Author: Lauren McMenemy

Hello, children of the dark. Why, yes, thank you for noticing. We do have a bit of a new look this week. With Stuart teasing so much about the site’s upgrade – I am assured it is close! – we thought it was about time we took some fresh eyes to the old tree-and-wood-based imagery used for Trembling With Fear.

Now, I don’t proclaim to be any sort of designer. In fact – designers, please close your ears to this – I’m a devout user of Canva. But given Horror Tree’s DIY aesthetic, I quite like what we came up with. Something which could cover any aspect of dark speculative fiction: the lone figure in the misty woods, and a rather X-Files typeface. Plus, below, a way to draw much more attention to the writer of our lead short story every week; something putting the writer’s bio front and centre. 

It’s a bit of a facelift, at least. But you don’t come here for our good looks, do you?

Let’s look at this week’s menu, where you’ll find Adam Hunter facing something lurking in the deep, dark ocean for our Trembling main course. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Ryan Benson gets puritanical in belief,
• Ria Hill gets sadistic with the program, and
• Lauren Carter gets to see it all.

And if I had a final quick word, that word would be: drabbles. I know every week I tell you we have an insatiable need, and that’s because we really, really do. We have quite a few awaiting publication, but they’re from a small number of writers and we try to rotate the regulars. If you’ve never submitted to us before – heck, if you’ve never submitted anywhere before – why not try us? I might be partial to vampires, but I promise not to bite.

Over to you, Stuart.

Oh – and before I forget, I’ll be taking part in a 24 hour writing challenge this Friday-Saturday with the London Writers Salon. We’ll be chasing 8am around the world, from Friday 24 March to Saturday 25 March, and writing together on Zoom in 45-minute bursts (with a bit of fun and games in between). Each hour has a different host and a different theme, and I’ll be at the helm for three hours. I’ll be waking up Brisbane, Australia, with tarot queen Chelsey Pippin Mizzi; saying good morning to Tokyo with Canadian fantasy author Crystal Bourque; and then heading to Singapore with (I hope!) some of the Horror Tree team. You can get the details, and register FREE to join us for all 24 – or just a few! – hours. Head over here for the guff.

First off, a HUGE shout-out to Lauren for the new artwork and our small changes to the TWF layout. I really dig the new artwork, and I hope everyone is giving her a standing ovation for the new look!

Last week, I teased that Holley Cornetto and I had something in the works. NEXT Friday, we will be making the announcement. Be prepared to check out something pretty awesome! I think that a lot of you are going to be excited about this one! 

At the time of posting, we’re 21 followers on Medium from 100 and would really love to hit the triple digits; please give us a follow! Once we hit that number, I’ll stop harassing you all for a bit 🙂

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello, children of the dark. I sit here, at my desk, as some late London snow falls outside. As I write this, it is International Women’s Day, which falls during Women in Horror Month. And I, an international woman in horror, am still darn sick. There is a mega-cold doing the rounds on this side of the pond, and it is a horrid thing. 

Still, today and this month we celebrate those who identify as women, both in our dark genre and further afield. This is also the time of year when we see those who don’t identify as women lamenting the spotlight being put here. And, to an extent, I agree – every month, every week, every day should be a celebration of women. And of our non-binary friends. And our trans friends. And our friends of colour. And basically anyone who experiences or feels marginalised out there in the world. Those who have historically been overlooked, whose time is Now. 

To those people, I want to reiterate that these pages are a safe space for all, and I really truly would love to see you submit work through Horror Tree. Don’t be shy. Don’t second-guess yourself. Don’t think it’s not for the likes of you. Because it is for the likes of you. 

And it’s also for the likes of those on this week’s menu. For our Trembling main course, Evelyn Michaels explores an impossible romance. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Cassandra Daucus goes down to the basement,
• Alyson Faye channels an artist, and
• Ron Capshaw swipes right on the wrong profile.

And don’t forget, we have an insatiable hunger for drabbles – though a reminder that we are unfortunately still closed to short stories. It might sound like I’m a broken record, but we’ve had a few hitting the inbox recently. Yes, it’s been a long, long time and we still have many stories waiting to be published. We’re working on it, we promise. In the meantime, maybe one of the many open calls we list on this here site will prove a good home for your latest short story? 

Over to you, Stuart.

I didn’t mention it last week as it felt like a passing thing; however, like Lauren, I’ve also been sick! Going on for about nine days now. It, thankfully, isn’t the big C. It also isn’t too debilitating though my brain does feel like my thoughts have been swimming through Jello, and I haven’t been able to get any real writing in.

I do have a MINOR update on the website update. We’re supposed to see the next iteration on Monday, the 13th. Fingers crossed! 

I will have some news on one of our side projects coming REAL soon. Holley Cornetto, our newsletter guru, and I have been cooking up something special for you that we’ll be able to feature in the next two weeks. I was hoping to have launched it in January, as we’re already a few months into the year. However, it should still be exciting for some of the authors and publishers we’ve worked with!

Speaking of progress, early conversations have been happening for formatting for the next round of Trembling With Fear physical releases, and cover art has been selected. Not much to say here, but it is in the works!

We’ve recently launched some of our articles on Medium, and if you spend some time on the site, please give us a follow! We’re looking to reach 100 followers there. We’re already over half way to our goal!

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello, children of the dark. Keeping it short and sweet this week as your humble correspondent has been in her sick bed for several days. The universe is definitely telling me something – focus on spooky stuff and I’m totally fine; go back to the day job and I get sick. If anyone works out how to make a living without actually making a living, can you let me in on your secret?

Before I just straight into this week’s edition, though, a quick hooray and wunderbar that it’s March, which means Horror Tree will be celebrating women in horror for the next month. Keep an eye out for interviews, profiles and insights from some of the most talented women in this genre – and if you’re a woman in horror with something to say, please drop us a line and pitch us an idea!

For now let’s turn to this week’s menu. For our Trembling main course, Isaac Gbadebo has found a classified document that contains some deep, dark scifi horror. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• RJ Meldrum gets ready to rob,
• Paul Latham gets hungry, and
• Robert Allen Lupton gets active in the kitchen.

And don’t forget, we have an insatiable hunger for drabbles. Feed us, Seymour.

Over to you, Stuart.

Welcome to Women in Horror Month! We’ve long been supporters of the season and, as the trend has become, we’ve moved to March from February to coincide with the majority of other sites out there. We kicked things off with an Interview with Ruth Anna Evans and have been posting daily since with new interviews, guest posts, features, and more! I hope you enjoy our yearly celebration of women in horror! 

Our server admin wasn’t doing well this week, so no progress on the upgrade front. I was hoping for better news this week there. Not much new to report, I’m afraid. Outside of school keeping me busy, prepping for WiHM always has me pretty busy on the site’s backend, and this year is no different! Have a great one all. 

We’ve recently launched some of our articles on Medium, and if you spend some time on the site, please give us a follow! We’re looking to reach 100 followers there. We’re already over half way to our goal!

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello, children of the dark. You may be wondering how, after all the fanfare, the UK Ghost Story Festival went. So am I – I’ve been so bogged down in deadlines since I returned that I’ve barely had a moment to reflect! I can tell you it was incredibly spooktacular, and I even had the pleasure of meeting some of our regular TWF contributors (hi, Corinne and Nicolette!). Once I get a chance to catch my breath, I’ll do a proper debrief for Stuart and the site. Maybe. Deadlines willing and all that.

But before we get going with this week’s dark offerings, let me mention a fast-moving discussion that’s been doing the rounds in submissions circles this week. It started, as far as I can tell, with Clarkesworld, the lauded SFF magazine, closing to submissions for the first time in forever, citing a deluge of AI-created stories hitting their ranks. This sparked a lot of debate, and raised awareness that this is now A Thing we’ll need to worry about. 

We are, however, still formulating how Horror Tree as a site can handle this incredibly intricate and tricky issue. We’re all for embracing new technology, but we exist to showcase natural writing, and especially to give a leg-up to emerging writers who might not find an opening elsewhere. We pride ourselves on that. For the record, TWF does not at this time accept AI-generated work. Sorry, robots. When you are sentient and ready to take over the world, let’s chat further.

For now let’s turn to this week’s menu. For our Trembling main course, Cassandra Vaillancourt stumbles across some war wreckage that isn’t what it seems. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Miguel Gonçalves records his last moments,
• Patricia Miller tries to stick to the ritual, and
• Alan Moskowitz goes tree climbing.

Over to you, Stuart.

No real news on the server move and new site layout this week. It does exist on the new host in a staging environment on the current layout. More to come on that, hopefully soon! I’ve also got no real updates on re-adding the merch. I ran into a technical issue on linking the storefront to the new site that I just have not yet had time to even attempt to troubleshoot. (On top of the normal craziness, it was my youngest son’s birthday this last week so things have been a bit crazy.) 😉 

To echo the above – For the record, I support our future robot overlords, just not their writing at this time. We’ve been super lucky not to have seen a huge influx of this type of “writing” quite yet. I’m sure it is only a matter of time. It probably helps that we’re still temporarily closed to short stories, even if we’re still figuring out how to re-open those sooner than later. 

We’ve recently launched some of our articles on Medium, and if you spend some time on the site, please give us a follow! We’re looking to reach 100 followers there. We’re already over half way to our goal!

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello, children of the dark. As you read this, I’ll be on my way home from the much-talked-about UK Ghost Story Festival. A proper debrief shall be forthcoming, but let’s assume I’ve had a fabulous time, met some wonderful spooky writers, and am on top of the world. Manifest that sh*t. 

Truth be told, I’m ever so slightly bricking it. I’m running two workshops over the weekend, as well as interviewing two incredible writers in Emma Stonex and C.J. Cooke. This is not like the last time I went to this festival; that time, I was purely a spectator, soaking it up. It was actually my first outing post-lockdowns, and everything felt like an adventure. This time? This time, I have to be a Proper Professional and sound like I know what I’m talking about. 

Wish me luck!

For now let’s turn to this week’s menu. For our Trembling main course, Oliver Baer stumbles across a very strange house. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Kellee Kranendonk takes a bloody trip to the funhouse,
• Warren Benedetto makes good on marriage vows, and
• David Berger keeps to the zombie accord.

Over to you, Stuart.

I know we’ve been talking about setting up the new hosting and layout since December now… However, I have solid progress to report on! While the physical site itself isn’t there yet, we’ve taken a recent backup (which is, rather large after being live for over 11 years) and have it now living on the new server. By the time you read this, I should have also been able to review the first draft of the new layout. At the very least, the speed on the back end. Wow. Night and day, folks. It truly is going to make those of us who work on the site super happy being able to make updates that don’t require nearly as long to format a post as we’ve been struggling through for the past year and a half.

I love that I get to tell you that we’re FINALLY seeing some progress here!  

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello, children of the dark. I’d like to spend just a few moments talking about the “no-no” section of our submission guidelines, and to explain why we’re carrying a content warning for some of today’s drabbles. 

There is a constant debate swirling in horror circles about the usefulness of content and trigger warnings on stories. Those against them argue that horror is meant to be confronting; those for them argue that while that’s true, you also need to give people a chance to skip a story that might bring up harm from the past. I’m in the latter camp. I have read stories that have opened up massive wounds for me that I struggled to recover from, and I haven’t personally been subjected to violent trauma, so I can only imagine what it feels like to be in those shoes. By arguing against content warnings, you’re basically saying you don’t care about your readers, which seems to be antithetic to putting your work out there for others to enjoy. 

Fear not, horror bros – we’re not going to start demanding trigger warnings on your submissions any time soon (I don’t think!). But we have decided to place a warning on two of our drabbles this week for reasons I go into below. This is mainly because we, as a team, debated whether those pieces were against our submission guidelines, and decided they were borderline but with incredibly strong writing, so we accepted them, explaining our thinking to each writer. 

We have submission guidelines with a “none of this” section because we know our audience – just like every publisher out there knows their audience. The average Horror Tree reader does not come here for erotica, graphic sex, rape, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny or misandry. We personally, as editors and publishers, do not want to read about killing, torture or abuse of kids or pets – and that’s our prerogative, as publishers and editors, to state that preference. That doesn’t mean we don’t agree that horror can be cathartic, confronting, life-changing. What it does mean is, if you submit something to us that’s against our guidelines, we will reject it. There are plenty of horror outlets online these days, and some of them even specialise in the extreme, the splatter, the gore, the violence. You will find a much better home, and better reception, for your work with them.

Now let’s turn to this week’s menu. For our Trembling main course, Martin Fuller gets inside the head of some daters with very particular tastes. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Robyn O’Sullivan faces violent torment,
• Deborah Sheldon remembers a childhood incident, and
• Ron Capshaw plays around with some monster tropes.

Please note this week’s menu comes with a content warning for the drabbles: Robyn’s piece concerns domestic violence, and Deborah’s piece concerns child harm. As a team, we debated these pieces as we have submission guidelines for a reason, but felt the writing was too strong to ignore, and the treatment of the subject did not glorify the action. If these topics are potentially triggering for you, I suggest skipping to the end of the drabbles for some vampire-based light relief.

Over to you, Stuart.

More progress on the next set of Trembling With Fear physical anthologies, we have a cover figured out. Still a LOT of work to do there. No updates yet on other upcoming changes, sorry folks for the delay! 

For those looking to support the site, we’re always open Ko-Fi donations and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.