So here we are, and 2024 is almost over. What a truly bizarre year it was. There were some goods thing, but wow, oh wow, were there some not-so-good things. At any rate, it’s time for the annual tradition in publishing: the award eligibility post. Every year, I always talk about how strange it is to do these posts, but hey, at least it’s a good way to take stock of the year. So let’s get to it, shall we?

The Haunting of Velkwood was of course my big release for the year! There have been so many wonderful things that have happened with my haunted neighborhood. It’s been named a best horror book of the year at Esquire, Library Journal, and Paste Magazine. The novel has been featured at Book Riot, CrimeReads, Men’s Health, Goodreads, and Gizmodo, among others. It’s also gotten amazing reviews at Paste Magazine, Cemetery Dance, New York Journal of Books, Nightmare Magazine, as well as a starred review at Booklist. In the spring, I even went on my first ever in-person book tour, which was such a whirlwind experience. I also just received word this morning that the book is also a finalist for the inaugural Haunted Minds Book Club Awards alongside so many incredible novels from the past year!

I know I’ve already said it many times before, but this is such a personal book, so it makes me so happy to see the positive reception to it. Needless to say, thank you to everyone who’s picked up a copy of The Haunting of Velkwood! It truly means the world to me!

In addition to Velkwood, I was extremely fortunate to have ten short stories published this year. These anthologies were all so terrific, and it’s such an honor to share the table of contents with so many fantastic authors. So here they are, in all their horror glory!

“5 Deleted Scenes from Vampiro Lamia.” (Euroschlock Nightmares: Lurid Tales of Cinematic Continental Horror. Muzzleland Press.)
A beloved cult actress dies shortly after completing her final film. It turns out, however, she lives on in more ways than one in the deleted scenes of that obscure movie. Soon, a devoted fan finds themselves invited to a once-in-a-lifetime screening of the extended cut. Now if only that fan can survive to the final frame.

“A Private Detective’s Checklist for How Not to Die.” (Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology. Howl Society Press.)
My ode to 1940s classic noir, this sapphic take on a hard-boiled detective in a sinister big city injects a serious dose of horror as Private Investigator Tallulah Collins unravels her latest case alongside a beguiling femme fatale, all while trying her best not to join the mounting body count.

“Your Mother’s Love Is an Apocalypse.” (Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror. Black Spot Books.)
Cosmic horror and bad moms collide when a woman is called back to her old hometown to help prevent her supernatural mother from destroying the world. She soon finds herself remembering the things that tore her and her family apart, all while the cosmic threat grows increasingly dangerous and personal.

“Be Kind, Please Rewind.” (It Was All a Dream 2: Another Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right. Hungry Shadow Press.)
An unlikely final girl with powers all her own refuses to accept the status quo of her slasher killer story. As she harnesses her own supernatural abilities, she quickly teaches the killer how to run in terror too. This story had been kicking around my mind for literally years, so it was such a bloody joy to finally put it to paper.

“The Last Call of the Cicada.” (The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks. Greymore Publishing.)
Three girls, who have been best friends all their lives, find themselves tracking their existence through a plague of cicadas that descends on their town every seventeen years. But when the girls turn forty and the snooping locals sour on them and their bohemian lifestyles, the cicadas suddenly become stranger and more sinister than anyone bargained for.

“A Ticket to the Funhouse.” (Fear of Clowns: A Horror Anthology. Kangas Kahn Publishing.)
When a carnival comes to town, long-buried memories resurface for Christy, a middle-aged woman who’s still struggling to find her place in the world. The funhouse in particular draws her in, and she quickly finds herself in the thrall of a mysterious tarot card reader who promises her something better… if only she’ll stick around the carnival for a little bit longer.

“The Only Face You Ever Knew.” (Elemental Forces. Flame Tree Press.)
Catherine and Veronica are a happy, recently engaged couple. That is, until Veronica vanishes in plain sight in the middle of the grocery store. What follows is a surreal journey for Catherine as she desperately tries to find Veronica—and then convince her of their shared life together.

“The Mouthless Body in the Lake.” (The Darkest Night: 22 Winter Horror Stories. Crooked Lane Books.)
On a lonely Christmas day, a young girl finds her own mouthless doppelganger frozen in a nearby lake. As the years go by, she keeps visiting her double, only to find it changing the same way that she does. With her life facing one dead end after another, she begins to suspect that perhaps her doppelganger holds the secret that could unravel her entire existence once and for all.

“The Monster and the Maiden.” (Enter Boogeyman. Acheron Books.)
A little girl meets the boogeyman who’s hiding in the dark places of her house. Over the next decades of her life, she’s constantly cowering from it, even though she soon learns that sometimes your own family is the greatest monster of all.

“Cleveland.” (Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction. Ruadan Books.)
In the cold of a Cleveland winter, a woman begins to listen to the strange melody of the cityscape. And the cityscape seems to be listening to her as well. As the holiday season approaches, she finds herself drawn deeper into its embrace, knowing all too well that she could disappear into the bitter, brutal darkness.

So that was my year. 2025 already has plenty of promise with several more short stories slated for release. Plus, I’ve either finished or am in the process of finishing several new books, so stay tuned for details. At the very least, I’ll be keeping myself busy, which is very possibly the best way to stave off the existential dread.

Happy reading, and happy New Year!

So I can’t believe this year is almost over. And what a year it’s been. Seriously. There have been great things about 2024, but wow, oh wow, have there been some terrible things too.

But for today, let’s focus on the positive, shall we? And in that vein, let’s talk about The Haunting of Velkwood for a moment. Yes, I know I’ve discussed this book a lot already this year, but since this is my most personal book to date, that obviously means it’s very close to my little horror heart.

First and foremost, The Haunting of Velkwood has been named a best horror book of 2024 at not one but two major outlets! First up, Neil McRobert’s Esquire list of Best Horror Books of 2024 is complete, and The Haunting of Velkwood joins an incredible group of books! Truly, to be named one of Esquire’s best horror books of the year is such a huge honor! Eeeeee!!!

Last week, Library Journal announced their best books of the year, and The Haunting of Velkwood appeared among nine other illustrious horror titles from 2024. Seriously, I couldn’t be more thrilled to see my ghosts in such wonderful company! Tremendous thanks to Becky Spratford and Melissa DeWild for this!

I’m also so delighted to see that The Haunting of Velkwood has appeared on not one but two recent Book Riot articles! I’m such a big fan of Book Riot, so I was so happy to see it get some love there. The novel was also recently reviewed at The Lesbrary, which focuses on sapphic literature. Needless to say, I couldn’t be more grateful that more than nine months after the book’s release, it’s still making the rounds! Thank you to everyone who’s read it so far! I appreciate it more than you know!

In other book news, I’m also absolutely thrilled to announce the release of the Spanish version of Pretty Marys All in a Row! It’s always an absolute joy to work with Dilatando Mentes, and once again, they’ve hit it right out of the park with this beautiful edition of my folklore Marys!

Looking ahead, I’m working on finishing up my next novel as well as my second short fiction collection. It’s super exciting to finally be moving forward with some of my longer work. There are a couple other projects simmering as well, so hopefully in the coming months, I’ll have more concrete news as to what’s next.

But in the meantime, I certainly have new work making its way into the world. In fact, I’m super excited that several short stories of mine have been recently released or are forthcoming. So let’s talk about them, because truly, each one of these tables of contents is out of this world!

So let’s start with the anthologies! Back in the fall, Elemental Forces was released through Flame Tree Press, and the table of contents includes my story, “The Only Face You Ever Knew.” Even though the setup for this one is pretty fantastical, this story is strangely personal to me, and it was a deeply painful one to write, but I’m so incredibly proud of it. So many thanks to editor Mark Morris for including it!

September also saw the release of The Darkest Night: 22 Winter Horror Stories, which features my weird body horror story, “The Mouthless Body in the Lake.” The fantastic Lindy Ryan was the editor of this one, and after being part of several of her anthologies, it practically goes without saying that I adore working with her and I very much hope to do it again many more times down the road! Gigantic thanks to Lindy for featuring my work in this fabulous book!

On Halloween, the Enter Boogeyman anthology went into wide release, which includes my creepy childhood tale, “The Maiden and the Monster.” This is such a massive table of contents, including everyone from Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell to Linda D. Addison and Gemma Files, so I’m of course so wildly honored to be part of the lineup! Big thanks to editor Alessandro Manzetti for including my story!

Just earlier this week, my story, “Cleveland,” appeared in Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction. This is the first time I’ve written about the city of Cleveland since I finished my novel, The Rust Maidens, so it was a lot of fun returning to the proverbial scene of the crime for this creepy wintry tale. Huge thanks to editors R.B. Wood and Anna Koon!

And looking ahead, I’m absolutely giddy that my strange little story, “Flesh, Fungi, & Farewell,” will be part of the Dark Spores anthology, edited by the amazing Carol Gyzander and Rachel Brune. This is another fabulous table of contents, and I absolutely love the theme of spooky mushrooms and fungus. I mean, really, what’s spookier than that?

So that’s all the anthology news I have for the moment. But I’m not done quite yet! In terms of magazines, I’m absolutely over the moon that my work will be appearing in Weird Tales. Weird Tales! Seriously! I’ve been reading short horror fiction since I was a kid, and it seemed like every anthology I picked up had stories that were originally published in Weird Tales. Now I’m one of the authors to be among them. That seems too good to be true, but since my name is splashed on the cover, I guess it is indeed real!

Also, I couldn’t be happier with the story that’s included. “Riddle” is my weird fiction tale about a group of middle-aged friends in Detroit who devote their free time to finding the final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa. Things only get stranger from there. I’ve been wanting to write a Jimmy Hoffa story for years, and I can’t believe that I finally not only finished it but that it ended up finding such an incredible home. Tremendous thanks to editor Jonathan Maberry for including it!

Last but in no way least, my Bram Stoker Award-nominated novelette, The Invention of Ghosts, has found a second life at Cemetery Dance! It appears as part of their publication, Bloodlines, alongside some very talented writers. It’s been almost five years since this novelette made its debut in the world, so it’s beyond exciting to see it back out there for new readers to find!

At any rate, that’s been the second half of my year. I’m definitely looking (cautiously) forward to what 2025 has in store. After all, there’s no shame in hoping for the best!

Happy reading, and happy New Year!

Welcome back for part two in our fall author roundtable! Last week, we met these four awesome authors and discussed their news books! Today, we talk all about their own personal favorite horror titles from the past couple years as well as what they’ve got planned for the future!

And with that, let’s take it away!

There have been so many wonderful books released over the past couple years. What have you been reading and loving in the horror genre lately?

CANDACE NOLA: There’s honestly been so many amazing things that I have read I cannot begin to make a list. Currently my favorite authors, in no particular order are, Gwendolyn Kiste (The Haunting of Velkwood was one of my favorite books this year) Jonathan Janz, Brennan LaFaro, Kristopher Rufty, Debra Castaneda, Mary SanGiovanni, Hailey Piper, Gemma Amor, and Ross Jeffery, Josh Malerman, Christine Morgan, John Boden, Chad Lutzke, L.Marie Wood, John Langan, M. Ennenbach, Joseph Sale and F.D. Taff. There are so many more I could add but these folks deliver standout stories every single time I reach for one of their books.

SARAH READ: Oh gosh, SO MUCH. Sometimes I look at all the new releases and just want to weep because I want to read them ALL, but life is finite. Sofia Ajram’s Coup de Grace was phenomenal, and that comes out soon (by the time you read this, it should be out!). Everyone should read The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. The book I enjoyed the most in 2024 was The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth James Gonzalez, which is a magical realism western adventure novel, but it definitely flirts with the horror genre. I am currently reading Sam Rebelein’s forthcoming collection, The Poorly Made and Other Things and enjoying that. The book I’m most looking forward to reading right now is Kaaron Warren’s The Underhistory. I could talk about this for hours, but then again, that is literally my job!

GERRI LEEN: Oh, man, it’s been rich pickings. Your work was a bit of a gateway drug for me. Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation duology was too. I’m just now realizing how much I like many kinds of horror and while I’ve always loved thrillers (including Louisa May Alcott’s), I especially love them when they go over to the “everything’s not quite normal” side like Alyssa Cole’s do. I recently read Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians and now I’m on a quest to read all his work. I just finished Diavola by Jennifer Thorne and it was like you took Herman Koch’s horrific (yet literary) family dramas (some of my favs!) and put them in the middle of a haunted house story–just loved it! I also have read some great anthologies and collections lately like Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele, and Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations by Carina Bissett. My Kindle is an embarrassment of riches with about 300 books to read, many of them horror.

VICTORIA DALPE: I feel like I never have enough time and bandwidth to read everything I want to! It’s one thing I miss about living in NYC with a long train commute everyday – it guarantees a certain amount of reading time.

I’ve been trying to attack my TBR pile a bit, but found myself really busy these last few months to read. I am hoping for more time come fall and winter. Over the summer I reread The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington, The Night Inside by Nancy Baker and Cabal by Clive Barker. I also just read Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, Book of Love by Kelly Link, Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova and I’m currently listening to What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. I tend to alternate between older books and new ones that just came out. My next to read will be Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay. After that I hope to read Rachel Harrison and Hailey Piper’s new books out this fall as vampire books always get bumped to the top of my list.

I’m writing these questions in September, which means the spooky season is upon us. Do you have any exciting plans to celebrate? Also, have you written any stories that incorporate fall or Halloween that readers can check out?

CANDACE NOLA: I love Halloween but I am at two events in October that I will be traveling for so no major plans to celebrate. My Halloween night will consist of pizza and movies with my teenage son, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and maybe reading some spooky books in my downtime. I do not have any Halloween stories out just yet, but there is one written that should make an appearance next year, as well as a short novella titled Moloch that will come out in early November that definitely fits into spooky season reading.

SARAH READ: I love spooky season! My family always makes a trek to a farm that has a lovely pumpkin patch, where we can do hay rides, apple picking, a corn maze, and eat caramel apples and baked goods. We’re also doing a family theme costume this year, which I am very excited about. My husband and I also watch our favorite comfort horror movies all October. I’m also doing at least one author event every weekend in October, all horror themed, of course. And two spooky book clubs! At least two Halloween parties… My October dance card is always full! As for stories that incorporate Halloween–actually, no! Not specifically, that I can think of. Though I do keep the spirit of the holiday alive in my heart every day.

GERRI LEEN: I plan to vote early in person and hope for a non-spooky outcome! I am also looking forward to temperatures cooling down here in the DC area–even if it’s just at night. Does sleeping with actual blankets count as exciting plans? Honestly, I love watching the leaves turn in the big wooded common area behind my house. Jeez, I sound so boring. Young Gerri who thought Halloween the greatest of all holidays would be so disappointed in me! But sometimes with a chronic illness, just getting through the day is a major triumph.

I have a twisted little flash story that deals with fall called “Salt the Earth” and a Dia de Los Muertos story “The Effect of Place on Love and Death,” and they’ll both be out soon in my upcoming story collection The Woman I Used to Be.

VICTORIA DALPE: I have a new book coming out September 10th and so I will be doing lots of fun spooky book events September-November including my book being the book club book in October for the Ashland RI Horror Book Club. I will also be on local TV and podcasts. I have a son, so I also do all the trick or treating/kid events and decorating and annual big spends at Spirit Halloween and the like, which is always fun. Always watch Peanuts Halloween a few times and tons of horror movies. My siblings and I always have a big jack o’ lantern carving day as well and fill my porch with pumpkins (which almost always get eaten by squirrels and or mold and fill with swarming bugs) it’s a blast!

What’s next for you? What projects are you currently working on, and do you have any other books on the horizon?

CANDACE NOLA: Currently I am working on Bishop 3: Darkness Descends with my co-author M. Ennenbach, a second installment to my Hank Flynn series, and a new collection. There is also a novel in the works that I hope to send out on submission next year along with some more short stories for a new collection that I hope to release next March. I have tons of ideas written down, and probably 5 more novels in various stages of completion along with a new poetry collection planned for late 2025.

SARAH READ: So much! And of course, a lot of it I can’t really talk about yet. But there are a story collection, two novellas, and four short stories in the works right now. Three other short stories that will be released soon. And I’m still working on the prequel to The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, which is called The Wards of Dunleigh Abbey. My goal is to finish the first draft of that by the end of February and have it done by summer. Fingers crossed. And with that end in sight, I’ve started outlining and researching for the next book after that, which will be something a little different for me…

GERRI LEEN: In October, I plan to release my second story collection, The Woman I Used to Be and Other Speculative Imaginings, which is a collection of previously printed short stories covering the sci fi, fantasy, horror, and magical realism genres. I’m busy doing final formatting and getting ready for that to go live. At the end of the year I plan to publish The Distance Between Things and Other Odes to Love, Betrayal, and Heartbreak. It’s a collection combining romance shorts I wrote as Kim Strattford with stories that have romantic elements that I wrote under my own name as well as some poetry–it’s a combination no one asked for, but I love the stories so I’m going for it.

In 2025, I have a mosaic novel Bluegrass Dreams Aren’t for Free coming out from WolfSinger Publications. It’s a series of interconnected stories about genetically modified racehorses who manage their own careers, race with no jockeys, and can talk, and specifically two stallions and their families dealing with triumph and failure in a world run by humans. Other than the genetic modifications, this is a mainstream anthropomorphic story that both adults and horse-crazy kids should enjoy. In 2025, I also plan to publish a book of twisted fairy tales, In the Ashes, which will be a mix of prose and poetry both original and previously published, I may also put out some poetry chapbooks. I’m in my sixties now–gotta get stuff done. “I’m in my sixties” is now my mantra for just about everything–things I want to do and things I don’t. It’s very liberating.

VICTORIA DALPE: I am in the deep edit stage of Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire book 2 and working on the outlining of book 3. I also have a couple short fiction pieces I’m trying to wrap up and I have some new paintings due, so my fall should be nice and busy- which is a good problem to have!

Big thanks to our four featured authors! Please be sure to check out their wonderful books!

Happy reading!