Laura Crenshaw and her book on creator-audience relationships – Sweeter than Silence – Kickstarter
By Angelique Fawns
The inventor of the inspirational Mythulu Creation Cards invites you to check out her campaign for her book “Sweeter than Silence” which “loving explores rejection by rethinking desire, courage, and the heart of innovation.” I met Laura at Superstars Writing Seminar in 2024 and was blown away by her creativity.
I was lucky enough to chat with Jamal Hodge and Tim Waggoner on their first collaboration “Bestiary of Blood.” Jamal talks about his this being his first book editing experience (with over 30 writers!) and his approach to his collection of modern fables. Tim discusses his short story “A Cold Midnight” and his thoughts on writing.
It was one of this conversations you just wanted to throw a question out there and see where it led. So fun to do, so interesting to just sit back and listen! I hope you enjoy it!
You can watch the full interview here:
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By Lionel Ray Green
In her sophomore novel The Fatal Mind, emergency physician N.J. Gallegos continues tapping into her background as a doctor, blending horror with heavy medical thriller vibes. The formula worked successfully in her 2023 debut The Broken Heart, and The Fatal Mind leans even more into the medical thriller genre.
Winding Road Stories plans to release The Fatal Mind on October 15, but it’s available for pre-order on Amazon.
Billed as a Black Mirror meets Frankenstein medical horror thriller, the novel chronicles Dr. Aldea Absinthe’s experimental chip-implant procedure that inhibits migraine pain. When Absinthe performs her new procedure on former professional basketball star Shawn Gilbert, he champions the treatment, launching the neurologist to national fame. However, Gilbert’s wife Rachel notices an extreme change in her husband’s personality, prompting her to try and uncover the dark secret behind the doctor’s miracle cure.
The Fatal Mind is a strong follow-up to The Broken Heart, a grim but entertaining story about what happens to desperate wife and mother Casey Philips after she receives a serial killer’s heart via transplant.
Gallegos agreed to an exclusive Q&A interview via email with Lionel Ray Green for The Horror Tree where she discusses the challenges of writing novels, her favorite Black Mirror episode, and the most common cause of migraines.
By Angelique Fawns
On her Instagram feed, Jessica calls herself, “A slushpile reader by day, short story writer by night.” Her business cards give her the title “The Crusher of Dreams.” I met her at Superstars Writing Seminar 2024 and immediately loved her gregarious and welcoming personality. She contacted me recently about listing a new anthology she is working on with “The Brothers Uber” in my monthly market list.
What a wonderful opportunity to get the inside scoop on what she is looking for and get to know her better!
Gemma Files is a Canadian horror writer, journalist, and film critic. Her short story, “The Emperor’s Old Bones”, won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Story of 1999. Her novel Experimental Film (2015) won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the Sunburst Award for Best Canadian Speculative Fiction (Novel) in 2016. Her most recent publications include her Bram Stoker Award-winning collections In That Endlessness, Our End (2021) and Blood from the Air (2023).
C. J. Dotson (she / her) is a generally cheerful but easily unnerved horror lover. She is also the author of the forthcoming “chilling, paranoia-inducing” (Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Cave 13) horror novel THE CUT, as well short horror fiction appearing in such publications as Found 2: More Stories of Found Footage Horror from Vermillion 2 One Press and 99 Tiny Terrors from Pulse Publishing, among others.
When she is not writing, her favorite pastime is to read a book over a meal or a snack (a preference which leads to difficulty, occasionally, if the book she’s reading while she’s trying to eat is particularly gory or gruesome).
C. J. lives in upstate New York, in a poorly-lighted cabin full of far too many bugs and spiders. Aside from the insects and arachnids, she also shares her home with her husband, their nine-year-old son and five-year-old daughter, three cats named Noodles, Jupiter, and Pebble, their puppy Cooper who was named after Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks (pictures of the pets are included at the end of every issue of her newsletter, C. J. Dotson’s Dreadful Dispatch), and over the summer and holidays the family is joined by C. J.’s teenage stepson.
In her limited spare time, C. J. enjoys participating in hobbies to which she brings much more enthusiasm than skill. For example, she dabbles in occasional forays into amateur embroidery. After her kids’ bedtimes she can often be found playing video games, particularly Stardew Valley and a handful of roguelikes (and she loves watching her husband play very story-driven games that she’s better off experiencing as a spectator, like the Remedy Connected Universe games). She also likes drawing with charcoal and painting with acrylics. And when she has time and an excuse, she has a love-hate relationship with baking and decorating cakes.
Elizabeth J. Brown grew up in the sprawling countryside of Kent, England, amidst cobbled streets and castle ruins. It was here that she cultivated a quintessentially British obsession for tea and cake. But caffeine and calories aside, her real passion is writing supernatural horror. Her current series, Brimstone Chorus, immerses readers in a world where demons, witches, and other nightmarish creatures reign supreme. Her debut novel, The Laughing Policeman, sets the stage for a chilling journey filled with blood debts, dark magic, and spine-tingling twists that explore the darker side of human nature where inner demons can be just as terrifying as the external ones.
A child of the 1980s, Elizabeth was captivated by the darker side of pop culture. While other children were entranced by Button Moon and The Magic Roundabout, she found herself spellbound by horror classics like Poltergeist—pressing her nose up against the TV, to get a closer look at the eerie girl trapped inside the screen (though, to be fair, she never missed an episode of Mr. Spoon’s space adventures either). It was this early love for the strange and supernatural that sparked her imagination and set her on the path to writing tales of horror.
When she’s not conjuring up new dark and twisted stories at her laptop, or spending time with her family, Elizabeth is usually lost in the pages of a book or graphic novel. She’s an unabashed Wolverine fan and credits him for her love of anti-heroes and morally grey characters.
I’m not sure where I’ve been hiding that I have never read anything by Nuzo Onoh before but I am amazed at what I found! Her latest work, Where the Dead Brides Gather, is rich in African culture and families with secrets as well as a whole entourage of dead brides looking to get married. Told from the point of view of an 11 year old girl who becomes possessed it is a unique story with a mythology all it’s own. Bata is forced to grow up before she wants to so she can save living brides from the dead brides and keep her family together. The dead brides all died before they could be married. They wish to be married more than anything and will do anything to possess a living bride as she takes her vows.
I was lucky enough to be able to interview this horror icon about her new novel.
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