Pure Evil is one of our greatest fears. No appeals to reason, no pleas of mercy or forgiveness will have the slightest impact on the mind of the oppressor. These Evil entities, surely we can’t name them as beings, include all sorts of monsters, demons, devils, vampires and other assorted ghouls that care little about the fate of you or I.1 - Essence of Evil - Tales of Monsters, Demons, Devils, Vampires & more2 - The Call of Cthulhu - Part 1 by H P Lovecraft3 - The C...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Occasionally an author appears who, in a short career, emblazons a legacy so bright and so distinct, as well as popular that it is difficult to believe it is the output of only one man. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was such a talent.Stevenson was born on 13th November 1850 in Edinburgh. Despite a late start to reading and writing he was a voracious story-teller, regularly performing yarns for all those around him. His health though was poorly, he suffered lifelong bronchial probl...

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing. It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade muc...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

All words have a value, they have a truth. Even misinforming us is part of their job. But they are only words, sticks and stones etc etc.But in this volume our authors explore the use of curses. These strings of words might seem harmless enough if you don’t believe they can have any ill effect. Little by little, though, sometimes they do. Our brains connect curse with that action, that happening and now we might be seeing them as cause and effect. Perhaps that curse really does hav...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing. It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade muc...