The Serial Killer's Wife (40 page)

—
Jeremy Robinson

The Calling

When eighteen-year-old Christopher Myers’ parents are murdered, something is written on his bedroom door, a mark in his parents’ blood that convinces the police the killer has targeted Christopher as the next victim. To keep him safe, he travels away with his estranged grandmother and uncle to the small town of Bridgton, New York. And it’s in Bridgton that he meets an extraordinary young man who has come with his father to stop an unrelenting evil. Soon Christopher learns of the town’s deep dark secret, and how his parents’ murder was no accident, and how he has been brought to Bridgton by forces beyond his power—forces that just may threaten the destruction of all mankind.

The Calling
is a 100,000-word supernatural thriller in the vein of Peter Straub and Dean Koontz.

“
The Calling
is a powerful, gripping and terrifying novel, the sort that possesses your whole life while you’re reading it; it’ll stalk you through the day, and inform your dreams. Swartwood has delivered a novel that will become a classic.”

—
Tim Lebbon

“Robert Swartwood’s
The Calling
is a diabolical rocket sled of a psychological thriller. Told through the vivid, almost druggy point of view of a young man on the edge, tangled in a web of tragedy and surreal horror, Swartwood’s novel gets under the skin and stays there. Highly recommended.”

—
Jay Bonansinga

NOVELLAS & SHORT STORIES

Real Illusions: Stories

A mysterious man appears in town ... a man only children can see. A young boy’s heart does not beat ... just like everyone else’s in the world. A group of teenagers find an old woman in a cavern ... and a tunnel that leads to another dimension. Two boys on the run from an abusive father stumble across an empty farmhouse ... a farmhouse haunted by more than just memories.

As Robert Swartwood proves in his first full-length collection, illusions are all around us.

Some are real.

Some are terrifying.

Real Illusions
is 80,000 words long and contains ten stories (including the novellas
The Man on the Bench
,
Through the Guts of a Beggar
, and
The Silver Ring
), as well as a special author introduction and story notes.

Phantom Energy: [Very Short] Stories

From Robert Swartwood, the editor of the critically acclaimed
Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewe
r
, comes a collection of twenty-six very short stories, ranging from the real to the surreal.

Phantom Energy
is 11,000 words long.

“The zip fictions of Robert Swartwood’s gorgeous
Phantom Energy
 are as much about silent spaces as the inky depths of text, cluttered as they are with the disturbing exhaust of endless afterthought. These are overly animated pixels, antic antics, hyper-real really real reality on the sly sent reeling into the intimate spaces between the blanking stars.”

—
Michael Martone

“The stories in 
Phantom Energy
might look like little windows onto characters trapped in strange other worlds; but read on, and you’ll find something magical happens — they turn to mirrors, and there’s you behind the glass.”

—
Ben Loory

The Man on the Bench

In the summer of 1922, nine-year-old Ethan’s only worries are chores, having fun, and keeping out of trouble.

But a shadow soon falls over the tiny backwater town of Benton, Pennsylvania that threatens to change everything.

First the cats disappear.

Then the little girls.

After that, the real horror begins.

The Man on the Bench
is a 24,000-word coming-of-age story in the vein of Stephen King and Robert McCammon.

“I absolutely loved
The Man on the Bench
. It was wondrous, intriguing, sweet, scary, surprising ... everything a good story should be.”

—
David B. Silva

Spooky Nook

A writer whose wife has been missing for eight months encounters a familiar old woman with an odd request—a request that will introduce him to a surprising evil.

Spooky Nook
is a 10,000-word “prequel of sorts” to
The Calling
, a supernatural thriller by Robert Swartwood. The prologue and first three chapters of
The Calling
are included in this ebook.

In Solemn Shades of Endless Night

In Solemn Shades of Endless Night
is a 14,000-word story about a man trapped in perpetual Halloween night who must make the ultimate choice: to save himself or the world.

“Halloween night. A battle between good and evil, darkness and light. The blurring of reality. A touch of trust and betrayal. The burden of the past on present and future generations. Robert Swartwood’s
In Solemn Shades of Endless Night
has it all. A classic Halloween tale that will keep you turning the pages.”

—
David B. Silva

The Silver Ring

David Beveridge is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When a gunman storms into a convenience store demanding money, he ends up shooting both the counterwoman and David. Only David doesn’t die. Neither does the counterwoman. David is able to bring her back to life with the help of a mysterious silver ring he found earlier that night—a ring that the darkest evil in the universe wants for its very own.

The Silver Ring
is an 18,000-word novella that contains a special afterword and a bonus short story.

“Robert Swartwood’s
The Silver Ring
is a full-tilt no-holds-barred bobsled of a ride, absolutely engaging and a hundred percent fun. If this one doesn’t grab you, it’s time to up your Ritalin.”

—
Joe Schreiber

Through the Guts of a Beggar

Josh wakes up one morning to find his ten-year-old brother filling in a grave in the backyard. From there, the day just gets worse.

Through the Guts of a Beggar
contains the original 10,000-word novelette, a 3,000-word alternate ending, and two bonus short stories of pulpy horror goodness.

AS EDITOR

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer

A story collection that proves less is more.

The stories in this collection run the gamut from playful to tragic, conservative to experimental, but they all have one thing in common: they are no more than 25 words long. Robert Swartwood was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's possibly apocryphal six-word story—“For Sale: baby shoes, never worn”—to foster the writing of these incredibly short-short stories. He termed them “hint fiction” because the few chosen words suggest a larger, more complex chain of events. Spare and evocative, these stories prove that a brilliantly honed narrative can be as startling and powerful as a story of traditional length. The 125 gemlike stories in this collection come from such best-selling and award-winning authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Ha Jin, Peter Straub, and James Frey, as well as emerging writers.

“The perfect story collection for all of us with too little time on our hands is a brilliant reminder of the magic that happens when you string the right words together. A must-read for anyone who is or wants to be a writer.”

—
Jodi Picoult

Copyright © 2011 Robert Swartwood

Cover design copyright © 2012
Jeroen ten Berge

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Robert Swartwood.

www.robertswartwood.com