Category: Short Story

Volume II is here, people! From Full Zervis Press, with six illustrated dabbles and six illustrated stories! This is the second of four volumes, with the last showing up just in time for Halloween. Here’s what you get in the second volume:

Return the Stars: A child is sacrificed to appease an alien god, and wants nothing more than to see the stars again.

Fool Me Please: A ghost gets more than it bargained for when it imitates a grieving woman’s son.

Break: A final girl, tired of the fight, makes one last attempt to beat the monster.

Make Up Your Dying Bed: A Dying bluesman makes a deal with an entity to preserve his music.

Bad Dreams: Return to Vernon’s Rest Cemetery from Volume I for another tale of terror.

The Devil’s Backbone: Just released from prison, a man attempts to find his girlfriend, who disappeared along with a mysterious cabin a decade earlier.

Once again, proud to have a 100-word drabble as part of Hungry Shadow Press‘ Deadly Drabble Tuesday! You can find it right here. This one is about a visit to Showman’s Rest in Hugo, OK, a cemetery dedicated to people who lived and worked in the circus. There’s is nothing wrong with visiting a cemetery. You can even gawk at a grave IF that was how it was meant (Near my home is a cemetery with a parking meter gravestone that is absolutely meant to be photographed and laughed at). But you have to have respects. Always.

I was so excited to hear drew Blood’s epic narration of my stories a few months back, and now he’s taking on two horror stories from my collection We Will Find a Place for You! if you haven’t been listening to Chilling Tales for Dark Nights, you’re missing out. I’m obsessed with this series. You can hear his take on my stories right here.

High Strangeness, my Apartment 239 sequel, is making its paperback debut on December 5th! To get ready, Velox Books has kindly made a short story from my collection Ash and Bone FREE. This story is about Haze, a man with an unusual gift who will be vital the story of High Strangeness. Enjoy this prequel story, which can be found here.

One of my 100-word stories was chosen by the great Hungry Shadows Press for their Deadly Drabbles! This one is a tale of revenge, check it out!

I had the chance to talk with the amazing author Marie Lestrange about writing horror, the paranormal, and all things creepy and weird! Give it a listen right here. 

TC Parker is a brilliant horror writer, check out Hummingbird and find out for yourself. But she’s also starting this awesome series where horror writers talk about the influence of politics on their work. I was in the first episodes, talking about poverty and the poisonous influence of right-wing politics, and how this informs my scary stories. Check it out right here!

I’m so excited to announce my story, Make Up Your Dying Bed, is part of Texas Roadkill Volume 8! I love this anthology series, featuring the best of Texas horror. I’ve submitted before, and third times a charm, it seems! So, never give up on your dream publishers/anthologies/magazines.

Edited by Patrick C. Harrison III, and with stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Emma E. Murray, Jae Mazer, Bret McCormick, Madison Estes, Chris Miller, James H. Longmore, Jonathan Louis Duckworth, Robert Stahl, Matt Micheli,
Iphigenia Strangeworth, Jacob Austin, R. L. Olvitt, Lawrence Buentello, Tom Bont, Bev Vincent, and of course, the awesome E. R. Bills.

My story focusing on the last hours of Blind Willie Johnson’s life, spent succumbing to exposure in the burnt remains of his home. As with many blues legends, whose legacies would make millions for others, the man is often forgotten, even if the music survives.