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Home Is Where the Horror Is: Part Two of The Rack Roundtable Interview

Welcome back for part two in our roundtable interview series featuring authors of The Rack anthology! Last week, we discussed the inspiration behind their fabulously fearsome stories. This week, we talk all about the appeal of vintage horror.

And with that, let’s take it away!

What do you think the enduring appeal of vintage horror paperbacks are? If you met a new horror fan who wasn’t familiar with vintage horror, how would you introduce them to it?

CANDACE NOLA: Thinking about them now, the appeal was knowing that I was about to read a really good story that was sure to be both fun and scary. Most could be read in single sittings, the action was fast-paced and the situations were always bizarre enough to make it a fun read while keeping it scary.

For a new fan, I would start with finding out what tropes they liked the most and suggest a few based off those concepts first. To pick the books, I would go by cover alone because the vintage paperbacks had some of the best covers out there. Then just let the magic happen.

REBECCA ROWLAND: I think the stylistic nature of many of the covers is what cements many of the books in our nostalgia. Straub’s Ghost Story is a beautiful classic, but it’s the paperback cover with its funky-swirled title and lonely barren tree among the snow that I think of first. Hendrix really nailed it with Paperbacks from Hell: that would be the place I’d point a new horror fan, for certain.

For me personally, it’s the time period that those books evoke in my mind, the memories of curling up on the couch and getting lost in a book, the freedom of that—not just because I was a pre-teen or teenager and had no real responsibilities, but because there was no internet or even cable television to distract me. In the 70s and 80s, imagination, not technology, was king, and at the risk of sounding crotchety, I think that made it a superior place in time to be, at least for enjoying literature.

MAX BOOTH III: Personally, I feel like a lot of the vintage horror paperbacks are more uhhh unhinged than modern mainstream horror. They’re harder to predict. Plus, most of them feel like these hidden secrets waiting to be uncovered, you know? It’s easy to be lazy and just think of people like King when it comes to horror back then, but the reality is there are countless other horror authors who are largely forgotten, so it’s exciting and important to still read these people and keep their stories alive.

Definitely would have to start them off with The Elementals, and I would get them excited by telling them the dude who wrote Beetlejuice is the author. Easily one of my favorite novels ever.

CHRISTA CARMEN: The enduring appeal of vintage horror paperbacks are probably that they are so eclectic! That variety and range was beneficial when choosing a book off the rack in the 70s and 80s, but also today, when readers are nostalgic for the types of stories that may very well have turned them into horror fans in the first place. I think that’s why this anthology is getting such a great reception already; the stories in The Rack are as diverse and unexpected as the vintage paperbacks of yore were for two-plus decades!

If I were to meet a new horror fan who wasn’t familiar with vintage horror, I would have to start them with Rosemary’s Baby. Cliché, yes, but hear me out… you simply CANNOT move on to the endless (and endlessly entertaining) subgenre of demonic baby horror until you’ve read the OG.

STEVE VAN SAMSON: I love physical media. In a way, I think paperbacks are 100% comparable to the allure of vinyl records. You have this perfect physical thing, (usually) covered in absolutely gorgeous art. Even when you put the thing down, it leaves behind a tangible echo on your skin—a memory of weight, texture, smell, etc. This tactile information might not have registered to us when we were younger as physical books and records were the only kind there were. But going back to them now, I think a lot of us are discovering just how much of the experience is missing from a downloadable file.

I can think of no better introduction to all this than by finding a very special kind of book shop. The sort with shelves and shelves (or better yet, aisles) full of these old mass market treasures. You may not recognize any of the author names, but you are bound to find some titles and artwork that speak to you. And really, that’s exactly how we did it back in the day. You know, when we all rode dinosaurs.

CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN: There’s a certain devil-may-care attitude to it, I guess. Maybe less preciousness? I feel it’s akin to going to the video store. The pre-Blockbuster era, mom ‘n pop video shops, where you could wander down the horror aisle, look at all the cool covers, and make a decision on what to watch tonight based solely on the image seared on the front. You could take a risk. Sometimes it paid off, other times not, but that didn’t necessarily matter. You were always in for a fun time. Best case scenario, you walk away reading your most favorite book in the whole wide world. Worst, you just had yourself a total lark of a time. Not a bad gamble, in my book.

KRISTIN DEARBORN: The Paperbacks from Hell era was a blessing and curse for the genre. Amid some of the greatest works of fiction was a lot of pure dreck, a lot of books published because horror was hot and publishers wanted to find “the next Stephen King”. It’s interesting what the genre was and wasn’t willing to take chances on: there aren’t a lot of women or POCs, but we have haunted houses, killer kids, animals attacking, mad scientists, splatter punk…We had Robert McCammon, Richard Laymon, Peter Straub, Michael McDowell, Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell…but also Kathe Koja, V.C. Andrews, and Anne Rivers Siddons. To answer the question, I think if I were to introduce a new fan, I’d start with “what are you into?” Confident that whatever their literary pleasure, there’s something for them with a lurid cover.

LARRY HINKLE: While vintage horror paperbacks have never gone out of style (at least not with the cool kids), they got a huge signal boost with Paperbacks from Hell, which introduced them to a new generation. Those covers!

The first one I’d tell people to read would be The Rack, of course! After that, Night Shift. But there are so many other good ones. All the early books from McCammon (Swan Song, Stinger, etc.) Skipp and Spector’s stuff, including Book of the Dead I and II, and my favorite of theirs, The Bridge. (My story in The Rack owes a little to that one.) Barker’s Books of Blood, Landsdale’s first collection, By Bizarre Hands, The Dark by James Herbert…

JEFF STRAND: Nostalgia! I have extremely fond memories of that time. The excitement of rushing to the horror section of a used bookstore, desperately hoping they’d have R. Patrick Gates’ first novel, Fear. (And five years after I began the search, one of them did!) As for the books themselves…if I had to make an extensive list of my all-time favorite horror novels, the truth is that very few of them would have holograms or skeletons on the cover. The horror boom ended because the good stuff became more and more difficult to find in the flood of product, so if I were introducing a new horror fan to this era, I’d probably discourage them from just randomly choosing books that had cool covers.

TOM DEADY: For me, and probably a lot of people from my generation, it’s nostalgia. To be honest, a lot of the books don’t hold up well. It’s not just the men wearing smoking jackets and such, there is a lot of racism and misogyny in some of those stories that simply isn’t palatable.

Grady Hendrix made it very easy with his sensational Paperbacks From Hell. It’s a crash course on exactly the type of vintage horror we’re talking about. Of course, I would also shamelessly point to The Rack as a solid introduction as well!

What’s next for you? What projects do you have coming up? Also, where can we find you online?

CANDACE NOLA: Next for me, I have Moloch, a new novella releasing in late October, if all goes well. That will be followed by a second Hank Flynn novel, then Bishop 3 and a surprise collection in the spring.

Find me on all social media as Candace Nola on Twitter and Blue Sky, CNola.Author on Instagram, and @UncomfortablyDark on TikTok, My website is www.Uncomfortablydark.com.

REBECCA ROWLAND: I have about eight new short stories coming out in the next nine months, including a piece in Stephen Kozeniewski’s werewolf anthology Strange New Moons and one in Carol Gyzander and Rachel Brune’s Dark Spores. Both have slithers of body horror in them, which speaks to the lasting impact of King’s Long Walk.

I can be found on my website RowlandBooks.com or on Instagram @Rebecca_Rowland_books.

MAX BOOTH III: My next novel, I Believe in Mister Bones, comes out in October through Apocalypse Party. Other than that, just working on the books we’re putting out through Ghoulish Books, and preparing for next year’s Ghoulish Book Festival. Badges are on sale right now, by the way: https://ghoulish.rip/product/badges/

CHRISTA CARMEN: My second novel with Thomas & Mercer, Beneath the Poet’s House, comes out December 10th. Beneath the Poet’s House is set in Providence and deals with a modern-day haunting stemming from the real-life romance between Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Whitman. Preorders are up now, and I’ll be doing several events for the book in December and January; dates will be up soon on my website.

Author Website: www.christacarmen.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15179583.Christa_Carmen

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/christacarmen

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christaqua

Twitter: https://twitter.com/real_christaqua

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christaqua/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@houseof1000christas

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCocJVk5dPP2T_CdTnDQyRLQ

STEVE VAN SAMSON: My next release is a longish novella about some kids who battle a boogeyman type monster in their own house. It’s my first YA thing and is going to be part of the SHIVERS series by Weird House Press. It features amazing cover art by Derek Rook and should be out this October. Check out www.roughhousepublishing.com for deluxe hardcovers of both “Black Honey” and “Mark of the Witchwyrm”. You can follow me on Instagram (vansamsonsteve) and Facebook (SVanSamson).

CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN: I’ve got a new novel coming out in January called WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES… with no die-cut cover, sadly. One day. You can find me on (deeeep breath) IG, Twitter, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok, anywhere and everywhere while I try to figure out how best to navigate social media. Or just here: https://claymcleodchapman.com/

KRISTIN DEARBORN: You can find me online at www.kristindearborn.com, or on instagram at @kristindearbornhorror

Up next I have a short story called “Ghosted” in the New England Horror Writers anthology Wicked Abandoned. Other than that I’m puttering around with some novellas, and trying to find a good home for a novel about evil changeling children.

LARRY HINKLE: I just finished my editor’s revisions to The Eris Ridge Trail, my very first novella! It’s out with beta readers now, and then I’m looking for some blurbs. (Hint hint!) I’d never written anything longer than 5,700 words before, but this bad boy clocked in at a little over 35k. It brings back characters from three stories in my collection, although it’s a standalone, so you don’t need to have read those stories beforehand. (Although you know you want to!) I couldn’t have done it without constant encouragement/nagging from editor of The Rack Tom Deady and fellow contributor Christa Carmen, so if you hate it, blame them. It should be out in late February/early March, 2025.

You can find me at www.thatscarylarry.com. I’m on most of the socials at some variation of ThatScaryLarry.

JEFF STRAND: My latest short story collection, Snuggling the Grotesque, just came out. My novel Bloodsucker County, featuring a monster you can probably figure out from the title, will be out by the end of the year. And the third book in my Eek! series of middle grade horror novels, Finders Keepers, will be in bookstores April 2025.

TOM DEADY: For my own writing, I have a western horror duology coming out from Cemetery Dance later this year called A Blade to Silence the Screams. Next year I’ll be publishing the second book in the Hopedale Mystery Series (book one was The Clearing) and finally the sequel to Eternal Darkness. I am also pretty far along in the planning stages of Volume Two of The Rack, and the table of contents is going to be just as stacked as the original.

My website is www.tomdeady.com but I’m also on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Thank you so much to these wonderful contributors of The Rack for being part of my author roundtable! Be sure to pick up a copy of the anthology, and enjoy our vicious, vintage vibes!

Happy reading!

Vintage Nightmares: Part One of The Rack Roundtable Interview

Welcome back! Today I’m thrilled to spotlight some of the contributors as well as the editor of the new anthology, The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks! I’m so fortunate to have a story in the table of contents alongside these wonderful authors, and it’s been such a fantastic process, from working with editor Tom Deady to that amazing cover art by Lynne Hansen.

So without further ado, let’s take it away, shall we?

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your story in The Rack.

CANDACE NOLA: My name is Candace Nola. I’m an award-winning author from Pittsburgh PA. The creator of Uncomfortably Dark Horror, an indie horror review and publishing platform. My story in The Rack was inspired by my love of creepy dolls when I was a child, especially the porcelain baby dolls with the glass eyes. Using that as the main concept, and a few other disturbing elements, I was able to create my creepy story, “They Look Back.”

REBECCA ROWLAND: I am an anthology editor and dark fiction author who hails from New England, which is how I became acquainted with Tom [Deady]: I met him when we both had tables at a convention in Framingham, Massachusetts, pre-pandemic. There are a handful of creatures from myth and folklore that creep me out, and I like to exorcize them by working them into stories: most recently, I’ve written about the banshee, the siren, the wendigo, the yara-ma-yha-who. My story in The Rack, “Better by You, Better than Me,” features the diao si gui, the hanging host. According to legend, if a person is hanged, whether by choice, punishment, or misadventure, the victim haunts the area where the hanging occurred, and should it make eye contact with a living person, it may choose to change places with him or her. There are countless paintings depicting the diao si gui that frighten the hell out of me, so this story is my way of keeping those nightmares at bay (while simultaneously making a statement about the wave of 80s’ irrationality of blaming metal music for suicide and satanism).

MAX BOOTH III: My wife and I operate Ghoulish Books together, which is both a small press and indie bookstore specializing in horror. We’re just on the outskirts of San Antonio. I also write my own books and the occasional movie (We Need to Do Something is currently streaming on Hulu). On top of that, we organize and host the annual Ghoulish Book Festival every spring in downtown SATX.

My story is called “Loud and Clear” and it’s about a woman who lives on closed-down campgrounds. One night, after getting drunk and insulting her sister’s kid, she goes digging in an old storage cabin and locates a walkie talkie from her childhood, back when the camp was still operational. Soon she begins hearing a voice from the walkie talkie—the voice of a boy who should be dead. Then…you know, other horror-related things happen.

CHRISTA CARMEN: I am a horror, gothic mystery, and thriller/suspense writer from Westerly, Rhode Island, where I live with my daughter, Nell, husband, John, bloodhound/golden retriever mix, Mirabel, and five chickens, Asha, Amaya, Wind, Toby, and Spike. My debut novel, The Daughters of Block Island, won the 2023 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel and was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, to my immense surprise and pleasure. I’ve also had work published in Vastarien, Nightmare, Orphans of Bliss, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, and the Stoker-nominated anthologies, Not All Monsters and The Streaming of Hill House. I’m a big fan of all the wonderful roundtable interviews you’ve conducted in the past, Gwendolyn, and of your insightful and generous blog, so thank you for having me and all the other Rack contributors here today!

My story in The Rack is called “Blood of My Blood” and was inspired by the “[enter location or party type]-massacre” stories of the 70s and 80s (like, for instance, “slumber party massacre” or “motel massacre,” and let’s not forget the entire subgenre of “camp massacre” tales popular during this time period). Mine is a “wedding day massacre” story, but one which also draws on some of the more tongue-in-cheek, black humor vintage paperbacks of the era. Suffice it to say, the story could never be accused of taking itself too seriously, and I certainly hope readers have fun with it.

“Blood of My Blood” is about a young woman whose fiancé discovers the true nature of her family’s business on the day of their wedding, leading to a rather untraditional—and blood-drenched—ceremony. I had a blast working out the numerous death scenes, and while I won’t say too much more, I won’t dissuade you from googling “‘medical sanguinarians”… you might find yourself even more in the mood for a good old-fashioned marital bloodbath once you’ve, ahem, whet your whistle on the topic.

STEVE VAN SAMSON: I’ve been lurking in and around the indie horror scene since 2017, when I self published my first two novels “The Bone Eater King” and “Marrow Dust”. There were both what can be elevator-pitched as POST APOCALYPTIC VAMPIRES IN AFRICA and helped set the tone for what I wanted to do with this crazy little writing career. Character diversity is incredibly important to me, as is trying to find interesting new ways of exploring certain sub-genres of horror (vampires being just one). Variations on a theme can be thrilling, but I always try to find an angle I haven’t seen before. Injecting some fresh adrenaline into the familiar.

This is true for my story in THE RACK. “Lips Like a Scythe” is, on its surface, a send up of the giant bug movies of the 1950’s—THEM! (1954) and Tarantula (1955) being my personal faves. I knew my main character had to be a park ranger but wanted to present as realistic a depiction as possible. Problem was, I knew nothing beyond what I’d seen in movies which was in all likelihood, not super accurate in the first place. So, I began contacting various Ranger stations around the United States. After numerous phone calls and emails, I finally found someone in Sandy, Oregon who agreed to answer my list of questions! It was an illuminating experience. And while I still don’t know if I got everything just right, there was no question that the main character had to be named Heather.

CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN: My name is Clay — and my story on The Rack is called “white pages.” For those folks who might remember the White Pages, or don’t, it was this magical tome full of every phone number, every address, for every citizen who lived within your area. It was truly a wondrous publication for those of us who liked to make prank calls back in the day when we were children. But what happens if the person who picks up the phone isn’t who you think they are? What if there’s someone waiting for you on the other end of the line?

KRISTIN DEARBORN: When I heard the idea for the anthology was a love letter to those wonderful old paperbacks of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, I was thrilled. I feel like we can’t even talk about those books without tipping our hats to Grady Hendrix and his Paperbacks From Hell, which brought several classics back into the mainstream. While we shouldn’t be judging books by their covers, we inevitably do, and wow, those covers were something. To write something inspired by the idea of a lurid cover, I knew I wanted to do something larger than life, and I wanted teenagers to die. I spent a while working on a piece about a summer camp and MK-Ultra while ultimately became a novella, and had to shift gears and come up with something shorter. I love creature features, love marauding animals, and decided to go with a bear. The rest, as they say, is history.

LARRY HINKLE: My name is Larry Hinkle, the least famous author you’ve never heard of. My debut collection, The Space Between, was released in February, 2024 from Trepidatio Publishing.

My story in The Rack is called “That Chemical Glow.” It’s an environmental/chemical/industrial horror story about twin brothers on the run after a drug deal goes bad. They end up hiding out in the neighborhood where they grew up, which the government condemned after two deadly chemical spills. Turns out the old neighborhood ain’t what it used to be, and the new residents are eager to make new friends.

JEFF STRAND: I’ve published about sixty books, and after a long losing streak I won the Bram Stoker Award for my novella Twentieth Anniversary Screening. My story “Fuzzy Slippers” explores the ancient universal fear that if you put on a pair of fuzzy slippers, they’re going to bite your feet off. I do not expect to win a second Bram Stoker Award for this particular story, but I think it’s a bloody good time.

TOM DEADY: I’ve been a fan of the horror genre since I was a kid, though I didn’t start taking my writing seriously until much later in life. I decided to put The Rack together as a tribute to what started me on my horror genre. I talk about it in the afterword of The Rack in detail.

What are your memories of vintage horror paperbacks? Did you read them growing up, or did you know someone who did? Do you have a favorite book from that era or even a favorite cover?

CANDACE NOLA: My first memory of the vintage paperbacks were the ones my dad read, quite a few King and Straub among them, but also Laymon, some James Herbert, and others. The covers caught my eye first, always a terrifying rodent, or demonic doll, some other type of impossibly haunted object and the half-dressed woman screaming in terror.

REBECCA ROWLAND: My dad was a huge Stephen King fan, so King’s books lurked everywhere in our house. I remember the cover of The Stand: the piercing red eyes of Flagg with a crow superimposed over his face; I remember Carrie’s dual face glowing blue, and I distinctly remember the cover of Night Shift because it quickly became my favorite short fiction collection, the bandaged hand with eyes peeking from the fingers. We owned the red paperback of The Bachman Books—the one with the skulls streaking along the road into the distance—and I recall that “The Long Walk,” not “Rage,” made the strongest impact on me, likely because of the body horror. When he moved to a suburb in the late 2000s, my father dropped all of those books at the local library for their annual used book sale, and weirdly enough, I ended up buying his exact copy back from a seller on eBay. It’s as if the book itself had decided that it belonged to us, to me.

MAX BOOTH III: Admittedly, I’m on the younger side of this anthology’s ToC. I was born in ’93, so I missed out on the big paperback boom of the ’80s. But I clearly remember my library having lots of old-school horror paperbacks when I was growing up. Plus my mom probably had every King paperback laying around the house, and I read those pretty much as soon as I knew how to read. Different Seasons was probably the first one I really got into, because I was obsessed with Stand By Me and I was thrilled to learn there was also a book component to the movie. I also remember reading that huge Richard Bachman omnibus early on and falling in love with The Long Walk.

My favorite cover from that era might be controversial, because even the author hated it, but I’m gonna have to go with the first-edition cover of Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door. Am I influenced here as a Goosebumps kid? Quite possibly. Either way, I’ve always loved that ridiculous cover haha. I think the fact that it’s such a tonal mismatch for the actual story is what makes me appreciate it even more. Who signed off on this thing? Why was this the cover? No idea, but I am grateful it happened.

CHRISTA CARMEN: Being born in the mid-80s, I was a bit too young to be reading paperbacks right off the rack myself, but my father was a fan of the Dean Koontz/Frank M. Robinson-type science fiction / horror paperbacks (as well as Stephen King, of course) and my mother was likely to be in possession of any number of the “woman looks over her shoulder at looming house” brand of paperbacks, and was a big Phyllis A. Whitney fan.

It’s a little unoriginal, especially because I heard our esteemed editor, Tom Deady, state that his first vintage paperback was this book as well, but my favorite book from that era AND favorite cover is the shiny ‘Salem’s Lot cover with the single red drop of blood glistening from the embossed vampire’s fang.

STEVE VAN SAMSON: My mom was always a voracious reader, but there were never horror books (or movies) in the house. This “scare embargo” forced me to constantly peruse the spinning racks in the kids sections of our town and school libraries for anything on the freakier side of things. The books that most stick out in my mind (besides the short story types like “Scary Stories To Read In The Dark” & “Tales From The Midnight Hour”) are definitely “Bunnicula” by Deborah & James Howe and The Samantha Slade books by Susan Smith. As for cover art, the second Samantha Slade book, “Confessions of a Teenage Frog” has really stuck with me. I remember staring at it in total fascination for hours. It depicts what was probably my first taste of body horror, as our hero Samantha gapes in “sort of abject terror” as her hands and arms get all froggy. Great stuff!

CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN: I have distinct memories of the Deltaville Market down in Virginia. They had a spinner rack at the front of their store… Two or three, as a matter of fact. One was always bodice rippers. The other was horror. When I was young, and my mother was waiting her turn at the checkout counter, I would brave the horror spinner and see if I could make a full rotation without flinching. And don’t get me started on actually taking a book off the rack and opening it. That was just forbidden. My heart couldn’t handle it. Especially the die-cut covers with the hidden images inside, where the book was demanding you engage with it, open it, in order for its true terror to reveal itself to you. That was just too much for me at that age. I never read those books as a kid, but the covers are still with me. PIN? THE TRIBE? Too much.

KRISTIN DEARBORN: When I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to watch scary movies, but had carte blanche to read whatever I wanted, be it from the local library, or from the boxes of paperbacks I discovered in my own attic. At home, I found Stephen King (The Stand, ‘Salem’s Lot, Cujo) Harvest Home, Rosemary’s Baby, and more. I remember powering through The Stand at a very young age (eight, maybe?) and didn’t get a lot of the nuances there. At the library I devoured even more, they had the titular black wire racks. I read everything Michael Crichton had written to that point. I devoured Koontz. Most embarrassingly, though, I was kind of obsessed with Piers Anthony’s Firefly. In retrospect, this is very cringe (as the kids say), I’m pretty sure everything about the book was god-awful. I’d never read anything with so much sex in it, horror sex, (though Koontz has some sex scenes, Crichton and King largely don’t) horror sex linked to animal biology and pheromones. I didn’t have the context back then to articulate how WRONG so much of the book is, would never recommend it or read it now, but it elevated my perception of what was horrific beyond the other titles I’d read. One of my favorite horror tropes is animal biology warped into monsters—Koontz does this so well in Watchers, I play with it myself in my novella Woman in White.

LARRY HINKLE: I read ALL the paperbacks growing up. My mom was a huge horror fan, and my dad built a bookshelf for her that took up an entire wall in our living room. (Man, I wish I had some of those books now.) I was allowed to read anything I could reach. And I was a tall kid. (Unfortunately, I quit growing after sixth grade and have been stuck at 5’8″ ever since.)

My favorite book from that era is probably the same as everyone else’s: Night Shift by Stephen King. The one with the picture on the cover of a hand wrapped in gauze with eyeballs peeking out. It’s still the single best author collection I’ve ever read.

JEFF STRAND: My memory is that you could go into a grocery store and they’d be right there by the checkout line, as an impulse purchase! My local magazine/comic/bookstore had a robust horror section, filled with Zebra, Leisure, etc. releases, all of them face-out for easy browsing. There was a massive amount of available stuff, but the challenge came when I was looking for specific books. In the days before online retailers, if a horror novel was past its very brief window of life on the shelves, my only choice was to search used bookstores. It took years to track down a copy of Ketchum’s Off Season, which I desperately wanted to read after it was discussed in Deep Red magazine. My favorite book of the era was R. Patrick Gates’ Grimm Memorials.

TOM DEADY: When I was in my early teens, every store – whether it was a supermarket, drugstore, or convenience store – had a spinny rack. I spent a lot of happy hours spinning those racks, studying the lurid covers and reading the back copy until I found just the right book.

I read a ton of them growing up and owned most of them. My brother, Mike, used to let me borrow his books (he had WAY more than I did, and still does!) if I hadn’t read them.

I often credit ‘Salem’s Lot for the one that got me started in horror. The original embossed face with the single drop of red blood…I can remember finding that on the rack all these years later. But there are so many others that come to mind; Nightwing, The Keep, Off Season, Night Shift, Audrey Rose…so many great covers.

So many thanks to all the contributors of The Rack for being part of this week’s roundtable! Join us next week as we discuss even more about vintage horror paperbacks!

Happy reading!

Sinister Summer’s End: Updates from My Weird, Writing World

So 2024 is already dwindling away, and seriously, what a year it’s been. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their support through my recent health scare. Your comments on my social media definitely filled me with love during a very frightening time. You’re all the best, and I’m so lucky to have such a great group of people around me.

Now onto better things: namely, writing news! It’s been six months today since The Haunting of Velkwood made its debut. It seems both like it was yesterday and a whole lifetime ago. That being said, I’m so thrilled that the book is still out there, finding new readers! It was featured once again as one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of the Year (So Far), and that truly fills my heart with ghostly joy. I was also recently interviewed not once but twice at Cemetery Dance. Truly, that’s beyond thrilling. Thank you so much to Esquire’s Neil McRobert, and Cemetery Dance’s Haley Newlin and Daniel Braum. All of you are absolutely amazing supporters of the horror genre, and I’m so happy that you enjoyed Velkwood!

As always, my novels aren’t the only thing I’ve been working on lately. You can check out all my recent articles at The Lineup, which include a post about Bram Stoker nominated works that deserve a place on your TBR as well as a list of the best 1980s horror remakes.

And then there’s a topic that’s forever near and dear to my heart: short fiction! I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of some very exciting anthologies this year! Last month, It Was All a Dream 2: Another Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right was released; it features my story, “Be Kind, Please Rewind,” an unusual reworking of the Final Girl trope. This one took me a few years to get it to where I wanted it, so I’m so delighted that it’s finally found a home in such a very cool book!

And just this week, the incredible anthology, The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, was released from Greymore Publishing. My insect tale, “The Last Call of the Cicada,” is featured in a truly spectacular table of contents, which includes everyone from Candace Nola and Christa Carmen to Stephen King and Cynthia Pelayo. Such an honor to be part of this one, and I’m planning to do a roundtable interview series here on my blog in the coming weeks with some of the contributors.

In terms of what’s on the horizon, the fantastic Fear of Clowns: A Horror Anthology is due out in just a couple of weeks, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that one! And finally, The Darkest Night: 22 Winter Horror Stories, edited by the always extraordinary Lindy Ryan, is due out later this year. Suffice it to say, I’ll be posting more about all of these super cool anthologies on social media, so be prepared to hear more about it from me!

Also, on an entirely different note, I hate to vaguebook, but there’s been some behind-the-scenes movement on a couple of projects that would be completely amazing and utterly life-changing if they keep progressing forward. Suffice it to say, my visit to Los Angeles in May was a very positive one. So stay tuned for those details if and when I can share them, and if you’ve got the energy, send a couple good vibes my way in hopes of everything taking the best possible turn.

So that’s about it from my writing world at the moment. Otherwise, I’m at work on several new books, including a novel and my second short fiction collection. So much writing to do, so little time! I hope everyone out there is doing well and planning lots of horror fun for the fall!

Happy end of summer, and happy reading!

The Haunting of Velkwood is one month old!

Welcome back! So last Friday was a pretty cool milestone: The Haunting of Velkwood officially turned one month old!

*spectral screams of joy*

Seriously, though, this book–both writing it and promoting it–has definitely been a unique experience and quite a journey to be honest. I know I’ve certainly been loquacious about Velkwood on social media, so you’ve probably heard plenty of my updates already. But honestly, this book is a really big deal to me, so I’m just going to go ahead and share some of the news again! Because really, what else is a blog for anyhow?

There have been so many incredible reviews of The Haunting of Velkwood, and it makes me so happy to see my ghosts making their way in the world and finding readers! Here are a few of the pull quotes from reviews, just in case you need a bit of incentive to pick up a copy of the book!

“Prediction: this makes not only many year’s best in horror lists, but lists for the best books overall in 2024. Highly recommended.” — Cemetery Dance

“The Haunting of Velkwood shimmers with the uncanny… the most unique haunt story in years.” — Fangoria

“Kiste’s expert storytelling and engaging prose ensure that readers will have difficulty putting the book down. This is a must-read for 2024.” — Ginger Nuts of Horror

“Sure to be one of the most original and riveting horror novels of 2024.” — Booklist (Starred Review)

“Kiste kept her page-turner relatable. She made it fun. And memorable. It hints at lies and secrets… Kiste is a damn good story teller!” – Horror Tree

“Breathtakingly original modern ghost story laden with humanity and heartache.” – Library Journal

Another big highlight: The Haunting of Velkwood has been featured in Fangoria… not once, but twice! First up, there was a fantastic review in Issue #22! So many thanks to Ahlissa Eichhorn of The Nightmare Library column for all her support! Then last month, the amazing Leticia Lopez interviewed me for the site where we talked horror, ghosts, and more! Truly, being featured in Fangoria twice is so unbelievably awesome and special! Eeeeee!!!

I’ve also made numerous appearances on some very fabulous podcasts, including Talking Scared, This Is Horror, Lovecraft eZine, Night Time Logic, The Ghostly Gallery, and Sley House Presents. In addition to those podcasts, I’ve been interviewed at a number of others sites such as Rue Morgue and The Nerd Daily. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have so many places come out to support this book, so please head on over to my recently revamped interviews page for all the details!

The major leg of my book tour is now over, and seriously, what an amazing experience it was! I’m so grateful for the bookstores that hosted me, including Riverstone Books in Pittsburgh, Loganberry Books in Cleveland, Charis Books & More in Atlanta, and the virtual event at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. These are all wonderful places, so please consider stopping by if they’re in your area, or ordering online if they’re too far to visit in person!

However, if you missed out on my Velkwood events, fear not! I’m still making a few more appearances, both on podcasts and in person! In particular, I’ll be at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg on Saturday, April 27th for Independent Bookstore Day! Then on Saturday, May 11th, I’ll be at the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books for a very awesome horror panel. And last but not least, I’ll be at StokerCon in San Diego from May 30th to June 2nd! I most certainly hope to see some of you there!

As the coming months roll by, I’ll of course keep sharing news about the book, as my ghosts continue to haunt the world! Needless to say, thank you so much to everyone who’s supported The Haunting of Velkwood so far! It truly means the world to me!

Happy reading, and happy ghostly adventures!

RELEASE DAY: The Haunting of Velkwood is now available!

So the big day has finally arrived: The Haunting of Velkwood has made its way into the world!

*screeches merrily into the ghostly void*

Seriously, though, I’m beyond thrilled that this book is officially hitting bookshelves today! This is a tale that took a lot out of me to write, and I’m so glad that it belongs to readers now!

There’s been some amazing early reviews of Velkwood. It’s received a starred review from Booklist as well as been featured in Gizmodo, Yahoo, Men’s Health, CrimeReads, and more! Plus, it’s received great reviews from Cemetery Dance, Ginger Nuts of Horror, Horror Tree, The Fandomentals, and FanFiAddict, among others. Here are a few of the pull quotes and blurbs so far!

“Sure to be one of the most original and riveting horror novels of 2024.” – Booklist (Starred Review)

“Breathtakingly original modern ghost story laden with humanity and heartache.” – Library Journal

“Kiste kept her page-turner relatable. She made it fun. And memorable. It hints at lies and secrets… Kiste is a damn good story teller!” – Horror Tree

“One of the most original ghost stories you will ever read. Phenomenal.” – Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Cackle and Black Sheep

“A totally original ghost story, filled with chills… I absolutely loved it.” – Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and All Hallows

“A spellbinding accomplishment in modern literature not to be missed… you won’t be able to shake the ghosts of Velkwood for a long, long time.” – Jess Landry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Mother Wound

“Heartbreaking and hopeful. Kiste’s The Haunting of Velkwood is as compelling as it is chilling. A perfect modern ghost story.” – Angela Slatter, award-winning author of The Path of Thorns

“A disturbing new stroke on the canvas of horror, and a reminder that no matter how far we run, the past knows just where to find us.” – Eden Royce, Walter Award Honoree and Shirley Jackson Award Finalist

So just where can you find my ghosts? As it happens, here are a couple links where you can pick up a copy!

The Haunting of Velkwood at Riverstone Books

The Haunting of Velkwood at Amazon

Thank you so much to everyone who’s already preordered the book as well as all the amazing reviewers and interviewers out there who have been spreading the word about The Haunting of Velkwood! Truly, it means the absolute world to me!

Happy reading, and happy Velkwood release day!

Book Tour for THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD

Welcome back! We are now just one week away from the official release of my latest novel, The Haunting of Velkwood!

*insert screams of joy*

Seriously, though, I’m so excited for this book to make its debut in the world. It’s one of my favorite and most personal things I’ve ever written, and I’m so glad that it will be out on bookshelves soon.

Another thing I’m super excited about: I’m doing a book tour! And this one has even more in-person events than my last tour for Reluctant Immortals!

And where will I be appearing? Well, I just so happen to have this awesome graphic with all of my upcoming events!

First up, there’s the launch party for The Haunting of Velkwood! That will be on the book’s release day, which is Tuesday, March 5th! The launch party will be held at Riverstone Books in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh at 7pm ET! I’ll be in conversation with the awesome Ben Rubin of the Horror Studies Archive at the University of Pittsburgh, and it’s sure to be lots of fun, so please join us for a night of ghostly terror!

(Also, this is a perfect time to remind everyone that you can still pre-order The Haunting of Velkwood from Riverstone Books, and receive not only a personalized copy of the book but also an exclusive vinyl sticker welcoming you to the Velkwood Vicinity!)

Then on Wednesday, March 13th at 7pm, I’ll be heading back to my original home state of Ohio to do an event at Loganberry Books in Cleveland! I’ll be in conversation with K.P. Kulski, the author of Fairest Flesh as well as a recent Bram Stoker Award nominee! Another event that’s going to be a total blast, so it would be great to see some Ohio folks in attendance for this one!

The following week, I’ll be heading down to Atlanta to appear at Charis Books on Wednesday, March 20th at 7:30pm! This event is called Queer Horror Across Time and features Lee Mandelo and me in conversation about The Haunting of Velkwood and Lee’s new book, The Woods All Black. This one is a hybrid event, so you can catch us in person or as a virtual event through Charis Books’ YouTube page.

Next up, I’ll be doing a virtual event at Mysterious Galaxy on Tuesday, March 26th at 9pm ET. A few of the details on this one are still forthcoming, so please stay tuned for the link as well as my in-conversation partner! I had such a blast at the Mysterious Galaxy event for Reluctant Immortals, so I’m so thrilled about coming back for Velkwood!

Then on Thursday, March 28th at 7pm ET, I’ll be joining the wonderful Daniel Braum for his Night Time Logic series. We’ll be talking ghosts as well as doing readings from our work! It’s always a pleasure to be part of the Night Time Logic series, so I’m very excited about making my return! Again, the event page for this one should be ready soon, and I’ll be sure to share it far and wide when it is!

Flash forward to the next month, and on Saturday, April 27th at 2pm ET, I’ll be doing a book signing and meet and greet at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg. This is part of Independent Bookstore Day, which is such a fun celebration. I’ve never done a book event in Pennsylvania outside of the Pittsburgh area, so I’m looking forward to meeting readers from other parts of the state!

And finally, I’ll be circling back home and appearing at The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books on Saturday, May 11th. All the details about that appearance are still forthcoming, but suffice it to say that I’m scheduled for a very cool panel with some amazing fellow panelists.

So that’s the schedule for my second-ever book tour! I’m so delighted to be making so many appearances over the next few months. And of course, I’m also doing lots of interviews for fabulous podcasts and websites and guest essays, so there will be plenty of chances to catch me hanging out in person and virtually! Needless to say, I’m beyond thrilled to be sharing The Haunting of Velkwood with the world! I most certainly hope that lots of you enjoy meeting my ghosts very soon!

Happy reading!

Future Horror Hopes: Part Two in Our Fall 2023 Horror Roundtable

Welcome back for the second half of our Fall 2023 Horror Roundtable! I’m so thrilled to spotlight these eight fantastic authors and editors as they discuss their fabulous new books!

And now I’m so pleased to let them take it away!

I know it’s a perennial question, but I’ll ask it anyhow: what draws you to horror? Also, do you remember your first experience with the genre growing up?

N.J. GALLEGOS: There’s something magical to me about facing your fears through the horror genre, whether that means fear of death, losing the ones you love, or the scary things that go bump in the night. It’s always made me feel less scared and alone, oddly enough. My parents divorced when I was young and my mom worked a lot to support us, leaving me to my own devices quite a bit. Horror was there for me, keeping me company. It’s comforting to me.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been a horror fan. My mother is a massive horror fiend and shared that love with me early on. I have a distinct memory of watching Alien with her for the first time and everything about the movie captivated me: a woman protagonist who is a total badass (that goes back for the cat; a very big deal to 5-year-old me) fighting a Xenomorph which still ranks as one of my scariest monsters. I grew up in the era of VHS rentals and at one point, we’d watched every single movie in the horror section! As I started reading, I would mow through the YA stuff (Goosebumps, Animorphs, etc) in about an hour and then was nagging my mom for more books. So, she tossed Stephen King’s The Stand at me and said: Try reading this in an hour. Took me a bit longer than that!

SHANE HAWK: If we’re restricting ourselves to literature, what really draws me to Horror is the way in which we can confront our own fears—or step into someone else’s shoes and experience their fears—safely and exist in some intangible liminal space for a little while before we must go back to the real world, our day jobs, etc. I enjoy the thrill, the mystery, the what-if of the dark. Realistic horror freaks me out just as much as supernatural horror does, and I love that I can visit those wispy, incorporeal playgrounds to reflect on how I would react, what I would do if I were ever in a similar situation. I think a lot of us who love escaping into fiction cherish stories in which we get to have a little fun and be vicarious, even for a short journey.

One of my first experiences with the genre was a third-grade reading project whereby the teacher allowed us to choose any book we wanted to read and we had to make some type of artistic expression from that book, whether it was a painting, drawing, model, etc. I chose R.L. Stine’s Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, and I can still remember the cover with the plastic pink flamingos and the mischievous-looking gnomes in red hats. As a third grader, the story spooked me a bit, and it reminded me of the stories of the Little People from my tribe. Arapaho stories about the Little People are scary as they are depicted as entirely malevolent and cannibalistic rather than trickster-ish troublemakers according to other tribes. My dad helped me create my artistic component of the project by using a Tupperware bowl to form a papier-mâché gnome mask. We painted it together. I’m pretty sure I was the only kid who chose a scary book for the project.

ANGELA SYLVAINE: I have a theory about that. Being North Dakotan and Norwegian, I was raised to be extremely polite and smile always, no matter what, so I think horror allowed me to explore darker emotions that I couldn’t necessarily display on the surface. My first memory of horror was the movie Cat’s Eye. I would have been about seven, similar in age to Drew Barrymore in the movie, and I clearly remember seeing the little breath-sucking troll peeking through the door to my room. And I had no cat to save me!

JESSICA MCHUGH: I like the descriptive nature of horror, the icky sticky sights and sounds, the rusty earthen stenches and skin-bristling textures. All the revulsion, all the beauty. I love dissecting people’s pasts and motivations too, and for me, horror is the best place to unravel those messy tales. It’s just so much fun.

I consumed horror from a very young age, so it’s hard for me to pinpoint the first experience, but I will say that I read a lot of generic spooky campfire stories, folk tales, and urban legend books when I was little. Paired with Scary Stories to Tell in Dark, the inherent darkness of 80s kids movies like The Last Unicorn, Return to Oz, and The Black Cauldron, and having two older brothers who were already deep into horror films, I’ve always been comforted by all things creepy. I started reading Stephen King novels in late elementary school and was obsessed with RL Stine’s Fear Street series throughout middle school. Horror has just always been there for me, thank goodness.

CHRISTA CARMEN: What draws me to horror is the ability for horror writers and filmmakers to examine a difficult topic—be it mental illness, addiction, trauma, loss, guilt, regret, shame, etc.—through the lens of something even more terrible, more disturbing, and more soul-splitting, resulting in a piece of art that—in addition to horrifying the reader or viewer—can entertain, teach, promote empathy, and even heal. Not too many other genres, if any, can claim that.

Regarding my first experience with the genre growing up, some of the first books I truly adored were the works of James and Deborah Howe, particularly, the Bunnicula series, as well as the Goosebumps and Fear Street books by R.L. Stine. Though, I had a rather bizarre experience when I was in third grade… I went to a friend’s birthday party, and there was talk of watching a few scary movies, but when the movies in question were revealed, they were Leprechaun and Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, far from appropriate fare for a group of nine-year-olds. I walked around in an Elm Street-esque, sleepless daze for about a week before the memories of those terror-inducing films began to lessen.

I steered clear of horror films for about four years, then gave the genre another chance with Halloween when I was about thirteen. Though I was terrified over the possibility of Michael Myers climbing the trellis into my bedroom (despite my house not even having a trellis), something about this experience must have struck a chord, because from that moment on, I was drawn to horror.

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: Horror is a mirror of our current times and ourselves. I’ve always been an anxious and fearful person, and writing horror allows me to safely explore those fears. My parents never limited my reading and viewing, so I was exposed to the genre early on. I saw movies like Poltergeist and read books like Carrie too young, probably. I was obsessed with the Christopher Pike books, and read a ton of Zilpha Keatley Snyder as a kid.

EDEN ROYCE: Several things draw me to horror: the tension, the anticipation, and the eventual resolution of those feelings, sometimes in one decisive swoop. It’s a way of dealing with the horrors and aggressions of the world at large, similar to the way some people embrace gallows humor.

One of my first experiences with horror was the book The Gashleycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey. It’s an illustrated book of ABCs, with a decidedly morbid bent. As a young kid, I found a copy of it at the library and my mom flipped through it. Because of the content, I was afraid she wouldn’t let me check it out. But she just chuckled and set it on the circulation desk with the rest of our book haul for the day. She’s a horror lover as well, so I think she just thought it was a good way to prepare me for the wider world out there.

JAN STINCHCOMB: I like to ponder bad people doing bad things. Good people make me nervous. As a child I was always drawn to ghosts and witches. My first exposure to horror in popular culture was probably Scooby-Doo, but one cannot underestimate the power of the Bible. I remember my older sister explaining that the devil was once an angel, and even though I was a little kid, I felt like I somehow already knew this. Of course he was an angel, I thought. That makes sense. Even the devil has an origin story.

What are your hopes for the future of the horror genre?

N.J. GALLEGOS: It’s already happening but I want the horror genre to be more visible and respected. I feel like previously horror was considered low brow, full of cheap tricks and thrills. Almost the literary equivalent of sugary candy compared to foie gras of contemporary fiction, thriller, etc.

SHANE HAWK: The future of Horror looks bright despite our obsession with the dark and macabre. I see far more stories and books being published by people whose community has been historically marginalized, and in effect, creating a rich diversity of style, voice, and experience within that community that then helps readers avoid making singular, monolithic assumptions and takeaways. I hope it continues to challenge people’s views by tackling all sorts of relevant social issues of the past, present, and future in innovative and alluring ways. I see far more people flocking to it as we break down the barriers and make people understand that it’s not all just the classic creatures and blood and guts. There’s a lot more to it, and more people will continue to see that and spread the word. We will thrive.

ANGELA SYLVAINE: My hope for the horror genre is that we continue to see the diversity grow. When I was young, I read white, male authors because they were all that I knew of and the most readily available to me. While those stores were great, there are so many other stories to be told, and I am really glad to see that happening today. I love Stephen King, but I hope horror readers broaden their horizons and continue to discover the wide range of talent that is thriving in the genre.

JESSICA MCHUGH: More unhinged, super weird, unlikeable, unredeemable, and diverse characters / situations. Gutsy horror, unapologetic horror, the kind of horror that makes me even more excited to find out that the author of that revolting mindfuck of a novel is the kindest, most caring person in the world.

CHRISTA CARMEN: More challenging and subverting of stereotypical tropes and more diverse stories and voices! Also, more women in horror getting deals for film and television adaptations based on their work!

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: I’ve been happy to see a real effort towards inclusion in recent years, at least in the indie horror community. Readers have always been interested in works from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors, and those authors are finally getting a spotlight and more opportunities to publish. I want to see that continue. There are a lot of diverse voices out there and even more stories. The literary world is a better, more exciting place when it includes a wide variety of voices.

EDEN ROYCE: My hopes are that people who love horror read it more widely: various authors, themes, and sub-genres. I hope the horror community expands, becoming more accepting and more open, with less gatekeeping as to what qualifies as horror. I have people tell me they don’t like horror at all, but they like my work. Horror isn’t all slashers chasing teens through the woods. The horror genre is nuanced and can have subtleties that draw you in with beauty or strangeness, only to reveal something you don’t realize is unsettling until after you’ve put the book down.

There is a deeply-rooted belief out there that horror is a “low” form of entertainment, so I’d love for consumers of media to recognize horror can be as rich and layered and resonant as any other genre out there.

JAN STINCHCOMB: I love horror and I want to see it flourish. I want new voices, all the voices. For years the general public has associated horror with gore, but it is so much more than that. I want to see more readers give horror a chance, and I will keep blending genres in my own work regardless of the constraints of mainstream publishing. That said, I must acknowledge the independent presses out there supporting weird and challenging books: JournalStone, Clash, Apocalypse Party, Black Lawrence, Raw Dog Screaming, Unnerving.

What upcoming projects are you currently working on?

N.J. GALLEGOS: Currently working on my second novel which follows a neurologist who invents implantable inhibiting chips that stop migraines at the source, but the side effects could be… murder.

I’ve also been kicking around ideas for a The Broken Heart sequel but those currently reside in my brain.

SHANE HAWK: I’m working on my debut novel that revolves around an Indigenous punk band, heavy anarchistic music, government ops, and shapeshifters. I’m also working with an established producer on a feature script for a global theatrical release and—fingers crossed—he will help me sell it to a major studio and get it made in the next few years. Keith Rosson also just asked me to write a story for a charity anthology due next year, and I’m excited for that as well!

ANGELA SYLVAINE: I’m finishing up my debut short story collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls, which will be released in May of 2024, and I’m expanding a previous novella, Chopping Spree, which will be rereleased later in 2024 with new material. I’ve also begun working on the sequel to Frost Bite, which will come out in 2025.

JESSICA MCHUGH: I’m working on an erotic horror blackout poetry collection called Feast made from Wuthering Heights. And while it won’t be as physically demanding as The Quiet Ways I Destroy You, it’s still a massive challenge, as I’m writing it in a play format, with all these poems stitched into a very clear narrative and cast of characters. Even the stage directions will be blackout poems. It’s been maddening at times, but it’s also been incredibly fun to develop.

I’m also writing the 3rd and final book in the Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy, coming out from Ghoulish Books in fall 2024. Following the 1950s madhouse horror of Rabbits in the Garden and the 1970s cult horror of Hares in the Hedgerow, I think the 1980s glam metal horror of Witches in the Warren is going to make fans of this bonkers series very happy with how things wrap up for Avery Norton and her fiery family.

CHRISTA CARMEN: My second novel with Thomas & Mercer, Beneath the Poet’s House, will be released in the fall of 2024, and I’m so, so excited about this book. Many of the characters are inspired by historical figures close to my heart, and I can’t wait to be able to tell readers more about this project. Soon… very soon.

Additionally, I’ll have a short story, “Until the Moss had Reached Our Lips,” in a Weird House Press anthology, 13 Possessions, that will be available for preorder shortly, and a story entitled, “Guess How Much I Love You?” in Why Didn’t You Just Leave?, edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios and published by Cursed Morsels Press, though that one won’t be out until 2024. I have a few more short stories poised for publication with different anthologies that I can’t announce quite yet, and I’m hoping to release my first children’s picture book in the near future as well!

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: I’m at an exciting point in my career where I’m ready to finally tackle my longest work yet, a novel. I can’t reveal much at this point, but it’s a body horror story about the fallibility of memory, desire through consumption, and the cyclical nature of everything.

EDEN ROYCE: I’ve had a few manuscripts accepted recently that I’m looking forward to seeing out in the world. One has been announced already: an adult horror novella with Raw Dog Screaming Press titled Hollow Tongue. And two that will be announced soon: an adult Southern Gothic fantasy novella and a YA Southern Gothic horror novel – so stay tuned for news on those!

JAN STINCHCOMB: I’m working on a project that combines fairy tale and noir but I can’t say much about it yet. I’m always working on various short stories––they pop up like mushrooms in my life. I tend to believe that it’s good to have several projects going at once, though the novel has a way of rising up and knocking everything else aside.

So many thanks to our amazing featured authors this month! Please pick up copies of their books; they’re very much worth your time!

Happy reading!

Fabulous Fall Fiction: Part One in Our Fall 2023 Horror Roundtable

Welcome back! This month, I’m thrilled to spotlight the work of eight fantastic authors and editors who have new books out this year! I always love putting together these roundtables because it gives me a chance to talk with so many great creators at once. And fortunately for the genre, we’ve got so much talent out there right now!

So without further adieu, I’m pleased to let November’s highlighted authors take it away!

Thank you so much for being part of my fall roundtable. Please tell us a little bit about your latest book.

N.J. GALLEGOS: The Broken Heart follows Casey Philips, an abused housewife and mother of two, who suffers from heart failure during her second pregnancy and receives a transplant from a serial killer. She undergoes a dark transformation, becoming the anti-hero you can’t help but root for… even as the body count rises.

SHANE HAWK: Hohóu for including me in the first place! Yes, my latest book is a 26-story anthology titled Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. I helped co-edit it, alongside my friend, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. NWAN was published by Penguin Random House on September 19th, 2023 in the US and Canada, and it has made the top 10 bestselling books list every week since then, making it an international bestseller. Its contents comprise twelve established writers, twelve lesser-known writers, the two of us editors, and an amazing foreword from Stephen Graham Jones that contextualizes the entire work. Mood-wise, the stories range from creepy to mournful to downright hair-raising, and the subject matter explores Indigeneity inside and out while introducing the reader to supernatural monsters, ghosts, all-too-real human monsters, and more. There’s something for everyone in this anthology whether it be a hard-and-fast genre piece ripping you to shreds, or a heartbreaking literary horror piece that stays in your head for months rent-free.

ANGELA SYLVAINE: Thank you very much for having me! My latest book is called Frost Bite, and it’s an LGBTQ+ ‘90s sci-fi horror comedy. Frost Bite is about a small North Dakota town that gets hit by a meteor, which infects the hibernating prairie dogs with alien worms. Recent high-school graduate, Realene, and her best friend, Nate, fight to save the town from the creatures’ memory-stealing bite while also battling a doomsday cult who thinks the meteor is a sign of the
apocalypse.

JESSICA MCHUGH: Thank you so much for inviting me to participate, Gwendolyn! The Quiet Ways I Destroy You is a cosmic horror blackout poetry collection created from and inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Because that novel celebrated its 155th publication anniversary, I challenged myself to tell a story of self-exploration, feminine rage, and transformative sisterhood in 155 unique pieces, some of which are the largest and most complex blackout poems I’ve ever made. It’s a beautiful beast of a book, and I’m so jazzed it’s out in the world.

CHRISTA CARMEN: The Daughters of Block Island is my take on the gothic, the culmination of years of reading books like The Monk and Rebecca and wanting to throw my hat in the ring of decaying castles and damsels in distress. Like many popular subgenres, the gothic has been done to death, so I had to ensure I was bringing something new to readers, ultimately deciding to “make gothic meta,” with my poor tragic heroine, Blake Bronson, believing herself to be in the quintessential gothic novel. The book is also inspired, in part, by the Twa Sisters murder ballad, as well as the Scream film franchise, so there is a little something for everyone within its rain(-and-blood!)-soaked pages.

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: Thank you so much for inviting me! My queer succubi sex, drugs and rock & roll novella SLEEP ALONE was released by Off Limits Press in March 2023. It takes place over one week in the lives of merch girl Ronnie and the touring rock band she turned into succubi like herself. Since she turned them six years ago, they’ve lived on the road, constantly fleeing the destruction they leave in their wake from feeding on the memories, energy, strength, and talents of their prey. It’s a seedy, lonely existence. Then everything changes when Ronnie meets the mysterious and magnetic Helene at a show. With Helene in tow, the band crosses the Pacific Northwest as a mysterious disease stalks these succubi and destroys everything, from their relationships with each other to their very existences.

EDEN ROYCE: Who Lost, I Found is a collection of short stories in various speculative fiction genres ranging from Southern Gothic and folk horror to Afro-surrealism and dark fantasy, finally culminating in a tale to lift a little of the darkness. Essentially, it’s Black Southern horror, encompassing Gullah Geechee folklore, ancestry, warnings, conjure, survival, and celebration of enduring for a night.

These stories utilize methods many editors will tell you don’t work: second-person point of view, inactive protagonists, the use of dialect… all hallmarks of my people’s storytelling traditions. Some of these stories are grounded in truth, others in fantasy, but they are all valid aspects of storytelling. This collection defies the odds and, like my people have always done, makes its own way when there was none.

JAN STINCHCOMB: Verushka is a multi-POV family novel with a young female protagonist. It draws from the genres of fairy tale and horror and goes back and forth in time. It’s not YA but I have a secret fantasy of parents reading this book with their kids.

What in particular makes your current project different from your previous books?

N.J. GALLEGOS: This is my first full length novel so that’s different in itself! I have three novellas to compare and contrast with though. I feel like the character development in The Broken Heart was more fleshed out and I found myself getting attached to Casey more than any other character I’ve written. The Broken Heart tackles my favorite theme of female vengeance, also seen in my novella Just Desserts where an awkward, previously bullied woman attends her 20-year high school reunion… don’t eat the tiramisu.

SHANE HAWK: I’m still relatively emerging in the game that is Horror fiction, so I only really have one previous short story collection (Anoka: An Indigenous Horror Collection) and other short fiction scattered throughout other anthologies. This book is the first wherein I’m in both the editor’s seat as well as the writer’s seat. It’s also the first of hopefully many to be published at the Big-5 level—I’m entirely grateful for the amount of work put in by our American and Canadian teams, lots of things the average reader isn’t aware of, and the support is quite different than self-publishing or indie presses. It’s really a learning experience every day.

ANGELA SYLVAINE: This is my debut novel, so prior to this I’ve only published shorter works. Additionally, this is my first foray into creating a fictional town. Demise and its residents are inspired by where I grew up in North Dakota, and it was really fun to try and capture North Dakota winters and the Midwestern niceness of the people there.

JESSICA MCHUGH: The physical work involved in this project is like nothing I’ve done before. Using four different editions of “Little Women” of varying sizes, I ripped, sewed, painted, sculpted, and illustrated this collection in ways that tested every artistic boundary. I owe a lot of that to working in a tattoo shop, surrounded and inspired by art of all types. I used scraps of my coworkers’ artwork to practice my own, and I learned a lot about letting go of my doubts and insecurities and trusting my artistic instincts. This project also required more time management than ever before to complete 155 blackout poems—more than that, actually. I found around 200 poems total, and completed the art on around 170. From June 21st – December 27th, I kept to my goal of finishing 4-6 pieces a week while accounting for sickness, holidays, etc, while aiming for mid-January, so I actually completed ahead of my self-imposed deadline. I’ve honestly never been more impressed with myself.

CHRISTA CARMEN: This is my debut novel, and it’s taken me a number of years to get here, as I started out as more of a short fiction writer and even put out a short fiction collection with Unnerving called Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked in 2018. The Daughters of Block Island is also a decidedly “quieter” horror tale than many of the stories in my collection. There are no chainsaw wielding-Deadite killers or gore-saturated photographs in Daughters, but don’t let that turn you off if you’re in the mood for something unnerving; there’s still a whole slew of scandal, secrets, ghosts, and murder to tickle your horror-loving fancies.

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: This one was fast and dirty for me, compared to my other stories. I was in the middle of another project when the idea for SLEEP ALONE took hold and I had to run with it. I didn’t overthink it; it was almost as if the story controlled me. Ronnie is a very personal character to me, someone who’s selfish and vulnerable and cruel and capable of so much love, all at once. I pride myself on my prose, but I also wanted the voice of the story to be very much Ronnie, as an aging merch girl slogging through this seedy, uncomfortable life would speak. So the tone is a bit more casual, more of that “quick and dirty”, than most of my other recent work.

EDEN ROYCE: While several of the stories included are reprints, a good number of the tales in Who Lost, I Found only appeared in non-digital media before being compiled into this collection. Since those stories were in so many different print publications, it would have taken a lot of time, money, and effort to read them all, so I’ve compiled some of them in this collection.

A few of the stories in this collection, I wrote specifically for certain magazines, as opposed to my usual process of writing a story that once completed, I seek a home for. Who Lost, I Found also includes a brand-new novelette (longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella), which is a length I haven’t tackled before in my writing.

JAN STINCHCOMB: This is the first time I’ve published a full length novel. Most of my previous work has been short form, from flash fiction to novellas. I will say that this book is intensely personal, perhaps because it’s set in places where I or my family members have lived.

The books featured as part of this roundtable range from a poetry collection and a debut novel to a fiction collection and a horror anthology, with even more permutations in between. How do you each decide what medium you want to write or edit in? Do you favor a specific medium (e.g. short fiction, novel, poetry, etc.), or do you prefer publishing a wide range of work?

N.J. GALLEGOS: It’s always been on my bucket list to write a novel and I’ve certainly enjoyed the process of writing a longer piece but short stories are my favorite. They’re compact, easily digestible, and a hell of a lot easier to edit! I’m a huge Stephen King fan and love his short story collections (especially Skeleton Crew and Night Shift) and I’ve always admired the way he can convey so much story in so few words. Naturally, I aspire to that.

Other than The Broken Heart, I go into writing thinking: this’ll be a great short story and then at some point, the characters and plot take over, resulting in novella length work! Weirdly, the decision of what medium to write in isn’t conscious unless there’s a submission call giving strict word counts.

SHANE HAWK: Like I said before, I still feel like fresh meat as I don’t have an extensive backlog for readers to check out. With everything I’ve dipped my toe into so far, I really enjoy the mystery and excitement as a short story panster. I like my characters to take me to places I had no idea I’d be, and the real fun is in that unknown, dark splotch at the end of the tunnel, just outside the reach of your flashlight’s beam. Now, with that being said, I’ve already outlined my debut novel and begun writing it—albeit nowhere near rewrites or completion. Novel writing is a whole different beast and adventure, though some of the magic dissipates with that outline, that ending. Though, my approach so far has mostly been to have empty spots in the road ahead, and it’s a fun challenge to see where the characters and story can really take you in that regard. I’ll also say that I’m working on my first screenplay for a feature film, and it’s an incredibly different-different beast. Almost stripped away and barren, but just enough to get you through. Really, I love it all and frankly wish I had more time to write in different mediums and get all these stories out of my head. Though… I’m only 33 and just getting started. I’ve got time to tell it all. Patience patience patience.

ANGELA SYLVAINE: I love dabbling in all forms of fiction. I’ve had the most publishing success with short fiction, but I really enjoy poetry and longer fiction as well. As far as deciding which medium I want to write in, I like to let the story guide me and dictate what is the best fit, but sometimes it’s also about experimentation. I’ll write a poem that I then adapt as a short story and vice versa. That said, I am dedicating myself more to long fiction in the near future, because Frost Bite is contracted to be a three-book series!

JESSICA MCHUGH: I definitely prefer working in multiple genres and mediums…often at the same time. I’m usually always working on a novel and/or short story, and since I started making blackout poetry, I’m also usually working on a collection while doing poetry commissions. I love having options so I can create according to my mood and energy levels without feeling like I’m forcing myself to be productive.

CHRISTA CARMEN: The first iteration of The Daughters of Block Island was a short story told in epistolary format, and I’ll admit it was strange for me to take an idea conceived as a short piece and expand it. Normally, the medium in which I set out to write is the medium in which I complete the project. I don’t really prefer novels over short stories or vice versa, though that wasn’t always the case.

A few years ago, I felt my strengths lied predominately in short fiction, and didn’t have as much confidence in my novel-writing abilities. That changed with—like anything else—lots of practice, and today, I switch pretty effortlessly between novels, short fiction, nonfiction essays, and children’s picture books, depending on where inspiration strikes.

J.A.W. MCCARTHY: I’ve been primarily a short fiction writer, so the novella-length SLEEP ALONE is my longest work to date. When I first started writing, I didn’t think I was capable of good short fiction. I was very longwinded, writing novels even as a little kid. Then when I returned to writing, I found my rhythm with short fiction. Though I’m very good at pushing the limits of “short”—most of my stories want to be 7000+ words, and I’ve been happiest at novella-length like SLEEP ALONE, and with my novelette IMAGO EXPULSIO (THE RED ANIMAL OF OUR BLOOD), which was also recently released as part of SPLIT SCREAM Vol 3 (paired with a novelette from Patrick Barb) by Dread Stone Press.

EDEN ROYCE: I prefer publishing a wide range of work when it comes to genres, age groups, and length. I began my career with writing short stories, but at some point, I wanted to tackle longer work. Since I had more experience with shorter formats, I wrote my first novel in short stories, then wrote more to connect the individual vignettes later.

When I got my first agent, I was told that it was best to stick with one genre and age group until I got a foothold before I moved into other areas. Thankfully, I didn’t listen to that advice. Because I came to writing professionally later in life, and traditional publishing moves quite slowly, I didn’t want to wait some arbitrary amount of time to get my work and voice out there.

As far as how I decide what medium for a work – short story, novella, novel, or anything else – that depends. Sometimes I plan to write a novel or a short story and it ends up being just that. Other times, I’ve written what I intended to be a short story, and by the time I finish telling the story, I have a novella. Usually, as a rule of thumb, if I feel the need to jot down something resembling an outline, I’ll be writing something longer than 5,000 words.

JAN STINCHCOMB: It’s a tie between the short story and the novella/novel. When I’m with one form, I long for the other, though each has its challenges. I am endlessly fascinated by the short story, how each one is like a puzzle for both author and reader to solve. It’s a very tricky form. And the novel never stops surprising me: there are a million ways to write one. As far as choosing between the two goes, the decision is often made for you. There are some projects that are simply too big to be handled within the parameters of the short story, and then there are others that are perfect for a piece of short fiction.

Tremendous thanks to this month’s roundtable authors! Join us next week as we discuss their hopes for the future of horror and what they’re working on next!

Happy reading!

My new novel, The Haunting of Velkwood, is coming soon!

So you may have already heard me screaming from the rooftops about this, but just in case you missed it…

I have a new novel coming out next year!

*screams from the rooftops once again while twirling with joy*

The Haunting of Velkwood is due out from Saga Press on March 5th, 2024. This story is one of the most personal things I’ve ever written, and I’m beyond thrilled for it to make its way into the world.

Last month, The Lineup was gracious enough to do the exclusive cover reveal, which also included a few words from me about the novel. For those of you who missed it, you can see more about it right here.

And now since it’s been a few weeks since the cover reveal at The Lineup, I’m going to go ahead and post the gorgeous art here on my own blog. So without further adieu, behold the gloriously creepy suburban cover!

I’m seriously over the moon for this surreal little cover, and it represents the strangeness and darkness of the book so well. For those of you who have read my work, The Haunting of Velkwood is probably most tonally and thematically similar to The Rust Maidens; both stories are about small, insular neighborhoods and the women who bear the weight of their families’ worst impulses, all with supernatural consequences.

Unlike The Rust Maidens, though, Velkwood is definitely a very queer book. I’m putting that out there now, because for a long time, the queer content in Reluctant Immortals wasn’t mentioned as much as I’d hoped it would be in reviews and the like. (That being said, Reluctant Immortals ultimately won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction, so the LGBTQ+ themes did eventually get noticed in a big way, which seriously means the world to me.)

Anyway, if you’ve gotten this far in the blog, then you must be at least a little interested in The Haunting of Velkwood. So here’s the official description:

From Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban neighborhood turned into ghosts—perfect for fans of Yellowjackets.

The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter—and only one has in the past twenty years, until now.

Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she’s just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she’s been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end?

Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created a suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they’re going to have a future.

Needless to say, I’m so very proud of this book, and I can’t wait for the release date. I’ll be merrily discussing it plenty more for the rest of this year and into next, so be prepared for lots of talk about hauntings, family secrets, and the women who break toxic cycles. In the meantime, feel free to pre-order the novel if you’re so inclined!

*screams from the rooftop with joy once again*

Happy haunting, and happy reading!

My Recent Article for The Lineup and an Expanded List of Bi+ Horror Authors

Welcome back! So my latest article for The Lineup came out last month, and it focused exclusively on Bi+ horror authors. You can read the full list here, and I honestly hope you do because I’m so very proud to have put this article together. That’s because Bi+ authors are often overlooked in discussions of LGBTQ+ fiction.

Bi+ is an umbrella term that refers not only to bisexuality, but also to pansexuality, omnisexuality, fluid, and a wide variety of additional identities and attractions. (For more info, please refer to this much more in-depth definition.) As I mention in the article for The Lineup, almost no funding in America is dedicated specifically to Bi+ issues, despite the fact that those of us who are bisexual constitute the largest group of the LGBTQ+ community.

As I was working on the list for The Lineup, I put out a call on Twitter for Bi+ horror authors to share their most recent published works. There was a really wonderful thread of authors who responded to my tweet. Even once The Lineup article was published, it made me so happy that there was an even longer list for readers to use when seeking out Bi+ horror fiction. However, now that Twitter is going up in flames, I don’t want that extended list to be lost to the trolls of the internet. So once you read my aforementioned article on The Lineup and check out all those fabulous authors’ work, here are a few additional Bi+ horror authors to add to your reading list.

Angela Sylvaine is a Colorado-based horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy author. Her horror novella, Chopping Spree, came out last year through Unnerving’s Rewind or Die series.

Eva Roslin is a horror and dark fantasy author and reviewer. Her recent work has appeared in Alienhead Press’s Literally Dead: Tales of Halloween Hauntings and Black Spot Books’ Under Her Skin.

Tiffany Morris is Mi’kmaw/settler author of both speculative fiction and poetry, and her most recent collection, Elegies of Rotting Stars, was released earlier this month from Nictitating Books.

Avra Margariti is a prolific poet based in Greece, and her latest collection, The Saint of Witches, was released earlier this year through Weasel Press.

Rich Gerlach is a writer, reviewer, and a podcaster at Staring Into the Abyss. You can read his latest short story in Dead of Winter: An Anthology.

LC von Hessen is a Brooklyn-based author, musician, artist, and actor. Their collection of weird and gothic tales, Spiritus Ex Machina, was released last year.

Chloe Spencer is an author, filmmaker, and YouTube gamer and essayist. Her YA horror science fiction novel, Monstersona, is due out next year from Tiny Ghost Press.

Verity Holloway is a writer and editor. Her upcoming novel, The Others of Edenwell, is slated for release next July from Titan Books.

Rebecca Turkewitz is a writer and teacher based in Portland, Maine. Her short story, “The Elevator Girl,” appeared last year on the Lamplight podcast, and her collection, Here in the Night: Stories, is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press.

Stephanie Rabig is a Kansas-based horror author of numerous books and short stories. Her horror western, On Stolen Land, is available now.

Briana Morgan is a widely published horror author from Atlanta. Her most recent book, The Reyes Incident, made its debut in April of this year.

Jaye Wells is a bestselling author and writing mentor. Her recent short story appeared in Sara Tantlinger’s anthology, Chromophobia.

Natania Barron is an award-winning author whose work explores monsters and mythology. Her first novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, was recently re-released through Falstaff Books.

So those are just a few of the amazing writers and books to add to your TBR pile. There are of course many more Bi+ horror authors working today, so please keep supporting the LGBTQ+ creators in the genre. Especially in the terrifying political climate we’re dealing with here in America, the only way to combat prejudice is through support, love, and acceptance. And after all, Pride Month truly lasts all yearlong!

Happy reading!