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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 7-7-24

Greetings, children of the dark of July. (July!?!) For those of you on the other side of the pond, I hope you’re enjoying your holiday weekend. If you’re on my side, well, I’m writing this the day before the election so all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!

It’s been great to see some short stories start coming our way again, so a quick reminder: we’re open to short story submissions to the general section of TWF for just one more week. Yep, we’ll close again on 14 July, so get in quick if you want us to consider your work for publication. But remember, these 2-week windows are not the only way to see your name in TWF—we also have our themed submission calls (currently considering the summer special, so hurry up if you have a dark summer-set piece for Shalini’s final round in the seat!), as well as our unholy trinities (three related drabbles as a set) and serialised stories (up to 15,000 words, able to be put into chapters for drip-fed publication). And, of course, we have an insatiable need for drabbles for these weekly pages. We publish three of those every darn week, so you can imagine how hungry that drabble beast gets! That’s plenty of opportunities. And, if I’m being honest, you’ll have a better chance of getting onto our pages with a drabble than anything else; our short story submissions are tightly-contested, and we get waaaaaay more submitted than we’re able to publish. Get cracking on those 100-word beauties!

For now, though, let’s tuck into this week’s menu of dark speculative fiction and kick things off with a creature feature courtesy of Kevin M Folliard. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • W.H. Vigo’s critter problem,
  • Debbie Paterson’s dark musing, and
  • Liam Kerry’s family business.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all!

First off, I’d like to thank our upcoming newsletter sponsor for the next year! Please check out Charlotte Platt’s ‘One Smile More’!

Ena Sinclair, a Scottish mage and spy, abandons her role in a prominent Edinburgh college and escapes to London to avoid an arranged marriage.

But London is not safe: a mage killer is on the hunt…

Abducted by vampires ‘for her safety’, Ena is terrified the nest owner will drain her to fuel his power but also curious to learn about his magic. Taking this once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn more about what her college had warned were dangerous creatures, Ena finds herself fond of the nest, particularly their bonded leaders, Addison and Tobias.

As survivors of the Immortal War, the pair still navigate a schism in vampire society that they are trying to heal. They now seek a peaceful life and offer Ena protection until she finds her own path.

…and dark things await them all.

Ena’s college seeks to forcibly return her to Edinburgh, and a killer is still on the loose. Hidden resentments surface, and Ena pays the price. Magically unstable and isolated, she must rely on her non-magical training to avoid being turned or used as a weapon to harm the nest she has grown to care for.

 

Be sure to order a copy today!

Moving on, I hope all of those in the US have had a great 4th of July, and for those outside of the US, I apologize for our over. We’ve started moving a bit forward with our new staff, so you’ll be seeing some changes soon, and hopefully, the new theme will come sooner rather than later. I know that I keep mentioning, but I promise you that it is inching closer to launch! There is a LOT of customizations that have to happen to really make it our own.

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!
  • The paperback is now live! Please be sure to order a copy of Shadowed Realms on Amazon, we’d love for you to check it out!

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

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Island of the Dead by Brian Keene

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: Island of the Dead
Author: Brian Keene
Genre: Horror, fantasy
Publisher: Apex Book Company
Publication Date: 15th August, 2024

Synopsis: Einar, an enslaved barbarian, plots his escape from a war galley transporting troops and a mysterious weapon to far enemy shores. But when an apocalyptic storm at sea leaves Einar and his fellow captives shipwrecked on a strange, uncharted island, friend and foe alike must band together against a steadily growing horde of the undead … and even worse dangers.

Not even death is an escape from the Island of the Dead!

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Events / Magazine / Online / Poetry / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Eye to the Telescope #54

Deadline: September 15th, 2024
Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25
Theme: Outlaws

Eye to the Telescope 54, Outlaws, will be edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes.

Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Belle Star, Wyatt Earp, Bonnie and Clyde … Robin Hood, Aladdin, Zorro, Jean Valjean, the Joker, Villanelle … Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, Peter Quill, Gamora, Han Solo, Sam and Dean Winchester … outlaws have a perennial hold on our imaginations, equal parts romanticized and demonized, revered and reviled, admired and loathed, depending on whose side you’re on. Outlaws are anti-heroes. They destabilize existing systems of power, erasing the illusion of control in societies. They bring with them and leave in their wake disorder, chaos, violence, destruction, loss, and death. But on the other hand, they also point to possibilities—of throwing off the shackles of propriety and authority; of living life on their own terms and according to their own ethical codes, standards, and values; of the possibilities that exist beyond established socio-political and cultural structures. I’m looking for your take on outlaws, defined broadly—give me your space cat renegades, your dryad anti-government environmental activists, your fed up monsters ready to throw down against the powers that be, your alien mercenaries, your dynamic lover-robbers, your charming assassins, your child-thieves: make them loud, make them stealthy, make them in-your-face, make them subtle, make them violent, make them pacifist, make them winners or losers, lovable or loatheable—whatever you do, just make sure it’s in verse form, memorable, vivid, and speculative.

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Articles / Guest Post

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I Contain Multitudes

I Contain Multitudes

By Rivka Crowbourne

There’s an old(ish) saying: “Everyone makes fun of the Catholics until they need an exorcism.” The complex and mysterious ritualism of the Catholic Church has always fascinated horror writers, regardless of their personal convictions: the Irish Protestant Bram Stoker (Dracula) fell back on Latin orthodoxy to inter the undead, and the non-denominational demi-Buddhist James Wan (The Conjuring) idealized a Roman Catholic couple to expel the unclean. What is it about the Church that seems to keep her cheek by jowl with the various things that go bump?

As a horror-writing cradle Catholic, I’ve always insisted that one of the great scary story benefits, along with catharsis, is inoculation: a mind that’s been exposed to evil in trace amounts, thus building up a certain tolerance, is arguably better equipped to withstand a real-life encounter. I’ve also always feared that the depicting of evil, though inevitable and necessary, is a somber undertaking for the storyteller. Evil is, by its very nature, tempting; you can’t portray it in any meaningful way without becoming a vessel for its allure. Catholics are notorious for not knowing their Bibles, but I often reflect on Jesus’ remark: “Woe to those by whom temptations come! It were better for them to be cast into the sea with a millstone hung about their neck” (Luke 17:1-2).

To a nonbeliever, the point may seem moot, but consider: even if the serpent on the knowledge tree is a metaphor, there’s still a reptile coiled around your brainstem. H.P. Lovecraft was an atheist, but he clearly managed to net a few of the massive shadows gliding through the icy murk of our collective unconscious, or his work wouldn’t resonate with such wide, still-spreading ripples. And, like his good friend Robert E. Howard (suicide by gunshot), he neither lived nor died in happiness. Their fate is not, of course, unavoidable—but it’s a stern admonition to those who strike matches in the basement of the intellect. We all know Nietzsche’s maxim about the hazards of the gaze; an exorcist or vampire-hunter might well add that when you enter the Abyss, the Abyss enters also into you.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 07/05/2024

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by 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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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Error Code (Tentative Title)

Deadline: September 30th, 2024
Payment: $100
Theme: Horror shorts that revolve around technology

Pay: $100 for accepted story.

Rabid Otter, the horror imprint of Riverfolk Books, is putting together a collection of short stories.

Hey everyone, my name is Zaq and I work as the creative director of Riverfolk Books, a progression fantasy indie publication. As much as I enjoy working for Riverfolk, my true love will always lie in horror, and after talking with my boss, he gave me the go ahead to put together a short story collection to get our foot in the door of horror publishing.

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: The Big Ones: Stories of an Alternate WWII

Deadline: July 26th, 2024
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Alternate histories of WWII that are also realistic to the time period

The Big Ones: Stories of an Alternate WWII
With Guest Editor Dr. James Young

The short story must involve some aspect of World War II. Think “What if Force Z had fighter escort?” to “Trinity ends with a ‘click’…then silence.” The only stipulation is the point of deviation has to be realistic to the technology of the time. If you’re giving the U.S.S. Nevada rail guns at Pearl Harbor, this is the wrong anthology for you.
Opens: 5/26/24
Closes: 7/26/24
Contracts: 8/10/24
Publication: 9/6/24

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Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Unexploded Remnants by Elaine Gallagher

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: Unexploded Remnants
Author: Elaine Gallagher
Genre: Sci-fi, Sci-fi Adventure
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: 25th June, 2024

Synopsis: An A.I. wages war on a future it doesn’t understand.
Alice is the last human. Street-smart and bad-ass.
After discovering what appears to be an A.I. personality in an antique data core, Alice decides to locate its home somewhere in the stargate network. At the very least, she wants to lay him to rest because, as it turns out, she’s stumbled upon the sentient control unit of a deadly ancient weapon system.
Convincing the ghost of a raging warrior that the war is over is about as hard as it sounds, which is to say, it’s near-impossible. But, if Alice fails and the control unit falls into the wrong hands, the balance of power her side of the Milky Way could fall apart. As Alice ports throughout the known universe seeking answers and aid she will be faced with impossible choice after impossible choice and the growing might of an unstoppable foe.

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