Kindle Edition Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Story Angles Story Angles Category:  Science Fiction Publisher: C. L. Nichols Type: Fiction Pages: 166 Copyright: February 3, 2020 ISBN-13: 9798607970031 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Short Stories from C. L. Nichols - Dramatic stories, some dark, some fanciful, some post-apocalyptic, some other worldly. Bonus, novel excerpts. Speculative fiction stories from C. L. Nichols In "Jump!" a lineman is transported to an alternate reality after a lightning strike, or is it only an hallucination? Someone awakens to find handwriting actually within his concrete bedroom floor in "The Silent Chatter." A man's wife is turned by a group of vampires; he follows and teams up with a female vampire to find them in "Till Death Do Us Part." Other speculativve stories explore the unusual and bizarre environment of the slipstream. Added bonuses include selections from novels by C. L. Nichols for your enjoyment. Excerpt Bobby was afraid to touch her. Kyra lay upon her back on the concrete slab of the convenience store parking lot. The bubble blisters had spread and now covered all of her visible body, and they continued to eat their way through her clothing into her flesh. She turned onto her side then vomited a squirming mass of unknown matter on the pavement, gasping as her stomach heaved in and out. Bobby couldn't believe she was still breathing. "Make it stop!" She groaned then clenched her teeth, in obvious pain. "Please." She squeezed her eyes shut. Bobby realized he'd only been staring down at her bizarre dissolution, incapable of action. Finally his paralysis broke. He took quick steps to his car, reached through the open rear window, and ripped a blanket from the back seat. Unfolding it as he spun back, he knelt then spread the cover over Kyra. He rubbed the blanket up and down her stomach, gently at first then brisker when she didn't complain. She suddenly stiffened. Her eyes snapped open and latched onto his, her expression one of pain and misery. "Bobby?" she whispered hoarsely. He lifted the cover to see if he'd been able to scrub away the blisters. A sickening mucus coated the beige blanket he'd pressed against Kyra's belly. Her shredded blouse was mixed in with the remains of the bubble blisters and her own rotted tissue. The protoplasmic soup already had eaten into the fabric. It fizzed like radio static in the silent night. The stench made Bobby's stomach seize in disgust, and he slung the blanket away into the predawn darkness. Afraid to see, he made himself look down at her abdomen. He was horrified to discover the raw meat of a grievous injury to her body. The blisters had to contain some kind of acid, a caustic solution that burned its way through skin, baring muscles and intestines, severing nerves and veins in a bloody internal potpourri. Bobby reached to touch her naked midsection, then recoiled at the last second. He stood quickly. Fearing contagion, he stepped back, feeling the burning shame of his cowardice. "Kyra?" The voice didn't sound like his own, more the strained speech of some stranger. Kyra opened her mouth, trying to tell him something. No words escaped her crusted lips. The bottom of her face had dissolved into a liquefied pulp. A rush of air exited her mouth in one last attempt at speech. Her vocal cords most likely had been devastated. Bobby gawked at what had become of Kyra. Her open eyes stared blankly.

Dr. Catherine T. Murray's Goodreads review
(from a 5-star Goodreads review) SPECULATIVE ENCOUNTERS by C. L. Nichols is an excellent collection of stories that cross many genres. Some are science fiction, some are horror, some are speculative in nature but not easily categorized. Several are mainstream with speculative leanings. I truly enjoyed the short stories in this volume and look forward to reading more from this author. I also look forward to the novel excerpted here, REMNANTS, a post-apocalyptic novel written in the multi-character style of Stephen King. I don’t know if this is available on Amazon, or if he is still working on it. DEAD OF WINTER also looks to be very good.