Books
This list describes books published by Horrific Scribblings and provides links for you to buy them on Amazon (and elsewhere, but mostly on Amazon). Also check the shop for signed copies!
Horrific Scribes Presents: Invasions of World, Home, Body, and Mind
SO MANY BOUNDARIES TO VIOLATE
Invaders threaten us from above, below, within, and beyond. Not scared enough yet? This anthology will help! From the Horrific Scribes web archive of original short fiction (and some poetry) come 24 selections that involve horrific invasions. Only 23 are short stories—one is a group of poems—and that’s not the only way the book cover deceives you. None of the stories involves UFOs attacking Earth. Horrific Scribes seeks “the provocative, scary, and strange,” and these works offer a wide array of perspectives on invasion, many of them unfamiliar. They stretch and cross the boundaries of horror, sci-fi, and other speculative fiction with dark edges. Settle in and let your imagination be overrun by the invasions conjured by Phoebe Barr, Jim Best, Amanda M. Blake, Jon Clendaniel, David Corse, Richard Dansky, John Davis, Laura DeHaan, T. Fox Dunham, H.J. Dutton, Joseph Hirsch, Tom Johnstone, Kasimma, Emmanuel Komen, Leonardo J. Lamanna, Steven Mathes, Thomas C. Mavroudis, Trisha Ridinger McKee, Eric Nash, M. Brandon Robbins, Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, Sydney Sackett, K. Thompson, and Fendy S. Tulodo.
“Intrusions, incursions and insidious infiltrations of every ilk: some of these unconventional tales are funny, some creepy, some weird, and a few downright disturbing, but they’re all entertaining and thought-provoking—let them get their hooks in and they’ll invade your mind.” —L.N. Hunter, author of The Feather and the Lamp
Order Horrific Scribes Presents: Invasions of World, Home, Body, and Mind on Amazon!
Descending Lines: Revised Second Edition
THE ONLY WAY OUT IS DOWN
Carter and Megan Anderson’s six-year-old daughter Caitlin is dying from bone cancer that has spread throughout her body. Medical science can’t save their little girl—but they know something that can. When they were in college, they discovered a book of rituals, The Alchemy of Will by Dr. Allen Fincher, that enables people to do almost anything when they combine the power of will with the right sacrifice. Carter and Megan can save Caitlin if they sacrifice their second-born. But Caitlin is an only child. How far would you go to save your child? They decide to get pregnant and begin nine months of hell, preparing for the unthinkable. Their urban apartment becomes a domestic nightmare as their relationship and sanity erode. The dark secrets of their past point toward a darker future, and as they get closer and closer to saving their daughter, they descend deeper and deeper into unimaginable horror.
The revised second edition of Descending Lines significantly expands and alters the first published edition, returning to the author’s original, more twisted vision of the story.
“The fine, complicated line between ethical and moral decision-making plays heavily at the very heart, pulped and raw, of Cooper’s Descending Lines, beginning with a question that has no easy answers: How far is a parent willing to go to save their child from certain death? From its opening scene where its protagonists ponder this dilemma all the way to its heartbreaking, final gasp, Cooper’s novel rips the reader back and forth in time, tracing the supernatural catalyst for the couple’s decision and the violent peril it will put its users through. Cooper’s tale meticulously weaves domestic, occult, monstrous, and extreme horrors into a phantasmagoric tapestry of unearthly suspense and thrills. Be warned, however: this is most assuredly NOT for the faint of heart.” —Kenzie Jennings, author of Reception and A Woman Like Jo
“I don’t scare easily… But this book is scary, not due to how extreme it is (which it is), rather because of how it resonates… Cooper explores the human experience through horror, making even the most fantastical elements feel authentic… Descending Lines will make your skin crawl as Cooper expertly guides you through the madness and mayhem.” —Luc Dantes, The Horror Tree (read the full review)
Order Descending Lines on Amazon!
Crazy Time: A Bizarre Battle with Darkness and the Divine
WHAT IF OMNIPOTENT FORCES SOUGHT YOUR DESTRUCTION?
WHAT IF YOU COULD FIGHT BACK?
SECOND EDITION! On a dark urban highway, bright, introspective thirtysomething Lily Henshaw survives a brutal attack by men who announce that “It’s Crazy Time!” and kill her friends. Months later, still crushed by survivor’s guilt, Lily suffers another serious trauma—and another, and another, and another. Deaths, especially suicides, surround her, as do strange occurrences that, despite her agnosticism, seem to have Biblical import. She becomes convinced she is cursed like Job from the Bible, but unlike Job, she doesn’t assume God is the good guy. While intense stresses foster an unlikely romance with her boss, she goes on a quest for answers that involves a psychic, a Satanist, a Protestant preacher, and others, gaining resolve and a destination: the skyscraper where she might confront the supernatural forces aligned in a conspiracy to destroy her life.
“What would happen if the battle between the forces of good and evil became corporate? While navigating a series of tragedies that seem cherry-picked to destroy her, Lily Henshaw is about to find out. In a chaotic adventure that includes a scintillating cast of morally gray characters, L. Andrew Cooper takes us along for a weird, crazy ride as we bear witness to Lily’s trials and tribulations … and, ultimately, her fate. In equal parts thought-provoking and entertaining, Cooper will challenge what you thought you believed.” —Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, author of Darkness There but Something More and Keeper of Corpses
“…a sophisticated blend of surreal horror and dark urban fantasy written as a gruesome psychological thriller… a gruesome and deep story that will make you think and make you feel and keep you up at night contemplating pain, tragedy, darkness, divinity, choice, and perspective… The imagery is astounding and often unsettling, more a part of the story itself than just setting and visuals. Crazy Time is a profound and poignant reading experience, highly recommended for aficionados of intelligent horror.” —Lisa Lee Tone, Bibliophilia Templum (Read the full review!)
Order Crazy Time on Amazon!
The Skinner Effect
After university authorities observe a gruesome experiment that psychologist Dr. Stanley Burrows performs on rats, an experiment during which one of his graduate student assistants is injured, Dr. Burrows and his only loyal assistant, Edward Pine, accept exile from the academic world and embrace new supporters who want them to do different sorts of experiments on human subjects. Dr. Burrows has limitless resources to develop innovative processes for behavioral conditioning that achieve extreme outcomes. He programs his subjects with violence so they will commit violence. Spurred by conclusions drawn from the thinking of radical behaviorist B.F. Skinner, he will use his subjects to demonstrate not only the bloody extremes for which he can program a “human” but also a new understanding of “the human” susceptible to programming.
“The Skinner Effect by L. Andrew Cooper is not for the faint of heart… a complex psychological experiment wrapped in an extreme horror disguise… fans of extreme horror will love this book.” –JG Faherty, author of Hellrider and The Malthusian Correction
“This novella is 84 pages of pure blood-soaked madness… I loved how the characters changed… I enjoyed this one and will never look at a plate of meaty sauce the same way again! Be ready for the blood parade on this one!” –Christina Rangel Eleanor, The Voracious Gnome (Read the full review!)
“The Skinner Effect by L. Andrew Cooper is an enthralling and brutal tale of dark psychological experimentation gone horrifically as intended. Cooper’s use of language is absolutely exquisite. The combination of sophisticated writing and graphic brutality makes for immersive and impactful reading… a must-read for splatterpunk aficionados, especially those looking for something outside the norm.” –Lisa Lee Tone, Bibliophilia Templum (Read the full review!)
Order The Skinner Effect on Amazon!
Father Is Pleased
After a bloody rite of passage, Felix becomes a True Son, one of Father’s chosen inner circle, someone with a special vantage on the secluded society of the Settlement of Passing in the Nothing Lands, where all brothers and sisters revere Father. Father is life, and Father is death, and Father governs rituals that guide his followers on their journeys to meet the void, as death is the greatest good and the only worthy desire. Felix witnesses and participates in many rituals: the violence and death linked to childbirth, the gut-ripping orgies that serve as theatre, the initiation of another young man in the art of sacrificing an outsider in a manner that will please Father, and more. Nothing pleases Felix like pleasing Father, and when Father takes notice, he points Felix toward a special destiny in the coming days when threats to their ways of honoring death will come from within.
“Father Is Pleased is a harrowing plunge into the very marrow of madness, delving into the society of a cult led by the titular Father. This story is intelligent and brutal, with prose and storytelling prowess that are as sharp as they are disturbing. We are forced as a reader to confront the terrifying ways in which ideology can replace identity and erode moral discretion. Even aside from the incredibly uncomfortable and horrifying scenes of violence, this novel left a deep and lasting impression: disturbing, intellectually provocative, and emotionally intense in a way that’s hard to shake.” — Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep and Bluejay
“Cooper brings us a twisted novella with a mix of spice, violence, and depravity. A breath of fresh air for anyone in a reading slump. Father is definitely pleased!” —Jason Nickey, author of Rural Decay and Wreckage
Read the review on Beauty in Ruins.
Read the review on Horror Tree.
Order Father Is Pleased on Amazon!
The Middle Reaches, Cycle Four: The Army of Ghosts
The Middle Reaches concludes with Cycle Four: The Army of Ghosts. As chaos and madness spread, gods, monsters, ghosts, and humans battle for the fates of both the earthly realm and the realms beyond.
Order The Middle Reaches, Cycle Four: The Army of Ghosts on Amazon!
Read the Alpha’s Court review!
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The Middle Reaches, Cycle Three: The Flood
In The Middle Reaches, Cycle Three: The Flood, new travelers collide with some familiar from earlier cycles as they all journey deeper into the horrors of Carcosa, exploring the roads to Lake Hali and the Palace of the King in Yellow. A lawsuit in the earthly realm over the ownership of the land between the two Acton Ways, the entryway to The Middle Reaches, manifests in Carcosa as a struggle among gods and ghosts, a struggle that could unleash an apocalyptic Flood.
Order The Middle Reaches, Cycle Three: The Flood on Amazon!
Read the Alpha’s Court review!
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The Middle Reaches, Cycle Two: A Rift in Time and Space
The Middle Reaches, Cycle Two: A Rift in Time and Space introduces Bobby Lightfoot, a boy lost in The Middle Reaches and tormented by a fiend called The Man in the Grinning Mask. Heather, Bobby’s former babysitter, and her friend Janet are lured into The Middle Reaches by Max, a charming young man with secrets. Stalked by psychopaths as well as the region’s many other monsters, these travelers follow paths that cross Cycle One’s, and they go farther and deeper into the darkness of The Middle Reaches and places beyond the Gate.
Order The Middle Reaches, Cycle Two: A Rift in Time and Space on Amazon!
Read the Alpha’s Court review!
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The Middle Reaches, Cycle One: Shadow Man
The Middle Reaches, an epic of horror and dark fantasy, begins with Cycle One: Shadow Man. When five friends reunite to seek the truth about the otherworldly place where their high school friend, Sheldon, disappeared more than a decade earlier, they journey into a dark realm of sex, violence, and creatures hungry to keep them forever.
“A tale of dark dreams & sharp teeth, L. Andrew Cooper pens a story here that unravels slowly and sweetly, leaving scars imprinted on the reader’s brain.” – Jeremy Megargee, author of Soulmates, Crown of Carrion, and Old Hollow
“L. Andrew Cooper has a knack for writing viscerally, but not just grotesque nor physical viscera on display. Every time I read his work it crawls into my psyche. And that’s where the visceral stuff happens. He makes me feel things that are unfeelable and believe things that are unbelievable and experience things that are unexperienceable. It’s that knack for making nightmares feel like dreams without ever losing their edge. I say knack instead of craft or talent because by God if it was something I could learn how to do I’d be doing it already. I think it crawls out of his heart and his brain somewhere and just spills onto the paper.” – Sean Taylor, author of Show Me a Hero and A Crowd in Babylon
Order The Middle Reaches, Cycle One: Shadow Man on Amazon!
Read the Alpha’s Court review!
Alex’s Escape
Fourteen-year-old psychopath Alex Packard has his own house, a shadow version of his parents’ house that they helped him build. He takes people there to kill them in the most entertaining ways he can imagine. After murdering his parents, he moves to Los Angeles to live with his married gay uncles, Bruce and Aaron. Alex bonds with his uncles immediately, coming out as gay, too. His bond with Aaron, a documentary filmmaker, tightens as he shares in Aaron’s passion for the camera, and he toys with both uncles, trying to ignite other passions. Meanwhile, he starts bringing beautiful boys and girls from school back to his house, staging more and more elaborate and violent scenarios with them to entertain himself as well as them… but his uncles have suspicions, and Alex leaves clues… and Alex might not understand the enormity of the forces that allow him to slaughter innocents in a shadow world.
“Alex’s Escape is pitch-black coming-of-age nastiness that delights in every transgression a hardcore horror fan could dream… and several more besides!” —Ryan Harding, Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Transcendental Mutilation and Genital Grinder
“A queer phantasmagoria of torturous horror, taboo sex, and supernatural cruelty. Alex’s Escape penetrates deep — in all manner of ways.” —Jonathan Butcher, author of What Good Girls Do and co-author of Motel Styx
“The most twisted and disturbing book I’ve ever read, in the vein of Barker’s best.” —David-Jack Fletcher, award-winning author of Raven’s Creek
Order Alex’s Escape on Amazon!
Read the Cemetery Dance review!