The Bookhouse Boys

Deck the Halls with Liber Mysterivm

I told you it would be soon…

Bob Freeman and Generation Next Publications are proud to announce the release of Liber Mysterivm: Twice Told Tales of Occult Detection. Give the ultimate Christmas gift to yourself or a loved one. I don’t know about you, but finding esoteric tomes, crematory ashes, arcane rites, ancient evils, mystical sanctuaries, Lovecraftian horrors, and hard-boiled detectives in my proverbial stocking would make for one killer Yuletide Season.

Only $1.99 US…

Liber Mysterivm: Twice Told Tales of Occult Detection features six preternatural short stories — The Devil’s in the Details, Samhain, Ashes to Ashes, The Cabin in the Woods, The Soul Cages, and Pillow Talk.

Available Now on Smashwords!

Review: The Golden Builders

I freely state, unabashedly, that The Golden Builders by Tobias Churton is the best book I’ve read on the history of Hermeticism and its two most prominent offspring, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. If you have any interest in these subjects then I implore you to track down this book. Churton’s work is clear, concise, entertaining, and as thorough an overview of the Hermetic Tradition as I’ve ever come across.

Divided into three parts — The Hermetic Philosophy, The True Story of the Rosicrucians, and Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) — The Golden Builders effortlessly and intelligently peels back the layers of history to divulge the mindset of these brilliant thinkers, alchemists, and mystics.

In slightly more than two hundred pages, Tobias Churton is able to unveil the evolution of Western Hermeticism and present it in a way that is meaningful to the modern esotericist. This is a groundbreaking and brilliant work and should be required reading for anyone that considers themselves a student of the magical arts and hermetic sciences.

The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrusians, and the First Freemasons by Tobias Churton is available at amazon.com

Coming Soon from Generation Next

Just in time for Christmas comes a new ebook collection from author Bob Freeman and Generation Next Publications. Liber Mysterivm: Twice Told Tales of Occult Detection features six thrilling tales of horror and suspense. One simple download will deliver you into worlds filled with esoteric tomes, crematory ashes, arcane rites, ancient evils, mystical sanctuaries, Lovecraftian horrors, and hard-boiled detectives.

Details on when and where you can possess Liber Mysterivm will be announced very soon.

Stay tuned.

The House Above Seven Pillars, Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

***

 

“Get away from him!” Sarah screamed.

Staggered by the scene before her, Sarah Jones shook with a wave of conflicting emotions. She’d bolted in through the front door, intent on pleading for her cousin’s life, only to find her aunt in the throes of madness, towering above Allen Parker with a pistol in her hand, ready to fire.

Louise Martin whirled about, swinging wildly with the revolver. It grazed Sarah’s forehead, just above the temple, sending the young girl flying backward into the piano, blood spilling from a now open wound. Allen struck out with his legs, catching Mrs. Martin in the hip and the woman fell forward into her niece.

Allen rose clumsily, dazed from the pain coursing through his body. Everything was going so fast. He limped toward the two fallen women and helped drag Sarah to her feet. The teen clung to the boy and he protectively edged her behind him. This was far from over.

“Sarah,” he said, fighting to remain as calm as possible, “get out of here. Head for the neighbors and call for help.”

Sarah stood frozen, her eyes glued on her aunt. Louise Martin lifted herself up off the floor, her own eyes blazing like wildfire. She smiled with a wicked sneer, like an angered beast that had cornered its prey and was ready to feast.

“Sarah,” Allen pleaded, “go!”

Sarah Jones couldn’t speak, but she found the courage to do as the Parker boy said. Her head throbbing in pain, she dashed for the open door, the promise of escape looming before her. Just before she reached the door, it suddenly slammed shut, as if by its own accord. She fell against it, fumbling with the doorknob to no avail. It wouldn’t budge. She screamed, beating at the door with her fists.

“You didn’t think it would be so easy, did you?” Mrs. Martin sneered. She moved from side to side like an animal preparing to strike.

“Who are you?” Allen asked. His ruined knee filled him with excruciating pain, but he swallowed it as best he could, his adrenaline pumping fresh energy into him.

“Poor little boy, so afraid. You’re on the verge of crying out for your daddy, but he can’t save you, now can he? No, he’s off hunting a fox in the henhouse while there’s a wolf right at his door, and he’s left his children to mind the farm, now hasn’t he?”

“How do you know that? What are you?”

“Me? Why child, I’m your worse nightmare. When something goes bump in the night, well that’s me. And I’m tired of these games, boy. Be a good little hunter and just lie down. I’ll make this quick.”

Allen’s eyes darted left and right. The shadows seemed to be closing in and he was having trouble concentrating. He was in over his head. He knew that. He had to get Sarah out of here. He had to get himself out. But he was out of options. This thing that was possessing Louise Martin was probably going to kill them and there was nothing he could do to change that, but he had to try.

“Sarah,” he said with a quiver in his voice, “keep trying that door.”

“What?” she said choked with tears.

“Just do it.” Allen reached back to the secretary and snatched up a brass candlestick and lunge toward the Martin woman. He swung as hard as he could and bashed her in the side of the head, tearing through the weak flesh and sending blood spraying everywhere. He struck her again and again, crying as he did so, terrified and repulsed by what he was doing.

Sarah fumbled with the door until it finally opened and she ran out into the darkness, screaming bloody terror, her feet carrying her across the lawn as fast as she could go. Allen glanced back and almost smiled. It had worked, but his victory was short lived as Louise Martin’s’ hands grasped him by the shirt and drew him in close. She had a smile for him, grinning wickedly through the face that had been pummeled into hamburger.

“We’re not through yet, young Parker,” she said. She lifted the boy easily overhead and slammed him to the ground where he sprawled in the copious amounts of spilled blood. Mrs. Martin kicked him hard in the side, cracking several ribs.

Allen cried out in agony. With all his might, he fought to remain conscious, but he knew it was a fight he was losing. There was so much blood that he thought he was swimming in it. “Run Sarah,” he mumbled, “run.”

“She’ll not get far, little man,” Mrs. Martin said. She leaned down and rolled him over to stare him in the face. She dipped her fingers in the blood on the floor and drew something on his forehead. “You’re marked now boy. That means you’re mine. I can come and get you anytime I want you. Think on that when sleep calls to you. I’ll be there, in the dark, in the shadows, and I can have you whenever I want.”

She rose from him and spat, her ruined face looking down on him triumphantly. Louise Martin turned and walked out through the open door, laughing, leaving Allen with his pain and his fear. The shadows continued their advance and he felt like they were taunting him, mocking him. Horrid faces, black on black slithered within their depth. He tried to rise but couldn’t. His leg was grinding and it was all he could do to just breathe. His side was on fire, his lungs a conflagration. It took all his strength to roll over, but from somewhere deep inside, he drew an inner strength that had him crawling through the blood toward the stairway. If he could just get to the stairway, he thought, he could get up and maybe, just maybe, he could get outside and to help. He was almost there when he heard his brother’s voice and he surrendered to the pain and all went silent and dark.

The Queen is Dead

Ingrid Pitt
(Nov 21 1937 — Nov 23 2010)

Godspeed, Hammer Queen.
Rest In Peace.

Two Paranormal Reviews

The newly revised edition of Jeff Belanger’s Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World is an engaging directory of purported paranormal hot spots littered across the globe. Admittedly I am somewhat biased. My contributions to the book appear on pages 145-147, detailing three cases involving my stalwart investigative team, Nightstalkers of Indiana. It’s a terrific primer for fledgling ghost hunters, offering a general overview of some fascinating locations. It’s only shortcoming is its primary focus on the United States. I think the series would have been better served by splitting it into multiple volumes that focused on individual countries. For American investigators, however, the book is a treasure trove and should serve as a reliable resource. Well written, comprehensive, and reader friendly, this Encyclopedia of Haunted Places deserves a place on every paranormal researcher’s reference shelf.

Click HERE to order a copy of Encyclopedia of Haunted Places from Amazon

I also had the opportunity to read Ursula Bielshi’s There’s Something Under the Bed: Children’s Experiences with the Paranormal. This is the second book I’ve tackled that focused on children and the paranormal in recent months and it has many of the same shortcomings that I found in Caron Goode’s Kids Who See Ghosts. Actually, if these two books could have been combined you just might have ended up with something. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Ms. Bielshi’s work. To her credit, it is well researched (for the most part), but I would have preferred more information from her own investigations rather than the over-abundant reliance on older cases. I got the sense that the author was unsure of who her audience for this book would be and, as a result, we end up with a little of this – a little of that – and not enough meat on the proverbial bone… and the chapters on Ouija Boards and Dungeons and Dragons were laughable and unnecessarily over-the-top.  I absolutely adore the cover art though.

There’s Something Under the Bed is available on amazon.com

Home

My first pass at Carson Buckingham’s Home.

 

With just a hint of sulfur…

With all the talk about Descendant the last few days — what with positive reviews flowing in and A Murder of Crows’ nomination for a Pushcart Award — I thought I’d share an excerpt from the novel. But what part to share? That’s when it hit me — Why not let it decide? So that’s what I’ve done, allowing for random chance to be the determining factor… and now, here it is, for your reading pleasure:

“Wake up.”

The Nephilim stirred slowly.

“William,” the voice called once more. “Wake up.”

“Wh-who?” he asked, groggily.

“We don’t have time for this,” the voice said. The Nephilim felt hands upon his wrists, and then he dropped, dead weight, when he became shriven from the magical bonds that held him. “Damn, you’re heavy.” William felt himself dragged across the rough floor and propped up on the opposite side of the column he’d been chained to.

“What are you doing?” he muttered.

“Saving your ass.”

Through glassy vision, the half-breed watched as his benefactor dipped their fingers in blood and drew an arcane symbol on his bare chest. Then they placed their palm over the magick sigil and chanted softly.

“Kauila No-Quoda Je Vime. Kauila No-Quoda Je Vime. Kauila No-Quoda Je Vime!”

William Sinclair felt the healing warmth course through his body, spreading from his chest and into his extremities. Revitalized, he was amazed at how quickly he’d recovered. This was powerful sorcery invoked for his benefit.

“Tracy?”

“Don’t just sit there gawking,” the teenager said with a smile. “You’ve got to stop the Descendant before he finishes his spell.”

“But how did you…?” William reached out and touched her cheek, sniffing at the air as he did so. “Sulfur,” he growled.

“I made a deal with your father, William. It was the only way.”

“Damn him,” the Nephilim spat. “Tracy, you don’t realize what you’ve done.”

“It’s not like I had much of a choice,” she said, looking away from him. “If your great-grandson completes this working my whole world will become a living hell. Now you can stop him.”

“I’m not sure that I can, young one.”

“Well, you’re the best shot I’ve got.” She stood up and peeked around the corner at the display of magick being performed within the eldritch sphere. “And I have faith in you, William Sinclair.”

“That, child, makes one of us.”

Want to make sense of what you just read? All you have to do is order a copy of Descendant: A Wolfe & Crowe Investigation — in trade paperback from Amazon, or as an Ebook available at Smashwords or from Amazon’s Kindle Store.

A New Review of Descendant

May-December Publications has posted a review of my novel Descendant. My favorite bit from it reads, “…Mister Freeman makes no attempt to dumb down his work.  He uses eloquent words and obviously knows his occult material.  There are times he makes your head spin with some of his references.” The reviewer also referred to it as “… an extremely intelligent paranormal thriller.”

Remember, you can pick up the old school version from Amazon, or, if you’re too cool for school and need your fiction fed to you electronically, well we can scratch that itch for you over at Smashwords or, if you prefer, the Kindle Store.