About the book

Enjoy ten tales of the paranormal.

Do Wah Diddy Dead by Pauline B. Jones
If Miss Weena can put off dying to solve Miss Gracie's murder, then Luci can't play the pregnancy card to get out of playing side-kick. It's not like it will be dangerous. Miss Gracie has been dead for decades...

Charity by Alexis Glynn Latner
Looking for adventure outside of her comfort zone, a physicist finds old sorrow with the power to terrify or transform her.

Vera’s Kingdom by Cathy Noonan
Vera's Kingdom is safe. It's a star filled country night followed by a farm fresh dawn. It's the scent of fresh baked bread as it wafts from the oven, mingling with the homemade chicken soup on the back burner. It's the smell of bleachy clean sun dried laundry as its being pulled off the line out back. Vera's Kingdom is family, sitting around a table loaded with country fried sausage, scrambled eggs and steaming hot coffee, talking about broken balers, sick hogs and the next trip to town. Vera would never think of leaving her Kingdom—would she? Meet Savannah…

Alligator Dreams by Teresa Leigh Judd
When Claire moves into her new home, she begins to have nightmares about alligators, each more frightening than the next. Even in the daytime, she thinks she hears them slithering through the halls. Her cat takes to spending all its time on the tops of furniture.
Nightmares can't come true, can they?

She’s Not Really There by Cathy Noonan
Cory doesn’t believe in ghosts, but that doesn’t stop one from believing in him.

Hannigan’s Crosses by Cathy Noonan
Life’s all about choices. Sometimes death is, too…

Slabbed by Cathy Noonan
Sam isn't the average morgue attendant any more than Kayla is suited to be a dead girl—or anyway, Kayla doesn't think so. Years of experience tell Sam, Kayla, his newest arrival, is going to be a challenge. But just how death defying can the dead be? Sam is about to find out.

Natural Causes by Tony Williams
Ten-year-old Tasha wakes up to find herself a ghost in a coffin. She wants freedom and revenge for being buried alive. Is teenager Nick, a cancer sufferer, the key?

Companion by Catherine Brooks
Kathryn Hansen was the victim of too much love. Something loved her more than she could bear and she would go to any lengths to rid herself of the smothering apparition that dogged her day and night. Father Gerebernus at St. Dymphna’s might hold the answer…or was she just insane?

An Almost One Star Hotel by David Fingerman
Lenny Flood is looking forward to spending a pleasant evening in the hotel before his big presentation in the morning. His stay is anything but pleasant, and it's possible he may never be able to leave.

An excerpt from the book

Enjoy this Anthology excerpt from one of the stories—“Slabbed” by Cathy Noonan:
“Oh my God!” Kayla side-stepped the naked man as he passed by, seemingly unaware of her or the half round of a saw blade protruding from the center of his forehead. “What happened to him?”
“Yep—we get all kinds here.” The man, with the word Sam printed on his shirt pocket, pointed toward the closed drawers lining the wall across from where he stood. “Sort of like the smorgasbords of morgues” He snorted a laugh. “Sometimes they come in so late, there is really no time to do anything but hose them off a bit and shove ’em into the cooler.” He went over to the man and gently tugged him back toward the wall and the open drawer. “Not so fast young fella, you got a whole lot of autopsy going on before you win the get outta jail free card.”
The man obligingly climbed onto the slab in the drawer and lay down. Kayla watched his face, fascinated by the blank look. The way his brains had curdled around the wound hinted to her that there was no one at home inside the man.
She hopped back up on the gurney, trying not to absorb the atmosphere. “Why am I here?” She pulled at a tube, tracing it up to a hole in the front center of her neck. “Shit! What is that?” She pulled at the tube, but it wouldn’t budge.
“That, darling, is a done deal.” Sam winked at her.
“You did this?” Kayla glared at him, pulling the sheet off the gurney snug around her as she realized she was nude.
“I didn’t do that.” Sam shifted his eyes to the floor. “The ¬hospital did. You came over here without any clothes on. I just cleaned you up a bit for viewing. It’s my job. You think I like admitting a nineteen-year old?” He gestured at the tag on her toe. “Who do you think had to greet your mom and dad and your sister when they came down here?”
“They were here?” Kayla stood up fast, the sheet slipping to the green and beige tiles. “Where did they go? Why did they leave me? I want to go home!” She ran for the swinging doors, trying to push them open, but they wouldn’t budge.
Sam came over and pushed them open. They moved back and forth freely. “Hon—it’s always been like this for as long as I have been the keeper. You can’t leave until you are ready to leave.”
“I am ready to leave!” She stomped her foot in defiance, but not a sound rose up from the floor below her and she didn’t feel a thing. She looked down and stomped harder.
“Sort of a weird sensation, I bet.” Sam stomped his foot and Kayla could hear and feel it under her feet. “You won’t be able to do anything for awhile. None of you ever can, although I think everyone who has come through here has tried.” He chuckled, rubbing the three day stubble on his chin and yawning. “Well, I gotta get this place buttoned up, but like I said, I am pretty much done with you, so don’t worry none. You won’t need no autopsy, not the way you died.” He watched her face.
“So I’m dead?” She wanted to cry but couldn’t remember how. “What happened?”
“Well—as you can see by the fact that there are no scrapes, lacerations or cuts and you have all your limbs, not a whole helluva lot.”
“How did I die?” Kayla tried to bring her toe up closer so she could read the tag.
“It won’t be on there, silly, and that’s not very lady-like.” He threw her another sheet off an empty gurney. “You choked to death, plain and simple.”
Kayla tried to remember her last moments. She had been to dinner with her best friend, Gina. They giggled over how the very handsome waiter stumbled over his words as he tried to take their order. Kayla remarked on his unusual name sewed in black thread over a patch of gauzy looking fabric, and he looked down and explained he must have put his T-shirt on inside out in his rush to work. She had just taken a sip of tea and then a bite of barbecued pork and… Kayla frowned trying to remember past the bite. Noises of silverware clattering to the floor somewhere in the restaurant; Gina making a whining sound like some type of wounded animal and several people talking in rapid bursts in a language she did not understand.
“Get some sleep and I will get that trach tube out of there first thing in the morning.” Sam’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Reckon the same nurse who forgot to send your clothes along was the one who cut your tube free, too, because she was only supposed to leave an inch or so. Darn near got a lead rope with what she left.” Sam stood by an open drawer patting the flat surface. “C’mon—climb on up.”
Kayla looked around the drab fluorescent lit room. If I wasn’t already scared and dead, this place would scare me to death! She shivered out of habit. She crept past the drawer she knew contained the saw blade man, scared he might jump out at any moment. Worse thoughts came to her as she looked around, mentally counting the drawers.
“It’s been a slow night tonight, so just him and you.” Sam offered.
“Please, don’t leave me here alone,” Kayla pleaded.
“Look, I can’t stay here all night. This type of work does require some thinking on my part. And besides,” he walked over to the doors and peered through the glass, “Gepperson, the old janitor will be here soon. Don’t want him wondering what I am doing in here so late. He has his suspicions as it is, seeing that he has caught me talking to what he thought was myself more than a few times.”
“So you have stayed late for others?” Kayla tried to remember how to look needy for a quick guilt trip, something she had been good at when she was living.
“Look, you will be fine here. Nothing to be afraid of, I mean, you’re already dead. What else could happen to you?”