" Sinister Ascension is Fright Night meets Re-Animator meets Medium.. ." -Michelle Renee Lane, Bram Stoker Award® nominated author “Sinister Ascension starts with a bang, an explosion really, and never lets up from there. Propulsive and agile, Marc Abbott writes horror but combines it with a compelling, appealingly grounded feel.” -Victor LaValle, award-winning author of Lone Women Bruckner University senior, Carmen Guerra learns from her grandmother that being a medium run in her family. Carmen assumes the ability skipped her as she can't commune with the dead. But an evil presence rouses her abilities and she goes through a painful awakening that torments her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Todd Anderson, the transfer grad student, is a vampire. He has come to campus in search a host body to possess once he has completed an arcane spell. One that will allow him to ascend into a demon. When he sets his sights on Carmen's roommate as his potential host body, she must quickly learn her abilities and how to control them. With aide from her long-distance grandmother, a lost spirit and an unexpected ally, Carmen struggles to cope with new abilities while finding her the strength to battle Todd from completing the sinister ascension. "Sinister Ascension starts with a bang, an explosion really, and never lets up from there. Propulsive and agile, Marc Abbott writes horror but combines it with a compelling, appealingly grounded feel." -Victor LaValle, award-winning author of Lone Women "Sinister Ascension's fast action opening puts us in the middle of the battle between good/evil and immediately invests us in the characters' struggle. Abbott sustains high energy from page one to the end as supernatural beings, not all bad, work with and against humans who have their own surprise abilities to prevent death and possession of friends by a vengeful demon. The effortless, engaging storytelling style of Abbott's writing takes us on a journey worth every moment spent in this thrilling novel." -Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master. "Marc Abbott knows horror. Sinister Ascension is Fright Night meets Re-Animator meets Medium . I didn't know I needed a book with a vampire mad scientist (alchemist?), but Abbott's villain made me nostalgic for Sarandon's Jerry Dandrige and Combs' Herbert West. If you love mash ups of classic horror tropes with a diverse cast of characters, you need to add this book to your TBR pile now." -Michelle Renee Lane, Bram Stoker Award(R) nominated author of Invisible Chains "Abbot writes with impressive dexterity as he weaves a tale filled with the paranormal antagonists we've come to love and characters on a very real journey of discovery, friendship, acceptance, and love." - L. Marie Wood, Award-Winning Author of The Realm Serie s and The Promise Keeper "Marc Abbott's Sinister Ascension gives a deliciously creepy new take on how vampires work, set amid the emotional mayhem of college relationships. Hold on as Abbott takes you on a wild ride across campus where a newly empowered medium takes on a highly motivated blood-sucker! - Carol Gyzander, Bram Stoker Award(R)-nominated author and co-editor of Discontinue if Death Ensues "Gruesome, contemporary, and chilling, Sinister Ascension delivers a frighteningly original take on vampire mythologies from one of the most imaginative speculative fiction writers of our time. Marc Abbott plumbs the darkest depths of the undead to deliver an intimate and unsettling tale of life, death, and everything in between. Not to be missed!" -James Chambers, Bram Stoker Award(R) -winning author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World and On the Night Border Marc L Abbott is an award-winning African American writer from Brooklyn, NY.Growing up, Marc was often in trouble in school for writing short fiction in his notebooks instead of paying attention to lessons in class. But it was clear his love for writing would lead him down a literary path. He self-published his first novel, A Gamble of Faith, in 2004, after a successful 3 year run of the play (which he wrote and directed for the New York City stage) of the same name. He would go on to publish the YA novel, The Hooky Party, in 2007 and then the children's book, Etienne and the Star Dust Express in 2012.In 2013 Marc switched gears and turned to writing horror, a genre he's loved since being introduced to it by his father as a kid. The move paid off and since then, he has published numerous short stories which include "Welcome to Brooklyn, Gabe" which is featured in the Bram Stoker nominated anthology New York State of Fright and "A Marked Man" featured in the Hell's Heart horror anthology. In 2019 he co-authored Hell at the Way Station, which he won two African American Literary Awards (Best Anthology/Best Science Fiction). The sequel, Hell at Brooklyn Tea, was released in January 2021.His goal as a writer