Spotlights

Saturday Spotlight for Gallery of Nightmares: Lost

Spotlights6 months ago3 min readAdd comment

Welcome to our Saturday Spotlight feature where we at Read Indie Fantasy will be hosting a new spotlight every Saturday to showcase the incredible talent of self-published fantasy authors!

Please welcome Doug Hoppes and Gallery of Nightmares: Lost, a collection of six illustrated short stories of horror that are NOT ultra-violent, gory, or sexually explicit—just nightmare fuel for the imagination.

He dies. He lives. Then he dies again—six times, in fact, and each time is a living nightmare that he can’t remember. Jonathan inherits the Gallery of Nightmares and thinks that he has finally found a home… at least until the paintings in the Shadow Nook break him. His family and past may be the only thing that saves him from the mysterious shadow people.

Gallery of Nightmares: Lost by Doug Hoppes is an illustrated collection of horror short stories.

About the Author

Doug Hoppes is a professional dark fantasy illustrator and the creator of ShadowMyths, a collection of short stories about Jonathan and the Gallery of Nightmares. His past clients have included Funimation, Alchimie (Necromech Game), Consensys (Cellarius Project), and several small independent book and comic publishers.

His true love, though, is using his oil paintings in his own brand, the Gallery of Nightmares. After inheriting the gallery from his mother, gallery curator Jonathan explores its secrets, including the mysterious Shadow Nook, a tiny collection of captivating works that cause real-life consequences for its viewers. In the Shadow Nook, he is able to step into the magical world of Caeliff, where sacramancers and monsters rule with impunity.

In addition, each painting has a unique story that is part of the Shadows and Light Lesson within the gallery. When a viewer focuses on a painting, the moral and uplifting story of the painting appears in their mind. Such stories have had people cry or tear up in the gallery or at exhibitions/conventions.

The stories within the Gallery of Nightmares are created using the ShadowMyths decks. Found in the gallery’s gift shop, the cards are used for tarot/oracle reading, DnD campaign suggestions, writing, and therapy. The images are detailed enough to give the user an idea of what is happening but abstract enough to allow them to create their own ideas.