“The Call of the Void offers a disturbing and unsettling worldview, a reality infused with creeping chaos and intricately laced with dark epiphanies that linger long after you close the covers.”
F. Paul Wilson
THE CALL OF THE VOID
They died heart to heart, chest to chest.
“Two unique literary voices have created a dark, disturbing tale.”
David Morrell
Detective Kovelant, haunted by the fiery death of two women, investigates why Chloe Bisset, mother and wife, swerved last-second into oncoming traffic. What drove her to this impulse?
L’appel du vide, he soon discovers, is both an explanation and a non-explanation. The phrase translates to “the call of the void,” which doesn’t surprise him. The French often have ways of expressing the unexplainable. Most never answer the call, but only briefly contemplate what could happen.
Kovelant tracks Chloe’s acts through her final days—a series of experiments in spontaneity that end with her crossing one final line on the asphalt to end two lives. Clues scribed with fridge magnets, etched into silver rings, scribbled on sticky notes, and painted on the smoke-stained walls of a derelict building, reveal a woman tormented by a growing need. Each revelation drives him closer to the grief that pins him to his own dark truth.
“Disturbing, dark, and shocking, this beautifully written novella asks questions with no easy answers, and it will echo with you long after the final page.”
Tim Lebbon
“The Call of the Void is like Of Mice and Men in that it is a packed short novel. It’s a meditation on Time and our endless loops of ghost memories, recollections, imaginings, and possibilities. It’s fictional, it’s philosophical, and it treats the ways of the Cosmos and Humankind and the soul you see in your mirror.”
Mort Castle
About Michael Bailey
Michael Bailey is a freelance writer, editor, book designer, and a resident of forever-burning California. He is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award (and 7-time nominee), Benjamin Franklin Award, over two dozen independent accolades, and a Shirley Jackson Award nominee.
Publications include the composite novels PALINDROME HANNAH and PHOENIX ROSE, two short story and poetry collections, SCALES AND PETALS and INKBLOTS AND BLOOD SPOTS, a limited two-novelette collection called OVERSIGHT and the standalone novelette OUR CHILDREN, OUR TEACHERS.
Edited anthologies include PELLUCID LUNACY, QUALIA NOUS, THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD, YOU HUMAN, ADAM’S LADDER, four volumes of CHIRAL MAD, and the forthcoming co-edited anthologies PRISMS, and MISCREATIONS: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors.
He recently finished a memoir called SEVEN MINUTES about surviving one of the most catastrophic wildfires in history (written in twenty-three days), as well as PSYCHOTROPIC DRAGON (a psychological thriller), THE IMPOSSIBLE WEIGHT OF LIFE (a fiction collection), and SEEN IN DISTANT STARS (a dystopian novel). He is currently working on a historical western called HANGTOWN.
When he is not writing, editing, or slowly dying inside, he works as a Developmental Editor for an undisclosed publisher. Find him online at nettirw.com, facebook.com/nettirw, or @nettirw
About Bleeding Edge Books
Bleeding Edge Books is a small publisher of horror and dark fiction of all permutations with a focus on anthologies and novellas. Our goal is to bring you meticulously crafted books that feature popular and established authors as well as new and emerging voices. We believe fiction should be a visceral experience. We seek to engage you, unsettle you, amaze you, break your heart, and piece it back together, leaving you forever changed.
Mar Garcia
Founder of TBM - Horror Experts
Horror Promoter.
mar@tbmmarketing.link
