the HALF that you SEE #giveaway

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The Half That You See ~ Genre: Horror Anthology

Edited by Rebecca Rowland

“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”
-The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)

Poe’s classic tale told of a state of the art hospital boasting a curiously experimental treatment, but things were not as they seemed. In The Half That You See, twenty-six writers from around the globe share their literary optical illusions in never before seen stories of portentous visions and haunting memories, altered consciousness and virulent nightmares, disordered thinking and descents into madness. Take a walk down the paths of perception that these dark fiction raconteurs have tunneled for you, but keep a tight grip on your flashlight: the course twists and turns, and once you’re on route to your destination, there is no turning back. That which creeps about in the poorly lit corners of the human mind has teeth, and it’s waiting for you.

“Chalk” by Elin Olausson

A young man rents a room at a bed & breakfast and meets a girl who sleepwalks during the day and is only herself at night. 

“Winnebago Indian Motorhome by Tonka” by Eddie Generous

Chasing down nostalgia, Josh Dolan buys a vintage Tonka Winnebago, but it isn’t quite like the toy he’d had as a kid; this Winnebago knows the future, and it knows Claire Dolan’s secrets.

“Sepia Grass” by Sam Hicks

A young man begins to question the recurrent visions he has always believed to be flashbacks to a childhood drug overdose.

“Prisoner “by T.M. Starnes

Kidnapped prisoners sometimes survive, but that’s when their terror truly begins.

“Turn a Blind Eye” by Kelly Griffiths

An explosion leaves an ornery pharmacist with shards of mortar in his eyes and disturbing changes to his vision, especially when he looks in the mirror.

“Falling Asleep in the Rain” by Robert P. Ottone

A man recounts his youth through a dream, revealing as a young boy his experiments with love for another boy, only to face the ire of his murderous father.

“Black Dog Blues” by Luciano Marano

In a story inspired by an actual urban legend popular among American truckers about a spectral black dog that appears to drivers just before a lethal crash, a haunted man recounts his own devastating encounter with the creature and sets out for revenge with a hapless hitchhiker reluctantly in tow. 

“Imaginary Friends” by Nicole Wolverton

Julie Strawbridge is called in to see the principal of her nephew Augie’s school after he is expelled for selling imaginary friends to his classmates for a dollar.

“Boogeyman” by Susie Schwartz

One boogeyman; two perspectives, and the horror of mental illness that torments them both.

“Safe as Houses” by Alex Giannini

Carrie and Will moved into a new home, into a new phase of their lives. But every love story is a ghost story, and theirs is no different. 

“The New Daddy” by Scotty Milder

A crumbling marriage and a new home is filtered through the eyes of its smallest witness.

“Cauterization” by Mack Moyer

A woman on a methamphetamine binge harbors a dark secret from her past that begins to manifest in vivid waking nightmares that may, or may not, be real.

“The Tapping at Cranburgh Grange” by Felice Picano

When an American couple leases and then buys a manse in England, they become aware of a strange noise only some people can hear. 

“Elsewhere” by Bill Davidson

Colin lives a stressful life in an overcrowded flat with a sick daughter and a mother with dementia, in the middle of crammed and noisy London. More and more, however, he is elsewhere.

“Daughters of the Sun” by Matt Masucci

A retired homicide detective living in Florida finds that a past case investigating a dark nature cult twists into his reality.

“The Coffin” by Victoria Dalpe

A young woman still grieving a recent loss discovers an exhumed coffin on the street. 

“Old Times” by Mark Towse

A man suspects his wife is cheating on him, and when she leaves for the evening, he considers the possibility over a bottle with an old friend.

“Lonely is the Starfish” by Lena Ng

Many people have pets, but one lonely young man becomes too close to his pet starfish.

“Hagride” by Justine Gardner

A cormorant speaks, and Josie tries not to listen as it begins to resemble ghosts from her past.

“Raven O’Clock” by Holley Cornetto

A man seeking shelter from the tragedies of his life finds more than he bargained for in a mysterious cabin.

“Officer Baby Boy Blue” by Douglas Ford

An eye injury and a grotesque gift from a police officer in a hospital emergency room ultimately leads a young man to special properties of sight.

“The Intruder” by Lamont A. Turner

Suspecting someone has invaded her home and the homes of those close to her, a woman struggles with delusions that may not have originated with her.

“Alone in the Woods in the Deep Dark Night” by Edward R. Rosick

Trapped in his cabin by a howling snowstorm in the desolate wildness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Gary Chandler finds that freezing isolation is only the beginning of a descent into bloody madness.

“Mesh” by Michael W. Clark

A regular guy wants too much control in the modern global community: over both his home and his wives.

“Der Hölle Racht” by Laura Saint Martin

A victim of domestic violence embarks on a drug-fueled journey and rampage.

“The Red Portrait” by Mahlon Smoke

A frustrated artist spies a forgotten portrait in a shop and finds himself consumed by its beauty.

**Get the anthology for $5 off or get $10 off the book/candle set HERE!**

Goodreads * Amazon

Would you like a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card or a Mystery Box of Books? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

The Half That You See is written by twenty-six authors from five different countries, including Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award finalist Felice Picano, Feature Writer of the Year recipient Luciano Marano, and honorees from Ellen Datlow’s most recent Best Horror of the Year, Bill Davidson and Sam Hicks. Editor Rebecca Rowland is a dark fiction writer whose previous Dark Ink anthology curation work includes Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, and Madness and Shadowy Natures: Stories of Psychological Horror. Dark Ink Books is the proud home of UnMasked, the best-selling memoir of horror legend Kane Hodder, and Savini, the special effects icon’s coffee table biography.

I am happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing The Half That You See.

What Really Scares Me: Addiction in Horror

What Really Scares Me: Addiction in Horror by Holley Cornetto

I have a confession to make. Most horror doesn’t really scare me.

Horror writers primarily deal in fear, and what frightens one person may fall flat for another. I’ve found this to be true in my reading and writing. Some reviewers may call something terrifying, while others call it boring. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing about ghosts and monsters and deranged killers wielding chainsaws, but those things don’t keep me awake at night.

So then, what does scare me? The death of a loved one. Sickness. Grief. Insanity. Sleep paralysis. Snakes. Addiction.

Most of my fears, snakes aside, have to do with a lack of agency or a loss of control. To date, two of my short stories have dealt with the topic of addiction. It is this particular fear that I wrestle with most often. In part, because addiction is a scary thing, but also because addiction is so often stigmatized in society, that those who suffer because of it often fail to seek out help.

In his article titled “The Compassion of Addiction Horror,” Mark Matthews discusses addiction as possession. In this view, addiction to and withdrawal from substances is akin to “…being spiritually occupied and living through a painful mutation of your physical self” (2020) It is worth noting that the fear here is twofold. It manifests both in addiction and in withdrawal. People who suffer from addiction may feel a loss of control over their bodies and minds. Friends and loved ones may notice a change in the person that they attribute to the substance abuse. Withdrawal has its own set of horrors as addicts suffer a plethora of physical and psychological effects as the drugs leave the system.

Possession stories aren’t the only narratives that include elements of addition. In the article, “How the Horror Genre Helped Me Understand my Addiction,” Tabitha Vidaurri writes that “Vampires are a pretty thinly veiled allegory for substance use disorder if you swap out blood for alcohol/drugs” (2020). But the article doesn’t stop with vampires. Werewolf narratives also allude to substance abuse wherein “people are always waking up the next day, naked, in a field with fuzzy memories of the night before and a bad taste in their mouth” (2020). Whereas possession narratives focus on the changes a person may undergo while under the influence, or during withdrawal, these vampire and werewolf narratives borrow from addition itself. The insatiable need, in the case of the vampire, and in the case of the werewolf, the consequences of our actions when we are not in full control of our faculties.

Addiction in and of itself is a scary thing, not only for the above stated reasons, but also because it is something that society often neglects to discuss openly. In the past, society has stigmatized addiction, often blaming addicts for their own condition. In recent years, thanks to advances in mental healthcare, we’ve learned that there is so much more to drug addiction than bad choices. In many cases, there never was a choice. Many people who suffer from addiction also suffer from a range of other health issues, from mental illness to chronic pain.

So, how does this relate to horror? Horror has always served as a venue in which society can safely discuss and work through the fears that lurk in the shadows and dark corners of our minds. Horror does not shy away from bleak or upsetting subject matter; it specializes in it. It celebrates it. Horror serves as a safe space to work through the scary shit that bombards us each day when we walk out of our doors (figuratively speaking, for those of us in lockdown). It may seem like an oxymoron to refer to horror as a safe space, but when reading horror fiction, or watching a horror movie, you are directly in control of the situation. Unlike real life, when the book or movie becomes too much, you can choose to put it aside or turn it off. You can sample the fear in small doses, at your own level of comfort.

I firmly believe that society needs horror fiction as an outlet. Horror readers and writers are some of the kindest and most well-adjusted people that I know, and I can’t help but think it is in part because we work through our problems in fiction rather than bottling them up inside ourselves. Horror helps us learn and practice empathy, and empathy is something that we could certainly use more of, as far as I’m concerned. 

So, now that you know what scares me, go out there and write a story. One that will terrify me. One that I can (hopefully) read in small doses, and at my own pace.

In Holley Cornetto’s story in The Half That You See, “Raven O’Clock,” a  man seeking shelter from the tragedies of his life finds more than he bargained for in a mysterious cabin.

Holley Cornetto was one of 26 authors that contributed to the horror anthology, The Half That You See!