"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy" (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, hosts a masquerade ball within seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose "costume" proves to contain nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn. Cover by the lovely @CaffeinatedKiwi

Mari Turner's life is simple after college: return to the tiny family farm and look after the animals while working at a local bookstore. She’s a firm believer of magic in books and legend, but it doesn’t exist in her reality until a walking, talking fairy tale calls her a Piper’s child, and spirits her away to his ice palace. In a fit of unbridled courage – or stupidity, she’s not sure – she makes Jack Frost a challenge his pride can’t refuse: be human, with everything that comes with it. The prize is Mari’s eternity – she’ll either spend it without interacting with him again or she’ll live forever in the pixie world by his side and give up all she’s ever known. With Jack as a flesh and blood mortal, she digs deeper into his legend to get a better understanding of the man frozen in time, and discovers the darker side to the stories that shaped her childhood. From the Pied Piper who stole children instead of banishing rats and the rest of the winter pixies – including Jack’s sister, and their centuries-old feud – to her dead father’s legacy and her evolving relationship with Jack himself, Mari finds human life is much more interconnected with the pixie world than it once looked. But at the end of the winter there can only be one winner, and everything Mari knows and holds dear hinges on Jack Frost’s ability to be human – including understanding his own thawing heart.

A powerful deity, Ahriman, has opened the Demon Portal and dark creatures now threaten the great isles. Rhen must stop the destruction and destroy Ahriman before it is too late. The Sword of Shadows is the key to her redemption. She must find it in the mystical isle of Aveyond and use it to seal the Demon Portal and stop Ahriman.

🏆Wattys 2019 Winner for Mystery & Thriller🏆 Sister Mary has lost her way, or so people think. Kicked out of her convent and sent away to be reformed, this jolly nun discovers her gift of glee is perfect for solving murders and the occasional naughty peek. ________________________________________ Merry Sister Mary is the world's most happy-go-lucky nun, and where the nuns are concerned, possibly the worst. She has none of the qualities reserved for a traditional lady of the cloth: a fear of water, an odd relationship with an umbrella, and no talent in teaching or nursing, yet Sister Mary believes she has a special God given power, laughter. Such a belief has led her to be kicked out of her convent in Chicago for accidentally flashing a group of churchgoers and deemed in desperate need of reform. She is sent on a bus to a stricter convent in New Orleans, Louisiana, but in a drama fueled twist, God has different plans for the joyous nun. She is to solve a murder. After missing the bus Sister Mary is forced to seek refuge with a Catholic family in the small town of St. Francisville. A horrific murder occurs sending the town into a frenzy of bittersweet joy. The person killed has long been despised and so named the Stanton Witch for the mystery surrounding her husband's death and the decades of misfortune since her arrival. In an effort to expose the truth, Sister Mary finds herself in the middle of one family's terrible and insidious secret. As the bodies pile up she uses her gift of glee to uncover the clues missed by the police and hopefully stop the killer from claiming another innocent victim. Her goal-- prove to the world once and for all that one does not need to be traditional to make a difference. Comedy ■ Mystery ■ Thriller [COMPLETED] Copyright © Jules Haigler No parts of this book may be distributed, copied, or sold on any media without permission of the author. All names, places, and themes are a work of fiction.

THE SILENT DEAL is an award-winning explosive adventure. The Magic Trick (book 2) is out, and book 3 comes out next year. Within these pages lies mystery, magic, mythology, and wide cast of gypsies, gamblers, fire-jugglers, and thieves. The Card Game awaits... ** WHEN VIKTOR AND ROMULUS, two peasant boys, dig too deep into their town's strange past, they awaken the wrath of a mysterious overlord. As the blood brothers struggle to survive, their search for answers takes them through gambling parlors, fortune-teller dens, and moonlit forests full of monsters and men alike. But even with the help of their friends, can they escape the deathly experiments that their foe is creating in Staryi Castle? ** WINNER of 'Outstanding Fiction' at the California Writers Con. 5 STAR Finalist of the 2015 Readers Favorite Awards.

Aaron, a newly-turned Vampire who is the first in years to grow fangs, must escape the clutches of the leader of the local coven to regain his freedom and discover why he's being held captive. ***** After contracting a mysterious disease, Aaron flies across the Atlantic to Scotland to meet Clara, a woman he met online who promised to help him. When she doesn't offer the cure he's hoping for, he must face that there's no going back to being human. Transitioning to a vampire is never quick or painless, but for Aaron, things take an unexpected turn when he is the first vampire in years to grow fangs. It isn't long before the leader of Edinburgh's reclusive coven of vampires learns about the unique path the disease has run, and he takes a special interest - one that threatens Aaron's life and sanity. ***** WATTYS 2019 WINNER HORROR & PARANORMAL ***** Content Warning: This story contains mature language, violence, gore, torture, sexual content, and reference to alcohol and drug use.

Seven young boys, trained to be assassins, cold blooded contract killers. They owe their lives, their very existence to the Master and Mistress who had saved them from the streets and certain death. Do not trust anyone, do not love, do not have friends, do not give anyone anything to hold against you. Those were the Rules. Kill swiftly, efficiently, leave no evidence unless instructed otherwise. But what happens when one of them finds out all is not what it seems? That he had been lied to all his life?

In a politically volatile kingdom, Noah is tasked with finding the catalyst, a magical artifact rumored to greatly enhance the potential of the wielder. Joining his efforts are his childhood best friend and an illegitimate prince doing the queen's bidding in exchange for his lover's freedom. It soon becomes clear that many different parties are after the catalyst, though no one seems to know who started this chase or why. In order to survive and save the people he cares about, Noah will have to leave behind everything he thought he knew about magic and adapt to a new reality of unlikely alliances and painful betrayals, high-stakes power struggles, and vengeful entities.