CHARLES JUSTUS GARARD

      •   THE-ALTERNATE-WORLD-OF-CJG. Consider yourselves welcome. ___________________________________ Deadly Journeys : five dark, paranormal horror tales, three time-travel journeys, and the calling card of aliens called crop circles  -- this is not the web site for wimps. By the way, it also includes some mainstream novels that are semi-exposes. Brace yourself and keep that e-book reader handy !   These e-book novels are so far available on Draft2Digital sites, Amazon KDP, and Smashwords sites. Check those three publisher/distributors for further information as they are continually adding new e-book sites where customers can view and purchase collections for the discriminating reader. Also, be sure to visit the many Facebook sites for all genres where the imaginations of my hard-working author colleagues are on display. Tell 'em I sent you.

            Dr. Harper Paget, mythologist, descended from an ancestor who was falsely accused of being a witch and burned at the stake, continues the struggle of his ancestors against the dimension traveling, shape-shifting entities who can take on the images of creatures in our world (lamiae in ancient Greece and kuntilanak in modern Indonesia). More insidious than ghosts, they can haunt apartment buildings, campus hotels, movie theatre buildings, and even the clinic where Harper is having stitches put onto his face. The characters we see here, exploring a dark and mysterious place, discover that not everyone is who they appear to be.  Friends and loved ones can be taken over or killed, and nowhere are they safe. That is the premise for the paranormal realm as explored in the novels I have posted on Amazon-Kindle as e-books, what my brother Sam has titled the DARK JOURNEYS SERIES.   The first novel, which takes place in Atlanta, is DARK NEIGHBORHOODS, is where these shape-shifting creatures have arrived to stop Harper with his research about them and to take over a world that humans have not taken care of. The second novel moves to China where Harper, teaching at a Chinese university linked to his own university in McAbee, Illinois, finds himself  facing doppelgangers of people that he knows -- including another Chinese teacher who becomes his love interest. Harper not only requires face surgery after one attack in a crowded dining hall but becomes crippled by another attack which requires his using a cane for the rest of the series. When he moves to another university in NE China, he moves into a campus hotel that turns out to be haunted by these seemingly indestructible, shape-shifting creatures. This hotel definitely has DARK CORRIDORS.   The third novel:  As it is, Harper is not finished once he is back in China. He returns in the fourth novel, DARK TWILIGHT, where he and his Canadian friend (who discovers an earthly creature in the Philippines) brace themselves for more attacks and further deaths. Anyone could be a deadly kuntilanak: one of the girls in the student dorm across from his building, his girl friend who is from Indonesia, or Chinese ladies from his past.    DARK TWILIGHT is now available.  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/912814 Book ID: 398518    SHADOWS AND REALMS                                                                  Newly copyrighted and available   Scribd, Tolino, Kobo, Barnes&Noble (Nook), Baker&Taylor, Hoopla, OverDrive, Bibliotheca, Vivlio   ______________________ I first used the term "horror" to describe the DARK JOURNEYS SERIES, but I learned that, even though a large fan base reportedly exists for horror, others are turned off by -- or frightened of --  the genre, maybe because of gory films showing up at the cinema these days. In China, many of my students confused the word "horror" with "horrible," and often wrote the latter when they meant the former. When I thought about it, I realized that horror was really a limiting term for the three works. So I now prefer "paranormal." We'll see what happens. The DARK JOURNEYS SERIES was given that name by my brother Sam, who is also responsible for book covers two and three -- the sepia-tone images and the lettering. I took the photo for the first book cover and the lettering was done by Aaron Gardner and the late Don Blair.   The photo and design for the novels OF TIME AND THE DREAMER, FROM HERE TO ATLANTIS, CIRCLES AND REALMS, and ISLANDS IN TIME are my own. This is likewise true for the non-horror/non-sci-fi novels. FORBIDDEN VOICES, and FOREIGNERS AND EMPERORS. SMS: THE SCAMMERS and LOVE, SEX, AND PANDEMICS are manufactured from photos that were sent. .     .
        Let's Go

      • The reviews start here . . . Some journeys you don't want to take.

        REVIEW NUMBER 1     BREATHLESS SUSPENSE . . .  Evil creatures, spellbinding history, chills, and quirky intriguing characters. REVIEW By WJT   (Wesley J. Thomas) Format: Kindle Edition of #DARK NEIGHBORHOODS A truly spectacular novel. It combines history, horror, intrigue and superb writing. It is a very well written and intricate story, so be alert and pay attention. But that won’t be a problem as Charles’ writing is utterly addictive. I personally read this novel in a day, in two sittings. I was totally spellbound. The plot is as follows. We have a character named Dr. Harper Paget, who is a mythologist and paranormal researcher. He is residing in Atlanta. He has contacts within a prestigious university in McAbee, IL. including Floyd and Emma Hardin. Not forgetting a scholarship student Lina Wibosono from Indonesia. Harper's wife, Pauline, is tragically murdered in San Diego. Then, when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, his pen-pal lover, Mira, is murdered in China. But Mira’s murder is anything but normal. She was attacked and killed by creatures that can appear to be the lamiae from ancient Greece but who are able to re-appear in different times throughout history by traveling between dimensions. The lamiae have found their way to the U.S. to destroy Harper just as the lamiae battled against his ancestors. He must battle these creatures not only with the help of his friends but also with the aid of a psychic rune reader and an upstairs neighbor. This is a multidimensional paranormal novel where the living meets the dead and where no one is safe. Just after reading the plot I am sure you are now dying to read this epic novel. But the book goes so much further and boasts multiple appeals. It won’t simply satisfy horror lovers but will be adored by bookworms and avid readers alike. I was amazed. The creatures that Dr. Harper battles are terrifying, yet undeniably interesting. Their form and abilities and compelling history with the Doctor. I feel as though this novel was a cross between a Dan Brown book, a thrilling historical smart movie that would star Nicolas Cage or Tom Hanks, and a unique independent horror flick. The horror element in this goes much further than jumps and jerks or blood and gore. It gives you ongoing chills that will plague your subconscious. The darkness within this novel will haunt your dreams and waking thoughts. Props have to go to the author as this is a spectacular read. Evil creatures, spellbinding history, breathless suspense, chills, and quirky intriguing characters. And it doesn’t end here. You’ll be glad to know it is just the beginning in a franchise! _________________________________________________ DARK NEIGHBORHOODS, DARK CORRIDORS, and DARK JOURNEYS are available on https://www.draft2digital.com/book/92570 www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard www.amazon.com/Charles-Justus-Garard/e/B00B6S8TU ______________________________________________ DARK TWILIGHT -- see https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/912814 https://www.books2read.com/u/bzPExz     #################################################################################### REVIEW NUMBER 2   Review of Charles Justus Garard's "The Dark Journeys Trilogy" by Andrea Baskin, author of DARKNESS AND REVENGE: THE PUPPETMASTER'S GAME.   Are you brave enough to follow Dr. Harper Paget around the world? You have already followed numerous characters on their journeys? What is the difference here?   I will tell you. This time, you can’t trust your eyes or your feeling. You don’t know where you are going, and from where you started. On a journey to find out the truth about legendary creatures from other dimensions and times, Harper gets to fight not only them, but himself too. Facing the past to understand the present. Losing friends and lovers. Investigating and trying to understand, to find the answer to the main question: “Why him?”     If you hide in the darkness long enough, it will get inside you. A simple, childish play can start an endless circle of things you can’t imagine. Chaos seems everywhere. The trilogy completes the picture, setting the pieces together like a puzzle. Breathtaking and intriguing, it doesn’t leave you time to recover from the unbelievable twists through the whole story. Enjoy the darkness, and don’t let the lady in the white gown get you!!! ANDREA BASKIN   available on https://www.draft2digital.com/book/92570 www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard www.amazon.com/Charles-Justus-Garard/e/B00B6S8TUS/   Get ready for horror, suspense, and even a psychological mystery. In the trilogy, we have creatures from another dimension who are almost impossible to destroy because they have been hidden on our planet for eons.

      • Dream worlds, the lost continent, and lovely ladies.

            The fourth novel is about another type of journey. . . one that takes you to someplace very familiar and yet . . . very far away. It is a time-travel novel which sends our hero, Tyler Grant, reeling back to his past fourteen years ago. This is OF TIME AND THE DREAMER, a novel told from a male and a female third-person point of view (except for some notes and memoirs made by Estra Gudrun).  With the help of a dream researcher and experimenter, Tyler volunteers to be sent through his own dream corridor to his own past. The first two journeys are successful, but the third is brought about by a car collision where someone apparently tries to kill him. His body is in a coma in an Atlanta hospital and his mind is floating free, connecting finally with his life as a graduate student at a southern Illinois university. The interesting thing is . . . he knows what is going to happen. . . he knows what everyone is going to say. What he does not realize is that he will soon not be alone in his own past. Others will join him from his own world in the present. Be prepared for the journey of your life.    This novel unfolds inside your eyelids . . . in your psyche. We all have pasts . . . some less pleasant that others. Would you want to be trapped in your past and forced to re-live it . . . in a parallel dimension?    The fifth journey is a different kind of adventure -- the discovery of an ancient village inside the earth that may be a remnant of the original destroyed civilization of Atlantis. What begins as a search for a missing British explorer turns out not only to be a violent struggle between members of two search parties but mainly the discovery of an extraterrestrial device that can act as a time machine. Sloan Abbott connects with this device and travels back to the original Atlantis, only to realize that he and others in the search party have connections there. He sees the actual lost civilization and as well as ancient versions of two of his colleague who are occupying ancient versions of themselves. In fact, he also has an antediluvian counterpart whose body he is inhabiting. The question is . . . can any of them survive the impending destruction of Atlantis? This e-book novel is titled FROM HERE TO ATLANTIS.    In ISLANDS IN TIME . . .   Cale Allison jumps two years at first with his young girlfriend Dina; he and Dina then become separated in a world that has been flooded and nearly destroyed until he and a friend, Warren, rescue her from scavengers and rapists. They are taken by Dr. Gillian Nash (who is rescued along with Dina) to a mysterious island where an elite populace considers itself to be superior to humans from the mainland. Gabriella, a woman he has known throughout much of his life, might or might not have joined the authoritarians led by Dr. Brannon. Dina's father, on the other hand, is now part of the island authoritarian elite. However, it becomes apparent that it is the Custodians who are actually controlling humans, and Gabriella is descended from one of them.   In this story, you will learn never to look at text messages in the same way, particularly if you discover than they come from the future.             .   All of the photos below were taken in China and in the Philippines. The first photo was taken in Anshan, the second in Liaocheng City. The photo of Holden, my ginger tabby cat, was also taken in Anshan. Actually, a cat does appear as a character in the third novel in the series, DARK JOURNEYS. The three lovely ladies have counterparts in CIRCLES AND REALMS, ISLANDS IN TIME, and THE DARK JOURNEYS SERIES which now includes a fourth novel entitled DARK TWILIGHT. One of the ladies also has a counterpart in the newest novel in the series: SHADOWS AND REALMS. All together five e-book novels make up the DARK JOURNEYS SERIES.    

      • Welcome to my web page. The first three novels posted on Amazon-Kindle are PARANORMAL tales -- known as the DARK JOURNEYS SERIES. Added to this is now a fourth horror novel dealing with the same deadly creatures entitled DARK TWILIGHT and the fifth novel SHADOWS AND REALMS. Some readers may call them horror e-book novels. Remember that there are some journeys that you don't want to take ... alone.   ~~~     A fifth DARK JOURNEYS e-book novel finds Harper Paget a patient in a mental health institution because of experiences with creatures in Asia. His brother Sean tries to come to his aid while taking care of his financial problems. Also joining them is a cousin named Brandon Geller. But are any of them safe here in America from what might be the Lamia or Aswang, a vampire creature from the Philippines? Whichever it is, he has to keep in mind the SHADOWS AND REALMS. ~~~~ A completely different kind of journey is one involving a trip through Tyler Grant's dream corridor in a journey to his own past. This journey involves time travel to a replica of his past in a parallel dimension, and it is called OF TIME AND THE DREAMER.      Cale from CIRCLES AND REALMS returns in ISLANDS IN TIME. At first, he time-jumps to an island he does not recognize. But where exactly is this island? And, for that matter, when? What do you do, Cale, when you again discover that you are not in your own dimension? ~~~ FROM HERE TO ATLANTIS is another type of time travel that involves an extraterrestrial time probe inadvertently discovered inside the earth in what appears to be remnants of the lost civilization of Atlantis. This novel involves an adventure that takes us around, through, and under many twists and turns before the explorers even realize that close contact with the probe can take three of them back to the actual original Atlantis. The question is . . . is any escape possible before the antediluvian empire is destroyed?               

        If you do not have a Kindle in order to download e-books, you can still read them in your own browsers by installing the free Kindle Cloud Reader (see http://amzn.to/ltmrpK8).  OF TIME AND THE DREAMER, the time-travel mystery, has been published by Smashwords as well as Kindle. Soon this different type of journey will be available in many different venues as submitted by Smashwords. I have not yet decided on the venues for FROM HERE TO ATLANTIS. It may include those I have used before . . . and may even include others.     


      • NOW AVAILABLE AS A NEW SERIES ON KINDLE VELLA. The pricing is in your hands. Try this method of getting a story series on all of your handheld tech devices.

          Judd walked up the hill from where he had parked his car, not far from the apartment building in which he had once lived. Cecile stood waiting on the corner next to the marked walkway in the street that took pedestrians across to the plaza area.  It was a sunny autumn day in Star-Cross Corners, and she wore eyewear that more resembled goggles than sunglasses. She grinned and waved at him. Judd returned both her wave and her expression. Her ebony skin and features were as lovely as he remembered. She was tall with protuberances that seemed almost exaggerated, a characteristic he recalled from many of his female students at Middlebrook College. Skin-tight leggings encased her smooth but meaty thighs and muscular ankles. Her black hair fell straight down to her neck and curved around her ears until it reached the sharply trimmed ends at her cheeks. Judd gestured toward the open area of the Brewhouse Café on the corner, and she directed her attention and her gait in that direction. “How are you, Professor Hardin?” “Fine, Cecile. How are you?” “You look like you haven’t aged at all, Sir.” Judd’s cheeks grew hot. “Wow. That’s very flattering.” They were seated in the sunlight at a Brewhouse Café table before they pursued a conversation. “Who is this lady you want me to help? A professional friend, you said.” “My therapist. Miranda Godwin.” “Oh. She’s….” Cecile looked stunned. “A shrink?” Judd laughed. This was not the first time he had been asked such a question in surprise. Cecile ordered a beer in a tall glass, and Judd did likewise. It was his first beer since he had been in Manila. “So, what is her problem?” Judd spelled out the details, omitting nothing that Miranda had told him. “Whoa.” “I know.” “Candle wax, I don’t know. Flies and rotten food, I do. The kitchen knife, I think I do also.” “Okay.” Judd took a swig from his beer. “And?” “Not good. Death somewhere.” “Her death?” Cecile shook her head. “Not necessarily. But death of someone nearby.” “Maybe a threat?” “Yes.” She looked at a space next to his head as if examining his aura. “Is it a threat to me?” “Maybe. I hate to say that. Did someone you know die recently?” “Other than Howard Payne? But his death was strange enough.” “Car accident?” “Yes. But they found him with a gash on the neck.” “Like a vampyre bite?” She offered, with a tiny hint of mirth in her voice. If you only knew, young lady, he thought.                   www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard    

      • The Interview

        DARK NEIGHBORHOODS Alex Jacobs interviews Dr. Harper Paget   Alex: "By the way, Harper, I understand that you lost some loved ones before you ever came to Atlanta." Harper: "Yes. I lost my wife out in San Diego, California, and, later, an Indonesian lady friend in China. Both were killed by these entities to get at me." Alex: "Where did this all start?" Harper: "Centuries ago. Since ancient Greece with the lamiae and the kuntilanak in Indonesia. They came to Atlanta, to the DARK NEIGHBORHOODS, because we may have brought them here." Alex: "Where did it start for you?" Harper: "In a little farmhouse back in Illinois. Some of my friends think we brought them to this dimension through the Ouija board. I think they have been wanting to come to this time and place because they have been enemies of my ancestors for centuries. They know about my publications that try to warn the world about them." Alex: "And they want to stop you, of course." Harper: "Yes. And if they succeed, we will have many DARK NEIGHBORHOODS."

        VIRGOSTONE

      • The means to reach us

          I post my e-books through such services as Amazon-Kindle, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital.  They post to many, including but not limited to, sites such as Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Nook (Barnes & Noble), Baker & Taylor, Apple, and 24 Symbols.       My brother Sam and I started our own site FACE-TO-FACE: MOVIES AND MEMORIES set up for casual conversations and non-challenging opinions about films and literature.  Sam has extensive background in the theatre business, including managing and owning his own theatre.  I am a PhD in film and literary criticism.        New sites seem to crop up on FACEBOOK everyday, so you will want to check our all the many options. One problem is the FACEBOOK regime is very prissy about showing female nudity, even the curvature of a female breast.  Male nudity showing about 95% of the body seems top be accepted. Oh well.  Go figure.   The horror groups are good places to join discussions about horror books and films. My horror e-book novels are the DARK JOURNEYS QUARTET or SERIES shown here on my site: DARK NEIGHBORHOODS, DARK CORRIDORS, DARK TWILIGHT. and SHADOWS AND REALMS. Even though I don't consider myself to be strictly a horror writer (more of a writer of the macabre, as Harlan Ellison, philosopher and author, states regarding his own work), it is a good place to start. I try to focus more on suspense with a few scares instead of splatter-gore and an abundance of four-letter words. I rely on psychological terror, even though the insidious entities from another dimension can be pretty nasty (see photos throughout this site).

      • Many dark journeys: 

          One evening when I was in the kitchen facing the counter and the window, I saw a shadow move behind me, creating a dark moving image across the cabinet and window shades.  I was alone. I checked the dining room / living room. Nothing.    If I moved in the living room, the shadow I threw was not large enough and created an outline of a human. What I saw was something that moved behind me in the kitchen. I realized this later.    Last night while watching a movie on Netflix, I saw a bright flash of light emit from my open closet. The closet door is always open and the overhead light is usually on. However, this flash was many times brighter than a regular light bulb.   It was, I swear, real.    This is a true story, not one of the fictional journeys.

      • The means to reach me:

        I am now on all sorts of sites -- as advised by other writers who self-publish. Find me on Goodreads (where I review other books), Facebook (where I review other books as well as post photos -- including the cats I had while in China), LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google Plus, and a site for writers (www.writers-editors. com). If you are a serious writer of articles and looking for markets, join this organization and meet the helpful Dana Castell. You can also find her on LinkedIn. Yes, you can also be a writer of fiction, which is what I am these days.   Seach . . . Scribd, Tolino, Kobo, Barnes&Noble, Baker&Taylor, Apple, 24 Symbols, Hoopla, OverDrive, Bibliotheca, Vivlio, Amazon Kindle     Free Kindle Cloud Reader (if you don't yet have a Kindle): http://amzn.to/ltmrpK8   Check me out . . .  www.paranormal-and-ets.com   www.smashwords.com/interview/chukkgarard www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard  http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Justus-Garard/e/B00B6S8TUS   Recently I joined a new publishing group called Draft2Digital  https://www.draft2digital.com/book/116371      OF TIME AND THE DREAMER https://www.draft2digital.com/book/92570        DARK NEIGHBORHOODS https://www.draft2digital.com/book/93599        DARK CORRIDORS https://www.draft2digital.com/book/115075      SHADOW OF THE MOTHMAN https://www.draft2digital.com/book/92258        FROM HERE TO ATLANTIS   Pages for the new time-travel adventure novel From Here to Atlantis: www.amazon.com/dp/B00W0SWCLU www.smashwords.com/books/view/535284     Watch here for further information in the future. Thank you for visiting my web site. I really appreciate your time and consideration. Also . . . please see my blog at http://www.virgostone.me Have fun there with reviews and outrageous ads for my ebook novels. If you have psychic or ghostly experiences to share, feel free to do so there.

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