Mad Men

By A.R. Braun, Willy Martinez and Matt Leavitt

Mad Men is a collection of three disturbing horror shorts from writers from the Midwest, specifically, Illinois. The themes explored in this collection range from man versus self, man versus man, and man versus creature. We start with Matt's tale, a thought provoking thriller which causes the reader to question his reality and what he fears within himself. The second tale explores the grotesque juxtaposed with beautiful nature, where the ending unfolds into a horrific dream, waking in even more terrible pain. The third tale is by seasoned horror writer, A.R. Braun - and his diabolical creatures never disappoint! Braun's goal is to be on the banned book list; we think this tale may just be evil enough to be considered. A must read before it does get banned!

Mainstream Horror Shorts don’t always satisfy us in the way they should. They don't open up conversations about what it is that we fear or why we fear such things, they focus mainly on pop culture and gore. The writers in this anthology understand the need for Literate horror, opening up discussions of mans psyche. When these writers set out to tell a story, they are less interested in conveying fear and more interested in wonder, the sublime, and the infinite strangeness that drives all man and woman. Highly recommended for tweens, teens, and adults.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.R. Braun
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736144718

Book preview

Mad Men

Three Horror Shorts by:

Matt Leavitt

Willy Martinez

A.R. Braun

Copyright © 2020 By Mind on Fire Books

All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher or authors, not be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this coordination being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Mad Men is a Horror anthology written by three writers from Illinois, each with their own vision and writing styles.

Merchant of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy

Cover Design by Charles Robinson at the Artificers Den

eBook Formatting by Mind on Fire Books

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 The Fisherman by Matt Leavitt

2 Flora by Willy Martinez

3 Little Ghoul by A.R. Braun

Preface

I am excited and honored to say that Mad Men is the first anthology being published by Mind on Fire books which I invite other writers than myself to take part in. I’ll be honest, I had not planned to do any short fiction writing so soon after publishing my non-fiction work, On Writing Fear, but the vibes and conversations that I had with Matt Leavitt and A.R. Braun really motivated and inspired me to do so. Although apprehensive and nervous to line my own writing up along other seasoned writers of fiction, I accepted the challenge and took Matt’s advice, and to just let it all out and do the editing afterwards.

I met Matt on Instagram and A.R. Braun on Twitter. As usual, our interactions began with likes and shares, and these eventually led to messaging back and forth. These messages led to video and phone calls in which we talked about sharing our work on Mind on Fire Books. Our digital bromance bloomed into working together to share stories with one another.

And now here we are, a short while later with three horror shorts, written by male writers from Illinois, whose interest also lay in martial arts and boxing. Hence the idea for the name of this anthology, Mad Men.

A.R. Braun has self published over 10 works of horror fiction as well as sci-fi works. I feel privileged to be able to work alongside a writer with such a dedication to horror and experience in publishing.

I want to thank both Matt and A.R. Braun for taking a chance with me on this anthology, I will forever remember you in this long story we call life. May