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

Articles / Guest Post

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If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?

If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?

by: S. R. Cronin

Speculative fiction writers love to make things up. It’s one of the many reasons we do what we do. Yet, most creations are twists on things that already exist. For instance, I made up eight new holidays in the Seven Troublesome Sisters books, along with a complete calendar system, but it all relates to seasons of the year and resembles Wiccan and Druid holidays in our world.

When I saw this question about creating a new holiday, however, I smiled. An original holiday may be my only original creation and it had nothing to do with writing speculative fiction. It had to do with writing poetry.
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Enjoy our featured open calls for the second week of July, 2022!

Hello to all of our #author and #writer friends!
What a week! There are some great new calls here for you to enjoy. Thank you for continuing to follow us on YouTube; we’re striving to get our follower count to even 10% of our other social media outlets in the next couple of months and are really grateful for your support.

Just as a reminder, the latest two iterations of Trembling With Fear are out! We’ll likely be including these until the end of July and you can check them out at the two links below:

You can find Trembling With Fear: Year 5 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3GK87LQ.
and
Trembling With Fear: More Tales From The Tree: Volume 4 right here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3GL25YJ.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine

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Taking Submissions: Electric Spec Winter Issue 2022

Deadline: October 15th, 2022
Payment: $20 per story or artwork
Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres.

submissions at electricspec (dot) com
Please don’t query us about your story submission. We don’t have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it’s not possible.

A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval.

Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary.

We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases – Phoenix Edition!

Earlier this year, the publisher Silver Shamrock Publishing suddenly closed leaving many authors (including myself) without homes for their books and and sending their writing careers into a strange and upsetting limbo. Yet the darkness did not last for too long as the community rallied round, authors set up resources to help those affected and publishers stepped in to offer the displaced books a new home.

It’s taken a while, pretty much due to the practicalities of authors regaining rights, new covers being prepared where desired and the new publisher fitting the adopted author into their schedule. This bookshelf special is a way of promoting those books as they reappear and thanking everyone who supported what for many, was a difficult time. Note that some books were ‘in the pipeline’ and hadn’t made it into publication but they are still included here as a signed contract affects them as much as anyone else.

First up are a few individuals who gave up their time and energy and put resources in place for the authors with no other agenda than to simply be of help (which actually applies to everyone here). A huge thankyou goes to Cynthia Pelayo, Eva Roslin and Kenneth W. Cain.

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Articles

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5 Tips for Fantasy Writing

5 Tips for Fantasy Writing

Writing fantasy is a great way to let your creative imagination shine through in every word. There are truly no limits to the worlds you can create and the situations you can bring to life. That being said, fantasy writers make mistakes from time to time.

 

The best fantasy stories include everything from well-developed magic systems to complex characters and descriptive, dream-like settings. Putting these elements together with conflict, classism, and even a little bit of chaos can create an unbelievable story. However, with so many moving parts it can sometimes seem overwhelming to create a fantasy story readers will enjoy. 

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 07/15/2022

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by Covid or life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Even in the Grave edited by James Chambers & Carol Gyzander

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: Even in the Grave
Editors: James Chambers & Carol Gyzander
Publisher: Neoparadoxa
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 1st July, 2022

Synopsis: “In death – no! even in the grave all is not lost.” -Edgar Allan Poe

Wandering souls! Restless spirits! The vengeful dead! Those who die with unfinished business haunt the living and make their presence known from the world beyond:

  • A scientist’s invention opens a window onto a terrible afterlife.
  • A New York City apartment holds the secrets of the dead.
  • A grandmother sends text messages from the grave.
  • A samurai returns to his devastated home for a final showdown with his past.
  • A forgotten TV game show haunts a man with a dark secret.
  • A tapping from behind classroom walls leads to a horrible discovery.
  • The specter of a prehistoric beast returns to a modern-day ranch.
  • And the one seeing eye knows all-including what you did.

Haunted from the other side, these stories roam from modern cities to the shadowed moors to feudal Japan to the jungles of Central America, each providing a spine-chilling glimpse into the shadows not even death can restrain.

Do you dare open these pages and peer into the darkness they reveal?

Stories by Marc Abbott, Meghan Arcuri, Oliver Baer, Alp Beck, Allan Burd, John P. Collins, Randee Dawn, Trevor Firetog, Caroline Flarity, Patrick Freivald, Teel James Glenn, Amy Grech, April Grey, Jonathan Lees, Gordon Linzner, Robert Masterson, Robert Ottone, Rick Poldark, Lou Rera, and Steven Van Patten.

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin

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: And Then I Woke Up
Author: Malcolm Devlin
Publisher: Tor
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: 10th June, 2022

Synopsis: In the tradition of Mira Grant and Stephen Graham Jones, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up is a creepy, layered, literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.

In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…

Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?

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