Stant Litore

After dying in a freak accident, Matt Cahill inexplicably “wakes up” three months later with the disturbing ability to see things—terrible things—that others cannot. Drafted as a warrior in the battle between good and evil, Matt will stop at nothing to destroy the malevolent Mr. Dark. In The Dead Man Volume 7, a trio of sinister new stories tracks the reluctant hero on his nightmarish quest. Matt Cahill is part of a team of smokejumpers who are dropped into the heart of a raging forest fire that is fueled by a flamethrower-wielding madman under the sway of Mr. Dark. Almost every living thing in this hellacious Crucible of Fire, including Matt’s fellow firefighters, are falling prey to Mr. Dark’s evil touch and bowing to his furious command: Kill the Dead Man! Matt is tracking a blood-sucking, shape-shifting killer through the icy Cascade Mountains when he encounters a mysterious woman who is on the same corpse-strewn trail...but who has a terrifying secret of her own...and an unspeakable lust for The Dark Need. In the blasted hell of the Arizona desert, Matt hitches a ride with a young couple who meets a terrible fate that he’s powerless to stop. The bloody encounter leads him to a deadly stranger who may know why Matt became part of The Rising Dead. But first they must survive in an unforgiving wasteland to do battle with a gang of heavily-armed smugglers who trade in human flesh.

Magic is the grammar you build into your fantasy world; spells are the vocabulary. Discover varied possibilities for the design of a magic system for your fictional world-and discover how different magic systems can reveal unexpected opportunities for your story. "Magic always comes at a cost, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin glories in telling the heroines of Once Upon a Time. Like other lectures and handbooks that have addressed the topic of magic systems, Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won't Forget will help you design the costs and constraints that render magic plausible in your imagined world-but we won't stop there. This book will also help you explore possible cultural functions of magic, define the mechanics of how your magic system works, consider the ethical implications of your magic system, and reveal how your choices in creating a magic system can open up exciting opportunities for character development, conflict, plot, and thematic intensity in your novel, script, or game. Diverse examples of how magic has worked in fictions from different cultural traditions plus 30 unique storycrafting exercises will ignite your creativity and empower you to tackle this particular worldbuilding assignment with both playfulness and intentionality. Unlock the magic in your story Reviews for Stant Litore's Previous Toolkits for Fiction Writers "Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther "There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy "A master class: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles "This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days "Learning to write fiction that moves readers is a lifelong pursuit, but successful writers often struggle with showing others how they do it. For that, you need a good teacher. Stant Litore is an extraordinary teacher, and in Write Stories Your Readers Won't Forget he shares what he knows in clear, practical and profound chapters. Packed with insight, examples, and exercises, Stant's book will cut years off your learning curve." - James Van Pelt, author of Pandora's Gun

Write the story you've always wanted to write. Stant Litore's third toolkit for writers will empower you to sharpen your story's thematic intensity. Theme is your answer to the question, Why does this story matter? Why does this story matter to each of your characters, and why does it matter to you? Why this story? What hold does it have on your heart? If you find the most compelling answer to that question - and then write that answer into every scene in your book - you'll have a story that will matter to readers, too. This toolkit provides a sequence of 30 story-building exercises plus guidelines on how to craft a thematic outline for your story and use it as a potent tool for revision. In these pages, explore how character, theme, and plot interact; how what matters most in your story gets expressed through each character's unique voice and gets performed dramatically through your plot; and discover how a mastery of theme can help you establish a powerful threshold text to begin your story, solve "the saggy middle," and deliver a denouement that your readers will never forget. Advance Review "Learning to write fiction that moves readers is a lifelong pursuit, but successful writers often struggle with showing others how they do it. For that, you need a good teacher. Stant Litore is an extraordinary teacher, and in Write Stories Your Readers Won't Forget he shares what he knows in clear, practical and profound chapters. Packed with insight, examples, and exercises, Stant's book will cut years off your learning curve." - James Van Pelt, author of Pandora's Gun Reviews for Stant Litore's Other Toolkits for Emerging Writers "Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther "There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy "A master class: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles "This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days

2000 years in our future, an empire's holiest festival is celebrated with dinosaur races and gladiatorial games on the backs of armored titans. These gladiators and the dinosaurs they ride become a visible display of the Republic's power, captive fighters adored by millions yet compelled to battle not only the tyrannosaurs and other genetically engineered beasts of the arena, but also the loneliness in their hearts.Yet Empire is a fragile thing. Tonight, on the red sands of the arena and inside the hollow asteroid where the dinosaurs are grown, the secrets these gladiators discover will shake their entire world. Join us aboard the orbital colosseums and meet Egret (Livia Tenning), Jaguar (Nyota Madaki), and Timberwolf (Mai Changying) AUTHOR'S NOTE: Gladiators is a prequel edition to the series The Dakotaraptor Riders; it includes three works of fiction: The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, Nyota's Tyrannosaur, and The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur. If you have a copy of the omnibus Colosseums for Dinosaurs, this book includes the same stories. Gladiators is a new edition (with some minor changes), released in celebration of the new series. The events in Gladiators happen in the same universe as The Dakotaraptor Riders, just a few solar systems over, in the heart of the empire that is invading the homeworld in the new series. As the series progresses, some characters from the prequels will make an appearance in the new novels. I hope you will enjoy these thrilling tales of dinosaurs and rebellion in the far future PRAISE FOR THE PREQUELSFor The Running of the Tyrannosaurs: "Wielding elegant prose and tightly-focused characters, Stant Litore cuts deep into the science-fiction realm of bio-engineered dinosaurs and high-tech bread and circuses with a physically enhanced female gladiator whose personal tragedy is as powerful as her victories in the arena. Her story echoes in the heart long after it is told." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle & the City of the FoundersFor Nyota's Tyrannosaur: "Stant Litore turns a concept that would be clunky, camp, or just plain weird in other hands into something as natural as feeling the stretch of your own muscles when you move..." - O.E. Tearmann, author of The Hands We're GivenFor The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur: "This is a pulse-pounding story, a triumph of world-building - a story of gladiatorial combat and of bonds strange and transcendent. Without a doubt, one of the most enthralling stories I've come across." - Samuel Peralta, The Future Chronicles

Looking for a thrilling tale with lesbian dakotaraptor riders, were-brachiosaurs, Slavic witches, triceratops cowboys, carnivorous cacti, and invaders with machine guns mounted on deathreaper tyrannosaurs?If you've been looking for a series like that, Stant Litore has your back. In Incursion, join Sasha Nightwatcher and her wife Yekaterina on a wild dash across the violet prairie to save their alien homeworld.REVIEWS: "Straight for the heart and delightfully weird." - Joseph Brassey, author of Skyfarer and Dragon Road"Stant Litore's work blends an array of singular characters, prehistoric creatures, and an imaginative landscape into a dazzling vision, The Wild Wild West meets Jurassic Park meets Sucker Punch - but beautifully weirder, exploring a frontier that is at once alien and yet familiarly human. His writing is deft and delivers, drawing a perfect balance between the real and the fantastic, whisking you away on a fast-paced journey with characters you will feel deeply for. Mythical and marvelous, this is storytelling at its very best." - Samuel Peralta, The Future Chronicles"Stant Litore's Incursion brings a new and fantastic universe alive, packed with vivid characters and colossal beasts - yet amidst the story's intense action and swirling dilemmas, he never loses sight of his raison d' tre: the power of human connection." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders"A story that charges as hard at the heart as the fierce, raptor-riding heroines whose passion and mission make Incursion a deeply satisfying read. I can't wait for the next book in what promises to be a much larger tale." - James van Pelt, author of Pandora's Gun"Masterful worldbuilding, immersive prose, and authentic characters create a tale of adventure and love you won't want to put down." - L. J. Hachmeister, author of Triorion"An exuberant romp filled with dinosaurs and colorful characters, brimming with Litore's trademark big heart. It also carries shades of Anne McCaffrey's Pern, and is sure to please any lover of interplanetary adventure." - Travis Heermann, author of The Ronin Trilogy and The Shinjuku Shadows Trilogy"Stant Litore has created a story about a fascinating world with brilliant characters, superb action, and a mystery I want to read more about. Also dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs." - Steve McHugh, author of The Hellequin Chronicles"In these dark days, we need reminders of what makes us human: community and song, collaboration, story and hope. The Dakotaraptor Riders gives us those reminders. Woven onto the warp and weft of a rich folklore that feels completely authentic, and yet contains threads that will make contemporary folklorists grin, this tale of clashing philosophies, racing dakotaraptors, and abiding love is a salve for a wounded soul. It reminds us not only that the fight can be won, but that the fight is worth waging against the forces of destruction, of cruelty and colonialism. This book is The Dark Is Rising for science fiction. Read it, and let it braid your frayed threads whole again." - O.E. Tearmann, author of The Hands We're Given

On the Other Side of the Night is about the potential that science fiction and fantasy have to transform the way we see the world - and each other. "At every hour, faces on television and voices on Twitter are telling us to fear, fear, fear, like the drumbeat of our heart going too fast. Tragically, because death or extinction is too terrifying, because disease and ecological disaster are too frightful, we turn our fears on each other instead. Those others, they are what we must fear, our leaders and too many of our storytellers insist. We are being asked to accept small-minded stories that make our hearts smaller, when we are in most need of larger stories that make our hearts bigger."When this time passes, if we strive only to 'go back' to how things were, to the injustices and unsustainable complacency that constricted our society before the pandemic, then we will be the most pitiable of fools. This is a time to imagine better, improbable, impossible futures. How we make it through this long night together will be dependent on the stories we tell and the stories we are willing to hear, as we face each other across the fire with our backs to the long dark. There are gifts of hope tucked inside these tales like trinkets or treasures tucked inside nested Russian dolls. Here, I'll show you what I mean. Come closer to the fire. Let's talk." - Stant LitorePraise for Stant Litore's Previous Titles: "Stant Litore may be SF's premier poet of loneliness." - Jason Kirk, author of Reverb"Litore's passion for well-crafted sci-fi comes through in every chapter." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles

In a future where humanity is a refugee species, can refugees from the past save us?The pneumavores ("soul eaters") have taken the earth and have spread to every planet humanity has ever touched. Now a Syrian refugee, a thirteenth-century librarian, and a hijabi shapeshifter from the far future must travel across space and time to defend humanity from this intergalactic and devouring evil.They'll find allies: A wheelchair gunslinger from far-future Beijing. A legion of women soldiers wielding Spinning Saws that can slice through predators that only barely exist inside our universe. A strange child-empath who can hear all of humanity's suffering at every instant in history. A firestarter-goddess from our prehistory. Together, they will face a species that travels across time and feeds on terror itself.REVIEWS FOR ANSIBLE: "Stant Litore may be SF's premier poet of loneliness." - Jason Kirk, author of Reverb and The Other Whites in South Africa"Litore's stories aren't only entertaining. They are stories invading our lives, unexpectedly. You encounter them, as you might encounter people. They are those random elements in life that happen to you, like a mugging, like childbirth, like falling in love and marriage, like death and the funeral that follows. They are moments that leave a mark, and leave you changed." - Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver"Stant eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive ... He takes us to places of amazing beauty, awe-inspiring, as well as places where the implications in the story can leave you almost in despair for the human race." - Nikki Ebright, Director, Myths & Legends Con

In the far future, an empire's Independence Day is celebrated by dinosaur races and gladiatorial games on the backs of armored titans. Join us aboard the orbital colosseums Once each year on orbital space stations, nano-engineered young women compete on the backs of dinosaurs in races as brutal and bloody as any witnessed in the Roman Circus 3,000 years before. Highly skilled and capable of superhuman feats, these gladiators live isolated lives-except for the resurrected beasts with whom they form their deepest bonds. Tonight, on the red sands of the arena and inside the hollow asteroid where the dinosaurs are grown, the secrets these gladiators discover will shake their entire world.Join Livia Tanning (Egret), Nyota Madaki (Jaguar), and Mai Changying (Timberwolf) in the three thrilling tales included in this omnibus edition: The Running of the TyrannosaursNyota's TyrannosaurThe Screaming of the Tyrannosaur"This is a pulse-pounding story, a triumph of world-building - a story of gladiatorial combat and of bonds strange and transcendent. Without a doubt, one of the most enthralling stories I've come across." - Samuel Peralta, The Future Chronicles

"When you translate radical or subversive texts into the language of Empire, you eventually get Imperial texts. In this book, we will take a close look at what has been lost."The ancient Greek word for "truth" means unconcealing or unforgetting. Yet today many ideas and stories that were once critical to how early Christians understood, practiced, and defended their faith often remain "hidden in plain sight" in our Bibles. These ideas are concealed from us by the distance between languages, between eras, and between cultures-yet they are so worth unconcealing and unforgetting. In this book, discover: The forgotten women who co-founded ChristianityWhether the first-century church thought there was a hellWhat happens when you realize that in Greek, faith is a verbWhy gender in the Bible is more complicated than we thinkWhich concepts our modern tradition takes for granted that would have been alien to the original readers (like homophobia)We have also forgotten that to read the Bible is to receive an invitation to adventure-to encounter the impossible, to move mountains, to walk on water. Instead, we have been taught to read the Bible tamely, to make no choices, to risk no questioning of our tradition. What would happen if we took the adventure? If we readers walked out into the wilderness toward God, leaving home far behind? If we stepped out of the boat of our received tradition, out onto the crashing waves?Let's find out.

Meet Nyota Madaki. And her tyrannosaur. Fighting for survival in the far future.When Nyota wakes in the middle of a forest inside an artificial world, she knows she's in trouble. Her trainer and sister athletes are nowhere to be seen, the airlock to the shuttle bay doesn't respond to her commands, and the night forest is loud with the screeches of atrociraptors and ravenous tyrannosaurs.Stranded inside the world where massive dinosaurs are grown for the arenas, she will face many perils -- the hunger of nocturnal predators, the crash of starvation, and the devouring rot of a bioweapon unleashed inside the tyrannosaur world while war in space rages just outside.But Nyota is ready. Inhabited by entire ecosystems of nanites, trained for strength and speed and elegance, capable of feats that would leave others broken on the forest floor, Nyota can handle anything. Anything, that is, except the sudden rush of forgotten memories into her heart. Anything but the realization of who she really is.Luckily she won't have to face that alone. Not with this tyrannosaur egg hatching beside her..."Stant Litore eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive ... He takes us to places of amazing beauty." - Nikki Ebright, Director, Shiny Garden

"This day has gone long enough without a death."Taken from her home at a young age, Mai Changying is isolated and trained for life in the arena, competing on the backs of stampeding triceratops and other great beasts resurrected from millions of years in the past. But under her timberwolf tattoo and the ferocity of her competitive spirit, she has a secret desire-a longing for a pack, a family, a people.Today, in a thrilling race on a privately chartered orbital dinodrome, Mai Changying will shock her audiences with an unexpected and transgressive act that will change gladiatorial combat in the dinodromes forever-and prove that even when everything is stripped from us, our need for kinship and our triumph in seeking it remains."This is a pulse-pounding story, a triumph of world-building - a story of gladiatorial combat, and of bonds strange and transcendent. Without a doubt, one of the most enthralling stories I've come across." - Samuel Peralta, The Future Chronicles

"There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy and Death Wind.Like a god, you get to invent a world. Maybe several. But how do you make these worlds that readers want to visit? How do you make them worlds that readers never want to leave? In Write Worlds Your Readers Won't Forget, explore how to create unforgettable environments, creatures, and cultures in 33 intensive exercises.ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WRITE WORLDS YOUR READERS WON'T FORGET: "One of the best worldbuilding workbooks I've ever seen. Litore is inspirational, reveling in the power of imagination and packing his journey with top-notch examples and exercises. A superb resource for beginners and pros alike." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders"Stant Litore's book overflows with everything you need to know to build your own worlds from the ground up or the top down, from creatures to ecology to culture. Tons of thought-provoking exercises help create an elegant framework for speculative worldbuilding. With these techniques and your own creativity, you'll be able to create worlds your readers will never want to leave. There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heermann, author of the Ronin trilogy and Death Wind"Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther"A master class in world building: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach. Covering religion, biology, technology, magic, language, justice, privilege and more, the book ignites the writer's imagination with provocative questions and exercises. Pro tip: read this with a notebook handy. You will be inspired to get down to the business of building your fictional world in ways you hadn't dreamed possible. Litore's passion for well-crafted sci-fi comes through in every chapter." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles"This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide to worldbuilding that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create. My favorite thing about this guide was how incredibly immersive it is. When Litore says the word 'worldbuilding, ' he's not kidding... Highly recommended. I can't wait to use some of the exercises and questions Litore offers here when writing my next book." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days"Stant Litore does an excellent job bringing structure and order to the art of world-building. His book makes the craft easy to understand and is filled with information for beginners and veterans alike." - Milton Davis, author of Changa's Safari"Stant Litore is a wonderful storyteller with a knack for creating nuanced characters and equally nuanced worlds. And this book delivers on its title: it offers a great glimpse at how to write worlds your readers won't forget." - James A. Hunter, author of the Yancy Lazarus series and Viridian Gate Online

Rasha is a Syrian refugee fleeing war with her infant son. Sahira is a time-traveling, shapeshifting hijabi defender of humanity. Both time-travel thriller and love story, this riveting addition to the Ansible saga takes you from the dust and despair of bombed-out cities and poisoned land to the weird, wondrous apparitions that can transform a planet's future.Ansible: Rasha's Letter is the opening episode of Ansible: Season 3.PRAISE FOR THE ANSIBLE SERIES"Stant Litore may be SF's premiere poet of loneliness." - Jason Kirk, author of Reverb and The Other Whites in South Africa"Litore's stories aren't only entertaining. They are stories invading our lives, unexpectedly. You encounter them, as you might encounter people. They are those random elements in life that happen to you, like a mugging, like childbirth, like falling in love and marriage, like death and the funeral that follows. They are moments that leave a mark, and leave you changed." - Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver"Stant eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive ... He takes us to places of amazing beauty, awe-inspiring, as well as places where the implications in the story can leave you almost in despair for the human race." - Nikki Ebright, Director, Myths & Legends Con

Biblical tales retold as episodes in humanity's battle with the ravenous undead. Now, get five novels in a single volume: Death Has Come up into Our WindowsWhat Our Eyes Have WitnessedStrangers in the LandNo Lasting BurialI Will Hold My Death Close(and an exclusive excerpt from By a Slender Thread)DEATH HAS COME UP INTO OUR WINDOWS (Book 1) It is 587 BC. A vast army lies encamped about Yirmiyahu's city, and a rebellious king has closed the city gates, locking in the living and the dead together. Now, the things Yirmiyahu sees and the things he must do will call into question every promise he has made, every duty he has sworn -- to his wife, his God, and his city. WHAT OUR EYES HAVE WITNESSED (Book 2) Regina endures a death-in-life as a sex slave in the Subura, the ancient world's most terrible ghetto -- until a strange man sees her suffering and gives her a coat, a new name, and a new life. The man is Polycarp, and he has the Gift of gazing into the eyes of the hungry dead and granting them rest -- a Gift that comes at a terrible cost. And ancient Rome may burn him for it. STRANGERS IN THE LAND (Book 3) Four must stand against the dead: The aging prophetess Devora. Hurriya, the slave girl. Zadok, a legend among warriors. And the widower Barak, who has sworn to defend his homeland from a migration of walking corpses greater than has ever been seen. In this retelling of a tale from Judges, the strangers in the land must stand together if they are to rid the land of its blight. NO LASTING BURIAL (Book 4) A man wanders out of the desert one day and finds a village in ruins after a night of the walking dead. The survivors have thrown the snarling corpses into the Sea of Galilee, only to starve as the ghoul-haunted sea yields no fish. Will the stranger's coming bring back the fish, or the hungry dead? I WILL HOLD MY DEATH CLOSE (Book 5) Marked for sacrifice by her own father.... A young woman must rely on only her wits and troubled memories of her mother's faith to survive. Jepthah's daughter flees to the hills, knowing her father and his stone blade may appear at any time to claim her -- while the unburied dead of her people also hunt her in the low ravines. The centuries to come will not remember her name. But generations of young women will climb those hills to remember her. "Heartbreaking and wonderful." - Conflictium"Stant Litore has been doing fascinating phantasmagorical things with zombies in biblical times." - Jeff Vandermeer, author of Annihilation"I find myself riveted to Stant's prose, not only because I'm eager to find out the characters' fate but because his words are so beautiful. The story has stayed with me days after reading it. I highly recommend." - Denise Grover Swank, author of The Curse Keepers"The Zombie Bible is philosophy played out in bleak landscapes. It's psychology set to the harsh strains of Prokofiev. Litore's prose is lean and hungry; his characters are faceted all-round like various colored stones; his scenes pulse with blood and life, ring with metal or reek of sweat and undeath." - Marc McDermott "Litore's vibrant writing rips the lid off of the King James version and reveals to us a world of intense human hopes, dreams and pathos. You've never seen anything like this before." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders "To say I loved this book would be an understatement. I could not put it down." - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Traveling across space and time to make first contact, explorers discover a terrible predator. Now only a band of time travelers stand between humanity and the long dark.The previous Ansibles found themselves marooned, but Zahid, last survivor of "Ansible 15718," commands an interstellar fleet, and Sahira, the psionic savant we meet in "Ansible: Night Land" and "Ansible: Strike Force," will take the battle to the pneumavores, humanity's fiercest predators.In Season Two of Ansible, humanity's last conflict continues to blossom open, dark fire and dark flower, torching all of time and space. These are your descendants' stories. Their cries in the dark. They are not to be missed.PRAISE FOR ANSIBLE: "Litore's stories aren't only entertaining. They are stories invading our lives, unexpectedly. You encounter them, as you might encounter people. They are those random elements in life that happen to you, like a mugging, like childbirth, like falling in love and marriage, like death and the funeral that follows. They are moments that leave a mark, and leave you changed." - Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver"Stant eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive ... He takes us to places of amazing beauty, awe-inspiring, as well as places where the implications in the story can leave you almost in despair for the human race." - Nikki Ebright, Director, Myths & Legends Con

Biblical tales retold as episodes in humanity's battle with the ravenous undead. This series can be read in any order.Marked for sacrifice by her own father, a young woman flees to the hills, knowing her father may appear with his stone blade at any time to claim her - while the unburied dead of her people also hunt her in the low ravines. Guided by the memory of how her mother stood bravely against the dead, Jepthah's daughter begins her long flight in the dark.The centuries to come will not recall her name. But generations of young women will climb the hills to remember her."Like Cormac McCarthy's novels, I Will Hold My Death Close does not pull its punches. A beautiful, brilliant tale, it offers a pretty bleak picture of the human condition and the human struggle against the terrors of this world." - Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver"I find myself riveted to Stant's prose, not only because I'm eager to find out the characters' fate but because his words are so beautiful. The story has stayed with me days after reading it. I highly recommend." - Denise Grover Swank, author of The Curse Keepers

Biblical tales retold as episodes in humanity's battle with the ravenous undead. This series can be read in any order.First-century Israel. A man wanders out of the desert one day and finds a village in ruins after a night of the walking dead. The survivors have thrown the snarling corpses into the Sea of Galilee, only to starve as the ghoul-haunted sea yields no fish. Will the stranger's coming bring back the fish, or the hungry dead?In this reimagining of the opening chapters of the book of Mark, an ancient story is made dangerous and raw again..."Stant Litore has been doing fascinating phantasmagorical things with zombies in biblical times." - Jeff Vandermeer, author of Annihilation"Intensely troubling and sharply beautiful. I highly anticipate the opportunity to reread it." - Timothy Widman, Wandering Paths"Nothing about this novel was phoned-in. Even parts of the story that we already knew by heart were revealed brilliantly with the gentle hand of a master surgeon. And Litore told the story his way. I found it refreshing, respectful, and loving." - James Garcia, Jr., author of Seeing Ghosts

Biblical tales retold as episodes in humanity's battle with the ravenous undead. This series can be read in any order. It is 1160 BC. For years, the prophet Devora has blamed other tribes for the hunger of the dead and the gruesome death of her mother. But this day will bring her both tidings of a swarm of the dead greater than any she has ever known and a supplicant who will shatter every hard shell she has formed around her heart: Hurriya, who has carried her infant across the length of ancient Israel in search of a miraculous cure. Hurriya, a refugee from the tribes Devora has hated. Hurriya, who is receiving terrifying visions of the future-like Devora's own.In the nights to come, all strangers in the land must stand together if they are to survive."To say I loved this book would be an understatement. I could not put it down." - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer"Beyond the rich historical background and the desperate fight for survival, Strangers in the Land is a story about otherness, what it means to be a 'stranger' ... Far from being 'just another zombie book', it is a remarkably clear look at what it means to impose a system of inequality among a culture." - Examiner.com"Stant rebuilds the zombie mythology from the ground up." - Rob Kroese, author of Mercury Falls and Schrodinger's Gat

Biblical tales retold as episodes in humanity's battle with the ravenous undead. This series can be read in any order.Ancient Rome. Regina endures a death-in-life as a slave in the Subura, the ancient world's most terrible ghetto -- until a strange man sees her suffering and gives her a coat, a new name, and a new life.The man is Polycarp, and he has the Gift of gazing into the eyes of the hungry dead and granting them rest -- a Gift that comes at a terrible cost. And ancient Rome may burn him for it.It is AD 96. Polycarp and Regina -- their faith and their love -- will be tested as they have never imagined. And their story will shake you to the heart."If I could write a one-word review, it would be Wow. I still can't get over the beautiful horror of Litore's writing. Regina was a breathtaking character who stole the show for me. Even as I write this review, my eyes mist over. Highly recommended." - Jennifer Bielman, Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy"Gruesome and human and lyrical and horrible, The Zombie Bible is like nothing you have ever read. Once you're in, you'll stay." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles