Blog – Page 2 – Inkd Publishing

Michele Stuart

February 15, 2022

Author Spotlight: Michele Stuart, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Tough Love.
Tough Love was written for First Line Journal, though the first line has now been slightly altered.
It now has the distinction of being both my first story to receive a personal rejection and my first professional fiction sale.

Tracy L. Snyder

February 15, 2022

Tracy L. Snyder, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Mystery of the Somerton Man.
The Somerton Man is a story based on a real unsolved murder mystery. On May 18th of 2021, the remains of a murder victim were exhumed from a grave in Australia. The name engraved on the tombstone was The Unknown Man. This murder victim had been found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide in 1948, just a few years after the end of World War II. The labels had been cut out of the man’s clothes, and all identifying information removed from his pockets. There was also a cryptic message in Farsi that had been left in his pocket. The words were “Tamam Shud,” which means “it is finished,” or “the end.” People have speculated on the man’s identity for seventy years. This exhumation was an attempt to retrieve enough DNA to finally put a name to his story.
As I read the news article, a thought occurred to me. What if no one had been able to identify this man because he had an extra-terrestrial origin? What if he was an alien?
The Somerton Man is a melding of the well known facts of the case with a fanciful explanation involving the intervention of an alien race in the affairs of man. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Rosemary Williams

February 15, 2022

Author Spotlight: Rosemary Williams, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, The Ghost of House Grey.
Many of my stories have murky origins, and this one is stranger than most. The main character, Sephie, originally formed from a Lone Gunmen fanfic that never existed outside of my brain. So when I needed a story for this anthology, I pulled her out of the darkest corner of my neurons, dusted her off, and shoved her into the same world as another pair of short stories I’ve written for the JordanCon anthology. Surprisingly, it worked, and I’m toying with the idea of expanding her story into a novel series. I’m still pretty new as a published author, but I have projects in the works.

AJ Skelly

February 15, 2022

AJ Skelly, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, A Basilisk and a Bite.
Inspired by several of family members who are color blind, AJ Skelly thought it would be cool to write a story in which that was seen as an advantage. She’s written several “Magik Prep” stories (several are in other anthologies) and thought it would be fun to use that somehow in a fantasy setting.”

Mark Beard

February 15, 2022

Author Spotlight: Mark Beard, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, Fear of Monsters.
I enjoy writing stories that take place in the wilds, with characters outside their zones of comfort but I flipped this concept for my Hidden Villains story entitled Fear of Monsters to, instead, make the characters themselves embodiment of savagery and unpredictability. You can find my debut heroic fantasy series, The Jeweler of Tirravon, on Amazon or on my author website, https://www.lanthanor.com/ .

Katharine Reid

February 15, 2022

Katharine Reid, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, Horatio.
Katharine’s inspiration for her story came from a custom TTRPG she used to GM for a group of friends. In order to give the NPCs more depth, she started writing stories about what was happening between player interactions. This is one of those stories that came out of it.

Clint Hall

February 15, 2022

Clint Hall, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, The Demons in the Stars.
This is a bit strange given the setting and circumstances, but The Demons in the Stars is a very personal story for me about the tensions between our priorities, our aspirations, and our need for a sense of purpose. It’s the type of story that will probably be interpreted differently from one reader to another.

L. S. King

February 15, 2022

L. S. King, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with her story, The Mad Man of Briars Lodge Road.
“The Mad Man of Briars Lodge Road” is brought to you courtesy of inspiration from Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Twilight Zone, and the original Dark Shadows series, not to mention the original spark of an idea from, of all things, Cat Stevens’ song “Sad Lisa.”

Mike Jack Stoumbas

January 12, 2022

Mike Stoumbos, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, “We Call it a Win.”
The first novel in his space opera trilogy recently released. The Signal Out Of Space, book 1 of THIS FINE CREW https://www.amazon.com/Signal-Space-This…/dp/B09N8VHGFP/
The second installment is scheduled for publication 1/21/2022, and the series is set in the same universe as “We Call It A Win.”

Tim Lewis

January 1, 2022

Author Spotlight: Tim Lewis, author in the Hidden Villains anthology with his story, Accomplice.

The inspiration for the story started, as with most of my stories, the ending and then backtracking to fill pockets. I have been writing and reading several noir stories and a recent rewatch of the Usual Suspects started the impetus of the tale. My other noir-like story, Switch, was published in the 2019 JordanCon Anthology, and my new urban fantasy story, Twelve, will be published in the 2022 JordanCon Anthology; both edited by Richard Fife.