*2008 Stoker Award nominee (Superior Achievement in a Collection) 
*2008 Black Quill Award Winner (Reader’s Choice Award Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection) 

The Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella “Mama’s Boy” is the cornerstone of this 14-story collection from author Fran Friel and Apex Publications. A man whose mother’s demented love for him has turned him from an innocent boy to a serial killer to a near-comatose mental patient opens his world to a psychologist determined to reach him as a way of dealing with her own mother’s battle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But is she helping, or is there more damage to be done?

In “Mashed,” a son’s simple request for potatoes with his birthday dinner opens up a world of past fears and childhood torments for his mother, while the flash fiction story “Close Shave” presents a horrifically funny solution to an everyday women’s issue.

From mother and son to broader family ties, Friel explores the bonds of human connection into every dark turn. The humorous yet wickedly creepy “Under the Dryer” begins as a tale told by the family dog and ends in a bloodbath; “Special Prayers,” perhaps the most disturbing offering in the collection, exposes a family secret of abuse and power; and the tragically soft and beautiful “Orange and Golden” explores the purest form of the human-animal bond as the sun sets on a natural disaster.

Features a special introduction by Gary A. Braunbeck.

Table of Contents:
“Beach of Dreams”
“Gravy”
“Mashed”
“The Sea Orphan”
“Orange and Golden”
“Under the Dryer”
“Close Shave”
“Connected at the Hip”
“Special Prayers”
“Widow”
“Spider Love”
“Fine Print”
“Black Sleep”
“Mama’s Boy” 

Blurbs:

• “Fran Friel has a genuine gift for storytelling. Her highly adaptable prose boils over with emotion: love, guilt, fear, and the myriad shades between. Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales marks the arrival of a stunning new talent.”
  —Michael McBride, author of the God’s End trilogy and Bloodletting 
• “Fran Friel is a rosy-cheeked, cheerful woman with a world-class seductive smile. Her obviously warm nature makes her icy fiction appear all that more unsettling. Her stories are well written, compelling, all with a muscular hard edge, with often surprising but very appropriate endings…and always absolutely brutally chilling. From the short-short shockers like “The Widow” and “Close Shave” that surprise like an unexpected poke in the eye, to the longer moving ones like “The Sea Orphan” and “Beach of Dreams,” that jar you and linger like a solid, well-placed left hook to your kidney. Many have the quality of the renown title piece, “Mama’s Boy”: At some point they make your sphincter muscle clench and spasm with shock. Scary stories that are not soon forgotten. And from such a nice person. Highly recommended."
  —Gene O’Neill, author of Collected Tales of the Baja Express and The Confessions of St. Zach 

Book Details:
280 pages
ISBN 978-0981639086
6" x 9" TPB

Cover Artist:
Billy Tackett

About the Author:

Fran Friel lives and dreams by the sea in southern New England. She’s a two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist and winner of the Black Quill Award. She writes horror, dark fantasy and science fiction, and like many “respectable” authors, she is currently working on a novel.

Visit Fran on the web at http://www.franfriel.com.