About Curses: Chronicles of Darkness
There are all types of curses.Cursed places, cursed items, cursed people, cursed families.
Curses
that last throughout time. Curses which can't be broken. Curses which
are brought upon ourselves. Curses that will kill you and those that
will only make you wish you were dead.
Eleven
tantalizing tales of curses and the cursed. Includes stories by Kaye
Lynne Booth, Molly Ertel, C.R. Johansson, Robert White, Joseph Carrabis,
Paul Kane, Danaeka Scrimshaw, Abe Margel, and Denise Aparo.
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Introduction
Welcome,
this autumn we have two blog tours. The first is Curses: Chronicles of
Darkness anthology of horror stories. Undawnted's author interview for
the narrative, Robert White, Longspeth’s Curse.
Please welcome her to Undawnted with our warm and graciously supernatural hospitality.
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Interview with Robert White
If you ever had the chance to use a Curse in real life, would you? One-hundred percent yes. (I provide details of the circumstance below as evidence of a warranted curse.)
In general, I take Marcus Aurelius’ advice not to pay attention to what other people think. In these times, where every fool with a smart phone believes in his or her self-importance, it is difficult and so I find that he bears re-reading. This passage is from his Meditations, Book XI, the translation is, I think, Victorian era and a little archaic: “ . . . when you are highly indignant or actually suffering, that man's life is but a moment, and in a little we are one and all laid low in death.” This too: “how much more grievous are what fits of anger and the consequent sorrows bring than the actual things are which produce in us those angry fits and sorrows.”
Failure to live right, morally speaking, as he says in so many sections makes one “a brigand and a shifty character.” I admit it: I am weak. That woman I describe below needs a curse attached to her.
What swear word is your go-to Curse? “Fuck you!” I used it just today on some nitwit in this backasswards town I call home. I had dropped off my wife’s car at the gas station and was walking the mile home. At one of the busier intersections, I stopped at the crosswalk, waiting. The light just changed to green, giving the cars in the left turning lane the right to go. I watched the car stop. I assumed the driver was being courteous because I obviously had the right of way as a pedestrian. I waved my thanks to the driver. As soon as I reached the opposite side of the street, I saw the male passenger grinning. Then I heard the driver, a woman, yell: “I’ve got the right of way, asshole!” Ergo, my go-to curse. She yelled the same back to me in a shrill voice as she was turning the corner, only proving what I’d already suspected: she was a lowlife piece of trash (and ignorant of traffic laws to boot).
Now, if I could put a curse on her, I would without hesitation.
Anything else that you would like to add about yourself, your story, or books?
My bad mood resulting from that little contretemps at the streetlight this morning notwithstanding, I did have some good news about a pair of unpublished works yesterday I’d despaired of ever seeing print. I wrote Easy Money, a first-person crime novella, and a collection of seven private-eye stories featuring my first series detective Thomas Haftmann six or seven years ago. The publisher who had done the first four Haftmann books sold its “library” to another indie press in New York. I sent emails asking what the status of those books was for years and gave up. Then the email from the publisher arrived—with the book cover and the formatted text. I could not have been more pleased. That, by the way, was like having a curse lifted from my shoulders.
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About Robert White
Robb White lives in Northeastern Ohio. He is a Derringer- nominated author of genre fiction and three series detectives: Thomas Haftmann, Raimo Jarvi, and Jade Hui. Betray Me Not was selected for distinction by the Independent Fiction Alliance in 2022. His 2024 publications include a collection of noir tales: Fade to Black: Noir Stories of Grifters, Drifters, and Unlovable Losers. A new thriller is Jersey Girl from Close to the Bone Publishing, U.K.
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*Giveaway*
This
tour, we’re giving away digital copies of Curses: to 5 lucky winners. Follow the tour and comment at each
stop, so we’ll know you were there. You’ll be entered for another chance
in the giveaway at each stop. Winners are chosen through a random
drawing by WordCrafter Press. We’ll be watching for your name.
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Writers of the stories in this dark fiction anthology deserve your support!
Make a purchase and keep creativity alive during this Halloween season.
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Tour Schedule
Day 1
Stop 1 – Writing to be Read – About the Curses Anthology & Meet Denise Aparo
Stop 2 –
Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Denise Aparo
Day 2Stop 1 –
Robbie’s Inspiration – Kaye Lynne Booth & Joseph Carrabis with Readings of “It’s a Man’s World” & “Grafton’s Ghost-Child”
Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Joseph CarrabisDay 3 Stop 1 –
Poetry by Mich – Meet Abe Margel & Paul Kane with a guest post about the inspiration of his story “The Weeping Man”
Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Paul KaneDay 4 Stop 1 –
Roberta Writes – Meet C.R. Johansson & Robert White with a guest post about the inspiration for “The Longspeth Curse”
Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan interviews Robert WhiteDay 5
Stop 1 –
Writing to be Read – Meet Kaye Lynne Booth, Danaeka Scrimshaw & Molly Ertel with Inspiration Video about “Clover’s Mirror Box”
Stop 2 –
Undawnted – DL Mullan interviews Danaeka Scrimshaw
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Autumn 2025:
What happens when a story doesn't have a happy ending?
