by 
Around the Corner from Sanity
Tales of the Paranormal
by Jason A. Kilgore
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Around the Corner from Sanity is a collection of fourteen rousing tales of the paranormal.
Some are humorous, such as the opening story, “Purgatory’s Price,” where recently-departed souls must play a game show to get into Heaven. Norman Whimperlick passed away when his house was unfortunately in the path of an avalanche. When the glowing Archangel Azrael shows up as the game show host, to the oohs and ahhs of an invisible audience of other angels and catchy music, Norman turns the tables on his celestial host and proposes a new game. Will he make it into Heaven? Or consider the story, “Corporate Spirit,” where Alex Ravin, a desk jockey at a biotech company, has grown tired from years of meaningless corporate-jargon and pinned his hopes on a promotion to a supervisor position. But when he experiences a dark spirit flitting through his office space and seeming to steal away his coworker’s energies, he realizes there’s a connection between the spirit and all those company policies and the painted-on smiles of his bosses. Accelerating business acumen and leveraging potentials never felt so spooky!
But it’s not all chuckles. Some of the stories will leave you shaking in the dark. Consider “Rabbit Cry,” where Joanne Crowley and her son have moved into a nice Southern home. When screams rocket through the night, Joanne learns that the teen next door harbors a dark and deadly passion. Compounding the horror, she begins to suspect there are supernatural forces at work on the property – and the teen’s violent tendencies have aroused those spirits. And then there’s “The Way to Hell,” where serial murderer Dag (a.k.a. the “Sunset Slasher”) has committed heinous murders, followed by his own suicide-by-cop, in order to become a minion of Satan. But after one more occult ritual, and a visit by a horrifying demon named Moloch, he learns he has one more task to perform before he can win Satan’s favor: make an angel fall from grace. Will he succeed?
“Kilgore is a master of dread. His stories build to a fever pitch with a satisfying (and often spooky) release. Kilgore’s work holds the same intrigue and suspense of Edgar Allan Poe and W.W. Jacobs (of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ fame). Around the Corner from Sanity is a great book to read next to the fire – with all the lights on.” – Jon Dobbin, author of The Starving
A Word from the Author
One thing that sets this collection apart from similar books is not only that it mixes horror and humor, but it also has a diversity of lengths, from flash fiction to novelettes. There is also a healthy variety of “voices” and characters. I gave special consideration to the order of the stories so that the reader can ride the wave of experiences in a way that maximizes their impact.
I grew up in an actual haunted house, surrounded by an eerie forest, and I have a lot of real-world stories to tell from it. So my fascination with ghosts and the supernatural has been more than a fascination for me, coloring these fictional stories in a very meaningful way.
(Jason A. Kilgore, October 2019)