Painmaker

by Joseph Armstead

The First Tale in the Book of Dark Memory Within each of us, there is a place of Darkness, a solitary Hell where our worst nightmares take shape. We hide it from the light of day, from our loved ones, and from ourselves. We hide the Darkness, but we are never free of it. It stays with us. Sometimes it owns us. What would happen if those dark nightmares took on a life of their own? What would happen if they grew jealous of our lives and our freedom? What would it be like if they no longer wanted to hide? What would happen if the Darkness came to life? Welcome to Haverhill, California, a city scarred by secrets. Modern, upscale and thriving, it is the kind of community where hatred and violence are alien, where everyone feels safe... It will become Ground Zero for the raging violence of Darkness unleashed. It is here, to these avenues and alleyways, that the nightmares have gathered, ready to march out into the light. A very angry Darkness has come to Haverhill. It will own this city. The Darkness has a name and it is everywhere. It is embodied in beings called "The Infernals" and their evil hides behind every face. And they bring with them pain and death and destruction. Pray for those who would fight against them. The daylight fades and the window on the night has been broken. The darkness is rushing in...

190 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 2000

About the author

Joseph Armstead (born February 2, 1956) is a horror/suspense/science fiction fiction author best known for his loosely-connected series of stories and novels about the MOON-CHOSEN vampires, and his THE WITHERED LAND dark fantasy/scifi series. Mr. Armstead's novels generally center on the themes of personal and societal alienation, xenophobia and interspecies racism, dark conspiracies, criminal violence and renegade scientific technologies. Armstead is also the creator of "The Infernals", evil alien demigods that he features in his "Book of Dark Memory" series, a horror-centric, darkly violent science fiction series, of which the novel Painmaker is the first volume.

Armstead's literary influences coincide with influences from modern cinema. He frequently imbues the violent scenes in his works with cinematic style. A practitioner of a literate style of writing verging on the poetic or the lyrical, he exhibits stylistic storytelling influences from the likes of Clive Barker, Stephen King, Brian Lumley and John Farris, with a nod or two to H.P. Lovecraft in his uses of mythical "cosmic conspiracies".

He currently lives in northern California and is a computer technologist. He is also known as a postmodernist freestyle poet and is frequently published in various literary publications.