Category: Trembling With Fear

Hello, hello. I’m still trying to figure out how to start these things every week. Do I greet you all by name? What’s the collective noun for horror and speculative writers? (Got an idea? Let me know in the comments or tweet me @novicenovelist!)

It’s been a strange week in the London-based TWF Towers. We don’t talk about the heat anymore. There’s an election campaign for a new Prime Minister going on but less than 1% of the population can vote in it. Everyone I meet is a bit out of sorts all round. Is it plague fatigue still? Who knows… But that’s why I’m proud of myself for actually getting off my behind and starting the damned new novel. Not research, not thinking – actual writing of made-up wordage.

Those who know me know my fraught relationship with my writing. It’s like the proverbial will-they/won’t-they romance: writing is my life, my love, my eternal frustration. As someone living with chronic depression and recovering from severe burnout, I can find it difficult to muster the energy to do *stuff*, especially the stuff that is important to me. Work deadlines get met because other people are relying on me; my own deadlines though? Fat chance. So I’m telling you here [insert collective noun], partly so one day someone might ask me how it’s going and I will have to have something to tell them. 

It’s one of the great things about taking on this role at Horror Tree; I get to read great pieces by all of you, to hear about your own writing journeys, and be inspired to make my own inroads. Let’s get there together, ok?

Turning to this week’s trembling menu… Our short story comes from Katie Conrad. Flesh Unknown is that perfect mix of sinister and visceral; a bit of a speculative horror that really makes the skin crawl. 

For the quick bites, we have three delicious offerings:

• Greg Von Dare’s Winsome is lovely… until it’s not.
• Sundown by Alan Moskowitz is the kind of real-world frightening that doesn’t involve violence or blood – just the mind, and
• An Eager Shelter by Joyce Jacobo takes us to the horrors of space

Oh – and before I forget, I’ve bitten the bullet and will be at the UK’s FantasyCon in September. Let me know if you’re there so we can say hi.

Over to you, Stuart….

Whew! A lot going on as always. Currently, we’re working on expanding on our video offerings, more on that soon. We hit 500 subscribers on Horror Tree’s YouTube channel! Now to live up to my promise, I won’t mention it here for a few weeks 😉 At least, until some of the new video offerings are available. At that time I’ll just plug those but not keep begging you to subscribe! (At least, not here, for a while.) Much of my focus is currently on working with our designer for the future layout. There will be more on that and potential speed increases for the site, very soon!

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going. We’re still recovering from losing a few Patreons as of late so any help is appreciated there.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Hello to you, brave creators. How are you doing? Here in London we’ve just had the hottest day ever recorded, and watching all the wildfires breaking out made me remember summers back home in Australia. There’s nothing quite like the smell of smoke on the horizon to yank you back to previous lives.

So I’ve been doing a lot of staying inside, sitting right in front of a fan (no aircon here!), and trying to make sure the bunny survives the heat. She did so well; as the weather broke last night, I sat with her watching my guilty pleasure TV (ahem, Supernatural) and pretended all was ok with the world.

A few days earlier, as the heat cranked up, I spent time on Zoom running some workshops on the art of the drabble. I find the teeny tiny stories are such a great way to hone my craft, to learn to make the hard edits, to spark creativity and curiosity. So, I brought that curiosity to my writing community at the London Writers’ Salon. I had more than 30 writers sit with me to examine some published drabbles (a few from this very publication, of course!), and to then work from visual prompts to create our own. Not everyone went dark – we even had some erotica! – but those that did have been encouraged to submit to Trembling With Fear. 

You see, we have a never-ending hunger for drabbles and short stories, and I’d personally love to see what you all have in you, deep down in that dark place you don’t like to show too often. Tap into it. Let it all spill out. Then let me see the proceeds… <insert evil laugh>

Let’s take a look at those who have come before: This week’s short story sees Eric Fomley take us to the trees and the revolution with a tale of friendship gone awry.

For the quick bites, we have three delicious offerings:

• Emma E Murray’s Postpartum is simply heartbreaking
• Cursed Heart by Don Money warns us to treat our elders well, and
• Luminous Darkness by Catherine Berry will have you checking the dark corners twice

Over to you, Stuart….

FIRST – A quick note from one of our TWF editors, Amanda Headlee: Who wants summer to last longer? We do at the Horror Tree! This year, we’ve extended our Summer Specials submission period by an extra month so that we can collect even more hellishly hot and campfire creepy stories. Send us your tales of horror about backpacking, road trips, glamping, beach adventures, summer camp… anything summer-related goes! You may even want to write a drabble as a summer vacation postcard as a “wish you were here” [insert evil grin].

The submission window is open until August 31st to submit drabbles of 100 words and short stories up to 2500 words. 

I am on a quick vacation this week! Visiting a friend who I used to visit yearly and *waves hand in the air* it’s been a couple of years. So this one will be short and sweet. Not much in the way of updates, more in the way of reminders.

Just a reminder: the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ are both fully available at this time. Also, last month we lost 3 Patreons recently. Thankfully, one new one has stepped up to really help out! We’re still behind, though, thankfully, are much closer to where we were at. I will say that, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a Patreon, now would be the perfect time!

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

We’re under ***5*** subscribers away from hitting our current goal for the Horror Tree’s YouTube channel at the time of writing this! Once we hit 500, I promise that I’ll stop plugging it for at least a month! 😉

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Erm… howdy. Yes, yes, I know – you were expecting someone different. And no, I’m not a shapeshifter who’s taken the form of Chris McAuley, nor have aliens kidnapped him (at least, not to the best of my knowledge). Alas, Chris’s life has gotten rather sparkly and busy since he stepped up to be my co-editor as Steph stepped down, and the latest MAHOOSIVE development in his world means he’s had to bow out of ours. Sad times. Rest assured, you have definitely not heard the last of Dr McAuley; for now, you can always head to the StokerVerse if you need a dose of his horribleness.

…which means I’m now riding solo. Hi, my name is Lauren and I’m your new sole (soul?) editor at Trembling With Fear. I said my thanks to Steph last week for all she has done for this zine, and she’s still very much a part of this site. (Remember to check out the indie bookshelf!) 

It’s been damn, devilishly hot here in London Town this week, which has made focus and motivation incredibly difficult. At least my native Australia is built for handling heat; this country just has no idea what it’s doing once the temperature goes about 25C/75F. I remember being amazed, my first summer here, when the rails seriously melted and stopped the trains. The houses? They’re made to trap the heat inside, and nothing is air conditioned. And it’s only going to get worse next week; I might have to set aside some time to write that climate crisis-driven dystopian horror I’ve been thinking about.

For now, though, it’s about YOU and what you’ve been thinking about. We’d love to hear more from you, so please do send in your short stories and drabbles. Go dark, go beyond, and let us have it!

This week we have a short from Dave Musson with a distinctive style and traumatic technology.

For the quick bites, we have three delicious offerings:

• Critic, by Chris Chapman, does what many artists have wanted to do, I’m sure
• Monkey King, by Mike Radar, enters the simian mind
• And finally, Self-Help, by LJ McMenemy – aka yours truly – asks how far you’ll go for self-fulfilment 

Next week I hand the reins over to… Oh no, wait. It’s me again. All that’s left to say then is: Over to you, Stuart….

FIRST – A quick note from one of our TWF editors, Amanda Headlee: Who wants summer to last longer? We do at the Horror Tree! This year, we’ve extended our Summer Specials submission period by an extra month so that we can collect even more hellishly hot and campfire creepy stories. Send us your tales of horror about backpacking, road trips, glamping, beach adventures, summer camp… anything summer-related goes! You may even want to write a drabble as a summer vacation postcard as a “wish you were here” [insert evil grin].

The submission window is open until August 31st to submit drabbles of 100 words and short stories up to 2500 words. 

Now, onto our other editing news; Lauren pretty much covered it above! Steph and Amanda will be providing any support she might need though, I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure Lauren is more organized than I am so I am not too concerned. 

As to site news this week, we’re slowly planning on starting up on working on the new layout in the last week of July and first couple weeks of August. More news to come!

Just a reminder: the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ are both fully available at this time. Also, last month we lost 3 Patreons recently. Thankfully, one new one has stepped up to really help out! We’re still behind, though, thankfully, are much closer to where we were at. I will say that, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a Patreon, now would be the perfect time!

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

We’re under 15 subscribers away from hitting our current goal for the Horror Tree’s YouTube channel! Once we hit 500, I promise that I’ll stop plugging it for at least a month! 😉

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

It seems fitting that I’m writing this as we approach the midnight hour here in London Town, having just returned from a witchcraft anthology launch at the famous esoteric bookstore Watkins. I say this partly to explain to Stuart why I’m slightly late with my first editorial, and also by way of introduction to me, your scribe for this week. 

I come to TWF and Horror Tree as a bit of an unknown quantity, and I thank Steph not only for all she’s done for this site over the last few years, but also for encouraging me to put my hand up for this role. I have many years’ experience in the world of editorial – as a journalist, a copywriter, an editor, a proofreader, a marketer – but less so in the world of horror. You won’t have seen my name pop up in anthologies or on the indie bookshelf (I’m working on it, I promise!), and I’ve only just started to venture out on the UK convention circuit. However, I am a lifelong fan of the genre, and I’m so excited to be entrusted with this holy grail of dark editor roles.

While this week marks the first in a new era for TWF, I want to assure you that Chris and I aren’t here for revolution. This will still be your place for dark fiction, a place for both new and established writers to find a home for short stories and drabbles. (Embarassing admission: I’d never heard the term “drabble” until I ventured across Horror Tree!) As always, submissions don’t have to be horror – we accept all speculative fiction with darker leanings – and we are always open, all year round. If you’ve never submitted to TWF, perhaps look to this new era as a reason to experiment?

And so to the reason you’re here: this week’s works. We start with What the Camera Adds by Karl Lykken, a short speculative piece trading on the very modern concern over the perfect look. 

For the quick bites, we have three delicious offerings:

• Time, by RJ Meldrum, which ponders life in a spacesuit
• Bite the Hand, by Gully Novaro, which considers the animal’s point of view
• The Safety of the Circle, by Micah Castle, which creeps and conjures dread

Next week I hand the reins over to the one and only Dr Chris McAuley, to give him his full title, who’s been a very busy human of late. We’ll be taking turns in charge every other week, and hope the added variety in your time with TWF keeps you coming back for more. And maybe submitting more, too?

Over to you, Stuart….

Lauren McMenemy
(New) Co-Editor, Trembling With Fear

I promise our new editors that I will get used to not seeing Steph’s name in that first intro soon! 

Totally off subject for a moment. I had finally squirreled away enough to buy a new monitor recently to replace my aging monitor. Not even 2 weeks of use as it has already conked out on me and they’re insistent on sending a tech instead of replacing it with the warranty that is in place which means I’m down the new monitor for 2-3 weeks. Thanks, Samsung.

At any rate, you aren’t here to hear me complain! This is our first week with Lauren covering our intro and I’m loving to see what she has to say! (We’ve also been going over the review/approval process.) Loving making some progress on this! We’re moving forward and things are looking great.

Just a reminder: the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ are both fully available at this time.

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

We’re under 20 subscribers away from hitting our current goal for the Horror Tree’s YouTube channel! Once we hit 500, I promise that I’ll stop plugging it for at least a month! 😉

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Welcome back to Trembling with Fear, our online flash zine. We publish both new and established writers with many becoming familiar faces and being an ongoing open market, we are always after material. Submissions don’t have to be horror, they can be dark sci-fi or fantasy or some other aspect of the speculative fiction field. Nor are we averse to a touch of noir or a dark thriller. Humour is also welcome!

So this is my last editorial for Trembling With Fear. After five years it is time to hand over the reins to the wonderful Lauren McMenemy and Chris McAuley who will bring fresh ideas and more energy than I currently have(!) to the weekly zine. I have enjoyed my time here and made some wonderful friends and read many fantastic stories. To see the support that has come in for the zine over this period and to watch it flourish has been a privilege and to know that TWF is often the springboard for new writers into publication has also been something very special. I would also like to thank boss Stuart and fellow editor Amanda for their support during this time, would like to just state that without Amanda joining us about a year or so ago, I would have buckled sooner! Thank you to everyone who has ever written in to me, sent me their stories and news and shown me that our community will never run dry of stories and heart. – Steph x

Last week you met Lauren McMenemy to TWF’s editorial team. This week it’s the turn of Chris McAuley:

I’m an Irishman who was kidnapped by a Canadian and now straddle both countries. I write because I enjoy it and it has brought me into contact with some wonderful people. I suspect that’s part of the reason that our contributors pen stories as well. 

I am probably mostly known for my work with Dacre Stoker (the great-grand nephew of Bram Stoker) in the StokerVerse. A horror universe that we both created together. Through it I have gained experience writing novels, copious short stories, video and tabletop games, audio dramas and even directed some Hollywood names. I also work in the genre of Science Fiction with franchises like Doctor Who, The Terminator and partnered up with Captain Kirk himself – William Shatner for a comic book series. I also worked in comic book art, colouring and inking comics and my day job is linked to video games.

I write in a visceral style; my first printed work was in the Judge Dredd universe. I like my stories to be pacy and action packed. I find that the specifics of violence can really make readers wince and can make a memorable impact. It has to be meaningful and judiciously implemented, shock for its own shake quickly dissipates.

If you want to find out more about my projects check out my official website : https://www.dark-universes.com/ and the Stokerverse on Facebook : @stokerverse

It is so strange knowing that this will be the last Trembling With Fear that Steph will be scheduling for us. I’m so glad that she isn’t leaving Horror Tree as she has been the backbone of our fiction endeavors!

Just a reminder: the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ are both fully available at this time.

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

We’ve broken 475 subscribers on our Horror Tree’s YouTube channel and are inching toward 500! I’m very excited about this as it is still an area we haven’t focused on enough and have been expanding our content on (with more to come!) If you’re interested in seeing what is in store, please, do subscribe and check out a couple of videos!

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Welcome back to Trembling with Fear, our online flash zine. We publish both new and established writers with many becoming familiar faces and being an ongoing open market, we are always after material. Submissions don’t have to be horror, they can be dark sci-fi or fantasy or some other aspect of the speculative fiction field. Nor are we averse to a touch of noir or a dark thriller. Humour is also welcome!

So this week we welcome Lauren McMenemy to TWF’s editorial team. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with her in real life, first at the UK Ghost Story Festival last November and again the recent Chillercon in Scarborough. I love being able to make ‘real life’ connections. Over to Lauren:

I’m a writer with various hats – journalist, copywriter, content marketer, fiction – and consider myself a storyteller at heart. For the purposes of this introduction, you’ll want to know that I write gothic and folk horror and am currently working on a novel set in the world of the Victorian occult. It’s the supernatural and the occult that really give me goosebumps, and a good ghost story or vampire tale with a rising sense of dread will always pique my interest (and yes, Midnight Mass hit many of my buttons). I also have a developing fascination with folklore, the old ways and our fast-changing relationship with the natural world; this sneaks into my writing, too. I’ve had short stories published in various small press anthologies and am looking forward to being on the other side of the fiction editor’s desk for Trembling With Fear. Let’s learn together!

In The Real World, I spent more than 20 years as a professional content creator. In that past life, I led global content teams and created editorial strategies, including setting up content newsrooms for some of the world’s biggest tech and finance brands. I was a music editor for a daily newspaper in my native Australia (a good gig and the beach remain my happy places), though I’ve been London-based for 16 years and now am increasingly spending more time writing fiction and working as an editor, proofreader, marketer, and writing coach. (Enough with the corporate world – it’s too scary.) I’m also a big mental health advocate; I work for a mental health charity and my Substack, How to Be Self(ish), tracked my year of sabbatical and self-care in 2021.

You’ll find me haunting south London, where I live with my Doctor Who-obsessed husband and our aged black house rabbit. You’ll also likely find me hosting Writers Hour sessions for the London Writers Salon a few times a week.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/novicenovelist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozthewriter/
Website: https://laurenmc.carrd.co

Thank you, and welcome, Lauren! Next week, you’ll have a chance to discover more about the other half of the new team, Chris McAuley.

Our first story this week in Trembling with Fear is Auntie Bettie Finds her Forever Home by Cecilia Kennedy. This is written in the style of a gloriously morbid fairy tale, a visceral interpretation of the ties that bind. The visuals in this short piece are wonderful.

238,900 Miles by Jay Rounds is a little sci-fi showing how the curiosity of man can have unintended consequences. I love that this genre is making its presence felt more in recent submissions!

The Last Supper by Pedro Lucas Martins is a grim re-interpretation of a recognised biblical scene. There are so many aspects of the Bible ripe for re-interpretation in this manner although a number of stories are as much horror as anything modern writers could come up with!

I hope you enjoyed our stories, now send us yours!

Steph

I would also like to share a very warm welcome to Lauren McMenemy. To be honest, we’re still getting to know one another but I already feel that Lauren is more organized than I am which will be a true boon to not just Trembling With Fear but Horror Tree on the whole!

The new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ is officially both out in the word both digitally and physically!

As mentioned the last couple of weeks, we’re a bit low on drabbles at the moment so if you have 100 words of speculative fiction that you’d like to send our way, we’re very open to it! 🙂

Last week we broke 450 subscribers on our Horror Tree’s YouTube channel. The new goal as we continue adding content? 500! Please reach out with what you would like to see featured on the channel.

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Welcome back to Trembling with Fear, our online flash zine. We publish both new and established writers with many becoming familiar faces and being an ongoing open market, we are always after material. Submissions don’t have to be horror, they can be dark sci-fi or fantasy or some other aspect of the speculative fiction field. Nor are we averse to a touch of noir or a dark thriller. Humour is also welcome!

Last week I mentioned the editorial changeover. I was delighted to be able to meet the two wonderful people who will be stepping into my role in a couple of weeks’ time via zoom last weekend and have a chat – although my internet played up a bit, as is the way of things. I am happy to share with you the news that Lauren McMenemy and Chris McAuley have joined the team. I’m not going to say anything else about them, they will each be introducing themselves here over the next few weeks. Lauren will lead the way next week with her introduction. Please give them all the love and support you have shown me in my five years onboard TWF. 😊

This week has seen the publication of my metal found poetry collection, Metallurgy. This is something I’ve self-published, poetry being very much something I do for myself. I didn’t even try looking for a publisher for this one. Over the years I’ve picked up skills in formatting and publishing, plus those I already had from my tech author days, and that has given me the confidence to take such a step. If any of you are considering self-publishing, it is not as daunting as you think and I would say why not give it a whirl? The hardest part is the marketing and that is something where I, like many, have yet to find the magic ingredient!

Trembling with Fear starts with When You See It by F.M. Scott is creepy. The sensory detail in this tale is excellent, contributing to the sense of helplessness in one and power in the ‘other’. A very effective ‘takeover’.

Error and Trial by Hank Helstrom is a reminder that revenge can still be taken after death. I like the way that this was done in a lab and was a refreshing twist on the revenge trope.

Mouth by Gully Novaro is a bleak addiction tale, very cleverly told.

My Enemies I Fear Not But Protect Me From My Friends by Michael Bettendorf is a bit of sci-fi which rings warning bells as more and more AI is delivered by microchip.

I hope you enjoyed our stories, now send us yours!

Steph

As Steph mentioned above, you’ll be meeting our two new editors over the next couple of weeks! Steph is still part of Horror Tree and will likely help with a few pieces for TWF while the transition happens though I can’t stress enough how much we’ll all miss her as the ehad editor here.

Also mentioned last week, the wait for the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ is almost over as both are now available for pre-order. You can read all of the details right here!

Last week we broke 450 subscribers on our Horror Tree’s YouTube channel. The new goal as we continue adding content? 500! Please reach out with what you would like to see featured on the channel.

This is the last week I’ll be mentioning this one but wanted to make sure it was seen: At the request of one of our readers, I’ve added an “Artwork” category, for those of you who are also artists or know some. I haven’t had the time to actively update all of our existing posts into it, though will be adding all future ones as they come in. This can be found quickly as the bottom option under “Non-Anthologies” on the main menu. If you know of anything that you’d like to see added to the site, please reach out!

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

Welcome back to Trembling with Fear, our online flash zine. We publish both new and established writers with many becoming familiar faces and being an ongoing open market, we are always after material. Submissions don’t have to be horror, they can be dark sci-fi or fantasy or some other aspect of the speculative fiction field. Nor are we averse to a touch of noir or a dark thriller. Humour is also welcome!

Well, I escaped unscathed from the plague that has affected a number poor souls at Chillercon. And my luck is currently holding as I nursemaid my son who sadly succumbed to covid following his graduation, he’s getting better slowly though. I spent a lot of last week playing catch up with TWF and we’re pretty much there. Things are also happening behind the scenes in terms of the editorial changeover. I’m really excited to see how they’ll take TWF forward.

One polite note before we go over to this week’s stories. Please remember that I do not go into my Horror Tree emails everyday and in fact have been trying to avoid weekends. Whilst I generally respond quite quickly, there are times when I’ve left the emails for a while on other days because I’ve already spent a few hours on TWF or other Horror Tree work and I simply get tired! Have pity on this old soul 😊

Trembling with Fear starts with Out of Gas by Ron Capshaw. This has a great build up, an apparent victim, a bigoted cop, a remote spot. You think you know where this is going, until you get to the punchline. Nice pace and sense of mood.

An Unintended Effect of Climate Change by RJ Meldrum plays with the effects of climate change. There are so many hidden consequences of its impact on Nature and this one brings something long hidden.

Lost Girl by Kevin McHugh is an illustration of the lengths a person will go for in terms of furthering their career. How far? You’ll have to read for yourselves!

The Devil’s Time by Mike Rader sets up a lovely bit of historical horror, not only in the nature of the witch-hunt, but also the personal vendetta’s which often drove it.

I hope you enjoyed our stories, now send us yours!

Steph

The wait for the new editions of ‘Trembling With Fear Year 5‘ And ‘More Tales From The Tree 4‘ is almost over as both are now available for pre-order. You can read all of the details right here!

Yesterday, we also had a meeting with some of the new TWF editors and more will be revealed about them in the coming week!

We’re aiming to break 450 subscribers on our Horror Tree’s YouTube channel. If you’re into tubing, you should check us out!

At the request of one of our readers, I’ve added an “Artwork” category, for those of you who are also artists or know some. I haven’t had the time to actively update all of our existing posts into it, though will be adding all future ones as they come in. This can be found quickly as the bottom option under “Non-Anthologies” on the main menu.

For those looking to support the site, we’ve recently launched a Ko-Fi and always have our Patreon going.

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.