Dunnstown is in the midst of a strange season: choking “paper mill days” and the discovery of weirdly altered, elongated skeletons buried within Dunnstown’s sprawling Municipal Park. Homicide detective Raphaella Tosto--a three-year veteran of the DPD--and her partner, Detective Mike Guidry, are on the trail of the murderer responsible for these crimes, an investigation that will draw them both deep within the pall of uncanny corruption that inundates Dunnstown and its unfortunate residents. Publisher's note: This novella is also available in Jon Padgett's collection, THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM.

The Infusorium

Literature & Fiction

Padgett, Jon

Genre Fiction

Dynatox Ministries

With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Schulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. Padgett’s work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both. A bullied child who seeks vengeance within a bed’s hollow box spring; a lucid dreamer haunted by an impossible house; a dummy that reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps; a stuttering librarian who holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets; a commuter whose worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign; an aspiring ventriloquist who spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And the presence that speaks through them all.

The Secret of Ventriloquism

United States

Dunhams Manor Press

From the back cover: Welcome to Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh, an anthology celebrating the uncanny realm of the living inanimate. Featuring tales of dolls, mannequins, statues, and other varieties of humanoid horror, Mannequin explores the intersection between artificiality and life through a stunning variety of writers both established and new. This highly-anticipated debut anthology from Silent Motorist Media is certain to leave readers of horror and weird fiction more than satisfied. Ramsey Campbell, Michael Wehunt, Christine Morgan, Richard Gavin, Kristine Ong Muslim, Nicholas Day, Austin James, William Tea, Duane Pesice, S. L. Edwards, Matthew M. Bartlett, S. E. Casey, Justin A. Burnett, Daulton Dickey, C. P. Dunphey, Jon Padgett, Introduction by Christopher Slatsky.

Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh

Gavin, Richard

Wehunt, Michael

Campbell, Ramsey

Independently published

A dynamic collection of provocative stories forming a tribute to the work and life of William S. Burroughs. Foreword by novelist Graham Masterton Stories are: PASO ROBLES - BY JOHN PALISANO Inside there's passage to a darker, deeper reality, if you rip off your eyelids to see it. WHAT DO YOU MEAN / WHERE ARE YOU NOW BY EMILE-LOUIS TOMAS JOUVET The boy meant everything, both to the Exterminator and the Insects alike. PRINCE OF MARS - BY SAM RICHARD On the Red Planet, Bill Lee must fight for survival and the hand of the Prince of Mars. AN INSIDER'S SKETCH OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY BY BOSLEY GRAVEL The informed traveller’s guide to the Rio Grande Valley where nothing is true and everything is permitted THE ROUTINE OF A SKINNY JUNKIE- BY ANTHONY SERVANTE A day in the life of a Skinny Junkie: his hallucinatory thoughts and lucid insights CHORUS - BY TRAVIS J. GATES A man, sick with life, contemplates the past and future while his surroundings look on. DROUGHT IN POP UP - BY JØNATHAN LYONS Xanthous is inspired by a patient the author witnessed as a janitor in a hospital, yellow and catheterized. THE TIMER - BY DANIELE SANTAGIULIANA A small rural town, from thousands of years practise a bloody ritual to gain something rare... BURGER EMPIRE - BY TOM LUCAS A walk-through for a seemingly innocent video game reveals a dark truth that lives among us. ORGAN VOID - BY JON PADGETT A commuter's worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign. THE KINGDOM OF GOD - BY KARINA SIMS You may try your very best. But man is flawed and his fate, sealed. THE DUST OF TEN LONG DEAD STARS BY DEAN M. DRINKEL How can one night a year ago still affect these people? It does and with disastrous results.

The Junk Merchants

Lyons, Jonathan

Lucas, Tom

Drinkel, Dean M.

Gates, Travis J.

Servante, Anthony

Santagiuliana, Daniele

Sims, Karina

Literary

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

“The editor’s claim that the first season of True Detective was a big inspiration for this anthology is evident: Ashes and Entropy sports a finely balanced mixture of grit, crime and blood along with the irrational, occult and weird.”–Rue MorgueStand on the precipice and prepare to dive down through the event horizon into the bleak and mind-shattering void of both the cosmos and of humanity.Nightscape Press is proud to present ASHES AND ENTROPY edited by Robert S. Wilson, an anthology of cosmic horror and noir/neo-noir. ASHES AND ENTROPY is beautifully illustrated by Luke Spooner and includes brand new stories by Laird Barron, Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, Kristi DeMeester, Jon Padgett, Nadia Bulkin, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Lucy A. Snyder, Tim Waggoner, Jessica McHugh, Paul Michael Anderson, Max Booth III, Lynne Jamneck, Greg Sisco, Lisa Mannetti, Nate Southard, Erinn L. Kemper, Matthew M. Bartlett, Autumn Christian, and more.

Ashes and Entropy

Bartlett, Matthew M.

Langan,John

Barron, Laird

Bulkin, Nadia

Snyder, Lucy A.

Walters, Damien Angelica

DeMeester, Kristi

Nightscape Press, LLP

James, Austin

Day, Nicholas

Burnett, Justin A.

Muslim, Kristine Ong

Tea, William

Casey, S. E.

Silent Motorist Media

The Secret of Ventriloquism: Expanded Edition

Jon Padgett Productions

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Padgett, Jon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Padgett, Jon