This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

In its second edition, The Empty Lot Next Door sheds its "young adult" elements, opting instead for a deeper exploration of a real-life haunting over adolescent themes. The outcome is a more mature and compelling storyline, firmly rooted in the real-life events that inspired the book.-----In an Austin neighborhood, Ray (Arthur’s childhood name) and his family excitedly moved into a small house in the midst of a big, green lawn. Beside their house is a strange, vacant lot where a house once stood, and a huge hole in the back lies mysteriously.

Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory. Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.

When a local parish finds themselves without a priest, Father Woosley stepped onto the pulpit, ready to fight sin with his new congregation and bring the word that had saved him so many times. When he is visited by a divine power promising to help him purge the unearthly evil from the hearts of his congregation, Father Woosley believes his prayers have been answered. As darkness spreads malignant and ruthless through the church, and an insidious presence sinks its claws into his soul, he realizes that even the faithful can fall.

The Woods All Black is a story of passion, prejudice, and power—an Appalachian period piece that explores reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, the terrors of small-town religiosity, and the necessity of fighting tooth and claw to live as who you truly are.