I was going to spread these out, but I am WAY too excited about this cover. It is for The Kindly One: And Other Horrific Tales. My first ever horror collection, given I never set out to write horror, with only two exceptions, both of which can be blamed on CJ Henderson. Otherwise, such stories always sneak up on me. I could not have ended up with a more appropriate cover image if I had commissioned it. Stock art for the win!

Guilt, the venom running through humanity’s veins,
The cancer eating mankind’s soul.
Death, both courted and earned, well fed upon denial.

Balanced on the delicate edge between madness and damnation, clarity comes to us all.
There is one thing more terrifying than the darkness at the edge of your vision staring back.
The seed of that darkness peering from within your heart.
What is real? What is imagined?
Right, or wrong, the price of your answer is your soul.

Includes the Stories:
The Kindly One
Skippy
Ruby Red
The Carrier
The Forest of a Thousand Lost Souls
Uncast Shadows
In the Dying Light
Burning Conviction
Purgatory

Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com).

Her published works include six novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman,  and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections.

In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.

Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and two extremely spoiled cats.