Shades

Joseph Rubas began writing in 2002 after reading Stephen King's The Stand. His earliest efforts reflected his deep love of that novel; he tried again and again to write a rip-off, but finally gave up around 2006 and resigned himself to writing original fiction. His first short story was published in May 2010 on the now defunct Horror Bound Online website. His second story was published in September 2010 in a Pushcart Prize nominated literary magazine for new and beginning writers called The Storyteller. Since then, his work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. His first collection, the now out of print Pocketful of Fear, was released by a small publisher in 2012. His second collection, After Midnight, appeared in 2014. His short fiction has appeared in: Nameless Digest; The Horror Zine; Eschatology Journal; Thuglit; Manor House; All Due Respect, and others. He has self-published three longer works: The Rocking Dead: Seasons 1-3 (a parody of the AMC series The Walking Dead); The Rocking Dead: Season 4; The Shapeshifter; and Dracula 1912, the latter a novel.In addition to writing, he has also edited two anthologies: A Thorn of Death (2012) and The 3rd Spectral Book of Horror Stories (2016). He currently resides in Albany, New York.Stories in this collection include: Passing the Buck, Midnight, Aokigahara, Snowbound, Deja Vu, The Ghostly Hitchhiker, Just a Mask, Meeting Ray Bradbury, 5051 Bartley Square, The Witching Hour, Potter's Field, The Warlock, Confessional, The Thing in the Woods, The Lake House, Chomo, The Travelling Show of 2016, Evildoer, A Perfect Life, Fury, Paint, and Night of the Dog.