The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Articles

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Rest In Peace Patrick Winters

It is with great sadness and shock that Horror Tree heard of the passing of writer Patrick Winters following a battle with ill-health that we all thought he had won.

Patrick had been a longstanding contributor to Trembling With Fear (TWF), and when I did a quick check of TWF’s emails, I saw possibly his first submission was to Stuart back in January, 2017. His last submission was early 2024. This means he is someone who has worked with all three editors at TWF: Stuart, myself, and Lauren!

His writing was always enjoyable, often with a good twist, and he was certainly skilled at his art. He was also able to home in on an editor’s interests. I recall an Unholy Trinity written as an homage to the rock band Dio, and Patrick was fully aware of my love of metal (this can be read here). So it was with great delight that we watched him move beyond TWF, with wider publishing success, including his novelette, Seeing, which I reviewed on its publication. Even more poignant now was his very recent announcement sharing the news of his upcoming debut short story collection, Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones, with Baynam Books Press. And he continued all this whilst hitting ups and downs of serious illness and personal loss. I honestly think he had a lot more to offer the writing world – if only he had been given more time. He was a man of resolution, determination, and not an ounce of self-pity, and will always be a part of the TWF family at Horror Tree.

You can find full details of his writing on his website Publications – Patrick Winters, and this includes those published on TWF.

If you have a memory you wish to share with his family and friends, you can do so here.

Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.

Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry / Reprints Allowed

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Taking Submissions: The Lorelei Signal 2025 Oct – Dec Issue Window

Submission Window: April 15th – May 15th, 2025
Payment: $15.00 for short stories $5.00 for poems and flash (<1000 wds) fiction pieces. $5.00 for reprints
Theme: SF/Fantasy stories that feature strong / complex female characters

The Lorelei Signal is a quarterly SF/Fantasy electronic magazine – one that will feature strong / complex female characters. This does not mean your female character has to be the main hero or villain in the story. What it does mean is no shrinking violets, or women who serve only to get into trouble so the male hero can rescue them.


Each issue I hope to publish:
7 short stories, 1 flash fiction piece and 2 poems
that meet the following guidelines:

My primary guideline is simple:
Write a good fantasy story with strong/complex characters.

What I am NOT looking for – erotica / slash / or other such stories.
Although well written love scenes that are IMPORTANT to the story will be considered on a story-by-story basis.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Novella / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Tales from the Silver City Saloon

Deadline: May 16th, 2025
Payment: Contributors Copy (as this is a charity anthology outside of that.)
Theme: Humorous, weird western science fiction

This is a humorous, weird western science fiction anthology, created in honor of Ken Rand. Ken was a fixture at Utah writing events, whether it was workshops, conventions, LTUE, or just hanging out. He’s perhaps best known for his The 10% Solution writing book, where he helps writers learn how to effectively edit their own work in order to greatly improve their stories. He also wrote a lot of weird westerns, science fiction, fantasy, and horror short works throughout his career, and almost all of his stories had humor in them.

We want humorous, weird west, science fiction tales and poetry (as long as the poetry tells a story, and long-form poetry would be awesome). Think The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., The Wild Wild West TV series, and Cowboys and Aliens. Make your stories fun to read, make the characters interesting, and make us grin. The tales must have heart, must be solid stories, and must be positive in their outlook.

About the charity and more details for submissions:

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Articles / Interviews

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An Interview with Eric Rickstad

Remote Viewing with Eric Rickstad 

By Nikki Kirsch

 

Remote viewing is a fascinating phenomenon, and once I found out it was one of the topics of Eric Rickstad’s new series, I knew I wanted to interview him!

 

Grab a cozy, warm tea or coffee, settle in with your favorite blankie, and be prepared to be thoroughly freaked out at what the human mind just may be capable of…

 

Bio: Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, Daily Globe, and international bestselling author of nine novels, published in numerous languages. His novel The Silent Girls has sold more than 500,000 copies. His other novels have been awarded a New York Times Best Thriller Of The Year, NPR Book Of The Year, Amazon Book of the Month, Apple Book of the Month, and two International Thriller Award nominations for Best Novel. 

 

His most recent novel, Lilith, is currently longlisted for the highly prestigious Aspen Word Literary Prize. His debut novel Reap was a New York Times Notable Book. He received his MFA from the University of Virginia as both a Henry Hoyns and a Corse Fellow. He’s taught in Emerson College’s MFA Writing Program, and at Boston University and The University of Virginia.  

 

He lives in Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son. 

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Articles / For Readers / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Murder by Memory
Author: Olivia Waite
Genre: sci-fi mystery
Publisher: tordotcom
Publication date: 18th March, 2025

Synopsis: A mind is a terrible thing to erase…

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Liminal Madness

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Stories where liminal space is a priority 

M Presents Publishing is looking for short stories for its forthcoming anthology: Liminal Madness. Liminal Madness is a slight departure from the straight horror that previous anthologies had focused on; while horror is definitely a theme in this book the stories can be about anything so long as the idea of liminal space is priority. Think of the popular Backrooms or any place that is an eerie transition between places, a place that seems normal yet there is something… wrong: a hallway in a school that is strangely silent or a staircase that seems to keep descending with no discernable bottom.

Liminal: adj: relating to a transitional or intermediate state, stage, or period
Liminal Space: noun: a state or place characterized by being transitional or intermediate in some way; informal: any location that is unsettling, uncanny, or dreamlike

Let your imagination run wild as these spaces envelop your mind, whether you’ve no-clipped out of reality or wandered off the forest path.

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Articles / Guest Post

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5 Things This Podcast Host Needs Horror Authors to Know

5 Things This Podcast Host Needs Horror Authors to Know

By: Ashe Woodward

 

If you’re a horror author, you’re likely more comfortable scribing alone in the silence of the blackened night. So it may seem like a direct gash in the face when it seems like everyone is telling you to “put yourself out there,” in the light of day, on a podcast, with an extroverted host spewing questions at you. 

 

I get it. I’m an author too.

 

But I’m also a podcaster, and you should know that being a guest on a respected podcast can do a lot for you. Not only is it great for exposure and book sales but it’s a way to build a sustaining brand around you and your future work. 

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 4-6-25

Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short this week to throw all the attention on this one thing: Our April/Spring window for short story submissions is now open! This is your call to submit, submit, submit! And you know what? It’s spring or autumn, depending on which end of the globe you live in, so let’s make a special call for some folk horror coming our way. It’s either planting or harvest season, so lean into those pagan motifs and get your outsiders into a closed community for some shenanigans. This is my greatest wish for this window. You have until 14 April to get something to us, and then we’ll close again until the summer. 

Until then, let’s celebrate the talented folks featured in this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re following Bob Gielow’s media coverage of the apocalypse. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of a trio of regular contributors:

  • Kevin M. Folliard’s mid-air issues,
  • Robert Allen Lupton’s genetic manipulations, and
  • Weird Wilkins’s brush with the wild.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

This week was two full days of training, which kept me as busy as last. That being said, the Trembling With Fear crew is officially done with proofing half of the next installment. I’ve almost got the sizing fully sourced to put in the request to have the covers finished size-wise, and then we can push forward! Huzzah! 

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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