The Nightmare Cycle
by Lawrence Dagstine
Are you ready to become part of the cycle?
"...lives up to its name; each story possesses the qualities of a cursed session of dreaming, where one wakes up only to find they're trapped in another warped reality."
~ Eli Gregory, peer review
For paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited
This book is appropriate for teenagers.
Within these pages is one nightmarish scenario after another.
Horrifying situations that may go on forever, that don't seem to end.
There may be a relief, a revelation, a change that helps the characters
in each story... but that just might be only temporary.
​
A woman with a ghost tethered to her is navigating her world as best
she can with such a strange devotee.
​
A tiny werewolf baby is found in the streets and is taken
to a home for orphans who are just like her, to hopefully find parents
who understand what she truly is.
​
A man creates breathtaking paintings with acrylic on large canvases,
at the shocking expense of his adoring models.
​
Science can take us into the mind of a cosmonaut to find out
what he saw on the Moon... but should we really have and be using
this bio-technological knowledge?
​
Nightmares such as these can cause unrest, constant sleeplessness, jitters, and the feelings of unease and fear beneath the covers. Our own homes become alien to us; our bedrooms no longer sanctuaries of calm.
No, these nightmares will cycle on to where you'll remember them
long after you've closed the book and placed it on the shelf.
Perhaps you will also become part of the cycle.
About the Author
Lawrence Dagstine, a writer of twenty-five-plus years, was born and raised in New York City. He studied journalism, creative writing, and the science of publishing at New York University back in the 1990s. Throughout the 2000s, he appeared in a plethora of genre magazines (somewhere in the ballpark of 450 to 500 credits), and he cites science fiction, horror, and 80s pop culture as playing a major role in his career path.
Even today, on Halloween, he makes it an annual tradition to sit down and watch either Dawn of the Dead, Aliens, or Poltergeist with the family. But he also enjoys more leisurely activities like comic book collecting, drawing, and gaming, and is involved in communities dedicated to these hobbies. He has been published with outfits such as Damnation Books, Steampunk Tales, and Dark Owl Publishing.
​
You can find Lawrence on his website at www.lawrencedagstine.com, Twitter at www.twitter.com/ldagstine,
TikTok at www.tiktok.com/lawrence.dagstine,
and Amazon at
Praise for The Nightmare Cycle
"The Nightmare Cycle lives up to its name; each story possesses the qualities of a cursed session of dreaming, where one wakes up only to find they're trapped in another warped reality. The overall tone for the stories, though unrelated in plot, is extremely consistent.
A sense of underlying unease, or something sinister lurking beneath the surface of what should be simple, permeates every tale. Ghosts are treated like everyday objects, fairy tale princesses as though you'll meet them on your way down to get the mail, but all sharing the same dread of what's really going on. Reading
The Nightmare Cycle is being trapped in a movie where you know the killer's on the loose, but you can't hide any more than the protagonists can.
"At times, the dialogue feels scripted and deliberate, which takes away from the sense that characters are simply taking to one another. Really, the only flaw is the expositional dialogue, but the imagery and mood more than make up for it.
"The compassion Lawrence Dagstine manifests is gripping - it's very easy to feel for the romantically-challenged characters who ignore red flags for love, only to find they've been removed of all life entirely. There's no choice but the share in the dread that you may never be found in the wilderness, but that you might not be in the wilderness at all, but someplace horrible and
decidedly different.
"If I had to rate this on a five-star scale, I'd go with five stars. With such crisp and unsettling stories that all feel part of the same world of madness, it makes for an easy read and a wonderful addition to the genre of stories one should read before bed,
if they really don't want to sleep at all."
~Eli Gregory, peer review
This absolute beauty of a cover contains a wonderfully fun and creepy collection...
"Lawrence calls up ghostly companions, werewolf orphans, zombie children, a painter who truly captures the essence of his models, a horrifying foster care home, the dangers of digging into a brain with technology we probably shouldn't possess, and a few other horrors that work their way under your skin. A few of the stories are subtle, slipping into your subconscious and continuing to haunt you later on, while others leave you reeling with the punch of the final reveal at the end.
"There are real horrors masked in different settings, like the rampant corporate greed that currently exists, overruling everything else on another planet in the future. Imagine being plopped into a disgusting foster home, and your new foster brother is the most terrifying little psychopath ever. What would you do if you had a special talent you were tricked into using for nefarious purposes by those with more power?
This was a fun read, and is something I would even recommend to my teenage sister if she was in the mood or something spooky, so if you have any horror-loving teens in your life, consider this for them as well!"
~ Tasha Reynolds from The Sinister Scoop
"A varied collection of short stories that contain a little something for everyone. The highlights for me were 'Pet,' which I found to be weirdly disturbing, 'The Adopted,'
a twisted little tale, and 'The Show Must Go On,'
which was equal parts creepy and sweet. Of those three, I would say that the latter was the one that really
hit home for me."
~ John Watson, author of Karaoke Night