Breaths in Winter

by Donna Burgess

Thirty-two tales of horror from acclaimed author Donna Burgess. Enter the world of vampire, zombies, ghosts and people who aren't quite sane. Travel the darkest roads, from the American South to the Chernobyl contamination zone and find out what lies in wait. FOR MATURE READERS.

This is a compilation of the short-story singles listed, including, Breaths In Winter, The Dancing Water, The Dead Girl's Blog, Abigail, Scarecrow John, Twilight Poison and many others.

Total word count is approx. 116000 or 368 pages.

Genres: Horror, Anthologies

316 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2010

About the author

Donna Burgess is an author of dark fiction and poetry who enjoys surfing, painting and has a deep affection for all things Monty Python and low-budget horror flicks. Over the past fifteen years, her fiction and poetry has appeared in genre publications such as Weird Tales, Dark Wisdom, Sybil’s Garage and others. She has been married for nineteen years and has two children.

Her book include Breaths in Winter, a collection of short fiction and A Song of Bones, a poetry collection.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I downloaded and read this free short story collection shortly after I got my first e-reader last year for Christmas. I hadn't reviewed it yet and I feel that it deserved one. I had learned about all these free books that were out there and thought I had found some vein of gold that was just waiting to be mined. Since then I, as another reviewer wrote, have become more selective after having read some truly awful free offerings. But I did, and continue to find, a few gems. This collection was one of those, particularly the first and last story. The first story, "The Dancing Water" was other-worldly in atmosphere as it describes venturing into the ghost towns created by Chernobyl. The story itself was original and very artistic, as well as chilling. It fascinated me. The last story, "Awake, Ghost Song" was very disturbing but so well written that I felt deep compassion for the protagonist and fell completely into the story. I felt real dread as it proceeded and the story packs quite an emotional punch.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three really good ghost stories. Chernobyl, a guy going nuts and a man haunted by his long dead brother. Very well written. Good read!

[Ernesto · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decepcionante la colección de tres cuentos que deberían ser de "horror fantasmagórico". No están mal escritos y, principalmente el primero, tiene elementos interesantes con sucesos históricos (Chernobyl)

Sin embargo los cuentos se quedan cortos. Son totalmente predecibles, al grado de volverse sosos, pasando cada página con la esperanza de que el siguiente párrafo le dé el giro inesperado y terrorífico a la historia. Desafortunadamente eso nunca sucede. Para ser honesto, al llegar al tercer cuento solo lo leí hasta las primeras dos hojas. Me hastié.

Lástima, quería buenos cuentos de terror.

[Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this large collection of short stories. I picked it up when it was offerred as a freebie on Amazon, but wasn't expecting much because I had never heard of the author. From the very first story it kept my interest and out of the entire collection there were only 2 or 3 stories that I didn't care for which isn't a bad ratio at all. My only peeve (as usual) is typographical errors. Well worth a read and I'm looking forward to finding more by this author.

[Nathan Shumate]

The first two short stories in this collection of three were stellar. The third annoyed me enough that I read something else instead.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

Re-read August 2015