Lost Worlds

by Dan Gallagher (Contributor, Editor)

Millhaven is an unusual place, now offering the fourth in its Fierce Tales anthology series: Lost Worlds. It features tales from fresh talent, newly popular authors who will treat you to highly visual, emotional and electrifying adventures of longer-than-typical short story length. Technically short stories, these near-novella adventures will tear you from the ordinary and whisk you along deeper literary complexity and treks extraordinaire!

You will be unable to resist the insidiously contagious–perhaps intelligent–chiller encountered in “Cold Inside…”, an emotionally impactful experience by award-winning storyteller Sergio Palumbo. Novelist J. Conrad Matthews reveals “The Savage Badlands” in a rip-roaring account of an alternate conquest of America, based on Teddy Roosevelt’s lost diary. We dare you to enter Dan Gallagher’s cryptozoological-mystical tales with nonfiction accompaniments: “Monster in the Sand” in Poe’s unreliable narrator style, and its paired literary thriller “Six Birds and a Cat”. Equally powerful and visual is Screenwriter Charlie Boyles’ “Mountain of the Ancients”, which places you among prehistoric-to-recent animals & humans who, for a time, welcomed an alien addiction!

Yes, the world of Millhaven is a place where the extraordinary is the norm, a super-natural place of mystery and wonder. It can be a beautiful, awe-inspiring place. But it can also be a dark place, filled with monsters, champions, spirits and all things shadowy. These take many forms, from gruesome creatures to fantastic heroes and people just like you. Meet heroes and villains from every walk of life. The Fierce Tales series will act as your guide through the world of Millhaven, both the hidden and the horrific. New worlds will open before you in all their dangerous splendor. Yes, it’s a wondrous and fascinating place, but do keep your head about you… if possible!

187 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

About the author

Dan graduated from Virginia Military Institute (1981), third among Economics majors, simultaneously completing the Modern Languages curriculum. He served in the Infantry, then as a reservist in a Special Forces support role, next as a Training Company Commander and later in a classified Army Research Institute role. Dan completed his Master of Business Administration at William & Mary (1986). He and wife Laura married in 1988, loved raising their four children, and assisted both Boy and Girl Scouting through their church. During his practice (retired Dec 2017) Dan’s professional designations included: Chartered Financial Consultant & Chartered Life Underwriter (1989), Certified Financial Planner® (1992) and Certified Business Intermediary (2002). Dan is now retired. His thirty-year financial practice encompassed group and individual benefits, money management, financial plans, business valuation & brokerage, commercial realty and – often very personal – counseling. Dan has given numerous seminars at major employers and other entities, is the author of a novel, a licensing manual, and numerous articles in journals such as Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Financial & Estate Planning and Charlotte Ventures. In 12/2015, Dan completed the University of North Carolina Graduate Teaching program and retired from financial services to work professionally as a writer, freelance editor and educator. His spine pain syndrome soon halted work, but he "powers through" with short stories. Dan’s fiction and narrative nonfiction have been published by Skyhorse Publishing, Superversive Press, Millhaven Press, Creative Loafing, NFAA Archery, AncientProphecies Press, and StoriesAmazing partners.

Reviews

[James T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the best of the Millhaven “Fierce Tales” series. I fear it may be the last as their website is down and has been for awhile.

This is truly independent publishing. So it’s like getting a demo of some band. It’s a little rough around the edges.

As for the 5 stories inside...

Monsters in the Sand - I didn’t really like it. It’s a cryptozoological tale.

Six Birds and a Cat - Another crypto tale. This one has a very authentic human quality to the characters in the story. Plus, I love extinct Australians stuff. It was decent.

The Savage Badlands - So this story is a really good first attempt. There is enough here to flush out into a full novel. It’s 50 pages so it feels like a first draft...but the first draft of something very good. TR in a parallel antediluvian reality. It’s pure pulp goodness and there is a lot of thought to the setting and culture. It just needs to be flushed out a bit more. I think J. Conrad Matthews has tremendous potential as a writer. I liked his story in the “Crumbling Empires” collection a lot too.

Mountain fo the Ancients - Having read all 4 fierce tales collections I can say I think this is the best story out of the lot and really worth owning this collection for. It feels very much like something that would be in weird tales or planet stories. It’s great weird fiction. It reminded me almost of Henry Kuttner. For fans of classic era SF it’s a must.

Cold Inside - Antartica, horror, Lovecraft vibes? What more could you want.

This is a good collection and if you like weird fiction support this indie publisher and check it out.