Sicily, 1915: When his middle brother kills the son of the local Mafia don while defending their mother, Petru Donatello and his younger brothers, Juvanni and Angelu, are forced to flee their homeland. This takes them on a harrowing voyage in the bilges of a transatlantic ship teeming with Sicilian and Italian immigrants just like them, a multitude hoping for a better life in America. Along the way, they make both friends and enemies as the Donatello brothers struggle to prepare themselves for their new life in a world beyond their understanding.

Reminiscent of John Jakes' Bicentennial series, The New Americans by Tony and Ty Drago is a wonderfully moving saga. The genesis of the story is itself a tale: in his final weeks, Tony Drago tape-recorded what his son Ty thought were simple reminiscences. It was only in the years following Tony's death, after Ty became an established novelist, that he listened to the tapes and realized his father had left him, not a family history, but rather an emotional novel of immigration, rebirth, and growth. Milherst Publishing is honored to bring this story to the world.

"ST. DAMNED grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go, a chilling fright from beginning to end." – E.G. Rand, author of Child of Dark Water

“Creepy yet action-packed, Ty Drago’s hair-raising ghost story has a bit of Matheson’s Hell House in its DNA. With a predatory priest, coin-eyed specters, and blood-thirsty monsters both living and dead, St. Damned packs its pages with hauntings and horrors aplenty!” – Christopher Micklos, author of Tick Town

Five years ago, paranormal researcher Dr. Mia Lakatos was the sole survivor of an ill-conceived reality TV investigation of St. Damien’s Lutheran Church in Camden, New Jersey, a bloody encounter that destroyed her reputation and poisoned her life.

Now, out of the blue, the government has asked for her help. A vicious Columbian drug czar will be attending a key underworld summit across the street from the famous haunted church. The FBI is planning a stakeout inside St. Damien’s, and they need Mia along for her expertise. But nothing, absolutely nothing, will convince Mia to re-enter that hellish place, except maybe a cryptic decades-old message that might hold the key to cleansing “St. Damned” and finally freeing the scores of souls who are trapped there.

Suddenly, Mia Lakatos finds herself returning to the most dangerous haunted site on Earth to face down the deranged ghost of an infamous serial killer whose iron will rules over those innocent spirits in his sway. But the road to redemption is paved in blood—including, quite possibly, her own.

A daring escape. An unexpected alliance. The struggle to remain free. And secrets that divulge her shrouded truths… Imprisoned since age five by a deceitful warlock, Emma makes a daring escape and finds freedom with an unlikely friend. She quickly learns that freedom is neither a reward nor an end, but a daily struggle. Vulnerable and frightened, she meets Allie, who takes her in. When two seasoned witches are asked to help, Emma discovers she holds the key to her survival in her own hands. The hidden truths suppressed by Pete her entire life. Truths about her true name, her powers, and the parents she was ripped from. Emma’s friendship with Allie develops into something more, and she is forced to face her fears in a confrontation with the devious warlock, risking everything she has struggled to rise from. As the showdown with Pete looms, will Emma be able to use her power to save herself and her first love?

A daring escape. An unexpected alliance. The struggle to remain free. And secrets that divulge her shrouded truths… Imprisoned since age five by a deceitful warlock, Emma makes a daring escape and finds freedom with an unlikely friend. She quickly learns that freedom is neither a reward nor an end, but a daily struggle. Vulnerable and frightened, she meets Allie, who takes her in. When two seasoned witches are asked to help, Emma discovers she holds the key to her survival in her own hands. The hidden truths suppressed by Pete her entire life. Truths about her true name, her powers, and the parents she was ripped from. Emma’s friendship with Allie develops into something more, and she is forced to face her fears in a confrontation with the devious warlock, risking everything she has struggled to rise from. As the showdown with Pete looms, will Emma be able to use her power to save herself and her first love?

An excerpt from "Jackster" by Maryanne Chappell

From the Need Anthology

Edited by Ruth Anna Evans

My story, Jackster, started as an exercise in Gordon Linzner's Flash Fiction Workshop at the 2025 PhilCon. I'm grateful to Ruth Anna for including this heartfelt, experimental story in her Need Anthology. Thinking like Jackster and puzzling things out from his perspective were challenging, but very rewarding.

An excerpt from "A Chariot in the Hamlet of Steel" by Maryanne Chappel.

From the StokerCon 2026 Souvenir Anthology

Edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail

For my story, I incorporated the most tangible themes that a Pittsburgh StokerCon meant to me: A helpless little spider, a George Romero zombie flick in Evans City, PA, the confluence of events that brought them together, and the consequences that unfolded.

Tessa deGroot, a sculptor, falls in love at the first sight of Ardenwycke, a great stone house along the Hudson River in New York. Part of a divorce settlement from her former husband’s family, the house was built by an early deGroot settler more than two hundred years earlier, but still carries a reputation of being cursed. Tessa discovers this for herself on that first visit as she faints in one upstairs hallway.

Maximillian MacDougall, a local housing inspector, rescues Tessa that day, but more strange events happen almost immediately after she moves in. Together, Tessa and Max try to find the meaning behind the curious things that happen in the house, but it will surely take drastic measures as well as love to succeed.

Assistant D.A. Carolyn Hastings has an uncanny knack for putting away criminals. With one of the best prosecution records in recent history, her future as Manhattan’s next District Attorney looks certain. But her sixth sense for winning cases threatens to work against her when she starts seeing a string of murders through the eyes of the killer.

With suspects piling up as fast as bodies, and the motives of those closest to her questionable, Carolyn doesn’t know who to trust. When the FBI assigns Special Agent Steve Williams to the case, Carolyn discloses her deepest fear - that the man she loves may be the one responsible for the city’s latest crime spree.

The only thing Steve knows for sure is Carolyn has an inexplicable psychic connection with the killer, and all the victims have one thing in common… a striking resemblance to Carolyn Hastings.

And he knows it’s only a matter of time before this psychopath knocks on her door.

An Ancient Prophecy. A forbidden love. Now, there’s nowhere to run.

André's abilities have always marked him as special, but fulfilling an ancient prophecy is enough to have him ostracized into the cosmos. Love was his motivation for preventing his parent's execution, now in Earth's refuge, love is his undoing again.

The Commander's daughter is off limits, but this kind of love is destiny, forcing Katrina and her alien paramour to elope.

Word of André's survival reaches his home planet when his image is broadcast across the universe. This time, his very existence may well trigger the destruction of a planet, his haven, Earth.

A protector. A lost soul. A siren looking for salvation.

Kylee Paradox never expected to be a protector of humankind, but when hell’s portals open and let loose the creatures of the underworld, she can’t see any other way.

Armed with an ultimatum, Kylee has no choice but to embrace her new position as bounty hunter of the damned. Sending these monsters back to purgatory becomes her life’s mission.

The only glitches in an otherwise noble pursuit are those who hold her fate in their hands. They forbid her from using her deadly siren song to lure the beasts back to the pit.

If she harms even a single innocent soul in her quest, Kylee herself will become one of the hunted.