Category Archives: Ghost Stories
We’re still making decisions — and announcing our SPRING 2023 Cover!
We haven’t made our final selections for the Spring 2023 issue of 34 Orchard yet–we’re finishing those up in the next few weeks. HOWEVER, I’M THRILLED TO SHOWCASE OUR COVER, featuring Optic Nerve by Page Sullivan. We’re only three months away from release!
I wanted to take a moment, also, to thank all of our supporters–writers who send in work, those who donate, our reading volunteers, those who have jumped in to save my ass whenever I’ve needed it, and our incredibly loyal readers. When I founded this publication back in 2019, I was going to be happy if I just had a little magazine that ten of my friends read. Never would I have dreamt that so many people would read and enjoy it. It has completely blown past all of my expectations, and we plan to continue to deliver quality experiences for many issues to come.
34 ORCHARD ISSUE 6 IS HERE!
A shocking occurrence unmasks a professor and a ne’er-do-well covers up the truth. A machine exposes the past and lies linger between a dinner’s courses. A bijou boogeyman unleashes a daughter’s rage while ordinary colors and unusual mattresses strip away the pretense of composure. In Issue 6, seventeen artists brood on the secrets we keep, and what happens when they are exposed.
Autumn 2022 features a dark tale from India, disturbing looks at real-life events, emotional pieces by newer voices and scary stories by names that frequently haunt anthology tables of contents. Why, even the cover photo has an unsettling tale behind it! Our sixth issue is what you’ll want waiting when you take your break from prepping for the busy holiday season.
Announcing our Table of Contents!
Cover Art: Ophelia’s Last Secret – Robert Cedergren
Shrike Song – Zachary Kellian
The Beginning of You – Samantha Bryant
The Gritter – Kurt Newton
The Baron of the Rails – Douglas Ford
The Dusk of Day-shapes – David H. West
And Satyrs Shall Dance There – John Berbrich
The Yakshi Next Door – Hareendran Kallinkeel
Head – Mark Steensland
Memory Foam – Rowan Hill
Her Color – Grace Rolen
Step on a Crack – Jake Jerome
Birthday Dinner, May 28. – Jennifer Judge
All Aboard – KC Grifant
Young People in Love – Sam Lesek
Ugly Cinderella – Molly Greer
Insert Name Here – J. Paul Ross
The downloadable PDF is designed so that it can be printed on double-sided paper for easy reading like a print magazine. As always, the issue is free, but there is a donation link should you choose to contribute.
Awesome announcements: “What the Ocean Knows” and “Sea Legs” accepted!
This washed-up eel grass and the ghostly prints of my boots inspired my short story, “What the Ocean Knows.” This photo was taken at Scusset Beach, Sandwich, MA, September 23, 2022.
My newest short story, “What the Ocean Knows,” has been accepted for publication in Sirens Call eZine Issue 60, Winter 2022! In “What the Ocean Knows”: A grieving Mavis finds comfort in afternoons spent talking to the sea… until the day the sea talks back.
This is a free online ’zine that has loads of good fiction, so I’ll let you know when it’s released and you can download your copy.
In addition, my microfiction, “Sea Legs,” was one of thirteen winners in the 2022 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthuluthon Microfiction Contest, and will be published in Lovecraftian Microfiction Volume 8!
In “Sea Legs”: On a North Sea island, Read the rest of this entry
Halloween treats that won’t weigh you down! OUT OF TIME: TRUE PARANORMAL ENCOUNTERS is here—free preview of “Floor Song Tango” below!
If you love true ghost stories, then Timber Ghost Press’ Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters is the anthology you want to unwrap every night along with your favorite full-sized Halloween treat! (And if you DO purchase this book, drop me a line through my Contact page or other means. I have a special goody for you!)
My piece, “Floor Song Tango,” opens the collection, and is about the house I grew up in. Outsiders didn’t know what was going on—mostly because our parents had completely brainwashed us into thinking our experiences were products of our imagination (for the record, I think it was brilliant that they did that. I, for one, never would’ve slept. I’m forever grateful). I’m sure they’d even convinced themselves. That said, when it came time to dump the place after Dad’s passing, things ramped up.
While finally coming clean in “Floor Song Tango” relieved me Read the rest of this entry
It’s here! My story “Wish Bones” in DEAD STARS AND STONE ARCHES
TODAY IS RELEASE DAY! My western cosmic horror story—first shot at that, too!—“Wish Bones,” is now available in Timber Ghost Press’ Dead Stars and Stone Arches: A Collection of Utah Horror.
In 1873 Utah, Quicken offers to shepherd a woman condemned to hang for the massacre of a Mormon traveling party—but what’s waiting for them in the canyon is more terrifying than any crime she could have possibly committed.
Pick up your copy for Kindle or Print here!
“Beware Burning Snow” is now available for free in THE SIRENS CALL eZine!
I’m thrilled to announce that my short story –“Beware Burning Snow” — is now available to read for FREE over at The Sirens Call eZine Issue #58!
In “Beware Burning Snow”: In 1980, ash people warned ten-year-old Sissy of the imminent eruption of Mount St. Helens. But there’s a natural order to things, and now they’re back. Sissy’s not only driven to keep one eye on the mountain—she’s compelled to keep them from haunting her teenaged daughter, too.
This issue is huge and features stories Read the rest of this entry
34 ORCHARD taking submissions now through July 15!
34 Orchard’s Autumn 2022 submissions window is now open! We will only be open from July 1 – 15, 2022, so if you’re planning on submitting, please keep in mind that anything after July 15, 2022, will be deleted unread (and yes, we adjust for all worldwide time zones. So that’s after July 15 at 11:59pm wherever you are).
Please refer to our guidelines for information on how to submit. Check that out here at https://34orchard.com/guidelines/, and we look forward to reading your work!
Looking for an audio scare? My short “February Thaw” is on the DON’T FALL ASLEEP podcast!
I’m thrilled to announce that my short story, “February Thaw”—which was published earlier this year in Dark Moon Books’ Horror Library Volume 7—is now available on Blood Bound Books’ Don’t Fall Asleep podcast!
There are several ways to listen, so Read the rest of this entry
Just in time for summer: dive into THE DEEP HOUSE
I grew up on a lake that was created by flooding abandoned towns, and so we had our share of urban legends about the lake and what lie beneath. When someone on Insta posted about the 2021 movie The Deep House (2021, 1 hour/25mins), I couldn’t resist.
This movie is French-made, but is in English, so no, you won’t be reading subtitles unless you have the CC on.
*MOSTLY SPOILER-FREE – ONLY REFERENCES ARE TO THINGS THAT CAN BE SEEN IN THE TRAILER*
This movie is definitely in my wheelhouse and has echoes of my short story, “Rightfully Mine,” which I wrote back in 2016 and was published in Sanitarium #49 here, in the same year (and although I promise a spoiler-free review, one of the spectral beings totally looks like the woman in my story, at least she does the way I pictured her in my head). I can’t recommend this enough—The Deep House gets high marks for Read the rest of this entry
