Fear Itself
James K. Moran
Canadian author James K. Moran's debut collection of dark fiction offers fantasy, sci-fi, and horror shot through with hope and friendship. Inside, readers will discover sea serpents among the roiling waters of the St. Lawrence River under a dilapidated international bridge; a misguided bi mage negotiating with a demon he accidentally summoned into his dorm; a baby monitor issuing the voice of an inter-dimensional dark god; a couple in Picton County fleeing an ancient entity they cannot see directly that demands a blood sacrifice; queer ghosts haunting a British nightclub; two salty old ranch hands outside Lethbridge, Alberta, betting on who is a better shot in what may be the apocalypse; a shape-changing huckster seducing apathetic suburbanites; a gay rare-collectibles hunter hunted by a being moving between the Internet, film, and fact; a cat-fished giant marauding the backroads of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry counties; a gay wine shop manager discovering more than a dusty Moscato lurking in the musty basement; and a pterodactyl loose downtown.
Table of Contents
"Glimpses Through the Trees"
"Monitored"
"James Harker Tries to Have the Talk"
"Squared Away"
"Crag Face"
"Living Under the Conditions"
"Burned"
"Sexster"
"Carl and Monty’s Prairie Wager"
"A Canadian Ghost in London"
Paperback 224 pages, cover design by Inkspiral
Interior design by Ryan Vance
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"If you love horror as much as Moran does, you're in for a real (trick or) treat: a smorgasbord of true made-in-Canada talent." - Medium
"James K. Moran's stories inhabit a shadowland filled with sights and experiences worth having or remembering: the first, sleep-famished months of parenthood; the memory of lost friends; Canadian woods and waterscapes; the hunt for impossibly rare films, which is almost always more fun, and-in the case of these stories-definitely safer, than completing one of those hunts. These are characters not just clinging to but immersing in their lives. Not that that's going to save them, of course..." - Glen Hirshberg, author of Infinity Dreams "James Moran is a very disturbed person. The proof lies in his collection of stories, Fear Itself. However, if you are bad like me, you will be most entertained by the variety, wildness, and sheer audacity of some of these tales." - Felice Picano "Incorporating cosmic horror, Indigenous legend, and B-movie monsters, there's something here to please any horror fan." - Publishers Weekly |
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