"Bedtime Stories for the Faint of Heart" explores the Darkness of the Human Heart

July 8, 2010 - PRLog -- SIOUX CITY, IA – Sioux City author Jeva Singh-Anand conjures up a world filled with ghosts, monsters, and flesh eating ghouls in his anthology "Bedtime Stories for the Faint of Heart". Such creatures may  terrify even the most stout-hearted souls. But the recurring theme in his work is that the dark places in the human heart can be the greatest of all horrors.

Available at www.lulu.com/blackhatpress in soft cover and as digital download, the book took several years to compile.

“My characters find themselves in existential crises, and they are not always able to resolve them,” he said. “Sometimes they fail terribly, even though they believe they have actually succeeded. Sometimes they manage to reconnect with a part of their psyche that allows them to regain a sense of humanness.”

Singh-Anand's monsters are nearly always metaphorical of psychological or social phenomena.

“Take ghosts, for example: to me, they represent the inability to let go of the past,” he said.

Henry, the main character in his story “A Second Chance for Lost Souls,” has become embittered by a crippling injury from a scuba diving trip. When the ghost of a five year-old boy enters into his life, he allows his anger to fight a battle he cannot possibly win.

And zombies?

“They are the walking dead, who feed on the flesh of the living. If their victims are not completely devoured, they become part of this mindless mob,” Singh-Anand explained. “They represent society's tendency to squash individuality.”

In “Hungry Bob,” the lone survivor of the zombie apocalypse may be barricaded safely in his house, but he has run out of food. While the soulless masses in the streets may not be able to get their hands on him, his demise appears to be inevitable.

Singh-Anand's literary influences in the horror genre are Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch,  Roald Dahl, and Emily Bronte.

Emily Bronte of "Wuthering Heights?"

“Wuthering Heights has been billed as this kitschy Victorian romance, but the novel is actually a chilling insight into the mind of a brutal sociopath, an emotional domestic abuser, whose lust for revenge destroys nearly everyone in his intimate circle. Eventually, it leads to his own destruction,” he said.

"Bedtime Stories for the Faint of Heart" is published by Lulu, a pioneer in the field of on-demand publishing.

Publisher: Lulu
128 pages, softcover or digital download
ISBN – 978-0-557-54338-0

Review copies in digital (PDF) format are available upon request.

For further information, please contact:
Jeva Singh-Anand (712)444-4354, email: jsingh@cableone.net

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