What if everything
you know about oil
is a lie?

Trust and Other Nightmares

From time to time when I take a break from researching and writing my thrillers, I write short stories such as the ones collected for the first time in this new anthology, Trust and Other Nightmares. Each of these stories has its germination in nights when my sleep was suddenly savaged by ethereal visions and sounds sufficiently disturbing to wrench me from tangled, sweat-drenched sheets. Some of them have seen a bit of daylight before now, and the last two debut here. All of them are spawned of the dancing skeletons and reanimated corpses that plague the bleakest, blackest hours preceding my blessed dawns. They include Trust, without which a murder-suicide pact is merely revenge’s favorite recipe; Rougarou, where a terrified boy learns it’s never easy to tell monsters from saviors in a desolate Louisiana swamp; Frankie’s Last Affair, where we’re taught that if a thing is truly art, someone has to suffer for it; Canis, a post-apocalyptic tale where the wolves in sheep’s clothing have no lock on cross-dressing, and Showtime, in which a famous television psychic medium’s dirty secret is he knows there’s no such thing as ghosts.

I hope you enjoy this collection. If it scares you enough to keep you up a night or two, I know just how you feel. As this anthology demonstrates, I sleep well rarely.

Buy Trust and Other Nightmares at: Smashwords Barnes & Noble Diesel eBook Store Amazon.com

Welcome from Richard Gazala

photo: Christopher J. Eckert

Thanks for exploring the website we've cooked up for my novel, the thriller Blood of the Moon. We designed these pages to help you discover more about my book, and how and why it came to be. We’ve also included a brief but tasty buffet of miscellany about me and my other writings to keep you occupied while you roam around the site.

Stay a while and enjoy yourself. Oh, and don't forget to order a copy of the book. If you're hungry for memorable characters battling over fatal secrets in exotic places spiced with conspiracies brutally guarded by an ancient secret society, I'm confident you'll like what's on the menu in Blood of the Moon.

Upcoming Appearances

The JellyVision Show Thursday Sept. 1st at 7pm (EDT): Richard is appearing on The JellyVision Show, Thursday 9/01/11, 7PM (EDT). The show's broadcast live around the world from The Soundry in Vienna, Virginia, via The JellyVision Show on Ustream. Richard will read from and talk about Blood of the Moon, and his new anthology of scary short stories, Trust and Other Nightmares. If you're in northern Virginia, come join the studio audience at 316 Dominion Rd. NE Vienna, Virginia. If you're not, join us via the broadcast.
The Facebook Event Page

Awards

2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Blood of the Moon is named a Finalist in the Suspense/Thriller category, and will be featured at the BookExpo America show at the Javits Center in Manhattan, May 25-27, 2010.
2010 Santa Fe Trail Book Contest: Blood of the Moon takes bronze at the 2010 Santa Fe Trail Book Contest
2009 DIY Book Festival: Blood of the Moon received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 DIY Book Festival

Oil, Intrigue,and Deception

Honorable Mention winner at the 2009 DIY Book Festival, Los Angeles California

Blood of the Moon is set during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The world is engulfed in wars over ever-dwindling oil reserves. Gas riots rip the streets of American cities from Washington D.C., to Portland, Oregon. Tanks rumble on Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues to protect the White House. But Michael Rivers, the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the moon, brought something back to earth in 1972 that proves conventional wisdom about oil is a deliberate lie.

Now Michael is confined to an assisted living facility, his mind slowly succumbing to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, as his son David is pulled into a deadly race to uncover Michael’s long-hidden secret. An ancient shadowy society of ruthless men does everything in its monstrous power to stop them, while a corrupted presidential election teeters in the balance.

Who are they?

Relevant Today

“If your life is touched in any way by the oil economy, which it inescapably is, then you’ll find “Blood of the Moon” very relevant in the current economic, social and political climate. For example, that oil and gas supplies and prices remained pretty static during the entire recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is fascinating. The book’s central message is there’s an incessant conflict between perception and truth in every significant human endeavor. It behooves us all to embrace this fact, ask hard questions, and then scrutinize the sources and biases behind the answers we’re given or denied.” Richard in an interview with The Eerie Digest. Read the fulll interview...

$9 a Gallon Gas?

$9 a gallon gas isn't coming. It's already here.

“A stunning debut. Well-researched, tightly plotted, and teeming with vividly-drawn characters. Gazala has a great voice, as well as a clear gift for breakneck pacing and narrative drive. A rich and rewarding read.” Raymond Khoury,
NYT Bestselling Author of The Sign