The End in All Beginnings

by John F. D. Taff

  First to R.J. Cavender, without whom you might not be holding this in your hands. He was the one who asked for my longer works. He was the one who saw the possibility of a collection that readers might be interested in. And he’s the one who put my prose through the wringer to get the stories to the point where they appear here.

  Thanks also to Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson and everyone at Grey Matter Press. Barely a toddler in the world of publishing, Grey Matter has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Smart, respectful to both readers and authors, stylish and possessed of a good eye for great stories, Grey Matter has already set itself up as the standard for small press publishers in this field. I am honored to be associated with them.

  Thanks also to some people I’ve met along the way, readers who have turned into friends. People like Kim Sofia and Lenny and Lori Lake, authors Erik T. Johnson, J. Daniel Stone and Joe Schwartz. Then, of course, there are my family and friends, you know who you are.

  Finally, thanks to my soon-to-be wife (or already wife, depending on when this comes out), the lovely Deborah Deming. She reads my stuff, tells me when she likes it and when she doesn’t. She keeps me grounded and centered.

  And really finally, as always, to my kids, Harry, Sam and Molly. I love you.

  John. F.D. Taff has been writing dark speculative fiction for twenty-five years. He has more than seventy-five stories in publications that include Cemetery Dance, Deathrealm, Big Pulp, One Buck Horror, Horror Library V, Horror for Good, The Hot Blood Series, Shock Rock II, and two Grey Matter Press anthologies—the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One and Ominous Realities: The Anthology of Dark Speculative Horrors.

  Six of his short stories have been selected as honorable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror volumes in the past. His collection of short stories, Little Deaths, has been well reviewed and named the “No. 1 Horror Collection of 2012” by HorrorTalk. His historical ghost novel, The Bell Witch, was released in April 2013, and the thriller novel Kill/Off was released in December 2013.

  You can learn more about John from his website at johnfdtaff.com, or follow him on Twitter @johnfdtaff.

  "Grey Matter Press has managed to establish itself as one of the premiere purveyors of horror fiction currently in existence via both a series of killer anthologies -- SPLATTERLANDS, OMINOUS REALITIES and EQUILIBRIUM OVERTURNED -- and John F.D. Taff's harrowing novella collection THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS." -- FANGORIA Magazine

  SAVAGE BEASTS:

  A Nightmare of Supernatural, Science and Sound

  SAVAGE BEASTS is a volume of contemporary dark fiction inspired by some of the greatest artists in musical history. SAVAGE BEASTS is a thrilling and thought-provoking nightmare of horrifying supernatural experiences exploring darkly introspective science fiction, terrifying horrors and fantastical alternative realities, each accompanied by the sound of the music that defines your life.

  Written by some of the most talented authors in genre fiction, the short stories in SAVAGE BEASTS shine a light on eleven dark worlds with fictional work inspired by rock icons Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, The Cranberries, Genesis, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Danish death metal band Pestilence, new wave and dancehall diva Grace Jones, Portuguese electronic house duo Underground Sound of Lisbon, indie rockers School of Seven Bells, classical composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach and many more.

  Soothe your desire for exceptional music-inspired fiction in SAVAGE BEASTS: A Nightmare of Supernatural, Science and Sound with dark tales curated by Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editors Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson.

  FEATURING:

  "To Soothe the Savage Beast" - Edward Morris

  "Going Home" - Karen Runge

  "That Song You Can't Get Out of Your Head" - John F.D. Taff

  "Pestilence by Beemahr" – Shawn Macomber

  "Killing Noise" – Konstantine Paradias

  "When Death Walks the Field of Battle" – J.C. Michael

  "An American Ghost in Zurich" – Daniel Braum

  "Poor Mal" – Maxwell Price

  "Eidolon" – E. Michael Lewis

  "Crawling Back to You" – Paul Michael Anderson

  "Die Musik des Teufels" – T. Fox Dunham

  REVIEWS:

  "Few ever get into the territory as Grey Matter Press' SAVAGE BEASTS, which derives its scary stories under the guiding light of macabre music. And luckily, SAVAGE BEASTS has the talent behind it to rock into your nightmares." – FANGORIA

  "The tales in SAVAGE BEASTS are as varied as their inspirations. Many of the contributors don't just use music as their muse, they place it front and centre in their narratives. Here, music has the power to save and to kill, and nothing buried in the past stays buried forever, regardless of how frightening it is." – MONICA S. KUEBLER, RUE MORGUE

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  Start Reading

  SAVAGE BEASTS

  A Nightmare of Supernatural, Science and Sound

  DEATH'S REALM:

  Where the Here and the Hereafter Collide

  There is something that awaits you on the road ahead. It's there, lurking in the darkness at the intersection between the Here and the Hereafter.

  Whether we choose to admit it or not, just ahead of each and every one of us on the road of life is a dangerous place where we will all, one day, arrive. It's here, at the intersection of this existence and the next, where the forces of the Living and the Dead converge in the terrifying location known as Death's Realm. And it's here that those from either side of the veil meet to wage their everlasting battle in the struggle for control. Both sides have their agenda. And both will do anything to win the war.

  DEATH'S REALM: Where the Here and the Hereafter Collide is the next volume of terror from Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editorial team of Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson of Grey Matter Press.

  DEATH'S REALM: Where the Here and the Hereafter Collide features sixteen tales of dark, speculative horror fiction from modern masters of the genre, including the two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author and World Fantasy Award nominee Hank Schwaeble; the award-winning, Bram Stoker Award-nominated and Shirley Jackson Award-finalist Stephen Graham Jones; the Bram Stoker Award and Thriller nominated JG Faherty; editor-in-chief of the highly respected Jamais Vu magazine Paul Michael Anderson; critically-acclaimed authors Jay Caselberg and John F.D. Taff; emerging masters of modern horror Aaron Polson, Gregory L. Norris and Martin Rose; co-authors known for their extremely disturbing horror fiction, Simon Dewar and Karen Runge; critic favorites Brian Fatah Steele, John C. Foster and Jane Brooks; the twisted, Lovecraft-influenced Rhoads Brazos; and recognized authors of literary fiction Jay O'Shea and Matthew Pegg.

  DEATH'S REALM: Where the Here and the Hereafter Collide is edited by Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editors Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson.

  FEATURING:

  "Omniscopic" - Rhoads Brazos

  "Some Other Day" - John F.D. Taff

  "Haunter" - Hank Schwaeble

  "Burial Suit" – John C. Foster

  "Nine" – Aaron Polson

  "Penumbra" – Jay Caselberg

  "Foxhole" – JG Faherty

  "Drowning" – Gregory L. Norris

  "The Weight" – Jane Brooks

  "Harder You Fall" – Brian Fatah Steele

  "Mirrorworld" – Martin Rose

  "March Hays" – Matthew Pegg

  "High Art" – Karen Runge and Simon Dewar

  "A Pirate's Ransom" – Jay O'Shea

  "To Touch the Dead" – Paul Michael Anderson

  "You Only Die Once" – Stephen Graham Jones

  REVIEWS:

  "DEATH'S REALM is a triumph, pressing a universal experience through a refracting prism and revealing to us bold colors and nuanced hues of form and experience we had not hitherto dreamed existed. It is provocative and challenging without ever succumbing to the temptation to deliver a narrative kick to the head." – FANGORIA

  "Grey
Matter Press continues to publish high quality horror/speculative fiction with their anthology DEATH'S REALM. An eclectic collection of stories that showcases a wide range of moods, themes, and styles, and yet they all ingeniously highlight the cracks and fissures that occur when the world of the living and the world of the deceased overlap." – HORROR NEWS NETWORK

  "This is a brilliant anthology, one of the best I've read in a very long time. Each tale is rock solid. The writing is intense, intelligent and interesting. The authors produce magic on the page and the editors are the alchemists. – GINGER NUTS OF HORROR

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  Start Reading

  DEATH'S REALM:

  Where the Here and the Hereafter Collide

  THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS

  by John F.D. Taff

  THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS is the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated volume of horror that is a tour de force through the emotional pain and personal anguish of the human condition. Hailed as one of the best collections of heartfelt and gut-wrenching horror written in recent history, it's a disturbing trip through the ages exploring the painful tragedies of life, love and loss.

  Each of the five masterfully written novellas examine complex themes running the gamut from the loss of childhood innocence, to the dreadful reality of survival after everything we hold dear is gone, to some of the most profound aspects of human tragedy.

  As one of the best storytellers of the modern age, John F.D. Taff takes readers on a skillfully balanced emotional journey into nostalgia, through personal pain and beyond the everyday terrors that are uncomfortably real during the course of the human lifetime. His straight-forward, nuanced writing style is at times darkly comedic, often deeply poetic and always accurate in the most terrifying of ways.

  FEATURING:

  "What Becomes God"

  "Object Permanence"

  "Love in the Time of Zombies"

  "The Long, Long Breakdown"

  "Visitation"

  REVIEWS:

  "THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS is accomplished stuff, complex and heartfelt. It's one of the best novella collections I've read in years!" – JACK KETCHUM, Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of The Box, Closing Time and Peaceable Kingdom

  "Taff brings the pain in five damaged and disturbing tales of love gone horribly wrong. This collection is like a knife in the heart. Highly recommended!" – JONATHAN MABERRY, New York Times bestselling author of Code Zero and Fall of Night

  "Taff's deceptively simplistic prose offers deep emotional and dramatic insights into how human beings live with the tremendous burdens of the past and the inevitability of death. "What Becomes God" is a slice of Stephen King/Ramsey Campbell. "Object Permanence" is a slowly revealing Twilight Zone-like story. The setting of "The Long, Long Breakdown" is reminiscent of J.G. Ballard. "Visitation" follows in the footsteps of the mind-expanding works of Philip K. Dick. THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS offers the more adventurous genre readers much to appreciate." – HORROR NEWS NETWORK

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  Start Reading

  THE END IN ALL BEGINNINGS

  by John F.D. Taff

  DARK VISIONS:

  A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One

  The Bram Stoker Award®-nominated DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One takes readers beyond the veil of human perception where there lies a darkened plane inhabited by very evil things. Weaving their horrifying visions, they pull the strings on our lives and lure us into a comfortable reality. But it's all just a web of lies.

  Nominated for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology, DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One includes thirteen disturbing tales of dread from some of the most visionary minds writing horror, SciFi and speculative fiction today.

  From twisted accounts of the false understanding of our own existence to the harsh psychological torture that inherent evil forces us to endure, DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One uncovers the truth behind our own misguided concepts of reality.

  FEATURING:

  "Mister Pockets: A Pine Deep Story" - Jonathan Maberry

  "Collage" - Jay Caselberg

  "The Weight of Paradise" - Jeff Hemenway

  "Three Minutes" – Sarah L. Johnson

  "Second Opinion" – Ray Garton

  "The Last Ice Cream Kiss" – Jason S. Ridler

  "Scrap" – David A. Riley

  "What Do You Need?" – Milo James Fowler

  "The Troll" – Jonathan Balog

  "Delicate Spaces" – Brian Fatah Steele

  "Raining Stones" – Sean Logan

  "Show Me" – John F.D. Taff

  "Thanatos Park" – Charles Austin Muir

  REVIEWS:

  "Grey Matter Press certainly knows how to plunge into the darkness. There is a little something for everybody. The important thing is that the quality level is high and consistent throughout, and DARK VISIONS is certainly a cut above your average anthology." – VINCE DARCANGELO, ENSUING CHAPTERS

  "Think of The Twilight Zone introduction from the popular TV series and you will get the idea that this compilation is more than just a series of short fictional works. It is touted as a guide book where humanity must survive at all costs, and in these they rarely do. The book caters to both old and new readers who still like to be scared. I recommend DARK VISIONS." – HELLNOTES

  "DARK VISIONS – VOLUME ONE contains thirteen horror short stories that immediately grab your attention and refuse to let go. The book delivers on all of the best traits of the format, and a diverse selection of authors creates a must-read collection. An absolute must-read anthology of scary tales." – THE HORROR BOOKSHELF

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  Start Reading

  DARK VISIONS:

  A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One

  DARK VISIONS:

  A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two

  DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two is the follow up anthology to the Bram Stoker Award-nominated DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume One.

  This volume, the second in the series, continues the journey that has already taken thousands of readers on a terrifying roller-coaster ride of psychological horror. Containing yet more exceptional tales written by some of the most visionary authors working in the fields of horror, speculative fiction and fantasy, DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two is ready. If you are.

  Unable to contain all the visions of dread and mayhem to a single anthology, DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two takes you deeper into the twisted psyche of man with more psychological tales of terror. It is a collection of evil from which your will find it difficult to escape. Included are thirteen all-new tales that provide an even more insidious look into the concepts of life, death and how individual choices affect our eternal souls.

  DARK VISIONS: A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two is edited by Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editors Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson.

  FEATURING:

  "Remember Me" - David Blixt

  "Release" - Jane Brooks and Peter Whitley

  "Mister White" - John C. Foster

  "Variations of Soullessness" – A.A. Garrison

  "Last Call" – JC Hemphill

  "Dreaming In and Out" – Carol Holland March

  "Moonlighting" – Chad McKee

  "City Song" – Edward Morris and Trent Zelazny

  "Water, Some of it Deep" – David Murphy

  "The Elementals and I" – C.M. Saunders

  "Chapelston" – Rhesa Sealy

  "The First Years" – David Siddall

  "Wormhole" – J. Daniel Stone

  "Acceptance" – Kenneth Whitfield

  REVIEWS:

  "There is something for every horror and sci-fi aficionado in this collection of modern and speculative horror. To quote the back cover: 'Open this book and let the icy claw of dread reach into your chest and grab hold of your soul. We dare you…' We
ll, I took the dare! This reviewer was certainly not disappointed! Fourteen incredibly terrifying stories varying in degrees of horror!" – HELLNOTES

  "Excellent collection! Each story begins in a very realistic manner, drawing the reader in with the comfort of the familiar. As you read, however, you just know something terrifying is lurking in the shadows, and the blind journey into each story's dark twist is an exhilarating thrill-ride. Editors Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson once again use their uncanny ability to discover engaging stories that have a universal appeal to dark fiction readers." – THE HORROR BOOKSHELF

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  Start Reading

  DARK VISIONS:

  A Collection of Modern Horror - Volume Two

  SPLATTERLANDS:

  Reawakening the Splatterpunk Revolution

  Almost three decades ago, a literary movement forever changed the landscape of the horror entertainment industry. SPLATTERLANDS: Reawakening the Splatterpunk Revolution is a collection of personal, intelligent and subversive horror with a point. This illustrated volume of dark fiction honors the truly revolutionary efforts of some of the most brilliant writers of all time with an all-new collection of visceral, disturbing and thought-provoking work from a diverse group of modern minds.

  Exploring concepts that include serial murder, betrayal, religious fanaticism, physical abuse, societal corruption, greed, mental instability, sexual assault and more, SPLATTERLANDS: Reawakening the Splatterpunk Revolution delivers on the promise of the original Splatterpunk movement with this collection of honest, intelligent and hyper-intensive horror with a point.

  SPLATTERLANDS: Reawakening the Splatterpunk Revolution is edited by Bram Stoker Award®-nominated editors Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson.