Excerpt
In which editors DeAnna Knippling and Jamie Ferguson embark on a journey to bring you more monsters!
Welcome to the second issue of Amazing Monster Tales, Monster Road Trip!
This issue's theme is, unsurprisingly, monsters and road trips! There's a monster rampaging up the Atlantic seaboard, and a group of intrepid bigfoot hunters on the usual quest—but with a twist. We've got a werewolf on a train, an assortment of werewolves who aren't on trains, and a bunch of disturbingly creepy human-like critters with haint blue eyes. Medusa, the Norse dwarf Andvari, and a few other ancients make an appearance. There are monsters chasing cars, monsters driving cars, and a dragon who enjoys riding in convertibles while extending his wings to feel the air rush by—because who wouldn't? Some of the monsters are friendly, some are cranky, and some just plain want to eat you—or step on you, as they proceed toward mysterious goals only a monster could understand.
OUR COVER ARTIST
Paul Roman Martinez designed another fantastic cover for us, with nothing but the series theme and the title of this issue to go by. We wanted to give him room to come up with something cool and creative, and boy, did he ever! We recommend both his art, at PaulRomanMartinez.tumblr.com, and his board game Adventures of the 19XX, for which he also writes and illustrates graphic novels.
OUR STORIES
Our collection begins with "Tailgating," by Shannon Lawrence. Sarah and her friend Layla are driving north on the Pacific Coast Highway when Sarah sees an animal leaping through the trees on the side of the road…and it's clearly following them. To make matters worse, whoever is driving the car behind them also appears to be following them, the car driving so close that its headlights shine into their rear window. And on top of all that, they're running out of gas…
Sibling werewolves Mimi, Cece, and their adopted baby brother—a runt of a dragon—sneak out and take the family convertible for an evening spin along I-5 in Meyari McFarland's "Dandelion Rider." Mimi is still trying to recover from a horrible, and false, accusation that everyone—even their parents—believe. Who else shows up at the party, but her accuser?
Jeff Wood's "Exit Ramp" takes us to a world that used to be happy and fun, until Jimmy's dad lost his job. Now the family is on their way to Mesa, Arizona, where—if all goes well—Jimmy's dad will once again be gainfully employed. But when their car's tire blows out, they pull off on an exit ramp and find themselves stuck for the night in a place full of small, oddly shaped factories, where the mechanics at the garage have weird, underwater-blue eyes…
A trucker driving through the Nevada desert picks up a hitchhiker in "Wiggle-Wiggle, Shake-Shake," by Rebecca Hodgkins. Something about the kid seems a bit off, so the trucker stops at a diner he knows, thinking at least the kid would be safe if left there. But there's a lot more going on out in the desert than he ever could have imagined.
In Mark Leslie's "Stowe Away," Michael needs to get to Stowe, Vermont, to help his dearest friend—and it's imperative that he arrive before sunset, when the full moon will turn him into a wolf. He boards a train and meets someone else who desperately needs his help as well. But the day is growing long, and Michael is running out of time...
Ron Collins takes us on a winding path of destruction by a wonderfully vile beast in "Trail of Fears." A beast born from the foulness created by humanity, the beast would say, if it could. And some things, once birthed, cannot be killed.
Bean, a goblin who's spent most of his life below ground, agrees to drive his brilliant but transportationally-challenged cousin Heinrich across the country in Jamie Ferguson's "Goblin Road Trip." Heinrich plans to propose to his estranged girlfriend, who moved to Colorado after she got frustrated with his inability to remember, well, anything. Will she say yes to Heinrich's proposal? Will he remember where the ring is? Will the cousins even make it to their destination at all?
This collection wouldn't be complete without people searching for Bigfoot! Or is that bigfeet? "The Squatchers," by Jason Dias, takes us to the mountains with a team of YouTubers who make their living searching for sasquatch—in spite of the fact that they never seem to actually find any.
"The Plague Comet," by editor DeAnna Knippling, is set in 1957, when a comet carrying a zombie plague struck, and everything went to hell. But worse things can happen to you in the Nevada desert than getting infected by zombie plague rays…
Roland Eckstein, a couple of his friends, and a group of ancient monsters embark on a road trip across Europe in Sharon Kae Reamer's "Alexander's Gate." Their goal: a mythical, monster-populated secret hideaway, somewhere east of Turkey and north of Iran. Even Grendel agrees not to eat any humans on the trip, not even humans who happen to be Danish. Things are going well until they make a small detour to pick up Medusa and her companion—and everything gets much more complicated than Roland could have possibly imagined.
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We had a lot of fun putting this collection together. There are serious stories, and funny ones…scary monsters, noble monsters, and even monsters in love! We hope you enjoy reading these stories. And the next time you're out on the highway and catch a glimpse of someone in the next car who looks a bit odd, remember that sometimes monsters take off their disguises…
