Coppice & Brake: A Dark Fiction Anthology

A night guard brings an offering to the eternal denizens of a notorious prison.

In a young girl’s room, the shiny people keep watch in the night.

A proud father beams as his son takes the stage for the performance of a lifetime.

The stories in this anthology are the glimpses of the dark places between the forest and a dream. They are the shadows seeking the last notes of a dying violin. They invite the reader into a world where a condemned man faces his fate over and over and over again. Coppice & Brake is an anthology of dark fiction, featuring tales from the borderlands of horror, speculative fiction, and the nightmare fears that linger even after you turn on the lights.

 

Published March 2020 by Crone Girls Press

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Description

The Anomaly

 

by David J. Thirteen

An aging boxer’s comfortable world is thrown upside-down when his grandson brings home a strange old sign.  The boy is amused by the shiny surface that twists and distorts those reflective in it. But the oily dark splotch on its surface worries Oswald, especially as it grows larger each time he dreams of a demon attacking him in his sleep.

  • Kendall Reviews

    "When I pick up anthologies, I usually have a good sense of the type of stories I’ll encounter, but that was not the case with Coppice & Brake, much to my absolute delight. These tales are almost beyond imagination, directly tapping into that place where nightmares are born. From grizzly body horror to dark science fiction, this collection runs the full gamut of superb speculative fiction."

    "'The Anomaly' by David J. Thirteen also grabbed my attention. Having read some of Thirteen’s other work I knew I’d be in for a treat, and this one did not disappoint. In this tale, Oswald’s grandson brings home a scrapped metal calendar which has a mirrored backside. But there’s a splotch in the mirror, an anomaly, which begins to grow every night after Oswald’s encounters with something evil. These nightly visits are like terrifying experiences of sleep paralysis and leave Oswald a little weaker every day. As well as providing a creature that left me wanting to sleep with the lights on, the story also delves into complexities in family relationships as the roll of caretaker shifts between generations. It reminded me of the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas, but set in a horror story, which is a great combination in my opinion."

    - Review By J.A. Sullivan

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