Brian Barr . . . teasers

The 3 H’s Trilogy: A mix of comedic bizzaro romance horror, cosmic horror, and occult dark fantasy, The 3 H’s Trilogy begins when a gardener discovers a disembodied head in her mother’s garden. What starts as an absurd love story turns into a gruesome inter-dimensional nightmare. Consists of The Head, The House, and The Hell.

The Head

The Head Excerpt

Elizabeth looked back at the house, the phone firmly in her mind. She needed to call 911. This was the authorities’ problem. Whoever placed this head there, whatever force possessed it with the power to speak, after death…

Elizabeth looked back at the house, the phone firmly in her mind. She needed to call 911. This was the authorities’ problem. Whoever placed this head there, whatever force possessed it with the power to speak, after death…

Elizabeth walked up to the head and picked it up in her pink gloves. She stared at it for a moment, before taking it into the house with her.

Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows: The first novel of Brian Barr’s Carolina Daemonic series released in 2015, Confederate Shadows is an occult urban horror fantasy with steampunk elements set in an alternative dystopian world where the Confederacy rules America. Uncompromising and raw, Confederate Shadows takes us into a world of grotesque monsters, dark magic, and chaos.

Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows

Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows Excerpt

The redhead looked up at the skies, coaxing Wei to look upwards as well. Far off dark bodies could be seen, flapping and soaring like wild birds, closer and closer. Behind them, far off into the distance, Wei could see what looked like a weird blue portal, opened with lightning bolts dancing within its womb.

“My sisters come,” the beautiful porcelain skinned woman continued. “Migrating Madonnas. You awoke us.”

Wei slowly stood up, shaking uncontrollably. She didn’t know what to say.

The woman gazed back and stared with a smile. “You will join us in our realm. This place reeks of mundane and disgusting men. It is no place for those like us.

“Wh…who are you then?” Wei asked, truly curious, but afraid to really know the answer.

“I am Celeste, one of the Lilin.”

Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows Excerpt

Descending from the heavens in the black pool of night, something came. Something more foreign, more of an “other,” an outsider, than any societal scapegoat could have dreamed of being in the eyes of a fearful oppressor. Something further removed from the normality of society, from the expected nature of life and existence in general. The creature was humanoid in shape, recognizable mostly in the fact that it bore a head and neck with extended fins, torso and limbs. The composition of this thing seemed flesh-like, if flesh were turned inside out, pinkish and vein-ridden, muscle spasming and pus fizzling with what looked like the result of viral diseases. Its eyes were round and popping out, the pupils dilated. Bizarre and uncanny, it seemed to glide with ease from the heights of the sky. It fell onto the back of the unsuspecting sailor, wrapping its legs around the gasping man’s torso. A strange black collar flashed with rainbow lights around the demonic thing’s neck. Its hands were outstretched with sharp, shiny nails, its jaws open as a long tongue licked the air with insatiable delight.

The woman watched the thing fall for probably three seconds, astonished by the sight, left thoughtless. Had the thing taken an extra second to descend, or even an extra millisecond, the strange drunk’s foot would have found its way to her gut. That cruel show would’ve kicked her pregnant stomach, risked the life or welfare of the living organism, or organisms, incubating inside her. For its timing, the unintelligible thing was a savior in some way, a knight in flesh tissue and demonic extensions of tongue and nail. A holy savage fiend, a living oxymoron of the highest degree. She couldn’t pinpoint what to call this angelic demon, feeling both awe and dread in one shattering moment.

She still screamed. Still screamed as the ravaging thing grabbed her assailant.

Empress: Co-created and co-written by Chuck Amadori and Brian Barr, Empress is a comic book series that centers around Zia, a famous Hollywood actress who goes missing in the early 20th century. She  returns to America as the embodiment of the chthonic goddess Hekate and ushers in a new age for the same world that oppressed her spirit and legacy.

Empress volume 2