Win a $15 GC: The Chaos Stories by Charles O'Keefe

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Charles O'Keefe will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

First off thank you for being a part of my blog tour, I hope your readers will consider picking up a copy (or get lucky and win one) and I'll be certain to check back and reply to comments.

When it came to these stories I decided to draw heavily from my own experiences, both real and imagined. To explain further, I've been role-playing (games including Dungeons & Dragons) for about thirty years. In that long span of time I've had the chance to play characters I really loved and had some wonderful imagined fun with my friends. These characters, the ones I've played for any length of time, took on significance to me and became real in a sense. So when I decided to do a collection of short-stories it seemed natural to pick out some of my favourite player characters and come up with tales that filled in the blanks of their histories. So one of the stories are based on a character I am still playing in Dungeons & Dragons and another two on a character who I used to play in Call of Cthulhu (which is based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories). I loved the two of them so much that I felt there was more stories to tell with them and so came about the stories "From a Spark to a Flame" and "Footprints Part 1 and 2".

Of course when it comes to inspiration I do what most writers do, I also use my own memories, people I've met and make them both better, more exciting. The story "Another Day in Paradise" is almost exactly what happened to me in small town in the Bahamas. Two other tales, "The Birdman" and "Funny Tricks" have people in it I knew but I combined two and three people into one, one of the main characters has a little bit of me in there as well. I love to walk in the woods so with "Funny Tricks" it was very enjoyable to take a simple experience like that and make it into something bizarre, scary and fun.

I'm lucky that as I'm self-published my stories, for the most part, do turn out just the way I planned them. I usually come up with the full story in my head and then just keep writing until it's done (often making changes along the way of course). One story that did turn out different, however, is "From a Spark to a Flame". It was originally longer but my editor pointed out that it made the story just trail off, the way it ends now makes it a cliff-hanger and is much stronger.

Also worth noting is that I included deleted chapters from my "Newfoundland Vampire" series. They were already written but required a lot of work, fixing continuity, dialogue and generally make them a worthwhile read, rather than the discarded mess some of them were. There was a major change which I didn't plan for with these deleted chapters. Originally I was going to have seven, two from books 1 and 3 and three from book 2. Once my editor pointed out the mess one particular chapter from book 2 was though, I decided that it wasn't even worth fixing. The chapter was more about me making a statement about hunting than good storytelling and that's not something I felt belong in a book of fiction.

You know how the saying goes about the best made plans. Always be prepared to make changes, find an editor you trust and listen carefully to what he or she has to say. I'm a good planner but even I can see that inspiration doesn't always lead to a great story and change is an essential part of writing as it is of life.

Here you'll find nine new short-stories, some which have been from my life, or things that could have happened. One is inspired from the many games of Dungeons and Dragons I've played over twenty years while another is from the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Some are even some from other authors, who kindly contributed to my collection.

As a treat for fans of my series, I have included six deleted chapters, two from each of the three Newfoundland Vampire novels, which have been all cleaned up and have been made better than ever for your reading pleasure.

I have also included not one, but two chapters from the upcoming fourth book in the Newfoundland Vampire series, War of the Fangs. I've filled this collection with tales that will make you laugh, or will scare you, and will hopefully make you think a little about the world around us and the people in it.

Enjoy an Excerpt

"I'm not leaving you behind, no man gets left behind, GET MOVING!" Marlon screamed the last part at the top of his lungs and they bolted forward. It wasn't easy with all the roots and holes in the ground. Larry fell once as did Marlon, painfully twisting his ankle so that now Larry had to help him but they moved on, spotting one mark on a tree and chalk on another. The mist had started to rise, it was at their ankles now.

"Mar I can't feel my feet, it feels as if I'm running on blocks of ice. We need to get out!" Marlon looked about frantically, the trees were still thick, he couldn't see the tall grass from where they had started this morning. Everything felt tight, his chest felt like it was going to explode, his heart felt like it would leap out through his throat at any second. The trees seems to be closing in on them, he felt like he was back in France, just waiting for the first bullet to split the air.

Marlon looked down for a second, legs are numb up to my knees but somehow I'm moving, I don't feel the pain in my ankle. "We'll get out, you are the best woodsman I've ever seen. I know you can do it." Larry nodded and Marlon was glad to see a small smile creep onto one side of his face, he pointed with his right arm to a mark, an arrow pointing to the east, the way they were going. You better be, he thought, I'll be damned if I die in a forest by some mist, I made it out of the war, I'll make it out of here!

About the Author:

Charles O’Keefe lives in the beautiful province of Newfoundland, Canada, with his wife and two feline ‘children,’ Jude and Eleanor. He is a part-owner of a beauty wholesale business. He enjoys many hobbies and activities that include reading, gaming, poker, Pilates, Dungeons and Dragons, and of course, fantasizing about vampires. Charles is the author of three books in the Newfoundland Vampire series, but this is his first collection of short-stories. Look for the fourth Newfoundland Vampire book sometime in the near future.

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