Category Archives: Short Stories

HAPPY RELEASE DAY! 34 ORCHARD ISSUE 13 HAS ARRIVED!

34 Orchard Issue 13 is here!

Sooner or later, that delusion you created to make the pain of a traumatic reality feel safer, the one you created to get through it, breaks down. When the delusion you created to make the pain of a traumatic reality feel safer breaks down, it’s like being destroyed all over again.

Visit the house that won’t let you live the lie … get your copy at https://34orchard.com/issue-13/ today!

Once again, our ToC:

Cover: Leaving Las Vegas – Trisha J. Wooldridge

Boys – Jeremiah Towle

I Found a Leg Bone in My Yard – A.M. Symes

An Orca Mourns in Puget Sound – Kelsey Oliver Imanishi

September Whitecaps Whip Up in the Bay – Kate LaDew

Once in a Black Moon – Mike Deady

A Heart Broken – Míša Hejná

The Fire – Keira Reynolds

Rot – Meg Douty

Fortune Telling – MJ Vickers

Descent to the Planet of the Gremlins – J.H. Siegal

The Last Road Tripper – Andrew Majors

The Bath – Elizabeth J. Coleman

The Alligator – Christopher Hann

The Unrequited Love of the Ocean – Ray Chanteur

The Ocean is Haunted and So Am I – H.V. Patterson

Last Year – Jennifer Winston Mayette

What Sort of Angels and Why – Matthew Thomas Bernell

The Fox – Priya Evans

I Was an Irrelevant Man – Cassondra Windwalker

Announcing 34 ORCHARD’s Spring 2026 ToC!

The ToC for 34 Orchard Issue 13, Spring 2026, has arrived! The issue will be released on Saturday, April 25, 2026.

 

Sooner or later, that delusion you created to make the pain of a traumatic reality feel safer, the one you created to get through it, breaks down. When it does, it’s like being destroyed all over again.

In Issue 13, twenty artists cope with the breakdown of delusion. A town believes Read the rest of this entry

HAPPY RELEASE DAY! 34 ORCHARD ISSUE 12 HAS LANDED!

Thrilled to announce that 34 Orchard Issue 12 is here!

The twenty artists in this issue wander the corridors of longing, which is often considered a yearning for a person, object, or location. But it can mean so much more—and sometimes be the loneliest, most isolating emotion in the human experience.

As the purported “most wonderful time of year” approaches, for those who long for anything at all, it might actually be the darkest.

Welcome to the house so empty your own voice comes back to haunt you.

Welcome to 34 Orchard.

Get your copy at https://34orchard.com/issue-12/ today!

AUTUMN-2025-FINAL-COVER

Once again, the ToC: Read the rest of this entry

Announcing 34 ORCHARD’s Autumn 2025 ToC—COMING MONDAY!

The ToC for 34 Orchard Issue #12, Autumn 2025, has arrived! The issue will be released this coming MONDAY, November 10, 2025.

AUTUMN-2025-FINAL-COVERIn Issue 12, twenty artists wander the corridors of longing.

When we think of longing, we think of desire, nostalgia, hope, regret, tenderness, desperation, and resignation. But its power shouldn’t be underestimated—it can change the course of our lives. It can drive us to take a job or leave it, marry or divorce, cling to an addiction or let one go, end something or start something new—or, in my case, it can Read the rest of this entry

WICKED SICK receives six Best-of-’23-Horror mentions

WICKED SICK NEHW anthology

THRILLED to discover that not one, not two, but SIX of the stories that co-editor Scott Goudsward and I selected for the New England Horror Writers’ Wicked Sick anthology are on the recommended reading list for Ellen Datlow’s 2023 Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen! It’s the highest number of stories selected in a single volume in the Wicked series (and also the only one I edited).

Stephen Mark Rainey—who appeared in 34 Orchard’s Spring 2020 issue with the moving piece “Night Crier”—wrote a generous introduction for Wicked Sick, writing that “these authors reach into your Read the rest of this entry

34 ORCHARD ISSUE 10 IS HERE!

This issue plunges into the cavern of feeling forlorn, lost, and left behind; sasquatches, mermaids, street dwellers, siblings and jobseekers watch as the world chugs on without them. But although abandonment may feel like a death knell, we shouldn’t underestimate its positive power: a woman seeks justice, a grieving spouse turns grateful, and a mother finds strength.

If you’re feeling forgotten as the grayer days of autumn darken into winter, 34 Orchard’s Autumn 2024 issue may offer the camaraderie and light you seek. Get your copy at https://34orchard.com/issues/issue-10/ today!

Once again, the ToC:

Cover Art: Between Worlds – Sonali Roy

Attn Attn – Nichole Lightner

Connection – Yash Seyedbagheri

Things We Did on the Internet – Beth Boylan

Dolphin – T.L. Antoff

Medium Fries – Jilian Elisabeth

When I Scramble Eggs – Jacqueline Jules

Our Parents’ Children – Mia Scattergood

Shantytown – Gordon Linzner

The Day After – Claire Francis Collier

A Stranger in Winter – Rob Francis

The Dark Reflection – Melina Ekic

No Sanctuary – David H. West

Meeting Mary Bloody Thighs in a Convenience Store in Arkansas – Josie Levin

Let Him Roll – Sarah Bradley

When Nature Calls – Craig Thornton

Gardens – Kevin J. Fellows

Mother, Father, Us – Miel MacRae

The Museum – Gregory L. Norris

For Only an Hour – Susan Brush Jonas

Selling the House – Rasha Abdulhadi

Footprint – Kyle E. Miller

MONSTERS IN THE MILLS in Westerly RI this Saturday!

Monster in the Mills Quick Box

Super excited to announce that Saturday, September 28, at 7 p.m., I’ll be at the UNITED THEATRE in Westerly, RI for a spooky book talk and signing for Monsters in the Mills with my ToC buddies and friends Jessica Wick, Ricardo Rebelo, Errick Nunnally, Christa Carmen, Brennan LaFaro, possibly Steven Belanger and there are rumors a couple more might show up!

Tickets are just $5 and it’s the perfect way to get a little Halloween flirt-on before the season OFFICIALLY begins!

Get tickets here: https://unitedtheatre.org/shows/monsters-in-the-mills-author-talk/

Here’s the book’s trailer, made by awesome contributor Ricardo Rebelo: https://youtu.be/Xey0BHFMQh8?si=IPjvfcDBaPQCC-S9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

34 ORCHARD ISSUE 9 IS HERE!

The twenty-one artists in 34 Orchard Issue 9 examine all aspects of waiting: its ups and downs, its held-breath nature, its power. A dead girl languishes instead of going towards the light and a predator banks on his next meal. One mother is driven to pursue a reunion with her daughter, another’s moment for revenge finally arrives, and generations of sons resist—yet compulsively anticipate—the inevitable. A frozen town dreads its death knell. An angry specter prays for her misery to have company, while spirits trapped in the brick and mortar of a bridge wait for nothing more than the next passer-by.

34 ORCHARD ISSUE 9 COVER featuring "When the Light Dies" by Keith Molden

Sooner or later, the waiting’s over, but when we finally get what we want, was it everything we’d imagined? At the end of it, was it really worth it—or did it turn out to be the beginning of yet another long wait for something else? Find out and get your copy at this link today!

Once again, the ToC:

Cover Art: When the Light Dies – Keith Molden

D-Day – Norie Suzuki

Revenge – Dan B. Fierce

Lake Effect – Jason P. Burnham

There – L.T. Ward

First Day Jitters – Donna J.W. Munro

Humans Suppress and History Reveals – Sonali Roy

The Man in the Gray Suit – Fariel Shafee

You Have Summoned a Demon – Ray Daley

Search Underway for Missing Submarine Bringing Tourists to Titanic – John Jeffire

Stillbirth – Jaclyn Eccesso

Suyuntu – Christine Lajewski

Skyline – Jennifer Fanning

Hot on the Trail – Josh Schlossberg

The Seduction – Elizabeth Falcon

Halloween Notes from Bloody Mary of the Philippines– Caroline Hung

The Ghosts at Yazá Bridge – Andrea Ferrari Kristeller

Family Heirloom – Christopher Emmerson-Pace

Last Stop – Brenna Monaghan Behel

Eleven Ways the World Could End – Jack Powers

Unidentified Climbing Object – Angelique Fawns

IT’S RELEASE DAY!! 34 ORCHARD ISSUE 8 is here!

It’s release day for 34 Orchard Issue 8! You can head here to get the PDF: https://34orchard.com/issue-8/

(Issues are free, but donations are appreciated).

34 ORCHARD ISSUE 8 COVER

A clown questions his actions during the Hartford Circus Fire, a woman spends hours calling for the missing, and a man’s unsettled conflict with his brother rents his world in two. A dog mommy may fail at making the ultimate choice and an uncertain slaughterhouse worker may end up without one. In Issue 8, twenty-four artists ponder the dangers in unanswered questions, and the effects on us when things are left unresolved. Once again, our Table of Contents: Read the rest of this entry

If you missed the “Candlewood’s Creepy Tales” I-95 interview… listen here

CANDLEWOOD LAKE I-95 ARTICLE SCREENSHOT

If you missed the Halloween drive-time Ethan & Lou Show interview on the creepy tales of Candlewood Lake, you can listen to it here…lasts about ten minutes!

The original “7 Creepy Tales of Candlewood Lake,” in case you’d like to read those, are here:

http://nehw.blogspot.com/2016/08/legends-of-candlewood-lake-guest-blog.html