D Krauss – författare

Those late-night horror shows hosted by the likes of Svengooli, Doctor Shock, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark left us hiding under blankets as the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and Dracula stalked the moors and castles of fogbound countrysides. They were our first monsters, the ones that shaped the Freddies, the Jasons, and the Chucky's of today. Here then, are ten stories inspired by old monsters, still tugging at the blankets:1. Aspects of a Traditional Vampire and the Need to Dispatch Same: the lore will save you.2. Come Live with Us Forever: the lore will not save you.3. Attitude Adjustment: the miracles of modern medicine4. A Rose by Any Other Name: doesn't matter what you call them, they'll still eat you.5. Banshee: when it's time, it's time6. By the Light of the Silvery Moon: not always romantic7. There's Something Wrong with Wilfred: parts is parts8. Transparency: trying not to be seen, with unexpected consequences.9. If I Had Known You Then: waiting. Forever.10. Excalibur: some quests should be avoided

Otto Boteman suffers a massive heart attack and wakes up in a strange, jeweled city filled with beautiful people, a mesmerizing sky defying all physics, and what looks suspiciously like his first car. He has a disturbing encounter with a murdered childhood friend and is assured by an angel bureaucrat that, yes, this is Heaven, but God is not here so don't bother looking. No God? Can't be Heaven, then, despite the best danishes Otto's ever eaten and a nice condo replete with tailored suits and HBO. Maybe he's not even dead, just comatose. But then he meets Claudia, a 5th Century beauty running an Irish pub, who tells him about a group of malcontents building a rocket ship in the far desert. Their mission? Find God.So begins Otto's journey across a fabulous world peopled with the likes of Doc Holliday, Prester John, and a Mongol horde led by an accountant from West Kankakee, Illinois. Drawing the wrath of a frenzied, suit-wearing army of angels (or demons, can't tell), Otto discovers that launching the ship just might end the eternal struggle between good and evil.

As battle engulfs Star City, Otto Boteman hustles aboard the ship moments before it launches. Now a useless stowaway, Otto must constantly prove his worth or get shown the airlock door. But a stunning encounter at the Pearly Gates changes the ship's mission, and Otto, along with the rest of the crew, must band together to survive a universe far more wondrous and terrifying than any of them imagined.

The Ship is gone. So is the crew. Only Otto Boteman remains, living in a beautiful valley on a planet of two suns and two moons, every dog of his childhood in attendance, every need provided. Otto whiles the days away in peace and silence. It seems like Heaven... except God is not here. No one is. His doubts growing, Otto discovers a relic in the wreckage of the Ship, setting in motion a series of cataclysms that drive Otto across an ever-changing world where he confronts old enemies, half-forgotten myths, and the very nature of existence.

The Twin Towers are still smoldering when those odd little anthrax letters show up, killing a few people here and there. Some nutcase, everyone thinks, but everyone's wrong – it's a setup, a precursor to a massive biological attack that leaves the Northeast a quarantined wasteland.Campus policeman John Rashkil, trapped inside the Zone, chooses to keep working, adding judge and executioner to his resume. He builds a jury-rigged life from what he can salvage and attempts to help his teenage son avoid the bear-traps set throughout this new Byzantine America. But a growing sense of futility shatters his confidence, and he is unprepared when a rabble army seeks to break quarantine and pour into the uninfected lands.Based on an Irish legend of the same name, Partholon is a brutal look at how the just and the civilized respond to anarchy. It will delight lovers of action and military science fiction, like John Scalzi's Old Man's War or Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin.

Five years after the events of Partholon, a juggernaut Red Army bears down on what's left of the poorly led, underequipped, and abandoned US 1st Combined Arms Division, nicknamed the Ghosts. Victory is assured; America will fall. But Sergeant Collier Rashkil and his lover, the beautiful and ruthless Major Rosa Arce, are Ghosts. And Ghosts don't die.Trapped in the swamplands of south Jersey, the Ghosts maintain a thin line of defense, their survival dependent on the intelligence Rosa and Collier provide. But a reconnaissance mission goes very, very wrong, and Rosa discovers there is a traitor in their midst, one willing to sacrifice all their lives for a flawed Utopian vision.Based on an Irish legend, Tu'an is a hair-raising story of brutal combat, of betrayal, survival, and a love that no enemy, no war, not even death, can end.