The Essential Sick Stuff

Winner of the 2021 Splatterpunk Award for Best Collection In the foul and fetid darkness, it awakens. Vile, unstable, brimming with ill intent, like pus on the verge of eruption. Repulsive to gaze upon and even more disturbing to comprehend. It reaches out and discovers that the others—its siblings—have abandoned this cancerous womb long ago. Angry and alone, it thrashes violently…tearing, clawing its way from dormancy into daylight…and onto the dark playground of your bookshelf. Amid these pages, Southern horror master Ronald Kelly has brought together a loathsome assemblage of stories that cut deeply and expose the raw nerves of fright and revulsion. Joining his extreme horror collections, The Sick Stuff and More Sick Stuff, is a third installment of yarns both new and old…Even Sicker Stuff. Combined, they meld and morph, forming The Essential Sick Stuff. Twenty-three abhorrent tales to tantalize and torture the fragile psyche; to cause the stomach to revolt and gooseflesh to crawl as though something, visceral and alive, lurks just beneath the surface...

Down below the Mason-Dixon Line, deep in the shadowy hills and hollows of Tennessee, lives a teller of terrifying tales and a spinner of dark yarns unlike any you have ever heard before. Stories to chill your bones and pepper your flesh with goose bumps. What his true name may be, no one knows for sure. But, if you listen closely, you can hear his voice ringing through the dead of night! Pull up a tombstone and join your host, The Old Storyteller, as he shares nine tales of ghostly horror that will run a shiver down your spine! Tour a backwoods graveyard, neglected and forgotten…a cemetery haunted by restless spirits and wayward souls. Some are earthbound by sorrow and remorse…others by an unearthly hunger for vengeance! Now enter…the Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear!

Includes the bonus short story "Last of the Chupacabra" BLOOD SPORT They were called diablos hoyos. Vicious black-furred beasts that fought in the pit with the raw fury and savage ferocity of Satan himself. For their owners, they were a lucrative investment. For the people of Sulphur Springs, Texas, they were the best entertainment they'd had in a long while. For Bowie Kane, they were his darkest nightmare come true. He alone recognized the dark and ravenous evil that his Apache ancestors had foretold. But Bowie Kane was an outsider in Sulphur Springs. No one would listen to his warnings. And now it was too late to avert the rampage of carnage and terror unleashed on an unsuspecting town.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree... what lurks among thy branches... Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year. Candy canes and hot cocoa. Snowmen and sleigh rides. The love and hope that the Nativity brings. Cold milk and warm cookies for Santa. Family, friends, and the cheerful laughter of children. But, beneath the festive wrapping paper and the gleam and glitter of the lights and tinsel, things less jubilant may lie in wait. The holiday season can bring love, peace, and benevolence... but it may also spawn a darkness lurking amid the shadowy boughs of the Christmas tree, ornaments that should have never seen the light of day, let along hung on festive branches, and bones that jingle and dance, in search of Santa's crimson suit... and the flesh that resides within. In this collection of harrowing holiday tales, Ronald Kelly leaves ten frightful and horrific gifts in the Christmas stockings that hang from the mantle of your cheerful fireplace. Ghastly and gruesome presents that slowly unwrap and burst into life while you are tucked, snug and warm, in your bed and take on nightmarish form in the icy winter hours of Christmas Eve, turning comfort and joy into terror and dread. Stories included in this collection: Jingle Bones The Skating Pond Depravity Road Heirlooms The Winds Within Then Came a Woodsman As for Me, My Little Brain Beneath the Branches Papa’s Exile The Peddler’s Journey

Includes the bonus novella "Potter's Field" SIGHT UNSEEN Little Cindy Ann knew things no one else knew; saw things no one else saw. Ever since she'd nearly died of fever, the gift of second sight had been hers. Only it didn't seem like such a gift when the other children called her a witch and wouldn't play with her. Or when her visions resembled nothing so much as her worst nightmares. DEATH UNDYING Then her older brother disappeared in the vicinity of the old tobacco barn. And Cindy's visions began to burn with a bloodthirsty relentless hatred. What horrors lay buried in the cold earth of the barn? And how could one innocent little girl hope to fight the terrifying evil - an evil that had taken her brother, and that would now turn on the only witness to its monstrous, merciless crimes...Cindy herself.

It was a legend in Fear County…a hideous, flesh-eating creature—part snake, part earthbound demon—that feasted on the blood of innocent children in the cold black heart of the Tennessee backwoods. But ten-year-old Jeb Sweeny knows the horrible stories are true. His best friend Mandy just up and disappeared. He also knows that no one has ever had the courage to go after the monster and put an end to its raging, bestial hunger. Until now. But Evil is well guarded. And for young Jeb Sweeny, who is about to cross over into the forbidden land of Fear County and the lair of the unknown, passage through the gates of Hell comes with a terrible price. Everlasting…FEAR!

BLACK CHRISTMAS The citizens of Cedar Bluff, Tennessee, have never recovered from the Christmas Massacre of 1978 ... that tragic day when Richard McFarland, armed with a shotgun, abandoned his wife and son and selected a local church as the stage for a bloody, murderous rampage. McFarland paid for his crimes in the electric chair. Yet not even death will stop him from finishing what he started ... BLOODY LEGACY After fourteen years, Sonny's father is back. He'd been away so long that Sonny hardly remembered him. But Richard McFarland remembered his only son. And now he will teach him how to kill. Sonny is about to become a deadly force that will be unleashed on the unsuspecting citizens of Cedar Bluff. For when the time is right, he will return to the small, quiet town, bringing death and destruction on an even more terrifying Christmas Day!

Sick of Being Sick helps women radically transform their health by showing them how to tap into their innate healing power and begin experiencing lives full of well-being, connection, peace, and joy. Chronic illness - whether it is due to cancer, autoimmune disease, or a slew of mysterious symptoms - cuts to the core of a woman’s being. Women who are struggling with chronic illness are familiar with the fear, doubt, and overwhelm that can cost them everything. Sick of Being Sick shows women how to move beyond the prison of chronic illness and persistence of health challenges. Dr. Brenda Walding reveals the essential elements to healing, as well as powerful tools, tips, concepts, and daily practices that are essential for radiant health. She teaches women how to overcome overwhelm and fear to make decisions for their highest good, how toxic thoughts and poisonous practices are massively sabotaging their healing efforts, and so much more. For the women who are ready to begin their journey to wellness then Sick of Being Sick is their portal of transformation and opportunity to bring them back to their heart, to love themselves again, and to experience wholeness.

It was passed down from generation to generation. The legend of The Dark'Un, the strange beast that roamed Pale Dove Mountain. The dark monster that no one had ever seen — at least not and lived to tell about it — except, so it was said, old Fletcher Brice who lived at the foot of the mountain. No one really believed in The Dark'Un. It was just a story to make a child's flesh crawl. Until Old Man Brice died. Now, the people of Tucker's Mill, Tennessee, would be forced to believe.

Here are G. K. Chesterton's most influential non-fiction books collected here in one binding. In Orthodoxy, Gilbert K. Chesterton explains how and why he came to believe in Christianity and more specifically the Catholic Church's brand of orthodoxy. In the book, Chesterton takes the spiritually curious reader on an intellectual quest. While looking for the meaning of life, he finds truth that uniquely fulfills human needs. This is the truth revealed in Christianity. Chesterton likens this discovery to a man setting off from the south coast of England, journeying for many days, only to arrive at Brighton, the point he originally left from. Such a man, he proposes, would see the wondrous place he grew up in with newly appreciative eyes. This is a common theme in Chesterton's works, and one which he gave fictional embodiment to in Manalive. A truly lively and enlightening book! In What's Wrong With The World Chesterton rightly points out that what people see as "wrong with the world" are only the symptoms of a deeper problem. He shows that our governments, be they capitalistic or socialistic, also fail to see the deeper problem. With a keen wit and lively prose he cuts directly to the true problems that society must deal with and his solutions feel utterly correct. In Heretics, Gilbert K. Chesterton rails against what he sees as wrong with society. He points out how society has gone astray and how life and spiritually could be brought back into focus.