ERIC AVEDISSIAN
Martyr’s Vow
Accursed Son
THE DEPARTED HAVE THEIR SECRETS
Armand Tarkanian is trapped in the ultimate dead-end job: embalming decedents under his abusive uncle’s watchful eye. Every day he goes through the motions, making death look beautiful while his life is anything but.
A car accident leaves him indebted to Berj, a mysterious man with rune-carved gold teeth and a penchant for worshipping old gods. Blackmailed and desperate, Armand feels more trapped than he was under his uncle’s thumb. But the embalmer harbors his own dark secret, a bloodline curse that allows him to communicate with the dead.
When the spirits show him how they were murdered, Armand must choose between fealty to the sadistic and manipulative Berj, or joining the Legion of the Lamb, a monster-hunting biker gang with their own agenda. What began as a dangerous game between secret societies has led Armand on a frightening quest to save the only family he’s ever known and a chance to get closer to the rebellious misfits who saved him.
Heartfelt and evocative, Accursed Son is a story featuring generational clashes, found families, and the rewards of tempting fate.
Mr. Penny-Farthing
PENNY-FARTHING WILL TAKE YOU
FOR A RIDE
All Armand wants is to share his life with his girlfriend Vonnie. But money is tight, their relationship is fizzling, and not even a monster-hunting side gig is paying off.
When a mysterious drifter named Mr. Penny-Farthing blows into town on his antique high-wheeler, Armand thinks his troubles are over. Penny-Farthing offers Armand and Vonnie enough money to cover their expenses with one condition: they must find and return the soul of a serial killer who escaped Hell.
Completing Penny-Farthing’s contract won’t be easy when demons appear all over the city and bodies start piling up. Overwhelmed and pushed to the brink, Armand realizes his greatest fear isn’t demons or shadowy murderers: it’s losing Vonnie forever. Can Armand stop a killer and keep the woman he loves, or will Hell take everything from him?
Nail-biting and visceral, Mr. Penny-Farthing is a high-octane horror story about escaping your comfort zone while fighting for love.
Blood Family
MEET THE FAMILY
A bloodline curse haunts monster hunter Armand Tarkanian, granting him the ability to summon the dead. But the more spirits he channels, the more supernatural energy threatens to tear him apart.
An unexpected invitation from distant relatives gives him a chance to learn more about his curse. What Armand finds in their moldering mansion is an odd assortment of Armenian traditions, dark secrets, and personal grudges.
Besides a history of genocide and tragedy plaguing his kindred, things aren’t what they seem: paintings shift and change, bones hang from trees, and the family’s elusive patriarch is a dakhanavar – a vampire from Armenian folklore.
When his undead host hungers for vengeance, Armand finds himself trapped between worlds.
He must choose: either take the Martyr’s Vow and pledge to sacrifice himself, or succumb to the dark impulses that claimed his ancestors.
Blood Family is a harrowing tale of generational trauma, folk magic, and ripping free from the past.
Midnight at Bat Hollow
Reece Rokowski is a dedicated police officer and stickler for law and order, but lately, his life has been anything but orderly. His wife split, his gambling debts spiraled, and his fellow officers ostracized him.
Drowning his sorrows at a local watering hole, Reece meets Queenie, a woman too good to be true. He could tell her anything, perhaps too much. On his way home, Reece stumbles upon a John Doe sucked dry of blood and becomes the prime suspect.
As Reece investigates on his own to clear his name, he encounters bikers from the Legion of the Lamb, a clandestine group of monster hunters looking into the same case. Reece teams up with the Legion and uncovers the startling truth about Modesto's vampires. When the bloodsuckers capture Queenie, it's up to Reece and the Legion to save her before the Regens Noctis - the true ruler of the night - plunges the city into an orgy of blood.
the ocean hugs hard
Surfside City, New Jersey. 1966.
Cub reporter Harman Bass is cutting his teeth in the fast world of local journalism and getting out-scooped by the competition. Facetious, cocky, and always quoting Nietzsche, Harman isn't making any friends both in and out of the newsroom.
All that changes when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead on the beach, handing Harman the juiciest news story of the year. But she isn't any old beauty pageant queen; she's his high school girlfriend. Harman's dogged reporting into the young woman's death reveals pushback from the authorities and pulls the newshound into the resort's darkest corners.
After one of his sources is murdered, the routine story becomes dangerous and personal. Something watches Harman from the shadows, something ancient and hungry, worshipped by powerful men who kill to keep their secrets. Harman's job and life are soon threatened, and the once brash reporter must battle his boss, rival journalists, and his own sanity before filing what could be his last story.
Eric Avedissian is a speculative fiction author. His published work includes the novels Accursed Son, Mr. Penny-Farthing, Midnight at Bat Hollow, The Ocean Hugs Hard, and the role-playing game Ravaged Earth. His short stories appear in various anthologies, including Across the Universe, Great Wars, and Rituals & Grimoires. Avedissian received a 2024 Fellowship in Prose from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and a ridiculous number of books. Find him online at www.ericavedissian.com if you dare.