Tricks and Treats: A Collection of Spooky Stories by Connecticut Authors is sitting at number 1 on the Preditors & Editors Poll at the moment. The poll ends at 7 a.m. on January 14. We would love your help in keeping it there. You can vote here. 
Tag Archives: Books & Boos Press
Coming just in time for the holidays!
Triplicity: The Terror Project, Volume 1, will be released on Black Friday, just in time for your holiday shopping! To whet your appetite, here’s the debut of the book trailer. Click here to view the book trailer for Triplicity.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Triplicity: The Terror Project, Volume 1 by Stacey Longo, Rob Smales, and Tony Tremblay on Black Friday (Nov. 25), and check out the Books & Boos Press Holiday Sale that week, too!
Manchester Author Sets Latest Novel in Connecticut
Retired nuclear engineer-turned-horror writer Dan Foley’s latest book, Abandoned, tells the tale of a Connecticut man with abandonment issues. “Foley uses horror and humor to tell this story of a disturbed serial killer,” said managing editor Stacey Harris, whose small publishing house, Books & Boos Press, released the novel on May 28. Set in the fictional town of Mettabasset, the Connecticut landscape serves as the backdrop for the novel.
Foley has lived in Manchester for over 30 years. The main character in Abandoned, James Sutton, “needed to be in a location where his job would take him to several states in a matter of hours,” Foley says. “The town of Mettabasset appears in many of my works … I’ve lived all over the country, and chose Connecticut as my home. My books always pay homage to Connecticut in one way or another.”
Abandoned is not for the squeamish. The main character is, at heart, a psychopath, on a mission to make sure nobody—and nothing—is ever abandoned again. He begins to amass a collection of items that James feels were neglected by people … all of which require formaldehyde to preserve.
Abandoned is available in trade paperback and ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and select retail outlets. Foley will be celebrating the book’s release with a launch party at The Book Club bookstore in Broad Brook, CT on Friday, June 17, from 5:00 –6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Advance Praise for ‘Abandoned’ by Dan Foley
To get you ready for Dan Foley’s upcoming release, Abandoned, Books & Boos Press is pleased to share some of the advance praise that has been coming in:
“Dan Foley knows the hard truth: that the darkest of monsters reside within the human heart. Abandoned is just plain scary—the kind of horror that’s made all the more terrifying because it could be true.” ~ Charles R. Rutledge, co-author of Blind Shadows and Congregations of the Dead
“A deliciously macabre dark comedy that serves as a reminder of just how close we all can be to the brink of insanity.” ~ Peter N. Dudar, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of A Requiem For Dead Flies and Where Spiders Fear to Spin (Read Peter’s full review here!)
“If the measure of a man is his mind, Dan Foley inhabits a world of horrors that is otherwise unoccupied. Abandoned grabs you from the very beginning and doesn’t let go. This one will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.” ~ John Valeri, Hartford Books Examiner
“. . . an inventive and sympathetic exploration of the extreme effects of rejection and isolation. Although there are hints of Fowles’ The Collector as well as Lindsay’s Dexter, this book is all Dan Foley. Abandoned is an exciting portrait of a man struggling to reconcile his cravings for belonging with his urges for bloody retribution. It shows . . . that Foley clearly has heart—maybe several of them—in jars on his desk.” ~ Bracken MacLeod, author of Mountain Home and Stranded
And check out the Abandoned book trailer!
Farmer’s Daughter Press to Publish CT Author’s Children’s Book
Farmer’s Daughter Press, our children’s book imprint of Books & Boos Press, is pleased to announce that we will be releasing Sasha & Jake, written and illustrated by Terry George, later this year.
Sasha & Jake is a fun, quirky tale about the unlikely friendship between an arctic fox and a polar bear. “We’re so lucky to have Terry on board,” said managing editor Stacey Harris. “The story she wrote is both engaging and enjoyable, and holds an important lesson within the words. And her illustrations are adorable and funny. This is going to be a great book for kids.”
Terry has established herself as a Connecticut artist, being featured in the Ledyard Bill Library’s Exquisite Project this year. She sells some of her polymer clay creations on Amazon under her company name, Cinnamon Bunny. She is also an aspiring writer, and will have two short stories written under her pseudonym Ryann Strong in Tricks and Treats: A Collection of Spooky Stories by Connecticut Authors, due out this fall.
Sasha & Jake is scheduled to be published in late 2016.
Artist Lynne Hansen Chosen to Design Cover for Books & Boos Press Next Book
Books & Boos Press is pleased to announce that artist Lynne Hansen, of Lynne Hansen Design, will be designing the cover of Abandoned by Dan Foley, due out in June 2016.
Lynne Hansen
Lynne Hansen has over twelve years of marketing and promotions experience, including graphic design, and she specializes in creating book covers that tell a story. She’s created covers for books by New York Times bestselling authors like Christopher Golden, Rick Hautala, and Thomas E. Sniegoski, as well as other staples of the genre, including James A. Moore, Owl Goingback, John R. Little, Peter Atkins, and many more.
“Lynne’s experience, creativity, and delightful sense of humor made her the perfect artist to work on this cover,” said Managing Editor Stacey Harris. “She was my top choice for this project, and we’re thrilled to have her on board.”
You can find out more about Lynne’s work at www.LynneHansenDesign.com.
Recent Events
Recently, we attended two events to promote our authors, their books, and the other books we have published.
Queen City Kamikaze in Manchester, New Hampshire, was the first event we attended. This convention is a one-day show that has been going on for the past four years. This year we were joined by our authors Stacey Longo and Rob Smales. We also invited friend and fellow author Tony Tremblay to sell his books at our tables.
From left to right: authors Stacey Longo, Rob Smales, and Tony Tremblay.
This past Friday, we set-up our books at the Author by the Sea event organized by the New England Author Expo. This event was held at Elks Lodge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We were happy to have Smales at our table once again.
Author Rob Smales.
Click here to find out where we will be next.
‘Echoes of Darkness’ Now Available
Today, Books & Boos Press is proud to release Echoes of Darkness, a short story collection by Rob Smales.
Echoes of Darkness features thirteen tales that span Smales’s writing career thus far, including the first short story he ever sold for publication (“Playmate Wanted,” originally appearing in Dark Moon Digest #5 in 2011) as well as new pieces he wrote specifically for the collection.
Echoes of Darkness is already earning advance praise. “Rob Smales’s prose is seamless and effective, engaging the reader and enticing them in,” stated Bram Stoker Award nominee and author Hal Bodner.
Click here to check out the trailer for Echoes of Darkness.
You can meet Smales at the Books & Boos Press table at Queen City Kamikaze on March 12 and at the Author’s Night by the Sea event on March 18.
Echoes of Darkness is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through book distributors Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Click here to purchase Echoes of Darkness.
Advance Praise for ‘Echoes of Darkness’
Echoes of Darkness by Rob Smales, to be released at the end of February by Books & Boos Press, is already garnering advance praise.
“Reading Rob Smales’s collection Echoes of Darkness is a lot like munching on barbeque potato chips—once you’ve dived into the first story, it’s almost impossible not to keep reading until the end. Smales has a refreshing, clean prose style that is accessible and engaging. In particular, I recommend this book to readers who are new to the genre, as Smales comes up with some nifty and clever riffs on some traditional horror tropes,” says Bram Stoker Award nominated writer Hal Bodner. Bodner is the author of The Trouble With Hairy and Bite Club.
“The writing of Rob Smales hits you like a whip cracking against a spine. Your flesh tears with each whack, yet you keep asking for more, and no matter how bloody and painful the night becomes, you pray it never ends,” Max Booth III, author of How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers, said.
Alex Scully recently reviewed Echoes of Darkness for The Horror Review. “Smales tosses the traditions of genre by taking classic tropes like zombies, and giving his readers a wicked twist in the end. We all know how zombie stories end, right? Think again. ‘A Night at the Show,’ the second tale in this collection, illustrates the Smales touch wonderfully. A werewolf story. Nicely done. Well written. Fantastic characters, and then . . . the end. Woah! Was that what I expected? Not in the least.” (To read Scully’s full review, please visit http://www.horrorreview.com/echoes-of-darkness-book-review/.)
Readers will be able to purchase Echoes of Darkness on Feb. 28 from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and select retail stores. Smales will be signing copies of his book at Queen City Kamikaze in Manchester, NH on March 12, and at Super MegaFest in Marlborough, MA on April 8–10.
‘Echoes’ Cover Release
Books & Boos Press is proud to reveal the cover for our upcoming release, Echoes of Darkness by Rob Smales.
The artwork was done by renowned artist Mikio Murakami of Silent Q Design. His latest works include the design for Chains Over Razors’ debut album, Crown the Villain, and the cover art for Robert Essig’s book, In Black.
For Echoes of Darkness, Murakami used a theme of a repeating mirror and an ominous, deathlike figure, underscoring the theme of the collection. “Mikio’s work is always evocative and chilling,” said managing editor Stacey Harris about the cover. “His work on the Echoes cover is brilliant. It perfectly captures the haunting essence of the stories within.”
Echoes of Darkness will be released on February 28, 2016.
Smales is the author of Dead of Winter, which won the Superior Achievement in Dark Fiction award from Firbolg Publishing’s Gothic Library in 2014. His short stories have been published in two dozen anthologies and magazines, including the recently released Insanity Tales II: The Sense of Fear.
Books and Boos Press 