About A Funhouse of Nightmares
This book contains five short stories.
The Toad
A captivating tale of love and betrayal. To save her lover, a compassionate and beautiful woman allows a malevolent magical toad to possess her. After marrying and becoming pregnant, she receives a shock. As her relationship disintegrates, she embraces the dark influence of the toad within. Revenge is sweet when you have the wrath of a supernatural fiend on your side – but the sweeter the revenge, the higher the price you pay.
The Mould
Be careful what delicacies you dig up for your lunch. Lucia loves hunting for mushrooms, and one day she unearths a rare truffle. Unaware of its strange properties, she eats it and finds herself transported to a world of whimsy, filled with talking creatures and odd contraptions. A dark mycelium is spreading throughout the land, and Lucia must navigate the simmering rivalries in an effort to save herself and her new friends. Will she make it out alive? Is she already dead? Is the Pekingese in the smoking jacket who just ate the last homemade scone friend or foe? And will the old fellow arriving back on the Puffball Express be able to stop the rot before it’s too late?
Static
Tommy Metaxas is special. He can hear things in the static. The fifteen minutes he spent dead after a health scare gave him his gift. It’s 1981 and Tommy has just been locked up in Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital. His feckless mother Camille put him there, at the behest of German psychiatrist Dr. Pfeiffer. They’ve just taken his beloved portable radio away, and he’s helpless. Tommy suspects the good doctor of having a plan to exploit his gifts. You see, what Tommy hears in the static isn’t just nonsense. It’s truth, it’s the future. He can only guess at the shock treatments he’ll be made to suffer at the doctor’s hands. There’s another patient here: Samantha. She looks like she’s been through a lot. She may be able to help. Her peculiar touch may be what he needs to get out of here and stop whatever the doctor – who is obsessed with a tyrant of the past – is planning.
Tears for Topsy
Bingo the circus clown hasn’t felt himself for a long time. One evening, over supper with the cruel ringmaster, he sees a mysterious ghost in a sequined leotard. Something stirs in him, and his quest for answers leads him down strange and perilous paths. Fortuna the one-legged, one-eyed woman and Madam Melusine the fortune teller help him on his way. He begins to fill in the blanks where his memory used to be. But the ringmaster has stolen more than just his past, and Bingo must journey to an alternate, terrifying fairground if he is to regain himself, reclaim his story, and make amends for leaving behind a very special friend.
The Book of Fallen Angels
A cataclysmic prophecy, a battle with a mind demon, assassins from a former lifetime out for revenge: Guan Shou the Buddhist abbot had it easier when he was just plain old Beelzebub. But in that first life, he just couldn’t stop himself doing the odd good deed. He was clumsy like that. Now, eons of accumulated virtue have made him a crack meditator and all-round spiritual master. Just the kind of juicy meat for a demon harvester of dark emotion. A little jog to disturb the old man’s peace, and the guilt, rage and lust will pour out. The fine diners of the demon’s dimension will pay a fortune for it. But things aren’t going to be that easy. The stage is set for an epic battle between good and evil, with stakes so high that the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Either Guan Shou will keep his cool, save the day, and gain enlightenment, or the infant Antichrist will be ushered into existence and reign supreme. Game on.
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Former Chair of animation and VFX at NYFA. Former Adjust professor NYU. BFA animation and VFX.