Category Archives: Short Stories
It’s always Tiki Time…
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover

Writer Elaine Pascale and I cocktail it up at TT’s Tiki Bar in Punta Gorda, FL. Photo by Michele Ingram
…when you’re a Gen-Xer! When I was in Florida, fellow writer and I Elaine Pascale got together at TT’s Tiki Bar down in Punta Gorda and had some serious fun with icy tropical cocktails and a few of the anthologies in which we share a Table of Contents.
If you haven’t already, join the party and get your copy of the Generation X-ed anthology full of short shocking trips down memory lane by Elaine, me, and a formidable f-ton of horror-slinging Gen-X writers edited by Rebecca Rowland today—AND you can even get it in good old-fashioned hardcover if you wish!
What the hell’s that pretty blue think I’m drinking? It’s called an Under the Sea Colada. Elaine had herself a Tiki Tai (that’s like a mai-tai. YUM!)
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34 ORCHARD taking submissions for the Autumn 2023 issue!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
34 Orchard is now considering work for our Autumn 2023 issue! We will only be open from July 1 – 15, 2023, so if you’re planning on submitting, please keep in mind that anything after July 15, 2023, 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!
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34 ORCHARD ISSUE 7 HAS BURST ONTO THE SCENE!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
IT’S RELEASE DAY!! I’m thrilled to announce that 34 Orchard ISSUE 7 is here! Heralding the coming of spring and the concept of the fresh start, Issue 7 has another winner from Nigeria’s Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí (Issue 1’s “Christmas Chicken,” about which we STILL get mail!) and a few other 34O alums, as well as work by others familiar and brand-new.
Plunging into the visceral rip tides of lost love, medieval history, personal agency, folklore, witchcraft, grief, motherhood, and so much more—and rendered in everything from magical realism to soft science fiction, horror, and literary—there’s something for every taste!
Get your free copy here: https://34orchard.com/issue-7/
Once again, our ToC:
Cover Art: Optic Nerve – Page Sonnet Sullivan
An Old Romantic – Mark Towse
Little Monster – Elin Olausson
The Doe – Brandon McQuade
Wildfire – Alexandra Provins
The Flute – Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí
The Perimeter of Others – Marie-Andrée Auclair
Simulacrum Vehemens – Remo Macartney
Twenty Birthdays with You – Karen Cline-Tardiff
Penelope Learns to Weave a Double Helix – Shelly Jones
The Squealing – McLeod Logue
Where’s Lucy? – W.T. Paterson
The Procedure – Jeff Adams
poisoned earth – Corey Niles
There Is No Tomorrow – David H. West
The Triple G – Gregory Jeffers
I Once Worked There – Christian Hanz Lozada
The Last Day – Elaine Pascale
The Choice – Jenna Moquin
With the Turbulent Flow … – Angi Shearstone
The Shrine of Saint Amandus – Rex Burrows
How to Make a Vase – Kieran Thompson
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Posted in 34 Orchard, Horror Stories, Short Stories
Tags: 34 Orchard Spring 2023 Issue, Alexandra Provins, Angi Shearstone, Brandon McQuade, Christian Hanz Lozada, Corey Niles, dark fiction, dark literary fiction, dark poetry, David H. West, Elaine Pascale, Elin Olausson, Ernest O. Ògúnyemí, Gregory Jeffers, Jeff Adams, Jenna Moquin, Karen Cline-Tardiff, Kieran Thompson, Marie-Andrée Auclair, Mark Towse, McLeod Logue, Page Sonnet Sullivan, Remo Macartney, Rex Burrows, Shelly Jones, Spring 2023 issue, W.T. Paterson
We’re still making decisions — and announcing our SPRING 2023 Cover!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
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.
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Join me for Edgar Allan Poe’s Birthday Bash Online next Thursday, January 19!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
So thrilled to announce it’s almost time to grab your amontillado and join me and a host of other Poe-enamored writers as we read “The Raven” and “The Bells” in celebration of Poe’s birthday Thursday, January 19, at 7 pm on Zoom!
The event is free. If you’d like the Zoom link, PM me, email me, text me or however you get in touch with me, and I’ll get it right to you. You can also reach out to me through my contact page.
Co-sponsored by the Untitled Open Mic at Lowell Poetry Wheel and hosted by writer Meg Smith, we’ll each be reading Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Events, News, Short Stories
Tags: Bettysioux Taylor, Charles Coe, Daemon Manx, Derek Austin Johnson, Diana Saenz, Douglas Bishop, Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Events 2023, Eric Stanway, George Wallace, Gloria Mindock, Jackie Oldham, Janet Egan, Jim Dunn, Juan Perez, Lowell Poetry Wheel, Matt Kraunelis, Meg Smith, Nancy Jasper, Pale Blue Eye, Rafael Alvare, Terrie Leigh Relf, The Bells, The Raven, Tone Balone, Trisha J. Wooldridge, Victor Infante, virtual readings
New story and essay, novel excerpt AVAILABLE NOW in FREE SIRENS CALL EZINE ISSUE 60!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
BIG NEWS!! I’m ecstatic to announce that Sirens Call eZine Issue #60—FREE to download—not only contains my story, “What the Ocean Knows,” but, because they honored me with being featured author, also contains an essay, “Whispers Beneath the Lines: Dark Fiction’s Power to Heal” and a longer excerpt from my novel, Bad Apple! This giant issue also features Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in horror short stories, News, Short Stories
Tags: ” “The Murmuring”, Bad Apple by Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Derek Austin Johnson, episode 8 of Cabinet of Curiosities, essays about dark fiction, free horror fiction, free novel samples, ghost stories set by the sea, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, horror anthology TV series, horror series on Netflix, horror short films, Horror Stories, literary essays, Naching T. Kassa, Nina D'Arcangela, Robert Mayette, short stories set on Cape Cod, Sirens Call eZine, Strong Women Strange Worlds, virtual reading series
Welcome, 2023! 34 ORCHARD’s submissions window is open through January 15!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
34 Orchard is now considering work for our Spring 2023 issue! We will only be open from January 1 – 15, 2023, so if you’re planning on submitting, please keep in mind that anything after January 15, 2023, will be deleted unread (and yes, we adjust for all worldwide time zones. So that’s after January 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!
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PERFECT STOCKING STUFFER! “Sea Legs” available in Lovecraftian Microfiction Vol. 8!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
I’m thrilled to announce that my piece, “Sea Legs,” is now available in Lovecraftian Microfiction Volume 8!
“Sea Legs” is one of thirteen winners in the 2022 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon Microfiction Contest, and the collection makes the perfect stocking stuffer (tiny trim size is so cute too!!). It’s also two books in one, with Tales from the Tainted Inkwell—stories from the past that are out of print, including by cosmic favorites Cody Goodfellow and Peter Rawlik—on its flipside.
In “Sea Legs”: On a North Sea island, villagers are grateful for what the sea goddess gives—until what She tries to take in return may force one of them to go to unusual extremes. I was trying my hand at a cosmic/folk horror blend, something about which I learned at this year’s Necronomicon in Providence, RI in August.
Fill a stocking, put it under the tree, or treat yourself. You can get it here:
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Posted in horror short stories, Horror Stories, News, Short Stories
Tags: Arkham Bazaar, books with small trim size, Christmas stocking stuffers, Cody Goodfellow, HP Lovecraft Film Festival & Cthuluthon, Lovecraftian gifts, Lovecraftian Microfiction, Lovecraftian Microfiction Contest Winners 2022, Lovecraftian Microfiction Vol. 8, Peter Rawlik, short horror stories set in the North Sea, Tales from the Tainted Inkwell
Yay! My short story “Let the Rain Settle It” accepted for HUSH, DON’T WAKE THE MONSTER—Stephen King homage anthology!
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
So excited to announce that my short story, “Let the Rain Settle It” has been accepted for publication in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster—A Women in Horror Anthology containing stories inspired by Stephen King but with a female spin!
“Let the Rain Settle It” is an homage to Stephen King’s “Rainy Season,” which I read in the early 1990s and has haunted me ever since. Here’s the introduction I penned for my submission:
Why I chose Stephen King’s “Rainy Season”
It’s been said the experience of a story is different for each reader, because it depends on what that person brings to the table. I didn’t read Stephen King’s “Rainy Season” until it was reprinted in his 1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection, but of all the pieces I’d read of his, this is the one that stuck. As a starry-eyed twenty-two year old who was, at the time, blissfully unaware she was engaged in a toxic relationship, I connected most with the subtle clues King presents about the broken young couple heading toward not just physical demise, but eventual emotional disaster if they did survive. While John and Elise aren’t the focus of King’s narrative—the spotlight, as always, shines on unsettling Mainers—they’re clearly in a place where the ordinary drudge of life and its reactionary transgressions have squelched the blush of love and romance. The blinders are off, they see each other for who they really are, and it’s not pretty.
While it’s been accused of being too similar to Jackson’s “The Lottery,” and a “time passer,” “Rainy Season” isn’t just another folk horror tale or creature feature. It’s a warning that the killer toads of life are always at your romantic door, and sometimes, it’s just better to let them in.
I’m so excited and honored my story was chosen for this unique project, and I can’t wait to read everyone else’s stories! Watch this space for pre-order and ToC announcement—Hush will be released March 2, 2023!
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It’s here! My story “Wish Bones” in DEAD STARS AND STONE ARCHES
Posted by kristipetersenschoonover
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!
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