Terry Lloyd Vinson

Three years since surviving the horrors of Desolation Island, second-tier superhero Ben Thomason, a.k.a. "Force", is suspended from his position as Chief Corrections officer at the rebuilt Island penitentiary after a drunken brawl with several disgruntled subordinates. Court-ordered to attend anger management courses, Ben is transported to the Jasper Outpost, a government-funded rehab center specializing in soothing the bruised, battered, and sometimes brittle egos of those within the hero trade. Joined by a trio of specially endowed but equally troubled teammates, to include the military’s first hybrid human/cybernetic soldier known as Scar, a hulking, female brute cursed with multi-personality disorder named Jekyll-ene and Déjà vu, a time-bending enigma with a deadly secret, Ben soon finds the tranquil settings of the isolated Outpost anything but. As counselling commences and a blizzard of record proportions cloaks the surrounding Oregonian mountain ranges, a fiery bolt pierces the snow-filled skies, crash-landing directly between the tiny twin cities of Jasper and Boulder Valley. From the burning wreckage of this downed craft an unimaginable evil will crawl; a mutated monstrosity whose sole reason for existence is the systematic termination of all those unfortunate enough to cross its bloodthirsty path. Soon, freshly fallen snow and hardened ice caps will stain a dark shade of crimson from the slaughter of innocents, the only thing standing in the way of total annihilation a handful of emotionally scarred, anti-social burnouts once heralded for their unique powers and heroic ways. Accompanied by a young counsellor self-appointed to chronicle the horrific events as they unfold, the newly formed team of disgruntled misfits soon find themselves in the familiar role of protector for a group of terrified locals transported to the Post for safety. Forced into a desperate last stand atop the frigid grounds of the Jasper Ridge Outpost, Ben Thomason, infamous as much for his un-PC rants and drunken rages as the wrecking-ball sized fists that are his trademark, will discover that survival atop this particular island isn’t nearly as probable.

Peace in the Valley: The tiny, rural township of Elm Hill, Alabama gives the impression of being happily trapped within a time-warp decades removed from modern society. What with its penchant for tranquil living and the laid-back attitude of its citizens, it appears on the surface to be a 21st Century version of Shangri-La, Southern-style. Yet, as with all such self-proclaimed safe-havens, there is usually present an underlying vibe of impending doom, like a toxic black cloud drifting overhead, as if it is only a matter of time and/or circumstances before a cloud-burst alters the landscape forever... The Time has come: A trio of ruthless, merciless killers has descended onto the peaceful, sleepy community, all of whom follow separate, malevolent agendas, and with only a small-town sheriff and his lone deputy standing between them and the destruction of countless innocent lives. Evil Personified: Worse yet, the good citizens of Elm Hill will soon play host to THE natural born killer, a vile, soulless being infamously known as ‘Mr. Hate’, whose skill for eradication is surpassed only by his utter loathing of mankind as a whole, and whose true identity will serve to shock the town to its very core...

A cordial invitation to be CHILLED to the BONE by this terrifying collection of horror/suspense/mystery tales. Discover true horror in the darkest, most desolate landscape imaginable, an icy portrait of darkest hell that will fuel your worst nightmares for months to come... On a frozen, isolated Alaskan Air Force Base base, two military security guards are subjected to the old adage, 'WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER', yet the words will have a whole new meaning for each of them when the light of dawn arrives atop the icy, crimson-stained tundra.... Tales to 'Ice' the veins include: Pierced: An aging rock band turns the tables on their embezzling agent, only to discover the final tarot card has yet to be displayed, and their own fate equally sealed... Gunman's Hand: A gun for hire in the old west finds that his latest target has a penchant for survival, and a taste for warm, human blood... Black Monday: A man painfully stubs his toe upon awaking, setting off a tragic chain of events that send him cascading into a troubled sea of unbridled madness... Blue Chip: A college football coach 'goes the extra mile' in attempting to sign a talented but reclusive young phenom, one whose family tree is riddled with horrific secrets better left to rot on the vine... The ZBA: In the professional basketball leagues of the near future, players no longer ply their trade for riches and fame, but instead for a single taste of warm, human flesh... The Outpost: Personnel at an isolated Air Force base set atop the frozen tundra of Alaska greet an unexpected guest, one with a merciless mission all it's own... New Year's Desolation: A troubled artist finds that some New Year's resolutions are better left unfulfilled... Join us...if you dare, at the steely, ice-coated front gates of Myerson Air Force Base...where true warmth is a commodity, but "BONE CHILLS" are plentiful...

They possess no pulse, nor a heartbeat. Their lungs have long since discarded the need to regulate oxygen. Logical thought escapes them, as does such common emotional states as happiness, sadness, or depression. The age-old weaknesses of man, such as lust, greed, or envy, no longer apply. Yet they walk. They desire. They pursue...relentlessly. They hunger...insatiably...infinitely. Spawned by a deadly, mysterious plague that ravaged the earth’s population seemingly overnight, the reanimated dead soon dominated the landscape, relegating those unfortunate enough to be labelled "survivor" to permanent "prey" status. Enter, if you dare, a merciless, gore-drenched realm where walking cadaver’s rule, while the living have fallen to the lowest rung on the planetary food chain. Read for yourselves the grisly yet strangely enticing elements that make up The Dead Effect"... Fourteen "dead-fests" in all, to include: THE GRAVE CANYON: In terms of popularity, it ranks as one of the United State’s most visited landmarks, a vacation destination taken by millions each year. Why, even a world-wide plague that eradicated the majority of humanity cannot quell the instinct of the passionate, determined tourist, as DEATH, indeed, takes a holiday... THE TURNING: Once bitten, it is imminent. Once tender flesh is parted by ravenous teeth dripping with decay and disease, it is truly only a matter of time. As friends and family members are forced into a brief period of hellish purgatory known as "the waiting", only a single, agonizing question remains. What to do in that single, horrific moment when "The Turning" becomes a reality? CHOP SHOP: Enter a nightmarish realm where vital organs and body parts are bought and sold with shocking regularity; where the recently deceased and most assuredly damned vie for the freshest replacement parts the market can provide, and in return pay the highest price imaginable. SLUG TRAIL: Once a well-renowned gumshoe with a reputation for using any means necessary to solve a case, Rutger "Slug Trail" Cavander continues to ply his trade as the best private dick in dead-world. Hired by an enigmatic benefactor to track down a former mob boss in hiding, the cities most notorious undead detective is drawn into a tangled web of intrigue, mystery and mayhem while cruising the cadaver-laden streets of Zombie town. THE REAL MONSTERS: People are apt to ponder why often times the good die young and horribly, while the truly evil amongst us are allowed a free ride into their golden years only to pass peacefully in the night. Witness a case to the extreme opposite side of said spectrum in this tale of purest retribution, wherein the vilest of all get their just due, and then some, from the most unlikely of sources... HALLOW’S EVE: Phantom spirits have but a precious few hours within each calendar year to roam and mingle among the living, and while the vast majority are harmless and non-malevolent, many seize the opportunity to evoke horrors that go way beyond simple Halloween "pranks". THE WAITING ROOM: Hospital waiting rooms have often been referred to as the 21st Century equivalent to The Spanish Inquisition. Perhaps a bit overstated, though not if one refers to the following terror tale, as all those unfortunate enough to be labelled "patient" inhabit a nightmarish realm of infinite ‘limbo’ filled with unimaginable horrors...

A horrifying glimpse into the not-too-distant future! Spawned by the effects of global warming, those annoying household pests of old have been replaced by an infinitely more vicious species of hybrid insect and froth-spewing rodent...mutated bug and rat swarms which actually seek out and hunger for human flesh! Thus, the 21st Century exterminator was born...equipped with a can-kill attitude, state-of-the art equipment and bug-melting pesticides, these modern-day pest assassins risk both life and limb while facing down the likes of Jamaican Cannibal Roaches, Skin-bore Ants, porcupine mantises and the ever-dreaded, ultra-poisonous Dual-Fanged Daddy Long-Legs! Read in spine-tingling anticipation as six of the planet’s most noted pest control specialists, to include such industry luminaries as Gaven "The Texas Terminator" McCloud, Gil "Doctor Death" Braggs, Luther "The Ebony Assassin" Bohannon and Virgil "The Cleaner" Hobbs, face down the newest and greatest threat of all! Find out which of these stalwart adventurers will survive and who will merely join the mutilated ranks of the mutant-bug buffet! So don’t bother checking your personal space for creepy, crawly, multi-legged intruders...just leave those brittle nerves behind and give a shout out for the brave men and women who so proudly profess to be the Bug-Stompers of the 21st Century!

Half Past The Witching Hour is a psyche-jarring collection of suspenseful short stories that combine old-fashioned "bare bones" horror, Sci-Fi, mystery and suspense with "O. Henry-style" surprise endings sure to keep those brave souls willing to indulge glued to the printed page. From 17th Century horrors to parasitic terrors found in the deepest, darkest corner of outer space, to a group of misfit malcontent superheroes of the near future facing down the ultimate evil, the face of fear has never been so intrusive, yet strangely enticing. Each tale contained within has its own unique twist that sets it apart from the usual thrill-read, from creatures born from myth and legend, to haunted hotel rooms seemingly constructed upon damned grounds, to a futuristic "Reality TV" program geared towards an audience of walking cadavers. Twenty eight fright-fests in all, running a chilling gamut in covering a vast cornucopia of genre staples such as vampires, werewolves, psychopaths and the most vengeful of phantoms, this frightful collection leaves no bone...um, stone unturned in its relentless quest to shock, repulse, and leave the reader’s flesh crawling as the clock on a nearby wall chimes in at Half Past The Witching Hour...

As the atypical small southern town, Baymont, Alabama holds but one unique, albeit tragic distinction; that being the mysterious, grisly murders of two former high school standouts the night of the Class of ‘81’s twenty-fifth reunion. Hoping to shed new light on the bizarre, quasi-supernatural circumstances surrounding the twin slayings, a documentary filmmaker and his crew descend upon the town amid a general indifference from the locals, the majority of which regard all media-related types as little more than predatory blood-mongers and publicity seekers. However, as filming progresses and interviews with former classmates of the victims reveal a dark, sinister flipside to tranquil, small town living, the identity of a possible killer begins to take shape, unlocking not only the shocking secret to the reunion night murders, but also the horrid truth behind a similarly gruesome cold-case from twenty-five years earlier.

A select few have the power to "DEFLECT" the Reaper's sharp-edged blade... Lamar Carter, a Nashville Newspaper reporter, has travelled to a small, rural Alabama town called Randallville, in search of the ultimate "human interest story." He has come to interview the man deemed the "Sole Citizen" by all who know of him as a state legend of sorts. The man’s name is Donald Randall, and he is indeed the only surviving citizen of the township that bares his name, operating an isolated gas station that provides the only service for thirty miles in either direction. Surprisingly, Randall agrees to the interview, but only if all the related facts of his undeniably remarkable, yet tragedy-laced existence aren’t omitted. Settling in at his modest adobe on the outskirts of the newly ordained "ghost town," one man's astonishing travels are chronicled. In a shocking turn of events that serves to explain why his life has been literally engulfed in waves of tragedy and unexpected death, Donald finally greets the entity that has been tracking and trailing him ever so cautiously for decades. As long-buried secrets are revealed and deadly intentions uncovered, Donald Randall comes to the grisly realization that his true suffering has yet to begin.

As part of a secretly assembled crack team of confederate soldiers dubbed "The Phantom Rebs", former Civil War sharpshooter Luther Henry thought he’d survived the worst that infamous conflict had to offer. Fast forward a full decade later, where he finds himself pursued across the rolling plains of the Southland by a mysterious, otherworldly assassin responsible for systematically eliminating members of his former unit in a retribution-laced killing spree. Retracing fantastic events from his own hand-scribed journals, as well as those of the young Chinese immigrant girl for which he is forced to Guardian, Luther Henry describes facing down all manner of supernatural horrors with little more than his trusty Colt Peacemaker, a sharp-edged Bowie knife, and ample supplies of grit and determination. Saddle up for an exhilarating, action-filled ride into terror that delivers thrills aplenty, while leaving all those brave enough to scan its wondrous contents with a spine-tingling sensation best described as a "Creeping Dread..."

Framed for a murder he didn’t commit, second-tier superhero Ben Thomason, known in the trades as "Desolation Outlaw", is convicted and sentenced to life in prison at Eagle Island Detention Center, a Top Secret, billion dollar penitentiary that houses only the elite of super-villains and super-heroes gone bad. Following the initial incarceration phase, he greets both old allies and enemies alike amid an inexplicable feeling of dread that looms atop the desolate island location like a toxic black cloud. Set against a surreal backdrop filled with deadly mutants, vile alien entities and merciless madmen, the purest of all evils is slowly awakening just below the surface of the prison’s stringently controlled environment; an ancient being whose raw power dwarfs those of all assigned inmates combined. As centuries-old mysteries unravel and shocking truths are unmasked, the imprisoned inhabitants and embittered staff of Eagle Isle are forced to ban together and pool their respective powers in order to survive the greatest threat of all, and from the most unlikely of sources. No man is an island, indeed, most notably a penal colony turned beachhead graveyard soon to be renamed "Desolation Island"...

This man is the biggest, laziest, rottenest, most troublesome- And in the trenches he's one of the best soldiers I ever had.' Passport to Hell is the story of James Douglas Stark-Starkie-and his war. Journalist and novelist Robin Hyde came across Starkie while reporting in Mt Eden Gaol in the 1930s and immediately knew she had to write his 'queer true terrible story'. The result was greeted by John A. Lee, war veteran, author and politician, as 'the most important New Zealand war book yet published'. Hyde took the raw horrors, respites and reversals of Starkie's experiences and composed a work of literature much greater than a mere documentary of war. She portrays a man looting a dead man's money-belt and filching beer from the Tommies; attempting to shoot a sergeant in a haze of absinthe, yet carrying his wounded captain back across No Man's Land; a man recommended for the V.C. and honoured for his bravery - but also subject to nine courts martial. In its psychological acuity and emotional depth, Passport to Hell is one of the finest war books we have.