Margins
Vanishing Hope book cover
Vanishing Hope
2011
First Published
4.16
Average Rating
54
Number of Pages

Vanishing Hope is the first story in a loosely-connected series tied together by The Book: The Book knows your dark places. It knows your weaknesses. It knows your innermost desires. It feels your pain and knows how to twist it to its own needs. It knows how to become your best friend. All the things we can do together... Talia is nine years old. The Book is ancient. Talia hates her life. The Book exploits hate. It shows you all the things you can do to those you hate. All the ways you can hurt them. Talia is powerless. The Book is power. Now the Book has found Talia.

Avg Rating
4.16
Number of Ratings
19
5 STARS
53%
4 STARS
21%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Tobin Elliott
Tobin Elliott
Author · 5 books

Tobin was destined for horror. This became obvious when, in the span of two weeks, he built a working model of a guillotine out of popsicle sticks and a razor blade—which his Grade Five teacher didn't seem to appreciate as much as he did—and he also learned to tie a noose and proudly hung one from their apartment balcony—which his mother and the superintendent didn't seem to appreciate as much as he did. Eventually, he learned to focus the horror into stories. His friends and neighbours likely appreciated the lesser PDH (Public Displays of Horror). Besides writing ugly stories about bad people doing horrible things, Tobin also

  • taught Creative Writing at both Durham College and Trent University (Oshawa Campus) for two decades
  • was a founding board member of the Writers' Community of Simcoe County (WCSC)
  • was a member of the Writers' Community of Durham Region (WCDR)
  • for five crazy years, took part in the annual Muskoka Novel Marathon, a three-day writing marathon to raise money for adult literacy programs in the Simcoe/Muskoka region. Tobin has been lucky enough to see quite a few works published in the past decade or so...
  • his first published work, a horror novella called Vanishing Hope, was through Burning Effigy Press - Stealing Corey was a semi-finalist in the Whispered Words contest and was published in the subsequent Whispered Words anthology, published by Piquant Press
  • the third novella-length installment of the Sam Truman Mysteries, Soft Kiss Hard Death, was published by Abattoir Press
  • this, along with the first two novellas, were later collected into the The Sam Truman Mysteries Omnibus Volume 1
  • his novella, The Wrong was the final book published by Burning Effigy before they went into extended hibernation (Tobin tends to have that effect on people and publishers) - Prison Break was published in the Nancy Kilpatrick-edited anthology, Expiration Date, published by Edge SF & Fantasy Publishing, and was singled out by Ellen Datlow in The Best Horror of the Year Volume Eight as one of the standout stories - Fight or Flight was published in Purgatorium: The Element of Horror anthology, by ID Press - Nightingale was published in Allucinor: The Element of Romance anthology, by ID Press - The Riff was published in Nefariam: The Element of Crime anthology, by ID Press - Horse Guts Horse Guts was published in Released: A Horror Anthology, by No Bad Books Press
  • possibly his weirdest bit of writing, "EGR 181: Cyclopean Architecture" was published in Nafallen University 2022-2023 Course Catalog, by Madness Heart Press Since COVID-19 pressed the great pause button, Tobin managed to complete his six-book APHOTIC horror series (which he's delighted to be able to call a "hexalogy") and are being released at two-month intervals. The Six Books of the Aphotic
  • Bad Blood
  • Out For Blood
  • Blood Loss
  • Blood Pact
  • Blood Relations
  • Flesh and Blood Tobin has been married for 32 years, and has one son and one daughter, and one relatively brainless dog. He's retired from a large Canadian telecom company where he was a Communications Specialist. Tobin counts embarrassing his wife and kids, pointing out the stupidities of others, being dumb to kind animals and killing plants among his hobbies. Finally, Tobin loves feedback, either positive or negative, on his writing. You can find him reviewing on Goodreads/LibraryThing/The StoryGraph or saying stupid things on Instagram
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