DL Hammons: Pass Time with Ellie Garratt

Mar 14, 2013

Pass Time with Ellie Garratt

Yet another blogging buddy...the wonderful Ellie Garratt...has broached the publishing barrier, and its with a book of nine dark fiction stories that may just give you nightmares.

A man lives to regret Passing Time. A father will do anything to save his son in Expiration Date. An author finds out her worst nightmare is back in The Devil’s Song. A woman gets more than the claim fee when she takes out vampire insurance in Luna Black.

In Dining in Hell, the Death Valley Diner becomes the wrong place to stop.

A serial killer wants to add another file to his collection in The Vegas Screamer. In Eating Mr. Bone, an undertaker could meet an unfortunate end. A con man meets his first ghost in Land of the Free. And will truth finally be set free in The Letter?

I don't know about you, but I'm tingling already! How about a excerpt? This is from the short The Vegas Screamer.

I made up my mind to kill a woman I was hitching a ride with after we’d clocked a hundred kilometres on the odometer. I always decided that way. If I couldn’t stand a woman’s company for that long, it wasn’t worth the trouble of killing her. Fran was different. I could have gone from the west to east coast with her–she was worth the time.

“I remember how good it was to drive off road,” Fran said, checking her rear view mirror. “Nothing like these cruise-controlled sedans, driving on faultless asphalt highways. With gravel you felt every stone. You knew what gears were then, I can tell you.”

I’d heard it all before. Fran had driven on every road surface known to man.

“You never felt the urge to drive before the accident?” she asked, glancing sideways at my prosthetic arm.

“No need. Limos all the way in our family,” I answered.

“Jeez. Must have been good.”

“Not really.”

“Oh,” she said, open-mouthed. “Did you have a chauffeur?”

“Yep.”

With my good arm, I reached for the window control button and remembered it was broken. Instead, I used a gloved hand to lower the window a few inches. A cool wind whipped around my face. Temperatures on this stretch of the American highway could reach forty-four degrees Celsius, and I was grateful for the breeze.

“He was called Lionel,” I said, pausing to lower the window another couple of inches. “I swear he was twice my height and size. He’d drive me to and from school, sports club, the mall, and any other extra after-school activities. The thing that amazed me was how immaculate his uniform always looked. Not a crease or speck of dirt. Always wore his jacket, too–even on the warmest days.”

“I seem to attract anything loose in this car,” Fran said, fussing with her top.

I could saw dog or cat hairs speckled over her cardigan and pants. She was an attractive woman for her age–had that wholesome glow about her–but she talked too much for my liking. That was what made her special. She’d be a good screamer.

I'm sold...how about you? Here's where you can get Passing Time.

About The Author

A life-long addiction to reading science fiction and horror, meant writing was the logical outlet for Ellie Garratt’s passions. She is a reader, writer, blogger, Trekkie, and would happily die to be an extra in The Walking Dead. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online. Passing Time is her first eBook collection and contains nine previously published stories. Her science fiction collection Taking Time will be published later in the year.

Author Links

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