Sometimes grief sneaks up on you and hunts you down.
Sometimes it walks right up and punches you.
Holes in the
Somewhere
by Richard R. Brown
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Horror Stories
Holes In The Somewhere is a collection of short works,
anchored by a personal memoir of the author's own experience with grief and
loss after the passing of his father from cancer, by speculative fiction author
Richard R. Brown.
A single mother encounters insanity in the worst possible
person; an estranged parent loses his reunited family to a mysterious bathroom
wall; a group of strangers come together to fight a fungal pandemic; college
students prepare for the extinction of the Sun... these are a few of the
challenges faced by the desperate characters in Holes In The Somewhere. The
choices they make, the dilemmas they wrestle with, all have very supernatural
consequences, but are felt with very human emotions.
These stories will tug at strings your heart thought were
too well-hidden for anyone to know about, and cause the mind to probe the gray
areas between wrong and right. Between normal and paranormal. Behind what's
real and only to the side of what's unreal. A perfect mix of quick, unsettling
reads, and longer, heart-wrenching escapes.
What readers
are saying:
"The debut is speculative fiction in form: weird,
unsettling, occasionally cosmic. But it reads less like a genre exercise than
like grief that has been given permission to take unusual shapes." -
Justine Castellon, Author/Reviewer
"I guarantee there is a 'gotcha' story in there for
just about anybody, and if you don't find at least one that bothers you just as
you're about to fall asleep, you're made of sterner stuff than I am." -
Kenneth Crist, editor-in-chief, Black Petals Magazine
“These stories are weird and creepy and heart-wrenching
in all the best ways. If you enjoy fiction that makes you question everything
and wrecks you emotionally, this is for you!” – Valerie S., 5 star Amazon
Review
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Excerpt from ‘The Final Butterfly’, a novella in ‘Holes In The Somewhere’
Prologue
“Janice, honey, stay next to Mommy!” Janice’s mother knows the tell-tale signs of humans and wildlife noticing each other unexpectedly – her daughter’s sudden silence, the oddity of a four-year-old standing stock-still (and what does that mean? Are stocks more stationary than other inanimate objects?), Janice’s freshly-picked blackberry stopped in its inevitable trajectory to her mouth by her unmoving hand – but Peggy can’t see the wildlife that has so entranced her daughter.
She bends low to whisper in Janice’s ear. “Honey, what is it? What do you see?”
Janice slowly extends her berry-stained, purple hand and points to a red fox. It, too, stands still, watching the humans with the utmost concentration, ready to run.
Peggy is amazed. The fox is prepared to run away from them! It isn’t growling or barking.
“What is it, Mommy?” Janice’s voice is small and filled with wonder.
“It’s a – “Then the fox breaks its intense stare. It no longer cares if the humans see it at all. It snaps at a butterfly that frantically flutters around the fox’s head. In moments, dozens of butterflies harass the fox.
Peggy gasps in horror, then picks her daughter up with an arm around the young girl’s waist, and runs. Ten meters away, Peggy enters the code and opens the door to the bomb shelter. As she turns to close and seal the door, she pauses long enough to look for the fox. It is completely hidden, but Peggy instantly finds the writhing mass of thousands of brightly colored butterflies that cover the healthy but unfortunate fox. She slams the door shut.
“What happened, Mommy?” Janice has tears brimming in her eyes.
The time has come.
“Honey, that was a fox. It’s a wild animal.” Peggy tells her child.
“What’s a mammimal?” Janice asks.
Oh boy. This is going to take a while.
“Umm… it’s something that’s alive, like us. People are animals. Animals live all over the world,” Peggy begins.
“How come we never see any?” Janice asks.
There it is. Peggy wishes Bert was there to help her with this.
“Five years ago, there was a car crash. A lot of people said that’s what started it, but your Aunt Candace- “
“She lets me call her Auntie Candy,” Janice says, pride beaming from her face in the revelation of this honor.
“Does she?” Peggy is impressed. “Well, she told me that it actually started when Aunt- Auntie Candy…bumped into a man who couldn’t see.” Peggy stops. The import of what she had seen outside dawns on her. “Before I tell you this, you have to promise me something very, very important. You’ll never go outside without me, okay? And you’ll tell me right away if you ever see anything, I mean anything, move. Okay?”
Janice nods, wide-eyed.
“Say it,” her mother persists.
“I promise.”
“Even if it’s pretty, like those butterflies,” Peggy insists.
Janice nods again. That is an easy promise to make. Janice loves showing her mommy pretty things.
Peggy nods in return. “Okay, here goes…”
Richard R. Brown is a legally-blind author of speculative
fiction, horror, and thrillers. He writes from experience, having lived through
paranormal events, alien attacks, and cosmic horrors -- at least, in his mind
and in the books he listens to. He and his Guide Dog live in the Pacific Northwest.
Richard is between Guide Dogs at the moment as Edison retired last summer.
Edison was at Richard's side through every story in his book. Richard has no
such guidance for his current novel, but will likely have one for editing help.
Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bluesky * YouTube * Bookbub * Amazon
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GUEST POST
What are you passionate about these days?
I am a writer. Therefore, I feel societal pressure to feel passionate about literacy levels, the rise of generative AI, and the Oxford comma. Professionally speaking, I do feel passionate about these things (write books kids like to read, limit their screen time, abolish generative AI, and use the Oxford comma so that you don’t cause confusion and look like a fool at the same time). But my biggest “cause” that I try to advocate for in my profession is audiobooks. Books written in Braille are gigantic! Your favorite guilty-pleasure novel would take up an entire bookcase if printed in Braille…and, to be honest, Braille literacy is virtually at rock-bottom. It’s really only used for signs and maybe menus, anymore. Elevator buttons. Can’t forget those. Anyway, visually-impaired and blind people need audiobooks! When I was growing up, so many decades ago, I remember that reading books to blind people was an actual career path. Well, it still is, only it’s called audiobook narration. When I lost my sight so much that I couldn’t find work and couldn’t finish school, audiobooks kept me alive. Seriously. They didn’t lift me completely out of my depression, but they kept me from sinking just that little bit lower. So, please, ask your favorite authors to make audio editions of their books.
I am passionate about leaving something for my kids. We’ve had some serious ups and downs in our relationships…and I haven’t done anything else in my life at all noteworthy…so I’m trying to build a publishing legacy and a catalog of books that will live on after I am gone, that my kids and future generations can benefit from. Every penny I earn from book sales is being saved for them. Now, if movie deals come along… THAT money goes to me.
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
I haven’t been on any ‘literary pilgrimages’, per se, but I’ll gladly endorse SK Tours, in Bangor, Maine. My friend and I, and Edison (my ex-Guide Dog…remember him?) were warmly welcomed, treated like VIPs with a tour all to ourselves, and spent hours learning about trivia, details, and inspirations for and about all of Stephen King’s Derry-based novels. We visited the Standpipe from IT, the sewer grate where we were all introduced to Pennywise the clown for the first time (I have a picture of Pennywise reaching up to pet Edison!), the inspiration for Needful Things, Up-Mile Hill, and the Barrens. We saw the King home (only the outside – the owners weren’t home). We saw some of their early homes, and the inspiration for Beverly Marsh’s home in IT. We saw Mt. Hope Cemetery, where King may have taken some famous names from, and where he definitely filmed a scene in Pet Sematary. That was a really cool day. Check them out if you’re a King fan.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I am currently working on my first novel (I hope). The working title is The Stalking Stone. It’s about a shiftless, directionless, but hard-working young man who chances upon an opportunity to meet and work for an up and coming celebrity…and he gets mesmerized. We get to watch his descent into obsession and fanatical jealousy, which leads to violence, theft, and some sci-fi/fantasy elements. Who doesn’t love a good mix of sci-fi and psychological thrills?
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