Publisher's Synopsis
"...there's more than enough wonder and dread for any fan of horror or dark fantasy. A must-read for lovers of these genres." Jason J. McCuiston, author of Project Notebook and The Last Star Warden series
"We have to be careful when we walk in the open." So begins the title story, and so begins this ominous collection of tales from settings around the world and times both close and long past. We are taken into realms terror, dragged by the hand into haunted places and minds, meeting characters whose fates could be our own if we aren't careful. A lonely woman on a cruise will not find what she's looking for until she realizes why she is on this ocean voyage. A man visits a remote village in Africa to learn that some monsters aren't quite what he expected them to be. An unfinished opera becomes a man's obsession to find those lost notes, no matter the means by which they are found. A clumsy but meaningful art piece by a blind girl becomes the bane of the art examiner who interviews candidates for a prestigious art school. A portal is opened, a poker game is played, a mine is operated, and dolls are fabricated. Each story opens a new conflict, a new strife, a new view of both the extraordinary and the banal elements of our world. You will be mystified and intrigued, terrified and horrified, all as you turn the pages and discover these stories of dark imaginings. "The author has tucked a burr in our souls and left us itching and squirming. And that is as it should be." Stephen Kimmerling, peer review "Mr. Travieso-Diaz's short stories are like the bloody news photograph you know you should not look at, but click on anyway... [he] leads you to the realization that terror begins in the familiar places, the hearth, the school, and the office, metastasizes into the terrors that haunt us collectively, and transforms banal, complacent souls into monsters." Alex Ferrate "The reader will enjoy Travieso-Diaz's wide-ranging knowledge, reflected in the subject matters of these tales. If you like Faustian bargains, there's a story for you. If your taste runs to Dantean Purgatory, you'll find something to please. Readers who seek ethnic and historic scope, with a large dose of the gruesome, will no doubt be satisfied. Some tales are definitely morbid, some merely ending in an ironic twist. There is a grim tale for everyone!" Roxanne Greenstein
