As of 10/15/2023, "Don't Go in the Water: Classic Monsters Anthology 3" is now available from Ye Olde Dragon Books. Included in this volume is my short story, "Croak," another tale featuring my Sardis County characters. Here is an excerpt that one of the editors, Deborah Cullins Smith, shared online recently:
“You know, you could be a gentleman and offer to rub some sunscreen on my back and shoulders while I’m over here trying to catch our supper.”
Obediently I grabbed the tube from her bag. “So you think you’re gonna outfish me?”
“I think right now you ain’t doing much but staring.” She had a big smile, clearly enjoying putting me on the spot. I’m sure her eyes were teasing me behind those aviators. “You gotta put a hook in the water before you can catch anything, don’t you know that?”
As I rubbed the sunscreen on her, the boat rocked again, violently. Staci lost her footing and stumbled backwards into me, which I guess would be the fishing equivalent of having your girl jump into your arms in the middle of a horror movie—as in, I didn’t mind. Neither did she, apparently; she didn’t pull away from me. In fact, she snuggled up to me, and I didn’t mind that either.
“See what I mean, Dane? That was pretty rough.”
“Yeah.” Reluctantly, I started to move away from her to get my fishing rod.
“Did you see the way those bait pellets glowed?” she asked.
“I’d be worried about my eyes if I hadn’t.” I had also noticed a very weird, almost slimy texture to them when I tossed them out into the water, but I had kept that to myself.
“Weird.” She laughed and shook her head. “I’m just gonna tell you right now, if we catch some three-eyed fish because of that stuff, I’m not about to...”
Suddenly her rod bent into an extreme arc. “I’ve got one! And it’s huge!”
“Before I can even get a hook in the water! Reel it in!”
“I’m trying, but it’s a big one!” Her muscles tensed as her catch fought against her. The fish yanked her forward, and I instinctively threw my arms around her waist to catch her and keep her in the boat. However, the force pulling against her, against me, kept me from enjoying the touch. It threatened to overpower me, and I’m not a small fry.
“You don’t get to win!” Staci growled as she reeled and pulled back on the rod with all her might. “I ain’t letting you…”
SNAP! Suddenly her rod broke in two under the strain. I don’t go cheap on my fishing equipment. Unless she had somehow managed to hook Jaws, that rod should have held up. So what was on the other end of that line?
Something burst out of the water, springing about twenty feet into the air. It was a frog—or at least, it looked like a frog, but of gargantuan proportions. Had Staci not screamed, I might have thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
It fell back into the water with such a huge splash that we were both soaked. Suddenly the boat started to tilt. The frog had clipped the bow as it fell, breaking off a chunk of it, and now we were quickly taking on water. Sinking.
Staci grabbed my hand. “We’ve gotta swim for it!”
The thought of getting into the same water as that giant frog wasn’t exactly appealing, nor was losing all my high-dollar fishing equipment. Still, my mom hadn’t raised any idiots. Taking each other’s hand, we jumped feet first into the murky lake water.
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