Author: Lauren McMenemy

Greetings, children of the dark. I have returned from the land of ghosts and hauntings much refreshed and inspired. The UK Ghost Story Festival last weekend was a triumph once again—I even got roped into speaking on a panel on the final morning, talking all things “grand reveal” with Sarah Jackson and Simon Fairbanks, two fantastic indie writers you should check out. 

I’ve said a lot here about my struggles with the muse (I often feel so damn egotistical about all my complaining!), but I do feel like I’m starting to let go of the big picture stuff, the lofty goals, the far-away objectives so that I can focus and enjoy the here and now. Last weekend helped by just getting me out of my head and scribbling during workshops. I proved to myself that I might still have some life in the ol’ creative mine. It’s time to just remind myself why I always wanted to be a writer—because, reader, I never had an undying dream to write sales copy or business blogs, strange as that may seem! Let’s recapture that ghost of our internal passions, yes?

It seems fitting that we’ve chosen a haunting for this week’s trembling main course: a spectre that’s taken almost everything from Peter J Larrivee’s dying man. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Jonathan Worlde’s foreign fight, 
• Lionel Ray Green’s mycophilic monstrosity, and
• SG Perahim’s impish influencer.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark—greetings from Derbyshire, where I’ve been immersed in ghost stories and hauntings for the last few days. I made it to the UK Ghost Story Festival again, which is always a highlight in the calendar. I’ve come here because I’ve been coming here for the last few years, but also I’m hoping this little side trip to the dark side will leave me brimming with ideas to get back to the writing. That’s my goal this year: just play around with fiction again. No pressure, no goals, no Big Ideas. Just playing around. Getting my mojo back. Seeking the muse, who I’m hoping enjoys trips to the outskirts of the Peak District. 

So while I’m haunting the Midlands, let’s serve up this week’s trembling menu. Jennifer Lee Rossman takes us into the deepest reaches of space. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Michael Davis’s medical experiments, 
• Ria Hill’s personal grooming issues, and 
• Alejandro Gonzales’s work woes.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short and sweet this week as I’m entertaining an old friend who’s visiting London for the first time in a decade. We went to see the West End production of The Picture of Dorian Gray last night, staring Sarah Snook (who also happens to be from our home town as well as Succession), and it was bloody sublime. Go see it if you can!

To swiftly move to this week’s trembling menu, we have a super-sensory short story from Ben Jackson that’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• DJ Tyrer, who’s digging, 
• S.C. Fisher, who’s in a sticky situation, and 
• Tim Kirton, who shouldn’t have got in the boat.

And remember, we’ve got an extra special edition on Wednesday—keep an eye out for this year’s Valentine’s spooktacular!

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. I know it’s a cliche, but I can’t help myself: February already?! At least we’ve hit that part of the year where the daylight is getting noticeably longer, the coldest parts are hopefully behind us, and, of course, we’re starting to get into genre-con season. For my part, I’m kicking it off with a trip to Derby in the UK soon for the UK Ghost Story Festival—see you there?

Before then, though, we have the dreaded V-Day ahead of us. Alas, this isn’t anything about vampires. I’ve never been a Valentine’s Day fan, and nothing has changed after a decade of marriage. For me, it’s a commercialised pressure-fest that serves only to make the majority of the world feel terrible about themselves, kinda like NYE on love-heart-shaped steroids. The only good thing about the big day is our TWF Valentine’s special. If you have something dark bubbling underneath, try channelling it into a piece for us: Specials Editor Shalini is going through the submissions as we speak, but you’ve still got a few days left. Please, try to go beyond revenge killings of your ex or unrequited love, and make it truly and darkly speculative. Incels need not apply. Submit here.

Not for you? We’ve always got our weekly feast of darkness. This week’s main course is a fever dream of speculative futures by Addison Smith, and it’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Alyson Faye, who’s having fun with the babysitter, 
• E.R. Burgess, who’s dealing with an infestation, and 
• Alan Moskowitz, who’s forgotten the off switch.

PS I had an awesome chat with the lovely Kev Harrison of the All Creatives Now podcast this week. The episode will be released soon, so keep an eye out for it! 

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. I’ll be honest with you here: it’s 10pm on a Friday night and I am f***ing exhausted, but am only just getting a chance to curate this week’s TWF for you. This has been one entirely draining month, and I wonder if you’re both as baffled and as glad that the end of January is upon is. I’m sure there’s a story in there about time being an energy vampire and the tides messing with our sense of chronology. If you write it, please submit it to us—the details for our various TWF-related opportunities are over on this page. 

The next of those internal submission opportunities will be for our Valentine’s special. Subs are already making themselves known to our inbox, but special editions editor Shalini would love to see what your dark and speculative brains can make of this annual celebration of lurve. Do send them—both short stories and drabbles—our way. 

Remember, though, that we are currently closed to short stories for our regular weekly edition of TWF, but we always have an insatiable need for more drabbles. Get your nightmares into 100 words exactly and show us what you’ve got. 

Take inspiration from this week’s trembling menu. Our main course is fuelled by fungi, and comes to us from Indonesia and Rinanda Hidayat.  Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels for dessert:

• Gary Gregory plays with dark form, 
• AW Voelkel takes things one step too far, and 
• Christina Nordlander persists.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short as it’s been Arctic here in London this week and I am definitely feeling worse for wear. So, just two quick reminders from me before we get stuck in.

First up, we’re now closed to short story submissions until our next window in April. You’ll find details of all the windows over on our submissions page, as well as other opportunities to be published on this here site. Big and important note: we’re open to drabbles 24/7. Insatiable. Etc, etc. 

Also—and this will be the last time I mention it!—my next Writing the Occult event happens this Saturday, 27 January. This is all about ritual, so if you’ve got any interest in folk horror, faith horror, or occult horror, or even just dark magic, you’ll likely find something to inspire your next story. All the details are over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co. Tix are here.

But that’s enough plugging; let’s get to why you’re here. This week’s TWF main course is a car crash unfolding in front of us, thanks to Damien Exton. Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels for dessert:

• Ryan Van Ells found a loophole, 
• SG Perahim is called out on her own prank, and 
• Lauren Kessinger has an unwelcome visitor.

BTW, the boss and I had a rare virtual catch-up last weekend. Much to talk about. Much to come. Make sure you stay tuned in 2024!

Now it’s over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. How’s your 2024 treating you thus far? I hope well. Me, after spending a few weeks in intensive family catch-up mode (our first festive season together in 12 years! This is what happens when you live on the other side of the world…), I’m now fully in alone-recharging mode. My hubby (and sometime-Horror Tree contributor Chris Hawton) is currently in Minneapolis, USA, appearing as a special guest (alongside his podcast co-host Matt) at the CONsole Room Doctor Who conference. It’s the first time he’s met his co-host in more than seven years of hosting together, so he’s been rather excited. By the time you read this, he’ll be on his last day at the con, but good vibes are always welcome so do send them his way.

It feels like January is the time for these new starts, for obvious reasons. I’ve vowed (yet again; but I’ve kinda cleared more of a path this year!) to get my writing habit under control and start subbing shorts to wet my nose, so to speak. But what to write about, that is the question! I’m hoping two upcoming events will help to inspire me.

First, I’m helping to host the British Fantasy Society’s “Inspirations” event this coming Saturday, 20 January. It will not only feature readings from SFFH authors, but also an interview with the brilliant CJ Cooke, gothic author extraordinaire (her latest, A Haunting in the Arctic, is now available), as well as three panels looking at how we can get inspired by different aspects of culture: Fairytales, Gods & Monsters (including our own Steph Ellis as a panellist!); Music, Movies & Media; and finally, History & Current Affairs. I’ll be moderating that last panel, and will be chatting with Mary Robinette Kowal, Benjamin Langley, and Olivia Atwater. It’s free for BFS members and just £5 for non-members, so get your ticket here.

A week later, on Saturday 27 January, I’ll be hosting the latest in my Writing the Occult series of events, presented in partnership with Alex Davis Events, and this time we’re talking about ritual. If you have any interest in folk horror, faith horror, or aspects of the occult in fiction, come and join us! You’ll hear from the likes of Tracy Fahey, LMK Sheppard, Adam Scovell, Dr Helen Frisby, and Eden Royce, and we’ve got a big panel finale where Lee Murray, Robert P Ottone, Stephanie Ellis (again!), and Kev Harrison will chat about their own ritual inspirations in folk horror. I’m so damn excited! Details are over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co, and early bird ticket prices (£35+bf) end tomorrow, 15 January, so get in quick! Tix are here.

But that’s enough plugging; let’s get to why you’re here. This week’s TWF menu features a delicate warning about the dangers of pick-up culture from Michael Subjack. Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels for dessert:

• Joshua Diabo is all-in on body horror, 
• Brian McAuley has some terrible neighbours, and 
• Robert Allen Lupton goes around in circles.

Finally – today is the last day to submit a short story in our Winter Window. Anything submitted after midnight tonight will unfortunately be returned unread, with a note to resubmit in the next quarterly window if you’re still interested. 

Now it’s over to you, boss man.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark, and welcome to the first TWF of 2024! No, I can’t believe it either. I’m currently entertaining the family, who’ve come over from Australia for the festive period, so I’m keeping this first one short and jumping straight into it. More from me next week. 

The first dark and speculative TWF menu of 2024 kicks off with a gorgeously chilling (and very BIG) short story from Mackensie Baker. Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels for dessert:

• DJ Tyrer twists a fairy tale, 
• Chris Clemens battles in space, and 
• Cassandra Daucus speaks from the shelf.

Finally – two quick notes.

First, our Winter window for short story submissions is open for just one more week, so get in quick! 

And secondly, and relatedly, I have totally been dropping the ball on the TWF inbox (work and life commitments converged to leave me with no breathing space whatsoever), so please bear with me while I catch up over the next couple of weeks. If you haven’t heard back and you submitted or emailed us more than a couple of weeks ago, please drop us a line to help jog our collective memory. 

Over to you, boss man.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.