Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

After surviving the horrors of your last visit, you thought the nightmare was over. But when your little brother falls deathly ill, the only cure lies deep within the place you swore you’d never return to. Something evil has taken root, spilling beyond Grandma’s walls and into the surrounding mountains.

After receiving a large insurance settlement, young couple Gwen and George fulfill a dream by buying their own little island, a secluded, private paradise surrounded by a lush green landscape of plants. What the real estate man didn't tell them was that a tragedy took place years earlier in the cool, clear pool near the house. And the waters still hold a terrifying centuries-old secret. Soon George begins to notice strange changes in his wife.

It all comes down to this. While Marcus is visiting Iaka on Alpha 114, a message arrives from from Marcus’s adopted father, Vlad Valcor. He needs help and Marcus never says no to family. Soon he and Solomon are off to Pleasure Planet 4 and a meeting that will hopefully bring peace between Vlad’s organization and the Jade Dragon clan.

Demon lights, granted wishes, strange things, and brutal love at the Lucky Lounge Motel. A haunted sister, desperate parents, a little human touch, and the end of the world. These are the stories whispered among dead leaves, the script etched bare for all to see. Welcome to Glenn Rolfe’s Land of Bones, 14 tales of the strange and macabre.

Sebastian “Seb” McAlister has run out of luck in Vegas. Cornered by a trigger-happy gang and shot through the stomach, he makes a desperate escape in his supercharged Hellcat. Fate guides Seb safely out of Sin City and into the desert, but as his wheels fade into the horizon, he fades into darkness. He awakes among a tiny community in the middle of nowhere. A mountain range circles the hodgepodge of shacks like prison walls looming high. And the warden that resides in those mountains is big, ugly, and deadly - a creature straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare.

On October 13th, Wes Andrews and his friends set out to explore the local, rundown haunted house. Despite it being geared toward children, they figured that, with nothing better to do, it might be fun to heckle the low-budget attraction.

Are you constantly haunted by the past, replaying every poor decision you've made like a bad record on repeat? I know the feeling because that used to be me. Most of my 20s were a blur as I struggled with personal and financial hardships. I would go to sleep each night hoping my life was a dream and pray to wake up to something better. For eight years I struggled with making progress and accepting myself. Then one day I got tired of dreaming and decided to do something about it.

A couple of jerks wake me up at the crack of noon. Seems my klepto uncle stole an ancient deck of Tarot cards from a high-powered wizard, and too many losers want to ruin my day to get them back. The cards are cool, so I check them out, but my magic-happy cousin, Sabrina, tells me I'm not supposed to touch them. Oops. Too late. Now the damn cards are tuned to me, and if someone else wants to use them, I have to die. Why couldn't she have led with that information?

Perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link, Jo Paquette’s Stories I Told My Dead Lover contains eight searing tales of psychological horror that probe the darkest and most deeply buried parts of the human psyche. A child is forced to grow up too soon. A woman trusts her doctor too much. An abandoned woman isn’t as alone as she thinks. An idyllic holiday masks an unspeakable act of violence. Driven, desperate, fighting for the power to choose their own fate, Paquette’s characters dare to push back at the walls that hold them in.

He may not win Father of the Year, but Clint Edwards has won the hearts of thousands, thanks to his candor and irreverence when it comes to raising kids, being married, and learning from his mistakes. Clint has three children: Tristan (the know it all), Norah (the snarky princess), and Aspen (the worst roommate ever). He describes parenting as "a million different gears turning in a million different directions, all of them covered in sour milk." In this inspiring and unconventional book of essays, he sheds light on the darker yet hilarious side of domestic life.

This practical guide to becoming an influencer in your industry will explain what influence is and how it works. It will show you how to grow your following, build credibility and develop your identity as an authority in your field. It will provide direction in how to educate yourself, create compelling content, harness the power of social media and engage with your community. It will teach you how to build an online persona that is so powerful, a simple social media update or blog post will be able to affect change.

Faced with an ultimatum from a mysterious coalition of Apocalypses, Zeke and the crew are given a grim choice: submit, or die. Never one to roll over and give up, Zeke chooses the hard route. The only Apocalypses left are powerhouses who won not only their city but also the territorial battles afterwards. To the last, they're horrific monstrosities with the worst at heart.

In the fog-enshrouded peaks of the island nation of Nehan, Ran, a newly minted shadow warrior is set loose on a musha shugyo, a wandering quest, whereby he must travel alone and hone his skills. Journeying aboard a merchant vessel, Ran hears tales of a mysterious lord believed to have the dead for his servants. Soon these tales prove all too real as Ran comes to the aid of Jysal, a beautiful sorceress, whose undeveloped power gives her the ability to heal a land - or destroy it.

He didn't want to be in the game. Now, he has to save it. Killed on the first day on the job, 25-year-old police officer Nyle Maxwell finds his mind uploaded to Capes Online, the world's biggest and most popular VRMMORPG. Yet, the one-way, mind-to-game upload process means that Nyle can never return to his physical body. Now, he must become a real superhero and protect Capes Online from both hostile players and malevolent AIs and NPCs alike that seek to destroy the game itself.

Cheating husband Ricardo could never keep it in his pants, and now it's stuck in the worst possible place. His Mexican road trip becomes a nightmare straight out of urban legend when he agrees to take the wrong woman back over the border. A bolt of lightning sees him fused to his fellow cheater on a detour into the backwoods. Now he's fighting wild beasts and raw nature just to stay alive in this dark comedy romance that blends erotic horror with black humor and extreme splatter.

At the edge of Frontier space, renegade Templar Orin Lashra has evaded capture by the Marshals and their premier fighting force, the Lancers. Darting across the colonies, Lasher and his friends wage a brutal war against the Seven Seats cartel for their part in the murder of the woman he called mother. Lasher’s relentless pursuit of vengeance soon draws the attention of the Gun Wraith, a mysterious mercenary intent on taking Orin for a client who considers his capture a no-fail mission.

Famed rock-star-turned-philanthropist Ashton Mink is murdered in his Manhattan high-rise apartment, leaving behind the words “Devil’s Interval” as the only clue to the killer’s identify or motives. Dan Kotler, archeologist and consultant with the FBI’s new Historic Crimes Division, and Agent Roland Denzel, of the FBI, are called to the scene of Mink’s murder, and asked to help in the investigation. What they discover is a secret project, based on the research of historic figures such as Sir Isaac Newton, that could alter the course of history and enslave humanity.

It will take everything they've learned to stop the rise of evil. The last dragon's egg is discovered in the treasury of Veldwaite, launching Lorit and Chihon into a battle with the Temple Priests. They rescue a young Wizard and enlist his help in the fight to stop the Temple from harnessing the power of the last dragon. Now they're the masters, training him. They've come a long way since the farm. Fought many battles. But will it be enough to save the dragons from the clutches of the Temple in their last effort to ensnare the world in darkness?

Preparing to protect a 20-foot dragon from the wrath of his own wife, Wiz joins forces with his eccentric companions in an adventure filled with Soviet ex-spies, a band of dwarves, zombie dragon riders, and a fluffy pink mechanical rabbit.

Tim's a streetwise detective, investigating the death of a homeless woman on his turf. Paired with grizzled veteran Gabe, they have to determine if the murder is a one-off, or if something more sinister is afoot. The trouble is, Tim doesn't always play by Gabe's rules. Nikki's past made her strong. Survival has been her goal since she was a girl, and it's the one thing the killer never counted on. She'll need to use everything she's learned if she doesn't want to become his next victim. Will the detectives overcome their differences and piece the grim puzzle together?