Tag: horror

Women in Horror Interviews Part IV

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For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

Trisha Ridinger McKee author of “Finding Toni”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

Pet Sematary

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

There are so many, and it depends on what I’m in the mood to read. I love Eden Royce, Elin Hilderbrand, Kristin Hannah, and so many more. I love giving new authors a chance as well.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

I Would Die 4 U by Prince

What are some of your current writing projects?

I will have three novellas coming out in time for Valentine’s. I’m hoping to get my thriller book out sometime this year.

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street. That was the horror series I grew up with, and I love her strength and persistence.

Amy Grech author of “Dead Eye”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

“Apt Pupil” inspired my story, “Dead Eye”, in which a young boy discovers the perils of hunting fair game firsthand.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Samantha Kolesnik — she’s award-winning author of genre fiction, including True Crime and Waif. True Crime examines nature vs. nurture in the origin of a serial killer.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

“Billy’s Got a Gun” by Def Leppard.

What are some of your current writing projects?

I’m seeking a publisher for my NYC Crime novellas, Alphabet City/Vicious Pink.

Alisha Galvan author of “As for the Fallen Seed”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

The Stephen King novel that inspired my story was Misery, how Annie started as a young child and grew into the crazed woman she became. I always love a good creepy kid story, but I wanted to take it a bit further; Annie wasn’t just some obsessed fan of Paul Sheldon, her morbid fascination runs in her bloodline.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Picking just one female author is impossible, but a few of my favorites are Gillian Flynn, Alice Feeney, and Karin Slaughter. I love twisty dark thrillers as much as horror.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

The song that I listened to often while writing this story was Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

What are some of your current writing projects?

Currently, I am in the final stages of publishing a short horror story collection entitled A Path Through the Forest, my goal is to have it available to readers by January 2023. I am also querying agents with an emotional thriller novel titled Autumn. My current work in progress, Bitter Crown of Thistle, is a dark thriller.

Read Trisha Ridinger McKee, Amy Grech & Alisha Galvan’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

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Book Review: The Shoemaker’s Magician by Cynthia Pelayo

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Just because I brought great gifts to humanity does not mean my presence is benign.

PLOT SUMMARY:

A fabled lost movie. An increasing body count. How much do you risk for art?


Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America’s most beloved horror host showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat, but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand, stranger than his dark make-up and Gothic television set.


After Paloma’s husband, a homicide detective, discovers an obscure movie poster pinned on a mutilated corpse on stage at the Chicago Theater, she knows that the only person that can help solve this mystery is Grand. When another body appears at an abandoned historic movie palace the deaths prove to be connected to a silent film, lost to the ages, but somehow at the center of countless tragedies in Chicago.


The closer Paloma gets to Grand she discovers that his reach is far greater than her first love, horror movies, and even this film. And she soon becomes trapped between protecting a silent movie that’s contributed to so much death in her city and the life of her young son.

GRADE: A+

REVIEW:

I pre-ordered the novel months ago and perhaps out of the sheer will of manifestation (or is it magick) it somehow appeared in my Kindle library two weeks before the actual release date. Obviously, I was overjoyed.

Where do I even begin? I read Pelayo’s first book Children of Chicago and absolutely loved it (and will forever feel lucky that she sent me a promo book box for it and you should absolutely read the interview she did for the blog here). This book, like the previous one, is standalone, however, it does reference some characters from the previous book (and I’m a sucker for writers keeping their stories in the same “world” so to speak). I’m a lover of fairytales, fables, horror show hosts (Elvira was the reason why I got into horror movies at the tender age of two), cursed films, occult, Greek myths, and murders. This is to say, that this book had SO MUCH that I love – and I was so happy that it delivered tenfold.

First of all, I loved the protagonist Paloma – a woman who not only overcame a terribly abusive childhood but that was a loving mother to her son Bela (hands down the coolest kid in a horror book, ever) and a badass horror influencer. I’m a huge fan of old horror movies and silent movies in general, so obviously I was geeking out at all the movies mentioned that I’ve seen a million times. I loved how she and Bela would chill out at Logan’s Theatre and watch horror movies as though it were a second home cause it reminds me of my own local theatre that a friend of mine owns, where going there 2-3 times a week is like visiting family – cause for those of yes who love movies, you’ll understand the potency and magick of the moving picture.

Pelayo is a very talented writer, however, I do want to acknowledge that this second novel showed so much growth as a storyteller – with the richness of the details, research, and basically soul of the book. Yes, the book is about trying to track down a serial killer, but it’s also so much more. It’s about the importance of art, love, and magick, and how all those things are intermingled.

I don’t want to share too much about the plot because I think you need to slowly discover this tale, that’s filled with mystery, darkness, history, and monsters. It’s incredibly gripping, each page dripping with the emotion of someone who has not only suffered but that also loves in tremendous amounts. In fact, if there’s a lesson to take from this extended fable is that anything you do out of love will always be worth it.

If you’re a fan of horror, cinema, Chicago history, and detective stories, then this is for you.

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Women in Horror Interviews Part III

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For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

Cheryl Zaidan author of “The Girl with the Peculiar Smile”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story wasn’t based on a specific work by Stephen King but rather I played with some of the concepts he uses – including supernatural elements and traumatic family dynamics. King also writes great child protagonists, so I wanted to make my main character a smart, wise-beyond-her-years girl who is also still very much a child – much like Trisha McFarland in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Gwendolyn Kiste has been a favorite for a while now. And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is an amazing collection of her short stories. Beautifully written and quite creepy.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

I was thinking I didn’t have one and oddly enough Strange Little Girl by The Stranglers popped up on my shuffle. It fits (and it’s also a great song.)

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

It sounds like a cliché but I adore Nancy from the original Nightmare on Elm Street. She comes across as a nice, sweet girl but when things get tough, she’s ready to fight. When Nancy says, “I’m into survival”, you know she means it.

Sealey Andrews author of “Emily Mine”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story was inspired by Stephen King’sCujo.The influencing elements were a slow-burning domestic tension and an exploration of the dichotomy between feelings of resentment toward motherhood versus the inherent need to protect one’s child from danger. And, of course, there is a crazed animal with an agenda of his own.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

One of my favorite modern female authors is Louise Erdrich. Her novel Future Home of the Living Godis particularly outstanding.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover author of “Let The Rain Settle It”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My favorite short story of King’s is “Rainy Season,” which has always been an unpopular choice—it’s been accused of being too similar to Jackson’s “The Lottery” and in general, its reviews aren’t positive. But it’s been said the experience of a story is different for each reader, because it depends on what that person brings to the table. I didn’t read it until it was reprinted in his 1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. As a starry-eyed twenty-two year old who was, at the time, blissfully unaware she was engaged in a toxic relationship, I connected most with the subtle clues King presents about the broken young couple heading toward not just physical demise, but an eventual emotional disaster if they did survive. While John and Elise aren’t the focus of King’s narrative—the spotlight, as always, shines on unsettling Mainers—they’re clearly in a place where the ordinary drudge of life and its reactionary transgressions have squelched the blush of love and romance. The blinders are off, they see each other for who they really are, and it’s not pretty. This is something we face in our every day lives, and so, if we look deeper, it’s an important commentary on the real world. “Rainy Season” isn’t just another folk horror tale or creature feature. It’s a warning that the killer toads of life are always at your romantic door, and sometimes, it’s just better to let them in.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

The contemporary female writer I love the most as far as the short form goes is Gina Ochsner. Her collections The People I Wanted to Be and The Necessary Grace to Fall are fantastic in both emotional timbre and light infusion of the supernatural, and I read them over and over. Her work is definitely worth examining.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

“Barren Ground” by Bruce Hornsby & the Range.

What are some of your current writing projects?

I have a LOT of irons in the fire. My new collection, Songs for a Dying World, is slated for 2024, and a new novel, Tidings—provided I get it finished—is slated for 2025. But I write a lot of stuff in between for specific calls, or stories that just show up. My non-writing time is all spent on 34 Orchard. I’m also currently editing Wicked Sick for the New England Horror Writers.

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

I’m not exactly sure that she’d be considered a “final girl,” but my favorite female in a horror film has always been Rachel Keller from The Ring. She’s got pluck, confidence, drive and ambition; she’s passionate and crackerjack in her career; she’s a single mom to a precocious child. But she’s also vulnerable in many ways: she’s an emotionally damaged person, although we don’t know quite why; her life is disorganized and chaotic—probably fallout from trauma; she has all the hallmarks of a trauma survivor—and she does her best even though she often fails. She’s also, clearly, still hurt by and in love with her son’s father—who has moved on—but is headstrong enough to go to him for help. It’s her vulnerability that makes her stronger—because she knows how to put that vulnerability aside and do what she has to do when it matters. It fuels her ultimate success, and that’s the true definition of a strong female heroine.

Read Cheryl Zaidan, Sealey Andrews & Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

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Women in Horror Interviews Part II

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For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

Rachel Bolton author of “Sharp Teeth”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

Carrie inspired “Sharp Teeth.” I always had sympathy for Carrie, more than Stephen King did. In On Writing he considers her a girl version of Harris and Klebold, which I disagree with. Part of me wanted her to win. For this anthology, I didn’t want to write an exact reinterpretation. I took certain themes from the book and played around with them under different circumstances. The biggest difference is that Ann wanted her powers.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

My two favorite modern female authors are Carmen Maria Machado and Gretchen Felker-Martin. They both write very differently from each other, but their work is beautiful, frightening, and deeply political. All things great horror should be. All things I want to achieve as a writer. 

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

I can’t think of a specific one, but any 50’s pop song would be fitting. Especially if it’s by a girl group. 

What are some of your current writing projects?

Oh boy, I have a lot going on. I’m trying to finish a novella, I have numerous short stories in progress, and there is a full length comic script that desperately needs a full second rewrite. I hope to have a short story collection out in the next few years. I also write a Kennedy themed substack called Trapped in Camelot. 

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

Ellen Ripley! She’s tough, vulnerable, and always handles herself whenever she’s surrounded by idiots. “Get away from her, you bitch!” Best line ever. 

Jane Nightshade author of “The Sorting”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story The Sorting was loosely inspired by the Loser’s Club from Stephen King’s IT. The Loser’s Club of a gang of misfit kids ring true to the way I grew up in an era where neighborhood kids hung out together and rode all over town without having to tell their parents where they were going. A different time.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

I don’t know if they qualify as “modern” but the horror stories of Shirley Jackson and Daphne DuMaurier are big favorites.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

Since my short story takes place on Halloween, I’d say it would be a great Halloween song like “Little Ghost” from Paranorman.

What are some of your current writing projects?

Working on a full-length novel that’s an origin story for one of my more successful short tales, Rockin’ Around the Murder Tree. Continuing to write at least one or two short stories a month as well. Also, getting ready for the publication of my collection of short stories, “A Scream Full of Ghosts,” coming out sometime next year from Dark Ink.

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

My favorite final girl is Olivia Hussey in the original “Black Christmas.” She’s a very good actress.

Read Rachel Bolton & Jane Nightshade’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

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Women in Horror Interviews Part I

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For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

L.E. Daniels author of “Silk”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

First published in Cavalier magazine in 1972, “The Mangler” was later included in Stephen King’s 1978 Night Shift collection. An industrial laundry press is exposed to magical elements of nightshade, a bat, and virgin’s blood, summoning a demon that possesses the machine and attacks the workers. Also peering into the dark side of industrialization, my story “Silk” explores the conditions of the child workforce in the early twentieth-century New England mills. My grandmother, a child of Italian immigrants, survived polio and worked in such a mill. At five, her first job was pulling dead silk moth caterpillars from their boiled cocoons.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Lately, I’ve been reading short story anthologies like Sara Tantlinger’s Chromophobia, James Aquilone’s Classic Monsters Unleashed, and Other Terrors edited by Rena Mason and Vince A. Liaguno and the rising tide of female voices within from these pages is exquisite. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d go with Geneve Flynn. She fearlessly tackles edgy themes within narratives loaded with the residue of intergenerational trauma and deeply-informed cultural nuance. She’s a total badass.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

Since the story spans the 1920s, recording of “America the Beautiful” performed by Louise Homer in 1924 would cast a shadow over images of children working the aisles of the New England mills.

For a sensation of being completely out of control for the big finish, the 1929 recording of “You Were Meant for Me” by Nat Shilkret with Dick Robertson on vocals might also leave us breathless.

What are some of your current writing projects?

This week, I’m currently braiding a few true ghost stories together into one narrative for Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s 34 Orchard literary journal.

Rebecca Rowland author of “The Clawset”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

“The Clawset” is a feminist reimagining of King’s “The Boogeyman” from his Night Shift (1978) collection. My father was a huge King fan, so his paperbacks filled our bookcase when I was growing up, and I remember reading Night Shift when I was pretty young. I loved a number of the stories in that collection, but “The Boogeyman” flat out terrified me and the imagery stayed with me. Even as a freshman in college, I could not sleep with the closet door ajar.

For the culmination of my graduate degree in English literature, I analyzed King’s female characters in (what was at the time) his more recent releases: Dolores Claiborne, Gerald’s Game, Insomnia, Rose Madder, and Needful Things. So many of his twentieth-century stories portray women as either the victims of men or the monsters who destroy them. I reread “The Boogeyman” recently, and his portrayal of the one woman who appears (tangentially) in it is very telling of the time in which King penned it nearly fifty years ago. I wanted “The Clawset” to be a 2020s version of his tale with an all-female cast, and I named the characters very purposefully. It’s my love letter to Stephen King and the influence his stories had—and continue to have—on my writing.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

There are so many to choose from, it’s difficult to name one as a favorite. I adore Gwendolyn Kiste’s writing: it’s feminist with a whip smart wit I adore, and I’ll read anything she puts her hand to. As a fan of short fiction in particular, I love seeing the names of women writers whose work I’m familiar with in thematic anthologies and reading their interpretations of those themes, women like KC Grifant, EV Knight, Kenzie Jennings, Ruthann Jagge, Candace Nola, Holly Rae Garcia, Bridgett Nelson, Stephanie Ellis, Hailey Piper, C.O. Davidson, Elin Olausson, and of course, three of the kick ass women I share space with in this anthology: Amy Grech, L.E. Daniels, and Kristi Petersen-Schoonover. The stuff all of these women are crafting is simply genius: it’s horrific and original and more than anything, smart as hell.

What are some of your current writing projects?

My seventh curated anthology, American Cannibal, drops just a few days after this anthology, and it’s a true juggernaut with twenty stories from some of the biggest names writing horror today: I can’t wait for readers to take a bite out of it. My own stories will be appearing in anthologies here and there throughout 2023, including in Sinister Smile Press’ Just a Girl women in horror collection later this month (March 2023). My next novelette, Rock of Ages, debuts in a horror anthology that benefits a Texas-area food bank in June, and my next short fiction collection, White Trash & Recycled Nightmares, drops from Stygian Sky Media in late summer. I maintain a (likely obnoxious) website, RowlandBooks.com, and a (definitely silly) Instagram, @Rebecca_Rowland_books. I hope readers will give them a look.

It’s certainly easier being a woman in horror today than it was thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago, but it still isn’t a piece of cake: there will always be INCELs and boys’ club naysayers lurking about, trolling social media and slapping blind, one-star reviews on anything they see is penned by a woman. I’m endlessly appreciative of small presses, reviewers, and influencers that take the time to spotlight the women who write horror. We may still be in the minority, but make no mistake: we are a force to be reckoned with.

Read L.E. Daniels & Rebecca Rowland’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

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Out Now: Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King

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I’m so proud to announce that the fourth book (can’t believe we’re at four!) of Women in Horror Anthology series, Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King is FINALLY OUT!

A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by and in tribute to, Stephen King.

Stephen King is a seminal writer of horror, whose influence transcends the literary sphere, having also taken the cinematic world by storm – and ultimately delivering nightmares to generations for almost five decades.

This fourth anthology of the Women in Horror series edited by Azzurra Nox brings together a diverse group of female writers who contribute their personal twist to the works of Stephen King.

Featured authors include: Andrea Teare, Rachel Bolton, Marnie Azzarelli, Lauri Christopher, Kay Hanifen, Hannah Brown, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, L. E. Daniels, Sealey Andrews, Christabel Simpson, Alisha Galvan, Rebecca Rowland, Cheryl Zaidan, Amy Grech, Jane Nightshade, Trisha Ridinger McKee, and Azzurra Nox.

If you’re a fan of Stephen King, you’re going to LOVE this book!

PURCHASE BOOK HERE

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Film Review: The Outwaters

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I’m usually NOT a fan of found footage horror movies, but I was curious to check this one out when I discovered that it was made on a $15,000 budget and needed to see how writer-director Robbie Banfitch managed to pull this off. Also, the movie takes place in the Mojave Desert, which quite frankly, as much as I find it a very alluring place, it can also emote creepiness as so many people go missing there every year. In fact, it was the premise of one of my short stories, Comets Tear the Skies.

The simple plot is that a group of friends go to the desert to record a music video, and it doesn’t take long before things get really crazy and deadly. For the majority of the film, the viewer is as disorientated and terrified as Robbie wanders the desert in both total darkness and glaring sunlight. What we do see is a gory bloodfest and strange, tremors-like worms crawling around (are they aliens?). We’re never sure what exactly is going on, but what we do know is that our protagonist is in danger, and there’s no escaping the violent onslaught.

This is a strange, bloody cosmic horror in which there’s no moment of levity or respite for any of the people involved. In fact, the horror only continues to progress to the bloody finale that will finally show us what happened to Robbie’s friends, and ultimately what happens to him. Check this out if you love found footage, as this movie really does wonders with its limited budget and the writer/director’s experience, but still manages to create a very chilling movie.

*Thank you so much to Emma Griffiths & Cinedigm for an early screening of the movie.

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Book Review: Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

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The thing that has been growing inside me that is not rage and is not spite and is not fear or pain.

PLOT SUMMARY

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.

But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.

Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

GRADE: A

REVIEW:

This book aches to be a female lead American Psycho type of novel, with protagonist Maeve Fly at the wheel. Maeve is obsessed with Halloween music, doxxing terrible people online, and her job at DisneyLand where she impersonates Elsa from Frozen. Maeve is indifferent to most people except for her best friend Kate and dying grandmother, a former Hollywood silent movie star, Tallulah Fly. I enjoyed Maeve’s journey although sometimes Maeve’s obsessions and edginess seemed forced. Most of the brutal scenes weren’t described in detail – we were only hinted at what would happen and it’d cut to black. For a book promising an edgy, dark character it kind of annoyed me (but I’m probably in the minority here) that we didn’t get to see more gore.

I read Story of the Eye in my early 20’s and have recced this book to many people (is this why they think I’m twisted?), and Maeve is obsessed with this book too. I must say, that I was supremely HAPPY that a certain scene came to fruition after the promise of the book’s cover. I would’ve been annoyed otherwise.

However, I did LOVE this book – so don’t take my little gripes at heart. I just love girl villains so want people to push the envelope when it comes to that. The final line of this novel though is PURE PERFECTION and I absolutely love it. In other words, I will definitely look forward to this author’s next novel!

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3 Horror Novels I Can’t Wait to Read in 2023

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Being someone who receives many ARCs (advanced reader’s copies) for review purposes for this blog, I read many of the 2023 releases last year. So, these are three books that I didn’t receive ARCs for, but still want to read all the same.

SHE IS A HAUNTING BY TRANG THANH TRAN

When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.

But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house–the home they have always wanted–will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

SILVER NITRATE BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

LOOKING GLASS SOUND BY CATRIONA WARD

In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of a sun-drenched summer of his youth and of the killer that stalked the small New England town. Of the terrible tragedy that forever bonded him with his friends Nat and Harper in unknowable ways. Of a horror that has followed them over the years.

Wilder has returned to the town decades later in an attempt to recount that summer’s events in his memoirs. But as he writes, Wilder begins to fear his grip on the truth is fading, and events in the manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. He’s even started seeing a dark-haired woman down in the icy waters below the cottage, but nobody else can.

No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does…

What are some of the reads you’re looking forward to this year?

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Out Now: Girl That You Fear by Azzurra Nox

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You cannot exorcize revenge.

I’m so proud to announce that my feminist horror novel GIRL THAT YOU FEAR is finally out! You can order through my publisher’s website, Black Bed Sheet Books, Amazon, or Google Play!

Plot Summary:

It’s the fall of her Senior year and Spencer Torres, next in line for valedictorian of Sacred Heart High, has a perfect life. That is, until her idyllic existence is shattered when a visit to the infamously haunted steamship The Queen Mary causes her to become possessed by an evil demon who encounters her there. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill demon—Dever is cunning, attractive, and manipulative. Somehow, this possession causes memories of an earlier horrible trauma to resurface.


Nothing will stop Spencer from seeking the truth embedded deep within those memories and most importantly, vengeance….even if it means losing herself completely to the demon’s clutches.

Comp Titles: The Exorcist, Come Closer, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism

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EXCERPT:

Madame Zella began to place the five cards accordingly. Spencer watched with curiosity as she recalled the placements of the cards for a book of tarots she and Fallon had read years ago and their significance. The first one at the top was to symbolize the potential, then three cards below that one. The card to the left indicated her past, the middle her present, and the one to her right the future. Madame Zella then placed a final card below the three cards, pointing to reason. Spencer studied Madame Zella’s movements intently as she slowly uncovered the cards, one by one. But as she did, something strange occurred. Each card was dripping with blood as Madame Zella shook her head, frightened.

“What’s going on?” Spencer inquired.

Isla grabbed Spencer’s hand and squeezed it, and she sensed that her sister was just as afraid as Madame Zella was.

“A dark force! It has hold of you!” Madame Zella said, her accent evident with each word. “Too late! Too late!”

“What do you mean? What dark force?” Isla interrupted.

Madame Zella suddenly got up from the table, and the chair fell back with a crash. She stared directly at Spencer and screamed like she was Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. It was raw and terrifying. Spencer couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The cards were drenched in blood now, dripping down the table. The table began to shake violently. They both got up from their seats, not understanding what was going on until Spencer looked beyond Madame Zella’s shoulders and saw that behind her was a tiny mirror. In the mirror, she could finally see what the woman was seeing. A dark shadow hovering over her shoulder, its fangs glittered menacingly. No, no, no. She spun to look at Isla, but from her position, she couldn’t see the mirror, couldn’t see if what Spencer was seeing was real.

“You let him in!” Madame Zella told her. “Get out! Get out of here! And don’t come back!”

Isla yanked on Spencer’s wrist pulling her away from the tent. But she couldn’t move, she was transfixed by the blood dripping from the cards, the shadow in the mirror, and that familiar scent of night flowers and musk. Then the cards burst into flames and she snapped out of her fixation as they both hurried out of the tent.

She could still hear Madame Zella’s cries from inside.

“TOO LATE! TOO LATE! YOU’RE DOOMED!” She heard the tarot reader shout from the tent. Spencer looked up at the sky and it seemed to turn into a hideous shade of blood red before, once again, she was struck with a nosebleed and then fell limp against Isla’s arms.

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