Giveaway and Review of Roland Allnach's Oddities and Entities

Happy Friday my Creepy Crawlers!!  Today I have an interesting book I can't wait to share with you.  I have had Roland on here before, and I have to admit his writing style is addicting.  So sit back, and let's all take a look at his book: Oddities and Entities.

Blurb:

Oddities & Entities is a surreal, provocative anthology of six tales within the supernatural/ paranormal/horror genres, exploring a definition of life beyond the fragile vessel of the human body. The stories are: ‘Boneview’, in which a young woman struggles to balance her ability to see through people with the presence of a supernatural creature in her life; ‘Shift/Change’, inwhich a hospital worker struggles to regain his memory as he is confronted by a series of desperate people; ‘My Other Me’, inwhich a lonely college student finds himself displaced from his body by his alter ego; ‘Gray’, in which a frustrated man is stunned to discover a little creature has been living in his head; ‘Elmer Phelps’, in which a brother and sister find themselves linked in a strange reality by a bat bite in their youth; and lastly, ‘Appendage’, in which a cynical mercenary is hired by his son to protect a research lab on the verge of a stunning discovery.

EXCERPT: Boneview(1st Story) 

Before Allison knew the meaning of words or the context of visions, she knew the Curmudgeon. It was there, lodged in her earliest memories, the memories that imbed themselves deep in the psyche to shadow all future memories. When she lay in her crib as a pale and lumpy baby, she didn’t know to cry when it came in her room, when it passed through her walls as if their existence were some unsubstantiated rumor rather than studs, slats, and plaster. And though at any greater age she might have cowered and screamed, in her unclouded infantile mind there was no reference for fear or judgment, only the absorbance of what was. Perhaps the Curmudgeon knew this but, then again, perhaps not. As the years passed, it was a matter of little importance.

She remembered her first years of school. She was different; this realization was as stark as the full moon visits of the Curmudgeon were fantastic. When other children clamored to play in the sun and warmth,

she found herself possessed by an ever-present chill. She felt most comfortable wearing black, without perceiving any conscious decision to that end. She preferred to stay inside, or in places of deep shade or

shadow, and gaze out at the light. It wasn’t that she shunned the warm light of the Florida sun, but the glare seemed to scald her eyes with its white intensity. Her eyes were her source of distinction, after all. Vast for

her narrow face, their luminous, sea green irises formed tidal pools about the tight black dots of her pupils. Her stare was one that few could bear for long. Children and teachers alike found her unblinking silence a most uncomfortable experience, and her mute distraction in school led to the inevitable conclusion that she wasn’t very bright. She had no friends. Her world, though, wasn’t as lonesome as it may have seemed.

She lived with her grandmother, a reclusive widow of Creole descent, who wandered about their old manor house singing under her breath in her broken French dialect. Allison loved the old house, despite its state of

disrepair and the ratty look of its worn exterior, with the few remaining patches of white paint peeling off the grayed wood clapboard. The oak floors creaked, but there was something timeless about the place, with its

high ceilings, spacious rooms and front colonnade. The house was surrounded by ancient southern oaks; they were broad, stately trees, the likes of which one could only find in Florida. Their sinewy, gargantuan

branches split off low from the trunk, with gray-green leaves poking out between dangling veils of Spanish moss. The trees shielded Allison from the sun, and provided a home for squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. The

Curmudgeon would leave their cleaned skulls on her windowsill as gifts when the moon waxed in silvery twilight.

Her parents loved her—or so they claimed, when she would see them. They seemed more like friends than her elders. She often watched them with curious eyes, peering from her window at night as they

frolicked about the front lawn. Her mother, very much a younger vision of her grandmother, had long dark hair, hair that would sway about her as she danced naked under the trees at night. Her father would be there

with her, dancing naked as well, the strange designs tattooed down his back often blending with the swaying lengths of Spanish moss. They claimed to be moon cultists, though Allison had no idea what that meant.

It was of no matter. Soon enough they became part of the night, passing to her dreams forever.

The memory of that change was the first emotional turmoil of her secluded little life. She was seven, and her parents had come out for the weekend. It was one of those times when her parents sat under the

sprawling branches of the oaks, drinking and smoking throughout the day until they lay back on a blanket, their glazed eyes hidden behind their sunglasses. The hours drifted by, and the day faded to the lazy

serenity of a Florida evening. Beneath long, golden rays of sunshine they began to stir, rising from their stupor to a restless sense of wanderlust. They came in the house after dinner, settling themselves at the table and

exchanging small talk as Allison ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. They smiled over Allison’s drawings, complimenting her budding artistic skills, and talked to her grandmother about some

plans for the next weekend. Even at her young age Allison could tell her grandmother humored them. Her parents didn’t have a false bone in their body, but they were not reliable people. Free spirits, her grandmother would say. Yet as those thoughts rolled about Allison’s head her eyes seemed to blur, and she stared at her parents with that unnerving, unblinking gaze of hers. Her heart began to race, her skin tingled, and then it came to her: not a shadow, but a different kind of light than the sun, a light that seemed to seep from within her parents, until the tactile periphery of their bodies became a pale shadow over the ivory glow of their skeletons.

She trembled in her seat as the sight gained clarity until she could see all their bones in all their minute detail, but then it changed, changed in away that froze her blood in her veins. Black fracture lines spread across

the smooth ivory like running rivers of ink, until every bone in their bodies was broken to jagged ruin.

Her grandmother called her name, snapping her out of her stupor.

She blinked, then screamed and ran from the table to the living room.

Her parents and grandmother came after her, but she buried her head under the couch pillows. Despite the pillows, the moment she opened her eyes she could see them, right through the pillows and couch, standing there in their shattered translucence. She ran for her room, scratching at her eyes, and that was when things changed. Her grandmother charged after her, following her to her room, and tore through every drawer until she found the small collection of skulls Allison kept—the tokens the Curmudgeon had left her. Her grandmother stuffed her in her closet, closed the door to her room, and sat outside the door. She could hear her grandmother’s voice, even in the dark of the closet. She clamped her eyes shut; it was a desperate final measure to blot out the sight of her parents. She could see them, through the walls, through the floor, through the trees, as they hopped on her father’s motorcycle and raced off.

She screamed for them to stop, but she was a child with a trifling voice, stuffed in a closet.

She cried herself to sleep.

Buy links:

http://www.rolandallnach.com/Bookstore.htm (autographed copies)

http://www.amazon.com/Oddities-Entities-ebook/dp/B007HPNEPE/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1374625329&sr=8-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oddities-entities-roland-allnach/1109203456?ean=2940013905788

From publisher: https://www.createspace.com/3813712

Author Bio:

Roland Allnach has been writing since his early teens, first as a hobby, but as the years passed, more as a serious creative pursuit.  He's an avid reader, with his main interests residing in history, mythology, and literary classics, along with some fantasy and science fiction in his earlier years. 

By nature he has a do-it-yourself type of personality, and his creative inclinations started with art and evolved to the written word. 

Since making the decision to pursue a career as an author, he's secured publication for a number of short stories, received a nomination for inclusion in the Pushcart Anthology, built his own website, and in November 2010 realized publication for an anthology of three novellas, titled Remnant, from All Things That Matter Press, followed in 2012 by his second anthology, Oddities & Entities, also from All Things That Matter Press. Both books have gone on to receive a number of national awards, including National Indie Excellence Awards, Readers Favorite Book of the Year Awards, and USA Book News Best Book Awards.

His writing can best be described as depicting strange people involved in perhaps stranger situations. He prefers to let his stories follow their own path. His writing is sometimes speculative, other times supernatural, at times horror, with journeys into mainstream fiction, and even some humor- or perhaps the bizarre. Despite the category, he aims to depict characters as real on the page as they are in his head, with prose of literary quality. His literary inspirations are as eclectic as his written works - from Poe to Kate Chopin, from Homer to Tolkien, from Flaubert to William Gibson, from Shakespeare to Tolstoy, as long as a piece is true to itself, he's willing to go along for the ride. He hopes to bring the same to his own fiction.

- Social Media Links:

website:  www.rolandallnach.com

Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/roland.allnach

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5181360.Roland_Allnach

This is definitely a book for horror and suspense fans alike.  There are six tales within this book that will startle, surprise, extremely creep you out, upset your stomach and yet will draw you in with this malicious type of horrible fascination that is indescribable.  Having read a previous work by this author, I was prepared but still shocked at the depth of his writing.  Even through the goriest parts of the book (and there are a few), you are simply held captive by the story itself.  It is as if it grabs you and refuses to allow you to look away.  I could summarize all the stories, but it will never prepare you for the book, or for as much time as you will spend contemplating on it when it is done.  This book is sure to deliver on all the horror aspects you come to love, and a few that will just shock you.  I love way this author writes.  It stays with you long after the book is closed and the chapters have ended.  A must read for all lovers of the dark and creepy!!

Giveaway!!  Roland is giving away a $50 Amazon card and an autographed print copy on this tour!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway