Eye Appeal: new flash fiction at MicroHorror.com

My short story contest entry, “Eye Appeal,” is live at MicroHorror.

FREE for your Kindle— Flames of Quiet Light: Thirteen Tiny Tales of Love and Loss

My latest collection, “Flames of Quiet Light: Thirteen Tiny Tales of Love and Loss,” is free for your Kindle until November 10, 2013. Go on and get a copy.

Yours and Mine at Popcorn Horror

In early 2014, I’ll be releasing a horror short story collection titled, “Grim and Grisly Shades of Red.” It will contain thirty short tales of horror and suspense (some of which were originally part of The Man of Shadows series).

The awesome folk out at Popcorn Horror will be featuring one of the included stories every Thursday for the next five weeks. Today’s story is “Yours and Mine.”

The Popcorn Horror website is a horror lover’s dream. They showcase tons of short independent horror films, art, reviews, fiction, and other beautiful nightmares. Follow them on Twitter. Like them on Facebook. Invade their website like you’re a body snatcher. Show ‘em some love, people.

Sincere thank goes to Cara out at PH. I’m so glad you stumbled upon my work, by chance, over at MicroHorror. You rock!

Flames of Quiet Light— Goodreads Giveaway

Flames of Quiet Light: Thirteen Tiny Tales of Love and Loss.

Includes fiction previously published online or in printed journals as well as two brand new tales: “The Divinity of Grass” and “Fifth Grade.”

There used to be a fence here, around this domicile husk. The children, two by two, were ushered through the gates. Small, bare feet hovered above the earth like ghosts, touching air and nothing else. It was the large hands of strangers that swung them over the steps, set them down on the cool tile floor of the orphanage lobby. The boy remembers that when it stormed the window shades would sway like paper arks, and all the caged animals on the curtains- two rabbits, two canaries, two cats, two dogs- would dissolve to whimpers and scratches, broken only by the sound of thunder or the creak of bedsprings in the dark room. The girl has no memory of fur or feathers. She would listen to the rain fall and pretend the lightning bolts were a carnival of cotton candy. Her numb fingers became paper cones for electric blue curls...

-from "The Stormfire Girl

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Flames of Quiet Light

by Angel Zapata

Giveaway ends November 15, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

My poetry chapbook, "An Offering of Ink and Feathers," is FREE for your Kindle today thru Wednesday, October 16th at Amazon. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to share this post with all your friends and family. And, of course, I’d be grateful for your review on Amazon and at Goodreads.

Excerpts from "The Diary of Noah's Wife" at Treehouse Magazine

My latest work, “Excerpts from the Diary of Noah’s Wife,” is featured today at Treehouse Magazine. Several years ago, a much shorter version, which presented a different set of diary entries, was published at Full of Crow.

An Offering of Ink & Feathers— Book Giveaway on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

An Offering of Ink and Feathers

by Angel Zapata

Giveaway ends August 23, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

An Offering of Ink & Feathers— A Poetry Chapbook

It's my pleasure to announce the publication of my poetry collection, "An Offering of Ink & Feathers." The print version is available now on Createspace and the Kindle version through Amazon. Most of the poems have never been published in print or online.

An Offering of Ink & Feathers is a chapbook of twenty-four poems. It begins with the flight of a moth and the sacrifice of its fragile body. This incident sparks a series of events— physical and spiritual— that takes our author and readers on a journey through love, marriage, fatherhood, divorce, and ultimately to the very brink of death.

I'd like to thank author/artist, Gabrielle Faust, for providing me permission to use her gorgeous artwork for the cover.

And thanks to my fellow writers and readers who have encouraged me along the way. I hope my words will find a place in all your hearts.

Hypothermic Writer Seeks Shelter

As most writers know, the majority of small press and independent publishing markets don’t pay a writer anything. No money at all. Many publishers are unable to or won’t provide a contributor copy as token payment either. This is known as submitting work to a “for-the-love market.” Payment is exposure only. I know ‘exposure’ is supposed to represent the writer’s work appearing in some form of mass media for the benefit of a reader’s eyes. But ‘exposure’— per the Merriam-Webster dictionary— can also mean “the condition of being unprotected, especially from severe weather.” This doesn’t sound anything like ‘love’ to me.

According to the National Homeless Organization.org, “’Between 1999 and 2002, hypothermia-related deaths, totaling 4,607 in number, occurred in all 50 states in the United States (CDC 2006).’ (Note that this does not appear to be specific to homeless; it would include folks lost in the woods, etc.).”

I don’t know about you, but wandering around lost in the woods totally sucks. I don’t want to be homeless or freeze to death. I’d also like to stop shivering.

I guess I’ve just been feeling a bit cold lately and I’m tired of exposing myself. I think it’s time to go back inside the house and sit in front of the fireplace for a while. Yeah, that’s better. I’m feeling a lot warmer already. And oh my, is that an old typewriter…

“Another 100 Horrors” is now available from Cruentus Libri Press!

“Another 100 Horrors” is now available from Cruentus Libri Press in print and for Kindle! 100 writers have contributed horror stories told in exactly 100 words. You can read my tiny tale, “Howl,” within its pages.

Thanks goes out to editor, Kevin G. Bufton.

Also featured is fellow writer, Erin Cole, and her story, “Hide-and-Seek.” If you've never read any of Erin's work, you are missing out on an extremely talented writer. She's author of the mystery novel, "Grave Echoes" and the horror collection "Of the Night." Her work can be found published all over the internet too. You can read her masterful crime story, "7 Seconds," at All Due Respect, for free!