Scattered Ashes

by Scott Nicholson, M. Wayne Miller (Illustrator), Joe Morey (Editor)

Scott Nicholson's short stories have drifted on the wind, across deserts and dead seas, and now have found a final resting place. In Scattered Ashes, the best of his award-winning work is presented together for the first time. Scott Nicholson is the author of seven novels including The Skull Ring and They Hunger, and has stretched the genre to embrace peculiar pregnancies, supernatural mysteries, unorthodox creatures, and sinister psychology, exploring questions of faith and despair, love and loss. Gather around the campfire. The flames are intense and the ashes are still warm... "Scott Nicholson writeswith a mixture of H.P. Lovecraft, Manly Wade Wellman, and Clive Barker, stirred with a liberal dose of his own originality, to tell an effective and atmospheric tale." -- Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of the Dune series. "Keep both hands on your pants, because Nicholson is about to scare them off." -- JA Konrath, author of Whiskey Sour "In a literary and geographic sense, Scott Nicholson explores the dark legends of the southern end of the Appalachian mountain chain, a nightmare country that ends in Stephen King's yard." -- Sharyn McCrumb, author of The Ballad of novels

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

With more than 800,000 books sold worldwide, Scott Nicholson is an international bestselling thriller writer. He won the Writers of the Future Award in 1999 and was a Stoker Award finalist in 2003. His Fear series was published by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint and 47North released the supernatural thriller McFALL.

He's also published a number of supernatural, paranormal, and fantasy books and stories, including the AFTER, NEXT, and ARIZE post-apocalyptic series, as well as children's books, comics, and screenplays. His 2006 novel The Home is in development as a feature film.

Reviews

[Monster]

In Scattered Ashes, Scott Nicholson presents a collection of Appalachian tales that invokes the spirit of Manly Wade Wellman. Nicholson has a lyrical quality to his prose that sets the reader on edge. His command of language and nuance is positively delicious. Through Nicholson’s mastery of pacing and carefully crafted rhythm, the reader experiences a roller coaster of emotions, culminating in a sense of cosmic dread, visceral and in-your-face, and the sort of nervous release at tale’s end that leaves you clamoring to devour more. Nicholson is at the top of his game in this exciting and spine-tingling collection. A must read. Highly Recommended

Review by Bob Freeman

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little rant on why you should read horror
I have always been a fan of the horror genre and I know what some of you are thinking…”yuck! Gross! I don’t like horror!” Somewhere along the line the horror genre got a bad rap because of all those slasher movies like Saw or Hostel. The horror I grew up with, which still exists by the way, wasn't about the gore. Not to say there wasn't gore sometimes, but it was about watching people just like you and me doing disturbing things in response to extraordinary situations. The horror aspect comes when you realize that, given those same conditions, you might do terrible things too. It is about watching others find that dark place and realizing you have one too, as well as understanding the “monster” and sympathizing with it. Scott Nicholson can write good old-fashioned horror in the form of a traditional ghost story or an urban legend, and he does that in Scattered Ashes, a collection of thought-provoking, spine-tingling short stories that remind me of the Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt.

Review
I enjoyed every one of these stories and wish I could tell you about all of them! But that would take a while so here are a few of my favorites.

The Meek. This story is about zombie Sheep…enough said!

“The herd was closer now, stampeding into Wadanetta, a hundred haunted bahs bleating from bottomless mouths.”

Dog Person was probably the most moving of all the stories. The ending isn’t what you expect, but then again it is. Sorry for being so vague, but I don’t want to spoil.

Murdermouth is a zombie tale from the POV of the zombie.

Last Writes is a clever ghost story set in a lighthouse and stars a well-known historical horror writer.


The Weight of Silence is a murder story with a twist at the end you don’t see coming.

Silver Run will remind you of the train engineer ghost story everyone heard growing up and what happens to ghosts when the world moves on.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the section at the end where Scott talks about the inspiration of each short story. Nice little touch that creates a connection with the author. And I just got to say, the cover ROCKS! It depicts the first story Timing Chains of the Heart.

Scott is a master storyteller and with the ability to put those words on paper. I haven’t read a Scott Nicholson story I didn’t like yet. Might be time for you to give horror a chance.

4 1/2 "spooky" Sheep
http://www.ismellsheep.com/2012/08/bo...

[Bill Borre]

"You’ll Never Walk Alone" - The protagonist and his father take shelter in a church during the zombie uprising. The father commits suicide and the child joins the zombie throng.

"Timing Chains Of The Heart" - J.D. is haunted by Cammie who forces him to drive ever more dangerously down deserted highway in the dead of night.

"The Night Is An Ally" - As night falls Wolfram encounters the ghost of one of the Jews that the Nazis have spent the entire day shooting in the woods.

"The Endless Bivouac" - A civil war soldier follows a dead man into the woods towards a camp where everyone is dead.

"Dog Person" - wc

[Byron 'Giggsy' Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicholson's short fiction selections here are amazingly consistent. Very little separate the best from the worst in this collection, and while no single story blew me away, every single one was enjoyable. He has proven himself a worthy peer of names like Stephen King