Tragedies beset Leslie, a timid, bullied respiratory therapist - her mother's suicide, a ruined career, her mistake which costs a patient's life, and numerous bloody killings near the hospital where she works. Alex, her only friend, conceals a secret - he's a 100-year-old vampire.Seeking escape, Leslie stumbles into Adria, an alternate universe ruled by fire, vampires, and the underworld god Hades. Alex finds her near death after a brutal beating; he offers her immortality. Immortality gifts Leslie with love and longed-for healing abilities, but she becomes a target for Hades' wrath. Hades plots the destruction of all vampires; flesh-eating bats serve as his spies. Leslie confronts Hades, begging him to spare her life and Alex's…and risks frying in a towering inferno. When I was in high school back in the 1970s, I weaned on Dracula and Dark Shadows, and have always enjoyed a good horror or science fiction flick. I did not begin writing until 1990, when a college professor encouraged me to try writing to process my grief over my mother's death. A Stephen King fan, I began with horror fiction, and work through my grief I did, for many of my protagonists were grieving over deceased parents. My horror and science fiction short stories have appeared in The Vampire's Crypt, Alien Worlds, Detective Mystery Stories, The Ultimate Unknown, and other small press magazines. Night to Dawn published some of my tales before the former editor retired. I've been editing the magazine for the last five years.My first novel, Twilight Healer, has gone through three printings. Dark side of the Moon is now available in e-book format through www.aspenmountainpress.com. After that, I collaborated with Tom Johnson on a short story collection, Blood Moons and Nightscapes. Tom and I have collaborated on another called Alien Worlds I. Hopefully it will be coming out on Amazon soon.I've worked full time as a respiratory therapist over twenty-five years. In Dark Side and my other tales, I bring my medical background to the printed page, blending it with supernatural horror. Happily, the hospital where I've worked treats patients much better than the ones featured in my stories. That goes for most of the nursing homes too. Sad to say, some of the abuses described have happened, although I've taken artistic license to conceal identities.
