Something's in the Forest!

The book is a collection of nine short stories for tweens & young readers. Almost every short story in this book has the audience being catapulted into worlds and situations that are strange, curious, frightening, and sometimes dangerous. They can be facing a hoard of hooded marauders in the Sahara Desert, witnessing a ghost-child during an auto accident, or trying to live in a inhospitable orphanage where their name has been replaced by a number. The reader could also be hurtling down off a cliff and get rescued by a mammoth-sized eagle, able to perform magic in its most purest form, or step through a mirror into reversed world. They can travel with a wizard in a quest to stop a vengeful sorcerer, time-travel to the Old West to get away from two evil co-workers from the future, or even be given a second chance at life after dying and going to Heaven! The stories are imaginative, unusual, and best of all…FUN TO READ

An evil sorcerer, a bicycle-riding child ghost and a gigantic eagle are just a few of the strange and exciting things readers are likely to encounter in the new collection of short stories, "Something’s in the Forest!" by C. Francis Carnicelli. The stories, aimed at “tween” readers ages 8 through 15, explore the realm of imagination as Carnicelli weaves a world of strange and wonderful things. With wit and a flair for the bizarre, he catapults readers into worlds and situations curious, frightening and sometimes dangerous. Through his stories, readers face a hoard of hooded marauders in the Sahara Desert, witness a ghost child’s reenactment of a horrific auto accident and attempt to reside in an inhospitable orphanage where names are replaced by numbers. Carnicelli hurtles his readers from the highest cliffs and thrusts them through a mirror into a backwards land. Something’s in the Forest! begins with the title story about a presence lurking in the European forest of Amorlee. Legend has it that an immense eagle lives at the heart of the woods, and this is enough to keep everyone out, except for an orphaned, 8-year-old girl, Maryann Lufkin. Feeling a connection to the strange bird, she returns to the town as an adult to teach and is called upon to rescue a child in an unusual way that attracts the attention of the military. In another story, “Abracadabra,” a third-rate, middle-aged magician, Jonathan Kincaid, gets some unusual help from his 10-year-old next door neighbor, Jimmy Torres, who knows the real secret of magic. When Jimmy’s mother dies, Jonathan adopts the boy and together they turn the magic world upside down. However, fame weighs heavy on Jimmy as he grows up, and his talent begins taking on a life of its own. A collection of stories with enough magic, chills, thrills and suspense for any reader, Something’s in the Forest! takes “tweeners” to a myriad of other realms where mysterious things lurk around the corner of every page.

C. Francis Carnicelli was raised on a steady diet of TV and the cinema (along with a lot of carbohydrates!). At an early age, he was always making up stories to tell to the neighborhood children and play-acting out their parts. After 30 years, and many spiral notebooks full of jotted down notes, wild plot points, and plot synopsis from dreams he had, he fashioned about 15 short stories, which he whittled down to nine for his first publication effort. A bachelor (by default) and residing in Simi Valley, California, he is also a theater performer and playwright. He has written, directed, produced, and starred in 22 children’s plays of “fractured fairy tales” for the Gypsies-in-a-Trunk players. For more info, you can visit his website at www.carnicelli.net. When not writing, Chris is retired and teaches Sunday school at his local church