Tansy Undercrypt

‎”Small Towns, Dark Places”, my first published collection of short stories, has been released in its ebook format and is out on Amazon for the Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, iBooks for iPad, and several others. I HAVE A FAVOR TO ASK: if you purchase the book and read it, please, please, PLEASE rate/review it. Your honest feedback is important to me personally, to like minds shopping in the aether, and to the energy arc of the project from here to eternity. Thank you!

If you’re a fan of the short story, as I am, collections and anthologies are the reading equivalent of Disneyland – unforgettable when they’re good, barely a head shake before you move on when they’re not. Here are two of the best I’ve recently come across:

William Malmborg’s “Scraping the Bone” is one of the best dark fiction collections I’ve read so far; tight, grisly little gems that stay clear of being too complicated but do not lack style. The author gives just as much time to each story as it needs; there’s no droning on here. “Scraping” gets a Reaper Rating of 4 (“Thrill Kill”) for delivering an old school creepfest in a modern setting.

Dan DeWitt’s “Underneath: Short Stories of Horror and the Supernatural” also loves its genre and stays true to it. The stories provide a host of great characterizations in creative predicaments that compel you to stay in the tale to learn what ultimately happened. DeWitt uses the collection as marketing for his upcoming book “Orpheus”, however, so a goodly chunk of it is the first few chapters of something else. “Underneath” gets a Reaper Rating of 3 (“Timely Departure”) for undeniable magic while it holds.

‎”Small Towns, Dark Places” by Tansy Undercrypt. A frightening migration fills a barn with unwanted guests. A young boy rings the doorbell of the neighborhood haunted house. Man’s best friend fights off something that isn’t human anymore. In thirteen darkly fascinating and deliciously grim tales, the residents of a cursed Midwest encounter the mysterious, terrifying, and deadly. (Available by ebook by the end of June; in print end of July.)