Released yesterday, Oct. 1st:
Vices and Virtues
A Horror Anthology
by various authors:
Ashley Franz Holzmann, Christopher Bloodworth, L. Chan, C. K. Walker, Kristopher J. Patten, Rafael Marmol, Manen Lyset,
Blurb:
Discover some of the best up-and-coming horror writers today. Vices and Virtues will touch the center of your soul and leave it burning. This anthology truly demonstrates the range of the horror genre. These stories explore the best and worst aspects of human nature, each story based on a vice or virtue from the cultures of human history.
Three years in the making, Vices and Virtues has been a labor of love and dedication by everyone involved. Ashley Franz Holzmann brings to us sixteen original stories that touch the undead (The Girl Who Died by C.K. Walker), creatures found (I Loved You So Much by Christopher Bloodworth), discoveries in space (The Lonely Man by Kristopher J. Patten), and Jersey Shore couplings (Marina by Rafael Marmol).
About the Author / Editor
Ashley Franz Holzmann was born in Okinawa, Japan and raised in a variety of countries while his parents served in the Air Force. He considered attending art school, but is instead a graduate of West Point, where he enjoyed intramural grappling and studying systems engineering and military history. He majored in sociology and is currently a captain in the Army. Ashley speaks Korean, enjoys backpacking, and is the cook in his family. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, two sons, daughter, and their two dogs.
How did this project begin?
A lot of the authors included in this project worked with me on a few other online endeavors. We had launched this big event we called All In Good Time. After the dust settled on that, everyone wanted to work on something else. So I stepped up again and decided to lead an anthology.
All In Good Time is also being edited to fit a book format. Interestingly enough, this project is ready to launch before that one, even though we started Vices months after the Goodtime event as we call it.
Where does the title Vices and Virtues come from?
We brainstormed a few ideas. Goodtime was set up to have interweaving stories by various authors, so we knocked that idea around.
Eventually we settled on doing a themed anthology. We eventually decided on twisting themes from vices and virtues and the ideals and follies of humanity. It seemed fitting.
What can we look forward to in this book?
Honestly, this anthology has a wide variety of horror that doesn’t pull any punches. If you enjoy Stranger Things, you’ll like this. Black Mirror or American Horror Story? Yep, this will quench that thirst. Have you seen the new IT movie? There’s stuff in here that will reach you.
There’s some science fiction-esc horror, creature horror, psychological thrillers, you name it, we have it in this.
If I can also brag, there’s a myriad of reasons why this has taken so long. The biggest reason is we wanted it to be perfect. This is a very polished anthology that we are absolutely proud of. The stories hit one after the other and the entire book delivers your money’s worth.
Expanded Description:
Three years in the making, Vices and Virtues was a passion project by Ashley Franz Holzmann. The goal was to write a themed anthology with original content.
Every story in this anthology is an exclusive publication, and each story is based on either a vice or a virtue from the history of humanity—some are based off of the Roman virtues, while other are rooted in Christianity, and some take their inspiration from Hinduism.
Since beginning this project, many of the writers have begun to find their own successes. C.K. Walker has now become a writer for an upcoming Netflix show. And Christopher Bloodworth has become a full-time writer and recently launched an interactive podcast titled Rover Red.
Three of the authors: Ashley Franz Holzmann, Kristopher J. Patten, and Rafael Marmol have launched their own publishing company called -30-
Press, LLC.
This sounds awesome! I do love horror and haven’t read anything decent in ages. I’m particularly intrigued by The Lonely Man. I think horror stories revolving around space are the best because it’s such an unknown for us! We don’t have much of an idea about what lies beyond the reaches of our solar system and it’s weird to think of what might be out there. Definitely gonna look out for this!
It does sound good, doesn’t it! Please do let me know if you end up reading it, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you for stopping by!