Day 5 – Midnight Garden Tour
Delighted to present to you Midnight Garden which is an outstandingly brilliant dark fiction anthology, I’m honoured to be included in. Today I present to you two authors in the anthology Abe Martel and Molly Ertel. More about them both below. Do follow all the stops in the anthology and remember to comment on each stop in order to be entered into the giveaway, giveaway details below…
About Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow
17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest Midnight Garden… if you dare.
Giveaway
https://writingtoberead.com/2024/10/07/welcome-to-the-wordcrafter-midnight-garden-book-blog-tour/
Three lucky winners will receive a digital copy of Midnight Garden in a random drawing following the tour. All you have to do to enter is follow the tour and leave a comment at each stop that you visit.
If you miss a stop, you can go back and visit through the links in the schedule below. (Links won’t work until the stop goes live).
Monday – October 7 – M.J. Mallon: Interview & Reading from “The Seagull Man” – Writing to be Read
Tuesday – October 8 – Danaeka Scrimshaw: Inspiration for “The Fae Game” & Denise Aparo: Reading from “Jack Moon & the Vanishing Book” – Roberta Writes
Wednesday – October 9 – Joseph Carrabis: Reading of “The Last Drop” & Inspiration for “Striders” – Paul Martz
Thursday – October 10 – Paul Martz: Reading & Inspiration for “The Blackest Ink” – Writing to be Read
Friday – October 11 – Molly Ertel: Inspiration Reading from “Antipenultimate” & Abe Margel: Inspiration for “My Balance” – Kyrosmagica
Saturday – October 12 – Paul Kane: Inspiration for “Drip Feed” & Joseph Carrabis: Reading of “Grande Ture” – Undawnted
Sunday – October 13 – DL Mullan: Reading from “Kurst” & Ell Rodman: Inspiration for “The Drummer” – BookPlaces
Monday – October 14 – Joseph Carrabis: Reading of “The Exchange” & Inspiration for “The Tomb”) – Writing to be Read
Buying Link: https://books2read.com/MidnightGardenAnthology
Inspiration for “My Balance” by Abe Margel
How much do we really know about our neighbours?
Whether you live on a farm, in an apartment or a house you probably know little about your neighbours’ lives. What have you learned about the purple hair woman you’ve shared an elevator with a dozen times, the one that lives on the sixth floor? For two years you’ve bumped into each other in the same little cubicle, nodded hello then stared at the wall. Who is she? What’s her job? Does she have a husband, kids, a python, a hash pipe?
The fellow with the dragon tattoos that lives right next door to you, the guy who just built a tree house for his five kids, what does he do for a living? Why do you never see his wife, the mother of all those children? Who’s white van is parked in his driveway every Tuesday night from exactly nine-fifteen to exactly eleven-fifteen?
Of course you could ask them but then they might have questions of their own. Why is a young woman like you always dressed in navy blue, and only navy blue; navy blue skirt, top, shoes, socks, coat, mittens, scarf, hat? And what happened to the engagement ring you were wearing last month? Why did it disappear? Well, it’s none of their business is it? Is it?
The fictional story, My Balance, grew out of a conversation with a friend. Andre had been in an accident and told me how difficult it was for him to get around in the walking cast he was now required to use. After months of rolling around in the back of my mind a plot emerged. I envisioned a man in a walking cast returning from the hospital to his empty home. On his street he is surprised to discover an ambulance is sitting by his neighbour’s house. The story’s main character, George Fitzpatrick, is a divorced middle-aged man who’s balance is literally and emotionally off. His irascible neighbour, Francis Allard, is largely a mystery to George.
We learn in the story that as difficult a person to like as Francis was, he nevertheless seems to have had a soft spot for George. Or did he? Exactly how little George knew about Francis becomes clear as the narrative progresses to its troublesome end.
About Abe Margel
Abe Margel worked in rehabilitation and mental health for thirty years. He is the father of two adult
children and lives in Thornhill, Ontario with his wife. His fiction has appeared in Spadina Literary Review,
Mystery Tribune, BarBar, 7 th – Circle Pyrite, Yellow Mama, Ariel Chart, Uppagus, etc.
Inspiration for “Antepenultimate” by Molly Ertel Reading
https://youtu.be/XHUgCIPDMHQ
About Molly Ertel
Molly Ertel’s short stories have appeared in Akashic Books, Jerry Jazz Magazine, and the Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine. Additionally, she was a reader/editor for the Silver Blade Anthology. She has recently completed the first book in a two-book series for middle grade readers, Jujube at the End of the World, set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The second book has been written and is undergoing the rewriting process. Other projects include a middle grade novel about an environmentally-conscious ghost and a possible visit to a rage room as the basis for a short fiction.
Enjoy spooky reads!
Check out all the Youtube videos about author stories:
“Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book”: https://youtu.be/qmhkgXslA9o
“The Seagull Man”: https://youtu.be/sgsCgd7y1ds
“The Blackest Ink”: https://youtu.be/KJD4Xd-7Va4
“Antepenultimate”: https://youtu.be/XHUgCIPDMHQ
“The Last Drop”: https://youtu.be/MeVOnnd62GM
“The Exchange”: https://youtu.be/8imZAd_Ug6Y
“Grande Ture”: https://youtu.be/iOKyI0fG9Qg
M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 
A fabulous post, Marje. Both stories sound super.
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Yes they do. Thanks Robbie. 😀
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Well I thought I commented this morning to say what a fabulous job you did with this tour stop, but I don’t see it here now, so “Great job, Marje.” 🙂
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Thanks Kaye, glad to be part of the tour for Midnight Garden. 😀
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