Introducing three short stories & three novellas: While on vacation, a young man's fiance becomes a heart-collecting Yuletide Thing on Christmas Eve. Get stuck in traffic when The Freeway Reaper claims another soul. A suburban family is plagued by a horde of were-rats. Special Agent Sam Cross, mortally wounded by a Jamaican specter, journeys into a psychedelic Festival of Fallen Souls in search of a supernatural healer whose lover's touch brings in contrast instant death. A legendary flesh eater arrives on the shores of an ancient Minoan city, infecting its population, beginning with a teenage boy's father who's summoned by the pompous king to become an undead garbage disposal. In Red Afterworld, an ex juvenile preacher gets his childhood wish of becoming a vampire when he's recruited into a male-only biker fraternity and finds himself one of the few survivors of global nuclear war, discovers a time portal in the Arizona desert with the hope of saving the world, and finds true love. Including extra minor works from the author's youth and the short screenplay Cutting Edges, the basis for an upcoming film and the author's directorial debut, Red Wet Dirt is to die for and is destined to become a classic way beyond its genre. “I don’t know what else to say about this that has not already been said by some of the best writers of the genre. All I can do is join them in singing his praises. Grabowsky is a master of taking old legends and giving them new life… discover for yourself one of the best up and coming writers of our decade!” --Eve Blaack, Hacker’s Source Magazine, on RED WET DIRT

All Dayton Monday wanted was to make a difference in this world. But the world isn’t what it used to be. Global nuclear war has already begun. The world is in chaos. The water supply of major amusement parks has been tainted with LSD by terrorists. But Dayton’s neighbor, Toad, promises that if he joins his male biker fraternity, the Brotherhood of the Black Heroes, he can help make the world a better place. Through his laborious initiation, he discovers the frightening truth about the Black Heroes: they represent all male vampires, and he is about to become one of them. Vampires are reckless and don’t know sex or love, are addicted to household cleaners and endless supplies of red meat and blood, and despise females of their kind. Just before the world ends, the Second Coming happens, but the returning savior is not what everyone expected: it is Sam Hall, a man hung for murder in the Old West, who died for the world’s sins. That said, crosses no longer protect against them. Now, any image of the Sam Hall hanging tree will do. And then the nukes arrive. What a way to end the world. After the nukes hit, Dayton finds himself one of the few survivors, wandering the wasteland of the Arizona desert where survival seems to be the only meaning of life under an endless red-tainted sky….. until he discovers a strange portal that leads to the barrel pond in the backyard patio of his home at a time just before his initiation, a new hope of saving the world, and true love. Author's note: “Symbolism is only potent when it is given meaning.” --NG RED AFTERWORLD is an important story for me, infused with a multitude of important personal influences and themes. It’s where the name Black Bed Sheet comes from and incorporates my grade school delusion that I was a vampire myself, and my own initiation over eighteen years ago into The Ancient & Honorable Order of E. Clampus Vitus, a fraternity of rowdy & charitable drinking men sprung from the Gold Rush days. It’s inspired by Johnny Cash and Harold Camping (the evangelist who proclaimed the Second Coming a couple years ago and whom my parents are still devoted to). It’s also a response to the mental anarchy that’s been going on in my head for years about how vampires are increasingly portrayed and marketed as dashing romantic teen lovers. In RED AFTERWORLD, they are in many ways a reinvention…..male and female vampires have despised each other and been feuding ever since the “Countess Bathory Incident” where Bathory was betrayed by the Black Hero of Hungary, Count Ferency Nadasdy (an event from which sprung all modern vampires and essentially a true story). They know no romance, sex, or real happiness. I particularly love the female vampire characters, members of a defunct feminist band called Blamia Kiss, and they kick ass, especially Tricks Matrix. In fact, I think RED AFTERWORLD kicks ass. I think it’s like nothing you’ve ever read, and you’ll never think about vampires the same way again.

Once, vampires of the Order of the Blood were revered and respected, but a change in political tides and waves of genocide forced them into hiding. Now, split into two factions with very different means to the end of regaining their freedoms, the brothers of the Order face a resurgence of public fear and hatred. A newly turned vampire, Ian, finds himself torn between sides. Interested only in saving his mortal love, Robin, from the bewitching spell of an older, much more powerful leader of an underground rebellion, Gideon, Ian must choose between protecting Robin, or betraying those of his kind. Though Gideon claims to love her, too, how far will he go to protect the fragile beginnings of his new world order? And with the membership of of their brotherhood divided, who will be powerful enough to stop him?

Hatchet Valley is a deep rocky cleft in the earth, where people live if they're too mean or too weird for anywhere else. Other folks go there if they need or want to be away from ordinary life, or simply campers. Between these rocky walls drops a catalyst one morning, a peculiar artifact from somewhere else, and within an hour, Hatchet Valley becomes the most dangerous place on Earth, filling up with creatures that are no longer people, no longer animals, but they are voracious, fast, and smart. But if there's one thing that could possibly unite a group of misfit strangers, it might just be such a threat. By dawn, the final confrontation between the remaining survivors of Hatchet Valley and the gray shaggy wave of teeth that hunt them will decide not just the fate of that Valley, but perhaps the entire planet.

Will you BECOME ONE with the terror? The Mind Walker….. …a diabolical man who possess the power to invade, distort and rape your mind….. For retired Dominic County Sheriff Jack Yuma, the terrifying incidents of the local chophouse ended years ago on that one dreadful night where so many lost their lives and bestowed upon the chophouse its infamy. But something has been reborn in an unholy womb, thriving on fear and hatred, driven by savagery and revenge, and it is coming for him. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. In this case, Sheriff Yuma should have made sure it was dead the first time….. From the celebrated author of Chophouse 1 & 2, and When the Night Darkens the Streets.

Stationhouse No. 1 once held the town's most prestigious fire & rescue unit, but in late 1959 almost the entire team was savagely slain, their remains burned. Years later, the grisly incidents which had taken place became legendary, and the terror never exactly stopped. Its history has been since drenched in the blood of many an unexplained death. When a group of adventurous, irresponsible horny teenagers decide the building would be perfect for their high school Junior Firefighter group's latest ceremonies, a new and relentless slaughterfest ensues unlike anything they could possibly survive, and unlike anything you've ever read.

Bitternest’s favorite radio disc jockey and debunker of supernatural myths Nick Kubrick is on vacation and on his way to Montreal to surprise his big brother. When he gets there, he finds his brother’s mailbox overflowing with mail and the lawn hasn’t been mowed in weeks. No sign of him anywhere. He decides to stick around town and try to find out where he is. Nick rapidly realizes that the city of Montreal isn’t so different from his spooky hometown of Bitternest as a string of bizarre, gruesome murders are shocking the city. After bumping into an old high school buddy named Lance, Nick is invited to a gated community that Lance and his wife designed. It’s a postcard-perfect spot, but there is definitely something odd about the place. No one’s over forty, there aren’t any kids anywhere, and its residents all look like supermodels. Things come full circle when Nick returns to eerie Bitternest and is approached by private eye Jim Coffin who requests his assistance to investigate a series of strange, ghastly murders. Are these murders linked to the ones in Montreal? Meanwhile, a mysterious traveling carnival rolls into town. Nick and Jim are in for a few surprises and when all will be said and done, Nick will never be the same again….

Red Water, Black Gold: The Canadian River in Texas 1920–1999 tells the story of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. It is a tale of grand designs, high hopes, deep holes, politics, fishing, follies, foibles, and environmental change. Although efforts had been made to tap the Canadian River’s waters before 1920, the discovery of oil in the Panhandle gave new urgency to the search for permanent water supplies. Additionally, the spread of groundwater irrigation amid the discovery of the limits of Ogallala Aquifer spurred regional interests to tap the Canadian. But overestimates of the river’s flow and unfamiliarity with the critical role groundwater played in maintaining that flow led to complications and frustrations, culminating in a lawsuit over the location of the banks of a seemingly waterless river. This book is a valuable addition to the water history of Texas and the American West and to the growing body of worldwide regional water histories. Combining traditional historical sources with hydrology, climatology, and geology, Red Water, Black Gold complicates the traditional story of top-down water management as well as telling the thus-far untold story of the Canadian River in Texas.

Colorants are everywhere. You can find dyes in your decor, cosmetics, food, and in nearly every fabric in the home from your socks to your furniture. Many of these dyes are made using chemical alternatives to the abundant selection of all natural colorants you can find cheaply and easily in your own backyard. Whether you are hoping to make life more natural by creating your own, homemade colorants or hoping to replace one or two synthetic colorants with all natural plant dyes, you will find that coloring with natural choices is easy, fun, and yields amazing results. A natural colorant is a colorant that comes from minerals, plants, or invertebrates. The most common natural colorants come from plant sources like bark, berries, flowers, leaves, and roots. Potential dyeing options are everywhere and this book only illustrates the most traditionally used colorants and the methods I have employed to obtain my desired results. My favorite forms of natural dyes come from plant parts like berries, flowers, leaves, nuts, and roots. After reading this guide and gaining some skill with natural dyes, you should look around and experiment to see what new and creative natural colorants might be available in your own back yard. Remember that natural colorants are not just for dyeing fabric. You can use natural colorants to create homemade ink, paint, or even to dye Easter eggs. Some of our countries oldest documents were written with ink made from natural colorants. You can also use natural colorants to make meals more healthy and appealing. Sometimes I like to use unusual colors to make mealtime fun for the whole family. Purple mashed potatoes or glowing orange rice is always a fun surprise. You can even use plant products when you make personal care products like make up, soaps, and hair colorant. Many commercial cosmetics you purchase have their color roots in natural product dyes and with a little knowledge and a bit of practice, you can become a master at making pleasing looking and smelling products for your family that actually have benefits to go with their attractiveness. Nearly anything you work with that needs color is a potential choice for natural plant dyes! Natural colorants come in every shade you might want. You can even blend or tone the colors up and down to achieve the exact result you need for your project.

A year after the events in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, unrelated but similar diabolical occurrences took place in the Great Lakes area of a young United States. Evil has booked passage aboard the Great American as it sets sail for Chicago. Aware of the ship’s dark reputation of death and mysterious mishap, a desperate crew composed of a murderous convict, two priests, a doctor of sorts and able-bodied misfits falls prey one by one to a formidable evil on the open sea. It’s old-school vampires inspired by Bram Stoker’s original vampire tale as well as the Hammer films, told with originality by a new voice in horror fiction.