I have four books coming out this year (3 from Crystal Lake Publishing).
The first is a novella entitled A Season in Hell. Due out September 7th.
A Season In Hell Art WITH TEXT.jpg
“Kenneth W. Cain takes timely social topics and explores them against the backdrop of America’s pastime. What begins as a baseball story quickly delves into something rich, deep, and dark.” – Mercedes M. Yardley, author of Pretty Little Dead Girls
Synopsis:
When Dillon Peterson is honored for his baseball career, he must face a ghost that has long haunted him. He is transported back through his memories to a single season in the nineties that broke his heart. That was the season he met Keisha Green, the first and only woman to play baseball in the minor leagues. He sees what she goes through, what she must endure just to play the game both of them love, and this struggle leads to their friendship. As matters escalate, Dillon finds himself regretting his role in it all, as well as his career in baseball.
“A Season in Hell is a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking story. You won’t soon forget Dillon or Keisha. Her struggle is as timely today as ever. A Season in Hell is also a love letter to baseball and how, despite everything, the game can still heal and bring people together who seemed impossibly far apart, and can do so through intimidating odds. A timeless story of true humanity.” —John Palisano, Vice President of the Horror Writers Association and Bram Stoker Award-Winning Author of Night of 1,000 Beasts
The second is Tales From The Lake Volume 5, for which I am the editor. Due out November 2nd.
Poetry:
“From the Mouths of Plague-Mongers” – Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Malign and Chronic Recreation” – Bruce Boston
“Final Passage” – Bruce Boston
Short stories: TBD – Gemma Files
“In the Family” – Lucy A. Snyder
“Voices Like Barbed Wire” – Tim Waggoner
“The Flutter of Silent Wings” – Gene O’Neill
“Guardian” – Paul Michael Anderson
“Farewell Valencia” – Craig Wallwork
“A Dream Most Ancient and Alone” – Allison Pang
“The Monster Told Me To” – Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Dead Bodies Don’t Scream” – Michelle Ann King
“The Boy” – Cory Cone
“Starve a Fever” – Jonah Buck
“Umbilicus” – Lucy Taylor
“Nonpareil” – Laura Blackwell
“The Midland Hotel” – Marge Simon
“The Weeds and the Wildness Yet” – Robert Stahl
“The Color of Loss and Money” – Jason Sizemore
“The Loudest Silence” – Meghan Arcuri
“The Followers” –*Peter Mark May
“A Bathtub at the End of the World” – Lane Waldman
“Twelve by Noon” – Joanna Parypinski
“Hollow Skulls” – Samuel Marzioli
“Maggie” – Andi Rawson
The third is my fourth collection, Darker Days. Due out December 7th.
“Darker Days, the latest collection of short stories by Kenneth W. Cain, delivers on its title’s promise. From the very first story readers are dragged into seemingly ordinary situations that serve as cover for dark secrets. Ranging from subtle horror to downright terror, from science fiction to weird fantasy, Cain demonstrates a breadth of styles that keeps you off balance as you move from one story to the next. There is something for everyone in this collection–as long as you don’t want to sleep at night!” – JG Faherty, author of The Cure, Carnival of Fear, and The Burning Time.
Now that you’ve warmed by the embers, submerse in darker days.
The author of the short story collections These Old Tales, Fresh Cut Tales, and Embers presents Darker Days: A Collection of Dark Fiction. In his youth Cain developed a sense of wonderment owed in part to TV shows like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Now Cain seeks the same dark overtones in his writing.
There’s a little something for every reader within this collection. These 26 short speculative stories arise from a void, escaping shadows that ebb and weave through minds like worms, planting the larvae that live just under the skin, thriving upon fear. These are Cain’s darker days.
In this collection, Cain features stories from the Old West, of past lives and future days, the living and the dead, new and unique monsters as well as fresh takes on those of lore. Once more he tackles themes of loss and grief and the afterlife, always exploring the greater unknown.
In “The Sanguine Wars,” Cain takes us to a future war where soldiers are made to endure the horrors of war. He explores the complexities of global warming and what lengths men and women alike sink to in “The Reassignment Project.” And, as often is the case, he ends on a lighter note, with “Lenny’s New Eyes” and “A Very Different Sort of Apocalypse.”
When the darkness comes, embrace it. Let it wrap you up in cold. Don’t worry, it’s not your time…yet.
INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING STORIES:
▪ “A Ring For His Own”
▪ “Heirloom”
▪ “Rust Colored Rain”
▪ “Prey”
▪ “Passing Time”
▪ “What Mama Needs”
▪ “My Brother Bit Your Honor Roll Student”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 1 – Henry Wentworth”
▪ “The Sanguine Wars”
▪ “The Hunted”
▪ “Her Living Corals”
▪ “Puppet Strings”
▪ “The Trying of Master William”
▪ “By The Crescent Moon”
▪ “Mantid”
▪ “The Underside of Time and Space”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 2 – Gemma Nyle”
▪ “The Griffon”
▪ “Adaptable”
▪ “When They Come”
▪ “The Reassignment Project”
▪ “Presage”
▪ “One Hopeless Night by a Clan Fire”
▪ “Lenny’s New Eyes”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 3 – Anna Kilpatrick”
▪ “A Very Different Sort of Apocalypse”
Not many details for the fourth book yet, but I'll be editing this anthology. It will be packed with some fantastic authors.
The first is a novella entitled A Season in Hell. Due out September 7th.
A Season In Hell Art WITH TEXT.jpg
“Kenneth W. Cain takes timely social topics and explores them against the backdrop of America’s pastime. What begins as a baseball story quickly delves into something rich, deep, and dark.” – Mercedes M. Yardley, author of Pretty Little Dead Girls
Synopsis:
When Dillon Peterson is honored for his baseball career, he must face a ghost that has long haunted him. He is transported back through his memories to a single season in the nineties that broke his heart. That was the season he met Keisha Green, the first and only woman to play baseball in the minor leagues. He sees what she goes through, what she must endure just to play the game both of them love, and this struggle leads to their friendship. As matters escalate, Dillon finds himself regretting his role in it all, as well as his career in baseball.
“A Season in Hell is a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking story. You won’t soon forget Dillon or Keisha. Her struggle is as timely today as ever. A Season in Hell is also a love letter to baseball and how, despite everything, the game can still heal and bring people together who seemed impossibly far apart, and can do so through intimidating odds. A timeless story of true humanity.” —John Palisano, Vice President of the Horror Writers Association and Bram Stoker Award-Winning Author of Night of 1,000 Beasts
The second is Tales From The Lake Volume 5, for which I am the editor. Due out November 2nd.
Poetry:
“From the Mouths of Plague-Mongers” – Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Malign and Chronic Recreation” – Bruce Boston
“Final Passage” – Bruce Boston
Short stories: TBD – Gemma Files
“In the Family” – Lucy A. Snyder
“Voices Like Barbed Wire” – Tim Waggoner
“The Flutter of Silent Wings” – Gene O’Neill
“Guardian” – Paul Michael Anderson
“Farewell Valencia” – Craig Wallwork
“A Dream Most Ancient and Alone” – Allison Pang
“The Monster Told Me To” – Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Dead Bodies Don’t Scream” – Michelle Ann King
“The Boy” – Cory Cone
“Starve a Fever” – Jonah Buck
“Umbilicus” – Lucy Taylor
“Nonpareil” – Laura Blackwell
“The Midland Hotel” – Marge Simon
“The Weeds and the Wildness Yet” – Robert Stahl
“The Color of Loss and Money” – Jason Sizemore
“The Loudest Silence” – Meghan Arcuri
“The Followers” –*Peter Mark May
“A Bathtub at the End of the World” – Lane Waldman
“Twelve by Noon” – Joanna Parypinski
“Hollow Skulls” – Samuel Marzioli
“Maggie” – Andi Rawson
The third is my fourth collection, Darker Days. Due out December 7th.
“Darker Days, the latest collection of short stories by Kenneth W. Cain, delivers on its title’s promise. From the very first story readers are dragged into seemingly ordinary situations that serve as cover for dark secrets. Ranging from subtle horror to downright terror, from science fiction to weird fantasy, Cain demonstrates a breadth of styles that keeps you off balance as you move from one story to the next. There is something for everyone in this collection–as long as you don’t want to sleep at night!” – JG Faherty, author of The Cure, Carnival of Fear, and The Burning Time.
Now that you’ve warmed by the embers, submerse in darker days.
The author of the short story collections These Old Tales, Fresh Cut Tales, and Embers presents Darker Days: A Collection of Dark Fiction. In his youth Cain developed a sense of wonderment owed in part to TV shows like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Now Cain seeks the same dark overtones in his writing.
There’s a little something for every reader within this collection. These 26 short speculative stories arise from a void, escaping shadows that ebb and weave through minds like worms, planting the larvae that live just under the skin, thriving upon fear. These are Cain’s darker days.
In this collection, Cain features stories from the Old West, of past lives and future days, the living and the dead, new and unique monsters as well as fresh takes on those of lore. Once more he tackles themes of loss and grief and the afterlife, always exploring the greater unknown.
In “The Sanguine Wars,” Cain takes us to a future war where soldiers are made to endure the horrors of war. He explores the complexities of global warming and what lengths men and women alike sink to in “The Reassignment Project.” And, as often is the case, he ends on a lighter note, with “Lenny’s New Eyes” and “A Very Different Sort of Apocalypse.”
When the darkness comes, embrace it. Let it wrap you up in cold. Don’t worry, it’s not your time…yet.
INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING STORIES:
▪ “A Ring For His Own”
▪ “Heirloom”
▪ “Rust Colored Rain”
▪ “Prey”
▪ “Passing Time”
▪ “What Mama Needs”
▪ “My Brother Bit Your Honor Roll Student”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 1 – Henry Wentworth”
▪ “The Sanguine Wars”
▪ “The Hunted”
▪ “Her Living Corals”
▪ “Puppet Strings”
▪ “The Trying of Master William”
▪ “By The Crescent Moon”
▪ “Mantid”
▪ “The Underside of Time and Space”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 2 – Gemma Nyle”
▪ “The Griffon”
▪ “Adaptable”
▪ “When They Come”
▪ “The Reassignment Project”
▪ “Presage”
▪ “One Hopeless Night by a Clan Fire”
▪ “Lenny’s New Eyes”
▪ “Outcasts: The Sick and Dying 3 – Anna Kilpatrick”
▪ “A Very Different Sort of Apocalypse”
Not many details for the fourth book yet, but I'll be editing this anthology. It will be packed with some fantastic authors.
And I did send a story in, though I imagine the competition will be very tough. Good luck with your submission.
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