On the edge of your seat

"The place felt haunted. Truly haunted. And for that brief moment, Emma believed in ghosts."

This sentence, written by Vincent Tobia, is from his novella, "An Email from Kyle."

The plot spins around a bartender from Rob's Tavern in Colton, Pennsylvania, who unlike his custom, takes a drink and tells an old patron the mysterious story of his childhood friend named Kyle Freeman. On a table in the tavern sits a laptop computer filled with dark secrets about Kyle that are privy to only a few residents of Colton.

"Not a soul to see or a ghost to boast about a drink that was drank by the innkeeper's host."

Tobia's mesmerizing, poetic prose entices the reader to delve into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the young boy.

"Colton is a fictitious town," Tobia said, "but I describe the streets and surroundings much like those in Palmerton where I grew up and went to school."

Tobia, who began writing for publication three years ago, became fascinated with the "what ifs" when he watched horror movies.

"What if the shark killed everyone at the end of 'Jaws,' or what if Freddie from 'Nightmare on Elm Street' or Jason from 'Friday the 13th' was the last man standing at the end of their movies?"

His first published work was "Bloom," a story about a young couple who is abducted and forced to play a deadly game. As they wonder why they are held captive, Tobia pulls you in so close to the characters that you feel you are held prisoners along with them.

"I took a film study class in Palmerton High School and we watched Alfred Hitchcock classics: 'Rear Window,' 'Psycho' and 'Vertigo.' What I love about Hitchcock and what I do in my books is slowly build suspense until it becomes very intense and then pick up the pace of the action until the very end. This technique is different than what you have with modern horror. You see or read the evil or the monster right away to give audiences and readers immediacy. That's what they want today. Give it to me right now," he said.

"In Hitchcock's Psycho, the bloody murder in the shower doesn't happen until you've watched nearly an hour and a half of the film."

Tobia, who works in Allentown and lives in Palmerton, is married to Chelsea Holthausen. They have a 2-year-old son, Luca, and a new baby on the way. He wrote his first book, "The Dead Divide Us," just a few years ago.

"The end of days, iconic and grim. The curtain drops then all fall in."

These words describe a post-apocalyptic scene in the book inspired from one of Tobia's favorite horror films, "The Night of the Living Dead."

One scene from the classic black and white movie shows an absurd newscast that warns viewers that zombies are roaming the countryside searching to kill humans and eat their brains.

Another line from "The Dead Divide Us" questions the integrity of the media.

"I believe the news is lying to you. This is more dangerous than you are being led to believe."

A deadly disease spreads across the country from east to west. An interesting approach Tobia takes with the plot progression is his chapter sequences. His main characters are brothers, Robert and Paul, who confront the disease from different time zones. In the odd number chapters, Robert, living in the East, must fight the disease face to face while Paul, who lives in the West, knows that the virus, which causes the infected to attack the uninfected, is coming so he gets the chance to prepare for the onset.

"So Robert can warn Paul about the disease and tell him what to expect. Their communication helps build the pace of the suspense until the final chapters when the action moves to high speed so the reader can't put the book down and keeps turning pages."

Tobia's fourth self-publication is a collection of 12 short stories titled, "The Things of Dreams, Fears, and Wonders." Mystery and horror are the genres with pinches of irony thrown into the outcomes.

His writing is not all about artistic expression.

"Self-publishing can be expensive and most writers don't make much money," he said. "To save on expenses, my wife now edits my writing and she also designed the cover for "An Email from Kyle."

He markets his books through Amazon and signing events. Recently, he appeared at the Lehigh Valley Comic-Con, where he and several independent authors signed their works during a convention of comic book and fantasy writers.

Tobia invites you into what he calls his "universe" of mayhem and malaise.

Readers beware. Once you step in, you may never step out.