Bestselling editor Rebecca Rowland (Unburied: A Collection of Queer Dark Fiction) and Dark Ink Books (Savini, Unmasked: The True Life Story of the World's Most Prolific Cinematic Killer) present a unique anthology of monster, folk, paranormal, and psychological horror as glimpsed through the lens of the latchkey generation. In this assortment of spine-chilling tales, twenty-two voices shine a strobe light on the cultural demons that lurked in the background while they came of age in the heyday of Satanic panic and slasher flicks, milk carton missing and music television, video rentals and riot grrrls.

These Gen-X storytellers once stayed out unsupervised until the streetlights came on, and what they brought home with them will terrify you.

Featuring brand new fiction from Kevin David Anderson, Glynn Owen Barrass, Matthew Barron, C.D. Brown, Matthew Chabin, L.E. Daniels, C.O. Davidson, Douglas Ford, Phil Ford, Holly Rae Garcia, Dale W. Glaser, Tim Jeffreys, Derek Austin Johnson, Eldon Litchfield, Adrian Ludens, Elaine Pascale, Erica Ruppert, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Rob Smales, Mark Towse, Thomas Vaughn, and Thomas K.S. Wake.

"Brimming with insightful storytelling and haunting scares, Generation X-ed proves there are no slackers in this eclectic collection of latchkey horror writers." -Daily Dead

Take a Deep Breath and Dive Beneath the Surface of Shallow Waters—Where Nothing Stays Buried.

With 20 Dark Fiction & Horror tales diving beneath the surface of life, death, and the mystery that lies beneath.

Shallow Waters is the official monthly flash fiction challenge hosted by Crystal Lake Publishing, with authors submitting via email. The best submissions are then posted on Crystal Lake’s Patreon page (an exclusive behind the scenes community of readers and authors), where patrons read daily entries and vote for the winner. What you’ll find in these Shallow Waters anthologies include the winners as well as the most popular of our finalists. Stay tuned for more volumes in this series, or find Crystal Lake Publishing on Patreon to enter or vote on future challenges (or gain access to our Still Water Bay series). Check out the Shallow Waters series page here on Amazon, where you’ll find volume 1 for free.

Volume six includes stories of Karma, travel horror, forgotten elder gods, being home alone or in lockdown, and a non-themed challenge.

Includes:
Introduction by Joe Mynhardt
“The Offering” by Denver Grenell
“We All Scream” by A.J. Franks
“Whittling” by Michael Harris Cohen
“Fall to Frost” by Jonathan Winn
“Meadow for The Birdmen” by Guy Medley
“The Mottled Path” by Jennifer Carstens
“Gandaberunda” by Richard Thomas
“Nothing in There” by J. Brian Reed
“Anything for the Cause” by Mark Allan Gunnells
“Father” by R. Leigh Hennig
“Rattled” by Madeline Mora-Summonte
“Judgment Call” by Erica Ruppert
“Molarthroat” by Jonathan Fortin
“Stupid Girl” by Michael Patrick Hicks
“Carmen’s a Bitch” by Mark Allan Gunnells
“Hot Broth on a Cold Winter’s Night” by R.B. Wood
“Neighborhood Watch” by L.F. Falconer
“Tea for Two” by Amanda Hard
“The Man Who Fell from the Sky” by Esteban Vargas
“How Lovely Are Thy Branches” by Theresa Derwin

In this volume…

• In the dishonest quiet of a hanging moon, two strangers wrestle with the horrifying consequences of a ravenous war.
• Sometimes the gods hunger for more than a sit-down meal.
• What if your new ‘god’ could do anything he wanted? What if he no longer allowed Christmas?
• Death was supposed to find the old woman forced to walk the mottled path.
• A grandfather has mere minutes to prepare his granddaughter for the arrival of the Old Gods and ensure the survival of the human race.
• A newly single woman celebrates her divorce with an impromptu drive north, but the woods hold horrors worse than her failed marriage.
• Peter knows the President has to be stopped, but to what lengths will he go to accomplish this?
• She’d never let her boy starve twice.
• How many ways can evil enter your house?
• With help from her Stuffies, young Emmy organizes a tea party that guarantees to put her back in the family spotlight.
• Sometimes, what’s outside the box is scarier than what's hiding inside.
• Hear the song once, the cold sets in, he now lives underneath your skin.

Halloween, a time for laughing children in white bedsheets and superhero costumes. A time for chocolate candy, and pumpkins, and Trick-or-Treat. 

... a time for dark things everywhere to slink out of the shadows and into our lives, reminding those unlucky few that our charades of Halloween cannot erase the centuries of history and pain behind the facade…

What October Brings celebrates the dark traditions of the autumn rituals, of Halloween and Samhain, in homage to the uniquely fascinating fiction of HP Lovecraft. Masters of the short story offer you a “once in a lifetime” Trick-or-Treat experience… 

…perhaps your last!

Stories

• Tonight I Wear My Crimson Face, by Adrian Cole

• The House of the Witches, by Darrell Schweitzer

• The Bones, by Erica Ruppertabout

• The Idols of Xan, by Steve Dilks

• Conjurings, by Marlane Quade Cook

• Matriarch Unbound, by Glynn Owen Barrass

• The Mouth at the Edge of the World, by Luke Walker

• “An Autumn Settling”, by Alistair Rey

• I Know How You’ll Die, by K.G. Anderson

• Fair Shopping, by Jack Lee Taylor

• Black Aggie, by Marina Favila

• The Chroma of Home, by Arasibo Campeche

• The Last Resort, by Dean MacAllister

• The Crypt Beneath the Manse, by S. Subramanian

• A Winter Reunion, by C.M. Muller

• The Stravinsky Code, by Leonard Carpenter

• She Talks to Me, by Matthew Masucci

• Wings of Twilight, by L.F. Falconer

• A Pantheon of Trash, by Thomas C. Mavroudis

• Juliet’s Moon, by D.C. Lozar

• The Gargoyle’s Wife, by Jean Graham

• The Melting Man, by Justin Boote

• Dead Waves, by Sean McCoy

• The Proposal, by J.D. Brink

• Dark Energy, by Kevin Hayman

• Christmas at Castle Dracula, by S. L. Edwards

• There Was Fire, by M. Ravenberg

• Them, by Sharon Cullars

• For Love of Lythea, by C. I. Kemp

Poetry

• Beltane, by K.A. Opperman

• Twin Hungers, by Scott J. Couturier

• The Jackal, by Ashley Dioses

• Our Family Ghost, by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

• Le Gargoyle, by Russ Parkhurst

"Thou Shalt Not Suffer," by Matt Neil Hill

"No Holds Bard," by Adrian Cole

"Laying the Hairy Book," by Josh Reynolds

"Here Is Where Your Proud Waves Halt," by Erica Ruppert

"Vicious Circles," by Paul Dale Anderson

"Assorted Shades of Red," by Franklyn Searight

"Strange Days in Old Yandrissa," by John R. Fultz

"Fertility Rites," by Glynn Owen Barrass

"The Witch’s Heart," by Rachel Bolton

"Hag Race," by Andre E. Harewood

"Best Friend Becky," by Wayne Faust

"The Rat in the Rabbit Cage," by Ashley Dioses

"Two Spells," by Neva Bryan

"Pulled Over," by Paul Spears

"The Witch of Skur," by L.F. Falconer

"Cat and Mouse," by Duane Pesice

"Last of the Ashiptu," by Paul Lubaczewski

"Firestorm," by Richard H. Durisen

"The Witch of Pender," by John Linwood Grant

"The Nora Witch," by Brandon Jimison

"The Broken Witch," by Scott Hutchison

Plus poetry by Maurits Zwankhuizen, Lucy A. Snyder, David F. Daumit, S.L. Edwards, Lori R. Lopez, Frederick J. Mayer, K.A. Opperman, Clay F. Johnson, Vonnie Winslow Crist, Oliver Smith, Darla Klein

If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!

• The Meddler, by Matthew John
• Tiger Girls vs. the Zombies, by Lucy A. Snyder
• Dead Between the Eyes, by Adrian Cole
• Alive Again, by Franklyn Searight
• The Night Hans Kroeger Came Back, by Kenneth Bykerk
• The Marching Dead, by Andrew Darlington
• I Wished for Zombies, by D.C. Lozar
• O Mary Don’t You Mourn, by Mike Chinn
• To Die, To Sleep, No More, by Erica Ruppert
• Run, Monster, Run, by Teasha Seitz
• Another Night in Bayou Sauvage, by Chad Hensley
• Kifaro, by Dilman Dila
• But I Love Him, by Scott Wheelock
• Who Wants to Live Forever?, by Angela Yuriko Smith
• The Dead Are Always Hungry, by Christopher Alex Ray
• Zen Zombies, by R. A. Smith
• Cassius Max, by KT Morley
• A Nanotech Samsara, by J.N. Cameron
• Pine in the Soul, by John Linwood Grant
• “Welcome Home”, by Craig E. Sawyer
• Papa Hanco, by Ed Reyes
• They Shall Eat Dust, by Josh Reynolds
• In Shadow Valley, by Nick Swain
• Devil’s Bargain, by by J.F. Le Roux
• Right for You Now, by Andrew Jennings
• E’Zunguth, the Zombie God, by Maxwell I. Gold
• Lazy River, by Kelly Piner
• The New Human, by Shayne K. Keen
• This Little Piggy, by EV Knight
• Life Unworthy of Life, by Stephanie Ellis
• More Blood, by Carson Ray
• This Creeping Cold, by Kevin Rees
• The Body I Used to Be, by Scott Edelman
• Queen of Hearts, by S.E. Lindberg