Autumn nights are about to get a little chiller thanks to author Jeff C. Carter. His new book, We Bleed Orange & Black, was recently released just in time for the Halloween 2020 season and it's chockfull of "fun-sized" stories that range from family-fiendly to out right shivers-down-your-spine. There's such a wide variety of short stories and poems, and best of all – they are all about Halloween.
Some of my favorites include “Unsettled” about a little girl hearing the house creak around her and a final line that made me shiver. "Haunted House-1 Star" was a hilarious take on oblivious internet trolls. And in "Working the Roots of the Pumpkins" a mother teaches her daughter a family history lesson while baking a pie with deadly results. Some of the stories end with an ambiguous final sentence that seems to percolate on the mind for quite a while until the horror finally seeps in.
I've keep my copy by the bed and read a couple stories, right before bedtime which lulls me in a dark, terrified sleep. Thanks for the nightmares, Jeff!
About the Author:
In addition to being a lifelong Halloween fanatic, Jeff Carter's stories have been featured in dozens of anthologies, translated for international markets and adapted for podcasts including the Reedsy story prompt contest (winner), Transmissions from Punktown, Delta Green: Extraordinary Renditions, A Mythos Grimmly, ‘eFiction’ and ‘Nightland’ magazine and the ‘Tales to Terrify’ podcast, among others.
His previous collection, Between the Teeth, hit #4 in sci-fi and #11 in horror short stories on the Kindle lists.