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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Neverest by T. L. Bodine

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Title: Neverest
Author: T. L. Bodine
Genre: Ghost/Horror
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Release Date: 25th April, 2023

Synopsis: One year ago, Sean Miller—journalist and mountain climbing enthusiast—reached the summit of Mount Everest and was never seen again. Unable to move on without knowing the truth of what happened, his widow Carrie insists on an expedition to search for Sean’s body so it can be properly laid to rest. Tom, Sean’s best friend and former climbing partner, agrees to serve as expedition guide and promises to keep Carrie safe on the mountain, despite their complicated relationship history.

Guided by a travel journal left behind by her husband, Carrie ventures into the frozen, open-air graveyard of the world’s tallest peak. But as Sean’s diary and Carrie’s experiences reveal, climbing the mountain is more than a test of endurance; it’s a battle of wills with an ancient and hostile force protecting the mountain—and the dead do not rest easy at the summit.

NEVEREST is a survival thriller with a hint of the supernatural that will appeal to fans of Ally Wilkes’ All the White Spaces and Amy McCulloch’s Breathless.

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Articles

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WiHM 2023: The Women Who Made Me Love Horror

WiHM 2023: The Women Who Made Me Love Horror

by: Victoria Audley

There’s a quote from Bela Lugosi I always think of regarding women and horror: “It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out, and come back for more.” Horror is, of course, for everyone, but I think something about this quote really captures the experience of being a woman who both loves and creates horror. To me personally, my love of horror is wrapped up in my identity as a woman — not solely due to the agonies, though that’s certainly a part, but the joys as well. The visceral victories, the quiet terrors, the observations I wish I hadn’t made, the truths it’s my burden to know: horror reflects these, celebrates them, tears them into bite-sized pieces, and rebuilds them into houses haunted by my own ghosts.

 

Other women have taught me to love horror, more than anyone else. Whether on the page or writing it, in front of a camera or in personal conversation, it’s the stories women tell, the stories shared to explain an experience or find understanding on common ground that have shaped my love and use of horror. For this article, I wanted to go back to my roots — to the most formative influences in my life that brought me into the genre. To that end, I couldn’t start with anyone else but…

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Articles

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Best-Paying Markets for Speculative Fiction Writers | Week 2, March 2023

Welcome talented #authors and #writers!

In celebration of Women in Horror Month, we’re excited to share the latest opportunities for sharing your speculative fiction with the world.

Our expert, Belinda Brady, has hand-picked the top-paying and more interesting markets that we’ve found this last week for you to explore.

Finding the right home for your creations takes hard work, persistence, and patience, but the rewards are truly priceless.

In this video, we’ll take a closer look at the exceptional open calls happening from March 4th to March 10th, 2023.

You’ll discover valuable insights and inspiration to help you find the perfect home for your stories. So, grab your writing tools and join us on this journey! Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more valuable content like this.

Direct links to the open calls from this week are found below:
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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Contrary Summer 2023 Issue

Deadline: June 1st, 2023
Payment: $20
Theme: We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end?

“Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson

Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers.

Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? We have published long stories on the belief that they succeed, but we feel more comfortable with the concise. We favor fiction that is contrary in any number of ways, but our fiction typically defies traditional story form. A story may bring us to closure, for example, without ever delivering an ending. It may be as poetic as any poem. Our fiction editor is Frances Badgett.

Lyrical commentary/creative non-fiction —“Commentary” is our word for the stuff that others define negatively as non-fiction, nominally as essay, or naively as truth. We favor commentary that delivers a message less through exposition than through artistry. The commentary we select is often lyrical, narrative, or poetic. Examples from our pages include “Plum Island” by Andrew Coburn, “Ascension” by Kevin Heath, and “Three True Stories” by Jennifer DeLisle. Our commentary editor is Jeff McMahon.

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Articles / Interviews

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Jason Sizemore talks about Apex’s Robotic Ambitions

Jason Sizemore talks about Apex’s Robotic Ambitions 

By Angelique Fawns

Apex Magazine is a venue for dark and spectacular science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They ask for short stories, “filled with marrow and passion. Works that are twisted, strange, and beautiful.” They’ve won multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and World Fantasy Awards. Jason Sizemore and Lesley Connor are co-editors and have provided a space for readers to experience some of the most mind-expanding tales being published today. They are also actively involved in helping authors learn their craft. I took a seminar with the Apex team at Fyrecon 2022 this November called “The Line Between Dark Fantasy/SciFi and Horror.” I couldn’t take notes fast enough.

Their latest project is an anthology called Robotic Ambitions. It’s currently live on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/robotic-ambitions

“Editors Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner are looking for stories that examine the concept of “robotic ambitions.” Using philosophical, moral, and practical points-of-view, what does it mean to be sentient and mechanical? What challenges will mechanical beings face from a fearful and chaotic world? What are their goals and ambitions?”

I asked Jason Sizemore, owner and editor-in-chief of Apex Magazine and the Apex Book Company, a few questions to learn more:

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Articles / Interviews

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Cameron Trost and Tales from the Ruin

Cameron Trost and Tales from the Ruin

By Angelique Fawns

 

Cameron Trost likes his tales quirky, atmospheric, and thought-provoking. He founded his own imprint, Black Beacon Books in 2013, and has published several anthologies and collections including A Hint of Hitchcock, Murder and Machinery, The Black Beacon Book of Mystery, Shelter from the Storm, Lighthouses, and Subtropical Suspense. 

Trost’s next offering, Tales from the Ruins has a release date of February 25, 2023 and is dedicated to post-apocalyptic fiction.  

 

“The big publishers are constantly rehashing the same stories—but that bores me. I need to be surprised. That doesn’t necessarily mean every story needs a twist, but I need a dose of originality.”

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Articles / Interviews

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WIHM 2023: An Interview With A.R. James At The UK Ghost Story Festival 2023!

2023 was my first year attending the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby, which began Thursday 16th, Feb and ended Sunday 19th, Feb. The festival is one of a kind in Britain, so unsurprisingly it gathered an enthusiastic crowd with its packed programme of 33 speakers. Amongst them was A.R. James, who I was lucky to be introduced to (thanks, Lauren!). 

 

A.R. James is a queer, bisexual actor-writer of unsettling entrances and exits in many fiction forms such as flash, screen-plays, and scripts; co-founder of Sonnet Sisters, Six Lips Theatre, and The Podvangelist. Her existing works include Unknown (Stairwell Books), Little Irritants (Analog Submission Press), and 100 Friggin’ Poems.

 

If you couldn’t attend the UK Ghost Story Festival this year, then you are in luck, for I caught up with A.R. James to discuss and reminisce about the festival. 

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 03/10/2023

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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