Publisher's Synopsis
This collection of short stories focuses on the holidays of the dark half of the year. We think of Halloween as a time when ghosts, spirits, and things from the other-side come through to haunt us. It was also traditional for such stories to stir our imaginations at Christmas. This text includes an introduction by a popular occult author explaining the holidays that populate the time during which the light wanes and why we turn towards spooky tales in that part of the year. Author Seth Bryant then provides us with seven stories ranging from longer short stories through to novella length. These stories weave tales set around these holidays. These tales are filled with magic, spirits, and rituals but seated in our own world, depicting the sort of magic you might find in your own town. The collection contains one story for the Autumn Equinox, two for Halloween, three for Christmas and one for Valentines Day. Most of the stories fall into the meta-genre of Occult Fiction, or fiction depicting real world occult, Pagan, or NeoPagan practices and beliefs. These stories have elements of horror, adventure, love and longing. The first two stories are modern fairy tales, followed by a tale of cosmic horror and psychological oppression, then the next two involve light horror, followed by a ghost story rooted in lost love. The final story brings us a mix of eroticism and haunting. The stories are diverse, depicting gay, straight and bisexual characters. Content and trigger warnings are included in an introduction.
