California Screamin'

by Danielle Kaheaku (Editor), E.S. Magill, Aaron Smith

California. Close your eyes and say it: California. Images of perpetual sunshine, swaying palm trees, and blue waters lapping at sandy beaches. That one word conjures visions of gold and fame, luring dreamers to its mythic shores. The original peoples lived in an abundant paradise. The Spanish found a familiarity to their homeland. The Gold Rush, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley promised instant wealth. But the beaches are only a sliver of this vast land. Beyond it lie expanses of deserts, mountains, and rugged coastline cutting it off from reality. Isolated, California reveals a dark side—wraithlike fog of the northern coast, dense shadows in ancient forests, and hellish heat of vast deserts. It is to these places you will journey. Within these pages, you will find stories of primeval specters, soured fantasies, transplanted vampires, bizarre geography.
This is the reality of nightmares…
This is California Screamin’.

Genres: Horror

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 20, 2017

About the author

Danielle Kaheaku also writes as Erin Durante


An award-winning author and editor, Danielle Kaheaku has worked in the entertainment industry for the past twelve years. She has active memberships in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the international Horror Writers Association, and the Romance Writers Association Published Author Network. She teaches creative writing and screenwriting at San Diego State University and Southern New Hampshire University.

She has advanced degrees in English and Creative Writing with a concentration in Fiction and has published multiple short stories, four anthologies, nine novels, and several produced screenplays. Her projects have won multiple screen and literary awards including two Foreword Book of the Years (2009, 2008), Gold at the International Independent Film Awards (2018), Gold at the California Film Awards (2017), Silver in the International Independent Film Awards (2016), Award of Merit at the New Renaissance Film Festival in London (2016), Hollywood Screenings Film Festival Semi-Finalist (2016), and Best Experimental Short at the Chandler International Film Festival (2016).

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Reviews

[Christopher Spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid horror anthology. I think most of the authors are from SoCal. The stories "Kenneth Is Drowning" and "June Gloom" are pure nightmare fuel.

[Jean Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Bloch has written that during the 1930’s he developed an acquaintance and correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, who encouraged him to developed his talents as a writer of horror and fantasy. One of the ways they did this was to write competing stories in which they devised new and ever-more-horrific ways to kill each other off. A memorable Bloch entry which appeared in “Weird Tales” in 1935 was “The Shambler From the Stars”, in which a tentacled, Cthulhu-like vampiric monstrosity appears after the appropriate incantations, lifts Lovecraft into the air, and drains him of his blood as he writhes helplessly. Very cool…one of my favorite Bloch stories.

Because Billy San Juan’s “Manananggal” features a shape-changing horror (based on Filipino folklore) which behaves similarly, and conjures up for me fond recollections of Lovecraft and Bloch stories and how much fun they were to read, I’m listing it as my favorite story in this collection, which features spine-tinglers by many writers associated with the San Diego branch of the Horror Writers of America, and many of which are set in the environs of America’s Finest City (the moniker originated with former mayor Pete Wilson after the Republican Party decided to move its 1972 convention from San Diego to Miami).

A word of advice: some of the scenarios described are not for the faint-hearted, and are somewhat graphic to the degree that it would help to have a strong stomach and to not have eaten anything for at least several hours before turning the pages! Many of the characters have a hard-bitten, cynical, contemptuous attitude toward everyone and everything, and there is liberal use of profanity. But of course, this is what makes the fates with which they meet, or witness others meet, so deliciously delightful (no pun intended!), and the anthology so nightmarishly joyous to peruse. Not really recommended for younger readers, or for bedtime reading…but, if you have a boss or former boss who is or was a sociopathic tyrannical bully, feel free to substitute him or her for anyone who becomes lunch in these stories or who is dragged down to the nether realms for well-deserved eternal torments. Enjoy!

***** review by Chuck Graham *****

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Mid Western transplant in need of some doom and gloom I was very interested in seeing the state through a horror lens. The Dark Watchers, Kenneth is Drowning , O For A Muse and In The River all came the closest to delivering on those expectations. Sadly however the vast majority could barley be called horror. Perhaps the most disappointing of the lot was June Gloom. It had such a promising set up but the execution left it feeling like an overlong introduction to a larger story. I will say this was a great idea and I would be up for giving another collection a chance. Even with the almost unending sunshine California is full of dark possibilities.

[Roseann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection of stories of my home state. It even included a story by a friend. Great horror fun.