Title: The Rascal

Author: Eric Arvin

Publisher: Wilde City

Release Date: 7 October

Goodreads

Genre: Horror, Gay Fiction

Blurb:

Lana is a faded movie star who lives alone in a big house on a hill that overlooks the sea.  She has lived this way since the death of her daughter and the disappearance  of her husband.

Jeff and Chloe are a couple who live in a cabin below the big house.  It was Chloe’s idea to strengthen their marriage; but she see’s now that it isn’t working.  Jeff has become obsessed with the cabin and the old water well.  Chloe only sees strangeness around her.

One night while talking on the computer with Ethan, Jeff’s brother, a feeling of dread comes to the fore.  When Ethan see’s a figure behind Chloe, he leaves his boyfriend and baby and sets out to save Jeff.

Chloe, Ethan and Lana come together to fight an evil that would destroy Jeff.  Will they succeed or will all of them fall to the taste of a young cannibalistic ghost?

Links:

(please note: OmniLit and Amazon both link to “Eric Arvin” as of right now The Rascal isn’t on either site)

Wilde City

Amazon

Omnilit

The Rascal will be available from third parties on 14 October

Jeff felt his stomach flip, and the acid climbed up his throat, the thrill only an adventurer would know. Staring down the mouth of the well—its darkness strangely all too familiar—frightened and intrigued him at the same time. The creek stones changed from gray to black the farther down they went until Jeff wasn’t sure if the well had a bottom at all, only more swallowing darkness. He didn’t know how long he had been crouched on his knees looking into the hungry thing. By the sky, though, he knew it had been a while.

“How long has it been since you’ve had any water?” he said aloud. His voice whispered off the stones, bouncing down and away from him.

Uncovering the well was difficult. Jeff considered himself a strong man. He was the Golden Boy in his high school athletics department and would have done well in college if he had gone. But once the large stone had been pushed aside, the plank covering the mouth was of a particularly heavy wood, as if the stone had leaked its strength and petrified the slab. He struggled and grunted and yelled as he pushed the thing off. And then there was the odor that came from the rotten depths of the well. Jeff had to turn away momentarily so it could clear off.

Once the stone had been cleared, as he crouched there staring into the dark, he thought for certain Chloe would come rushing to the barn, summoned there by either his yelling or the wafting stench. He looked up and around for her, but she was not there. For a moment, he thought there was a figure, a small, thin form inside the barn, just beyond the door. But it was not Chloe’s shape. Jeff wiped the sweat from his eyes and the figure was gone. His attention returned to the darkness below him.

A voice echoed in his head: What if she was here? What if Chloe was right beside you this minute? You could push her into the well. Would you have the courage to do that? You have the rage for it. Would you be able to channel all that rage you feel toward her into action? Could you forget about her? Just cover the well again and forget about that lying bitch? Or would you throw yourself in after her?

Leave a relevant and thoughtful comment at each stop on the tour for a chance to win a $20 gift card.

Tour organizers will select a winner at each stop on 25 October 2015. Must be 18 years or older to enter. Void where prohibited.

7 Oct – Prism Book Alliance (http://www.prismbookalliance.com)

8 Oct – The Novel Approach (http://thenovelapproachreviews.com/)

9 Oct – Rhys Ford (http://rhysford.com/)

10 Oct – Joyfully Jay (http://joyfullyjay.com/)

11 Oct – Love Bytes (https://lovebytesreviews.com/)

 

“Some of [Arvin’s] work is as direct as Hemingway with the sensitivity of O’Connor or Shields, and yet others nuanced as if Maupin wrote a letter to Penthouse.” – Thom Fitzgerald, director THE HANGING GARDEN

Eric Arvin resides in the same sleepy Indiana river town where he grew up. He graduated from Hanover College with a Bachelors in History. He has lived, for brief periods, in Italy and Australia. He has survived brain surgery and his own loud-mouthed personal demons. Eric is the author ofmWoke Up In A Strange Place, Subsurdity, Simple Men, Galley Proof, and various other sundry and not-so-sundry writings. He intends to live the rest of his days with tongue in cheek and eyes set to roam.