Newt's Nightmares #93

Newt's Nightmares provides subscribers with news on the author's latest work, upcoming releases, and events.

Sep 06, 2023

Newt's Nightmares

Greetings, my wicked darlings! What a dreadfully warm September we're having in the UK. The climate is almost as unstable as my medication.

With Halloween's ghostly whispers growing louder, it's time for me to serve up your next batch of literary horrors and do I have some soul-chilling treats for you.

Before we get to all the free horror stories coming up, let's raise a goblet of something dark and viscous to my latest night terror, "Tales of the Macabre, Vol. 2." This wretched tome is available for pre-order at the wonderfully cheap price of 99c. It is released on the 13th and will return to its usual price of $4.99 soon after. So grab it NOW, while it’s on offer.

And finally a brief apology. Productivity has been utterly mediocre this month, as meds decided to throw a demonic rave in my system, rendering me bed-bound for most of the month. Thankfully, my trusted beta-readers Lenny and Barney have been my muses, spoon-feeding me inspiration via wiki links whilst attempting to make sense of my increasingly non-Euclidean scrawl. With their help, I have managed to write two short stories between constant naps and endless episodes of Doctor Who.

New Releases
Behind the Scenes
Free Horror Stories
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New Releases

Coming up this month:

13 September 2023 ‘Tales of the Macabre, Vol. 2’ a collected works of Newton Webb’s best horror.

20 September 2023 ‘The Wine Cellar’ free audiobook.

27 September 2023 ‘The Troop’ free short story.

In case you missed them, here is a summary of last month’s delectable fright’s:

9th August 2023 ‘Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues’ free short story.

16th August 2023 ‘12 Minutes’ free audiobook.

23rd August 2023 ‘The Black Widow’ free short story.

30th August 2023 ‘The Enigmatic Skeleton’ free audiobook.

Behind the Scenes

I've written two new short stories this month, one is being released this month (The Troop) and the other (The Black Shuck) is with my beta readers and will be hitting the website shortly.

The Troop

When a sinister infection in their apartment building begins taking over the minds and bodies of residents, a man races to save his infected girlfriend before he loses control of his own mind.

Imagine being trapped in an apartment complex where even the fungi are plotting your demise. Thanks to Barney Selwood for sending me down the rabbit hole of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis—a parasitic fungus that's more ruthless even my medication regimen. This tale takes its cues from an unpublished novella I once penned during the COVID pandemic, in which apartment dwellers find themselves in a nightmarish lockdown.

Only this time, the stakes are more... microbial.

The Black Shuck

Haunted by a murder she helped facilitate, a woman tries to outrun the spirit of the victim's giant guard dog that relentlessly hunts her as penance for her crime.

Ever been so guilt-ridden that even man’s best friend turns into your personal, spectral bounty hunter? Similar to Trev, but infinitely more adorable. This story has its paws deeply embedded in the loam of classic supernatural revenge.

Thanks to Dibbers for the name, I wrote the story before he was able to tell me that Black Shuck’s were a thing. Many thanks to my beta reader Barney for reminding me that London had it’s very own one, forcing me to relocate the story from my favourite fictional coastal town Grimsdyke to London.

It's about time the residents of Grimsdyke got a break.

The real muse for the Black Shuck? My late big buddy Duke who is probably tearing apart some celestial Kong toys as we speak. Happy belated birthday, buddy. You are and will always be my best friend and most loyal woofer.

Okay, so Duke isn’t actually avenging my death, unless that tree was complicit, but I’m sure he would have a good go at it if I do get murdered.

Free Horror Stories

Horror Story Compilations

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT: 91 FREE horror stories, including 'The Green Man', ‘Ain't Nothin' But The Blues’, ‘Shadow of the Wolf’, ‘Blade of the Blood God’, ‘The Wine Cellar’ and ‘The Blood Eagle’

Your Darkest Nightmares: 53 horror stories, including 'Tales of the Macabre, Vol. 1'.

DARK READS: 46 horror stories, including 'Tales of the Macabre, Vol. 1'.

Count Down to Spooky Season! FREE Scary Stories: 43 FREE horror stories, including 'The Green Man' and ‘The Blood Eagle’.

Masquerade of the Night: 29 FREE horror stories, including 'The Green Man' and ‘The Blood Eagle’.

Recommended Stories

The Hanging Tree, by Joseph J Dowling, FREE download.

Detective Craig Cornell is called to a triple-murder at an isolated house near Exeter, New Hampshire, the latest in a sequence of gruesome deaths which stems back 300 years. A White Oak at the rear of the property may hold the key. According to local legend, a woman was accused of witchcraft and hanged from it.

As the bodies pile up, Cornell is haunted by horrific visions. Is it his past catching up with him, or does the tree really hold an ancient, evil spirit?

Morsels of Mayhem, by Mark Tullius, FREE download.

With these stories you will find yourself:

An overweight father ignored by his family.
A gang member breaking into a neighborhood church.
A cameraman who finds himself in a hopeless situation.
An aging author who’s paying the price for a reckless past, doing all he can to repair his brain.

These shocking stories will leave you wanting more.

Knights of the Crescent, by Troy Young, FREE download.

What evil hides amongst us? A small band of Crusader knights finds themselves alone on the streets of Jerusalem during the bloody siege of 1099. They discover a mosque, tucked away at the corner of a deserted market.

What they find inside changes history forever.

Sea Bound, by A. F. Stewart, FREE download.

Come join Rafe Morrow on his first adventure as captain of the Celestial Jewel. Sail with him and his mysterious passenger on a journey to the Stone Fire Islands.

What secrets and dangers are waiting for them? And what is hidden beneath the waters of an island lagoon?

Demon King, by EH Vick, free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase.

Each of them paid a terrible price and had to survive as best they could—wrapped in fantasy, the comfort of amnesia, or the silence of self-imposed isolation. Twenty-eight years later, they are drawn together to once again face the town's horrible secrets--the horde of demons infesting Oneka Falls.

But the strongest of the demons is the one who terrorized them as children…

Can they survive another confrontation with the Demon King?

Far from Home, by Kate L. Mary, free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase.

When a deadly virus sweeps the country, Rowan and Kiaya are away at college and far from everything they love. Desperate to make it home, they team up, but as the world around them dies, an unexpected detour leaves them stranded where they stumble upon a shocking discovery. The virus isn’t just killing people. It’s changing them.

Then former cop Devon pops into their lives, and Rowan and Kiaya are sure their luck has shifted. With hundreds of miles left to cross and the dead taking over, the trio is determined to do whatever it takes to get home. Traveling historic Route 66, Rowan, Kiaya, and Devon fight for survival as they struggle to come to terms with their changing world and what it means for the future.

A Shaded Room, by European P. Douglas, free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase.

Before you understand it's happening, Obsession takes hold. Judd Farnon had no choice but to risk death in escaping prison. If he stayed, he was a dead man. An old boarding house where if you are honest, no questions are asked offers him the start of a new life.

While trying to forget his past and the events that put him in jail in the first place, Judd finds more and more people are showing up in his room at the boarding house claiming it as their own. If this wasn't odd enough, the town itself has a tragic history and a street of open air jail cells does not sit well with a former convict.

When a murder is committed all eyes fall on him. And yet, Judd can't bring himself to leave.

Insight, by Bruno Martins Soares, free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase.

Strange things begin to happen to Matt, a recent widower: his 9-year-old son seems to develop supernatural powers, apparitions of his dead wife become frequent, and he is being followed by a suspicious man.

When his son is kidnapped, he dives into a spiral of unexplained events. He’ll have to do the unimaginable to save his family.

Unfettered: A Short Story Collection, by R.A. Goli, available to purchase.

A bird succubus that comes in a storm; a bed-and-breakfast from Hell; secret histories from before fairy tales and myths; an asylum from beyond your darkest nightmares…

This is a collection not for the squeamish or faint hearted - be prepared to have your spine tingled: this is not a book to be read alone, at night. But here you’ll also meet wonders, including fairies who wield snow and a horse that rides on the air; you’ll participate in a mermaid orgy and see how sensuality can lead to predicting the future.

After the Devil, by Kayla Krantz, available to purchase.

It's our darkest parts that know us best.

Alex Alpine is unhappy with her life—a dead-end job, a marriage that's falling apart, and a failed string of self-published books. In an effort to better her life for her and her daughter, she makes the decision to quit writing in order to get a second job. Jamie, a recovered addict and Alex's only fan, can't bring himself to accept her decision.

The Ghosts of Grief Hollow, by Shawn Burgess, available to purchase.

All small towns have secrets, but most small-town secrets don’t try to kill you…
Reeling from a string of brutal murders in the small Appalachian town of Harper Pass, Brooks Raker and friends try to put the horrors of the summer behind them but soon realize their nightmare is far from over.

The evil they thought they vanquished remains as unburied as their dead friends.

The Waiting Mortuary, by L. V. Pires, available to purchase.

Welcome to The Waiting Mortuary where embalming is free whether you're dead or alive.

Bash Trawler wants to find an easy summer job so he can get back to partying with his friends. When he discovers an advertisement in the local paper for night watch at a nearby funeral home he jumps at the chance to make quick money. But staying up all night watching corpses for an eccentric war vet turns into something out of his worst nightmares.