As we make our way through this spookiest month of the year, my house has been taken over by cobwebs, skeletons, pumpkins, and ghosts. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays—for both its whimsy and its creepiness.

Although, I will admit, I’m prefer a more PG-13 celebration of the holiday. Haunted houses, horror movies, horror stories…not really for me. Truly scary is not my style.

But fear comes in many forms, so when Fiction River editor Mark Leslie proposed the theme for our latest volume, Feel the Fear, I was curious what he would do with it.

Mark, who as Mark Lefebvre works as Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations at Kobo, is well known for his dark fiction as well as paranormal activity-inspired nonfiction. And in Feel the Fear, Mark brings together sixteen authors who together explore the many ways fear might haunt us.

Here’s the synopsis:

Fear. The word alone evokes a powerful response. And in Feel the Fear, editor Mark Leslie takes readers on a haunting tour of the many ways fear presents itself. From genuine horror stories filled with frightening monsters to the real-life horror of losing a loved one to the terrifying idea of losing one’s own mind, these tales run not only the genre gamut but also the emotional gamut. With each fearful twist, the sixteen talented writers in this volume prove why Adventures Fantastic says “[Fiction River] is one of the best and most exciting publications in the field today.”

Table of Contents
“Murmuration of a Darkening Sea” by Lee Allred
“Swimming on the Grass” by David Stier
“Get Inside” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“The Dark Queen” by J. F. Penn
“Fear in Black and White” by Dory Crowe
“A Fall of Life and Death” by Michael Kowal
“High Places” by Laura Ware
“Legs” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
“Power Outage” by Bonnie Elizabeth
“The Taste of Red” by T. Thorn Coyle
“The Playground of Lost Children” by Erik Lynd
“Tin Can Man” by Annie Reed
“Piggyback” by Robert T. Jeschonek
“The Well” by Lauryn Christopher
“Mechanical Advantage” by Eric Kent Edstrom
“The Visit” by Anthea Lawson

Like the last Fiction River volume Mark edited, Editor’s Choice, Feel the Fear is the product of a publishing partnership with Kobo. And as such, if you buy the paperback edition, you will find a code in the back for a free ebook edition exclusively from Kobo.

So, go get settled in your favorite chair, or even under the covers, and indulge in these fearful tales. They’re a perfect way to get into the spirit of spooky October.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.