I’m a little late in posting this, as the deal ends tonight, but you can grab Strange Forces #1 for free right now for Kindle. If you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download the app for PC, Mac, and iOS for the big old cost of nothing.

Fans may remember me extolling the virtues of Strange Force’s predecessor series, Strange Matters, a while back. If you’re not familiar with the series, check out the authors’ website for info.

You can grab your free copy of Strange Forces 1 by clicking this sentence. If you dig the book, please consider checking out Book 2, Book 3, and the newly-released Book 4 as well.

And I thought I was up on these things.

Despite the fact I have every book in both the Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Eerie, Indiana tie-in fiction lines, am well familiar with the many varieties (and hundreds of volumes) of Goosebumps books, and have numerous other Middle Grade selections (including some obscure series such as Fiendly Corners and Scream Shop), I somehow was completely unaware of the Strange Matter line until Little Fears fan RandolphC posted about it on the Yahoo!Group.

I am, quite frankly, ashamed of myself. And I should be, because the books sound great.

Published in the mid-to-late-90s, at the height of the “let’s frighten children” era, Strange Matter saw 30 books written alternately by Marty M. Engle and Johnny Ray Barnes, Jr. The line also spun off a four-book series called Strange Forces.

The series takes place in and around the city of Fairfield, and features tween protagonists encountering and battling supernatural threats that range from werewolves to undead athletes to plants masquerading as regular folks. Each book is a new situation, featuring sometimes-new/sometimes-recurring characters.

Kids fighting monsters. Sounds great.

Sadly, the original line is out of print but the authors are looking to bring it back in ebook format in the near future. Three of the four spin-offs are already out for Kindle (see here: 1, 2, 3). I’ll be sitting down with those soon and I look forward to picking up the originals as they’re released. I recommend you do too, as they seem prime inspiration for the game of childhood terror.

You can keep tabs on the series at the authors’ official site, and I’ll be sure to drop notices here as well. My best to the authors in their relaunch. I can’t wait to see what I missed.

(Big thanks to Little Fears Yahoo!Group member RandolphC for the heads up on this intriguing series.)

As a lot of you have probably noticed, I added an Amazon.com affiliate widget to the sidebar. I’ve included all the things I could from the Inspiring Fear updates as well as plenty of other Little Fears-appropriate books, movies, video games, and TV shows. I hope you’ll check out the stuff on the right. If you hover over the top of the widget, you can cycle through the pages for easier navigation.

Making purchases through the link (and any other purchases once you’ve arrived at Amazon through the link) goes directly to helping me put out more Little Fears Nightmare Edition material. I would love to release Book 3 in 2012, as well as the Seven Kings series, but to do that I need to generate some more income. So please, especially with the holidays coming up, if you do any shopping at Amazon (for Little Fears-related materials or not), help out the original game of childhood terror. It doesn’t cost you a thing (I promise) but it helps me out greatly.

Mary Downing Hahn knows how to write a Middle Grade thriller, and in her 2004 release The Old Willis Place, she spins one of her best, a ghostly yarn of loss and loneliness about a pair of siblings forced to live under some very strange restrictions.

From the Clarion paperback:

Diana and her little brother, Georgie, have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying mansion, for what seems like forever. A strict set of rules won’t allow them to leave the property or even show themselves to anyone.

But when a new caretaker and his young daughter, Lissa, come to live there, Diana is tempted to break the mysterious rules for the first time in hopes of making a new friend. She and George learn quickly, though, that breaking the rules can have deadly consequences…

This book is perfect inspiration for a Little Fears episode (or mini-series of episodes). Its tone, as well as the truth the story slowly reveals, is straight out of the original Little Fears*, but the events have very strong ties to some of the elements found within Book 2: Among the Missing (for Little Fears Nightmare Edition)**. Whichever edition you fancy, The Old Willis Place has something for you.

If you enjoy the book, I highly recommend Ms. Hahn’s other works as well, especially Wait Till Helen Comes. I have another of her books, All the Lovely Bad Ones, on my to-read list as well. She’s one of the few authors whose books I’ll pick up without hesitation.

*The tenth anniversary edition of which just came out in PDF (and will be out in print shortly).

**And, coincidentally, touches on some stuff in the works for the not-yet-announced Little Fears Nightmare Edition Book 3.

On Monday, I talked a bit about what Book 2: Among the Missing covers. On Wednesday, I showed the contents and talked some about what each section covers. Today, I’m posting the introductory fiction. This isn’t just a mood-setting vignette; this sets up a piece of fiction from each of the first five chapters that connects to this intro and extends it to what happens next if the kid in question was abducted, stolen, ran away, abandoned, or forgotten. Before I dove into the gritty details of each section, I wanted to show readers what we’re going to cover. To set the tone for each chapter and ease the reader into each new world of the book.

I hope you enjoy the following, and stay tuned over the next couple of months for more information not only about Among the Missing but two other surprise releases slated for Late Spring/Early Summer 2011.

An entire street full of cars. The sounds of late autumn in the air.

Beyond, 5 o’clock traffic races down the interstate. First shifters coming home. The late retail crowd heading in. But here, there is no traffic, no rush of cars against the wind. Here, parked outside the brick-faced houses that line this avenue, they are still. They are empty. Except for one.

Down the street, at the basketball court, a group of kids play Horse in that manner children do. Each calls an impossible shot and fails to pull it off. Bobby’s on H. He sank a three pointer. He calls it skill but everyone knows it was a lucky shot. Anton’s been trying to dunk all day. At 4’8”, he’s a bit shy of the rim.

In the not-empty car, a shadow turns the ignition. It’s a quiet car. The perfect kind. It’s non-descript: Four doors, bluish-grey. Or was it brown? It’s hard to say. Y’know, it might be a hatchback. Or a sedan.

Mick tells Anton to stop messing around and take the shot already. Willie sits on the paintline, book in hand. He’s tired of sports. Anton tells everyone to chill. It’s happening. He can feel it.

Bobby gloats about his H. Calls himself the King of Park Street. Mick tells him to stuff it. “Besides,” the boy says, “you live on Vine.”

“Yeah, but the court’s on Park and that’s what matters.”

The car pulls out of its spot. It rolls slowly around the bend, toward the boys playing ball. Just past the court is a church. Small, white, wooden cross on top. Black sign in the front with the hours of Sunday’s service.

Anton rushes, jumps, and lets loose the ball. It spins around the rim before teetering in.

“Dunk!” Anton shakes his butt at the other kids. “Kiss it! Kiss it! Kiss the dunk master’s butt!” he says.

“So not a dunk,” Mick says, chasing the ball.

Anton says it was so. Says he’ll do it again.

Mick scoops up the ball. No way Anton’s getting it again.

Mick offers it to Willie but the boy says he’s not playing anymore. He passes to Bobby but the place the older boy once stood is now empty. All three look around, but no one can see him. No one knows where Bobby went.

“He probably went home”, Anton says.

Mick spins in place, scanning the area. “That’d be kinda fast. How’d he skip out without us seeing?”

“Maybe he cut across the churchyard.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Probably. Best way to Vine Street.

Anton shrugs, tells Mick to throw it to him. They have just over an hour before the streetlights come on and today’s the day he’s gonna prove he’s the dunk champion.