, by LGBTQ authors or about LGBTQ characters, and have a joyous Pride!

A Woman Unbecoming, ed. by Rachel Brune. A thwarted female defense attorney releases the baying of the hounds under a full moon, signaling the death of an era—and the birth of a new one under the Old Gods.

Most funerals are celebrations for the living—unless the guests decide to tempt fate and the guest of honor.

A bicycle ride becomes a contest of egos, but the male pursuers aren’t the only ones hungry for the race to end.

These women are going to cut the world and let it bleed.

Crone Girls Press presents A Woman Unbecoming, a charity anthology of horror and dark tales to benefit reproductive healthcare rights. Award-winning and up-and-coming authors share over two dozen stories and poems. If you like intense characters, powerful women, and twists you won’t see coming, then you’ll love this fierce anthology co-edited by Rachel A. Brune and Carol Gyzander.

Explore A Woman Unbecoming to revel in women’s rage, power, and agency—and support reproductive healthcare rights today.

Stories and Poems By:

Marc Abbott, Linda Addison, Alp Beck, Carina Bissett, Rachel Brune, Paige L. Christie, Ravyn Crescent, Elizabeth Davis, Angela Giddings, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Teel James Glenn, Carol Gyzander, CM Harris, Nicole Henning, Darin Kennedy, DeAnna Knippling, Tara Laskowski, Lee Murray, Bridgett Nelson, Jennifer Nestojko, Jessica Nettles, Christina Nordlander, Cindy O’Quinn & Patricia Gomes, Cristel Orrand, Jude Reid, Mike Robinson, Kathleen Scheiner, Jeff Strand, Anna Taborska, Steven Van Patten, Holly Lyn Walrath, Michael G. Williams, and Jeff Wood.

 

A Girl’s Gotta Eat by Elizabeth Lynn Blackson. What does a young woman do with the bucket of hate she carries around from her abusive childhood?

Lucy is about to find out. What does a man do when his faith in the security of his nation crumbles? FBI Special Agent Javier Torres is about to find out.

And when shape-shifting, man-eating daemons are revealed to exist, who does the succubus called “Vespid” feed on? The rich and poor alike find out, because sometimes a girl’s gotta eat.

Adventuresses by Angelia Sparrow. Take flight on an airship bound for ecstasy and California. Fall in love with a waitress. Or Medusa. Hold off the zombie invasion of Oklahoma or roll a rig through it in Kansas. Treasure hunt to save a feline lover. Enjoy a steampunk medical demonstration for curing nervous hysteria.

Ten tales of lesbian adventure take you to the far reaches of the galaxy, or the science fiction convention down the road, to Texas in our world or on a timeline when the Confederacy found a way to make radioactive bombs. Find your hat. Adjust your goggles. It’s time for Adventuresses.

Convent of the Pure by Sara M. Harvey. Secrets and illusions abound in a decaying convent wrapped in dark magic and scented with blood. Portia came to the convent with the ghost of Imogen, the lover she failed to protect in life. Now, the spell casting caste wants to make sure that neither she nor her spirit ever leave. Portia’s ignorance of her own power may be even more deadly than those who conspire against her as she fights to fulfill her sworn duty to protect humankind in a battle against dark illusions and painful realities.

Steeped in the legends of the Nephilim, The Convent of the Pure is now out of print, so snag your copy while supplies last!

West of Sunset by Dennis R. Upkins. For Brecken Everett, there’s never a dull moment. When he’s not dealing with a demanding course load and honing his magic as top student at Lightmage University, he’s working as a private investigator and using his skills to protect the innocent from the darkest fores. In two action-packed adventures, Breck demonstrates that outnumbered and outgunned is when he’s at his best. In Keepers, Brecken is enlisted to aid Jacob and Joshua Phoenix; twins, the last Pyrians, the last of an ancient race. The Brothers Phoenix are on a quest to uncover clues to their past. When they find a lost relic, a pair of demons claim it. With Brecken’s aid, the twins are determined to not only stop the threat, but have some fun in the process.

West of Sunset takes place a year after Keepers. All Brecken wants to do is get out of Atlanta. Heading to Los Angeles with his best friend, he plans a vacation of surf, sun, partying and relaxation… until the boys stumble upon a museum heist connected to a biker gang of vampires with plans to raise a most dark power. Matters get even more complicated with the involvement of a mysterious and powerful witch. Witches, museum heists, arising malevolent forces, vampire biker gangs, even Brecken’s vacations are just another day at the office.

The Night the Jack o’ Lantern Went Out by Alexander Brown. Halloween. A holiday that inspires memories, excitement, and a little bit of fear in everyone. A single day where all the ghosts and ghoulies come out to play and sometimes its hard to tell which of the creepy crawlies are human and which ones truly rise from beyond seeking unsuspecting souls.

Author Alexander S. Brown explores all the wonderfully terrifying possibilities Halloween has to offer in The Night the Jack o’ Lantern Went Out. Each month Brown delivers a new tale of terror laced with just enough nostalgia that makes us all hope Halloween comes sooner…and stays far enough away that the monsters don’t get us!

 

Glad Hands

Glad Hands by Angelia Sparrow and Gabriel Belthir. Chuck Hummingbird has a nice, safe run, from Pacifica to the Tribal Lands. Even in the fragmented United States, freight still moves between the resulting countries. When he’s tapped for a perilous run down past Heartland, the last thing he needs is a pretty blue-eyed drifter, but he can’t get Seven out of his head or his bunk.

When the Confederated States prove more dangerous than Chuck feared, they’re caught in a terrifying flight towards safety that will drive both of them and the love they’ve found to new limits. Or snag the whole Eight Thrones series for $40!

Happy not-shopping-in-stores day!

happy holidays!

If you’re like us here at LitUnd Towers, you really prefer doing Black Friday from your couch, watching silly movies and drinking cocoa. Fortunately, we are all set up to help you get your shopping done without leaving that wonderful couch!

We have a few suggestions for your list. (You thought we might.) Can’t make up your mind? We now offer GIFT CARDS! Click here to pick up a gift card that lets your loved ones pick out some really awesome reading AND helps support small presses and their authors.

Remember that when you buy from Literary Underworld, you are buying from the authors and small presses directly, so they will get to keep much more of the sale price. Every little bit helps your favorite author keep creating those fascinating new worlds.

Happy holidays from all of us here at Literary Underworld!

All shipping is $8 flat rate OR free with $49 purchase!

 

Newer releases from the Underlords!

Coming very soon from Crone Girls Press: Tangle and Fen! On the European front, there are worse things stalking the battlefield than enemy soldiers. A laid-off ad exec’s second career takes a turn for the bloody. The halls of Shy Rock High welcome the Class of 2005—but why so few attendees to this shadowy gala? The stories in this anthology are the glimpses of the dark places between the forest and a dream. Tangle & Fen is an anthology of dark fiction, featuring tales from the borderlands of horror, speculative fiction, and the nightmare fears that linger even after you turn on the lights. Preorder your copy now for $15!

A Woman Unbecoming from Crone Girls Press includes stories from Rachel Brune, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Carol Gyzander, Jeff Strand, Michael G. Williams, Bridgett Nelson and others. Proceeds from this charity anthology go to support women’s healthcare.

A Girl’s Gotta Eat from new Underlord Elizabeth Lynn Blackson. Whape-shifting, man-eating daemons, succubi and more. Now available for $25! Then pick up the sequel, Old Black Water!

The Brothers in Arms series by Silke Campion includes eight titles of hot, flirty, sweet and dirty love stories with military heroes. Each is only $5 or get all eight for $35!

Lost Colony: Alliances is the first science fiction adventure from new Underlord Diana Morgan. Pirates, killer robots, adventure in the stars, all for $10!

The Sweet Science of Bruising by Angelia Sparrow. She invents vibrators; he batters men to a pulp. True love in a steampunk world. On sale for $12.

A new edition of A Night at Death’s Door by Jim D. Gillentine. Horror-comedy with a touch of romance at Death’s Door, a mysterious and trendy nightclub that actually cloaks the hidden domain of a vampire planning the Rising… only $8!

The latest Gorias La Gaul adventure from Steven L. Shrewsbury is Reckoning Day, as Gorias serves as regent to the boy king, protecting him against evil usurpers, a rising sorceres and a dragon made of water. Now available for $20!

Mother of Centuries by John McFarland returns to St. Odile, the haunted town of The Black Garden. Check it out for $13!

For the fantasy fan…

Music City by Sara M. Harvey ($15)

Banished from Ireland in the wake of an accident that snatched away both her mortal lover and her banshee voice’s power to sing souls to the beyond, Keela O’Reardon sets out to find the Oran na Céle, the original banshee song, whose power birthed the banshees themselves. The urge to sing is the very core of a banshee, and in Nashville, Keela does the one thing even more forbidden than dalliances with a mortal: she performs. In the spotlight, she discovers a new power to her voice. A power to entrance an audience. A power that others want. The strange Irish girl with the otherworldly voice is the talk of Nashville, but she’s not there to be a star, no matter how much a record producer wants to make her one. She wants to find the banshee song buried in a city without banshees. She’s not the only one.

Killer of Giants by Steven Shrewsbury ($15)

After learning that his sister is to be a sacrificial bride to Nephilim giant Marduk, Rogan journeys to Irem in the company of Elisa, a warrior herself, whose mother is a wizardess. With a horde of warriors in pursuit, they encounter many evils, monsters, and challenges to their selves and souls. Will the song of Rogan’s blood make him strong enough to be the Killer of Giants?

For the romance fan…

Heart of the Beast by Jim D. Gillentine ($20) tells the story of Andrew, a man with a beastly secret, and his horrifying journey with his love Angela from the dark streets of Memphis to the cold reaches of Alaska, from faraway places to deep within each other’s souls, seeking peace and freedom to love one another – if only the world would let them.

The Carolina Wolf box set by Sela Carsen ($7) combines Carolina Wolf and Carolina Pearl, two tales of werewolves and true love in South Carolina. Whoever said there were no wolves in South Carolina lied. Put a little grrrrl power into your romp in the swamp this holiday season!

Beloved Forever by Kit Tunstall is a classic tale of a newly-made vampire whose master believes she is the reincarnation of his first love, found and lost over and over for the last 800 years. Yours for only $5!

 

For the weird Western fan…

Mojo Hand by Steven L. Shrewsbury ($15) After a gun battle in an 1884 Peoria cathouse, one-armed ex-Confederate guerrilla Joel Stuart finds himself at odds with dire magical forces. He runs headfirst into an army of the undead, a demon guard, the persona of African god Damballah, and even finds himself beneath the lid of a coffin.

The Alamo and Zombies by Jean A. Stuntz ($5) is exactly what it says! Zombies at the Alamo, what else could you want?

For the horror fan…

Nocturne Infernum by Elizabeth Donald ($20) compiles the three books of the Nocturnal Urges series into one volume filled with heat, horror and intrigue. In this alternate Memphis, vampires are a dark underclass whose bite offers pleasure and pain in one sweet kiss. Humans take advantage of the pleasures vampires can provide, but call them friends? Lovers? The strain between human and vampire grows as death rises in the streets…

Paradise Earth by Anthony Mathenia ($12) is a deconstruction of faith at the end of the world and beyond. When blazing balls of fire fall from the sky, a religious sect interprets it as the fulfillment of long-held prophecies foretelling the end of the world. The members flee to their religious sanctuary, believing that this global cataclysm is the portent of a new paradise of eternal happiness. Inside, one cold and starving man struggles to hold onto his hope for the future as the torturous night drags on and he struggles to hold onto his hope for the future. Limited quantities available.

The Dark Walk Forward by John McFarland ($12) is “riveting” according to Publisher’s Weekly! A collection of stories set in McFarland’s creepy Ste. Odile village through history, John S. McFarland has slogged through his characters’ woes and woven them into sweetly emotional yet acutely distressful tales. We as readers are forced to understand the pain, the despair, and sometimes the hope of his creations. We realize we are lucky to live in the era we do. We also realize anything can change to tear us apart. Is it fate? Destiny? Or do we bring about these changes on our own?

For the sci-fi fan…

Dream of the Navigator by Stephen Zimmer. For most, virtual realms, substances, and entertainment provide escapes, but for Haven, Cayden, Jaelynn, and Salvador, growing up in Technate 6 is a restless existence. A hunger for something more gnaws inside each of them. Discoveries await that open the gates to transcend time and space, and even new planes of existence. Nothing in their universe, or others, is impossible to explore.

Ace’s Odds by Sela Carsen ($10). Mkhai is a former soldier in debt to the mob boss who runs a glitzy, glamorous space station casino hiding a dark underworld. The only hand he’s got left to play is getting the mob boss’s daughter off the station… but Silbe is no pampered princess, even if her father is one of the most feared men in the galaxy. Embroiled in a desperate scheme to keep her family safe, Silbe must team up with a roguish smuggler who makes her want to bet on him with everything she’s got.

 

For the YA reader…

Moonblood by T.W. Fendley. ($12) Who wants to live a century before seeing the outside world? Not Ariadne. Restless and idealistic, the young immortal sneaks out of the Eves’ secret compound and finds the outside world more dangerous than she could have imagined. Cut off from her own kind and hunted by mortals, she is forced to hide among the Adams, the immortal sons born of her sisters. But the Adams have sinister plans of their own. Ariadne must find a way to stop them, even if it means sacrificing her immortal life.

The Boxcar Baby by J.L. Mulvihill ($15) is the first book of the Steel Roots series. Born in a boxcar on a train bound for Georgia. At least, that is what Papa Steel always told AB’Gale. But now, fifteen years later, the man who adopted and raised her as his own is missing and it’s up to AB’Gale to find him. (Or splurge on the whole series for $40!)

For something shorter….

Setting Suns: Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth Donald brings a new look to her first collection, including a new story, new afterward and more.

A nightmarish fun house turned deadly.
A couple trapped in a futile journey through time.
A single baleful eye watching from the deep.
An assassin waiting in a snow-covered tree.
A toy that seems to have a life of its own.
A pair of soldiers trapped between death and something worse.
A tenebrous hand reaching out of the shadows.
These are the award-winning tales and terrors of Elizabeth Donald, writer of things that go chomp in the night. This new anniversary edition is being released 20 years after the first story was published, now including a bonus short story and the author’s reflections on twenty years of twilight tales.
In that space between evening and nightfall, between consciousness and sleep, the moment when the light fades and the shadows take over… These are the lands of the Setting Suns.

Side Roads by Rachel Brune is a Crone Girls Press title, and thus is 10 percent off this season. Clockwork fairies, arachnid mothers, the Carnival Ghost…
The stories gathered here take the reader on a winding trip down a darkened road as the battery in your phone slowly dies. The threads of this collection weave a tale of wrong turns in the early morning hours, of faded photographs that don’t quite fit one’s memory, of dying monarchs and has-been superheroes. In these pages, you will find the eerie, the grim, and the lost souls that wander the gloom. These stories were born of dark nights and cold drives and the certain knowledge that, as winter sets in and the nights grow longer, there’s more out there in the darkness than the shadows let on…

For the cosplayer….

A handmade leather mask is the perfect stocking stuffer for the cosplayer on your list! Branson’s General Store has a variety of colors in the simple $5 design, so be sure to indicate your preferred colors in your order!

 

STILL MULLING? THINK GIFT CARDS!

A Special Thank You

The authors and artists of the Literary Underworld are very grateful for your continued support. When you buy from us, you are buying directly from authors and small presses. As we celebrate this holiday season, we hope for a happy, safe and prosperous year for everyone.

Stay safe out there, and we will all see each other again soon.

You read all the way to the end!
Use the code BF2023 to get a discount on your purchase!

It’s Black Friday!

If you’re like us here at LitUnd Towers, you really prefer doing Black Friday from your couch, watching silly movies and drinking cocoa. Fortunately, we are all set up to help you get your shopping done without leaving that wonderful couch!

We have a few suggestions for your list. (You thought we might.) There’s some terrific ideas below, and some really awesome specials from our authors! Remember that when you buy from Literary Underworld, you are buying from the authors and small presses directly, so they will get to keep much more of the sale price. Every little bit helps your favorite author keep creating those fascinating new worlds.

Happy holidays from all of us here at Literary Underworld!

On Sale!

Get three Nick Rowan titles in ebook for only $10!

Buy any of the Eight Thones series by Angelia Sparrow and get a free PDF of short stories in that universe! No codes or minimums required. Check out Master Anton, Anthony Reprobate, Nikolai Revenant or Glad Hands to get your free extras! Or get the entire series for $40 here!

All Crone Girls Press titles are 10 percent off for the holiday season! 

If you buy Wild Hunt by Nick Rowan, you’ll get a free PDF of DJ Admire stories including “By the Fire with Care”!

It’s 10 percent off all Elizabeth Donald titles for the holiday season! No code needed!

For the romance fan…

Heart of the Beast by Jim D. Gillentine ($20) tells the story of Andrew, a man with a beastly secret, and his horrifying journey with his love Angela from the dark streets of Memphis to the cold reaches of Alaska, from faraway places to deep within each other’s souls, seeking peace and freedom to love one another – if only the world would let them.

The Carolina Wolf box set by Sela Carsen ($7) combines Carolina Wolf and Carolina Pearl, two tales of werewolves and true love in South Carolina. Whoever said there were no wolves in South Carolina lied. Put a little grrrrl power into your romp in the swamp this holiday season!

Silke Campion’s sexy new Brothers in Arms series can be yours for only $35! Hot, flirty, sweet and dirty, there’s no slow-burning angst here; just a steamy, quickly flourishing devoted love that gets right to the heat. Not ready to commit to a whole series? Each title is only $5 – for the paperback! Check it out here!

For the fantasy fan…

Born of Swords by Steven L. Shrewsbury. Interviewing Gorias La Gaul is a dream come true for young scribe Jessica. Unfortunately for Jessica, she’s found Gorias in the midst of an annual pilgrimage of sorts, and though he agrees to let her come along, it’s not without a warning: You may not like what you see and hear. Whether viewing past visions with magical gemstones or jumping into the fray alongside the barbarian, Jessica’s about to get firsthand accounts she won’t soon forget…and discover legends are far from reality, and just as far from being pretty. For most men, the future is not certain and the past is prologue.

Wild Hunt by Nick Rowan ($10). When the Preternatural and Magical Squadron dumps an ugly batch of child serial murders into her lap, DJ Admire has a few weeks to find the killer before the next victims are found dead in their own little beds.

On the Nightside of Memphis, few things are as they seem and even allies have their own agendas. And DJ has no magic, just a Desert Eagle and an ongoing romance with Captain Morgan and Admiral Nelson…

Buy this book during the 2022 holiday season and get a free PDF of DJ Admire short stories FREE!

For the weird Western fan…

Mojo Hand by Steven L. Shrewsbury ($15) After a gun battle in an 1884 Peoria cathouse, one-armed ex-Confederate guerrilla Joel Stuart finds himself at odds with dire magical forces. He runs headfirst into an army of the undead, a demon guard, the persona of African god Damballah, and even finds himself beneath the lid of a coffin.

The Alamo and Zombies by Jean A. Stuntz ($5) is exactly what it says! Zombies at the Alamo, what else could you want?

For the horror fan…

Nocturne Infernum by Elizabeth Donald ($20) compiles the three books of the Nocturnal Urges series into one volume filled with heat, horror and intrigue. In this alternate Memphis, vampires are a dark underclass whose bite offers pleasure and pain in one sweet kiss. Humans take advantage of the pleasures vampires can provide, but call them friends? Lovers? The strain between human and vampire grows as death rises in the streets…

The Dark Walk Forward by John McFarland ($12). The small town of Ste. Odile in America has experienced the Great War in ways that no one should ever have to endure. An 1880s schoolteacher is faced with the worst blizzard of her time and must save the children under her charge. A young man searches for his father the abandoned orphanage the older man owns… and both know they will despair at what they find. John S. McFarland has slogged through his characters’ woes and woven them into these sweetly emotional yet acutely distressful tales.

Stories We Tell After Midnight ($10). Here, the shadows keep their secrets and the moon hides from deeds cast in her glow. In this collection, the Fae walk as human, the dead burn with their anger at the living, the creatures that live in the dark places of the wrong zip code creep out of the shadows and into the kitchen. And all Crone Girls Press books are 10 percent off for the holidays!

For the sci-fi fan…

Dream of the Navigator by Stephen Zimmer. For most, virtual realms, substances, and entertainment provide escapes, but for Haven, Cayden, Jaelynn, and Salvador, growing up in Technate 6 is a restless existence. A hunger for something more gnaws inside each of them. Discoveries await that open the gates to transcend time and space, and even new planes of existence. Nothing in their universe, or others, is impossible to explore.

Ace’s Odds by Sela Carsen ($10). Mkhai is a former soldier in debt to the mob boss who runs a glitzy, glamorous space station casino hiding a dark underworld. The only hand he’s got left to play is getting the mob boss’s daughter off the station… but Silbe is no pampered princess, even if her father is one of the most feared men in the galaxy. Embroiled in a desperate scheme to keep her family safe, Silbe must team up with a roguish smuggler who makes her want to bet on him with everything she’s got.

For the YA reader…

Moonblood by T.W. Fendley. ($12) Who wants to live a century before seeing the outside world? Not Ariadne. Restless and idealistic, the young immortal sneaks out of the Eves’ secret compound and finds the outside world more dangerous than she could have imagined. Cut off from her own kind and hunted by mortals, she is forced to hide among the Adams, the immortal sons born of her sisters. But the Adams have sinister plans of their own. Ariadne must find a way to stop them, even if it means sacrificing her immortal life.

The Boxcar Baby by J.L. Mulvihill ($15) is the first book of the Steel Roots series. Born in a boxcar on a train bound for Georgia. At least, that is what Papa Steel always told AB’Gale. But now, fifteen years later, the man who adopted and raised her as his own is missing and it’s up to AB’Gale to find him. (Or splurge on the whole series for $40!)

For something shorter….

Setting Suns: Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth Donald brings a new look to her first collection, including a new story, new afterward and more.

A nightmarish fun house turned deadly.
A couple trapped in a futile journey through time.
A single baleful eye watching from the deep.
An assassin waiting in a snow-covered tree.
A toy that seems to have a life of its own.
A pair of soldiers trapped between death and something worse.
A tenebrous hand reaching out of the shadows.
These are the award-winning tales and terrors of Elizabeth Donald, writer of things that go chomp in the night. This new anniversary edition is being released 20 years after the first story was published, now including a bonus short story and the author’s reflections on twenty years of twilight tales.
In that space between evening and nightfall, between consciousness and sleep, the moment when the light fades and the shadows take over… These are the lands of the Setting Suns.

Side Roads by Rachel Brune is a Crone Girls Press title, and thus is 10 percent off this season. Clockwork fairies, arachnid mothers, the Carnival Ghost…
The stories gathered here take the reader on a winding trip down a darkened road as the battery in your phone slowly dies. The threads of this collection weave a tale of wrong turns in the early morning hours, of faded photographs that don’t quite fit one’s memory, of dying monarchs and has-been superheroes. In these pages, you will find the eerie, the grim, and the lost souls that wander the gloom. These stories were born of dark nights and cold drives and the certain knowledge that, as winter sets in and the nights grow longer, there’s more out there in the darkness than the shadows let on…

New from Crone Girls Press…. an anthology for a cause.

A Woman Unbecoming, ed. by Rachel Brune and Carol Gyzander. Crone Girls Press presents A Woman Unbecoming, a charity anthology of horror and dark tales to benefit reproductive healthcare rights. Award-winning and up-and-coming authors share over two dozen stories and poems. If you like intense characters, powerful women, and twists you won’t see coming, then you’ll love this fierce anthology co-edited by Rachel A. Brune and Carol Gyzander. Explore AWoman Unbecoming to revel in women’s rage, power, and agency—and support reproductive healthcare rights today. Stories and Poems By: Marc Abbott, Linda Addison, Alp Beck, Carina Bissett, Rachel Brune, Paige L. Christie, Ravyn Crescent, Elizabeth Davis, Angela Giddings, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Teel James Glenn, Carol Gyzander, CM Harris, Nicole Henning, Darin Kennedy, DeAnna Knippling, Tara Laskowski, Lee Murray, Bridgett Nelson, Jennifer Nestojko, Jessica Nettles, Christina Nordlander, Cindy O’Quinn & Patricia Gomes, Cristel Orrand, Jude Reid, Mike Robinson, Kathleen Scheiner, Jeff Strand, Anna Taborska, Steven Van Patten, Holly Lyn Walrath, Michael G. Williams, and Jeff Wood.

All Crone Girls Press books are 10 percent off for the 2022 Holiday Season!

For the artist….

A handmade leather mask is the perfect stocking stuffer for the cosplayer on your list! Branson’s General Store has a variety of colors in the simple $5 design, so be sure to indicate your preferred colors in your order!

Like what you’ve seen from photographer artist Elizabeth Donald? Order any size poster or print at elizabethdonaldphotography.com!

A special note of thank you

The authors and artists of the Literary Underworld and all those whose livelihood depended on the cons and book fairs and other gatherings that were canceled by the pandemic are very grateful for your continued support. As we celebrate this holiday season in this time of recovery, we hope for a happier, safer and more prosperous year for everyone.

Stay safe out there, and we will all see each other again soon.

 

You read all the way to the end!
Use the code BF2022 to get a discount on your purchase!

Happy Pride!

It is fashionable to drape rainbows across businesses in June, but the real hope is that business supports LGBTQ+ causes and art all year round. We’re a work in progress, but Literary Underworld has always striven to be allies, co-founded by LGBTQ+ writers – and we have been banned in Utah because of it! (It’s a long story.)

Here are some of our works that featured LGBTQ+ themes and characters and/or are written by LGBTQ+ authors. Check them out – in June and the rest of the year.

Glad Hands by Angelia Sparrow and Naomi Brooks

Chuck Hummingbird has a nice, safe run, from Pacifica to the Tribal Lands. Even in the fragmented United States, freight still moves between the resulting countries. When he’s tapped for a perilous run down past Heartland, the last thing he needs is a pretty blue-eyed drifter, but he can’t get Seven out of his head or his bunk. When the Confederated States prove more dangerous than Chuck feared, they’re caught in a terrifying flight towards safety that will drive both of them and the love they’ve found to new limits.

 

West of Sunset by Dennis R. Upkins

For Brecken Everett, there’s never a dull moment. When he’s not dealing with a demanding course load and honing his magic as top student at Lightmage University, he’s working as a private investigator and using his skills to protect the innocent from the darkest forces. In two action-packed adventures, Breck demonstrates that outnumbered and outgunned is when he’s at his best.

In Keepers, Brecken is enlisted to aid Jacob and Joshua Phoenix; twins, the last Pyrians, the last of an ancient race. The Brothers Phoenix are on a quest to uncover clues to their past. When they find a lost relic, a pair of demons claim it. With Brecken’s aid, the twins are determined to not only stop the threat, but have some fun in the process.

West of Sunset takes place a year after Keepers. All Brecken wants to do is get out of Atlanta. Heading to Los Angeles with his best friend, he plans a vacation of surf, sun, partying and relaxation… until the boys stumble upon a museum heist connected to a biker gang of vampires with plans to raise a most dark power. Matters get even more complicated with the involvement of a mysterious and powerful witch. Witches, museum heists, arising malevolent forces, vampire biker gangs, even Brecken’s vacations are just another day at the office.

 

Anthony Reprobate by Angelia Sparrow and Gabriel Belthir

James Ligatos is a man with an unusual hobby. He turns promising young criminals into world leaders.

Anthony Hatcher is not a criminal. He’s a Reprobate, rescued from the depths of a Heartland mental hospital, tortured and forgotten for daring to break every moral code.

So begins the most unusual training the Ligatos group has encountered. A rule-breaking, nonlinear learner may be more than all of them together can handle. He may also be their last hope to stop a war, for a growing evangelical movement in the Heartland is calling for a crusade to re-unify the ten countries that were once the United States of America.

It is up to Anthony to become everything he hates, a teetotalling revival preacher, to save the land and the man he loves. Worth it.

 

Methuseleh’s Legacy by T.W. Fendley

Lilith Davidson has nothing to lose. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, her only hope for survival rests in an experimental longevity serum she herself helped to develop using an intuitive-based protocol known as remote viewing. She never dreamed the treatment could be so wildly effective… nor did she expect its unusual side effect.

Now, as Lilith and the other eleven Methuselah Pioneers struggle to embrace the serum’s gift, powerful forces condemn their miracle cure as a violation of life’s natural order and threaten their lives. Will the treatment help humanity or tear society apart?

 

Adventuresses by Angelia Sparrow

Take flight on an airship bound for ecstasy and California.

Fall in love with a waitress. Or Medusa.

Hold off the zombie invasion of Oklahoma or roll a rig through it in Kansas.

Treasure hunt to save a feline lover.

Enjoy a steampunk medical demonstration for curing nervous hysteria.

Ten tales of lesbian adventure take you to the far reaches of the galaxy, or the science fiction convention down the road, to Texas in our world or on a timeline when the Confederacy found a way to make radioactive bombs.

Find your hat. Adjust your goggles. It’s time for Adventuresses.

Black Friday!

What better way celebrate the holidays than to support authors and artists through these times and introduce your friends and family to something new?

We have a few suggestions for your list. (You thought we might.) Remember that when you buy from Literary Underworld, you are buying from the authors and small presses directly, so they will get to keep much more of the sale price. Every little bit helps your favorite author keep creating those fascinating new worlds.

For the romance fan…

The Carolina Wolf box set by Sela Carsen ($7) combines Carolina Wolf and Carolina Pearl, two ta

les of werewolves and true love in South Carolina. Whoever said there were no wolves in South Carolina lied. Put a little grrrrl power into your romp in the swamp this holiday season!

Heart of the Beast by Jim D. Gillentine ($20) tells the story of Andrew, a man with a beastly secret, and his horrifying journey with his love Angela from the dark streets of Memphis to the cold reaches of Alaska, from faraway places to deep within each other’s souls, seeking peace and freedom to love one another – if only the world would let them.

Princess by Mistake by Kit Tunstall ($7). What started out as the worst day ever just got worse. Incorrectly identified as her strange roommate, curvy Jory finds herself spirited away by an intergalactic bounty hunter intent on returning her to the prince she’s expected to marry. Except she’s no princess, and forget a prince when she could have the sexy, magenta-skinned alien instead – if he’ll accept that she’s a mistaken princess and give in to the desire simmering between them.

For the fantasy fan…

Born of Swords by Steven L. Shrewsbury. Interviewing Gorias La Gaul is a dream come true for young scribe Jessica. Unfortunately for Jessica, she’s found Gorias in the midst of an annual pilgrimage of sorts, and though he agrees to let her come along, it’s not without a warning: You may not like what you see and hear. Whether viewing past visions with magical gemstones or jumping into the fray alongside the barbarian, Jessica’s about to get firsthand accounts she won’t soon forget…and discover legends are far from reality, and just as far from being pretty. For most men, the future is not certain and the past is prologue.

Wild Hunt by Nick Rowan ($10). When the Preternatural and Magical Squadron dumps an ugly batch of child serial murders into her lap, DJ Admire has a few weeks to find the killer before the next victims are found dead in their own little beds. On the Nightside of Memphis, few things are as they seem and even allies have their own agendas. And DJ has no magic, just a Desert Eagle and an ongoing romance with Captain Morgan and Admiral Nelson…

For the weird Western fan…

Mojo Hand by Steven L. Shrewsbury ($15) After a gun battle in an 1884 Peoria cathouse, one-armed ex-Confederate guerrilla Joel Stuart finds himself at odds with dire magical forces. He runs headfirst into an army of the undead, a demon guard, the persona of African god Damballah, and even finds himself beneath the lid of a coffin.

The Alamo and Zombies by Jean A. Stuntz ($5) is exactly what it says! Zombies at the Alamo, what else could you want?

For the horror fan…

Nocturne Infernum by Elizabeth Donald ($20) compiles the three books of the Nocturnal Urges series into one volume filled with heat, horror and intrigue. In this alternate Memphis, vampires are a dark underclass whose bite offers pleasure and pain in one sweet kiss. Humans take advantage of the pleasures vampires can provide, but call them friends? Lovers? The strain between human and vampire grows as death rises in the streets…

The Dark Walk Forward by John McFarland($12). The small town of Ste. Odile in America has experienced the Great War in ways that no one should ever have to endure. An 1880s schoolteacher is faced with the worst blizzard of her time and must save the children under her charge. A young man searches for his father the abandoned orphanage the older man owns… and both know they will despair at what they find. John S. McFarland has slogged through his characters’ woes and woven them into these sweetly emotional yet acutely distressful tales.

Stories We Tell After Midnight ($10). Here, the shadows keep their secrets and the moon hides from deeds cast in her glow. In this collection, the Fae walk as human, the dead burn with their anger at the living, the creatures that live in the dark places of the wrong zip code creep out of the shadows and into the kitchen.

Planet of the Dead ($5) by T.K. Reilley. Commander Kate Daniels expected to find incompetency when sent to assess the terraforming progress on Primos. She didn’t expect a saboteur to force a crash landing, stranding them at the mercy of the hungry creatures roaming the planet.

For the sci-fi fan…

Dream of the Navigator by Stephen Zimmer. For most, virtual realms, substances, and entertainment provide escapes, but for Haven, Cayden, Jaelynn, and Salvador, growing up in Technate 6 is a restless existence. A hunger for something more gnaws inside each of them. Discoveries await that open the gates to transcend time and space, and even new planes of existence. Nothing in their universe, or others, is impossible to explore.

Paradise Earth by Anthony Mathenia ($12) is a deconstruction of faith at the end of the world and beyond. When blazing balls of fire fall from the sky, a religious sect interprets it as the fulfillment of long-held prophecies foretelling the end of the world. The members flee to their religious sanctuary, believing that this global cataclysm is the portent of a new paradise of eternal happiness. Inside, one cold and starving man struggles to hold onto his hope for the future as the torturous night drags on and he struggles to hold onto his hope for the future.

Ace’s Odds by Sela Carsen ($10). Mkhai is a former soldier in debt to the mob boss who runs a glitzy, glamorous space station casino hiding a dark underworld. The only hand he’s got left to play is getting the mob boss’s daughter off the station… but Silbe is no pampered princess, even if her father is one of the most feared men in the galaxy. Embroiled in a desperate scheme to keep her family safe, Silbe must team up with a roguish smuggler who makes her want to bet on him with everything she’s got.

For the YA reader…

Moonblood by T.W. Fendley. ($12) Who wants to live a century before seeing the outside world? Not Ariadne. Restless and idealistic, the young immortal sneaks out of the Eves’ secret compound and finds the outside world more dangerous than she could have imagined. Cut off from her own kind and hunted by mortals, she is forced to hide among the Adams, the immortal sons born of her sisters. But the Adams have sinister plans of their own. Ariadne must find a way to stop them, even if it means sacrificing her immortal life.

The Boxcar Baby by J.L. Mulvihill ($15) is the first book of the Steel Roots series. Born in a boxcar on a train bound for Georgia. At least, that is what Papa Steel always told AB’Gale. But now, fifteen years later, the man who adopted and raised her as his own is missing and it’s up to AB’Gale to find him. (Or splurge on the whole series for $40!)

Redheart by Jackie Gamber ($10). Kallon Redheart lives with his back turned on his fellow dragons, on humans, and on everything he once understood. Riza Diantus is a young woman with dreams too wide to fit inside her village fence. Their unexpected friendship is risky in Leland Province, where Fordon Blackclaw, Dragon Council Leader, has inflamed tensions between dragons and humans to the brink of war. When Riza is threatened, Kallon is the only one with the power to save her.

For something shorter….

Moonlight Sonata by Elizabeth Donald ($15-30) is a collection of award-winning short stories of the Twilight-Zone-creepy design. Imagine a haunted church, where the ground has turned sour and something walks in the shadows to the mournful hymns. A silent covered bridge that no one dares to cross. Angry spirits that cry out from beneath the ground of a cemetery that will not lie still. Also check out Yanaguana, a limited-edition chapbook from the Blackfire series available for a short time only!

Coppice and Brake from Crone Girls Press ($10). A night guard brings an offering to the eternal denizens of a notorious prison. In a young girl’s room, the shiny people keep watch in the night. A proud father beams as his son takes the stage for the performance of a lifetime. The stories in this anthology are the glimpses of the dark places between the forest and a dream. They are the shadows seeking the last notes of a dying violin. They invite the reader into a world where a condemned man faces his fate over and over and over again.

Between the Lines ($15). Stoker Award-winning editor and author Michael Knost gave his online writing students an opening sentence and a closing sentence and asked them to write a story. Every story opens with: “Kelvin pressed against the wound as blood seeped around his hands.” And ends with: “Watching the train disappear into the night, he brought the flower to his nose before tossing it to the tracks.” This anthology is the amazing result.

Get three Nick Rowan titles in ebook for only $10!

For the artist….

A handmade leather mask is the perfect stocking stuffer for the cosplayer on your list! Branson’s General Store has a variety of colors in the simple $5 design, so be sure to indicate your preferred colors in your order!

Like what you’ve seen from photographer artist Elizabeth Donald? Order any size poster or print at elizabethdonaldphotography.com!

A special note of thank you

It’s been a year of recovery for the authors and artists of the Literary Underworld and all those whose livelihood depended on the cons and book fairs and other gatherings that were canceled by the pandemic. As we celebrate this holiday season, we are always grateful for the support of our readers and fans, and hope for a happier, safer and more prosperous year for everyone.

Stay safe out there, and we will all see each other again soon.
— Mgmt. 

 

You read all the way to the end!
Use the code BLACKFRIDAY2021 to get 15 percent off your purchase!

Deadlines! (We’re writers, we’re good at those)

Everyone knows that shipping delays and supply issues are haunting most retail these days. Fortunately, most of the Literary Underworld’s stock is present in our warehouse and ready to hit the mail as soon as you order! If we are out of stock on something, it can frequently be obtained by backorder, but the website will indicate if that’s the case.

We’ve been informed of the deadlines for shipping. In order to guarantee arrival by Dec. 25 (as much as guarantees work with the postal service), you should plan to place your order by Dec. 15 for media mail. If you want to pay a little extra, you can have it shipped first class if you order by Dec 17, or Dec. 18 for Priority Mail. International orders should be placed by Dec. 6.

Of course, we can always arrange custom shipping with private services like UPS at cost. Just message us and we will see what we can do for you! Happy holiday shopping!

Five recommendations for Halloween season

It’s spooooooky time, when crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake and spooks come out for a swinging wake… wait, that’s Disneyland. Here at Literary Underworld, we have some of the creepiest, crawliest horror around, so if you’re in the mood, check out these books!

John McFarland’s triumphant return to the horror genre has gotten strong reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and several others. Set in his fictional southern river down of Ste. Odile, he explores the darker side of the town’s history in The Dark Walk Forward.

The small town of Ste. Odile in America has experienced the Great War in ways that no one should ever have to endure. Doctors must tend to births and deaths that make their most difficult cases seem benign. An 1880s schoolteacher is faced with the worst blizzard of her time and must save the children under her charge. A young man searches for his father the abandoned orphanage the older man owns… and both know they will despair at what they find. A primitive woman experiences colonization and the stereotypes of men, yet finds her own method of retribution.

John S. McFarland has slogged through his characters’ woes and woven them into sweetly emotional yet acutely distressful tales. We as readers are forced to understand the pain, the despair, and sometimes the hope of his creations. We realize we are lucky to live in the era we do. We also realize anything can change to tear us apart. Is it fate? Destiny? Or do we bring about these changes on our own? McFarland will let us know.

 

There’s a monster coming to the small town of Pikeburn. In half an hour, it will begin feeding on the citizens, but no one will call the authorities for help. They are the ones who sent it to Pikeburn. They are the ones who are broadcasting the massacre live to the world. Every year, Red Diamond unleashes a new creation in a different town as a display of savage terror that is part warning and part celebration.
Only no one is celebrating in Pikeburn now. No one feels honored or patriotic. They feel like prey. Local Sheriff Yan Corban refuses to succumb to the fear, paranoia, and violence that suddenly grips his town. Stepping forward to battle this year’s lab-grown monster, Sheriff Corban must organize a defense against the impossible. His allies include an old art teacher, a shell-shocked mechanic, a hateful millionaire, a fearless sharpshooter, a local meth kingpin, and a monster groupie. Old grudges, distrust, and terror will be the monster’s allies in a game of wits and savagery, ambushes and treachery.
As the conflict escalates and the bodies pile up, it becomes clear this creature is unlike anything Red Diamond has unleashed before. No mercy will be asked for or given in this battle of man vs monster. It’s time to run, hide, or fight. It’s time for Red Diamond.

Horror isn’t just confined to the surface of the Earth. What we find out in space might be more terrifying than anything we’ve found in our own graveyards.
Commander Kate Daniels expected to find incompetency when sent to assess the terraforming progress on Primos. She didn’t expect a saboteur to force a crash landing, stranding them at the mercy of the hungry creatures roaming the planet.
If she and her crew can’t find a way off Primos, they will die there… and rise again.
Do you like a little western in your horror? Then Steven L. Shrewsbury’s Weird West novels are definitely for you.
Outside El Paso in 1899, Chief Blackthorn enlists the aide of aging Confederate Joel Stuart to retrieve a lost tome of evil. Sent into Juarez, the one-armed former guerrilla soon meets Adam Von Juntz, the nephew of the Black Bible’s author. The two search for the book stolen by notorious bad-man Jesus Bravo. But Bravo is just a puppet of the mysterious Preacherman and realizes he’s been duped and the promise of great riches was just a lie. Now he must join Stuart, and find The Preacherman.
The Preacherman is the conduit for a greater force seeking a return to the world, a female satyr called Shub-Niggurath. The Preacherman plots to bring an apocalyptic change to the world, ushering in a new era of the old gods. Surrounded by dire forces seeking a foot hold on this world, Joel and his companions battle walking nightmares and their own fears. Can Joel overcome the ruthless denizens of Juarez and foil the Preacherman and Shub-Niggurath’s horrifying plot which is already taking hold in the wombs of the Jaurez women?
A tale of action, courage and terror, LAST MAN SCREAMING will appeal of readers of Lovecraftian lore, tough westerns and horror. It teaches that survival isn’t always pretty.
Elizabeth Donald’s Twilight Zone-style brand of creepy horror led author and editor Michael Knost to call her “the George R.R. Martin of horror,” and at least one reviewer declared she had “a storytelling ability to rival that of Stephen King.”
In Moonlight Sonata, Donald returns to the creepy short stories that made Setting Suns an award-winning favorite. Imagine a haunted church, where the ground has turned sour and something walks in the shadows to the mournful hymns. A silent covered bridge that no one dares to cross. Angry spirits that cry out from beneath the ground of a cemetery that will not lie still. An ageless man bound in love to a mortal woman, forever moving, forever haunted.
A voice that can speak only through a radio, a voice from beyond death itself. A man haunted by an ageless face that brings tragedy to his life whenever it appears. A girl whose imagination carries her beyond the point of no return in a future where dreams become reality – and so do nightmares.
All these and many more are in stock and available now from the Literary Underworld! Click here to explore the scary titles as we wind onward… into the dark.

New from Shrews: Bedlam Unleashed!

One of the fun things about meeting up with the Underlords on the convention circuit is finding out about the nifty new projects they’ve got going on. Hanging out with Steven Shrewsbury at Imaginarium was a blast as always, and we were delighted to add Bedlam Unleashed to our offerings at the Literary Underworld.

 

Hulking Norse berserker Erik Bedlam lives and fights with a piece of steel lodged in his skull. Ever hallucinating the netherworld, his unpredictable behavior provides no end of challenges to his traveling companion, mercenary Alanis Johansson. After the battle of Clontarf in 1014 A.D., the two launch into a series of bizarre circumstances and horrors that tackle their courage, meddle, and strength.

Through these warriors, thrown into a series of horrific events in what seemed like pure chance, cruel fate starts to form into a design. Though hopefully guided by Odin, the All-Father, when contacted via the power of the one-eyed mage Kendrick Prescott a greater mystery awaits. The trio moves onward, facing dragons, neo-druids, cannibal Highlanders, vampire dwarves, and a Lovecraftian horror, to name but a few obstacles. Through it all, Kendrick proves to be not all he appears, but uses the mercenaries as his vehicle to cross the land.

Alanis, also a man of secrets, struggles under so many horrors, but the unpredictable, jovial and violent Bedlam staggers through it all, be it episodes of demonic possession, jousts, or hallucinatory substances.

Painted on a canvas of actual historical events, the body count rises as the travelers make their way down the coast of England, seeking passage off the island.

A story of heroism, malevolence, and ferocity; BEDLAM UNLEASHED shows how courage can propel individuals beyond the borders of the human spirit.

Buy it today from the Literary Underworld!

 

STEVEN L. SHREWSBURY lives, works, and writes in rural Illinois. More than 360 of his short stories have appeared in print or electronic media, along with more than 100 poems. Nine of his novels have been released, with more on the way. His books run from sword & sorcery (OverkillThrallBedlam Unleashed) to historical fantasy (Godforsaken) extreme horror (HawgTormentorStronger Than Death) to horror-westerns (Hell BillyBad Magick, and the forthcoming Last Man Screaming). He loves books, British TV, guns, movies, politics, sports and hanging out with his sons. He’s frequently outdoors, looking for brightness wherever it may hide.

 

Check out some of Shrews’ other works! These and other titles are available from Literary Underworld’s online store.

New release: Yanaguana by Elizabeth Donald

 

Elizabeth Donald has been writing the Blackfire series since the release of The Cold Ones in 2009. Sara Harvey is a former Marine and leader of a paramilitary team that intervenes in supernatural incidents, dealing with “critters” that most people think are only folklore. They can believe that, because Sara’s group keeps them safe. Most of the time.

Blackfire now spans several novels, novellas and short stories that have appeared on their own and as part of collections and anthologies. The most recent is Yanaguana, which was published in 2020 as part of a three-novella collection titled Foul Womb of Night, currently available in ebook only as part of Crone Girls Press‘s Midnight Bites series.

Recently, Elizabeth’s Patreon subscribers received a limited-edition print chapbook of Yanaguana as their annual bonus. But there were a few copies left over, and we’re happy to offer them in our shop up until the supply runs out!

 

One of their own is dead. 

Unfortunately for the Blackfire team, that usually isn’t the end of the fight. 

Something is prowling the Riverwalk of San Antonio, a hungry creature with powers beyond any being they’ve fought before. It can force them to face dark shadows of their past as well as the unquiet ghosts of the city, and with each step it grows stronger – and more hungry.

Follow the crew of Blackfire on their darkest journey yet, under the walkways and bridges of San Antonio in the shadow of the Alamo to face their deepest fears. 

 

Click here to snag this limited-edition chapbook for your own collection! And if you want to hear more about Elizabeth’s work (and get in line for the next awesome bonus), subscribe to her Patreon at the link below!