STORY SHOWCASE #26

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A FACE IN THE SHADOWS

by Timothy Adams

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A little taster…

One night in early November, she woke me in a fit of panic. I can still feel her pinching my shoulder and hear the trembling terror in her voice. “Wake up. Someone’s here.”

“What?” I bolted upright and listened. “Downstairs?”

“No. In here.”

My body froze, her words filling me with dread. I remained motionless as if the lack of movement made me invisible. My eyes scanned the moonlit bedroom, trying to locate the intruder.

After several moments, I finally whispered, “Elouise, I don’t see anyone.”

“There’s a face – a face in the shadows.” She slowly raised a finger towards a dark corner.

“There … between the wardrobe and the dresser.”

About the author

Timothy Adams, a fan and reviewer of literature and comics, has accumulated over twenty years of experience in the entertainment and book retail industry and has now begun crafting his own stories. His work has been featured in Garbology: The GarbAugust Anthology of Awesome Trash and his first novel, Baltimore City, a throwback hardboiled detective tale, is available on Amazon. When he is not actively writing or consumed with reading, Tim is gardening or creating reviews for his YouTube channel, Tim With Tomes & Tales.

We asked Tim …

K&R: What was the spark or idea that led you to write this story?

TA: “A Face in the Shadows” was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft short stories as well as other great spook stories that would be found in Weird Tales magazine. I wanted to create a story about guilt and madness while giving it a monster flare.

K&R: Do you have any other work do you have out there, for folks to dig into?

TA: I do have other work out there. Of course I had a story featured in CriminOlly presents Garbology: The GarbAugust Anthology of Awesome Trash edited by Troy Tradup called “Werewolves of the West” – a supernatural western. There is also my short story, “Haunting”, as well as my hard-boiled detective novel, Baltimore City – which was inspired by the classic gumshoe novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

K&R: What’s next for you as a writer?

TA: Currently, I am working on a sequel to Baltimore City, and I have a steampunk fantasy novel in the editing process–a very slow editing process. Still, I would like to write a few more short stories and hopefully release a collection in the future. 

K&R: What does “trashy fiction” mean to you, and what do you love about it?

TA: I equate trashy fiction with something over-the-top, something so outrageous I can’t help but enjoy it.

K&R: Hit us with your own favourite “trashy” fiction recommendations!

TA: I recently read a book re-released by Hard Case Crime that I thought was a perfectly trashy novel. It was Castle in the Air by Donald E. Westlake. A heist novel with humor and antics.

K&R: If you’ve read the rest of the stories in Trash Tales, what’s your favourite, and why?

TA: They’re all fun to read!

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