After Shocks: An Anthology of So-Cal Horror

An anthology of horror tales set in the geologically unstable LA area. 12 stories of terror and magic realism by: * Michael Scott Bricker * Denise Dumars * Lisa Morton * Dana Vander Els * Jak Koke * James Van Pelt * Brian Hodge * Nancy Holder * Christa Faust * Stephen Woodworth * Robert Guffey * Michael Frounfelter "Modern horror is almost always informed by place and setting. Lovecraft's New England was more memorable than any of his characters. King's small towns... Campbell's aging, industrial England... Brite's decadent South... Sallee's nightmare visions of Chicago... Lansdale's twisted Texas... The list is endless. As disparate as the above writers are, they all manage to create a recognizable place and time. Places that their real life denizens recognize - places that are both comfortingly familiar and terrifyingly unique. King's New England will never be mistaken for Lovecraft's. This is the magic of modern horror. It creates worlds that we recognize. At the same time these worlds are horribly and terrifyingly different from the one we choose to interact with on a daily basis. Horrible because they speak truths we rarely acknowledge. Terrifying because just maybe they are more real than the artificially constructed realities we choose to live in each day..." "...highly charged, bizarre, a bit fractured, and unsettling in the right kind of way. After Shocks is a solid anthology with a well-executed sense of the locale." - Fiona Webster, Horror Garage