Category Archives: horror short stories
“Mating Call” now available in PARabNORMAL
It’s here! How pretty are these copies of parABnormal Magazine’s December 2021 issue? The issue contains my story “Mating Call”—I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say there are angry bird ghosts involved!
This is the only place you can get this story, so if you’re on the hunt for something new of mine, you can order a PDF or print direct from the publisher.
PRINT–$12.00– https://www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/parabnormal-magazine-december-2021-edited-by-h-david-blalock
Or on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3Kx4h9H
(Note: You’re better off ordering from the publisher’s website. They are faster and more efficient, in this case, and the printed books come beautifully packaged in nice brown paper—at least, my four that I ordered did. It was really a nice experience).
My copies arrived professionally-wrapped in sturdy, high quality brown paper. It was like receiving an antique book. Beautiful!
It’s GENERATION X-ED Pub Day!
I’m not so thrilled about that god-awful sweater I’m wearing in that photo, but I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that Generation X-ed, which contains my short story “Nothing to See Here,” is now available in dust jacket hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook!
Crammed with all sorts of throwback goodies and the original collection written completely by those of us who lived through them, this should definitely be on every GenXer’s shelf (and makes a great gift for that impossible-to-buy-for GenXer in your life because JARTS are hard to find)! Here’s a look at the stellar TOC!
In From the Cold – Adrian Ludens Read the rest of this entry
Gild the Holiday Weekend with the KINDLE release of COLOUR OUT OF DEATHLEHEM for charity!
Happy Christmas Eve! The Kindle Edition of Grinning Skull Press’ holiday horror anthology Colour Out of Deathlehem, which contains my story “Feeding the Babies” (if you know what Treevenge is, you’ll love this!) is now available—best of all, 100% of the $4.99 purchase goes to The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
This is a very worthy cause, and I worked long and hard on a brand new story just for you in the hopes that you’d all lend a hand!
The true spirit of Christmas is really in giving. If you’ve got $4.99 to spare, have a Kindle or the app on your phone or PC and love scary Christmas stories? Consider treating yourself while giving to someone else.
Edited by Harrison Graves and Michael Evans, here’s what’s in store:
Welcome back to Deathlehem, where… Read the rest of this entry
34 ORCHARD Issue 4 is LIVE!
Issue 4 is up! You can get your copy here: https://34orchard.com/issues/issue-4/
There is so much fine work in this issue, our largest yet. Don’t miss it!
The perfect accompaniment to “Carving Grace” …
Acapella group VoicePlay performs “Hoist the Colours.”
Our month of celebrating figureheads has come to an end. If you’d like to know more about real figureheads and their mythology, there are loads of resources—I didn’t spend any time this month talking about the real things because honestly, there are experts out there who have researched and published information that is much more eloquent and accurate than anything I could’ve written; there’s no point in paraphrasing something someone else did much better.
Here are some links if you’d like to learn more about figureheads and what it requires to make them:
The Historic England Blog: A Brief History of Ships’ Figureheads
https://heritagecalling.com/2019/01/31/a-brief-history-of-ships-figureheads/
Martin Jeffrey—Ship’s Figurehead Carving (he’s a real figurehead carver)
Daily Art Magazine: Wild Women of the Waves – Art of Ships Figureheads
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/art-of-ships-figureheads/
Need a little bit of atmosphere to take with you? Here’s an acapella version of “Hoist the Colours” by a group called VoicePlay that’s absolutely unforgettable.
VoicePlay’s rendition of “Hoist the Colours”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8NEsx9m58
“Hoist the Colors,” while many think it’s a legitimate sea chantey, is not. It was written by Hans Zimmer for one of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean films, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy. It’s so good it’s really hard to tell it’s not authentic—and I think it’s a perfect fit with “Carving Grace.”
Haven’t read “Carving Grace” yet? If you’d like to—and you’d like an anthology full of lots of other fun creepy creatures—you can pick up a copy of Wicked Creatures here: https://bit.ly/WickedC
Announcing the Table of Contents for the Fall 2021 issue of 34 ORCHARD!
We’re thrilled to announce the Table of Contents for the Fall 2021 issue of 34 Orchard, which will be released on November 10, 2021!
This is our biggest issue yet. Here’s what we’ve got in store for you: Read the rest of this entry
My seaside ghost tale “No Sweet Bird” accepted at CROW & CROSS KEYS!
A lantern below decks on the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT.
“Carving Grace” isn’t my first story about terror by the sea. Although I didn’t grow up near the ocean—I grew up in the middle of the woods by a lake instead—I have always been fascinated by all things salty. While it probably had something to do with the fact that, because of my dad the English teacher, I read both The Old Man in the Sea and Moby Dick before the age of ten, I truly fell in love with the sea’s raw atmospheric power when I read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in high school.
2020 was my best writing summer ever—I had every evening after work and weekends to do nothing but write. One story I’d always Read the rest of this entry
Meet Bessie (aka Willow): my very own figurehead!
My husband got me this figurehead as a gift in celebration of “Carving Grace”‘s acceptance. How cool is THAT?
If you’ve been reading my posts for the last month, then you know that earlier this year I wrote a short story called “Carving Grace,” which deals with vengeful ship figureheads coming to life and searching for unhappy souls. In order to write that dark love story, I pretty much had to live and breathe in an imagined town by the sea and read all about figureheads every day for at least two months. We even visited the figurehead exhibit at Mystic Seaport (for Valentine’s Day, no less, but Nathan’s always Read the rest of this entry
The stories in Neil D’Silva’s RIGHT BEHIND YOU have teeth
—THIS POST IS MOSTLY SPOILER-FREE—
Horror stories coming out of India deserve a bigger spotlight; the stuff is viscerally terrifying in ways that make some of our Western classics seem tame. If you love a great scare and you’ve not read Indian horror? You’ve missed out.
Until now. Neil D’Silva’s short fiction collection, Right Behind You, is the place to start. Read the rest of this entry
Need original monsters? WICKED CREATURES antho features my story “Carving Grace” and lots of unique creeps!
Monster anthologies—there are so many! Wicked Creatures is crammed with seriously unusual ones, though—everything from a mumble man to scary train beings. And it’s now available!
The antho features my short story “Carving Grace.” In it, living figureheads scour the streets of Timber Inlet in search of happy souls to punish. Grace, who struggles with depression, thinks she’s safe … until Read the rest of this entry
