Seasonal Treat! free Kindle eBook this weekend.

This weekend, from Saturday 28/10/23 to Monday 30/10/23
Welcome to Whispering Ravine (a science fiction horror short story) will be free to download as an Amazon Kindle book.

Just click on this link to get to the Amazon page this weekend.

Amulet of Tears Book One Paperback Now Available; Book Two update

Book Two of this series is underway and I'm pleased to be on Chapter Two already, it's great to revisit these characters and plot the next steps on their adventures. 

I'm also delighted to say you can now buy Book One as a paperback on Amazon: you can find it here:

CLICK HERE FOR LINK

or click on book cover in the sidebar.

Space Zombie Holiday and Sil's Bar updated for 2023

I'm really pleased to have designed and updated the covers and edited the content on these two short stories. You can find them both available as Kindle Unlimited Editions across a range of Amazon platforms and my next step will be to publish the two together as a paperback later in the year. You can find them on my author page, P L Herlihy, in the Amazon Kindle section or click on the images and follow the links below.

Space Zombie Holidays (2 book series) Kindle edition (amazon.co.uk)

Sil's Bar (Space Zombie Holidays Book 2) eBook : Herlihy, P L: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Now you can follow my Author page on Facebook for updates and short stories

I am delighted to say you can now find my Author page on Facebook where I will post up links to my books on Amazon, write the occasional short story or flash fiction and keep you updated with story progress. Just click on the link image above or the link below:

P L Herlihy | Facebook

The Tendrils (A Short Horror Story)

 For days now, Ned’s phone had been on the blink. Almost at the point for a factory reset, he’s so fed up with it. Today is Thursday, if it is still playing up on Saturday he’ll drop by the phone shop in town, maybe they can sort it out.

On the train it rings annoyingly in his pocket, despite being set to vibrate, a mad tune of shrill notes and groaning, like he’s deliberately trying to annoy the other commuters. He thrusts his hand deep into his jacket pocket and rummages around for the off button. For a second it feels as though something alive tickles his skin, like a spider. He yelps and withdraws his hand.

The old guy opposite, engrossed in his laptop, looks up and frowns. Once he’s off the train, walking the familiar footbridge over the platforms to his office block, Ned carefully opens out his jacket pocket and empties the contents onto the ground.

His phone clatters to the concrete. Whether it is the trick of the light or his own imagination, he could swear there were tendrils, like plant roots, stretching out from the phone case. He kicks it, but it is just a phone. He picks it up. The screen now has a long crack running across it. He tries turning it on but nothing happens, and he groans. Broken and now no phone till he can get to the shop on Saturday.

 

On Saturday, the phone fix-it girl places Ned’s phone in an in-tray bulging with phones. She blows a bubble-gum bubble and then hands him his receipt. ‘Check back by five, we’ll have looked at it by then.’ Ned smiles at her, noting her name badge, ‘Manda’ but she blows another bubble and it pops, sticking to her nose like a big pink bogie.

Later in the day, when the Manda returns from lunch, she could have sworn the phones in the in-tray were all moving. Perhaps it’s too much sugar and she sticks her gum to the bottom of the counter. Ned’s phone is next, she picks it up and prises off the case.

Manda jumps in surprise, is something growing out of the phone like plant roots, maybe a fungus? But whatever it was is suddenly gone. She must be imagining things. Manda replaces the screen and then prises the phone open. Inside the phone, a swarming nest of tendrils expands out across her hands, crawling up her arms. She screams as they wrap their way up her body, searching for a way to reach her brain.

At quarter to five Ned stops by the phone shop to see if his phone is ready. There is no sign of Manda, just the sweet smell of old bubble gum. His phone is sitting on the countertop so he rings the bell for assistance and picks up his phone. It switches on with no problem and he scrolls through his messages. The screen is repaired and it seems to be working fine. No one answers the bell so, since he paid upfront, he pockets his phone and leaves, he doesn’t want to miss the match tonight.

 

Manda’s brain responds well to the tendrils, despite it being an old-fashioned biological processing chip. The tendrils reach out through her work and they infest every phone she works on.

 

A few weeks later, Ned notices the person sitting opposite on the train is acting weird. Shaking and shivering, as though he’s ill. The guy is shaking so much he drops his phone. Ned asks if he is OK and reaches over to pick up the dropped phone. He hands it back to the other passenger and, as he does so, tendrils swarm out from the other person’s hand, twisting and climbing up his arm before Ned can even scream. By the time the train reaches his stop, the tendrils have infested Ned’s brain. He crosses the footbridge and makes his way to his office block as usual, placing his phone in the security tray full of phones at the front desk as he makes his way to work.

Seasonal Treat! Free Books!

 A reminder that a couple of my Kindle Unlimited eBooks on Amazon are free to download from today for five days! The promotion runs from 1/11/22 till 5/11/22 as a seasonal treat.

You can find them here:

Returning Home to Turnfrith eBook : Herlihy, P L : Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

'They are gone. Please arrange a time to collect your share. The estate will be sold if you don’t want to buy us out. The funeral is next Thursday.’
Cary is returning to her childhood home, Turnfrith Manor Farm, now the aunt and uncle who raised have died but the curt email from her twin sister has left her reeling... Cary and her twin Jenette have one thing in common, Lucas, Jenette's husband. Long ago Cary and Lucas were teenagers in love, or so she thought. Now she's returned to face her family again, but shocking events quickly take over on her arrival and nothing is as it seems.

Serendipity Dispatch: Seven Short Science Fiction Stories eBook : Herlihy, P L : Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

A selection of three short and four flash fiction sci-fi stories about love, loss and life in the future. Contains adult themes.

In The Cloud Collectors Meet the crew of Acie’s extraction ship, in orbit around the planet Minerva, busy cleaning the synthetic atmosphere when they find a stowaway with a story.

What is the strange hold a model of a city, left to Lettie by an old Aunt, has over her and why is she now lying to Victor. The Liminlands are calling to her.

In The Dividers Cory has a choice to make, real life mining minerals on an asteroid beyond the moon, or a virtual life on an ark, mining data but for some reason, her father won’t let her go to the arks.

Carol is waiting for the end of the galaxy, stuck alone in lighthouse on the edge of the Deep Crossing in space when another ship suddenly arrives. Will The Urgent Diversity of Existence, a pamphlet she is reading hold answers.