Showing results by author "Kevin Candela" in All Categories

Aurora Hayes is probably the most agreeable and least judgmental of the Roads Unlimited driving team, but even she has her limits. When something that sure looks like the scary bipedal "myth" called the chupacabra races in out of the darkness in North Texas and jumps aboard her rig, Aurora finds herself stuck with the edgy, bug-eyed little monster on a long haul across the South to Florida. But dealing with the freakish creature, which appears to have no language and seems determined to stay with the truck, is just the warm-up: The thing's master arrives.

Working on the High-Altitude Atmospheric and Light Observatory research platform 16 miles above Earth's surface , Crystal Calhoun is used to an alien form of existence. But when she dreams through the waking eyes of a shipboard peer, the game changes, and when she learns that the same thing is happening to others, her paranoia kicks in and she seeks to understand what's happening. The problem is that even the people running the entire operation don't have a clue, and what's worse is that they're more confused and worried than she is. Crystal becomes determined to get to the truth.

The saga of Krakenstein concludes in cataclysmic, mind-blowing action in the Next Regeneration trilogy. The former Dr. Max Shepperton, who long ago became a superhero daikaiju by default when he merged with an ancient marine creature and the mutated result grew to immense size, is still at it 20 years after the original trilogy. This time around, he takes on a shape-shifting titan made of nanobots and controlled by his vengeful brother, and battles a life-draining giant horror from the depths of outer space.

Months have passed, the trail has grown cold, and ZC has all but given up when out of the blue, a back road diversion leads him to the mystical, but apparently not mythical Bizarre - a place where all kinds of beings want all kinds of things...and barter and gamble to get them. He's about to meet some utterly strange new friends, including a dogman named Ekos, a human-like woman with a nest of serpents for a head, and a gigantic bat-dragon that doesn't like being referred to as either.

What if you had all kinds of superhero powers, but they only worked if you were stark naked? That's the world these days for Race Harleson, reluctant savior of humanity. One of Race's most unpleasant (and dangerous) nemeses, the shameless Space Invader, is at it again. But this time, the supervillain with the personal privacy issues has put everyone in an awkward position, for his terrifying misdeeds have awakened something deep beneath the ground - something so mighty and monstrous that even the arrogant baddie is in fear for his life.

The ghosts were there the day it opened for business. The Leeward Hotel is a mirror. From the moment its first stone was laid, it has reflected the mysteries of the restless and the restless Atlantic Ocean over which it looms atop a stark cliff in Cornwall, with guests frequently seeing the highly eccentric owners walking around the halls while they were supposedly locked in their private haven upstairs.

Grayson Lone Feather loves to wander the woods behind his stepdad's property. He finds all kinds of things out there, chief among them typically being peace of mind. But when Gray comes upon a barrel-sized egg exposed by the collapse of a short limestone bluff, and what's inside it turns out to be alive and more than kicking, he finds himself at the center of action far beyond his wildest imaginings. Soon a gigantic "something" is roaming the Illinois skies, and Gray and his friend Jaleen are off to find it.

The creator of The Krakenstein Chronicles follows up his first two SF/fantasy/horror/comedy short story collections, A Year in the Borderlands and Playing with Reality, with a third heaping helping of generally freakish tales from the other side of existence. Wild narratives of mystery, horror, awe - and even some laughs - are assembled here together for the first time. Lost Radio brings you the timelessly eerie and thrilling stories of things that very well could be - whether you want them to exist or not.

Here collected for the first time are the thrilling and hopefully hilarious tales of the world's most embarrassed superhero. "Everyman" Race Harleson just wanted to do his guard shift and pick up his check - so the cosmos decided he'd get to be special, giving him Superman-like powers including strength, flight, and virtual invulnerability...so long as he's completely naked while he fights crime and saves the world.

Just two utterly bizarre days ago, Hylas Bond wouldn't have believed the famous-infamous "Men in Black" even existed. Yet there he is, dodging killer drones on a ridiculously long shot cross-country scramble with a quite possibly crazed girl who's got two dead ones in the trunk of her car. Coby Forge is on a mission, not that she knows where she's going, and once Hylas rear-ends her car and pops that lid open in the middle of a slushy highway with morning traffic zipping past - well, she's got no choice, does she?

Race Harleson is up against it big time: The world is stripping naked, and it seems to be some form of viral madness. He ends up shot into space with a couple of sharp veteran astronauts...and a new sidekick, Dark Matter. Physics super-prodigy Crayten "Cray-Cray" Hobbs has juiced himself up so much that he can alter the essence of matter to his rather freewheeling will, so Race is understandably both awed and annoyed by the hyper young man, and he's stuck keeping his fingers crossed that the people who sent them up there knew what they're doing.

In his storied days, Sinbad travelled the world, charting its lands, experiencing the wonders, terrors, and treasures to be found across the Seven Seas. But there is an ocean that he has not yet touched, let alone explored: one so incredibly vast and daunting that to look upon its shores - as indeed he has done all his life - is to gaze into an infinity of possibility...and danger. In the wake of the cataclysmic Siege of Aderadad, having learned his father is alive “somewhere out there,” Sinbad is devoted to finding him.

The Missouri Flying Humanoid is Nosferatu for real - a cryptozoological winged "human" reported to hang around Turkey Creek, Missouri. It's big as a human, with broad wings; a survivor who encountered one reported that it was strong enough to lift his truck up off the road. So when monster hunters Rollie, Eve, Taylor, and Ursula go after it, armed for bear, it's no mere snipe hunt in the woods - the game is life and death, and guns or not, the bold foursome are in way over their heads.

Todd Markway's fate was laid out for him that chilly February 29 when he was born. The Hat Man was coming for him; it was just a matter of time. And no one can stop the Hat Man - no one, that is, but a bunny. Todd's spirit guardian has kept him alive, defending him from the most fearsome "shadow being" in the spectral world on Markway's fourth and eighth birthdays. But the rabbit, Galbey, is gone, and the most critical birthday of all is coming up - Todd's 12th. And this time, he's on his own.

In the seventh Super SF Double Feature the theme is rocks. Yep. But not "plain old" rocks--one is the mysterious ice-filled planetoid Ceres in the Asteroid Belt, while the other is a palm-sized blue pyramid that's home to a primeval terror that feeds on human fear and death. "Chthonos" details the harrowing journey of a devoted "astrohydrology" expert as she seeks to uncover what's behind the mantle-penetrating water wells of Ceres experiencing repeating series of flow interruptions that almost seemed to be some kind of coded communication.

In search of the ferocious truth, some would call trying to channel the spirit of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson a fool’s errand. But these are desperate times. So settle in for this trilogy of uppers, downers, screamers, laughers from John Bruni (Tales of Questionable Taste), Kent Hill (Hercules with a Shotgun) and Kevin Candela (Weedeaters: The Complete Acropalypse) as they bring you just what the doctor ordered.

Styled like a classic drive-in double feature, this pair of tales strives to evoke that beloved era and its associated feelgood emotions while still thrilling and frightening those willing to take the rides. Both stories are family-style entertainment with little foul language and virtually no "adult situations" - in other words, sheer all-ages fun.

The name actually means "greatest of sages," but let's face it: Sinbad is synonymous with adventure. His voyages are legendary, but only a few are really well-known. Here, then, are three consecutive tales brought to light for the first time, a trilogy of epic scope that spans not just the seven seas but the universe - and even time itself! Ride along with the sea captain as he heroically faces off against deadly sorcerers, fearsome creatures, and dark deities, most of them fiercely determined to either enslave humanity or destroy it.

Here is where the saga ends and the legend begins...You may not remember the glorious age of VHS, but that is not a prerequisite. As has been the custom in compiling these anthologies, the crème de la crème of authors and filmmakers who both lived and thrived during the period in question, like the Avengers assembled to bring you this - the last dance.

Unityfest is more than just a huge pop event organized by superdivas Tarina, B-Word, and Kalli, globally renowned as the Sirens, for the chart-topping trio are in reality sorcerers many centuries old and the event is a ruse designed to drain the very life from their millions of adoring fans, thus making the three veritable gods on Earth.