When Lisa Morton proposed we gather a group and release a series of eBooks, each themed, and each featuring some of my favorite authors and people, I jumped at the chance. To hell with my overfilling inbox and commitments How could I resist doing what I love most I could not. And here we are with this wonderful collection, named by Eric J. Guignard STRANGE TALES OF THE MACABRE For my theme, I immediately picked GOTHIC, as I am presently knee-deep reading and discussing Gothic fiction for a long-running book club at downtown Los Angeles's THE LAST BOOKSTORE. In Eric J. Guignard's, A Curse and a Kiss one does not get more Gothic than visiting the world of Beauty and the Beast, with an unusual take, as the story is seen from a different point of view than we've read before that of Belle In Kate Jones's, Mountain, family secrets and old curses play out against a Christmas background with a cast of characters that burn into your psyche like chains rattling outside your door on a cold, ra