Wendy N. Wagner & Living the Nightmare

By Angelique Fawns

Wendy N. Wagner is no stranger to horror and speculative fiction. She’s the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine and the Managing Senior Editor of Lightspeed.  Hugo-award winning and Locus-award nominated for her editing, she’s also been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award with her short fiction. Her latest book, Girl in the Creek will be released by Tor Nightfire in 2025. Wagner uses cli-fi cosmic horror to explore the dark side of beautiful places. 

Nightfire teases the storyline with this:

“Deep within the wild Clackamas National Forest, the shadows of looming trees and long-abandoned mines have sheltered hikers and harbored serial killers. Hidden in the forest are ghost towns with deteriorating buildings overrun by glowing fungi and phosphorescent spores that even local experts can’t identify. Not to mention the missing persons posters multiplying around town, many of hikers who never returned.”

I finally managed to track Wendy down on twitter and ask her if she would talk to us. 

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DarkLit Sails- A Swashbuckling Horror Kickstarter

Zack Rosenberg spills the gold

By Angelique Fawns

Zach Rosenberg is one of the authors in an anthology that promises an exciting journey into uncharted waters. Looking for a read filled with adventure, suspense, and captivating story telling? This pirate anthology is filled with eight standalone tales written by authors of diverse backgrounds and fresh perspectives. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darklitpress/darklit-sails-a-swashbuckling-horror-adventure-series

“DarkLit Sails isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about empowerment. By supporting our Kickstarter campaign, you’re not only diving into a world of swashbuckling adventure and terrifying encounters, but also championing diversity and inclusivity in literature.”

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Storm Michael Humbert: His Intergalactic Rejects

By Angelique Fawns

Storm Michael Humbert is currently running a Kickstarter for his star-studded sci-fi anthology, Intergalactic Rejects: A Calendar of Fools anthology. It features some incredible talent such as Rebecca Moesta, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert J. Sawyer, and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. Ever wonder what sort of stories they’ve had rejected? This anthology will give you hope for your own little misfits. It’s earned the coveted Kickstarter “Project We Love”. The campaign runs until Thursday April 19.

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Jennifer Lesh Fleck: Combining rare talent with a rare disability.

By Angelique Fawns

Jennifer Lesh Fleck is a horror and poetry author whose dark and imaginative musing are finding homes all over the short speculative writing world. We are in a writing group together called The Fireside Quills, and I recently published one of her stories in my anthology, Peculiar Pets: A Horror Lite Anthology, which you can check out here:

angeliquefawns.gumroad.com/l/lncev

You can also find Fleck’s stories in The Arcanist, MetaStellar, Radon Journal, If There’s Anyone Left, and Cosmic Horror Monthly. 

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Todd Sanders – ‘Saving the Future’ Fiction

by Angelique Fawns

Air and Nothingness Press isn’t afraid to tackle some tough subjects. What happens when our world loses a critical resource? Todd Sanders’ latest anthology “We Are All Thieves of Somebody’s Future” asks that very question. The call allowed for some wild imaginings, looking into the loss of food, trees, oil, dragons, breathable air, or even intangibles like love, happiness or time.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this project with my story, “The Last Drop of Diesel.” The book is now available for pre-order at http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#thieves.

Other included authors are Matthew Bettelheim, Sonya Carlin, Eric A. Clayton, Rodrigo Culagovski, Storm Humbert, Timothy Johnson, Julia LaFond, Roxane Llanque, Fiona Mossman, M.P. Rosalia, and Rose Skye.

Let’s find out more about this project. 

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Martin L. Shoemaker: His program for writing

By Angelique Fawns

Martin L. Shoemaker has more than 30 years of experience in programming, writing, and teaching. He’s a popular mentor in the speculative fiction world, and has stories in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Writers of the Future Volume 31, and Clarkesworld. I met Shoemaker when I took his Fyrecon short story masterclass, “Tools Not Rules.”

He is a prolific creator and has some great advice for writers looking to learn story structure. Last year, he released a book called Making Story Models: Tools for Visualizing Your Story, and he has a salient bit of advice that stuck out for me.

“There is no One True Path. There’s no rule of writing that someone hasn’t successfully broken, save for one: You must write.”

Shoemaker was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to chat with us.

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Image donated by Sara. C./center>

Eda Easter – Leading the Way in Horror!

By Angelique Fawns

Eda Easter is no stranger to the world of horror. A panel expert on extreme horror at the San Antonio Ghoulish Book Festival happening from March 15-17, Eda is creating her own brand.

She is the creator of the indie feminist horror zine “Last Girl’s Club”, and author of the fun splatterpunk book, Killer RV, which you can find on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Killer-RV-H-Obey/dp/B0BMSKBPFV

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Bruce Bethke & Stupefying Stories

by Angelique Fawns

Ever wonder where the term “cyberpunk” comes from? Bruce Bethke is the creator. The term was born when his story story “Cyberpunk” appeared in Amazing Stories in November of 2023. But that’s not all this influential author (and musician!) is known for. He wrote the award-winning novel Headcrash and created Stupefying Stories, an online and print magazine run under his Rampant Loon Press imprint.

I met Bruce Bethke when he purchased my short story “Graveside Dining” which you can read for free here:  https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2023/10/graveside-dining-by-angelique-fawns.html

I love this market so much, another of my strange stories goes live on Saturday, March 9th:
https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-hangover-and-hag-by-angelique-fawns.html

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