Ronald Kelly

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About Ronald Kelly

Ronald Kelly has been writing and publishing horror tales set in the American South for 36 years. A former Zebra Books author, his published works include Fear, Undertaker’s Moon, Blood Kin, Hell Hollow, The Dark’Un, Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors, After the Burn, Hindsight, The Buzzard Zone, The Halloween Store, Season's Creepings, Irish Gothic, The Saga of Dead-Eye series, and the EC horror-flavored Southern Fried series. His audio collection of Southern-fried short stories, Dark Dixie: Tales of Southern Horror, was included on the nominating ballot of the 1992 Grammy Awards for Best Non-Musical or Spoken Album. In 2021, his collection of extreme horror fiction, The Essential Sick Stuff won a Splatterpunk Award for Best Collection. He lives in a backwoods hollow in Brush Creek, Tennessee with his wife and young’uns.

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Titles By Ronald Kelly

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Undertaker's Moon (Macabre Ink Resurrected Horrors Book 1) Jan 16, 2014

by Ronald Kelly, Alex McVey

( 111 )

$2.99

A graveyard feast beneath the summer moon …

The rural town of Old Hickory. Tennessee was a quiet, picturesque community … until the O'Sheas came to town.

Becoming the new proprietors of the town's only funeral parlor, with the help of their charming patriarch, Square McManus, the Irish family was wholeheartedly accepted by the local townfolk. The thing began to happen. Strange things … horrible, unspeakable things … in the dead of night.

The sighting of wolfish beasts congregating around an open grave in the town cemetery. Frightening changes in several of Old Hickory's less desirable residents. And the brutal murder and devourment of a varsity football player in the wooded wilderness outside of town. Soon, what was once concealed in shadow and secrecy was now starkly revealed, in all its ravenous fury, by the silvery light of the full moon.

As the residents of Old Hickory, as well as the local police, begin to fall victim to an unknown evil, four individuals—the town nerd, a high school jock, a widowed gunsith, and a mysterious transient from a distant shore—find themselves facing what could possibly be a hellish lycanthrope from ancient Ireland … the legendary Arget Bethir … the Silver Beast.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

No Anesthetic: A Splatter Ink Publishing Anthology Nov 1, 2021

by Splatter Publishing, Ronald Kelly, Eric Butler, Brian Rosenberger, John Boden, Damascus Mincemeyer, J.F. Capps, Scott Harper, Simon McHardy, C.M. Saunders

( 21 )

$2.99

Do you love Extreme Horror?

Is a great compelling story with extreme violence, gore, and content your cup of bloody tea?
If you answered yes, then strap in, because we have the anthology for you!

Splatter Ink Publishing presents No Anesthetic, a no-boundaries anthology compiled especially for extreme-horror-loving readers! We have gathered unique extreme horror stories from some of the best names in the genre. The stories in this book will twist your stomach up and make your brain squirm.

Hop aboard a school bus with a sociopathic teen. Find out what a frazzled wife is to do when her husband gets puking drunk at a dinner party. Venture into the jungles of Africa, where death and carnage await. Join a young couple for a night at the movies, where there are worse horrors than those on the screen.

These and more stories await you. But reader beware, you are in for some graphic, grisly, and gory stuff!

Including:
“Woodshed” by Ronald Kelly
“The Fixer Upper” by Eric Butler
“Sometimes the Bear” by Brian Rosenberger and John Boden
“Blut Und Ton” by Damascus Mincemeyer
“A Night at the Movies” by J.F. Capps
“Sebastian and the Jungle of Misery” by Scott Harper
“Glutton of the Sea” by Simon McHardy
“Painted Nails” by C.M. Saunders
“The Hate Box in her Heart” by Thomas R. Clark
“The Verdict” by A.M. Bacon

Other Formats: Paperback

Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear Apr 17, 2022

by Ronald Kelly, Alex McVey

( 14 )

$3.99

Down below the Mason-Dixon Line, deep in the shadowy hills and hollows of Tennessee, lives a teller of terrifying tales and a spinner of dark yarns unlike any you have ever heard before. Stories to chill your bones and pepper your flesh with goose bumps. What his true name may be, no one knows for sure. But, if you listen closely, you can hear his voice ringing through the dead of night!

Pull up a tombstone and join your host, The Old Storyteller, as he shares nine tales of ghostly horror that will run a shiver down your spine! Tour a backwoods graveyard, neglected and forgotten…a cemetery haunted by restless spirits and wayward souls. Some are earthbound by sorrow and remorse…others by an unearthly hunger for vengeance!

Now enter…the Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear!

Other Formats: Paperback

The Horror Collection: Ruby Edition Jul 25, 2021

by Ronald Kelly, Guy N. Smith, Tom Deady, Kyle M. Scott, Lex H. Jones, Calvin Demmer, Christopher Motz, John Kennedy, Kevin J. Kennedy, Natasha Sinclair

( 36 )

$0.99

The Horror Collection: Ruby Edition from KJK Publishing celebrates the 10th book of the series! Featuring exciting and horrifying original stories from;

Tom Deady
Calvin Demmer
Lex H. Jones
Ronald Kelly
John Kennedy
Kevin J. Kennedy
Christopher Motz
Kyle M. Scott
Guy N. Smith
Steve Stred

Since its conception in 2018, The Horror Collection series has been a firm favourite amongst global horror readers.

With each edition, KJK Publishing has prided itself in bringing audiences new stories from a coalition of brilliant indie talent across the spectrum of horror literature. Putting these stories firmly in the hands of readers, these collections are perfect for those who enjoy shorter works of fiction, those seeking fresh talent in the horror genre and make great reads, as a break between devouring longer works. A novel break, we could say!

We hope you love this collection as much as we do!

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

The Saga of Dead-Eye: Book One: Vampires, Zombies, & Mojo Men Apr 17, 2022

by Ronald Kelly, Alex McVey

( 22 )

$3.99

ALIVE, YET DEAD…

The bloody War Between the States and a harrowing confinement in an enemy prison camp had turned Joshua Wingade into a broken man. His nerves and spirit shattered by the barbarity of battle, and demoralized by a cause that his heart secretly despised, Wingade returns home in hope of finding peace and healing.

But, upon his arrival, he discovers that Hell had come to call. His beloved wife had been violated and transformed into a horrid bride of the undead, and his only son abducted by a band of diabolical outlaws led by the renegade vampire, Jules Holland. Along for the ride are three demonic henchmen from the fetid bowels of Hades and the dark witch, Evangeline.

Aware that he is no match for the gang, Wingade rides across Georgia and Tennessee nonetheless, intent on rescuing his child from imminent disaster. During his journey, he witnesses the horrors and atrocities Holland and his evil confederates have wrought. Eventually, he finds himself at the outlaws’ mercy. An instant before death, he makes a final pledge to his stolen son.

“I promise, Daniel! I will come for you!”

DEAD, YET ALIVE…

He awakens to discover that the cold finality of the grave has been thwarted. With the help of the Louisiana mojo man, Job, he has been resurrected. But, the frail and fearful man named Joshua Wingade is forever gone. In his place is the stoic, steel-nerved Dead-Eye with his blind eye aglow and a gun hand as swift and deadly as greased lightning.

Together, they vow to pursue the vampire and his minions, and deliver young Daniel from his bondage. However, they know that time is their worst enemy. If Holland and the others make it across the Mississippi River to the Western territories beyond, their vengeance may never come to fruition. For they are entering a new purgatory known as the Devil’s Playground… a vast wilderness rife with violence and terrors unleashed from the Hole Out of Nowhere.

A place where death and evil are dealt freely, without atonement to anyone… including God himself!

Other Formats: Paperback

Blood Kin Mar 16, 2015

by Ronald Kelly

( 43 )

$3.99

Unholy Revival!

Josiah Craven had been all but forgotten for nearly a hundred years.

To his descendants, he was nothing more than an imposing image in an old tintype photograph and the subject of stories told in hushed tones before the fireplace at night. A traveling mountain preacher who had returned from his wanderings and died by mysterious circumstances; buried in an unmarked grave with a wooden stake through his heart. Dudley Craven had heard the tales, but never believed them… until his plow unearthed an ancient coffin in the center of a lonesome mountain pasture.

Now Josiah is back and his true nature has been revealed. Hungering for the blood and obedience of his kin, he roams the Appalachian Mountains with only one purpose in mind… to initiate his family into a dark church of the damned.

Only a trio of unlikely foes summon the courage to bring Josiah’s ungodly mission to an end. An alcoholic carpenter who will do anything to save his wife and children, a timid preacher’s wife with a love of horror literature and film, and the knowledge to defeat the undead, and a moonshine-making mountain man who once encountered a similar evil in the dark tunnels beneath the jungles of Vietnam.

Together, they will ascend the peak of Craven’s Mountain to do battle with Josiah Craven and his congregation of the living dead!

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback , Mass Market Paperback

Dark Dixie - Tales of Southern Horror Feb 21, 2010

by Ronald Kelly

( 9 )

$2.99

Previously available on audio cassette from Darkscribe Press, this collection was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992. Dark Dixie collects the following works of southern horror by author Ronald Kelly. This book includes all the stories from the audio book and several more:

* Introduction by Ronald Kelly (2010)
* Yea, Though I Drive was previously published in Cold Blood (1991)
* Miss Abigail’s Delicate Condition was previously published in Noctulpa (1988)
* The Cistern was previously published in Cemetery Dance (1990)
* Papa’s Exile was previously published in Deathrealm (1988)
* The Hatchling was previously published in Tri-State Fantasist (1989)
* Uncle Cyrus was previously published in Noctulpa (1988)
* Forever Angels was previously published in Cemetery Dance (1988)
* Black Harvest was previously published in After Hours (1989)
* Cover by Zach McCain (2010)

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook

Flesh Welder Feb 9, 2010

by Ronald Kelly

( 3 )

$0.99

2017… the not-so-distant future.

Chaos reigns supreme. Social and economic upheaval, rampant terrorism, and nuclear annihilation have turned the earth into a vast wasteland. And, in Texas, the gates of Hell have been cracked open, unleashing its evil and fury upon the undeserving.

The inhabitants of Ruin Town find themselves as unwilling pawns, trapped between warring forces, desperately attempting to survive. Even when the bombing and gunfire cease, they can find no refuge, no relief, for afterwards, Satan himself descends mercilessly upon them… in the form of General Payne and his band of sadistic mercenaries.

It is then that the suffering truly begins. Murder, rape, racial intolerance, mutilation… all are heaped upon those who dwell in Ruin Town, if only to feed the General’s insatiable lust for power and sadistic pleasure. Afterward, the broken and dying seek out the only one who can deliver them from the horror that their world has become. The one who can miraculously meld flesh to flesh, and bone to bone.

He is the healer supreme, the medico grande… the Flesh-Welder.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Cumberland Furnace & Other Fear Forged Fables Feb 10, 2010

by Ronald Kelly, Zach McCain

( 4 )

$3.99

Seven tales of terror that could only beat in the dark, diseased heart of Dixie…

- An abandoned furnace stands as a monument to cruelty and torture…as well as a gathering place for old ghosts…

- Grandma’s culinary gifts of comfort and compassion contain a special ingredient conjured from the very depths of Hell…

- A man’s stubborn curiosity awakens an insatiable hunger on a lonesome country road…

- A surprise feature plays on the big screen of a drive-in theatre, revealing a town gathering that should have been left in secrecy and darkness…

- Two boys explore a traveler’s mobile museum of cinematic horrors, only to discover that true horror is not always what it first appears to be….

- Grandpa’s Christmas Eve story brings a yuletide visit from a wandering ghost with a long-unfulfilled mission…
- It started out as nothing more than a shortcut home… a detour through a shadowy stretch of forest known as Tanglewood. But what awaited him there, amid the brush and bramble, made a simple flat tire seem like a horrifying journey into madness…

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Perfect Paperback

The China Doll Sep 9, 2011

by Ronald Kelly

( 4 )

$2.99

The summer of 1932 was a troublesome one for Jack Alder.

His grandmother's health was fairing poorly, they were having a difficult time making ends meet during the Great Depression, and the town banker was threatening foreclosure on the family farm. The future seemed dismal and help was nowhere in sight. But Grandmama's faith in God brought renewed hope in the form of a childhood toy lost decades ago in an abandoned cave; an antique toy that could earn enough to drive the wolf from their door.

It would take a journey across three rural counties to get them there... as well as trials and tribulations galore. For an elderly woman, an eight-year-old boy, and a teenaged girl traveling in a rickety pickup truck, such a quest seemed doomed to fail. Would faith and friendship, desperation and sheer will be enough? Would they be able to reach their prize and. ultimately, their salvation? Would they be able to find Grandmama's precious china doll in time?

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Twilight Hankerings Feb 19, 2011

by Ronald Kelly

( 4 )

$3.99

From the Author:

""Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “appetite” as:
a) any of the instinctive desires necessary to keep up organic life; specifically: the desire to eat, or b) an inherent craving; an insatiable appetite for nourishment

Of course, there are other terms for appetite as well. Craving, coveting, hunger, lust, gluttony, ravenousness, want, yearning, and passion, just to name a few. South of the Mason-Dixon Line, we call it a “hankering”. Southern folks possess a hankering for a lot of things: gravy & biscuits, sweet tea, pecan pie and homemade ice cream. If you’re hanging at the honky-tonk and downing your twelfth beer, you might get a powerful hankering for a hellacious fight or some late-night loving (although most Southern wives refuse to accommodate their men in that area if they stagger home all liquored up).
When thinking of appetite, two supernatural beings come instantly to the minds of horror fiction readers; vampires and werewolves. I’ve explored both in larger bodies of work – my novels, Blood Kin and Undertaker’s Moon (Moon of the Werewolf) – and, in a more limited way, several short stories. Those tales of the blood-sucking undead and the beastly lycanthrope are featured here in this collection. Since it is also dedicated to “things that go bite in the night” these stories also explore other creatures with equally voracious appetites, from man-eating caterpillars to backwoods succubi to monstrous things that lie patiently in wait by the side of the road.

So, if you hear something scratching at your front door or lurking in the shadows of your darkened bedroom following the reading of this collection, don’t blame me. It’s just the dark things that run rampant between dusk and dawn, looking for a little midnight snack."

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook

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