It’s Christmas, and strange occurrences are plaguing the small town of Torrential Hill: a supernatural comet, undead insects, exploding streetlights, and a presence luring people into the woods.
But when the mother of Tristen—a wistful, fatherless sixteen-year-old boy—hears voices from the kitchen sink, all he can think of is running away.
Desperate to be freed of her sorrow, Tristen runs to the place holding his last childhood memory; beckoned by a voice in the woods, only to return to his father’s death site.
Are these woods the source of his mother’s despair and the town’s supernatural occurrences? Do these woods somehow contain the cure to his own spiraling sanity?
If there was nothing else in these woods, he would manifest sorrow and use it to fill the damned silence.
The silence, immaculate. He recognized its unfathomable descent into itself. The purest forms often diluted his attention to the strongest hidden beauties. To follow these flawless silences might induce a cessation into a different yet similar lifetime. With one’s mouth agape, there is always more to swallow. And Tristen always wished to be filtered, chewed, and spit out bodiless as a dream, to be the raindrop plunging into white sea, to not shatter and spread wide the body, to pour out like the hungriest wound and demand to be filled at once. Happiness is to be loved to death. No matter how strange, the leap into silence demanded a sacrifice of the highest order. He came to relinquish his life for a different one.
His muddied shoes stepped through the brightly lit division in the trees. A hillside not far ahead oversaw the great abyss which nurtured the lowest regions of the wood, where the city limits were eaten alive by pine and lichen, where the meteorite fell just days before.
Canine laughter sprawled out against the void, just near enough to hear. Then, spoken slowly and dully like a voice from the sink, in the middle of the raspy sunrise, his name seemed to hum within an acute ringing: “Trist-en.”
The ringing grew and took hold of his arms and pulled him to the ground. The sky pealed his name unto him as he bowed over the whitening earth. He coughed into his chest. Frostbite and blood covered his skin from wrists to elbows. Curling his fingers into the snow, his knuckles cut deep; using them, he lifted his body and swung forward.
He moved with determination, each spring forward going farther than the last. Everything was a cry to continue moving. It even echoed from fractures in the bark. Eternity was waiting for Tristen. His ankles were set in a motion too hypnotic to break.
Torn trunks pointed their roots toward the hillside where old snow whistled with old wind. At the hillside’s ledge, deformed trees met the capsizing sky, longing back to the morning’s jaw. Mist peeled back to reveal the ledge.
Tristen walked to it slowly.
The sound bawled from everywhere, two drawn-out torrents of energy. They droned the essence of shared solitude, unmasked arousal of vulnerability and, at the center of the sound, consonants proudly shattered and burst. “Tri-sten.” A cry so lowly, lovingly, morbidly exasperated—stretched open and crackling. All around him coursed a magnitude of feeling. Catching a deformed tree’s lowered branch, he waited at the ridge. These—these long waves, this sheer density—this heavy slowness were the years of his life that hadn’t happened yet.
“Tri-st!-enn.”
Then, pushing down on the branch, it snapped halfway, and Tristen tumbled fast into a scar in the earth.
Also available as a pocketbook
Jonathan Koven grew up on Long Island, NY, embraced by tree-speak, tide’s rush, and the love and support of his family.
He holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from American University, works as a technical writer, and is Toho Journal’s head fiction editor and workshop coordinator.
He lives in Philadelphia with his best friend and future wife Delana, and cats Peanut Butter and Keebler.
Read Jonathan’s debut chapbook Palm Lines, now available from Toho Publishing.
His award-winning novella Below Torrential Hill is expected winter 2021 from Electric Eclectic Books.
We are pleased to announce the winning authors of the Electric Eclectic Novella Fiction Prize.
The levels of entries were outstanding. Our judges, who ‘blind-read’ each manuscript had a most difficult task in selecting the winners.
After much lip chewing, hair pulling, and brainstorming we managed to select a shortlist, and then whittle the submissions down to the final three.
They are:
1st Place, Stevie Turner with, ‘Scam!’
Runner-up, Jonathan Koven, with, ‘Below Torrential Hill’
Runner-up, Phillip T Stephens with, ‘Doublemint Gumshoe’
The above stories are now in the process of becoming Electric Eclectic books.
Scam!
Lauren West and Ben Hughes are saving frantically for their forthcoming marriage and mortgage deposit. When Lauren sees an advert online from a firm of brokers extolling the profits to be gained by buying and selling Bitcoins, she is interested enough to pursue it further.
Lauren clicks on the advert. She is soon contacted by Paul Cash, a knowledgeable stockbroker whom Lauren trusts straight away. He is affable, plausible, and seemingly genuinely interested in her welfare. Lauren looks forward to making enough money to be able to surprise Ben and bring the date of their wedding forward and to put a deposit down on their ideal house.
However, things don’t go quite to plan, as Lauren falls victim to a scam and loses £10,000 of their savings. Ben is furious. Paul Cash threatens their safety, and Lauren must try and get her marriage back on an even footing if she wants to win back Ben’s trust.
(To be published by Crimson Cloak Publishing for Electric Eclectic)
Below Torrential Hill
Tristen’s abusive father dies when Tristan is young: a suicide. Tristen’s mother, Lucy, copes with alcohol, occasionally violent. Tristen grows up, ignorant to his father’s abuse, substituting for an ill-equipped mother. Stepfather Lave moves out.
When Tristen is sixteen years old. A comet appears.
Lucy hears voices calling from the sink. Tristen steals his mother’s wine and leaves to a neighbourhood party, blacks-out, and argues with his friend Ava.
He chops a Christmas tree in the woods which his father frequented. After a disastrous visit from his stepfather, an argument ensues, and Tristen is assaulted by his mother.
Tristen gets far too drunk, scaring Ava. She manages to calm his temper and gifts him a marijuana joint.
Lucy discovers Tristen’s theft and reveals to him his father’s abuse, asking him to help her.
But he runs into the woods, falling off a cliff, just as his late father did. Tristen discovers a fallen meteorite. When he touches it, he experiences an epiphany about forgiveness.
Doublemint Gumshoe
Doublemint Gumshoe pits the world’s dimmest detective against its most advanced AI.
When a nano robotics engineer who moonlights as a nude model vanishes from her hotel room leaving nothing but empty gum wrappers, Detective Bob takes the case. But Bob has never closed a case in his long career, and the citizens of San Noema conspire to stop him from solving this one.
Pitted against a dying mob boss, a corporation with wide-reaching tentacles, a ruthless cyber gang, his own family (whose nepotism secured his job), a jealous girlfriend, aliens, competing narrators, and possibly an evil AI from the future, Bob is determined to find the missing girl who has captured his heart, and do it in fewer than 30,000 words. Gumshoe takes readers on a supercollider ride, sending up Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, conspiracy theories, postmodernism, and even the movie Chinatown.
All of us here, at Electric Eclectic, congratulate the competition winners and eagerly await the publication of their books.
You can find more Electric Eclectic books by simply typing ‘Electric Eclectic Books’ into your Amazon search bar, or by visiting @open24, the amazon store for readers & writers, http://bit.ly/EEbooksonOPEN24
The Electric Eclectic Novella Fiction Prize opened for submissions back in February 2020, just before Covid interrupted our lives.
The pandemic delayed the judging by a few weeks but now can now reveal the titles and authors who have made the shortlist.
The following manuscripts are now with Crimson Cloak Publishing of Missouri, USA who will be selecting the winning entry, while Electric Eclectic are choosing the two runners up.
The shortlist is as follows, (in no particular order)
Jenifer Dunkle with ‘Aunt June’
Jonathan Kovenwith ‘Below Torrential Hill’
Kaare Troelsen with ‘Equilibrium’
Philip T Stephenswith ‘Doublemint Gumshoe’
Stevie Turnerwith ‘Scam!’
Wesley Britton with ‘The Wayward Missiles – A Beta-Earth Chronicles story’
Wilma Hayeswith ‘Power of Women’
Providing we have no further setbacks, lockdowns, etc. Electric Eclectic plans to announce the winners late May 2021.
While you are awaiting the final results, why not grab yourself a copy of an Electric Eclectic book and enjoy the read; you can find Electric Eclectic books by simply entering ‘Electric Eclectic books‘ into your Amazon search bar.
Alternatively go to @Open24, the Amazon store for readers and writers, follow this link, http://bit.ly/EEbooksonOPEN24
Publisher: Asteri Press imprint of Bolide publishing
Cover designer: Sharon Lipman from Fantasia Cover Designs
Editors: Michelle Dunbar, Anna Proofing, and Black Cat Edits
Nobody expects to stare death in the face, only to find out their entire life is a lie.
When marketing executive Becky is saved from near-death by Salco, she is taken to Tsinia, a magical world filled with peaceful people who are trying to forget their land is on the brink of destruction.
Becky discovers that her arrival is no accident and that she is Thya, the heir to the enchanting land. As if that isn’t enough, she learns that an Oracle prophesied that she will save the gentle Tsinians from slavery and domination by Darthorn, the Warlord of Senx.
The Tsinian council and her kinsmen are certain that a union between Darthorn’s son, Kovon, and Thya will create peace between the two lands. However, Darthorn has plans for Tsinia, as does Kovon for Thya.
Her future has been written, and, if she is to save Tsinia, she must marry Kovon, but Thya gives her heart to another – a love that is both forbidden and dangerous.
Illusional Reality is a story about hope, courage, love, and sacrifice.
The cool air refreshed her, and she was soon wide awake. Alkazar brought a seat out from the room and asked her to sit.
“As I was trying to convey to you, the gift you possess is named Flite. You have the ability to move objects with your mind. All Ganties possess this gift, and tis my pleasured duty to tutor you in the employment of your talents. To move an object, you are required to reach the Owto, a place between conscious and unconscious.”
“Sort of like a trance?”
“Similar to a hypnotic state,” he answered. “You ought to be aware of things around you and pay attention to conversations, yet you need to be able to detach yourself from reality so you can concentrate on what you desire. It is rather like splitting your mind in two.”
“Sounds hard.”
Alkazar laughed. “It can be. It depends on how receptive you are. Let us attempt?”
“Sure, what have I got to lose?”
“Start by relaxing your body. Close your mind and relax in the chair; feel your body loosen. When you think you cannot go further, push your body deeper.” He saw Thya push herself back into the chair. “Employ only your thoughts. Do not employ your physical being.” Thya relaxed once again. “Better. Melt into the chair. Become one with the wood. Breathe deeply. Inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. That’s it. Keep breathing deeper. Good. You ought to feel as though you are drifting.” Thya nodded slightly. “I require you to imagine space as you understand it to be: be darkness all around you, apart from the stars and planets surrounding your view. You are alone, moving through space, drifting. Detach your mind and focus on the darkness – on the silence. Concentrate, Thya.” He paused for a moment. “The stars and planets are fading, and there is naught but utter darkness. Still, you move through the blackness.”
Thya was coming to the crucial part. Alkazar moved closer. He lifted one of her eyelids and saw her pupil was stationary and her breathing steady. Both were good signs. Just for a moment, he felt the urge to lean in and kiss her but pushed the thought aside. He scolded himself. He was supposed to be teaching her how to concentrate yet struggled with his own.
“Continue moving through the darkness,” he continued. “Soon, you will come to a suspended door. Tis grey in colour. When you arrive, grasp the handle until I instruct you to –”
“I sight the door,” Thya called out.
“Continue to grasp the handle. When I command you to unlock it, I want you to open your eyes. Are you prepared?”
“I am,” she answered.
“Unlock.”
Thya opened her eyes, blinked twice, and then smiled at him. “So, how did I do?”
Alkazar wasn’t surprised she did not reach the Owto; they rarely did on their first arrival at the door. However, he was surprised by how far she had gone.
“Very good. Only you have to concentrate harder. Relate to me, what colour was the door?”
“Umm… a light grey with black marks.”
“You have done well. We will discontinue for the moment. You ought to rest, as you will be tired. I will request that Pertius does not announce himself.”
“Thanks, Alkazar. I do not think I can take any of his talk of doom and gloom.”
Alkazar laughed. “Pertius has much to instruct you about your legacy, the past, and of your future. It does not have to be as doomed as you remark. I am confident that once you have conversed you will find a sudden interest to learn all.”
“If you state so,” she replied casually.
“Rest if you can. However, I declare that after our session your mind will be wandering.” He turned to leave, pausing at the door. “Understand this, Thya. If you ever require me as a friend or as a tutor, you have only to summon and I will attend you. This I vow. For the present, farewell.” He bowed then left.
Prize Draw
Download Illusional Reality now for just $0.99/£0.99 and send proof of purchase to karina.kantas@yahoo.com. You will be entered in the draw for this stunning necklace – identical to the one Thya is given, an heir loom carried through the generations of Ganties, and now it could be yours.
Pre-orders are included in this contest. The prize draw is open internationally. No other prize will be given out.
The winner will be announced in Karina’s newsletter. http://eepurl.com/daKief This contest is run and organised by the author Karina Kantas.
“With most books, you have to back up a page or two. That is something I NEVER had to do with this one! It is well written and captures the imagination, guiding you into the new land and language with such easy grace that you hardly are aware of it.”
“This is a unique story filled with intrigue, deception and danger. As you read along so much unfolds.”
“The detailed descriptions let me see the magical land of Tsinia, with it’s tree-top dwellings and it’s friendly and peaceful inhabitants. Senx, the home of her ‘intended’, Kovon and his father, Darthorn, is a much darker and gloomier place.”
“Karina sets up some great and compelling characters. Thya, Alkazar, Omad, Kazer, Kovon, Siren are all intriguing for their own reasons. We love them, we hate them. I’ll let you make your own opinions. This truly is a fantastical world with magical gifts, a reluctant princess, an angry warlord and oracles, and contains lots of espionage, treachery, suspense with a bit of romance thrown in.”
“What a delightfully touching love story! Our author entwined our world with a fantasy one with action, magic and of course, love.”
Meet Thya
Meet Alkazar
Author’s Bio
Karina Kantas was born in the Midlands, UK, and has lived on the island of Corfu for twenty-seven years.
Karina Kantas is an award-winning, prolific author of thirteen titles, including the Outlaw books—the gritty MC thriller series—and the exciting YA fantasy duology, Illusional Reality.
She also writes short stories, and, when her imagination is working overtime, thought-provoking, dark flash fiction.
There are many layers to Karina’s writing style and voice, as you will see in her flash fiction collection, Heads & Tales. In Undressed, she opens up to her fans, giving them another glimpse into her warped mind.
Karina writes in the genres of fantasy, MC romance, young adult. sci-fi, horror, thrillers and comedy, romance, paranormal romance, dystopian, and erotica.
When she’s not working on her new books, she helps her clients by offering affordable Author Services five days week.
Titles To Date
The OUTLAW series – MC thrillers In Times of Violence Huntress Lawless Justice Road Rage
Collections Heads & Tales – mixed genres UNDRESSED – poetry, prose, short fiction mixed genres A Flash of Horror
In Times of Violence Young Adult Edition – MC romance Stone Cold – YA supernatural thriller Toxic – dystopian erotica
Illusional Reality duology Illusional Reality – YA romantic fantasy The Quest/fantasy – YA paranormal romance
WIP Broken Chains (Mafia Romance) currently on Wattpad
Electric Eclectic's Blog 