Rock Island Author To Sign New Collection With Frankenstein Sequel
Rock Island author Michael McCarty will hold a Covid-safe book signing (masks required) this Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Igor’s Bistro, 3055 38th St., Rock Island.
The 50-ish author’s latest is “Frankenstein’s Mistress: Tales of Love & Monsters,” published by Grinning Skull Press ($15 paperback). This collection of horror and science fiction stories includes a sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic “Frankenstein” – with Victor Frankenstein, the
The cover of “Frankenstein’s Mistress” was done by Bruce Walters.
monster, and a blind fortune teller named Rose Blackthorn.
In other tales, even the apocalypse won’t stop Leonard Cartwright from searching for his wife in the ruins; after getting struck by lightning that left him in a coma for twenty years, Jackson Heyward awakens with the ability to talk to the dead; will the discovery of the power of invisibility help save Dr. Nick’s failing relationship with his soulmate, or will it aid in its destruction? And many more twisted tales.
“Michael McCarty is given full rein, and off he goes on a bizarre trip of the imagination, all stops out, no limits, hell-for-leather,” according to William Nolan, author of “Logan’s Run.”
Rock Island author Michael McCarty.
One chapter in the new book is called “The Surge,” and starts out in 1999 at the Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport, about the man with an ability to speak to the dead. McCarty, who grew up in Davenport, wrote that with Holly Zalidivar, a good friend who teaches English at Northwest Vista Community College in Texas.
The spooky cover for “Frankenstein’s Mistress” was created by Davenport artist Bruce Walters.
McCarty collaborated with fellow horror writer Mark McLaughlin on “Ghosts of the Quad Cities,” published by Haunted America.
Among other books McCarty will have available Sunday for purchase and signing is 2019’s “Ghosts of the Quad Cities” ($20 paperback), which he wrote with frequent collaborator Mark McLaughlin.
Divided by state lines and the Mississippi River, the Quad-Cities share a common haunted heritage, according to the book. If anything, the seam that runs through the region is especially rife with spirits, from the Black Angel of Moline’s Riverside Cemetery to the spectral Confederate POWs of Arsenal Island. Of course, the city centers have their own illustrious supernatural residents – the Hanging Ghost occupies Davenport’s City Hall, while the Phantom Washwoman wanders Bettendorf’s Central Avenue.
At Igor’s Bistro in Rock Island, every day is Halloween. Michael McCarty and Mark McLaughlin hunt down the haunted lore.
Author of more than 40 works of fiction and nonfiction, McCarty is a five-time Bram Stoker Award finalist and winner the David R. Collins’ Literary Achievement Award from the Midwest Writing Center. McLaughlin — who also has about 40 books and short-story collections to his credit — is a Bram Stoker Award-winning author whose fiction, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in more than 1,000 magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies.
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