Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Hollywood After Dark: 3 Tales of Terror
    Hollywood After Dark: 3 Tales of Terror
    Hollywood After Dark: 3 Tales of Terror
    Ebook165 pages2 hours

    Hollywood After Dark: 3 Tales of Terror

    By Lisa Maliga

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This trio of horror novelettes takes place in Los Angeles and Hollywood.

    SATAN’S CASTING CALL: Duncan Smith-Holmes is a struggling young actor who is in desperate need of a paying gig or he has to leave Hollywood. But a bizarre casting call and an opportunity to land a major role in a high budget movie is something he can't pass up -- no matter what the consequences.
    AN AUTHOR’S NIGHTMARE: Life is perfect for hot young chick lit author Penelope Anne Pennington. Her serialized "Carlotta's Cakery" books are all bestsellers. She is about to launch a cakery. A series of films based on her books are in pre-production, along with a reality TV show. She has romance in her life with her attorney boyfriend/soon-to-be-fiancé!

    But something strange is happening to all her outgoing correspondence — what she sends isn't what her correspondents receive. Bizarre printed and electronic correspondence is being sent to her. Is it a rival author? Or is it something more dark and malevolent, something not of this world?

    HOLLYWOOD STARZ STORAGE: Retail employee/aspiring screenwriter Andy Tuttle is evicted from his apartment by the landlady’s only son, the obnoxious King Dixon. Searching for an affordable place proves so difficult; Andy ends up staying in a storage locker along with the rest of his belongings. The chilling events that occur inside unit #319-H won’t be forgotten by Andy—or the reader.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLisa Maliga
    Release dateJan 14, 2013
    ISBN9781301390588
    Hollywood After Dark: 3 Tales of Terror
    Author

    Lisa Maliga

    Lisa Maliga is an American author of contemporary fiction, psychological thrillers and cozy mysteries. Her nonfiction titles consist of how to make bath and body products with an emphasis on melt and pour soap crafting. When researching her latest cozy mystery, she discovered the art of baking French macarons. She continues to bake macarons, always trying new flavor combinations. When not writing, Lisa reads, watches movies, and is a huge fan of "The Walking Dead." Links: http://www.lisamaliga.com https://twitter.com/#!/lisamaliga https://twitter.com/#!/everythingshea http://pinterest.com/lisamaliga https://www.youtube.com/user/LisaMaliga

    Read more from Lisa Maliga

    Related to Hollywood After Dark

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Bucksaw

      Jun 3, 2019

      From the back seat of the car, Benjamin read the gold-lettered sign at the edge of the rolling green lawn and said, “Why do they call it a correctional facility?” He’d meant only to think the question, rather than speak it, but lately, more and more,

      23 min read

    • Article

      Reach

      Dec 10, 2023

      Jack Benson stands dissolved in an ocean of strangers, humans he couldn’t have known existed until forced to jostle with them for space and shared odors. He recoils imperceptibly with each touch, eager not to offend or stand out any further. As a mas

      10 min read

    • Article

      Reach

      Apr 10, 2021

      Jack Benson stands dissolved in an ocean of strangers, humans he couldn’t have known existed until forced to jostle with them for space and share odors. He recoils imperceptibly with each touch, eager not to offend or stand out any further. As a mass

      10 min read

    • Article

      Quantum Radio

      Feb 22, 2023

      Quantum Radio
      5 min read

    • Article

      All My Tomorrows

      May 10, 2022

      It was Misha’s first day minding the shop, and already she’d broken the fifth rule. Always lock the door immediately. When you had the most valuable merchandise in the universe, you had to take the utmost precautions. She hadn’t meant to disobey. It

      13 min read

    • Article

      A WANTED man

      Oct 6, 2021

      A WANTED man
      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

      Apr 7, 2020

      In today's edition of featured fiction, we present an excerpt from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's latest novel, Starling Days. The post ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Brontez Purnell, Fiction

      Mar 21, 2018

      Brontez Purnell, Fiction
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Turn

      Aug 14, 2019

      HERE’S a story. In college I entered the spring semester of my freshman year on academic probation. There wasn’t one reason this happened. There were many. I had signed up for a computer science class called Digital Security with no programming knowl

      5 min read

    • Article

      Hollywood, Ending

      Feb 13, 2018

      Hollywood, Ending
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Rapture Module

      Aug 10, 2022

      Tucker had to do a double take: The spreadsheet returned the correct result. He could have sworn he had made a mistake—his finger slipped—but the cell displayed the number he thought he wouldn’t see. It occurred to him that this was the first time he

      13 min read

    • Article

      Too BAD

      Aug 30, 2022

      Too BAD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Born Slippy

      Jan 16, 2020

      Born Slippy
      14 min read

    • Article

      A Picture Of Dear Raymond

      Aug 24, 2022

      One of the great joys of Raymond Briggs’s column in The Oldie was that we got two geniuses for the price of one. As well as receiving his charming sideways look at life in the column, we got one of his peerless drawings every month. A compilation was

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Best Little Bar in Manhattan: An experiment in belief versus bourbon.

      Apr 9, 2015

      Let me take you, dear boy,” said McHintry, “to the best little bar in Manhattan.” I could have told him Donna was expecting me home in good time to find out how my first day in the new job had gone. I could have told him that anyway I never drank muc

      13 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      They Got Their Show

      Aug 10, 2021

      It is midnight in Ponderosa and Nick Velasquez can’t sleep. The public doesn’t want him to sleep. It’s been like this ever since it hit all the big streaming platforms. The viewers stay up bingeing and he… well, he has been bingeing in his own way. W

      14 min read

    • Article

      Emil, Approximated

      Nov 3, 2022

      Emil, Approximated
      15 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2021

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      What a Great Talker She Was

      Sep 1, 2020

      What a Great Talker She Was
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Gift of Gold

      Nov 10, 2021

      The Gift of Gold
      8 min read

    • Article

      Grey Pride

      Oct 12, 2018

      Grey Pride
      15 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Hollywood After Dark

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Hollywood After Dark - Lisa Maliga

      HOLLYWOOD AFTER DARK: 3 TALES OF TERROR

      LISA MALIGA

      3 NOVELETTES

      SATAN’S CASTING CALL

      AN AUTHOR’S NIGHTMARE

      HOLLYWOOD STARZ STORAGE

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      COPYRIGHT 2013

      E-Edition published worldwide 2013

      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

      These novelettes are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      SATAN’S CASTING CALL

      AN AUTHOR’S NIGHTMARE

      HOLLYWOOD STARZ STORAGE

      Satan’s Casting Call

      By Lisa Maliga

      Copyright 2013 by Lisa Maliga

      "Be alert, be reflective, because your enemy Satan roars like a lion and is walking and seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8

      Duncan Smith-Holmes was running late for his casting call. He rushed into the kitchen and almost threw his cup of instant coffee into the chipped porcelain sink. Tina, his fiancée, was sitting at the tiny breakfast table with a short stack of freebie weeklies. She was reading the Daily Variety as she sipped her coffee and circled ads in the classifieds section. She was disgruntled with the small selection of assistant positions. One of them was in Beverly Hills and the rest were scattered between the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica.

      Interns wanted, no pay, great experience, she read quietly, contempt showing on her freckled face. Why doesn’t it just say, We need slaves? She shook her head. Junior administrative assistant, long hours, work for executive … I know what that means. She paused. Morning, Duncan, she said, not bothering to look up at the slender young man who resembled a surfer with his wavy sun-bleached hair.

      Hi honey, he glanced at the calendar on the wall above her, right next to the clock. Time was ticking, he thought. The June calendar had one date circled on it in bold red ink, the 25th. That was D-Day for the couple. It was their agreed upon deadline for both of them to find employment within the entertainment industry. It was also the day the rent was due. Her chances were greater than his as she was looking for any type of secretarial or clerical work.

      He glanced at the laptop sitting on the cluttered coffee table in front of the loveseat. On Monday, a virus had shut it down and the recovery disk had been lost. The Dell had to be repaired or replaced—neither option affordable right now. The nearby Hollywood Regional Branch Library opened at 12:30 so, until then, they couldn’t do any online job searching.

      Duncan wasn’t opting for that office work route; he wanted to be an actor and he would accept nothing less than a role in a movie [he wished!], TV, video, cable, anything that involved him being in front of a camera. Duncan needed the glare of the limelight. He thrived in it. And if he didn’t find some sort of acting role that was either long term or leading to bigger and better parts, he was going back to Iowa.

      Break a leg, Tina said. She watched her future husband, dressed in office casual attire of khakis and a blue shirt, rush towards the open front door. Already the sun was glaring down at ten o’clock and she knew that it was going to be unbearably hot in the old, un-air-conditioned apartment. Why did she always have to be out of work in the summertime? As soon as she got up she opened the door to allow some of the Pacific breeze that traveled east down Sunset Boulevard to assist in cooling off the one bedroom apartment. All the neighbors in the eight-unit building were at work and she was alone with nothing to do but look for a new job. Craving a cigarette, she sighed, knowing she was out of Newports and would be until she found steady work.

      Inside Duncan’s weather-beaten red Mustang, he cranked up the radio and listened to some fake new age guru answer questions on the afterlife. He couldn’t call in like he sometimes did as his cell phone was broken and he couldn’t afford a new one. He hated those tiny plastic things anyway as they couldn’t hold up to his temper and he’d methodically gone through several of them. He remembered how they’d become useless. One was thrown into a pool, another sailed over the wall at a back yard wedding, two of them had been crushed by his feet, and he’d hurled that first generation iPhone out of his car on the 405 when traffic had stopped due to a car chase that he didn’t get to see.

      He despised open calls but ever since his agent had retired, he had to fend for himself. Not that old Harry had done much for him, a few sitcoms and some extra work in three low budget horror films, yet it was better than what he was coming up with which was exactly zip. His headshots were over a year old and his hair had grown a lot since then plus his face was thinner. Tina said he looked sexy; his mother said he resembled a corpse.

      Duncan looked at the address he’d jotted down on a blue message pad that Tina had stolen from her last office job. He looked at the cross street. Yeah, he was in some shitty part of the San Fernando Valley. Universal Studios was only a couple of miles away but the heavier pedestrian traffic and the seedy buildings meant one thing – off the Hollywood map. He passed a boarded up store with spray-painted gang signs and rolled his eyes. Super high class. He turned off the radio and looked for the last two digits of the address. 38, 40, 42…there it was.

      The gray prefab building looked new. A uniformed guard sat on a folding chair, looking ominous with his mirrored sunglasses, his tanned bald head glistening in the relentless Valley sunshine. Before Duncan had a chance to park in one of the half dozen G.G.K. Productions parking only spaces, the guard hurried over, almost giving himself a heart attack in the process. The older man leaned on Duncan’s convertible and panted before addressing the youth. Duncan watched the sweat rolling down the hairless head and the dark stains spreading from underarms to chest.

      I’m here for the audition, Duncan told the man.

      The guard nodded as he wheezed, then gestured towards the lot. Park… was all he was able to get out as he struggled to breathe. His hand slid away and Duncan watched with concern as the man turned and slowly went back to his post. All that fuss over a lousy parking space! There was plenty of room. A couple of hand-lettered WE WILL TOW signs were clearly displayed. One car was parked in the corner, a forlorn looking white bottom of the line Mercedes that was spotted with bird crap.

      Once inside, Duncan approached the empty reception desk in the small tiled lobby. The light was dim and the air was stuffy. He looked around, not seeing anyone. He checked his watch. Weird. The audition had been scheduled for eleven o’clock and it was 11:10. Where was everyone? Usually open calls were packed with dozens of hopefuls. He clutched the manila envelope containing three of his portraits with the requisite resumes stapled on the back. For an instant, Duncan wondered why he wasn’t back in his father’s Iowa cornfield taking care of the family business. The corn would’ve been planted by now, he thought, recalling the thick humidity of the air and the tall bamboo-like stalks with the sagging leaves scraping his arms and face as he rushed down the narrow rows.

      Now he was in some bottom of the barrel production office that didn’t have any employees. He looked at the doorway on his left and saw an empty nameplate holder. The wrong address must have been put in the trade publication. People made mistakes. But, he reflected, lately he’d made just a few too many…

      The door opened and all he saw was a slit of darkness. Duncan felt sweaty in the air-conditionless lobby and the ominous vibes he was starting to sense. Nervousness was a common feeling at auditions; outright fear wasn’t. There was no gust of wind, no circulation to open the door. Suddenly a man stepped out of the office and the look of surprise that crossed the broad Scandinavian pale features was quickly replaced with a grin.

      Hi! I’m Monty Cross! I’m the producer. He strode over to Duncan and eagerly shook his hand, dispelling the nervous fear.

      Hey, I’m Duncan Smith-Holmes and…

      This place is usually a mob scene. Monty looked around at the starkly empty lobby with only a dingy old couch and some thrift store reject tables and chairs. A dog-eared issue of Vanity Fair magazine was the sole reading material. Can’t understand it. The ad ran today, I checked it.

      Maybe it’s a full moon, Duncan joked.

      Could be the reason, Monty said as he walked back to the door. Let me see those head shots.

      Duncan quickly pulled the black and white glossies out of the envelope.

      The producer grabbed them and looked at the photos and the resumes. He nodded.

      You want to see the script?

      Sure! Duncan replied. He was feeling optimistic. But he felt that way whenever he went on an audition. There was always a chance, he thought.

      Before Duncan got to step inside the office, Monty returned holding a thick script. Duncan’s nervousness had kicked in and when he saw the size of the screenplay, only one phrase popped into his head…feature film.

      The hottest script in town! Monty began.

      Duncan thought about the heat in the room and how he wished it were air-conditioned. He watched the older man with the narrow blue eyes and the way he began pacing as he talked.

      "Hard Luck Charley. Working title of course. He’s a former football player that blew out his knee and can’t play. A compulsive gambler who lost a finger to a gambling debt and later his girlfriend to a loan shark…"

      Duncan stared at the animated man who was pacing back and forth, flipping through the script, pointing out passages, and describing all the while how much of a character-driven piece it was. It had Oscar written all over it. He was in awe of the strutting cock of a man in a well fitting polo shirt that emphasized his muscular arms. The chinos also were tailor made or just happened to be the right size. A thick gold necklace hung around his neck and there was a pinkie ring on his left finger. The sandy hair was combed from one side of his head to another in an attempt to conceal the balding area. Duncan wondered if the producer was gay. And what if the older man hit on him? What then? For a lead in a feature film—would it be worth it? Would it?

      Duncan was encouraged to read a few lines. He put forth all his effort, unlike what he’d done back in middle school math class when his teacher failed him for ‘lack of effort’ and made him go to summer school. He was able to gauge the character, a natural born winner with losing tendencies, and felt a kinship with ‘Charley’. This’s great, Duncan uttered after the ending of an emotional scene where he discovered his dead girlfriend.

      Great? Monty asked, his eyes suddenly changing to black as he slammed the script shut. Great? Is that all you can say?

      Uh, it’s really great, Duncan emphasized.

      Not good enough. This is the next BIG thing, do you understand? Move over Leonardo DiCaprio, here’s Duncan…what’s your last name again?

      Smith-Holmes. It’s Duncan Smith-Holmes.

      Duncan Smith-Holmes. This is the role of a lifetime. Do you realize how lucky you were to just walk in here and snatch it up? Do you? The now red-faced man was shouting so loudly that the sound echoed in the lobby and Duncan was glad no one was there. Scratch that thought, the guard outside was probably able to hear every word.

      This is fate that you’re here. Fate, I tell you! You were meant for this part. And you can have it. You can have a lead role in a major motion picture. I’m in negotiation right now with Paramount. Do you know how much money you can earn?

      Duncan just let his mouth drop open and the vacuous expression

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1