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There’s Nothing Like a Good Book
At Sley House Publishing, we are always working hard to publish and promote new books. Browse our titles below.
A MIND FULL
OF SCORPIONS
J R Billingsley
A young boy, kidnapped, only to be returned, talking of aliens. A witch destroys a cult and a coven in a quest for ultimate power. A witchdoctor unleashes zombies on a planned neighborhood in Miami. A mysterious unnamed man in a suit may be more than he seems. A murdered Chicago detective needs help discovering who killed him.
In A Mind Full of Scorpions, book one of the Eyes-Only trilogy, former FBI agent Adam Richardson has had his mind broken after a violent end to a haunting case. Diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Adam moves back home to Northwest Arkansas under the care of his younger brother. As Adam settles in, he begins to suspect that some of the things he sees are real. Like the Shimmers, the princes of Hell who embody the seven deadly sins. When Adam’s former partner comes asking for assistance hunting down the paranormal, a new danger rears its head. Now Adam must find a way to stop the forces aligning against him and his friends as he struggles to quiet the voices in his head once and for all.
Cover by Collin Williamson
Edited by Karen Hough of Karen Hough Writes
TALES OF SLEY HOUSE 2021
Ed. by K.A. Hough, T. Williamson
Tales of Sley House 2021-- In this contemporary anthology of short fiction, the newest writers of genre fiction present stories that will make the reader cower in terror, awe in fascination, and ponder in wonder.
Edited by K.A. Hough & Trevor Williamson
GROUND CONTROL
K A HOUGH
MELPOMENE'S GARDEN
CURTIS HARRELL
From his stories focusing on ghosts and the southern gothic, to his one-act plays that delve into the minds of his characters, to his poetry, Curtis Harrell’s eclectic style runs the spectrum of human emotion.
Curtis Harrell was born in Dyersburg, TN and grew up there, Ohio, and Connecticut. After graduating high school, he attended college at Arkansas Tech University and the University of Arkansas. He published his first poem in 1979 and has been steadily placing poems, plays, and stories in journals and magazines since then, with the poem, “Insurance Trilogy,” being nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart Anthology. This book represents a selection collected over the past thirty years. In addition to writing, Curtis is an accomplished instrument builder—some of his banjos are owned and played by internationally recognized players—as well as a retired English professor. Curtis currently lives with his wife, Vicki, outside of Rogers, AR and enjoys the company of his four grandchildren who live close by.
BAD FORM
JOE TAYLOR
The umpteenth millennial celestial changeover is forthcoming, once again moving from a male to a female God—from Mr. to Mrs. Snelling, case in hand. Great! One might think this good news—an empathetic woman in charge—but nope. Grunt! For though this change has occurred perennially since First Creation, Mrs. Snelling has recently adopted the notion that Lady Wisdom, a.k.a. Soapy, has meddled too much in both Mr. Snelling’s and her own previous turns
at crowing in the celestial roost. So she decides to exile Lady Wisdom. “Bad Form, extremely Bad Form,” her male counterpart warns as he changes signage to indicate that Mrs. Snelling will become the erstwhile proprietor of The House. Mrs. Snelling remains adamant, and she hatches a plot to kidnap Lady Wisdom (Soapy). “Bad Form, extremely Bad Form,” Mr. Snelling repeats, only to receive Mrs. Snelling’s cold glare Tom C. Powder, Mrs. Snelling’s favorite cat, will head the innovative Department of New Education, which will replace both Soapy and her changeling sister Alexandra, a.k.a. Pluck.
Soapy’s uncle, that infamous whiskey-drinking, rhyme-making, belly-crawling snake, hatches a counter-plot to hide Soapy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U. S. A., during football season. There, he’s convinced, no one will ever (ever!) dream of searching out Lady Wisdom. He enlists Billy Wise, a computer science geek working at the University in Tuscaloosa, who must travel to “The House” by jumping into a claw foot bathtub on his farm’s pond. There, with good luck and good friends, Billy and Soapy work with their allies Alexandra and Uncle Bogus to outwit Mrs. Snelling. But the cost might be too great for any of them.
THE CARTOGRAPHY DOOR
SEAN EDWARD
Beneath her dreams, there is a place called, "The Tunnel," and it connects everything. Only Sarah can leave the tunnel to other dreams, and only Sarah can enter. That is, until the coins appeared.
Now the place where she's hidden from a haunted past for years is being invaded, terrorized, and overcome by a great and writhing shadow that is hungry for the coins Sarah holds in her hand.
Through a series of reflective conversations and a string of visceral hallucinations, Sarah must unravel the strange story of her own death to reveal the shadow's obsession with her life -- in doing so, she will learn that even her own past has things to hide.
Observations and Nightmares: The Complete Short Fiction of JR Billingsley -- Coming 2024. See this collection of short fiction by Sley House's Editor-in-chief, stories published over the years in various magazines, ranging from the Southern Gothic to horror, the macabre to ghost stories, including two previously unpublished novellas. June 4th, 2024
"There is no going back."
Fifteen years ago, Sarah was a biology student with a lot of potential. Since then, she's been drifting from city to city, leaving behind friends and family to follow her ambitious husband as he rises to the top of his biology field.
"We're going to Mars."
As she packs up to follow him again, this time on a one-way mission to join the growing colony on Mars, Sarah struggles with the choices she has made in her past and knows she must decide what she really wants. When an unknown threat jeopardizes not only the people aboard the shuttle, but the very viability of the Mars program, will Sarah find the strength to finally be true to herself, or will she lose everything ... again?
TALES OF SLEY HOUSE 2022
Edited by T. Williamson & Lillian Ehrhart
New fiction by Michael Gray Baughan, Sharon Cabana, Edna Cartwright, Frank Coffman, Judith Crow, Catherine Fields, Hannah Gilchrist, KC Grifant, Curtis Harrell, JD Keown, Katerini Koraki, Ryan Love, Karl Lykken, Erik McHatton, Jen Mieresch, TM Morgan, Justin Moritz, J. Rohr, Shelagh Smith, Tiffany Stewart, and Benjamin Thomas.
BLACK ECHOES
JB MCLAURIN
Thirty years ago, Everett Grant took his infant son Hank and fled rural Alabama to forge a better life, leaving behind a long trail of drug abuse and crime.
All is well with their new lives in West Palm until Hank gets badly injured in a car accident. To deal with the pain, he abuses opiates, sliding into full-blown addiction. Hank starts robbing dope houses to feed his habit, putting him in the crosshairs of a sadistic enforcer.
The enforcer’s methods are the stuff of lore. Rumors about his appearance ring of myth: he has night-black eyes under tangles of scars on his head. He takes people out to the Everglades, maims them, remakes them into taxidermied trophies.
The common thread: once he takes you out there, no one sees you again.
Pulled back into the underworld, Everett is on a collision course with this deranged man. Worse, his past is there waiting for him.
TALES OF SLEY HOUSE 2023
Edited by K. A. Hough & Lillian Ehrhart
New short speculative fiction by
Robert Nazar Arjoyan, Michael Bettendorf, Matthew Chabin, Michael Craigwell, John Cramer, Joachim Glage, Kelly Gould, Curtis Harrell, K. A. Hough, Phil Keeling, Allie Marini, Joel McKay, Madison McSweeney, Michael Rook, MC St. John, Sally Sultzman, Clay Vermulm, Emily Verona, Marie Wendel, Trevor Williamson, & Richard Zaric
Tales of the Sley Siblings, Volume One -- Who are Charles, Genevieve, and RG Sley? This anthology attempts to bring to light the mysterious benefactors of Sley House Publishing, in new, original stories created especially for this anthology. Sometimes humorous, sometimes horrifying, this collection of shorter works will keep you entertained and keep you guessing as to the Sley siblings true motivations.
COMING SOON:
Persephone's Escalator -- A horror novel from Joe Taylor, author of Bad Form. An upset in the balance of the worldly and the supernatural brings a group of powerful witches to small-town Florida to investigate, igniting a harrowing chain of events in which the line between good and evil is challenged every step of the way. Coming October 8th, 2024.
Under the Churchyard in the Chamber of Bone -- When Court Dillon disappears on a return trip to visit his ailing quartet of grandparents, his girlfriend Dani Morales heads to his small, Ozark hometown to search for him. What she finds instead are mysterious deaths, desecrated graveyards, and a monster tied to Court and his family. A novel by JR Billingsley. Coming September 17th, 2024. COVER REVEAL COMING SOON!
Tales of Sley House 2024 -- Our annual anthology returns next Halloween with more stories to terrify, awe, and enjoy. Coming October 29th, 2024. COVER REVEAL COMING SOON!
The Blood of True Men -- The long-awaited sequel to A Mind Full of Scorpions. Coming 2025.
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