{"product_id":"2940012846198","title":"Midnight Grinding","description":"Midnight Grinding\u003cbr\u003eby Ronald Kelly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's dark. Crickets chirp in the black of night, accompanied by the lonesome\u003cbr\u003ecall of a whippoorwill. On the front porch of a ramshackle house, pale\u003cbr\u003emoonlight reveals two forms in rocking chairs, facing one another. Just you\u003cbr\u003eand the storyteller.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou are uneasy at first, a little nervous, but for what reason? After all,\u003cbr\u003ethey are only tall tales and folklore passed down from generation to\u003cbr\u003egeneration. Just a bunch of ghost stories and strange yarns conjured up for\u003cbr\u003eyour entertainment. Or are they? Perhaps, in some dreadful way, they are\u003cbr\u003ebased more in fact, than in fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou sit there in silence for a long moment. You contemplate making an excuse\u003cbr\u003eand taking your leave. But it is too late. In hushed tones, the storyteller\u003cbr\u003ebegins. The crickets grow disturbingly quiet and the whippoorwill is\u003cbr\u003ereplaced by the far away howling of a dog. Or something vaguely and\u003cbr\u003esinisterly similar.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen the storytelling session begins. And the darkness about you grows even\u003cbr\u003edarker.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe children of an itinerant farm family are secretly terrorized by a\u003cbr\u003ederanged handyman with a fetish for stone-honed steel and a deadly question\u003cbr\u003eupon his whiskered lips.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Southern gentleman discovers that his demure and delicate wife suffers\u003cbr\u003efrom a horrible physical ailment that originates not from without, but\u003cbr\u003ewithin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn infamous and dangerous gator reigns fear and death upon the dark swamps\u003cbr\u003eof Black Bayou and, for one unfortunate Cajun, turns its underwater lair\u003cbr\u003einto a watery Hell!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo Atlanta homicide detectives discover that a recent rash of cold-blooded\u003cbr\u003emurders and the grisly trophies collected from the victims lead to a\u003cbr\u003ehorror born of cold winds and insanity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA popular rockabilly star shares the secret of his sudden rise to fame and\u003cbr\u003ethe awful price he has paid to attain success.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA prodigal son returns to his hometown to find that nothing has changed or\u003cbr\u003ehas it, due to some hidden and forgotten evil from centuries past?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn eager fan of horror films travels cross-country in search of his favorite\u003cbr\u003escream queen, only to find that some infatuations should be left unexplored.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd there are other tales, just as dark and disturbing. Tales that roll off\u003cbr\u003ethe storyteller's tongue like a smooth and subtle poison dragging you\u003cbr\u003edownward, further downward into the shadowy depths of a dark and disturbing\u003cbr\u003eimagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his first short story collection, Ronald Kelly spins an array of unsavory\u003cbr\u003etales that could only beat in the dark heart of Dixie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCome, have a seat on the ol' front porch and experience the blackness and\u003cbr\u003edepravity that lies, hidden but alive, amid the kudzu and magnolias south of\u003cbr\u003ethe Mason-Dixon Line.","brand":"Cemetery Dance Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47163373158640,"sku":"2940012846198","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012846198_p0.jpg?v=1763573486","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012846198","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}