GUEST POST and EXCERPT
Edge of Night:
A Collection of Paranormal and Horror Short Stories
A Collection of Paranormal and Horror Short Stories
by Ann Gimpel
Edge of Night is currently on tour with Bewitching Book Tours. The tour stops here today for guest post by the author and an excerpt. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
More books by this author: Witch's Bounty (read my blog post), Witch's Bane (read my blog post), Witch's Rule (read my blog post), Dark Prophecy (read my blog post), Icy Passage (read my blog post), Earth Reclaimed series (read my blog post), Winning Glory (read my blog post), and Marked by Fortune (read my blog post).
Description
Here’s a roadmap to Edge of Night. Welcome to an eclectic collection of nine short stories.
You’ve done time at the edge of night. Nail-biting, stomach-churning time filled with hissing snarls, menacing growls, the whoosh of unnatural wings, and the flash of hellfire. Time that lasts forever, but is over within seconds because time becomes unpredictable in places like that. You don’t want to stay, but it’s too fascinating - in a grisly, macabre, toe-curling kind of way - to turn your back on.
You recognize it, though. The place just at the threshold of darkness where it’s not quite safe anymore. Evil broke its bounds at the edge of night, or maybe it always ran free and we’ve been deluding ourselves all along.
Join me for nine supernatural tales. Monsters, demons, gods - fallen and otherwise - ghosts, aliens. A touch of science fiction. More than a splash of romance. From magical lands to a chilling glance into the past, Edge of Night has something to tempt everyone. Everyone who craves danger, that is. It takes guts to read the stuff woven into nightmares.
It’s a tough job, but you’re up to it.
Welcome to my world. A world where magic holds court and the dude next door just might be a demon. Or a shifter. Or an alien.
Excerpt
Click below to read an excerpt.
Praise for the Book
"Highly enjoyable read and has a mix of different stories." ~ Pam Louis
"If you have never read her work, this is a good place to get kind of a feel for her." ~ Crystal Hool
"The storylines have lots of suspense and mystery. The stories will keep you reading, while still withholding secrets to surprise you as the story unfolds. The romance is amazing without over powering the stories. This is a fantastic collection, it's scorching hot, sexy, it's romance with attitude." ~ Yvonne D
"For fans of Ann Gimpel's books, this is a really great opportunity to see where some of your favorite stories started and later became books of their own. I have not had that opportunity before with an author to really see the origins of the stories I have read. She also includes her first published story which I really enjoyed." ~ L. Levine
"Anyone who knows this author’s writing will immediately realize what an awesome collection is here! The characters are well developed, the storylines draw you in immediately, and the suspense sustains you to the often shocking ending! You will definitely enjoy these stories! I highly recommend them and know you’ll become a fan of this author too! This is a beginning for you, not an end!" ~ Emily Pennington
Guest Post by the Author
Writing Short Stories Versus Writing Novels
My first published pieces were short stories. I wrote a more than full-length novel in 2009. Never could find a home for it for the best of reasons. It was terrible. Several years later, a leaner, meaner, totally revamped version with half the word count (85k versus 150K) was published as Marked by Fortune. That book has done well. I consider it a testament to what I’ve learned over the years I’ve done this.
Back to short stories. After I couldn’t find an agent or a publisher for Echo of Hope (the forerunner to Marked by Fortune), a friend suggested I try my hand at short stories. My very first published piece was "Epiphany" [included in this collection]. The Aurora Wolf Literary Journal gave it a home. Many published shorts later, I branched out into novellas, and then returned to my first love, which is writing books over 60K words. In truth, I like them closer to 100K. And I like trilogies, which is one uber long story told in three (or four) 100K word books.
Short stories are an art unto themselves. Where do you begin the story? Where will it end? How can you develop a satisfying character and plot arc in so few words? It’s possible. In their own way, short stories train you to make every single word count. Much the same way an author asks, "What story am I telling?" when they pen longer fiction, that same question is even more important when you need to wrap things up in 10K words or less. Usually less.
Some authors like Cat Rambo write short fiction almost exclusively. While I enjoyed my stint with shorter tales, I appreciate the latitude I have when I write books. I can wander down a path that I tie in later without worrying how peripheral that path is and if the story truly needs it. Stories happen in layers. Depending on how many layers an author writes, the story becomes longer. I don’t want words just for length, though. I enjoy complex plots with many threads that weave together.
There’s a place for short stories, and there’s a place for full-length books. There’s been a trend in recent years, particularly in romance, to turn out novella length fiction (30K words or so). I’ve written plenty of them, but I always feel like they leave things out. I’m not nearly as fond of reading them as I am of longer tales.
Back in the day, Diana Gabaldon had T-shirts made that said, "We Love Big Books." I’m with her. How about the rest of you? What’s your preference for book length?
About the Author
Ann Gimpel is a national bestselling author. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. Once upon a time, she nurtured clients, now she nurtures dark, gritty fantasy stories that push hard against reality. When she’s not writing, she’s in the backcountry getting down and dirty with her camera. She’s published over 45 books to date, with several more planned for 2017 and beyond. A husband, grown children, grandchildren and wolf hybrids round out her family.
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