BLOG
Need a Last Min. Gift? Try These Books!
Last Minute Books to Buy for The Book Lover in Your Life!
It’s almost time for the holidays, and if you haven’t had a chance to pick up a book for the book lover in your life, here are some incredible selections that you can still get in time for gift giving!
Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic Anthology
Description:
Are you sure something’s wrong? Or are you just hysterical?
Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic is rage-made-art, an unsettling meditation that also serves as a charitable platform to support abortion rights in the United States. Inside are twenty-six haunting speculative tales that explore the social, political, and personal dimensions of hysteria.
Women who are convicted of sexual transgressions are forced to become living seed mounds.
A lonely young man makes his perfect girl out of caulk and endeavors to teach her about the wonders of the world.
The poor barter for health insurance by serving as living batteries for the elite.
In this anthology of feminist dark fiction, presented by CHM, author and editor Jolie Toomajan has curated a collection of nightmares from both award-winning and emerging writers, including Hailey Piper, Christi Nogle, Joe Koch, Kelsea Yu, Laura Cranehill, and more.
Proceeds will benefit the Chicago Abortion Fund
Pre-Approved for Hauntings: And Other Stories by Patrick Barb
Description:
In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term.
A young couple is reunited with their lost son whose favorite fuzzy bear suit connects him to the ghost of a vengeful mama bear while he's alone in the forest.
A jaded screenwriter can’t escape the haunted screenplay that’s ruined his career.
A man returns to his small hometown, where the people are gone and the trees have taken over.
A Slasher and Final Girl brother-sister duo match wits and blades against a sentient, dimension-hopping apocalypse at a never-ending summer camp.
From rural backwoods to Park Slope brownstones, Barb's characters face impossible, awful situations, testing their inner strength and understanding of reality. Covering quiet horror, weird fiction, supernatural horror, slasher horror, topical dark fiction, and more, these stories spotlight supposedly familiar terrors and fears in new and unexpected ways.
Realtor Caleb Birch is on the precipice of earning everything he’s ever dreamed: a partner position at his prestigious realty firm, financial stability that would make his mother proud, and a respectable professional reputation amongst Los Angeles’s wealthy and elite. All he has to do is nail his open house and secure a contract.
Enter a mysterious woman with an air of familiarity claiming to be the perfect buyer. Her ruse dissolves revealing nefarious intentions and a twisted game that Caleb must win to survive the night. But she isn’t the only threat lurking behind closed doors. There are skeletons in the closet, and they’re coming out to play.
College Macabre: An Exhibition of Art Horror
Description:
Your work will betray your secrets. Obsessions, hidden desires, and desperate wishes all woven into the fabric of what we make. A sculpture crafted with longing, a painting of a dream just barely articulated, the craving that cannot speak its name buried in a short film’s score. Old want only spoken aloud through someone else’s voice. Need etched on someone else’s lips for all the world to see. A false self created for the audience to claim as its own, still hiding what it knows.
Through these eighteen stories, dread is the medium of choice, winding its way through each unsettling and terrifying tale about human creation, the artistic follies and triumphs we imbue with so much meaning. You will find artists and audiences alike grappling with confrontations beyond their comprehension, works that require more than careful consideration—sometimes a little bit of blood is necessary. Art is alive if you are. Inside these pages you will be asked to open yourself up like a wound and expose your mind to the darker side of our oeuvre.
Confirmed Sightings: A Triple Cryptid Creature Feature
Horror fans and cryptid lovers unite! Grab your popcorn and candy, settle into your seat, and make sure to silence your phone for this triple creature feature!
A Piasa for Christmas by Bridget D. Brave | Kaycee has returned to her hometown and finally found her soulmate in the most unexpected package: a transdimensional, all-powerful creature once trapped in a temporal prison. Can true love prevail between this headstrong aspiring influencer and an ancient immortal god?
eyeofmoth.exe by P.L. McMillan | When the crew of the CRS Piasa encounter a space station drowning in madness caused by a creature from Pre-Calamity Earth, they become desperate to get back to their ship and warn the Company in a race against the clock.
Once Upon a Time in Turu by Ryan Marie Ketterer | When a jackalope from the good part of town ends up dead, Policefoot Orli is tasked with solving the bizarre murder before the already tense town of Turu erupts in cryptid fury. But it won't be as easy as it looks when all the usual suspects are very unusual themselves.
In Memory of Exoskeletons by Rebecca Cuthbert
“Cuthbert's chapbook celebrates the domestic, seemingly delicate spheres of women's lives. From house witches to cryptids to body horror, this collection probes the edges of the speculative poetry genre. Supple and lyrical, these poems are cunning, intelligent, and tender.”
-Holly Lyn Walrath, author, The Smallest of Bones
Epiphany by JV Gaghs
When pregnant Estela learns that her wife Eva has hanged herself from an oak tree, she can't believe she would have done so voluntarily.
Eva, a journalist obsessed with the crimes of the so-called Garden of Horrors, was about to release a podcast about the convicted killer, Coral, who always maintained it wasn't her who slaughtered her family and her missing new born, but an evil forest spirit.
As Estela dives deep into the recordings, emails, and letters from Eva's investigation, in Coral's retelling of the murders, she will be forced to face a simple question that could cost her life as well as her unborn baby's:
"Do you believe in magic?"
Dust and Deliverance by Benjamin DeHaan
Description:
Paulo, a father, high school counselor and recent widower, searches for his lost daughter Adriana who has become bound to the cocaine drug cartel. Adriana, daughter of Paulo, runs away from higher education and seeks fortunes and a life of paradise. Sam, gaming addict and divorced Denver Police officer, blames his failed marriage on his wife’s misunderstanding. Harold, protector of Adriana and ex-opera singer of Mexico City, yearns for nothing more than to get his singing voice back.
San Isabel National Park, Colorado, a place where four broken people collide and are set free.
This is a story of the heart’s deliverance.
Hunger and Other Dark Tales by Benjamin DeHaan
Collected together in one volume for the first time, five chilling horror stories by Benjamin DeHaan
Cats of the Pacific Northwest by J. W. Donley
Description:
David, an unsure young man, is trying to figure out how to be a "man" in the modern age. Well, at least what his girlfriend, Emma, expects of him.
When she suggests a backpacking trip out on the Olympic Penninsula, he jumps at the opportunity to demonstrate his worth. But, once they get out into the wilderness, they are quickly lost. Now they are out of food and beginning to starve, when a strange couple of cats cross their path.
The Darkness Beyond the Stars: An Anthology of Space Horror edited by P.L. McMillan
Description:
Beyond this rock we call home, horror awaits. Meteors slash through the sky, illuminating terrors beyond our wildest imagination. In the furthest reaches of the coldest cosmic expanse, there are things waiting, whose very existence our minds are not equipped to comprehend.
Can you survive the final frontier?
Featuring 14 stories from some of the best up-and-coming talents in the genre, The Darkness Beyond The Stars is an anthology of space-themed horror that seeks to twist humanity’s greatest aspirations into our greatest fears
Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary edited by Jacob Steven Mohr
Evil lurks within the pages of Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror...
A video game walkthrough harbors sinister secrets. A grieving sister’s letters blur the line between alive and dead (and alive again). A chain of frightening emails is the only evidence that a young woman ever walked the earth. And a series of journals pursue a dwindling wagon train marching into Hell—or someplace worse.
Haunting podcast transcripts. Blood-soaked police reports. Bewildering court findings. Brace yourself for an anthology that resurrects the chilling power of epistolary fiction—where ordinary documents transform into vessels of absolute terror.
Spanning 21 original tales blending the classic gothic horror of Stoker’s Dracula with the contemporary dread of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca, Dead Letters contains both short sharp shocks and prolonged sojourns into the macabre—and promises to haunt your sleepless nights.
Featuring thrilling contributions from Gemma Files, Ai Jiang, Gordon B. White, J.A.W. McCarthy, and Red Lagoe, and curated with precision by Jacob Steven Mohr (The Unwelcome and Nightfall and Other Dangers) Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror solidifies its place among the pantheon of must-read horror anthologies.
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future by Christi Nogle
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future collects Christi Nogle’s finest psychological and supernatural horror stories. Their rural and small-town characters confront difficult pasts and look toward promising but often terrifying futures. The pieces range in genre from psychological horror through science fiction and ghost stories, but they all share fundamental qualities: feminist themes, an emphasis on voice, a focus on characters’ psychologies and a sense of the gothic in contemporary life. Stories here may recall Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Shirley Jackson’s “The Renegade,” or Kelly Link’s “Stone Animals.”
Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia edited by Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle
Wilted Pages is a new Dark Academia anthology filled with gloomy buildings, hidden histories, secret societies, lurking shadows, futuristic boarding schools, corrupt systems, gothic aesthetics, occult learning and forbidden texts… And that's only your first semester.
Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles
Aboard the ship Scylla, there is no future or past. Jaq, her fickle lover Lily, and their all-female crew exist in an endless present. It's better this way. At least it keeps Lily by Jaq's side, where she belongs. But the meddling gods care little for Jaq's longing, and despite her protective rituals, their punishment arrives all the same: A man, adrift on the open ocean. Delivered to snatch Lily from Jaq's arms forever. Jaq knows what to do. She's lost Lily before. Her lover will return-when this interloper, this distraction, is snuffed out. But Jaq's murderous schemes may not be enough. The intruder's presence infects her crew with a plague her spells cannot cure: memory. And as the women recall how they came to Scylla, their minds bend one by one towards revenge.
The Disappearance of Tom Nero by TJ Price
The Disappearance of Tom Nero concerns a young man's investigation into the impossible disappearance of a friend. As he learns more about the circumstances and searches for answers, the re-emergence of a metatextual horror from legend puts not only him, but his new lover, in jeopardy.
The story explores themes of contagious and invasive thoughts, disappearances, as well as the relationship between reality and the written word. It is uniquely structured, with a variety of clues hidden in the text for the savvy reader—but beware, for the horror might not only affect the characters in the story...it may also affect the reader themselves.
Ahh! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of 90’s Horror edited by Chelsea Pumpkins
With fourteen horror stories set during the decade of flannel shirts and neon dolphin Trapper Keepers, Ahh! That's What I Call Horror features a PHAT (pretty horrific and terrifying) collection of totally rad horror and weird fiction authors exploring the darker side of what many consider a time of relative peace and prosperity. With Communism falling and Clear Channel rising, the horror of the 1990s requires peeling back layers of safe, sanitized media to reveal the nightmares waiting beneath. When it comes to '90s horror, this is one anthology guaranteed to be all that and a bag of haunted chips.
You won't need a dial-up connection to reach the beyond in this time-warp to the '90s. With undead grunge rock icons, menacing action figures, family sitcoms gone very wrong, and more: these terror tales will return you to the end of the old millennium.
How will you get back?
Like, who says you will?
Howls from the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror edited by Christopher O’Halloran
“Cuthbert's chapbook celebrates the domestic, seemingly delicate spheres of women's lives. From house witches to cryptids to body horror, this collection probes the edges of the speculative poetry genre. Supple and lyrical, these poems are cunning, intelligent, and tender.”
-Holly Lyn Walrath, author, The Smallest of Bones
Hungers as Old as This Land by Zachary Rosenberg
Description:
The settlement of Grey's Bluffs is a prosperous town. An independent community dwelling in the shadows of the mountains known only as The Hungers.
Esther Foxman and Siobhan O'Clery have grown up in Grey's Bluffs, thriving out on the western territories in the aftermath of the Civil War. Devoted to one another and their home, the two set out to complete a regular pact at the Hungers to ensure that Grey's Bluffs continues to prosper.
Cyril Redstone is a man who knows death well. Becoming a mercenary after the Civil War, Cyril leads the marauding Blackhawks from one slaughter to the next. Hired to destroy Grey's Bluffs, Cyril cares little for morality, nor that he owes its founder his life.
Esther and Siobhan are left to defend the only home they have ever known from the Blackhawks, their confrontation driving them deep into the mountains.
Where the darkest secrets of the Hungers await them.
The Long Shalom by Zachary Rosenberg
Alan Aldenberg is a down-on-his-luck detective. With dwindling fortunes and the worry his old friends in the Jewish mob will pay him a visit, the last thing he expects is a visit from his old flame.
But when the wrong Shalom brings Erika Nakamura back to his door, Alan learns that innocent people are missing all through New York. Agreeing to the job for the cash, Alan soon discovers a conspiracy reaching through the city's halls of power and not all of them are human. Joining forces with old friends, Alan faces a dark alliance of politicians, the mob, and abominable beings that transcend space and time.
With the fate of New York in the balance, Alan must be prepared for nightmares beyond human comprehension.
That may even make him face the long Shalom
Description:
It’s just an average night at the Ink Tank, the tattoo shop in Austin, Texas, where Brynn works as a tattoo artist. After a long shift, all she wants to do is head home, pop a few pills from the fresh bottle of Roxicodone in her jacket pocket, and slip into a nice buzz. Her plans crumble when she’s abducted by her convict father, Alan, and forced into the road trip from hell: a cross-country trek to the Rocky Mountains and the shelter he built years ago to protect his family from the monsters living in his head, the monsters he says will erupt from the earth at any minute—the feeders. With each mile he unravels further, thrusting Brynn back into the childhood nightmare she thought she’d escaped forever. Alan is paranoid, and he’s definitely dangerous—but is he crazy? In this novel, we find that truth is not always what it seems, and that some secrets are better left buried.
The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens
Description:
This camping trip is Chris’s last chance to repair his relationship with his daughters, Kayla and Emma. Nothing’s been the same since they lost their mom. But things go wrong as soon as they get to the mountains.
When they make camp, nine-year-old Emma runs off into the woods. By the time they find her, there’s a snowstorm rolling in. And Emma’s leg is badly broken. They need to find shelter, fast.
They think they’re safe when they come across an old farmstead. The woman inside welcomes them in from the howling blizzard and straps up Emma’s leg.
They settle down for the night, but when Chris wakes at dawn and looks over . . . Emma is gone.
And this family’s nightmare is only just beginning.
Remember the '90s? Well...the town of Demise, North Dakota doesn't, and they're living in the year 1997. That's because an alien worm hitched a ride on a comet, crash-landed in the town's trailer park, and is now infecting animals with a memory-loss-inducing bite-and right before Christmas! Now it's up to nineteen-year-old Realene and her best friend Nate to stop the spread and defeat the worms before the entire town loses its mind. The only things standing in the way are their troubled pasts, a doomsday cult, and an army of infected prairie dogs.
Our annual anthology, where the best genre fiction is brought together under one roof. Welcome to Sley House
Happy Reading!
Best of Horror 2023: Books and Movies
Best of Horror 2023: Books and Movies
This year celebrated so many incredible moments in horror! I read tons of thrilling books and watched plenty of spooky movies. Here are some of my favorites from 2023 (Please note this list is by no means complete. This is simply a list of some of my favorites, but there are TONS of incredible books published this past year!):
BOOKS:
HOW LOVELY TO BE A WOMAN by TIFFANY MICHELLE BROWN
Description:
A woman desperate to achieve the life she’s always dreamed of orders an AI baby online. Mounting workplace misogyny helps an introvert unlock her innate power. A woman obsessed with skincare goes to great lengths to rid her face of imperfections. A frat boy looking to score gets much more than he bargained for when a sexy coed turns the tables on him. Seeking relief from the pressures of everyday life, a woman checks into a hotel that caters to her dark predilections.
Equal parts heartbreaking and grotesque, How Lovely To Be a Woman: Stories and Poems explores the everyday horrors of womanhood and delights in the monstrous ways women adapt, evolve, fight back, and survive.
WHAT I LOVED:
This book is a powerful and intense look at womanhood that soaks into your pores from the first page. Tiffany tackles a variety of beautifully haunting ideas that will resonate with a large audience. Fans of feminist horror and daring short story collections will enjoy this read! Buy it here!
MAEVE FLY by CJ LEEDE
Description:
By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.
By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.
But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.
Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the page
At this point, only a lobotomy will be able to remove the grotesque images invoked by this book from my brain. This is a BRUTAL read, but extremely compelling! A dark and twisted tale that dives not only into the monstrosity of a killer, but a universal desire to find companionship and acceptance. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you made it through KIN by Kealan Patrick Burke, you’ll be able to handle MAEVE FLY! Buy it here!
I WANT CANDY by AZZURRA NOX
Description:
A family of witches. A girl in love.
Hidden away in an old, dilapidated Victorian home, the Dresden witches have been making their prized candies for years. Their secret ingredient would make most people squeamish, but for Lollipop it's just another typical day at home. Lolli spends her days making candies and longing for her classmate Stella. As her infatuation for Stella deepens, Lollipop begins to question her loyalty to her family. Will she choose love or will she do anything it takes to preserve the Dresden legacy at any costs? Does she have what it takes to be the next head witch or will her powers never be strong enough?
Stella Morris has recently moved to Arcana, California after a tragic incident involving her mother. Stella is both beautiful and popular, but she harbors a darkness in her that threatens to make her whole world come undone.
This coming of age queer romance is drenched in blood and sugar.
Why I loved it:
This was a super fast read that pushed the horror boundaries! I kept thinking, there’s no way Azzurra is going to go there, and then, BAM! It’s a lot of story packed into a tiny word count complete with a gripping coming-of-age tale that fans of queer romance and witchcraft will enjoy! BUY IT HERE!
OUT THERE SCREAMING Edited by JORDAN PEELE
Description:
A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.
Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.
Why I Loved It:
Each story carves a place in your mind and takes up residency. It’s packed with unsettling moments, memorable characters, and powerful themes that hit hard. Everyone should check it out! But it here!
MOVIES
SLOTHERHOUSE
Description:
Senior Emily Young wants to be elected sorority president. She adopts a cute sloth, thinking it will help her win, but a string of fatalities implicates the sloth.
Why I Loved It:
Look, it’s a movie about a pissed off sloth hunting down sorority sisters. It knows what it is and everyone is in on the joke, which makes it SO much fun! Fans of VelociPastor will certainly get a kick out of this comedy horror!
ATTACHMENT
Description:
Maja, a Danish has-been actress, falls in love with Leah, a Jewish academic from London. Leah suffers a mysterious seizure, and Maja returns with her to London. There, she meets Leah's mother, Chana, a woman who could hold dark secrets.
When I looked this up, it said it came out in 2022, but maybe it got its US release in 2023? I don’t know for sure, but I watched it this year, and I loved it! It’s dark and harrowing but lovely in a haunting manner that will stick with you long after the credits roll. Fans of character driven horror that is more emotional in its approach to storytelling will enjoy this movie!
UNWELCOME
Description:
Married couple Maya and Jamie escape their urban nightmare to the tranquility of rural Ireland only to discover malevolent and murderous goblins lurking in the gnarled, ancient wood at the foot of their new garden.
This is another that said it was released in 2022, but I saw it this year. Maybe, again, it was released in the US in 2023? Either way, it’s 100% worth a watch! I certainly didn’t see where it was going until the thrilling climax and even then…wow!
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITES FROM 2023?
BLACK FRIDAY SALE!
SALE SALE SALE!
I’m slashing prices on two of my books!
FOR A LIMITED TIME:
Shiver will be $2.99 on Kindle and $8.99 for paperback!
Open House is FREE on Kindle Direct and will be $3.99 for paperback!
Open House:
Realtor Caleb Birch is on the precipice of earning everything he’s ever dreamed: a partner position at his prestigious realty firm, financial stability that would make his mother proud, and a respectable professional reputation amongst Los Angeles’s wealthy and elite. All he has to do is nail his open house and secure a contract.
Enter a mysterious woman with an air of familiarity claiming to be the perfect buyer. Her ruse dissolves revealing nefarious intentions and a twisted game that Caleb must win to survive the night. But she isn’t the only threat lurking behind closed doors. There are skeletons in the closet, and they’re coming out to play.
SHIVER:
Grab a cozy blanket, pour some bourbon in your hot chocolate, and gather around the fireplace. It’s about to get chilly! This un-brrr-lievable anthology presents 30 spooky stories exploring the depths of madness and terror unique to the cold. Whether it’s a chilling twist on the final girl trope, a mysterious Japanese spirit knocking on a cabin door, or something sinister born out of urine soaked snow, this frigid collection is packed with tales that will send a shiver down your spine. Get ready. A blizzard is coming.
Pre-Sale Begins! Static Screams by Nico Bell
It’s Time for E-BOOK Pre-Orders!
Static Scream is now available for pre-sale in most locations where you buy books! Here is a list of the places currently running the pre-order:
Barnes & Noble
Rakuten Kobo
Apple Books
Scribd
Tolino
Overdrive
Baker & Taylor
Odilo
Vivlio
Borrow Box
Smashwords
Gardners
Amazon won’t be able to sell pre-orders until closer to publication date, which is MARCH 6, 2024!
I’m also working on getting it available on Godless.
Happy Reading!
COVER ART REVEAL: Static Screams by Nico Bell
Cover Art: Static Screams by Nico Bell
Publication Date: March 6, 2024
I’m thrilled to share the cover art to my new sci-fi horror novella scheduled for release March 6, 2024! Thank you to the talented A.A. Medina at Fabled Beast Design for making this image!
Carmen is on the brink of insanity. Her untethered mind twists reality into a nightmare filled with relentless hallucinations. Despite countless doctors, she can’t escape her delusions brought forth by her tragic past.
.
Enter Dr. Barbara MacDonald, a brilliant psychologist proposing an innovative and experimental treatment program. Dr. Barbara ignites the last flicker of hope within Carmen, but hope is a double edged sword as the doctor has her own sinister motives.
.
Darkness and deception converge, forcing Carmen to choose: surrender to the weight of her trauma or unravel Dr. Barbara’s menacing intentions before it’s too late.
Publication Date: March 6, 2024
My Mental Illness, My Broken Brain, and My New Etsy Shop!
How it all connects:
I have no idea what’s wrong with me. In 2008, I was formally diagnosed with anxiety and depression, put on medication, and started therapy. Later, I battled my eating disorder through two weeks of outpatient treatment and two years of private therapy. Then, my brain broke. Well, I think it was always broken, but due to years of therapy, I now had the agency and vocabulary to express that what I was going through wasn’t “normal.” It was simply my normal.
My mind is a hamster running on her wheel. It’s a million ants crawling under my skin. It’s a never ending nightmare factory that keeps me from sleeping. It also fuels obsessive hobbies. I have no idea what the official diagnosis would be for my brain. One therapist said with great certainty that I have ADHD. A week later, another therapist said with complete resolve that I don’t have ADHD. Autism? I wouldn’t be surprised. Bipolar? I don’t know. I’ve lived with this my whole life, and, honestly, I’m at the point where I think it might just be for the best if I accept it and embrace the positive side of things.
Enter my obsessive hobby of embroidery. I’ve been doing it for years and it’s taken over my house. I have finished hoop art hanging on the walls, propped up on my writing desk, and even displayed in the bathroom. They’re literally outnumbering creatures in the house five to one.
So, I’ve started an Etsy shop! It’s called Bury Your Thread and it has a variety of spooky, sci-fi-, abstract, pop culture, and holiday work. I’m going to be adding more and more as time goes on, but the initial inventory is up! It’s all newly created as my anxiety has been on high alert lately and my hands need to do something, so these designs are all freshly conjured from my brain!
I’m still working out how Etsy works, so there may be a few hiccups at first. Thank you for your patience!
If you want to see what mental illness looks like for me, check out my Etsy shop!
https://buryyourthread.etsy.com
Stoker Eligible Works by Nico Bell
Stoker Eligible Stories
It’s that time of year! Writers nervously get their eligible stories organized and ready to release into the world in hopes someone will like them enough to nominate them for an award.
Like many authors, it’s my dream to win a Bram Stoker Award, which is arguably the most coveted in the horror writing industry. I’ve never been nominated. I’ve never had a book on the recommended reading list, but I’ll never stop hoping!
With that said, here are my eligible stories. Note that my scifi horror novella Static will also be eligible, but it doesn’t come out until October.
If anything looks interesting and you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, email me (nicobellfiction@gmail.com) and I’ll send you a free copy! Also, I will be reading each of the short fiction pieces and excerpts from Open House on my Substack podcast in the coming weeks, so make sure you head over there and sign up for updates!
Realtor Caleb Birch is on the precipice of earning everything he’s ever dreamed: a partner position at his prestigious realty firm, financial stability that would make his mother proud, and a respectable professional reputation amongst Los Angeles’s wealthy and elite. All he has to do is nail his open house and secure a contract. Enter a mysterious woman with an air of familiarity claiming to be the perfect buyer. Her ruse dissolves revealing nefarious intentions and a twisted game that Caleb must win to survive the night. But she isn’t the only threat lurking behind closed doors. There are skeletons in the closet, and they’re coming out to play.
Open House is eligible for the LONG FICTION category.
Originally featured in Ooze: Little Bursts of Body Horror
Body horror is best when it comes in little bursts. In this novella-length collection full of gross, grimy, creepy, crawly, bubbling, bursting fun, what you'll be surprised by is how much heart and story can be packed into such small packages. With twenty up-and-coming authors putting forth their best short works of body horror, be prepared to be smacked in the face with a combination of the classic and the new. There's plenty that you hope for when you pick up a book of body horror---transformation, dissolution, decay---but there are also a delightful number of heartfelt and surprising twists on the idea. Every story is under 2,500 words and many are shorter.
Chrysalis is a seeping menopause story about the power of joyful transformation and eligible for the SHORT FICTION category.
Originally published in HorrorScope: A Zodiac Anthology
Aries. Taurus. Gemini. Cancer. Leo. Virgo. Libra. Scorpio. Sagittarius. Capricorn. Aquarius. Pisces.
It is said that destiny is determined by the stars. The signs of the Zodiac can predict who you’ll love, who you’ll hate, and who you’ll become. But the fates written in the stars are not always kind. Sometimes, they’re terrifying.
In Horrorscopes, you will find 36 dark fantasy poems and short stories all inspired by the Zodiac Signs. Within these pages, you’ll face killer goats, twisted twins and deadly fishies. So, open this book, if you dare, and pray that you weren’t born under a bad sign.
The One Who Came to Save Her is a devious folk horror about revenge and eligibly for the SHORT FICTION category.
To recommend a work for the Stoker Award:
Go to HWA website.
Open the Members Only link.
Log In
Click the red “Recommend Work” button on the right panel.
Publication Day! Open House by Nico Bell
Open House by Nico Bell
It’s publication day! Thank you so much to PyschoToxin Press for giving me this opportunity!
Interview with Horror Author Yolanda Sfetsos
Interview with Yolanda Sfetsos, author of Suffer the Darkness
1. What was the inspiration behind your new book?
The idea for this story started with a simple premise: what if a mother’s desperate need to find her missing daughter becomes a nightmare capable of destroying her family? And then morphed into: what would happen if the girl who came back wasn’t the same as the one who disappeared? Sometimes, what you wish for the most can turn out to be a total nightmare. I wanted to explore the darkest paths of these two scenarios.
2. You described your novella as 'a small-town tale about a desperate mother's attempt to protect her family from her apathetic eldest daughter', can you expand on that?
Molly is a teenager who goes missing in the woods and when she comes back, her mother, Kae, slowly starts to realise that something isn’t quite right. But having her back home is everything she wanted... until it’s not. And actually becomes a dark descent into the monstrous unknown connected to an old urban legend about the woods in their town.
3. If you were only allowed three adjectives to describe your book, what would they be?
I’d definitely have to say: tragic, distressing and unforseen.
4. What came first Molly, the grieving mother, or the creepy woods?
For me, it always starts with the creepy woods. Then Molly turned up, and I wanted to tell her story. Until I actually started writing and discovered that this was going to be her mother’s dark tale. One that pushes her love to the limits.
5. If your book was made into a movie, who would play the leads?
Author Yolanda Sfetsos
Oh, wow. You know, I didn’t think about this until you asked. But I think Rachel McAdams would make a great Kae, Paul Rudd could definitely be Roy, and Kiernan Shipka would make a terrific Molly.
6. Are you a plotter, a pantser, or a combination of both?
I’m definitely a pantser, but I take a LOT of notes. Sometimes, when I start writing I only know the beginning, other times I know exactly where everything is going. Writing a story is always such an exciting, daunting, and magical experience. I love every minute of it and always look forward to that moment when everything clicks into place.
7. Authors always have the best (and most disturbing!) Google search histories. What kind of research, if any, did you do for this book?
I did quite a bit of research about the myths and folklore surrounding creatures/demons that live in the woods. It’s quite the rabbit hole and the more I read, the more my own myth started to come together. I also had to look up the dates for 2014 and 2015 that I was using, as well as the weather. A lot of boring details that were essential for me to know/double check.
8. How much research do you do for your stories?
I actually do quite a bit of research before I even sit down to start writing. And then, I usually have to do another round of research during the revision because other things come up. Or new things pop up that need to be checked. I’ve definitely looked up some pretty strange and even questionable things in the past. But hey, I write horror so that’s expected, right? 😬
You can visit Yolanda’s website at www.yolandasfetsos.com to find out the latest news or catch up on her blog posts. You can also find her on Twitter https://twitter.com/yolandasfetsos/.
Suffer the Darkness will be released by DarkLit Press on June 18, 2023.