The Castle in the Girl — New YA Novella

The Castle in the Girl Is Now Available

I'm excited to announce the release of my newest book, The Castle in the Girl, a YA science-fiction/fantasy novella: https://tinyurl.com/3pca44z2

This is a story that begins in what seems like a fairly traditional fantasy world.

Sixteen-year-old Michelle lives with her family in a magnificent castle in the peaceful kingdom of Allendia. She spends her days practicing sword fighting with her older brother Caleb, riding her beloved horse Snow, reading, attending elaborate royal balls, and spending time with her closest friends.

By all appearances, Michelle has an extraordinarily happy life.

But then she begins having nightmares.

They're not the usual nightmares, either.

Michelle keeps dreaming about enormous buildings made of glass and steel—towering structures that stretch impossibly high into the sky. She knows them as skyscrapers, even though no such buildings exist anywhere in her kingdom. In fact, as far as she knows, they've never existed anywhere in her world.

Her family dismisses the dreams as nonsense.

Michelle isn't so sure.

As the nightmares become increasingly vivid, small details of her supposedly perfect life begin to seem strange. Her family and friends repeatedly tell her how happy she is. She finds herself becoming less emotional about the people she supposedly loves most. And the closer she gets to understanding her dreams, the more unsettling the truth becomes.

Eventually, Michelle's nightmares take her somewhere very different from the castle she's always known.

And she discovers that the world she thought she understood is not the world she is actually living in.

I don't want to say too much more about the story because one of the things I enjoyed about The Castle in the Girl is the gradual discovery of what's really happening. What initially appears to be a fantasy story eventually becomes something quite different.

At its heart, though, the book is about Michelle and the people she loves.

It's about what happens when someone loses virtually everything—and about the strange ways the mind can try to protect itself from unbearable pain.

It's also a book about moving forward.

The Castle in the Girl is approximately 30,000 words and is being released exclusively as an ebook.

The ebook is available now for $2.99: https://tinyurl.com/3pca44z2

If you decide to read it, I'd love to hear what you think. And if you enjoy the book, leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads is enormously helpful to an independent author.

Thank you for supporting my writing!

Chris von Halle

I Came Home But My Apartment Was Gone — New Found-Footage Horror Short

Just in time for Halloween, my latest short film is now available on YouTube:

I Came Home But My Apartment Was Gone (https://youtu.be/JU2PTCOJQcc)

The basic premise is simple: a man comes home expecting to find his apartment, only to discover that it has somehow disappeared.

In its place is a cabin.

And that's only the beginning.

I wanted to make something that started with a fairly straightforward mystery and gradually became stranger and more unsettling. Like some of my other found-footage work, the story is largely told through the camera of the person experiencing it rather than through traditional cinematic coverage.

This one also allowed me to lean a little further into the weird side of horror. There are some intentionally absurd elements mixed in with the mystery, while the main character's situation becomes increasingly disturbing as time passes.

And yes, there is a reason for that extremely strange-looking person on the television.

I'm not going to explain what it is here. You'll have to watch the film.

Watch I Came Home But My Apartment Was Gone on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/JU2PTCOJQcc

#FoundFootage #HorrorShortFilm #IndieHorror #ShortFilm